Cotillard is on top of the world
Throughout the awards season, relative newcomer Marion Cotillard had been seen as the only performer who might stand in the way of veteran Julie Christie’s lead actress Oscar for her performance in the drama “Away From Her.” But she still seemed genuinely surprised to hear Forest Whitaker call her name as the winner in the category for her unforgettable portrayal of iconic French singer Edith Piaf in “La Vie En Rose.”
The victory came only two days after Cotillard took home best actress honors at France’s version of the Oscars, the Cesar awards.
Beaming as she took the stage in a slinky Jean Paul Gaultier gown, Cotillard thanked the film’s director, Olivier Dahan, saying, “you truly rocked my life.”
Stumbling for words, she declared herself “speechless” before finishing with “Thank you, life, thank you, love, and it is true there is some angels in this city.”
The film’s Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald also won the Oscar for makeup for their role in Piaf’s physical transformation. Over the course of the story, Piaf evolves from a poor teenager to the voice of a nation, but as her star rises, her personal life devolves into one marked by loneliness and substance abuse.
By the time she died at age 47, she looked decades older -- at promotional events around town, audiences would gasp when they saw how different the real Cotillard was to the shrunken, addled figure Piaf had become by the end of the film.
Though Cotillard, 32, did not sing in the film, her re-creations of Piaf’s performances were astounding.
She is only the second woman to win the lead actress prize for a performance in a foreign-language film, after Sophia Loren in 1961’s “Two Women.” Cotillard previously won a Cesar for supporting actress for her role in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “A Very Long Engagement.”
Asked backstage what it was like to win two such prestigious awards in two days, Cotillard said, “It feels so good! I’m totally overwhelmed with joy and sparkles and fireworks.”
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The real deal gets the Oscar
To win an Academy Award for lead actress, it helps to portray a real person. In the last decade, seven actresses have won for bringing to film such disparate figures as author Virginia Woolf, serial killer Aileen Wuornos, activist Erin Brockovich and Brandon Teena, a girl who longed to be a boy. Now 32-year-old French actress Marion Cotillard joins their ranks for her interpretation of French songstress Edith Piaf.
The winners were:
1999: Hilary Swank, “Boys Don’t Cry” (Brandon Teena/Teena Brandon)
2000: Julia Roberts, “Erin Brockovich” (Erin Brockovich)
2002: Nicole Kidman, “The Hours” (Virginia Woolf)
2003: Charlize Theron, “Monster” (Aileen Wuornos)
2005: Reese Witherspoon, “Walk the Line” (June Carter)
2006: Helen Mirren, “The Queen” (Queen Elizabeth II)
2007: Marion Cotillard, “La Vie en Rose” (Edith Piaf)
