MARION COTILLARD
Last year I met one of the greats, (I'm about to name drop, big time!) my favorite modern day movie star, George Clooney, and we quickly started talking about the true blue great film performances of all time and both landed on Marion in LA VIE EN ROSE within a few names. First I talked his ear off about how brilliant that last scene was when he got in the cab in MICHAEL CLAYTON. Very ‘Verdict’. He told me the story about the OSCAR luncheon how someone in the press asking him ‘What is was like to be nominated ALONG-side what was considered the best performance in film history?” – The press person asking the question assumed George would know that he was referring to Daniel Day Lewis but George Clooney starting answering the lame question talking about Marion Collilard. Everyone laughed cause they thought George was being his usual prankster / silly self. But he wasn’t. He was being dead serious. The question was ‘along-side’. “We’re all nominees – not in the same category but I am nominated along-side what I think is one of the best performances in film history that's Marion Collilard in this film”. I couldn’t agree more. George Clooney made no qualms regarding his campaign that season to get his friends in Hollywood to watch this film and this performance. Good job.
Ms. Cotillard doesn’t try to imitate Piaf, the greatest French chanteuse of all time. She channels Piaf. I hate that word : 'channels'. It's overused and makes me think of people that smoke to much pot or hang out at the Bodhi Tree on Melrose. “The little sparrow” comes to life before the camera in this exhilarating and dazzling masterpiece, while Ms. Cotillard delivers one of the most inspired and breathtaking performances in film history. Imitation isn’t always the sincerest form of flattery. This is why Marion Cotillard’s sensational performance as Edith Piaf is so unforgettable. It’s not acting – it’s something else entirely. A Young French actress, Marion Cotillard, landed the role of a lifetime as the troubled singer - whom she portrays from mid-teens to her death at 47 (looking 70 plus). In a technical virtousic and emotionally resonant performance. Marion disappears completely into the role, she travels between emotional extremes, alternately raging, showboating, withdrawing, and falling apart, Cotillard's Piaf has nary a dull psychological moment and is the perfect example of an artists soul. It's a performance where you watch it and think, 'where the fuck did this girl come from - this is the confidence and grace of a Meryl or Geraldine Page. This kind of acting comes from years - decades of experience - not third time out'. And then you watch her previous films and yes, she's absolutely gorgeous but there really isn't any indication that she would be capable of handling the magnitude and depth of Piaf's entire life. Like Meryl did in SOPHIE'S CHOICE, so much confidence and soul in the silences - obvious preparation of a 'master' acting craftsperson. To steal a line of Shirley MacLaine describing Streep, "She is truly channeling here", every gesture, every glance. Something has clicked deep inside this actor and you are take you're eyes off her.
Many biopics break down in depicting their subjects in old age, and Piaf, at 47, looked old. Gene Siskel once referred to an actor's old-age makeup as making him look like a turtle. In this , my favorite bio pic ever, there’s never a moment's doubt. Even the hair is right; her frizzled, dyed, thinning hair in the final scenes matches the real Piaf.
The deep understanding of this connection – whatever it is: Acting – channeling –however Marion Cotillard chose to get her work accomplished, she was clearly consumed with honoring Edith Piaf and being authentic. The gestures, the cynical and destroyed humor, her rage, her soul. Even when the camera sweeps by her face. Marion is fully engulfed in her rendering of Edith. Not only a great performance but a it’s what you want a biopic to be; The whole story - well told. It may, in a hundred years, looking back, give Meryl’s Sophie a run for her money as the greatest female film performance ever.
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