Marion Cotillard has played all kinds of challenging roles in her career, most notably her Oscar winning turn as Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose, and her Oscar nominated performance in the Dardenne Brothers‘ Two Days And One Night, among many others. But I tend to doubt there is any other role on stage, movies, or television that she has tackled that provided quite the challenge as the one she faces in the new independent film, Little Girl Blue. I have to say very honestly I have never quite seen a movie like it, and I had the chance to catch it here at the still ongoing Cannes Film Festival where I have been for the past week and a half.
Marion Cotillard in LIttle Girl Blue
As part of the festival’s Special Presentations this is a movie from the mind and life of filmmaker Mona Achache who was distant from her mother for many years but after her suicide started wondering how she could possibly take her own life. In an incredible , almost journalistic, journey she started piecing together the clues , papers, photos and bits and pieces of her mother Carole’s life, a life she never knew while she was alive and one now she became obsessed to the point of making a film about , a kind of docudrama merging real and reel life into one. That film is Little Girl Blue and is the one she enlisted Cotillard for in an effort to essentially bring her mother back from the dead and answer questions she never asked when she had the chance. It is a mystery, a mother/daughter story, and an incredible journey all in one.
In this new edition of my Deadline video series, Behind The Lens I welcome not only Achache but also her star Marion Cotillard to take us through the process of this remarkable film and find out just how successful she has been. Certainly it is one of the most unusual projects ever undertaken by a director and an actor. To watch our conversation just click on the link above.
Join me every Monday and Friday for a new edition of Behind The Lens.
