A flagship icon of the seventh art. Marion Cotillard has distinguished herself in several areas of cinema since her debut in the mid-1990s. A vocation she owes in particular to her parents Jean-Claude Cotillard and Niseema Theillaud, both actors by profession.

“In Orléans, I went to boarding school. I didn’t like it very much, but I took my mother’s theater workshop. I never said to myself: ‘I want to be an actress’. Everything happened imposed as an evidence”, confided the famous actress to Figaro in 2015. This evidence led her to the film sets where she started with directors like Philippe Harrel and Arnaud Desplechin.

In 1998, Marion Cotillard appeared in the film Taxi where she played opposite Samy Naceri and Frédéric Diefenthal. A triumph in the cinema with the French, which earned her a nomination for best female hope at the César in 1999. But the role of Lily Bertineau stuck to her skin, confining her to a “saddle image of French cinema”, wrote especially Liberation.

After having participated in the first three parts of the saga of Luc Besson, Marion Cotillard abandons comedy and turns to major roles, such as A long engagement Sunday. Then the cinema offered her the greatest role of her career, La Môme by Olivier Dahan in 2008. Thanks to her interpretation of Edith Piaf, the actress was revealed on the international scene and collected a shower of awards including the Oscar , the César, the BAFTA and the Golden Globe for Best Actress.

Since her ascent abroad, Marion Cotillard has had a string of successes, playing in turn in front of the camera of Jacques Audiard (De rouille et d’os), the Dardenne brothers (Deux jours, une nuit) and Xavier Dolan (Juste la end of the world). She will be back in the cinema in 2023 with Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Empire, directed by Guillaume Canet, where she plays Cleopatra. Very popular with the public, she caused a sensation with each appearance on the red carpets of festivals. Here is an anthology in pictures.