Cotillard wins top French award
2008-02-23 09:28
Paris - Oscar-nominated actress
Marion Cotillard took France's top cinema award on Friday,
winning a Cesar for her virtuoso portrayal of chanteuse Edith
Piaf in La Vie en Rose.
Mathieu Amalric claimed the Best Actor prize for his
performance as a man crippled by a stroke and able to
communicate only by blinking an eyelid in The Diving Bell and
the Butterfly, whose director Julian Schnabel has also been
nominated for an Oscar.
Cotillard, who had already won both a British Bafta and a
Golden Globe for the her role as Piaf, had been tipped to win
France's answer to an Academy Award.
Her portrayal of Piaf has attracted rave reviews in her home
country and abroad and she thanked director Olivier Dahan.
"You changed my life, you changed my life as an actress, you
changed my life full stop," she said, fighting back tears.
Cotillard also thanked Piaf's friend Ginou Richer, to whom
she became close while preparing for her role.
"I love you
Ginou, you opened up your life, you opened up 15 years of your
life and friendship with Piaf and you really nourished me."
Oscar for Best Actress?
If she wins on Sunday, Cotillard would be the first French
performer to receive a Best Actress Oscar since Simone Signoret
in 1960, although several others, including Catherine Deneuve
and Isabelle Adjani, have been nominated.
Amalric, receiving his second Best Actor Cesar, was in
Panama shooting his part as the villain in the next James Bond
film and he sent a message of thanks to be read out at the
ceremony.
The Cesar for Best Director went to Abdellatif Kechiche,
whose La Graine et le Mulet also took the Best Film award.
The story of an elderly shipyard worker who dreams of
setting up a couscous restaurant, "La Graine et le Mulet" was
the biggest success of the evening, winning four of the five
categories in which it was nominated, including Best Young
Actress for its star Hafsia Herzi.
Persepolis, nominated at the Academy Awards for Best
Animation, won the Best First Film category for its director
Marjane Satrapi, as well as Best Adapted Screenplay.