Friday, February 8, 2008

Oscars 2008: Breakthrough Performances in Film



The New York Times has published a list of the acting breakthroughs of the past year. No such list would be complete without Ms. Cotillard, and she's properly featured. There's an accompanying short film (directed by Jake Paltrow) in which all of the Breakthrough actors talk about their work and their inspirations.

You can read the article here.
You can see the videos here.

EDITED WITH THE PHOTO, FROM ONTD. CLICK IMAGE FOR FULL-SIZED PICTURE.

Also, check out the "Making of" the Breakthrough short film here. You'll see a short snippet of Marion in wintry Montauk, NY (where the above picture was taken).

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That article as fairly useless and inaccurate, in certain parts Video is cute though, although admittedly I don't know who half the people are. Is any one else thinking that there are just too many stars around these days, and very few have any the kind of sucessful long standing career.

Dorothy Porker said...

I found this particular bit strange: " “La Vie en Rose” is, much like Penélope Cruz’s performance in “Volver” in 2006, a breakthrough, because suddenly she was seen as a serious actress"

It's funny because it ignores all of the dramatic work Marion has done -- "Les Jolie Choses," "Innocence," "A Very Long Engagement" (for which she won the Cesar), etc. It struck me as a facile comparison for someone who is writing from a very superficial perspective.

Anonymous said...

It was a silly article, the author didnt know what they were doing; they could at least do their research properly.

k said...

I didn't think it was so bad.

I particularly like the comparison to Daniel Day-Lewis.

Eoghan McQ said...

Marion won Best Actress at the London Film Critics Awards! http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7235375.stm

Anonymous said...

Congratulations first to Mlle. Cotillard -- and then to Dorothy! It's nice to see the London Critics reward Cotillard's excellent work.

The video clips were okay. I thought Amy Ryan was self-possessed and well-spoken. Cotillard's was the best, though. She was very sweet, charming and charismatic.

If the article characterized Cotillard as a breakthrough, maybe they're looking at it in terms of making it big in the U.S. Being praised by Oprah sounds like a breakthrough to me.