- Title: Cotillard inspired by director's "wildness" in Mal de Pierres
- Date: 15th May 2016
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTRESS, MARION COTILLARD, SAYING: "I was very inspired by Nicole, I think she carries in her this fire, this passion, this wildness that Gabrielle, the character in the movie, carries."
- Embargoed: 30th May 2016 20:56
- Keywords: Cannes Film Festival Marion Cotillard Mal de Pierres
- Location: CANNES, FRANCE AND UNKNOWN FILMING LOCATIONS
- City: CANNES, FRANCE AND UNKNOWN FILMING LOCATIONS
- Country: France
- Topics: Film
- Reuters ID: LVA0034HX3OLP
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: French director Nicole Garcia's entry to the Cannes competition, 'Mal de Pierres' premiered on Sunday (May 15), bringing festival darling Marion Cotillard back on the red carpet.
Adapted from Milena Agus's 2006 novel "Mal di Pietre", the film tells the story of Gabrielle, a young woman from a village in the South of France, whose only objective is to find true love.
Garcia said she was fascinated by Gabrielle when she read the book.
"She touched me a lot because she combined complicated and often contradictory things, often in a character you can't have everything whereas she is everything at the same time. She has a savage fervour that I liked a lot, something wild and very sexual, her body speaks. The feminine desire is very much present in her and at the same time there is this mystic of love, feelings and she has everything at the same time and she is in a quest for absolute which delighted me," she told a news conference.
Academy Award winning actress Cotillard said the inspiration for her portrayal of the heroine, Gabrielle, in "Mal de Pierres" was the wildness and "fire" of director, Nicole Garcia.
"I was very inspired by Nicole, I think she carries in her this fire, this passion, this wildness that Gabrielle, the character in the movie, carries," she told Reuters.
Cotillard, who won an Oscar in 2008 for playing Edith Piaf in "La Vie en Rose" and had not been directed by a woman since 2006, said she had a special and even sensual, relationship with Garcia during the shooting.
"I never have the desire or need to be in a seduction mode with the directors I work with, but the somehow physical contact I had with Nicole, I would not have been able to have it with a male director. There was some, sensual proximity with her which I loved," she said.
Cotillard stars as a young woman in post World War Two France, driven by her desire to find love but married off by her parents to Spanish farmer Jose, played by Alex Brendemuehl.
"I was interested by this topic, that we can still see today and that we will still see for a while, of not letting people fly with their own wings and depriving them from their freedom and desire. And it can really make people fall ill in a way," she said.
She sees her chance to escape the confines of her life with Jose when she meets Indochinese war veteran, Andre, played by Louis Garrel.
Brendemuehl said he learnt a lot from the love his character had for his wife.
"I thought the character was incredible, I learnt a lot from that, it's a lesson of generosity, pure love, something very strong. It's extraordinary, you can't find that in real life," he said.
Garcia last presented a film - "Charlie Says" - at Cannes in 2006 and her only previous entry was "The Adversary" in 2002.
The film - also billed as "From the Land of the Moon" - is one of 21 movies in competition for the Palme d'Or prize. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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