The best French movies with Marion Cotillard

Love Me If You Dare (Jeux d’enfants)

To the American audience who likes French cinema, Marion Cotillard’s breakout role was not La vie en rose (La môme) but Love Me If You Dare, a sweet and sour romantic comedy largely inspired in the style and tone of Amélie. This beautiful film on nostalgia, childhood love, but also trauma, marks also the first encounter of now couple Guillaume Canet and Marion Cotillard. 

La vie en rose (La môme)

Marion Cotillard doesn’t play Edith Piaf, she is Edith Piaf. Through hours of watching the French singer perform, Marion Cotillard adopted the posture and voice of the one nicknamed la môme. And to think that Audrey Tautou wouldn’t have been Edith Piaf if it hadn’t been for director Olivier Dahan, who was convinced Marion Cotillard was the one for the role. Recipient of an Oscar for her performance, the French actress confessed she had to see shamans and exorcists to try to get herself out of this role as she felt haunted by Edith Piaf long after the shooting of the film. For more French biopic, subscribe now to TV5MONDE.

Rust and Bone (De rouille et d’os)

A true masterpiece, Rust and Bone is a moving, exhilarating, vibrant drama in which Marion Cotillard found the best role of her career as a former orca trainer who loses both legs after an accident at the aquatic park she works at. This story of a women rebuilding herself with the help of a man just as lost as her shows how wide Marion Cotillard’s range is. She’s just as comfortable in American blockbusters like Inception and Batman, as she is in naturalist, slow-burning French dramas. Make sure you get your tissues ready before you watch Rust and Bone! And for more French melodramas, tune in to TV5MONDE and enjoy the French streaming platform TV5MONDE+. 

Two Days, One Night (Deux jours, une nuit)

In this film by the Cannes’ favorites Dardenne brothers (L’enfant, Rosetta), Marion Cotillard is stripped of any glamour and delivers a magnetic, raw performance as a woman who has 48 hours to convince her colleagues to give up their bonuses so that she can keep her job. This tragic moral fable is an emotional roller-coaster.