- Rooney Mara, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, 2010.
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Charlotte Le Bon, L’ecume des jours (Mood Indigo), France, 2012. For his re-make of Charles Belmont’s 1967 take on the Boris Vian book, Mchel Gondry tried to win Léa Seyoux for Isis – finally taken over by the French-Canadian Charlotte Le Bon. In 2012, Isis was portrayed by the French-Canadian favourite of la nouvelle vague, Alexandra Stewart.
- Charlotte Gainsbourg, 3 cœurs (Three Hearts), France-Germany-Belgium, 2014. We’ve been here before. In the 2010 mumblecore, Your Sister’s Sister: Jack Duplass stuck between sisters Emily Blunt and Rosemarie DeWitt. The Gallic version was Vincent Lindon caught between Cotillard and Seydoux before becoming Benoit Poelvoorde and sisters Chiara Mastroianni (well, her mum, Catherine Deneuve, plays their mother) and Charlotte Gainsbourg – who looks so miserable in her movies that I suspect her pay-cheques never arrive.
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Anaïs Demoustier, Marguerite et Julien, France, 2015.
Scripted for for François Truffaut in 1971 by his regular scenarist Jean Gruault after the réalisateur’s collaborator Suzanne Schiffman had unearthed the tragic romance of siblings Julien and Marguerite de Ravalet, executed on Decemebr 2, 1603, for adultery and incest. That was the problem. Too many other films about incest from Louis Malle’s Le souffle au cœur/Murmur Of The Heart to Charlotte Rampling in Addio fratello crudel/‘Tis A Pity She’s A Whore. Actor turned sometime director Jean-Claude Brialy was extremely keen to take over with Adjani, (from Truffaut’s L’histoire d’Adèle H/The Story of Adele H, 1975) and the French Hair find, singer Julien Clerc… presumably because he was called Julien. (We’re talking French films here). However, Brialy’s fourth directorial effort, Un amour de pluie, had flopped. CUT to 2011… Gruault finally publishes his scenario – received as a birthday gift by director Valérie Donzelli. Bingo! Except Seydoux, her first choice was called away to battle Spectre with 007… Donzelli chose Demoustier from eight contenders. Wiith Gruault adapted by Donzelli and Jérémie Elkaïm (her Julien), the result was violently atacked at the 2015 Cannes Festival. Like I said, we’re talking French films here… - Marine Vracth, Belles familles, France, 2015. Seydoux refused Louise. “Too young for me.” Léa is, of course, French. No US actress would say that. She was 30, six years senior to Marine, “one of those young French stunners whose screen presence effectively represents genetic perfection,” noted Variety.
- Marion Cotillard, Allied, 2016. Spies in love. During WWII. Sounds better than it turned out. On the suggestion list for Brad Pitt’s lover, were the top French suspects. Seydoux, Cotillard’s usual deputy, Bérénice Bejo, Adèle Exarchopoulos (too young for Brad), Tarantino favourite Mélanie Laurent, Mélanie Thierry. And three ex-Canal Plus TV weather girls, actresses all, performing sketches, jokes, japes, before the weather forecast and winning films galore as a result: Louise Bourgoin (16 movies in seven years), Canadian Charlotte Le Bon (16 in nine), Pauline Lefèvre and, the most talented, Doria Tellier… she wrote her own film, Monsieur et Madame Adelmann, 2016.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 6