AUDREY TAUTOU, NEW GENERATION IN FRENCH CINEMA

Audrey Tautou

Today, The Grandma is relaxing at home. The heat wave that is affecting Barcelona is increasing day by day and she has decided to stay at home and watch some films to spend the day.

She has chosen one of her favourite French actresses, Audrey Tautou, best known by her interpretations in Amélie and Coco avant Chanel but more famous for her role of Sophie Neveu in The Da Vinci Code.

Audrey Tautou was born on a day like today in 1976 and The Grandma thinks that the best way to pay homage to her is talking about her life and her career.

Audrey Justine Tautou (born 9 August 1976) is a French actress. Signed by an agent at age 17, she made her acting debut at 18 on television and her feature film debut the following year in Venus Beauty Institute (1999), for which she received critical acclaim and won the César Award for Most Promising Actress.

Tautou achieved international recognition for her lead role in the 2001 film Amélie, which met with critical acclaim and was a major box-office success. Amélie won Best Film at the European Film Awards, four César Awards, including Best Film and Best Director, two BAFTA Awards, including Best Original Screenplay, and was nominated for five Academy Awards.

Tautou has since appeared in films in a range of genres, including the thrillers Dirty Pretty Things (2002) and The Da Vinci Code (2006), and the romantic-comedy Priceless (2006).

More information: The Guardian

She has received critical acclaim for her many roles including the drama A Very Long Engagement (2004) and the biographical drama Coco avant Chanel (2009). She has been nominated three times for the César Award and twice for the BAFTA for Best Actress in a leading role. She became one of the few French actors in history to be invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in June 2004.

Tautou has modeled for Chanel, Montblanc, L'Oréal and many other companies. She is an active supporter of several charities.

Audrey Tautou in Amélie

Tautou was born in Beaumont and was raised in Montluçon. Her father Bernard Tautou is a dental surgeon, and her mother Eveline is a teacher.

Tautou showed an interest in acting at an early age and started her acting lessons at the Cours Florent. There she learned English and Italian.

In 1998, Tautou participated in a Star Search-like competition sponsored by Canal+ called Jeunes Premiers and won Best Young Actress at the 9th Béziers Festival of Young Actors. Tonie Marshall gave her a role in the César-winning Venus Beauty Institute (1999).

In 2000, she won the Prix Suzanne Bianchetti as her country's most promising young film actress.

In 2001, Tautou rose to international fame for her performance as the eccentric lead in the romantic comedy Amélie, a film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Written by Jeunet with Guillaume Laurant, the film is a whimsical depiction of contemporary Parisian life, set in Montmartre. It tells the story of a shy waitress, who decides to change the lives of those around her for the better, while struggling with her own isolation. The film was an international co-production between companies in France and Germany.

The film met with critical acclaim and was a major box-office success. Amélie won Best Film at the European Film Awards; it won four César Awards, including Best Film and Best Director, two BAFTA Awards, including Best Original Screenplay, and was nominated for five Academy Awards. Grossing over $33 million in limited theatrical release, it is still the highest-grossing French-language film released in the United States.

In 2002, she acted in the British thriller film Dirty Pretty Things directed by Stephen Frears and written by Steven Knight, a drama about two illegal immigrants in London. It was produced by BBC Films and Celador Films. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and won a British Independent Film Award for Best Independent British Film in 2003.

More information: Independent

In 2004, she starred in A Very Long Engagement, a romantic war film co-written and directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. It is a fictional tale about a young woman's desperate search for her fiancé who might have been killed in the Battle of the Somme, during World War I. It was based on a novel of the same name, written by Sebastien Japrisot, first published in 1991. In June, she was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

In 2005, Tautou starred in her first full Hollywood production, opposite Tom Hanks, in the film version of Dan Brown's best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code, directed by Ron Howard and released in May 2006.

She starred alongside Gad Elmaleh in Pierre Salvadori's Hors de prix, released 13 December 2006. The film has been compared to Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Tautou starred with Guillaume Canet in Claude Berri's Ensemble, c'est tout in 2007, an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Anna Gavalda.

Tom Hanks & Audrey Tautou in The Da Vinci Code

Tautou played the lead role in the biopic of fashion designer Coco Chanel, titled Coco avant Chanel, and directed by Anne Fontaine.

Filming began in Paris in September 2008, and released in France on 22 April 2009. The script is partially based on Edmonde Charles-Roux's book L'Irrégulière.

Instead of releasing Coco Before Chanel in the United States itself, Warner Bros. let Sony Pictures Classics handle the release there. The film grossed $6 million in the United States.

Coco Before Chanel was nominated for four BAFTA Awards, three European Film Awards, six César Awards and the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.

In 2011, she appeared in Delicacy, a French romantic comedy-drama directed by David and Stéphane Foenkinos and based on the novel of the same name by David Foenkinos. David was nominated for the 2012 Best Writing (Adaptation) César Award and the film was nominated as Best Film.

She appeared in the music video of I Love Your Smile, a song by British singer-songwriter Charlie Winston.

She was the host of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

She was a member of the jury of the 2015 Berlin Film Festival. She appeared in The Odyssey as Simone Melchior Coustea.

More information: Vogue

Tautou began modelling at a very young age, taking modelling courses and other activities, and has modelled for magazines such as Vogue, Elle, Harpers Bazaar, Marie Claire in many countries, and many others.

Tautou was named in 2009 as the next spokesmodel for Chanel No. 5, replacing Nicole Kidman. She was directed in the advertisement by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, with whom she worked on Amélie and A Very Long Engagement. The advertisement was released in 2009 to coincide with the film's release. She has also become the face of L'Oreal and Montblanc and several other ad campaigns.

Tautou over the years has been declared a fashionista and icon by the press, appearing in many magazines, fashion, beauty, and culture. She has attended major fashion week events around the world as well as smaller events. The press sometimes refers to her as The Chanel Muse.

She has studied at the Institut Catholique de Paris. A church-goer when young, she has stated that she is not officially Catholic.

Tautou says she considers France her base, where she plans to focus her career, rather than in the United States. She told Stevie Wong of The Straits Times I am, at the end of the day, a French actress. I am not saying I will never shoot an English-language movie again, but my home, my community, my career is rooted in France. I would never move to Los Angeles."

More information: Irish Times

After each experience, you grow up,

you get enriched with something,

and you don't know how you're going to be in six months,

you don't know what you're going to want,

what you're going to need.

Audrey Tautou

ALEC GUINNESS, FROM SHAKESPEARE TO STAR WARS

Alex Guinness

Today, The Grandma is relaxing at home. She has decided to watch some films interpreted by one of her favourite actors, Alec Guinness, who died on a day like today in 2000.

She thinks that the best way to pat tribute to Alec Guinness is talking about him and his incredible roles along his amazing career.

Alec Guinness (2 April 1914-5 August 2000) was an English actor. After an early career on the stage, Guinness was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), in which he played nine different characters, The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), for which he received his first Academy Award nomination, and The Ladykillers (1955).

He collaborated six times with director David Lean in Great Expectations (1946), Oliver Twist (1948), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965), and A Passage to India (1984).

He also portrayed Obi-Wan Kenobi in George Lucas's original Star Wars trilogy; for the original 1977 film, he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 50th Academy Awards.

More information: The Guardian

Guinness began his stage career in 1934. Two years later, at the age of 22, he played the role of Osric in Hamlet in the West End and joined the Old Vic. He continued to play Shakespearean roles throughout his career. He was one of three British actors, along with Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud, who made the transition from theatre to films after the Second World War.

Guinness served in the Royal Naval Reserve during the war and commanded a landing craft during the invasion of Sicily and Elba. During the war he was granted leave to appear in the stage play Flare Path about RAF Bomber Command.

Guinness won an Academy Award, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and a Tony Award.

In 1959 he was knighted by Elizabeth II for services to the arts. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, the Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievement in 1980 and the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award in 1989.

Guinness appeared in nine films that featured in the BFI's 100 greatest British films of the 20th century, which included five of Lean's films.

Guinness was born Alec Guinness de Cuffe at 155 Lauderdale Mansions South, Lauderdale Road, Maida Vale in London. His mother's maiden name was Agnes Cuff, born on 8 December 1890 to Edward Cuff and Mary Ann Benfield.

Alec Guinness

On Guinness's birth certificate, his mother's name is given as Agnes de Cuffe; the infant's name, where first names only are placed, is given as Alec Guinness, and there are no details for the father.

Guinness first worked writing advertising copy. His first job in the theatre was on his 20th birthday (April 1934), while he was still a drama student, in the play Libel, which opened at the old King's Theatre, Hammersmith, and then transferred to the West End's Playhouse, where his status was raised from a walk-on to understudying two lines, and his salary increased to £1 a week.

He appeared at the Albery Theatre in 1936 at the age of 22, playing the role of Osric in John Gielgud's successful production of Hamlet. Also in 1936, Guinness signed on with the Old Vic, where he was cast in a series of classic roles.

In 1939, he took over for Michael Redgrave as Charleston in a road-show production of Robert Ardrey's Thunder Rock. At the Old Vic, Guinness worked with many actors and actresses who would become his friends and frequent co-stars in the future, including Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft, Anthony Quayle, and Jack Hawkins. An early influence was film star Stan Laurel, whom Guinness admired.

Guinness continued playing Shakespearean roles throughout his career. 

In 1937, he played Aumerle in Richard II and Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice under the direction of John Gielgud. He starred in a 1938 production of Hamlet which won him acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. He also appeared as Romeo in a production of Romeo and Juliet (1939), Malvolio in Twelfth Night, and as Exeter in Henry V in 1937, both opposite Laurence Olivier, and Ferdinand in The Tempest, opposite Gielgud as Prospero.

In 1939, he adapted Charles Dickens's novel Great Expectations for the stage, playing Herbert Pocket. The play was a success. One of its viewers was a young British film editor, David Lean, who would later have Guinness reprise his role in Lean's 1946 film adaptation of the play.

More information: Houston Chronicle

Guinness served in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve in the Second World War, initially as a seaman in 1941, before receiving a commission as a temporary Sub-lieutenant on 30 April 1942 and a promotion to Temporary Lieutenant the following year.

Guinness then commanded a landing craft at the Allied invasion of Sicily, and later ferried supplies and agents to the Yugoslav partisans in the eastern Mediterranean theatre.

R2D2, C3PO, Obi Wan Kenobi & Luke Skywalker

Guinness returned to the Old Vic in 1946 and stayed until 1948, playing in The Alchemist, King Lear, Cyrano de Bergerac and Shakespeare's Richard II.

In films, Guinness was initially associated mainly with the Ealing Comedies, and particularly for playing nine characters in Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949). Other films from this period included The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), The Man in the White Suit (1951) and The Ladykillers (1955), with all three ranked among the Best British films.

In 1950 he portrayed 19th century British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli in The Mudlark, which included delivering an uninterrupted seven minute speech in Parliament.

In 1952, director Ronald Neame cast Guinness in his first romantic lead role, opposite Petula Clark in The Card. In 1951, exhibitors voted him the most popular British star. Guinness was idolised by Peter Sellers -who himself would become famous for inhabiting a variety of characters in a film- with Sellers's first major film role starring alongside his idol in The Ladykillers.

Guinness's other notable film roles of this period included The Swan (1956) with Grace Kelly, in her penultimate film role; The Horse's Mouth (1958), in which Guinness played the part of drunken painter Gulley Jimson, and for which he also wrote the screenplay, which was nominated for an Academy Award; the lead in Carol Reed's Our Man in Havana (1959); Marcus Aurelius in The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964); The Quiller Memorandum (1966); Marley's Ghost in Scrooge (1970); Charles I in Cromwell (1970); Pope Innocent III in Franco Zeffirelli's Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972); and the title role in Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973), which he considered his best film performance, though critics disagreed.

Another role which is sometimes referred to as one which he considered his best, and is so considered by many critics, is that of Colonel Jock Sinclair in Tunes of Glory (1960). Guinness also played the role of Jamessir Bensonmum, the blind butler, in the 1976 Neil Simon film Murder by Death.

More information: Cinema Blend

Guinness won particular acclaim for his work with director David Lean, which today is his most critically acclaimed work. After appearing in Lean's Great Expectations and Oliver Twist, he was given a starring role opposite William Holden in The Bridge on the River Kwai. For his performance as Colonel Nicholson, the unyielding British POW commanding officer, Guinness won an Academy Award for Best Actor and a BAFTA Award for Best Actor.

Guinness appeared in five Lean films that were ranked in the British Film Institute's top 50 greatest British films of the 20th century: 3rd (Lawrence of Arabia), 5th (Great Expectations), 11th (The Bridge on the River Kwai), 27th (Doctor Zhivago) and 46th (Oliver Twist).

Guinness's role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars trilogy, beginning in 1977, brought him worldwide recognition to a new generation, as well as Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations. In letters to his friends, Guinness described the film as fairy tale rubbish but the film's sense of moral good -and the studio's doubling of his initial salary offer- appealed to him and he agreed to take the part of Kenobi on the condition that he would not have to do any publicity to promote the film.

In 2003, Obi-Wan Kenobi as portrayed by Guinness was selected as the 37th-greatest hero in cinema history by the American Film Institute. 

Digitally altered archival audio of Guinness's voice was used in the films Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019).

Guinness died on the night of 5 August 2000 at Midhurst in West Sussex. He was interred at Petersfield Cemetery, Hampshire.

More information: The New York Times

An actor is totally vulnerable.

His total personality is exposed to critical judgment 

-his intellect, his bearing, his diction, his whole appearance.

In short, his ego.

Alec Guinness

COLIN FIRTH: ENGLISH SMARTNESS AND DISTINCTION

Colin Andrew Firth

Colin Andrew Firth, born 10 September 1960, is an English actor. He has received an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, two BAFTA Awards, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards, as well as the Volpi Cup. 

Firth's most notable and acclaimed role to date has been his 2010 portrayal of King George VI in The King's Speech, a performance that earned him an Oscar and multiple worldwide best actor awards.

Firth was born in the village of Grayshott, Hampshire, to parents who were both academics and teachers.

More information: Colin Firth Facebook

As a child, Firth travelled a lot due to his parents' work, spending some years in Nigeria. He also lived in St. Louis, Missouri when he was 11, which he has described as a difficult time. 

Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice

On returning to England, he attended the Montgomery of Alamein Secondary School, which at the time was a state comprehensive school in Winchester, Hampshire. He was still an outsider and was the target of bullying. To counter this, he adopted the local working class Hampshire accent and copied his schoolmates' lack of interest in schoolwork.

By the time he was 14, Firth had already decided to be a professional actor, having attended drama workshops from the age of 10. Until further education, he was not academically inclined, later saying in an interview, I didn't like school. I just thought it was boring and mediocre and nothing they taught me seemed to be of any interest at all. 

However, at Barton Peveril Sixth Form College in Eastleigh, he was imbued with a love of English literature by an enthusiastic teacher, Penny Edwards, and has said that his two years at Barton Peveril were among the two happiest years of my life.

More information:  Colin Firth Twitter

After his sixth form years, Firth moved to London and joined the National Youth Theatre. There, he made many contacts in the acting world, from which he got a job in the wardrobe department at the National Theatre. From there, he went on to study at Drama Centre London.

Colin Firth winning an Oscar

Identified in the late 1980s with the Brit Pack of rising, young British actors, it was not until Firth's portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice that he received more widespread attention. This led to roles in films such as The English Patient, Bridget Jones's Diary, Shakespeare in Love, and Love Actually. 

In 2009, Firth received widespread critical acclaim for his leading role in A Single Man, for which Firth gained his first Academy Award nomination, and won a BAFTA Award. Firth starred in the action spy movie Kingsman: The Secret Service in 2014, which was a commercial success and received generally positive reviews.

In 2011, Firth received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was also selected as one of the Time 100. He was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Winchester in 2007, and was made a Freeman of the City of London in 2012. 

More information: Colin Firth Instagram

He has campaigned for the rights of indigenous tribal peoples, and is a member of Survival International. Firth has also campaigned on issues of asylum seekers, refugees' rights, and the environment. He commissioned and is credited as a co-author on a scientific paper on a study into the differences in brain structure between people of differing political orientations.

I feel more comfortable in drama. Comedy is a high-wire act. 

I find it stressful. It's a precision science in a way. 

Colin Firth