Almost There (x 2): Marion Cotillard in "Nine" & "Public Enemies"
Tuesday, May 19, 2020 at 9:30PM 
It's become somewhat uncommon for Oscar champions in the acting categories to be a "one and done" type of deal. A good amount of the winners from the past 25 years have either received nominations after their victory or already had them before their golden coronation. All this to say that, after Marion Cotillard won the Best Actress Academy Award for her work in La Vie en Rose, it felt like it was just a matter of time before she'd be in another Oscar lineup. That follow-up nod would come until 2014 for Two Days, One Night but, before that, there were a couple of failed Oscar bids to account for.
Previously in this series, we talked about her 2012 Best Actress snub for Rust & Bone. Now, let's look further back, to the Best Supporting Actress race of 2009...
Following her grand victory, Cotillard used her newfound international fame and prestige to find mainstream work outside the French film industry. Not only that, but Cotillard picked projects by big-name directors and some of the most successful distributors when it came to Oscar's success. In 2009, her first movies post-win arrived in theaters, and, as luck would have it, they were both received with general audience indifference and a good amount of critical revilement. However, another thing those movies had in common was that Cotillard's work was described as a saving grace.
Of the two projects, Nine was the one that came closest to securing Marion Cotillard a much deserved second nomination. Not to beat a dead horse too much, but it must be said that this adaptation of Maury Yeston's Fellini inspired musical is a rather dire affair. Rob Marshall tries to replicate the triumph of Chicago and fails miserably, subjecting a sterling cast to a series of indifferently staged numbers and a mutilated version of the original show. SAG may have nominated Nine's actors for its Ensemble award, but only Marion Cotillard rises above Marshall's miscalculations. She plays Luisa Contini, the long-suffering wife of Daniel Day-Lewis' Guido, an Italian film director that's also a pathological adulterer.
Even with only two musical numbers and a sparse handful of complementing scenes, Luisa's the character with the most defined character arc. Many years before the depicted events, she was her husband's muse and leading actress. After they got married, she stopped acting and his philandering ways and constant deceptions have been corroding their union ever since. Throughout the film, we get a sense that Luisa fell in love with the artist as much as she did with the man, and Guido often looks to her as an important collaborator. They are not quite childless, as their movies are their progeny. No wonder that their marital crisis is so intrinsically connected to the director's creative block.
The script only hints at such details, but Cotillard fleshes it out with unmissable clarity. While most of her costars are floundering about trying to bring authenticity to Marshall's pastiche and failing at the specificities of musical acting, Cotillard cuts through all the nonsense like a hot knife through butter. Every gesture and put-upon smile, every genuine glimmer of happiness that's promptly squashed by another indignity hits the audience and breaks their heart with vicious precision. She also takes to musical performance like a fish to water, acting her way through the songs while never sacrificing their sonic quality nor the dramatic choreography.
In "My Husband Makes Movies", Cotillard illustrates why Luisa has stayed by her husband's side even as it hurts her to do so. It's a funeral song for a dead relationship that still pretends to be alive. Luisa could come off as a clichéd martyr at this moment, but Cotillard makes sure that her wifely devotion is not pitiable or saintly. It's simply part of who this woman is as a person in love and as an actress who misses the passionate gaze of the audiences, the camera, and her director.
Still, even Luisa has her limits. One transgression too many makes her seethe, her façade of submission falling apart as she uses her rageful words to promptly dismiss Guido's bullshit. She knows how to hurt him and, at that moment, she wants to.
A small reconciliation makes it appear like there's still a chance but one more violation of their love is the final nail in the coffin of Guido and Luisa's relationship. Watching Cotillard perform the instant when Luisa gives up on her marriage is glorious, her meager mirth morphing into cold finality. As Marshall intercuts her brokenhearted monologue with the vengeful strip-tease of "Take It All", Cotillard explodes the film's empty razzle-dazzle with a shot of lacerating truth. It hurts to watch, it feels too real for the movie and that's why it's so extraordinary. I may mourn the loss of the song "Be On Your Own" from the original Nine, but Marion Cotillard's rawness in this scene makes up for that musical tragedy. She's mesmerizing.
Michael Mann's Public Enemies was the other 2009 picture for which Cotillard received great reviews. Unlike Nine, for which she was Golden Globe-nominated, that critical acclaim didn't materialize in any awards buzz. However, I still want to shine a light on her work in this gangster picture of ungodly digital ugliness. She's Billie Frechette, John Dillinger's romantic interest and the only hint of humanity in the whole enterprise. The stock role itself is mostly thankless, a gangster moll. Her attachment to the protagonist would be puzzling if not for Cotillard's efforts at fleshing-out Billie's interiority.
In the hands of this French Oscar winner, the character comes off as a woman who's excited rather than terrified by her lover's violent ways. Cotillard lets us know that Billie is turned on by danger, making her loyalty into a much more complicated psychosexual conundrum than it initially appears. We fully believe she loves Dillinger and, when the cops catch her, that love makes her resistance into an act of prideful victory. She's beaten up while being interrogated, thoroughly humiliated, but her silence is insolent. Even when, in the end, she learns it was all for naught, there's a menacing quality to her sorrow. She may cry in front of her foes, but she won't give them the pleasure of seeing her broken. Even in tears, Billie Frechette is resolute, strong, and unbending.
All in all, Cotillard should've had a spot in the 2009 Oscar lineup, whether for Nine or Public Enemies. Unfortunately, many factors conspired to rob her of that honor. First up, we have Harvey Weinstein's idiotic decision to campaign her work in Nine as lead. Later in the season, when they changed up the categorization, it was already too late and confusion had tainted her Oscar bid. There's also the matter of internal competition from Penélope Cruz, who did end up nominated, as well as an unusual abundance of movies with two legitimate Supporting Actress contenders within the same season. In the end, Mo'Nique won the Academy Award for Precious, with Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick taking up two other spots for Up in the Air. If Cotillard were to substitute any of the final nominees, it would be Maggie Gyllenhaal for Crazy Heart, whose nomination was a considerable surprise.
Nine is available to stream on Showtime and DirecTV. As for Public Enemies, it's new to Netflix and you can also rent it from Amazon, Youtube, Google Play, and others.
Reader Comments (34)
Anna Kendrick was a complete waste of a spot. Who even remembers that performance? So dull
LOL, Cruz was such a wasted nomination, honestly. Cotillard acted so many circles around her in Nine. Such a brilliantly aching performance with more layers than that movie deserved.
i'll never forget watching NINE at my parents' house and my mother walking through the room as as she was singing and saying "her husband makes smoothies?"
Nice piece and it’s too bad she didn’t get in for Nine. Although mostly I wish Farmiga had been a bigger thing that year. Tricky role, but such careful work.
As someone that actually kinda likes Nine a lot (I don't know if it's social distancing allowing almost anything passable being elevated or just having 10 years to come to terms with shattering initial disappointment, I found myself genuinely enjoying and even admiring it on a recent viewing) she is far and away best in show. It helps that she has far and away the most to do, especially because all of the odd changes from the stage show ultimately give Day-Lewis so little to do. Simple case of studio greed pushing her into lead. Just because she has the biggest female role, doesn't make her's a leading performance. They may have been able to pull two supporting nods, but that was a weird year for Supporting Actress between Julianne Moore's odd snub and none of the other nominees ultimately mattering with Mo'Nique there (an easy winner in any year, decade, or century, but maybe not with Moore there... the mind reels.)
Marion Cotillard was the only thing in Nine that was worth watching while she was also the best thing in Public Enemies. She should've gotten more than just nods.
Marion Cotillard definitely deserved an Oscar nomination, especially over Cruz. Her performance is good, but nothing compared to Cotillard's.
Nine is a bad movie but with nice tech aspects and two very good performances (Cruz and Cotillard). Maybe Cotillard had the best scenes and songs but Cruz is sexy as hell.
I said it on Twitter, and I'll say it again: Cotillard's delivery of "Thank you. For reminding me that I'm not special." made me UGLY gasp in the theater and it still does! SO GOOD. Her being pushed in Lead killed her chances of getting in. Had she been in Supporting, Nine would've been a double nominee in that category, I'm sure! Haven't seen Public Enemies in YEARS, but from what I remember she wasn't very memorable.
/3urtful- I did and will continue to defend Kendrick's performance and nomination for UITA, so...count me as one who remembers her!
Cotillard is magnificent in NINE and it's criminal she didn't make the list. She's better than every single person nominated in that category, including Mo'Nique, and yes I said it and stand by it. A breathtaking performance full of subtlety, depth, sexuality, and regret.
Cotillard is, along with Juliette Binoche and Isabelle Huppert, that classic case of brilliant withholding that French actresses have. They never telegraph and they don't connect all the dots for you in an obvious way. They're feeling all the dots, but they don't SHOW you the dots. All three of those actresses own that quality, which is a very, very special and extraordinarily difficult ability for an actor. She really needs another great role, because when she gets one, she goes into the stratosphere.
She was runner up in BSA for Nine for me -WHY did she go Lead that year? Although she should have got in there over Mirren in the Last Station.
Her version of Take It All is still my favourite song from the movie. So good. So real and so sensual - there's something about Marion!
If we're being honest - I would have nominated her for La Vie en Rose, Nine, Inception, Rust & Bone & Two Days, One Night and just because she was brilliant in it, Macbeth.
Hot take: Julie Christie deserved the 2007 Best Actress Oscar over Cotillard. Such a deep and haunting performance.
She was sublime in Nine. Her acting while singing is almost unparalleled. To this day, every now and then I watch her performance in My Husband makes Movies on YouTube and every single timeI feel completely enraptured by the character's dilema. Every glance, every breath is so real and she is so connected with what she is saying. The definition of being present!
2009 is such an all-timer in Supporting Actress that I’ve never considered her at all (and still don’t despite this compelling argument!)
My list -
1) Mo’nique - Precious
2) Samantha Morton - The Messenger
3) Kristin Scott Thomas - Nowhere Boy
4) Anne-Marie Duff - Nowhere Boy
5) Angeliki Papoulia - Dogtooth
6) Diane Kruger - Inglorious Basterds
7) Mary Tsoni - Dogtooth
8) Lauren Socha - The Unloved
9) Kierston Wareing - Fish Tank
10) Julianne Moore - A Single Man
Strange to think you can be the standout performance in a film with Day Lewis, Kidman, Cruz, Dench and Loren and still not be nominated for an Oscar.
thank you for this site
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I always thought that, like Chris said, a Lead push is what killed her chances. Unless they only campaign her as lead for the Globes? I did think that Cruz was good too, although her character had a lot less to it.
I really was surprised to see the nomination not come in for Nine. It's a film about Hollywood and a musical to boot. It doesn't have to be a huge critical success to break through in some categories on subject matter alone.
It also showed that Cotillard is a solid singer in her own right. The lip syncing was a directorial choice in La Vie En Rose, though I remember a small undercurrent of "but she's not even singing" as the big criticism of that film. Then Cotillard followed it up with a lovely and expressive performance in Nine. People get nominations for one great song performance in musicals (think Queen Latifah and John C. Reilly in Chicago or Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls) and Cotillard had two. She made my own lineup just for "My Husband Makes Movies."
I also hate the reaction Nine got. I saw one of the test screenings of that and loved how they translated the tone of the stage musical onscreen. Apparently I was alone on that, as the film that actually got released was so bland by comparison. Ironically, Cotillard's two songs are the scenes that mostly stayed the same and worked the best. The best way I can illustrate the difference in the edit is this: I left the test screening raving about the new song for Kate Hudson, then left the actual release wondering why the song was still in the film at all.
Robert G: Ugh. Test Screened to Death.
Her snub stings but Julianne's hurts me more.
She had one hell of a run between 2007 and 2014. Hoping "Annette" brings her back to the forefront this year.
In my own awards, I gave her 6 nominations and two wins, and it doesn't even feel generous.
- La Vie en Rose (win)
- Nine
- Inception (win)
- Rust and Bone
- The Immigrant
- Two Days, One Night
We have impostors again.
2009
Leading
Tilda Swinton - Julia
Melanie Laurent - Inglorious Basterds
Marion Cotillard - Nine
Carey Mulligan - An Education
Gabourey Sidibe - Precious
Supporting
Marion Cotillard - Public Enemies
Diane Kruger - Inglorious Basterds
Julianne Moore - A Single Man
Vera Farmiga - Up in the Air
Mo'Nique - Precious
joe & kermit_the_frog: Thanks for sharing your personal ballots. I love to see other people's choices.
Considering Oscar eligibility (Dogtooth, Nowhere Boy, The Unloved & Fish Tank were ineligible in 2009), my lineups for Actress and Supporting Actress would look something like this:
ACTRESS:
Abbie Cornish, BRIGHT STAR
Kim Ok-bin, THIRST (runner-up)
Tilda Swinton, JULIA (winner)
Gabourey Sidibe, PRECIOUS
Maria Onetto, THE HEADLESS WOMAN
SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Mo'Nique, PRECIOUS (winner)
Marion Cotillard, NINE (runner-up)
Mimi Kennedy, IN THE LOOP
Diane Kruger, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
Rosamund Pike, AN EDUCATION
I like Kendrick’s perf and I agreed with her supporting nom. Regarding Cotillard, yes, she’s adorable in Nine and she’s the best in show. But the film didn’t deserve so much attention...I ❤️ Public Enemies, and not just for Marion. Pity that Mann’s gangster film was so polarizing
The internal competion in supporting actress that year was pretty intense. Along with Cotillard's category confusion, Melanie Laurent was in the same predicament. I had to take a look at BAFTA's longlist that year. Farmiga and Kendrick from UITA, Olivia William's and Rosamund Pike from An Education and Monique and Mariah Carey for Precious. Nowhere Boy was a small threat stateside but not huge. That would have been tough for her to break through with the terrible box office and shitty reviews. But she's so damn good in it. Best in show.
She was truly remarkable in Nine and totally deserved a nomination. To be honest, I don't remember her much in Public Enemies, but then again I don't remember much about that movie in general.
Supporting actress was fierce that year, like everyone has mentioned. The sad thing is, I doubt Cotillard was even in sixth or seventh place that year (I would venture to guess Diane Kruger in Inglourious Basterds and Julianne Moore in A Single Man were right there). The fact that Maggie Gyllenhaal got in for Crazy Heart has to be one of the strangest Oscar nominations in recent memory, right? She's such a strong actor, but that has to be one of her least inspiring film performances, for sure.
And I know this post is about Cotillard, but why on earth is Hollywood not interested in Vera Farmiga? She would easily be the winner for me if Mo'Nique hadn't been in contention. She is so much more capable than those Conjuring movies she keeps doing.
Aaron: Yeah, if I were to guess what the top 10 Supporting Actress was like in 2009?
1. Mo'Nique, Precious
2. Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
3. Penelope Cruz, Nine (Very memorable + afterglow)
4. Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air (Cute, will probably deserve at least one, don't know when else she could be nominated)
5. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart (Bridges Coattails, plus substantial regret over not nominating her the previous year. Yeah, what she did in The Dark Knight? It's probably either her career best work or at least up there. Especially since she was, pretty much, ACTING BEHIND THE EIGHT BALL. Should have gotten in over Adams or Henson.)
6. Julianne Moore, A Single Man
7. Diane Kruger, Inglourious Basterds
8. Zoe Saldana, Avatar
9. Marion Cotillard, Nine
10. Rosamund Pike, An Education
That was a terrible movie year...
I fully support Kendrick's nomination, she was very good, and I very much remember her performance.
I seem to be the only one on this site who is not only happy for Maggie Gyllenhaal's out-of-left-field nomination, but thought she should have won.
I saw PUBLIC ENEMIES in the theater with my friend Greta because I was in love with Channing Tatum and read that he was playing Pretty Boy Floyd. He dies in the first three minutes and then I wanted to walk out.
In my fantasy of that year, Mariah Carey got nominated for PRECIOUS.
If you think about it 2009 marks such a strange Oscar result in history... where so many of the "wrong" performances & movies won (besides Waltz & Up) with a diverse and innovative movie year closing. Who really likes "Hurt Locker"? Can someone still explain the month & month of raves about Bullocks performance in a really dull wannabe-feelgood movie that even got Best pic nom.??.. Mirren being surprisingly extremely out of tune & getting nominated anyway ???Tucci in "Lonely Bones" instead of "J&J" and Tilda's 'JULIA' overlooked ???? Cotillard was spectacular in "Nine" I couldn't take my eyes of her - and you want to dive into her story alone ... but I was actually all up for Vera Farmiga that year !
Cottilard, Moore and Kruger all got snubbed in supporting actress that year, yes? Monique's decade-best performance really left no room for anyone else in that race to gain traction with awards groups or critics. I mean, who do we think was even the runner-up at the Oscars that year? I'm thinking maybe Kendrick? But Monique was probably the biggest runaway winner of the 21st century.