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:''"Tautou" redirects here. For the song by Brand New, see Deja Entendu.''
'Audrey Tautou' (; , born August 9, 1978) is a French film actress, known to worldwide audiences for playing the title character in the award-winning French film ''Amélie'' (2001, ''Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain'') and also Sophie Neveu in ''The Da Vinci Code'' (2006).

Contents

Biography

Early life

Career

Personal life

Filmography

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Biography

Early life

Tautou was born in Beaumont in the Puy-de-Dôme ''département'' of Auvergne, and was raised in Montluçon in the nearby Allier, still in Auvergne. Her father is a dental surgeon and her mother is a teacher. She has a younger brother and two younger sisters. She has always been, and remains today, absolutely fascinated with monkeys. Her childhood hero was Dian Fossey, the primatologist, and she wanted to follow in her hero's footsteps. Even now, many of her trips and voyages abroad are influenced by her passions for monkeys and gorillas. In fact, after the premiere of the the film Amélie (for which she received phenomenal amounts of paparazzi and press coverage) she travelled to the jungles of Indonesia to help with the preservation of a monkey sanctuary. Many may have claimed that she left France because of all the media attention that she was unwillingly receiving, while others say it was fuelled by her passions for the animals. Tautou showed an interest for comedy at an early age and started her acting lessons at the Cours Florent. This theatrical institution is highly prestigious and she is one of several famous actors to have passed through its doors (others including Muriel Robin, Daniel Auteuil and Guillaume Canet). It is said that she almost didn't actually go through with the Cours Florent course, because when she was living up in Paris, she was living on the same road as a model agency and mistook all the models walking past her home to be the average Parisian woman. This apparently made her feel immediately insecure, but nonetheless, she continued the course and came out at the end and went on to star in some of French cinema's biggest and most famous films.

Career

Tautou has said that Meryl Streep, Paul Newman, Juliette Lewis, Jodie Foster and Julianne Moore are her acting idols. In 1998, Tautou participated in a Star Search-like competition sponsored by Canal+ called "Jeunes Premiers" (The Young Debut) and won Best Young Actress at the 9th Béziers Festival of Young Actors. Then, she came to the attention of Tonie Marshall, who gave her a role in the César-winning ''Venus Beauty Institute'' (1999, aka ''Vénus beauté (institut)''). In 2000 , she won the Prix Suzanne Bianchetti as her country's most promising young film actress.
Already well-known in France for her work in ''Venus Beauty Institute'', in 2001 Tautou rose to international fame for her performance as the eccentric Amélie in the romantic French comedy ''Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain''. In June 2004 she was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).^[1] She accepted the invitation and is still a member as of September 1, 2006.
In 2005, Tautou worked 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 acted alongside Gad Elmaleh in Pierre Salvadori's ''Hors de prix'', released December 13, 2006. Tautou says she still considers France her base, and plans to pursue a career predominantly there rather than crossing over to the United States. As 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".^[2]
Tautou starred with Guillaume Canet (best known outside of France for his role in the film adaptation of ''The Beach'') in Claude Berri's French-language ''Ensemble, c'est tout'' in 2007.

Personal life

Her favourite authors are Victor Hugo, Oscar Wilde and Paul Auster, and her favourite poets are Charles Baudelaire and Tristan Tzara. Tautou's favourite music composers are Ravel, Mozart and Frédéric Chopin.
Tautou takes pictures of each reporter who interviews her and keeps them in a scrapbook. Tautou has said that "Everyone [outside France] thinks I have an ethnic origin", though she is actually "100-percent French". In France, many consider her as the "typical Occitan ''Auvergnate''". ^[3] She was brought up attending church, though she has now stated that she is "not officially" a Catholic.^[4]
The Brand New song 'Tautou', from the album ''Déjà Entendu'' is named after her.

Filmography

★ ''Ensemble, c'est tout'' - Camille (2007)
:(English title: ''Hunting And Gathering'')

★ ''Hors de prix '' - (2006) Irène (2006)
:(English title: ''Priceless'')

★ ''The Da Vinci Code'' - Sophie Neveu (2006)

★ ''Les Poupées russes'' - Martine (2005)
:(English title: ''The Russian Dolls'')

★ ''Un long dimanche de fiançailles'' - Mathilde (2004)
:(English title: ''A Very Long Engagement'')

★ ''Nowhere to Go But Up'' - Val Chipzik (2003)
:(aka ''Happy End (Movie)'')

★ ''Pas sur la bouche'' - Huguette Verberie (2003)
:(English title: ''Not on the Lips'')

★ ''Les Marins perdus'' - Lalla (2003)
:(English title: ''Lost Seamen'')

★ ''Dirty Pretty Things'' - Senay (2002)

★ ''L'Auberge espagnole'' - Martine (2002)
:(aka ''Pot Luck'' - UK)
:(aka ''Euro Pudding'' - International: English title)
:(aka ''The Spanish Apartment'' - USA)

★ ''À la folie... pas du tout'' - Angélique (2002)
:(English title: ''He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not'')

★ ''Dieu est grand, je suis toute petite'' - Michèle (2001)
:(English title: ''God Is Great, I'm Not'')

★ ''Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain'' - Amélie Poulain (2001)
:(aka ''Amélie'' - International: English title - USA)
:(aka ''Amelie from Montmartre'' - International: English title)
:(aka ''The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain'' - USA: literal English title)

★ ''Le Battement d'ailes du papillon'' - Irène (2000)
:(aka ''Happenstance'' - UK and USA)
:(aka ''Amelie 2'' - Hong Kong: English title)
:(aka ''The Beating of the Butterfly's Wings'' - International: English title)

★ ''Le Libertin'' - Julie d'Holbach (2000) (English title: ''The Libertine'')

★ ''Voyous voyelles'' - Anne-Sophie (2000)
:(aka ''Bad Girls'' - Australia: TV title)
:(aka ''The Little Grifters'' - USA: cable TV title)
:(aka ''Pretty Devils'' - USA: new title)

★ ''Épouse-moi'' - Marie-Ange (2000) (English title: ''Marry Me'')

★ ''Triste à mourir'' - Caro (1999)

★ ''Vénus beauté (institut)'' - Marie (1999)
:(aka ''Venus Beauty Institute'' - USA: literal English title)
:(aka ''Venus Beauty Salon'' - UK)

★ '' - Blandine Piancet (1999) (TV)

★ ''La Vieille barrière'' - La jeune fille du quartier (1998)

★ '' - Comédienne 1 (1998)

★ ''Chaos technique'' - Lisa (1998) (TV)

★ ''Bébés boum'' - Elsa (1998) (TV)

★ ''La Vérité est un vilain défaut'' - La standardiste (1997) (TV)

★ ''Coeur de cible'' (1996) (TV)

Awards and nominations

★ 2002: Nomination for the César Award for Best Actress for ''Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain''

★ 2005: Nomination for the César Award for Best Actress for ''Un long dimanche de fiançailles''

References

1. http://www.oscars.org/press/pressreleases/2004/04.06.28.html
2. http://star-ecentral.com/news/story.asp?file=/2006/5/28/movies/14320977&sec=movies
3. http://www.moviecitynews.com/Interviews/tautou.htm
4. http://www.actressarchives.com/news.php?id=1139

External links

★

★

★ Audrey Tautou Online

★ NY Daily News Interview 21 November 2004

★ MSNBC Interview 23 November 2004

★ UK Story & Interview 16 January 2005

★ Interview: This is London 19 January 2005

★ Interview: From Amelie to Sophie 17 May 2006

★ MOViEmaven Listan article about Audrey Tautou from an online resource for foreign and American independent film.