Study in China

At 15 Sophie Marceau became one of France's sweetest starlets. At 16 she asserted her independence and played a prostitute bent on revenge. Now, at 19, she has shocked her public even more with her most recent role in police , which opens here in early june. Profile by Anne-Elisabeth Moutet. Watching Sophie Marceau play a North African hustler in Maurice Pialat’s pessimistic film Police, it’s hard to believe she was once billed as ‘the new Gallic Shirley Temple’. Her character, Noria, is sullen, vulgar, sensual and ultimately deceitful. In a country where anti-Arab racism runs rampant, Marceau risks losing some of the fans who adored her as the cute, sugary and white child star. But then, at 19, with a five-year, six-film career behind her, Marceau is an exception in the usually unadventurous French film industry. At 13, she signed up with a children’s model agency without telling her parents and was called up to audition for a film. Director Claude Pinoteau...

Young Sophie Marceau, one of my childhood crushes ...

EDUCATING SOPHIE At 15 Sophie Marceau became one of France's sweetest starlets. At 16 she asserted her independence and played a prostitute bent on revenge. Now, at 19, she has shocked her public even more with her most recent role in police , which opens here in early june. Profile by Anne-Elisabeth Moutet. Watching Sophie Marceau play a North African hustler in Maurice Pialat’s pessimistic film Police, it’s hard to believe she was once billed as ‘the new Gallic Shirley Temple’. Her character, Noria, is sullen, vulgar, sensual and ultimately deceitful. In a country where anti-Arab racism runs rampant, Marceau risks losing some of the fans who adored her as the cute, sugary and white child star. But then, at 19, with a five-year, six-film career behind her, Marceau is an exception in the usually unadventurous French film industry. At 13, she signed up with a children’s model agency without telling her parents and was called up to audition for a film. ...

Here are the movies I reviewed for the October issue of EL Magazine, which was distributed in Tokyo last Sunday. L’age de raison Sophie Marceau is Margaret, a go-go executive for a French nuclear plant manufacturer who, whenever she suffers a loss of self-confidence, references strong women from history, like Joan of Arc and…Ava Gardner? Though ostensibly a comedy with lots of whimsical visual touches by director Yann Samuel, L’age de raison quickly descends into sentimental mush after a country notary who is disposing of an abandoned estate delivers to Margaret a package of letters that she wrote at the age of 7 to her future self. Confronted with her girlhood dreams she suffers a crisis of identity and starts to doubt what she’s turned into, but only for as long as it takes Marceau to exhaust her store of tantrum modes. One hopes all this self-reflection might lead Margaret to doubt her own career path–the name of her company, after all, is Pandora–but except for toug...

Sophie Marceau is celebrating her 45 th birthday this week. Joyeux anniversaire! Source In case you don’t know her, she is a French actress, director, screenwriter, and author. Her original name is Sophie Danièle Sylvie Maupu, but in the beginning of her career she was suggested to change her name to a better sounding Marceau. Her first movie – in which she played main character Vic Beretton – La Boum (English title: The Party ) in 1980, was a big hit all over Europe, just like La Boum 2 in 1982. She even received a César Award for Most Promising Actress. I watched the first movie again yesterday and today I know what I didn’t when I was watching it in the 90s: Vic is going to the best high school in France (Lycée Henry IV). She and her junior high friends are exploring love, kissing, cigarettes and drinking. There is a story line for the parents as well, so don’t worry: it’s not boring even if you are not a teenager anymore. Oh and the music ! Class...

French actress Sophie Marceau answers questions of journalists during a promotion activity of her film "Ne Te Retourne Pas (Don't Look Back)" at the Ever Shining Circuit Cinema in Shanghai, east China, March 12, 2010 Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai confirmed Monday that renowned French actress Sophie Marceau will act in his new film. Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai confirmed Monday that renowned French actress Sophie Marceau will act in his new film, M1905.com reports. Wang said a cooperation contract between Chinese and French investors has been signed. But the director didn't mention the movie's name, only saying it will be a story he has reserved for nearly two decades. Wang says he will discuss the movie with Sophie Marceau during the upcoming Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France. When Marceau attended the China premiere of her film "Female Agents" in April 2009, she told Chinese media that she was looking forward to working with Wan...

  Posted  by Simguy on Wednesday, 17-May-2000 19:34:44 Before: Aniston bringing Marceau’s career to a skidding halt, spoiling the latter’s US debut and discrediting Sophie to boxing insiders who dismiss her as another soft Euro-import. Jennifer’s in good shape looking tanned and tough, and talking about treating Sophie shabby in her own backyard. Black pushup, tiger-print bikini bottoms, ponytail for Aniston, light blue push up, white hipster bikini bottoms for pony tailed Marceau. R1: Both girls execute well--Aniston coming forward, hooking off the jab and throwing a good straight right. Shifty southpaw Marceau resists the temptation to slug, right hand low, left cupping her cheek, giving Aniston the lead shoulder to punch at and slipping effortlessly most of the American’s offerings. Down the stretch, Marceau with some nice cuffing right hooks, pivots as Aniston staggers forward with punches--Jennifer outslicked by Sophie in the firs...

Since Carla Bruni-Sarkozy swept on to the world stage in Dior, France has been reinstated as global leader of all things cool. From fashion to film, the French are once more the flavour du jour. Lucie Greene takes a look at the crème de la crème Oh la Carla! Once upon a time France was simply synonymous with style – the language, the ladies, the fashion labels. From Christian Dior to Christian Louboutin, the French have historically done chic brilliantly – if a culture can ooze charm, theirs did. But in recent years the je ne sais quoi faded and the nation simply lost its va-va-voom. Maybe it was the competition from our 1990s Brit-cool or the ascendancy of all things brash, bling and very un-Français – who knows? And, quite frankly, in 2009 who cares, because France is back! In the past 12 months it has been reinstated as global leader of all things hot, and the fashion pack can’t get enough of it. Following behind the kitten heels of First Lady Carla Bruni Sarkoz...

The title may not be hugely inspired, but you must give Female Agents credit for doing precisely what it says on the tin  -  the tin being designed in the middle of the 20th century and containing Gauloises cigarettes. In 1944, five French women are recruited by the SOE, an intelligence service overseen by Winston Churchill, to rescue a British agent. These are, in ascending order of grit and resourcefulness, Gaelle (Deborah Francois), Suze (Marie Gillain), Maria (Maya Sansa), Jeanne (Julie Depardieu) and Louise ( Sophie Marceau ). Gritty and intelligent: a French Charlie's Angels What follows is a sort of taut, intellectual version of Charlie's Angels with added torture, as each woman shows amazing courage in thwarting the efforts of Colonel Heindrich, the head of Nazi counter-intelligence, to find out crucial information regarding the upcoming landings on the Normandy beaches.     It's based on a true story and, while you can't help feeling th...

 The French have voted justice minister Rachida Dati as the best  representative of Gallic womanhood in the world today, a fascinating new poll reveals. The 43-year-old single mother, who rose from a troubled immigrant background to  high office, follows in a long list of internationally famous female icons including Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve. Just as intriguingly, French First Lady Carla Bruni only makes eighth place on the list. Rachida Dati (left) was voted greatest living French woman while Carla Bruni made eighth place - despite being Italian Most are only too well aware that Miss Bruni was born in Italy, and only  received a French passport last year following a whirlwind marriage to  President Nicolas Sarkozy. Miss Dati, by contrast, is praised in the survey for traditional French female attributes including style, beauty and sexiness - but also for independence,  dynamism and ‘inner steel’ in her professional life....