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The French movie world has been in shock today as 37 year old Guillaume Depardieu, son to famous actor Gérard Depardieu, has died from complications linked to pneumonia. Officials said that Guillaume Depardieu had caught a virus and was hospitalized in a Paris region hospital in the night from Sunday to Monday.

Guillaume Depardieu, a talented actor, was living in Romania for some weeks now until this weekend, as he was filming the movie L’Enfance d’Icare.

The young actor had a troubled relationship with his father, but they starred nevertheless in quite some movies together. Most notable performance was in the 1992 hit movie Tous les matins du monde.

For more on his tragic death, see:

- Hollywoodreporter
- Yahoo
- Lemonde (photos)
- IMDB

The decision of the 2008 Cannes jury, presided over by Sean Penn, to award the movie Entre les Murs (The Class) with a Golden Palm came as a surprise to many. After all, the highest prize of the festival hadn’t been awarded to a French movie since 1987, the movie was only shown at the last day of the festival and it wasn’t among the favorites of that edition of the festival. But yet, the jury unanymously choose Laurent Cantet’s movie, an adaptation of the acclaimed book of writer François Bégaudeau. Sean Penn even called it a ’seamless’ movie. However remarkable the decision of the jury was, with the words that Sean Penn pronounced at the beginning of the festival in mind, the reward for Entre les Murs seems a bit more understandable. Sean Penn said that the jury would look for directors that are conscious of the time they live in. Laurent Cantet obviously has that consciousness.

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La Vie en Rose (in France, the movie is called La Môme - little child, La Môme Piaf: little sparrow) is a French hit film from 2007. The movie was rewarded with several international film prizes, like a Golden Globe and an Oscar for leading actress Marion Cotillard and an Oscar for Best Makeup.

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As the start of shooting (due October 9) of the new Quentin Tarantino movie Inglorious Bastards approaches, more and more is known about the actors who will play in it. We already know that rising star of French cinema Mélanie Laurent is in it, but today, L’Express, a French newspaper, announced that Isabelle Huppert (Ma Mère, La pianiste, Madame Bovary) also joined the cast. Huppert has won a large number of film prizes in her career, including a Bafta award, and she was two times best actress winner at the Cannes and Venice film festivals. Other French actresses in Inglorious Bastards are Anne-Sophie Franck and Léa Seydoux.

Of course, most of the attention today goes to Brad Pitt, who plays the part of Lt. Aldo Raine, the leader of a group of Jewish-American soldiers, spreading fear through the 3rd Reich.

UPDATE 10-02: According to L’Express, Huppert will NOT play in Inglorious Bastards. Apparently, she had some troubles with coming on time on appointments with Tarantino.

Various sites (Le Figaro, Purepeople.com) published recently the first picture of the French actress Audrey Tautou (Amelie, A very long engagement) dressed as Coco Chanel. Last sunday was the first day of shooting for the biographical film depicting the life of famous French fashion icon Coco Chanel. Shootings will take place for about 12 weeks in Paris and Normandy. The movie, co-produced by Warner Bros., focuses mainly on the first part of Chanel’s life, as she’s struggling to get by in showbusiness. Coco avant chanel, as the movie is titled, is an adaptation of L’irrégulière, a biography about Chanel written by Edmond Charles-Roux.

Tautou, who is also the new advertising face of Chanel No. 5, the most famous fragrance of the French company named after the founder, Coco Chanel herself, said that every young woman who has a destiny can recognize something of Chanel’s life. Director of the movie is Anne Fontaine, who made earlier this year a somewhat popular movie called The girl from Monaco, a sexy drama about a love triangle.