The 93rd Best Actress of All-Time: Audrey Tautou

best film:  Audrey Tautou is nearly synonymous with Amélie and her character of the same name. This is, indeed, her best film. The film (a stylistically ambitious collaboration with the brilliant Jean-Pierre Jeunet) caused a stir in the cinema world just after the turn of the century (2001). Jeunet and Tautou would team up again just a few years later in 2004 for A Very Long Engagement and the two are both stunning films – and there is a healthy debate to be had for winner of this category.

Tautou as Amélie. Even if she had carved out a longer career with more archiveable films, it seems unlikely that Tautou would have ever not been “Amélie” – an exceptionally written character and superior performance for sure.

best performance:   This category is clearer cut than the previous category though it is the same two films involved. Again, it is Amélie and A Very Long Engagement as the two contenders, but there is no debating Tautou’s signature role – Tautou’s quirky charm is on full display in the 2001 romance.

stylistic innovations/traits:   Audrey Tautou had a nice little run in the early 2000s headlined with the pair of very strong Jean-Pierre Jeunet films. Her undeniable appeal – the sort of childlike wonder in her look, her hair/eye color and name “Audrey” may have drawn some comparisons to Hepburn – but Tautou could not capitalize on this hot streak stretch of her career to sustain a longer string of good films (the failure of The Da Vinci Code did not help). Still, Amélie will be discussed by cinema lovers fifty (50) years from now and A Very Long Engagement is ready to be rediscovered as one of the more astounding visual accomplishments in the early 2000s as well.  It helps her from being a one-hit wonder.

Tautou in Stephen Frears’ Dirty Pretty Things (2002) opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor. This entry does not sniff the quality of the two Jean-Pierre Jeunet films, but it still helps pad Tautou’s resume

directors worked with:  Jean-Pierre Jeunet (2)

Tautou as Mathilde in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s A Very Long Engagement – where every frame is a painting

top five performances:

1. Amélie
2. A Very Long Engagement
3. Dirty Pretty Things

archiveable films