News At a gala celebration in Cannes on 18 May, Chopard unveiled the names of prize winners of its 2009 Trophy, which since 2001 has rewarded young actors with promising talent.
The Baoli, a famous club on the Croisette and a centre of Cannes nightlife, was the venue attended by 600 guests on 18 May from 11pm for what has become an unmissable event at the Cannes Festival: the Chopard evening. This year, the 1980s were given pride of place with a brightly coloured glam-punk decor immediately setting the tone, while Space Invaders, icons of that decade, were evident everywhere, stylised in the shape of hearts, one of the symbols of the Geneva based firm.
The stars of the evening were Léa Seydoux and David Kross, the young winners of the 2009 Chopard Trophy, who received their awards from the hands of two-times Oscar winner Hillary Swank, and Marion Cotillard, who won an Oscar last year for her role as Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose and who herself won the Chopard Trophy in 2004.
After attending drama courses as a teenager, Léa Seydoux appeared in 2005 in a video of Raphaël made by Olivier Dahan, before landing one of the main roles in Mes copines (2006), a comedy by Sylvie Ayme about four young women who dream of winning a dance competition. Directed by icons of the cinema such as Catherine Breillat (Une vieille maîtresse, 2007) and Jean-Pierre Mocky (13 French Street, 2007), Léa Seydoux has also worked with two brilliant representatives of the new generation of independent film-makers, Bertrand Bonello (De la guerre) and above all Christophe Honoré who made the right choice in selecting this pale complexioned brunette to play a modern-day Princesse de Clèves in La Belle Personne (2008). Her admirers claim she has the pouting face of those still flirting with adolescence: half Anna Karina for her charm, grace and fringe, half Isabelle Adjani for her false ingenuity, porcelain complexion and pallid eyes. After a small role in Inglorious Basterds by Quentin Tarantino (release scheduled for 19 August), she has just been chosen by Ridley Scott for his adaptation of Robin Hood. Alongside Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, Léa Seydoux will be Isabelle d’Aquitaine, the mother of Richard the Lion Heart.
At only 19, David Kross has already featured in several major productions, starting with the TV film Help, I'm a Boy (2002). In the following year he appeared in Adam & Eva, however it was his next film, the multi award winning Tough Enough by Detlev Buck (2006), in which he played an adolescent who moves to a working-class district of Berlin and becomes a target for bullies at his new school, which brought him to the attention of the German public. He can also be seen in Krabat, the film made in 2008 by Marco Kreuzpaintner. On the international scene, David Kross became known for his role alongside Kate Winslet, winner of the 2009 Oscar for best actress, in The Reader by Stephen Daldry, based on the novel by Bernhard Schlink. For this film, he was named as the Rising Star of European Cinema 2009 at the Berlin International Film Festival. The jury praised the "maturity of his acting and his ability to express a wide range of emotions, from aggressiveness to vulnerability, while encouraging viewers to identify themselves with the characters he plays."
On a final note, the supreme reward of the Cannes Festival, the Palme d'or, which since 1997 has been produced exclusively by Chopard, this year went to the German film-maker Michael Haneke for his film the White Ribbon.
June 16, 2009
