As the quirky lead in Amelie, the most successful French movie ever released in the United States, gamine beauty Audrey Tautou is the personification of French film to many an American cinephile.
Indeed, she’s the embodiment of the French in general. And we mean that in a good way.
Charming and outspoken to the point of occasional bluntness, Tautou has more than once said that she prefers to work in French cinema, rejecting the Hollywood spotlight in favor of remaining close to her thespian roots.
She shrugs, she pouts, she says, “Oh, la la.” A lot. And she keeps a scrapbook filled with photographs of every interviewer with whom she has ever spoken.
She’s perfect for classy advertisements, like the famous one she did for Chanel No. 5:
Tautou says she doesn’t mind being called the epitome of “Frenchness” – as long as it refers to the “very positive aspects” of the term. With her ability to win over even the crustiest critic without even trying, this elfin delight is changing the sometimes negative American view of the French – and doing it with panache. That’s French, by the way.
Enjoy an exquisite collection of her best nude scenes in the galleries below. For more pretty French girls, you might wanna check out Laetitia Casta and Melanie Laurent. Or you could go old school glamor with the legendary Catherine Deneuve.
Priceless / Hors de Prix (2006)
A Very Long Engagement (2004)
Dirty Pretty Things (2002)
God Is Great, and I’m Not (2001)
Le libertin (2000)
Le boiteux: Baby blues (1999)