Marion Cotillard v. Jessica Chastain: who was more disappointing at the BAFTAs?

Well, this is a surprise! I’m including two women that most critics and awards-watchers considered to be the biggest contenders for all of the Best Actress awards this year, and both of these women left the BAFTAs empty-handed last night. Marion Cotillard was up for Rust & Bone, and Jessica Chastain was up for Zero Dark Thirty, and both lost to French actress Emmanuelle Riva for Amour. Riva even upset fan-favorite Jennifer Lawrence! SHOCK!

Well, at least Jessica and Marion wore “interesting” gowns. I guess. I actually flat-out hate Jessica Chastain’s structured, asymmetrical Roland Mouret gown. It’s just so disappointing! This is her second awards season as a nominee (in a row!), and she just cannot get it right. It’s not that this Mouret gown is “terrible” or anything. It’s just the wrong shade of blue and it’s too tight on her, and her hair is wrong and her makeup is just kind of meh. Jessica could be making such a big impact on the red carpet, and she just… I don’t know. She gets bad advice, maybe? Or she has bad taste?

As for Marion, she wore Dior, obviously. It’s from the same collection as Jennifer Lawrence’s SAG gown two weekends ago. And it has the same weird feature – the dress “comes apart” and there’s sheer netting holding all of the pieces together so that if one part of the dress “rides up” you get a glimpse of legs and/or biscuit. It seems like a really weird design movement, right? As for this particular dress… eh. It’s okay. I don’t like it, but I hate lemon yellow or chrome yellow or whatever you want to call it. I guess the “muffin hip” design is supposed to be super-avant-garde and structural too, but blah. Whatever.

Photos courtesy of FameFlynet and Pacific Coast News.

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42 Responses to “Marion Cotillard v. Jessica Chastain: who was more disappointing at the BAFTAs?”

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  1. ds says:

    wow; they were really surprised by Riva getting some attention? She should have gotten more of it; it is a intelligent movie with great cast; and Riva deserved it. I love the Dior dress Marion is wearing. It was in top three of the collection for me, and I so knew she would wear it; and it looks good.

  2. Tanguerita says:

    Cotillard’s dress is flatout horrible. What in the pantyhose hell?…

    • Polk8dot says:

      Marion’s dress is horrible. I DO NOT get the trend with the ridiculous cut-outs. There is NOTHING ‘avant garde’ about it at this point anymore. It’s just the ‘big’ designers finally, begrudgingly catching up to what they thought was a fad but became a legitimate trend. Too little too late, if you ask me.
      This dress is a typical example – several trends clobbered together, and yet all you get is a school project, and not a successful one at that. I could live with almost all of it, but the WHITE MESH pushes it over the edge, where it should have gone and stayed.
      Oh, Marion – you were such a hit a while back. You are FRENCH FFS! You’re supposed to innately know what and how to wear 🙁
      And the shoes, with this dress? Awful!

      The only saving grace – the necklace. I’d love, love, love to have it. Gorgeous!

      Jessica: how can her stylist have no clue what to do with her generous boobs?? Nothing looks worse on a woman than a squeezed up, mushed boobage. Geez, can she even breathe in that atrocity? Plus the shape, the fabric, the stiffness make it look like a 1980s lampshade. FAIL!! And if you just HAD TO wear this square blob, at least do appropriate hairstyle.
      This setting off of dress’s hard egdes with soft, flowy hair is a total mismatch. They do not complement each other, just the opposite, actually.

      • Irishae says:

        Marion looks stunning from the waist up, but that’s a given for her. I can appreciate the few-and-far-between nice cutout dress, but the random placement and strange mesh over this one is bizarre. I do like the color.

        Jessica and/or her stylists frustrate the hell out of me. I’m not giving her a pass because we should all be grown up enough to recognize when something is a few sizes too small. Compared to a lot of dresses she wears, I would actually say this isn’t so bad. The culprit could be that it doesn’t photograph well. Overall, it’s a fit problem and whoever is dressing her is in denial about the figure in front of him/her. Which is a perfect one, so how can you screw that up?

  3. allons-y alonso says:

    They are both horrible but Marion’s dress just edges out as worst. The dress look like it has a massive ugly rip in it.

    • Evelyn says:

      +1, her dress looks like a pencil with a cyst

      • Addison says:

        Ha, ha, ha. This is a great comment but I actually like these two. Wish there were better side views especially Marion’s then I might change my mind on that one.

  4. T.Fanty says:

    I actually loved the blue. I would have liked to to be less prom-ish, but I love the shade myself. I’m the same coloring as her and this is something I would totally wear.

    The slash in the yellow dress is awful. It was terrible on Jennifer Lawrence and terrible here. I expect more from Marion Coutillard.

  5. marie says:

    meh, I don’t have a problem with either of the dresses

    • TheOriginalKitten says:

      Me neither, marie. I think Cotillard can wear almost anything and somehow own it.

      However,I do wish Jessica Chastain would tone down the makeup and big hair. She’s the type of woman that looks better with minimal makeup.

  6. Ranunculus says:

    Marion’s dress is not really that great, but she pulls it off. To me she can wear a potato sack and look stunning.

  7. Anna says:

    Emmanuelle Riva winning was not ‘an upset’ – I adore Jessica and Marion and Jennifer (and Helen Mirren) and think they’re all VERY deserving, but I think it was pretty clear Emmanuelle was winning the Bafta (Amour was incredibly well received in the UK) and she is so taking the Oscar this year.

  8. Miss Kiki says:

    I’m not that offended by Jessica’s dress. Marion’s isn’t awful but that colour is hideous, the person that told her that hi-vis yellow was a flattering colour is stone cold liar.

  9. lily says:

    YAY at Riva’s win. She deserved the Oscar more than the overrated Lawrence. Her performance was just wonderful.

  10. Jane says:

    Does Dior just like two part dresses that look like they ripped when the top part is pushed up? Jessica is beautiful, but why do her clothes always look two sizes too small? She was much better last year.

  11. Jm says:

    I think they both look good!

  12. Emma says:

    I think Jessica’s dress is absolutely gorgeous! I like everything about it, the cut, the material, the color; it really flatters her.

    As for Marion’s dress, I think she pulls it off, but I’m not crazy about it.

  13. Vivian says:

    These dresses were 2 of the best last night and these ladies were the best last night. Love the Dior dress more but I think the blue was perfect for JC and this is improvement from previous dresses.

  14. Marty says:

    I actually like that color on Jessica, but that fabric is horrible!!! Plus why is it not hemed correctly? It makes the dress look even worse.

  15. T.C. says:

    I like the blue color on Jessica but the dress is too cheap looking. Her makeup and hair looks good. Marion is simply beautiful. Her dress would have been perfect without the netting separating parts of it.

  16. Micki says:

    I like the yellow dress, it has sort of a wink: “don’t take me too seriously”

  17. Scarlet Vixen says:

    Haven’t several of Jessica Chastain’s awards dressed been too tight and ill fitting? I wonder if she picked & was measured for them all awhile ago and then put on a bit of weight. Not that she’s fat–I think her figure is amazing. But even the skinniest person can look bad in an ill fitting dress. Remember how awful her Globes dress fit?

  18. serena says:

    I don’t hate Marion’s. As for Jessica dress..um, well, that shade of blue is beautiful it’s just the shape that is somwhat wrong.

    • A says:

      Jessica’s looked better in motion for some reason. I actually really liked it until I saw these photos…not as flattering for some reason in this particular photoset.

  19. Sal says:

    I think Jessica looked amazing. It seems like the writers on this site are pre-determined to hate what shes’s wearing, which is a shame.

  20. Christina says:

    Seriously? I thought Jessica looked amazing. So amazing I’ve (almost) forgotten her Golden Globes travesty. The colour, the fit, the hair, the make-up – everything was just right. As for Marion, fab except for the part where it looks like she’s had a wardrobe malfunction.

  21. taxi says:

    Jessica needs to wear colors, like this. Pastels are not her friends.

  22. kennedy says:

    Interesting because I happen to think BOTH ladies were the BEST dressed of the evening. Marion’s gown is to die for and Jessica’s color is flat out amazing.

  23. Claudia says:

    This is actually an improvement for Jessica Chastain, and that’s not saying a lot!

  24. Stini says:

    Wow. These were my two favourite of the night. I think they both look stunning.

  25. nina says:

    I love Marion’s dress !

  26. NEENAZEE says:

    Pretty color for Jessica… tho I would’ve preferred a slightly different blue that was kinder to her skin tone. Too bad the overall execution wasn’t better.

    As usual, Marion looks interesting and different. Not the greatest color with her skin tone, but she looks fresh and adorable anyway.

  27. Latifah says:

    I like Jessica’s dress. Good color on her but my only gripe is that it’s too long. What the heckity heck is up with Marion Cotillard’s dress?! At first, i thought it was pulling a Jennifer Lawrence but when i realized that the dress was actually designed that way, i recoiled in horror (i’m dramatic).

  28. Saraghina says:

    I actually loved Cotillard’s dress! Much better than Chastain’s not surprisingly. I don’t think I have ever seen her dress well. It’s a shame because she is quite pretty really.

  29. A Fan says:

    A rare miss for Marion.

    I can’t summon enough interest to comment on the other one – boring and blah.