Audrey Tautou and the grandes dames of French cinema

The image of the whimsical, but absolutely adorable Amélie Poulain will always be associated with her. (In French, Poulain fittingly means "foal.") It is this role that made Audrey Tautou world famous practically overnight.

In Jean-Pierre Jeunet's "Amélie," Tautou makes every effort to make the lives of others a little bit better. And in the end she even finds her true love. Accompanied by the melancholic music of Yann Tiersen, the comedy was a blockbuster in 2001.

After her success with "Amélie," Tautou was showered with movie options. In the beginning she continued to work with lesser known directors and starred in "L'Auberge Espagnole" (2002) and its sequal, "Russian Dolls" (2005) with director Cédric Klapisch.

She found international recognition as an actress when she played in the 2006 adaptation of "The Da Vinci Code," based on the bestselling novel by Dan Brown. Co-starring with Tom Hanks, the duo try to unlock the secrets behind Leonardo Da Vinci's paintings and to explore the myth that Jesus Christ had fathered physical descendants with Maria Magdalena.

The new face of Chanel

Tautou most recently made headlines thanks to her role as fashion designer Coco Chanel. In "Coco Before Chanel" (2009), she delivered her most multifaceted acting performance. In the film, director Anne Fontaine focused exclusively on Chanel's early days in Paris.

Although some reviews were moderate, most underlined Tautou's strong identification with the person of Coco Chanel. It was only logical that Tautou became the new face for the brand and for its perfume classic Chanel No. 5 starting in 2009.

It is due to her charisma and her performance that Audrey Tautou joins the ranks of the greatest French actresses. Click through the gallery above for more grandes dames of French cinema.

Happy birthday, Audrey Tautou!