9 Formidable Gallic Girls

Audrey Tautou

Best known for : Amelie (2001), The Da Vinci Code (2006)

Pout rating : 4/5

Je Ne Sais Quoi factor : Audrey is the ultimate fringey, foppish ingénue, her sparkling eyes and shy smile an irresistible draw to all bookish/film nerd/hipster/indie kids everywhere.

Parlez-vous français? "I believe in God, but I am not sure to trust Him so much."

Brigitte Bardot

Best known for : And God Created Woman (1956), Contempt (1963)

Pout rating : 3/5

Je Ne Sais Quoi factor : A full-force blonde bombshell, and perhaps the screen’s greatest ever out-and-out sex symbol.

Bardot played smiling, wide-eyed blondes to knee-weakening effect, but also had a knowing glint of smartness and sharpness behind her heavy-lashed eyes.

Parlez-vous français? "I have always adored beautiful young men. Just because I grow older, my taste doesn't change. So if I can still have them, why not?"

Juliette Binoche

Best known for : Damage (1992), The English Patient (1996)

Pout rating : 4/5

Je Ne Sais Quoi factor : Smart, private, effortlessly intriguing if not straightforwardly beautiful, Binoche is a continental fantasy - the dark-haired and introspective girl you fall madly, elusively in love with but can never fully understand. Sigh...

Parlez-vous français ? "I have been proposed to four times. Twice at the beginning of a relationship and twice at the end of a relationship. I've never said no. I just didn't give an answer!"

Emmanuelle Bart

Best known for : Mission Impossible (1996), 8 Women (2002)

Pout rating : 5/5

Je Ne Sais Quoi factor : With her round, heavy-lidded eyes and full, pillowy lips, Béart has a doeish vulnerability which, when combined with long-legged hotness, is all kinds of irresistible.

Parlez-vous français ?: "I give everything I have to give on the screen. I feel I don't owe the public anything else."

Julie Delpy

Best known for : Before Sunrise (1995), Broken Flowers (2005)

Pout rating : 3/5

Je Ne Sais Quoi factor : As she showed in Richard Linklater's heartbreaking brace of dallying romances Before Sunrise and After Sunset , Delpy is piercingly pretty and bright, but also elusive in that way which makes men abandon all reason.

Parlez-vous français ?: "I've never made the first move in my whole life. I'm too scared. I don't think I've ever been with someone I really loved, because the people I really cared for - I didn't have the nerve to go after."

Eva Green

Best known for : Casino Royale (2006), The Dreamers (2003)

Pout rating : 4/5

Je Ne Sais Quoi factor : She's beautiful, obviously, but not fluffy-pretty. That thick dark hair gives her an air of troubled gothic romance.

She's radiant when she breaks into a full smile, but usually offers a mysterious, concerned half-smile instead. Maddening and mesmeric.

Parlez-vous français? : "It's a way to exteriorise all my shit. To scream and cry and laugh on-screen, it's almost like black magic. You can do anything. I'm a dreamer, so that's a good job for me."

Sophie Marceau

Best known for : Braveheart (1996), The World Is Not Enough (1996)

Pout rating : 4/5

Je Ne Sais Quoi factor : Marceau's long legs and statuesque frame made her sizzlingly sultry as a villainess opposite Pierce Brosnan's Bond, but she's at her best when tousled, natural and breathless.

Parlez-vous français? : "I hate those kisses - you know, American kisses, with the tongues out. They're disgusting. I can't look, it's like porno!"

Marion Cotillard

Best known for : Taxi (1998), La Vie En Rose (2007)

Pout rating : 3/5

Je Ne Sais Quoi factor : Effortlessly talented (not just an actress but an accomplished singer and musician) and wonderfully alive - that impish grin and sharp, sparkling eyes are so playful it's easy to forget what a knockout she is.

Parlez-vous français? : "I have a tendency to often share the point of view of the conspiracy theory. I think that we are told lies about lots of things."

Beatrice Dalle

Best known for : Betty Blue (1986), Night On Earth (2001)

Pout rating : 5/5

Je Ne Sais Quoi factor : More firebrand than French fancy. She'd eat you all up but it'd be a hell of a way to go.

Student Betty Blue poster-girl in the '80s, Dalle's high-maintenance rep has sadly held her back from a major breakthrough. (She was due to play alongside Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense but was denied a US work permit because of drug-use allegations).

Parlez-vous français? : "I don't act in the way other actresses act, in terms of building or creating a character. I don't transform myself into the role, I invest myself in it."