La Vie en Rose (2007)

Directed by Olivier Dahan. Starring Marion Cotillard, Sylvie Testud, Pascal Greggory, Jean-Pierre Martins, Clotilde Courau, Gérard Depardieu, Emmanuelle Seigner, Jean-Paul Rouve, Marc Barbé, Marie-Armelle Deguy, Catherine Allégret, Pauline Burlet, Caroline Deguy. [R]

As French chanteuse Édith Piaf, Cotillard gives one of those full-bore, multifaceted performances of fearless abandon—the physical mannerisms and postures (slumping and shrinking in close-quarters like a frightened animal with sad saucer eyes), the spot-on lip synching of Édith’s singing voice (among other imitators), the raw and sometimes harrowing emotional “truth” of the petite woman’s damaged body and soul. But this unconventional biopic unfolds as a long string of chronologically-confused snapshots of Édith’s life from childhood to death, full of self-pity and self-victimization; even during the rare moments she looks happy, her shaky energy and fragile expressions still make it look like she’s about to break out in tears or crumble to the floor. Various acquaintances, benefactors, lovers, and family members wander in and out of her life, but none are able to coax candor or insight out of the singer (the screenplay by Isabelle Sobelman and director Dahan sure wasn’t going to do the heavy lifting). There’s hardly any joy in her life, even when she’s warbling one of her signature tunes, and nearly two-and-a-half hours of downbeat wallowing through a life story so fragmented it’s hard to tell what’s happening during any given vignette is too unpleasant to watch just for Cotillard’s periodic brilliance. She and the makeup team of Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald won Academy Awards. Caroline Sihol appears in a walk-on playing Marlene Dietrich.

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