Uncut

UK Magazine Uncut has named its top 20 films of the year. Check it out:

It is an interesting list -- very varied in genre. Thanks for the info and images, John! This is the complete list.

20. 3:10 To Yuma
19. La Vie En Rose
18. American Gangster
17. Superbad
16. Into The Wild
15. The Darjeeling Limited
14. Michael Clayton
13. Eastern Promises
12. Letters From Two Jima
11. The Simpsons Movie
10. This Is England
9. Atonement
8. Inland Empire
7. Control
6. Knocked Up
5. The Assasination Of Jesse James...
4. The Lives Of Others
3. Zodiac
2. The Bourne Ultimatum
1. I'm Not There

More Globe Reaction

Globe nominee Cotillard has rosy future
By Greg Hernandez, Staff Writer
Los Angeles Daily News

It's always nice to talk with someone when they are having a good day.

Thursday was a very good day for Marion Cotillard, who called from Paris in good spirits because she had just been nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her acclaimed performance in "La Vie En Rose."

"It means that people appreciate your work, so it is something," she said. "You can say that it's very subjective or about an awards campaign. Me? I just enjoy the whole thing. Deeply, deeply, I don't care about awards. But I'm starting to have sparkles in my heart. So I asked myself, Well, you do like that. Be honest."

In "Rose," the 32-year-old actress portrays French singer Edith Piaf from her late teenage years into her late 40s. The movie's title is French for "Life in Pink," which was the signature song of Piaf.

"I didn't think about (awards) while we were shooting," Marion said. "We didn't have any idea of what it could be because it was very, very risky, to ask only one actress to do the whole thing from 19 years old to 47. Usually you ask two actresses. When I read this part with such a powerful character, I thought, This is bigger than my dream to play a whole life - an extremely intense, passionate life."

While she is enjoying the acclaim for "Rose," Marion is eager for the writers strike to end so she can work on director Rob Marshall's film version of the Broadway musical "Nine." After that, she has a French film which she describes as "an amazing love story in the African desert in the '30s."

But before work, there will be glamour.

Marion was named Best Actress recently at the Los Angeles Film Festival and returns to Southern California in just a few weeks to be honored by the Palm Springs Film Festival.

Then a few weeks later comes the Golden Globes.

"Of course I will be there," she said. "I'm really looking forward to coming because this is a very unique thing for a French girl. To have the opportunity to meet people I admire so much. I am just enjoying the present time. No pressure at all."

Source.

Reaction

Reelz Channel interviewed a few Golden Globe nominees. Hear Marion's reaction to her nomination here. Also interviewed are Saoirse Ronan and Tom Wilkinson. Congratulations to all three!

More on Marion's reaction:

"I'm in the old section of Paris drinking Edith Piaf's favorite champagne, Bollinger, which has become mine," said exuberant "La Vie en Rose" star Marion Cotillard of her best musical actress nomination. "The first big reaction was when it did well in France, and then the film got recognition all around the world. It's just been a series of surprises, and I hope it never ends." Picturehouse president Bob Berney wasn't surprised by Cotillard's success. "For me, it was expected. I think when people in Los Angeles met her in person, it was shocking to them how different she was from the character."

Source.

Santa Barbara to honor Cotillard

Santa Barbara International Film Festival has created a new award, the Virtuosos Award, to honor this year's top performances. Its intent is to "recognize a select group of young actors who have distinguished themselves in film."

Marion Cotillard, Casey Affleck, James McAvoy, Ellen Page, and Amy Ryan will be rewarded with the 2007 Virtuosos Award on January 30, 2008.

SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling explains:

“There will always be one or two performances that stand out, but this year in particular there were several performances by actors that truly set them apart from the pack. These talented actors have proven themselves to be a strong presence on-screen, and these performances have given a glimpse at the bright future that cinema has to offer audiences for years to come.”

Read the whole article on the Critics and Monsters web page.

La Vie en Rose wins @ NRJ Ciné Awards; Baltimore blurb

The NRJ Ciné Awards, the French equivalent to the People's Choice Awards, have awarded 3 honors to La Vie en Rose, two of which went to Marion for her performance in the film.

The film beat out Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Spiderman-3, and Arthur and the Invisibles for the Top of the Box Office Award.

Marion won for French Actress of the Year, besting Audrey Tautou, Charlotte Gainesbourg, and Cécile de France. She was also picked for Best Look over Sacha Baron Cohen for Borat, Kirsten Dunst for Marie Antoinette, and Alain Chabat and Charlotte Gainsbourg for How to Get Married and Stay Single.

You can see all the winners and nominees at the official site, here.

Also, The Baltimore City Paper has a nice blurb about La Vie en Rose, Marion, and other musical biopics prefacing their Top Ten:

La Vie en Rose, Control, and I'm Not There didn't merely rescue the music biopic from Hollywood; they represent the best of what 2007 movies offered: an explosion of cinematic craft. Olivier Dahan's La Vie en Rose, the most conventional of the above biopics, was anchored by a bruising performance from Marion Cotillard. Anton Corbijn's Control deftly avoided nostalgic romanticism for something closer to a quiet family drama laced with music. And Todd Haynes' glorious I'm Not There completely reinvented the music biopic to create a dazzling celebration of the creative act. In each instance it isn't just an actress, script, or director leaving thumbprints all over the screen, but an orchestrated synthesis of sound, vision, and performance.

La Vie en Rose didn't make their final list, but it was a nice shout-out. View the article here.

LFCA

The London Film Critics Awards have announced their nominations for 2007. OK, what's up with Critics groups having nominations? Why can't they just name the winners -- it's just silly. In any case, here are the nods for "Actress of the Year":

Actress of the Year
Laura Linney – The Savages (Fox)
Marion Cotillard – La Vie En Rose (Icon)
Maggie Gyllenhaall – Sherry Baby (Metrodome)
Angelina Jolie – A Mighty Heart (Paramount)
Anamaria Marinca – 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days (Artificial Eye)

As for Ms. Christie, she's nominated under the "British Actress of the Year" category:

British Actress of the Year
Samantha Morton – Control (Momentum)
Julie Christie – Away From Her (Metrodome)
Keira Knightley – Atonement (Universal)
Helena Bonham Carter – Sweeney Todd (Warner)
Sienna Miller – Interview (The Works)

See the rest here.

Golden Globes

The HFPA will be announcing this year's Golden Globe nominees shortly. This post will be updated with any pertinent Marion Cotillard/La Vie en Rose news.

EDIT: Marion is in!!!

Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical/Comedy
Amy Adams, Enchanted
Nikki Blonsky, Hairspray
Helena Bonham-Carter, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Ellen Page, Juno

All in all, though, the nominees this year are really unimpressive. The full list can be found at the HFPA's official site, here.

Loder

Kurt Loder (wasn't he like an MTV anchorman or something?) just named his top ten for the year (again, shrug). He also selected the best performances of the year, and here's his pick for Best Actress:

Best Actress: Marion Cotillard, "La Vie en Rose"

Some of the most memorable performances by women came from abroad this year — the startling Tang Wei in Ang Lee's otherwise static "Lust, Caution"; the fearless Carice van Houten in Paul Verhoeven's World War II spy thriller, "Black Book." No one anywhere outdid Cotillard, though, playing the French songbird and national treasure Edith Piaf from boozy youth to desolate middle age (she died at 47). The movie itself was an awkwardly concocted melodrama, but this 32-year-old actress invested it with unforgettable emotional fire. To pass over Cate Blanchett ("I'm Not There"), Sienna Miller ("Interview"), Laura Linney ("The Savages"), and, yes, the superlative Ellen Page ("Juno") in an attempt to pick a winner among such dissimilarly gifted performers demonstrates the pointlessness of the enterprise. It can be argued that no one was better than Cotillard, though, so that'll have to do.

Source.

CFCA Analysis

There seems to be a good standing for foreign performers at the CFCAs.

The CFCAs, unlike the BSFCs, often hand out out several awards to foreign performers and films. Rinko Kikuchi (Babel), Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace), and Audrey Tautou (Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain) are all recent acting and breakthrough honorees. And one of Cotillard’s films, A Very Long Engagement, was awarded the Best Foreign Film title back in 2004. (Cotillard won a César - the French equivalent to the Oscars - for her performance in A Very Long Engagement.)

The Chicago critics, in their reviews, seemed to be completely divided on La Vie en Rose – some thought it was mess while others loved it. There were very few grey areas. One common thread, though, was that the majority of the Chicago critics I found (even the ones who hated the film) thought Cotillard was dazzling. Most of the reviews were very enthusiastic about Cotillard’s work, so what it comes down to in the end is whether or not there are enough of these critics to out-vote the films’ detractors.

Having said that, La Vie en Rose has been picked as one of the CFCA’s nominees for Best Foreign Film. While I doubt it will win, it removes most of the doubt I had about a win for Cotillard. Critics are far more likely to hold the flaws of a film against the performer than actors are (actors vote for Oscar and SAG winners/nominees), and La Vie en Rose certainly has its flaws. However, the fact that the picture is up for Foreign Language Film means that the CFCA thinks it’s one of the best – flaws and all – and this could help elevate Cotillard to victory.

As she has for all of the past critics’ awards, Cotillard will be battling mainly against Julie Christie (Away from Her), another Best Actress nominee. Ellen Page (Juno), who was revealed to be Christie’s biggest competition at the NYFCC, could also sneak up and win, as the CFCA likes young talent. Other nominees include Angelina Jolie (A Mighty Heart) and Laura Linney (The Savages).

The winners will be announced on December 14, 2007.

---

Chicago Film Critics Association Member Reviews of La Vie en Rose

Roger Ebert, Chicago-Sun Times, “One of the best biopics I’ve seen”:

“Olivier Dahan's "La Vie en Rose," one of the best biopics I've seen, tells Piaf's life story through the extraordinary performance of Marion Cotillard...”

David Kaplan, Kaplan Vs. Kaplan, “An exceptional film”:

“..a hugely entertaining biography of the great French chanteuse, Edith Piaf, featuring a staggering performance by 31-year-old actress Marion Cotillard as the petite fireball that was Piaf…The first-rate cast never misses a beat, the characterizations being completely authentic. But it is Cotillard who clearly carries this film. If you see the movie, and it really is a must for serious moviegoers, you should check out photos of the real Edith Piaf to see how closely Cotillard resembles her facially. It’s an almost uncanny likeness, and while Cotillard does sing in the film, most of the time she is lip-synching, although it’s beautifully done and impossible to detect. This is one of those incredible performances that simply cannot be ignored at Oscar time. The range of emotions from Cotillard, in so many difficult sequences in the film, is magnificent, and it will require a mighty coup by some other actress to top her interpretation in “La Vie En Rose”.”

Jeanne Kaplan, Kaplan Vs. Kaplan, “Truly a remarkable film”:

“…brilliantly acted by Cotillard. Much like the recent biopics of Truman Capote and Idi Amin, she totally embodies the character of Edith Piaf, beginning with her days as a 20-year-old waif, singing on street corners, to the end of her life - arthritic, bent and misshapen. It’s a stunning performance - one that keeps the audience enraptured throughout…it is Cotillard that makes this movie an unforgettable experience.”

Steve “Capone” Prokopy, Ain’t It Cool, “One of the best biopics EVER”:

“A dizzying, time-jumping, fierce experience, LA VIE EN ROSE traces the cradle-to-grave life of singer and consummate Parisian Edith Piaf, played with a ferocity and shocking bravery by Marion Cotillard…Cotillard's performance is staggering. The timing of this film's release almost guarantees that Cotillard (last seen as Russell Crowe's stubborn love interest in the otherwise unremarkable A GOOD YEAR) won't be considered come awards season, and that's criminal. To believably play this character from her teenage years to the last days of her life by doing little more than adjusting her posture and changing her wig and makeup is astonishing. It's almost exhausting, in the best possible sense…There are several very good performances here, but Cotillard essentially makes them all forgettable by being so powerful.”

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune, “Wildly uneven”:

“Yet in the middle of it you have Marion Cotillard, scrunching her strapping 5-foot-6-inch frame into Piaf's rickety 4-foot-8-inch universe, working like the devil to inhabit and interpret Piaf. She's pretty dazzling…The way Cotillard jams her hands on her hips and wallops an audience in the performance sequences, lip-synching very skillfully, you sense Piaf's intertwined fear and desire of the public.”

Critics Choice Awards

The Critics Choice Awards (also known as the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards) will be announcing their honorees this morning at 8:30 a.m. EST. This post will be updated with nominees.

EDIT: MARION GOT A NOMINATION!!

Best Actress

Amy Adams - Enchanted

Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Julie Christie - Away From Her

Marion Cotillard - La Vie en Rose

Angelina Jolie - A Mighty Heart

Ellen Page - Juno

La Vie en Rose also secured a Best Foreign Language Film nomination.

Best Foreign Language Film

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Lust, Caution

La Vie en Rose

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

The Orphanage

I guess people can stop saying, "Well Cotillard's film isn't being well-received so her chances are hindered..." because several groups have honored La Vie en Rose as being one of the best foreign language films of the year.

Full list of winners here. Note: The site is a little off. They don't have Cotillard listed, but I watched the live broadcast and she is definitely nominated. Plus, they have Julie Christie there for La Vie en Rose, so there must be a format glitch.

EDIT #2: VH1 has a very nice site for the BFCA nominees.

San Francisco critics name Christie Best Actress

This is k_obrien, the new kid, so be nice.

Tonight the San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards have honored Julie Christie (Away from Her) with the Best Actress award over Marion Cotillard. I'd feel disheartened by this point, except that they've got an odd mix of winners this year (below):

Best Film:
The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford by Andrew Dominik

Best Foreign Language Film:
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Julian Schnabel

Best Documentary:
No End in Sight by Charles Ferguson

Best Director:
Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men

Best Actor:
George Clooney for Michael Clayton

Best Actress:
Julie Christie for Away from Her

Best Supporting Actor:
Casey Affleck for The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford

Best Supporting Actress:
Amy Ryan for Gone Baby Gone

Best Original Screenplay:
Tamara Jenkins for The Savages

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Sarah Polley for Away from Her

We'll be keeping an eye out this week for the Golden Globe, Broadcast Film Critics Association, Chicago Film Critics Association, and American Film Institute honorees.

FYC

Let us reflect for a minute...


UPDATE: Marion has been nominated for Best Actress of the year by the Chicago Film Critics Association. They will announce their winners on December 14.


Other upcoming awards this week are:

- Broadcast Film Critics: December 11
- AFI Awards: December 16

I have a feeling Marion could do well with the Broadcast Film Critics...we'll see if my hunch is proven right.

Thanks for the heads up, K.

LATimes

Per K's suggestions, here's a short Q&A the LA Times did with Marion a few days ago. Enjoy:

MARION COTILLARD'S LIFE IN PINK
Marion Cotillard can't escape Edith Piaf, nor is she trying to: She's enjoying it.
By William Georgiades, Special to The Times
December 5, 2007

NEW YORK -- MARION Cotillard has appeared in more than 40 movies, including Tim Burton's "Big Fish," Ridley Scott's "A Good Year," Luc Besson's "Taxi" movies and, most recently, "La Vie en Rose," in which she played Edith Piaf. That performance has been generating Oscar buzz since before it was released in June. It's an astonishing feat of metamorphosis -- Cotillard managed to appear a foot shorter than she is to play the French singer and icon, and though she is 32, she plays Piaf convincingly from age 17 to her death at 47.

In person, in a midtown hotel here, she is lovely, elegant and low-key enough to request hot water from a waiter, producing her own bags of green tea.

You've been talking about "La Vie en Rose" for more than two years now. You've been in more than 40 movies, but it sometimes seems this is the only film you've done.

I shaved back my hairline and shaved off my eyebrows back in September 2005 and we started shooting in January last year and started the promotion shortly after that, so, yes, I have been living with this role for over two years now. But I'm really enjoying all the adventure so I can't complain. Sometimes you get the same questions over and over, but you just have to laugh about it. It's pretty easy to handle. And there will be an end to it all.


In February?

Yes.


So do you have your Oscar acceptance speech rehearsed yet?

No! I'm not working on any speech. We really have to wait and see if I even get a nomination. That would be something huge for me. When I even say this, it makes me laugh, like what am I even talking about. I could never have imagined that one day I would talk seriously about Oscars. I'm just very happy for the movie.


You were in New York just three years ago to study English.

Yes, I came here right after I did "Big Fish" with Tim Burton, where I had a very hard time understanding people. So I took a Berlitz course for a few weeks and I've been practicing ever since.


Your parents are both actors and you started working very young.

I did work when I was 5 because one of my parents' friends was about to direct a TV movie and asked me to be a part of it. But then I did have a very normal childhood. Without explaining it to me, I understood that to be an actor you have to live your life and go through normal joy and normal pain because an actor is telling people stories and you have to live normally to know how it works in real life, and then when I was 18 I started to work again.


Just before playing Edith Piaf, you played the love interest to Russell Crowe in Ridley Scott's "A Good Year." How was working with those two?

I'd been told of Russell Crowe's reputation, but he's really the nicest guy. And I'm not doing an American-type promotion. He really wanted people to be happy on the set, and he would do anything to make you at ease.


You've said that in playing Piaf you didn't want to imitate her, that you wanted to express her.

It's not interesting to imitate someone who existed in real life. You have all the information about this person and you have to understand them. That is what's interesting. So I think that Jamie Foxx (as Ray Charles) or Will Smith (as Muhammad Ali) or Joaquin Phoenix (as Johnny Cash), I'm sure they didn't try to imitate because that's technical. I had to learn cello for another movie and it was mechanical to learn the cello, but the fun part is when the mechanical part is all in your hands and you can play with the emotions.


You only sing in one small part of "La Vie en Rose," when your character is drunk, but you've sung before, and your next project "The Nine," directed by Frank Marshall and co-starring Javier Bardem, is a musical, yes?
Oh, yes, I love to sing! But I couldn't sing like Edith Piaf and with three months to prepare, I wouldn't have had time to have her voice. And I've been practicing my songs for "The Nine." It's good to sing, music is a good way to enjoy life. You see people in the street listening to music but you don't see them walking with a movie. You can take music everywhere!

NYFCC

The group is voting right now. These are the results so far:

Best Foreign Film The Lives of Others
Best Animated Film Persepolis
Best First Film Sarah Polley Away from Her
Best Documentary No End in Sight
Best Cinematographer Robert Elswit There Will Be Blood
Best Screenplay Joel and Ethan Coen No Country for Old Men
Best Supporting Actress Amy Ryan Gone Baby Gone

I have a bad feeling...I'll keep you posted.

UPDATE:

Best Actor Javier Bardem No Country for Old Men
Best Actress Julie Christie Away from Her

Oh well.

UPDATE 2:

Actual winners

Best Foreign Film The Lives of Others
Best Animated Film Persepolis
Best First Film Sarah Polley Away from Her
Best Documentary No End in Sight
Best Cinematographer Robert Elswit There Will Be Blood Best
Screenplay Joel and Ethan Coen No Country for Old Men
Best Supporting Actress Amy Ryan Gone Baby Gone
Best Supporting Actor Javier Bardem No Country for Old Men
Best Actress Julie Christie Away from Her
Best Director Joel and Ethan Coen No Country for Old Men
Best Actor Daniel Day Lewis There Will Be Blood Best Picture No Country for Old Men Lifetime Achievement Sidney Lumet Special Critics' Award Charles Burnett Killer of Sheep

I'll be the bigger person and not say what I'm thinking (mainly that their Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress picks suck butt cheeks), and say instead jolly good NYFCC, you might have missed the boat on this one, but you did it with panache. Stay classy (eye roll).

Possibilities

Here's a post from contributor extraordinaire, K, where she reflects on the latest developments in what's turning out to be a nail-biting awards season and dissects Marion's possibilities for a NYFCC win tomorrow. Enjoy.

As early as this morning, I really believed that the one major obstacle Marion Cotillard would face this awards season would be the New York Film Critics Circle Awards. I felt confident about Los Angeles, I’m feeling confident she’ll walk away with at least a Breakthrough Performer award from Chicago, and I feel confident she’ll earn a Golden Globe nomination this week from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

The NYFCC, more than many of the other critics’ groups, tend to award films that don’t have a full-blown campaign backing them. They prefer to honor the indie films that made almost no profit and have little (to no) Oscar buzz. Here are the small films the NYFCC have honored in the past 10 years:

2006

United 93 (Best Picture)

The Last King of Scotland (Best Actor - Forest Whitaker)

The Queen (Best Actress - Helen Mirren; Best Screenplay)

Little Children (Best Supporting Actor - Jackie Earle Haley)

2005

The Squid and the Whale (Best Screenplay)

A History of Violence (Best Supporting Actor - William Hurt; Best Supporting Actress - Maria Bello)

Howl's Moving Castle (Best Animated Feature)

2004

Sideways (Best Picture; Best Actor - Paul Giamatti; Best Supporting Actress - Virginia Madsen; Best Screenplay)

Vera Drake (Best Actress - Imelda Staunton)

Closer (Best Supporting Actor - Clive Owen)

2003

Lost In Translation (Best Actor - Bill Murray; Best Director - Sofia Coppola)

The Secret Lives of Dentists (Best Actress - Hope Davis; Best Screenplay)

American Splendor (Best Actress - Hope Davis)

A Mighty Wind (Best Supporting Actor - Eugene Levy)

House of Sand and Fog (Best Supporting Actress - Shohreh Agdashloo)

2002

Far From Heaven (Best Picture; Best Actor - Dennis Quaid; Best Supporting Actress- Patricia Clarkson)

Spirited Away (Best Animated Feature)

2001

Mulholland Drive (Best Picture)

In the Bedroom (Best Actor - Tom Wilkinson; Best Actress - Sissy Spacek)

Ghost World (Best Supporting Actor - Steve Buscemi)

Gosford Park (Best Supporting Actress - Helen Mirren; Best Director - Robert Altman; Best Screenplay)

2000

You Can Count On Me (Best Actress - Laura Linney; Best Screenplay)

Pollock (Best Supporting Actress - Marcia Gay Harden)

Erin Brockovich (Best Director - Steven Soderbergh)

1999

Topsy-Turvy (Best Picture; Best Director - Mike Leigh)

The Straight Story (Best Actor - Richard Farnsworth)

Boys Don't Cry (Best Actress - Hilary Swank)

Being John Malkovich (Best Supporting Actor - John Malkovich; Best Supporting Actress - Catherine Keener)

Election (Best Screenplay)

1998

Affliction (Best Actor - Nick Nolte)

Rushmore (Best Supporting Actor - Bill Murray)

The Opposite of Sex (Best Supporting Actress - Lisa Kudrow)

1997

Ulee's Gold (Best Actor - Peter Fonda)

Afterglow (Best Actress - Julie Christie)

Critics groups are more likely to hold the flaws of the film against the performer. Other actors (who vote for nominees/winners at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and Oscars) focus more on the performance than the structure of the film, which is why I haven’t had any worries about Cotillard’s chances at those functions. New York critics, in particular, seemed to be very hard on La Vie En Rose, which was my main concern. However, upon realizing that Marion Cotillard/La Vie en Rose supporters Peter Travers (Rolling Stone), Jan Stuart (Newsday), and Owen Gleiberman (Entertainment Weekly) are all voting members of the NYFCC, I feel that Cotillard’s chances at a win have increased enormously.
Now knowing who (courtesy of the NYFCC official website) exactly, will be voting (Peter Travers, for example), and who wouldn’t be (A.O. Scott of The New York Times, who admired Cotillard’s “ferocity”), I went out and searched for NYFCC member reviews of the film. I now feel reassured about Cotillard’s chances tomorrow. Even those critics who disliked the film, like David Edelstein of New York Magazine, seemed to have something positive to say about Cotillard.

All in all, I’d say Cotillard’s chances are very strong. If she loses to anyone, it’ll be to Julie Christie for Away From Her. Christie took the New York Online Film Critics Awards prize for Best Actress today, and several of their members also sit on the NYFCC.

New York Film Critics Circle Member Reviews of La Vie en Rose

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone:
“And Marion Cotillard, lip-syncing Piaf's songs and digging into her soul with gale-force urgency, gives a performance for the ages.”

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly:

“I'm not usually in the business of hailing a performance as ''award-worthy,'' but why is La Vie en Rose, with its furious turn by Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf — less a performance than a possession — coming out in early summer? Hurtling and impassioned, driven by some of the greatest popular music ever recorded, this wildly overripe and unkempt biopic is a true experience, yet I suspect it needs the backdrop of a duskier time of year — and, yes, awards season — to draw audiences to the mad intensity of Cotillard's acting. She fills the diminutive, firebrand Piaf with life force at every age: as a lusty teen urchin, warbling on the streets of Paris for her supper; as the imp-diva with drawn-on eyebrows, looking like a depressed mime as she belts out her sublime cabaret ballads in a voice as strong and clear as a bell; and as Piaf the arthritic, morphine-addicted wreck (she died at 47), a Gallic Judy Garland who extinguished everything inside but the flame of her will.”

Lou Lumenick, New York Post:
“FRENCH actress Marion Cotillard delivers a tour de force as legendary singer Édith Piaf in "La Vie En Rose," an otherwise conventional and sometimes confusing portrait about yet another tortured musical genius…Thanks to the extraordinary performance of Cotillard, who expertly lip- syncs to Piaf recordings and disappears into the part, few will regret seeing "La Vie En Rose," named after a famous Piaf tune.”

Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal:

“Olivier Dahan's phantasmagorical biopic gives us a brilliant performance by Marion Cotillard as the passionate, tortured Piaf, and Ms. Cotillard gives us something new in a show-business portrait -- a sense of what the song does to the singer.”

David Edelstein, New York Magazine:
“Virtually all showbiz biopics have lapses and groaners, but as Jamie Foxx, Joaquin Phoenix, Sissy Spacek, and almost everyone except Kevin Spacey can affirm, they pay off in awards for actors willing to hurl themselves into the volcano. Marion Cotillard is a hurler. She’s prettier than Piaf, with round eyes that take up half her face, but she doesn’t get by on her looks. She knows you can’t play Piaf halfway. As the diva in her prime, she still gives you glimpses of the child famished for connection.”

Melissa Anderson, Time Out New York:

“The greatest obstacle in mounting a successful biopic—a genre in dire need of a shot of adrenaline—is for the lead performer to overcome ventriloquism. Although Marion Cotillard, in a career-defining performance, lip-synchs all of Edith Piaf’s songs, the actor is no dummy. She doesn’t merely embody the French singing legend; she is possessed with all of the monstrous talent—and behavior—that burst out of the 4'8" chanteuse.”

Rex Reed, The New York Observer:

“Imitation isn’t always the sincerest form of flattery. This is why Marion Cotillard’s sensational performance as Edith Piaf in the awesome new film La Vie en Rose is so unforgettable. Like Stephen Fry’s Oscar Wilde in Wilde and Toby Jones’ memorable Truman Capote in Infamous (light years ahead of Philip Seymour Hoffman), Ms. Cotillard doesn’t try to imitate Piaf, the greatest French chanteuse of all time. She channels Piaf. “The little sparrow” comes to life before the camera in this long, exhilarating and dazzling movie masterpiece, while Ms. Cotillard delivers one of the most inspired and breathtaking performances in film history. La Vie en Rose left me devastated…

Ms. Cotillard has more faces than Piaf’s saga has chapters. Flawlessly lip-synching the icon’s passionate voice, she synchronizes Piaf’s energy, eyes, body language, madness, tragedy, triumphs and outrageous humor until you are galvanized by her greatness…

The movie, the voice of Piaf, and a performance that turns Marion Cotillard into a great new star shimmer with the kind of beauty, power, intensity and visual opulence you might want to experience again and again.”

Andrew Sarris, The New York Observer:

“Marion Cotillard gives a highly charged, heavily made-up performance as the grown-up and decidedly unattractive Piaf…”

Jan Stuart, Newsday:
“...it is hard to imagine any open-hearted Yank not responding to this swaggering musical biography and its sublime leading lady, Marion Cotillard…In stripping away that legendary warble for a brief moment, Dahan also makes us fully cognizant of the magnitude of Cotillard's acting triumph. While Cotillard lip-synchs to Piaf's recordings with enormous fervor, she is never more heartrending than when listening: taking in the praise of an adoring Marlene Dietrich, or lighting up as a French army corporal sits at a piano and plunks out the first bars of a song he has composed for her.”

Armond White, NY Press:
“It’s early for Oscar baiting but Marion Cotillard’s performance as Édith Piaf in La Vie En Rose puts itself on the hook…Cotillard’s Piaf is genuinely impressive. Cotillard goes through Piaf’s pathological shyness, her on-stage desperation, her constant vulnerability, her sexual passion, her aging and debilitation. But this showcase of phenomenal skill has to compensate for the movie’s totally unoriginal biopic framework…Cotillard shows a trained actress’ craft.”

Stephen Whitty, Newhouse Newspapers:
“The film belongs to Cotillard, who throws herself into the part.”

Non-member review:
A.O. Scott, New York Times:
“No one else could possibly be Édith Piaf, or Johnny Cash or Ray Charles (or Truman Capote or Muhammad Ali or anyone else on the ever-growing list). Their larger-than-life self-sufficiency adds a thrilling element of risk to the task of portraying any of them on film. Or so it would seem. Really, though, the audacity involved in taking up such a challenge predisposes audiences (and critics) to applause, as does the durable popularity of the originals. So it is hard not to admire Ms. Cotillard for the discipline and ferocity she brings to the role…And it is true that Ms. Cotillard is a dynamic, quick-witted performer, one whose sheer force of will goes some way toward showing how a funny-looking, abrasive street urchin could become the idol of postwar France.”