Vie en Rose, La

Director: Olivier Dahan
Year Released: 2007
Rating: 1.0

Standard biopic fare about career drug addict Edith Piaf (Marion Cotillard) who really did have a rags-to-riches life: she was raised in a whore house, worked on the streets and eventually got discovered and became one of the greatest French singers. Dahan overcooks the already melodramatic story to an oppressive degree: while the camera swings wildly around rooms and creeps up on grotesque facial expressions, Piaf screams her fool head off (she's an artist, though, so allowances must be made). Impressive only in transforming the lovely Marion Cotillard into the lost love-child of Nosferatu and Judy Garland - the real star of the show is the makeup crew.