European Films

 

The Olivier Dahan-directed La môme (La vie en rose), which recounts the life of sultry French chanteuse Edith Piaf, will open the Berlin Film Festival it was announced today. The film stars rising star Marion Cottilard as the famous singer and was long rumoured to premiere at Berlin before a spring roll-out on most of the continent except for the UK, where it will premiere in autumn. Co-stars include the ubiquitous veteran Gérard Depardieu, Sylvie Testud, Emanuelle Seiger, newcomer Jean-Pierre Martins and respected character actor Pascal Greggory. The 57th edition of the Berlin Film Festival will start on February 8 and run through February 18. 

 

Marion Cottilard stars as Edith Piaf in La môme, which will be released internationally as La vie en rose, after one of the singer's most famous songs ("môme" means "little sparrow" and was Piaf's nickname from an early age; it also means "child"). Cotillard is best known outside of France for her reccurring character Lilly in the Taxi franchise and her role as the the prostitute Tina Lombardi in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Un long dimanche de fiançailles (A Very Long Engagement), fo which she won the French César as Best Supporting Actress. She also had supporting roles in the English-language films A Good Year from Ridley Scott, Big Fish from Tim Burton and Mary from Abel Ferrara. 

 

Last year's Berlinale opened with the UK-Canadian film Snow Cake, while two years ago another French film opened the festival: André Téchiné's Les temps qui changent (Changing Times), which also starred Dépardieu. Already announced competition titles for this year's edition include Bille August's Goodbye Bafana, Christian Petzold's Yella, Sam Garbarski's Irina Palm, Steven Soderbergh's A Good German, Robert De Niro's A Good Shepherd and Park Chan-wook's new film I Am A Cyborg But That’s OK.

 

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