Best movie I've seen in years

Rating: 10/10 (31 August 2007)

I'm a very stingy rater. I hate the way so many people are willing to toss tens around with abandon. Tens should be reserved for culture-changing moments in film-making. This one qualifies.
It could have been another run-of-the-mill a biopic, and still been pretty good. The performance of Marion Cotillard alone is enough to put it into the very good category. But the direction by Olivier Dahan pushes it far beyond merely very good; it should become the standard by which all who follow are judged.
I won't write a spoiler, but the non-linear way the scenes are coupled together is always surprising and interesting, and somehow, miraculously, never gets confusing. Pay attention at all times! You never know when what you're seeing now will get tied back in.
It's a shame that a movie of this caliber is playing in the indie theaters. As of this writing it's grossed $9,238,655 (USA) (19 August 2007). If "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" is worth $300 million, "La Vie en Rose" deserves to gross at least $30 billion. Yeah, it is 100 times as entertaining.