Marion Cotillard is a beautiful up-and-coming French actress who has starred in Tim Burton's Big Fish, Ridley Scott's A Good Year (opposite Russell Crowe) and a number of good French films including Love Me If You Dare.

Though she was good, none of those performances has quite prepared us for the powerful and astonishing one she delivers in La Vie En Rose. Playing the real-life legendary singer Edith Piaf, Marion throws herself in the role completely until you can no longer find any trace of the actress beneath the wigs and make-up.

It is a career-making performance that is bound to win Marion a Best Actress nomination at the French Cesar awards, if not the Oscars too. And we'll be damned if she doesn't win the French Cesar. If you thought Helen Mirren was regal in The Queen, wait till you see Marion.

Written and directed by Olivier Dahan, La Vie En Rose tells the life story of Edith Piaf from her childhood to her last breath. Edith, who was raised in a brothel, a circus and on the streets, could have easily turned into another poor and trashy hustler. But she had a powerfully expressive voice that could stop just about anyone in his tracks. And that voice would take her from the poverty-stricken streets to the bright lights of Paris and New York, through the ups and downs of her career and personal life.

Though Edith's life is fascinating in herself, many movie buffs would be more amazed by the Marion's utterly convincing performance — particularly in the last stages of the singer's life. Marion transforms into shriveled-up old woman so completely, it puts too shame so many Hollywood actresses who've tried to "play old" before — including Julianne Moore in The Hours and Renee Zellweger in Miss Potter.

If you're into Edith Piaf or French music, watch this anyway for Marion's performance. She'll blow you away.