Is EXBERLINER Berlinale blogger D. Strass behind the curve and/or missing the boat on La Mome/Vie en Rose? He could certainly file a bit faster, since La Mome is the first seemingly hot thing to emerge from the Berlin Film Festival, with Marion Cotillard allegedly giving the first ’07 performance with a shot at becoming a Best Actress contender.

“Film choices are minimal today,” he wrote yesterday. The press screenings kicked off with a French prestige production (which is to say, it was almost three hours long): Olivier Dahan‘s La Mome, a biopic about Edith Piaf. [I’ve been] assured that this film will be worthwhile, though films of this size and nature tend to be more worthy than worthwhile if you see what I√ɬ¢√¢‚Äö¬¨√¢‚Äû¬¢m saying.

“The French still create the sort of gigantic historical epics that passed from favor in the U.S. 40 years ago, and with a sprinkling of politically muddled exceptions. And very few of these French Fanfares have much to offer other than some finely lit soot and, again, with a few exceptions. I notch this up to a pervasive nostalgia and melancholia that continues to flow through French culture √ɬ¢√¢‚Äö¬¨√¢‚Ǩ≈ì the same sort that enable their love of Edith Piaf.”