AllMovie

The versatile, quintessentially French screen player Caroline Sihol divided her time between non-musical acting roles and operatic performances as one of Europe's most prominent divas, in productions such as Freyer's 1994 production of Igor Stravinsky's Persephone. Cinematically speaking, Sihol debuted in the early '70s, but truly came into her own around a decade later, working in a supporting capacity for directors including François Truffaut (in his 1983 Hitchcock homage Vivement Dimanche!), Nelly Kaplan (in her 1985 telemovie farce Pattes de Velours), and -- in a project that brought her to the full attention of American filmgoers -- Alain Corneau's 1991 period musical drama All the Mornings of the World (as Madame de Saint Colombe). Sihol took a rare screenwriting credit and doubled as the lead in the contemporary drama Half of Heaven (2000), playing a determined young single mother who does whatever she must to adopt a baby from China. The actress scored a double international success in the late 2000s, first with a plum role in Olivier Dahan's Oscar-nominated Edith Piaf biopic La Vie en Rose (2007) (as Marlene Dietrich -- a star she closely resembled), then with a key supporting contribution to Claude Chabrol's black comedy smash La Fille Coupée en Deux (2007).