BERLIN, Feb 8: The 57th Berlin Film Festival opened on Thursday with the story of singer Edith Piaf's rise from poverty before Hollywood rolls out its big guns with pictures starring or directed by George Clooney and Robert De Niro.

The Piaf film “La Vie en Rose,” starring Gerard Depardieu, is one of four French movies challenging atmospheric Asian fare and big-budget Hollywood productions, including Clooney's “The Good German” and the De Niro-directed “The Good Shepherd,” for the Golden Bear prize.

Twenty-two films will challenge for the title of best film at the Berlinale, one of Europe's top three film festivals.

In “La Vie en Rose,” up-and-coming actress Marion Cotillard plays the diminutive Piaf, Depardieu her love-struck manager and Roman Polanski's wife, Emmanuelle Seigner, the prostitute who took her under her wing.

The competition entries in the 373-film festival also include the much-anticipated new feature by veteran French director Jacques Rivette and an AIDS drama by Andre Techine.

De Niro presents a slow-moving, earnest film about the founding of the CIA in “The Good Shepherd” while Clint Eastwood, who has made a smooth transition from “Dirty Harry” to Oscar-winning director, is showing “Letters from Iwo Jima” out of competition.

It recounts the World War II battle for a Japanese island from the locals' point of view and is one of a host of war stories screening at the festival.-—AFP