Marion Cotillard (with Franz Ferdinand) - "Eyes of Mars" (2010)

I had been drifting off to sleep while listening to a podcast when I heard “Eyes of Mars” for the first time earlier this week. Needless to say, the jolt that shook me as soon as this song kicked in blasted the sleep right out of my head. I had no idea who was singing or playing the instruments; my best guess was that some young, impressively polished French indie band was tearing into an obscure Kate Bush song that I’d never heard before.

The reality is far juicier. Last year, Oscar-winning actress and all-around 21st-century heroine Marion Cotillard, having proven her exquisite vocal chops in decidedly non-rock settings (conveying Edith Piaf’s melancholy and infinite sadness in “La Vie En Rose,” partying with Hollywood A-listers while singing tightly choreographed Broadway-style numbers in “Nine”), was approached by fashion giant Dior to serve as the face for their “Lady Dior” advertising campaign. Wanting more than a mere photo shoot for billboards and magazine spreads, Dior wrapped an entire persona around Cotillard—the enigmatic “Lady Rouge,” a character created for Dior by designer John Galliano—and commissioned a mini-movie for the campaign.

Enter the slick indie rock fashion plates Franz Ferdinand. Tapped to provide a song for Lady Rouge to sing in the film, they contributed “Eyes of Mars,” for which Cotillard nailed the lead vocals with exactly the kind of detached cool that has been the purview of Alex Kapranos and Company since they declared themselves the “new Scottish gentry” back in 2003. In short: yeah, Cotillard can sing the hell out of rock too.

Kapranos must have had a hunch about Cotillard’s not-just-for-showtunes skills, because “Eyes of Mars” is a weird, complex song that shimmers through multiple key changes—in odd places—and pivots with intense dynamic shifts that a lesser singer would likely have botched. Cotillard’s breathy, full-voweled soprano (which does recall Kate Bush in places, particularly during the song’s spookily hushed intro) inhabits the song’s pull towards the chaotic with a strong sense of inner stability—Lady Rouge may be getting sucked into a maelstrom, but she’s still got enough wits about her to comment on its beauty as she spins. Even more, Cotillard is enough of a self-aware 21st-century heroine to be able to get away with infusing the line “we’re selling our dreams to you all” with a perfectly furtive smirk.

That said, the song isn’t for sale, but the streamable video is big-budget amazing (although I’m surprised that Dior used faceless, floppy-haired actors for Lady Rouge’s backing band rather than employ Franz Ferdinand themselves). Watch it over and over again (as I’ve been) here: