It's a revealing remark and staged as such, but like so much in Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg's riveting documentary, "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work," it raises more questions than it answers. Because Rivers the actress -- born 77 years ago this week as Joan Alexandra Molinsky, the daughter of Russian immigrants -- isn't just playing any comedian. She's playing Joan Rivers, an undigested, gristly lump of misanthropy and female self-hatred who has built a career out of shamelessness, uncensored bad taste and a strange combination of starfucking and utter contempt. (Also, just to be clear, out of her exquisite comic timing and her mental agility.) If this is just a role, it's the performance of a lifetime, and more convincing than Olivier playing Hamlet.

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