La Vie en Rose
Director Olivier Dahan has taken on the task of telling us the story of Edith Piaf, (Little Sparrow) a woman who possessed an extraordinary voice. Unfortunately, her life was very tragic.
At the beginning of the film we see Edith's (at five years old played by Marion Chevallier) mother Anetta (Clotilda Courau) take little Edith to live with her grandmother (her father's mother). Anetta wants to become a singer and can't take care of the girl. It should be said that Edith's granny runs a brothel. But Edith gets used to living there and becomes very close to one of the prostitutes Titine (Emmanuelle Seigner). After Edith's father Louis (Jean-Paul Rouve) gets out of the military he rejoins the circus and takes Edith with him (who is by now ten and is played by Pauline Burlet). But Louis gets kicked out of the circus and he and Edith wind up performing on the street in order to get a few coins. This is when we find out that Edith can sing.
Despite her talent Edith (played as an adult by the remarkable Marion Cotillard) resorts to prostitution and drinks heavily. She is "discovered" by Louis Leplee (Gerard Depardieu) and starts to sing at his club. Things don't go smoothly for Edith but at some point in time she goes on to bigger and better things. But she is never really happy.
The film spends some time telling the story of her relationship with boxer Marcelle Cerdan (Jean-Pierre Martins). He is her greatest love and their affair ends in tragedy. After Marcel is killed Edith takes up drug use (in addition to already heavy drinking). This lifestyle weakened Edith's already frail constitution and when she was in her 40s she looked more like a woman of around 70.
There are several problems with this film. That is not to say that there weren't things about it that I like. There are. But for one thing, at two hours and twenty minutes it is too long. Twenty minutes needed to be trimmed from the film. The story goes back and forth to different periods in time. However, these are not smooth transitions. Sometimes the film tries to show three different time periods almost simultaneously and it just doesn't work. At the end a "surprise" is thrown in. I can't believe that something so important in Edith's life (I will not tell you what it is) is just glossed over like this. I read about a documentary on French singers during World War II and the piece stated that at that time Edith had a German lover and was quite unapologetic about it. Since we had such a long film anyway why wasn't it mentioned. What this film needed was a better and more experienced director than Dahan and a really good editor. Then it would have been a fabulous film.
Now here is the thing - after all of my criticisms of the film I still recommend that people see it.
The main and most important reason is Ms. Cotillard's performance. She is truly outstanding.
She captures all of Piaf's tortured existence in her soul. She literally becomes Piaf and does a very good job of lip syncing). And there is some other good acting in the film as well. Also, there are a good number of powerful scenes (the problem is that there are too many scenes, period).
La Vie en Rose is far from perfect. But if you want to see what is sure to be one of the year's best performances (not too mention the great music that you will hear) then by all means see this film.
At the beginning of the film we see Edith's (at five years old played by Marion Chevallier) mother Anetta (Clotilda Courau) take little Edith to live with her grandmother (her father's mother). Anetta wants to become a singer and can't take care of the girl. It should be said that Edith's granny runs a brothel. But Edith gets used to living there and becomes very close to one of the prostitutes Titine (Emmanuelle Seigner). After Edith's father Louis (Jean-Paul Rouve) gets out of the military he rejoins the circus and takes Edith with him (who is by now ten and is played by Pauline Burlet). But Louis gets kicked out of the circus and he and Edith wind up performing on the street in order to get a few coins. This is when we find out that Edith can sing.
Despite her talent Edith (played as an adult by the remarkable Marion Cotillard) resorts to prostitution and drinks heavily. She is "discovered" by Louis Leplee (Gerard Depardieu) and starts to sing at his club. Things don't go smoothly for Edith but at some point in time she goes on to bigger and better things. But she is never really happy.
The film spends some time telling the story of her relationship with boxer Marcelle Cerdan (Jean-Pierre Martins). He is her greatest love and their affair ends in tragedy. After Marcel is killed Edith takes up drug use (in addition to already heavy drinking). This lifestyle weakened Edith's already frail constitution and when she was in her 40s she looked more like a woman of around 70.
There are several problems with this film. That is not to say that there weren't things about it that I like. There are. But for one thing, at two hours and twenty minutes it is too long. Twenty minutes needed to be trimmed from the film. The story goes back and forth to different periods in time. However, these are not smooth transitions. Sometimes the film tries to show three different time periods almost simultaneously and it just doesn't work. At the end a "surprise" is thrown in. I can't believe that something so important in Edith's life (I will not tell you what it is) is just glossed over like this. I read about a documentary on French singers during World War II and the piece stated that at that time Edith had a German lover and was quite unapologetic about it. Since we had such a long film anyway why wasn't it mentioned. What this film needed was a better and more experienced director than Dahan and a really good editor. Then it would have been a fabulous film.
Now here is the thing - after all of my criticisms of the film I still recommend that people see it.
The main and most important reason is Ms. Cotillard's performance. She is truly outstanding.
She captures all of Piaf's tortured existence in her soul. She literally becomes Piaf and does a very good job of lip syncing). And there is some other good acting in the film as well. Also, there are a good number of powerful scenes (the problem is that there are too many scenes, period).
La Vie en Rose is far from perfect. But if you want to see what is sure to be one of the year's best performances (not too mention the great music that you will hear) then by all means see this film.
posted by Film Fanatic | 7:21 PM
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