La Vie En Rose (La Mome)
Long did I put off watching this film – it’s lonely watching foreign screeners with no companion and I kept hoping for a reprieve, until finally I had to complete my Oscar ballot. And yet I struggle still to find the words to describe this film. Marion Cotillard’s win? Totally justified. Best make up over Pirates and Norbit? Maybe not Norbit, but it really was extraordinary what they did with Cotillard’s face in close-up throughout the ravages of Piaf’s life. You’re seeing the movie for what’s happening under the makeup, however, and to try and learn a little about the voice of the woman they called their little sparrow.
The story is a wild pendulum portraying Edith Piaf’s childhood in 1918 to her premature dotage in 1963. In those 45 years her body ages 70, and in every scene, 33 year old Cotillard has to find her inner sense of excess. Being totally unfamiliar with her story, I came away from La Vie En Rose with tremendous respect or her talent and resilience, and in awe of the conditions she survived, coming out radiant as a flower in good times, and crushed like a delicate flower in bad times. The movie dwelled much on her losses (and her big breaks), but many questions remain for those of us unschooled in Piaf lore. I was confused by some of the causes even as I felt the emotional effects, thanks to deep performances. Many ancillary people in her life were unexplained or assumed, perhaps. Like a husband!?
The film focuses much more on her being, her inner life, than on her life events, which is in itself riveting, but I still found myself distracted saying, “Who is that guy? When did she get married? Why is she blamed for that death?” And still, much is left for us to infer by her actions. Not knowing why her ailments made her hunch, her pain, her jaundice, into incidental mysteries falling away from their portrayal. Don’t get me wrong, even while lost I was enraptured by Cotillard and the fluid dance o the camera through her world of misery and glamour. Maya Barsony sang where Piaf herself was not on the soundtrack, but Cotillard sells it with fire. The voice is unique, the story even more so, but the overall pleasure of the movie is Cotillard dragging us by the hand so effortlessly through so many years of this icon’s life.
Written and directed by Olivier Dahan, La Vie En Rose is a love poem, full of images and metaphor, to the immense voice and spirit of the Little Sparrow. It is a film truly worthy of your attention and I hope that you will exert the effort to see it.
MPAA Rating PG-13
Release date 2/14/07 (belgium)
Time in minutes 140
Director Olivier Dahan
Studio Picturehouse
