La Vie en Rose, the Movie

Posted by Anthony Smith
July 24, 2007

I do not usually like movies that feature the life of “real”people as they either contain more fiction than truth or they portray sinners as saints,however I loved La Vie en Rose,the life of the French singer Edith Piaf.

I don’t know how accurate the picture is but it does seem to follow the story that is generally accepted as her life - childhood in a brothel, singing on the streets for a living,discovery, stardom [arguably the most recognizable voice of the century] and death at the age of 48, caused by the excess of everything.The love of her life, nicely portrayed in the movie by Jean-Pierre Martins, was the Algerian/French boxing world champion, Marcel Cerdan.

Edith, the little sparrow in French argot, was not a nice person and the movie does a great job in showing this but making her very human. Marion Cotillard is absolutely sensational as Edith [note the name as she will be talked about at Oscar time].

At the end of the movie there was a moment’s stillness in the audience, not only because of the terrific ending,but because you felt you had also been part of an extraordinary life. The line for the next performance was around the block, proof, I hope, that there is an audience for grown up movies about grown up people.

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free web directory 8 months ago 1 point
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A swirling, impressionistic portrait of an artist who regretted nothing...

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Ralph 3 years ago 1 point
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I agree that Marion Cotillard is absolutely sensational as Edith Piaf, but the film is a bit too surreal and disjointed to be considered a great movie. I was shocked to see that the film jumps from 1940 to 1947 and never shows a single scene of occupied or liberated France. A bio-pic about Edith Piaf and there's nothing about World War II? Hmmm, methinks the script could have used some work.

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Tom Watson 3 years ago 1 point
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Come to think of it - a list of biopics, good and bad....hmmm.

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Tom Watson 3 years ago 1 point
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From what I've seen of the previews, this one has such a lush look to it - seems so well-shot - it's gonne be an award-grabber.

Dan - excellent point about LOA. But it was pure fantasy, you're right.

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Dan Leo 3 years ago 1 point
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I'm of your opinion about bio-pics, Anthony. They nearly always seem to take a great person's life and reduce it to a table of contents, minus the content. And the more one knows about the great person's life, the less satisfying the two-hour cinematic distilllation will be. My opinion of "Lawrence of Arabia" changed dramatically after reading a good biography of the man. As moving as Peter O'Toole's performance was, as literate as Robert Bolt's sript was, as powerful as David Lean's direction was, the man Lawrence and his life was so much more complex and so much more interesting than the movie version. I still admire the movie tremendously but I think I'd admire it more if its "Lawrence" were an entirely fictional character.

I love Edith Piaf's music and so I hesitate to see the movie. But, y'know, if it introduces a new generation to her records, then it's all to the good.

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