La Vie en Rose (2007)

Henry Gale · 03-04-2008, 10:18 AM

Despite winning many awards, including an Oscar for best actress, La Vie en Rose doesn't seem to be on the HTF radar.
Well, I'm going to see it this afternoon.

**HTF Ads**

Patrick Sun · 03-04-2008, 10:51 AM

This film looks and sounds great in terms of set design, costumes, performances, and singing, but the screenplay let me down as an unengaging piece of writing, but it still recommended viewing just for Marion Cotillard's Oscar-winning performance as she runs the gamut of emotions and performance across the acting spectrum. Her lip-syncing is dead-on, you never get the notion that she's not singing the songs coming out of Edith Piaf's mouth, it's just spot-on perfect. I had no idea Cotillard had the range to pull off her performance, but she does.

I give the film itself 3 stars, and a grade of B, but Marion Cotillard gets an A+ for her performance.

SteveGon · 03-04-2008, 01:47 PM

Pretty much what Patrick said, average biopic with great dressing.

Michael Reuben · 03-04-2008, 03:35 PM

I've joined the raves about Cotillard's performance elsewhere, but I disagree that it's an "average" biopic or an "unengaging" script. On the contrary, I think director and co-writer Olivier Dahan found a way to both use and subvert the conventions of the musical biopic in a way that reinforced Cotillard's stunning performance and made it even more harrowing.

WARNING. Some spoilers below.

Dahan's decision to fracture the chronology -- not just the typical flashback structure that was so delightfully skewered in Walk Hard but a constant leaping around among the various stages of Piaf's life -- allows Dahan to present the life more thematically, and what we get is an existence routinely punctuated by great loss. Everyone Edith cares about, or who cares about her, is constantly being pulled away from her.

This leads directly to another important element of the script: It so thoroughly takes Edith's point of view that it is no exaggeration to say it presents essentially her memories. Take the case of her good friend Mômone, who is taken away because she is underaged. In later scenes, it is clear that she ultimately rejoined Edith, but the return has no dramatic weight. The scene that plays loudly in the script (and obviously remains vivid in Edith's memory) is of the two of them being ripped apart by powerful outside forces.

About two thirds of the way through the film, there is a long tracking shot that leads Edith through another in her series of terrible losses and ends in . . . well, you tell me. I challenge anyone to parse that scene reliably into separate elements of memory, fantasy, dream and reality. You can't, because it's the kind of artificial construction that exists only in someone's imagination. It was at that moment in the film that I realized that, between Cotillard and Dahan, I had somehow been drawn inside the spirit (for lack of a better word) of a very troubled and very talented artist. The film's conclusion, set to "Je ne regrette rien", leaves no doubt that this is what the script was aiming for (and IMO brilliantly achieved). I can't think of another musical biopic that even comes close.

M.

JohnRice · 03-04-2008, 11:23 PM

I also found the film to be unsuccessful, but I definitely liked the sequence Michael mentioned.

As far as Henry's comments about this film not being on the HTF radar, i don't know why it is, but as the forum grows the scope of films discussed seems to have actually gotten significantly narrower. Step slightly off the mainstream and there is nothing.

Michael Reuben · 03-06-2008, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnRice

As far as Henry's comments about this film not being on the HTF radar

Henry's always complaining about that kind of thing.

So where's his review?

M.

Henry Gale · 03-06-2008, 11:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Reuben

So where's his review?

M.

I don't review, I incite.

La Vie en Rose, the song, has always been cinema shorthand for WWII in France.
I had added a couple of Edith Piaf CDs to my collection a few years ago.
This grim tale was done with a lot a care, the set design, casting, costumes etc. seemed perfect to me.

Thanks to Patrick and Michael for their literate comments.

Lew Crippen · 03-06-2008, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Henry Gale

...

La Vie en Rose, the song, has always been cinema shorthand for WWII in France.
...

Could you give some examples Henry? If I’m not wrong, La Vie en Rose did not appear until 1946—after VE-Day. That is, I’ve always thought of it as a post-war song.

So far, I’ve not had a chance to see the movie, so I could well be wrong.

Henry Gale · 03-06-2008, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lew Crippen

Could you give some examples Henry? If I’m not wrong, La Vie en Rose did not appear until 1946—after VE-Day. That is, I’ve always thought of it as a post-war song.

No, I can't give even ONE example.

Thought I might be onto something when I found a list of films it had been used in, but none of those films were set in WWII.
Did find a few mentions that the song was written during the German occupation of Paris, but, like you said, recorded in 1946.

OK, a little help folks, have I just invented this memory of La Vie en Rose
in war films? I think it was used, even if it was not historically accurate.

She does have two other songs in Saving Private Ryan.

Michael Reuben · 03-07-2008, 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lew Crippen

So far, I’ve not had a chance to see the movie, so I could well be wrong.

La Vie En Rose is the title only for the release in America. The original title for the film is La Môme.

M.

Werner_R · 03-09-2008, 11:58 AM

I saw this again for the second time in 1 week on dvd. What a great film this is. I agree with Michael that the fractured timeline works very well. It fits very well with wat Edith Piaf says at the end of the film, that her memories fade, and the things she did remember were not the most joyous ones...
One of the better musical biopics with a great soundtrack.

Michael Reuben · 03-09-2008, 12:30 PM

The film definitely stands up to repeat viewings. The central character is such an intense presence that you're never bored, and everything is so richly textured that there's always something new to discover.

M.