La Vie En Rose Review

"La Vie En Rose" reviews

Movie

La Vie En Rose

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2007-07-09 23:52:59

Rating

2/5

Provider

CinemaSource

Review

Vivid and emotional--but also disjointed and melodramatic--Olivier Dahan's Edith Piaf biopic La Vie en Rose is all about Marion Cotillard's passionate performance.

Story

Told in a sometimes-confusing collection of flashbacks and flash forwards, La Vie en Rose traces the beloved French singer's troubled life from her early years in her grandmother's Normandy brothel to her death at age 47 as a frail, morphine-addicted wreck. Born Edith Giovanna Gassion in 1915 Paris, Piaf first won fans as a young street performer. Years later, when she was a gamine girl just out of her teens, she was discovered by Louis Leplée (Gerard Depardieu), who helped launch her career as a cabaret chanteuse and gave her the nickname that would stick with her for life: ''Piaf,'' slang for ''sparrow.'' She went on to worldwide success, but her personal life remained unstable, with weaknesses for drinking and drugs eventually blossoming into full-blown addiction after the tragic death of her one true love, boxer Marcel Cerdan (Jean-Pierre Martins).

Acting

From start to finish, La Vie en Rose is Marion Cotillard's movie. The two young actresses who portray Piaf as a child (Manon Chevallier and Pauline Burlet) do a good job paving the way--Burlet is particularly soulful and touching--but once Cotillard takes over, Piaf really comes to life. And does she ever. Like Judy Davis in Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, Cotillard inhabits her character so fully that it's hard to believe you're not watching Piaf herself. Brazen and shy, brash and girlish, Cotillard's Piaf is a study in contradictions and vulnerability. Her outspoken confidence masks a deep-seated fear of loneliness--which, along with her passion for singing and her ardor for Cerdan, were the ruling emotions of her life. The way that Cotillard conveys the havoc that those emotions wreaked on Piaf's life is sometimes showy but always heartfelt.

Direction

Opting for nonlinear storytelling in a biopic is a bold choice--and one that doesn't quite work for La Vie en Rose. Just when you're starting to get a handle on the sequence of events that led to Piaf's sadly premature death, a new wrinkle arises that leaves you doing some quick timeline math (did the car crash come before or after the collapse on stage? when exactly did she first start taking morphine?)--which ends up distancing you from both Piaf and her story. The Little Sparrow remains somewhat of an enigma throughout the movie, no matter how many melodramatic outbursts she has or drunken confessions she makes. Happily, the music is fantastic--how could it not be, with Piaf's classic songs mingling with the cabaret smoke and ringing out in the grand music halls? It's just too bad that La Vie en Rose isn't as affecting as the ballad it's named for.

Bottom Line

Hollywood.com rated this film 2 stars.

Movie

La Vie En Rose

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2007-06-15 14:40:13

Provider

MRIB

Review

Finally, a biopic that tells the whole story of the iconic French chanteuse Edith Piaf's life.

There's a lot to get through too. Born Edith Gassion in Paris's destitute Belleville in 1915; as just a toddler she's taken from her mother and left in her Grandmother's brothel by a circus-performer father who's joined the army. Edith the child is befriended by the girls, then goes blind and then deaf in her formative years. Later, and recovered, she is on the road with her father when hints of her singing prowess appear. Back in Paris by eighteen she narrowly evades prostitution by singing on the street. Once spotted by Louis Leplee he sets her upon his nightclub stage and she's an underground hit as Le Piaf (obviously the nickname - a Paris colloquialism for sparrow - stuck). But her lush-life sees her almost slip away after his murder and it's her singing teacher and manager that ultimately leads the venerated Piaf to a global stage.

Olivier Dahan's unblinkered and brave modern realisation is a truthful examination of a real star - warts and all. Marion Cotillard (and Pauline Burlet too - who plays Edith aged 10) deserve extra special mention. Burlet seems to draw you into the screen as a young Edith, but it's Cotilard's performance that delivers so much power, emotion and depth at each turn. Excellent make-up changes for Piaf's late 30s and 40s and the film's episodic nature and time-jumps could dizzy the viewer. But Cotilard's brilliant performance means they're finessed. The episodic telling in the final cut suggests a longer DVD edit will be worthwhile (provided the cutting room floor was not too well swept!).

A qualified supporting cast, rich set design and decoration means for the best part of three hours you are totally immersed in Marion Cotilard's portrayal of Piaf's life.

La Vie En Rose Review