Even though I am familiar with Edith Piaf and have a couple of her recompilation Cd’s at home, I wasn’t very familiar with too many of her songs. However, it’s almost impossible not to have listened to La Vie en Rose –which is probably her better-known song- at least once and not to have been deeply touched by the French singer’s heartbreaking voice. Her style resembled her tragic life story and that’s why her specialty was the poignant ballad. The film chooses to focus in the tragic events of her life instead of the cultural icon she supposed for the French (she’s considered the greatest pop singer of the country of all times). La Vie en Rose is an effectively told biographical picture which doesn’t come close to the masterpieces of the genre but works mainly due to Marion Cotillard’s marvelous performance which has been praised by the critic and earned her an Academy Award.

The movie obviously tells the story of Edith Piaf (played by Manon Chevallier, Pauline Brulet and then Cotillard for most of the picture) starting with her harsh childhood years as an abandoned little girl and also going through her personality development during her early teen years and then through her destroying twenties. Actually the rest of Piaf’s life was a mess; she died being only 43 years old and as an alcoholic and drug-addicted yet magnificent singer. Edith was the daughter of an alcoholic wannabe singer (not surprising, huh?) and a circus actor who is, at the time the movie begins, serving for the army in World War I. She’s left to the care of her paternal grandmother but when her dad comes back home, she’s left in a brothel and builds a special bond with one of the prostitutes. She becomes a street singer and is soon discovered by a club owner (Gerard Depardieu), trained by a musician who makes her sing in concert halls and quickly popular. The film focuses on the tragedies of her life like here disturbed relationship with boxer Marcel Cerdan (Jean-Pierre Martins) and the loss of her only son to meningitis.

As I mentioned before, the main reason why the movie functions properly is the acting. The acting department leaded by Marion Cotillard (minor roles in Big Fish and Taxi) is excellent and although she overshadows every other actor every time she’s on-screen, the rest of the cast seems tailor-made for the other parts. Perhaps this has to do with most of the thespians being European and not easily recognizable for a more “Americanized” and “Hollywoodized” audience. Cotillard knows how to be irreverent and how to act in highly dramatic situations. She characterizes Piaf perfectly and is able to develop her personality almost by herself. The makeup department does nothing but help and add quality traits and realism to the film, it certainly deserved the Academy Award it got. Cotillard portrays the singer through more than twenty years and she manages to transform gradually through them. At times –especially by the end of the flick- we feel as if we were watching another performer. The rest of the cast is good too and are capable to play believable characters which are interesting for the audience. Gerard Depardieu though, makes a surprisingly short appearance which feels awkward and although the acting is fine, more like a cameo.

Director Olivier Dahan is sure-handed but decides not to take too many risks and isn’t very innovative in his style. There are some good scenes though, one being Piaf’s first performance in the music hall after enduring a hard training. Dahan chooses to film the singer from the back and uses the absence of sound to emphasize her feelings and sensations but especially, the audience’s. The real Edith Piaf only makes a couple of appearances in the film, in pictures from newspapers, but they’re shown at the perfect time and add something to the film. However, some of the takes are shot from too close and especially during a boxing sequence by the middle of the movie, are a little confusing causing the organization of it to look disordered. Fortunately Dahan achieved some very well-illuminated scenes which emphasize the singer’s facial expressions and body language.

The script isn’t brilliant but it certainly doesn’t present any major problems. Personally, when I go watch a bio-pic about someone who I admire or reckon is talented or important; I like to know how things really happened to him and how they affected their lives. This leads me to the recurrent use of a non-straightforward fashion of telling a movie. I like to think during a screening but I believe if a story is to be told in that way, it actually has to make it better and not just distracting in a failed attempt to make it look more intellectual. The latter situations could easily be applied to La Vie en Rose. Don’t get me wrong, the story isn’t dumb at all and the dialogues are good but I believe that if things had been explained just normally we would’ve identified more with the character and got to understand it much better. The twist at the end is OK and fairly unpredictable but again, why didn’t they let us know from before? The film’s pacing is all-right but they could have definitely made it much shorter, it took forever to end.

Edith Piaf was a great singer and apparently La Vie en Rose is a faithful homage to her life. The movie isn’t perfect but is better than the average of its ilk. Direction provides nothing really outstanding but it mustn’t be easy to film a period piece, the script would’ve been better if told straightforward but is nevertheless effective and the acting… The acting by Marion Cotillard is simply put, amazing, as I said before she develops her character almost by herself. Photography is fine and the soundtrack, which is packed with Piaf’s known and unknown songs, is use at the appropriate times. The movie is definitely unavoidable for fans of the French pop singer.

© Mauricio Kahn

Lima, Mar 2008

BACK