La Vie en Rose

I am well known among friends and family at having, what I like to refer to, as cinematic dyslexia. Basically, I cannot follow movie plots, particularly those that deal with drug rings/crime/politics/the mob. Something else happens when I watch a movie, as well: I become deaf. When I watch a DVD, I have to have the subtitles running, much to the irritation of anyone who watches movies with me. As a result of all this, I'm not a big movie watcher. I prefer books - at least I can go back and re-read the bit I didn't quite follow. So, it's fairly rare that I will really love a film. My favourite, for quite some time now, has been Crash, but yesterday I watched a movie that took my breath away.

La Vie En Rose has the bonus of being in French - great for me, because of the subtitles - and is about the life of Edith Piaf. I once wrote a project in the third year of senior school about Edith Piaf, (we had to write about an important historical figure) so I already had an interest. Marion Cotillard, who plays Piaf in the film is utterly brilliant. She is totally believable when she plays Piaf at the height of her success as well as when liver cancer has almost finished her off. So many biopics tend to rely on makeup to do the work of convinving an audience that the character has aged, but with Cotillard this is definitely not the case. She stoops and shudders and croaks her way through the lines, rendering the deterioration of the french icon both heart wrenching and real. Her Oscar for Best Actress was entirely deserved.

I have never really warmed to Edith Piaf's style of singing - all that warbling leaves me a bit cold, but the performances in the movie of classics like 'Padam, Padam,' 'La Vie en Rose,' and the ubiquitous 'Je ne Regrette Rien,' are brilliant. I had to wonder whether they had lifted old recordings of Piaf and digitally cleaned them up for for the soundtrack, but apparently the songs were performed by singer Jil Aigrot. (check out her performances on You Tube) I hope she gets the recognition she deserves off the back of the movie, unlike the wonderful Marni Dixon who dubbed the singing for actresses in classic movies like 'My Fair Lady,' 'The King And I,' and 'West Side Story' and who is seriously under celebrated for her talent.

Cinematographically the film perfectly evokes France in the first fifty years of the twentieth century. The influence of the french new wave flavours the way the film has been shot, making it a pleasure to watch. 

Ultimately it is what it is: a biopic and, because of that, you know exactly how it is going to end. My only criticism would be that the performance of 'Je ne Regrette Rien' was dangled like a carrot on a stick throughout the movie, and finally came at the most predictable point, (Piaf's death) which made it all a bit cheesy.

However, even if you know nothing about Piaf's short, troubled life, it is well worth watching even if you just want to see a brilliant piece of method acting. The soundtrack is rather wonderful, too!