La Vie en Rose / Ma Mome

Dir: Olivier Dahan (Crimson Rivers 2, Ghost River)
Cast: Marion Cotillard, Sylvie Testud, Pascal Greggory, Jean-Pierre Martins
France/UK/Czech Republic, 2007

Seen: February 5, 2008 on Rogers Direct

Reason to see: The clip shown at the Golden Globes captivated me

I went into seeing this film knowing almost nothing about the life story of Edith Piaf on which it is based, and I think you can get a lot from it without foreknowledge of her life. The strongest element of the film is the performance by Marion Cotillard, whom shows such a range of acting skills it's hard to believe it was all one person. There has been many music biopics in the past few years and it is understandable considering what interesting, although hard, lives that they tend to lead and this film is no different. Having talent by the bucketload, but not necessary luck we watch with hearts on our sleeves and fingers crossed as the film plays though. A fascinating portrait of a phenomenal woman.

My one reservation was that the songs were not subtitled, and my French is nowhere near being able to understand them. I'm sure they were picked to be played at poignant moments, but the meanings had to be conveyed by intuition rather than understanding so that was a bit of a challenge.

Shannon's Overall View:
I enjoyed it
I'd watch it again (especially if there were subtitles during the songs!)
I'd recommend it to music fans

Return to Film Reviews

© Shannon Ridler, 2008