La vie en rose (2007)

Directed by: Olivier Dahan | 140 minutes | drama, music, biography | Actors: Marion Cotillard, Gérard Depardieu, Sylvie Testud, Pascal Greggory, Jean-Paul Rouve, Emmanuelle Seigner, Marc Barbé, Caroline Sihol, Catherine Allégret, Jean-Pierre Martins, Jil Aigrot, Paulina Bakarova, Dominique Bettenfeld, Elisabeth Commelin, Marie- Armelle Deguy, Pierre Derenne, David Fellowes, Harry Hadden-Paton, Lana Likic, Ryan McBay, Dominique Paturel, Nicholas Pritchard, Laura Stainkrycer, Diana Stewart, Vit Zavodsky

‘La vie en rose’ (or ‘La Môme’) depicts the life of Edith La Môme Piaf (not her actual surname, but a nickname: “the little sparrow”). A life that – although very passionate – was not exactly a bed of roses. Now in every biography one has to make selections, omit unimportant matters and magnify important events. However, Edith Piaf’s life turns out to be so rich in important events that director Dahan visibly struggles to get everything covered: time travel is terribly busy.

We initially travel alone from 1918 (when Piaf was a cute toddler) to 1959 (when she collapsed during a performance) and the story progresses fairly chronologically, but as the film progresses, different times become more and more intertwined. This is not so much confusing, but mainly annoying because it doesn’t give you the chance to fully empathize with Edith in all these moments in her life. However, this is the only flaw of the film.

First of all, the sets and the camera work have to be praised. That camerawork is varied but always appropriate: when people are drunk or hysterical, he whirls restlessly, in serious moments the camera keeps quiet and sometimes he dares to get so close to the skin that it hurts. The decors have been taken care of down to the last detail, whereby, for example, the images of the ‘original’ Piaf on record covers and in newspaper articles have been carefully replaced by those of Cotillard, who – with the aid of good make-up – forms a skilled look-a-like. Marion Cotillard (we know her from ‘Jeux d’enfants’, ‘Big Fish’ and ‘Un long dimanche de fiançailles’) is of course the star of the film as Edith. Cotillard knows how to convincingly portray La Piaf from her twentieth to her last breath of life. She is absolutely not afraid to look clumsy, ugly, hysterical or rheumatic. Edith Piaf wasn’t the most subtle, she fought her way up from street girl (just not yet a ‘slut from the slums’) to world star and this was accompanied by a lot of screaming, if we are to believe the film, from sadness and anger.

A recurring theme is that Edith’s loved ones (her mother, her father, her ‘foster mother’, her manager, her lover) disappear from her life without her being able to control them. But – that’s how the undoubtedly romanticized film version of her life wants it – thanks to her singing talent, she more or less always recovers. However, to get on top of that, La Môme – whose frail health is emphasized from the start – needs more and more morphine, she behaves downright insufferably and as a viewer you know that this cannot possibly go on much longer. ‘La vie en rose’ is bursting with beauty and feeling and does justice to the little grandiose Parisian legend. Although Dahan tries to put in too many different life moments, all these bits of Piaf on their own are interesting enough to keep the viewer interested, even those who have never heard her sing before.