Weekend Flick Pick
The press blurb from the studio states: "The most astonishing immersion of one performer into the body and soul of another ever encountered on film". That's quite some claim, but on having seen the film I realise that this is not completely unjustified (mind you how about Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull, or Robert Downey, Jr, as Charlie Chaplin!)
Marion Cotillard dazzles as Edith Piaf, and one can only sit back in wonder as the film takes you on a whirlwind tour of high and low society, fame, drug addiction, illness and bereavement. There are scenes that are absolutely heart breaking. For example, the young Edith not wanted by her mother, is taken to live with her paternal grandmother - the madame of a brothel. Suffice to say, she saw things that a young child shouldn't really have to, which is quite shocking.
Edith's lovers were many, and the story of the real love of her life is one saddest scenes comitted to celuloid, but I'm not going to divulge this as I think you need to see for yourself.
One of the only slightly annoying things about the film was the way it jumped about. I'm not saying that I have a problem with films that have a different kind of narrative structure; it's just that there are times when you're not sure about the time frame of things happening (although the attention to historial detail is lovely and helps ground it a fair bit).
La Vie en Rose takes you back to a different world of the dance hall, bawdy coffee-house humour, endless glamour and running away with the circus; but the main themes were almost made for the current times. There are all too many artists today that seem afflicted with overburdening talent, addiction, illness and grief. Let's hope that their stories end a bit happier than Edith's and that they also experience the same moments of pure happiness.
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