Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases

La Vie En Rose (2007)

Director: Olivier Dahan

Time Out rating

Average user rating

21 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

It's almost as if we don’t need a biopic of Edith Piaf; her life was a movie already. Born into poverty, she was discovered on the streets of ’30s Paris, singing for her supper, precipitating a remarkable rise to fame and fortune. All that was missing in her life was love, yet her romance with French boxing champion Marcel Cerdan was to be tragically short-lived. It was the making and the undoing of her: the pain somehow lent her singing an even greater emotional intensity, at the price of a punishing intake of drink and pills. She died in 1963 a mere husk of a woman, old beyond her 47 years.

String that lot together and you’ve got a showbiz story to rank with ‘A Star Is Born’ for sheer all-out melodrama. With puzzling perversity, however, that’s exactly what writer-director Dahan doesn’t do. Instead, he works his way through Piaf’s life like a pinball whizzing from bell to bumper. We get lots of fancy cuts and time transitions, but the through-line of the character at the centre of it all is only just visible. It’s a film which leaves you wanting more – a nice, straightforward TV documentary, perhaps – so that you can put the pieces of Piaf’s wildly excessive experiences back where they should be and discern just what made this woman tick.Maybe Dahan didn’t want to do the standard showbiz saga – another ‘Ray’ or ‘Walk the Line’, for instance. But is there really so much shame in a biopic which, you know, actually tells you about its subject? Of course, it is still possible to take a slightly off-track approach within the constraints of the sub-genre – the way Tim Burton’s perception of Ed Wood as an authentic artist, in his own mind at least, gives that celluloid life a singularly heroic comedy – though more often than not, studious artiness proves decidedly counter-productive. Admirers of Cole Porter probably still have nightmares about ‘De-Lovely’.

In ‘La Vie en Rose’, much creative energy seems to have been expended on figuring out how to tell the story in as flash a manner as possible, without quite marking out Piaf’s troubled essential self. Although leading lady Marion Cotillard’s rather taller than the super-mignonne four-foot-six Piaf, she deserves plaudits for her dedication to getting the physical mannerisms just so, although perhaps because the film never really gets under its subject’s skin that effort is also only too obvious. Yes, she sings ‘Je ne regrette rien’, and, yes, we cry. Yet the tears are for the song and the memory of a remarkable artist. They’re very little to do with this strenuously crafted yet ultimately bungled 140 minutes of celluloid.

Author: Trevor Johnston

Time Out London Issue 1922: June 20-26 2007

User reviews of this film

usman khawaja said...

Posted on Apr 21 2008 17:35 rightfully won 3 baftas

Report as inappropriate
usman khawaja said...

Posted on Apr 21 2008 17:34 THE FRENCH SPARROW -la mome
an extra ordinary woman brought to life in a really sharp biopic which makes ray and walk the line look like pedestrian fare .
emily coutilard gives an oscar worthy performance as the fragile and enigmatic edith piaf ,who rose from singing on the suburban streets of paris to become the greatest french singer of all times .
the script wonderfully captures every stage of her life in an ingeniously innovative manner with some of the best editing i have seen in recent times .
this covers her life from a child growing in her grandmothers brothel to her last moments as she breathes her last breath ,but even there you cant forget her immortal song like no regret which is showcased in the origonal soundtrach along with the rest of her haunting work in her own voice, as coutillard does a great job of lip synchorinising the legendary singer .
the movie details her love affairs and her sucesses as well as her shortcomings as a human being ,which make it bristle with a realistic dynamism i have yet to see in a movie for a long time .
reality and style combined with panache as only the french can do ,with great cameos by george depardieu as her early benefactor and jean baptiste daniels as the charismatic boxer marcel cedran ,but the same can be said for the awe-inspiring movie as well ,a delicately fragile account of a petit but an impossibly complex woman ,who is immortalised by her art.- jbz7879

Report as inappropriate
Sarah said...

Posted on Sep 29 2007 22:29 Amazing film. Beautifully shot, well paced and a mesmerizing performance from Cotillard. Her life is (of course, for a film!) slightly over-dramatized, but this really is a must see.

Report as inappropriate
Andrew Morrow said...

Posted on Sep 22 2007 07:01 This film was definitely not bungled. I would rate it as one of the best French films I have seen in recent years. Liked it so much I had to buy the DVD from French Amazon!

Report as inappropriate
filmbuff said...

Posted on Sep 17 2007 22:45 The film was dramatic and beeautifully acted but agreed with timeout that the flashbacks and forwards were disjointed and confusing. i had to go home and fill in the gaps with wikipedia for it to make more sense

Report as inappropriate
bobby said...

Posted on Sep 14 2007 19:03 Best film I have seen in 10 years. Picture, acting, movement, flow just brilliant. 10/10 this is a classic . This film makes you feel something its what cinema should be i loved it 100%. the timeout journo has no idea at all. Proves dont believe the hype, go and see it on the big screen and let the movie take you away!

Report as inappropriate
sharon z said...

Posted on Aug 03 2007 18:24 mezmerizing, haunting ,academy awards here we come. this film was by far the best biography i have
seen in alll my years of movie watching. ever aspect
was perfection. christopher gunnins sould trrack was
hauinting and fit perfectly into the story. i know i
will be watching the academy awads next year
and i say at least 2 orr three will go to this movie.
i really hope so because it deserves 10''''''''

Report as inappropriate
Jenny said...

Posted on Jul 26 2007 19:18 Ignore the time-out critic - this is a great film

Report as inappropriate
marianne said...

Posted on Jul 17 2007 01:43 i loved the spider shot. anyone remember that? aside from that shot, the film doesn't breathe. it's an overbloated, overzealous, over-self-concerned (is that a word!? what a word!?) film. I didn't even cry and Jost knows, it takese little violin for my movie tears (Killer of Sheep was last time I shed). Does anyone remembe3r '1492", another bloated biopic, this time about Columbus? Same producing team, if I ain't erring. ps: i couldn't stand "Amélie" either, nor "Walk the Line".

Report as inappropriate
Win Hornby said...

Posted on Jul 16 2007 14:00 The Time Out review is 'off beam' I think. 'Ultimately bungled'? The reviewer must have been at a different version of the film to the one I saw!This was , for me at least, the best film I have seen this year and I have seen a few. Marion Cotillard is outstanding as Piaf and if she does not get an Oscar for this performance then there is no justice. The much criticised flashbacks were not that hard to follow and as I viewed it each provided a proegrssion of both the early years and the later ones. It should not be asking too much of an audience to stay with time sequence other than a purely 'linear one' and if the reaction in the auditorium I attended at the end of the film is anything to go by the audience 'got it' very well. Ignore Time Out and go and see it for yourself! You will not be disappointed!

Report as inappropriate
T McMaster said...

Posted on Jul 09 2007 21:07 This is a must see movie, a truly wonderful cinematic experience. I'm going to see it again! The critics will be made to eat their words when Cotillard wins her Oscar!

Report as inappropriate
J Thornley said...

Posted on Jul 09 2007 15:31 The Time Out rating and comment sis complete rubbish! This was by far the best film I've seen in a long time, if not ever. In fact, I enjoyed it so much the first time, I went to see it twice and enjoyd it just as much. I am a big Piaf fan and I believe this film does justice to a remarkable woman. Cotillard is outstanding and the directing is perfect. If you haven't seen this film, it's an absolute must! It's the only time I've ever been to the cinema and felt like clapping at the end (and somebody actually did)! Amazing.

Report as inappropriate
J Cook said...

Posted on Jul 08 2007 10:58 Heard a lot of 'mixed' reviews from professional critics, but the reviews from members of the public here a lot more accurate: an exquisite film. Absolute silence in the auditorium at the end: noone could move after 'la fin'. Performances note-perfect, Cotillard extraordinary, and the non-linear narrative gives an incredibly vivid sense of Piaf's life. It MUST be seen.

Report as inappropriate
Cramps said...

Posted on Jul 05 2007 10:13 The resounding thumbs up are a reassurance and on the money - I can't get over how phenomenal Cotillard was; in contrast I found her characterisation strong and pervasive throughout. Best film I've seen in ages, had me gripped until the final, knock out end, sort it out johnston.

Report as inappropriate
E. Anderson said...

Posted on Jul 04 2007 15:01 I agree with the reviewer - too much jumping around. It's a good idea but it's not done very well. We never found out just who many of the characters around her were (were they her friends or were they just tagging along because of her success?) We never saw her evolve from child to teenager to cabaret singer to star and from then to her decline and death, and, as the reviewer says, we didn't find out really what made her tick. The film is too long and repetitive, though the beginning and end are good and of course the music is wonderful.

Report as inappropriate