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La Vie En Rose (2007)

Director: Olivier Dahan

Time Out rating

Average user rating

22 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 2007-06-18 16:37:49

Time Out London Issue 1922: June 20-26 2007

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User reviews of this film

IAN SMITH said...

Posted on Jul 03 2007 11:43 What planet is this reviewer living on? Get back down to Cannes and smooze it up with the filmies who don't know a good film when it bites them on the derriere.
If I had gone by the Time Out rating I would have missed a very enjoyable time. Art or phart, give this critic guy a holiday in Normandie away from his precious opinions.Un onion est un onion. Ca Va?

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tom said...

Posted on Jul 02 2007 01:10 The people watching the this film at the theater applauded when it finished. I was that good. It did skip around her life and you had to pay attention.
The acting was first rate and the songs were fantastic.
This is the best film of 2007.

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Jake said...

Posted on Jun 30 2007 20:27 I couldn't agree more with Barry's comments (above). The Time Out rating of 2 is very conservative. The rating below is more reflective of the film.
Story: 5 stars
Acting: 5 stars
Direction: 5 stars
Visuals: 3 stars
Overall: 4.5 stars (well 5 stars almost)
The film ended with everyone in the cinema still in their seats (begging for more of Edith Piaf). Good film. Money well spent!

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Barry said...

Posted on Jun 30 2007 19:01 I'm surprised at the Time Out rating of 2 stars. I give the film 5 stars. The acting, production, use of flashbacks, the music (of course) and the moving drama of this film make this the best film I've seen for quite a while. At first I was disappointed to see subtitles but these were translation of only the essentials of the French dialogue - summarised, so not demanding too much attention. This worked well and was necessary, as the words of the songs had to be in French and, so the dialogue needed to match. Anyone with the slightest interest about Edith Piaf should see this film. And so should many others! The biography of a real, talented character.

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John said...

Posted on Jun 29 2007 12:51 For someone who knew next to nothing about Piaf, and only a couple of her songs, this film was wonderful. The flashbacks were well made and timed, and followed the themes of her life, and her desire for love. It didn't varnish or celebrate her failings. Brilliant acting by the adult and child Piaf, several beautiful scenes. Wonderful. The best film of 2007.

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David Loveday said...

Posted on Jun 29 2007 10:21 If you had viewed this film knowing little of the Piaf legend you might find the multiple flashbacks and the missing war years left you feeling the film was disjointed or incomplete. But flashback is just how we recall our loved ones, and Piaf fans will be entranced by the sense of time and place and the strong central performance.

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Dave L said...

Posted on Jun 28 2007 09:53 Stunningly realised biopic of a troubled life. A bit overdone at times and rather overlong, but the film seeks to make a serious attempt at telling the tragedy. Far better than much of the bland rubbish currently on offer.

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