La Vie En Rose [DVD]

I really enjoyed this film on Edith Piaf and the story of her life left nothing to the imagination, it was told so truthfully, warts and all, I would recommend it!

Astonishing performance by Marion Cotillard!

This is a wonderful French biographical musical film about the life of French singer Édith Piaf. Spoken in French throughout, the DVD has very accurate subtitles and is easy to follow for non-French speakers. Lead actress Marion Cotillard won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance - she thoroughly deserved it.Cotillard gives the performance of a lifetime to intriguingly portray the famous French singer. Covering many decades, the film depicts Cotillard representing a women of considerably different ages, from a teenager right up to the forty seven years that Piaf died at. However, as Piaf was so ill, Cotillard actually was made up to look at least twenty years older than this. It was a stunning achievement from the make-up team to recreate Cotillard to look as old as this, and she showed her full range as an actress - she is utterly convincing portraying the singer at every age.Cotillard's overall performance is astounding. She brings so much emotion and realism to the part that you cannot help but believe she is Piaf. Her portrayal of Piaf's stage fright, raw sense of humour, vulnerability and energetic singing is breathtaking - and the constant manic use of her deep, dark wide eyes is totally convincing. And, her anguished reaction to the death of Marcel in an airplane crash is incredibly emotive and realistic. It is unlikely that any other actress could have matched the ferocity and intensity delivered by Cotillard.The film charts the course of the life of Piaf, starting as a child, drifting into prostitution, and her starting to sing. Her father had abandoned her early in her life, but he returns to enter her into the world of show business, all-be-it accidentally as she gives an impromptu rendition of "La Marseillaise" on a street corner, and continues singing - eventually being noticed by a nightclub owner, and her career develops from there. As her life progresses she has alcohol and morphine addiction problems, as well as arthritis, which decimate her physical and mental state.One potential weakness in the film is the continual jumping backwards and forwards in time, showing Piaf in old age, and going back to the past to unfold key events. Although it worked well at times, the director Olivier Dahan may have over-reached himself by time-traveling too often. At times, the flow and momentum of the film was interrupted and disjointed. This non-linear technique was applauded by many of the critics, but for me it was too much.Overall, Cotillard's performance masks any flaws in the movie. It ends with Piaf dramatically performing "Non, je ne regrette rien" at the Olympia - a spine-tingling finale to a champagne performance.

If there are lots of reviews on here saying Marion Cotillard is amazing as Edith Piaf, there's a reason - she is. Her performance here is totally amazing and utterly mesmerizing. So many films these days (especially Hollywood ones) are over-hyped, and filled with good looking puppets - 2-dimensional 'actors' chosen for their looks rather than acting skills. Marion Cotillard is a glimpse back into a more golden film age where people could actually act - really act - and even on these terms she knocks the socks off many golden greats. She really does inhabit the part of Piaf.There's a totally bizarre review earlier on here saying she was miscast and didn't act...it has to be one of the most ill-judged things I've ever read on here. Even one of Edith Piaf's closest friends, Ginou Richer, who is still alive and sat in on the recording of the final scene at 'Olympia', paid tribute to Cotillard (in an interview in the Guardian newspaper), saying:"Marion has it exactly, the way she walks, talks, her way of laughing. The hardest part for her was lip-synching the songs, but really, you'd say it was Edith singing." That's some tribute coming from someone who lived as a companion with Edith for 15 years.The same earlier reviewer got it wrong on the songs too - most of the Piaf songs in the film are real Piaf vocal performances, re-mastered for the film.The film itself isn't the greatest scenario/synopsis of Piaf's life - it misses a lot of the complexities of Piaf's life, and several of her key relationships - such as with Yves Montand - are overlooked. The director apparently did this deliberately, because he wanted to concentrate on Piaf's life as a woman vis-à-vis her art. To a certain extent he does succeed, even if he does out-Hollywood Hollywood in the process. I also agree with one previous reviewer who says that the immense adoration felt for Piaf in France is not shown or contextualised. Anyone unfamiliar with Piaf's life story might be forgiven for thinking she was just a famous singer. She wasn't - she was, and still is, an absolute icon in France. The crowds for her burial in Père Lachaise brought Paris to a standstill. But these omissions don't necessarily detract from the film's power, which lies totally with the quality of the acting and the visual cinematography.I have to say that the scene where Edith looses her true love, Marcel Cerdan, will stay with me for ever.PS2 DVDs in box - the second one containing 7 deleted scenes, a look at how Marion Cotillard transformed herself into Edith Piaf, and a feature on Edith Piaf.

Used to improve my French