In between this summer’s blockbusters there seems to be a continuous flow of fantastic French film in the cinema as well. (Go see Not Here To Be Loved and Tell No One if you haven’t done so already). La Vie En Rose is probably the best of them until now.
It’s about the life of Edith Piaf, and get your kleenex ready if you are going to see it. She has had an incredibly tragic life with many dramatic events, but it is never shown in a too overdramatized way. Her songs accompany the different stages in her life in a fantastic way. She loses or gets separated from nearly all people that ever mean something to her, but she manages to fight herself through every downfall.
When she gets interviewed in the film at an older age and gets asked what she would recommend to every woman, she answers “love”. Not that she has experienced a lot of love in her life, she grows up without her parents, and the only man she ever truly loves is married and dies in a plane crash on his way to her.
She dies at a relatively young age of 47 of cancer. When she at her final concert sings Non, je ne regrette rien (No I regret nothing) barely able to walk, there is no way you keep it dry.
Marion Cotillard gives an incredible (Oscar worthy if you ask me) performance in this film, she plays Edith Piaf from young woman until her dying day. Gérard Depardieu plays a small but notable part as the man who discovers her and gets her off the street.
I left the cinema with a very numb feeling, I love it when a film can do that. 10/10. Go see it. Really.
You won’t Regret it.
I saw the trailer and thought it looked good. I know we can’t get it at our Hall as they want to rent it out for a min of three days and there’s no way we’d sell out for more than one day with a foreign film.
The cinema I was in (Fulham) was pretty busy, and that was a Sunday afternoon. But I can imagine that it would be harder to fill up outside of London.
It’s a shame, but it will be out on DVD at some point.
If you like the song, see what Wende did with it.
I have to wait till 1 August to see this – it is playing at the library theatre for about 4 days.