La Vie en Rose
Neglected by her mother, a street singer in the seedy Paris district of Monmartre, and abandoned in a brothel by her circus performing father, Edith Piaf (played by Marion Cotillard) learned to grow up fast. She was blind for much of her childhood, but according to one account miraculously regained her sight during a pilgrimage honouring Sainte Thérèse de Lisieux, an event that the film portrays with the same realism as documented fact. Singing in the street one day, she was spotted by an impresario and soon became one of Europe’s best loved stars and a French icon. She was less than five feet tall, earning her the nickname ‘Little Sparrow’, and had a string of affairs with famous men such as the actor Yves Montand and middleweight boxing champion Marcel Cerdan. She drank till she could no longer stand, injected herself with morphine, contracted crippling arthritis and met an early death in her forties.
What a life, and one that director Olivier Dahan does not attempt to sweeten. In fact the “emotional journey” he takes us through is nothing short of tragic. Flitting dizzily between key events - stunning performances in 1940’s New York, a childhood characterised by loneliness and abuse, car crashes in California and the onset of liver cancer - Dahan’s approach is fragmented and disorienting, reflecting Piaf’s inner turmoil and public demise.
Because Piaf’s story is told in a non-chronological manner it’s not always easy to tell how certain characters relate to her. Are they patrons, lovers, friends? On the other hand, because we know about the build-up to Piaf’s death early on in the film, we gain a better understanding of why she turned out as she did. Pictures of Edith as a child, praying to Sainte Thérèse for comfort because her parents never show her love are juxtaposed with scenes of lonely, alcohol-fuelled despair in adulthood, as she struggles to give or accept true love.
However, in spite of Dahan’s attempts to find strands of meaning in Piaf’s life, many questions are left unanswered. Why are we never told about her marriage, or the child she bore aged 17 and then neglected, just as she had been? What about the help she gave the French resistance during the war? Surely her bravery made her all the more beloved. And what about the stream of men who came knocking on her door and were usually let in?
Marion Cotillard, who is better known for her role in the Taxi series, gives a fabulous performance as Edith, and comes very near to capturing the troubles singer’s self-destructive soul, both as a bright-eyed star and a physical and emotional cripple, her hunched frame testament to years of hurt that only her adoring audiences could assuage. Her big, expressive eyes are coquettish and defiant, but still manage to reveal Piaf’s fragility. She also synchronises her lips to Piaf’s chansons with great precision.
Cotillard is supported by the great and the good of French cinema, with Gérard Depardieu as Louis Laplee, the man who discovered her, Sylvie Testud as her best friend, Momone, and Emmanuelle Seigner as her ersatz mother in the brothel.
Though the film occasionally flags, La Vie en Rose is an impressive production, and is a must-see for Cotillard’s performance alone. Like Helen Mirren in The Queen, she not only acts her character, she becomes her.
May 7th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Definitely a must see for all fans of ‘the little sparrow’. For the rest of us, this is a compelling film for its passion, the rags-to-riches-and-back-to-rags again storyline and the soaring music. Personally, I thought the disjointed plot worked well, reflecting Piaf’s fractured existence. However, it does make the timeline of Piaf’s life rather difficult to follow. One moment she’s in a wheelchair, the next she’s a little girl again.