la vie en rose: edith piaf’s tragic tale
La Vie en Rose
(PG-13; 140 minutes; in French with English subtitles)
“I don’t get the Americans, and they don’t get me.” That’s how legendary French chanteuse Edith Piaf explained her not-so-hot reception when she toured the States in the late 1950s.
“La Vie en Rose,” named for Piaf’s most famous composition, won’t do much to change that. Although she was a beloved cultural icon in her homeland, Piaf (a stage name that means “sparrow”) remains an obscure pop music figure elsewhere.
Her life story isn’t that much different from many other tragic talents. She had a miserable, lonely, impoverished childhood, from which she escaped by singing for her supper and being discovered. She then plunged into the typical maelstrom of heavy drinking, hard drugs and sour romances.
But she had a magnificently distinctive voice, and it’s the real Piaf who fills the soundtrack of this tear-soaked bio-pic.
The main reason to see it — aside from curiosity about the Piaf phenomenon – is the performance of Marion Cotillard. This astonishing actress portrays the troubled star from her late teens until her final years — she died at 47 but according to the film she looked about 70 by then.
Cotillard’s impeccable impersonation captures Piaf’s waifish charm that deteriorated as she sunk into paranoia, depression and physical illness. Her lip-syncing is perfect, and she conveys the singer’s spritely but compulsive personality with unexpected power.
The conventions of the star-biography are observed faithfully here, but the central performance makes it stand out anyway. Cotillard might be in line for awards at the end of the year, and we give this film a B+.
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Tags: film, review
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