La Vie En Rose
Biopic of the lengendary French chanteuse Edith Piaf - covering the entirety of her tragic life from rural France to urban New York, from the 1920s to the 1960s - played by Marion Cotillard in an Academy Award-winning role.
Opening with her distressing last performance, where she collapses on stage, director Olivier Dahan backtracks to Piaf’s childhood in the muddy ruin of wartime Belleville. A virtual orphan, young Edith is discarded by her mother, taken in by prostitutes and then reclaimed by a father who 'discovers' her talent when she's forced to sing for their supper. Before long, she’s picked up by a nightclub owner (Depardieu) and soon becomes a revered, international performer, albeit one whose success was tempered by a lifelong battle with drugs.
Reviews & comments
Tragic life!
Nicely done biopic with flaws
A well-intentioned biography of the mercurial Edith Piaf, with a superb lead performance by Cotilliard, but it falls short of any real insight into the woman herself having been distracted by the actions around her most of the time. The music is great and recreated well, and Depardieu makes a short but telling cameo.
Heavy going
Ok, so everyone is frothing at the mouth for this movie and especially the outstanding performance of Madame Marion Cotillard. I expected to be blown away and to come out inspired by the beauty of Piaf's music while being moved by the tragedy that she overcame. But life isn't always like that. Without getting into the details too much, Piaf's early...
compelling tragic story
my preference in movies such as this is a chronological and easy to follow story, so the flicking back and forward in time was irritating, but that was soon absorbed in this compelling and tragic story. The costumes, make-up and the acting by Marion Cotillard can only be described as outstanding despite the distraction of the english sub-titles. I was so...
The soul of Paris..
This story of one of the worlds best known and lasting voices is captivating, well acted and put to gether. A little confusing in the way it bounces from one time of life to another and back, a little disturbing to see the life of such achievement and such suffering, but never-the-less an astonishing story.
Christchurch Press
pressRather than focusing on a specific time period, Dahan tries to cover her whole life, which while understandable given the level of incident in it, does lend the film an unfortunate, episodic quality.
That's also not helped by Dahan's non-linear construction which has the film flitting back and forth in time, leaving the viewer often playing catch-up.
Such annoyances aside, La Vie is a fascinating look at one of the world's most feted and ill-fated singers...
Christchurch Press
pressRather than focusing on a specific time period, Dahan tries to cover her whole life, which while understandable given the level of incident in it, does lend the film an unfortunate, episodic quality.
That's also not helped by Dahan's non-linear construction which has the film flitting back and forth in time, leaving the viewer often playing catch-up.
Such annoyances aside, La Vie is a fascinating look at one of the world's most feted and ill-fated singers...
Tragic life!
Nicely done biopic with flaws
A well-intentioned biography of the mercurial Edith Piaf, with a superb lead performance by Cotilliard, but it falls short of any real insight into the woman herself having been distracted by the actions around her most of the time. The music is great and recreated well, and Depardieu makes a short but telling cameo.
Heavy going
Ok, so everyone is frothing at the mouth for this movie and especially the outstanding performance of Madame Marion Cotillard. I expected to be blown away and to come out inspired by the beauty of Piaf's music while being moved by the tragedy that she overcame. But life isn't always like that. Without getting into the details too much, Piaf's early...
compelling tragic story
my preference in movies such as this is a chronological and easy to follow story, so the flicking back and forward in time was irritating, but that was soon absorbed in this compelling and tragic story. The costumes, make-up and the acting by Marion Cotillard can only be described as outstanding despite the distraction of the english sub-titles. I was...
The soul of Paris..
This story of one of the worlds best known and lasting voices is captivating, well acted and put to gether. A little confusing in the way it bounces from one time of life to another and back, a little disturbing to see the life of such achievement and such suffering, but never-the-less an astonishing story.
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