French singer Edith Piaf was known as the little Sparrow. Petite but powerful, Piaf’s unique voice carried her to unbelievable highs. Alcohol and drugs fueled the lows.
“La Vie En Rose” is as uneven and difficult to follow as the singer’s life. Though you won’t be bored, writer/director Olivier Dahan does bounce you all over the place as Piaf slips from one tragedy to another.
It’s the amazing work of Marion Cotillard that gives Dahan’s film its power and appeal. Five minutes into her performance and why she took home the Best Actress Oscar is obvious. Biopics are tough for an actor. To transform oneself body and soul into a legend is the hardest acting of all.
Cotillard makes it look easy.
Friday, March 28, 2008
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2 comments:
The film careers from one difficult sistuation to the next, never allowing you to feel too happy about the good times, because you know that in the next breath Piaf will be involved in some disaster. It's visually very dark as well, even murky. Your understanding of Piaf's life is no less murky because of the jumps forward and back in time and by what details were included and what not.
I was particularly struck by the parts of her life that the film did not address: The French Resistance, Yves Montand, and the stage performances that led to her success.
Also omitted were subtitles for the song lyrics. The last song was particularly poignant and although my French is good enough that I understood it, many in the audience did not.
Jane Giardino was kind enough to translate the last song:
No, nothing at all
No, I regret nothing at all
Neither the good done to me
Nor the bad – it’s all the same to me
No, nothing at all,
No I regret nothing at all
It’s paid for, swept away, forgotten
I don’t care about the past
With my memories I lit the fire
My chagrins, my pleasures
I no longer need them
I swept away my loves
with their drama ( ups and downs?)
Swept away forever
I go back to zero
No, nothing at all
No, I regret nothing at all
Neither the good done to me
Nor the bad – it’s all the same to me
No, nothing at all
No, I regret nothing at all
For my life
For my joys
Today
it begins with you!
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