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La Vie en rose (film)
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Wikipedia article
{{Infobox film
| name = La Vie en Rose
| image = La Vie en Rose poster.png
| alt =
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| director = Olivier Dahan
| producer = Alain Goldman
| writer = Isabelle Sobelman
Olivier Dahan
| starring =
| music = Christopher Gunning
| cinematography = Tetsuo Nagata
| editing = Richard Marizy
| studio =
| distributor =
| released =
| runtime = 140 minutes
| country =
| language =
| budget = $25 million
| gross = $86.3 million
}}
'La Vie en Rose' (literally 'Life in pink', ;A literal translation of "'La Vie en Rose'" is "'Life in Pink'", a figurative reference to rose-colored glasses. )'La Mme' refers to Piaf's nickname "La Mme Piaf" (meaning "baby sparrow, birdie, little sparrow") is a 2007 biographical musical film about the life of French singer dith Piaf. The film was co-written and directed by Olivier Dahan, and stars Marion Cotillard as Piaf. The UK and US title 'La Vie en Rose' comes from Piaf's signature song. The film is an international co-production between France, Czech Republic, and the United Kingdom.
Cotillard's performance received critical acclaim and earned her several awards including the Academy Award for Best Actress the first time an Oscar had been given for a French-language role the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and the Csar Award for Best Actress. The film also won the Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, the BAFTA Award for Best Makeup, BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design, BAFTA Award for Best Film Music, and four additional Csar Awards. The film grossed $86.3 million worldwide.
Plot
The film is structured as a largely non-linear series of key events from the life of dith Piaf. The audience ultimately learns that the events from the film are flashbacks from within dith's own memory as she dies. The film begins with elements from her childhood, and at the end with the events prior to and surrounding her death, poignantly juxtaposed by a performance of her song, "Non, je ne regrette rien" (No, I do not Regret Anything).
Beginning in 1918, young dith suffers a chaotic childhood and is eventually sent to live with her paternal-grandmother, who runs a brothel in Normandy. dith witnesses the brutal business of prostitution. When she suffers an episode of keratitis-induced blindness, a kind sex worker named Titine tenderly cares for dith.
dith's World War I veteran father collects her to accompany him while he works as a circus acrobat. One night, dith sees a vision of St Thrse in a fire eater's flames. St Thrse says she will always be with ditha belief that she carries for the rest of her life. When dith is nine years old, her father leaves the circus and performs on the streets of Paris. During a lackluster performance, a passerby asks if dith is part of the show. She spontaneously sings "La Marseillaise" with raw emotion, mesmerizing the street crowd.
Years later, nightclub owner Louis Leple hires dith to sing at his club and gives her the stage surname of Piaf, a colloquialism for sparrow that is inspired by her diminutive height of only 1.47m (4ft 8in). However, Leple is soon shot dead and the police suspect it's due to dith's connections to the mafia. When she next attempts a show at a cabaret, she is jeered off the stage by a hostile crowd. Things go from bad to worse when her best friend, Mmone, is forcibly taken to a convent. Desperate, dith turns to Raymond Asso, a songwriter and accompanist. Through harsh means, he enlivens her stage presence with hand gestures, better enunciation, and other lessons.
dith's career progresses and she achieves fame. While performing in New York City, dith meets Marcel Cerdan, a fellow French national and a middleweight boxer competing for the World Champion title. Despite him being married, dith believes she's falling in love with Marcel. An affair ensues and, while it's supposedly a secret, "La Vie En Rose" is played for Marcel wherever he goes. dith persuades Marcel to fly from Paris to join her in New York, and he wakes her up in her bedroom with a kiss. She goes to get coffee and is informed by her entourage that Marcel was killed when his plane crashed. dith hysterically searches for the his ghost.
The narrative bookends scenes from dith's middle life with repeated vignettes. One set of memories shows dith with short curly hair, singing on stage and collapsing. She develops arthritis, as well as a severe morphine addiction. Her husband, Jacques Pills, persuades her to enter drug rehabilitation, and she travels to California with him. A now-sober but manic dith drives around in a convertible while joking and teasing her compatriots. She drives into a Joshua tree, but the hilarity continues as dith gets out and pretends to hitchhike.
Years later, an aged dith is now frail and hunched. She squabbles with her entourage about whether or not she will be able to perform at the Olympia. Charles Dumont and Michel Vaucaire offer her the composition, "Non, je ne regrette rien, which she loves and announces that she will perform it.
Prior to what turns out to be her last performance, dith asks for the cross necklace that she always wears and her staff rush away to get it. She sits in quiet solitude and experiences memories of her past. After dith puts on the retrieved cross and shuffles out onto the stage, more flashbacks are shown as she sings. dith relives a sunny day on a beach while knitting. She answers an interviewers questions, during which she repeatedly encourages others to "Love."
dith's hard living and cancer has caused her to waste away at the age of 47. As she is tucked into bed, a subtitle reveals this is her last day alive. She is afraid and experiences a disjointed series of memories of small, yet defining moments her mother commenting on her "wild eyes", her father giving her a doll, and thoughts of her own dead child, Marcelle. In a flashback, dith performs "'Non, je ne regrette rien'" at the Olympia.
Cast
* Marion Cotillard as dith Piaf
* Sylvie Testud as Simone "Mmone" Berteaut
* Pascal Greggory as Louis Barrier
* Emmanuelle Seigner as Titine
* Jean-Paul Rouve as Louis Alphonse Gassion
* Grard Depardieu as Louis Leple
* Clotilde Courau as Annetta Gassion
* Jean-Pierre Martins as Marcel Cerdan
* Catherine Allgret as Louise Gassion
* Marc Barb as Raymond Asso
* Marie-Armelle Deguy as Marguerite Monnot
* Caroline Raynaud as Ginou
* Denis Mnochet as Journalist in Orly
* Pavlna Nmcov as American journalist
* Harry Hadden-Paton as Doug Davis
* Caroline Sihol as Marlene Dietrich
* Pauline Burlet as a young dith Piaf
* Farida Amrouche as Emma Sad Ben Mohamed
Production
Cotillard was chosen by director Olivier Dahan to portray the French singer dith Piaf in the biopic 'La Vie en Rose' before he had even met her, saying that he noticed a similarity between Piaf's and Cotillard's eyes. Producer Alain Goldman accepted and defended the choice even though distributors TF1 reduced the money they gave to finance the film thinking Cotillard wasn't "bankable" enough an actress.
Four songs were entirely performed by "Parigote" singer Jil Aigrot: "Mon Homme" '(My Man)', "Les Mmes de la Cloche" '(The kids of the bell)', "Mon Lgionnaire" '(My legionnaire)', "Les Hiboux" '(Owls)' as well as the third verse and chorus of "L'Accordoniste" '(The accordionist)' and the first chorus of "Padam, padam...". Only parts of these last two songs were sung because they were sung while Piaf/Cotillard was fatigued and collapsed on stage. Apart from that, "La Marseillaise" is performed by child singer Cassandre Berger (lip-synched by Pauline Burlet, who plays the young dith in the film), and Mistinguett's "Mon Homme" '(My Man)' and "Il m'a vue nue" '(He saw me naked)' (sung in part by Emmanuelle Seigner) also appear. Recordings of Piaf are also used.
The film premiered at the 57th Berlin International Film Festival.
Reception
Box office
In theaters, the film grossed US$86,274,793 worldwide $10,301,706 in the United States and Canada and $75,973,087 elsewhere in the world. In Francophone countries including France, Algeria, Monaco, Morocco and Tunisia, the film grossed a total of $42,651,334.The film became the third-highest-grossing French-language film in the United States since 1980 (behind 'Amlie' and 'Brotherhood of the Wolf').
Critical response
's portrayal of dith Piaf garnered universal acclaim, winning her the Academy Award for Best Actress.|281x281pxThe film received positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an approval rating of 74% based on 152 reviews, with an average rating of 6.89/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The set design and cinematography are impressive, but the real achievement of 'La Vie en Rose' is Marion Cotillard's mesmerizing, wholly convincing performance as Edith Piaf." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 66 out of 100 based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Cotillard received widespread critical acclaim for her performance, with many critics citing it as the best performance of the year and one of the greatest acting performances of all time. A. O. Scott of 'The New York Times', while unimpressed with the film itself, said "it is hard not to admire Ms. Cotillard for the discipline and ferocity she brings to the role.""[https://movies.nytimes.com/2007/06/08/movies/08vie.html La Vie en rose: A French Songbirds Life, in Chronological Disorder]". 'The New York Times'. 8 June 2007. Retrieved 27 February 2008. Carino Chocano of the 'Los Angeles Times' opined that "Marion Cotillard is astonishing as the troubled singer in a technically virtuosic and emotionally resonant performance..." Richard Nilsen from 'Arizona Republic' was even more enthusiastic, writing "don't bother voting. Just give the Oscar to Marion Cotillard now. As the chanteuse dith Piaf in 'La Vie en rose', her acting is the most astonishing I've seen in years."
Critic Mark Kermode of 'The Observer' was less keen; while he felt there was much to applaud, there was also "plenty to regret".A pun on Piaf's 'Non, je ne regrette rien' (I don't regret anything). Kermode agreed that the source material provided "heady inspiration", and that Cotillard plays everything with "kamikaze-style intensity", but thought the film lacking in structure and narrative, creating "an oddly empty experience".
Accolades
Notes
References
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