La Vie en Rose 3 stars
Marion Cotillard, Gerard Depardieu, Jean-Pierre Martins
Directed by Olivier Dahan
Shows again June 14 at 12:30 p.m.
La Vie en Rose is a film for lovers.
Despite focusing on French singer Edith Piaf's tortured life, the biopic has a romantic heart.
Near the end of the movie, an interviewer asks Piaf, “Do you believe in prayer?”
The singer answers, “Yes, because I believe in love.”
La Vie en Rose—in French with English subtitles—traces the life of the tiny woman with the great lungs, from her days as a young child whose mother—a frustrated street singer—gave her up to her father, who was a circus contortionist.
He then left Edith with his mother, who was the madam of a brothel.
We see Edith evolve from a street singer who is discovered by a club owner (played by the redoubtable Depardieu) to her debut in a music hall.
Until the scene in the music hall, La Vie en Rose doesn't have much to recommend it.
The first portion of the film is conventional melodrama. We've seen it all before, and it is stagy and unreal. The smudges of dirt on urchins look like make-up. The style of the film in the first hour is disjointed and uninspiring.
But with Piaf's debut at the music hall, director Dahan starts to gain command and use his imagination.
The rest of the two-hour-and-20-minute film engages.
The part of the plot that most lifts the film is the love affair between Piaf and married French boxer and pig farmer Marcel Cerdan. She says he is “the love of my life.”
The latter part of the movie shows the decline of the feisty songbird. Alcohol and drugs take a brutal toll. Edith Piaf died in 1963 at age 47, but said through song that she had “no regrets.”
La Vie en Rose has two great assets. The first is the terrific performance by Cotillard as Edith Piaf from ages 20-47.
Cotillard brilliantly and hauntingly captures the essence of the tormented singer.
But as talented as Cotillard is, the magic in La Vie en Rose is the voice and spirit of Edith Piaf.
The majority of the singing comes from Edith Piaf herself.
It still is thrilling.
Getty Images