LA VIE EN ROSE

France, 2007, 140 minutes, Colour.
Marion Cotillard, Sylvie Testud, Pascal Greggory, Emmanuelle Seigner, Jean- Paul Rouve, Gerard Depardieu, Jean- Pierre Martins, Catherine Allegret.
Directed by Olivier Dahan.

La Vie en Rose and Je Ne Regrette Rien are two of the 20th centuries most popular songs, made famous by chanteuse, Edith Piaf.

There was a film biography of Piaf, with that title, in the 1970s. Now there is a full scale biopic which opened the 2007 Berlin Film Festival and has broken box-office records in France. Piaf is a French national figure. Her life illustrates very powerfully the rags to riches archetypal story. It also illustrates that fame is not the be all and end all of life.

The film is worth seeing for Marion Cotillard’s Oscar-winning performance as Piaf. It is far more than an impersonation (though she looks and moves like Piaf). Rather, she has entered into the psyche of Piaf, a strange psyche indeed, and brought her to life again. Marion Cotillard appeared in Big Fish and A Good Year and one would not have anticipated such a tour-de-force from her.

However, while audiences will enjoy the film very much, it has a great drawback in its structure. The idea of running two phases of Piaf’s life in parallel is quite a good idea. However, the way it is done here is often confusing (to say the least). We are following, in linear fashion, Piaf’s early life and struggles. At the same time, we have moved to her final years, from 1959 to 1963 when she died. The main difficulty is that within this period we move backwards and forwards, which seems unnecessary and is not a particularly illuminating device.

Having noted that, we can sit back and take in and enjoy what’s there.

Edith Piaf did not have an easy life when she was young. Her mother wanted to be a singer and took her daughter on to the streets busking. Her father was away at the war. When he mother abandoned her, she found herself in a brothel. The writer-director, Olivier Dahan, creates a sympathetic fictitious character, played well by Emmanuelle Seigner, a prostitute who acts as a mother-figure to the little girl before she is taken back by her father. As she grows up, Edith sings in the streets, accompanied by her drinking friend that she relies on (Sylvie Testud) – and they both can drink, and more.

Spotted by a cabaret owner (it is the mid-1930s by this) (Gerard Depardieu), she is hired and, despite initial nerves, is a great success and becomes the toast of Paris. However, her past is always there to dog her. The owner is murdered in a gangster feud and her name is tarnished. This only makes her stronger and, with records and performances, and the stern tuition of poet and songwriter, Raymond Asso, she never looks back.

It is surprising to find how, after the war, she spent so much time in the United States, performing, falling in love with a Moroccan boxer, marrying, developing a more autocratic manner, playing the star, roughriding over managers and assistants until a collapse in 1959 which led to her semi-retirement despite an intense desire to perform. It was at this time that Je Ne Regrette Rien was written for her. She saw it as a summary of her life.

This is a very classy biopic with some fine performances and a mesmerising turn by Marion Cotillard. At the end, we feel that we have really learned something about Edith Piaf, her personality and her times.

1.Edith Piaf as a singer, a French icon, a celebrity? The film as biography, portrait, tribute?

2.Audience knowledge of Piaf, impact in France, around the world? The portrait of Piaf in different periods of French history – and in the United States?

3.The picture of France, 1918, the 1930s, the 1940s, 50s, 60s? The contrast with the world of New York, especially in the 1940s and the post-war period? California in the 1950s, the desert? Residences in America and her illness in the 1950s and 60s?

4.The importance of the musical score, the moods, Piaf’s songs, the lyrics, the melodies, the composers and their contribution? Her style? The points of insertion of each of the songs in the film?

5.The title, La Mome, La Vie En Rose, her nickname as The Sparrow and Louis Leplee naming her Piaf? His inventing her performing personality? Her believing this? Her being transformed – and the status she had reached after World War Two? In the United States? The reviews, the praise – and Marlene Dietrich’s visit to her?

6.The structure of the film, opening in the 1950s with her illness, moving back to 1918? The effect of the screenplay going back and forth? Clarity and confusion? The effect? Each segment commenting on the other? A jigsaw, piecing together the story and portrait of Piaf?

7.Her childhood, her relationship with her mother, her mother singing on the streets, the people criticising her, her father at the war, her mother and her ambitions, going to Turkey, the father returning, her staying with her father’s mother, his return and taking her to the brothel? The details of her life there, Louise and her ruling the roost? Titine and her friendship, surrogate mother, Edith being loved, the difficulties, the clients and the behaviour, the effect of the illness on her eyes, blind, the months passing, her being healed? Her father taking her away, Titiane and her being upset, going to the circus, performances, leaving the circus, her father doing acrobatics in the street, getting her to sing the Marseillaise, people’s acclaim, giving money?

8.Piaf’s Catholicism, the importance of Saint Therese, her constant prayer, devotion? Throughout her life?

9.The 1930s, her friendship with Momone, drinking together, the drugs, on the street, the pimp, giving their money to him, her singing in the street, the police stopping her – but letting her sing his favourite song? Leplee watching, giving her the audition, her nerves, the first night, having to give the money to Albert, her success, acclaim, the entrepreneur’s listening, the radio broadcasts, the musical, Raymond Asso, his admiration, training her, challenging her? Her dismissing him? His later return and admiration?

10.Leplee, Gerard Depardieu, his type, listening to her on the street, his restaurant, the club, the contrast with the places where the pimp took her and the singing? The high-class clientele? Her singing? His death? The investigation and the police?

11.The passing over of the war years? Her post-war career? The United States? The dinner, the discussions, the seeming rejection, the favourable review, her concerts, Marlene Dietrich coming to see her? The encounter with Marcel, the pastrami sandwiches, the restaurant, the affair, the detailed sequence of his fight? The roses strewn along the corridor? Her devotion to Marcel, the phone calls, her acknowledgement about his love for wife and family? Her celebration, her moods? Marcel’s death and her inability to accept it? The soldier coming with his song and her accepting it?

12.California, 1955, the outdoors, the group, her manager, her assistants? The falling out with Momone?

13.1959, her singing, the collapses, seeing this twice, her going to hospital? The introduction of the song ‘Je Ne Regrette Rien’?

14.Louis Barrier and his managing? The problems? Piaf’s tantrums? The friendship with the composer, the drug-taking, the assistant and her support? Piaf and her entourage?

15.The illness, Simone nursing her, her praying on her knees? Disabled?

16.The flashbacks with the interview on the beach, the journalist and her questions, the revelation of Piaf’s life, attitudes?

17.A life, its effect, a celebrity, her image, the reality?