Oscar Clean Up: La Vie en Rose

La Vie en Rose
Review By: Kelsey Zukowski
Starring: Marion Cotillard, Emmanuelle Seigner, Jean-Pierre Martins, Jean-Paul Rouve
Directed By: Olivier Dahan
Written By: Olivier Dahan, Isabelle Sobelman
Released: 2007
Grade: B+

La Vie en Rose is the biopic of the life of Edith Piaf. She was a French singer who lived from 1915-1963. Her birth name was actually Edith Giovanna Gassion, but her last name was changed to Piaf, meaning sparrow. She sung to deal with the many tragedies of her life with a strong voice which captured her audience. Piaf is one of the most famous and well respected French singers still today. La Vie en Rose was named after one of her most popular songs of the same title, which translates to “my life in pink”.

Music ran in Edith’s family as her mother was a singer herself. However, this didn’t offer her much security, love, or care. Edith’s mother sung on the streets, in hopes of getting donations. She would always leave Edith alone while she did this day after day. From the lack of care, Edith became very sickly. Her father (Rouve) finally decided that enough was enough and he took her to her grandmother’s house, who was hesitant but finally agreed to take her in. There, Edith became very close with two of the house hold workers, particularly one named Titine (Seigner). Titine became a mother to Edith and finally gave her the love that she needed. She still suffered there though. One incident caused inflammation of Edith’s eyes and for some time she was legally blind. The motherly love that Titine offers gets torn apart soon enough. Her father has been making his living for years in the circus and through street show acts. He decides to take Edith with him, saying that it will be good for her. This tears away the strongest bond Edith had through out those first 10 years of her life. There are no other kids there and Edith just tries to do what she can to make her father happy. Although, this doesn’t seem like the perfect place for a child, Edith is disappointed when her father thinks of leaving. Any level of security she has obtained is gone with that.

As Edith grows older she sings on the streets to try to make money just as her mother did. She doesn’t even get to keep most of this money for herself though. One day when she sings, she gets noticed by the right person. This gets her an audition and she immediately wows the judges. She starts working with a trainer, pianist, and a composer/song writer. This is kind of bitter sweet to her. She loves that she is getting a chance to pursue music, but she is not used to all of the formalities and constraints. She is working day in and day out and is forced to modify herself. When she does she becomes a national and eventually international sensation. At first many of the American reviews of her music are very negative. There is the one who speaks of her great abilities, which she lives up to.

Marion Cottilard does a magnificent job of representing the singing sensation, Edith Piaf. There are major difficulties in this as she shows huge instabilities. With her upbringing and her early childhood conditions it is no wonder that she had problems in her adult life. Getting out of poverty and in to the life of the rich and famous was enjoyable for her, but it didn’t fix everything in her life, it simply couldn’t. Emotionally and physically she was in very bad condition for a good part of her life. Being on that stage is the one thing that she had, that she knew that she could succeed at.

The many side plots of Edith’s personal life gets a bit sticky. She had an on going affair with the middle weight world champion of boxing, Marcel Cerdan (Martins). Going in to the relationship, Edith knew that he was married and had children. This did not make her hesitant at all though. They were very passionate for one another, but things became very rough when he left town and was with his family. One day when she had asked Marcel to come see her as she was missing him too much he got on a plane and never had another breath again. That plane crashed and Edith was in denial about this for awhile. In the film there is a very powerful scene that illustrates this. It shows Marcel coming to Edith. She is very compassionate to him and is so happy that she is there. This was really just part of her imagination as she realizes when she hears the news of his death. A certain amount of guilt goes along with this too as he was on that plane to see her and because she asked him to. She had depressive tendencies after this and began an addiction to drugs, which later worsened after an intense car crash.

Ironically enough, she had a daughter named Marcelle before she even met Marcel. Sadly enough, history repeated itself and she put her daughter in a similar position that her mother put her in. Edith had her when she was 17, before she had become a success. She would constantly leave her alone although she did attempt to raise her when she could. Her lack of care caught up to Marcelle when she died of Meningitis at the age of 2 years old. This really shows the poor economic state that many women in France were faced to deal with. If her child had lived, there is a great possibility that she would have had to face similar hardships that Edith did. This also shows that although, this was already embedded in society, there is no learning here. Edith could have made greater sacrifices to be there. Perhaps she couldn’t since she hadn’t had any sustained loving environment as a child.

One complaint I do have of the film is that Edith’s relationship between her child wasn’t touched on nearly as much as it could have been. Now, I know it is already a fairly long movie and summing up someone’s life even in this amount of time can be very difficult. However, without some background knowledge strong points in the film may not come across at all. The film is not in chronological order and is very back and forth between her life. Some things are touched upon more than others. This can be confusing and it really entails you to truly focus to get everything out of the film. It seems that the older Edith got, the more unstable she got. In the most vital times where she was completely torn up the one thing she always had was her music. Overall though, everything in La Vie in Rose is there for a good reason. It requires higher concentration than your average film, but it is well worth it.

There is one scene where she is pacing through her house in panic. As she continues to walk she ends up on stage. This is a underlying representation that the stage is her one true home. There are times when she is very sick, on the verge of passing out and injuring herself. She demands to go back on stage though no matter what. This is a determination that you have to admire no matter how insane it may seem at times. Aside from her beautiful and empowering voice, that extreme passion and endless sacrificing is why Edith Paif has been remembered with such admiration.