La Vie En Rose is sure to make serious money at the Australian box office - it is incredibly entertaining and of course, French. Olivier Dahan's biopic explores the life of Edith Piaf, the extraordinarily talented French singer who began on the streets, and ended as an international icon. Although a French film, it could easily be mistaken as a Hollywood biopic not that dissimilar to Ray, Taylor Hackford's 2004 birth-to-earth film on Ray Charles, though La Vie En Rose isn't always sequential. We see the ending first, and throughout the film it flashes backwards and forwards to, I image, contextualise events and keep the viewer engaged. This technique bothered me, not because it seemed unnecessary but because it would have been equally powerful as a more straight-forward retelling; there are enough ups and downs in Piaf's life to engage without the tricks. Marion Cotillard is absolutely stunning in this role. It is one of the great recent performances - every part of her is Edith Piaf from her exceptional stage work to the more subtle, sometimes more theatrical home life. Everything that makes this film fantastic is because of her revelatory, career-defining performance. She will surely be a front-runner for the Academy Award, and certainly, she will be nominated. The music in the film is superbly mixed - it will give you goosebumps. Overall, this is a pretty wonderful film.
8.5 on the DaveScale.
(dir. Olivier Dahan, France, 140 mins)
1 comment:
You've made me pretty excited about this film. Definitely on my must see list.
Post a Comment