It's the acting that elevates the story beyond its biopic trappings.
La Vie En Rose (2007)
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Reviews Counted:142
Fresh:105
Rotten:37
Average Rating:6.8/10
Consensus: 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 Pilaf.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for substance abuse, sexual content, brief nudity, language and thematic elements.
Runtime: 2 hrs 21 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Theatrical Release:Jun 8, 2007 Limited
Box Office: $10,126,918
Synopsis: According to Marlene Dietrich, chanteuse Edith Piaf's voice was "the soul of Paris." This French drama explores the often troubled life of the singer as her fame took her from the City of Lights to... According to Marlene Dietrich, chanteuse Edith Piaf's voice was "the soul of Paris." This French drama explores the often troubled life of the singer as her fame took her from the City of Lights to America to the South of France. Abandoned by her mother, Piaf grew up in her grandmother's brothel and her father's circus, which is hardly the fun one might imagine. While singing on the streets of Paris as a teen, Piaf (played as an adult by Marion Cotillard, A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT) is discovered by club owner Louis Leplée (Gérard Depardieu), and this chance encounter changes the woman's life. Her powerful voice takes her all over the globe, but it can't guard her from the pain and suffering she can't avoid. As Piaf, Cotillard is mesmerizing. She fully inhabits the singer's ivory skin, crafting a character that never descends into caricature or camp. She lip syncs to Piaf's legendary voice, but the performance is seamless. Like WALK THE LINE and RAY, this biopic creates a fascinating picture of an artist whose songs only begin to reflect the singer's painful life. But director-writer Olivier Dahan (LA VIE PROMISE) doesn't take the traditional biopic route with LA VIE EN ROSE. Instead, the film jumps between various moments in the singer's life, with little concern for linear narrative. Cotillard is just as adept at playing the teenage Piaf as she is the songbird on her deathbed at the age of 47, and it's her amazing performance that makes LA VIE EN ROSE worth seeing. [More]
Starring: Marion Cotillard, Gerard Depardieu, Sylvie Testud, Pascal Greggory
Starring: Marion Cotillard, Gerard Depardieu, Sylvie Testud, Pascal Greggory, Emmanuelle Seigner, Clotilde Courau, Jean Paul Rouve, Marc Barbe, Catherine Allégret, Manon Chevallier, Pauline Burlet, Elisabeth Commelin, Marc Gannot
Director: Oliver Dahan
Director: Oliver Dahan
Screenwriter: Olivier Dahan
Producer: Alain Goldman
Composer: Christopher Gunning
Studio: Picturehouse
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Reviews for La Vie En Rose
By the end, when alcohol and drug abuse have reduced Piaf's body to wreckage, the beauty who wooed Russell Crowe in A Good Year looks more like Gollum.
Maybe you've heard that the French actress Marion Cotillard gives a great performance in this Edith Piaf biopic. But that over-flogged adjective doesn't really convey how great her performance is.
Dahan and Cotillard have created an amazing biopic of an extraordinary voice attached to a fragile and fallible woman.
La Vie en Rose is lucky to have Cotillard to hold things together, because it is constantly threatening to implode.
Olivier Dahan's film is both faithful to and freewheeling with the facts of Piaf's life. Much is left out, but the essentials are there.
Wildly uneven. Fully half of writer-director Olivier Dahan's drama sticks to the surface, and even then, many of the factually accurate bits come off as Hollywood lies.
[A] simple-minded, cheaply sentimental and unrelievedly lugubrious movie.
Rather fussily structured and ostentatiously virtuosic, and one might wish...it had told us even more. But...it's almost worthy of its subject.
a must for Cotillard's soul shredding performance alone, but Dahan's experiment in mixing an artistic approach with a more conventional biopic style is frustrating.
Part of the fascination of La Vie en Rose is the incredible Oscar-worthy performance of Marion Cotillard.
Angry, needy, and almost painfully lovely, Marion Cotillard's Edith Piaf fills all emotional space in La Vie En Rose.
Tighter editing and a more conventional bit of story structure would have made it better.
A gripping look at hard times in pre WWII Paris and a passionate lead performance make this film a must-see for Piaf aficionados around the world.
A remarkable portrait by Marion Cotillard so uncannily rich and detailed it defies description. Screen acting just doesn't get much better than this.
There's a riveting tale within this awkward litany of pivotal moments. Still, despite the film's uneven nature, Cotillard's extraordinary performance is worth experiencing.
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