Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: La Vie En Rose

This is topic La Vie En Rose in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 06-15-2007, 10:03 PM:

Who hasn't heard the story of the street waif, raised in the slums of Paris who rose from a starving street singer to become a world cultural sensation?

Well, judging from the all-senior audience at the Kew Gardens Cinema openimg-day matinee, maybe younger generations have yet to discover the "Little Sparrow", Edith Piaf.

This film is a glorious tribute to the life of a singing artist,
her music, her loves, those who adored her, served her, and abused or exploited her.

The sound track is wonderful, composed of many of her favorite songs, rich with bittersweet emotion, mixed in many ways to complement the actresses who portray her with uncanny accuracy.
From the opening scene, the quivering notes of her gravel/sweet voice had their effect on me, as they had when I first heard her in the 1960's. This is both a musical biography and a concert film.

The early scenes have a dickensian squalor looking more like 18th or 19th rather than 20th century slums. The art director and Director of Cinematography here are worthy of Academy Awards nomination, I think. The soft-focus, underlit, blue-green hues
of the poor waif's settings in the streets and bordellos of Paris
fit the emotional tone perfectly.

Edith's defiant struggles to overcome her poverty and dependency,
and her setbacks in her career and in love give the film a rich if at times sadly depressing quality, right up to the terminal "I Have No Regrets" swan song.

Structurally, the film is repetitious and at times seems like a special edition DVD in which the scenes removed by the editor were put back in.

But for anyone sensitive to the amazing voice and musical opus of Edith Piaf, this film is a wonderful treat.