Review of La Vie en Rose (2007) by Jasong — 15 Mar 2011

Marion Cotillard is absolutely captivating in her innocent and arrogant portrayal of The Little Sparrow. The slums of Paris are beautiful thanks to the rich music and character and song - while New York has never looked more glamorous than it does surrounding Edith Piaf. Watching La vie en Rose was like attending a marvellous art gallery that comes to life and sucks you in.

However, the film starts as many biographical features do; late in the career of the subject and with ominous signs of the impending downward spiral. We then cut to Edith's childhood and one can assume that what follows is her life and lead-up to the film's opening scene. Instead the film jumps to moments in her life that both precede and follow the opener with no discernible pattern. At first this seemed simply an artistic method of film making but eventually became a confusing maze of snippets of film, so much so that I began to wonder if the film was going to ever end - and when the final scenes did come, I found I wasn't quite ready for them.

Nevertheless, Cotillard's performance was without fault, the music is nothing short of beautiful and overall La vie en Rose is a very touching film.