La Vie En Rose [DVD]

A wonderful mesmerising film. As a film subject this Piaf will not be bettered.`La Vie en Rosé' is much more than just a movie, it is truly a cinematic experience. I watched the film on DVD and was transfixed for 135 hypnotic minutes as the harrowing tale of the life of Edith Piaf progressed towards its inevitable conclusion. The movie is a gut-wrenching, mesmeric piece of cinema that left me drained for some time after the end titles had long faded! Piaf's story is shot in a non-linear format - and all the better for that in my view as much of the essential story, including some of the songs, would have piled up in the last third of the film. The flashback sequences, of which there are many, are in any case not difficult to follow and make for the interesting, attention gripping technique that the film demands. Marion Cottliard's performance as Piaf is an astonishing piece of acting. The part called for her to age from 19 to 43 years. The movie has a large cast (all except a couple or so actors will probably be unknown to most audiences beyond followers of French cinema), the film is all about the central character and Cottliard is in the frame more or less throughout the entire movie. The cinematography is superb, almost `noir' , and the Parisian streets of Piaf's childhood marvellously depicted. Everything about this film is beyond praise. The acting, the direction and especially the lip-syncing of Cottliard (it is the real Piaf we are listening too for the songs) are near miraculous. The make-up artists do a great `ageing' job as Piaf grows older with her deteriorating health problems and with her costumes it really does seem that this is not a movie being watched but a live concert. If this film does not feature strongly in the Academy Awards there is simply no justice! Post Script. Since I wrote this critique, Marianne Cottliard has won the BAFTA best actress award, and a few weeks later in Hollywood the Academy Award (Oscar) for best actress. Justice was indeed done!

Brilliant film - great leading performance!

This is a wonderful French biographical musical film about the life of French singer Édith Piaf. Spoken in French throughout, the DVD has very accurate subtitles and is easy to follow for non-French speakers. Lead actress Marion Cotillard won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance - she thoroughly deserved it. Cotillard gives the performance of a lifetime to intriguingly portray the famous French singer. Covering many decades, the film depicts Cotillard representing a women of considerably different ages, from a teenager right up to the forty seven years that Piaf died at. However, as Piaf was so ill, Cotillard actually was made up to look at least twenty years older than this. It was a stunning achievement from the make-up team to recreate Cotillard to look as old as this, and she showed her full range as an actress - she is utterly convincing portraying the singer at every age. Cotillard's overall performance is astounding. She brings so much emotion and realism to the part that you cannot help but believe she is Piaf. Her portrayal of Piaf's stage fright, raw sense of humour, vulnerability and energetic singing is breathtaking - and the constant manic use of her deep, dark wide eyes is totally convincing. And, her anguished reaction to the death of Marcel in an airplane crash is incredibly emotive and realistic. It is unlikely that any other actress could have matched the ferocity and intensity delivered by Cotillard. The film charts the course of the life of Piaf, starting as a child, drifting into prostitution, and her starting to sing. Her father had abandoned her early in her life, but he returns to enter her into the world of show business, all-be-it accidentally as she gives an impromptu rendition of "La Marseillaise" on a street corner, and continues singing - eventually being noticed by a nightclub owner, and her career develops from there. As her life progresses she has alcohol and morphine addiction problems, as well as arthritis, which decimate her physical and mental state. One potential weakness in the film is the continual jumping backwards and forwards in time, showing Piaf in old age, and going back to the past to unfold key events. Although it worked well at times, the director Olivier Dahan may have over-reached himself by time-traveling too often. At times, the flow and momentum of the film was interrupted and disjointed. This non-linear technique was applauded by many of the critics, but for me it was too much. Overall, Cotillard's performance masks any flaws in the movie. It ends with Piaf dramatically performing "Non, je ne regrette rien" at the Olympia - a spine-tingling finale to a champagne performance.

I'd always been aware of the fact that Edith Piaf had had a miserable life. It was only when I saw this film that I realised just HOW miserable. Yet her belief in the redeeming power of love, a belief which only seemed to get stronger in the wake of her tragic affair with boxer Marcel Cerdan and his death in a plane crash, seemed to drive her to the heights of the entertainment business - her performances were truly remarkable. Marion Cotillard, lip-synching to Piaf's own voice, is a superb actress and this film is compelling throughout...it's not always pretty and some of it is really painful to watch, but it feels like a highly accurate porrayal of Piaf's life. The film's quirky narrative structure - it keeps jumping forwards and back in time - is occasionally rather annoying (a linear structure would have worked equally well, if not better), but it doesn't distract too much. Even the subtitling is excellent. The rhyme 'the hooker is a looker' for the beginning of L'Accordeoniste actually works better in English than it could in French! Overall, an unmissable film.

I am not particularly a Piaff fan, though I am not in the anti- camp either. As regards Marion Cotillard I have seen her in several films and thought her pleasing enough, without her being a major talent. This film changed that. There seems some controversy about the period 1939-45 being skimmed over in this film, unfairly to my mind. What you have is a bio-pic covering EP's early life and eventual end, yes there is a significant gap. If it were to be filled it would double the length of the piece. It could (fairly) amount to a film on its own, subject to significant controversy and detracting from this story. Either film would doubtless be worthy, but the other would not be this one, nor could it provide half the magic. Foreign-language performances seldom get nominated for an Oscar, and almost never win. This one did, and with good reason. MC's performance as Piaff is truly great and thoroughly convincing, if she never got a single further part she could rest content on her laurels. The other Oscar awarded for makeup was well deserved and adds to the strength of MC's performance. At approximately 140 minutes this film is longer than many but it is well worth setting aside an evening (allow a bit of resting time after, you are likely to need it) and the music alone is worth the admission price.

If there are lots of reviews on here saying Marion Cotillard is amazing as Edith Piaf, there's a reason - she is. Her performance here is totally amazing and utterly mesmerizing. So many films these days (especially Hollywood ones) are over-hyped, and filled with good looking puppets - 2-dimensional 'actors' chosen for their looks rather than acting skills. Marion Cotillard is a glimpse back into a more golden film age where people could actually act - really act - and even on these terms she knocks the socks off many golden greats. She really does inhabit the part of Piaf. There's a totally bizarre review earlier on here saying she was miscast and didn't act...it has to be one of the most ill-judged things I've ever read on here. Even one of Edith Piaf's closest friends, Ginou Richer, who is still alive and sat in on the recording of the final scene at 'Olympia', paid tribute to Cotillard (in an interview in the Guardian newspaper), saying: "Marion has it exactly, the way she walks, talks, her way of laughing. The hardest part for her was lip-synching the songs, but really, you'd say it was Edith singing." That's some tribute coming from someone who lived as a companion with Edith for 15 years. The same earlier reviewer got it wrong on the songs too - most of the Piaf songs in the film are real Piaf vocal performances, re-mastered for the film. The film itself isn't the greatest scenario/synopsis of Piaf's life - it misses a lot of the complexities of Piaf's life, and several of her key relationships - such as with Yves Montand - are overlooked. The director apparently did this deliberately, because he wanted to concentrate on Piaf's life as a woman vis-à-vis her art. To a certain extent he does succeed, even if he does out-Hollywood Hollywood in the process. I also agree with one previous reviewer who says that the immense adoration felt for Piaf in France is not shown or contextualised. Anyone unfamiliar with Piaf's life story might be forgiven for thinking she was just a famous singer. She wasn't - she was, and still is, an absolute icon in France. The crowds for her burial in Père Lachaise brought Paris to a standstill. But these omissions don't necessarily detract from the film's power, which lies totally with the quality of the acting and the visual cinematography. I have to say that the scene where Edith looses her true love, Marcel Cerdan, will stay with me for ever. PS 2 DVDs in box - the second one containing 7 deleted scenes, a look at how Marion Cotillard transformed herself into Edith Piaf, and a feature on Edith Piaf.

If it were'nt for the outstanding performance from Marion Cotilllard this biopic would hardly be worth remembering. One of the things that I found surprisingly missing were some of Piaf's more famous songs, eg. Milord, plus a rather lackluster finale of Je Ne Regrete Rien which very much detracted from the impact that Piaf must have made in her lifetime. Worth a look, but not much more.

Goosepump throughout - Cotillard - amazing - just beautiful

Un film magnifique qui raconte la vie d'Edith Piaf, une grande Dame.

Tres beau film

Excelente producto y tiempo de entrega!!! 😊 Lo único es que viene en región 1 y no es compatible en la mayoría de los reproductores.

Film molto interessante. Una storia toccante, affascinante e non sempre conosciuta di un'artista particolare, piccola fuori ma enorme ed ingombrante come personalità. Mi ha emozionato molto. Lo consiglio per chi ha interesse per lei, per la sua musica e per la musica in generale. Spedizione eccellente

伝記物ですが、やはり主演女優さんの頑張りがこの作品の肝です。 伝記物は容姿が似ていないと見る気が起きませんがこの作品は完璧です。 自分はエデット・ピアフのファンではありませんが この作品には感動しました。