La Vie en Rose follows the life and career of Edith Piaf, a French singer and cultural icon - abandoned many times as a young child, she grew up in poverty and started her career by singing on the streets as a teenager - which is essentially where she was discovered. Her career and life had many ups and downs and Cotillard portrayed the emotions of these ups and downs beautifully. Edith Piaf's voice is really unlike anything I've ever heard - not only because she sings in French but her voice is unique. I found it interesting that when Piaf came to America she felt like the people here didn't understand her and vice versa. She always missed Paris and felt most at home there. As far as the way the movie was made, my only complaint really is that I was confused about her illness - I read online that she died of lung cancer but how well was that explained? I didn't pick up on it at all - she seemed to take injections for serious (perhaps debilitating) arthritis? I understood also that she was into hard drugs at least for a small period of time - but I'm not 100% sure of any of this. In fact, Ebert's review said she was addicted to morphine - how was I to know this? Oh well.
Roger Ebert had this to say...
"This mosaic storytelling style has been criticized in some quarters as obscuring facts (quick: how many times was she married?). But think of it this way: Since there are, in fact, no wedding scenes in the movie, isn't it more accurate to see husbands, lovers, friends, admirers, employees and everyone else as whirling around her small, still center? Nothing in her early life taught her to count on permanence or loyalty. What she counted on was singing, champagne, infatuation and morphine."
I couldn't find a good video from the film, but here are a couple of clips of the real Edith Piaf singing...La Vie en Rose and Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien.
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