332. La Vie en Rose (2007)

Starring: Marion Cotillard, Sylvie Testud, Pascal Gregory

Director: Olivier Dahan

Running Time: 140 mins

La Vie en Rose (La môme) is a French film that follows the life of the singer Édith Piaf from her birth, through the highs and lows of her singing career, and up to her final performance and death in the 1960s.

I thought that this was a fascinating film. Édith Piaf was an incredibly interesting person to follow, and to learn all of the backstory about her, a rise from poverty into worldwide fame, as well as her private relations was just great.

In terms of the film itself, I did find it was often confusing and a little slow at times. Obviously, starting off while setting the scene was always going to take time, but the sort of non-chronological way in which the story of her life was told was quite annoying sometimes for me, because it was quite difficult to judge the mood of her life, meaning some parts were challenging to figure out initially.

One thing that I did find amazing about this film was the way in which the makers managed to make the main actress, Marion Cotillard, so convincing in all of the different ages of Piaf’s life. It was a sterling performance from Cotillard, however her likeness was just fantastic, and a true delight to watch.

The end of the film was also fantastic. It ended with Piaf’s most famous song: “Non, je ne regrette rien”, a fantastic crescendo to the film that gave a dramatic and emotional sign-off to the story of Édith Piaf, so because of all this, I’ll give this a 7.4.