‘Rose’ is vivid tale of tainted existence

“La Vie En Rose” is a very engaging film that details the life of the late French chanteuse Edith Piaf, from her wretched childhood in the slums of Paris to the penthouses of Europe and New York.

Almost impressionistic in its design, the film portrays her turbulent life in a series of flashbacks that seem to be out of sequence, until we find out later that it is told through her failing memory that can no longer reach back for all of the missing pieces.

Marion Cotillard gives a masterful performance of Piaf from her days as a vibrant, free-wheeling party girl in the down-at-the-heels Parisian bistros right on through until her miserable death in her late 40s. Piaf’s life is shown pretty much as it was and she summed up her own life in her later years with one of her signature songs “Non je ne regrette rien (No, I regret nothing).

I was also taken with the performance of Sylvie Testud as Momone, Piaf’s lifelong groupie/pal and drinking buddy, and it was interesting to see her character change from youthful party girl to a middle-aged woman caring for the addled Piaf, who, by then, was dying from a long morphine addiction.

The music was, of course, marvelous, especially for those who remember the 1950s and the intense popularity of Piaf’s vocals that were heard practically everywhere in those days. Nowhere in the film notes did I see any credit given to the vocals to anyone but Piaf and I assume that part of Cotillard’s incredible performance dealt with her lip-syncing the music. (I can’t imagine anyone else duplicating Piaf’s voice and lyrical style).

A problem with the film is one that I have found in other bio-pics, and that is that this film just covered far too much ground. I began to tire of Piaf’s ranting and shrieking that always seemed to accompany her endless strings of emotional outbursts. The running time of 220 minutes became a rather tedious ordeal after a while and I began to look forward to the credits.

In spite of that, I found it curious that the narrative of the film jumped from 1940, at the very beginning of the Second World War, to her triumphal visit to the United States in 1947 to begin a singing tour. Didn’t she gain her greatest popularity during the war years and wasn’t it her stirring rendition of “La Marseilles” and other passionate songs that inspired the allied troops throughout Europe? Yet, not a word was mentioned.

In spite of the few problems, I found this film rich in character portrayal and the music alone worth the price of admission. “La Vie En Rose” is currently in limited release but judging by the size of the audience at the late screening I attended, this film should gain a word-of-mouth following and I won’t be surprised to see it offered citywide before long.

Presented with English subtitles, “La Vie En Rose” is Rated PG-13 for drug use, sexual content, brief nudity and language.