Finally got around to watching
La Vie en Rose.
It's about the life and times of Edith Piaf, the greatest French singer of the 30s, 40s and 50s. It was
her singing when the soldiers in
Saving Private Ryan stopped to listen to music on that French radio. I've been putting this off for forever, because subtitles.
And I didn't realize until
Rust and Bone, that I've never seen Marion Cotillard act before. I've seen her be good in Americans movies, sure. But after a decade of Penelope Cruz, you start to understand, that a lot of actors/actresses don't translate their acting talent so well between languages. And to be honest, I only felt the urge to find the movie, because of that Edith Piaf song they used for the
Inception score.
This...is incredible. She's a different human being. The fact that she's convincing from a 15 year old Edith Piaf all the way to when she's old and crippled so believably is amazing. Every moment rings true and she puts her entire body...every motion and movement and facial tic...into the performance. When she sings, you feel it. You believe without a doubt that this creature right here is making this happen. What hits me the most about the movie is that, most of the time, when you hear a lot about one performance from a film, you can kind of assume that the movie itself is slow or boring or just not that great...except for this one actor's contribution.
Not this.
This film is great on it's own and somehow Marion manages to top even that. The world of this period piece is so lived in and real. It's never so lush that it feels like that fakey
Moulin Rouge recreation of the past. It's not Wes Anderson-y precious like
Amelie. But it really feels like this foreign old world that never looks past itself to the present. Each step on her journey is well done, the characters are strong and memorable, the cinematography is gorgeous, and the pacing is perfect. You don't want the film to end. There's just so much of it I loved. The jumps in time, the music, the set pieces, the long tracking shot that kinda breaks your heart. (It will...it hurts...it's magic...Scorcese musta been jealous)
The problem with most biopics is that there's this tension in both knowing that this is a mostly true story you can look up in 2 seconds and not wanting to know what's going to happen next. You almost have to put yourself in denial that this has already happened. Now I know that's kinda true for most movies, but it's stronger for biopics. Strong enough that once you've watched it and know the twists of this person's story...without that tension, you sort of never want to watch the movie again. If this was ever on again, I'd watch it in a heartbeat. It's one of those natural timeless foreign films. The type where you the subtitles just flow. You're not reading them so much as you feel them and it's effortless, because the performances transcend language.
It's obvious why she won the Oscar. I love this film and I just really hope she follows that success from
Rust and Bone and keeps acting in French films.
9.5/10
.
