LA VIE EN ROSE
Written and directed by Olivier Dahan
Starring: Marion Cotillard, Gerard Depardieu, Marc Barbe, Emmanuelle Seigner, Jean-Pierre Martins, Sylvie Testud, Jean-Paul Rouve and Clotilde Courau

Reviewed by Clement von Franckenstein
Watson Scale (0 being worst 6 being best) 5.5

This brilliant French biopic is my favorite film of the year, and if there is any justice, it's leading lady Marion Cotillard should definitely be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar (as have other foreign actresses in European films before her -- notably Sophia Loren and recently Penelope Cruz). She should also win in a canter for her mesmerizing portrayal of the amazing but tragic French torch singer Edith Piaf.
It's by far the finest screen performance by a woman this year. Edith Giovanna Gassion (played at 5 by Manon Chevallier) was born into abject poverty during World War II with her father Louis (the excellent Jean-Paul Rouve) away at the front, and her alcoholic mother Anetta (well played by Clotilde Courau) utterly incapable of looking after her. He comes home on leave to find the sickly child almost dead from neglect and malnutrition and whisks her off to his mother Louise (Catherine Allegret) who owns a working class brothel catering to soldiers and legionnaires.

She takes in her granddaughter who immediately bonds with one of the prostitutes Titine, magnificently played by the wonderful Emmanuelle Seigner. The young Edith develops a rare eye disease and has to be blindfolded for several months. It is then she has a vision of Saint Therese to whom she will pray for the rest of her life.

Her father, a circus contortionist, comes back from the war and brutally reclaims his daughter from the distraught Titine. She gets used to circus life till he is fired and they are on the street. By accident he asks her to perform something and out comes this incredible voice as Edith (played at 8 by Pauline Burlet) sings "La Marseillaise" with Cassandre Berger providing the singing voice.

She leaves her father as a teenager and bonds with her butch girlfriend Momone (the wonderfully talented Sylvie Testud) as they sing on street corners by day and drink themselves into oblivion at night. There is a great scene where they are both eating in a bistro and her starving mother comes in begging her for money. Edith brutally rejects her as repayment for her childhood abandonment.

Finally by luck, she is heard in the street by music hall owner Louis Leple (Gerard Depardieu) who recognizes her incredible talent, gives her a steady job at his establishment, renames her Edith Piaf (Little Sparrow) and more importantly introduces her to famed voice teacher Raymond Asso (Marc Barbe). After Papa Leple's fatal heart attack, for which she is blamed, she finally goes to see Asso, who instills vocal technique, clarity, discipline and stagecraft to match her formidable voice. He procures her a gig in one of Paris' best-known nightclubs and the rest is history.

She performs and records like a workhorse, becoming a huge national celebrity and   rubbing shoulders with, among others, Jean Cocteau, Yves Montand, Marlene Dietrich and Charles Aznavour -- whom she taught to sing. She also meets the love of her life, French boxing champion Marcel Cerdan (Jean-Pierre Martins). He watches her sing, she cheers him on when he wins the world title. She knows she can never marry him as he is happily married with three children. Then, fatefully, she begs him to fly overnight to see her, the plane crashes and he is killed.

Overcome by grief and guilt added to the pain of her brutal childhood, she becomes a heroin addict often injecting herself 5-10 times per day. Her health deteriorates till she is a shell of her former self. Just when she is about to cancel at L'Olympia, two songwriters bring her "Non, je ne regrette rien" (No Regrets), the great song for which she is most remembered and which she performs at the end of her life.

Marion Cotillard incredibly captures the essence of this complex woman, first as the wide-eyed young gamine unsure of her immense talent, then as the seasoned autocratic pro who is as hard on her friends and staff as she is on herself, and finally as the shrunken, wizened 44-year-old drug addict on her deathbed. She inhabits Edith with her hunched walk and pleading eyes, matched with a ferocity of spirit that is masterful.
Young writer director Olivier Dahan elicits great performances from some of the best French character actors working today.

PLEASE see this film -- it will make you laugh and cry and move you beyond measure. It is, without a doubt, one of the best movies to come out of France in years.