La Môme (La Vie en Rose)

I like Edith Piaf as a singer and believe she is an international icon that will live forever. I cannot say I know everything about her and even if I know something about her life, my knowledge is definitively more about her singing and her songs.

I knew her life was not easy, but this knowledge did not prepared me for watching this movie. I have to admit that this is one of the most disturbing movies I have ever watched. It really touched deep and I have not recover. Her life story is disturbing and maybe this movie made it more disturbing. I have not digested the movie; I am still stuck in the story. I should watch it again to digest the movie, but right now I do not want to watch again this story, is too disturbing for me.

One thing I can comment, Marion Cotillard who plays Edith Piaf is excellent and she really looks like her. I am not familiar with this actress, so after seeing her real life picture, I was shocked! She had a huge transformation to play La Môme. She does the performance of her life and I imagine that many honors will come to her… and maybe even an Oscar! She steals the movie and you hardly will pay attention to anyone else.

According to me the story is not told in a linear way, as it would have been very depressing; then I read the usual reviews and yes, I was right. To make it less depressing the story is told jumping from one time frame into another, back and forward. But it is not hard to follow if you pay attention to her hairstyles and clothes, is the best way to identify what moment of her life the story is telling. Besides they also insert the place and date each time they jump, but if you are taken by the story –like me- you wont be able to notice the inserts!

According to allocine production secrets, because the earlier Piaf recordings don’t have the quality needed for a movie, they had Jil Aigrot singing these songs and she sounds just like Piaf; later songs is Edith Piaf that sings.

It will take me a long time to get over this story and maybe then I’ll watch this movie again.