A solid but taxing film

Rating: 6/10 (11 September 2008)

It seems that with bio-pics on music sensations, filmmakers tend to take great leeway with the artist's life. In the case of Édith Piaf in La Vie En Rose (La Môme), you practically have to separate the Édith Piaf in the movie from the one that really lived simply because it's difficult to separate the myths from the facts. Taking, that aside La Vie En Rose in itself is a fatiguing film to watch. Poverty, prostitution, tragedy, child abuse, terminal illness (an that's just in the first 30 minutes) all weigh this film down. It makes Ray seem like a walk in the park.
The film seems to make Piaf a victim of her circumstances that has to be rescued to overcome them. They show when she was a child and went blind due to an illness only to inexplicably recover. She sings for money on the street until a club owner and begins her career. When he is murdered she is found a suspect only to never be followed up on. It seems that the most interesting things in her life (like how she was considered a traitor for willingly performing for German Forces in then occupied France or how she was considered a contributor to the French Resistance) were excluded because it wasn't depressing enough. When it comes to the point in the film when she begins an affair with a married boxer, you can't help but anticipate some sort of catastrophe.
The film spends more time wallowing in Piaf's misery instead of her talent. When Piaf sings (incredibly lip synced by Marion Cotillard) it seems to act as a bridge between one sad scene to the next as the film jumps around between her last few years of life. Because the film jumps around, it's never boring although it's not very hard to follow. However, it gets very flashy. Particularly one tracking shot where Piaf learns of death and goes from hysterics in her bedroom to the stage. After seeing so many scenes of Piaf suffering, you almost become desensitized to it. Which is why the best scene in the film is the final one where Piaf sings "Non! Jen ne regrette rien" (No, I don't regret anything.) Which seems to sum up Piaf's light without ending on another too dreary note.