The film introduces the audience to Edith Piaf: a world-renowned French singer from the 1940s and 1950s. The film shows Edith growing up in the slums of Paris with her alcoholic mother. Her father then returns from WW1 and realizes the terrible conditions that his daughter is living in. He takes her to live with his mother, who is the “madame” at a brothel. Edith spends several years growing up in the brothel. While there she befriends several prostitutes .Including Titine, a redheaded, church-going prostitute who resembles the closest thing Edith has to a mother.
While there, Edith develops an infection in her eyes and becomes blind for a time. After a trip to visit a statue of St. Theresa with the women from the brothel, Edith can see again. Her father comes and takes her on the road with him after a tearful and dramatic goodbye with Titine. Edith lives and travels with her father in the circus which he eventually leaves. Her father eventually turns into a street-performer much like Edith’s mother. After realizing he can’t make enough, her father pushes the teenage Edith to sing.And it so happens, Edith gets discovered. A promoter, Louis Leplee discovers Edith and through the French cabaret circuit, Edith manages to make a name for herself. After this, Leplee gets murdered and Edith becomes a suspect. Not much is added to that storyline. Edith shines in the cabaret industry but, she also steps into the dark side of stardom; the alcohol, the parties, the men (several); all which lead to more and more tragedy and pain for her. The film travels from Edith’s childhood to her deathbed and from France to New York. Her struggles with pain, drugs, perfectionism, and control remain one constant in the film. “La Vie en Rose” takes the audience down Edith’s path of success and ultimate destruction. I think the main theme of the film would be the idea of beauty through pain. Through Edith’s pain, life is portrayed under the stage lights. Edith wanted nothing more than to love and to sing. The movie showed the two different extremes of her life. At one moment Edith was almost insanely happy and at another moment she was beyond depressed. The theme of beauty through pain is present not only in the lyrics by the songstress but in her mannerisms as well. The actress emitts angst through her eyes and walks in an awkward manner. She speaks with a raspy voice and acts incredibly prideful.
The mise- en- scene of the film is near perfection. The smart camera angles peer into the leading actress’s soul and illuminate the set. It is very life like and appropriate and resembles what I believe 1940’s and 1950’s Paris should look like. However, it isn’t the scene construction or the editing and production that create the mise-en-scene. It is purely the casting and the amazing acting skills of the characters. Cotillard embodies Edith Piaf. The audience understands the film because of Marion Cotillard. She crafts the world of the film.
“La Vie en Rose” was a French film that really tugged at the emotions of the audience, just like some of the other films that we have watched. The story is about a young girl who uses her singing voice to save herself on more than one occasion. The tone goes from depressing to hopeful many times throughout the movie. Edith suffers loss, but then uses her career to make a living for herself, pull herself off the streets, and distract herself from the losses in her personal life. The audience follows the story of Edith from almost birth until death. She is accomplished, but then her health declines. The audience is able to empathize with Edith as she struggles and celebrate with her when she triumphs. The up-and-down nature of the film is sure to capture and reel in the audience, as it did for me.
ReplyDelete-Erica Gann
La Vie En Rose
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The film introduces the audience to Edith Piaf: a world-renowned French singer from the 1940s and 1950s. The film shows Edith growing up in the slums of Paris with her alcoholic mother. Her father then returns from WW1 and realizes the terrible conditions that his daughter is living in. He takes her to live with his mother, who is the “madame” at a brothel. Edith spends several years growing up in the brothel. While there she befriends several prostitutes .Including Titine, a redheaded, church-going prostitute who resembles the closest thing Edith has to a mother. While there, Edith develops an infection in her eyes and becomes blind for a time. After a trip to visit a statue of St. Theresa with the women from the brothel, Edith can see again. Her father comes and takes her on the road with him after a tearful and dramatic goodbye with Titine. Edith lives and travels with her father in the circus which he eventually leaves. Her father eventually turns into a street-performer much like Edith’s mother. After realizing he can’t make enough, her father pushes the teenage Edith to sing.And it so happens, Edith gets discovered. A promoter, Louis Leplee discovers Edith and through the French cabaret circuit, Edith manages to make a name for herself. After this, Leplee gets murdered and Edith becomes a suspect. Not much is added to that storyline. Edith shines in the cabaret industry but, she also steps into the dark side of stardom; the alcohol, the parties, the men (several); all which lead to more and more tragedy and pain for her. The film travels from Edith’s childhood to her deathbed and from France to New York. Her struggles with pain, drugs, perfectionism, and control remain one constant in the film. “La Vie en Rose” takes the audience down Edith’s path of success and ultimate destruction. I think the main theme of the film would be the idea of beauty through pain. Through Edith’s pain, life is portrayed under the stage lights. Edith wanted nothing more than to love and to sing. The movie showed the two different extremes of her life. At one moment Edith was almost insanely happy and at another moment she was beyond depressed. The theme of beauty through pain is present not only in the lyrics by the songstress but in her mannerisms as well. The actress emitts angst through her eyes and walks in an awkward manner. She speaks with a raspy voice and acts incredibly prideful.
The mise- en- scene of the film is near perfection. The smart camera angles peer into the leading actress’s soul and illuminate the set. It is very life like and appropriate and resembles what I believe 1940’s and 1950’s Paris should look like. However, it isn’t the scene construction or the editing and production that create the mise-en-scene. It is purely the casting and the amazing acting skills of the characters. Cotillard embodies Edith Piaf. The audience understands the film because of Marion Cotillard. She crafts the world of the film.
Alex
ReplyDeleteLa Vie Rose:
Immediately from impact of the movie the screen flies through a dramatic editing, light and sound (this will follow throughout the movie)! It immediately captures the drama of the entire movie and places the audience at the edge of their seats. The angling of the camera shots were done to bring the most dramatic poses, often from several different angles as there would be in any American thriller cinema. The over all performance and other formal devises brought up led the audience to be romanticized by action and red lipstick. A beautiful sound-full movie that will glorify and awe/amaze any audience.
My Review is posted twice --once at the top and once in the cinema group. Sorry for the confusion!
ReplyDeleteWhat is important to note within this film is the strain that Edith had between her home (France) and America. Edith didn't especially like America and didnt catch on to the culture. She was shown in the film spitting out food in a tavern in NY. Also, her music never seemed to really catch on. She was just passing time while she was here.. not really caring about making an impression on people or learning about American culture.
ReplyDeleteNarrative Pattern for “La Vie En Rose”
ReplyDeleteAfter watching “La Vie En Rose”, there were a lot of narrative patterns that had to do with Edith’s life. The first narrative pattern that I noticed was the switching of time lines in Edith’s life. First they showed a scene at the end of her life and then they went right into showing a scene from the beginning of her life. This goes on throughout the whole movie with the younger Edith time line going on and then older Edith time line going on. Another narrative pattern in the movie was the rejection that she got through life and how she was treated. Her mom rejected her and her dad rejected her and the only person who really loved her as a child was a woman working in her grandmothers whore house, Titine. The next narrative pattern that I noticed was the hard times Edith had to go through in life. As a child she had to life in a whore house and was exposed to all the sinful things that went on in there. She then had to work for her dad in the circus in which her dad did not treat her with respect until he learned that she can sing and earn him money. Even when she was famous she had to go through hard times. For example, the only guy she loved had a wife and kids and when he finally got the courage to come back to Edith his plane crashed and he died. The last narrative pattern that I noticed was the pattern of her life being hard and overwhelming and then her life gradually getting better and then her life gradually getting worse as she got older.