La Môme 2007
The opening film of the Berlin Film Festival, La Vie en Rose, is a captivating biopic of French singer Edith Piaf, starring Marion Cotillard, Sylvie Testud, and Gerard Depardieu. The film, a joint production of France, England, and the Czech Republic, is filled with mesmerizing music that will touch your soul for 140 minutes. The film focuses on Piaf’s life in the 1940s, starting with a concert she gave in New York in 1959. Born in 1915, Piaf traveled extensively from childhood thanks to the circus where her father worked. She used to sing on the streets with her best friend Momone (Sylvie Testude) to earn money. Discovered by cabaret owner Lepley (Gerard Depardieu), she quickly entered the circle that made her famous. Cotillard, known from A Very Long Engagement, portrays Piaf’s youth with great success until her death at the age of 47. The film vividly depicts the process through which illness and addictions she acquired at a young age transformed her into a 70-year-old woman at just 40, losing her ability to walk, talk, and sing. The film also highlights the boxing champion Marcel Sedan (Jean-Pierre Martins), whom Piaf loved dearly and who tragically died in a plane crash in 1949.
