'La Vien En Rose' Edith Piaf film

[Blondie]

I went to see this movie yesterday, i loved it !
Set mainly in France, it is the life story of Edith Piaf, traces her life from when she is a child being raised in a French Bordello thru to her death.
Even if you are not into her music there is a lot of interesting French 30's 40's clothing, hairstyles etc and some very cute Californian 50's fashion,
Not a main stream production, so probably on at your local "art house" cinema.

 

[J. M. Stovall]

My wife is really excited to see it, I'll pass on your good review!

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Thanks for the review. I would like to see the movie. I have always loved Piaf's singing, even when I was a child and saw her on TV now and then.

Later, when I had a friend who knew French, we would listen to Piaf and he would translate her songs.

Such a wonderful voice coming from that tiny woman.

karol

 

[LizzieMaine]

Moved to the Motion Picture forum so all the movie buffs can kick in!

We're getting this one later this month, and I'm really looking forward to it -- we started showing the trailer this week, and the resemblance between Marion Cotillard and Edith Piaf is really quite amazing. Actual Piaf recordings are dubbed on the soundtrack, heightening the illusion.

One of our popcorn kids saw the trailer the other day and said her first reaction was that Ms. Piaf was swiping my look. Oh these youngsters.

 

[Zemke Fan]

Absolutely amazing...

My wife Helen and I saw this last Friday. A wonderful, touching film that grabs you by the throat and never let's go. What a tragic tortured soul Edith was! Truth surely is more amazing than fiction sometimes. Very moving.

 

[thebadmamajama]

I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE THIS MOVIE! I got to see Edith's grave last year and I'm a big fan of her. There's nothing like a French movie.

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

Just helping out.

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=19918

 

[J. M. Stovall]

Looks like a merger is in order.

 

[HadleyH]

I There's nothing like a French movie.

Agree!!! I adore french contemporary romantic comedies, filmed in Paris showing the streets, buildings, french fashions, people...can't get enough of them! (apart from american films of the 20s and 30s, which are my first choice, these are my favorites!!!!!!) I must go and watch this one very soon!

 

[J. M. Stovall]

Great movie! We really liked it. Great story of a difficult life, and it just scratched the surface. Great sets and costumes too of course!

 

[imoldfashioned]

I saw this last night and I would definitely recommend it. I think the film assumes a basic knowledge of Piaf's life but even with only the sketchiest idea of her history I was able to follow the story.

The filmmaker's technique of jumping back and forth in time really worked for me--it was as if he was following emotional threads rather than chronology and it was very affecting. I thought the last 15 minutes or so were especially marvelous. Marion Cotillard was truly amazing and I loved the child actress who portrayed Piaf as a young girl.

On a girly note, the clothes were nice but not stunning--for much of the film Edith is poverty stricken after all. Still, there were a couple of outfits I wouldn't have minded swiping!

 

[PADDY]

I'm just in from seeing it at the local picture house (going since 1924). I echo all that Imoldfashioned has just said, although there's some eye candy on the men's fashion front if that floats your boat for you.

I found it a real emotional rollercoaster, but then that's just me. I have a tendency to just totally lose myself in the big screen, plus this absorbtion is a sign that I'm really enjoying it too.

By coincidence, the girl who was sitting beside me (who probably thought, WHO is this stranger of a man engaging me in conversation before the film starts!!?), was from Minnesota and had the loveliest and mildest of North American accents, I could have listened to it for ages! So any Minnesotans out there? NICE accent

I really must go out and buy some of Piaf's music now, I feel really enthused, what a great, powerful and unique voice. But her life...so sad...

Here's an original clip of her singing the title song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-Oi8WnVELo

 

[MrBern]

Paddy, I cant imagine anyone not finding that movie an emotional rollercoaster. So many tragedies in one life...imagine where she wouldve been had she not been blessed w/ the voice.

heres a littl link for the Piaf song used in SavingPrivateRyan
Lyricstranslated

click to play the song

 

[ShortClara]

I hated this film. HATED it. Amazing performance of Edith Piaf, but I thought the film making lacking. I don't think beating me on the head for 2+ hours is good film making. **SPOILERS**


By the end, I was glad she died, because that meant it was over! Now I love a good serious film - I do. But I didn't think it was an emotional roller-coaster at all - I thought it was like going to the dentist. They never let the audience up for air, to have a bit of happiness, a brief sadistic laugh, nothing. Even when she was in love, I knew it would end badly - KNEW it, so I couldn't even enjoy it! I didn't care about her at the end, I was so strung out, and that made me sad. When I think on something like "Saving Private Ryan" which made me cry and cry in the theatre... but I loved it all the same. But that film was a rollercoaster, instead of people hitting me on the head with a steel pipe for a long time and just die already Edith and let me out!! *sorry* - ahem. I would not wish this film on anyone but Guantanamo detainees suspected of terrorism.

No offense to anyone who liked it - really. I just think there are more deft ways of handling grim subject matter.

 

[ShortClara]

Paddy, I cant imagine anyone not finding that movie an emotional rollercoaster.

*waving hand* me! I guess I'm the weird one. I thought it ran the gambit from despair to despair.

 

[PADDY]

Well...we all have different tastes., which makes the world go around

It would make for a rather boring world Clara if we all enjoyed or appreciated the same things (wouldn't be much 'meat' to our conversations[huh] ). So 'good on you' for speaking up and reflecting a different angle on the film. It's never going to be everyones' 'cup of tea.'

But, I'll stick with the challenges and earthiness of artistic films like Edith Piaf on this one and you keep enjoying 'Spider Pig' (as your catchline enthuses).

 

[Feraud]

Just watched La Vie en Rose and thought it was excellent.
Marion Cotillard was phenomenal as Piaf. A powerful biopic.

 

[ShortClara]

But, I'll stick with the challenges and earthiness of artistic films like Edith Piaf on this one and you keep enjoying 'Spider Pig' (as your catchline enthuses).

Now, as an actress myself, I would hate to be thought of as not enjoying challenging films just because I hated this one

But I agree - many films make for the spice of life! Or something pithy like that.

 

[Dr Doran]

Saw. Loved.

 

[Story]

Passionate Piaf letter to actor on sale
Fri Jan 16, 2009 12:35pm EST

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ATHENS (Reuters) - A passionate love letter written by French singer Edith Piaf to a Greek actor more than half a century ago, telling him "don't let my heart die," goes under the hammer in Greece on Friday.
Piaf, who died of cancer at the age of 47 in 1963, wrote the letter to budding Greek heart-throb Dimitris Horn i n 1946 -- the year she recorded "La Vie en Rose" -- just two days after meeting him at a performance in Athens.
The singer, who had a series of lovers and fought addictions to drugs and alcohol throughout her life, wrote the letter to Horn while she was already in a relationship with French actor and singer Yves Montand.
According to an excerpt printed in the auction catalog, Piaf wrote, using a pet name for the actor: "I love you like I have never loved. Taki, don't let my heart die!"
She told Horn in a telegram she sent later that she had never loved anyone as much.
"She said she would give it all, that she needed him ... The whole letter is passion and desperation," said Greek art collector and auctioneer Petros Vergos. "No woman has ever said such things to me."
Vergos said the affair waned either because Horn, six years her junior, did not share her passion or because they both had other partners.
The letter, telegram and a program of her performance in Athens will be auctioned at the Plaza hotel in the Greek capital. Coincidentally, the sale takes place exactly 11 years after the death of Horn on January 16, 1998.

Vergos said he did not expect the bidding to rise much beyond its reserve price of 1,000 euros ($1,300).

"It is not among the things collectors in Greece chase. It is a cute, a funny thing," Vergos said.

Piaf had the stage name "La Mome" or "little waif" because of her diminutive stature. The film "La Vie en Rose," which netted an Oscar last year for French actress Marion Cotillard in the role of Piaf, revived interest in her life and music.