"La Vie en Rose" ("La Mome" in France)

Jonathan Bowerbank · June 15, 2007

Just saw this film last night at my favorite Clay Theatre here in San Francisco.

Some gorgeous cinematography from Nagata in this one. Some beautiful period work done with the night interiors, and the use of "natural sources" for day interiors was really something to marvel at.

Not to mention, there were a few one shot scenes done with steadicam that were done very well, and not at all too distracting from the story.

Not to mention, Marion Cotillard's performance as Edith Piaf was inspired. I'm glad to see her getting more lead roles.

Jason Debus · June 18, 2007

I caught this film this weekend and thought it was really impressive in all areas; acting, cinematography, art direction, and writing was all top notch, not to mention the just plain great film-making that I was seeing on the screen. Definitely one of the best biopics I've seen. I wouldn't be surprised if Marion Cotillard wins a pile of Best Actress awards, she really brought the character to life.

The best part about the cinematography I thought was not over-doing the different looks for the various time periods (the film weaves in and out of multiple time periods). Each had it's own look and it could have been easy to over-cook it but it was just perfect. There were probably three or four shots I thought were just pure movie magic, iconic, emotional, and evocative.

David Mullen ASC · June 19, 2007

I caught this film this weekend and thought it was really impressive in all areas; acting, cinematography, art direction, and writing was all top notch, not to mention the just plain great film-making that I was seeing on the screen. Definitely one of the best biopics I've seen. I wouldn't be surprised if Marion Cotillard wins a pile of Best Actress awards, she really brought the character to life.

The best part about the cinematography I thought was not over-doing the different looks for the various time periods (the film weaves in and out of multiple time periods). Each had it's own look and it could have been easy to over-cook it but it was just perfect. There were probably three or four shots I thought were just pure movie magic, iconic, emotional, and evocative.

I agree with all of that -- Marion Cotillard pours her heart and soul into that performance.

The steadicam shot through her apartment when she gets some bad news is amazing.

Jonathan Bowerbank · June 19, 2007

The steadicam shot through her apartment when she gets some bad news is amazing.

Oh, definitely. Especially how the shot ends with by going through a door to a stage in that ampitheatre...brilliant.

Keith Mottram · June 19, 2007

Oh, definitely. Especially how the shot ends with by going through a door to a stage in that ampitheatre...brilliant.

I saw a preview of this last week and I thought it was rubbish. It made no sense and I almost had to walk out at the bit where she finds out marcel had died (I'm still trying to work out where that damn watch is)- I was rolling my eyes so much my partner was being put off. Then again having read a book on piaf at least she could understand what was going on- the script was astonishingly amateur considering how rich the subject matter is, and despite having a small grasp of french the dialogue was clearly clunky pre translation. the stupid non linear story telling was also a piss poor smoke screen for abismal plotting (you find out she had a dead child.... in the last minute!) and was i the only one that frequently found themselves singing the parker and stone classic 'montage' every five minutes. the cinematography was admitedly pretty gorgeous bar some terrible matt work and a somewhat noisy DI. finally is it me or has depardieu mastered the hollywood skill of phoning in a performance?

keith