La Vie en Rose [La môme] ***** (2007, Marion Cotillard, Sylvie Testud, Pascal Greggory) – Classic Movie Review 3904

Marion Cotillard becomes the fourth French person to win an Oscar in a magnificent tour de force as singer Edith Piaf (1915-1963). Among her total of 27 awards for her amazing performance in the film, she also won a Golden Globe and a Bafta.

Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald won the film’s second Oscar for Best Achievement in Makeup, which took up to five hours to apply when Cotillard played the older Piaf. Christopher Gunning won the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music at the 2008 Baftas.

Co-writer-director Olivier Dahan directs commandingly and pulls off the risky back and forth nature of the narrative triumphantly. And, when Non, je ne regrette rien finally comes, it is heartbreaking.

Cotillard is the first French actress to win an Oscar for a French-language film. She is also one of only six actors to win an Oscar for a part spoken mainly in a foreign language, along with Sophia Loren, Robert De Niro, Benicio Del Toro, Roberto Benigni and Christoph Waltz.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3904
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