Ma Vie en Rose **** (1997, Georges Du Fresne, Michèle Laroque, Jean-Philippe Écoffey, Hélène Vincent) – Classic Movie Review 2557

Co-writer/director Alain Berliner’s brave and extraordinary 1997 Belgian-French-UK movie centres on its heart-warming story about a little seven-year-old boy called Ludovic Fabre (Georges Du Fresne, aged 12) who dreams about being a little girl, troubles his parents (Jean-Phillippe Ecoffey, Michèle Laroque) and shocks their social circle.

[Spoiler alert] Ludovic is coming out as a transgender girl and talks of marrying her neighbour’s son but cannot understand why everyone is so surprised about it. Soon the Fabre family is torn apart and ostracised, but it turns out that happiness is just around the corner.

The sure-footed, bittersweet tale is beautifully handled in a film that grips, entertains and makes you think with its perfectly aimed, good-hearted message that it is OK to be different and that it’s right to be yourself. The acting is spot on, with the lad touchingly bewildered yet strangely confident as exactly befits the character, and Hélène Vincent a standout as the truly modern canny granny.

It was Belgium’s Golden Globe award winner for Best Foreign Language Film in 1998. Berliner and Chris Vander Stappen won the European Film Award for Best Screenwriter in 1997. Vive la différence! 

George Takei made it one of his Gay Pride choices on the IMDb in 2015.

The world’s certification systems found it quite a challenge: it’s R rated in the US, 18 in Canada, 12 in the UK and a U in France.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2557

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