Madame Rosa [La Vie Devant Soi] **** (1977, Simone Signoret, Michal Bat-Adam, Samy Ben-Youb) – Classic Movie Review 8776

Director Moshé Mizrahi’s 1977 drama Madame Rosa [La Vie Devant Soi] [The Life Before Us] stars Simone Signoret, who gives a great performance as a Jewish Auschwitz survivor and former prostitute who lives in a sixth-floor walk-up in the Pigalle in Paris, runs an unofficial nursery home, but is seriously ill and alone except for a young Arab orphan, Mohammed [Momo] (Samy Ben-Youb).

The perfect performances from these two players cannot disguise the over-sentimental script from director Mizrahi, who adapts the prize-winning, much tougher novel by Emile Ajar [aka Romain Gary].

But Madame Rosa is very moving, and made with great skill and thought, and it went on to pick up the Best Foreign Language Film award at the 1978 Oscars. Signoret won Best Actress (Meilleure Actrice) at the César Awards, France (1978).

Madame Rosa (1977), representing France, triumphed at the Oscars  over Israeli filmmaker Moshé Mizrahi’s homeland’s Best Foreign Language Film nominee, Operation Thunderbolt (1977), from writer-director Menahem Golan.

Also in the cast are Claude Dauphin, Gabriel Jabbour, Michal Bat-Adam, Stella Annicette, Geneviève Fontanel, Théo Légitimus, Elisabeth Margoni and Constantin Costa-Gavras as Ramon.

Madame Rosa [La Vie Devant Soi] [The Life Before Us] is directed by Moshé Mizrahi, runs 105 minutes, is made by Lira Films, is released by New Line and Warner Bros, Moshé Mizrahi, is shot in Eastmancolor by Nestor Almendros, is produced by Ralph Braun, Jean Bolvary and Raymond Danon, is scored by Philippe Sarde and Dabket Loubna, and is designed by Bernard Evein.

Israeli filmmaker Moshé Mizrahi, who co-wrote and directed three Oscar-nominated foreign-language dramas in the Seventies, including I Love You Rosa (1972), The House on Chelouche Street (1973) and Madame Rosa, died on 3 August 2018, age 87. He was married to Michal Bat-Adam.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8776

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