• what oscar got right

Can't see them all, here is a big recommendation from me, via this year's dreary Oscar-cast. As I watched this year's Academy Awards I realized how few of the contenders I had seen.

So few of them appealed to me when first released. I might grab their DVDs, someday. One I do have and will be loaning around to numerous friends is La Vie en Rose, the French bio-pic of singer Edith Piaf. Snatching the Oscar from the presumptive winner, Julie Christie, was French actress, now star, who became Piaf, Marion Cotillard.

Not since George C. Scott was Patton has an actor some completely inhabited the role of a real person has an actor presented us with as complete and stunning a performance. The life of Ms. Piaf ("the little sparrow") is, in parts, thrilling, grueling, and a soaring achievement. From homelessness, poverty and childhood sickness she bounced from street urchin, to street corner singer,  cabaret artist, music hall headliner, and then star of the grand stages of the world. Just as her rough life jumped from fame to failed relationships, sickness and addiction to celebrity and admiration, so too this Olivier Dahan directed film jumps back and forth in time. The non-linear storytelling style suits the story. They are not pulling any punches with Piaf's battles with arthritis, morphine addiction, and long affair with Algerian-born boxing champion, Marcel Cerdan. Piaf died of cancer at age 47, but her many addictions and maladies made her look 70 at the end of her life, and in the film as well. (See the side-by-side photos, below, of the real actress, Cotillard, and the actress as Piaf at the height of her career, before her dramatic slide toward death.)

The heart, soul, and core of this film is the performance of its star, Marion Cotillard- who was just thirty when she filmed La Mome (the French title of La Vie en Rose, meaning, the little lady.) She is Piaf and Piaf is this film. Having scooped up the French  César Award, British Academy Award, and the Golden Globe, she now adds Oscar to her mantle.

Not surprisingly, La Vie en Rose also garnered the Oscar for best achievement in Make-up. The DVD edition includes interviews with Marion Cotillard and director, Olivier Dahan, as well as clips of Motillard getting into make-up. In the film she portrays Piaf from teenage to death (when she looked seventy, but actual died at age 47.)

This is a truly astounding performance. A stunning film. Do not miss this one. (See, "P.S." below.)

One Oscar was also awarded to to Sweeney Todd for production design. It deserved that and more. Regular visitors to "TEA blog" know it was one of my favorite films of recent years. Great message, amazing music,  and Tim Burton and Johnny Depp at their best. Read my post on "The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" HERE.  (Also linked to my full review.)

McNair

P.S. Viewing tip: I chose to watch La Vie en Rose on the sharp, wide screen of my MacBook so I could read the too small English subtitles easily. That, and I wanted a front row seat for Piaf. If you don't like to "read" your movies, this film is much more about action, acting, and that VOICE. (All the singing is actually the real Piaf.) If you own decent headphones (or good speakers for your computer), go with the more intimate computer viewing. And, if you have a giant, wall-filling plasma-vision behemoth--go for it. But invite me over!

Marion Cotillard is Edith Piaf

Comments

[Dr. Martin Driesback]

McNair, Thanks for the recommendations. We saw "Sweeney Todd"–gritting our teeth as we entered, raving as we left. 0y wife grabbed "La Vie En Rose" at Blockbuster. We watched it through tears and are planning to re-view it this weekend, before loaning it around to several friends to whom we've been raving about it. Bravo! !