Published June 20th, 2007
Last night I checked out a biopic on Edith Piaf, La Vie en Rose. I like Edith Piaf, she did have a pretty special voice. And I have some good memories associated with some of her music. But as to the woman herself, I knew very little. This movie tries to show the rise and fall of France’s greatest singer.
There’s a lot to like about this movie. The acting is good (or at least, it seemed good - can one really judge acting in a foreign language?) and the casting was fantastic. Marion Cotillard was turned into the spitting image of the unconventional looking Piaf. The movie tries hard, and does a good job I suppose, of painting Piaf as a tragic figure. And yes, she was. Born into poverty, brought up in a brothel, travelled with a circus and sang on the streets. She also lost a child to meningitis.
By the time she hit it big, Piaf was clearly a scarred woman. Nothing in her personal life seemed to go right, and addictions to alcohol and morphine didn’t help much. The movie jumps around in time, making it hard to follow and hard to keep characters straight. I think that could have been improved. But since seeing the movie, I’ve read up on Piaf a bit, and it’s disappointing that they left out one of the great contributions she made. From Wikipedia:
Singing for high-ranking Germans at the One Two Two Club earned Piaf the right to pose for photographs with French prisoners of war, ostensibly as a morale-boosting exercise. She gave the photos to underground workers who made counterfeit passports for all 150 captives. After returning to the camp again, Piaf secretly transferred the passports to the Frenchmen, and some of them managed to escape. Today, Piaf’s association with the French Resistance is well known, and many former Resistance members owe their lives to her.
This is never, ever portrayed in the movie, and that’s a shame. The movie paints her as a tragic figure who is always falling down on her way up - but this shows she was more than just a singer. The movie portays a very selfish Piaf - but clearly she had a little more to give than that.
Overall though it was a good movie and a good story. It makes you uncomfortable at times - but then again, Piaf appears to have lived a rather uncomfortable life. Hidden behind that beautiful voice was a woman who was very scared inside.
Rating: 
Category: movies, reviews, Personal | Tags: movie review, edith piaf| Be the First to Comment »
Loading ...
Published April 11th, 2007
Such is the premise, in a sense, of Children of Men. I’ll warn you now, I love stories like this one. So take that bias into account. I have a great affinity for dystopian tales.
Children of Men is set in England, 2027. There hasn’t been a child born on earth in 18 years. The entire world (according to the news, which might just be government propaganda) has descended into chaos, only Britain “soldiers on”. Immigration - all immigration - is illegal. Immigrants are rounded up and herded into concentration ghettoes. In the midst of all this, a young woman is pregnant. And she needs to get off the island. Our Hero is the one to take her to the rendezvous with the “Human Project” - an organization that somehow can save the planet with scientific access to the child and mother.
This movie is also a character study of Theo, the hero. Clive Owen does a great job playing him. I love Julianne Moore, and she turns in a great performance as well. The movie is basically the story of getting the pregnant girl, Kee, out of the misery of Britain. It is fast paced, poignant, sad and exciting. It is a damn good film.
While the dialogue is fairly average, the cinematography is just….fantastic. Splendid. Amazing. The number of scenes shot without cuts is incredible. The actors and camerapersons did an AMAZING job with the scenes. Because many of the scenes, in addition to being long shots with no cuts, are shot perfectly and have a TON of movement and action. The opening scene, as Clive Owen walks out of the coffee shop, only to have a bomb go off in the shop just behind him is incredible. You are introduced, harshly, into the England of 2027 - and it’s not pretty. There is a sequence where an angry mob attacks the car our characters are in - it’s incredible. And it’s only topped later by one of the most amazing urban warfare sequences I have EVER seen. The length of the scene with what’s going on is incredible. The action is intense, the firefight terrifying. And if you don’t get a chill when/why the fighting momentarily stops - you’re not human.
The ending is somewhat clipped, it’s one of those things where you’re not quite sure everything is OK. Similar in feel to another England-dystopia film, 28 Days Later (which I liked too, and eagerly await the sequel). But other than that, I really can’t recommend this film enough if you like drama or just amazingly shot movies. The cinematography is just unreal at times, and you don’t realize how amazing until later when you think about it. During the movie, you’re just too engaged.
I could go on, but the bulk has been said. It’s a dystopian future film. It’s based on a book (which I may still read). It’s got a lot going for it. It has some serious visual political commentary that’s very topical right now - immigration, prison camps, torture, dehumanization - but those issues are not ascribed to any particular existing government. And they’ve been issues for hundreds of years. I don’t know what would happen to the world if the birth rate suddenly dropped to zero. It definitely made me think - there’s one scene set in an abandoned elementary school. Apparently this “Human Project” has scientists that will be able to figure out why Kee is the only fertile woman on earth. But really, the western world would be saving a TON of money on primary education. It would only make sense that governments would pour that money into scientific research to find the problem. Pharmaceutical companies would as well, those that make birth control pills at least. That’s a huge market that would disappear overnight. Another huge infusion of cash into the project. But maybe that has happened, and the British just don’t know it. It’s hard to tell what’s truth and what’s propaganda. Isolationism and xenophobia is the only institutional politics we really see.
Children of Men. Great movie.
Rating: 
Category: movies, reviews, Personal | Tags: children of men, dystopia, movie review| Be the First to Comment »
Loading ...
