Two French movies about real people—but the similarity ends there

8/1/07

La Vie en Rose
Directed by Olivier Dahan

Marion Cotillard delivers an amazing performance as Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose. According to the film, Piaf’s life started out pretty horribly and continued in that vein until she died at the age of 47. She was very talented and famous of course, but if any good things ever happened to her, we don’t see them. The film hops around in time a lot, and that generally works, although there are big chunks of years that are left out entirely—World War II, for example. Apparently Piaf worked with the resistance during the war, but that didn’t make it to the movie. Maybe it wouldn’t have fit with the film’s general theme of misery.

Moliere
Directed by Laurent Tirard

This film could easily be called “Moliere in Love”. Everybody says this, but that’s because it’s so true. This isn’t a biopic. The film places Moliere in a fictional world where, amazingly, people and situations evolve that are very similar to the plays the real Moliere wrote! It’s a very light, very entertaining romp. Romain Duris plays the title, role, and a wonderful supporting cast behaves in ways anybody who has seen a Moliere play will recognize. Not that that’s a problem, of course.

A video idea: Romain Duris played the lead in one of TVOR’s favorite films in recent years, The Beat that My Heart Skipped. A young man must choose between the family business (property management/thuggery) and playing the piano. I know, it sounds strange. But it’s really good. See it.