Movie Review: La Vie En Rose

Movie Review: La Vie En Rose


Well I told you I’d be back with the next Meryl Streep and by God has she earned it. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you… Marion Cotillard. Cotillard received an Oscar award for her role in La Vie En Rose in 2008 and also received a BAFTA for best Comedy and X. The film ‘La Vie En Rose’ received 2 Oscars and 5 Cesar’s. The film is subtitled from French so it still keeps that Parisian charm.


The story is set in Paris in the 1930’s just before World War II, and gives true accounts of the life of Edith Piaf. Piaf is abandoned by her parents and is left to be brought up in a brothel. She becomes a street singer in order to earn money and then is offered a job singing in a nightclub. She eventually gets a record deal and makes it big in the music industry. The glitz and fame become to much for her and she becomes a heroin addict. She collapses on stage and becomes too weak to perform again. She dies alone at the age of 45.


The story is unique and tragic, and it really shows Piaf to be a dogged hard-done by character. Despite her fame and fortune she is destined for tragedy from beginning to end. The song ‘Mon Homme’ rings throughout the film in an enchanting way to give the movie a timeless mood with gut feelings of life-with-no-regrets and fight-til-the end. This was a very enjoyable autobiographical movie and a must-see for Piaf fans.

Movie Review: Meryl Streep - Sophies Choice

Movie Review: Meryl Streep - Sophies Choice

What’s this… ‘The Oscar for best actor goes to Sean Penn?’. ‘Who won the Oscar for best female actor?’ This intrigued me so I did a bit of surfing & found out that it is actually a woman who has won more Oscars than any man in Hollywood. Meryl Streep- you little diamond!!! With that, I got into the car, down to the dvd shop & got a copy of the best Meryl Streep movie in stock- Sophie’s Choice.

Having watched it twice I must say that film director David Pakula’s Sophie’s Choice is a great movie and a must see for Meryl Streep fans. This film is set in America just after World War II. Actor Peter MacNichol plays the lead character Stingo, whom by the drama is narrated by. Meryl Streep plays an excellent Sophie Zawistowski, which she won an Oscar for, and Kevin Kline plays Nathan Landau which is definitely his finest and most convincing role to date. The music creates a fantastic sense of time for this Post-War romantic drama classic and is nicely placed in the background of the story as well as in the score.

The films follows the lead character Stingo (MacNichol) on his journey to writing his novel. On his way, he meets a couple Sophie (Streep) and Nathan (Kline). He becomes great friend with them, so great that he ends up falling in love with them both. He lusts after Sophie and longs after Nathan. Nathan however is a paranoid schizophrenic who ends up scaring Stingo and Sophie towards each other for support and refuge, which turns into an affair. However, this can’t be as Sophie and Nathan are destined to be with each other and she returns to her crazed lover. The tragic ending sees all three characters at loss due to uncontrollable feelings and dismay.

The love triangle that was formed by the three main characters builds a fantastic tragic story for cinema to capture and for Pakula to present in such a well delivered piece of motion picture. This movie certainly took my mind off awards for ‘Best Actors’, but I’m sure the next time I watch the Oscars, I’ll be keeping a close eye out for Hollywood’s next Meryl Streep.