The little Stunner: La Vie En Rose

The biggest Oscar surprise for most people was probably Marion Cotillard winning Best Actress, sleekly walking away with the statuette when almost everyone expected Julie Christie to be the recipient for Away From Her. I haven’t seen Away From Her but I have seen La Vie en Rose and contrary to what some people feel, I think Cotillard deserved to win. It was not a role that was easy, and Cotillard poured her heart and soul into it. I feel she lived the role – the role that was especially written with her in mind by director Olivier Dahan. When I saw Cotillard at the Oscars on TV last Sunday, my jaw dropped at how different – and beautiful – she looked in real life. In the film, she looks almost ghastly in certain scenes, as her character is slowly marked with the debilitating effects of rheumatism - a testament to her acting skills.

At 140 minutes, Dahan’s narration of Piaf’s life is long, but La Vie en Rose is still an excellent biopic. From Piaf’s early years at a Normandy brothel where prostitutes take her under their wing, through to her final years as a victim of alcohol abuse and rheumatism, Cotillard IS Edith Piaf. She overshadows every other character in the film, but rather than showing up on screen as one-upmanship, it feels simply like the film is showing us more and more facets of the woman that Edith Piaf is. Sure, Gerard Depardieu happens to be in the film as Louis Leplee, her mentor in the early years of her singing career, and Jean-Pierre Martins enacts the pretty crucial role of Marcel Cedan, the love of her life, but they are merely accessories, helping Dahan – and Cotillard - along as they bring to celluloid Dahan's vision of the life of Edith Piaf.

Cotillard’s acceptance speech on Sunday was spontaneous and graceful, tears and all. I for one easily believed her when she said, from the heart rather than from a sheet of paper, that L.A was for her the city of angels. It isn’t often that a foreign actress wins an Oscar, after all.

Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald, who transformed Cotillard bit-by-bit from young-and-blithe to old-and-stubborn Piaf, were given another well-deserved Oscar for Best Make-up. They carefully moulded Cotillard from Piaf as a young novice to the legend that she soon became, with her dark-red lipstick, pencil-thin eyebrows and carefully coiffured hairstyle all easily and yet obviously covering the insecurity that Piaf tries to hide throughout the film. Age is painted on her face delicately, making Cotillard grow into the last phase of her life, rather than make her stand out too starkly as a patient.

As far as biopics go, La Vie en Rose is a film that will truly stand the test of time. I bet some director is going to have a tough time beating this one.