French confection... Marion Cotillard and Gerard Depardieu in La Vie en Rose.
Nobody seems to know quite why the French always give Britain nil points at Eurovision, but maybe the history of antagonism between the two noble nations is also partly responsible for the terrible reviews this Edith Piaf biopic is getting from some quarters in the UK. Or maybe the critics just couldn't resist the opportunity for prosaic puns on the French singer's most famous song.
"I have to say I regret a few things after watching this formless and weirdly selective biopic of Edith Piaf," writes our own Peter Bradshaw, obligingly. "There's a movie in here somewhere, but director Olivier Dahan and editor Richard Marizy somehow never got round to carving it out."
Anthony Quinn in the Independent points out the film's gaping plot holes. "Two major questions are raised," he writes. "First, the nature of Edith's dealings with [her] pimp (we never see her take on any clients) and, second, the extent of her guilt in [nightclub owner Louis] Leplée's murder. Neither is answered."
Which, somewhat bizarrely, means it falls to Johnny Vaughan in The Sun, the paper that has produced such memorable front page headlines as "Up Yours, Delors", to offer praise for "Olivier Dahan's spell-binding biopic". Although he does sort of ruin the air of Francophile nous by opening with a reference to Vanessa Paradis and Joe le Taxi.
In France, Jacky Bornet says Olivier Dahan has made his best film, and Cotillard produced the performance of her life. And over in the US, where Piaf was huge, the critics have been even kinder to the film, with Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun Times going so far as to call it "one of the best biopics I've ever seen", all of which bodes extremely well for Marion Cotillard's Oscar prospects. And who are we to disagree? Frankly any actor who can successfully portray a 4ft 8in character despite being nearly 5ft 7in gets our vote.
What did you think of La Vie en Rose? Has an anti-French bias helped to fuel some of the poorer Brit reviews? Or does the film suffer from the usual structural problems associated with the biopic? Do let us know below.
