kochonfilm

Koch Film

By Ed Koch.

“La Vie En Rose” (+)

The scenes in this biography of Edith Piaf, which flash forward and backward, are not particularly coherent and can be confusing. Yet viewed as a whole, the film’s impact is overwhelming. That impact is due to Piaf’s extraordinary voice, the memories her songs evoke for the audience, her huge eyes, tiny stature, fragility, and vulnerability.

Edith (Marion Cotillard) was abused as a child by her alcoholic mother, Annetta (Clotilde Courau). She was placed in a brothel to be raised by her grandmother, the madam, and one of the prostitutes, Titine (Emmanuelle Seigner). When her father, Louis Gassion (Jean-Paul Rouve), returned from the French Army in World War I, he removed her from the brothel. He was a circus performer, and during one of his street performances, he demanded that Edith do something to please the crowd. She burst into song singing “La Marseillaise,” France’s national anthem. That scene will knock your socks off.

The name Piaf — little sparrow — was given to her by Louis Leplee (Gerard Depardieu), a theater owner who discovered her singing on the streets of Paris. Edith was born to suffer. She became an alcoholic and drug addict, and her love affair with the French boxer, Marcel Cerdan (Jean-Pierre Martins), ending with his death, caused her inconsolable grief. Fortunately, Piaf was surrounded by people who understood that she had been given a special gift from God — her voice — and they tried their best to assist and comfort her.

Physically, Piaf reminded me of Giulietta Masina in the movie, “La Strada.” It is a surprise that someone as delicate in appearance as Piaf would have such an extraordinary voice that affects an audience the way Barbra Streisand’s voice does. When I was mayor, I hosted a dinner at Gracie Mansion for France’s Prime Minster Jacques Chirac. Jane Olivor, the American performer whose voice and style is similar to Piaf’s, performed during the dinner. She sang ”La Vie En Rose” which caused some embarrassment. An election was taking place in France at the time, and the rose was the symbol of the Socialist Party. Everyone was on edge as Olivor approached the Prime Minister, rose in hand. He accepted it, and the sky did not fall.

Edith Piaf lost her will to live. When she died at the age of 47, she looked like a 70-year-old woman. I choked up as I watched this movie, experiencing the bliss of her phenomenal voice and feeling the depths of her despair. It is a very moving film. (In French, with English subtitles).

“Hot Fuzz” (+)

This English film, a farce and satire, is very well done.

A London constable, Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg), is told he is being promoted to the rank of Sergeant and transferred to a small English village. We learn he is being transferred because his colleagues on the police force resent his hard work which makes them look bad. Notwithstanding his protests, Sgt. Angel is shipped off to the Village of Stafford.

Within a few days, five local citizens are killed in bizarre accidents, which Sgt. Angel believes are murders. The audience knows the citizens were murdered, because we saw the crimes being committed. No one at the police precinct agrees with Sgt. Angel’s conclusions, except for one police officer, Danny Butterman (Nick Frost). There is the suggestion of a homoerotic attachment between the two.

The penultimate scene is like revisiting the Japanese movie the “Seven Samurai” with lots of fighting only this time with guns rather than swords. The acting is very good with everyone playing their roles straight, never conveying they are part of a farce. One scene is a spoof of “Eyes Wide Open,” and another of “Straw Dogs.” For me, the humor did not generate belly laughs but rather an intellectual appreciation for the genre, the writers and the actors.