Known as the Little Sparrow, Edith Piaf stood not much over four feet. But the power of her voice still resonates today as a symbol of all things French. Though she died in 1963, she is still among the brightest stars in French culture. On October 1, the Walter Phillips Gallery kicks off its Reel Time Film Series with a screening of the recent, acclaimed biopic on Piaf, La Vie en Rose.
With a remarkable performance by French actress Marion Cotillard, the film begins at the height of Piaf’s career in 1959. It then flashes back to moments in the singer’s life, from her childhood in the backstreets of some of the roughest areas of Paris, through her travels with the circus, her love affairs with some of the 20th century’s greatest artists, and her meteoric career. Stephen Holden in the New York Times called Cotillard’s performance “the most astonishing immersion of one performer into the body and soul of another I’ve ever encountered in a film.”
La Vie en Rose is the first of the season’s films for the Gallery’s Reel Time Film Series, which brings popular films from the Toronto Film Festival to audiences in Banff once a month from October to April. Other films scheduled for the season include the Irish romance Once, and Calgarian director Gary Burns’s comment on suburban sprawl, Radiant City, which will be presented along with a panel discussion on the film and its message.
Tickets for Reel Time are available individually through the Banff Centre Box Office or at the door, or for $30 for a pack of four tickets. Each screening includes draws for door prizes, and opens with a short film also distributed by the Toronto Film Festival.
Media images for La Vie en Rose:
http://www.banffcentre.ca/media_room/images/reel_time/
For more information about the Walter Phillips Gallery and the Reel Time Series:
