Ma Vie en Rose ('My Life is in Pink') review
Every once in a while, one of those movies comes along that is truly incredible. Something that stays with you for ages after you have seen it, and which touches you in the deepest depths of your heart. A movie that is truly unforgettable.
Ma Vie en Rose (lit 'My life is in Pink') is a Belgian movie, released back in 1997. It was the recepitant of numerous international awards the year it was released, including a Golden Globe.
Ludovich is a young boy, living with his loving family in a pastel-coloured suburb of Paris. Though biologically male, Ludo identifies as female, and is desperate to be pretty, with a love of princess dresses, dolls, and a desperate desire to wear skirts. Ma Vie en Rose is the story of her search for her identity and acceptance.
At first Ludo's parents treat Ludo's feminine behaviour with worried amusement, treating it as joke, and telling her that she is 'too old' to dress like a girl any more. Meanwhile, Ludo, completely content with herself, continues to dress up in her sisters clothes, and holds the belief that one day when she grows up she will 'no longer be a boy'. As she settles in to her new house and new school, life is very content. She falls for a little boy in her class, Jerome, who in turn falls for Ludo; the son of her father's boss. The two continue a sweet friendship, until one day Jerome's mother finds the two of them 'getting married', with Ludo dressed up in Jerome's deceased sister's princess dress. Things then begin to fall apart when, the next day at school, Jerome asks to be allowed to move away from Ludo. When asked why, he says it's because he 'doesn't want to go to hell'.
After this point, with her parents, disturbed by Ludo's behaviour and her insistence that she is a 'girl-boy', her parents decide to take him to a psychologist in an effort to 'cure' her. Ludo, however, still continues to pursue her belief that she is a girl, and to find her identity in the world. The people around her, however, are not as accepting.
It's incredible how this movie manages to be both heartbreaking, and funny and light-hearted, at the same time. This is a movie that doesn't sugar-coat things or pack it's emotional punches, but despite the difficulties that Ludo faces, this is not a depressing movie, but an uplifting one. It's very funny in places, heart warming, and touching, with a magical, surrealist edge at times; the product of Ludo's imagination. While the adults around her panic and regard her behaviours as 'sick' and 'disgusting', Ludo is completely at peace with herself. It is that peaceful acceptance of self that gets across to the viewer, and which makes this an light-hearted, uplifting movie. In many ways, this is a story of childhood innocence in the face of adult ignorance and intolerance.
Overall, this is a beautiful movie, uplifting, sad and funny, with an incredible emotional resonance, and which has cemented a firm love of foreign language films for me. The young actor who plays Ludo is one of the best child actors I have ever seen, pulling off Ludo's character flawlessly, and the cinematography and score is also very nice. The only downside for me was the movies ending, that I found rather random and confusing. But overall, a completely brilliant movie that I can not recommend enough, and I give it an overall rating of 9 out of 10.
