Ma Vie en Rose

Alain Berliner, France, 1997, 88 mins

Sometimes people get the wrong idea in their heads and it's very difficult to shift. Ludovic is fairly normal for an eight year old girl with his very pink, very camp favourite TV show and an array of glam dolls but everyone else seems to think he should be behaving like a boy. His parents are sure he's going through some phase and take his expectation to become a girl about as seriously as if he were proclaiming he wanted to be a train when he was older. Then he stages a wedding with his friend Jerome and everyone gets rather nervous…

What works so well here is the balance between Ludovic's entirely innocent belief that he is a girl and his parents and the neighbours automatic adult reaction to the situation which reduces Ludovic's ideas as perverse or sexual. But he's eight and all he's trying to do is grow up how he thinks he's supposed to. Certainly it's an unusually honest and believable account of discovering you're growing up somewhat differently.

Alain Berliner directs his debut feature with extreme sensitivity and even the more fraught difficulties with Ludovics friends and family are relatively lightly handled. Ludovic is a great creation and he's portrayed as such a delightfully engaging and imaginative individual that any pre-conceived notions pretty much go out the window. Georges Du Fresne is almost worryingly superb in the role and looks so delicate that confusion over gender seems entirely plausible. Though the family scenes neatly mix concern with bigotry Berliner really seems to save his energy for the wonderful fantasy sequences which are gently warped but beautifully inviting.

Whether you want to regard this as a serious depiction of gender confusion — Ludo's clear expectation to grow into a women despite having been born a boy being particularly authentic — or, merely a deft look at some of the more unique challenges of growing up shouldn't matter. Either way this is a lovingly crafted and very touching film which will leave you with a warm fuzzy glow…

Review by Nicola Osborne
Written for EUFS Programme Autumn 2002

A charming comic fable about a middle class couple who move into suburbia with their seven-year-old son. When he makes his appearance at a house-warming party in a sugary confection of tulle as a fairy princess the neighbours are not amused. The film has an acerbic edge about the acceptance of those who dare to be different. Bubbling with energy and ideas. With Michèle Laroque, and Jean-Philippe Ecoffey as the parents and the remarkable Georges Du Fresne as the son.

Review by Anonymous