Ma Vie En Rose

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Boys will be boys and girls will be girls, but one child isn't so sure in this Belgian comedy drama. 7-year-old Ludovic (Georges DuFresne) is happy, healthy, and good-natured, but there's a bit of a problem -- he has decided that he's a girl. While his parents Hanna (Michele Laroque) and Pierre (Jean-Philippe Ecoffey) try to understand, Ludovic stubbornly refuses to listen to reason from his parents, teachers, or schoolmates. His fondness for wearing girl's clothes and frequent pronouncements to strangers that he's going to be a woman when he grows up become increasingly worrying, and things come to a head when Ludovic declares that when he's older, he plans to marry Jerome (Julien Riviere), the boy next door. It hardly helps that Pierre's boss, Albert (Daniel Hanssens), is also Jerome's father, and that he's notoriously closed-minded about gender issues. Will Pierre keep his job? Will the stress spoil Pierre and Hanna's marriage? And will Ludovic find the right shade of lipstick? Ma Vie En Rose was the first feature for director and screenwriter Alain Berliner. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Surround
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Subtitle: Spanish, French, English
• Features:
  • • Digitally mastered audio and video
    • Production notes
    • Interactive menus
    • Original language: French 2-channel [Dolby Surround]
    • Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
    • Scene selections

AWARDS

• European Film Academy

•     Won Best Screenplay - 1997 (Alain Berliner, Chris Van der Stappen)

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association

•     Won Best Foreign Language Film - 1997

• National Board of Review

•     Nominated Best Foreign Film - 1997

• Telluride Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 1997

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Director:

  Alain Berliner

• Producer:

  Carole Scott

• Screenwriter:

  Alain Berliner, Chris Van der Stappen

• Cinematographer:

  Yves Cape

• Composer (Music Score):

  Dominique Dalcan

• Editor:

  Sandrine Deegen

• Production Designer:

  Veronique Melery

• Costume Designer:

  Karen Muller-Serreau

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Ludovic Henault, Thomas Gauder, Philippe Baudhuin

• Special Effects:

  Brice Lajeunesse, SPARX

• Casting:

  Brigitte Moidon

REVIEW:

• A charming film that packages social commentary as comic fable, Alain Berliner's Ma Vie en Rose is one of the most convincing films about the clash between childhood fantasy and adult reality. The film takes seriously both the genuine conviction of its protagonist, seven-year-old Ludovic, that he is meant to be a girl, and the accompanying dilemmas faced by his loving but concerned parents. Berliner achieves the rare feat of treating just about all of the film's characters, from Ludo himself to his fearful neighbors, with fairness. When Ludo stages a mock wedding ceremony with the boy next door, who also happens to be the son of his father's boss, the resulting hysteria of the boy's parents is neither endorsed nor condemned. Rather than pointing a finger, Berliner shows us how people react to difference, whether with understanding or hostility. Ma vie en rose works best as a social satire, in which suburban conformity is discouraged as much as individuality is lauded. Both buoyant and perceptive, it is one of the most intelligently crafted celebrations of self-expression ever committed to the screen. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi