après ma vie en rose, l'déluge

Borrowing the story, look, and setting, but not feel, of Edward Scissorhands, and lending its story to Boys Don't Cry and Billy Elliot, Ma vie en rose is more than just a heartstring-puller with a clever title.

It tells the story of an innocent boy who wants to be a girl, for which he is shunned by his suburban neighbors and even his family. Avoiding Edward Scissorhands' technicolor fantasy on the one hand, and Boys Don't Cry's bleak trailer trash reality on the other, Ma vie relies on excellent performances to deepen an otherwise formulaic plot. In particular, Georges Du Fresne, who plays the boy, Ludovic, is touching, innocent, and much more youthful than his twelve years. He makes us really care about this impossibly angelic boy and his conflicted-but-loving family.

Of course, back in 1997, the story of a doe-eyed kid overcoming evil conformity to assert his/her individuality was not quite so trite as Harvey Weinstein has since made it. I believe it was Chocolat that finally made a mockery of this mini-genre, with its depiction of a single (*gasp*) mother who dares to eat chocolate (*gasp*) during Lent in a traditional French town. Oh, for those innocent, golden days of the 90s...