Ma vie en rose (English translation: My Life in Pink) is a 1997 Belgian film directed by Alain Berliner.
Film synopsis
It tells the story of Ludovic (Georges du Fresne), a child who was born male but consistently insists that he is supposed to be a girl. The film shows the struggle over gender identity he and his family experience.
Plot
When the Fabre family move into their dream house with wonderful neighbors, everything seems perfect except for one thing - the youngest child Ludovic is transgendered; while he was born male, he believes he ought to have been born a girl and wants to wear skirts, earrings, and become female when he is older. The rest of the family humor him as best they can, rationalizing that he is only trying to find his identity and will be over it soon.
Trouble begins when Ludovic befriends Jérôme, one of the neighborhood children, and expresses a desire to marry him when Ludovic is "not a boy". When visiting Jérôme's house, Ludovic enters his sister's room and puts on one of her dresses, not realizing that the sister is actually dead and the room being kept in her honor. Jérôme's mother sees this and she and the rest of the neighbors are horrified. The community turns against Ludovic and, by extension, the rest of the Fabre family. After Ludovic stands in as Snow White in a school play, the parents of the other students send in a petition to have him expelled. Ludovic's father, under strain as an employee of Jérôme's father, is unable to cope leading to fighting within the family. After a particularly bad argument, Ludovic attempts to mend the situation by hiding in a freezer to committ suicide. He is found in time and allowed to wear a skirt to a neighborhood party. While the other neighbors greet him warmly however, the next day the father is fired. The father finds the house is sprayed painted with graffetti. Ludo runs out the house saying he has his period. Hannah, Ludovic's mother, is furious at Ludo for saying that. She mad because it's his fault that everything is going wrong. Hannah wants to set Ludo straight so she cuts his hair to make him look like his brothers. Ludo hates his mother for doing this and want to live with his grandmother.
When Ludo and his grandmother go visit his parent one weekend, the father announced that he has a new job but it's out of town and they have to move.
At their new house, Ludovic is befriended by Christine "Chris" Delvigne, a girl who is also transgendered (she dresses in boyish clothing and wears her hair short). Chris's mother invites Ludovic to her dress-up birthday party, which he attends in a musketeer outfit. Chris, unhappy in her princess outfit, asks them to swap and has her friends force him to do so when he refuses. When Ludovic's mother sees him in the dress, she fears that their troubles are beginning again and lashes out, hitting him until the other party guests restrain her. She follows Ludovic to a billboard where she is shocked to see him in the picture, running away with a living Barbie-like doll named Pam. When she tries to follow, she falls through the ground and awakens at home. She and Ludovic's father assure him that he may wear skirts if he wishes and he in turn assures his mother that he never really intended to run away with Pam.
Title and names
The film's title may be intended as a reference to the song "La Vie en rose" where being en rose (in pink) means being in love; in the film it refers to Ludovic's female-gender identity.
The film features a European doll, named Le monde de Pam, that is a clone of the Barbie doll; the film-doll's brand is fictional.
The gender-ambiguous girl (Ludovic's counterpart) near the end of the film has the same first name as screenwriter Chris Vander Stappen, who has written and directed several films involving lesbian relationships.
Production
Although internationally presented as a Belgian film because of the nationality of Berliner, its director and co-screenwriter, the film is an international co-production between companies in Belgium, the United Kingdom and France — the majority of the production work was done by the French independent-film house Haut et Court and the shooting took place south of Paris, France, near the commune of Évry
The color timing in the film is significant — it changes as parents exit from the school play, switching to cold-blue tones.
American controversy
In the United States the film received an R rating by the Motion Picture Association of America, an unusual decision because the film has minimal sexual content, minimal violence, and mild language. Those opposed to the rating believe that the rating was the result of transphobia.[1]
Awards
The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It also won the Crystal Globe award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
External links
See also
