In
keeping with our focus on transgender issues, John Charles reviews the
film Ma Vie en Rose...Contact this editor/reviewer if you have a book to be reviewed.
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Ma
Vie en RoseStarring George du Fresne
Michelle Laroque
Jean-Phillipe Ecoffey
Helene Vincent
1997. 88 minutes running time.
French with English subtitles
Breaking with the tradition of giving a film’s brief synopsis followed by the reviewer’s impressions, this film begs a different treatment. At the outset, it needs to be said that “Ma Vie en Rose” is one of the best films this reviewer has seen in any genre, about any subject matter. It is highly recommended, and will strike a cord within anyone who falls outside the bell curve of what society calls normal. It will be of particular interest to transgendered people.
This Belgian-made film is neither didactic nor heavy handed in dealing with a seven-year-old boy’s cross-dressing and how his family and neighbors respond to it. It treats the issue of what being transgendered is in a light way, yet at no time does it undermine the seriousness of the boy’s experience. It never preaches, and because of this restraint, makes its points clearly and beautifully. The director, Alain Berliner, has succeeded in showing us through Ludovick’s own eyes how he experiences his gender identity.
The child actor who plays Ludovick, 11-year-old du Fresne, gave a flawless, nuanced, beautifully convincing performance, so much so that a quick Internet search was required to see if he was, in fact, transgendered; he is not. The screenwriter, however, Chris Vander Stappen, is.
Ludovick is a sweet, innocent boy who doesn’t understand what all the fuss is about. He dresses up in elegant outfits, and appears in them at very inopportune times, creating embarrassing situations for his parents, and problems with the neighbors. Of particular difficulty is Ludo’s crush on Jerome, the boy who lives next door, who is also the son of his father’s boss. Although Ludovick is in love with Jerome, and states clearly that they will marry “when I’m not a boy,” there is nothing sexual in either their relationship or understanding of marriage. This is not a film about sexual orientation. It’s a film about gender identity.
The film often depicts Ludovick’s retreat into the fantasy world of his favorite television show, starring “Pam,” a curvaceous, Barbie-doll-like figure, and we see how his fantasies are a comfort to him, and how Pam is a role model. As Ludo steadfastly refuses to budge in his conviction that he is a girl, his parents grow increasingly frustrated, and take him to a psychologist, who fails to either help Ludo or prevent things from unraveling. Ludovick’s father loses his job, a direct result of Ludo and Jerome’s wedding role-playing games. Ludovick’s grandmother is the only one who keeps an open mind and an even keel about Ludo, and accepts him as he is.
We’re privy to a child’s logic when Ludo’s sister explains to him how X and Y chromosomes combine in different ways to decide one’s gender, and Ludo comes to understand what’s happened; his missing X chromosome must have ended up in the trash, resulting in a terrible mistake. “It’s scientific,” he declares, and no one can convince him otherwise.
Just as Berliner has showed us through Ludo’s eyes what his experience feels like, he has also beautifully succeeded in showing, again with an easy hand and a light touch, the frustrations of his parents. His treatment of Ludo’s mother and father is admirably fair-handed. While these are not deeply developed characters, they are by no means stereotypically drawn. Berliner does not depict them as monstrous people and one has to applaud his insight and restraint in not doing so. Although they’re frustrated with Ludovick, they clearly love their little boy, and this is made very clear.
This film goes a long way in offering insight and understanding into the experience of being transgendered, for both parents of transgendered children and the children themselves. By taking a serious look into the transgendered experience and blending humor with compassion, Berliner has accomplished what a more downbeat, heavy-handed treatment would have failed to do. Combined with George du Fresne’s brilliant performance, which was, in the end, the heart and soul of this film, there is no negative criticism that can be made about Ma Vie en Rose.