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(7 members)

Fantastic and horribly sad

I found this movie very touching, and frankly, I'm surprised by some of the negative comments in these reviews.

Why should people care about Alys Robi? Well, why should anyone care about anyone? The fact is that this woman did something that very few people - especially women - did. Today, in the time of reality shows, tacky recording contracts and the wide reach of television, radio and internet, it may be easier to make a splash, but in the 40s, a young québecoise reached out and captivated a large part of the world - and with real charm, not plastic manufactured Britney-style charm.

Pascale Bussières is one of my favourite actresses, from anywhere, and I found a nice parallel in the development of her career and that of Robi's - obviously the parallel doesn't go as far as asylums and I hope it never does!

In any case, Bussières does an amazing job - both acting and singing - and her portrayal of Robi's pain, ambition and need for love touched me deeply. I found myself leaving the cinema a little shaken and wondering how we humans, remain still and unfortunately, quite barbaric.

The things that we have done and still do to people in mental institutions with a complete lack of respect for for a person's dignity are truly apalling. Denise Filiatrault's constant depiction of the contrast between the grim horror of the asylum and the flamboyant luxury of Robi on stage is not intended to be subtle. There was, after all, not much subtlety in Alys Robi's life. She was out there and loved it.

Robi's main crime was being a woman in a time when all of Québec was ruled still by the Catholic Church - a time before women's liberation. A time when a woman's only choices were to pop out babies for a working class husband or struggle to be heard, and by doing so earn herself a reputation as a whore and a bitch. To some extent, this is still true.

I found this film very compelling - for the soundtrack, the acting, the story and the examination of the social content.

George Jehan

{7 votes}

January 15, 2005

A Great Tribute!!

Having heard my Mom talk about this famous Québec Diva,Alys Robi, I was eager and anxious to see her life story being shown on the giant screen. I was quite impressed in so many ways. Alys Robi led quite a life and I greatly admire a WOMAN who achieved all she did in that ERA! (40's)

There were many touching emotional scenes in the movie. The scene where her brother died and the mental illness scenes brought tears to my eyes. The music,especially the cabaret scenes,as well as the beautiful costumes(those gorgeous stuning evening gowns) were added bonus and enjoyment to the film.

The cast did a great job,but,of course,Pascale Bussières' portrayal of this fascinating woman showing the ups and downs of this ambitious Alys Robi was extraordinary and again proves how great an actress, singer and dancer she really is. I am looking forward to the live show at the Casino in January where I hear the real Alys Robi at age 81 will be performing one memorable song.

Go see this Québec film!! BRAVO to all, including Denise Filatreault!!

Vicky Parisella

{23 votes}

January 2, 2005

Buissières shines as Alys Robi

This might be one of the best French Canadian dramas to be released in a long time. Forget the high romantic kitch of "Seraphin", "Ma Vie en Cinemascope" offers a heartbreaking true story which features one of the finest performances of the year in Pascale Buissieres' portrayal of the 30s-40s French-Canadian pop star Alys Robi.

This is not a perfect film by any means. It opens as Robi is having a lobotomy performed on her following a long spiral into madness in 1951, and time after time during the course of the movie, the screenplay brings us back to Robi's time in the lunatic asylum. While this mechanism serves to display the stark contrast between the high Hollywood glamour of Robi's success and her later straightjackets, it also seems to have a starker meaning: ambition comes at a price. Of course, this is not universally true, and besides, I should think the average viewer would like to bask in Robi's rising star for awhile instead of watching it fade over and over again. The constant reminder of things to come is hardly productive at a point, especially given her time in hospital was comparatively short.

Nonetheless, there is a powerful motivation to see this film, which lies in the utter pleasure provided by watching someone like Pascale Buissières in a role like this. She sings in a surprisingly warm voice (all her own), and when she performs Robi's numbers, she's radiant with energy. Robi's material wasn't always the most sophisticated, but as Buissières plays her, the audience can well understand how she captivated the world with her personality as well as her music (and maybe her fabulous clothes too...). Her scenes in the madhouse are also well played, but go see "Ma Vie en Cinemascope" for Buissières as an utter enchantress of song; it's well worth the cost of admission.

E J

{28 votes}

December 30, 2004

Poor Pascale...

Apon hearing about the Jutra nominees, I decided to give Ma vie... a look despite my dislike for the work Denise Filiatrault. As I suspected, it looked like a made for tv movie, using the same old faces we see on a regular basis on our local tele-romans and a load of clichés... keep in mind Filiatrault also directed mini-series about Ms Robi. Why not leave this biopic in the hands of a real film director, and not a hack like Filatrault, who is better suited for TV.

Poor Pacale, who gives a great performance and sings herself, surely deserves a Jutra for her role, but the film as a whole is weak and didn't deserve much more than nominations for costume design, art direction and musical score.

Jim Levesque

January 27, 2005

The life and times of Alys Roby, legendary Québec singing diva from the 40's

Beyond Pascale Buissières's inspired performance as the troubled (then just tragic) dive and a few choice moments there is virtually nothing to recommend about this movie. Well, maybe the soundtrack but I pretty much assumed that was a given, and then only if you're into the golden oldies.

The cinematography is quite vibrant by moments but the overall composition of the thing is just a mess from the narrative structure to some the most melodramatic dialogue I've heard in quite a while.

Frankly, I'm pretty sure that had this movie not come out at all we'd all be pretty much still in the dark as to who Alys Roby was. The great failure of this biopic is that it fails to really illuminate why any of us should care about her, then or now.

Pedro Eggers

{2 votes}

January 13, 2005

Good, but not great.

The story zooms through different events of Alys Roby's life, the great canadian singer. I definetely think that Pascale Bussières does a good job in the lead, she is also very good with her singing skills. It is a fairly good entertainment and melodramatic movie (yes, both!) trying to follow the singer woes and passions through different events of her career. I found the film to be a bit too strangely paced with too many flashbacks in it, and maybe a bit too superficial as well. But, the scenario, music and dialogue are good.

Valerie Augier

{3 votes}

December 30, 2004

Tico Tico for Alys

That movie will not be like Alice in Wonderland, not it will be a few years in the life of a little french canadian singer who had some kind of success in the 40's and 50's, singing south american hits in the redlight of Montreal and made a small world tour and got sick in her mind et passed many years in mental hospital. In 2004 it is Celine Dion who pass a few years in Las Vegas, every generation has his big star.

Robert Boulay

{7 votes}

November 4, 2004

Mmm... I'm not so sure...

Although I have faith in Denise Filliatrault and she is definitely not known for making mistakes, I am not so sure that this movie will be all that great... I am afraid it will be very similar to the TV serie that we had about 5 or 6 years ago with Joëlle Morin as Alys Roby. However, the life of that lady being so interesting, I think this will probably be a good movie... I hope anyway !

Caroline Vigneault

{10 votes}

November 1, 2004

It's coming

Obviously I didn't watch the movie 'cause it's not release for the moment.

I'm agree with you Martin that people under 30 years old will not be really interested to watch this movie.I'm under 30 and the only interest that I have for this movie is the fact that my favorite actor and singer have a small part of text.That's the only reason why I want to see "Ma vie en cinémascope".Eumm....something that I find weird:why does it have this place to discuss about this film in English?This is a FRENCH movie.So....

Parlons Francais!

momo belan

{6 votes}

October 29, 2004

For fans only

I know that normally, Denyse Filiatrault is a great director and release films that please everybody but this one isn't one of them. This movie will mostly please fans of Alys Robi. So most people under the age of 30 don't actually know about her or care enough to see yet another movie about her life.

So even with a talented actress like Pascale Buissière in the lead role this movie won't appeal to me because i just don't care enough about Alys Robi to pay 10,00 on this movie

Martin Rioux

{4 votes}

August 24, 2004

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