`Ma Vie en Rose’ goes where few have gone

“Ma Vie en Rose.” Directed by Alain Berliner. Written (in French, with English subtitles) by Chris Vander Stappen and Berliner. Running time: 88 minutes. Rated R. Nightly, March 9-12, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville.

Renee Richards meets Romper Room in Alain Berliner’s “Ma Vie en Rose” (“My Life in Pink”), a Belgian film of great humor, unexpected style, humanity and dignity that bravely goes where few directors — and 7-year-old boys — have gone before: Into the colorful, angst-ridden world of childhood transvestitism.

Ludovic Fabre, played with astonishing poise by Georges du Fresne, is a young boy suddenly convinced he is really a full-fledged fille. Preferring pink dresses to torn jeans, high heels to high tops, Ludovic lives his life in the protective shell of a daydream while seeking to learn the puzzling truth to his sexual identity.

Certain that something went wrong while forming in his mother’s womb, he goes to his sister Zoe (Cristina Barget), who suggests in the painful midst of menstrual cramps that instead of being born with the female XX chromosomes, Ludo got the male XY after his “other X fell in the garbage.”

It is an explanation that may seem ridiculous to adults, but to Ludovic, whose youth and naivete allow him to believe in a world of limitless possibilities and endless dreams, it makes perfect sense.

Indeed, Ludovic’s youth frees him to be his unique self. When his family throws a party to celebrate their move into a fashionable suburb of Paris, he attends the event in full drag as if it were the most natural thing to do. When he decides he wants to marry his father’s boss’ son, Jerome (Julien Riviere), he conducts a mock ceremony without fear of consequences or repercussions. Who else but a young boy, as yet untouched by social constructs or prejudice, could do any of these things — let alone make the self-proclaimed statement that he’s a “boygirl” — without realizing that his life will be forever damned because of it?

“Ma Vie en Rose” is as much about being born an outcast as it is about having one born to you. Ludovic’s parents, Hanna (Michele Laroque) and Pierre (Jean-Philippe Ecoffey), are good people who love their son. While they initially find Ludo’s obstinacy a peculiar distraction, they soon find themselves struggling with it as their neighbors turn against them and they are forced to leave their home when Pierre loses his job. Understandably concerned, baffled and embarrassed, they are never demonized by director Berliner, who allows them increasing moments of frustration while never stooping to deliver Movie of the Week homilies on tolerance.

With surrealistic set designs reminiscent of Tim Burton’s “Edward Scissorhands,” “Ma Vie en Rose” offers no easy answers to Ludovic’s sexuality because Berliner knows there are no easy answers or tidy conclusions in life. There are, however, complex human stories that sometimes confound even while they entertain, which this film offers on a grand scale.

Grade: A-

Video of the Week

“Eve’s Bayou.” Written and directed by Kasi Lemmons. Running time: 109 minutes. Rated R (for language, some violence, adult content).

Writer-director Kasi Lemmons’ debut film about the secrets and lies within a Louisiana family was one of 1997’s best and most affecting — especially as it is told through the troubled eyes of young Eve Batiste (the startling Jurnee Smollett), who states in the film’s engrossing opening moments, “The summer I killed my father, I was 10 years old.”

Thus begins a richly atmospheric film about love, deceit, voodoo and murder that recalls the best of Tennessee Williams as it gradually strips away the poisonous layers of a southern family that must come to terms with its womanizing patriarch, Louis, played convincingly by Samuel L. Jackson in one of his better roles.

This wonderful film is a great big Southern gothic soap opera that delights with grand performances from all of the Batiste women, especially Mozelle (Debbi Morgan of “All My Children”), a crazed woman of a certain age who can wound with a sharp glance, a biting word — or a swiftly raised hand. Gifted with second sight and cursed to never have a husband who eventually won’t leave her a widow, she is at her best when pitted against her rival, a voodoo-wielding vixen named Elzora (Diahann Carroll, whose fiery verve is reminiscent of Mothra’s in 1964’s “Godzilla vs. The Thing”). See this for the sheer battle of it all.

Grade: A-

Christopher Smith, a writer and critic who lives in Brewer, reviews films each Monday in the NEWS.