La vita davanti a sé

A powerful drama directed by the Egyptian Moshé Mizrahi, adapted by himself from Émile Ajar's (Romain Gary) novel "The Life Before Us", winner of the Goncourt Prize and one of the greatest successes of French literature of the 20th century. It also earned Mizrahi the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1978 and Signoret the César for best actress.

A belated but profoundly human realism, passed among the prostitutes and transsexuals of Pigalle, among Muslims, Jews and Christians, among Nigerians, Vietnamese and Algerians, all united in the struggle for survival and above all in the human condition, which surpasses all differences and unites all peoples and races.

A humanist and deeply inclusive work, avant la lettre, with a memorable performance by Simone Signoret.

If one sees "Madame Rosa" as a heartwarming portrayal of humanity, then I understand dismissing it as sentimental melodrama and an obvious and simplistic message regarding Arab and Jewish relations from a director, Moshé Mizrahi, from Israel and born in Egypt, of a film about the bond between an old Jewish woman and her adopted Muslim boy. That's how Sophia Loren's director-son saw it for "The Life Ahead," based on the same book by Romain Gary as this film, and that remake is largely removed from the heightened tensions in the Middle East during the 1970s, let alone the Holocaust for which the character of Madame Rosa is a survivor. I have no doubt that this is why the 1977 film was awarded the best Foreign Language Film Oscar, but I don't think it's what makes it a good film. The reasons that do probably reflect Mizrahi's training in French filmmaking.

This 1977 film comes across as entirely less manufactured than the 2020 one--somehow more realistic and unpredictable in its meandering plot. The acting headed by Simone Signoret's César Award winning performance in the title role is surely more effective because of this. Plus, unlike the 2020 movie, it doesn't completely pull all the punches on Jewish and Muslim relations. Madame Rosa says some explicitly bigoted things, as does a Muslim father in one scene who is fooled into thinking his son was raised Jewish. Meanwhile, the picture is unusually diverse, religiously and racially, as well as including a black transgender prostitute as a character. What I appreciate most about "Madame Rosa," as opposed to "The Life Ahead," though, is its reflexivity. It's very much a post-Wave French film in that sense. And, it's what is entirely stripped from the 2020 version, reducing the entire thing to a melodramatic message for diversity--noble, perhaps, but bland.

Here, instead, the entire picture is in the end framed as Momo's recorded narration, and that audio is recorded by a bourgeois couple seeking to adopt him. Moreover, the woman, Nadine, is a film editor, and Momo is transfixed by her ability to reverse time. Essentially, then, Nadine and her husband are the surrogate filmmakers within the film recording the same story of Momo's about his adoptive mother, Madame Rosa, that the film is about. The fictional story of the making of the film is placed within it. Additionally, Momo also tries his hand at performing outside of this subplot, by busking with some routine vaguely reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin or, for the French, Max Linder. This act, in turn, seems to be inspired by a street puppetry performance he observes when he meets Nadine early on. This meta-narrative is more interesting than the dialogue on poverty and prostitution (although the prostitution, too, may be seen as another street performance), race and religion and child-mother relations ending in a call for self-determination and euthanasia that concerns the main story. Sappy or not, "Madame Rosa" is cleverly constructed.

for me, it is special. because it represents almost a slice of memories. madame Rosa has many faces. she is silhouette of many persons. and fantastic art of Simone Signoret gives new powerful nuances to an old portrait. story of an old woman and a boy. the lady can be a grandmother or aunt but, in this case, she is only a single pray of time. the boy, if you has a little courage in sauce of imagination, he is you. in moments of old age. sure, the theme is not new. but the work of Gary novel, art of Moshe Mizrahi, the colors of a universe out of reasonable limits, the dialogs and the looks, all is unique. it is recipes of a life lesson. but, in same measure, it remains a confession. to yourself, viewer of an alternative existence, touching story who may be yours.

In an apartment building in Paris a physically and mentally ailing Jewish Auschwitz concentration camp survivor and former prostitute called Madame Rosa (Simone Signoret) looks after the children of working prostitutes, including an Algerian Muslim Arab boy called Momo (Samy Ben Youb). This 1977 French feature film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and is based on the award winning novel by Emile Ajar (Romain Gary) 'La vie deviant soi' ('The Life Before Us' / 'The Life In Front of Oneself') as directed and adapted by Israeli film director Moshe Mizrahi (who'd previously directed the not bad 'I Love You Rosa' in Israel). Having (you sense) certain slight autobiographical elements, as well as good performances (especially from Signoret as the worn out Madame and Gabriel Jabbour as the blind Mr. Hamil) and an at times documentary style to it, it's a film which you feel is trying to bridge divisions between people. It's certainly a very theme rich film dealing with issues like prejudice, marginalisation, identity, ethnicity, culture, religion, poverty, survival (in Auschwitz or on the streets), memory, trauma, old age, senility, euthanasia, the toll of time ("I like it when things go backwards" says Momo) and the shaping of personality by experience. But just because a film is thoughtful and poignant it doesn't mean it can't have humour, as for example when Madame Rosa winds Momo's 'father' up by pretending she's brought Momo up Jewish. Madame Rosa is eventually 'saved from life'. "We cannot live without (somebody to) love".

Am I the only one who mourns the passing of Channel Four and its culture mission in its formative launch under Jeremy Isaacs? Quite apart from classical music and dance, the late night schedule included films such as Madame Rosa and La Maschera, La Nuit de Varennes and Collard's Les Nuits Fauves. Acclaimed film based on an acclaimed novel (part autobiographical) from an author with the ego and genius of a Latin Hemingway, it turns on the plight of a child on the backstreets of Marseilles and the down to earth support both physical and emotional offered by the ageing Madame Rosa played by Signoret in what must be the complete summation of her fabulous movie career. Slice of life would be a description of the plot with all its complexity and richness and gnawing sense of incompleteness - though this movie is complete and fulfilled. It's recent emergence from Kino on BLU RAY and DVD, unfortunately only in the Regions A and 1 format, after a long absence, perhaps 30 odd years since I watched it spellbound on Channel Four TV, is to be applauded to the heavens. I still am spellbound.