Ma Vie En Rose (12)

With Fellini-esque kitsch, Ma Vie En Rose (My Life In Pink) opens in a breathtaking Technicolored day-glo, a primarily pink-pastel swirl, an imaginary fantasyscape in the mind of seven-year-old Ludovic, a little boy who dreams of being a girl. Where dreams and reality dare to cross, this magical, mystical film dichotomises and deconstructs transvestism, sexual identity and the innocence of children. The consequences of little Ludovic's actions are a distortion to the adults in their Stepford Wives-style French suburbia, with their neatly structured social codes of normality. At first Ludovic's anti-social cross-dressing is treated as a joke, but after repeated excursions into Carmen Miranda territory, his family are soon torn between love and despair, while the once amiable neighbours reveal themselves as small-minded bigots. The family is ostracised and victimised for their son's wayward behaviour.

So impress your friends with Ma Vie En Rose, as it "fuses high humour and a challenging social message, giving this European arthouser both a unique style and substance that subverts conformity and visually dazzles in equal measures."

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