MADAME ROSA Movie Review

La Vie Devant Soi

Intolerable. This maudlin, sentiment-sodden tearjerker is so intensely and single-mindedly determined to rip at your heartstrings that you should only see it with a cardiologist. Simone Signoret plays the world-weary Madame Rosa, an aging prostitute and holocaust survivor who stays young at heart by taking in street kids as if they were kittens. (Will Mia Farrow star in the Disney remake?) But wait, there's more. Our worst fears become reality when Madame Rosa takes in a little Arab boy, and our noses are rubbed in the Big Question: if these misfits can live together in peace and harmony, why can't we? Can't we all get along? Chances are you'll want to get along, long before Madame Rosa's interminable 105 minutes are over.

NEXT STOP … Madame Sousatzka, Madame X (1966), Madam Satan (1930)

1977 (PG) 105m/C FR IS Simone Signoret, Claude Dauphin, Samy Ben Youb, Michal Bat-Adam; D: Moshe Mizrahi; W: Moshe Mizrahi; C: Nestor Almendros; M: Philippe Sarde. Academy Awards ‘77: Best Foreign Film; Cesar Awards ‘78: Best Actress (Signoret); Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards ‘78: Best Foreign Film. VHS HTV, VES