Imagine a seven-year-old lad who states in full sincerity of conviction, “I’m a boy now, but one day I’ll be a girl.” Anyone who heard him would probably smile or chuckle and think to himself, “Kid, you’ve got a lot to learn!” Now, suppose that this boy routinely plays with dolls, wears dresses and lipstick to a neighborhood get-together, and organizes a mock wedding with himself as bride and the boss’ seven-year-old son as groom! Not quite so funny anymore, is it?

This is the premise for a brilliantly original Franco-Belgium film Ma Vie en Rose (My Life in Pink) by a bright new light of the European film-making world, Alain Berliner. For a first-time film, it is a remarkably creative success. In fact, it would be remarkable as a film produced at the height of an established film-maker’s career. Part fable and part real drama, this film is fully fantastic.

Pierre (Jean-Philippe Ecoffey) and Hanna (Michele Laroque) have recently moved with their family of four children to a house in a suburban neighborhood near Paris. They are a loving Brady-bunch-like family. Three of the children are normal, well-adjusted children but the fourth, seven-year-old Ludovic (or Ludo, played by Georges Du Fresne) is “different.” His favorite playthings are Pam (Barbie-like, for Americans) dolls. Ludo has a soft, somewhat feminine appearance, wears his hair long, and likes to play with his mother’s lipstick. His open-minded parents ignore these inclinations, smiling a bit and assuming that it is just a phase that Ludo will soon outgrow. Pierre and Hanna organize a house-warming party, inviting their new neighbors that include Pierre’s boss and his wife. We observe three of the couples in their respective homes getting ready for the party and, in an interesting bit of symbolism, each wife asks her husband to help with her zipper, as if this little piece of male-female relationship neatly sums up the conventional marital partnership. One couple is frisky and overtly sexual with one another as they dress. Albert, who is Pierre’s boss, and his wife, Lisette, are physically distant and emotionally cool with one another. Pierre and Hanna seem the most admirably well-adjusted couple. He appears steady and dependable, she a bit more spirited and impulsive, but both are warm and loving.

The guests arrive, introductions are underway, and all seems to be flowing as gaily as one might hope in meeting new neighbors, when, suddenly, Ludo appears wearing a pink princess dress and lipstick. Though a bit embarrassed, Pierre and Hanna laugh it off and dismiss it with a light-hearted joke. No harm done! Ludo even makes a new friend of Jerome, the seven-year-old son of Albert and Lisette. Things take a turn for the worse, however, when Ludo later professes his “love” for Jerome, and especially when Albert and Lisette walk in on the play of Ludo and Jerome and find them in the midst of a mock marriage ceremony. It doesn’t help matters that Ludo is wearing a pink dress taken from the closet of Albert and Lisette’s daughter, whom they had lost as a child.

On another occasion, Ludo talks matter-of-factly about when he will grow up and become a girl. Ludo views himself as a work in progress! After overhearing a discussion of the biology of chromosomes, Ludo reasons that when God was handing out chromosomes, Ludo’s second X chromosome (females are “XX”) was accidentally dropped in the trash and that he had been inadvertently given a Y chromosome (males are “XY”). Ludo is confident that God will fix the mistake as soon as he notices it. Ludo observes his older sister getting cramps as a symptom of menarche. Later, he has a tummy ache and, with it, the happy conviction that he will now truly become a young lady. Ludo is so confident in his belief that he was meant to be a girl, that he is entirely surprised when his eccentricity begins to trigger negative responses. He begins to be ostracized and bullied by schoolmates. Jerome abandons him out of fear that he will end up in Hell (obviously, he got a stern talking to after the marriage ceremony fiasco!). Whatever Ludo may think he is, the school and the neighbors are certain they know exactly what he is: a threat!

Pierre and Hanna are alarmed, but try stoically to deal with the problem, reasonably and calmly. Ludo needs help. They try to reason with him – to no avail. All right then . . . he will have to be reconditioned. Hanna arranges visits for Ludo to a female child psychologist. Ludo is disinterested in the psychologist, so his mother and she discuss him as he plays nearby with toys. Pierre resolves to take time from his busy schedule to spend more time with Ludo, teaches him soccer, and signs him up for a soccer team. Ludo gets pummeled by the tough little boys. Ludo, however, is listening only to the inner forces and his conviction that he is a “girlboy” remains unshaken. Only his grandmother (played by Helen Vincent) seems to accept him “as is.” From time to time, Ludo escapes through fantasy into a candy-colored world governed by Pam, the Barbie-like doll.

The home of Ludo and his family is vandalized with graffiti. Ludo’s parents are forced to take him out of school in response to a petition signed by the parents of all the other children in his school. His mother must now drive him a long distance to a private school. Pierre gets fired from his job by his intolerant boss. Ultimately, the entire family must pick up and leave the old neighborhood, where they have become something of a scandal. As they drive away, the pink dress earlier worn by Ludo is blown out of a suitcase and lands at the feet of an on-looking Jerome. Jerome looks at it admiringly, starts to pick it up, but it is quickly kicked away by his father. The stress on Pierre and Hanna created by Ludo’s problem tears at the fabric of their marriage and family stability until finally they teeter on the brink of becoming abusive. It is the grandmother – who represents tolerance in this film – that helps them find their way home, both literally and figuratively.

Ma Vie en Rose is an easily misunderstood film, especially because each viewer brings to the viewing their own gender, sexual orientation, and attitudes and views regarding the emotionally-charged arena of gender issues. Even among reviewers, one sees how much an interpretation derives from the writer’s own perspectives. One reviewer, for example, states simplistically that “this little boy is being persecuted.” The film itself, by contrast, is at no small trouble to sympathetically depict not only the challenges that exist for Ludo, but also the strains that inevitably exist for his family by the mere fact of his being atypical. Another reviewer states that Ma Vie en Rose is a “film that explores homosexuality and that “the entire point of the film is to make the viewers examine their beliefs about homosexuality.” Not so! Ludo, at age seven, hasn’t the smallest understanding or interest in sexuality. In fact, Berliner is at great pains to provide us with no hint as to whether Ludo grows up to be homosexual, heterosexual, or bisexual, transsexual, transvestite, or even just effeminate. This is a film simply about gender identity at age seven and about the need for tolerance for the uniqueness of each individual. It’s probably a safe bet that Ludo isn’t headed for a career in professional Soccer, but any further assumptions about Ludo’s future are pure speculation. This is not even a film about gender confusion. Ludo is not confused; he is certain! The confusion rests with those all around him. It is the parents, in this story, that ultimately make progress toward overcoming their confusion. The issue here is society’s attitude toward sissified boys, not society’s homophobia (however evident and important that issue might also be).

What this film is about is broader, even, than the topics of gender and sexuality. It is about being different as a child and the difficulties that creates in a black-and-white society. Then, secondly, it is about the difficulties faced by parents who have a child that is different -- given societal intolerance. It is about the need to understand that each person is unique and therefore incomparable with any other person. Ludo is not merely different – he is, more importantly, special. The capacity to appreciate what is special about a person is a big part of the capacity to love. Therefore, Ma Vie en Rose is, in the end, a film about love. It is Ludo who teaches us and those around him how to love – by patiently standing his ground!

A subject as potentially titillating as transgender tendencies in a seven-year-old could easily have been sensationalized to increase commercial value through controversy. Berliner not only declined that kind of exploitation but also avoided simplistic pop-psychology interpretations or bleeding-heart finger-pointing. Instead, he has artfully explored a sensitive set of issues with such a purity of vision that we walk away from the film with a deeper appreciation of the need for tolerance without that preached-to feeling. The film sustains an upbeat tone.

For one thing, there is an even-handedness in Berlinger’s approach. Hanna and Pierre are not callous, insensitive types. Quite the contrary, they are better than average parents. In the beginning, they accept Ludo’s eccentricities, give him latitude, and assume that he is just going through a phase. Hanna, especially, is open-minded and, by the conventional standards of parenting, perhaps even indulgent. Ludovic’s siblings, who are not particularly emphasized, are portrayed as largely supportive and even protective of their “weird” little brother. So, this is anything but an intolerant family. Berliner wants us to fully understand that if one little eccentric child can raise this much havoc for a family as generally strong and flexible as this one, just imagine how much worse the impact might be in a family with lesser human resources. It’s no picnic raising a child who is viewed by society as a threat or a problem. It forces us to generalize the issue rather than laying it at the doorstep of one troubled family. Hanna and Pierre love their son – they just don’t know how to cope with his obsession that he is a girl. We get an honest understanding of their exasperation. We sympathize with both the child and the parents.

Ma Vie en Rose is thought provoking even while it entertains. Take, for example, the issue of how conservative, conventional society views tomboys in comparison with sissified boys. A young girl who prefers baseball to dolls, rides a horse like a banshee in the wind, or bloodies the nose of a neighborhood bully is not only tolerated, but, to some extent, revered. Tough little girls are endearing. It is assumed that they will grow out of it as soon as estrogen kicks into high gear. But a boy who plays with dolls or plays hop scotch with the girls is a pariah. Heaven forbid he should don a dress or lipstick! This contrast, though always implicit in the film, is finally made explicit with the entrance near the end of Christine, a rough-and-tumble tomboy, who looks as much like a boy as Ludo looks like a girl.

An amazing thing to consider about this film is that it is clearly designed to be viewed mainly by adults yet the story is told almost entirely from the point of view of Ludovic. It is adult subject matter presented in the context of a film about a child!

I can’t end this review without commenting on the importance of color in this film. To start with the obvious, the film is named “My Life in Pink.” The obvious meaning is that Ludo views his life as occurring in pink, the color of baby girls, rather than in the masculine color of blue. Ludo wants nothing more than to look pretty in pink. Another less obvious interpretation would be the contrast with the black-and-white mentality of the intolerant elements in society in relation to gender, sexual orientation, and conformity in general. Still, that hardly begins to explore the role that color plays in this film. Berliner uses vivid colors all through the film – mostly pastels and fluorescent hues rather than the basic spectrum. Cars, clothing, billboards, houses, and nature are all decked out in wild array. The rich pastel colors are especially evident in the fantasy scenes in Pam-doll paradise. Each time Ludo suffers a setback in acceptance by his parents or the larger society, the palette of colors fades a bit. This highly creative filming tactic adds a subconscious sensibility to our conscious understanding by contrasting the bright hues of innocent dreams with the darkness of mind that is rigid intolerance.

The success of this film derives ultimately from the believability of the characters. The actors and actresses provided highly natural performances that shaped the illusion of an everyday kind of family and neighborhood. The performance of Georges Du Fresne as Ludovic establishes him as one of the top child actors in Europe. He had all the requisite gender ambiguity in his appearance that was obviously needed for this role. His performance also had all the wide-eyed sweetness and serenity needed to convince us of the full sincerity of Ludo’s unshakeable conviction.

Ma Vie en Rose won the Golden Globe award for Best Foreign Film in 1997, yet was not even nominated in that category for an Oscar. It was also widely recognized in 1997 with awards from numerous film festivals, which makes the slight by the Academy harder to understand. This movie is rated R for profanity and mature themes and has a running time of 88 minutes. It is in French with English subtitles.

Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age