By all accounts Yves Montand advised his wife Simone Signoret not to play Madame Rosa. Happily for us she could not resist such a gift of a role and picked up both a Cesar and a Donatello for her trouble. The film itself won an Oscar which was probably due not just to its excellence but to its 'message' reflecting the sensitive Middle East politics of the time.
This is a beautifully realised piece by Moshe Mizrahi based upon the novel by Romain Cary who sadly took his own life in 1980. The score by Philippe Sarde and Babket Loubna is wonderfully subtle as are the muted tones of Nestor Almendros' cinematography.
As a former prostitute and holocaust survivor who looks after the children of 'working girls' in a sixth floor apartment, Madame Rosa forms a close bond with a young Algerian boy named Momo whose father has murdered his mother. Simone Signoret's rich and understated performance is a distillation of her vast experience in front of the camera and her innate sensitivity. Unusually for an actress she was seemingly without vanity and certainly piled on the pounds for the character. Rosa is tantamount to a guardian angel to Momo and their scenes together are excellent. His other guardian angel is a film editor played by the director's wife Michal Bat-Adam. Mention must also be made of veteran Claude Dauphin as the local doctor. One cannot help wondering what became of Samy Ben-Yubi who plays Momo as this was his first and last film.
Star and director had such a good rapport that they worked together again on 'Chere inconnue'. Coincidentally Montand starred two years later in 'Womanlight' based on another Romain Carey novel.
'Madame Rosa' beat off some stiff competition to win the Oscar, not least 'A Special Day' starring Sophia Loren. Miss Loren just happens to be the latest and very recent incarnation of Rosa in 'A Life ahead of us.' This remake has already attracted dozens of reviews on IMDb whereas the total reviews for the original amount to just seven. As Shakespeare reminds us: "The present eye praises the present object"!
This is a beautifully realised piece by Moshe Mizrahi based upon the novel by Romain Cary who sadly took his own life in 1980. The score by Philippe Sarde and Babket Loubna is wonderfully subtle as are the muted tones of Nestor Almendros' cinematography.
As a former prostitute and holocaust survivor who looks after the children of 'working girls' in a sixth floor apartment, Madame Rosa forms a close bond with a young Algerian boy named Momo whose father has murdered his mother. Simone Signoret's rich and understated performance is a distillation of her vast experience in front of the camera and her innate sensitivity. Unusually for an actress she was seemingly without vanity and certainly piled on the pounds for the character. Rosa is tantamount to a guardian angel to Momo and their scenes together are excellent. His other guardian angel is a film editor played by the director's wife Michal Bat-Adam. Mention must also be made of veteran Claude Dauphin as the local doctor. One cannot help wondering what became of Samy Ben-Yubi who plays Momo as this was his first and last film.
Star and director had such a good rapport that they worked together again on 'Chere inconnue'. Coincidentally Montand starred two years later in 'Womanlight' based on another Romain Carey novel.
'Madame Rosa' beat off some stiff competition to win the Oscar, not least 'A Special Day' starring Sophia Loren. Miss Loren just happens to be the latest and very recent incarnation of Rosa in 'A Life ahead of us.' This remake has already attracted dozens of reviews on IMDb whereas the total reviews for the original amount to just seven. As Shakespeare reminds us: "The present eye praises the present object"!