Ma Vie En Rose (the movie)

[Asche]

The informal group of trans women (and enbies) that I meet with in NYC has decided to have a movie night after our monthly meetings, and in January, we watched Ma Vie En Rose.  This was a movie that intrigued me when it first came out, but as often happens, I never got around to seeing it when it was in the theaters.  For those who don't know about it, it's about Ludovi, a 7-year-old AMAB in France who sees themself as a girl, and the difficulties the other people around them have with it.

I was kind of disappointed with it.  You see a lot about the adults' difficulties, and even their siblings' and friends' difficulties with it, but Ludovic remains a cypher.  She's just this kid who does charming but weird things, like showing up to the family's housewarming dressed in her sister's clothes, makeup, etc., or talks the neighbor boy into taking part in a pretend wedding.  When they show her face, she's either got a blank look or a standardized smile.  There's no attempt to show what she's feeling or why she does what she does.  She says she's a "garçon-fille", as if that were explanation enough.  In the end, she seems like a mere plot device, something for the cis people around her to react to.

I've been saying I don't want to see movies or videos or shows about trans people that are made by cis people, and this is an example of why.  What you get is the "cis gaze" -- stories told from a cis view and cis sensibility, where trans people aren't really people in their own right, but rather plot devices or projections of cis people's fears or ideas about gender.  I spent most of my life among people to whom it never occurred to want to understand who I really was, they just wanted me to stop being weird.  I don't need to see stories where the same thing happens to the character(s) I would most easily identify with.

[CindyLouFromCO]

I loved that movie. 

I think maybe it was showing how a child is inocent in judgment?

Like she did not see it as a problem but her parents and etc did because she was not so brainwashed at 7 years of age to know that how she feels may disturb others?

Kind of like how hatred of another race is taught..

If I remember correctly I think her grandmother or mother was the first people to be acceptable and encouraging??

It's been over 3 or four years since I watched that movie.

We were trying to find all of the Transgender movies that the transgender character did not die. 

[Asche]

I think maybe it was showing how a child is inocent in judgment?
....

I agree with all of your points about the movie.

However, I guess I was hoping to see someone I could identify with.

I'm reminded of Whoopie Goldberg's reaction when she saw first saw Uhura on Star Trek:

"Well, when I was nine years old Star Trek came on," Goldberg says. "I looked at it and I went screaming through the house, 'Come here, mum, everybody, come quick, come quick, there's a black lady on television and she ain't no maid!'"

I'd like to see a movie with someone like me in it that I can actually relate to.  I guess I found Ludovic as inexplicable as the other characters in the movie found her.

[Rayna]

I recently read the book, This is How it Always Is, by Laurie Frankel. It's told in the omniscient voice, meaning the author goes inside various people's heads as needed. So, much of it is from the mother's point of view, but significant parts are from her AMAB child's view. The author is mother to an AMAB child herself. I enjoyed it and found it engaging, but I didn't dress femme as a child the way this kid does in the book. If you've always known who you were, you may like this coming of age and self discovery story.

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[CindyLouFromCO]

I agree with all of your points about the movie.

However, I guess I was hoping to see someone I could identify with.

I'm reminded of Whoopie Goldberg's reaction when she saw first saw Uhura on Star Trek:
I'd like to see a movie with someone like me in it that I can actually relate to.  I guess I found Ludovic as inexplicable as the other characters in the movie found her.

Yeah, most movies, documentaries and TV shows based on the life of a transgender person or persons seem to be with people that are under 19 or over 50.

I guess it's harder for people in those age groups.

The youth must rely on their parents and the older people tend to have a harder time at transitioning and other factors involved like spouses, children and etc..


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[barbie]

I watched that movie about 13 years ago, and I thought it could be used for educating people on transgender. It was well made.

barbie~~

[Linde]

Yeah, most movies, documentaries and TV shows based on the life of a transgender person or persons seem to be with people that are under 19 or over 50.

I guess it's harder for people in those age groups.

I am definitely older than 50, and I feel transitioning was much easier for me than it is for younger people.  I did not have to think about a job, or about society.  My initial starting of becoming a woman destroyed my marriage, but after that it was not really difficult for me.  In fact, because I am now a woman, my ex and I are now friends.  This would not have happened if I would have continued to be a man.

[Sno]

Such a shame, it's a lovely film rolling the recollection and perspective from an older self - as such it's distorted and whistful, like memory itself.

One of my faves is Boy Meets Girl, but again, it's a homogenised trans narrative (although lovely to watch, sweet and a triumph of optimism).

For a more 'realistic' portrayal, Carlotta is good, in a gritty Australian manner - it also helps immensely that it's actually biograpgical..

Happy watching.


Rowan