Advantages: The Music! The acting especially Marion Cotillard!
Disadvantages: Some important parts of Edith Piaf's life missing or glossed over.

..."La Vie En Rose" (Life in Pink) is the title of a 1946 song performed by Edith Piaf who also wrote the lyrics. The same title was also chosen as the title for the 2007 film about the lyricist and singer. Well, the title for English-speaking countries anyway. For French speaking countries, the film goes by the title La Mome (the kid). Why the film is given different titles is a mystery to me. The film version for English-speaking countries is in the French language with subtitles and the title is still in French!! If anyone knows, I would be interested. I was quite excited when I heard about the film. Directed and co-written by Oliver Dahan (co-writted by Isobelle Sobelman), La Vie en Rose tells the life story of Edith Piaf, the little sparrow, the most notorious and loved French singer of all times. Dahan announced that he did... Read review

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Advantages: A strong central performance from Marion Cotillard.
Disadvantages: A confusing narrative structure and a lack of sweet to temper the bitter.

.... But striking though her voice was I have always found her rather grandiose and a tad melodramatic. However, you cannot fault the quality of the recordings, whether she was singing solo or backed by a full orchestra, you can hear every syllable and sigh as it was intended. From “Les Enfants de la Cloche” to the iconic “Je Ne Regrette Rien” there are plenty of recognisable tunes here. Christopher Gunning’s original score fills the gaps with booming brass, serious piano refrains and lots of accordion lest we forget the film is terribly French. He fits the music to the mood, though his use of music box-mimicking piano motifs during her childhood tragedies feels a little clichéd. “La Vie En Rose” is certainly no bed of roses. The writing and direction let the Piaf’s story down by focussing on the tragedies to almost the exclusion of the triumphs... Read review

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Advantages: Moving, funny, intelligent
Disadvantages: None except subtitles occasionally hard to see

...I haven't really looked much in the Entertainment section of ciao before, and browsing through it today I noticed it had a whole LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender to decode the jargon) film section. It also had a long list of films, hardly any of which have been reviewed, which seemed a real shame! Trying to put that right, I thought I'd review this little-known French movie, "Ma Vie en Rose" ("My Life in Pink") which is a very accessible movie for everyone to watch- you don't need to be an expert on LGBT issues to get it! I don't often watch French movies to be honest because, whether this is true or not, the few I've seen have always been so depressing- well-acted and everything, but so introspective and over-long, taking forever to make their point. I saw this 1998 movie a couple of years ago at my local "art house... Read review

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Advantages: Great taste, delicious and good for you, easy to carry around.
Disadvantages: None

...100ml bottle contains: 80 kcal, 2.0g protein, 0.4g fat, 17.0g carbs. Banana, Pumpkin & Kiwi Another favourite of mine. Don’t think it’s strange to drink pumpkin juice because you are not going to taste it anyway. Your taste buds know this shot is full of banana and kiwi flavour – sweet but not too sweet because kiwi tones it down. Ingredients: Banana Puree (26%), Orange Juice Concentrate (24%), Pumpkin Juice Concentrate (24%), Carrot Juice Concentrate, Kiwi Pulp (8%), Lemon Juice Concentrate, Acerola Cherry Concentrate (1.5%), Apple Pectin 100ml bottle contains: 69 kcal, 1.6g protein, 0.3g fat, 14.9g carbs. Ok, now it’s time to stop reading and start tasting! Bon Appétit! C’est la VIE!... Read review

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Advantages: Cranberry. different. Hebal. Refreshing.
Disadvantages: Little product information.

...It was a Wednesday and Tristan had decided (for some unknown reason) that he deserved a beer. I agreed, on the condition that I could have a “girly drink”. Wandering down the girly drink section of Tesco I began to wonder why I had made that condition! I can’t drink any thing with peaches in, which wrecks drinking most tropical mixes (unless I want to be sick afterwards) in fact I’m not keen on most alcopops, I’m more of a beer drinker myself! But something was still propelling me to something sweet, probably sickly and undoubtedly alcoholic! While I was ogling those I couldn’t afford and those I couldn’t drink, I found something new; Vive la vie. The three bottles were squished in at the end of the section and they looked somehow different. So, I grabbed all three (making sure there was no peach involved) and headed back to himself... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: ---
Disadvantages: --

...Most classics aren't bad. I've learnt that. They ride the waves of ups and downs nicely, and while they aren't particularly relevant anymore, they're a pleasant listen. But some are so criminally overrated, blown out of the water and notoriously painful that they deserve a smacking. When an album is bad by reputation, I've always found that you can find a lot of negative reviews on the product, but nothing really explaining why the album is so awful. Well, how about we turn that around here and now. How about I take Guns n Roses classic, Appetite for Destruction, and tell you why it's so bad. Appetite for Destruction is bad because there's no singing in it. The stuff that passes for vocals is - probably - what would happen if you taught an exotic bird to talk and then had it squawk about sex for an hour in an electric chair... Read review

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Advantages: Makes a sticky subject more entertaining
Disadvantages: Doesn't cover all the finer points

...Grammar has long been out of fashion and is considered boring, but it gives us the bricks with which to build our own sentences in a language, rather than learning stock phrases and sentences that do not necessarily suit our every need. La Grammaire en Clair is the only book I have come across that brings an element of humour into the learning and practice of grammar. Each grammar point is afforded either one or two pages, depending on its complexity. The book's particular appeal stems in part from its use of comic strips for each topic, where the grammar being taught is used in context, often in several different ways. An explanation follows, and this sometimes includes a table showing, for example, the different ways that adjectives form their feminine and plural forms. Each section gives several... Read review

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Advantages: Beauty and perfume
Disadvantages: Thorns

...The sun is shining, the garden is beginning to dry up after being ankle deep in mud - and I am thinking of roses! In fact, I planted a new one yesterday after being forced to wait for t