Ma Vie en Rose visually complex, humorous

Deep and complicated issues lie underneath the dance music, bright colors and fantasy dream sequences of Ma Vie en Rose (My Life in Pink). The film, which won a Golden Globe award, is showing tonight by OFS. Directed by Belgium native Alain Berliner, Ma Vie en Rose tells the story of Ludovic, a boy who insists that he's a girl. Played with angelic serenity by Georges du Fresne, Ludovic's story touches on issues of intolerance and prejudice while remaining remarkably light and oftentimes humorous.

From the opening sequence, Ma Vie en Rose maps the reactions of the people surrounding Ludovic from humor to intolerance. When he wears his mother's dress to a neighborhood picnic, Ludovic is introduced as the "jokey" child, garnering laughter and applause. As Ludovic continues to insist that he is a girl, this laughter turns ugly. To Ludovic, his behavior and desires are natural. His dreams and wants are those of the "average" young girl.

For a film which takes as its central subject the relationship between the inner person and the outer body, the inner thoughts of the characters are rarely spoken. Ludovic is largely a silent character. The reasons for his cross-dressing behavior are unimportant to the film's progression. Though Ludovic's dreams are shown in brilliant computer-generated sequences, these dreams only show us his fantasies of escape. A large part of the film focuses on the reactions of the people surrounding Ludovic. Ludovic's family and friends can not understand his confusion over the biological fact of his masculinity.

Ludovic's suburban neighborhood becomes a means of contrasting the desires of a non-conformist to the cheery and sterile norm of society. Here, surface image is everything. The neighbors' eyes are always watching. Ludovic, unaware that his behavior is unnatural, becomes a threat to normality by his very openness about being a girl. Though all of the neighborhood characters have their own deviances, they occur behind closed doors. As long as things appear normal they are accepted. It is Ludovic's innocence which causes him problems.

Ludovic's feminine behavior hits his parents hardest of all, and much of the movie focuses on their dealing with this issue. Because the neighborhood parents think Ludovic is young and misguided, they look to his parents to regulate his behavior. Ludovic's parents, Pierre and Hanna, are painted as gender stereotypes. Pierre is hurt most by Ludovic's failure to act like a man, and blames himself for not being a better role model. Hanna is concerned with holding on to their social position among the neighbors. She swings from support to anger when Ludovic fails to act normal after therapy sessions.

The only character who sympathizes with Ludovic is his grandmother. A vibrant and active woman past her prime, she is a deviant from the accepted image of a grandmother. Unable to wear skirts as short as she would like, she urges Ludovic to live out his fantasies before he is forced to grow up and conform.

Underneath these issues of surface appearance and inner nature lies the question of Ludovic's sexuality. Is Ludovic homosexual, transgender, or only a young cross-dresser? The film's co-writer, Chris Vander Stappen, based the film on her childhood experiences. Now 38, she continues to think of herself as naturally male. Although she wants to be a man, she has never considered an operation. In an interview with the New York Post she called herself a natural mistake, saying that "nature is more complex than we think."

Both Vander Stappen and Alain Berliner have denied that Ma Vie en Rose is explicitly a "gay film." Berliner told the New York Times that "Ludovic may just be going through a phase. And remember, he is too young to be sexually aware. That's why we don't suggest what happens when he grows up." The filmmakers would rather the audience have the freedom to decide for themselves what is going on in Ludovic's head. Viewers are left to imagine what will happen to him as he ages.

Vander Stappen and Berliner decided to center the film around a boy because they felt that visually, a male's sexual role is more explicitly defined than females. Neither sex are at all free from social restrictions on style and appearance, and the film reads easily to any person who has experienced a feeling of difference or deviance from the crowd. Ma Vie en Rose makes one constantly aware of the surface nature of our gender definitions. The film questions which sphere determines gender: the body or the mind. In the process, Ma Vie en Rose is a touching and entertaining experience not to be missed. Gay film or not, Ma Vie en Rose shows in time for the Oberlin Lambda Alumni Conference. Shows Saturday at 7:30 p.m., 9:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. in Kettering 11 . Sponsored by OFS. Admission $1.