Madame Rosa
| Madame Rosa | |
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Film poster
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| Directed by | Moshé Mizrahi |
| Written by | Moshé Mizrahi |
| Starring |
Simone Signoret Michal Bat-Adam Samy Ben-Youb Gabriel Jabbour Geneviève Fontanel |
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Release date
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Running time
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105 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
Madame Rosa (French: La vie devant soi) is a 1977 French film directed by Moshé Mizrahi, adapted from the 1975 novel The Life Before Us by Romain Gary. It stars Simone Signoret and Samy Ben-Youb, and tells the story of an elderly Jewish woman and former prostitute in Paris who cares for a number of children, including an adolescent Algerian boy. The film required a transformation in Signoret's appearance as Madame Rosa.
The film was viewed in context of Arab–Israeli conflicts, and received positive reviews. It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, while Signoret won the César Award for Best Actress for her performance.
In Belleville, Paris, Madame Rosa, an elderly French Jew who survived the Auschwitz concentration camp and worked as a prostitute, now runs a boarding home for the children of prostitutes. One of them is Momo, an Algerian boy who is believed to be 10. Although Madame Rosa is Jewish, she raises Momo as a Muslim in respect of his heritage. She is in fact concealing the fact that Momo is 14, having a strong skepticism of official papers and what they can or cannot prove.
Madame Rosa is in exceedingly poor health, at times falling back into the belief that she will be arrested by the French Police and sent back to Auschwitz. She refuses to be hospitalized. Momo believes she should be euthanized. When told by a French doctor that euthanasia contradicts French values, Momo replies he is not French and that Algerians believe in self-determination. Momo is with Madame Rosa when she retreats to her hidden space under the staircase to die, and is discovered with her body three weeks later.
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