London,

DVDs of the week

La Vie En Rose: Marion Cotillard is fantastic as Edith Piaf

Russell Brand: A seductive tour through drug addiction and sexual forays

Shrek The Third: The characterisations are poor

Marc Bolan: A dry piece about such a flamboyant star

Ruddy Hell: Great character acting

Marion Cotillard is the star turn in La Vie En Rose, dandyesque comic Russell Brand plays Hackney and a documentary on T.Rex's Marc Bolan.

DVD OF THE WEEK
La Vie En Rose
Icon Home Entertainment, 12, £19.99
****
Marion Cotillard is fantastic as Edith Piaf, the 'Little Sparrow', with the big voice, spindly frame and the life story that beats even the most emotional chanson for extraordinary highs and lows. Piaf was born to two street-theatre professionals in 1915. She spent part of her childhood in a brothel (as a mascot, not an employee), lost her sight temporarily, was discovered singing on the street, achieved world fame and had an endless string of lovers and addictions. She died aged 47, but songs such as La Vie En Rose and Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien have made her immortal.

Fortunately, given Piaf's distinctive voice, director Olivier Dahan won the right to use original recordings. His decision to jump around Piaf's difficult, druggy life like a time-travelling grasshopper was not such a good idea. There are glaring omissions (World War II) and last-minute inclusions (a daughter) that weaken the power of the story. But the film is beautifully and imaginatively shot and since Piaf's life was such a roller coaster, perhaps it's appropriate that this screen version is rather up and down as well.

Extras: Making-of doc, deleted scenes, director and crew commentary. Nina Caplan

Russell Brand: Doing Life
Universal Pictures, 18, £19.99
****
The 'explosion of foppish, dandyesque wonderment' (his own words) has one ostentatious cowboy boot in the puddle of showbiz glitz, the other resolutely in the gutter.

Were it not for Brand's fearsome intelligence, keen sense of his own ridiculousness and down to earth spirit, it would be easy to get fed up with this strutting, preening mascara-clad rock star/poodle hybrid. Happily, Brand has regularly done the business live, and while this recent Hackney Empire show is not his best hour-long gig, it's still a thoroughly seductive tour through drug addiction, sexual forays, tabloid mockery and some great celeb encounters.

Extras: BBC Radio 2 show, Jonathan Ross interview, backstage at Hackney, sketches. Sharon Lougher

Shrek The Third
Paramount Home Entertainment/DreamWorks Animation, U, £19.99
**
This CGI cash cow has already earned £240million worldwide. Don't give them any more. Yes, the original topsy-turvy fairytale conceit was a good 'un: the smelly ogre's a goodie, the prince a spoilt meanie - but it's now huffed and puffed itself out of charm.

A barely baked series of random plots see uncouth Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers) panic in the face of incipient fatherhood and flee the kingdom of Far, Far Away to find its long lost heir - so he doesn't have to be king himself. Meanwhile arch-nemesis Prince Charming (brilliantly voiced by Rupert Everett) rounds up the fairytale baddies to launch a coup. The animation is achingly perfect but the characterisations are poor. Comedy sidekicks Puss (Antonio Banderas) and Donkey (Eddie Murphy) are interchangeable.

Children particularly will find a few laughs, but grown-ups may muse that sometimes it's best to close the storybook at 'they lived happily ever after'.

Extras: A bonus mainly for tired parents - Shrek's guide to parenthood, behind the scenes featurette, lost scenes, games DVD-Rom. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh

Marc Bolan: The Final Word
Universal, 15, £19.99
***
The problem with this documentary is that it spends an hour and a bit umming and ahhing - was Marc Bolan a heartless careerist or a genuine talent? - without bothering to reach a conclusion.

Which is sort of a problem when you're calling a documentary The Final Word. Some bigger interviews - David Bowie and ex-manager Simon Napier-Bell spring to mind - would have spiced things up, but the main issue is the film's rather hermetic scope. Rarely contextualising Bolan's music in any wider sense, it never communicates the sheer scale of T.Rex's popularity at their peak, nor does it really explain why their popularity dwindled so rapidly.

While the talking heads are uniformly erudite, they all seem wary of saying anything too strong about Bolan one way or another, and while The Final Word provides a competent career overview, it's peculiarly dry and airless for a piece about such a flamboyant star.

Extras: Live performances, extended interviews, Tony Visconti's guide to the mastertapes of some of Bolan's biggest hits. Andrzej Lukowski

Ruddy Hell! It's Harry And Paul
2 Entertain, 15, £19.99
****
It's ten years since Harry Enfield And Chums, the comic and Paul Whitehouse's last telly collaboration, clocked out. So hurrah for this return which, while it might not bowl you over as The Fast Show did, is as scrummy as diving into a tin of Quality Street.

Skip over fast-food guzzling teenagers Jamie and Oliver, who will leave you pining for Wayne and Waynetta, and make straight for some nutty delights - Laurel and Hardy's version of Brokeback Mountain, and Bill Gates and Steve Jobs nearly having orgasms over computers - and pin-sharp social observation starring Polish characters, diving footballers, and shallow, buzzword-loving yuppies who can be sold antique tat via canny use of the word 'organic'.

Catchphrases flit back and forth, but the duo - Whitehouse in particular - are great character actors and wipe the floor with many of their peers. Subtle, sophisticated, but it's ruddy fun. SL

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