La Vie en Rose

I can't remember when I first knew about Edith Piaf (perhaps when it there was a play on Broadway about her, and an actress named Jane Lapotaire scored an upset win in the Tonys over Elizabeth Taylor) but since then I've had a mild fascination with her. She's not particularly well known in the U.S., but I do have a CD of her greatest hits, coming in my collection between Liz Phair and The Pretenders.

Therefore it was with some interest that I viewed La Vie en Rose, the film about her life from Olivier Dahan. The title refers to her most famous song, a tune that immediately conjures up visions of Paris. At one point in the film Piaf meets Marlene Dietrich, who tells her, "You are the soul of Paris." I think that's quite true, because Piaf's songs are so evocative of the romance and wistfulness of 20th-Century Paris.

The film tells her life story, and while lushly filmed with plenty of great details and a magnificent performance by Marion Cotillard, it ultimately suffers under the weight of the music biopic structure. Dahan does his best to avoid this, directing the bejeesus out of this film, and jumping around in time, but it still has the predictable "rising from poverty, finding a mentor, hitting it big, unlucky in love, hitting the skids because of drugs and/or alcohol, one last triumph" that is so familiar. Unlike Ray Charles or Johnny Cash, who's late-life success ended their films in a rosy glow, Piaf came to a very pathetic end.

Born in poverty in the Belleville section of Paris, the daughter of a street-singer and an acrobat, Piaf grew up in both a brothel and a circus. She was sickly and was blind for a time, and her frail body led to her name, which is a French colloquialism for sparrow. She was discovered singing on the streets by a cabaret-owner (played by Gerard Depardieu) and after some fits and starts became a sensation, and one of the most beloved singers in France. Of course she also became a drug addict, and had a tragic romance with boxer Marcel Cerdan. By the time she was in her forties she looked like she was in her seventies.

Oddly, the film jumps from 1940 to 1947, completely eschewing the war years. Piaf was an active member of the resistance, and saved many lives. This film didn't need to be any longer, but it is strange that a significant part of her life was completely ignored.

From the photos I've seen of what Marion Cotillard really looks like, she makes quite a transformation into Piaf, who was a bit of an ugly duckling. Performances of real people are ofter overrated, because they are viewed as impersonations, but since I haven't seen much film of the real Piaf, I didn't succumb to that thinking, and instead could appreciate how Cotillard brought to life the nature of this woman, a bruised soul who made her fame through a soaring voice. I could watch this film again just to hear the music, and to enjoy the nuances of Cotillard's performance.