‘My life when I was a kid might strike you as awful, but actually it was beautiful.’ Edith Piaf

Edith Piaf (Cotillard) was and is still one of the most loved French singers of all time. Her meaningful songs with her powerful carrying voice mirrors the feelings and events that occurred in her life. The story of Piaf from childhood to young woman is one of struggle; taken from her mother who can’t look after her, raised in a brothel, blind briefly, taken from the brothel and singing on the street to be able to eat, where she is spotted and her star journey begins only to be cut short when she is accused of murder and she has to start all over again.

Throughout the film whenever there are times of strife Piaf prays to Saint Theresa, as when she prayed for her eye sight as a child she got it back and consequentially she trusts Theresa to look after her.

Skipping back and forth, flipping to different phases in her life like your mind flickers on a memory and then gets distracted by another. We see Edith: as a child, in her full glory and in the last stages of her life. The main focus is on her glory days: on stage, partying, and falling in love with married famous boxer Marcel Cerdan. Everything goes well for their affair until there is an accident… Edith doesn’t handle the loss very well and her health goes into decline as she starts to take heavy drugs and the doctor tells her not to sing. However Edith needs to be on stage again but she’s lost her love and nothing seems to move her emotionally. Then one day a man comes in and plays her “Non, je ne regrette rien.”

There are some wonderful transitions from scene to scene which shows how much research Dahan did, including images of a sparrow as Edith was know as ‘the little sparrow.’ Dahan says, ‘I read everything written about her, published or not.’ ‘I read her correspondence, including the unpublished letters, and I was struck by the quality of her writing, her honesty and acute judgment.’

There have been many films about artists recently it seems to be the trend (Walk The Line, Ray, Dreamgirls) but what makes a good film is an interesting character and a good plot. Edith Piaf had a terrible life when you think it over, but yet that just encouraged her to keep singing and made her music even better. Piaf is portrayed in this film as always the centre of attention you can’t miss her, she is; outspoken, loud, loves to have a good time and laugh.
 
With such big shoes to fill Marion Cotillard (A Good Year, Big Fish) was the perfect choice. Dahan already had set his sights on her, as he had seen her in other films and thought she had wonderful presence on screen. She is incredibly accurate with her mimicking of Piaf, the way she holds herself and speaks. If you happen to watch a clip of Piaf and then of Cotillard it’s uncanny. Marion was singing some of the time but miming most of it and she had to get the breathing and the timing right and the result is incredible, you can’t tell.

The women really carried this film; which reflects on Edith’s character. You had the prostitute Titine (Emmanuelle Seigner), a fictional part of the story, who fell in love with little Edith and protected her. Edith’s best friend Mômone (Sylvie Testud) who is always telling Edith she is better than all this and sticking up for her, all strongly played characters. Critically acclaimed Gérard Depardieu (Last Holiday, The Man in the Iron Mask) makes an entrance as the man who spots her talent first and who is always a pleasure to watch.