Rice Piaf

Published June 20th, 2007

Last night I checked out a biopic on Edith Piaf, La Vie en Rose. I like Edith Piaf, she did have a pretty special voice. And I have some good memories associated with some of her music. But as to the woman herself, I knew very little. This movie tries to show the rise and fall of France’s greatest singer.

There’s a lot to like about this movie. The acting is good (or at least, it seemed good - can one really judge acting in a foreign language?) and the casting was fantastic. Marion Cotillard was turned into the spitting image of the unconventional looking Piaf. The movie tries hard, and does a good job I suppose, of painting Piaf as a tragic figure. And yes, she was. Born into poverty, brought up in a brothel, travelled with a circus and sang on the streets. She also lost a child to meningitis.

By the time she hit it big, Piaf was clearly a scarred woman. Nothing in her personal life seemed to go right, and addictions to alcohol and morphine didn’t help much. The movie jumps around in time, making it hard to follow and hard to keep characters straight. I think that could have been improved. But since seeing the movie, I’ve read up on Piaf a bit, and it’s disappointing that they left out one of the great contributions she made. From Wikipedia:

Singing for high-ranking Germans at the One Two Two Club earned Piaf the right to pose for photographs with French prisoners of war, ostensibly as a morale-boosting exercise. She gave the photos to underground workers who made counterfeit passports for all 150 captives. After returning to the camp again, Piaf secretly transferred the passports to the Frenchmen, and some of them managed to escape. Today, Piaf’s association with the French Resistance is well known, and many former Resistance members owe their lives to her.

This is never, ever portrayed in the movie, and that’s a shame. The movie paints her as a tragic figure who is always falling down on her way up - but this shows she was more than just a singer. The movie portays a very selfish Piaf - but clearly she had a little more to give than that.

Overall though it was a good movie and a good story. It makes you uncomfortable at times - but then again, Piaf appears to have lived a rather uncomfortable life. Hidden behind that beautiful voice was a woman who was very scared inside.

Rating:

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