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I had wanted to see the Edith Piaf biopic La Vie En Rose ever since I first saw a poster. My mom used to blast The Voice of The Sparrow: The Very Best of Edith Piaf around the house when I was kid, and I always remembered how strong her voice was, and how great the vibrato in it sounded, as well as the playfulness and sarcasm that came out. The picture of Marion Cotillard on the posters for La Vie En Rose resembled the picture on that cd cover so much, it felt like a flashback to my childhood. Although I have since seen this one and can't even believe it is the same actress.
So I saw the movie at the Arclight today, and I have to admit, although I knew she had a hard life, the relentless darkness of it took me a little by surprise. I left feeling like I should no longer be allowed to complain about anything in my life, ever again. Born dirt poor and sickly, she was first abandoned by both parents and later retrieved abruptly by her starving performer of a father, left in the meantime to fend for herself at her grandmother's brothel (a phrase I never thought I'd use), where she witnessed the abuse inflicted on the women and contracted an eye infection that left her blind for months. One of the prostitutes dotes on little Edith almost pitifully, and the scene when her father takes her away is heart-wrenching to watch.
She starts singing on the street with her father afterwards, because he snaps at her to "do something" while she stands there with his basket for handouts. Even though I knew what to expect, it was still thrilling to hear that booming voice come out of a little girl. But from then on, she is rip-roaringly drunk in almost every scene, and the tragic blows keep right on coming. The movie jumps back and forth from Piaf's later years, when she is frail, obstinate and self-destructive, to the younger years, where she's just beginning to be recognized for her voice; I had a problem with this because for one thing, I wasn't ready to see her as the morphine-addled Piaf so soon before I got to see the brief happy times play out. The jump from miserable childhood to burgeoning career is hopeful, but before the latter takes off it jumps away to her final days, which are miserable again, and it's once again crushing. I kept waiting for it to get back to the good stuff.
It's hard to figure out at which point certain scenes in her later years even occur - whether they are actually before or after the last one, which is confusing. There were also many things that go unexplained, forcing me to find the Edith Piaf Wikipedia entry, and feel as if Dahan expected me to have already known. Piaf's friend Simone Berteaut, who joins in the drunken antics and fiercely protects her, is never explained to be her half-sister, and there is very little to imply that Piaf and Raymond Asso, who teaches her stage presence, were actually lovers. One rather serious episode is left out entirely, only to pop up in a quick flashback amid Piaf's deathbed memories, which seems far too late to mention it at that point. I almost thought it must be a hallucination, but no, it's right there in her wiki bio.
Cotillard certainly lives up to the reviews, however, her features astoundingly expressive, ranging wildly from clownish humor to mind-blowing grief; her round-shouldered slouch and awkward movements are unfaltering. It's easy to see why the song "Non, je ne regrette rien", or "No, I Regret Nothing", captures her imagination, because the lyrics are perfect for a strong spirit whose life was so filled with pain.
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