Bravo, Marion!

Rating: 8/10 (19 January 2008)

Marion Cotillard shines as beloved Parisian singer, the soul of Paris, Edith Piaf, "La Mome Piaf" - Little Sparrow whose passion for "singing was a way of escaping. It is another world. I'm no longer on earth." I won't be original if I join the viewers and critics all over the world that praised her performance as the best of last year. I think she deserves all the accolades she has received. She did not just act, she lived Piaf's life. She even looked small and fragile like Little Sparrow even being 27cm taller that the legendary chanteuse. Marion Cotillard completely died in Edith Piaf. Not for a second did I think that it was a young modern actress, no, I saw Edith Piaf, her huge eyes, her beautiful "singing" hands, her childlike smile. I heard Piaf loud throaty laugh, and when Marion sang, I was under impression that it was her voice because she made me believe that Edith's voice belonged to her in the movie, in the amazing performance that will be remembered and cherished as one of the cinema's precious treasures.
One may argue that biopic is hard to make, to bring the Artists with their talent, insecurities, personal problems, weaknesses, struggles, preferences, and losses to life, to let us for a moment peek inside the great and mysterious process called creativity, to witness how a masterpiece is born - be it a painting, a book, and yes, a song. I liked Olivier Dahan's film and I found it a loving tribute to life of the great French singer but without Marion Cotillard it just would have been yet another above average biography. Marion made it an unforgettable and incredibly moving, tragic and glorious journey. I am forever grateful to her for making Edith and her songs closer to the audiences many of whom never heard a single song of Piaf before they watched the film and now they are discovering for themselves what miracles Edith's voice, her songs, and her performances are.