Great Viewing though far from perfect

Rating: 7/10 (22 February 2007)

This film is certainly worth viewing, if only for the magnificent performance of its star, Marion Cotillard. Resembling Piaf physically and miming perfectly the words to the voice of the star, an accent similar to that of Piaf even if it is a little over exaggerated at times, there is little to be reproached concerning her performance. The structure of the film is another kettle of fish and it should be stated that a prior knowledge of Piaf's biography is INDISPENSABLE before seeing this film, otherwise you will be totally confused. Unfortunately Piaf's life has not been processed like a proper biography with a beginning and an end, like in the film Bernadette or Louis Pasteur for example. The film is a selection of scenes from her life assembled higgledy-piggledy without any sort of order or structure so whereas each episode is extremely moving and well done, the "whole" does not come across as an organised and structured biography. Why this anarchic presentation ? Ask the Director, only he knows the answer. Certain episodes of Piaf's life, such as that of her final husband, Theo Sarapo are eclipsed completely. We catch a fleeting glimpse of Charles Aznavour and don't even see Yves Montand. The episode with Marcel Cerdan was, as is to be expected, the most emotional and well done and the actor playing Cerdan was indeed a handsome man so we can understand Piaf's emotion. But even here there is a certain confusion. On the night where his plane crashed, we see him, albeit for a short while, enter Piafs bedroom and she prepares him coffee, then we are suddenly given to understand that this was all some sort of illusion and we see all her friends with terrified faces unable to inform her of the tragedy that has occurred. This is very clumsy on the part of the director and many people watching the film with me were stumped by this. There seems also to be excessive time spent on Piaf's travel in California. On the other hand we get a good dose of Raymond Asso, but little of Michel Emer and Charles Dumont. We see very little of the Bonnel family but have more than ample doses of Simone Bertheaut ( dite "Momone" ) The character Titine at the beginning would appear to have been invented for the film !. So basically there are all sorts of deficiencies in the structure of the film. I would suggest reading Piaf's biography BEFORE seeing it, the book Piaf by Joelle Montserrat is very good as it also gives insight into each of her songs as well as the large number of people intervening in her life. Depardieu is of course excellent as Louis Leplée but his part is necessarily short. But if there is one thing outstanding about this film, it is Marion Cotillard's performance. Let me assure you that you will not exit the film emotionally intact and that is something few films do nowadays !