The sparrow

Rating: 8/10 (6 January 2008)

Edith Piaf's tragic life comes to us courtesy of director Olivier Dahan. Based on the screen play by Isabella Sobelman, we are taken to the world of one of the most beloved singing marvels of the last century, whose unfortunate existence is examined. The film uses a non linear narrative that will confuse audiences not familiar with Edith Piaf's real life. Absent from it, were some of the men that were involved with her like Yves Montand, Charles Aznavour, and her last husband, Theo Sarapo, to name just a few. Of course, in films such as this, and for reasons of length only the essence of the subject is possible.
Marion Cotillard runs away withe the picture. Her take of Piaf, a woman whose life was dominated by the intensity in which she loved, comes across as images about the poor early scenes as a girl are shown. Also, she hits the heights when she became an overnight sensation and entered a world unknown to her. A poor child brought up in her grandmother's own brothel, Piaf didn't have anything given to her, except the innate talent for singing. Piaf went from being almost blind to become a French idol, bar none. With her personality, Piaf, who had it all, destroys herself with drugs and alcohol as she became not even a shadow of her own self at the end.
Also in the film we see Gerarl Depardieu, the first man that believed in her voice and the potential she had. A complete transformed Emmanuelle Seigneur is the kind Titine, the whore with a heart of gold. Jean Pierre Martins, appears as the boxing champion, Marcel Cerdan, Piaf's true soul mate, who alas, could not share his life with her because he was married. Sylvie Testud is seen as Momone, Edith's sister-like companion and friend.
The film will please, no doubt, people of all ages who will see the story of a tormented soul that left us much to early.