Amazing : NOTHING on Théo, her last love !!! ???

Rating: 5/10 (14 January 2010)

Greek singer Theophanis Lamboukas, met his mentor Edith Piaf in the summer of 1961. She affectionately called him "Sarapo" which means "I love you" in Greek and he kept it. They married the following year, when she was 47 and he was 26. In one of her most famous and last songs, she sings a duet with him, and addresses him by saying : «…You’re the last one, but you’re the first one, etc.» These words say it ALL ! Later, both were buried in Piaf’s monument at Père Lachaise cemetery, in Paris, since he died in a motorcycle accident in 1970 – seven years after her own demise. Apart from that very important «hole» regarding Théo, I found the movie only occasionally gripping, mainly thanks to Marion Cotillard’s moving «reincarnation» of Piaf. The whole movie is just too episodic, lacks focus and Piaf in it seems to have no real individuality of her own : we are only given a superficial outlook on her personality (which could easily apply to hundreds of stars, emerging from a very modest background, and who – having reached international fame, lived in short rather pathetic lives). There’s nothing about her deeper beliefs, motivations, numerous lovers, eternal search for the «perfect love and lover» -- which Théo seems to have been for her, at last ! Yet, as I said, he’s never even mentioned ! But many of her songs are more or less partially heard (less than more). In spite of a rather expensive and accurate period look (and with so many good actors and some stars), what a waste of talent !