La Mome Piaf

Rating: 7/10 (17 December 2008)

Olivier Dahan's musical biography of friend icon Edith Piaf is epic in its execution. The film is a whopping two hours and twenty minutes long and features nearly twenty songs made famous by Piaf's performances. The film is intriguing to watch largely on behalf of Marion Cotillard's brilliantly idiosyncratic physicality that is fascinating, even if at times slightly overstated. The film utilizes a nonlinear narrative, illustrating Piaf's biography as a series of memories retold from the perspective of an older woman. Piaf's childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age volley across the screen incessantly. Certain contextual scenes are blended together with stage performances so that their relevance within Piaf's music is fully realized. One such example is when Piaf runs through her house, inconsolable after discovering that her lover is dead, and seamlessly walks through a corridor and onto a stage. The poignancy of her desperate emotions is instantly projected into the song. While this clever use of continuous motion forges the gap between time periods in some instances, throughout the majority of the film timelines are crossed so frequently that they are no longer distinguished from one another. At times it is difficult to decipher Piaf's age, the state of her health, or her level of fame because one is uncertain where to place a given scene within the history of her life. One begins to wonder, is this before she met Marcel? After Louis discovered her? And so on. Overall the film's poignant rendering of a life characterized by hardship and tragedy is honest and heartrending. The music, performed by both Piaf and Cotillard is unmistakably beautiful in its ability to captivate the viewer. Although the film suffers slightly due to some structural malfunctions it is worth seeing and will convert any nonbeliever into a Piaf enthusiast at once.