Madmoiselle Sings the Blues

Rating: 5/10 (23 February 2008)

La Mome is a biography about the street waif turned French National Treasure, Edith Piaf. The Little Sparrow as she was known led a tragic life of immense proportion before dying at the age of 47 making her story tailor made for a film bio, but in spite of this plethora of material, the makers disjoint the whole affair by juggling the chronology.
From a depraved childhood filled with abuse and horror the scrawny but scrappy Piaf fends off a pimp, is discovered then ruined through scandal is re-discovered falls in love with a world champion fighter, becomes drug dependent and eventually gives up the ghost. You will never listen to a Piaf song in the same way again.
As Piaf, Marion Cotillard ages and suffers convincingly but she does occasionally lapse into a buffoonish wide eyed Lucy routine along the way. Her sidekick Momone is like Bresson's Mouchette reaching adulthood. You want to throw her into the Seine. The rest of the cast including Gerard Deperadieu are just well dressed and forgettable.
In addition to the film's confusing storyline director, co-writer Olivier Dahan relies on too much screaming and yelling from his actors to bring drama to his scenes. The story lags toward the end since flash forwards reveal where Piaf is headed earlier in the film. There is also an inexplicable waste of time devoted to a Marcel Cerdan fight which is given too much weight to the biography. Of course there is the music but you can save yourself a lot of time by buying the CD taking her biography out of the library, sit home and sip a good red. This film will only make you see red.