The life of the 'soul of Paris'

Rating: 7/10 (13 September 2011)

From the streets of Paris, to international fame. Her voice has been dubbed as the 'soul of Paris'. La Vie en Rose, which is also Edith Piaf's signature song, may have been mainly in French, but it is about the life and times of one of France's most famous singers, possibly the country's greatest cultural export in the modern era.
The film began with the adult Edith Piaf (Marion Cotillard) collapsing on stage, before the audience is being treated to flashbacks of the singer's past starting with her childhood, before concentrating with the key moments in Edith Piaf's life interwoven as she was entering her final days. The first defining moment when she sang the French national anthem 'La Marseillaise' with raw emotions to passersby who were disinterested in what her father was performing, to how she got her first big break in Louis Leplée's (Gérard Depardieu) nightclub where he gave the diminutive Edith the stage name of Piaf after an informal audition. Leplée's death turned Piaf into a suspect, before she turned to cabaret with no success.
Raymond Asso (Marc Barbé) would be the next person to help develop Piaf's career, apart from polishing up on her singing. With her 'great hands', she became a national sensation after overcoming bouts of stage fright to make her maiden music hall performance. Piaf would travel to New York City to perform for the American audience, and along the way, meeting fellow Frenchman and renowned boxer Marcel Cerdan.
The determination of Piaf insisting on singing even if health was catching up on her at the age of 47 was what fascinated me. For her, the show must go on despite of her constant drinking. And just as she has said, she did performed at the Paris Olympia, singing the song which describes her life as she acknowledges it herself – Non, je ne regrette rien. Her life, her loves, and the drinking, all encapsulated into the film.
For those who do not listen to chanson, Marion Cotillard has made it sound like it was Piaf who was really back on stage once more. There are times watching the film, I thought it was Edith Piaf acting in her own biopic.