Edith Piaf - the Other Side of Midnight

Rating: 6/10 (22 November 2007)

I've just finished watching the Edith Piaf biopic that came out this summer. The film is quite mysterious about the nature of all Piaf's various physical ailments. The actress playing her displays what appears to be a serious case of arthritis already in her teens. Piaf drank and used drugs from her teen years, and took drugs to snuff effects from three auto accidents. The amount of alcohol and drugs she ingested were the major, but mysterious backdrop to the film. It was difficult to understand why she started taking the drugs in the first place. She starts out as a poor urchin but by her teens she is partying night and day. The film captures her life as a tragedy. Its shocking to see this woman looking more like 84 than the 48 she actually is when her liver is giving out in 1963. I went and checked the wikipedia account against the film and found it mostly accurate. The film was not pleasant.
The little Sparrow as she was nicknamed by a French Night Club Owner was unable to adapt to a normal lifestyle. Her drinking and drugging certainly contributed to her early death. Why not tell us about that?
It was hard to watch this woman drag herself down. Why not show the story of Edith discovering a young male nightclub singer in a provincial club, falling in love briefly with him, then watching that same Yves Montand ascend to a career greater than her own?
This story insists the audience already know Piaf's story and songs, as many of the French surely do. The film was made for a French audience and for HBO. It breaks the boundaries of the usual, predictable, triumphant biopic, which should have been a good thing.
Americans may not even be able to understand what was different and important about Piaf from watching this fiercely critical French film.
The English title of the film is the title of her most famous song, La Vie En Rose.