A Classic Portrayal of a Classic Icon

Rating: 10/10 (26 January 2019)

Marion Cotillard's portrayal of Edith Piaf is one of the finest in acting history. She just BECAME Piaf. I knew a lot about Edith Piaf's life before seeing the film, and to get the most out of it, try and learn a little about her beforehand, as it jumps around a lot & encompasses many aspects of her complicated life presented out of chronological order. There are many flashbacks (and flash forwards), obscure references and intricate dream sequences which transition in and out of reality. In essence, there is little sugar-coating in the telling of this remarkable woman's life, - it reveals the highs of her time as well as the considerable gritty, tragic & heartbreaking aspects, and presents her as she was - from a passionate woman with a compassionate heart to the times when she could be dominating, difficult, and self-centered. In other words, a real person, not a 2-dimensional cutout. I do wish more (or at least something) had been covered about her last husband, Theo Serapo, with whom she shared a tender relationship despite their age difference. It is quite puzzling that he is barely even mentioned (once, toward the end of both the film and her life, a friend makes reference to "your husband", but that's about all). Their marriage and his significant influence on her in her last years are never even included. A serious and disappointing omission. In reality, his love for her kept her alive a lot longer than would have been the case without him. He was not a "gold digger", as many people, I'm sure, assume. When they married, a few years before her death, she actually had relatively little gold left to dig for. She had squandered the majority of her fortune on her generosity towards others, her foolhardy spending on herself, and on her heavy morphine addiction, which began after 3 serious car accidents and after becoming increasingly disabled and crippled from Rheumatoid arthritis. Her habit manifested itself in her requiring at least 10 injections a day during the last decade of her life in order to perform through her physical (and emotional) pain. She not only had little money left when her last years were upon her, but she was also deeply in debt - and French law requires one's spouse to assume their debts if they are widowed. He knew this when he married her and was also aware that she didn't have all that much time left. But they truly loved each other (he was 20 years her junior, quite handsome and likeable), and took care of her, his attentiveness and loyalty obvious whenever you see footage of them together. Videos of their wedding; performances they did together (singing love songs to each other, even though it was mostly for fun as he was really only mildly talented); and other events are available online, and their connection is so touching and sweet. I just find it very strange that he is omitted from this otherwise flawless biopic, and that no other reviewers seem to even be aware of their relationship. Also, it's pointed out by some reviewers that her role in aiding in the Resistance during the war is left out of the film, but I think that was due to time constraints - a director can only fit so much into a movie, and it already runs 140 minutes. To cover that would probably necessitate making a separate film, as her contributions were not only significant but quite imaginative - e.g., she often played concerts for POWs at various stalags, but was eventually barred from doing so when it was suspected that her entourage always seemed to leave the POW camps with several more "musicians" and "assistants" than they arrived with - a clever way in which she managed to sneak a considerable number of prisoners out and back home before anyone got wise to her. She also smuggled in fake IDs to distribute to other prisoners in order to help them escape at a future date. Risky business, to put it mildly, such which required someone possessing her level of courage and defiance for injustice to pull if off. The story of her life would have been enhanced by filling in these gaps, but so much happened to her during her short life it would have been impossible to include everything in intricate detail in one film. In a PBS documentary I saw on her in 1980 (which I wish was still available somewhere), the narrator quotes her as saying, during the last few months of her life, (translated from French) - "I have lived twice over". A very accurate statement, and a fact which necessarily precludes a more comprehensively detailed account of various events which so many reviewers seems to feel is warranted. Nevertheless, this film remains one of the most outstanding biographical accounts ever made of anyone. Cotillard plays her with absolute perfection from the time she is 15 or 16 until her death at 47 - & when she was 47 she was more like 87 - (but nothing resembling a 70-year-old woman, as one other reviewer writes - an average reasonably healthy 70 year old of today is light-years apart from the shape Piaf was in at 47) - along with every age and stage of her life in between. You will never see a performance like this again, nor will there ever be a talent like Piaf (EVER) again. That magically beautiful, powerful voice emanating from this little tiny woman is something no one who ever witnesses it will forget. Her 47 years were a frozen moment in history, never to be matched.