Everybody loved Edith Piaf's voice! She sung for the masses!

Rating: 9/10 (21 February 2011)

Edith Piaf was uneducated, poor, and sickly but she had a spectacular singing voice to reach and touch her audiences. In watching this film, I realize Edith's impact even to this day. Marion Cotillard plays her brilliantly and earned that Academy Award for Best Actress just like all the other accolades. It doesn't bother me that Cotillard didn't sing her part but she acted as Edith Piaf perfectly. She made me understand who Edith Piaf was as a person. Her childhood was grim, bleak, and miserable. She was a sickly child who was lucky to have survived. Her parents especially her mother had mistreated her. Her father actually cared for her more so but not enough. He was a performer himself as a circus contortionist. Edith's childhood did not lack it's share of misery. As she grew, she used her singing voice to earn money on the streets of Paris. She had a close circle of friends and there were those who believed in her. French movie icon, Gerard Depardieu, has a small part in the film as one of those who would advance her singing career. Edith had no shortage of heartache, pain, loss, and misery. When she sang on stage despite needing assistance to stand and walk, she glowed and shined unlike nowhere else. My only complaint is that I didn't see what happened to Edith during World War II.