Cotillard Soars as the Little Sparrow Even When the Film Lets Her Down

Rating: 6/10 (28 January 2008)

Virtually unrecognizable from her previous film roles, usually as a comely presence in films like "A Good Year", Marion Cotillard turns in such a viscerally transcendent performance as legendary chanteuse Édith Piaf that she elevates this 2007 French biopic into a worthwhile piece of cinema. Otherwise, the film meanders back and forth through Piaf's life at such an agitated pace that the result, while evocative, is erratic and cliché-driven. Director Olivier Dahan (who also co-wrote the screenplay with Isabelle Sobelman) seems to get carried away with the melodramatic aspects of her life, so much so that Piaf comes across less as a three-dimensional person and more like a predictably self-destructive diva making up for a severely lacking childhood. The archetype is familiar from any number of similar celebrity portraits from "Coal Miner's Daughter" to "Ray", though the film reminds me most of Sidney J. Furie's episodic "Lady Sings the Blues". That's because Piaf and the equally ill-fated Billie Holiday are kindred spirits, a comparison brought up pointedly in the film. In fact, for a French film, it reflects a distinctively Hollywood-style sensibility, and Dahan punctuates every dramatic moment with such a repetitive sense of crescendo that it becomes wearing over its epic-length running time of 141 minutes.
A lot of time in the film is spent on Piaf's miserable childhood when her drunken mother, an aspiring singer, abandons her, and her father, a traveling circus performer, leaves Édith in a brothel run by her business-like grandmother. A prostitute named Titine grows fond of Édith and takes care of her when she is blinded temporarily by keratitis. Following her mother's footsteps and accompanied by her confidante Momone, Édith sings on the streets of Paris, and her remarkable voice impresses local nightclub impresario Louis Leplée. When she takes the stage at his club, her fate is secure. The rest of her story is told through disconnected dramatic episodes, although the film spends some extended time on her fateful affair with world-class boxer Marcel Cerdan. Under the masterful make-up work of Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald, Cotillard is completely convincing whether as a gawky young teen or as the dying, hunchbacked woman looking decades older than the singer's 47 years. She is true to Piaf's spirit in the musical performances and lip-syncs with emotional precision. She has a particularly impressive five-minute scene - a single, uninterrupted take that ends with her character facing tragic news.
Not too surprisingly, the rest of the cast is overshadowed by Cotillard's performance, but a few leave lasting impressions, such as Gérard Depardieu as Leplée, Emmanuelle Seigner as Titine, and Manon Chevallier and Pauline Burlet as Édith at ages five and ten. The same can't be said for the pallid work of Jean-Pierre Martins as Cerdan and Caroline Sihol in a thankless cameo as Marlene Dietrich, one of Piaf's most fervent admirers. However, Piaf's voice is effectively presented for another generation to admire with her most famous songs showcased  "La vie en rose", "Hymne à l'amour", "Milord", and the masterpiece of her twilight years, "Non, je ne regrette rien". Moreover, most of the production values are first-rate, especially Marit Allen's period costumes and Olivier Raoux's production design. Tetsuo Nagata's cinematography is expert, although the use of low lighting during the childhood sequences seems excessive to me. The 2007 DVD has only one extra, a seven-minute making-of featurette mainly focused on Cotillard's tireless work in transforming herself into Piaf. I would have liked more information on Piaf herself to help elucidate some of the dramatic flourishes that Dahan brought to his film.