Fire the film editor

Rating: 5/10 (15 January 2009)

Some years ago, Norman Jewison was presented with a special Oscar for lifetime achievement. The audience spontaneously gave him a standing ovation when he said that, if you want to make good movies, tell good stories. Well, this is an extraordinary story told extraordinarily badly.
I have a theory: the movie was complete and everyone went out to celebrate, leaving behind a child with a babysitter. The babysitter wasn't paying attention and the child took a pair of scissors and cut up the film into pieces. When the horrified babysitter found out, she spliced the film back together, picking up pieces randomly, including some that had been cut but missing others. When the filmmakers eventually saw the result, they couldn't admit the error and instead chose to call it art.
Okay, that's really far fetched. But it would explain a lot. I've never seen a movie jump around so much. At least six phases of Piaf's life are shown, perhaps a few more, depending on what you count. Sometimes you're told what time period you're in, sometimes not. Perhaps most confusing is when the time changes back and forth within the same scene! Flashbacks are one thing but here there is no coherent line whatever. What idiot thought this would be a good idea? And to leave out her life completely during WW II? Probably the same one who decided to simply have new characters appear, without introduction or explanation of any kind, as if you mysteriously somehow know who everyone is, all the time.
This movie runs a very long 140 minutes. After about 45 we felt we'd gotten the idea and were ready for some kind of wrap-up. I'd say that an hour could have been cut and, with maybe 15 minutes of her WW II activities added, this would have been a truly great film. So is it a stinker? No. The Oscars for best actress and makeup were definitely well-deserved. And it is truly a remarkable and captivating story, the kind Jewison would say really belongs on film. Too bad he wasn't the one to make it.