Piaf - Her Story, Her Songs
The life of the definitive Frenchchanteuse, Edith Piaf, is celebrated in this concert/documentary hybrid,Piaf - Her Story...Her Songs. Raquel Bitton, who doesn't so much impersonate Piaf as try to channel the singer through her songs, tells tidbits from Piaf's life between faithful renditions of such classics as "Non je ne regrette rien"  ("No Regrets"), "Bravo pour le clown", and of course "La vie en rose."  Interspersed with this concert are scenes from a French restaurant, where Bitton has gathered an assortment of people who knew Piaf (including her son and musicians who performed with her) to reminisce about Piaf's tumultuous life and ferocious personality. The result of this cutting back and forth is a bit haphazard--the anecdotes tend to be gossipy and self-indulgent, while Bitton's sketchy narrative of the singer's life (delivered mostly in English) serves more to introduce the songs than to actually tell Piaf's biography. The songs are lovely (though fans may prefer recordings of Piaf herself to a recording of Bitton imitating Piaf) and there are some intriguing scraps of archival footage, including Piaf responding to reporters after being accused of murder and a glimpse of a melancholy Marlene Dietrich at Piaf's funeral.--Bret Fetzer