******
- Verified Buyer
Beautiful film, thoughtfully structured. Normally multiple flashbacks are a huge red flag, but in this case it works. Ms. Cotillard is astonishing, downplaying her own beauty and disappearing into Piaf. The shoot must have been physically and psychically brutal. The only flaws with the story are not the film makers' particular fault. One, Piaf has no arc (outside of her career). She was a reactive person by nature and remained so through-out her life. They try to give her a sense of peace and reflection in a scene on a California beach but it is one of the few scenes that rings hollow. The other (minor) issue is obviously this is a French film and the makers tend to assume that a French audience will mostly know the (tragic) beats of her story, such is her status in the pantheon. For an American audience, however, this is problematic. Piaf's daughter is introduced by her childhood death by meningitis. It is horrible, but less horrible than it might have been had we known she even had a daughter by a husband we had just met. Also WW2 is skipped over with one throw away scene where she meets a soldier leaving for the front. Her affair with Cerdan, however, is wonderfully done, handled with both substance and great delicacy. His death tears your heart out - even if you know it is coming. The actor who plays Cerdan is credible as both the man and the boxer. I'm sure most Americans don't know France ever had a serious boxer, much less a world champion, but it is true. A fine, fine portrayal.Finally, the music. I am no musicologist so I am not going to comment on that, but her performances and songs will outlive all of us, and the film is both generous and clever in handling the music. This is what they used to call a twenty hankie movie, and it is all of that. Preparez vos mouchoirs, as they say.A couple of interesting points: Claude Lelouch made 'Edith and Marcel' in '83 casting Cerdan's real son as his father. I'm not going to comment until I can go back and screen it again, it's been too many years, but it is probably worth digging up. Finally, a film about Cerdan starring Patrick Dewaere was in production when Dewaere committed suicide, the awful loss of a wonderful young actor.
