The problem of this film for a UK audience is unfamiliarity with the life and performances of Edith Piaf. I fact, I can't think of a comparable cultural icon in 20th century Britain - Gracie Fields and Vera Lynn certainly represented something definitively English, at different ends of the social scale, but are not revered by present generations as Piaf continues to be.
This means that the emotional reaction of the intended audience, in France, can't be replicated in England. Most French viewers would be very familiar with the life story of Piaf, and have associations with her songs that I couldn't bring to the cinema. I only know La vie en rose, and the iconic Je ne regrette rien, and had a hazy idea of her rough upbringing, affair with a boxer, and premature death.
All this means that my judgement of the worth of the film is limited. I can't easily assess whether the depictions of real events are conventional, exaggerated or sentimentalised, or whether all the incidents depicted are part of the legend. I can just judge the impact it had on me.
One key problem I had with this, even before I saw the film, is that one of the most famous characteristics of Piaf was her height. She was 4'7", tiny, hence her name, ("piaf" means "sparrow"), but the actress playing her, Marion Cotillard, is about a foot taller. This isn't just quibbling, it's an essential part of Piaf's character that she was the tiny woman with the huge voice and boundless passion, the underdog from the gutter who succeeded despite her drawbacks. Cotillard is above average height for a woman, so that when she's with Marcel, the boxer she has an affair with, she stands beyond his chin height, whereas the real Piaf would have been about chest high to him.
Apart from that, it's easy to see why Cotillard was chosen for the role. She has some physical resemblance, height aside, has a great voice, and can act. I can't judge the accuracy of her interpretation, but the singing impressed me enough, as did the range of her acting.
The direction I found unnecessarily distracting. At the beginning, depicting her early life on the streets, a handheld camera is used, to no obvious advantage - it's not a POV shot, and it only serves to distract rather than energise. The time jumps were also erratic and unnecessary, and more frequent towards the end.
Only once or twice was it shown how Piaf used the experiences of her life to inspire the passion of her performances. Most effective is when she hears of Marcel's death in a plane crash, and becomes hysterical, running round her house until she steps from the hall straight on to the stage and into a performance.
I wasn't as engaged by this as I felt I should have been, partly because of the lack of association I mentioned above, and partly because I thought it was a film of some good scenes, but not a great whole. Cotillard's performance was excellent, others were passable or forgettable.
This means that the emotional reaction of the intended audience, in France, can't be replicated in England. Most French viewers would be very familiar with the life story of Piaf, and have associations with her songs that I couldn't bring to the cinema. I only know La vie en rose, and the iconic Je ne regrette rien, and had a hazy idea of her rough upbringing, affair with a boxer, and premature death.
All this means that my judgement of the worth of the film is limited. I can't easily assess whether the depictions of real events are conventional, exaggerated or sentimentalised, or whether all the incidents depicted are part of the legend. I can just judge the impact it had on me.
One key problem I had with this, even before I saw the film, is that one of the most famous characteristics of Piaf was her height. She was 4'7", tiny, hence her name, ("piaf" means "sparrow"), but the actress playing her, Marion Cotillard, is about a foot taller. This isn't just quibbling, it's an essential part of Piaf's character that she was the tiny woman with the huge voice and boundless passion, the underdog from the gutter who succeeded despite her drawbacks. Cotillard is above average height for a woman, so that when she's with Marcel, the boxer she has an affair with, she stands beyond his chin height, whereas the real Piaf would have been about chest high to him.
Apart from that, it's easy to see why Cotillard was chosen for the role. She has some physical resemblance, height aside, has a great voice, and can act. I can't judge the accuracy of her interpretation, but the singing impressed me enough, as did the range of her acting.
The direction I found unnecessarily distracting. At the beginning, depicting her early life on the streets, a handheld camera is used, to no obvious advantage - it's not a POV shot, and it only serves to distract rather than energise. The time jumps were also erratic and unnecessary, and more frequent towards the end.
Only once or twice was it shown how Piaf used the experiences of her life to inspire the passion of her performances. Most effective is when she hears of Marcel's death in a plane crash, and becomes hysterical, running round her house until she steps from the hall straight on to the stage and into a performance.
I wasn't as engaged by this as I felt I should have been, partly because of the lack of association I mentioned above, and partly because I thought it was a film of some good scenes, but not a great whole. Cotillard's performance was excellent, others were passable or forgettable.
2 comments:
I agree that it was an excellent central performance, but the strange flashbacks and jumps, without any consistency or logic, detracted from it.
I thought the use of Piaf's music was really good, particularly Mon Dieu over the fight scene: if you didn't catch the words, they are, translated, something like: my god, my god, leave him to me for a few more hours, a few more days, just a little more time.
I did wonder why the second world war period was completely passed over - I know the film was particularly about Piaf's self-destruction, but her war was very interesting: she controversially sang for the Germans, which later turned out to be because havign done that, she was permitted to pose for photographs with French prisoners; the photos were then smuggled out and used to make forged documents for them so that they could try and escape. Hence one meaning of 'Non, je ne regrettte rien'.
Gah, scuse typos.
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