An incredibly powerful, emotional and moving biopic about the life of Edith Piaf. I've never been a terrific fan of the little sparrow, but now I've seen how tragic her life was I think I appreciate her music far more, and will probably end up buying a CD of her music.Born in the First World War she was left in a brothel to be looked after by prostitutes as her mother left to find her destiny as a singer, her acrobat father returns from the War to take her to the circus. By the 1920s she was begging on the streets and her voice was becoming noticed. By the 1930s she was a true star, but already becoming riddled with every possible addiction and her body misshapened by disease. As a child she was blind for some weeks as a result of an illness, but the intervention of St Teresa Des Lesieux cured her - thereby becoming Piaf's guardian angel. A daughter died as a result of meningitis, marriages failed, the love of her life was killed in a plane crash, drug and drink wreaked its vengence and Edith died at 47. A true tragedy.
And how does this film deal with all this? Incredibly well, if in a slightly chaotic way. Events are not dealt with in strict chronology - we leap from the 1930s to 1950s, back to World War I, her deathbed, the 1920s, see Piaf collapse on stage in 1959, 1963, injecting drugs with one of her husbands, going into hospital in the 1950s and emerging just before her death. This was a tad confusing - but overall the tragedy is dealt with without tipping over into sentimentality, and who could not cry when she sings about the death of the true love of her life, or the French National Anthem at the age of 10, or finally as she sings 'Non, je ne regret rien' in the last months of her life, after having to be carried to the stage racked with pain. That voice is just amazing.
Rating: 8/10
