EDITH PIAF

“I don't think of all the misery, but of all the beauty that still remains” - Anne Frank

Last Saturday we watched Olivier Dahan’s 2007 film “La Môme” with the extraordinary Marion Cotillard bringing to life France’s tragic songstress, Edith Piaf. The film was extremely well made, and Ms Cotillard well deserved her Oscar. I had heard conflicting reports of this movie, especially berating the flash forwards and flash backs, but once we started watching we were hooked and the story of one of the most famous of French singers that was unfolding on the screen hooked us completely.

The movie is well directed and acted and is quite brutal in its depiction of one woman’s tortured life. Piaf was raised away from her mother and father in a cheap bordello, lost her sight for a time, travelled with the circus, sang and slept in the streets, lost her child at 20, was wrongly accused of murder, struggled with a drug addiction, lost her true love and other dear ones in her life, and still had the courage to get up on stage at the end of her life to sing "Je ne Regrette Rien" (I regret nothing).

The film is obviously filled with much music and song, with all the favourites of Piaf’s repertoire making an appearance. Although for the most part Piaf’s recordings are used on the soundtrack, French singer Jil Aigrot is credited with the vocals for some of Piaf's songs, particularly those from Piaf's younger years (e.g. Mon Homme, Les Mômes de la Cloche, Mon Légionnaire, De Gris, L'Accordéoniste, Comme un Moineau and Les Hiboux), songs for which there are no recordings by Édith Piaf or where the song was presented in a manner different from anything recorded by Édith Piaf. The climax of the film is Piaf at the end of her life, hobbling on to the stage of the Olympia Hall in Paris and singing her signature tune, “Non, Je ne Regrette Rien”.

A note about the name of the film. In most English speaking countries, the film is known as “La Vie en Rose” (Life through Rose-coloured Lenses), but in the original French, “La Môme” means the kid, the urchin and “Piaf” is sparrow. Hence, “La Môme Piaf”, which was the singer’s assumed name when she first started singing means the little sparrow.

Watch this film, although sad and gritty, it is strangely uplifting, also…