Year of Release: 2007Country of Origin: France, UK, Czech Republic
Director: Olivier Dahan
Cast: Marion Cotillard, Gérard Depardieu
Plot outline: An un-chronological look at the life of the Little Sparrow, Edith Piaf (1915-1963) (IMDb).
This life story of legendary singer Edith Piaf is skillfully told in flashback - moving back and forth between internal analepsis (a flashback to an earlier point in the narrative) and external analepsis (a flashback to before the narrative started), and yet it doesn't confuse the audience. At this point, I could only guess where the story would end. Despite the risk of becoming melodramatic, the movie perfectly portrays her lifelong struggle against misfortune and heartache. And then, there comes a great relief when the story finally ends ... in high spirits with her singing one of her signature songs "Non, je ne regrette rien" (No, I regret nothing) as if to sum up the whole of her extraordinary life. Marion Cotillard wholeheartedly gives the performance of a lifetime as Edith Piaf, relegating all her supporting cast to the background and all other contenders of 2007 Academy Award's Best Actress category to next year's hopefuls.
My judgement: *** out of 4 stars
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