January 15, 2008

The Little Sparrow

And speaking of voices, La Vie En Rose just won a Golden Globe for Marion Cotillard's performance as Edith Piaf. Whilst this is a standard musical bio-pic, the story is somewhat randomly chopped into pieces, taking quite an effort to make out the time period of certain scenes.

But whatever, the point is, Edith grew up in extreme hardship, poverty, and sickness; became an overnight smash success; partied too hard, loved too much, etc, etc. And practically invented the over-the-top, melodramatic French cabaret song. As usual in these affairs, the film ends with her breathtaking come-back concert and that quintessential performance of Non, je ne regrette rien.

(For more Cotillard, you could check out the goofy A Good Year ; it's mostly an odd Russell Crowe vehicle, which tries too hard to be fun, but Cotillard's brightness and spirit makes the romantic finale almost plausible.) Posted by netrc at January 15, 2008 01:06 PM