From the slums of Paris to the limelight of New York, Edith Piaf’s life was a battle to sing and survive, live and love. Raised in poverty, Edith’s magical voice and her passionate romances and friendships with the greatest names of the period - Yves Montand, Jean Cocteau, Charles Aznavour, Marlene Dietrich, Marcel Cerdan and others - made her a star all around the world. But in her audacious attempt to tame her tragic destiny, the Little Sparrow - her nickname - flew so high she could not fail to burn her wings.

The Academy Award Nominee and Oscar Winner, La Vie En Rose (French for “Life in Pink”) was the signature song of French singer, Édith Piaf. This movie (Môme, La: aka “Vie en rose, La” - Germany, USA (new title), Argentina, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden) is quite moving and makes you cry while you watch Édith Piaf’s tragic life. Édith Piaf (19 December 1915—11 October 1963) was a French singer and cultural icon, who is widely accepted as the country’s greatest pop singer. Before you read this review, let’s have a listen the greatest song, La Vie En Rose.

Probably, everyone might have listened this song from somewhere. This song was written by Piaf and popularized in 1946. English version of the song was written by Mack David later. While you follow this movie, you may feel Piaf had quite sad life behind her successful singer life.

When she was young from the age of three to seven, Piaf was allegedly blind as a result of keratitis. According to one of her biographies, she recovered her sight after her grandmother’s prostitutes pooled money to send her on a pilgrimage honoring Saint Thérèse de Lisieux, resulting in a miraculous healing.

She begins to sing when accompanying her father as a street-performing contortionist. The crowd wants her to do something, so she sings the Marseillaise in a simple ringing voice and a star is born.

In 1935 Piaf was discovered when she sung in the corner of Rue Troyon in Paris as shown in the picture by the nightclub owner Louis Leplée.

Louis offered the first opportunity for Piaf to sing in his night club called Gerny’s as shown in the picture below.

It was Louis who gave the name ‘little spirrow’ to Piaf according to her look at that time and this name followed her for the rest of her career. It said that her opening night was a nerve wracking affair for young Edith. In a black, hand knitted dress, a borrowed scarf hiding a missing sleeve, she faced an initially cold, indifferent audience, but left the stage to riotous applause and cheering. Legend said that Louis and Piaf had a daughter who died at only 3 years old. Louis was murdered in his apartment, and Piaf was watched by the police as a suspect, but later cleared.

Legend has it that The Little Sparrow, as she was fondly known in France since the beginning of her career, was born on the pavement of 72, Rue de Belleville in Paris. This is not true. Edith Giovanna Gassion was born at Belleville’s Hospital Tenon. To Anetta Giovanna Maillard, an Italian street singer and part-time prostitute. On December 19, 1915. After just two months of neglected nursing, her alcoholic mother abandoned her in the care of her father Louis, a traveling acrobat who in turn dropped the child in his mother’s brothel in Liseux, a small town in the Calvados department known in the Catholic world as the place of St Theresa of the Infant Jesus. Edith was brought up by prostitutes and aged 14 she was helping her father earning a few francs on his road shows.

The picture above is the apartment, in which piaf lived for a long time during her early ages.

When it comes to Edith’s best friend Momone, there are actually several version about her rather than just what has appeared in this movie. Momone (Sylvie Testud) in this moive, is given a better part and is more convincing in her role as a real person, than is the scene stealing but artificial performance by Cotillard.

The movie did not actually cover the true love story of Piaf, as noted, she has many lovers. However, Edith Piaf’s true love was boxer Marcel Cerdan, though they never married. Later in 1949, Édith wanted that he join her as soon as possible in New York where she was on tour. Edith insisted that he take a plane rather than travel by ship. He was reluctant, fearing air travel but finally he agreed. The plane crashed into a mountainside in the Azores and all aboard were lost. Piaf never recovered from the loss of her love and took refuge in drugs and alcohol.Piaf subsequently married singer Jacques Pills in 1952. They divorced in 1956. In 1962, Piaf married singer/actor Theo Sarapo, who was twenty years her junior. Théo was a twenty-six-year-old hairdresser-turned-singer and actorHe rejuvenated her enough to make her last recordings and performances.They stayed married until Piaf’s death. Along the way, Piaf had many other lovers.

The movie also tried just to capture the positive profile of piaf, however, there are something else. During World War II, she was a frequent performer at German Forces social gatherings in occupied France, and many considered her a traitor; following the war she claimed to have been working for the French resistance. While there is no evidence of this per se, it does seem to be true that she was instrumental in helping a number of individuals (including at least one Jew) escape Nazi persecution. Throughout it all, amazingly, she remained a national and international favorite.

She is buried in the place where she stayed most of her life. Upon hearing of her death, Édith’s long-time friend, Jacques Cocteau suffered a cardiac arrest and died.

Théo Sarapo, Édith’s husband died in an automobile accident in 1970 and is buried beside Piaf in Père Lachaise.

Her life is astonishingly rich but somewhat barren and tragic, but I cannot really tell what it is. As many people who knows French street language said, most of her songs are untranslatable, especially the ones she wrote by herself. These French songs are rarely have relationship with love but they are at the same time obsessed with love. Let’s take a look at the English lyrics of la vie rose:

Hold me close and hold me fast

It seems her life was not quite easy and had a lot of stories, (mostly sad). However, she’s a great singer and be loved by a lot of people.
Lastly, let’s have a listen some of her other songs.

Padam, Padam

Hymne à L’Amour

La Foule

Non, je ne regrette rien (This is my favorite song among Edith Piaf’s songs)

La Vie En Rose Trailer

Accessories

Still Photos