Product Description

She was known as "the Little Sparrow." But behind Edith Piaf's tiny stature was a larger-than-life voice that captivated a generation. Featuring a powerhouse, Oscar(R)-winning lead performance by Marion Cotillard, this sensational film unveils the story of the French songbird whose road to international fame became suffused with poverty, illness, heartbreak, tragedy and addiction. "Four stars...one of the best biopics I've seen" (Roger Ebert). Winner of two Academy Awards(R), for Best Actress (Cotillard) and Best Makeup. Co-starring Emmanuelle Seigner, Jean-Paul Rouve, Gerard Depardieu and Clotilde Courau. Directed by Olivier Dahan; adaptation and dialogues by Olivier and Isabelle Sobelman, screenplay by Olivier Dahan.

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Edith Piaf is the subject of La Vie en Rose, director Olivier Dahan's powerful if emotionally redundant biographical film about the iconic French superstar whose life, as depicted here, seems to have been a numbing succession of tragedies interrupted on occasion by artistic triumph. Dahan's portrait begins with Piaf's stay in a brothel as a young girl. Left to the care of her grandmother (who runs the place) after her father pulls her away from a narcissistic mother, Piaf undergoes significant health problems and grows up to sing on the street in lieu of outright prostitution. The film pulses along with the usual biopic rhythms, with pivotal moments in the life of Piaf (played as an adult by Marion Cotillard) turning up regularly only to be smacked aside by the unseen hand of perpetual misfortune. There's the impresario (Gerard Depardieu) who recognizes Piaf's great but raw talent only to have a run-in with the criminal element around her. There's the heavyweight fighter (Marcel Cerdan) who becomes the love of Piaf's life but can't be with her. Drug addiction, random car accidents, tax problems, you name it, it's all here, topped by an unnerving revelation that pops up in La Vie en Rose's final moments. After awhile, with such a concentration of bad news squeezed into 140 minutes, one begins to wish Dahan had taken a more expansive approach to Piaf's life and times. But the film is never less than interesting, and the lead performance by Cotillard is often astonishing. --Tom Keogh