La Vie en Rose

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ADVENTURES IN FILM

The Topsy-Turvy Life of Edith Piaf
- La Vie en Rose

This is one powerful movie. Imagine being a world superstar and a total wreck by the time you're 40.

Edith Piaf, widely considered the greatest pop singer France ever produced, was a tragic figure. She was raised in a brothel and made her way as a street performer. She recorded prolifically, toured internationally, and performed at Carnegie Hall in a career recognized in a Grammy Hall of Fame award long after she died.

She also reportedly befriended mobsters, suffered three near-fatal car crashes, and was involved with a married boxer from another country who died in a plane crash on his way to see her. Unable to shake alcohol and drug addictions, The 'Little Sparrow' died of liver cancer in 1963.

The film broke box office records in France (and is nominated for film awards in France and the U.S. as of this writing). The structure is as chaotic as her life. It jumps around in nonlinear fashion, reinforcing what it must have been like to live in an alcohol and drug-induced haze. Marion Cotillard's performance is nothing less than stunning.

Watch this movie and, as Piaf sang late in her career, you will have 'no regrets.'