La môme (2007)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Olivier Dahan

Writers:

Olivier Dahan (writer)
Isabelle Sobelman (writer)

Release Date:

14 February 2007 (Belgium)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Music

Tagline:

The extraordinary life of Edith Piaf

Plot:

The life story of singer Édith Piaf.

Plot Keywords:

Singer | Childhood | Song | Memory | Circus

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 29 wins & 33 nominations

Cast

Marion Cotillard	...	Edith Piaf
Sylvie Testud	...	Mômone
Pascal Greggory	...	Louis Barrier
Emmanuelle Seigner	...	Titine
Jean-Paul Rouve	...	Louis Gassion
Gérard Depardieu	...	Louis Leplée
Clotilde Courau	...	Anetta
Jean-Pierre Martins	...	Marcel Cerdan
Catherine Allégret	...	Louise
Marc Barbé	...	Raymond Asso
Caroline Sihol	...	Marlene Dietrich (as Caroline Silhol)
Manon Chevallier	...	Edith - 5 years old
Pauline Burlet	...	Edith - 10 years old
Elisabeth Commelin	...	Danielle Bonel
Marc Gannot	...	Marc Bonel

Also Known As:

Edith Piaf (Czech Republic)
La vie en rose (USA) (new title)
Life in Pink (USA) (informal alternative title)
The Little Girl (USA) (literal English title)
The Passionate Life of Edith Piaf (International: English title)
Untitled Edith Piaf Project (France) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for substance abuse, sexual content, brief nudity, language and thematic elements. (also extended edition)

Runtime:

140 min

Country:

France | UK | Czech Republic

Language:

French | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Germany:12 | Finland:K-11 | USA:PG-13 | UK:12A | Ireland:15A | Argentina:13 | France:U | Portugal:M/12 (Qualidade) | Singapore:NC-16 | USA:PG-13 (extended edition) | Hong Kong:IIA | South Korea:12 | Philippines:PG-13 | Brazil:12 | Sweden:7 | Taiwan:PG-12 | New Zealand:M | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Barrandov Studios, Prague, Czech Republic

Company:

Légende Films

Trivia:

Marion Cotillard is one of only five actors to have won an Academy Award for a part spoken mainly in a foreign language. Sophia Loren, Robert De Niro, Benicio Del Toro and Roberto Benigni are the other four.

Goofs:

Continuity: When at the real restaurant with Marcel (their first date), the sommelier comes from Marcel's right. After tasting the wine, Marcel looks at his left and tells the waiter that the wine is OK.

Quotes:

American journalist: If you were to give advice to a woman, what would it be?
Edith Piaf: Love.
American journalist: To a young girl?
Edith Piaf: Love.
American journalist: To a child?
Edith Piaf: Love.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The 81st Annual Academy Awards (2009) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Non, je ne regrette rien

This movie...it's a poem about a poet...

...a song about a singer.

I adore it. Nothing else is there to be said, really. The acting, all round, is sensational, but the lead, Marion Cotillard's portrayal of Edith Piaf, is beyond words. More astonishing even, I'd dare to say, than what Bruno Ganz did with Adolf Hitler in Der Untergang (although Ganz had only a mass murderer and historical criminal to work with, while Cotillard was dealing with, pardon me for saying, the soul of an entire nation).

I would like to comment on the script. The little symbolic moments, full of grief, full of such a profound sadness...I have never seen this done so well. Certain elements of the story, a conversation or object, are only within the lasting of the film transformed from everyday, mundane stuff into everlasting symbols of affection, of redemption and personal torment.

You see, this is the strong point of the film - it tries to(and often it manages) make you cry because of her tough life, but at the end you are crying because of the good things that happened to her. They too, are over: Edith never even regrets the bad ones.

The music is a whole story on its own. I've loved Piaf for some years now, but, alas, I don't speak French, and now, at last, I have some context to place the songs into...and it breaks me. It really does.

I saw the movie yesterday, went home, and listened to Edith's albums for hours, and they meant so much...they spoke volumes.

Anyway, the direction is perfect, although there is one scene towards the end which has problems - it tells, for the very first time, of a rather important event in the much earlier years of the singer's life , and the event in question seems to be out of place, sort of neglected - as if it should have been dealt with an hour earlier. But this is only one tiny scene, and even it, in itself, is masterfully done. Everything else is flawless.

The cuts and the singing are blended brilliantly together. I was especially struck, which is strange, by the end credits: they are very unusual and touching for a movie which is this musical (find out why!).

Anyway, my deepest recommendations. See it, it is really excellent. It is dark and human and bright, and full of spectacular music.

It is the 20th century.

I fell in love with it.

You might too.