LA MOME

http://www.tfmdistribution.com/lamome/lamome.htm
plot : Edith Piaf is a legend.
thought : Edith Piaf is a legend.

I cannot instantly recall any other French biopic. Oh wait, here are a couple recents--Jean de la Fontaine, and also MOLIERE (with my favorite French actor, Romain DURIS, cutie). I bet I could search on Google and eventually find a few more--but I also have a feeling Gerard Depardieu as CYRANO DE BERGERAC would probably come up first. So I'm just going to put out there that, perhaps, LA MOME is going to be the first wide-release French biopic. And it is a sensation. I don't expect it to do nearly as well abroad, of course, as it has done here in France, but I do hope and believe it will be well-received. We have used RAY and WALK THE LINE as our biopic measuring bars for anything the 2007 box office will attempt to throw (and appropriately, it has thrown nothing), but I aruge that this film again will raise the bar.

You may not have heard of Marion COTILLARD before this film. She plays Russell Crowe's love
interest in A GOOD YEAR. Yeah, didn't see it. But in this movie, I can't even say she "plays" the role of Edith Piaf, the most admired, renowed female French singer of the past century (in my opinion). Cotillard, in fact, is Edith Piaf so precisely, so wholly, she swept me away into believing I was watching "la môme" herself on screen.

The story, as well, is phenomenal. I admire the research and study that the makers of this film, particularly our director and chief writer Olivier DAHAN, obviously persued to create a film that seems to so accurately depict the emotional pitfalls and professional triumphs of this woman's musical career. It is delivered in an effectively engaging non-chronological style with fast editing and none of the typical French cinematic silence. It's a movie about a musician, after all ! The music is weep-worthy. The power in Edith Piaf's voice and the emotion of every note is enough to make this movie a classic, but Cotillard's sensational acting drives it home. An unforgettable life captured on screen.

Scene that sings : Immediately after Piaf reencounters her lover, Marcel, in her apartment after he takes a plane to see her.

Overall rating : 4.5/5