Although biopics are recognized as a flattering type of subject matter, because Edith Piaf’s status in music history is too special, and her personal experience is extremely dramatic, although previous movies about Piaf’s life story are not Few, but it is difficult to have a classic that can be recognized by all Piaf fans. And this time, with Olivier Dahan's prowess and Marion Cotillard's brilliant acting skills, Edith Piaf finally resurrected and reproduced her bumpy and wonderful life.
The film successfully reproduced the music atmosphere of the past in Paris and the nightclub scene of night and night. Under such a background, Piaf’s own romantic and tragic life, the popular carnival concerts in Paris and New York, the noisy and turbulent emotional story, The huge blow of the plane crash of the dead child and lover has been rendered with a more resonant tragedy. The director Daang did not adopt a straightforward narrative approach for this biopic. Instead, he used messy cuts to look back at his life through the eyes and mindset of Edith Piaf the night before his death. A trivial but memorable fragment: the whole film reverberates with the most classic song in Eddie Piaf’s singing career, and the story advances in a non-linear manner, showing fragments of Piaf’s nature. What a strong woman's life is bit by bit, and her delicate and sexy lips, blue eyes, every moment of excitement and heartbreak, are swaying randomly in the lens, vividly presented. Such a splendid life ended in a dark room. The dying Piaf curled up on the bed, looking back on this vicissitudes of life. Alcohol and drugs attacked this legend since he was young, and his life was entangled and destroyed. With this delicate rose, Piaf calmly faced the fate of withering and decadent.
The director's technique is cruel and the lens is objective, showing Piaf's neuroticism and quirky spirit, but the calm narration is still heartbreaking. Daang used a jumping cut method. Piaf in the film was often a quiet nine-year-old girl ten minutes ago. The next shot was an old woman rickety in a recliner, and his memories also used a similar method. For a while, it goes back to the prostitute who took care of her, and for a while, I think of the jugglers in the circus of my father, and my best friends of the year, the lawlessness of young and frivolous, the night sky of New York City when I met my lover, and the people on the road to fame. This kind of bitterness and achievement, the unexpected early death of the first child, the day when the plane crashed, the needle for injecting drugs and the blood stains on cotton. These unreasonable time connection methods require a certain amount of time to adapt, but their personality is very distinctive, and they are complementary to Piaf's life style.
Marion Cotillard’s portrayal of Piaf is shocking. Although the two are far apart from the outside, Cotillard deeply interprets Piaf’s life essence from the internal quality, except for the splendid stage career and the lonely life. In addition to the experience, many difficult scenes in the film especially highlight Cotillard’s extraordinary acting skills, such as dependence on drugs, hysteria in the face of life changes, and the grief that is greater than death after the lover’s accident. Song Dia's performance can be described as superb and impressive
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