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The film everyone is talking about in France at the moment is Olivier Dahan's La Mome. It came out yesterday to rave reviews and massive audience attendance.

I saw it in a packed theater in Paris and the response was very good with discrete sobbing & loud applause from the audience at the end, something that is rare enough out here to be mentioned.

La Mome is a biopic of Edith Piaf. Her fascinating life & career make for a fascinating 140 minutes film. Dahan chose to focus on the dramas of Piaf's life, from her terrible childhood to her demise at age 47. The film is not chronological but goes back and forth between defining moments of Piaf's life. What makes it work so well is the use of Piaf's original songs (most of them very famous, some others less so), sometimes as background music, but mostly lip-synched by Marion Cotillard. The work Cotillard does (at 31, this is a career-making performance) is fantastic : she found the right emotion, the right voice and the right body language to bring the late singer back to life. The scene where she learns the death of Cerdan is a powerhouse. And kudos to the make-up people. The movie goes from naturalistic with the scenes of Paris & Normandy in the late 1910's to the 1930's to stylization with New-York in the 40's & 50's (the cityscape is clearly inspired by the art of Georgia O'Keeffe). Marion Cotillard aside, there is also a terrific cast : Depardieu as her "discoverer" (not overplaying for once), Jean-Paul Rouve as her father, Pascal Greggory as her agent, Catherine Allégret as a brothel madam, Sylvie Testud as Piaf's lifelong friend Momone, etc... Jean-Pierre Martins is a revelation as Marcel Cerdan.

There are very few good french biopics (Pialat's Van Gogh and a rare few others). They only work when there is a strong artistic impulse and when the film is not driven by the narrative only. Such is the case with La Mome, an ambitious & risky project that very successfully found its own rythm and identity. It will make a lot for a renewal in the interest for Edith Piaf - or for her rediscovery by the younger generation - and should be a huge hit in France and then worldwide, under the ackward title La Vie en Rose. A great crowd-pleaser that is also a great film.

It looks very good, although I have no particular interest in Piaf as a singer.

I've been waiting for this for quite some time, as I am a MASSIVE Cotillard fan, and I love Piaf's music. I'm so glad to hear the reaction It's getting!

It's opening here in Montreal this weekend. The reviews I've read so far have been very mixed, though Marion Cotillard's performance has been praised pretty much universally. Has anyone else here seen it?

Cotillard's performance is great. It was a huge audience hit at Lincoln Center--standing ovation etc (with director and actress present).

It suffers from a common biopic fault--the checklisting of major life events. I did like the way it moved back and forth in time.

Given that I know nothing about Piaf and don't really care for her music, I liked it as much as could be expected.

Chekclisting of major life events: yes, and mostly the sad parts, at that. I felt this is why the flashback structure is judicious: you can see the film as some Piaf's own memory flashes on her life as she is fading away. It makes it the more moving. The interview on the beach with the american journalist that brings it all together is a nice touch.

But it should have been more than just a "nice" touch...too bad the actress playing the journalist is so lousy.

The worst part however is the final "rosebud" moment thrown in right before the end.

Agreed, though--Cotillard (one of the most beautiful actresses around) has done an amazing job as Piaf.

Saw this tonight. First, the bad: Dahan's direction is absolutely terrible. The fractured back-and-forth narrative is used completely haphazardly. Particularly towards the end of the film, Dahan throws in checkpoints in her life that he may have left out (particularly that she had a child) as a last minute addition. Behind the camera he is even worse, with sloppy editing and a relentless need to keep the camera moving at all times. If a character walks from left to right, the camera moves left to right. Dahan also uses incessant closeups with no real reason either. There are also numerous pointless long takes for no real reason and the overall method of how it was shot doesn't sync with the tone of the film many times.

The good is Marion Cotillard. An absolutely magnificent performance that is raw, exuberant and passionate. She completely anchors the movie and makes the director look better than he really should.

I like Edith Piaf's music but I think you will get just as much out the film even if you don't.

Teaser trailer.