La Vie en Rose

Absorbing story of Edith Piaf's life. Superb visually -reminded me of various painters A lot of the inside scenes had the dark colours and lighting effects of Degas, Cezanne, Van Gogh , even the poster colours of Toulouse Lautrec. I'm thinking of the scene where Titine and the child Edith are wearing clown-style lipstick. A few beach scenes rather like Monet's Normandy paintings.

Edith herself had a wretched background. She was abandoned by her mother, dumped on her grandmother who ran a brothel, torn away from there by her father who was a circus acrobat and contortionist. She started her career as a singer on the Paris streets. She had a daughter who died of meningitis. As she became famous and successful, she continued to abuse alcohol and drugs. The love of her life, boxer Marcel Cerdan, died in a plane crash. In the end she seemed totally trapped by her role as the suffering star.

Marion Cotillard acted the part superbly, bringing out the pathos and the self-centred arrogance.
I did start to lose concentration during the long deathbed scene with flashbacks, but it's a film I could easily watch again.