July 13, 2007 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

eveningsout

Cotillard captures Piaf in a performance for the ages

by Kaizaad Kotwal

It's way too early to make predictions about who will get Oscar nominations for 2007 let alone who will walk away with the golden boy. Yet, it seems inconceivable that there will be any other performance this year male or female that will match the gutsy, full-throttle genius of Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf in the French biopic La Vie en Rose.

Edith Piaf was most certainly one of a kind. Her voice and her life was unique in so many ways and Olivier Dahan's film is a robust homage to her talent and her suffering.

Piaf, long a queer icon in the same vein as Judy Garland, Billie Holliday, Barbara Streisand and Liza Minelli, led a life addled with tragedy and like many who blazed too hot during their lives, she also died too

soon.

Gay cultural critic Daniel Harris has written that pre-Stonewall, Piaf was "the homosexual's proxy." He explains this by saying that what the diva did was offer queers who were searching for visibility and equality "a tough-as-nails persona they can assume like a mask during emotionally trying experiences."

During her breakout tour of America, Piaf befriended celebrity legends like Orson Welles and Judy Garland.

It was in New York where the sultry bisexual German goddess Marlene Dietrich saw the French chanteuse and praised Piaf in person for her genius. The two allegedly had an affair and remained close friends for the rest of her life.

Born Edith Gassion, much of Piaf's life is both legendary and hard to verify. She was born to very poor, working class parents. Her mother was an aspiring singer who left the very young Edith with her father, a traveling street performer, who then left the child with his mother when he went to serve during World War I. This grandmother ran a whorehouse, so Piaf's formative experiences of love and mothering came from a gaggle of women who doted on her when they were not working.

While she was living in the brothel she fell very ill, going went deaf and blind for a while, and the prostitutes took her to pray to the idol of St. Therese. Cured of her ailments, Piaf became a lifelong devotee of the saint.

Her father took her back, wrenching her from a life she loved and people who loved her greatly. During one of his street performances he asked her to sing to help collect money. As told in the film, the timid Piaf sang "La Marseillaise" and thus the legend was born.

In fact, it was another street performance in Montmartre where she was spotted by legendary cabaret owner Louis Leplée (Gérard Depardieu) who instantly recognized her genius and offered her a job on the

spot. The film hints at Leplée being gay, surrounded by chorus boys who may have been his lovers. It was indeed Leplée who gives Piaf her moniker. He named her La Môme Piaf, which translates, as "the little sparrow." Aptly named for her tiny sizeshe was about 4'11"-Piaf proved that her persona, her talent was anything but small.

By the time she was 20, Piaf had lost a daughter named Marcelle to meningitis. That was only the first of many tragedies of her adult life. Just as her career was rocketing to the top shortly after Leplée discovered her, he was murdered. Piaf and many in his circle were suspects and this caused Piaf much strain, especially as the police in their investigation brutalized her.

She recovered, as she did so often throughout her life, and began her career and a series of doomed romances and marriages.

While she was huge in France and Europe, her debut in the U.S. almost sank her career when she was not instantly liked. But her talent saw her through and she became a star in America shortly thereafter. One of her biggest champions was Dietrich.

It was in the U.S. that she met the love of her life, a boxing champion by the name of Marcel Cerdan.

Cerdan, although married, had a torrid affair with her and when he died in a plane crash on his way to see her, Piaf's heart, mind and body had suffered their fatal blow. Inconsolable, it didn't seem like she would make it through. She would have many other affairs after Cerdan's death but never again would she find true love.

Injuries from two car accidents shortly afterward devastated her and she became addicted to morphine-at least ten injections a day at the height of her pain. Cancer added to her woes and bodily deterioration, increasing her addiction to morphine and alcohol. By the time she was 47 she looked twice her age and the frail singer could hang on no longer. Dead shortly before her 48th birthday, Piaf had ensured that her legend would live far longer than she ever did.

Dahan's directing is actually quite masterful here. He doesn't burden the film and Piaf's life with linear storytelling. Rather, he opts for a fragmented montage of events and incidents from her life, creating a pastiche that captures the rhythms of her music. Dahan is not afraid of using symbolism. surrealism and expressionism to create an intimacy with the singer-a closeness that we are drawn to like moths to a flame. Particularly mesmerizing is the sequence where she finds out about Cerdan's plane crash.

The supporting cast is flawless. Depardieu as Leplée plays him with just the right amount of pomposity and tenderness towards his protégée.

Manon Chevalier and Pauline Burlet are marvelous as the younger incarnations of Edith. They have some tough scenes to do and they are more than up to the task.

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Sylvie Testud and Marion Cotillard star in the Edith Piaf biopic La Vie en Rose.

Caroline Sihol as Dietrich has a tiny role but when she occupies the screen you can feel it simmer with her heat. It is too bad that the film doesn't explore the Dietrich-Piaf angle further. Yet the film has so much to accomplish that it leaves out many, many

things including Piaf's turbulent years in the controversial French resistance during World War II.

Jean-Pierre Martins as Cerdan is spectacular and carries his charm like the matiContinued on page 10

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