I hesitated to write this review for the past few weeks. I didn't know -- don't know -- if I could really describe how transformative Marion Cotillard's performance was. She truly became Edith Piaf. While I watched the film, I had no point of reference to compare the two, but I just knew that Marion metamorphosized into Edith: so broken, abused, neglected, mentally and physically ill.
I don't think that the point of the film was to make Edith a likable person -- she was someone who intrigued me, not someone that I necessarily routed for because I liked her. From the very beginning, the little girl who was raised in horrible conditions, became the product of her surroundings. It was like a first run conception of Behind the Music. In a really weird way this movie drew out my social worker skills (which are always at the ready) -- I honed in on the neglect, deviant upbringing, lack of medical care, lack of emotional support, physical and emotional abuse, and rampant substance abuse that produced this wonderfully talented, broken woman. Edith was a real life china doll; delicate, timeless, stylized, and so frail. I don't really know what to write, just simply Marion Cotillard's performance was mind blowing and I became totally enraptured. A must see.
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