Released in most of the rest of the world as La Môme (The Waif), Olivier Dahan’s La Vie en Rose is the story of Edith Piaf, the great French singer who became an international icon and symbol of Paris during and after World War II. The story, told through flashbacks and flash-forwards, covers most of Piaf’s life: her abandonment by her parents when only a young child, her discovery singing in the streets of Paris; then, resuming after WWII, up till her death in 1963.

La Vie en Rose is not a typical biographical film but more an interpretation of Piaf’s life. Rather than provide a series of factual accounts, the script, by Dahan and Isabelle Sobelman, emphasizes Piaf’s personal struggles and torments, ignoring her activities during WWII, including her involvement with the French Resistance. Even the reasons for her immense success are not entirely evident. Piaf apparently was married twice, but no details of those courtships are offered. Nor is there much mention of how her various managers, assistants, and entourages came to join her, or why they stayed -- in this unflattering portrait, Piaf was hell to be around. Perhaps they came and went and were never central to or important in her life. Nor did Dahan and Sobelman feel compelled to explain the cause of Piaf’s death. I thought she’d died of cirrhosis of the liver; in fact, it was cancer.

Perhaps partly because of such choices, La Vie en Rose is a brilliant film. While giving no history lessons, Dahan’s bleak retelling of the story of her early childhood does provide some understanding of the causes and motivations that made Piaf what she was. While her father, Louis Gassion ( Jean-Paul Rouve), is fighting in the Great War, Edith, only a few years old, is abandoned by her mother, Anetta (Clotilde Courau), who wishes to live the life of an artiste unencumbered by a child. At her maternal grandmother’s, Edith is neglected, and her body becomes covered in scabs and sores. When her father returns, albeit briefly, he rescues her and deposits her with his own mother, who runs a brothel in Normandy. Five-year-old Edith (Manon Chevallier) is looked after by the working girls, in particular Titine (Emmanuelle Seigner), who cares for her as her own. Unfortunately for Edith, her father returns and drags her away from Titine. He needs Edith to stand and collect money as he performs as a contortionist and street artist. And this is only the beginning of Piaf’s story.

Marion Cotillard gives a convincing, possibly career-making performance as the tiny (4’8") but tough adult Piaf. Director Dahan wanted the music to be as authentic as possible, and used Piaf’s actual singing voice during several of the stage performances depicted -- it would have been extraordinarily difficult to mimic Piaf’s throaty vibrato. I watched these scenes closely and saw no evidence of lip-syncing, so good was Cotillard’s performance. There are several long, uninterrupted camera shots that were technically difficult to accomplish, but are used sparingly and to great effect.

Toward the end of her life, Piaf’s signature song was "Non, Je ne regrete rien" (No, I have no regrets). Despite the earnestness of her singing of those words in one of her final performances, given Dahan’s portrait of Piaf, I wonder if it could possibly have been true.

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