Je ne regrette riiiiieeeenn!!

I seem to be film-fixated at the moment, don't I?? Wellll, Blockbuster have a good deal where you can get 3 DVDS for £7 for the whole week, and I couldn't resist, hence my recent viewings of Devil Wears Prada and Transamerica. There's nowt nicer than curling up on the sofa with some choccie, your loved one and a good movie.

However last night I actually went to the cinema!! A rarity these days. This time it was to see "La Vie En Rose", the recently released biopic of French singer/chanteuse Edith Piaf. I'm not really a fan of her music/voice - she has a kind of screechy, caterwauling vocal that sounds like a cat being strangled - sorry, Edith fans. Although I will concede that songs like "La Vie En Rose" and "Je Ne Regrette Rien" have a definite iconic status as well as resonances for gay people. And it can't be denied that Ms Piaf is a legend in her own right with a diva-ish reputation, so for all these reasons I decided to see the movie.

Actually I found the film pretty gruelling to watch. It was very well acted and faithful to the period - early 1900s France through to the early 1960s which covers the (all too brief) span of Edith Piaf's life. Marion Cotillard who plays Edith was amazing and bears an uncanny resemblance to the real star, who was always very unusual-looking with her staring eyes and wildly unconventional looks. I think it's the fact that Edith had such a tragic life that makes the film so difficult to watch! She's brought up on the streets of Paris by her prostitute mother, who then disowns her at an early age; after which she's raised in a brothel; then her acrobat father forces her to accompany him with a travelling circus and soon abandons her too; later on she's forced to sing on the street to earn a living (which does at least lead to a bona fide career as a singer); the great love of her life is killed in a plane crash...and then she gets arthritis and dies (relatively) young! Nice, eh? As I said this all makes for quite depressing viewing, and there aren't many laughs or lighthearted moments. The whole sordidness of the Parisian life that we see early on is particularly hard to bear and overall there's a grim, dour feel about the film. But on the other hand that's inevitable given the nature of the subject and the movie can at least be applauded for the uncompromising way in which it deals with its topic - there's not much Hollywood-style sugaring of the pill here. And it's not as if they could have realistically made up the facts about Edith's life. So, a decent enough biopic of "The Sparrow" though probably not a film I'd voluntarily sit through again.