I know very little about Edith Piaf, and to be honest, before I saw the trailer for this movie, I had [unfortunately] never heard of her. Still, even without knowing anything about Piaf, I was completely sucked into the movie because of Marion Cotillard‘s performance. Piaf’s life story is a string of ups and downs in the most extreme sense. She is raised in a whorehouse before her father takes her to join the circus. She then makes her living by singing on the streets, loses a child in her early twenties, and fights a drug addiction all while furthering her singing career. She falls in love, only to lose the love of her life. The tragedies that Piaf endured contributed to her downfall, but her short life made for an incredible story.
Rating: ****