It was in 2007 thatOlivier Dahan accomplished The kid – Filmed and inflamed biography ofEdith Piaf. Hectic and tragic, the singer’s life scrolls on the screen in a palimpsestal way: virtuoso debut, ultimate agonies, meeting with Louis Lepléestreets of Belleville, avenues of New York, sudden blindness-the chronology of the film proceeds by emotional jumps, sometimes without any transition. Over the sequences, the past informs the future, the bruised existence sheds light on the flayed work; Olivier Dahan Do not tolerate any hiatus, no indeterminacy. Ascension, greatness and decay – the antipodes of hagiography, therefore. Subject to strict mimicry, Marion Cotillard Erases with mastery behind her character. Dressed in a little black dress, these are the words of Jean Cocteau Who come to mind to describe it: “Look at this frail person whose hands are those of the lizard of the ruins. Look at his bonaparte forehead, her blind eyes who has just found the sight …”
Young years
Pour Olivier Dahan“The real trigger was a photo ofEdith Piaf Young, in the street, with Momone, her friend. Few people saw her at that age. We especially keep from her the image of what she was from the 1950s and 60s, the frail icon with a black dress. In this photo, I perceived someone very different, which was not yet called Edith Piaf And who intrigued me. I imagined a bridge between the image that everyone has more or less of her and this photo where she appears in a much more raw manner. ”
Edith Piaf, a cinema icon
This is the fourth biopic on Edith Piaf After Piaf (1974), Edith and Marcel (1983) et Edith Piaf: a brief meeting (1993).
Marion Cotillard, without hesitation
Olivier Dahan said he immediately thought of Marion Cotillard For the title role: “Piaf is a character in itself, an icon. Everyone knows his face, his voice, his silhouette. For the public to accept what I was telling, the gap between the actress and Piaf should not be too big. The resemblance was necessary. Marion is prettier but she really looks like the first photos of Piaf. the director.