Some films are just a rest for the brain, and some like this are not.
I left the cinema thinking, my god. I read a fair amount and watch a lot of movies and most are an escape from my world. Not so with Edith Piaf. Right from the start the film grabs you and takes you into a world that, I for one, really don’t want to visit too often.
I went because Anna said her music is great. For me it is stereotypical French, think Amile, (hmm spelling?). I found the musical numbers were a rest from the main themes of the film. It is a hard hitting no nonsense films that highlights the effects of childhood on the rest of one’s life and the spiral down into drug addition and alcoholism.
Many films that take this same route add a bit of humour to take the edge from the pain – not here. Apart from the music it is pain all the way, enough to leave me happy to escape the cinema and nearly in tears at the end.
Having said all this I think it is a film worth seeing, but don’t expect it to be fluffy and switch your brain off for two hours.