Saturday, November 17, 2007

Little Sparrow Sings the Blues


In the midst of watching La Vie En Rose, I took a break to look at the real Piaf. This tune, Sophie, kicks out a hard St James Infirmary kind of riff and is different than any other performance of Piaf's I have heard or seen. Her timing on the stage entrance is that of a true pro to be sure.


My conclusion on La Vie En Rose is that the musical biopic has no room for a visionary autuer such as Oliver Dahan. The well executed music biopic screams out for a traditional kind of structure and motif. Examples: Ray, Coal Miner's Daughter, I Walk the Line, or What's Love Got to Do with It. But after some reflection, I wonder if Dahan may be trying for something different or beyond the traditional biopic despite some of the elements associated with it such as star cameos and scenes of discovery, struggle, betrayal and comeback we have seen so many times.

Dahan is not afraid to jump all over the subject's life chronologically, probably more so than any other biographical film on a musical artist I can recall. He also takes his time with sections like the Marcel Cerdan's title fight, that might at first seem to be distractions from the story of Edith. It does not surprise me to find that Dahan has a background in painting and music video. This is more than biopic that (although quite well) a Taylor Hackford or Michael Apted would make. Maybe there is a zeitgeist between our higher artisitc types going on now. Is Dahan's film part of a new wave that also includes Todd Haynes' "I'm Not Here" inspired by Dylan. I may weigh in on that after seeing it, hopefully next week.

The delivery of the news of Cerdan's plane crash to Piaf is one of the most impressive sequences I have seen in any film. It is disturbing, moving, and psychologically intense. For me, it was worth the rest of the 2.5 hours that sometimes became tedious and frustrating. It is certainly enough for me to make the kind of move that I often do at the full buffet, check out his other films. La Vie Promise and Crimson Rivers 2 are now in the cue.

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posted by well-executed buffet at 4:06 PM
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