ÉDITH PIAF: LA VIE EN ROSE

The young French actress Marion Cotillard has won the Best Actress Academy Award 2008 for her portrayal of Édith Piaf in the film “La Vie En Rose”, a wonderful portrait of the legendary French icon who regretted nothing, singing “Non, je ne regrette rien”.

MARION COTILLARD RECEIVING HER ACADEMY AWARD FROM FOREST WHITAKER

Perhaps Édith Piaf’s nearest American analogues are such singers as Billie Holiday or Judy Garland. From the mean streets of the poor Belleville district of Paris to the dazzling limelight of New York’s most famous concert halls, her life was a constant battle to sing and survive, to live and love.

“Piaf”, French for “sparrow”, was a little woman, but she had a formidable voice. Her singing reflects her tragic life, her specialty being the poignant ballad. Among her most famous songs are “La vie en rose” (1946), “Hymne à l’amour” (1949), “Milord” (1959), and “Non, je ne regrette rien” (1960).

Despite numerous published biographies, much of her life remains a mystery. Legend has it that she was born on the pavement of “Rue de Belleville” in Paris. Her mother was a café singer of Algerian - French - Italian origin, her father a street acrobat. Her parents abandoned her, so the girl went to live with its grandmother, Aicha Said ben Mohammed, a native of Algeria, running a brothel in Normandy. The prostitutes helped look after the little “sparrow”. From the age of three to seven, Édith was blind as a result of keratitis. According to one of her biographies, she recovered her sight on a pilgrimage honoring Saint Thérèse de Lisieux, a miraculous healing.

In 1935 Édith was discovered in the “Pigalle” of Paris, a famous nightclub in the red light district. Her nightclub gigs led to her first two records produced the same year. In 1940, Édith co-starred in Jean Cocteau’s one-act play “Le Bel Indifférant”. She began to befriend famous people such as Maurice Chevalier and Yves Montand.

During World War II she claimed to have been working for the French Résistance, helping a number of individuals to escape Nazi persecution. She dated a Jewish pianist during this time. After the war, she became internationally known, touring Europe, the United States, and South America. After a glowing review by a prominent New York critic, she appeared at Carnegie Hall twice, in 1956 and 1957. The legendary Paris Olympia concert hall is where she achieved lasting fame, giving a series of concerts between 1955 and 1962.

Her personal and love life remained troubled. Her great love, the married boxer Marcel Cerdan, died in a plane crash in October 1949, while flying from New York City to Paris, on the way to meeting her. Cerdan’s Air France flight went down in the Azores, killing everyone on board. Piaf’s and Cerdan’s affair made international headlines, as Cerdan was the middleweight world champion and a legend in France in his own right.

Piaf later married twice. Her first husband was Jacques Pills, a singer. They married in 1952 with Marlene Dietrich as maid of honor, and divorced in 1956. Her second husband, Théo Sarapo, was a Greek hairdresser turned singer and actor. He was 20 years younger than Piaf. They married in 1962 and sang together in some of her last engagements. During her last years she was addicted to morphium and alcohol.

Édith Piaf died of liver cancer on the French Riviera in 1963 and is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Her grave is one of the most visited. Her funeral procession drew thousands of mourners into the streets of Paris. The ceremony at the cemetery was attended by more than 100.000 fans. Today she is still remembered and revered as one of the greatest singers of France.