La Môme Piaf
Tonight I watched the French film La Môme (2007) (or, La Vie En Rose) about the life of Edith Piaf, "the little sparrow" and her career. It was a rather sad tale about a talented and spirited woman whose voice is legendary in France and around the world. I can't say I loved the film, but I do feel better for having seen it and learned a bit more about this amazing woman.
--Kate
posted by Kate & Spencer @ 12/18/2007 12:55:00 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Like most Europeans (and some Americans) my age, I have been fairly familiar with the voice of (and with the mystique surrounding) Édith Piaf since roughly the days when I was seven or eight years old. I cannot say that I "love" her voice, or that I enjoy the fact that I'm no where near fluent enough in French to understand the lyrics to her songs. However, I will say this: Her singing voice, with its remarkable vibrato, reminds me of a deeper, gruffer, slightly more hurried, slightly more histrionic, rather less pure, and less "bell-like" version of Joan Baez's voice. So, even with all the qualifiers, that is pretty high praise from me, considering my very favorable opinion of Baez as a singer, and as a person.
I will also admit (as many others are) I'm strangely attracted to those greatly talented artists who experienced a "tragic life" of less than full duration, like Janis Joplin, Arthur Rimbaud, Hank Williams, Phil Ochs, John Keats, Jimi Hendrix, Montgomery Clift, James Dean, Sylvia Plath, Marilyn Monroe, Billie Holiday, Jim Morrison, and Percy Bysshe Shelley. And, obviously, Édith Piaf fits in quite well with the other "stars" in that category, even if her death at 47 may place her as the longest-lived member of the group. I'm not sure why I often find such "bright flames which burned out so quickly" to be so truly fascinating, but I do.
Something about her spunk reminded me of Dorothy Parker.
Yes, grand spunk buckets, both, no doubt.
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