November 6, 2008
Toronto – Chez Roxanne

Call it a tradition or whatever, we often get together on Torontonian fall or winter nights and watch cinema classics, be it black-and-white, francais, etc.

Thursday night wasn’t an exception… Watching “La Vie en Rose“, which was way overdue on my “must-see” movie list, turned out to be a great initiation to our movie nights this year… The story of the legend chanteuse, Édith Piaf… I mean, how can one possibly have such a life full of sorrow and unfortunate incidents and yet remain in love, singing like a bird with no regrets about her past… All I can say was that her voice makes you desperately want to live and experience her era, in Paris in 1940’s, wandering around Montmartre and falling in love… Even if you don’t fully understand what she is trying to tell you in her music, she grasps you with her voice, her strength, her patience…

Marion Cotillard, herself one of my favorite French actresses, made it hard to believe she was merely acting… Her jaw-dropping performance was nothing short of amazing… She was so real… So comfortable… So Édith Piaf…

S