‘La Mome’ an Oscar winning biographical story of Edith Piaf will be screened at 3.00 pm on Tuesday September 9 and 6.30 pm on Wednesday, September 10 at the Alliance Francaise, Colombo.
Released in USA under the title La vie en rose , Marion Cotillard won the Oscar for Best Performance By A Female Actor in a Leading Role, and Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald won an Oscar for Best Makeup and Marit Allen was also nominated for Best Achievement in Costume Design.

This French drama explores the often troubled life of the singer as her fame took her from the City of Lights to America to the South of France.

It covers Edith Piaf's life from her childhood during and after World War I in poverty when her mother was singing on the streets panhandling for change and her father was fighting. When he came back from war little Edith was in poor health and neglected, and he decided to leave her in the brothel in Brittany where her grandmother was the madame. After her father was discharged from World War I he began to work as a contortionist in a small circus, and Edith began to sing with her father on the street.

This is when she discovered her talent. Her biography then is resumed in her 20s, when she was singing on the street on Montmartre with her female friend, and was approached by Pere Leplee (Gerard Depardieu) and invited to sing at his club. From that moment Edith had adopted a stage name Piaf (Sparrow) and her professional career has began. The movie then covers her rise to huge popularity, as well as all the drama in her life up until her early death at 47.

As Piaf, Cotillard is mesmerizing. She fully inhabits the singer's ivory skin, crafting a character that never descends into caricature or camp. She lip syncs to Piaf's legendary voice, but the performance is seamless. Like ‘WALK THE LINE and RAY’, this biopic creates a fascinating picture of an artist whose songs only begin to reflect the singer's painful life.