French director Olivier Dahan's new Edith Piaf biopic, La Vie en Rose, is named for the legendary chanteuse's best-loved song—but even those unfamiliar with her work will be fascinated by the singer's stranger-than-fiction life story. After enduring an impoverished childhood, a bout of blindness, and a stint with her father's traveling circus, Piaf (played as an adult by the immensely talented Marion Cotillard) is ravaged by alcohol and morphine addictions. Though her metamorphosis from wide-eyed waif to withered grotesque is haunting, when at the end of her life she performs "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" ("No, I Regret Nothing"), we believe her, so convincing is this stirring portrait of an artist for whom singing was not only a means of survival but the reason to survive.
