Edith Piaf - A Passionate Life dvd movie.|
Edith Piaf - A Passionate Life dvd videos, dvd movies reviews |
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List Price: $14.99 Our Price: $12.99 You Save: $2 Features • Color • DVD-Video • NTSC In Theaters : 2004 DVD Release : 25 May, 2004 |
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| ♥♥♥♥♥ | fine biopic--as far as it goes, that is |
| Edith Piaf's contributions to the arts and the details of her life can never be dealt with seriously in any 44 minute video--although this video attempts to do just that. The video, here on DVD, was a 1967 retrospective of Edith Piaf and her life. Unfortunately, while they tried their best to make something worthwhile about Edith Piaf, they did not fully succeed. Huge amounts of details are left out and major issues and triumphs are completely ignored.
Nevertheless, this movie does try. We do get rare footage of Edith performing in concert; this rare footage has value because in the 1950s and early 1960s people simply did not record concerts on film. It just wasn't done. There are many beautiful audio tracks of Edith singing in the background while friends are interviewed about her. We also get a brief interview with Theo Serapo; he was married to Edith at the time that she died. It's touching to see and hear these people speak so fondly of Edith. In addition, the funeral footage demonstrates even more the emotional impact Edith had on so many people. The sound quality is rather good; but the image quality varies. The interviews from 1967, filmed in black and white, are high quality images with proper lighting and sound equipment being used. The concert footage and a few clips of Edith made by friends unfortunately lack this quality; the images are often rather fuzzy and this frustrates me. The worst blow to Edith and her fans is that this could have been an excellent springboard for a much more in-depth look at the life and times of Edith Piaf. So much remains unsaid--we see pictures of the boxer she loved so much with newspaper headlines about his death in a plane crash--but heaven forbid we should even be told his name! There is no time devoted to Edith's childhood; and the movie keeps returning to focus on the very last months of Piaf's life when she was remarkably frail. Sigh. Overall, this documentary runs on the cheap and that makes me feel very sad. It has quality--but only as far as it goes; and that's just not very far at all. I agree with reviewers who write that this is for die-hard fans who already know the details of Piaf's life. If you wish to begin to know about Edith Piaf I would then recommend the recent biopic out in theaters as well as CDs of her wonderful performances. |
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