Édith et Marcel

Ah, those terribly long Claude Lelouch films in which the camera is always moving, and at least an hour out of the three is completely unnecessary. For some it's a pleasure, for others it's an ordeal. It's romantic to devote an entire film to the brief romance between Edith Piaf and the married boxer Marcel Cerdan (middleweight champion of the world 1948-9), but the parallels! We watch Piaf and Cerdan in each other's arms for barely two hours, and it's quite lively. She learns who Joe Louis is and thinks about the rules of the cruel sport according to the Marquess of Queensberry so they have something to talk about together, and he only boxes where she has concerts lined up. It's a chapter in the lives of both, and not uninteresting to admirers of sport and art. But it wouldn't be Lelouch if he hadn't created an accompanying imaginary love story in the letters, which perhaps should have added gravitas to the animality between Piaf and Cerdan. (30/11/2020)