What happened between 1939 and 1945?
Strangely, the WW2 years are completely ignored in this film. Does anybody know why?
sharewell, they probably weren't ignored, but they might not have been good enough to make the final cut. Remember, it's also possible scenes associated with WW2 might have been very costly to shoot. Stock footage would probably not fit the style of the rest of the film well, either.
I can't fault them for excluding WW2 years, the movie was about Piaf, not the war. The war might have been too much of a distraction from the fact that the movie was about Piaf.
well, I disagree, I believe WW2 was very important period for her, quote Wikipedia:
During World War II, she was a frequent performer at German Forces social gatherings in occupied France, and many considered her a traitor; following the war she claimed to have been working for the French resistance. While there is no evidence of this per se, it does seem to be true that she was instrumental in helping a number of individuals (including at least one Jew) escape Nazi persecution. Throughout it all, amazingly, she remained a national and international favorite. Piaf dated a Jewish pianist during this time and co-wrote a subtle protest song with Monnot. According to one story, singing for high-ranking Germans at the One Two Two Club earned Piaf the right to pose for photographs with French prisoners of war, to boost their morale. The Frenchmen were supposedly able to cut out their photos and use them as forged passport photos, and some of them managed to escape.
I think the war time was excluded for obvious reasons. If it had been included and not given enough time, people would be upset. If it were given too much time, it would change the entire focus of the movie.
We really can't know for sure exactly why this part of the movie was excluded, but I'm sure there was a very good reason for it.
Piaf gave the Jewish composer of L'accordeoniste, Michel Emer, aka Michael Rosenstein, sufficient money to enable him to hide during the war. The film misrepresented the composer of the song. He was not a soldier leaving for the front. He was a Jew, desperate for a way out of the impending German occupation of Paris. I very much doubt that Piaf was in any way a traitor. The French do not forgive traitors and they have always adored her.
shareI'm not sure you're right about the French not forgiving traitors, maybe they just sweep things under the carpet. Witness a photograph of François Mitterand and family having dunner in 1974 with René Bousquet a notorious deporter of Jews. There were many executions immediately after the war but they soon subsided and life returned to normal. Those who had committed war crimes who survived the first few months after the liberation went more or less unpunished. For more on this see Carmen Calil's book Bad Faith.
shareI'm also quite curious as to why it was left out. Perhaps the director did not want to make it longer but imo it would have been interesting to watch.
shareI can understand why the director would be afraid to get into those years, but I still would have loved to watch her reaction to those events. Someone as passionate, stubborn, and prideful as Edith dealing with the Nazi invasion---that would not have been fascinating?? Despite the risks, it absolutely should have been included. In fact that is why I gave the film a 9 rather than a 10, to be perfectly honest about it. It would have been a bold addition to the film, and it was definitely one of the most adaptive periods of her life. I just feel the director was afraid he couldnt find that balance between too much and too little about WWII, and dodged it entirely. The only bad choice for this film, imho.
"Are you righteous? Kind? Does your confidence lie in this? Are you loved by all? Know that I was, too. Do you imagine your suffering will be any less because you loved goodness and truth?" - Corporal Fife, in Malicks' philosophical masterpiece 'The Thin Red Line' (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120863/)
I thought the same thing - a strange decision to ignore such an important event, especially as has been pointed out, Edith was involved in several interesting events during those years...
shareI too downgraded my rating because of this. Leaving out WW2 is the ssame as if they had left out WW2 in the Glenn Millar Story. It's still uncertain wherther she collaborated or not but the issue should have been addressed in the movie one way or the other.
Other than that, it's a fine film!
very true. I agree with you.
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