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Sydney Morning Herald
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
French musical biopic delivers richly realised portrait of an icon
MONSIEUR AZNAVOUR ★★★½ M, 134 minutes. In cinemas MAY 8 Musical biopics have been enjoying a sporadic romance with the box office for a long time. It climaxed for the first time in 2005 with Walk the Line, the Johnny Cash story, and rose to an all-time high with Rami Malek's turn as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody (2018). The French weighed in with La Vie en Rose (2019) with Marion Cotillard pouring herself into Edith Piaf's tiny frame. Now we have Monsieur Aznavour, which tackles the life of Piaf's friend and protege, Charles Aznavour. These days, most biopics take a discrete approach, concentrating on the highlights and, more frequently, the lowlights of a long, and preferably, turbulent career, but this one makes a valiant effort to cram it all in. We begin in Aznavour's Paris childhood as the cosseted son of a close, music-loving family of Armenian refugees and end with him in his 90s, still holding the crowds in his thrall. He's played by French-Algerian actor Tahar Rahim (The Mauritanian), who spent six months learning to replicate Aznavour's singing voice, and he grows into the role just as Aznavour grows into his career. His transformation begins when Piaf, who's taken a liking to him, suggests that he get a nose job. Even so, she remains unsure about his prospects as a stage performer, eventually deciding that his talents lie in writing songs rather than singing them. Cast as Piaf is Marie-Julie Baup, whose performance is wholly convincing while presenting a fascinating contrast with Cotillard's. Cotillard depicted the pathos in being Piaf. Baup is all about her dictatorial manner, her raucous sense of fun, and her pleasure in making mischief. In the end, she's too much for Aznavour, who strikes out on his own with his best friend and fellow musician Pierre Roche (Bastien Bouillon). The two cycle all over France, travelling from one gig to another and having a fine time with the women they meet. By now, Aznavour is married with a daughter but his faithlessness is the first of his betrayals on his way to the top. He finally abandons Roche, as well, because his agent persuades him that he'll do better going solo. It's a candid reading of his character, all the more impressive because the filmmakers discussed the script with Aznavour before he died. Loading The film is co-directed by Mehdi Idir and Fabien Marsaud, a slam poet and songwriter who took the stage name, Grand Corps Malade ('Tall, Sick Body') after a spinal injury left him having to walk with a stick. As a performer, he had the opportunity to sing with Aznavour, finding him happy to mentor young talent, an aspect of his personality which briefly shows up in the film as part of its attempt to cover everything. As a nod towards his experiences as a film star, we also get a quick glimpse of him on the set of Francois Truffaut's Shoot the Pianist. And at one point, a totally unbelievable Frank Sinatra passes through the action. It's all a bit choppy but all up, it looks and sounds great – a richly realised portrait of a man triumphantly in tune with his time.
The Age
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
French musical biopic delivers richly realised portrait of an icon
MONSIEUR AZNAVOUR ★★★½ M, 134 minutes. In cinemas MAY 8 Musical biopics have been enjoying a sporadic romance with the box office for a long time. It climaxed for the first time in 2005 with Walk the Line, the Johnny Cash story, and rose to an all-time high with Rami Malek's turn as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody (2018). The French weighed in with La Vie en Rose (2019) with Marion Cotillard pouring herself into Edith Piaf's tiny frame. Now we have Monsieur Aznavour, which tackles the life of Piaf's friend and protege, Charles Aznavour. These days, most biopics take a discrete approach, concentrating on the highlights and, more frequently, the lowlights of a long, and preferably, turbulent career, but this one makes a valiant effort to cram it all in. We begin in Aznavour's Paris childhood as the cosseted son of a close, music-loving family of Armenian refugees and end with him in his 90s, still holding the crowds in his thrall. He's played by French-Algerian actor Tahar Rahim (The Mauritanian), who spent six months learning to replicate Aznavour's singing voice, and he grows into the role just as Aznavour grows into his career. His transformation begins when Piaf, who's taken a liking to him, suggests that he get a nose job. Even so, she remains unsure about his prospects as a stage performer, eventually deciding that his talents lie in writing songs rather than singing them. Cast as Piaf is Marie-Julie Baup, whose performance is wholly convincing while presenting a fascinating contrast with Cotillard's. Cotillard depicted the pathos in being Piaf. Baup is all about her dictatorial manner, her raucous sense of fun, and her pleasure in making mischief. In the end, she's too much for Aznavour, who strikes out on his own with his best friend and fellow musician Pierre Roche (Bastien Bouillon). The two cycle all over France, travelling from one gig to another and having a fine time with the women they meet. By now, Aznavour is married with a daughter but his faithlessness is the first of his betrayals on his way to the top. He finally abandons Roche, as well, because his agent persuades him that he'll do better going solo. It's a candid reading of his character, all the more impressive because the filmmakers discussed the script with Aznavour before he died. Loading The film is co-directed by Mehdi Idir and Fabien Marsaud, a slam poet and songwriter who took the stage name, Grand Corps Malade ('Tall, Sick Body') after a spinal injury left him having to walk with a stick. As a performer, he had the opportunity to sing with Aznavour, finding him happy to mentor young talent, an aspect of his personality which briefly shows up in the film as part of its attempt to cover everything. As a nod towards his experiences as a film star, we also get a quick glimpse of him on the set of Francois Truffaut's Shoot the Pianist. And at one point, a totally unbelievable Frank Sinatra passes through the action. It's all a bit choppy but all up, it looks and sounds great – a richly realised portrait of a man triumphantly in tune with his time.
The Guardian
20-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Piaf review – Audrey Brisson rises above the melee as the French singer
Pam Gems's Piaf premiered in 1978 at the RSC's The Other Place, its stage for new and often experimental work. Starring Jane Lapotaire, who would go on to win a Tony for her performance when the production transferred to New York, it had been conceived as a play with music, with a spare staging and unsparing focus on the brutal aspects of Édith Piaf's existence. For the 1993 revival, with singer Elaine Paige in the title role, the songs were expanded and so was the running time. This new production for the Watermill is closer to the 90-minute, trimmed-down, sentimentalised version that Gems rewrote for London's Donmar Warehouse in 2008. Like its predecessors, it relies heavily on the charisma of its leading performer, who carries the burden of the storyline as a carousel of characters whirls around her. It relies no less heavily on the skills of the ensemble to deliver sharp characterisations without blurring multiple roles – 31 in the original; here, in the cleverly used tiny space of the converted mill, around 20-plus (an estimate; not all are listed in the programme). Director Kimberley Sykes and musical supervisor Sam Kenyon push their cast even further by having them play all the musical accompaniments, physically bringing their instruments into the action to deliver not only tunes but also impressive sound effects, including of the two car crashes that added to the damage already inflicted on Piaf's frail body by early poverty, amplified by drink and drugs. With so many demands made on them, a mostly young cast cannot always find the depth to convey every one of their multiple characters satisfyingly (Signe Larsson's Marlene, offering a person beyond the Dietrich imitation, merits special mention). Audrey Brisson in the title role starts with an advantage: she is French Canadian, the rolling 'r's come naturally. However, she is more than a soundalike Piaf (although this in itself is no small achievement). In 2019, I praised her outstanding performance as Amélie, in this same theatre, for its emotional nuance. To this quality she adds, especially in the second act, a depth and grit that earn her a well-deserved standing ovation. Piaf is at the Watermill theatre, Newbury, until 17 May
