EDITH & MARCEL Movie Review

Too reverential, too dull, and too long. Claude Lelouch must have embarked on this project as if it were some kind of historical biopic about founding fathers who were never actually alive—just mythological. Chanteuse Edith Piaf and boxer Marcel Cerdan were both French national treasures, of course, but just because they got together, do they have to be turned into waxworks—Raging Stiffs? And why did they get together? We don't have a clue, but Francis Lai's sticky musical score insistently tries—and fails—to fill in the Grand Canyon—like storytelling gaps. Evelyne Bouix lip-synchs to Piaf recordings of Ma Vie en Rose, while Cerdan's kid, Marcel Jr. (who unfortunately got talked into playing his old man in this dog) jumps rope and punches his punching bag, waiting for his title shot. In the French version, it takes two-and-a-half hours until the tragic finish. The best thing about the American prints is that they're almost an hour shorter. Nice costumes.

NEXT STOP … A Man and a Woman, Happy New Year, Sweet Dreams

1983 104m/C FR Evelyne Bouix, Marcel Cerdan Jr., Charles Aznavour, Jacques Villeret; D: Claude Lelouch. VHS