The Big Picture
- A new biopic on Édith Piaf will feature an AI-recreated version of the iconic French singer.
- The AI was trained on archival clips and recordings of Piaf, and the film will include her famous songs like “La Vie en rose” and “Non, je ne regrette rien”.
- Piaf’s story of resilience and overcoming struggles is as relevant now as it was then, and the film aims to bring her timeless story to audiences of all ages.
A new biopic about iconic French songstress Édith Piaf is in the works – and it’s set to star Piaf, who died in 1963. Piaf’s voice and image will be recreated through the use of artificial intelligence. Variety reports that Warner Music Group and the production company, Seriously Happy, are working with Piaf’s estate on Edith. The 90-minute film will take place in New York and Paris, and span Piaf’s entire short life, from the 1920s to the 1960s. It will be narrated by an AI-recreated Piaf.
The AI was trained on hundreds of archival clips and recordings of Piaf, some of them over 80 years old, and will also feature a number of Piaf’s iconic songs, including “La Vie en rose” and “Non, je ne regrette rien”, the latter of which was famously used in Inception. The film is based on an idea by Julie Veille, who has previously written and directed films about Sting, Stevie Wonder, and Diana Ross, and will be written by Veille and Gilles Marliac.
“When creating the film, we kept asking ourselves, ‘If Edith were still with us, what messages would she want to convey to the younger generations?’ Her story is one of incredible resilience, of overcoming struggles, and defying social norms to achieve greatness – and one that is as relevant now as it was then. Our goal is to utilize the latest advancements in animation and technology to bring the timeless story to audiences of all ages,” says Veille in a statement.
Who Was Édith Piaf?
Born Édith Gassion in 1915, Piaf grew up in a brothel operated by her grandmother. As a teenager, she began performing with her father, a street acrobat, until her musical talent was discovered by a nightclub owner. Re-named “Édith Piaf” (“piaf” is French for “sparrow”) due to her petite frame and singing voice, she became one of the most popular entertainers in Nazi-occupied France. She recorded her signature song, “La Vie en rose”, in 1945, cementing her among the pantheon of France’s most beloved musicians. She also achieved worldwide success, appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show multiple times and performing at New York’s Carnegie Hall.
Sadly, Piaf struggled with drugs and alcohol dependencies for much of her life, and died of liver cancer at 47. Her funeral was attended by over 100,000 fans, and she remains an icon of French culture. Piaf’s life has been depicted in a number of films, most famously 2007’s La Vie en Rose, which starred Marion Cotillard as Piaf. It was a worldwide hit, and Cotillard won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance.
The use of AI in film and television production has been a contentious issue as of late. It was one of the key issues in the recently-resolved WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes; its use will be permitted, but not without consent and compensation to the subject or their estate, as Warner Music is doing with the Piaf estate.
Edith is pre-production, and has not set a release date. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates, and watch the trailer for 2007’s Édith Piaf biopic La Vie en Rose below.
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
