"It’s because of her voice that she had such a life” the film’s director, Olivier Dahan, recently declared. It is the story of this voice that he tries to get over in the film. The voice starts off tiny – the sound of a little girl abandoned by her mother and taken in by her brothel-keeper grandmother. The same voice gets more confident when it starts singing tunes in the street. But it is at its strongest when it sings of suffering, drugs and alcohol, of the loss of a child and a lover.

La Môme is not a musical and it is not a film set to music – this is music set to film. "Edith Piaf, are you happy?" a journalist asks her during an interview. The singer stays silent, and then replies… "I am happy when I’m singing". All the more proof that Piaf only exists in singing, through singing and for singing. Olivier Dahan has clearly understood this, and he spends over two hours trying to convey it to us in his film.

There are very few moments without music in the movie. It is peppered not just with Piaf’s songs, but also with other popular hits from the time, or simply background music. Our ears are constantly being appealed to: it might be a tune on the piano, a record playing, or a musical box. By enveloping us in these never-ending melodies, Oliver Dahan conveys the message that Piaf can only exist and justify herself through music.

All the major events and key moments of her life are narrated through songs. Milord, L’Hymne à L’amour, Mon Dieu, Padam and La Vie en Rose punctuate her rise, her suffering, Marcel Cerdan’s fights and then his tragic boxer’s death. But there are also some rare scenes without music, especially towards the end of her life. "If I don’t sing, I die," said Piaf. Dahan evokes this with the lack of music on the final images marking the inevitable end of the golden-voiced legend. Edit Piaf disappears slowly from view… in silence.