"La Vie en Rose," one critic wrote, "has an intricate structure, which is a polite way of saying that it's a complete mess."

That's a good way to describe the true life of Edith Piaf, the Parisian torch singer whose up-and-down life was the subject of the film that earned Marion Cotillard the Best Actress Oscar on Sunday night.

It's fair to say that Piaf's fortune was cast when she was born in 1915 on a policeman's cloak under a lamppost in the Rue de Belleville, a working-class district in Paris's 20th Arrondissement. She spent a rootless childhood mostly unsupervised by her alcoholic-prostitute mother and her street acrobat father.

In 1935, she was discovered singing on a street corner by Louis Leplée, owner of Le Gerny's, one of the classiest cabarets on the Champs Elysées. There was little that he wanted to change about her singing, but he did want to change her name. So he came up "Piaf," the Parisian argot name for "sparrow."

On opening night, she came onstage in a black, hand-knit dress and a borrowed scarf to hide a missing sleeve. The crowd was initially indifferent to the 4' 8" waif, but when they heard the rich voice that came out of that diminutive body, they were instantly enthralled. She left the stage to raucous applause and soon became known as "La Môme Piaf," street slang for "the little sparrow."

In the first of a bust-to-boom-to-bust-again cycle that would define her life, Leplée was murdered and Piaf was questioned because of her ties to her former street cronies, including a pimp who may (or may not) have had a claim on her earnings. She was eventually cleared, but her career faltered. Many of her newfound friends, like Maurice Chevalier, deserted her. Only her street smarts, perseverance and a bit of luck kept her going.

She helped Jews evade capture, was actively involved in the French Resistance, but was the Gestapo's favorite nightclub singer in Occupied Paris.

In 1945, she wrote "La Vie en Rose." Her friends were initially dismissive of it, saying it was the weakest part of her set. She put it aside for a year, but then dusted it off. It was an instant hit and she would go on to write 80 more songs.

She survived two horrific car accidents - but became addicted to morphine.

When she finally found her one true love - boxer Marcel Cerdan - he was killed in a plane crash on his way to see her in New York.

She gave her last performance - to rave reviews - in September 1962, at L'Olympia in Paris. Six months later, she slipped into a coma from a life of hard-drinking and hard-living. News of her death in October 1963 caused a national outpouring of grief. Tens of thousands of fans flocked to Paris to follow her coffin to its final resting-place in the Père Lachaise cemetery. Piaf's tomb remains one of the most visited sites there.

More than 30 years later,  she continues to inspire the French music scene. In fact, even if you haven't seen "La Vie en Rose," you've probably heard her. She's the woman who's singing as the soldiers in "Saving Private Ryan" prepare for the final German onslaught.

Even with death a near certainty, they somehow found comfort in her voice. Now that's what I call "enchanting." 

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