Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien

Piaf dedicated her 1960 recording to the French Foreign Legion’s 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment (1er REP), which took part in a failed 1961 coup against President de Gaulle after France moved toward Algerian self-determination. Only that one regiment was involved, and it was permanently disbanded on April 30, 1961. Stated factually.

A widely-repeated story holds that departing Legionnaires sang the song as their final plane left Algeria — but at least one detailed historical discussion disputes this as likely mythical, since the actual withdrawal was gradual, spread over months, across many aircraft and ships.

The Algerian War involved documented atrocities by multiple parties. Given the song’s association with Foreign Legion units involved in that conflict, at least one discussion notes it is understandably not viewed positively by many Algerians — a real perspective, stated factually rather than glossed over.

Featured throughout Christopher Nolan’s 2010 “Inception” as an audio cue to wake dreaming characters — and the film’s lead, Marion Cotillard, had separately played Piaf herself in the 2007 biopic “La Vie en Rose.”