Ramses

Yesterday (December 1, 2009) Ramses Shaffy died. We lost a great singing who touched our hearts. This triggered me to review this documentary which is so intense. Thanks to this emotional documentary we will remember Ramses.

This documentary has been transmitted on Dutch television some years ago and -of course- has been retransmitted these days.

Ramses was very ill but despite his illness he managed to be on stage a couple of days before he died in his sleep.

The documentary described Ramses' life from the early sixties. He had a remarkable lifestyle which resulted in serious damage to his health. The last couple of years he found some peace in the elderly's house but he stayed active in numerous life performances.

I enjoyed this film, but not because of the film itself. It was great to see that Dutch singer Ramses Shaffy was indeed a charismatic and even sexy idol in the 60's and 70's (before my time, I'm from '76), but the documentary itself wasn't all that great. The footage from the 60's and 70's was fun, but the contemporary bits looked pretty ugly, and sometimes went over the line in respecting the last bits of privacy of a now fragile man. Ramses deserves a better biography.

Even so, his music is still beautiful.