Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris

While this is not the best presentation of Jacques Brel's songs, for those who have access to nothing better it will have to suffice. Best is go directly to Brel CDs and DVDs and enjoy him in French. Next best is to attend an excellent theatrical production such as Jacques Brel is Alive an Well" directed by Gordon Greenberg at the Zipper Theatre in New York which opened March 2006. It even outdoes the original 1968 production, retaining the European flavor of the songs, and pleases even the French.

After that, there's this sometimes silly, confusing and dated movie with Mort Shuman, American songwriter, who together with Eric Blau did the adaptations of the songs for this show. His performance is worth seeing, especially of Jacky.

But the most interesting thing about this show for a hardcore Brel fan like myself is the appearance of Jacques in February of 1974. After this film was made Jacques learned navigation, bought his yacht the Askoy, and took off for a round -the -world -yachting trip. He was no longer living in Paris. By October of the same year he received his lung cancer diagnosis . He was no longer "well".

So this movie, which opens with him in audience puffing on a cigarette, confronted by an Addams family type ghoulish character is Jacques last film appearance and somehow premonitory. His glorious performance of Ne Me Quitte Pas is worth the price of the DVD.

This film is of interest because it captures two of the original performers of the original version of the Off-Broadway revue, and because Jacques Brel appears in it. But wow, it couldn't be more 70s. The show is not improved by the faux-surrealism or the "hippie children" running around like escapees from "Pippin" or "Godspell". Elly Stone, who brought Jacques Brel's songs to the US, has an intensely irritating voice but is still compelling. Mort Shuman, another original cast member (I believe he also did some of the translations), is quite good. For some reason they dropped the second female role, and the second male role is played by Joe Masiell rather than the original Shawn Elliott, whom I would have been interested to see. Masiell has an excellent voice but his mannerisms are a little over the top.

The best part of the film is also the worst: Jacques Brel himself, singing one of his most famous songs, "Ne Me Quitte Pas". It starts out with a closeup of his eyes. The camera pulls back, and you see him simply sitting at a table, singing the song. He's stunning. You think to yourself, "What a great chance to see him at the height of his powers! How smart of them to let him just sit and sing!" And then the camera starts moving in, slowly but relentlessly, to just a closeup of his eyes ... and STAYS THERE for the rest of the song! What idiot directed THAT?? Truly a case of the sublime turning into the ridiculous.

I saw this film in 1975 as part of the AFI series at UCLA. Walking into the theatre, I had no idea what to expect and had never heard of Jacques Brel before. I became a huge Jacques Brel fan that evening and have enjoyed his music for the last 27 years. This film is a delightful cabaret of music video before it even existed. Ellie Stone's torch singing performance, in particular, made me a fan for life. The rest of the cast was equally dynamic; I can still hear "Next" being sung inside my head. Brel's work is touching, political, brilliant. This film was available on video for a very short time in the early 80's. How I wish I had purchased it then as it is no longer available. I would love to see this film over and over again.

Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well And Living In The Sewer. This is a chanson and babble artifact. Prince Jacques Brel is one of the most notorious human mimes ever (breakout 1975 Paris) - second only to La Bonhomme who broke out of his invisible box at the Quebec City Winter Carnival 1604. In this compilation movie, we see a combination of such subtle physicality and the babble that made Brel such a threat. Enjoy it for the babble, but learn, should the threat of human mime occur again. Human Alert: MIMES; No Rating: Babble Artifact and VOSTFR designations; Learning merit: 1.

This adaptation of the stage play is so dated that it almost overshadows the amazing performances. Elly Stone does not have your typical voice but she does have all the power and passion that you could ever add to an interpretation of a Brel song. Watching her sing "Sons of..." is the highpoint of the film.

The worst thing about this film is it starts out so poorly it is hard to recover. The opening renditions are very poorly shot. and there are some non-singing, non-vocal moments of "surrealism" that are too awful to be believed. But as we settle into the idea of not having a plot and not apologizing for this fact, the songs become more straight-forward performances. The heartbreaking "Song for Old Lovers" is the highpoint towards the end. It is, however, unfortunate that such a crazy song as sung by Ms. Stone, namely "Carousel", is ruined by some very petty editing "techniques" that climaxes in an image we've already seen and that wasn't effective the first time.

Some other song highlights are "Next" and "Mathilde", but it is Ms. Stone that really makes you feel the urgency of these songs. If we could just watch her and the other cast just perform these the way they did on stage, it would have been a better film. But the director decides to rely on some cinematic tricks that just look worse after time.

As for Brel's appearance, it is slightly anti-climactic, but utterly moving. His is the saddest and most recognizable of all the songs gathered here, and in its original French the most authentic. We should consider ourselves lucky for the documentation of that moment.

I would advise anyone who is willing to watch this to skip the first 8 chapters or so, and start with "Alone" sung by the Priest at the funeral. Then the film is shorter and you miss the embarrassing opening numbers...