My Way - O Mito Além da Música

Warning, English is not my birth language

Different than La mome or Gainsbourg, Cloclo is a great piece of filmmaking, well crafted , extremely well acted by Jeremie Renier and the bigger than life performance of Benoit Magimel in a small but vital role of Paul Ledermann, the Claude Francois's agent. The different periods and steps in the singer's and business man careers are all interesting.

It's not a consensual movie, it's a movie of rage depicting a man of passion , rage and flaws.

The director florent emilio siri, well known for Hostage, is at his best. This movie deserves public success.

A must see !!

I saw My Way yesterday, and I really enjoyed this movie. I'm familiar with the music and the life story of Claude Francois, and I think this helps to appreciate the movie more.

I believe the movie really captivates the spirit of the time, with lots of details, and the right filters. Sometimes original clips are mixed with new scenes, it's hard to tell the difference at times. What a vibrant place must have been France in the 60s and the 70s.

Jeremy Renier as lead actor is a great choice. He acts and sings spot-on, with all the mannerisms that Claude had. His mother also is beautifully portrayed.

The music is an essential part of the film, obviously. These songs are classics in Belgium. Always great to hear them again.

The movie tells his full life story, and it is not a classic 'rise to fame and fall' biopic. Because Claude was still extremely popular when he died. What I learned in the movie that I didn't know is that Claude Francois was quite obsessive, about basically everything. I knew he had a difficult relationship with his dad but I didn't know it was that bad. I do think he needed the applause and the attention of the public, more than anything else. Maybe to fill a void which was always there?

Great movie, definitely worth the watch.

I came here to write a clever review of a paradoxical film, but 'doctorrugger' pretty much summed up all you need to know about the film. It is 'two films' ultimately.

Director Florent-Emilio Siri (of the wonderful "L'ennemi intime") has the chops to make a vacuous script worthy of a made-for TV biopic engrossing from almost the first frame of the film. A stellar performance by Jérémie Renier doesn't hurt either. You really don't like this guy, and that's the point. I wouldn't necessarily call him a 'no- talent ass-clown, but, he certainly had the heart of one.

I recommend watching online video of Claude François BEFORE watching the film. Jérémie Renier's performance makes the real Cloclo seem absolutely wooden.

Jeremie Rénier's performance is a true tour De force ;his portrayal of the late singer is nothing short of exceptional and compares favorably with that of Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf.

The problem is that,unlike Piaf ,François can't be seriously considered an artist with a genuine creativity to offer:80% of his songbook are covers :the Everly Bros,the early Beatles,the Angels,John Hartford,Barry McGuire (and Ryan) ,Jackie De Shannon,Tom Paxton,Pete Seger,the four Tops,the Temptations,the Bee Gees ,the Hollies,the Four Seasons ,Georgie Fame,Sonny Curtis and even English traditional ballads such as "Geordie",the list is endless :that's why the movie insists on "Comme D'Habitude" ,the singer's only international claim to fame :translated into English by Paul Anka as "my way",it was covered by Sinatra,Elvis and countless others ;to be honest,one should add that another Clo-Clo song "Parce Que Je T'Aime Mon Infant"was also covered by Elvis.There were more originals in the seventies ,although" Dix-Sept Ans" ,which is heard at the beginning ,is Janis Ian's 1975 smash hit "at seventeen" which remained unknown over here .

In the movie ,the singer appears as a selfish ,moody ,unsympathetic,jealous (don't they give the best American songs to Johnny?) character;his relationship with the other singers of the era is passed over in silence (just one hint at Hallyday and "Salut Les Copains " the magazine which was the ye-ye boys and girls bible ;only France GAll appears ,and only because she had a love affair with him circa 1965:the Eurovision Contest phone call is reportedly accurate ,but Gall said that she could not see any likeness between her and the "shrew " of the "Comme D'Habitude" song ,supposedly depicting their breakup .

If you were a boy in a sixties ,Clo-Clo is certainly a nice memory (the original American and English songs were mostly unknown here and in his way , Clo-Clo introduced us to them and I was a fan then );but as a adult,you might find this MOR music futile and forgettable .

But,I say it again:"hats off to Mr Rénier"

Biopics are all somewhat un-spoilerable: you know from the first frames, where usually the character is shown as an adorable baby, that such character will do stuff, be famous and/or infamous and then die. That's why, in Cloclo, it's easy to fear the obvious outcome when, in the later part, the characters start to say "see you tomorrow" in an involuntarily ominous way.

I am a fan of French music but not of Claude François. The little I've seen and heard of him, seemed wooden, insincere and dated. All I knew before the film is that he dated France Gall and died young. I didn't know how he died and so to me the end came as a surprise twist, a stunning display of the pointless randomness of life, an almost unsubtle payback fit for a control freak. The surprise made come alive a film that, although hugely enjoyable because of the amazing acting, had to that point submissively followed the blueprint of Every Biopic Ever.

This is not a deep movie but then probably the life of its subject was a bit shallow itself. I wish it had had more historical / contextual references than those it has (Zero? Does a passing mention of Johnny Hallyday count?). Still, director and actors more than save the day: it's a period piece that it's terrific fun.