Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris

I have been a Brel fan for many years and it so happened that I never had the chance to see Brel translated in English. I am glad that I found this DVD at the library and I enjoyed most of it. I have read some criticism here on the cinematography, and I fully agree with it. In particular, my criticism is on the voice synchronization. It is very rare to find such poor technical quality in movie, but in this case I do bear in mind that this was play before it was a movie. I am very familiar with the French originals and I was impressed by Mort Shuman's lyrics, and by the powerful performance of Elly Stone. IN particular I found the interpretation of (the very difficult) "Marike" very impressive, in particular since part of it was in (very well pronounced) Flemish. I liked Brel's performance of course, but I would have expected translation subtitles, since the rest of the songs were in English. As a movie, this DVD is unwatchable and I fell asleep watching it. However, after waking up, I listened carefully to the music and the lyrics and realized that this was a very talented crew, but the filming was amateurish. In part this was deliberate, but overall I am sure a remake of this movie as a series of new music videos would be well received by Brel enthusiasts like myself. My rank of 5 is an average of Music 9 and Cinematography 1.

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.

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.

For American fans of Jacques Brel, this is a rare opportunity to see him perform. The rest of the cast is excellent. This movie was part of a series of stage performances that the Zanucks put on film. They ran as a subscription series in very limited venues. All were good, some excellent, all very different from what was generally available.

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.