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The
American Film Theater's freewheeling and experimental adaptation
of the long-running off-Broadway revue based around the music
of Jacques Brel. It stars Mort Shuman, who translated Brel's
songs into English for the play and Brel himself turns up
to sing his own Ne Me Quitte Pas...
Jacques
Brel is Alive And Well And Living in Paris is not an obvious
choice for DVD. The Belgian singer songwriter is obviously
hugely influential and is therefore deserving of wider exposure
but this film, and its DVD release, add little to his legacy
if only because of its format - it's a musical without any
narrative or plot.
The
origins of the film lay on Broadway were a 1960s stage production
of Brel's work, complete with theatrical production values
and routines, took New York by storm. Its transfer to the
big screen, however, makes a for a strange movie, although
it is never dull on the eye. Where else would you see a large
plaster hand drop from a ceiling while a puppeteer operates
singing marionettes? Or, for that matter, a soldier kick an
exploding megaphone?
Brel, who wrote in French but was translated into English
for the movie and stage play, had a number of repeated lyrical
preoccupations - sex, low life anti-heroes and drink. In many
respects he is very similar to Nick Cave and so it is therefore
slightly weird seeing songs of brutal passion and despair
married to dance routines and camera trickery.
Jacques
Brel is Alive And Well And Living in Paris is therefore
unlike any other movie you'll ever see. Whether this makes
it any good is down to the personal tastes of the viewer although
it is hard to imagine that fans of the great singer will be
pleased with the song settings and it is surely too odd to
draw in anyone not familiar with his work.
Bold,
brash and imaginative but ultimately very deeply flawed, it
is difficult to see who will be buying this disc. And as for
repeat views... I think not.
Anthony
Clark
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