Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris

I originally heard this on borrowed vinyl many years ago. When it appeared on cable, I had the foresight to videotape it, and have had the pleasure of watching it numerous times. I recently bought the soundtrack CD, replacing my worn out audio tape, and I listen while driving, singing all the wonderful songs at the top of my lungs, and seeing the video in my mind's eye. I am sure it is not for everyone, and it is way outside my usual musical or movie tastes, but for me it is the berries. True story-I was riding on a ski lift with a couple of strangers, and one was trying to describe this strange musical he had seen to his partner. I piped in with the name, etc. How unlikely- one of the twelve people who ever saw this was there when needed! But beware: this sure ain't rock and roll.

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.

I love this film because I loved the music... Jacques Brel is a talented songwriter... he writes with much emotion and feeling. I wish this film was available on Video or broadcasted again on television. I have not seen it for over a decade.

Hopefully, it will be revived soon or made available to the public...As long as someone listens to his music... Jacques Brel is still 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.

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.