Customer Reviews

Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

as a huge jacques brel fan, owning all the dvd footage of him, and being an american who cannot understand french, i love this film!!! the translations are beautiful and being a musical fan, the voices and the shooting is great. i see that a lot of people gave a lot of bad reviews, well being a writer and a muscian i LOVE IT!!!

I have seriously been searching for this DVD for years (many, many). I remembered seeing the orig. showing on t.v., I believe. I think PBS or something. It's been haunting me for years and when I finally actually came up with it on Amazon... well... it was a moment to behold. It really is a treasure for me and anyone influenced by the passionate music of Jacques Brel MUST have this for their collection.

I would think this would be PG in France or for an audience of drunks in a nightclub. This DVD contains smoking and drinking, a few boobs, plenty of theatrical stunts, some outdoor scenery, and enough music to be considered a musical. The film was made in 1974, when the title, "Jacques Brel is alive and well and living in Paris" was being overly euphemistic about his health. Brel (1929-1978) was born in Belgium, which was occupied by Nazis for four or five years when he was growing up. The saddest song on this DVD, "Marieke" retains a bit of Flemish and shows a cemetery while Elly Stone sings of someone buried in Flanders. Brel was popular as a singer-songwriter until he was diagnosed with cancer and began to cut back his public appearances in 1967, and this film was made the year he stopped performing, though he is shown in some scenes. If you need to know what he looks like, see him smoking in the Theatrical Trailer on the DVD, which also identifies the film stars Elly Stone, Mort Shuman, and Joe Masiell.

For people who have seen the film, Mort Shuman (1937-1991) might be remembered as the singer of "The Taxi Cab Driver" which is selection 8 on the DVD. Mort Shuman and Eric Blau (whose wife is singer Elly Stone) were co-producers of the theatre cabaret version of "Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris" which opened on January 22, 1968 at the Village Gate on Bleeker Street in Greenwich Village, where it ran for over 1800 performances. The attempt to reach the enormous audiences on Broadway only had 51 performances, but the English adaptations of Brel songs by Mort Shuman and Eric Blau have become better known than some of the originals. People who remember all of the music from 1968 ought to remember an album called "Wildflowers" on which Judy Collins sang "La Chanson des vieux amants" with the original words by Jacques Brel, music and words by Jacques Brel and Gerard Jouannest. The "Song of the Old Lovers" is selection 23 on this DVD and allows fans to hear the words in English. Brel worked with a number of composers for the music to his songs, and this DVD provides a variety of musical styles.

Harry Chapin had a song about driving a taxi cab, too, but the tone of the "I drive the Taxi Cab" song on this DVD is a bit closer to the feelings of the strange hero of the movie "Taxi Driver" in which an ex-Marine is up all night anyway and sees what is going on at all hours, most of which he would like to flush down the toilet. Selection 22, "The Middle Class" has a chorus based on the idea: the middle class are pigs. Already in selection 2, "Marathon" the force of history is emphasized with videos of a string of events that has an impact like Billy Joel singing "We Didn't Start the Fire" to a younger generation of MTV viewers. For Americans who missed the plethora of anti-war feelings generated by the active involvement of millions in some stupid history lesson, the fate of Europe as complained about by "The Statue" in selection 4 captures the bitterness of being dead at the end of the years 1880-1918 as hatred of childhood innocence, but whoever wanted a statue in the damn park anyway?

The song "Carousel" near the end has flashback clips from the other songs, with everything spinning around like a top as the main theme, which makes the last song a relief. "If We Only Have Love." Total time 97 minutes, and if you haven't figured out what it was about by then, you can watch the Theatrical Trailer a few times to see whose success and fame this film was attempting to capture.

Jacques Brel was a genius singer-songwriter-troubador. The Englished off-Broadway adaptation of his work that opened in 1968 was brilliant; it's combination of poetry, music and movement -- all hung on a kind of loose thematic narrative -- had a very broad appeal: It ran for over 7 years. I saw a local semi-professional revival a few years ago that was terrific.

That said, a funny thing happened to this production on the way to the movies in 1974. Even with two of the original stars (and adapters), it couldn't avoid the temptation to become some mediocre hybrid of 70s counterculture sensibility and Broadway musical comedy.

Counterculture doesn't mean bad. In places the film achieves what it TRIES hard to achieve throughout: a poetic video rendition of the songs. The setting of "Marieke" with a lone singer and a little girl in a cemetery is particularly moving. The director wisely had the three soloists stand stll (against a backdrop of stars) for the grandiose finale of "If We Only Have Love"

Adding a clip of Brel himself performing "Ne Me Quitte Pas" was also a master stroke -- but one that exposes the mediocrity of the film production. When I ordered this DVD, I also bought "Infiniment," a great two-CD compilation of Brel singing Brel released in 2003. It's so much more powerful--even if, like me, you have to rely on the supplied translations from the French.

Four stars anyway, because the original stage production was so good that it shined through.

I have been a Brel Fan for many years. This film gives one the meaning of what all our dreams are about in his songs. I have always been a fan of the great Elly Stone. As a Singer myself, I worked with Elly Stone in New York at Carnegie Hall where I sang backup for her and studied with her also. She has such passion in her music. Brel is Passion. The late Joe Masiell has a great screen presence and his rendition of "Next" will always be remembered as the most moving song ever put on film.The late Mort Shuman is perfectly suited for this film as his comic flair shines in his singing. I recommend this Film for any Singer or Acting Student because you can feel the passion of the songs from the singer/actors. Jacques Brel will live on forever.

I saw this presentation so many years ago on PBS and never forgot the beautiful and at times haunting songs. The DVD, while maybe not the best in video and sound quality is never the less well worth owning for anyone who appreciates the great musical talents of Jacques Brel. All the music is wonderful including a performance by Jacques Brel. I have to say that "The Port of Amsterdam", "Sons of" and "The Carousel" stay with you long after you have seen the DVD. Despite some of the very just negative criticisms by other reviewers I believe this is still well worth the price. For those not familiar with the music of Jacques Brel this will be a real eye-opener.

"Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris" is still one of the ten best movies ever made although JB is not alive. The collection of songs is marvelous and well-produced. I would Like it if "La Columbe" ("The Dove") were included but I guess it is too staid.

The play was a marvel. The soul and essence of Jacques Brel's extraordinary songs transposed into English for American sensibilities presented as a kind of cabaret revue.

It would have been better for all concerned if they had just filmed the show that ran for four years in New York.

Instead, the same team that had forged that magical show into a coherent whole, retreated into a mish-mash of absurdist vignettes abounding in the worst excesses of art-house, pseudo-psycho-pop schlock. It is literally painful to sit through. Then, to add insult to injury, the singing is sub-standard as well. They should have just lip-synched to the broadway cast album, but, no - it's almost as if they were out to prove that they couldn't do anything right with this show. Like they needed to prove that you can't go home again - you can't repeat greatness.

So they turned a piece of magic into something tragic.

You may not believe this film is as bad as I say. Trust me, it is.

The only reason it gets one star is because of a 5-minute segment wherein Jacques Brel himself sings "Ne Me Quitte Pas." They couldn't wreck that moment, even though I'm sure they must have tried.

I have been waiting for decades for this to be available on CD. I have it on vinyl, and cassette, and now at last I can listen to it wherever and whenever I want. The other recorded versions of the show are OK - but this is by far the best of them, in my opinion.

Ellie Stone and Mort Shuman are absolutely the perfect voices for these Brel songs, but most of all I love the rendition of "Ne me Quitte Pas" by Brel himself, in the September years of his life. I have at least four versions of him singing this song and listening to them, as they were recorded over the years, one can feel the changes that age, wisdom, and experience brought to the man. This final version (while he was already suffering from lung cancer, perhaps?) is Brel's anthem and obituary all in one. The power of his fully mature voice, and the emotion in the small catches and phrasing can bring me to tears.

The recording is old, but then again it was filmed in the 70's...But the theatrical and drama style is everything Jacques Brel would want it to be.
Jacques makes an appearance and make the movie fun. There is not a specifically plot to all that happen, but if you watch each number individually, you can get the theatricality of Brel.
The actors are not better than either of Off-Broadway and Stratford, Canada versions. "Madaleine" is one of my favorite songs, and they sing it so fast and crazy that I could better understand it...
I enjoyed, as I would enjoy Brel in any form and possible way!