Customer Reviews

Mylene Farmer: Avant Que l'Ombre... a Bercy

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A few years ago, I discovered Mylene by chance while surfing the Net. Since then, I have been a fan, and have greatly enjoyed her music. Mylene Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat have produced the most amazing body of work. The audio CD of "Avant que l'ombre" ranks as one of my favorites, and this DVD of the concert didn't disappoint. Francois Hanss put it all together in a seamless rendition of the concert, and his cinematography is breathtaking.

Don't get me wrong, Mylene is my idol, I love her, but this video is just a tad on the "yawn" side, meaning the song selection just wasn't "IT" for me, it is still beautifully videotaped, and is a really grand show. I cannot wait to see her Stade De France DVD though.

I have seen parts of this production on YouTube already, but to watch it on 40 inch TV screen is something else...
I mean I totally hate the CD rendition of this performance, and I will say more- the Live-to CD conversion of this performance is the worst album in the history of the world; it is there with the recordings of the baby seals clubbed to death and babies and nuns thrown into furnaces .
However, the DVD version of the performance is absolutely amazing. I thought that Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode knew how to set up great live performances, but this one is out of this world. I really hope that the tickets to her performance were sold for 1000+ Euros a piece, because the show looks increadibly expensive, so does the video editing. I mean , the gorgeous costumes ( for every of many members), the stage decorations, the mechanical devises, the bridge, two different dancing troops, beautiful and quite unusual visual illusions, omg.
The video editing was VERY good, you can tell it was done in US, and they took their time.
The DVD box also comes with beautiful insert with pictures from performance.
This DVD has menus in French, btw.
So my advice is BUY BUY BUY now. Support the artist, she really deserves it.

I bought this DVD months ago; I watch it all the time and I have the audio ripped to my MP3 player. It's an impeccable performance, a lavish production, and all the musicians and dancers involved are top-notch.

If you're a Mylene fan, it's a no-brainer: Just buy it, you'll love it. You'll probably find yourself loving more of the songs off the Avant Que l'ombre album, than you did before.

A note to the Recording Industry Association of America: I originally illegally downloaded some of her music when I saw some pictures of her online and thought "Hey, she's a singer; I wonder what she's like?". Nine years later I've bought most of her albums and this DVD even though I have to get expensive imports. Just goes to show you.

more than just dazzling looks, this artist manages to break continental barriers
without the use of media and heavy self image marketing. mylene farmer
is one of those artists who just vanishes for 3-4 years (no interviews no concerts no nothing) and then pops in with a new release, with a minutely planned performance celebrating the new album.
mylene changes with every tour and manages to remain herself: smart, provocative and insanely entertaining. for this concert you could swear it's a look alike. her features are a bit more rounded than during the mylenium tour, in 1999.
you keep wondering whether it's her or not until she gives you one of her typical 'psycho' smiles (the last bit of 'california'). my doubts lay at rest, this is mylene and her age (45 at the time of the concert) only managed to round her face a little, otherwise, this is a true goddess: flamboyant. commanding. extremely sexy.
performance wise, there are really very few performers who can fill up the stage the way mylene does. and IMHO there's maybe only michael jackson who could rival mylene in the 'making a jaw dropping entrance' department.
be sure that the entrance of 'Avant que l'ombre' (and Mylenium, btw) is some of the (add superlative here) sights i've ever witnessed in a live performance, and i've seen a lot. and opposed to madonna or britney spears, who tend to prefer harsh, mechanical, almost manly dance techniques, mylene adopts a more feminine, liquid choreography, enhancing her feline grace.
now to the music... the farmer/boutonnat machine, harnessed by a masterful yvan cassar and directed by a tastefully gothic francois hanss delivers one hit after the other. the rest of the band responds like a tight and well oiled unit and a special mention should go to Abe Laboriel whose drumming shines brighter on every new MF release. and surprise surprise, he can sing too!!
the monstrously elaborated stage with a giant cross shaped dancefloor, comes alive amidst a deluge of colors dominated by farmer's signature red.
then mylene plays her audience like an instrument and her emotional chiaroscuro dazzles and seeps into the thousands massed at the Bercy. joy, sadness, play, loss, disillusion, hope and more, emanate from artist and audience and fuse into an indescribable aura. we witness a person who seems so fragile she might break, and a minute later, overcoming her fears and demons she reclaims her godlike nature by re-becoming the commanding stage beast. it's an epic inner struggle that transpires into the audience. we witness magic.
mylene, like the late (and great) MJ, creates an atmosphere of impending loss and towards the end of the concert and its grandiose finale, the audience is literally left shattered, sobbing and crying at the 'loss' of their idol. that's how much she can disconnect you from the outside world. dont think twice about buying this if you like your concerts intensely visual as well as musical. while not being a Pink floyd P.U.L.S.E (but again PF are hardly pop!), this is actually one of the few really rewarding pop artists i can recommend.


PS: pls dont download it, so much work, sweat, love and detailing was put into this concert. it's simply not fair to enjoy it for free.

Incredible performance, amazing songs. I'm totally mesmerized. I wish I could be there to watch it live, but this DVD is perfect.

Avant Que l'Ombre... A Bercy is agreat produc and I am very hapy, becuse the delivery is very good and i can have a produt that in México dont'n buy.

Thanks a lot

Raúl Alejandro

Mylene Farmer is my favorite singer since the first song in the 80 s. Every time she has a new album is a hit. After that, she disappears from the show busines until she release a new one or she performs a concert. Avant que l Ombre concert is one of the only 13 concerts she gave in Bercy, Paris. All totally booked. The concert is incredible since the begining until the end when she disapears until the next concert. She took care very well of the songs of this concert as well as the costumes, the players, the singers, the choreography. Totaly a great show. I wish I could see her alive once. The sound of the DVD as well of the image is excellent.I wish she could come to Mexico to have a concert as Alizee, has done.

This is the latest of the three movies produced by Francois Hanss from the concerts of the Canadian-born French poet/singer/performer Mylene Farmer, who has over 20 years of her performance career behind her and is still going strong. On my first ever visit to Paris in 1988 I singled her (and Catherine Lara) from all of the material I happened to sample from radio and TV during my week's stay. Although I am a big fan mostly of her early work (especially music videos produced together with her long-time colleague Laurent Boutonnait, currently also offered by Amazon), her live performances are equally captivating and if you intend to only get one of them, this is the one to start with. The material included in this performance is not identical to the CD with the same title and spans almost the entire singer's career. In fact, most of the songs are so familiar to the huge audience of the arena that Ms. Farmer does not have a problem making them sing along throughout the entire concert. The singer completely changes her outfits (at the end definitely approaching PG-13 level) and singing style several times during the concert, is accompanied by her two usual background vocals and at least three different dancing groups with which she interacts. With all of lightworks spanning the entire color spectrum and the use of two adjacent decks the performance sequences are visually very arresting.
Of the current pop singers enjoying the same or greater level of popularity not all can work audiences of the same size with such power, which reaches incredible heights when both the singer and the audience are completely united in compassion. At such points, you would wish you could understand French. Camera work is also excellent and the coverage of the concert in the movie is certainly more complete than that of an actual spectator. Sound quality, although I only listened in stereo, is very good and is definitely improved over the two previous Bercy performances produced by Hanss. The only 'flaw' I could mention is that the DVD is actually in PAL format (like most of Mylene's previous recordings), while listed to be NTSC. However, if you get a home theater PC (dedicated or improvised) or a multi-system player, this should not present a problem. In summary, this is a good place to start enjoying Mylene Farmer, and in my humble opinion, this recording does her more justice than any of the music CDs or even the two previous DVDs of the Bercy performances.

Her voice has not much variety in terms of using different octaves. But she's perfect between that narrow voice region. Smooth and without detonation (Just like listening to a musical instrument: flute or a member of children choir at the church) She's not exhausting herself on stage with difficult choreography or voice strain. She has no image goal to be a powerful woman. She even drops tears on her cheeks during the emotional slow songs. That makes her natural on stage. She's not beautiful but nice. Fun to watch because it's a rich concert with nice effects and beautiful dancers.....The musicians are all fine....Especially the big guy playing Drums is the center among them... Shortly, I liked your concert Mylene. Thank you for releasing this dvd. Nice to meet you. xxx