Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris

My introduction to the music of Jacques Brel was through The American Film Theater's adaptation of the long-running off-Broadway revue JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS. Starring two of the original cast (Elly Stone and Brel's English lyric translator Mort Shuman) and a cast replacement (Joe Masielle), Brel's haunting music is vividly brought to life in an eclectic film. There's no real plot to speak of, but here, you don't need one- the music speaks for itself. Even The Master appears to sing one of his hits ("Ne Me Quitte Pas"), and his back-up cast effectively sing about love, loss, pain and the ultimate triumph of the Human Spirit. For Broadway buffs, it's a treat to know that several other actors who appeared on stage in this revue have cameo appearances (Shawn Elliott, Judy Landers and Annette Perone). The joyous news is that Kino Video will be finally releasing the film on VHS and DVD in April 2003- after watching a butchered print taken from commercial tv, you can bet that this movie is going to be watched on my DVD player over and over. Do yourself a favor and experience this wonderful film...your heart will NEVER forget it!

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.

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.

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.