Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well And Living In Paris (1975)

In 1968, an off Broadway revue consisting of four singers entitled JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS opened to great success and ran for four years and spawned countless international and regional productions. Directed by Denis Heroux, this was an attempt to put the stage revue in cinematic form. Unfortunately, it's a cluttered mess. The Brel songs remain, as ever, marvelous but Heroux directs with a sledgehammer. It's just too busy. We yearn to see the talented singers just sing the songs but Heroux illustrates the songs with visual accompaniment as if our imagination isn't up to the task of letting the lyrics tell us the story. There's a band of hippies wandering through out the movie at regular intervals which looks like a bad high school production of GODSPELL. Only once do the visuals help the song rather than hurt it and that's with Elly Stone's rendition of CAROUSEL. The film's most powerful moment is when Brel himself sits at a table with a cigarette and a glass of beer and sings NE ME QUITTE PAS with no visuals, no fancy camera work, no cutaways, just the man and the song. In addition to Elly Stone, the two other singers are Mort Shuman and Joe Masiell.