The creation of Mathilde on stage in 1963 and the farewell to the Olympia in 1966: two sections of the Jacques Brel myth are offered with restored images and sounds in a box available this Thursday.
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First there is the song tour filmed at the Knokke Casino in Belgium on July 23, 1963, with in particular the very first version of Mathilde , at a slower tempo than the final version. "It was the song that took him the longest time, I heard him repeat it two summers in a row before presenting it on stage" , tells AFP one of his daughters, France Brel, at the head from the Jacques Brel Foundation, the institution behind this release (DVD / Blu-ray / CD / Universal Music).
“There is no specific writing time for Brel, he is always on tour and writing is over the miles. At one point, he had the courage to present it to the public of the Casino, an audience not easy, who drinks, who eats during the show, " she continues.
"Sense of drama"
France Brel will only say "my father" twice during the exchange, speaking most of the time of "Jacques" or "Brel" . “I put myself at the height of the interlocutor, who talks about Jacques Brel. And then, in Antwerp, on his boat, at the time of setting off for his world tour, he had said to me : '' Ah no, don't call me dad, say Jacques like everyone else! '' . I am very obedient, ” she smiles when pointed out.
For France Brel, the strength of the song Mathilde is that the narrator "knows very well that he is going to disaster, that he is going to be had with this woman, and he goes there anyway, it is universal" . "Brel has an extraordinary sense of drama, in this song, we find his orality close to the cry, which is a poetry for him ," she says.
" '' Mathilde '' is a hit, then a classic, then an indisputable milestone in his work , comments for AFP Bertrand Dicale, journalist specializing in French song. There is a completely crazy, victorious energy to say a defeat. It's a great idea. ”
Jacques Brel has a special history with the Knokke Casino. In August 1953, there was the penultimate end of a singing competition. Another room, another era, the box also contains the evenings that have gone down in history at the Olympia, the famous farewells - even if it was not his last formal concert - filmed on October 28 and 29, 1966.
"Second state"
The singer will return seven times - including in a large striped robe - to greet the audience who has ovationed him between the curtains. During the songs, we see striking close-ups of the artist, living in a trance.
Read also: France Brel: "Jacques Brel's life lights up his songs"
“I get fucked every time at different times, says France Brel. There is one, however, fleeting: Jacques finishes '' Madeleine '' , he moves back, the curtain arrives, closes, reopens and he has not come back down to earth, he is in a second state. It takes a few seconds to find yourself in the present . ”
"These farewells to the song are not sad, he is very cheerful, he closes a chapter" , describes Bertrand Dicale, former journalist for Le Figaro, voice on Radio France and signature of News Tank Culture. "When he decides to stop the song, he just wants to have time to live, he doesn't know what he's going to do next, that's why he's so happy. Cinema will only come because it will make a first film by chance, ” explains France Brel.
A filmed interview from 1971 completes the picture, served by a choice of 13 subtitled languages. The two concerts were screened in cinemas in 2018, the year of the 40th anniversary of his disappearance.
