My Way - A life for the chanson
My Way - A life for the chanson is a Franco-Belgian biography by Florent Emilio Siri from 2012 . It deals with the life of the French singer Claude François .
action
Ismailia in January 1939: Little Claude lives with his sister Josette, called Jojo, mother Chouffa and father Aimé in a middle-class family. The father works for the French Suez Canal Company and runs a strict regiment. If the children do not clean up, the toys lying around are disposed of. Claude has to play the violin every day and to show his father, whom he is studying, the latest learning progress. Aimé wants his son to work for society one day. Things changed in July 1956 when the Suez Canal was nationalized and Aimé lost his job. The family fled Egypt in the course of the Suez Crisis and stayed with relatives in Monaco . Claude begins an apprenticeship as a banker, but is more interested in music. He plays the drums for Radio Monte Carlos and is employed as an orchestral musician. He breaks off his banking apprenticeship and with it his father, who will cut off all contact with his son until his death in 1961.
Claude works on himself and his career. He takes singing lessons and is allowed to step into the microphone as a singer for the first time at an evening event. He received an audition at Philips through his brother-in-law Jerry , but neither the style of music, voice nor appearance were convincing. Johnny Hallyday is named as a role model, Gilbert Bécaud is in. In the following months, Claude remains persistent, visits Philips regularly and undergoes a nose job. He finally brought his origins from Egypt as a convincing hook for his debut single Nabout Twist , which was a failure. In his private life, too, things are not going well for Claude: his wife, Janet Woolcoot, whom he married in 1960 and had since pursued with jealousy, leaves him for Gilbert Bécaud.
With the cover Belles, Belles, Belles Claude achieved his first hit in 1962. He becomes a teenage crush and has success with further adaptations. His admirers also include the shy France Gall , who becomes his steadfast girlfriend. She starts her own music career, but Claude does not take her seriously. When she won the Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson with Poupée de cire, poupée de son in 1965 , Claude turned away from her, only to later reconcile with her. He starts to have fun with groupies, arrives late for concerts and takes off. His manager Paul warns that he is increasingly repetitive. Claude reacts and reinvents himself. From now on, the clodettes , several dancers, accompany him on stage. For the first time he brings black dancers to the stage. He founded his own label and music publisher and left Philips. He cannot save his private life like this: France Gall leaves him. In the summer of 1967 Claude lived with Isabelle Forêt and processed his failed relationship with France Gall in the song Comme d'habitude . In December 1968 he received a demo LP in which Frank Sinatra interpreted the song under the title My Way with new lyrics. For him, who always admired Sinatra, it is an exhilarating moment that causes tears of joy. He is also happy in his private life: With Isabella he has a son, Coco.
A low in his life follows: his mother is addicted to gambling and has amassed high gambling debts at his expense. Claude had taken his mother into his house and is now throwing her out. His last hit was a long time ago and his appearances and fans are decreasing. He collapses while performing in Marseille and is flown to Paris, where he is still passed out in a hospital. The partially posed action leads to a lot of press interest and Claude is back in the game. Hits like Bélinda and Il fait beau, il fait bon and repeated affairs with groupies followed in 1972 . Isabelle has since given birth to their son Marc, whom Claude is hiding from the public. With two children he would be a real family man, which would be detrimental to his image.
In 1973 the tax investigation appeared on him. He is charged with tax evasion and is losing popularity. His reaction is the single Le mal aimé , which was released in 1974. His wife Isabelle has had enough of playing hide-and-seek and moves out with the children. Sofia Kiukkonen becomes the new woman at his side. Claude throws himself into numerous new projects, founds a model agency, a newspaper and works as a photographer. He even launched a perfume and finally stood by his second son in public. High debts lead to a search for new musical paths and Claude discovers the disco style for himself. He is proud that Étienne Roda-Gil works for him as a lyricist, who had always rejected his music.
At Christmas 1977 Claude has many plans for the next year. He wants to conquer the United States and travel to Egypt with his family for Easter. In January 1978 he sang My Way in front of an enthusiastic audience at the Royal Albert Hall . On March 11, 1978 he was running late. He has to rehearse for a TV show with Michel Drucker , in which he wants to present his new single. He only wants to shower for ten minutes and then go to the studio. When the shower water runs out, he notices that the bathroom lamp is flickering. He tries to judge them and is electrocuted. His funeral is attended by numerous people.
production
My Way - A Life for the Chanson was filmed from March to July 2011 in Paris, Brussels and Monte Carlo, among others. The film was released in French and Belgian cinemas on March 14, 2012. It was shown for the first time in Germany on September 30, 2012 at the Hamburg Film Festival and was shown in German cinemas on December 13, 2012. The film was released on DVD in April 2013.
In the film the songs are 17 ans , Bye Bye Blackbird , Le Nabout Twist , Belles, Belles, Belles , Cette année la , Je sais , L'amour c'est comme ca , Reste , Comme d'habitude , Bélinda , Le lundi au soleil , Il fait beau, il fait bon , Le mal aimé , Le telephone pleure , Magnolias for ever and Alexandrie Alexandra by Claude François.
criticism
Kino-Zeit found that the main actor Jérémie Renier acted as a character actor "predominantly unbalanced and too farcical", but was convincing in singing scenes. The plot itself is too fragmentary: “The bumpy, not very pointed dramaturgy drags along with incomprehensible climaxes, without presenting a coherent or at least conclusively problematic image of an entertainer and man in its lengthy length that touches, let alone inspires. The dialogues in their superficial mode of partly banal, partly pathetic babbling underline these deficits ”.
Time Out London praised the fact that Jérémie Renier delivered a "tremendous performance" in the film. Even if the film loses momentum after the making of Comme d'habitude , it is still fascinating. He is by far better than La vie en rose , but not as striking as Gainsbourg - the man who loved women .
Awards
Florent-Emilio Siri was nominated for the Art Cinema Award at the Hamburg Film Festival. Jérémie Renier received the award for Best Actor at the Festival du Film de Cabourg 2012.
Eric Tisserand , Antoine Deflandre and Germain Boulay won a César in the Best Sound category for My Way - A Life for Chanson 2013 . The film received further César nominations in the categories of Best Actor (Jérémie Renier), Best Supporting Actor (Benoît Magimel), Best Set Designer ( Philippe Chiffre ) and Best Costumes ( Mimi Lempicka ).
Web links
- My Way - A Life for the chanson in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Marie Anderson: The career of Claude François ( Memento of the original from July 2, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . kino-zeit.de, April 2013.
- ↑ Trevor Johnston: Cloclo . timeout.com, June 19, 2012.
