John Waters presented a fine tribute to Brel.
Reviewed by Ewart Shaw, Friday 25th February 2022
If this were a nineteen-sixties nouvelle vague movie, Chansons de Jacques Brel would, instead, be Jacques et John, the tender account of two men, dear friends, who never meet. John Waters first heard the songs of Jacques Brel as a young man on the loose in Europe and his engagement with them has marked an important part of his performing career. He's got no time for the sentimentalised American versions, though. The full-length show, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well etc., is part of his history. He sings them in French and prefaces each with a dramatised approximation in English of what each song means. Less talk, more song, I kept feeling, but, if I'd just wanted to hear the songs, I could have stayed home and listened to them in comfort. Interviewed on 5EBI FM on Friday, he picked out Ne Me Quitte Pas (Don't Leave Me) as a chanson completely misunderstood by translators (Rod McKuen, If You Go Away). It's a desperate attempt by a man to blackmail his partner into coming back. Not a nice song, indeed, but his performance was very low-key.Videos