Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (DVD)

A freewheeling adapation of the perennial cabaret-style musical, Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris is a kaleidoscopic romp through the Brel songbook. Songwriter (and original cast member) Mort Shuman worked with stage producer Eric Blau to transform Brel’s chansons into lushly romantic yet unsentimental English-language tunes. Shuman, Elly Stone and Joe Masiell give voice to Brel’s tangos and boleros in an explosion of settings that are inexhaustively imaginative and intimate. But the true showstopper offers Brel himself singing his signature “Ne Me Quitte Pas,” in a sequence that ranks as one of the most powerfully understated and sincere musical performances ever captured on film.