Aznavour received his first camera in 1948 from Edith Piaf, with whom he had a close relationship until her death. For the next more than thirty years, he filmed everything he saw, experienced, the places he went. But it wasn’t until a few months before his death (he died at the age of 94 in 2018) that he and Domenic began selecting footage from the archive suitable for a feature film. Thanks to Aznavour’s own many years of work, the film is extremely intimate. Aznavour (the voice given to him by the great actor Romain Duris) initially recalls the childhood of a boy of Armenian immigrants and how he decided to become a star and went for it.
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“I felt that the world did not end at the gates of Paris, that I was waiting to be famous. I didn’t know how to achieve this, but I was on my way, “says the man in the film, who started as a lyricist for the then famous Piaf and gradually other chansonniers, and only then wrote for himself.
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Charles Aznavour with his wife Ulla Thorsell.
Domenico had a free hand in choosing the shots and chose very carefully. Let’s look at the Commune libre du vieux Montmartre, where Aznavour lived, and New York, where he went with Piaf and introduced her to the future.
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“If Edith didn’t approve of me, I’d be unlucky,” Evelyne Plessis recalls. “But she just winked at Charles and said with a smile, ‘Pretty girl, isn’t she?’ “
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Edith Piaf
Photo: Profimedia.cz
In the film Taxi to Tobruk, Aznavour played with Lin Ventura, in the film Shoot the Pianist, the great Francois Truffaut himself offered him the role. In the individual shots, we meet Michele Mercier four years before she became Angelica forever. Other times, the beautiful Catherine Deneuve, Anouk Aimée or Robert Hossein walk in front of the camera.
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Synova tragédie
There is also a confession of how shortly after the wedding Aznavour left his first wife Michelle and went to Canada for a long time. The marriage did not survive the division through the Atlantic. A sad moment is also dedicated to the death of his son Patrick, who committed suicide at the age of twenty-four.
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The film is of course accompanied by chansons. Aznavour and Domenice invite the audience to the breathtaking Jam Session in 1959, for an evening in Casablanca, which the singer himself describes as the first great success, to Carnegie Hall and Tokyo. The famous La Boheme and many others will be heard, as well as words of success and fame.
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“Rolls, impresario, manager. Whiskey is sent to me from Scotland, cigars from Havana. Winter in the snow, summer in the sun. I made a lot of money and I was satisfied with myself, “recalls Aznavour. However, the conclusion belongs to the little daughter and to the words about togetherness and love.
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