Le regard de Charles

It's Poetry in the shape of a Documentary. The view of life by the eyes, voice and thoughts of the French-Armenian man, singer, artist. Lots of personal images, family images but also Aznavour honest and lovely view of the world. Very colourful and bright autobiographical video movie diary. What recalls most to me is the narration being very poetical itself and tons of old shots on Aznavour's live by himself. His life narrated and sung by himself. Beautiful and lovely memoir of Charles Aznavour.

I saw this film I'd been postponing, not realising what I was in for. As if doubting the deific Charles Aznavour - the way we'd discover he never doubted himself, despite the merciless mirror of his self-reflection.

It is hard to describe the flow of thoughts and emotions that came with this screening.

I found myself enthralled in the world of another like never before. Magic - a great artist succeeded to captivate me as if he'd been abundantly alive - to captivate both my emotions (I'm tearful as soon as I hear him sing) and the intellect.

(I would have jumped on the wrong train afterwards, if someone didn't ask me whether it went to the "Paradise mall" which I knew was on the other side of town.)

The film leads us along and into the world of Charles Aznavour through his lens (home movies and photographs), following the narration of his diary (I have to look for a book by him, since the rich reflections are literature of the highest caliber). All the while, Aznavour contemplates the places and people of his worldly existence, while questioning it: "I wanted to jump on Catherine Deneuve's shoulders, like a tiger, and to scream in order to be seen... And yet I exist... I am depicted, therefore I must exist."

Aznavour navigates his doubts with astute self-observation, never turning them into insecurities, while identifying with none other but the wonder-ful gaze of a child.

When there isn't a child in the picture, he feels the menacing, lifeless wall of the crowd, until a child could be at least imagined.

As to the gaze of an adult... "What happened between our eyes shook me to the core". "We saw the world as a continuous space we roamed, only lead by love".

"My eyes and your eyes, and what takes place in between", until there are no more barriers, no distance."

There's the merciless self-reflection I mention: "I know what I had working against me: my voice, my appearance, my background..."; "I was aware of my gestures, hollow, dry, and clumsy..." - it's amazing to hear him make these assessments, given we know him by his most compelling voice and his grace... the finesse that permeated the space when I saw him a year before his passing, when he had hardly aged.

There's the ambition: "One day I'll see my name on Carnegie Hall", even as he was living in poverty; there's also the detachment, which he doesn't let turn into alienation - something that could've easily happened while he "lived a life through the gaze of the audience". It's this need to enthrall the audience along on his personal journey, while granting the world his curiosity; an acute sense of individuation while being one with the world, insofar as "the childhood's home is the childhood".

It's a sense almost mythical, impossible to describe, as I am reluctant to describe Aznavour's presence through this film. His words sketching his beloved at the height of their romance: "She was my white mirror, giving me a sense of calm, unmoved like a snow mountain amid the desert"...

That desert in a sense was him - not as in an absence, but the presence of his "roots of the East", the voices of his ancestors, the eternal comfort of his grandmother he was finally able to meet and embrace in Armenia - the homeland neither of his parents had known.

'Le regard de Charles' is a very special biographical documentary. In 2018, a few months before his death, Charles Aznavour shared a secret and a treasure with his friend, the filmmaker Marc di Domenico. It was a few dozen hours of filming, filmed by himself between 1948 when Aznavour was still an anonymous young musician and 1982 when he had become one of the most famous singers on the planet. His first camera had been a gift from Edith Piaf, and it had been his traveling companion for more than three decades on his touring trips. Aznavour died on October 1, 2018. Marc di Domenico directed and released in 2019 'Le regard du Charles' (the English title is 'Aznavour by Charles') conceived together with the singer and his friend, a testimony and a document about the artist , about the people around him and the world he lived in, as he saw them through his portable camera.

Charles Aznavour's voice in the film is that of actorRomain Duris. The text is based on his notes, testimonies and interviews. He considered his success to be due to the audience, the love with which he was surrounded, the eyes of the spectators who came to see him and listen to him in concerts. But he, Charles Aznavour, also looked at those around him, he observed them with endless love and curiosity. Charles's gaze surprised the world and recorded it on film, in all its complexity. He associated the people he met and the situations he perceived with his own biography as a child of an Armenian emigrant, born shortly after his parents arrived in France, deeply French without ever forgetting his roots and history, in solidarity with those who were in danger or needed help. The trip to Armenia in 1964, for the first time in his life, at the age of 40, is one of the emotional moments (and there are many) in this film, another is the evoking of his son Patrick, who died at the age of 25, the kid who had learned Armenian to get closer to his father and the roots of his family. How well suited to Charles Aznavour is 'Le meteque', the song of another great French musician of foreign origin, Georges Moustaki. The city where the Parisian singer confesses that he feels best in the world is New York, the city of immigrants from all over the world, the city inhabited by people who were all born elsewhere but where everyone feels at home.

Charles Aznavour's portable camera captured documentary footage in different parts of the world. They may not be the most original or unique images in the history of documentary, but they are significant for the curiosity of the traveler who thrived to know not only planes, airports and hotels (probably more and more comfortable as his reputation and material possibilities increased), but also the streets and lives of the people in those distant places. Also appearing in the film are the women who were important in his life, the three wives with whom he successively shared life at different times. He has beautiful memories about each of them, he has words of love for each of them. Above all, however, he also has music to share, and the soundtrack is composed of 25 of his songs, including the most famous ones, which have won the hearts of people around the world. From time to time the camera is entrusted to others, and we can see the face and silhouette of the human being who was Charles Aznavour and whom this film helps us to know even better. For those who admired and loved him, the longing for Aznavour will only be intensified by watching this exciting documentary.

What a nice treasure this piece of cinema is. Cinema Verité, Up close and Personal. This intelligent film is more like a feeling. One feels as if we are a little mouse, sitting in Aznavour's pocket, throughout his life's journey. Alex von Roon met the Chansonier at a premiere in Paris & this picture proves, that Charles is as kind and funny as in real life or like Cary Grant. The edit and the narration are worthwhile your time and this trip feels like "Being Charles Aznavour". Bravo Marc di Domenico! We recommend "Aznavour by Charles" any aspiring filmmaker, musician, actor or bohemian. Back at NYU Film, we always loved filming with a Bolex. To have this material to look at with all these larger than life icons behind the scenes at their most private, is a treasure not to be missed. Enjoy the trip, you already bought the ticket. Merci pour les fleurs & la musique Edith Piaf & Charles Aznavour.