Johnny at the movies, like a final, intimate rendezvous6 reading minutes

Cinema Wednesdays - Jonas Follonier

For some years now, cinemas have been trying their hand at broadcasting live - or deferred - concerts. This new phenomenon responds to the obvious need for cinemas to reinvent themselves and diversify their offer in order to survive. Surviving was also the story of a man we've heard a lot about in recent weeks, and rightly so: Johnny Hallyday. Last Thursday, June 14, French-speaking Switzerland broadcast on its big screens the concert the singer gave at the Olympia in 2000.

Also read: «Theatre in cinema».»

Like a final rendezvous

The evening was an opportunity for his biggest fans - and for those who simply loved him - to come and applaud their idol, who passed away on December 5, 2017, one last time. Like a final rendezvous. Yes, the word is right, because Johnny addressed his audience personally, and a genuine exchange took place. On Thursday, it didn't matter that the interpreter of That I love you was absent from the hall and even from this world, the audience applauded at the end of the songs. They brandished their arms in a famous sign on «Mourir d'amour enchaîné» from the song Gabrielle. They danced to the show's more rhythmic moments. They looked into the boss's eyes. As if he were there.

There's something fascinating about this experience. In the end, it's not Johnny that's unique, but the relationship established over decades between him and his public. Pure uniqueness. Johnny and his aura can never be compared to anything else. Not even Elvis, since Johnny the rocker also embodied the transcendent authority of French chanson. Who else but him could make ladies weep six months after his death, in the darkened hall of a small Helvetian provincial town, during the two hours or so of his concert?

One of his best shows

The «Olympia 2000» show is undeniably one of Johnny's best, for anyone who has - roughly - all 184 of the singer's tours in mind. That year, the Parisian venue showed an artist at his most intimate and intimidating with his audience. A far cry from his shows American style, but we're still on Johnny's scale. As always, Johnny's entrance on stage made a lasting impression. The fifty-seven-year-old performer, whose face, voice and ease are in top form, descends onto the stage via scaffolding, singing a I was born on the street more successful than ever.

The list of titles that follow each other is beyond criticism. The alliance between the classics - Son of no one, Envy - and the lesser-known songs - This man here, NashVille Blues -between new creations - A day will come, Sorry - and the old - What did you expect?, I want to engrave you in my life -between the bombs - The Fire, Rock'n'roll attitude - and oceans of sweetness - I promise you, Something from Tennessee. Few artists can offer twenty-four pieces from different eras that are twenty-four masterpieces. A fact strange enough to be noted, Lighting the fire is absent: this is the only show in which the popular anthem has not featured since its release in 1998.

And there are a few moments that make Olympia 2000 so special. First, the excellent orchestration of the song The Fire, with an original instrumental featuring long, plaintive brass notes. There's also This man here, This is a more beautiful gem than the 1978 studio version, and it alone testifies to the power of the Johnny animal, as he swings the stool he was leaning against over the back of the stage and embodies the words that speak to every man once devastated by a woman:

I know your program
I see your future
Other hands claim you
That you'll make suffer
Your pretty soulless eyes
Make me sick to my stomach

Will destroy happiness
Do your work on Earth
Will bring tears to your eyes
Will start wars
Your pretty, heartless body
Go auction it

Don't wait too long
Wrinkles wait for no one
Tonight, I'd like so much
That your last contract
That your last customer
Be the man

Artistic director Yvan Cassar's outstanding work is also evident in the arrangements of What were you thinking?, This is the moment chosen to introduce the musicians - often the indicator of a good title. live. The staging also works wonders with Le Bon Temps du rock and roll, in which Johnny Hallyday performs a series of comical choreographic steps with his band, grinning like a child. The tender and delicate Johnny, the «simple» in the good sense of the word, our friend. The Jean-Philippe Smet we'd all like to comfort when he sings About my father:

Don't talk about it, don't touch it
You who don't know him
Only in me did he live
The father I never had

Read also: «Tribute to Jean-Philippe Smet»

L'Olympia 2000 is also the singer's tribute to Bruno Coquatrix, director of the Paris Olympia from 1954 to 1976. It was to him that Johnny owed the stage, the big stage. And when he returned to the stage after an absence of twenty-seven years, his words rang true at the end of the concert: «It's an extraordinary emotion for me to be back at the Olympia, because it's a bit of a return to my beginnings. It's a wink to my friend who's watching us from up there and who must be happy: Bruno Coquatrix.» In short, it's exactly what happened last week, except that it was Johnny, the greatest singer of all time, looking down on us from above. Happy.

Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com

Photo credit: Pathé Live SA