Filmtheater Fanfare | Monsieur Aznavour

At the time of writing Monsieur Aznavour just released in France. Reviews there have been wildly positive without exception, so expectations are high at distributor Paradiso Films.

Monsieur Aznavour tells the life story of the French singer who died in 2018; he lived to be 94, but his music has eternal value.

Charles Aznavour was born in Paris in 1924, the son of refugees from the Armenian genocide. It was unpredictable in the poor family, how he would fare later. Nothing suggested he would enter cultural history as a legend 100 years later.

They also did not go well at all at first: his attempts to build a musical career. He was only small in stature (later he started using that) and his voice was far too hoarse. Nevertheless, in the 1950s, partly thanks to the help of Edith Piaf, the first successes came and you know what else came of it: not only the singer, but also the writer of his chansons and the actor Charles Aznavour.

We must separately mention Tahar Rahim's name here: he plays the title role but also sings the songs; he took special singing lessons for it and also carefully studied and mastered the singer's facial expressions.

The film was made in close consultation with Aznavour's family: his son-in-law is one of the producers.