In full promotion of his fiftieth film, entitled love is better than life, Claude Lelouch made a passage on the set ofAs an aside, this Tuesday, January 18. The opportunity for the director to return to an evening spent with Jacques Brel, during which the late singer launched a premonitory sentence at him.
It is an anecdote that will remain engraved in the memory of Claude Lelouch. On October 9, 1978, Jacques Brel succumbed to a pulmonary embolism, after a recurrence of his lung cancer. A heartbreaking departure that will plunge millions of fans into deep sadness, but especially his relatives, in particular his daughter France. More than forty years after his disappearance, Claude Lelouch, one of Jacques Brel’s most faithful friends, still remembers his last moments with the singer, whom he considered a brother. “I can’t forget the very nice things he said to me. Coming from him, it made sense. More, we loved spending time together. We were complementary. We were getting richer.” entrusted the director to Paris Match Belgium, in 2019.
Then add: “He would have liked people to live up to his songs more. He was totally generous. It really is one of the most generous men i have met. The others interested him. His ego was much smaller than most people who do this job. He was a good guy. He is one of the ten people who mattered in my life..“
Their last shared moments
Despite his death, Claude Lelouch has never forgotten his friend, quite the contrary. Guest on the set ofAs an aside this Tuesday, January 18, on the eve of the release of his film Love is better than life, the director, also very close to Jean-Paul Belmondo, remembered a moment suspended in time with Jacques Brel. A few days later, the singer breathed his last, at the age of 49. “I had the chance to see Jacques Brel a few days before his big departure, he came to my office, we had a beer together and at one point I saw him enjoying this beer. I said ‘what’s so special about your beer?’. He said to me: ‘This may be the last I will drink. Since I know I’m doing things for the last time you can’t know, finally I appreciate the present“.
Hard-hitting words that Claude Lelouch has never forgotten, who was inspired by them for his film. “I said to myself one day, I’ll have to make a film about the strength of the present, it’s the only thing that belongs to us, the present doesn’t have time to age. Every second can be a reward or a punishment“, he added. A friendship that survives beyond death.