Le Far-West

" My uncles who were full up had stolen my Wild West" ; these are the lines of an early Brel song "mon enfance " ,a painful remembrance of a gloomy childhood .

It was only natural that the artist would reclaim his Wild West when he grew up to be a man . A man? but Jacques and his mates ,en route to the Wild West in the middle of Belgium ,are grown-up kids ; they do what children would like to do so much : they build a town,complete with saloon ,in a disused factory : there are settling of scores,a funeral with an American flag on the dead body,campfires (where Brel sings another song about ...childhood called "l'enfance" which echoes to his former title ), Indians .....and even a successful gold rush.And Brel as a Rhinestone cowboy .

This is a self-indulgent ,amateurish work ,which does not possess much mass appeal : like "Frantz " (1971) ,his first effort ,it's reserved for Brel's fans although 'far -west "is a little more accessible .

Michel Piccoli and Juliette Greco make a special guest appearance ;so does Lino Ventura , Brel's co-star in Claude Lelouch's "l'aventure c'est l'aventure" ,but you have to arm up with patience .