➤ IN THE NOH, from p.34
was far from an accepted thing.
But he knew himself what it was
like to be an outsider and treated
with prejudice, as an Armenian
and as a short, not conventionally
handsome leading man type
of performer… Many singers have
done this song — some go really
over-the-top — but I love the way
Aznavour did it, very simply, all
the emphasis on his face, his eyes,
with just one hand framing it.”
In a 2012 interview, Aznavour
said, “I was the fi rst to write a song
in France about homosexuality. I
wanted to write about the specific
problems my gay friends had. I
could see things were different for
them, that they were marginalized.
I always wrote about things
that others might not have written
about. We don’t mind frank
language in books, the theater, or
cinema, but for some reason still
to sing about such things is seen
as odd.”
Originally, his entourage implored
him not to release the song,
which went to the top 10 in France.
But, Aznavour continued, “I wanted
to write what nobody else was
writing. I’m very open, very risky,
not afraid of breaking my career
because of one song. I don’t let the
public force me to do what they
want me to do. I force them to listen
to what I have done. That’s the
only way to progress, and to make
the public progress.”
Brassard is not a big fan of
the song “Yesterday When I Was
Young,” telling me that he found
the lyrics hard to relate to. It basically
is a rueful meditation on a life
lived with total self-centeredness
and entitlement, leaving its protagonist
alone on a stage without a
single friend or lover — Aznavour’s
“Je regrette tout,” if you will. Brassard
— though a marvelously versatile
character a actor who works
constantly (he really sparkled in
J.C. Khoury’s indie farce “The Pill,”
as the daunting paterfamilias) and
has had the most intriguing side
gig as a commentator for the WWE
— has always struck me as a most
un-actory, down-to-earth person,
so I guess it’s small wonder that
he has no affi nity for this chanson
of assholery, however brilliantly
wrought by a master. He has also
been very happily partnered for
years with the eclectically talented
artist DG Krueger. I suggested he
sing “Yesterday…” not as any version
of himself, but as any formerly
designatedly “hot” Manhattan
strutting stud muffi n fi nally coming
to realize that karma does in
fact exist. I detected a gleam in his
eye when he said, “Let me think
about that.”
Sticking to things French,
“Olivia” (1951), the greatest lesbian
fi lm you’ve never heard of,
may have just wrapped an engagement
at the Quad, but the good
new is that it will soon be available
on DVD from Icarus Films — after
being decades out of circulation.
Directed by the pioneering Jacqueline
Audry (also deserving of more
modern renown) and adapted from
an autobiographical novel by Dorothy
Bussy, it is set in an elite 19th
century French girls’ boarding
school, dominated by two teachers
Julie (Edwige Feuillère) and
Cara (Simon Simone), who compete
for the deepest affections of
their student body while harboring
an intimate history of their own.
Pupil Olivia (Marie Claire Olivia),
newly arrived, fi nds herself torn
between these two alluringly Gallic
Miss Jean Brodies, but fi nds
herself leaning toward Julie. Her
teacher’s imperial reading of a passage
from Racine’s “Andromaque”
is what clinches her crush, while
poor, ever more neurotic Cara can
only offer less elevated enticements
like shared bon-bons to specially
invited girls in her exquisitely appointed
chamber, where she languishes,
nursing various psychosomatic
ailments.
Audry’s triumph is creating an
entire, hyper-elegant, and highminded
organic universe, where
men are largely non-existent and
the exaltation of the love of women
for each other is merely seen as
the natural way of things. What
is striking is not only its shocking
boldness for its time, but the
fact that it is completely devoid of
homophobia, with not even one of
the young girls recoiling in disgust
or shrieking about the perniciousness
of dykes. No outsiders ever appear
to oppress this happily insular
Sapphic league; any oppression
comes from within their ranks,
born of overweening narcissism
and the inevitable human thirst
➤ IN THE NOH, continued on p. 45
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