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I didn't. The only screaming happened when Bruel first appeared
on stage and that lasted about a minute. The audience spent the
rest of the night with their arms linked, swaying side by side and
singing tunes from the 1930s.
Welcome to Paris in 2002, a place where conservative politics has reached frightening popularity, and where teenaged girls know the words to songs their grandparents sang in the years between the World Wars. A place where a pop star responsible for the outpouring of adoration labelled "Bruelmania" by the media, dumps his image to sing about the good old days, which at 43, he's not even old enough to remember.
This year's tour came on the heels of Patrick Bruel's new CD Entre Deux (meaning Between Two, referring to the period between World Wars), a collection of beautiful vintage French songs dripping with sentimentality and nostalgia. The Paris concert itself was a real step back in time, designed to make the audience believe they were patrons at a smoky Paris bar. The stage was a scene from a black and white movie, complete with street lamp, bar and tables, and a cast of men and women twirling around a dance floor to the music. Patrick Bruel appeared wearing a baggy, old-style suit, until he changed into a waistcoat, a street urchin hat and cranked up a pianola. It could not have been a greater departure from everything we've come to expect from Patrick Bruel.
Bruelmania really took off in the early 90s, thanks to the album Alors Regarde, and in particular the now classic single Casser La Voix. When a concert tour was announced in the spring of 1991, 8000 tickets were sold in a matter of hours. Alors Regarde climbed the European and Canadian charts and his videos were reproduced in several languages. By the end of the year the album had sold over two million copies and the tour was such a success that BMG released a live CD that sold around a million.
Rather than developing a migraine from all the screaming, Bruel, by all appearances, lapped up the attention. His charm and flirtatious nature fuelled the fantasies of adolescent girls, and the nineties saw him posing for too many pictures that scream "Eurotrash" (think Miami Vice cotton blazers and pastel t-shirts) and must surely now make him cringe.
Outside Europe and Canada, Patrick Bruel became best known for his films. By the time he appeared in The Jaguar alongside Jean Reno, and the remake of Sabrina with Harrison Ford, he had already been involved in several successful French films. Most recently, he starred in the David Spade comedy Lost and Found, a straight-to-video release outside the US, it's lack of success due in no small part to the fact that it was near-impossible to perceive the charming and irresistible Bruel as the bad guy.
Yet, adoration hasn't been universal. While his success with the young girls saw record sales soar, it often provoked mockery and sarcasm from others. Some cynics have hinted that the Entre Deux album and tour is less of a bold artistic venture and more of an attempt to move away from the already conquered youth market into the hip pockets of older Europeans - and throw in some creative brownie points in the process.
But the truth is, the maturity of Patrick Bruel has been a few years in the making. In 1999, Bruel appeared to be lifting himself out of the pop idol basket with what many consider to be his greatest triumph, the beautiful Juste Avant. With the collaboration of his brothers David and Fabrice Moreau, Bruel produced an album encompassing different styles from largely piano-accompanied love songs, to some with a South American cha-cha-cha feel, and others with a distinct Arabic sound. The French public were finally beginning to realise what fans in countries that were free of Bruelmania had always known: beneath the sultry looks and rock star poses was an enormously talented musician.
Some unconvinced critics prefer to see the theme of Bruel's latest venture as a reflection of an illness currently gripping French society. Whilst the success of ultra-right winged conservatives in the recent Presidential elections led to nation-wide protests and the ultimate re-election of Chirac, it was also a frightening demonstration of the growth in popularity of the Right. Some see Bruel's shameless nostalgia for the past as feeding the public's desire for a return to traditional values, and the fact that young people are embracing Entre Deux is scary, not quaint. The good old days, they say, were also the days of sexism, racism and hypocrisy.
For his part, Patrick Bruel has been a vocal opponent of the Right for years and claims that Entre Deux is more about hope and optimism, reflecting the celebration of peace that was the period between wars. Leaving the Paris Casino the night of the concert I wasn't concerned. I was baffled, yes, impressed, greatly, and when I debriefed the French journalist who had warned me about the screaming, he didn't scoff or crack any Patrick Bruel jokes. He went out and bought the CD.
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