Aznavour, le regard de Charles

In 1948, legendary French chanteuse Edith Piaf gifted Charles Aznavour, her opening act and soon-to-be fellow legend, with a movie camera. For the next 34 years, Aznavour toted it with him wherever he went, recording compulsively the people and places he encountered—and then tossing the many reels into a drawer, where they stayed until his death at 94 in 2018. Now, thanks to the work of co-director Marc di Domenico, these precious snippets of times and peoples past have been given an order and a poetic narration (by French star Roman Duris), and the result is a pure pleasure that surpasses mere nostalgia. What impresses most is how Aznavour—a political activist, who, for one example, broke ground in the fight for LGTBQIA+ rights—translated his profound humanism into day-to-day living.

‘A personal vision as moving as his songs… An overwhelming humanity transpires on all levels… This is a simple yet precious document, one that touches on the essential and gets to the heart of things via the life of one man: Shahnourh Aznavourian.’—Olivier Pélisson, BANDE A PART