Podium (2004)

This movie is a wonderful tribute to who is, in my humble opinion, the most brilliant singer AND dancer of all time in France aka the legendary Claude François. A consummate performer and perfectionnist, Claude enlightened and impressed forever millions of french people with his feel good, entertaining and ahead of its time blend of music inspired by the US music from both the 60s and 70s. He was way more than a musician in France, a super popular icon of french culture. His tragic death at age 33 in 1978 made millions of people bleeding around the world and achieved to make him entering Musical Hall Of Fame forever.With this in mind, french writer Yann Moix wrote a compelling book (released at the start of the 21th century) about a clone of the late Claude called Bernard Frederic.Somebody that was literally a "reincarnation" of Mr François. The book met great success and the french writer became a director to adapt his own creation in 2004.Podium was the name of an avant gardiste magazine about french musical stars of the 60s created by Claude François himself so the name of both the book and the flick is a great tribute to him as well.Talking about tribute, this movie is a wonderful tribute to any "Cloclo" (his legendary nickname) fan. It features prominently a lot of his best to most obscure work like "Chanson Populaire", "Si j'avais un marteau" as well as his disco era "Magnolia Forever" and of course the masterpiece he gave to Paul Anka and Frank Sinatra in his latter days, "Comme D'Habitude" (known as "My Way" in the US).Not only Mr Moix is showing a great knowledge about Cloclo universe and music but he is also got tremendous flair when it came to cast the one actor that could fill Mr François legendary shoes.He picked Belgium prodigy Benoit Poelvoorde and what a perfect pick it was !In Fact, Yann revealed he wrote the role while thinking about Benoit and he personally asked Mr Poelvoorde to re-record himself the songs of Claude as well as taking hard working dancing lessons !First unsure about this since he has never ever sang at all in his whole life, Benoit finally accepted, under French Singer professor Richard Cross and Dancing teacher Mia Frey to do so.Being the perfectionnist and crazy talent he is, Benoit Poelvoorde ended up giving me massive chills on any of his singing-dancing performances that are enlightening this wonderful homage to one of my fave musicians EVER.Like another Cloclo impersonator in the movie stated (his main nemesis who is jealous of him) "he is not an impersonator ! he is a REINCARNTAION ! ".Benoit didn't play Cloclo here, He was him from the first to the last shot.This is the performance of a lifetime that should have gotten him many awards , especially the equivalent of the Oscars in France (called "les césars") but he only got a nomination and lost the trophy to someone less deserving...The rest of the cast is extremely good, especially one Jean Paul Rouve as another french legendary musician impersonator, Michel Polnareff (if Benoit sounds and dances like Claude, Jean Paul totally looks like Michel , body and face wise !).The direction of the movie is top notch and the costumes, locations and choregraphies are perfect.For his first time behind a camera, Yann Moix shows a lot of panache and flair with very original shots angles and a lot of dynamic.It's something to write an entertaining book but it takes a lot of guts and virtuosity to adapt it visually and musically like he did !Mad props to anyone involved here, this is easily the best french movie of the 21 century not called "Rio Nest Of Spies" and Amelie !A timeless classic that surely made dancing and singing Mr Claude François in the deep blue sky in Heaven !Magnolia ? Forever !

When a friend of mine told me about Podium she said that the movie was about a legendary french singer Claude Francois. Personally I love the movies based on bios, so I have nothing to said against it. In fact I had another good experience watching a French comedy (Gregorie Moulin vs Humanity). Not in the mood of that movie, Podium, instead of the Claude biography shows the life of Bernard, a banker that in his teenage years used to love everything about Claude, but his girlfriend made him let things down about his hero. In that time the only choice was his idol or her. Years later motivated by an imitators challenge Bernard suddenly begins to rise as Claude Francois and in the middle of his hallucination, everything begins to make sense. Or isn't it? In my humble opinion Podium goes further than its firsts goals. It doesn't have only good comedic moments, it also has very touching moments that goes around the main character, explaining the suddenly change in Bernard. A good comedy and although is long, the direction of this is really impressive. It makes you feel like the main character, his happiness, his sadness, even his loneliness. In some part of the movie I can also guarantee that you'll feel even like Claude. Have a good time watching this piece of art.Rating: 10 of 10.

This movie is one the greatest comedy I've ever seen... The actors are so good, I can't compare it with any other movie. The singing performance by Benoit Poelvoorde is perfectly incredible too ! Nevertheless,I guess american audience would not understand this movie, as it deals with a french music symbol, Claude François...That's why I let myself dream of an american transcription of "Podium"... imagine Adam Sandler or Bill Murray play some unlikely Elvis double... If some producer could read it :)Congratulations, Yann Moix !!

This is the story of Bernard Frederic, a "double" of Claude François (France's Elvis - author of classics such as "My Way"). A special television broadcast on doubles incites him to return to a life he stopped for his wife. We follow him during the steps leading to the big show...There is something in this movie that makes it irresistible. Is it the story (very original), the rythm (fast but not furious :-)), the humor (I had a smile on my face almost the entire movie), the music (the mood was so positive that the audience sang along)? Or the cast? Benoît Poelvoorde (Bernard Frederic) has shown in this film just how talented he was. An outstanding performance then from him but also from his two co-stars the beautiful Julie Depardieu and the always disconcerting Jean-Paul Rouve. This movie should soon be crowned one of France's cult movies alongside classics such as "Le Père Noël est une Ordure", les "Visiteurs" or "Les Bronzés". Except if you are looking for what is wrong in a movie, you shouldn't be disturbed by its minor flaws. However for those who read the book (such as me), there may be some level of disappointment (not for me though). You must know that the movie shows only part of Bernard Frederic's impressive personality. He is depicted in the book as impulsive, selfish, stingy but still very likeable. We get to see only a small selection of the ferociously funny situations from the book. But I guess it would have undermined the rythm of the film. So go see it if you want to feel a boost of energy!