Phil Hoad 

Cloclo – review

This biopic of French singer Claude François almost summons the grandeur of a Scorsese personality opera, writes Phil Hoad
  
  

cloclo
Monumental ... Cloclo Photograph: PR

Cloclo is Claude François: spring-heeled 70s Gallic disco heartthrob, and now in Florent-Emilio Siri's four-decade survey, another control-freak biopic monster to join Howard Hughes and J Edgar. François penned Comme D'Habitude, the song that became My Way. Siri – a gifted stylist – makes a golden moment of its composition, linking it to the singer's struggle to pull free of a barren childhood, and to his surrogate father, Sinatra. More usually, François was a frenetic piggybacker on Anglo-American trends; Siri does better on this score, with the help of a monumental Jérémie Renier turn, almost summoning the grandeur of the Scorsesian personality opera. Whether the personality deserves it is another matter.

 

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