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Le Far West

1973 film by Jacques Brel

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ3222687 ↗
Source-derived summary

Le Far West (transl. "The Far West") is a 1973 Belgian-French comedy film starring and directed by Jacques Brel. It was entered into the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Palme d'Or. This was Brel's ninth feature film as an actor, and his second directorial effort. Brel was obsessed with "le Far West" (the Wild West). The film was released 15 May 1973.

Plot

Jacques, a 40-year-old citizen of Brussels, meets the fakir, Abracadabra who, before dying, gives him a special power. Jacques then meets Gabriel, a generous man, who dresses up as Davy Crockett, and who follows Jacques without asking questions. The two companions and other new friends set out to conquer the wild west, their childhood - just as Voltaire sought Eldorado, and Saint-Exupéry the unknown planet. The wild west they seek cannot be found, because it is an imaginary place, a piece of happiness buried in our hearts.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Le Far West” as 1973 film by Jacques Brel. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1973—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1973-01-01. The account is most persuasive where West, film and Jacques can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1973 film by Jacques Brel. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3222687. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1973.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Le Far West”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Le Far West primary sources, Le Far West archive and West research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Le Far West”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Le Far West” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.