Wednesday 10 June 2009

The Kills


The Kills is an indie rock band formed by American vocalist and guitarist Alison Mosshart & British guitarist Jamie Hince. Their three albums, Keep On Your Mean Side, No Wow and Midnight Boom, have gathered much critical praise(Actually, I don't know their last albums).

Keep on your mean side

Their first album wa similar in style to the EP, veering from the Velvets-esque stomp of "Wait" to the noisy, dirty garage punk blues of "Fuck the People" (this song is rumoured to be a reference/homage to the French convicted criminal Florence Rey) and dark psychedelia of "Kissy Kissy". The record was well received by the music press, though the White Stripes comparisons would not go away.

My favourite song from them


Maintaining an anti-careerist, anti-music industry attitude, the band rarely granted interviews. Rather, they got the music press to come to them with their minimalist yet powerful live shows (which also included the drum machine), the pair maintaining an air of tension by subverting the expected role of stage performer. Mosshart chain-smoked while singing, rarely speaking to the audience, whilst Hince violently ripped blues riffs from his instrument. At a New York City show following the ban on public smoking, Mosshart went on stage with three bottles of water, lit up a cigarette and proceeded to smoke constantly from the first song to the last note of the set.



No wow:

Featuring an artier, less "guitar rock" sound, the record embraced post punk influences and sounded even more stripped down than Keep on Your Mean Side. Originally written to be performed on a Moog, the band was forced to change directions and record it primarily using a guitar as its central instrument after Hince's Moog broke and couldn't be repaired before entering the studio. A 40-minute DVD documentary was included with a limited number of copies and features interview, performance and on the road footage shot on tour.


The first single, "The Good Ones", from No Wow, was released on 7 February 2005 and reached number 23 in the UK singles charts.

Since No Wow, the band released a 3th studio album called Midnight Boom. I don't know that album at all, sorry gents....

Friday 5 June 2009

Delicatessen - Jeunet & Caro


Delicatessen (1991) is a French black comedy film, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, starring Dominique Pinon and Karin Viard. It is set in a post-apocalyptic apartment building in a France of an ambiguous time period. The story focuses on the tenants of the apartment building and their desperate bids to survive. Among these characters is a newly arrived tenant, who arrives to replace a tenant whose reason for departure is initially unclear. The butcher, Clapet, is the leader of the apartment who strives to keep control and balance in the apartment.

It is largely a character-based film, with much of the interest being gained from each tenants own particular idiosyncrasies and their relationship to each other.

Trailer


Plot:
Delicatessen begins in a dilapidated apartment building in rural post-apocalyptic 1950s France. Food is in short supply, with grain used as currency and animal populations dwindling, having been hunted to extinction. At the foot of the apartment building is a butcher's shop, run by the landlord, Clapet (Jean-Claude Dreyfus), who posts job opportunities in the "Hard Times" paper as means to lure victims to the building, whom he murders and butchers as a cheap source of meat that he sells to his tenants.

Following the "departure" of the last worker, unemployed circus clown Louison (Dominique Pinon) arrives to dance and fly around for the vacant position. During his routine maintenance, he gradually befriends Julie Clapet (Marie-Laure Dougnac), which slowly blossoms into a romantic relationship. Aware of her father's motives and Louison's imminent death, Julie descends into the sewers to make contact with the feared Troglodistes, a vegetarian sub-group of French rebels, whom she convinces to help rescue Louison.

The full movie is available on Dailymotion :

Thursday 4 June 2009

Babel____González Iñárritu - Blanchett - Brad Pitt


Babel is a 2006 film, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and written by Guillermo Arriaga, starring an ensemble cast. The multi-narrative drama completes González Iñárritu's Death Trilogy, which also consists of Amores perros and 21 Grams.

Babel invents multiple stories taking place in Morocco, Japan, Mexico and the United States. It was an international co-production among production companies based in France, Mexico and the US. The film was first screened at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, and was later shown to audiences at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Zagreb Film Festival. It opened in selected cities in the United States on October 27, 2006, and went into wide release on November 10, 2006. On January 15, 2007, it won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and two nominations for Best Supporting Actress and won one for Best Original Score.

Wednesday 3 June 2009

Girls in Hawaii


Girls in Hawaii is a Belgian indie pop band. They started getting famous in 2001.

In 2000, Antoine Wielemans and Lionel Vancauwenberghe began recording songs on an 8 track-recorder, and a few months later they formed the band by recruiting their brothers: Denis Wielemans and Brice Vancauwenberghe, and two friends: Christophe Léonard and Daniel Offermann.



Girls in Hawaii's first release was Found in the Ground: The Winter EP in early 2003, after which the band toured through Belgium and France. In the meantime, they started recording what would become their first LP.

From Here To There was released in November 2003 in Belgium and in early 2004 in Europe. It was well-received across Europe, where the band went on a promotional tour, through Belgium, France, Italy, Germany and Spain. The record was later released in Japan, and in October 2005 China Shop Music released it in the United States. The band started a short tour of the West Coast of the United States in April 2006.





Their second full-length album, Plan Your Escape was released in February 2008 in Europe. It was recorded in old houses in the forests of Ardennes by producer Jean Lamoot (who has worked with French artists such as Noir Désir and Alain Bashung). The album, more complex and eclectic than the previous, contains twelve songs, among them, the first single which is called This Farm Will End Up In Fire. The band has toured Europe promoting the album during 2008.



First single from the 2nd album released in 2008




Friday 22 May 2009

Chick Habit - Laisse tomber les filles - April March

"Hold tight" (previous post) reminds me another song, from the movie Death Proof by Quentin Tarantino named Chick Habit (Laisse tomber les filles originaly).

"Laisse tomber les filles" is a French song composed by Serge Gainsbourg and performed by France Gall in 1964. April March recorded two covers of the song in 1995: one with the original French lyrics, and another, "Chick Habit," with English lyrics written by March.



The song's lyrics describe future disenchantment predicted by one possessed of "an innocent heart" (the vocalist), which was regarded as being completely at odds with the concerns expressed lyrically by other teenagers singing at the time. The lyrical complexity of the song, particularly when considered in light of its young performer, was not universally well-received. Gilles Verland wrote regarding this situation that

Gainsbourg's lyrics obviously have nothing to do with the worldview expressed by other teenage vocalists of the time; of course their world has its charms, but it has not a single atom of depth. In the lyrics of Gainsbourg's songs in general, and Laisse tomber les filles in particular, there is a startling lucidity coupled with a refusal to be taken in by "the great farce of love", defined in terms of "never" and "always". But, with Laisse tomber les filles, we are not presented with a male narrator of thirty or thirty-five years, but rather a teenager.



France Gall's vindictive lyrics are supported by the well-known jazz band led by Gogo (the same group with whom Gainsbourg was recording at the time). The song's emphasis on brass and percussion is regarded as being integral to its success. Fondness within the English-speaking world for the "French pop sound" makes the song continue to be popular to this day.

"Chick Habit" is played during the opening credits of But I'm a Cheerleader by Jamie Babbit. Both versions of the song, first English and then French, are played during the end credits of the movie Death Proof by Quentin Tarantino.


Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich


Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich were a chart topping British pop/rock group of the 1960s.

In summer 1964, British songwriters Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley became interested in recording them. The band was set up in the studio to make recordings with then famous producer of The Honeycombs, Joe Meek. These recording sessions failed to get anywhere off the ground as an interview with Dave Dee stated that Joe Meek "had very strange recording techniques. He wanted us to play the song at half speed and then he would speed it up and put all these little tricks on it. We said we couldn't do it that way. He exploded, threw coffee all over the studio and stormed up to his room. His assistant Patric Pink came in and said, "Mr Meek will not be doing any more recording today." That was it. We lugged all our gear out and went back home." While these recording session proved unsuccessful they eventually gained a recording contract with Fontana Records.



They changed their name to Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich — an amalgam of their nicknames. The distinctive name, coupled with well produced and catchy songs by Howard and Blaikley, quickly caught the UK's public's imagination and their records started to sell in abundance. Indeed, between 1965 and 1969, the group spent more weeks in the UK Singles Chart than The Beatles.

Vocalist Dee, the ex-policeman, was at the scene of the automobile accident that took the life of American rocker Eddie Cochran and injured Gene Vincent in April 1960. Dee had taken Cochran's guitar from the accident and held it until it could be returned to his family.

My favourite song from them (notice that the song is part of the Tarantino's Death Proof soundtrack)



They also scored a Number One hit on the UK chart in 1968 with "The Legend of Xanadu". This particular track made it 'big' worldwide - even in the United States (where they had previously had little success). Their other Top Ten UK hits included "Hideaway", "Hold Tight!", "Bend It!", "Save Me", "Touch Me, Touch Me", "Okay!", "Zabadak!" and "Last Night in Soho".

Although the group never gained much popularity in America, they were big sellers elsewhere in the world. In Australia, for instance, they reached the Top Ten with tracks such as "Hold Tight!", "Bend It!", "Zabadak!" and "The Legend of Xanadu" - the last achieving Number One.

In September, 1969, Dee left the group for a short-lived solo career. The rest, re-billed as (D,B,M and T) continued releasing records, until they broke up in 1972. In the 1980s the group reformed again without Dee although there was one further single with him, "Staying With It" in 1983.

In the 1990s, at a time when many other of their contemporary bands were also reforming to tour on the lucrative "oldies circuit", they started performing once more, this time with their one-time leader, Dee.

Band members
* Dave Dee (David John Harman) – lead vocals
* Dozy (Trevor Leonard Ward-Davies) – bass guitar
* Beaky (John Dymond) – rhythm guitar
* Mick (Michael Wilson) – drums
* Tich (Ian Frederick Stephen Amey) – lead guitar

(Dave Dee, the lead singer died from a cancer in London on 9 January 2009.)




Sunday 17 May 2009

Karma Police - Radiohead



"Karma Police" is a song by English alternative rock band Radiohead from their 1997 third studio album OK Computer. The song's title and lyrics derive from an in-joke among the band, referring to nonsensical retributive enforcement of karma.

"Karma Police" was released as the second single from OK Computer, and became a commercial success, charting at number eight on the UK Singles Chart and number fourteen on the US Hot Modern Rock Tracks. The song made #33 on the Dutch Top 40. Critical reception to the single was also favourable. In addition, it made #50 in The Netherlands, #35 in Belgium, #15 in Finland and #32 in New Zealand.

Karma Police remains as one of the most famous songs from Radiohead.



Music Video:

The music video for the song was directed by Jonathan Glazer, previously responsible for Radiohead's "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" clip. The video premiered in August 1997 and featured Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke as well as Hungarian actor Lajos Kovács. Glazer won MTV's Director of the Year award in 1997 for his work on this, as well as Jamiroquai's "Virtual Insanity".[citation needed] Glazer however revealed in an interview that he considers this video to be a failed attempt.

The video starts with the camera, an unseen driver, looking at the empty back seat of 1976 Chrysler New Yorker at night. The 'driver' then faces the windshield and begins driving. For 35 seconds, it shows nothing but a road through grass illuminated by headlights, with bugs visible around the windshield. A figure is then seen running from the car. In time for the chorus the view shifts back to the back seat, where Thom Yorke now sits, almost mumbling his lyrics. The view yet again moves to the figure, who is close to being mowed down, as the view again switches to Yorke, now slouching drowsily against the back of the front seat, barely lipsyncing any longer. The camera swivels again and the figure appears again, close this time. For the first time another perspective reveals the outside of the car. The pursued figure sharpens and is revealed to be a large man with a frightened look. As the car comes to a stop before him, the man raises his hands and puts them behind his back as if in resignation, then takes matches from his pocket, lights one, and throws it down. The perspective shifts to the car's interior. The car suddenly reverses, away from the man, revealing a petrol leak which now blazes a path on the road back toward the car. The car slowly catches fire, and the camera/driver finally turns frantically to the back seat and robotically swivels back and forth, only to find that Yorke is no longer there.

Lyrics:


Karma police, arrest this man, he talks in maths
He buzzes like a fridge, hes like a detuned radio
Karma police, arrest this girl, her hitler hairdo, is making me feel ill
And we have crashed her party
This is what you get, this is what you get
This is what you get, when you mess with us

Karma police, Ive given all I can, its not enough
Ive given all I can, but were still on the payroll
This is what you get, this is what you get
This is what you get, when you mess with us
And for a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself
And for a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself

For a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself



Karma Police at Glastonbury 2003 (at 2:40, it's getting totally amazing!!!):

Thursday 14 May 2009

Love me if you dare - Jeux d'enfants

If you want to watch this movie, click here

Love Me If You Dare (French title: Jeux d'enfants — "Children's Games" in English) is a 2003 French film directed by Yann Samuell.

Plot:
The game begins when Julien (Guillaume Canet) and Sophie (Marion Cotillard) are children, but as they grow older they intensify and become more twisted and dangerous. Although they are in love with each other, the game of dare later dictates their future, and the dare even goes as far as hurting and tricking each other.

The movie trailer


The overarching theme is of a struggle between childhood playfulness and the expectations of the adult world: the characters age significantly over the course of the film, and Julien is forced — several times — to pick between the pink–coloured world of fun represented by Sophie, or the expectations, demands, and successes of the adult world represented by his father and his eventual wife and children. Sophie, meanwhile, is content to live her life — as she puts it "a cream puff", becoming a trophy wife to a successful soccer player. Nonetheless, she keeps returning to Julien, despite her superficial satisfaction with what she has.



Imagery:
Keystone to the film is a small tin box in the shape of a carousel. In a flash–forward segment, the film opens with a shot of a construction site, with the box partially enveloped in concrete. Once we return to the present, we see Julien initially receives it from his mother, and upon seeing Sophie being mistreated by other children at school, presents it to her. He hopes she'll lend it back on occasion, but she demands he do something daring to prove he really wants it. Thereafter, the two are engaged in a playful rivalry: whoever has the box can force the other to perform a dare to get it back. A few examples of dares are Julien getting married, Sophie wearing her underwear outside her clothes, Julien stealing a car, them slapping an athlete at school, and ultimately, getting buried in concrete. The film ultimately ends with a nearly identical shot to the opening, with the box once again partially enveloped in concrete.

The film's visual style also reflects the setting: while Julien and Sophie are children, the world is slightly fuzzy, and everything is bright and colourful. As they grow older, the film becomes sharper, and the colour more realistic. In a hypothetical scene of the two as an elderly couple, the film again becomes fuzzy, but now has a definite sepia tint.

A romance:

Romance with a capital "R," French style, is at the heart of Love Me if You Dare, a sometimes exhilarating, sometimes frustrating movie that borrows stylistically from Amelie. It is about Julien and Sophie, two people who are totally in love with each other, yet cannot admit it to each other, and cannot quite admit it to themselves. It's a love that spans from childhood to the mid-thirties or so, and Love Me If You Dare jumps forward showing how the pair progress over time. It begins when Julien (Thibault Verhaeghe) consoles Sophie (Josephine Lebas-Joly, A L'Abri des Regards Indiscrets, Beautiful Mother) after bullies make fun of the fact that she is Polish. He gives her a toy carousel, and everything stems from there. The two develop a bond and a game; if Sophie has the toy, Julien must do whatever she dares him to, and vice versa. The two slowly grow up, closer than ever, and Julien (Guillaume Canet, Tell no one, The Beach, The Warrior's Brother) and Sophie (Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose, Big Fish, A Private Affair) make their dares even more extreme.

Slap him if you dare !!!


Their love is like an addiction. The dares become life threatening at times, and nobody, especially Julien's father (Gerard Watkins, The Wolf of the West Coast) approves. It becomes a hugely disruptive element in their live, enough for the two to dare not to meet for years at a time. Then, the movie will jump forward, and they will pick up right where they left off, their love stronger than ever. It meets even more resistance when both become married to other people. It is as if their dares to each other are ways to prove that they love the other person more than their spouse. For a while, there is something sweet about the antics of these two people. They will do anything for each other, and are hiding their feelings behind dares. At about the halfway point, director Yann Samuell ups the ante, and makes these dares extremely dangerous. Enough so that it feels like Sophie and Julien have death wishes. They are in committed relationships, and unable to truly express their love to each other, so they begin daring each other with cruel, almost sadistic games.

This is Samuell's first film. It is bright, colorful, full of happy music, and zips along quickly, adding to a sense of happy tension between the two. Cotillard and Canet are beautiful people, and their rapid aging (typically signified by different clothes and hairstyles) looks plausible enough. They make an appealing couple, and have wonderful chemistry together when they are not pissed at each other. There is a sense of fate looming over the horizon, and everybody in the film realizes this, but doesn't seem to want to take that extra step to make fate a reality. This wonderful feeling of anticipation gives way to dread when Samuell makes the film much darker. These two people who were so attractive seem less so, especially when their intentions become all the more malicious.



But then a really strange thing happens. Samuell takes things a step further, with an ending that could only feel at place in a French film. It is wonderfully romantic and sad at the same time, but manages to bring back the sense of inevitability that was present in the first part of Love Me If You Dare. It's an ending that seems to fit perfectly with the story, yet is completely unexpected. The uneven tone gives a sense of imbalance to the story, part of which is necessary, and part of which serves to distract the viewer.

If you want to watch this movie, click here

The first part is right here :

Monday 11 May 2009

Hey - Polish band



The group was formed in 1992 in Szczecin at the initiative of guitarist Piotr Banach. In the first composition is also found: Katarzyna Nosowska, Marcin Żabiełowicz, Robert Ligiewicz and Marcin Macuk. The latter was quickly replaced by Jacek Chrzanowski.

They performed few uynplegged concert all over Poland. I therefore saw them in Lodz (many thanks to Qbalka, Emilka and Filip). My favorite songs are Teksański, Moogie and [sic!].



Although Hey sometimes described themselves as the first Polish grunge band, their melodic, guitar-driven rock and eclectic appearance owed more to New Wave and heavy metal influences; their first three albums contained songs in both Polish and English. During the band's mid-1990s heyday, they sold out stadiums throughout Poland, and attempted to break into the English-language market with a series of concerts overseas and an English version of their 1995 album ?. When this failed to arouse interest, the band began to write in Polish only, and gradually adopted a harder-edged, more industrial-influenced sound.



Nosowska also has enjoyed a successful career as a solo artist. The band sold over 2.2 million albums.



Saturday 9 May 2009

Fight Club - David Fincher - Chuck Palahniuk


Fight Club is a 1999 American feature film adaptation of the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. The film was directed by David Fincher and follows a nameless protagonist (Edward Norton), an everyman and an unreliable narrator who feels trapped with his white-collar position in society. The narrator gets involved in a fight club with soap salesman Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) and becomes tangled up in a relationship triangle with Durden and a destitute woman, Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter).

Thematically, the film was intended to represent the conflict between a generation of young people and the value system of advertising. The film's use of violence in the fight clubs was intended to serve as a metaphor for feeling based on the generation's conflict. The director carried homoerotic overtones over from Palahniuk's novel to implement in the film, believing that the overtones would make audiences uncomfortable and thereby keep them from anticipating the twist ending.

Trailer



The film found commercial success with its DVD release, which established Fight Club as a cult film. The film has also permeated American society, inspiring people to set up fight clubs.


In Fight Club, the nameless narrator is an everyman who lacks a world of possibilities and initially cannot find a way to change his life. The narrator finds himself unable to match society's requirements for happiness and so embarks on a path to enlightenment which involves metaphorically killing his parents, his God, and his teacher. At the beginning of the film, the narrator has killed off his parents but still finds himself trapped in his false world. The narrator then meets Tyler Durden, with whom he kills his metaphorical God by going against the norms of society. Ultimately, the narrator has to kill his teacher, Tyler Durden, to complete the process of maturity.

Screenwriter Jim Uhls described the film as a "romantic comedy", explaining, "It has to do with the characters' attitudes toward a healthy relationship, which is a lot of behavior which seems unhealthy and harsh to each other, but in fact does work for them—because both characters are out on the edge psychologically." In the film, the narrator seeks intimacy, but he avoids it at first with Marla Singer, seeing too much of himself in her. Though Marla presents a seductive and negativist prospect for the narrator, he instead embraces the novelty and excitement that Tyler Durden has to offer him. The narrator finds himself comfortable having the personal connection to Tyler Durden, but he becomes jealous when Marla becomes sexually involved with Tyler. When the narrator argues with Tyler about their friendship, Tyler explains that the relationship between the two men is secondary to the active pursuit of the philosophy they had been exploring. Tyler also suggests doing something about Marla, implying that she is a risk to be removed. When Tyler says this, the narrator realizes that his desires should have been focused on Marla and begins to diverge from Tyler's path.

The unreliable narrator is not immediately aware that Tyler Durden is, in fact, himself, and he also mistakenly promotes the fight clubs as a way to feel powerful. Contrarily, the narrator's physical condition worsens while Tyler Durden's appearance improves. Although Tyler initially embarks on a journey with the narrator in desiring the "real experiences" of actual fights, he eventually becomes a Nietzschean model that manifests the nihilistic attitude of rejecting and destroying institutions and value systems. His impulsive nature, representing the id, conveys an attitude that is seductive and liberating to the narrator and the followers. However, Tyler's initiatives and methods eventually become dehumanizing, as when he orders around the members of Project Mayhem with a megaphone in similar fashion to the approach of Chinese re-education camps. At this point, the narrator pulls back from Tyler and retreats as Tyler moves forward. In the end, the narrator is able to arrive at a middle ground between his two conflicting selves.


Tyler Durden's recitation of the rules of fight club is considered one of the most quoted monologues in cinema:

The first rule of fight club is... you do not talk about fight club.
The second rule of fight club is... you do not talk about fight club.
Third rule of fight club, someone yells "Stop!", goes limp, taps out, the fight is over.
Fourth rule, only two guys to a fight.
Fifth rule, one fight at a time, fellas.
Sixth rule, no shirts, no shoes.
Seventh rule, fights will go on as long as they have to.
And the eighth and final rule, if this is your first night at fight club, you have to fight.

The Fight Club Rules



Music soundtrack : Where is my mind? (The Pixies)



Movie's secrets:

The last image of film is in fact a penis (2h10min40sec). The image is visible for a very short time and it is a reference to a scene from the film. The same kind of subliminal image (an erect penis imminent) is visible at the beginning of the Ingmar Bergman film, Persona, which was strongly inspired Fincher.

In the first minutes of the film, there are four images "pseudo subliminal" the character of Tyler Durden:

- 3min57 "everything is a copy of a copy of a copy"
- 6min04 "I am in pain"
- 7min15 "We give each other strength"
- 12min06 "Next group"

These images appear on screen and are probably also refers to a particular scene of the film (where the narrator describes one of the jobs of Tyler; cutter in a cinema). But these images do not only refer to this scene: they are also linked to chronic insomnia narrator. The latter, half awake half asleep, just to see Tyler, who is not present at the beginning of the film. If we pay attention to the narrator's response after each occurrence, you can probably find it is really Tyler. In fact, when Tyler appears permanently in the film, these images stop appearing.


Before the truth is actually revealed (when the bartender assures the narrator that his name is Tyler Durden), many clues are left about the schizophrenia of the narrator:

- 18m57s: The narrator asks if we can wake up in the skin of someone else at the same time Tyler was behind him.
- 22m22s The narrator realizes that he has exactly the same suitcase as Tyler.
- 38m37s: Tyler tells his student life to the narrator, who replied "Same for me."
- 44m45s: As the narrator is in hospital, he said "Sometimes Tyler spoke for me."
- 46m45s The narrator dreams that he had sex with Marla. In reality this is not a dream, they are memories of his true personality.
- 50m15s: Tyler tells the narrator about Marla: "You see what I mean, you've fucked." Indeed, it is the narrator who had Marla frolics with the previous night.
- 55m12s: Tyler ordered the narrator about the fire in his apartment: "Tell him that you blew all that." Indeed, it is the narrator himself who set fire to his apartment.
- 74m40sec: The narrator, simulating being hit by its manager, said: "I do not know why, I thought of my first fight with Tyler."

Without the producers and directors’ comments from (on DVD), there is no way to know the real name of the narrator (who is, actually, the main character). His name is not present during the film, nor in the credits (Narrator role as Edward Norton). However, at the beginning of the film, at the support group for men who have had testicular cancer, Bob called the narrator "Cornelius" (8min21, 65min7). His name remains a mystery all along the film, until Tyler called him "Jack" (minute 127). "Jack" also refers to a book (which the narrator has probably written himself) which he found in the house, the narrator told Tyler he had to find a book with hundreds of lines of poetry written by organs of a certain Jack. This suggests, at this stage, that Tyler calls the narrator Jack because of a relationship with these books, or because it was his real name. These lines (found the book) are included throughout the film by the narrator:
o I am Jack's medulla oblongata. (minute 37)
o I am Jack's colon. (minute 37)
o I am Jack’s raging bile duct. (minute 50)
o I am Jack's cold sweat. (minute 53)
o I am Jack’s complete lack of surprise. (minute 72)
o I am Jack’s smirking revenge. (minute 73)
o I am Jack's wasted life. (minute 75)
o I am Jack’s absolute lack of surprise. (minute 76)
o I am Jack’s inflamed sense of rejection. (minute 91)
o I am Jack’s broken heart. (minute 99)

When the narrator and Tyler met in the plane, Tyler mentioned that that the characters on the emergency procedures illustrations look too quiet and they do not represent reality, it ' is another way to calm the panic of the passengers in case of crash or flight problems. Later, we see briefly the new posters that the monkeys have made up, and people who are panicked at the end of their concerns.



Ending scene

Thursday 7 May 2009

Untitled - Interpol

Interpol are an American band formed in 1997 in New York City.

The band's line-up is Paul Banks (vocals, guitar), Daniel Kessler (guitar, vocals), Carlos Dengler (bass guitar, keyboards) and Sam Fogarino (drums, percussion).

Interpol's debut album Turn on the Bright Lights (2002) was critically acclaimed, making it to tenth position on the NME's list of top albums in 2002 as well as #1 on Pitchfork Media's Top 50 Albums of 2002.

Interpol is one of the bands associated with the New York indie music scene, being one of several groups that emerged out of the post-punk revival of the 2000s. The band's sound is generally a mix of bass throb and rhythmic, harmonized guitar, with a snare heavy mix, drawing comparisons to post-punk bands such as Joy Division and The Chameleons.

Aside from the lyrics, their songwriting method includes all of the band members, rather than relying on any given chief songwriter.

Untitled is a song by Interpol, from their first album Turn on the Bright Lights.



Untitled Lyrics

Surprise, sometimes, will come around
Surprise, sometimes, will come around
I will surprise you sometime.
I'll come around
Oh, I will surprise you sometime.
I'll come around when you're down...


This song was featured in the TV show Friends, where it marked the end of season nine.

666.667 Club - Noir Désir



666667 Club is an album by French rock band Noir Désir. It was released in France and other European countries on 17 December 1996. The album was certified double platinum in France on 17th September 1997, which at the time signified sales of above 600,000.


It is a hard politically, primarily against the Front National (a stupid French far-right, nationalist political party): "FN pain / We are fine in France" from the title Un Jour en France.

The refrain of the song performed by The Poppy Love, Lioubov, love, Love, love, love, told in America; Lioubov in ex-Soviet Russia; love to the four corners of France, was taken over by Noir Désir to the end of the song L'homme pressé.

The Hungarian violinist Félix Lajkó played for few song on this disc, especially the song Ernestine.

L'homme pressé:

L'homme pressé is a title of Black Desire album appeared on the 666,667 Club, winning "Song of the Year" in 1998 to the victories of the music.

In this song Noir Désir criticism globalization and capitalism. In the video, the four members of the group parody a boy band dance, very fashionable at that time.



Lyrics of The Hurry Man:


I’m a frozen model
With a tanned skin
Hurry man
My bullshits uttered
Are the destiny of the world
I don’t have time, I go off
My career is at stake
I’m the media man
I’m more than political
I’m going fast, very fast
I’m an universal human comet
I cross time
I’m a reference
I’m omnipresent
I invaded the world
That I don’t know
No matter, I talk about it
No matter, I know
Human are at my feet
Potentially 8 billions
of slave idiots
Except some of my friends
Of the same world than mine
You can’t imagine
Of happy they are
Chorus:Who wants me
And crumbs of my brain?
Who wants to enter
In the web of my network? Daily activist
Of inhumanity
Of instant profits
Of medias’ favor
I’m rich, very rich
I’m in the real estate business
I’m making money
There’re some people who can pay
I know the upper crust of Paris
And the others also
My unique friends
And their women that I..
See, of course. I know stock exchange secrets
There is no secret for me
I’m the King of kings
exploded audience ratings
And what do you think
It’s my way, it’s my luck
I love shows
On television
No time to watch them
But I make them
We spit food
On those starving eyes
You see what they ask
We know they are eager
Of our rottenness
Better than casting pearls
Before swine. Chorus You know who I am
An hurry man x3
I am
An hurry man x3
Chorus
Couplet

”Love Love Love”
People say in America
”Lioubov”
In Russia
”Amour”
at the four corners of France


Un jour en France:

In this song, Noir Désir maintains its positions against the National Front.

Tuesday 5 May 2009

Sibérie m'était contéee - Manu Chao


Sibérie m'était contéee or Siberie m'etait contéee ("[the story of] Siberia was told/recited to me") is the third studio album by the french singer Manu Chao, released in 2004. This album features, along with a CD, an oversized book with lyrics to songs from the album and previous Manu Chao albums, as well as a book of Wozniak’s drawings.. Hit singles include Petite blonde du Boulevard Brune ("Little blonde from Brune Boulevard" which is a parisian boulevard). The album's songs refer heavily to Paris, and Parisian life. The song Helno est mort (Helno is Dead) is dedicated to the memory of his friend Helno (Noël Rota), the singer of Les Négresses Vertes who died of a drug overdose in 1993.

Puns and wordplay:

The title is a pun or wordplay. There are many books or articles in French with the title "Si X m'était conté" or "Si le X m'était conté" (for masculine nouns X) or "Si X m'était contée" or "Si la X m'était contée" (for feminine nouns X). These translate literally as "If X was told to me" or figuratively as "What X is all about" or "An introduction to X". Thus in Sibérie m'était contée the first syllable of Sibérie (Siberia) could be interpreted, in wordplay, as the word si (if): "If 'bérie' was told to me" (whatever "bérie" --which just happens to rhyme with the French pronunciation of Paris (Par-ee)--might be). It can be another wordplay with Jean Tiberi, mayor of Paris until 2001.



The album cover also includes the words (in capital letters): "…A TOUS LES PECHEURS DU FLEUVE AMOUR…", which is also a pun. It can be understood as either "to all those who fish the Amur river" (a river in Siberia), or as "to all the sinners of the river Love". The French words pécheur (sinner) and pêcheur (fisherman/fisher) are spelled the same way when the accent is dropped in capital letters.

My favorites songs are "Petite blonde du boulevard Brune" and "La valse à sale temps".

Monday 4 May 2009

You never can tell - Chuck Berry

"You Never Can Tell" is a rock song by Chuck Berry. It was composed while he was in prison for intent to commit a sex crime. The song was originally released in 1964 on the album St. Louis to Liverpool. The song reached number 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and reached 23rd on the UK music chart. Originally performed and released by Chuck Berry, the song has also been covered by Status Quo, Roch Voisine, Emmylou Harris, Bob Seger, Chely Wright and John Prine.





A kinda song I love listening to, and I could spend all day dancing on it and not getting bored....

Description:

The song describes a fictional wedding between a young couple and the events afterwards: living in a furnished apartment, buying a family car and taking their honeymoon in New Orleans. The chorus of the song is "'C'est la vie', say the old folks, 'it goes to show you never can tell'".


It was a teenage wedding, and the old folks wished them well
You could see that Pierre did truly love the madamoiselle
And now the young monsieur and madame have rung the chapel bell,
"C'est la vie", say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell

They furnished off an apartment with a two room Roebuck sale
The coolerator was crammed with TV dinners and ginger ale,
But when Pierre found work, the little money comin' worked out well
"C'est la vie", say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell

They had a hi-fi phono, boy, did they let it blast
Seven hundred little records, all rock, rhythm and jazz
But when the sun went down, the rapid tempo of the music fell
"C'est la vie", say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell

They bought a souped-up jitney, 'twas a cherry red '53,
They drove it down to Orleans to celebrate the anniversary
It was there that Pierre was married to the lovely madamoiselle
"C'est la vie", say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell


Pulp Fiction:

The song became briefly popular again for a time in 1994 after the release of the Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction. The music was played for a contest at the fictional restaurant Jack Rabbit Slim's in which John Travolta as Vincent Vega and Uma Thurman as Mia Wallace danced for the contest's main prize. The music added an evocative element of sound to the narrative and Tarantino said that the song's lyrics of "Pierre" and "Mademoiselle" gave the scene a "uniquely 50's French New Wave dance sequence feel".

Mia Wallace & Vincent Vega: The dacing scene

Sunday 3 May 2009

Let the right one in - Simply wonderful



One of my favorite films for 2008. And, no worries, it is not another scary movie without any sense.... It is not scary at all actually...

Let the Right One In (Swedish: Låt den rätte komma in) is a 2008 Swedish romantic vampire film directed by Tomas Alfredson. It derives from the novel of the same name by John Ajvide Lindqvist, who also wrote the screenplay for the film. It tells the story of a bullied 12-year-old boy who develops a friendship with a vampire in Blackeberg, a suburb of Stockholm.

The film received widespread international critical acclaim and won numerous awards, including the "Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature" at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival and the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation's 2008 Méliès d'Or (Golden Méliès) for the "Best European Fantastic Feature Film", as well as four Guldbagge Awards from the Swedish Film Institute. Due to the film's initial success at various film festivals, the rights for an English language remake of the film were sold before the film had its theatrical release.

The trailer


Cast:

Kåre Hedebrant (born in 1995) is a Swedish child actor best known for playing the main character in the 2008 Swedish romantic horror film Let the Right One In. He lives in Hässelby, near Stockholm. Hedebrant currently attends Adolf Frederick´s School of Music, with singing as a main subject.

In 2007, after an open casting involving 4000 kids, Hedebrant was chosen to play the role of Oskar in Let the Right One In. Oskar, the protagonist of the film, is a 12-year old bullied boy who strikes up a friendship with the mysterious Eli (Lina Leandersson), who later turns out to be a vampire. Hedebrant received generally positive notices for his role. According to If magazine's reviewer, "Hedebrant does a fine job of conveying the boy’s silent longing, rage and defiance". James Berardinelli considered him an "interesting choice to play Oskar", and noted that he "effectively makes the character seem remote, withdrawn, and a little creepy". Hedebrant has expressed that although he hasn't decided to pursue a career in acting, he would "definitely" want to try it again. He received a nomination for "Best Performance in an International Feature Film - Leading Young Performers" (with Lina Leandersson), in the 30th Annual Young Artist Awards.



Lina Leandersson was born in 1995 in Falun, Sweden. Artistic from an early age, she acted in amateur theatre performances, attended drama courses, street- and jazz dance. One of her first roles was the mother of a spoiled girl wanting new jeans. In 2006 she appeared as a jury member in the Swedish song competition Lilla Melodifestivalen. The same year, she was selected as one out of five, from a total of five hundred applicants, to participate in "Nickelodeon's programledarskola", which was televised in October 2006.

Leandersson applied for the role in Let the Right One In through a web-based casting service. After being contacted by child casting director Maggie Widstrand, she auditioned for the role three times before finally being cast.

"Otherworldly child actors Hedebrant and Leandersson perfectly embody their roles"

In the movie, she plays the child vampire Eli, who befriends the main character, 12-year-old Oskar (played by Kåre Hedebrant). Because Eli is supposed to be an androgynous character in the movie, director Tomas Alfredson decided to overdub Leandersson's voice with a less feminine one. Eli's voice throughout the whole movie is provided by Elif Ceylan. In an interview with Dagens Nyheter, Leandersson laughingly commented that, "it was actually nice to be dubbed, my voice sounds weird".



Leandersson and Hedebrant were never allowed to read the script. Instead, the director would read the lines to them before every scene. According to Leandersson, "Tomas is a good teller. I listened very carefully". She identified the most difficult parts as the ones where she was supposed to be angry, and the transitioning between being normal and "crazy". In an interview, Leandersson recalled how she went totally into her role, to the point of "becoming" the character Eli, but affirmed that there are few similarities between herself and her character, describing Eli as more mature and contemplative.



When asked about the biggest challenge in making the movie, the director mentioned the fact that people already would have a perception of the characters and the surroundings from the novel. He especially felt that the depiction of Eli was difficult, but noted that he was "very happy about Lina", and compared her on another occasion to "an 80-year-old woman, very wise and very quiet".

Leandersson's performance received wide critical acclaim. According to Karen Durbin of Elle, she "evokes Eli's radical apartness with an air of watchful caution and a contained stillness of body that not only belies her childish appearance (...)", and "In a performance devoid of sentimentality she perfectly captures the awful solitude of a creature who exists outside time". James Berardinelli praised her performance, "crafting an individual who is both mysterious and compelling", while Justin Lowe of the Hollywood Reporter wrote: "The youthful actors imbue even the most emotional and disturbing scenes with remarkable complexity. Leandersson is particularly impressive as the conflicted young vampire who wants nothing more than to be an ordinary girl again". Luke Y. Thompson of LA Weekly even went as far as saying: "When it comes to preteens as eternal vampires, Kirsten Dunst in Interview With the Vampire used to be the gold standard; in Leandersson, I think we have a new champion".

Soundtrack :

Swedish composer Johan Söderqvist wrote the score. He was instructed by Alfredson to write something that sounded hopeful and romantic, in contrast to the events that takes place in the film. Söderqvist has described it as consisting of both darkness and light, and emphasized that the most important quality of the music in this film had to be melody and harmony. It is performed by the The Slovak National Symphony Orchestra. The score placed fourth on Ain't it Cool News' Top 10 Best Scores Of 2008 List, being described as "scrupulously weaving together strains of bone-chillingly cold horror with the encompassing warmth of newly acquired love". If magazine described the score as "the most beautifully emotional score yet to grace the undead. It’s a feeling of tender melancholy that delivers its scares in a subtle, chamber orchestra way".

Eli's theme


The song "Kvar i min bil" written and performed by Per Gessle, is heard numerous times during the film. Originally an outtake from Gessle's solo album En Händig Man, the song was specially provided for the film, to resemble the sound of popular 80's pop group Gyllene Tider. Gessle has described the song as a "bluesy tune with a nice guitar hook”. Other songs in the film include "Försonade" from 1968, written and performed by future ABBA member Agnetha Fältskog, and "Flash in the Night" from 1981, written by Tim Norell and Björn Håkansson and performed by Secret Service.

The soundtrack was released by MovieScore Media on 11 November 2008. It contains 21 of Söderqvist's original scores from the film.


The entire movie is available here, and the first part is just below (click to the link to watch the rest of the movie Let The Right One In)

Friday 1 May 2009

Reservoir dogs - Quentin Tarantino


Reservoir Dogs is the 1992 debut film of director and writer Quentin Tarantino. It portrays what happens before and after a botched jewel heist, but not the heist itself. Reservoir Dogs stars an ensemble cast with Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Quentin Tarantino, Eddie Bunker, Chris Penn and Lawrence Tierney. Tarantino has a minor role, as does criminal-turned-author Eddie Bunker. It incorporates many themes and aesthetics that have become Tarantino's hallmarks: violent crime, pop culture references, memorable dialogue, profuse profanity, and a nonlinear storyline.




The film has become a classic of independent film and a cult hit. It was named "Greatest Independent Film of all Time" by Empire. Reservoir Dogs was generally well received and the cast was praised by many critics. Although it was never given much promotion upon release, the film was a modest success by grossing $2,832,029, which made its budget back. However, it did become a major hit in the United Kingdom; grossing nearly 6.5 million pounds, and it achieved higher popularity after the success of Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. It is often criticized for its high degree of violence and profanity, and audience members reportedly walked out during a torture scene.

The opening scene : Mr Pink dont tip!!



A soundtrack titled Reservoir Dogs: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released featuring songs used in the film, mostly from the 1970s. In 2006, a video game was released to mediocre reviews. The video game—like the film—caused controversy for its violence.

* Harvey Keitel as Mr. White: A professional criminal and thief. His real name is revealed to be Lawrence Dimmick. Mr. White is portrayed in the movie as a criminal who does not hesitate to kill but is still human enough to care about innocent bystanders, as is evident by his line, "The choice between doing ten years and killing some stupid motherfucker ain't no choice at all, but I ain't no madman either." He blindly believes in Mr. Orange and takes a bullet for him in the final Mexican standoff. After Mr. Orange reveals his true identity, Mr. White, in a state of rage and grief, shoots him in the head. He is then shot in turn by the police, who had just arrived to the scene.

* Tim Roth as Mr. Orange: An undercover police officer, his real name is revealed to be Freddy Newandyke. Later scenes reveal the story of how he went undercover, including the fake "commode story" he told the robbers to gain status and trust. He is shot in the abdomen by a woman trying to defend herself (instinctively firing back, killing her) and spends most of the film bleeding on the warehouse floor. He takes a second bullet during the Mexican standoff and is shot dead by Mr. White after he reveals to him that he is a police officer.

* Steve Buscemi as Mr. Pink: The only major character whose real name is never revealed, also the only major character to survive the film, although faint sound effects after his departure imply he does not escape justice. Mr. Pink often reminds the other robbers to be "professionals" and is the only person present to stay out of the Mexican standoff. Off-camera it is suggested he is arrested by the police arriving outside to apprehend the gangsters in the warehouse. Mr. Pink is notable for his anti-tipping monologue from the beginning of the film.

* Michael Madsen as Mr. Blonde: His real name is Victor Vega, also known as Vic or Toothpick Vic. He is a sadistic psychopathic criminal who indiscriminately shot several civilians during the robbery. He also gleefully tortures a policeman for his own pleasure—slashing the young officer's face, cutting off his ear and dousing him with gasoline—only to be stopped from burning him alive by Mr. Orange, when he shoots Vega several times in the chest, killing him. Vic Vega is the brother of Vincent Vega from Tarantino's film Pulp Fiction.

* Chris Penn as "Nice Guy" Eddie Cabot: The son of Joe Cabot. Eddie does not take part in the heist; he is also the only one who does not initially believe the heist was a setup. He shoots Mr. White in the Mexican standoff between Eddie, Mr. White, and Joe Cabot, and Mr. White in turn shoots and kills Eddie and his father Joe.

* Lawrence Tierney as Joe Cabot: The mastermind of the heist and father of "Nice Guy" Eddie Cabot, Joe is killed by Mr. White during the final standoff. Mr. Orange, during his meeting with fellow cop Holdaway, compares Joe to The Thing from the Fantastic Four.

* Quentin Tarantino as Mr. Brown: Tarantino plays a small role as he often does in his films; Mr. Brown's real name is also not revealed. He had the opening lines of the film in Mr. Brown's insight that "Like a Virgin" is a "metaphor for big dicks". He is shot in the head and killed by the cops.

* Edward Bunker as Mr. Blue: A small role played by ex-criminal Eddie Bunker. Despite not having much screen time, he is often referenced by the other characters since nobody saw what happened to him after the heist. Near the end of the film, Joe reveals that Mr. Blue was killed by the police.




The Reservoir Dogs: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was the first soundtrack produced by Quentin Tarantino and set the structure his later soundtracks would follow. This includes the use of snippets of dialogue from the film. The soundtrack has selections of songs from the 70s. The radio station "K-Billy's Super Sound of the Seventies" played a prominent role in the film.[38] The DJ for the radio was chosen to be Steven Wright, a comedian known for his deadpan delivery of jokes.

An unusual feature of the soundtrack was the choice of songs. The film uses music from the 1970s. Tarantino has said that he feels the music to be a counterpoint to the on-screen violence and action. He also stated that he wished for the film to have a '50s feel while using '70s music. A prominent instance of this is the torture scene to the tune of "Stuck in the Middle With You".

Thursday 30 April 2009

The Secret World of Serge Gainsbourg


Serge Gainsbourg (1928 – 1991) was a French singer-songwriter, actor and director. Gainsbourg's varied musical style and individuality made him difficult to categorize. His legacy has been firmly established, and he is often regarded as one of the world's most influential musicians.

Before he was 30 years old, Gainsbourg was a disillusioned painter but earned his living as a piano player in bars.

By mid-1968, he fell in love with English singer and actress Jane Birkin whom he met during the shooting of Slogan. They gave birth to actress Charlotte (1971).

His early songs were influenced by Boris Vian and were largely in the vein of "old-fashioned" chanson. Very early, however, Gainsbourg began to move beyond this and experiment with a succession of different musical styles: jazz early on, pop in the 1960s, reggae in the 1970s, and electronica in the 1980s.

Many of his songs contained themes with a morbid or sexual twist in them. An early success, "Le Poinçonneur des Lilas", describes the day in the life of a Paris Métro ticket man whose job it is to stamp holes in passengers' tickets. Gainsbourg describes this chore as so monotonous that the man eventually thinks of putting a hole into his own head and being buried in another.

Les sucettes - sexy song which Gall was unaware of the meaning

France Gall - Les Sucettes


More success began to arrive when, in 1965, his song "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" was the Luxembourg entry in the Eurovision Song Contest. Performed by French teen singer France Gall, it won first prize. (The song was covered in English as "A Lonely Singing Doll" by British teen idol Twinkle.)

His next song for Gall, "Les Sucettes" ("Lollipops"), caused a scandal in France: Gainsbourg had written the song with double-meanings and strong sexual innuendo, of which the singer was apparently unaware when she recorded it. Whereas Gall thought that the song was about a girl enjoying lollipops, it was really about oral sex.

In 1969, he released "Je t'aime... moi non plus," which featured simulated sounds of female orgasm. The song appeared that year on an LP, Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg. Originally recorded with Brigitte Bardot, it was released with future girlfriend Birkin when Bardot backed out. While Gainsbourg declared it the "ultimate love song," it was considered too "hot"; the song was censored in various countries, and in France even the toned-down version was suppressed. The Vatican made a public statement citing the song as offensive. It reached no. 1 in the UK singles chart.

Je t'aime...moi non plus (I love you.....me neither)


In 1975, he released the album Rock Around the Bunker, a rock album written entirely on the subject of the Nazis. Gainsbourg used black humour, as he and his family suffered during World War II. While a child in Paris, Gainsbourg had worn the yellow badge as the mark of a Jew. Rock Around the Bunker belonged in the mid-1970s "retro" trend.

The next year saw the release of another major work, L'Homme à tête de chou (Cabbage-Head Man), featuring the new character Marilou and sumptuous orchestral themes. Cabbage-Head Man is one of his nicknames, as it refers to his ears. Musically, L'homme à tête de chou turned out to be Gainsbourg's last LP in the English rock style he had favoured since the late 1960s. He would go on to produce two reggae albums recorded in Jamaica (1979 and 1981) and two electronic funk albums recorded in New York (1984 and 1987).

In Jamaica in 1978 he recorded "Aux Armes et cetera", a reggae version of the French national anthem "La Marseillaise", with Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar, and Rita Marley. This song earned him death threats from right-wing veterans of the Algerian War of Independence who were opposed to certain lyrics. Bob Marley was furious when he discovered Gainsbourg made his wife Rita Marley sing erotic lyrics. Shortly afterward, Gainsbourg bought the original manuscript of "La Marseillaise". He was able to reply to his critics that his version was, in fact, closer to the original as the manuscript clearly shows the words "Aux armes et cætera..." for the chorus.

Aux Armes et Cetera


The next year saw him coin the nickname Gainsbarre, for himself in the song "Ecce Homo".

After a 13 year long turbulent relationship Jane Birkin left Gainsbourg. In the 1980s, approaching the end of his life, Gainsbourg became a regular figure on French TV. His appearances seemed devoted to his controversial sense of humour and provocation. In March 1984, while this was illegal and highly offending, he burned a 500 French franc note on television to protest against heavy taxation.




He would show up drunk and unshaven on stage: in April 1986, in Michel Drucker's live Saturday evening show with the American singer Whitney Houston, he exclaimed to the host (in English), "I want to fuck her." The same year, in another talk show interview he appeared alongside Catherine Ringer, a well known singer who in the past had appeared in pornographic films. Gainsbourg shouted, "You're nothing but a filthy whore, a filthy, fucking whore." Ringer scolded back, "Look at you, you're just a bitter old alcoholic. I used to admire you but these days you've become a disgusting old parasite."

Houston and Gaisnbourg
Serge Gainsbourg and Whitney Houston


By December, 1988, while a judge at a film festival in Val d'Isère, he appeared drunk and in a rage at a local theatre where he was to do a presentation. While on stage he began to tell an obscene story about Brigitte Bardot and a champagne bottle, only to stagger offstage and collapse in a nearby seat. Subsequent years saw his health deteriorate. He had to undergo liver surgery - although he denied any connection to cancer or cirrhosis. His appearances and releases become sparser as he had to rest and recover in Vezelay. During these final years he released Love on the Beat, a controversial electronic album with mostly sexual themes in the lyrics, and his last studio album, You're Under Arrest, which was a collaboration with Larry Fast, presented more synth-driven songs.

Serge Gainsbourg' tears


His songs became increasingly eccentric during this period, ranging from the anti-drug "Aux Enfants de la Chance" to the duet with his daughter Charlotte named "Lemon Incest". This translates as "Inceste de citron", a wordplay on "un zeste de citron" (a tang of lemon). The title demonstrates Gainsbourg's love for puns (another example of which is Beau oui comme Bowie, a song he gave to Isabelle Adjani).



Gainsbourg died on 2 March 1991 of a heart attack. He was buried in Montparnasse Cemetery, in Paris. His funeral brought Paris to a standstill, and French President François Mitterrand said of him, "He was our Baudelaire, our Apollinaire... He elevated the song to the level of art."[14] His home at the well-known address rue de Verneuil is still covered in graffiti and poems.

Since his death, Gainsbourg's music has reached legendary stature in France. His lyrical brilliance in French has left an extraordinary legacy. His music, always progressive, covered many styles: jazz, ballads, mambo, lounge, reggae, pop (including adult contemporary pop, kitsch pop, yé-yé pop, '80s pop, pop-art pop, prog pop, space-age pop, psychedelic pop, and erotic pop), disco, calypso, Africana, bossa nova, and rock and roll. He has gained a following in the English-speaking world with many non-mainstream artists finding his arrangements highly influential.

Lemon Incest interpreted by Serge and his daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg

One of the most frequent interpreters of Gainsbourg's songs was British singer Petula Clark, whose success in France was propelled by her recordings of his tunes. In 2003, she wrote and recorded La Chanson de Gainsbourg as a tribute to the composer of some of her biggest hits.

His lyrics are collected in the volume Dernières nouvelles des étoiles.

In 2005, the album Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited was released by Virgin Records. The album consisted of specially-recorded English-language cover versions of Gainsbourg's songs, recorded by artists as diverse as Franz Ferdinand, Portishead, Placebo, and Michael Stipe.




"Love is blind and its stick is pink"
"L'amour est aveugle et sa canne est rose"

"Ugliness is in a way superior to beauty because it lasts."
"La laideur a ceci de supérieur à la beauté qu'elle ne disparaît pas avec le temps."


See also:

Singles:

Bonnie and Clyde
Comment te dire adieu
Couleur Café
Dieu fumeur de havanes
Élisa
Initials B.B.
Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais
Je t'aime... moi non plus - Brian Molka and Placebo
La Javanaise

Poupée de cire, poupée de son

Pour un con
Sea, Sex and Sun


Jane Birkin's Biography

Charlotte Gainsbourg' s bio