Table of Contents
Remembering Jane Birkin, born on this day (1946-2023).
Contents List Download:
AMOURS DES FEINTES
BABY ALONE IN BABYLONE
BALLADE DE JOHNNY JANE
LES DESSOUS CHICS
DI DOO DAH
ET QUAND BIEN MEME
EX-FAN DES SIXTIES
FUIR LE BONHEUR DE PEUR QU’IL NE SE SAUVE
JE T’AIME MOI NON PLUS
LOST SONG
LE MOI ET LE JEU
NORMA JEAN BAKER QUOI
UNE CHOSE ENTRE AUTRES
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Jane Birkin
Jane Mallory Birkin OBE (14 December 1946 – 16 July 2023) was a British-French actress and singer. She had a prolific career as an actress, mostly in French cinema.
A native of London, Birkin began her career as an actress, appearing in minor roles in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blowup (1966), and Kaleidoscope (1966). In 1968, she met Serge Gainsbourg while co-starring with him in Slogan, which marked the beginning of a years-long working and personal relationship.
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The duo released a debut album, Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg, in 1969, and Birkin appeared in the film Je t’aime moi non plus in 1976 under Gainsbourg’s direction. She mostly worked in France, where she had become a major star, and occasionally appeared in English-language films such as the Agatha Christie adaptations Death on the Nile (1978) and Evil Under the Sun (1982), as well as James Ivory’s A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries (1998).
Birkin lived mainly in France from the late 1960s onwards and acquired French citizenship.
She was the mother of photographer Kate Barry with her first husband John Barry; of actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg with Serge Gainsbourg; and of musician Lou Doillon with Jacques Doillon. She lent her name to the Hermès Birkin handbag.
After separating from Gainsbourg in 1980, Birkin continued to work both as an actress and a singer, appearing in various independent films and recording numerous solo albums. In 2016, she starred in the Academy Award-nominated short film La femme et le TGV, which she said would be her final film role.
Discography
Je t’aime… moi non plus
“Je t’aime… moi non plus” (French for ‘I love you… me neither’) is a 1967 song written by Serge Gainsbourg for Brigitte Bardot. In 1969, Gainsbourg recorded the best-known version as a duet with English actress Jane Birkin. Although this version reached number one in the UK—the first foreign-language song to do so—and number two in Ireland, it was banned in several countries due to its overtly sexual content.
In 1976, Gainsbourg directed Birkin in an erotic film of the same name.
The title was inspired by a Salvador Dalí comment: “Picasso is Spanish, me too. Picasso is a genius, me too. Picasso is a communist, me neither”. Gainsbourg described “Je t’aime” as an “anti-fuck” song about the desperation and impossibility of physical love. The lyrics are written as a dialogue between two lovers during sex. Phrases include:
"Je vais et je viens, entre tes reins" ("I go and I come, between your loins")
"Tu es la vague, moi l'île nue" ("You are the wave, me the naked island")
"L'amour physique est sans issue" ("Physical love is hopeless" [Gainsbourg sings 'sensationnel' in another version])“Je t’aime, moi non plus” is translated as “I love you – me not anymore” in the Pet Shop Boys’ version. The lyrics are sung, spoken and whispered over baroque pop-styled organ and guitar tracks in the key of C major, with a “languid, almost over-pretty, chocolate-box melody”.
Some deemed the song’s eroticism offensive. The lyrics are commonly thought to refer to the taboo of sex without love, and were delivered in a breathy, suggestive style. The Observer Monthly Music magazine later called “Je t’aime” “the pop equivalent of an Emmanuelle movie”.