Yearly Archives: 2014
Françoise 70 (15): Francoise au Pays-Bas
The television broadcast in which Françoise Hardy made her first appearance (well as far as we know) on Dutch television, has gained a mythical status.
Unfortunately not because of Françoise….
It was on October 12, 1963 when she received an Edison in Scheveningen. The television registration of this “Grand Gala du Disque” as it was called is still known in the minds of viewers (and those who only heard about it). That was mainly because of the presenter, writer and comedian Godfried Bomans. Not only did he look drunk (or at least tipsy), it was especially what he said to the award winners that made it legendary.
Especially the remark he made before the star of the evening Marlene Dietrich came on stage: “ Oh how I wish my wife had only one leg like that”. In the following days this became the talk of the town. People were talking about it, newspapers writing articles about what happened and even serious editorials comments appeared in the papers.
But what about Françoise?
I couldn’t find any references to whether she actually performed that night. Couldn’t find the complete show, and the papers don’t mention it, so I guess she only showed up to accept her award. I did find this picture in which she sings with the same dress, she wears in the show, but that was dated October 1964…
In his speech Bomans starts by staring at here saying: “my dad used to say that it is OK to stare”. Françoise seems to be at ease, and surprised but during the talk she seems pretty much a relaxed 19 year old girl.
After some chit chat about her name and the non pronunciation of the “H” in “Ardy, he gives her the Edison in the category youth, by saying: “And why, mademoiselle? Because you are an idol for the youth in France, but it is mainly because you had the courage not to imitate the Americans in your genre. You kept your original style; you write your own texts, compose your own melodies and you are a creative artist. That’s rare. It is for all that that I have the honour to present to you our sincere tribute”.
Here you can see the whole show (FH entering at 9:50)
Françoise is 70
Joyeux anniversaire, chère Françoise!
Françoise 70 (13): Hardy/ Dewaere
Françoise H. knew ’em all, and among her countless duet partners also was Patrick Dewaere, probably the most gifted French actor of his generation – see Blier’s Les Valseuses, Corneau’s Série Noire, or certainly Granier-Deferre’s Adieu Poulet. Still a legend today, though virtually unknown outside of France, Dewaere called it quits on July 16, 1982, after a phone call from his wife Elsa who had run away to Guadeloupe with his best friend Coluche; the tragi-cynical dénouement being that Dewaere shot himself with a calibre .22 rifle that he had received as a gift from Coluche not long before. When Hardy heard of his suicide, she doubtless recalled the moment when she had seen Dewaere – a nobody then – perform a decade ago at the famous Café de la Gare, where she had also asked him if he had a song for her. In 1971, they recorded T’es pas poli (You’re Not Polite). It’s not a very good song, but a charming one, and among all those interchangeable daughter-in-law schlager ditties in Hardy’s œuvre a different, peculiarly private and precious moment.
Françoise Hardy/ Patrick Dewaere – T’es pas poli
Raphaël – Chanson pour Patrick Dewaere
Emilie Simon, Coeur de Pirate
We interrupt our Françoise Hardy week for two announcements. There’s a new Emilie Simon clip, for a song that’s surprisingly good:
And Coeur de Pirate’s coveralbum is out, featuring songs by Amy Winehouse, Bon Iver and Bill Withers. Songs she recorded for the Canadian tv-series Trauma. No French songs, alas. But this version of Wayne Cochran’s ‘Last Kiss‘ (best known for the cover version by Pearl Jam) is tres, tres jolie:
And there’s a video:
Françoise 70 (12): Live and how to end it
Mark Sullivan unearthed a whole bunch of fantastic clips and knowledge about Françoise Hardy’s career. Here is his guestpost on the last live show:
‘By 1968 Françoise Hardy had tired of the endless circuit of live concerts and fashion shoots. She always says that she was a nervous and private individual and that she did not like public appearances. ( (This has not kept her off the TV over the years since, as she enjoys talking on radio and television, with the occasional single song thrown in – the internet is not short of examples up to the present day.)
She told John Andrew in a BBC Radio 4 programme broadcast in 2011, why she gave up. ‘It was work. Things I had to do. A chore.’ (‘Une corvée’ she said in the radio programme) The ‘Daily Mail’ article that accompanied the programme is here.
Françoise was not in the public eye during the May 68 ‘évenements’ (which only lasted a month). The French popular artistes disappeared from view; the student rebels who occupied the universities sang and played the music of protest, which was in English, not the yé-yé songs of the commercial world created by Daniel Filipacchi and ‘Salut les Copains’. Joan Baez and Bob Dylan were their reference, not Françoise, Sylvie Vartan and Johnny Halliday. (The way in which another yé-yé star, Sheila, benefitted from ‘Soixante-huit’ is covered on another Filles Sourires page here)
Françoise decided to cease touring with an orchestra at the end of 1968. What looks to be her last live appearance in Britain, and perhaps anywhere in other than in performing single songs, was on British TV on New Year’s Eve, 31 December 1968.
It is explained by the poster (Erikavburen) in the comments of this YT-clip that the progamme included several famous British bands of the time. The audience can be seen in the flower-power fashions of 1968. In the midst of this stands Françoise, in a glittering long dress that is her nod to the era (she also wore a long dress in 1969 for ‘Comment te dire adieu‘). She sings three songs, À quoi ça sert’, ‘Où va la chance’ (‘There but for fortune’) and ‘Suzanne’ (an excellent translation of Leonard Cohen’s classic by Graeme Allwright).
The perfection, the reticence and the nervousness are all here; see her farewell at the end. As so often, she seemed to come from the future, a vision of what we will (or should) be, not what we are.’
Françoise 70 (11): To the End/La comedie
Continuing the guestposts to commemorate Françoise Hardy’s 70th birthday, this Friday. Here’s fellow Dutch journalist Norbert Pek on his favourite Hardy-duet:
‘A few French lines on a Blur album: in 1994 it was quite a thing. More remarkable even then Jamaicans entering the Olympics with a bobsled. Exaggeration, you say? Let me take you back to the 1991-tour after the release of Blur’s mediocre debut album Leisure. At one point the band members all ended up with a black eye. Not because of some angry Oasis-fans (they didn’t exist at that time), but the band members themselves fought with each other out of pure frustration: they had the skills, but they didn’t have the noteworthy sound. The album, the tour: it was a failure. Now what to do? Singer Damon Albarn said he had a plan and the rest should trust him. He wrote a bunch of songs that were very, very British. The other members complained loudly, but played along. The album ‘Modern Life Is Rubbish’ (1993) was concepated. The songs were about life in England. Together with the selftitled Suede-debut, Modern Life…. was the starting point of a huge Britpop-revival.
Blur then started to work on on the album that would become a mega-success: Parklife. The songs were again about ordinary Engelish people living their ordinary lives. The most British Britpop was Blur’s golden ticket to success, their unique selling point, but this album featured, all of a sudden, some French lines. Cor blimey!
But it doesn’t sound like eating escargots in a hamburger joint. The French part fits like a glove in ‘To The End’. Because, like every Parklife-song, it’s very refined and well-crafted. And Damon Albarn had a stroke of genius when he decided that the song didn’t need some extra love, it needed l’amour.
Francoise Hardy is not singing the song on Parklife. The band asked Laetitia Sadier from the indieband Stereolab for the French part. It isn’t exactly singing. It’s more like answering in a most sensual way, while Albarn does all the vocal work. In 1995 the song was re-recorded: Francoise Hardy agreed to a duet. The English blokes knew it wasn’t just a simple re-take, so some big changes had to be made.
The result is impressive. The string section was changed, now it’s more theatrical. The main difference is the shift in lyrics. Albarn drops some of his own lines and lets Hardy sing her own French version. Thank Dieu, it’s not a simple translation, but the big words about love also work in French. Of course they do. But Francoise Hardy gives every word in ‘To The End (La Comedie)’ depth en sensuality. That’s what happens when you ask a living legend.
So Francoise: cheers. Now up to 80. I know you can make it to the end. Vraiment.
Françoise 70 (10): Voila
Lord Knows Best by Dirty Beaches is the best song to use a sample of Françoise’s ‘Voila’ (boy does she look gorgeous in the video), I think. But did you know Robbie Williams and Sharleen Spiteri (of Texas) used it too?
Françoise 70 (9): At the movies
As St. Paul and Dear Eyes mentioned before, Françoise’s songs work very well in movies.
My own favourite is ‘L’Amitié’ in Les Invasions Barbares, a very touching movie about the last days of dying man that won an Academy Award in 2003. ‘L’Amitié’ is played over the last scenes and the end credits:
‘Tous les garçons’ is the chanson that is used the most in movies. See this incomplete list on IMDB. Metroland is probably the film in which the song fits best:
Very recent is the use of four Hardy songs in François Ozon’s ‘Jeune et Jolie‘. Ozon also used a Hardy-song in ‘8 Femmes’. One of the songs in ‘Jeune et Jolie’ is ‘Je suis moi’:
And, in addition to the Wes Anderson/Moonrise Kingdom clips shared earlier, Le temps de l’amour is used also in the 2013 documentary Ne Me Quitte Pas, about two Belgian friends: