This French documentary from 1992 is an enjoyable overview of Brigitte Bardot’s forays into pop music. It features insightful interviews with Bardot, Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, as well as dozens of clips of Bardot’s appearances in TV shows, Scopitones and movies.

Needless to say (though I’m saying it), Bardot was not much of a singer. But her willingness to poke fun at her sex kitten image and serve as a comedic and visual foil to the gruff machismo of Gainsbourg makes it easy to forgive her limitations as a vocalist and appreciate her sassy self-awareness. She’s having fun and so are we. One gets the impression that Bardot was perfectly content with her status as a pop icon, leaving the existential Sturm und Drang to her chain-smoking, brooding co-star.
 

 
Yesterday when I posted about the great new France Gall DVD compilation put out by Mod Cinema, I was frustrated because I couldn’t find an embeddable clip of her notorious TV performance of “Les Sucettes.” (“The Lollipops”). Dante at Mod Cinema was kind enough to upload a higher quality version than any that were previously on-line so that I can share it with you here. It’s a doozy.

“Les Sucettes” was written for the virginal, 18-year-old Gall by that arch-lecher himself, Serge Gainsbourg, who wanted to market her as the ultimate French “Lolita” pop star. The song’s lyrics depict a young girl, Annie, who likes aniseed-flavored lollipops:

When the barley sugar
Flavored with anise
Sinks in Annie’s throat,
She is in heaven.

Annie’s aniseed. Think about that for a minute.

Christ, he’s good…

But here’s the thing: France Gall apparently had no idea that she was singing a song about oral sex and swallowing… seed.

When she performed the number on the television program seen in the clip below, she did so oblivious to what every other person present was thinking! It wasn’t until she was on tour in Tokyo that someone let the cat out of the bag. Gall was infuriated and greatly embarrassed by what she’d unwittingly taken part in. She felt betrayed by the adults around her and mocked like a naive fool. She refused to leave her home for weeks afterwards and ultimately stopped singing Gainsbourg’s songs that had made her so famous. For years afterwards her career suffered from her association with this scandal, even if “Les Sucettes” had been a big hit.

Tonight and tomorrw in Los Angeles at Cinefamily: Gainsbourg and His Girls

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Bongwater: The Power of Pussy
 

 
After the jump, a video story about “Les Sucettes” with a rare public comment from France Gall about the scandal.

 
Our friends at the mighty Mod Cinema have released another of their high quality 2 DVD-set anthologies of French singers. You may recall me posting about their fantastic Françoise Hardy DVD compilation a few months ago, now gorgeous France Gall gets the Mod Cinema treatment:

Although she’s best-known as the pretty, perky teenager who won the 1965 Eurovision Song Contest, French pop singer France Gall has had a much longer and more varied career than that. Although only a cult figure in most of the rest of the world, Gall is a major star and beloved figure in her native country. The psychedelic-era found Gall, under the guidance of Serge Gainsbourg, singing increasingly strange songs, like “Teenie Weenie Boppie” (a bizarre tune about a deadly LSD trip that somehow involves Mick Jagger) set to some of Gainsbourg’s most out-there arrangements. This DVD compiles rare footage of France Gall performing on French & German TV. 79 songs spanning 2-discs including “Teenie Weenie Boppie”, “Bebe requin”, “Les sucettes”, “Avant la bagarre”, “Toi que je veux”, “La vieille fille”, “Computer No.3”, “Baci, Baci, Baci”, “Dancing disco”, as wells as duets with Serge Gainsbourg, Jacques Dutronc, Michel Fugain, Jean-Claude Brialy, Claude Francois, and more!

It’s interesting to note that Walt Disney himself wanted France Gall for a musical adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, but the project was shelved with Uncle Walt’s death in 1966. Bernardo Bertolucci reportedly wanted her for the leading female role in his X-rated Last Tango in Paris opposite Marlon Brando. Can you imagine? No offense to the late Maria Schneider, but it’s too damned bad that didn’t happen!

Order a copy of The France Gall Collection (1964-1979) at Mod Cinema

Also, if you live in Los Angeles, there are still three more screenings of the new Gainsbourg and His Girls documentary at Cinefamily.

Below, France Gall sings Gainsbourg’s “Baci, Baci, Baci” on Musicolor in 1969.
 

 
You will have seen the beautiful Gillian Hills before - in A Clockwork Orange with Barbara Scott, sucking on an ice lolly, getting chatted-up by Malcom McDowall’s Alex in the Melodia Diskbootik; or perhaps in Blow-Up posing, wrestling and getting intimate with Jane Birkin and David Hemmings; or maybe looking like a teenage Brigitte Bardot doing the hippy-hippy-shake with Oliver Reed in Beat Girl.

Born in Egypt, raised in France, daughter of a writer and adventurer, grand-daughter of a poet, Gillian Hills was discovered by Roger Vadim, who thought he’d found his next Bardot, he gave her a small part in his film version of Les liaisons dangereuses, (1959) with Jeanne Moreau. It wa senough to attract interest and led to the teenage Hills starring, alongside Christopher Lee and Oliver Reed in Beat Girl (1960).

An auspicious start, which should have brought bigger and better, but Hills switched direction and signed a recording deal with Barclay Records, who released her first EP “Allo Brigitte..ne coupez pas!”. Over the next 5 years Hills concentrated on her singing career, which saw her headlining at the Olympia Theater with the legendary, Johnny Hallyday, and working with the brilliant Serge Gainsbourg.

Even with such A-list names, Hills jolly toe-tapping tunes had mixed success and she was eventually dropped by Barclay in 1965. Hills then signed for AZ Records and released a cover of The Zombies hit “Leave Me Be”, she also returned to films with appearances in Antonioni’s Blow-Up, the film of John Osborne’s Inadmissible Evidence, Three and the Kubrick classic A Clockwork Orange. Her acting career never took off, and after a final leading role in the Hammer horror Demons of the Mind, Hill retired and moved to New York, where she started her career as an artist and illustrator.

Now Gillian Hills lives in England (with apparently the manager of AC/DC), but thanks to the wonders of YouTube, we do have some of her hit Euro-songs and career highlights to look back on. Bliss.
 

Gillian Hills - “Zou Bisou bisou”
 

Gillian Hills - “Les jolis coeur”
 

Gillian Hills - “Mon coeur est prêt”
 
Bonus clips of Gillian Hills with Oliver Reed and Serge Gainsbourg, after the jump…
 

 
Boy Serge.

Serge Gainsbourg impersonates Boy George and gives French comedian/singer Patrick Sébastien a big smooch on the lips.

Gainsbourg may be the only person on the planet who can dress up like Boy George and not lose my respect.
 

 
In 1983 Serge Gainsbourg paid homage to Screaming Jay Hawkins on French TV by singing his praises and joining Mr. Hawkins in a down and dirty rendition of “Constipation Blues.”

The first couple minutes of the clip are a portion of the performance in a rarely seen high quality version followed by the performance in full in less than stellar looking form. But it all sounds good.

There’s not alot of artists who could shut Serge up but Screaming Jay does a pretty good job of it. The mad man of Paris may have met his match.
 

 
The holy trinity of French coolness: Serge Gainsbourg, Gerard Depardieu and Johnny Hallyday performing Gainsbourg’s “Harley Davidson” on French TV in the early 1980s.

Don’t tell anyone, but Serge is sitting on a BMW.

 
Apparently it took Swiss artist Jinks Kunst over three years to collect exactly 20,394 cigarette butts for his Serge Gainsbourg portrait. I betcha I could collect that amount in one week on the streets of Los Angeles. 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Jane Birkin in a Woolite commercial directed by Serge Gainsbourg
‘Melody’ a film starring Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin
Serge Gainsbourg sings in 1968 French gangster film ‘Le Pacha’
Eric Elmosnino as Serge Gainsbourg in ‘Gainsbourg’
Gainsbourg goes Moooog
Animation: Five Years of Graffiti Outside Serge Gainsbourg’s Home

(via Neatorama)

 
If Jane Birkin is sellin’, I’m buyin’.

Directed by Serge Gainsbourg in 1976. And, yes, the voice over is by Serge.

From now on when I think of hand washables, I’ll be in a Birkin state of mind. Wooleet? Mais oui.

 
Histoire de Melody Nelson, a 27 minute rock opera released on vinyl in 1971, is generally considered to be Serge Gainsbourg’s magnum opus, albeit one that is somewhat smaller in scale than most operatic masterpieces. It tells the tale of a wealthy middle-aged man who crosses paths with a younger woman, practically killing her when his car collides with her as she is bicycling, and his subsequent erotic obsession for the girl. At the time of its release, the music, lyrics and production of Histoire de Melody Nelson were considered innovative, adventurous and provocative and still to this day continue to enthrall listeners and influence countless musicians.

Dangerous Minds’ Richard Metzger has previously written about Histoire de Melody Nelson in his typically tantalizing fashion and you can read it here.

Melody, a film based on Histoire de Melody Nelson made for French TV, was directed by Jean Christophe Averty with Gainsbourg and his lover Jane Birkin in the lead roles. Averty’s visual style was acutely attuned to Gainsbourg’s surreal sensibilities and the fusion of film to music and lyrics works wonderfully.

Here is Melody in its entirety:

 
Serge Gainsbourg sings “Requiem Pour Un Con” from 1968 French film Le Pacha starring Jean Gabin.

What a sweet groove.

 
A tantalizingly brief clip of a collaboration between fashion giant Yves Saint-Laurent and composer/arranger/ key Serge Gainsbourg collaborator, Jean-Claude Vannier. A version of L’enfant la Mouche et les Allumettes from Vannier’s 1972 LP L’enfant Assassin des Mouches (pictured above) is performed as rather surreal accompaniment to the fashion goings-on from The Roland Petit Show in 1971. Wish it went on longer.
 

 
Bonus: A few songs from the wonderful aformentioned LP
 

Le Roi Des Mouches Et La Confiture De Rouse
 

Les Gardes Volent Au Secours Du Roi
 

L`enfant Au Royaume Des Mouches
 
With thanks to Justin Meldal-Johnsen !

 
Marianne Faithfull sings “Hier ou Demian” (“Yesterday or Tomorrow”) in a scene from the incredible 1967 French TV movie musical, Anna. Directed by Pierre Koralnik, and with songs written by Serge Gainsbourg (who also appears in the film). Anna starred Godard muse Anna Karina. The film is practically a pop art, musical paen to her beauty. Suits me fine!

I’ll be posting more about Anna in the future, but for now savor this short clip of a gorgeous young Marianne Faithful, who never looked better (and that’s saying a lot), singing a Gainsbourg-penned tune. What more could you ask for? The entire film? Well, you’re in luck, because you can purchase a copy of Anna (with English subtitles) from Mod Cinema.
 

 
Via PCL Linkdump

 
Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp (The Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger) cover Serge Gainsbourg’s “Comic Strip” in this video shot by a fan earlier this evening in Paris.

Sean and Charlotte seem to be channeling more of Serge and Jane than John and Yoko. Though Sean has certainly inherited his Dad’s guitar playing chops.
 

 
Via

 
Histoire de Melody Nelson is the great Serge Gainsbourg’s Lolita-esque funky psychedelic rock opera, an album many (raises hand) consider to be his masterpiece. It’s unclear whether or not the story-line is, or how much of it is, autobiographical: The middle-aged narrator (Gainsbourg, doing that “talk singing” thing he was so good at) tells the tale of hitting a bike-riding British teenager, Melody Nelson (a role sung by his muse, Jane Birkin), with his Rolls Royce and of their subsequent affair. In the end, Melody meets an untimely death in a plane crash and the despondent narrator sings of cargo cults and waiting for the return of the lost body of the “little animal” he was so in love with.

But not to white-wash it, the poetry, while lovely and sad (En France, Gainsbourg is considered the equal of Bob Dylan in the lyrics department) is still describing statutory rape, with characteristic Gainsbourgian provocation (In 1985, he recorded a song called “Lemon Incest” with his then 12-year-old daughter, Charlotte).

This album has an amazing sound. It’s pretty much still the cutting edge of what you can do with a rock group and an orchestra (no matter what The Moody Blues or Deep Purple think). The way Gainsbourg and arranger Jean-Claude Vannier use the strings here is simply uncanny, providing a big influence on Pulp. Air and Beck (who later famously worked with Charlotte Gainsbourg). This innovative 1971 album is easily in the same class as Anglo-American contemporaries like Bitches Brew or Sticky Fingers. (Pitchfork named it #21 in the top 100 albums of the 1970s).

But what is little known, even to fans of the album, is Melody, the half hour, shot on videotape visualization of the album created by Gainsbourg and director Jean-Christophe Averty, and starring himself and Jane Birkin. It was included in the career-spanning Gainsbourg DVD box set, Serge Gainsbourg: D’autres nouvelles des etoiles that came out in 2005. Now, of course, it’s turned up on YouTube. It’s quite something. First off, how do you go wrong with a soundtrack like this one? You don’t. And secondly, who was cooler and more elegantly wasted than Mister Serge Gainsbourg, hisself, circa 1971? (Keith Richards…? Maybe?). And my third point, Birkin was so freakishly beautiful then (and still is) that I could look at a photo of her for 30 minutes, so when she’s actually moving onscreen, it’s just a bonus. Trust me, this one is worth your time, rock snobs…

Here is the beginning of Melody. You can find the entire thing, in very good quality, on Youtube.