Serge Gainsbourg -- 'Vie Héroïque'

My love for Serge Gainsbourg has been pretty well-documented on the internet so far; since 2006 it's pretty much been SergeSergeSerge all over, but I can't help but love and admire the man. I'd been waiting for Vie Héroïque since May 2008, and I was finally able to catch it this morning and it did not disappoint in the slightest.


Gainsbourg was a very complex figure and writer-director Joann Sfar did a great job of trying to bring all those nuances to the screen. Originally a comic book writer, Joann Sfar did quite an amazing job bringing all sorts of different media to the screen. Puppets, cartoons, they all help bring Gainsbourg's character to life in a way that few biopics do.


With all of his famous relationships with gorgeous women, Vie Héroïque could easily have turned into a complete raunchfest, but luckily it doesn't (Serge was rather "pudique", after all). Brigitte, Jane and Bambou are put on little pedestals, just like Serge put them on pedestals. As far as I could tell, the whole film was very much in Serge's spirit; the puppets and cartoons would have been misplaced in any other biopic, but since Gainsbourg often talked of himself (or parts of his personality) in third person (Gainsbarre was his mischievous alter ego), it only helps to accentuate his character.




Sfar did a good job on the script, going from Gainsbourg just before the Second World War started to Gainsbourg at the end of the 1980s, handling all the major events, but I found it contained a few too many "warnings"; whenever something big was going to happen (writing for France Gall, writing 'Je T'Aime..', meeting Jane) the scene before holds a few too many hints as to what's going to happen. Maybe it's less annoying when you're not a complete nut and haven't read all kinds of biographies on him, though.


Eric Elmosnino is otherworldly as Serge; give that man a César already! To play someone as a stumbling 20-something, to an artist at the top of his game, to a man completely ravaged by alcohol and cigarettes without it ever becoming a caricature, it's amazing. When you watch interviews with Gainsbourg, you immediately notice his little physical quirks; the way he holds his head and the particular gestures he makes with his hands -- Elmosnino incorporates it all into his performance without it coming off unnatural.

My Favourite Records of the Past Decade

035. The Used, The Used (2002) favourite track: 'Buried Myself Alive'
034. Tegan and Sara, If It Was You (2003) favourite track: 'Living Room'
033. The Last Shadow Puppets, The Age Of the Understatement (2008) favourite track: 'The Time Has Come Again'
032. Fischerspooner, Oddyssey (2005) favourite track: 'Never Win'
031. Kings of Convenience, Riot on an Empty Street (2004) favourite track: 'Stay Out of Trouble'


030. Klaxons, Myths of the Near Future (2007) favourite track: 'Totem on the Timeline'
029. Fionn Regan, The End of History (2006) favourite track: 'Put a Penny in the Slot'
028. AFI, Sing the Sorrow (2003) favourite track: 'Silver and Cold'
027. the Libertines, the Libertines (2003) favourite track: 'The Man Who Would Be King'
026. the Kills, No Wow (2003) favourite track: 'Love is a Deserter'


025. Euros Childs, Chops (2006) favourite track: 'Costa Rita'
024. Gossip, Music For Men (2009) favourite track: 'Four Letter Word'
023. Private, My Secret Lover (2007) favourite track: 'Killer on the Dancefloor'
022. McAlmont & Butler, Bring it Back (2002) favourite track: 'Falling'
021. Bat for Lashes, Fur and Gold (2006) favourite track: 'Trophy'


020. Le Le, Flage (2008) favourite track: 'International Pants'
019. Superheroes, Superheroes (2003) favourite track: 'Someone's Watching Me'
018. Florence the Machine, Lungs (2009) favourite track: 'Howl'
017. Adam Green, Gemstones (2005) favourite track: 'Who's Your Boyfriend'
016. the Horrors, Strange House (2007) favourite track: 'Excellent Choice'


015. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, B.R.M.C. (2002) favourite track: 'Red Eyes and Tears'
014. the Arcade Fire, Funeral (2004) favourite track: 'Wake Up'
013. Patrick Wolf, Wind in the Wires (2005) favourite track: 'the Railway House'
012. Mystery Jets, Twenty One (2008) favourite track: 'Behind the Bunhouse'
011. Duffy, Rockferry (2007) favourite track: 'Rockferry'


010. Hope of the States, Left (2006)
I've always described this record as an emotional assault, and that's exactly what it is. Few bands have had to go through so much trauma and still went on. Their guitarist killed himself just months before their debut came out and this follow-up sounds like it's dealing with the aftermath of it. A few years after it happened the anger, regret, sadness and love just hit you 'round the ears. To think they went through so much and came out the other end with such a gorgeous record is amazing. They largely went under the radar but this is a great accomplishment, all the songs are so nuanced and in a strange way it's reassuring they broke up months after they released it. It's a heavy burden to carry, a friend's suicide; listen to this record and be thankful the Hope of the States carried on.
favourite track: 'Industry'


009. dEUS, Pocket Revolution (2005)
'Nothing Really Ends' with that line about Martin Sheen alone makes this album worthwhile, I never realised songs like that existed, little moments captured in time.
favourite track: 'Nothing Really Ends'


008. Interpol, Antics (2004)
For some reason (probably because I'm a snob and don't like sharing my favourite music with millions of others) I tried resisting Interpol for a long, long time. Turn On the Bright Lights didn't do much for me on the first couple of listens and I didn't really get what the fuss was about, but 'Evil' really worked itself into my head and then when I heard 'Take You On A Cruise' at 3.30 in the morning, everything just fell into place. This album was just a perfect collection of songs for that space in time, and I've yet to give any of their other albums a listen.
favourite track: 'Take You on a Cruise'


007. Delays, You See Colours (2006)
No other album manages to make me so deliriously happy as this one; 'Cavalry' and 'Winter's Memory of Summer' make my heart feel like it's going to swell out of my chest. When I saw the Delays open for the Veils in 2004, I immediately took to them; Greg Gilbert's beautiful sunny voice and his brother's quite sinister-sounding synthesizers -- 'Lost In A Melody' (a non-album single) steam-rollered right over you and You See Colours is such a great mix of both that sweetness and that.. sleaziness. An immense pop album.
favourite track: 'Cavalry'


006. Kasabian, Kasabian (2004)
I haven't gotten as much slack for liking Kasabian since I was a 12-year-old obsessed with Kula Shaker. Now, before you say I deserve that slack, let me just explain why I think Kasabian are the best band still together right now. They may come off as a bunch of football hooligans, but they dedicate videos to Jan Pallach, end another one with a black screen saying "dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" and all the while manage to look and sound as cool as the Rolling Stones probably did back in the day. This debut was a killer, could have done without the blatant psychedelics, but still. Tom Meighan's got an amazing voice, a lot of soul for a white boy.
favourite track: 'U Boat'


005. the Veils, the Runaway Found (2004)
The Veils first came to my attention because my darling Bernard Butler produced some tracks for them, and I proceeded to fall head over heels for them. This album was a godsend when I was 17 and a high-school drop-out. This album, which sounds so displaced, gave me back my optimism which I so badly needed. Just the idea of this skinny boy from New Zealand going out into the world to form a band in London and record this album and having it all nearly go down the drain, but then having it saved and having it sound so magically good.. damn. I really miss that feeling on the other Veils records, which is why I prefer to just stick to this album.
favourite track: 'The Leavers' Dance'


004. Foals, Antidotes (2008)
'Math rock' is quite possibly the shittest "genre" the music press has come up with, but as you listen to this album your head sort of fills with sharp angles and geometric shapes. It sounds sort of cold, distanced, because of it, but maybe because of that, it hits you a lot harder at the same time.
favourite track: 'Big Big Love (Fig. 2)'


003. the Dandy Warhols, Thirteen Tales from Ubran Bohemia (2000)
After 2003's Welcome to the Monkeyhouse they kind of lost their sense of coolness, but this album, from start to finish, is just so much fun. This album, more than any other Dandy record, sounds like a group of friends having fun and writing fantastic tunes. That sense of fun, and joy, just seeps from every song. Effortless cool.
favourite track: 'Get Off'


002. Dan Le Sac VS Scroobius Pip, Angles (2008)
Thinking of indie snob favourite 'Thou Shalt Always Kill', I would never have thought Dan Le Sac and Scroobius Pip would deliver such a stunning album. With its killer, hilarious lyrics 'Thou Shalt Always Kill' kind of seemed like the perfect one-hit wonder, but instead we got this amazing album with great beats and lyrics on true love, self-mutilation and suicide, modern-day hip hop and Tommy Cooper. Can't wait for their next record, which is coming out some time this year.
favourite track: 'Magician's Assistant'


001. The Cooper Temple Clause, See This Through And Leave (2002)
Of course, it's quite easy (and tempting) to describe these albums using the biggest clichés imaginable, but I tried not to. I can't with See This Through and Leave, though, because this album changed my universe. I came into contact with so many great people through the Coopers, and they (the music and the people I met) saw me through some tough times. The Coopers have been playing in the background since I was 15-year-old and songs like 'Been Training Dogs' gave me the incentive to grow some proverbial balls.
favourite track: 'Did You Miss Me?'

a post for Pierre

One of the things my bestest work pal Peter and I first bonded over, was Ray Conniff. A couple of years ago my parents brought home Ray's 'World of Hits'-album from a Salvation Army store in Massachusetts. I think they tried to subtly imply that I have very little taste, because look at the cover:


How wrong they were! That album soon grew to become of my favourites, and 'Try To Remember' and 'I Will Wait For You' are among the most played tracks on my iPod.

Any man that can make the theme to Les Parapluies de Cherbourg sound like the jingle of an ice cream truck is okay in my book, and Peter once told me about this little controversy:


Ray Conniff and political protest, whodathunkit?

Tom and Serge

So, Tom Barman. I think my infatuation with the man has been pretty well-documented up until this point, and those who know me will know that I can't mention his name without blushing a bright shade of red, but that's kind of beside the point.

It looks like someone thought it would be a good idea to get a whole load of Belgian and Dutch artists to cover Serge Gainsbourg for a record called Gainsnord.. If it turns out anything like the Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited-record, I'm not sure it's such a good idea but, hey, let's give it the benifit of the doubt. And one thing's for sure: Tom Barman + Serge Gainsbourg = match made in heaven. Ooh.

20081216_082, originally uploaded by stagedoorjohnny.

Literal version

My new favourite thing on YouTube: endless 'literal versions' of all of our favourite 80s videos. Apparently the trend was set by collegehumor.com with this genius version of A-ha's 'Take Me On' (you'll have to bear through the annoying internet-TV-personality):



The first one I ever saw, a couple months ago, was this literal version of the Rick roll:



And, since there's not enough Bonnie Tyler on this blog:



And finally, a Billy Idol bonus, just cos the vocals are pretty spot-on..

Happy Birthday, Max von Sydow

A great scene from one of the best-ever spy thrillers (contains spoilers, duh), Three Days of the Condor, to celebrate the 80th birthday of one of the scariest (and exquisitely European) men on the planet -- Max von Sydow. You give me nightmares, Max, but still, any excuse to post some Scott Walker-related videos, eh? Here's to many more.

Knotted, polka-dotted, twisted, beaded, braided

Once again turning this blog into one about celebrity death, one thing that made sit up and notice this week was the death of Tom O'Horgan, the director of the original Broadway run of the musical 'Hair'.

Sometimes I jokingly say my life is like an episode of 'the Simpsons', with too many pop culture references packed in, but I'm afraid that's true in part. When I look back on years past, one of my ways of telling one year from another, is to think of what bands or films I liked during that time.


One of my first popular culture obsessions was Hair, the film. I was a bit of a musical-nut when I was little -- I have no idea why. It probably started with watching the Sound of Music and West Side Story on telly with my Mum, and grew from there. I loved the music from Singin' in the Rain (I still hum 'Good Morning' when I'm feeling particularly perky in the morning). This love for musicals, combined with the fact that my oldest brother played a lot of sixties stuff at home, led me to watch Hair as a eight or nine-year-old.

I feel a bit embarrassed to admit this now, but when I was smaller, all I wanted to be was a hippie. I loved the music and the clothes and the fun they all seemed to have. I think I must have rented Hair numerous times, I absolutely loved it. I had the soundtrack of the musical (with Diane Keaton singing!) and pretty much cried every time 'The Flesh Failures/Let the Sun Shine In' came on, thinking of poor Berger.


Reading up on Wikipedia while watching the movie last night, it struck me that the writers of the musical didn't approve of the film, saying that Milos Forman completely missed the plot. I've never been to see the musical (or any musical, period) but apparently there's a lot of differences between the film and musical; obviously I can't judge properly, but this scene alone makes it unfair to dismiss the film like James Rado and Gerome Ragni did:


A bit heavy on the symbolism, eh? It's always struck me as really odd that 'Let the Sun Shine In' is used for commercials and crap techno remixes these days; I always associate it with the ending of the film, where 'Let the Sun Shine In' is prefaced by 'The Flesh Failures', one of the most sucker-punchiest of musical songs:


I didn't realise until Baz Luhrman's Romeo + Juliet came out that the song uses Romeo's farewell speech as a backing choir. The Vietnam war took place long before I was born, but somehow, just because of 'The Flesh Failures', those marching soldiers (and the 'Wonder Years' television series) have always made that war feel the closest to home. It's strange what power film, television and music have in that way.


Anyways, rest assured, my dreams of becoming a hippie are long gone; these days when I watch Woodstock, I can only notice the bandwagon-y nature of the whole subculture and the role drugs played in it all. Sitting in a field while having drugged-out, partially-clad people crowd surf all over you (like in Gimme Shelter)? No thanks, I think I'll pass.


Finally, two more of my favourite songs:
· Black Boys / White Boys.
· Cheryl Barnes' beautiful rendition of Easy to Be Hard.

The Edge Of Love (2008, John Maybury)

Well, I certainly didn't mean to disappear from this blog for over a month. Sorry about that, I started a new job and rather got carried away in all the excitement, heh.

--

Last week, rather unexpectedly, I read about Richey James Edwards being officially declared dead after having been missing for nearly fourteen years. I should say the timing was unexpected, because ever since becoming a fan of the Manic Street Preachers in 1999, I didn't think there was much of a chance of Richey still being alive.


While it wasn't surprising, it did still make me feel rather uncomfortable. Whenever I think about the Manics, I think about that terrible quote from Nick Hornby's 'High Fidelity': "what came first, the music or the misery?". Let's not dwell on the misery-bit, there, but it's a strange thing to think about my personality would have been had I not become a fan of the Manics. They influenced me very much when I was a 12-year-old, and I'm happy that they did because without them, I wouldn't have known about Abraham Zapruder, S.E. Hinton and Harold Pinter when I did.

Coming from Wales, the Manic Street Preachers also introduced me to a whole range of Welsh literary heroes I'd never heard about, one of them being Dylan Thomas, most famous for writing the play for voices, 'Under Milk Wood'.


It was strange to hear about Richey James when I did, because the weekend before I had just seen The Edge of Love, a Dylan Thomas-biopic of sorts that focuses on his life during and shortly after the Second World War, when he lived with his wife, his childhood sweetheart and her soldier husband in Wales. Starring Matthew Rhys as Thomas, Sienna Miller and Keira Knightley fight for his affections as Caitlin MacNamara and Vera Phillips, Thomas' real-life wife and ex-lover.


It's very tempting to compare The Edge of Love to Atonement, since both are very British films, set in the 1940s and star Keira Knightley, but that would be an unfair comparison. While I did very much enjoy Atonement, The Edge of Love is more human and it's about the relationship between four people instead of Atonement's good versus evil; sensationalism aside, the viewer gets more emotionally involved with The Edge of Love. This film is about flawed people instead of angelic Robbie Turner, and it stays with you because of the great performances and beautiful locations.

Keira Knightley already won me over with her performance in Bend It Like Beckham and Atonement, but as the opening credit rolled, I felt unsure about Sienna Miller. To be honest, I always considered Sienna Miller to be one of those actresses who become famous by pretty much playing themselves in a few films that are released in the same year, launching them to flavour-of-the-month-fame. Steve Buscemi's take on Theo van Gogh's Interview already garnered Sienna Miller good reviews, but since I disliked the original, I found the film unbearable watch.

Not to give away too much, Miller gives an amazing performance, out-shining everyone else on the screen. Those last moments between Catty and Vera are just heart-wrenching; a great moment in 2008 cinema.