Jane Birkin, forever the favorite Englishwoman of the French

Europe 1 / Photo credit: PASCAL LE SEGRETAIN / GETTY IMAGES EUROPE / Getty Images via AFP 14:31 p.m., July 16, 2023

Candor, audacity, twig size, delicious errors of accent: Jane Birkin, who died this Sunday, July 16 at the age of 76, will remain the favorite Englishwoman of the French, inseparable from Serge Gainsbourg of whom she was the muse and ambassador. "When I see the French listening to forty-year-old songs, I know they are part of their history. But they are also part of mine, "had summarized the artist at the publication in 2018 of his diary "Munkey diaries". Jane Birkin was found dead Sunday at her home in Paris.

Androgynous silhouette and pout of woman-child, embodiment of bohemian-chic, this icon has led a beautiful career as an actress and singer, also inspiring fashion designers. Long after the death of Serge Gainsbourg in 1991, and despite hardships such as the disappearance of his daughter Kate, in 2013, then a leukemia long to cure, she has always sung the work of the one with whom she formed a mythical couple in the 70s.

"I love you, neither do I"

Daughter of a great resistance fighter, David Birkin, who died on the day of Serge's funeral, and a famous actress, Judy Campbell, she was born on December 14, 1946 in London. She is noticed in the cinema in "Blow up" by Michelangelo Antonioni (Palme d'or 67 at Cannes), where her nudity is scandalous. She was less than 20 when she married the English composer John Barry, 13 years her senior. The couple has one daughter, Kate. He leaves her and she decides to try her luck in Paris. In 1968, on the set of Pierre Grimblat's film "Slogan", she met Gainsbourg.

Forever united in the collective imagination, they embody the unbridled creativity of an era. They have one daughter, Charlotte. Jane puts her voice in 1969 - "erotic year" - on the sulphurous "I love you, me neither". Brigitte Bardot had forbidden the release of the initial version of which she was the interpreter, at the time of her affair with "The man with the head of cabbage". It is a success. In 1971, "Histoire de Melody Nelson" was released, a concept album drawn by Gainsbourg around Jane, a commercial failure upon its release, which then became a classic.

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In 1980, she left "Gainsbarre", drowned in alcohol, sometimes violent. "She threw me and it was well done for my mouth, I who broke hers" he released in the Inrocks in 1987. She became the companion of filmmaker Jacques Doillon for 13 years and had a daughter with him, Lou.

Often confined to nunuche roles, she began her reconversion into auteur cinema. "Despite appearances, I have something infinitely sad in me, a terrible sense of guilt that has not left me since childhood. Jacques guessed that in me," she explained.

The Birkin bag

In the credits of some 70 films, she has been chosen by signatures such as Jacques Rivette, Bertrand Tavernier, Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Resnais, James Ivory or Agnès Varda. Without ever abandoning her humility: she claims to have an "instinct" of actress but not "talent". His relationship with Doillon did not prevent him from continuing to sing Gainsbourg. And he to continue writing for her. She recorded "Baby Alone in Babylon" (1983), which went gold.

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But it was not until she was 40 years old, in 1987, that she finally made her stage debut at the Bataclan in Paris, going on to the Casino de Paris and the Olympia. Female performer of the year at the Victoires de la musique 92 in France, (then awarded a Victoire d'honneur for her career in 2021), she is on all fronts: she plays in the theater, gives concerts in France and elsewhere, directs a first film "Oh! Sorry you were sleeping" (about a couple tearing each other apart, inspired by their relationship with Barry).

In 1999, she released her first album without Gainsbourg, with songs written for her by French singer-songwriters such as Françoise Hardy or Alain Souchon. In 2008, the first album of which she wrote all the texts, "Enfants d'hiver", was released. She will repeat in 2020 with the superb "Oh! Pardon tu dormais", a record conceived with the French composer and performer Etienne Daho.

Dragued by brands (there is even a Birkin bag at Hermès), the artist is also committed to humanitarian and ecological work. But she always came back to Gainsbourg, playing her pieces in 2018 with a classical orchestra: "Birkin Gainsbourg the symphonic". "Returning once again to Serge: I did not find better", confided the "little Baby Doll" who knew so well how to sublimate his texts.