LISTS… About Jane Birkin’s Entertaining Career in Three Alphabetical Beginnings

#1960s #1970s #1980s #AllPosts

 

As we revisit Jane Birkin’s movie and musical career, we travel to some foreign lands…

 

Remembering this actress in her Agatha Christie movie adaptations,  a British horror and as a controversial chanteuse.

 

With Serge Gainsbourg

Jane Birkin with Robert Hardy in Dark Places

 

Recently, I was sad to learn of the passing of the English born actress, Jane Birkin. Many remember this actress on screen or for her prolific singing career with and without her one time love interest, Serge Gainsbourg. This actress began her acting career in several roles in British films in the swinging sixties. In the mid-sixties, she was married to the composer, John Barry and they divorced in 1968.

In the late 1960s, her life changed after she had a successful audition and starred in a French movie, Slogan (1969). She stated this French Language speaking role was before she even began learning French. Her co-star in this film, Serge Gainsbourg became romantically involved with her and they also sang the title track together.

Around this time, Jane moved to France permanently, after she took a role in La Piscine (1969) which starred Alain Delon and Romy Schneider. Jane later gained dual British and French citizenship and then remained in France, starring mostly in French movies. She and Gainsbourg parted ways 12 years later.

Now let’s remember Jane in three of her English speaking roles in the movies, with a little about that shocking (for it’s time!) French language song.

 

A for a pair of Agatha Christie adaptations in Death on the Nile (1978) and Evil Under the Sun (1982)…

Jane Birkin on “Death on the Nile”, Film School Archive

Jane’s filmography includes two small, important roles in two much loved Agatha Christie movies. Both these murder mystery adaptations naturally come with fabulous all star casts, breathtaking locations, majestic scores, superb cinematography, and creative costume designs befitting the ambience of these period whodunnits.

These two Jane Birkin characters were two completely different kinds of roles, as anyone who has seen both films will agree. In the first of these movies, Death on the Nile (1978), Jane stars as the murder victim, rich honeymooner Linnet Ridgeway’s (Lois Chiles) French maid, Louise Bourget. Louise seems genuinely horrified after finding Linnet’s dead body, as she’s discovered with a shot to her head.

Linnet’s murder occurs on an Egyptian steamboat with a full ensemble of suspects with reasons to kill this rich woman. This cast includes a cast of somebodies including Angela Lansbury, Maggie Smith and George Kennedy who in their on screen roles come with motives galore.

After Linnet’s murder, Louise visits Linnet’s grieving husband, Simon (Simon McCorkindale)’s cabin. After discovering he’s also being visited by Poirot (Peter Ustinov), his wingman Colonel Race (David Niven), Louise talks hypothetically to the three men about how she would have reacted had she seen the murderer. But can she be trusted?

It’s revealed early on in the movie, that Linnet had promised Louise a dowry so she could leave to get married to an Egyptian. Linnet went back on her word after she found out this man was married, and would not marry Louise without any money. This fact Poirot believes could be a motive and he suggests his theory to the horrified maid that she killed her employer. However, it’s later discovered that Louise was possibly blackmailing the murderer after part of a money note is found in her hand… after she’s found dead. But who did it?

Another murder occurs in a foreign and glamorous location, where for plot convenience Poirot (Peter Ustinov, again) is holidaying… there is literally as the title says, Evil Under the Sun (1982). Jane Birkin now stars as a dowdy wife with an adulterous husband named Christine Redfern. Then it’s murder…

In this, the second of her roles in these whodunnits, Jane reunited with actress Maggie Smith her co-star from Death on the Nile. Smith like Jane also starred as a completely different character in these two standalone movies. Other cast members included Roddy McDowall, Diana Rigg and James Mason. And you can find more about these films and their trailers, by clicking on those blue links…

 

B for a British horror,  in Dark Places (1974)…

Dark Places 1973 Trailer, Mr Hyde’s Pop Culture Express

I recently watched Jane in a small role in the British horror film Dark Places (1974). Jane has a pivotal role in the plot and is seen in crucial flashbacks in this British horror with a fabulous all star cast. This film is set in the then present day 1970s but has flashbacks to an earlier time. The film plot has Edward Foster (Robert Hardy, minus a moustache) moving to a stately home. He was recently discharged from a mental health hospital.

He is the heir to this property and soon he is possessed by his ye olde relative Andrew Marr (not the BBC TV presenter, but Robert Hardy with a moustache). Foster’s sanity is questioned as begins to hear children’s giggling and odd voices and he believes he has visual hallucinations, as we see the earlier story explaining these voices.

These scenes tell of Andrew’s unhappy marriage and then his involvement in some murders most foul. Sadly this moustache, a crucial difference in appearance between Foster and Marr is not noticed by Foster, as those past and present lives collide with horrific consequences. This is as Foster’s mental health deteriorates and he seems possessed by Marr.

Meanwhile, Foster’s Doctor, Ian Mandeville (Christopher Lee) his sister Sarah (Joan Collins) and his solicitor (Herbert Lom) are scheming to find some money reportedly hidden in the house. Cue Joan Collins at her most vampy, flirty and manipulative to the hilt, as Foster is the object of her scheming. This particular set of skills is encouraged by her conniving brother, and their brother-sister banter is worth a watch. Meanwhile, Lom is at his most sinister.. mwhahahaha and Jane Birkin’s part in the proceedings literally takes us to some dark places…

 

C for a Controversial chanteuse,  Je T’aime … Moi Non Plus…

Je T’aime [Serge Gainsbourg et Jane Birkin] Original Music Video, Sam Hudson

Jane was one half of a duet in 1969, with Serge Gainsbourg as they recorded their then controversial music hit, Je T’aime…Moi Non Plus. This French language hit was full of heavy breathing and extremely sexually suggestive lyrics in a not very subtle double entendre kind of way.

This record was banned in several countries and was a number one hit in others. The lyrics are based on a conversation between two lovers who are making love, and it ends with the woman coming to a climax (with this word a double entendre). Jane spoke about the lyrics and their international impact in an interview with the Daily Telegraph HERE,

” I did [starts to laugh] and I got a bit carried away with the heavy breathing – so much so, in fact, that I was told to calm down, which meant that at one point I stopped breathing altogether. If you listen to the record now, you can still hear that little gap. It was banned immediately in Italy by the Pope, but Serge just called him “our greatest PR man.”

This song was believed to be the recording of this pair making love. However, Jane quashed this belief in an interview with the Guardian HERE saying,

“We made it, very boringly, in the studio in Marble Arch, both of us in sort of telephone cabins.”

This duet continued their joint musical career and with many of Jane’s songs were written by Gainsbourg. Jane also released several records independently after his passing.

Finally, I could easily add to this ABC with this actress with D for her role in a movie with (Alain) Delon. This would be with a review of one on my to review list, with Alain Delon her co-star in La Piscine. But do tune in soon, when I dive into this French film at the deep end, with a main feature review.