An ode to Jane Birkin, singer, actress, style icon and French Favorite English lady

19/7/2023

Sunday, 16 July 2023, Paris.

Jane Birkin, the woman who gave name to the most famous and expensive handbag in the world, took her last breath at around 11:00 o’clock in the morning, in her apartment.

To her family, her public, to the generations of her time and ours, she had meant many things: mother, wife, lover, singer, actress, model, style icon, activist, but it is those “one” thing, small and big, of her and her life, will make us to remember her forever.

One song:

In 1968, at age 22, when Jane Birkin crossed the English Channel, she was looking for a job, but at the other end of the tunnel, she found Serge Gainsbourg: The French composer, musician, singer, the most famous French bad boy at the time.

Jane Birkin with Serge Gainsbourg

In 1969 the two sang together the Chanson 'Je t'aime… Moi Non Plus', which was written by Gainsbourg, originally for Brigitte Bardotte, his ex-girlfriend, who was planning to get married and did not want her recording of the song with Gainsbourg to be released.

Lyrics

Je t'aime, je t'aime
Oh oui, je t'aime
Moi non plus
Oh, mon amour
Comme la vague irrésolue
Je vais, je vais et je viens
Entre tes reins
Je vais et je viens
Entre tes reins
Et je me retiens

Je t'aime, je t'aime
Oh oui, je t'aime
Moi non plus
Oh, mon amour
Tu es la vague, moi l'île nue
Tu vas, tu vas et tu viens
Entre mes reins
Tu vas et tu viens
Entre mes reins
Et je te rejoins

Je t'aime, je t'aime
Oh oui, je t'aime
Moi non plus
Oh, mon amour
Comme la vague irrésolue
Je vais, je vais et je viens
Entre tes reins
Je vais et je viens
Entre tes reins
Et je me retiens
Tu vas, tu vas et tu viens
Entre mes reins
Tu vas et tu viens
Entre mes reins
Et je te rejoins

Je t'aime, je t'aime
Oh oui, je t'aime
Moi non plus
Oh, mon amour
L'amour physique est sans issue
Je vais, je vais et je viens
Entre tes reins
Je vais et je viens
Je me retiens
Non, maintenant
Viens

Jane Birkin with Serge Gainsbourg

The song, filled with sexually charged lyrics like "Je vais et je viens (I go and I come), Entre tes reins(Between your loin), Et je me retiens(And I hold back)", and sparkled with Jane Birkin’ orgasmic murmuring and moaning, scandalised the Vatican and was banned by the BBC as well as on radio in several countries. But it was a worldwide hit, reaching Number One in the UK Charts.

And it was Serge Gainsbourg's great gift for Jane Birkin, the best gift any man could give any woman: He made her famous, he made her his muse, he made her part of French culture. If Jane Birkin did nothing after that song, she would still be forever remembered in France as well around the world.

That song, changed her life.

One Movie:

As an actress, Jane Birkin had appeared in more than 60 films, on both ends of The Channel, working with great directors such as Michelangelo Antonioni and Roger Vadim, and working opposite great actors including Alain Delon, Romy Schineider, Maggie Smith, David Niven, Peter Ustinov, etc. But Jane Birkin never had a movie of her own, unlike Jacqueline Bisset (born 13 September, 1944) and Charlotte Rampling(born 5 February 1946, same year as Jane Birkin), another two English actresses who had travelled across the channel to become Parisian but worked all over Europe(Anecdotally, all three English actress had debuted their silver screen career in American director Richard Lester's movie The Knack.....and How to Get It with uncredited roles, Jane Birkin as Motorbike girl, Jacqueline Bisset as Sweater girl, and Charlotte Rampling as Water Skier).

The Night Porter(1974) is Charlotte Rampling's movie, in which she starred opposite Dirk Bogarde and delivered very poignant and powerful performance; The Man from Acapulco/Le Magnifique (1973) is Jacqueline Bisett's movie. It was a comic farce which starred Jean-Paul Belmondo as her hero, but Jacquline Bisset was the only heroine, both in Jean-Paul Belmondo's real life as a foreign student living in Paris and his fantasy as a Bond girl type of spy.

In Jane Birkin's case, she did star in three films, by two of her life partners: Je t'aime moi non plus (English title: I Love You, I Don't) by Serge Gainsbourg, La fille prodigue (1981) and La pirate (1984) by Jacques Doillon, and all three films were director's movies conveying their own sexual fantasy with very odd and weak storylines.

And she had never been the sole femal star of any film, La Piscine/The Swimming Pool (1969) is Romy Schneider's film, the film where Alain Delon intended to reunite with his first great love; Don Juan 1973 ou Si Don Juan était une femme...(English title: Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman)(1973) is Brigitte Bardotte's movie, created for her by her ex-husband French director Roger Vadim; La Bella Noiseuse(1991), the painfully long new wave film by another French director Jacques Rivette, is Emmanuelle Beart's movie, in which her body was presented as art in process; Even Evil under the Sun(1982) in which Jane Birkin is the main heroine/antagonist, it is every female star's movie, it is the movie of Maggie Smith as well as movie of Diana Rigg.

Jane Birkin in movie La Piscine/The Swimming Pool(1969) with Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, and Maurice Ronet

Jane Birkin in movie Don Juan 1973 Si Don Juan était une femme...with Brigitte Bardot

Jane Birkin in movie La Bella Noiseuse(1991) with Emmanuelle Beart

Jane Birkin in movie La Bella Noiseuse(1991) with David Bursztein, Emmanuelle Beart, Michel Piccoli, Gilles Arbona

Jane Birkin in movie Evil Under the Sun(1982) with Diana Rigg, Maggie Smith(back)

Jane Birkin in movie Evil Under the Sun(1982) with Peter Ustinov

Jane Birkin in movie Evil Under the Sun(1982)

In 2016, Jane Birkin was not young any more, not beautiful anymore, and she starred in La femme et le TGV (English title: The Railroad Lady). The movie told the story of the unlikely friendship between a lonely old woman living next to a TGV railroad line and a TGV conductor whose train passes by her home, In this very 84, Charring Cross Road kind of story, Jane Birkin gave a great performance, gentle, subtle, heartbreaking.

And that movie, which is so short, lasting only 30 minutes, and in which she barely had chance to speak, that's Jane Birkin's movie, she was the star, the only star. And that's her last movie.

La femme et le TGV (2016) starring Jane Birkin movie poster

La femme et le TGV movie poster

One Daughter, One Man:

Jane Birkin was a free soul, she lived as she had wanted like very few women had been able to do in her time.

At 18, she married John Barry, the English composer who was best known for his scores of the James Bond films and Out of Africa, she had a daughter with him, left him, and never married again.

Jane Birkin with her husband John Barry on their wedding day

Jane Birkin with her first daughter Kate Barry, which she had with her husband John Barry

Then she met Serge Gainsbourg, fell in love, had a daughter with him, and left him 13 years later, not because she fell out of love, but because he was too abusive, particularly when he drank. Jane Birkin was a brave woman before Me-Too became a movement.

Jane Birkin with her second daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg, which she had with her partner Serge Gainsbourg

Jane Birkin with Serge Gainsbourg, and their daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg

Jane Birkin with Serge Gainsbourg, her first daughter Kate Barry(second from left) and her second daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg

Both of her two ex-partners were composers and musicians, and for the third time, she chose someone more visual: The French director Jacques Doillon, director of movie Rodin(2017). She had a daughter with him, too, her name was Lou Doillon.(Interestingly Jacques Doillon's other three daughters with other three women all have names starting with "L": Lou Doillon (1982), Lola Doullon(1980), Lili Doillon(1995), Lina Doillon (2010).)

Jane Birkin with Jacques Doillon

Jane Birkin with her second second daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg and third daughter Lou Doillon

Jacques Doillon gave Jane Birkin a daughter who grew up to look like just her, but he could not give her what she really wanted: Serge Gainsbourg. Even though she left him long time ago, she never stopped loving him. When he died of heart attack in 1991, she mourned so hard that it broke her union with Jacques Doillon, which did not pass the 13 year threshold either, like the one she had with Serge Gainsbourg.

After their split, she mostly lived alone, having had one daughter with each of her men.

One dress:

In the fashion world, Jane Birkin was known for short T-shirt and very short mini skirt, Lolita blouse and tattered jeans, her messy bangs and wicker basket, but her most unforgettable outfit, is the Italian designer Emilio Pucchi crochet maxi dress she wore to go to The Artists Gala with Serge Gainsbourg in 1969.

When she married John Barry in London at 18, Jane Birkin also chose to wear a crochet dress, daring in view but girlish in design: scoop neck and flounced elbow sleeves, with pleated skirt. But now, just a few years later, Jane Birkin in Paris, in this new plunging crochet dress, transformed herself into what would become the Jane Birkin we know, giving us not only a glare of her lithe body, but also a glimpse of the next decade: In that transparent crochet dress, she is the epitome of the 70's flower child.

Jane Birkin wearing Emilio Pucchi gown, at the Artists Gala with Serge Gainsbourg, 5 April 1969

One basket, one bag

Before the Birkin Bag, there was the Birkin Basket. For more than a decade, Jane Birkin carried an oval shaped wicker basket with her everywhere, no matter what season she was in, what outfit she was wearing, making it her statement accessory.

Then the 80s arrived, from her chance encounter with French luxury label Hermès chief executive Jean-Louis Dumas on her flight from Paris to London, Jane Birkin inspired the future fashion: The Birkin Bag. In the next 40 years, The Birkin Bag became a phenomenon, a collectible, a status emblem.

But, The Bag is the legend of Jane Birkin, The Basket is the life of her: she carried it living, reading letters, browsing magazines, putting makeups, flânering; The Bag is the fantasy of her, The Basket is her fairytale: The Bag was carried by others who fantasized being her, The Basket was carried by her being herself: a young English girl being loved by one of the greatest French artists and France, she had The Basket, she had Serge Gainsbourg, she had everything.

The Basket was her love, her youth, her style, The Basket was her story; The Bag, it was the story of Hermès.

Jane Birkin carrying her omnipresent wicker basket

Jane Birkin carrying her omnipresent wicker basket, with Serge Gainsbourg

Jane Birkin carrying her omnipresent wicker basket

Jane Birkin carrying a Hermès Birkin Bag

'As you age, if you are healthy, then you shouldn't moan too much when people much younger have died tragically or are ill with things like leukaemia. I had that and was lucky to survive it.'

-- Jane Birkin

Life did to Jane Birkin as it will eventually do to all of us: making her get old and get ill, and then death took over, taking her away. But like French President Emmanuel Macron said in his homage to Jane Birkin: "...She bequeaths us tunes and images that will never leave us..."

French president Emmanuel Macron paid homage to Jane Birkin, the actress and style icon who died on 16 July 2023 at age of 76

Parce qu’elle incarnait la liberté, qu’elle chantait les plus beaux mots de notre langue, Jane Birkin était une icône française. Artiste complète, sa voix était aussi douce que ses engagements étaient ardents. Elle nous lègue des airs et des images qui ne nous quitteront pas.
(Because she embodied freedom, because she sang the most beautiful words of our language, Jane Birkin was a French icon. A complete artist, her voice was as sweet as her engagements were fiery. She bequeaths us tunes and images that will never leave us.

-Emmanuel Macron

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