Life's a picnic !: Great Europeans

Showing posts with label Great Europeans. Show all posts

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Saturday, December 18, 2010

This attractive German actress was one of the most well known women of her generation. I chose this picture because it shocked me. When I saw this photo for the first time, I wondered what had happened to her. At first she appears to be dreaming but if you look closer she is in fact worried about something.

First, there is no colour. It’s just a picture in black and white. The dramatic side of this image is stressed by the nuances of the photo. The background is empty and white. I guess she is in front of a wall with a window but we can’t see what room it is, maybe the kitchen or the living room.

Then look at Romy. When I saw her, I couldn’t believe it was her. I couldn’t recognize her. She is so attractive, normally.

Her glance is cold, hard and empty. Her hair is pulled back, which lets us see her wrinkled forehead. She isn’t smiling. She doesn’t even look at the camera. Her face and even her soul seem to be broken.

Her glance seems to say: “What do you expect of me? Am I not pretty enough? Will you cheat on me like the others have? I will never trust you, I’m too afraid of you. Leave me alone, please...”

I remember some photos of her. She was always smiling and, as she was afraid of getting old, she made herself appear young and attractive. It’s not really the case in this photo. I get the impression that someone took the picture without her consent.

Her head rests on the palm of her hand and the right side of her head is hidden in the shadow of her hand. She is holding a lighted cigarette. Her hand is wrinkled like her forehead.

In this photo, Romy is not very old. She’s only in her early forties. However, she looks old and psychologically worn out, desperate, completely lost.

This photo was taken the year before her death. She was depressed. She didn’t have a very good life. Each time that she was happy, something happened and she fell back into depression again: her past in Germany, her mother who flirted with Nazism, her separation with Alain Delon, the suicide of her husband, the death of her son at the age of fifteen...

Behind her status as a star and her beauty, she was depressed all of her life and fell into alcoholism and drugs. Now we can understand why this woman seems so cold and distant.

Article by Marylou Hebrard

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Happy birthday, Jane!

Why is today an important day? Because, as we all know, the 14th of December is the birthday of Jane Birkin!

Jane Mallory Birkin was born in 1946. She is an English actress and singer who lives in France. She is best known for her collaboration with her husband Serge Gainsbourg; he wrote several of her albums. Moreover, they sang together in several famous songs such as “Je t’aime, moi non plus…”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Fa4lOQfbA

Berkin and Gainsbourg had a daughter in 1971: Charlotte Gainsbourg, who is an actress and a singer, just like her mother.

Jane Berkin is important for me because she is one of the best, even the best, (French) singer-songwriters. She has left her mark on the music world because she was the muse of Gainsbourg, a genius, with a modern, daring, and innovative touch. She allowed him to compose very poetic and very sensual texts because one of the main sources of inspiration of the artist was women and Jane Birkin was young and astonishingly beautiful. But the madness of Gainsbourg definitely stopped the love which she had for him. The couple divorced after several quarrels. They remain, though, immense artists…

Click on this link to listen to the song which brought reggae to France:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKV5ju2ZPKI

Thank goodness for such artists, and happy birthday Jane!

Article by Alexandre Picard

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

On Saturday 11th December, you can go shopping AND Chopin!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCSEwfqs-VM

Six heures autour de Chopin!

Trois pianistes et une récitante pour fêter les deux cent ans de la naissance de Frédéric Chopin!

Les pianistes : Luo-Chin Le Bot, Gabriella Torma, Hakim Bentchouala

La récitante : Chantal Malebert

Six heures de concert au Théâtre d'Aurillac pour lesquelles vous pouvez choisir vos rendez-vous:

17h15 - Luo-Chin Le Bot et Chantal Malebert «Correspondances de Musset»
18h15 - Gabriella Torma «Polonaises et études»
19h15 - Hakim Bentchouala «24 Préludes»
20h15 - Gabriella Torma «Quatre ballades et fantaisies»
21h15 - Luo-Chin Le Bot et Chantal Malebert «Correspondances de Musset»
22h15 - Hakim Bentchouala «Mazurkas, scherzos et sonates»