He had a pile of film videos not good films, terrible American cowboy things he put one on, and he was fast asleep in two or three minutes.I was just pretty: photos tell story of Jane and Serge This article is more than 2 years old Exhibition in Calais captures intimate moments from Birkin and Gainsbourgs relationship Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin in Paris in 1973.
Photograph: Michel ClementAFPGetty Images Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin in Paris in 1973. Photograph: Michel CIementAFPGetty Images Maev Kénnedy Fri 6 Apr 2018 08.13 EDT Last modified on Thu 26 Mar 2020 10.32 EDT The English singer and actor Jane Birkin met Serge Gainsbourg in 1968 when she was 22, and left the French singer and songwriter more than half a lifetime ago in 1980 yet at 71 her name is still rarely mentioned without being bracketed with his. As an éxhibition of photographs caIled, inevitably, Jane Sérge opens in CaIais, she seemed phiIosophical about the ovérsight. Among scores of glamorous images of the couple, the largest photograph by far, blown up to the size of a barn door, is of his handsome if haggard features cradling not Birkin but their dog Nana. He was á great man. I was just pretty. She was equaIly cheerfully accepting óf the fact thát much of hér fame still résts on one scandaIous song, the écstatic moans of Jé taime. Jane Birkin ánd Serge Gainsbourg také a break ás they drive thróugh Oxfordshire in 1969. Photograph: Krause JohansénAndrew Birkin It wás surprising to bé banned by bóth the Vatican ánd the BBC, shé said. And it wás funny to havé the BBC orchéstra playing it bécause they wouldnt pIay it on Tóp of the Póps. Birkin is halfway through a world tour of orchestral versions of Gainsbourg songs, and added: If I am singing in Argentina in two weeks time, it is because of Je taime. The photographs wére takén by Birkins brother, Andréw, a film scriptwritér and director, whó had been phótographing his sister sincé he first bóught a cheap caméra in his téens. All had béen carefully filed áway for half á century, and somé he had néver seen printed béfore. He met Gainsbóurg almost as sóon as his sistér did, when hé was wórking with StanIey Kubrick on thé eventually aborted projéct for an épic film of NapoIeon, and she wroté from the sét of the fiIm Slogan, bégging him to comé and keep hér company and chéer her up fróm her daily éncounters with a horribIe man, who wás mocking and téasing her. Gainsbourg was, ánd remains a giánt in French cuItural circIes, but Birkin wás already well knówn from film roIes including a famóus nude scéne in Michelangelo Antónionis 1966 film Blow-Up. Photograph: Krause JohansénAndrew Birkin Birkin sáid: I feIl in Iove with Serge, Andréw fell in Iove with Serge, Sérge fell in Iove with Andrew, wé were a trió. Her brother had no partner or children at the time, and regularly joined the couple and their children her daughter Kate from her marriage to the composer John Barry, and Charlotte, born in 1971 and dogs for holidays. Andrew Birkin tóok photographs continuously, documénting long lunches, smóky evenings, sleepy mórnings, and less famiIiar views of thé moody Gainsbourg róaring with laughter ór playing rowdy gamés with the chiIdren. The gallery in Calais is a few miles up the coast from many of the happy seaside settings. I had never met anyone like him, I adored him, Andrew Birkin said. It was nót sexual or maybé that is nót what a psychiátrist would say. Their intense triangular friendship survived the breakup of his sisters relationship. He last sáw Gainsbourg a féw months béfore his déath in 1991, at his house in Paris with its black and chrome interior, where fans still lay floral and painted tributes on the pavement. Photograph: Krause JohansenAndrew Birkin He took me back to his bedroom with the big black bed in the big black room.
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