Abstract
This chapter explores performances of crystal-songs, showing how they function as critical interventions. These are organised into songs to which characters dance, sing along to, sing entirely, sing while playing the piano, or a combination of the above, such as the song that a character both sings and dances to. The films covered are: De rouille et d’os, Ni le ciel ni la terre, La Vie en grand, Plan de table, Situation amoureuse: c’est compliqué, Polisse, Samba, Un début prometteur, Les Émotifs anonymes, Une nouvelle amie, Un Français, La Volante, Un bonheur n’arrive jamais seul, Les Bêtises, Par accident, Bande de filles.
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Notes
- 1.
“Carries a verbal message and the body concentrates on the emission, the column of air that comes out of the hole formed by the mouth.”
- 2.
“Something more like a fable, which allows you not to take things too seriously…I didn’t want to be completely in a naturalist and social cinema…which occasionally becomes too moralising.”
- 3.
“A naturalist space, interior and social, and on the other hand, something a bit more fanciful, happy and imaginary.”
- 4.
See http://Lescharts.com at http://lescharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Keedz&titel=Stand+On+The+Word&cat=s, accessed 14 May 2016.
- 5.
“I didn’t know that people would take me seriously.”
- 6.
“I don’t know even know what my name is any more. I’m afraid I’ll forget who I am one day/If you forget one day, all you need to do is shout your Christian name, so that people will think you want to dance.”
- 7.
“Like the dance.”
- 8.
“What’s your (Christian) name again?/Me, my name?”
- 9.
“My Men.”
- 10.
“They follow me step by step.”
- 11.
“When she asks herself why she feels so afraid when she is at the beginning of a great adventure.”
- 12.
“Dark Eyes.”
- 13.
“Even if I don’t know how our story will go/My passion for your dark eyes have made me sing this song.”
- 14.
“Benoît sings ‘Dark Eyes’ and I thought it was moving. It wasn’t easy for him. What the character he plays does is quite typical for people who are shy. He’s afraid of everything, aghast at the thought that he’ll soon be alone with the woman he loves, so all of a sudden he grabs the microphone and sings a song to her right there in the restaurant. The way Benoît sang the song, the vibes that come from him at that moment, are one of the highlights of the film for me. I was really moved.”
- 15.
“A colour palette, red and green, and a costume design that recall the 1950s but with a contemporary feel.”
- 16.
“I wanted a really simple song. The lyrics were perfect, slightly out of phase with the story. When I met transvestites to perform the song, they were very surprised by this choice. This song is rarely used in trans circles, they prefer to play with irony.”
- 17.
“At last I feel like a woman, a woman, a woman when I’m with you.”
- 18.
“When at last I became a woman.”
- 19.
“She dressed very conventionally, but she rediscovers the pleasure in dressing thanks to this transvestite man…In the end, Claire accepts her femininity.”
- 20.
“Boys are born in cabbages and girls in flowers. Well I was born in a cauliflower,” literally a “cabbage-flower.”
- 21.
La volante is an archaic term for a temp, the more modern word being intérimaire.
- 22.
The lyrics of the ironically political original are very different to what we hear Marie-France sing.
- 23.
“The earth sleeps at sundown, close your eyes and sleep my child/The moon’s silver rays are on your bed, and everything dies down, sleep my child/Sleep in peace by your mother, dream blue dreams, and when day breaks you will wake up happy.”
- 24.
“We wanted to minimise Marie-France’s monstrous side, as you can see when she plays the lullaby at the piano.”
- 25.
“The scene would only work if I managed to get Sophie and Gad to dance without it being fabricated. I wanted to capture them on film free and spontaneous.”
- 26.
“You’ve found yourself there.”
- 27.
“Stupid Things.”
- 28.
“I do stupid things when you’re not there, you shouldn’t have broken my heart.”
- 29.
Originally by Gloria Gaynor (1978), “I Will Survive” became an anthem in the Football World Cup in 1998 won by the French team.
- 30.
“We liked the idea that François sings a song to say what he has to say to his mother, especially because his biological father, whom he does not know, is a singer. This unconscious link appealed to us./The whole film is built around this scene: we arrive at the height of dramatic intensity, the point where the various trajectories come together. The moment of truth when masks fall both literally and figuratively. When we wrote the film we didn’t really know what song would work. I first thought of ‘I Will Survive’, whose lyrics worked quite well. But it was in English and it was really too World Cup 1998! A friend suggested ‘Les Bêtises’, which felt so right to us that we used it as the title of the film: goofy behaviour, like our hero throughout the film.”
- 31.
Camille Fontaine mentions several US thrillers as influences in the press-kit, such as The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (1991), Single White Female (1992), as well as Hitchcock’s Suspicion (1941) (Fontaine 2015, [5]).
- 32.
“It Was Wrong of Me.”
- 33.
“It was wrong of me to play-act…I am alone…It was wrong of me to play to the gallery/To act the tough guy/Who doesn’t need anyone.”
- 34.
“It’s not for nothing that Hafsia comes from Abdellatif Kechiche [La Graine et le mulet, 2007] and Émilie from the Dardenne brothers [Rosetta, 1999]. They are full of humanity. These girls exist straightaway; you believe in them.”
- 35.
“Oppressed by her family setting, dead-end school prospects and the boys law in the neighborhood, Marieme starts a new life after meeting a group of 3 free-spirited girls. She changes her name, her dress code, and quits school to be accepted in the gang, hoping that this will be a way to freedom” (Pyramide 2014b, 3).
- 36.
“I do I what I want.”
- 37.
Data from http://Lescharts.com, http://www.lescharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Rihanna&titel=Diamonds&cat=s, accessed 16 June 2016.
- 38.
“It’s a scene I gave a lot of thought to and which was there from the start of the script with the idea of using Rihanna’s song, in the hope of getting the rights…I imagined the sequence as absolutely iconic…I wanted it to a cult sequence, and so I did everything to make it exceptional. I wanted the whole of the song to be heard…and that’s already a strong statement. And then Rihanna because of her iconic status, and then for the song itself…it’s both a song of the present, very much so in that it was a huge hit, and then it’s also an instant classic.”
References
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Chion, Michel. 1994. Le Son au cinema. Paris: Cahiers du cinéma.
Dyer, Richard. 2012. In The Space of a Song: The Uses of Song in Film. London: Routledge.
Fontaine, Camille. 2015. “Entretien avec Camille Fontaine.” Par accident [press-kit], [3–7]. Paris: Ad Vitam.
Huth, James. 2012. “Interview: James Huth.” Un bonheur n’arrive jamais seul [press-kit], 17–19. Paris: Pathé.
McNeill, Isabelle. Forthcoming. “‘Shine Bright Like a Diamond’: Music, Performance and Digitextuality in Céline Sciamma’s Bande de filles (2014).”
Ozon, François. 2014. “Entretien avec François Ozon.” Une Nouvelle Amie [press-kit], 5–12. Paris: Mars Films.
Pathé. 2012. Un bonheur n’arrive jamais seul [press-kit]. Paris: Pathé.
Philippon, Rose and Alice Philippon. 2015. “Entretien avec Rose et Alice Philippon.” Les Bêtises [press-kit], 4–6. Paris: Rezo Films.
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Pyramide. 2014b. “Synopsis.” Girlhood [press-kit], 3. Paris: Pyramide.
Sciamma, Céline. 2014. Promotional video for the Cannes Film Festival, 2014. http://www.allocine.fr/personne/fichepersonne-682173/interviews/?cmedia=19548918, accessed 16 June 2016.
StudioCanal. 2014. Situation amoureuse: c’est compliqué [press-kit]. Issy-les-Moulineaux: StudioCanal.
Vadepied, Mathieu. 2015. “Entretien avec Mathieu Vadepied, scénariste et réalisateur.” La Vie en grand [press-kit], 4–8. Paris: Gaumont.
Music
“A669F.” Huoratron (pf.). Aku Raski (comp.). © Sweet & Dandy Music.
“Bêtises, Les.” 1985. Sabine Paturel (pf.). Sylvain Lebel, Dominique Pankratoff (comp.). © Warner Chappell Music.
“Blanket.” 1998. Imogen Heap (pf.). Peter Akinrinola, Imogen Heap (comp.). © Mercury.
“Cossack Lullaby.” Nathalie Baye (pf.). Mikhail Lermontov (comp.). Traditional.
“Diamonds.” 2012. Rihanna (pf.). Mikkel Eriksen, Sia Furler, Erik Hermansen, Benjamin Levin (comp.). © EMI Music/Matza Ball Music/Where Da Kasz At?
“Firework.” 2010. Katy Perry (pf.). Ester Dean, Mikkel S. Eriksen, Tor E. Hermansen, Katy Perry, Sandy Wilhelm (comp.). © When I’m Rich You’ll Be My Bitch/EMI Music/Peermusic III/Dat Damn Dean Music/Dipiu/Ultra International Music.
“Hot N Cold.” 2008. Katy Perry (pf.). Lukasz Gottwald, Max Martin, Katy Perry (comp.). © When I’m Rich You’ll Be My Bitch/Kasz Money/MXM Music.
“How Could I Help but Love You.” 1961. Aaron Neville (pf.). Allen Toussaint (comp.). © EMI.
“How Could I Let You Go?.” 2012. Gad Elmaleh (pf.). Sonja Shillito, Marc Shouarain (comp.). © Eskwadzik.
“I Have Confidence.” 1959. Isabelle Carré (pf.). Richard Rodgers (comp.). © Williamson Music.
“J’ai eu tort.” 1965. Christophe (pf., Daniel Bevilacqua). Jean Albertini, Jacques Denjean (comp.). © EMI/Madeleine.
“Jump in the Line.” 1961. Harry Belafonte (pf.). Harry Belafonte, Ralph De Leon, Gabriel Oller, Steve Samuel (comp.). © Clara Music.
“Mes hommes.” 1968. Barbara (pf./comp.). © Warner Chappell.
“Palco.” 1981. Gilberto Gil (pf./comp.). © Gogo/Preta Music.
“River.” 2014. Ibeyi (pf.). Lisa-Kaindé Diaz, Naomi Diaz, Eric Sterling Collins (comp.). © Universal Music.
“Stand on the Word.” 1985. Keedz (pf.). Phyllis McKoy Joubert (comp.). © Elias Backyard Music.
“Starlight.” 2001. Supermen Lovers (pf.). Guillaume Atlan, Sidney Benichou (comp.). © Universal Music.
“Take it Easy My Brother Charles.” 1969. Jorge Ben (pf./comp.). © Think Brasil Music.
“To Know You is to Love You.” 1972. Stevie Wonder, Syreeta Wright (pf./comp.). © Jobete Music.
“Total Eclipse of the Heart.” 1982. Bonnie Tyler (pf.). Jim Steinman (comp.). © Lost Boys Music/EMI Virgin Songs.
“Une femme avec toi.” 1975. Nicole Croisille (pf.). Nicole Croisille. Pierre Delanoë, Alfredo Ferrari, Vito Pallavicini (comp.). © Budde Music.
“Whatever You Want.” 1979. Status Quo (pf.). Andy Bown, Rick Parfitt (comp.). © EMI Music.
“Yeux Noirs, Les.” 1843. Benoît Poelvoorde (pf.). Yevgen Grebenka (comp.). Traditional.
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Powrie, P. (2017). Seeing. In: Music in Contemporary French Cinema . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52362-0_7
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