I must have listened to this song at least about 50 times but I only watched this video for the first time just now.
This is the pinnacle of Serge Gainsbourg, a man who just knew who to merge the sordid and the lyrical into one seamless expression of passion.
The song doesn't feel like a Chopin piece; I like Chopin and all but talk about making a melody your own as we have this synth heavy meditation on love and intimacy that is so sensual you'll feel like you're there.
I used to feel that the song was not only unjustifiably long but repetitive. But seeing is the soundtrack to this short film, I think I get it. It's supposed to be a hypnotic shared meditation on the pain and pleasure of mutual love.
Yes, it feels like a music video and is correspondingly abstract but it was an enticing and titillating love song made visual that pulls no punches.
The lyrics are indeed lyrics and are clearly going for making the listener just a little bit uncomfortable. Gainsbourg knows exactly what he's doing with shameless controversy baiting but far from being exploitative or sensational, he makes it into a joke. And that's what makes you ready to feel something a bit deeper.
As the camera languidly paces through this intimately lit boudoir, I felt like I was being lulled by a...well, lullaby and the repetitive lyrics suits this approach. I lost myself in the texture just like the two characters.
The stylized set with the triangle bed...how magical. Is the triangle an illusion to the camps? Who knows!
The sudden cut to Charlotte clutching Serge's leg was a bit jarring I thought, but maybe the point was to be startling. CG herself is radiant as a small and delicate little creature that makes you feel on edge for she looks like she would break if you handled her. But there is a strange aura about her that blurs the line between child and adult; she not only sings but embodies a character that is disarming in her pensive consideration of adult feelings which return her cyclically to the dependency of a child but perhaps in a more reciprocal way. Isn't that what we are looking for in love?
I love her cherubic voice that hits all the notes but gets so close to breaking. Lying there in a working shirt but that silky underwear is a little uncomfortable but that's exactly what it should be.
Eroticism lays always visible just beneath the surface. Whether it's sexy...well that's up to you. There are a number of ways in which sexuality is frequently depicted: as a joke, empowerment, degradation, romance or just with candour. But this goes somewhere that mostly unexplored.
A magnificent anthem of shameless feelings and a poignant rumination on complex feelings that you can interpret as literal incest if you want but I like to think there is something else there.
This is the pinnacle of Serge Gainsbourg, a man who just knew who to merge the sordid and the lyrical into one seamless expression of passion.
The song doesn't feel like a Chopin piece; I like Chopin and all but talk about making a melody your own as we have this synth heavy meditation on love and intimacy that is so sensual you'll feel like you're there.
I used to feel that the song was not only unjustifiably long but repetitive. But seeing is the soundtrack to this short film, I think I get it. It's supposed to be a hypnotic shared meditation on the pain and pleasure of mutual love.
Yes, it feels like a music video and is correspondingly abstract but it was an enticing and titillating love song made visual that pulls no punches.
The lyrics are indeed lyrics and are clearly going for making the listener just a little bit uncomfortable. Gainsbourg knows exactly what he's doing with shameless controversy baiting but far from being exploitative or sensational, he makes it into a joke. And that's what makes you ready to feel something a bit deeper.
As the camera languidly paces through this intimately lit boudoir, I felt like I was being lulled by a...well, lullaby and the repetitive lyrics suits this approach. I lost myself in the texture just like the two characters.
The stylized set with the triangle bed...how magical. Is the triangle an illusion to the camps? Who knows!
The sudden cut to Charlotte clutching Serge's leg was a bit jarring I thought, but maybe the point was to be startling. CG herself is radiant as a small and delicate little creature that makes you feel on edge for she looks like she would break if you handled her. But there is a strange aura about her that blurs the line between child and adult; she not only sings but embodies a character that is disarming in her pensive consideration of adult feelings which return her cyclically to the dependency of a child but perhaps in a more reciprocal way. Isn't that what we are looking for in love?
I love her cherubic voice that hits all the notes but gets so close to breaking. Lying there in a working shirt but that silky underwear is a little uncomfortable but that's exactly what it should be.
Eroticism lays always visible just beneath the surface. Whether it's sexy...well that's up to you. There are a number of ways in which sexuality is frequently depicted: as a joke, empowerment, degradation, romance or just with candour. But this goes somewhere that mostly unexplored.
A magnificent anthem of shameless feelings and a poignant rumination on complex feelings that you can interpret as literal incest if you want but I like to think there is something else there.
