Actress-singer Birkin bringing her music to town

Actress-singer Birkin bringing her music to town

Bruce Emond, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Several years before disco queen Donna Summer sparked the puritan
ire of America with her orgasmic oohing and aahing, British
actress Jane Birkin released Je t'aime moi non plus in France in
1969.

A breathy, pulsating turn, spoken not so much sung, it
provides some unmistakeable and unforgettable sound effects,
although it never seems a voyeuristic, lascivious stunt. Even at
the tail end of the swinging 1960s, the song, made by Birkin with
her then partner the singer and musician Serge Gainsbourg, raised
more than a few eyebrows. Thinking about its release almost 40
years on, it certainly puts into perspective our current global
fascination with Ms. Jackson and NippleGate.

For some of us, Birkin, who will perform in Jakarta on
Thursday, may be a little known figure. For others who have been
aware of her in her many incarnations -- model-cum-actress-cum-
singer-cum-activist -- her appearance in Jakarta is an exciting
event.

Born into a middle-class British family, she became known in
the definitive '60s hip movie Blow-Up (1966), directed by
Michelangelo Antonioni, famously appearing nude in one scene. The
following year, she moved to France, meeting Gainsbourg and
embarking on a relationship that lasted many years.

The biographical release issued in conjunction with her visit
notes that she has appeared in more than 30 films, but other than
French speakers and devoted cinemagoers, most of us probably have
not seen her in the movies. The mainstream movie exceptions would
be the two Agatha Christie whodunnits Death on the Nile and Evil
Under the Sun, in which she costarred with such Hollywood
heavyweights as Bette Davis, Peter Ustinov and Mia Farrow (the
former), and the best of British (Diana Rigg et al) in the
latter. For Evil, she played a seemingly mousy, put-upon wife
who, it turns out, is in cahoots with her husband.

Always on the fringes of celebrity but never really choosing
to enter the lion's den as a full-fledged star, Birkin, 57, has
done things her way throughout her career. Like her contemporary
Charlotte Rampling, she elected to stay put in France, far from
the Hollywood sphere, acting in movies, working on her music with
Gainsbourg, caring for her daughters (one of whom is the actress
Charlotte Gainsbourg) and also becoming an activist on human
rights issues. Her reed-thin, gap-toothed and undeniably quirky
beauty, with a cigarette inevitably hanging from her lips,
remains an enduring image from the 1970s.

With Gainsbourg, she made the European hit album Baby alone in
Babylone in 1983 (devoted fans of this album consider it
Gainsbourg's love letter to Birkin after their breakup), and
later the same decade started performing on stage.

She continued with her music after Gainsbourg's death in 1991,
and has since 1999 worked with the Algerian violinist Djamel
Benyelles. They have collaborated on what they call the
"orientalizing" of her music, using North African, Andalusian and
gypsy influences, particularly on 2002's Arabesque.

Her stop in Jakarta is part of the tour, arranged by the
French Cultural Center, and will give local audiences the chance
to hear her unique voice, often described as breathy, reedy and
fragile. It's a rare opportunity to see a unique individual, and
one not to be missed.

i-BOX:
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Jane Birkin's Arabesque
Supported by Djam&Fam
Thursday, Feb. 19
Gedung Kesenian Jakarta
Jl. Gedung Kesenian No. 1, Central Jakarta

Tickets: Rp 75.000 and Rp 100.000
Reservations only from Gedung Kesenian Jakarta
tel. (021) 380 8283 or 344 1892
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