Mary AnneLike many people, I found the news of Jane Birkin’s death on Friday July 16, 2023, profoundly sad. For me it marked the end of an era, for myself and for others brought up in the ’60s and ’70s when life certainly did swing to a different tune.
I met the famous actress and singer at the opening of an excellent and revealing exhibition at the Calais Fine Arts Museum (Summer 2018). The photos at Jane & Serge, a Family Album were taken by Andrew Birkin, her photographer brother. Both Jane and Andrew were at the opening.
My memories of Jane Birkin come from my teenage years. It was back in 1969 that I heard that notorious breathy moaning song of Je t’aime…moi non plus (I love you…neither do I)…one of my great memories. The song was a huge hit, written by Serge Gainsbourg and performed by him and Jane Birkin. It was banned by the BBC and condemned by the Vatican. It’s one of those songs that a whole generation will never forget.
Jane Birkin was the daughter of David Birkin, a Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander and French Resistance fighter, and Judy Campbell, an actress. She followed in her mother’s footsteps and came to public notice in a nude appearance in Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film Blow-up (another milestone in my young teenage life).
Jane Birkin married the composer John Barry in 1967; their daughter Kate was born in 1967. The couple divorced in 1968; Kate died in Paris in 2013.
Jane met Serge Gainsbourg, the man who the French press described as l’homme à tête de chou (‘the man with the cabbage head’) in 1969. He was 41; she was 20.
Serge was already the darling of the French intellectual scene with a slew of songs, lyrics and music. But their first meeting was not particularly auspicious. She found him arrogant; he ignored her.
Serge’s Russian-Jewish émigré background was a far cry from Jane’s middle-class, very English experience. She was 20 years younger than him.
What was he like? I asked her at the exhibition. “He could be fairly impossible” she answered with her delightful gap-toothy grin. And their relationship? “He was a genius writer; I was just pretty” was her response.
The couple were together for 11 years and had a daughter Charlotte before parting company in 1980. They remained very close and he continued to write songs for her which she performed.
Jane Birkin was much more than ‘just pretty’. She was a good actress as well as singer and a major public figure in France.
After her death President Macron tweeted “Because she embodied freedom, because she sang the most beautiful words of our language, Jane Birkin was a French icon. A complete artist, her voice was as sweet as her engagements were fiery. She bequeaths us tunes and images that will never leave us.”
Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, described her as “the most Parisian of the English”. Perhaps the greatest French compliment of all?
Her funeral was attended by stars like Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Charlotte Rampling, Vanessa Paradis and Brigitte Macron. Outside, people filled the space, carrying banners and flowers.
At the exhibition in Calais, Jane Birkin was lovely, a slight gamin figure dressed in blue jeans and black sweater, with a way of speaking that was half-French, half-English. Andrew Birkin’s photographs were stunning, telling the story of Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg in so many different places and so many different times, a walk through the ’60s and ’70s when life was so different
Andrew had just as interesting a story of his relationship with Gainsbourg. He was working as a screenwriter and film director at the time (on films like Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour).
They formed a close trio as Jane described: “I fell in love with Serge, Andrew fell in love with Serge, Serge fell in love with Andrew; we were a trio, in Yugoslavia, France, Spain, Italy. Andrew came with us everywhere, and, with his camera, our joy, our laughter, our total surprise was recorded by him”.
Andrew also stayed in close touch. At the exhibition he remembered the last time they were together. Andrew took a bottle of absinthe to Serge’s house. They watched a video, Serge fell asleep, and Andrew left. Serge died on March 2, 1991 of a heart attack.
Jane Birkin will be buried at Montparnasse Cemetery where Serge Gainsbourg is buried alongside figures like Alfred Dreyfus, Charles Baudelaire, Margarite Duras, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir (rather more appropriate to Gainsbourg and his life). Kate Barry, Jane’s daughter is also buried here. We don’t yet know exactly where; I don’t know if there is room beside either Serge or Kate. Let’s hope they are all nearby.
I, along with many others, will visit and put flowers on the grave of this iconic figure and ghost from my past.
RIP Jane Birkin.
Jane Mallory Birkin, actor and singer, born 14 December 1946; died 16 July 2023.
Serge Gainsbourg’s house at Rue de Verneuil, 75005 Paris, is open, inspired and run by his daughter Charlotte. A museum will open opposite in on 23 September, 2023.
More about Paris
Quick Guide to Paris
Van Gogh’s Paris
More about Calais – a most surprising City
Guide to Calais – There’s so much to see and do
The Calais Dragon roars through the streets
Lace and Fashion Museum in Calais