Jane Birkinmovie and song star who became an icon in his adopted homeland of France, She was found dead this Sunday at her home in Paris at the age of 76.
At the moment, the cause of death was not indicated.
Londoner of origin, and French national, The artist recently said that she had serious health problems, and was forced to cancel concerts.
In February, she appeared in a very fragile state at the last César ceremony, the annual French film awards, along with her daughter, actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg, and her granddaughter Alice.
Birkin rose to fame thanks to her turbulent relationship with legendary musician, composer, performer, and poet Serge Gainsbourg.
In 1969 Jane Birkin gave voice to “Je t’aime, moi non plus”, a worldwide hit peppered with scandal due to moans of love, which was first written by Serge Gainsbourg for Brigitte Bardot, with whom he had an affair.
The public adored her for her sensitivity and her peculiar British accent, which she always kept.
“Unimaginable to live in a world without your light”, wrote on Instagram the singer Étienne Daho, one of his close friends, co-author of his album “Oh, pardon tu dormais….”, published in 2020.
French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to a “complete artist” who “sang the most beautiful words of our language.”
– Passion, glamor and hard times –
On the big screen Jane Birkin acted in “Blow up”, Antonioni’s film crowned with the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1967, and “The Pool” with Romy Schneider and Alain Delon in 1969. He also worked with directors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Doillon and Agnès Varda.
The relationship with Serge Gainsbourg, whom he met on a set in 1968, gave his career a new direction. And with him she formed a mythical duo in the Paris of the 1970s, wrapped in passion, glamor and scandals.
Overwhelmed by the relationship with a sometimes excessive and violent Gainsbourg, Jane Birkin left the family apartment in Paris in 1981, with her daughters Kate (born from her union with the British composer John Barry) and Charlotte, and rebuilt her life with the filmmaker Jacques Doillon.
Long after the death of Serge Gainsbourg in 1991, and despite very hard moments such as the death of his daughter Kate Barry, in 2013, and a difficult-to-cure leukemia, Birkin continued to sing songs by the French musician, with whom he formed a couple legendary.
Jane Birkin was an Officer of the Order of the British Empire and in France a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters. She, however, rejected the Legion of Honor in 1989, considering that “only heroes” are worthy of such recognition.
A way to honor the memory of his father David, a British Navy officer who transported resistance fighters from the United Kingdom to France during World War II. He died in 1991, the day of Serge Gainsbourg’s funeral.
2023-07-16 15:17:15
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