Fascinating, complex, the symbol of an era and ever restless and active, Jane Birkin displayed several of the most attractive features of her personality in an interesting and open – themed discussion on Monday, November 16th at the Stavros Tornes Theater, in the framework of TIFF.
As TIFF president Georges Corraface explained, Jane Birkin herself preferred the term “conversation” rather than “masterclass”, because “she is genuinely and deeply modest. We are thankful for her generosity to share with us the truth that emanates from within her and makes her love people and life”. TIFF’s director Despina Mouzaki welcomed Jane Birkin to TIFF’s 50th anniversary saying: “Jane Birkin is a woman who has been fortunate to have lived with mythical figures and to become a myth herself, the symbol of an emblematic era. She followed a unique, sparkling career, from the charming lightness of pop culture to the revolutionary energy of the 1960s and the maturity of the present day, always reinventing herself in of her desire to serve art. Being here with us, she imparts her amazing charm to the Festival”.
Jane Birkin’s double presence in TIFF, both as a protagonist in Jacques Rivette’s 36 vues du Pic St-Loup and as a performer at her concert at Aristoteleion Theater, brought about the question as to which one of her capacities is her favorite. «Concerts bring me closer to audiences. I can go to Ramallah or Rwanda or return to Sarajevo, either alone with a piano or with other musicians. In my concerts I have the opportunity to make people happy, even if it’s only for one and a half hour. In the movies, this joy lasts for 2-3 months, while the shooting takes place”, she replied. Commenting on 36 vues du Pic St-Loup, she said: “Before Jacques Rivette approached me, I thought I was done with the cinema, I thought it was time for me to stop, that this is a profession for younger, more photogenic people. However, when he offered me the part of an older woman, I found the challenge entertaining and said yes. After the filming was over, I said that I planned to stay inactive for a year, but I have to promote the film for three months and then I am returning to the stage in England”.
In Jane Birkin’s life, chance and coincidence played a crucial role. “Some times things look disastrous, but everything turns out fine in the end. When Barry left me for another woman, I moved to France and my life changed. It is there that I fell in love with people and they fell in love with me – I don’t know which came first. Serge [Gainsbourg] had a lovely family, which welcomed both me and my daughter. They embraced us warmly and to me, coming from a typical English family, this was an immense source of feelings”. The distinguished artist also talked about how lucky she was in her bad luck to lose her suitcase coming to Thessaloniki. “I saw actors taking their clothes and shoes off and offer them to me and I realized how generous they are. This proved much more interesting than having my suitcase with me”, she added. Talking about how she experienced the 1960s, Birkin said that she didn’t feel beautiful at all in her 20s: “I was sleeping with my make up on, lest Barry woke up at night and think I was ugly. It’s a shame I was so conventional! I wasn’t being myself with all the make up and the short skirts. When I took them off, I was finally me again. When one is so young, one has many complexes, which subside once he or she has his or her own children”.
With more than 120 films to her credit, Birkin admitted that only 10 of them were quality ones. “Serge encouraged me to keep on making movies; he believed that some day I would step on a ‘gift’. So what I say to young actors is ‘keep testing yourselves, keep auditioning and making movies while you are still young’”. The lesson her career in the movies has taught her is that if you trust people, if you believe they can make it, they actually do make it. “Whatever I have accomplished in my life, I owe it to the fact that some people believed in me. All actors need to be told by someone ‘I believe in you’. I believe that the same is true for hairdressers or electricians or in the way you raise your children. As a mother, you should not keep your children to yourself, but trust them, so they can ‘fly’ on their own”.
Jane Birkin said of her life with Serge Gainsbourg that it was “funny, pleasant and full of love”, adding that although their life together was not easy, she wouldn’t have changed it for the world. “When someone dies, all negative things disappear. I am looking forward to my own death, so that my children will forget all the stupid things I have done. Despite not knowing what comes after death, the risk is worth it. Besides, we don’t have a choice “.
Georges Corraface asked Jane Birkin if her open, unpredictable, always ready to visit uncharted waters public image, reflects her real self. “This is a fault of mine. Comparing myself to my daughters, who schedule their activities and film one movie after the other, I realize how frivolous I have been”, she replied.
In addition to being an actress and a singer, Jane Birkin has also been tested behind the camera, and we are going to see her in this capacity in the near future. She revealed that in 2010 she plans to direct a film with Charlotte Rampling. Her experience as a director so far, has taught her that one should avoid excessive rehearsals even if one is directing amazing actors, because he or she might miss the performance, the momentary feeling. “You have to be ready for the time you do find what you are looking for, but also be prepared for facing any obstacle. Obstacles often bring about interesting results”. Commenting on Boxes, a film she directed and has been characterized as semiautobiographical, Jane Birkin confessed: “This movie was not about my life, but at the same time and in a way it was. In Boxes I talk with ghosts, familiar but unreal ghosts. It was a movie for my daughters and my mother. Because mothers always wonder if they have been good mothers and children always wonder whether they have let them down or not. This is what I did with my own mother”.
The discussion focused at length on the various initiatives of Jane Birkin in many “hot” parts of the planet, like Sarajevo, Chechnya and Burma, and the concerts she gives in prisons. “I knew I could open Paris’ theaters for the children of Chechnya. I tried to show that this is not only a people mired by killing and being killed– that it is a people with a culture“, she stressed. Commenting on her experience to enter Sarajevo on a tank and give a concert in a city under siege, Jane Birkin noted that this was one of the most important times in her life. She also felt that her father, who took part in the French resistance movement in World War II, would have been proud of her. Referring to Burmese Peace Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains detained in her country, she noted: “I thought I should do more than give interviews. I knew nothing could possibly come out of it, but all the same I met with Nicolas Sarkozy and managers from oil company Total. In the end, I wrote a song”. Jane Birkin believes that art should pervade prison walls and hospitals, and reach out to people who are lacking the financial means. Shortly before she visited Greece, she had performed in the prisons of Marseille. “Those people cannot go anywhere, and should be given the opportunity to learn more things than those provided by television”. She admitted that she keeps learning herself, that she discovered book reading in her thirties and opera in her fifties, adding: “it’s better late than never”.
