JANE BIRKIN. In an interview with Le Parisien, Jane Birkin recounts her return to the stage after four months of forced rest.
“I have always been optimistic,” said Jane Birkin in an interview with the newspaper The Parisian. Victim of a stroke in early September, the 75-year-old singer is back on stage after four months of forced rest. Jane Birkin, in addition to being on the screen of the documentary Jane by Charlotte, made by his daughter, Charlotte gainsbourg, is due to perform for around 40 dates, including a concert on September 18 at the Philharmonie de Paris.
“The concert in Paris is the only scary one for me, because your friends and family are likely to come. Plus you’re doing a show that was canceled five months ago. It’s pretty weird. But the people were so happy to see a concert and gave me so much, it was a great joy “, confides the singer to the Parisian.
The opportunity also for Jane Birkin to return to the “slight stroke” which she suffered and after which she had to be hospitalized. “It was especially difficult to live for my relatives, underlines the singer. Me, I knew that I was in good hands, in places that ultimately I like a lot. Intensive care, I know by heart, public hospitals French people are awesome, the nurses adorable. “
Singer, actress, screenwriter, director, muse … Jane Birkin is one of the artists who can boast of having crossed the ages in the French (and British) musical landscape. She was born on December 14, 1946 in the Marylebone district of London, United Kingdom. Daughter of British actress Judy Campbell and David Birkin, a commander in the Royal Navy who helped the French Resistance during World War II, Jane Birkin was passionate about comedy and intended for a career as an actress.
She made her theater debut at just 17 years old. At 18, in England, she played in “The Knack … and how to have it”, by Richard Lester. His first role. After having played in “Graham Greene” and the musical “Passion flower hote”, she continues with a very noticed performance in “Blow-up” by Antonioni, crowned by the Palme d’Or at Festival from Cannes in 1967. In April that year, Jane Birkin had a daughter, Kate, born of her marriage to the English composer John Barry.
The life and career of Jane Birkin are also closely linked to that of Serge Gainsbourg. In 1969, she headlined “Slogan” alongside him. Together, they will become a famous couple and the latter allows the actress to start a singing career in parallel. In 1975, she took the lead role in the controversial “Je t’aime moi non plus” by Serge Gainsbourg. Three years later, she continued with three films by Jacques Doillon including “The Pirate” which consolidates her status as a talented actress and allows her to play under the direction of renowned directors. For the Rivette, she plays in “L’Amour par terre” as well as “La Belle Noiseuse” followed by “Jane B. by Agnès V.”, “Kung Fu Master” by Varda and finally “Daddy Nostalgie” by Tavernier.
An accomplished multi-faceted artist, she is omnipresent in all fields, cinema, author films, theater, music. However, it will begin to be scarce from the 1990s, but nevertheless appears in “We know the song” in 1997, “Brides but not too” in 2003 but also “If you die, I kill you” in 2011.
He is one of the most legendary couples in French song: Jane Brikin and Serge Gainsbourg. The two artists meet on the set of the film “Slogan”, by Pierre Grimblat, while the young woman replaces the actress Marisa Berenson. They are displayed during a dinner at Maxim’s in Paris: it is the beginning of their romance that will cause much ink to flow at the end of the 1960s. For ten years, their romance will fascinate the French. The capital’s hottest couple live in Paris, with Jane Birkin’s first daughter, Kate. On July 12, 1971 a daughter, Charlotte Gainsbourg, was born in a London clinic. Quickly, the tabloid press speaks of marriage: it will not be so. In 1975, it was in Serge Gainsbourg’s first film, “Je t’aime moi non plus”, that she reappeared. A feature film that earned her the César for best actress. Serge Gainsbourg will offer Jane Birkin several of his most beautiful songs, notably thanks to the soundtrack of “Je t’aime, moi non plus”. But in 1980, Jane Birkin left the sulphurous singer. In question ? The addiction to alcohol, even the violence of Serge Gainsbourg. The Briton will find love again in the arms of director Jacques Douillon, with whom she will have another daughter, Lou, in September 1982.
If she came to France to play comedy, Jane Birkin has become one of the cult singers of French musical heritage. In particular thanks to several titles, entered the pantheon of cult songs. We could quote, of course, we have already spoken about it, “Je t’aime, moi non plus”, with Serge Gainsbourg, just like “Ballade de Melody Nelson” in 1971, “Ballade de Johnny Jane” in 1976, “Escape the happiness lest he run away “in 1983, but also” Te Souviens-tu “and” Je m’appelle Jane “in 2004, two tracks taken from his album” Rendez-vous “.
After releasing several albums and going on tour, Jane Birkin, in 2012, was forced to cancel a series of concerts in France. In question ? An “acute pericarditis followed by multiple recurrences”, which forced her to “complete rest”, was announced by her manager Olivier Gluzman in June that year. Acute pericarditis is inflammation of the pericardium, a membrane that envelops the heart muscle. A disease that had turned into leukemia. “We go to the hospital for pericarditis, then for the water around the lungs, we take out a liter and a half, but afterwards, it is the blood cells that start playing pranks on you”, explained the artist in Gala in 2013, describing “an autoimmune disease, in a rather poetic genre.” For several months, the disease pushed Jane Birkin to withdraw from the media scene, to treat her leukemia at the Avicenne hospital in Bobigny. A few years later, on the occasion of the release of “Birkin / Gainsbourg: Le symphonique”, she explained that she “was doing well”, while drawing up a sad observation: “I understood that, I want it or not, I was no longer ten years ahead of me “.
Kate Barry is the first daughter of Jane Birkin, born in London on April 8, 1967 from her marriage to film composer John Barry. Portrait photographer, she spends her life in Paris. When her parents separated, from her first months, Kate Barry was brought up by Serge Gainsbourg, new husband of Jane Birkin, then, in her adolescence, by Jacques Doillon, in a relationship with the singer from 1980 to 1992. In 1984, Kate Birkin graduated from the Parisian Haute Couture Union Chamber. Discreet and reserved, the young woman falls into alcohol and drug addiction. In 1993, she was behind the creation of Apte (Help and prevention of drug addiction through mutual aid), based on a London model.
But on Wednesday December 11, 2013, everything changed. Kate Barry is found dead after a fall from the 4th floor of the building where she lived in Paris. She was 46 years old. According to the investigators, who quickly favored the thesis of the defenestration, the photographer was alone in the apartment, closed from the inside, and antidepressants were found on the scene. A terrible drama for Jane Birkin, who confided very little about it. However, in 2018, she had said a few words about the death of her eldest daughter at the microphone of France Inter. “When my daughter died, I lost that confidence (on her abilities as a mother, editor’s note). I did not know what to do. I was out of life, well I was living a kind of parallel life” , confided the singer.
Jane Birkin had initially had to cancel her coming to the American film festival in Deauville, after being the victim of a “mild form of cerebrovascular accident” (stroke), her relatives had said in a statement released by the AFP in early September 2021. Jane Birkin “is doing well”, added the document, which details that this stroke occurred “a few days ago.” “She is doing well, also her relatives wish that the peace necessary for her convalescence is respected. Jane is eager to find her public,” can we read the press release sent to the same source by her agent.
Jane Birkin will therefore not go to the American film festival in Deauville, but has also canceled her trip to the Ciné Rencontres festival in the Cotentin, where she was expected for the documentary film. Jane by Charlotte, directed by his daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg and presented out of competition this summer at the Cannes film festival.
A week after the announcement of the “slight stroke” suffered by Jane Birkin, her city, Charlotte Gainsbourg, in turn gives news. “I have a message from my mother. I got it earlier and I know people are worried about her. She is fine (…) I asked her if she wanted me to say Something. She told me ‘that everything is fine and that the Nantes University Hospital is extra’ “, explains the actress and singer during the American film festival in Deauville, according to AFP.