Word: chanson
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...Shelter of Nothing), concerns immigrants at the notorious Sangatte refugee camp. France's Japan-influenced bandes dessinées (comic-strip) artists have made their country a leader in one of literature's hottest genres: the graphic novel. Singers like Camille, Benjamin Biolay and Vincent Delerm have revived the chanson. Hip-hop artists like Senegal-born MC Solaar, Cyprus-born Diam's and Abd al Malik, a son of Congolese immigrants, have taken the verlan of the streets and turned it into a sharper, more poetic version of American...
...always tempting to define most French musicians by where they fit on the Chanson Française spectrum, that openly defined yet traditional Gallic brand of dramatic songcraft made famous by singers like Charles Aznavour and Edith Piaf decades ago. Is a band's m.o. to perform "chanson" with an ironic rock twist? Is that chanteuse doing classic chanson writ modern? It seems that French musicians can't just simply be musicians. But Keren Ann can, and she's not even French...
...hall in Paris - the ultimate badge of success in France, equivalent, in stature if not capacity, to headlining at Madison Square Garden or Wembley Stadium. He embarks on a national tour on June 28. What's the attraction? The young singer-songwriter is reviving an old French tradition: the chanson. Back in the 1960s, these nostalgic songs captured the hearts of music lovers with their emotion-charged lyrics and rousing delivery, sometimes, but not always, accompanied by the accordion. Charles Aznavour, Serge Gainsbourg, Françoise Hardy and others - with their haunting and spirited ballads of regret and doomed love...
...then break into song. Francois Ozon's color-coordinated catfight assembles eight fabulous femmes (Catherine Deneuve, Ludivine Sagnier, Virginie Ledoyen, Danielle Darrieux, Isabelle Huppert, Firmine Richard, Emmanuelle Beart and Fanny Ardant) for a game of hide-and-shriek, with each star given a guilty secret and a solo chanson. Ozon, the bright hope of French pop cinema (Water Drops on Burning Rocks, Under the Sand), lets the gals get a bit too chatty and catty. But he knows how to dress them in glamorous frocks and attitudes. Seduction is more important than deduction in this chic display of star quality...
DIED. CHARLES TRENET, 87, French crooner considered a master of la chanson francaise; in Creteil, France. Beloved for his mischievous charm and paeans to everyday life, his most famous song, La Mer (popularized in the U.S. by Bobby Darin as Beyond the Sea), has been recorded nearly 4,000 times...