Hello, hello, my fellow misfits,
And welcome to our last usual week of Content Team madness, before we start with our Christmas bonanza. And since I have been slightly gloomy recently (don’t ask why, I don’t know myself), I really felt the need to choose a song today that really, really means so much to me. (See, I said it again. But again, it’s absolutely true)
When the movie to this song came into cinemas I had just moved to the UK and I almost fell off my chair when I saw the trailer for this movie in a tiny cinema in Soho. There were kissing boys on screen and to make it even better: They were singing. And I don’t mean Disney singing, but really some top notch beautiful french chansons. Because yes, this movie I am talking about is just available in French and I for one don’t mind it one second because heaven’s this language is so beautiful.
Okay, okay. Even I can see that this blog is currently running away from me, so let’s try to rail it back a bit. The movie I am talking about is one of my all time favourite movies, maybe even still my favourite, and the amount of time I have seen it it’s just plain mental. But everytime you watch it, you can see something else, which is so wonderful and clever and… Okay. Someone help me focus.
So what movie and song am I now prattling on about?
Les Chansons D’Amour
That’s what I am talking about. The best LGBTQ musical I have ever seen. It’s just like something out of an urban fairytale.
And the song that I want to talk about today is
As-Tu Deja Aime
Which is pretty much one of the highlights of this entire movie.
But since I don’t think that anyone here ever has heard of this movie, let alone watched it, I think I need to give you a bit of a background to this entire thing. Which will be tricky as I don’t want to spoil away. So let’s try to make it as short as possible, while still explaining enough.
This movie is about Ismail, a young professional, living in Paris. When his long term relationship with his girlfriend Julie ends dramatically, he pretty much crumbles and the otherwise quite joyous Ismail suddenly struggles with the aftermath of what happened. When he meets young Erwann, he is absolutely at his lowest. But this young man seems to be the only one who can understand Ismael right this moment and that’s when this wonderful song happens.
Erwann, clearly smitten with the older man, asks him about love and if Ismael ever has loved just to the sake of the feeling and this starts a conversation between the two men where both of them try to give their point of view on love and these different views couldn’t be any more opposite. Ismael, older and still deeply affected by his last relationship, has almost a cynic and cold view on love and relationships these days. I think the line where he says that love will just eat your heart and your brain and all the rest, will forever be one of my favourite lines in a song.
Erwann being young and still maybe a bit naive obviously sees love totally different. For him the feeling of love is just the best and it doesn’t even matter if the love gets returned. Just loving for the heck of it, that’s his take on the entire topic.
But seriously, watch this clip and read the subtitles. I honestly chose this song, even though I know that this movie is sadly underappreciated, because you still can understand the conversation these two are having. You don’t need to know what has happened before or where they are both coming from. This is pretty much just a philosophical discussion about the sense and senselessness of being in love. And I think that’s something we all can understand, doesn’t matter, if you know the movie.
But let’s just have a look, shall we.
Erwann:
As-tu déjà aimé
Pour la beauté du geste?
As-tu déjà croqué
La pomme à pleine dent?
Pour la saveur du fruit
Sa douceur et son zeste
T’es tu perdu souvent?
Ismail:
Oui j’ai déjà aimé
Pour la beauté du geste
Mais la pomme était dure.
Je m’y suis cassé les dents.
Ces passions immatures,
Ces amours indigestes
M’ont écoeuré souvent.
Erwann:
Les amours qui durent
Font des amants exsangues,
Et leurs baisers trop mûrs
Nous pourrissent la langue.
Ismail:
Les amour passagères
Ont des futiles fièvres,
Et leur baiser trop verts
Nous écorchent les lèvres.
Car a vouloir s’aimer
Pour la beauté du geste,
Le ver dans la pomme
Nous glisse entre les dents.
Il nous ronge le coeur,
Le cerveau et le reste,
Nous vide lentement.
Erwann:
Mais lorsqu’on ose s’aimer
Pour la beauté du geste,
Ce ver dans la pomme
Qui glisse entre les dents,
Nous embaume le coeur,
Le cerveau et nous laisse
Son parfum au dedans.
Ismail:
Les amours passagères
Font de futils efforts.
Leurs caresses ephémères
Nous faitguent le corps.
Erwann:
Les amours qui durent
Font les amants moins beaux.
Leurs caresses, à l’usure,
Ont raison de nos peaux.
Sadly I can’t find a good translation of the lyrics, but the subs in that video are spot on, so you can just go along with it there and if you wanna sing along (I might have been singing along the entire time), feel free to give your best French Alizee impression.
And with this I am gonna close my Love Song for today. Hopefully I made you a bit curious about this beautiful movie that is Les Chansons D’Amour and maybe you even wanna watch it. If you want more infos about it let me know and I might even write a whole review about it. Because yes, I honestly love this movie so, so much. So yeah, sorry, that it’s once more not a current smash hit like Nanon’s soundtrack for Bad Buddy, but sometimes I just wanna go old school and today felt like such a day.
And now I shall sing along for the fifth million time to this beautiful, beautiful song about love, while getting my Santa’s hat out once more to do some more preparations.
See you soon, my misfits.
First posted on BLDA
Your Heart's Content 