In the series Jazz in Film, episode 342: Serge Rezvani (born 1928).
1. Song “Le Tourbillon” from Jules et Jim (1962).
Jeanne Moreau, vocals. Cyrus Bassiak, guitar.
2. Song “Embrasse-moi” from Peau de Banane (1963).
Jeanne Moreau, vocals.
3. Two Chansons from Pierrot le Fou (1965):
a. Jamais je ne t’ai dit que je t’aimerai toujours.
b. Ma ligne de chance.
Spoken word by Jean-Paul Belmondo.
4. Dragées au Poivre (1963).
Sung by Anna Karina, Claude Brasseur, and Philippe.
5. Song ‘Jo le rouge’ from The Sailor from Gibraltar (1967).
Sung by Jeanne Moreau.
6. Red and Blue (1968).
Sung by Vanessa Redgrave, accompanied by the studio orchestra conducted by Stanley Black.
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Jazz in Film #342: Serge Rezvani (born 1928).
The man known as Serge Rezvani was born in Tehran, in what was then Persia, in 1928, and according to the latest reports, he is still alive. He will turn 95 on March 23.
Serge Rezvani is a painter, actor, writer, singer, lyricist, and composer. When he was seven years old, his mother took him to Paris. At that time, he only spoke Russian. His mother had raised him in that language because she had emigrated from the Soviet Union to Persia. In France, Serge learned French only when he went to boarding school.
Rezvani first gained attention in the film world in 1962 when he played a role in Jules et Jim. In director François Truffaut’s famous love triangle, he played a composer who writes a song for the main character, Catherine, played by Jeanne Moreau, who sings the song in the film. It is called “Le Tourbillon.”
In reality, Rezvani had already composed the chanson in 1955 for his best friend, the actor Jean-Louis Richard, and Richard’s then-wife…Jeanne Moreau. They had a rather complicated relationship. Rezvani’s lyrics for “Le Tourbillon de la Vie” mean “the whirlwind of life.”
It is a deliberate irony of director Truffaut that Jeanne Moreau sings “Le Tourbillon” in Jules et Jim. Truffaut convinced his friend Rezvani to join his film world.
You are listening to guitarist Cyrus Bassiak (= Serge Rezvani), who accompanies Moreau in the film.
The guitarist for “Le Tourbillon” is officially credited as Cyrus Bassiak, which is the stage name of…Serge Rezvani. Under the pseudonym Cyrus Bassiak, Rezvani had already made a name for himself as a songwriter in France before his role in Jules et Jim. “Bassiak” means “barefoot” in Russian. He continued to write songs for films in the 1960s, but always under this pseudonym. He wanted to maintain the distinction from his real name under which he carried out his writing and painting work.
We will play nine of his songs from the 1960s in a row. Let’s start with “Embrasse-Moi.”
After the huge success of Jules et Jim, Rezvani is asked to provide the title song for the crime comedy Peau de Banane in 1963. This is partly due to his good relationship with Jeanne Moreau, who takes revenge on the men who cheated her father in Max Ophüls’ film. The song “Embrasse-Moi” is co-composed by jazz musician Ward Swingle and is also sung by Jeanne Moreau.
For Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot Le Fou, Rezvani composes two songs: “Jamais Je ne t’Ai Dit que Je t‘Aimerai Toujours” and “Ma Ligne de Chance”. The 1965 film is a prime example of the revolutionary New Wave film movement. Pierrot Le Fou sings about the escape of an intellectual television producer, played by Jean-Paul Belmondo, from his bourgeois marriage. With a former girlfriend, played by Anna Karina, he drives to the south of France, where the couple is quickly besieged by various criminals. Nevertheless, Anna Karina, who was married to Jean-Luc Godard, sings the two songs resignedly in between; Jean-Paul Belmondo speaks-sings along.
(Initially, Godard had asked film composer Antoine Duhamel to provide two songs for Pierrot Le Fou. However, in the lyrics of Duhamel’s song “Mic et Mac,” writer Remo Forlani strongly emphasized the difference between an intellectual on the one hand and a man with whom one could have fun on the other. Godard felt offended because he was known as the intellectual. He rejected Duhamel’s songs, although Duhamel was still allowed to compose the score. Godard approved of Rezvani’s two songs. However, Rezvani later called Godard a far too serious man who had used his chansons without any irony.)
You will now hear “Embrasse-Moi” from Peau de Banane, or the banana skin, from 1963.
The comedy film Dragées au Poivre from 1963 is titled ‘Sweet and Sour’ in English and ‘Fijn… ’t Is Gepeperd’ for the Dutch market. Director Jacques Baratier indeed sets sugared almonds and pepper against each other in his screenplay – the literal meanings of ‘Les Dragées’ and ‘Poivre’. A young man from a wealthy family wants to become an actor, but then undergoes all possible confrontations when he comes behind the scenes of ‘cinéma vérité’, the film movement based on harsh daily life.
Director Baratier asks Rezvani for permission to make a selection from his old songs. Actually, the whole film is an excuse to put as many fun cabaret songs together as possible. Rezvani leaves it entirely up to the actors, including Anna Karina again with Claude Brasseur in the song ‘La Vie s’Envole’ and the child singer Philippe, who turns the comedic song ‘Lili Gribouille’ into a great success. The song coincidentally reflects the new zeitgeist perfectly, of a son resisting his father.
The lyrics are written by Serge Rezvani himself, already in the 1950s.
On one side of Serge Rezvani lived the couple Jeanne Moreau/Jean-Louis Richard, on the other side he had the English couple, director and actress Tony Richardson/Vanessa Redgrave as neighbors. All the neighbors come together in Richardson’s adaptation of a novel by Marguerite Duras, the English production The Sailor from Gibraltar. In 1967, Jeanne Moreau plays a widow in Italy who is obsessed with a sailor she knew in the past. She goes in search of him, sailing on the yacht of a neighbor who leaves his girlfriend, played by Vanessa Redgrave, for this purpose.
Rezvani borrowed a song he had co-written with Ward Swingle in the 1950s, ‘Jo Le Rouge’, for The Sailor from Gibraltar. Jeanne Moreau knew the song well, from the time when she ate spaghetti and played cards with her then-husband and neighbor Rezvani. Whoever lost had to jump on the table to sing ‘Jo Le Rouge’, and then wash the dishes.
In the film, Moreau sings the song herself. But it became famous in the rendition of… Vanessa Redgrave. She released it on her own album in 1968.
On that LP, Redgrave also sings the songs by Rezvani that were used in the short film Red and Blue. The title Red and Blue is even taken from a Rezvani song: ‘Tantôt Rouge, Tantôt Bleu’. The director is Tony Richardson, who is still married to Vanessa Redgrave at the time. Red and Blue is the final part of a trilogy titled Red, White and Zero, from 1968. Richardson actually wanted Jeanne Moreau to star again, but she refused. So the director made the film with his own wife, but began an affair with Moreau in the process. He even left Redgrave for Moreau, just like in his film The Sailor from Gibraltar.
The short story is full of songs that Rezvani had previously written, but were arranged by Antoine Duhamel into Broadway-style show numbers. The French lyrics were all translated into English by Julian More. Vanessa Redgrave plays a singer who moves from London to Paris to make a career, but discovers that her repertoire does not fit well with the French theatrical style. In flashbacks, she recalls her past loves; then Rezvani’s songs can be heard in her head.
First, you will hear Vanessa Redgrave’s version of the Theme from The Sailor from Gibraltar from 1967, with a studio orchestra conducted by Stanley Black. Then you will hear the songs by Serge Rezvani that were arranged for actress/singer Vanessa Redgrave by Antoine Duhamel to fit into the trilogy segment Red and Blue, from 1968.
Kees Hogenbirk.
