I don't watch French movies...although I did catch a few scenes of "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg" on television (warning: make sure you have the Kleenex next to you, especially in the last scene). As a rule of my imagination (and my apologies to all those fans of the Nouvelle Vague), I always envision old French movies with scenes like these: a man or woman sitting forlornly next to a window on a cold rainy day, letting their breath hit the pane with condensation. This lasts for two hours. FIN
Strangely enough, I've encountered this song titled "Mado" (Window) sung by Keiko Goto（後藤啓子）. In fact, this was her debut single from 1981 although it apparently was also a track on her 1980 album "Aimez-vous Sagan". I've posted about Goto once before for her 1981 song "Me wo Tojite"（目を閉じて）which was quite the bouncy City Pop tune.
"Mado" is probably more in tune with her days as a singer at Gin-Pari（銀巴里）in the 1970s, the famous chanson cafe in Ginza that I mentioned only a few days ago when I paid tribute to the recently departed Akihiro Miwa（美輪明宏）. I'm not sure if "Mado" would fall under the chanson category but it's still quite the spirited French waltz of a kayo kyoku as written and composed by Shigeru Inumaru（犬丸秀）*. Maybe I can give it the Fashion Music label. It certainly doesn't have Goto breathing sadly on a window pane for a couple of hours.
One interesting thing happened while I was searching how to read the lyricist/composer's name. I found out that "Mado" had gotten a cover version via aidoru Junko Sakurada's（桜田淳子）37th single from August 1982. If anything, it's even breezier and an accordion has been thrown into the arrangement, to boot, for that enhanced Gallic flavour.
*Not totally sure on the reading of the above name. If anyone can confirm or deny it, let me know.
Your comment about French movies reminded me of this tweet I saw years ago on Twitter/X where most people's perceptions of French cinema is still rooted in 1960's New Wave, especially with the way you described it(I would also throw in some cigarette smoke too) but then when you look at the actual French movies topping the box office, it's usually the umpteenth movie based off the Astérix characters.
ReplyDeleteHello there. I was a little worried that some fans might get at me for slightly knocking their genre. To be fair, a lot of my impressions of French cinema come from spoofs on "Saturday Night Live" and "SCTV". I gather that in the last couple of decades, things have become more blockbuster?
DeleteYes, France still has its arty movies but the box office is dominated by the likes of Marvel movies and other popcorn fare, just like the rest of the world.
DeleteJapan and Canada are no different. Japan does come up with some pretty arty fare, too, though.
DeleteThe two versions of the song each paint a very different atmosphere. One starts with a piano and the other with strings. One sounds like something couples/pairs in formal wear might be dancing to in a ballroom and the other sounds a bit more reflective to me.
ReplyDeleteHi, Brian. Yeah, I think the original is the formal waltz ball one while the Sakurada cover is the more reflective version.
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