interviews: jane birkin and anthony lapaglia
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8/4/2019 Interviews: Jane Birkin and Anthony LaPaglia
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8November 2009
S AINT-TROPEZ
www.rivieratimes.com
small production, with a
budget of three and a half
million dollars, is being
recognised on the inter-
national stage. Perhaps all the
more so because the subject
matter deals with an
uncomfortable episode in
Australia's recent history: the
murder of five young journ-
alists during the 1975 Indo-
youngest to the oldest on set,
you stop suffering from
shallow angst and you relax
about your success" - and his
Australian upbringing. "Of
course you need a certain
amount of ego to be an actor
in the first place, to assume
people want to watch you but
growing up in Adelaide I was
always taught not to take
Brigitte Bardot, icon of
Saint-Tropez, is the
subject of an exhibition
of the work of painter Vincent
Roux and other artists, at the
Landowski Gallery, Boulogne-
Billancourt. The Years of
Innocence runs from 28thSeptember to 31st January,
and aspires to revive the myth
of BB as seen by major artists,
including Andy Warhol. Roux
himself was long associated
with Saint-Tropez as an artist
in residence, having also lived
in Venice and Aix. He was a
keen observer of nature's
change of moods, and quoted
Saint Francis of Assisi, who
said: "Every day is beautiful,
More than a trace of OzThe Hollywood actor Anthony LaPaglia gets
international at the Antipodean film festival
Think of Hollywood actor
Anthony LaPaglia and the
word "Australian" may not
be the first that springs to mind.
Famous for playing Jack
Malone, the lead in the hit US
TV series Without a Trace,LaPaglia is so well known as a
tough talking New Yorker these
days that most people have no
idea that he was born and bred
LaPaglia is clearly enjoyingthe relaxed, autumnal Saint-
Tropez scene when we meet
by the pool at the Hotel des
Lices on the penultimate day
of the festival. "This is my first
time in Saint-Tropez," he tells
me, "and it's so beautiful.”
Considering he's been on the
road for the past two months,
promoting his new film Balibo,
it's no wonder he’s
appreciating the festival’s
intimate, laidback vibe.Since Balibo’s premiere in
Melbourne in early August,
LaPaglia has been travelling
non-stop. After Saint-Tropez,
he’s headed to the London
Film Festival, where Balibo,
which LaPaglia produced and
also starred in, has been
shortlisted for Best Film.
For LaPaglia it's a consid-
erable achievement that this
nesian military campaign inEast Timor. LaPaglia explains
that the film has had such an
impact back home that the
government has reopened the
murder case after 35 years, a
move that jeopardises
Australian trade relations with
Indonesia. "I hate saying stuff
like this but it really is the film
I am most proud of. And it’s
not that I want to be a political
creature in public," he adds,
"in that respect I see myself asthe Switzerland of the cele-
brity world, because I think
people should make their own
minds up and not listen to the
opinion of some actor."
This is typical LaPaglia:
unstarry and without an
overblown sense of his own
importance. The 50 year-old
credits his attitude to his age -
"when you’ve gone from the
myself too seriously," he
shrugs. "Australians are
more like the Brits in
the way that we can
laugh at ourselves. I
think it helps stop our
egos from getting tooout of control."
Love affair with EuropeLaPaglia also has
strong ties to Europe,
his mother was Dutch
and his father was a"fresh from the boat"
Italian immigrant. Al-
though he doesn't know
France as well as Italy,
his experience of the
festival and of Saint-
Tropez this time around
has been very favour-
able. "It's been won-
derful, everyone has
been so professional
and welcoming. Even thejournalists here have been
different: more knowledgeable
about cinema and interested in
the craft of film making. No one
has opened an interview by
asking me what my favourite
breakfast cereal is," he laughs. It
is, of course, my final question.
Before he rushes off to watch
Lucky Country, which is the final
screening in the festival’s Best
Film competition (Samson andDelilahultimately wins the prize),I suggest to LaPaglia that he
buys a bolthole in this part of
the world. "No really, I'm
thinking about it," he says
nodding seriously before
winking, "then I'd truly be a
citizen of the world.”
Balibo had its European premiere inLondon on October 20th and is ongeneral release in the UK this month.
Hannah Marshall
LaPaglia loved Saint-Tropez and the film festival
in South Australia.
Having been living in
the States for over thirty
years, he has no hint of
an Aussie accent
nowadays and he says,
without hesitating, thathe sees himself as an
American. However,
this doesn't mean he
hasn’t retained a great
love for his childhood
home. So much so, thathe couldn’t have been
more delighted to
receive an invitation
from the organiser of
the Cinema des Anti-
pode to come to Saint-
Tropez and represent
Australian film makers
on the festival's prize
committee.
A whirlwind world tour
The third annual Drives of Saint-Tropez was blessed with fine weather after a major storm
Roux portrays BB in an age of innocencebut differently." Roux
said he captured the
'flashes' of nature,
which is constantly
renewing itself.
"I came to Saint-
Tropez to live, to
paint, and to be liked.
And if one was never
sure of having suc-
ceeded, it was goodto receive a word from
the mayor: ‘My dear
Vincent, I wish you a
very happy 1985, and
thank you for being in
Saint-Tropez and giv-ing part of yourself to
this place, its history
and its spirit.’ " IB
turned blue and the Bay of
Saint-Tropez returned to its
more typical postcard beauty.
It had been enough for the
Indian player Ranjan Bakhshi,
Captain of the New Delhi
team, to steady his driver onthe first tee for the rain to
stop.
The level of play has
improved each year, and it
was clear by the end
It had seemed inevitable
that the Drives of Saint-
Tropez golf tournament
would be cancelled after
several days of heavy rain.
When the golf cart of the
organisers, Valentine Roy andPhilippe Soleillant, became
stuck in the mud a can-
cellation seemed certain.
But on the first day the skies
of the first day of thecompetition that the
real contest was
between two teams,
one led by Phil
Golding of the UK,
and the other led by
French champion
David Montesi.
The friendly com-
petition continued
off the course in
many of Saint-Tropez’ top venues.
Golfers take heart after weather swings
After another night of heavy
rain the sun shone again on
the players and favoured the
home side.
By the end of the two-day
event David Montesi was able
to dethrone Phil Golding. Theoccasion will be long-
remembered by all those who
took part. IB
Mayor Jean-Pierre Tuveri tastes the offerings
of some of the top chefs at the event
Just published in German,the wonderful coffee-
table book about Brigitte Bardot.Schwarzkopf &
Schwarzkopf Verlag, Berlin. Publisher: Edward
Sczesnak, Text: Manfred Hobsch. ISBN 978-3-
89602-934-8 – 29.90 euros (D)
Co-organiser Philippe Soleillant
with trophy winner David Montesi
8/4/2019 Interviews: Jane Birkin and Anthony LaPaglia
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Birkin is anything but a plain Jane
It's a visibly weary Jane
Birkin who greets me
backstage at the Grimaldi
Forum after her concert on the9th October. It's 11pm and she
is perching on a plastic chair
under harsh dressing room
lights, massaging her throat
and sipping tea.
After a two-hour perform-ance, in which the British-
born singer lit up the stage
with self-penned songs and
Gainsbourg classics, it is
hardly surprising that she's
exhausted. It also makes it all
the more impressive that, at
the age of 62, Birkin has
embarked on such a grueling
five-month tour.
“It's a town a day," she tells
me matter-of-factly, "actuallyit's a different country a day at
the moment. Last night I was
in Lisbon. I did the concert in
English, Portuguese and
French," she adds, as if the
travel and performance woul-
dn't be enough on their own.
The charming chanteuseHaving been in the music
industry for over 40 years,
you'd forgive Birkin if she
didn't have quite the same
enthusiasm for performing asshe used to. Yet watching her
captivate the crowd in
Monaco, chatting and
laughing with them as if
familiar friends, one senses
that she still enjoys wooing
her audience. For Birkin, a
revered natural beauty, has
certainly not lost any of her
seductiveness. This evening
she slinks around the stage in
6th October,
Birkin hadbeen at a
silent vigil in
Paris, which
she had org-
prison system in Britain and
taking me with him to
Battersea to visit poor, local
families. I suppose that Ialways had a secret longing to
be like him."
We can make a differenceBelieving in the "butterfly
effect", Birkin encourages
people to conduct their livesas well as they can. She
suggests going to the AmnestyInternational website and
signing a petition or sending a
manifesto to the UN;
boycotting unethical pro-
ducts; even sitting down and
writing a letter to the Home
Office, just as she did all those
years ago.
Of course, Birkin has come
a long way since her ownletter writing days. In recent
years she has witnessed the
effects of civil war in Bosnia
and Rwanda and she will be
returning to Palestine in the
near future. She says that
even when it's too late to stop
something horrific from
happening, you should never
be afraid to say sorry or show
that you care. She paid for her
own trip to Rwanda and took
her father's ashes with her, toscatter into a grave. "People
always try to stop me from
going to these places but I
won't be bossed about," she
says, her huge eyes flashing.
You don’t have to be in
Birkin’s company long to see
that you’d be crazy to even try.
Enfants d’hiver and Jane Birkinau La Palace are out now.www.janebirkin.net
Gainsbourg wrote for his wife
and she fondly recounts
stories about him throughout.
Enfants d'hiver As half of the most famous
couple in France, Birkin was
adopted by the French long
ago. She has also been known
to refer to Paris as home, once
claiming that if she were blindshe would know the city door-
to-door. Yet she continues to
have a strong emotional
connection to the UK too.
Many of the tracks on her new
album, Enfants d'hiver (on which
she sings her own lyrics for the
first time) are a nostalgic
recounting of her childhood in
Britain. In particular, she has
drawn on her memories of
running around wild beacheson the Isle of White with her
brother and sister.
Although Enfants d'hiver celebrates the freedom and
irresponsibility of being young,
Birkin admits that she was
only a girl herself when she
developed her powerful sense
of moral justice. "I remember
sending a letter to the Home
Office when I was very young,"
she laughs. "I got a reply back
saying that I was in a queueand that my letter was number
one million one hundred or
something like that. It didn't
matter; I felt that I was making
a difference. It was my father
[David Birkin, a captain in the
Royal Navy] who encouraged
me. He told me I could do
something. When I was
growing up he was
campaigning against the
stopped to make a heartfelt
speech about the situation inBurma before launching into
an emotional performance of
her song Aung San Suu Kyi.Singing Serge’s songs
At moments like these, it's
easy to forget that this is the
same Jane Birkin who
famously spent the Seventies
partying in Parisian bars with
her husband, the legendary
musician Serge Gainsbourg,
and causing controversy with
sexually provocative songslike Je t’aime...moi non plus .
It's thanks to Gainsbourg,
who she met on the set of the
film Slogan in 1968, that Birkin
swapped her native London
for Paris Their marriage lasted
13-years and even after they
separated they remained
close until Gainsbourg's death
in 1991. The current show
features a number of songs
men's suit trousers, a white
shirt, waistcoat and tie - an
ensemble put together by her
stylish daughter, Lou Doillon.Spreading the word Although she may have been
prancing around the Forum
like a carefree adolescent, the
woman I meet backstage
twenty minutes after thecurtain call is in a reflective
and serious mood. Touring,
she explains, isn't only about
the music: it's a way for her to
spread the
word, to pu-
blicise hu-
man rights
issues, to tri-
gger people
into taking
action.Illustrating
her point, she
talks at len-
gth about her
recent trip to Tokyo, one of the
first stops on the current tour.
During her flying visit she
attended a meeting with
Amnesty International and was
introduced to Japan's new
Minister for Social Affairs,
Mizuho Fukushima, and
Minister for Justice, KeikoChiba: two female politicians
pushing for radical reform in a
conservative and patriarchal
society.
With the state of the world
now on the agenda, Birkin sits
forward, becomes animated,
forgets about her sore throat.
It is clear what drives her
these days.
Only earlier that week, on the
anised to protest against the
Burmese military junta and
the imprisonment of Aung
San Suu Kyi. She was joined
by, among others, fellow
actresses Catherine Deneuve
and Charlotte Rampling. "It
was crazy," she rolls her eyes,
"the logistics of trying to lookafter all these celebrities."
Logistics aside, Birkin will
never be afraid to play the
fame card in the name of a
worthy cause and, unlike
many movie and music stars,
charitable work is not
something she does on the
side of her career.
Indeed, halfway through her
show at the Grimaldi she
Birkin is the ultimate chanteuse (left) but human
rights activism drives her to tour as much as music
Hannah Marshall exclusively interviews the chanteuse after her show in Monaco