Sex symbol of the age of innocence: Jane Birkin has died

76-year-old Jane Birkin, an actress, singer, style icon, whose cult was formed in the 1970s and will outlive his heroine, has passed away. She has been sick a lot in recent years. Jane Birkin died at home, alone, in the morning she was found by assistants who were monitoring her health.

She made her debut in British cinema of the Swinging London era. She played small roles in The Skill by Richard Lester and Blow Up by Michelangelo Antonioni. She starred in the French films “Pool” and “Slogan”, in the latter – with Serge Gainsbourg. In a duet with him, she recorded the single “Je t’aime moi non plus”, originally written by the musician for Brigitte Bardot. This song became a triumph and a scandal, was a huge commercial success, despite the fact that it was banned in several countries, afraid of going through the roof of sensuality. The single immortalized the charismatic couple. Their turbulent relationship, followed by the whole of France, lasted more than ten years.

A good professional actress, she has played with outstanding directors such as Jacques Rivette, Michel Deville and Bertrand Tavernier. Agnes Varda dedicated one of her best non-fiction essays to her. “Jane B. through the eyes of Agnes V.” shows the heroine at a critical moment in her career: she is just over forty, she just changed her image and from the “melancholy baby” and Gainsbourg’s loose girlfriend turned into a real diva. Varda sees her either as Jane, Tarzan’s lover, or as Joan of Arc, or as a dancer with castanets.

The camera slowly, as close as possible, floats along the body of the naked Birkin: in this frame there is as much sex as innocence and poetry – everything that was inherent in the era.

Birkin’s life has not been easy. She struggled with illnesses, recently suffered a stroke. Her daughter Charlotte Gainsbourgwho first became a successful actress, then a director, made a film “Jane Through Charlotte’s Eyes”. It is dedicated to her beautiful mother, with whom Charlotte used to have a difficult relationship. They were completely interrupted after the suicide of Jane’s eldest daughter, Kate Barry. The film became, among other things, an occasion to overcome alienation and admit: one was not an ideal mother, the other was a difficult child, but now they have nothing to share.

Jane in this picture is still beautiful in her naturalness, wearing wide jackets, jeans with Converse and often looking in mirrors. Mother and daughter talk about the men of their lives, and above all about Gainsbourg. For the first time in many years, they enter the house where they all once lived and where the things of the deceased have been standing and lying untouched since the day of his death in 1991. Jane admits that she is not able to part with old things: dusty boxes and boxes, papers and films, and even stuffed animals on bookshelves – all this cannot be thrown away, because everything is connected with the people of her life, relationships and feelings.

This personal, intimate attachment to the past unexpectedly, but naturally, manifested itself in the nature of Jane Birkin, who was constantly changing, while remaining herself. She became an animal rights activist and civil activist, working with Amnesty International. But internally over the years has not changed much.

Jane Birkin came to perestroika-era Moscow for the Author’s Film Week as part of a delegation from Paris. The soul of the company was Agnès Varda, inseparable from her then muse. Friends were taken around Moscow, trying to explain what the word perestroyka means in a mysterious country. Then Agnes went to bed, and Jane plunged into the nightlife. She appeared at press conferences at the last moment, without makeup, without hair, in a reddish-colored coat (I would like to say – on her naked body), which she dragged right here: Birkin was freezing all the time in Moscow. And when she got bored talking about the movie, she just wrapped herself in this coat, like a blanket, and fell asleep in front of everyone.

By that time, Birkin was already a style icon. The Englishwoman was called a siren and a rebel, the embodiment of casual Parisian chic. Hermes named a very expensive bag after her, but Jane herself preferred to walk around with wicker baskets, stretched sweaters and loose shirts, with a minimum of makeup and disheveled hair. Or in a coat like the one I first met her in. So my generation, and not only it, in some way came out of Jane Birkin’s coat.

Andrey Plakhov