Saturday November 8, 2003

The Guardian
Intriguing intersection of lives: dith !iaf and "ean #octeau

dith !iaf and "ean #octeau died on the same day$ #octeau,
chivalrous at the last, obeyed the rule of ladies first$ %&h, la !iaf est
morte,% he said on the morning of 'ctober (( ()*3$ %"e +eu, mourir aussi$%
-&h, !iaf.s dead$ I can die too$%/ &nd then he +rom+tly died of a heart
attac0$ 'r so legend has it$
1ut in these matters, legend is all2im+ortant, 3hile 3hat actually
ha++ened concerns only those 3ith no imagination or soul$ No doubt this is
3hat 3as going through the mind of !iaf.s second husband and final lover,
the actor Th4o Sara+o, 3hen he +ut her cor+se in his car and headed for
!aris shortly after she died of cancer$ 5e had to race against time to ma0e
it loo0 as if the great 6rench singer had died in her !aris a+artment,
because that is 3hat her fans 3ould have e,+ected of her 2 faithful to no
man, but ever faithful to !aris$
It 3as !iaf.s funeral not #octeau.s that brought !aris to gridloc0$
'ne of her lovers, the singer and actor #harles &7navour 83hom !iaf hel+ed
to launch in sho3business9, said that her funeral +rocession mar0ed the
first time since the end of the second 3orld 3ar that !aris traffic had come
to a com+lete sto+$ 1ecause of !iaf.s louche life 2 the lovers, the boo7e,
the drugs 2 the archbisho+ of !aris forbade her a mass: none the less, her
funeral at !;re <achaise 3as mobbed by =0,000 fans$
6orty years on, the roles are reversed: !aris can tal0 of nothing
but "ean #octeau$ &n 8*=2+age biogra+hy has >ust been +ublished by Gallimard
to coincide 3ith the anniversary of his death$
&n e,hibition devoted to #octeau at the !om+idou #entre has its o3n
=?02+age catalogue, sho3casing the dis+lay of )00 ob>ects that tries to
convey his many talents in +oetry, cinema, music and art$ There are )?0ft of
glass cases sho3ing his boo0s and 3ritings, 32 audio2visual installations
3ith film cli+s, 33? dra3ings and 300 +hotogra+hs$ In the visitors boo0,
there are many messages hailing this multi2media hoo+la, and suggesting ho3
the e,hibition demonstrates the cultural su+eriority of 6rance over the
barbarian @S$
It.s all very different if you 3ant to commemorate !iaf.s death in
!aris$ There is no big retro s+ective at the !om+idou for her, no im+robably
fat biogra+hy$ True, you could station yourself at a +avement caf4, order a
bottle of Aubonnet, +ut her greatest hits on your +ersonal stereo and cry
your mascara runny$
'ther3ise, though, you should ta0e the B4tro to Benilmontant in the
((th arrondisement, a delightfully +icaresCue !arisian Cuartier, to visit
the a+artment that houses the dith !iaf museum 2 as long as you boo0ed an
a++ointment first$ 'nce there 8a tiny +laCue outside reads %<es &mis d.dith
!iaf%9, you must climb four flights because the a+artment bloc0 has no lift$
The director, 1ernard Barchois, 3ill escort you through the museum.s t3o
small rooms, to the constant soundtrac0 of !iaf chansons$ 'n dis+lay is a
life2si7e cardboard cutout of !iaf 8all five feet no inches of her9 ne,t to
a giant teddy bear, given to her by Sara+o$ There are her tiny shoes 8si7e
3=9, her tiny dresses, her many gold and +latinum discs and other
memorabilia$ Dou can buy an dith !iaf 0eyring if you 3ant$
&+art from sharing the same death date, 3hat did the adorable Gallic
ba3ler and the often2derided aesthetic gadfly have in commonE In origins,
not much$ #octeau 3as born into a bourgeois family on "uly ? (88)$ 5e
described his mother as a %madonna s3athed in velvet, smothered in diamonds,
bedec0ed 3ith nocturnal +lumes, a glittering chestnut tree, s+i0ed 3ith rays
of light, tall, abstracted, torn bet3een the last +rom+tings to be good and
one last loo0 in the mirror%$ 5is father, a la3yer and amateur +ainter,
committed suicide 3hile #octeau 3as a child$
!iaf, by contrast, 3as born in the gutter 2 although one sus+ects
that legend, again, trum+s 3hatever really ha++ened$ She 3as the daughter of
an Italian singer and a 6rench circus acrobat, and 3as originally called
dith Giovanna Gassion$ 8The name !iaf 3as given to her later by a nightclub
o3ner 3ho gave her her first brea0: it is !arisian slang for s+arro3$9
&ccording to legend, she 3as born outside F2 rue de 1elleville on Aecember
() ()(?$ 5er t3o mid3ives 3ere local gendarmes, one of 3hom shielded the
birth from +ublic ga7e 3ith his ca+e$ Neither of her +arents 3as ready to
loo0 after such a sic0ly baby, so she 3as +ac0ed off into the care of a
madame of a Normandy brothel$
She remained there until she 3as seven, 3hen she >oined her father,
a travelling sho3man, on the road$ &t (? she started singing in a duo 3ith a
3oman called Simone 1erteaut, 3ho 3as destined to become her misguiding
s+irit$ It 3as 3ith 1erteaut that she 3or0ed the streets as 3ell as treading
the boards, before bursting on to the inter3ar cabaret scene$
Ghat could !iaf and #octeau have in commonE &fter all, he 3as a
+recocious +oet, a friend of !icasso, a collaborator 3ith Satie, Stravins0y
and Aiaghilev: a self2conscious artist 3hose films, +lays, gra+hic art and
novels dre3 on a Gree0 classicism tem+ered by a gras+ of modernist art and
the vicissitudes of fashion$ &ndr4 Gide and the surrealists hated his
shtic0$ &s for !iaf, her aesthetic consisted in the e,+ression of emotion in
+o+ular song$
&nd yet these t3o 6rench legends 3ere soul mates in one res+ect:
their lives, or rather the legends of their lives, rivalled and +erha+s even
trum+ed their art$ In !atric0 Bauri;s.s lovely essay on #octeau, he suggests
that #octeau +ut more of his genius into his life than his 3or0$ &dmittedly,
you could hardly say the same for !iaf$ The boo7ing and unha++y love affairs
hardly amount to an e,+ression of genius$ 5er life 3as certainly not
arranged according to some intentional +ro>ect$
The intriguing intersection of their lives has received negligible
attention: in 6rancis Steegmuller.s ?)(2+age #octeau biogra+hy, for
instance, there are only three entries under !iaf$ ven 3hen a biogra+her
does allude to their relationshi+ it consists only of a tantalising
reference to <e 1el Indiff4rent 8The 1eautiful Indifferent9, the +lay
#octeau 3rote for his little s+arro3 in the early years of the second 3orld
3ar$
&t the time #octeau 3rote it, !iaf 3as living 3ith the actor and
singer !aul Beurisse$ #octeau thought Beurisse 3as a dull bourgeois un3orthy
of his beloved s+arro3$ So he 3rote a +lay about their relationshi+ 3ith the
aim of sho3ing !aris that the +assionate, man2hungry, boo7e2thirsty,
life2devouring !iaf 3as shac0ed u+ 3ith a cold fish, and also 3ith a
+o3erful desire to drive the +air a+art$ Then 2 3hat chut7+ahH 2 he
inveigled !aul and dith to +lay themselves self2destructing on stage$
1ut 3as it #octeau 3ho tore them a+artE This much is suggested in
&nnie #aulfield.s recent Iadio = +lay !iaf and #octeau$ In her +lay, #octeau
is de+icted as a master of +sychology in luring !iaf to +erform in a +lay
and convincing her that it 3ill ma0e the ob>ect of her affections besotted
3ith her, 3hen really he is intending the reverse$
Shortly after the +air a++eared together in a long2forgotten film
called Bontmartre2sur2Seine, !iaf fell for Norbert Glan7berg, a "e3ish
+ianist, and someone 3ho a++ealed to her taste for +rovocation$ It 3as also
+otentially a very dangerous affair for both +arties given that she 3as
+erforming for high2ran0ing Germans at the 'ne T3o T3o #lub in !aris$
5er +erformances at the club earned her the right to +ose for +hotos
3ith 6rench +risoners of 3ar 3hom she visited in the stalags, ostensibly as
a morale2boosting e,ercise$ 'nce in +ossession of their celebrity +hotos,
+risoners 3ere able to cut out their o3n images and use them in forged
+a+ers$
The only love of !iaf.s life, the bo,er Barcel #erdan, died in an
air2crash over the &7ores, and follo3ing that great loss, her final years
became a series of dashes bet3een clinics 83here she 3as treated for
mor+hine and alcohol addiction9 and recording studios$
#octeau, though, 3as res+onsible for re>uvenating her career as it
3ent into a +o+ular tails+in in the early ()?0s: one night he found her
singing in some grim !arisian dive, and 3rote an article that dre3 attention
to her talents again$ She even a++eared in a revival of <e 1el Indiff4rent,
o++osite her then husband the singer2com+oser "acCues !ills$
!erha+s as Sara+o drove u+ from the south of 6rance 3ith the cor+se
of !iaf in his car he had learned, as so many of !iaf.s lovers did not, 3hat
love 3as all about and 3hy it 3as im+ortant$ Sara+o arguably learned his
love lesson from !iaf in a recording studio the +revious year 3hen he
collaborated 3ith her in a duet called & Juoi #a Sert l.&mourE 8Ghat.s the
!oint of <oveE9$
5e had no e,+erience of singing, but she taught him enough to get
through the recording convincingly$ The conceit of the song is that he has a
lo3 o+inion of love, 3hile she, 3ith her lifelong e,+erience of +assion and
loss, understands it all too 3ell$
&t the end of the song he sings: %If I have understood correctly
3ithout the +leasures and +ains of love, fran0ly 3e have lived for nothing$%
Baybe his understanding made the drive bac0 to !aris easier$ 5e 3as living
for something, if only the loving +reservation of a legend$
K Bus4e dith !iaf is at ? #res+in du Gast, !aris$ Aetails: 00 33 ( =3 ?? ?2
F2$ "ean #octeau: Sur le 6il du Si;cle is at the #entre !om+idou, !aris,
until "anuary ?$ Aetails: 00 33 ( == F8 (2 33$
L Guardian Ne3s+a+ers <imited 2003