Michel Legrand (1932-2019): 6-10/1/25

[Roger Webb]

I've just watched it, thanks, Roger....I confess to never having seen Meow Meow. That's quite a voice and her style and the song very much reminded me of Barbara, who I have adored for years. Thanks for this.
Yes, Sète is just an hour from me...and the home of Georges Brassens, too, of course.

Meow Meow's 100 Gauloises-a-day style contrasts with the original sung by Corinne Marchand here...

https://youtu.be/cZ3YkZbfHOM?si=6HDgGKi1xcJ5CzBc

Notice the young Legrand coaching Cléo from the piano.

I used to walk along the street where this was filmed (Rue de Campagne Première) to get to Boul. Montparnasse from where I was staying and look up to try and see the studio in which it was filmed. The street is mainly on the itinerary of film buffs because the final scene of 'A bout de Souffle' in which Jean-Paul Belmondo is gunned down by the police was shot there.

I've always wanted to visit Sète - have you seen the jousting contests they hold there from boats, as seen in La Courte Pointe?

[gurnemanz]

I've just watched it, thanks, Roger....I confess to never having seen Meow Meow. That's quite a voice and her style and the song very much reminded me of Barbara, who I have adored for years. Thanks for this.
Yes, Sète is just an hour from me...and the home of Georges Brassens, too, of course.

We hadn't seen her before enjoying her contributions to Barry Humphries' marvellous Weimar Cabaret show at the Cadogan Hall a few years ago. review

[vinteuil]

I've always wanted to visit Sète - have you seen the jousting contests they hold there from boats, as seen in La Courte Pointe?

... son and his girlfriend spent a week there last summer and loved it. They saw the rehearsals for the jousting ; they were less keen on the local speciality - octopus pie...

.

[Roger Webb]

.......they were less keen on the local speciality - octopus pie...

.

Tentacle pie is one thing........a diplomat friend on being posted to Jordan in the 70s was invited to try the local delicacy Sheeps' Testicles Stew.

[french frank]

nothing from his superb album with Natalie Dessay Entre Elle Et Lui

This thread led me to discover Dessay's duet with Camille Berthault of Les Don Juan, Dessay being a favourite performer of mine. After reading this post I tried a track of Elle et Lui. It led me to wonder what the connection is between extensive knowledge and personal taste. In other words, does knowing more 'refine or 'improve' your own taste?

[smittims]

When listening to singers, I think it should improve your taste (thugh of course it may make you dissatisfied with those you've enjoyed previously) . This has been my experience, and I think many people I hear praising today's singers (some of whom can barely 'sing' at all, in my opinion) have never listened to Elisabeth Schumann, Lotte Lehmann, Alexander Kipnis or Anton Dermota.

[vinteuil]

... does knowing more 'refine or 'improve' your own taste?

so many questions embedded in that short clause.

What does 'knowing more' entail?
'refine' of course not the same as 'improve'
what would 'improve' mean here?
"your own taste" - in contradistinction to others' taste?
"taste" - ah, now there's a big box of wriggly worms. Up in the loft I have half-a-dozen books and more about what was meant by 'taste' in eighteenth century Europe (I don't have the strength to go and get them, let alone the enthusiasm I suppose I once had to re-peruse... )

Bref - not sure I can mount a worthwhile response...

.

[french frank]

Bref - not sure I can mount a worthwhile response...

I'm not sure that anyone would want to . But I would say that I'm not sure that there is, or why there should be, any connection between an individual's personal taste (what they like/prefer) and what they 'know' objectively (as knowledge gained from experience or intensive study) to be 'good' or 'bad' in their simplest senses. Where does 'taste' stand in relation to objectivity?

I'm not 'sniffy' about the music (unless saying it's not what gives me any listening pleasure amounts to sniffiness); nor is (in the case of the second track I listened to) my strong dislike a statement on anyone else's taste, knowledge or expertise - though I suspect in some cases that feeling is not reciprocated

[vinteuil]

... I'm not sure that there is, or why there should be, any connection between an individual's personal taste (what they like/prefer) and what they 'know' objectively (as knowledge gained from experience or intensive study) to be 'good' or 'bad' in their simplest senses. Where does 'taste' stand in relation to objectivity?

... Kant's is perhaps the best initial addressing of this question -

https://iep.utm.edu/kantaest/#H2

.

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aesthetic-judgment/

.

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-aesthetics/

.



.

[Ein Heldenleben]

This thread led me to discover Dessay's duet with Camille Berthault of Les Don Juan, Dessay being a favourite performer of mine. After reading this post I tried a track of Elle et Lui. It led me to wonder what the connection is between extensive knowledge and personal taste. In other words, does knowing more 'refine or 'improve' your own taste?

All depends what you mean by “refine.” In my twenties I probably wouldn’t have liked the album as I’m not fond of opera singers (other than Marilyn Horne and a few others) doing jazz. I think the way Dessay does it she more than gets away with it. But the other singer Patricia Petibon has really got the musical genre in her bones , the way she pronounces frites in the immortal couplet

Elle voulait de nous faires des erudites
Et pour cela vendit toute sa vie des frites.

sends a frisson every time I hear.

I think my tastes have got broader with age and knowledge whether they are more refined I wouldn’t like to say.

[Serial_Apologist]

Tentacle pie is one thing........a diplomat friend on being posted to Jordan in the 70s was invited to try the local delicacy Sheeps' Testicles Stew.

Otherwise known as Baa Humbugs.

[MickyD]

Meow Meow's 100 Gauloises-a-day style contrasts with the original sung by Corinne Marchand here...

https://youtu.be/cZ3YkZbfHOM?si=6HDgGKi1xcJ5CzBc

Notice the young Legrand coaching Cléo from the piano.

I used to walk along the street where this was filmed (Rue de Campagne Première) to get to Boul. Montparnasse from where I was staying and look up to try and see the studio in which it was filmed. The street is mainly on the itinerary of film buffs because the final scene of 'A bout de Souffle' in which Jean-Paul Belmondo is gunned down by the police was shot there.

I've always wanted to visit Sète - have you seen the jousting contests they hold there from boats, as seen in La Courte Pointe?

I always mean to go and see it each year, but the event gets bigger and bigger with far too many tourists clogging up the place. It has also become something of a draw for the French too as a very naff soap opera uses it for frequent location filming.

[Roger Webb]

I always mean to go and see it each year, but the event gets bigger and bigger with far too many tourists clogging up the place. It has also become something of a draw for the French too as a very naff soap opera uses it for frequent location filming.

The most used place in England as a period drama set is Laycock near Bath, I have friends who live there and their TV aerials come down about once a month. Any 'drama' that starts with a coach-and-four will have some scenes filmed there!

[Sir Velo]

The most used place in England as a period drama set is Laycock (sic) near Bath

Or, a few miles up the A420, Castle Combe (of Dr Dolittle fame).

[Ein Heldenleben]

Or, a few miles up the A420, Castle Combe (of Dr Dolittle fame).

As a keen student of such mundanities I reckon it’s the Royal Naval College in London which is used all the time about in film / tv London street scenes (and for other cities ) from about 1780 to 1950. Unlike just about any where else - it’s big and is completely closed off so you can have the commune in Les Miserables rioting there or a London street scene from the war.