Ex-Fan des Sixties

French Pop Wednesday y'all.

Jane Birkin was the long-standing muse of France's pop libertine Serge Gainsbourg - he kept writing whole albums for her even after they separated. This is the title track from her weird 1978 album 'Ex-Fan des Sixties' - I think they broke into the set of Welcome Back, Kotter to film the video. See, we had Patsy Gallant on our variety specials; France had Jane Birkin on theirs.

(Thanks, Pollyscake!)

Death By Keytar

The Euro is the only currency my mind can accept right now, sorry.

This band is called 'Fox The Fox'.



(Thanks, Xuanxusep.)

Let The Sun-In Shine

Woke up this morning, polished off a bottle of Drakkar Noir and stumbled across this vintage (1987) bit of Euroschlock - they're called Blue System. The lead singer looks a bit like if Nick Nolte were the lead singer of Kajagoogoo. The song is called 'Sorry Little Sarah' and he should be.

(Thanks, Heinzix.)

Eurobics

From the Grabbies200 youtube page - more EuroMadness - this time in the form of Italy's Heather Parisi and her 80's Spandex Squadron. This song is called 'Disco Bambina'.

I'm on a Eurotrash kick now and who knows when it will end?

A Little Marcy Music

Little Marcy. God's Wholesome Little Puppet.

I knew Little Marcy was a prolific Christian recording artist - but it didn't occur to me until tonight that there was video evidence of her existence.

Little Marcy sounds like a demonically-possessed Blossom Dearie. I first heard her one Sunday afternoon on college radio in Montreal. You know the Christianity's working when you listen to Little Marcy or look at one of her album covers and aren't weirded out.

There was a great Little Marcy bio page on the Sharpeworld site but it has since gone 404. I did find her myspace page - it's sort of a VC Andrews© thing though, because I think the woman who did the act is dead.

I think this video is one of those things where you watch it and then the phone rings and you die a week later, so be warned.



Fudgeland, Jesus wants you for a sunbeam!

Seowl

This is how they sold television sets in South Korea in 1970.



(Thanks, NudeViking.)

The House I Grew Up In

French Pop Wednesday - time for some Françoise Hardy.

This week I saw the documentary Is It Really So Strange?, which documented the unexpected following Morrissey and The Smiths have cultivated amongst young Latinos in Los Angeles. One of the people interviewed in the documentary told of when he was working at his record store job a couple of years ago, when Morrissey himself walked up to him and asked him if they carried any of Françoise Hardy's records. The guy went looking through the store and saying "I'm sure I've heard of him, but I'm not sure if we carry any of his records." Eventually Mozza corrected him. The star-struck fan's illusions of Morrissey were shattered minutes later when he spotted the singer checking out his own section in the store before jumping into his convertible and driving off.

Here's another clip from Françoise Hardy's 1965 TV monochrome special Hardy Show - 'La Maison Ou J'ai Grandi'.



(Thanks, Soleysoley.)

Hungarian Hasselhoff

The Knight Rider world tour continues.



(thanks, Maackers.)

La Cavalière Du Knuit

Here's a commercial for a very short lived action series that ran on Quebec's 'Quatre Saisons' channel in the early 90's. It was a Québécoise version of Knight Rider - literally. It starred the female Rene Simard of her day, Celine Dion, as a fresh-faced young singer by day who by night prowled the streets of Montreal as an avenging angel. Her future husband Rene Angelil did the voice of C.H.A.T., the talking car. I think Genevieve Bujold played the Edward Mulhare part. Anyway, it was cancelled after only 30 seconds.

(Merci, Bullchef.)

Pop 84

Righeira brings it on - behold, their freak international hit 'No Tengo Dinero' - no relation to Bananarama's 'Robert DeNiro's Waiting (Talking Italian)' from the same era; Righeira, though Italian, are actually talking Spanish.

This video has it all - Roy Lichtenstein and Mondrian references, Robocop shades, shoulder pads and a liberal use of stock footage.

(Grazie, Grabbies200.)

Grand Prix Eurovision

We have a winner for this year's Eurovision pop song contest. Calling themselves Lordi, this Gwar cover band from the planet Klingon, representing Finland (much in the way Celine Dion has represented Switzerland in previous competitions) have pulled off a convincing win in this annual ritual which is televised across Europe, wherein most every country (even Israel!) submits an ear-splittingly bad, crowd-pleasey song that must also clock in under 3 minutes; a disturbing percentage of the European populace then vote for their favourite. Historically, the only winning songs that were actual big hits outside of the Caring-About-Eurovision community were "Poupee De Cire Poupee Du Son" by France Gall (which some of you may know) and this. Oh yeah - Sandie Shaw won the grand prize with "Puppet on a String"; she hated having to perform this song so much that she quit showbiz. Lordi's winning song was called "Hard Rock Hallelujah".

My video store was renting a free tape of a Eurovision contest from the mid 90's. So I rented it. I think Latvia won. Or one of the Benelux countries. I can't remember because I went into a diabetic coma about an hour into it. It was a glorified jingle-fest - the sonic equivalent of a CIA-sponsored sugary breakfast cereal marketed in countries where they are also trying to rig the election.

But this year the Eurovision voters went all avant-garde on us, eschewing the likes of Heino, t.A.T.u. and The Kelly Family to select in their collective wisdom a band you can totally see performing in a club scene if they ever restart the Crow film franchise. The no-doubt significant Anti-Lordi vote must have been split across the other contestants, allowing the remaining bloc of Europeans who had been scared into voting for them after seeing their flame-soaked performance on the show, along with the small but crucial suburban Eurogoth swing vote, to crown these Scando cockrockers the champions. Kudos, Eurovision; you fell so far behind that now it looks like you're in the lead.

Later this year NBC is launching a singing contest based on the Eurovision model - each state of the Union participating. Expect a country singer to win. Not a Lordi cover band from West Virginia.

P.S. - The song performed by Ireland tonight was called 'Every Song is a Cry for Love'. That's one way of putting it.

Mini to the Max

If it's Mercredi, this must be French Pop.

This week's selction is from Jacques Dutronc, i.e. The Luckiest Man Alive, since he was the guy who got to marry Françoise Hardy. This amazing clip is from Françoise's phenomenal black and white TV special 'Hardy Show' from '65. What's the point of having a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame if they haven't put Dutronc in it already? He's been eligible for about 15 years.



(Merci bien, Warranderj.)

Spit Take Mondays

Don't read this excerpt from the wires with a drink in your mouth.

Chris Rock has signed on to direct the comedy I Think I Love My Wife for Fox Searchlight says The Hollywood Reporter. The film, a remake of Eric Rohmer's 1972 French comedy Chloe in the Afternoon, centers on...

(!)

Junk Filter Gems

This saucy bit of spam prose was entitled "Anyone can hate. It costs to love".

The Return of Cookie Puss

These ads have not lost their power to disturb.

Can you still get Carvel ice cream?

Has anyone been able to get through to Cookie Puss on that 1-800 number?



(thanks a mizzle, Brengibble.)

Marketing 101: The All-Important 'Confusion Dollar'

Soon to be heard at the local Blockbuster, over at the 'previously enjoyed' sell-off shelf:

"Is this the one with the guy from Black Hawk Down in it?"

La Lolita Des Comix

It's French Pop Wednesday here at the Telekino Blog.

From the 1966 Serge Gainsbourg TV musical Anna - here's the future ex-wife of Jean-Luc Godard herself, Anna Karina, belting out the song 'Roller Girl'. And I do mean belting. This isn't even the best part of the movie.

I showed Anna at a my first Telekino screening a couple of years ago (my copy was in French with Japanese subtitles so I showed it for free). I went over to the Soundscapes record store to see if I could put up a poster there and the guy behind the counter, instead of being happy he lived in a town where a Serge Gainsbourg movie was being shown, said "Oh yeah, I've got a copy of that. Mine has German subtitles but it's missing the last couple of minutes."

No doubt I'll have more to say about this film, but for now, feast your eyes.

(Video found on Spikedcandy's virtual Scopitone...)

Right On, Sister

from PostSecret this week - file under V for Vendetta.

You are not alone.

Devil Child

So the remake of The Omen is coming down the pipeline. Are there any films from the 70's that haven't been remade or revisited? I read the other day that Bryan Singer is planning an official Logan's Run remake (as opposed to the unofficial one - The Island) and Ashton Kutcher has apparently gotten the green-light for a modern version of Shampoo, so I guess the only things left from the 70's to remake are The Greek Tycoon, Harry and Tonto and Pete's Dragon.

The clever release date of The Omen (06/06/06) got me thinking: there must be lots of women around the world scheduled to give birth that day - aren't some of them worried they might be spawning the son of Satan? And isn't one of them right? Mia Farrow's in the remake, and she should know. I hope she's playing the nanny at the birthday party.

Third Time's the Charm

So this Mission Impossible: III thing is coming out tomorrow. And I find myself at a crossroads. For pretty much most of Tom Cruise's career, I've been maintaining a pretty honorable attendance record where his movies are concerned, guided by the Auteur Theory - I see the ones directed by major directors and avoid the ones by more middle-of-the-road filmmakers - so that means Eyes Wide Shut but not Vanilla Sky, Born on the Fourth of July but not The Last Samurai, Magnolia but not Far and Away, Collateral but not A Few Good Men. Tom Cruise is a cipher on the screen most of the time - I enjoy him most when a director works hard to wipe that smirk off of his face over the course of the film (most notably in Minority Report and Magnolia). Didn't like the first two M:I films much, but had to go, since DePalma and John Woo were the respective directors.

So what to do here? JJ Abrams - he's the TV guy, right? What to do, what to do. How do I rationalize going to see it? I know - I'll use the excuse I used to make to justify seeing the later Bond movies; I would only go to them based on who's playing the bad guy, as in Christopher Walken in A View to a Kill or Robert Davi in License To Kill. So you say Philip Seymour Hoffman, as the evil arms dealer, is in charge of the smirk-wiping? I guess I'm in. Thank God for the Rainbow Cinema downtown - home of the $4.25 matinee. Have to cut my losses somehow.

Hungarian Persuasion Techniques

Hungarian TV commercials from the 80s, courtesy of my latest hero, BigTeebo.