A yeah-yeah girl was too pejorative a word to depict Françoise Hardy who has just died ;unlike the other French female pop girls, she wrote at least half of her material, her lyrics were far beyond those of her colleagues; besides,she was an icon , admired by English and American rock stars such as the Beatles, Jagger and Dylan ; the latter demanded the singer be in the theater when he performed in Paris 1966.
The doc focuses on the swinging sixties ;as Hardy ,like most of the songwriters ,could not write music ,she had to use a would be co-writer Roger Samyn to be in the SACEM (French body responsible for collecting and distributing music royalties).
For ,this is pivotal, Hardy ,unlike most of the pop stars of the first half of the sixties,did not do covers of English songs ;you can hear all her classics -but the depressing "mon amie la rose" - including one of her rare covers ,Adriano Celentano's grandiose "la maison où j'ai grandi."
She was a German student and thus could sing in this language ;ditto for English :too bad the doc does not include her original "all over the world" (dans le monde entier ) and opts for two Buffy Sainte-Marie songs ("until it's time for you to go" and "take my hand for a while ")
She was photographer Jean-Marie Périer's fiancée before her affair with singer Jacques Dutronc whom she eventually married and with whom she had a son ,who would become a singer like his parents ;both men appear in the doc .
At the end of the sixties ,she colaborated with singer/songwriter extraordinaire Serge Gainsbourg who wrote her latter sixties days biggest hit "comment te dire adieu ".
The early seventies were years in the wilderness (though it spawned one of her very best songs , the haunting "si je m'en vais avant toi" heard in the doc twice (the second time as a duet with Etienne Daho.)
IN 1973,her Michel Berger- produced "message personnel" brought her back to the charts ; then followed an experimental period she 's not very proud of ; in the eighties, the title of the doc (the discreet girl" ) was appropriate .Astrology became her raison d'être .
In the nineties,she was hailed by a new generation of singers such as Etienne Daho and even foreign ones :Eurythmics covered her international anthem "tous les garçons et les filles", Jimmy Somerville "comment te dire adieu" ,she made a special appearance on a Blur album.
In the naughties ,she became ill (lymphoma). In the last twenty years ,she showed resilience,courage and her magnificent adieu "tant de belles choses" .
The doc talks about her marriage to Dutronc ,and points out that,from "message personnel" onwards ,many of her songs were messages to him.
An interesting doc,but at a running time of 53 min,it's inevitably too short;Françoise deserves more.
