Francoise Hardy. these men who loved her so much but whom she did not love

The only time I met Françoise Hardy was in the mid-2010s, almost 10 years ago. I was going to her house for an interview to appear in a magazine obsessionis a complement New observer, beyond any promotion, to discuss his obsessions, tastes, influences together through the prism of his career. The interview took place in the afternoon at his home on Foch Avenue, just before he moved to 16th South.^e district His house was legendary. he had received several journalists there and was happily telling the geography of the place. She lived on one level and Jacques Dutron, her husband, on the upper level. But he was never there. he settled in Corsica, where he rarely moved. Thus, François Hardy gave the impression of living alone, in a form of solitude that seemed to suit him very well. Opening the door, I saw how well this 70-year-old woman has preserved her beauty, her powerful charm, her flawless air of bronze. Beyond all the gloom came a strength and certainty that was quite unusual. However, he was already tired, or at least it was that day, a Saturday afternoon, and he immediately asked me if he could do the interview with his legs stretched out on the couch. The interview took place like this, in this position, which relaxed him, a tape recorder between us and me, stuttering out my questions.

“Accept everything so that you don’t stay”

Very quickly, his words moved from childhood (“As I grow older, I think more about my childhood. The images reappear. It’s not so much the rue d’Aumale that comes back to me as the suburbs of my grandfathers, Aulnay Sauce. -Bois, rue du Tilleul.”) to love and its vicissitudes. His lovers too. To the question: what kind of man is chasing you? He answered: “A man who doesn’t give up. A man who can make you believe that you mean a lot to him, and who can give you the opposite impression the next second. When you are obsessed with someone or something, it narrows your awareness and makes you blind to the outside world. I have long believed that love is synonymous with self-sacrifice. This leads to an inadequate attitude, behind which the fear of being left in general remains. This is the song “Ne me leave pas” by Jacques Brel. “Let me be the shadow of your shadow, the shadow of your dog…” This is my example. accept everything so you don’t stay.

Dylan, Drake and Bowie

Accept everything, but perhaps also see nothing of other people’s interest in you; Long loved by the stars, Françoise Hardy readily admits she saw nothing, wanted to know nothing. “I was not aware of the impact I could have. A year ago a fan sent me some 1960s shows I was singing that I had never seen. Some shots were so beautiful that I was more or less aware of the effect I could achieve at the time.” he confessed to me that day. Among those who admired him, expressed their love during their interviews, were Mick Jagger and David Bowie. About the latter. “I attended almost all of his concerts in Paris, but I never went backstage to greet him, because he disturbed me a lot. And then one day he personally invited me to a concert in Bercy. He waited for me, alone, at the entrance of the artists… After his show, he accompanied me to the exit. She wore a black robe and black slippers embroidered with small flowers. It was very surprising.”

Equally infatuated with her, Bob Dylan wrote her love letters in the early 1960s from a Parisian cafe, not daring to send her one but doing it anyway. On the back of his album cover Another side of Bob Dylanhe recalls it in one of the poems that can be read there; Editor’s note)

The depressed English singer and songwriter Nick Drake, the author of three cult albums, was very interested in the French singer, who everywhere claimed to love his records. At that time, Françoise Hardy was one of the few who did so or even listened to him. There are several versions of their common history. it is said that he went to her house with his producer and that he spent time in the studio listening to her. But all this in complete silence, Nick Drake was very shy like him. Romantically speaking, nothing would happen here either. The singer still told rock and folk In 2000, their last meeting. Nick Drake wanted to see her, he called her, but she was busy with a concert and took him there to see another French singer, Véronique Sanson. Some time later, Nick Drake committed suicide and over the years his legend grew, making him one of the great geniuses of English music of the last 60 years.

Love of life

In the end, despite all these insanely talented suitors, Françoise Hardy only had love for one man, Jacques Dutron, the father of her son Thomas. On the day of the interview, she always spoke of him as elusive. “We can’t talk to him. All that is left unsaid. Very difficult. More or less put up with it. The few times I do it anyway, I get angry because he doesn’t listen to me as much as I’d like. There is nothing more annoying than trying to explain something to someone who after a while asks you a question, showing that they are not listening at all. Jacques reminds me a bit of the Consul in Malcolm Lowry’s novel; Under the volcano. He is very clear and sharp, but because he is not always sober, he is unable to listen, especially to someone he knows very well. Or he hears, but does not remember.”

Is it this love that is so complicated, but that keeps him so long and makes him so alone? That day he was filled with this feeling. “I feel good in solitude. Reading has always been my favorite pastime. I never tire of reading the melodramatic novels of the likes of Henry James or Edith Wharton. Henry James, for example, is so acute, subtle, nuanced in his analysis of feelings, that we tell ourselves that he knew all this very intimately, although he seems to have had no personal history. With her, like Edith Wharton, but unlike Jane Austen, stories end terribly badly.” His music is not finished, it comes back to us, it never gets old and continues to fuel our failed loves. Who hasn’t fallen in love with Françoise Hardy one day?