The Song, the Film, the Artists
François Truffaut featured the song “Le Tourbillon” in his 1962 film Jules et Jim. Serge Rezvani (born in Tehran as Cyrus Rezvani, 1928-) wrote the song in 1957, several years before the film.This song was not written specifically for the film and the film’s overall musical score was written by Georges Delerue, a prolific and highly regarded French composer.
Serge Rezvani
Serge Rezvani is one of the less-known artists on this website, perhaps a result of his “jack-of-all-trades” ("touche-à-tout") approach to artistic expression, his confusing use of pseudonyms and his reclusive lifestyle. Ironically, he has outlived most others of his generation and remains active as of this writing in 2024 having reached the age of "cent moins cinq ans," as he says.
His Persian father (Medjid Khan Rezvani) was a ballet dancer and magician noted particularly for his trick “Les coussinets de la princesse” (“The Cushions of the Princess”) or “cups-and-balls with tomatoes.” His Russian-Jewish mother had emigrated to Persia during the Russian Revolution and met his father in a refugee camp where he was interpreter. After a year she took little Cyrus to France. He spoke only Russian until the age of 7 but learned French at a succession of boarding schools and pensions established to accommodate White Russians. His mother died in 1938 and his father, who was also established in France, recovered him against his will. It was not a successful relationship and during his unpleasant youth Serge navigated among various temporary lodgings for Russian emigrés. In 1943, at the age of 15, he landed in Paris and enrolled at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Montparnasse to study drawing and painting and until 1946 he worked in the studio of painter Othon Friesz. Until 1967, painting remained his primary occupation.
His Persian father (Medjid Khan Rezvani) was a ballet dancer and magician noted particularly for his trick “Les coussinets de la princesse” (“The Cushions of the Princess”) or “cups-and-balls with tomatoes.” His Russian-Jewish mother had emigrated to Persia during the Russian Revolution and met his father in a refugee camp where he was interpreter. After a year she took little Cyrus to France. He spoke only Russian until the age of 7 but learned French at a succession of boarding schools and pensions established to accommodate White Russians. His mother died in 1938 and his father, who was also established in France, recovered him against his will. It was not a successful relationship and during his unpleasant youth Serge navigated among various temporary lodgings for Russian emigrés. In 1943, at the age of 15, he landed in Paris and enrolled at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Montparnasse to study drawing and painting and until 1946 he worked in the studio of painter Othon Friesz. Until 1967, painting remained his primary occupation.
Rezvani painting circa 1947
Rezvani quixotically described himself as “un pluri-indisciplinaire” (a person of multiple “indisciplines”) and claimed that “his arrow had several trajectories.” In general sequence, these overlapping trajectories included abstract painting until about 1967. Beginning in the 1950s, he started writing music and lyrics informally and ultimately completed about 150 songs. Along the way, he authored 40 novels, 15 plays and 2 collections of poetry. During his later years he shifted back to painting but in a figurative style. What he apparently meant, addressing these episodic shifts between diverse modes of artistic expression, was that they all worked to the same end.
Lula and Serge Rezvani
In 1950, Rezvani met his future wife Danièle Adenot (1930-2004), whom he called Lula. Her father, Jean-Noel Adenot, was chef de cabinet for the President du Conseil (Prime Minister) in France and her family did not welcome the liaison of their 19-year old daughter with a Jewish-Persian emigré. Lula spent her childhood in Toulon on the Côte d'Azur and became a clothing designer.
After they married in 1952, Serge and Lula eventually moved from Paris to an Italianate dwelling located in a forest surrounded by 7 hectares of trees and plants in the Maures mountains' medieval hamlet of La Garde-Freinet, just outside St. Tropez. They named the house La Béate (bliss, blissful) and it became their refuge and their Eden. They lived there for 40+ years, while spending 6 months each year in Venice. Serge claimed that during that time they were never apart for a single day, night or meal. Their nearby friends and neighbors in Provence included Jeanne Moreau and her first husband Jean-Louis Richard, while other neighbors were British director Tony Richardson and actress Vanessa Redgrave.
After they married in 1952, Serge and Lula eventually moved from Paris to an Italianate dwelling located in a forest surrounded by 7 hectares of trees and plants in the Maures mountains' medieval hamlet of La Garde-Freinet, just outside St. Tropez. They named the house La Béate (bliss, blissful) and it became their refuge and their Eden. They lived there for 40+ years, while spending 6 months each year in Venice. Serge claimed that during that time they were never apart for a single day, night or meal. Their nearby friends and neighbors in Provence included Jeanne Moreau and her first husband Jean-Louis Richard, while other neighbors were British director Tony Richardson and actress Vanessa Redgrave.
In the late1950s, Rezvani transitioned from painting and turned to writing songs, which he later claimed served as a bridge to writing novels, plays, essays and poems. Encouraged by the gift of a guitar from singer friend Francesca Solleville, Serge initially intended to amuse his wife Lula with his tunes. He adopted the pseudonym Cyrus (or Boris) Bassiak (“barefoot” or “tramp” in Russian) to differentiate his musical activities from those as a painter and writer. He recalls that he only knew three chords on the guitar at the time and didn't write music. Therefore, he never became a certified composer and remained a “melodist” in the eyes of professional bodies. This required him to register his songs co-signed by a certified composer at the cost of a portion of royalties. Over the years, he created an informal collection of songs recounting his experiences and reveries that he referred to as “une sort de journal chanté.”
Rezvani originally composed Le Tourbillon (The Whirlwind) in the mid-1950s to describe the turbulent relationship he observed between actors Jeanne Moreau and his best friend Jean-Louis Richard, who were entwined in a marriage of convenience that featured successive separations and reconciliations ending in 1951 after two years of marriage. In words from the song: “Chacun pour soi est reparti dans l’tourbillon de la vie” (“Each on his own left again into the whirlwind of life”). It became part of the repertoire of songs that Rezvani wrote and shared when their circle of close friends, including François Truffaut, got together in Provence or Paris for elaborate soirées featuring good food, card games and song. Many of these events were associated with “vernissages” (private openings) for exhibitions of Rezvani’s art.
Jeanne Moreau
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Jeanne Moreau (2028-2017) had become an actress of note first on stage and subsequently in films. Born in Paris, her British mother was a dancer at the Folies-Bergère and her French father was a restaurateur who owned La Cloche d’Or on rue Mansart in Montmartre. This was a food and watering hole for writers, actors and artists near the Moulin Rouge. Familiar with the artistic milieu, he discouraged Jeanne’s interest in dancing and acting. She nevertheless began her theatrical career in 1947 at the Comédie-Française and in 1949 began acting in films. By 1959, she had appeared in films by Louis Malle (“Les Amants” and “L’Ascenseur à l’Echafaud”) and others. In 1961 François Truffaut invited her to take the starring role as Catherine in Jules et Jim.
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Truffaut based his third film, Jules et Jim, on a 1953 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name written by Henri-Pierre Roché (1879-1959). He was a journalist/art collector/dealer with links to many famous artists. The film tells a story of three people, two male friends and a woman, with mutual attraction but divergent personalities, as the song goes: “We got to know one another, got to know one another better, lost sight of each other, found each other again, then we separated, then we warmed up to each other again” (“On s’est connu, on s’est reconnu, on s’est perdu de vue, on s’est retrouvé, puis on s’est séparé, puis on s’est réchauffé”).
During filming at a chalet in the Vosges, a time arose when the crew's morale was low due to technical mishaps and budget problems. Truffaut gathered the troops for a hootenanny and, familiar with Rezvani’s roster of songs from their prior social engagements, he filmed him on guitar with Moreau singing Le Tourbillon. He added the scene in impromptu fashion to the film. He felt it fit well with the overall spirit of the movie’s 25-year topsy-turvy “love triangle” between Jim (Henri Serre as a French Bohemian), Jules (Oskar Werner as an Austrian friend), and Catherine (Jeanne Moreau as Jules’ girlfriend). The film was a watershed in the careers of Truffaut, Moreau and Reznavi. The film as well as the song became icons in the emergence of French New Wave cinema.
During filming at a chalet in the Vosges, a time arose when the crew's morale was low due to technical mishaps and budget problems. Truffaut gathered the troops for a hootenanny and, familiar with Rezvani’s roster of songs from their prior social engagements, he filmed him on guitar with Moreau singing Le Tourbillon. He added the scene in impromptu fashion to the film. He felt it fit well with the overall spirit of the movie’s 25-year topsy-turvy “love triangle” between Jim (Henri Serre as a French Bohemian), Jules (Oskar Werner as an Austrian friend), and Catherine (Jeanne Moreau as Jules’ girlfriend). The film was a watershed in the careers of Truffaut, Moreau and Reznavi. The film as well as the song became icons in the emergence of French New Wave cinema.
Moreau later worked in films directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, John Frankenheimer, Orson Welles, Tony Richardson and others. Orson Welles succinctly summed up her thespian chops when he called her “the greatest actress in the world.” Her final film role was in 2015, two years before her death in Paris. Her performance of the song Le Tourbillon became a cult phenomenon and led to subsequent recordings and roles as a vocalist. In 1963, immediately following Jules et Jim, Jacques Canetti recorded her first album of songs. It was titled 12 chansons de Bassiak, written by Cyrus Bassiak (Serge Rezvani) and then again in 1967 12 chansons nouvelles by Bassiak.
In 1965, when Jean-Luc Godard was filming in Provence, he heard Moreau’s rendition of Le Tourbillon on his car radio. When he learned that he was only a few kilometers from Rezvani’s house, Godard pulled up one day at 7 a.m. and auditioned Rezvani’s latest songs. Two of them soon appeared in Godard’s 1965 film Pierrot Le Fou, sung by Godard’s wife Anna Karina. These songs were: “Ma Ligne de Chance” and “Jamais Je ne t’Ai dit que Je t’Aimerai Toujours.” Thus, Serge Rezvani (aka Cyrus Bassiak), an unschooled 3-chord guitar strummer, collided with opportunity to become an "accidental musician of New Wave cinema" ("Musicien de la Nouvelle Vague--malgré moi," in his words). He followed with contributions to movies like “The Sailor from Gibraltar” and the last segment of a 3-part film called “Red, White and Zero.”
By 1967, however, Rezvani abandoned his budding career in music and turned to writing although various artists petitioned him to write songs for them and continued recording covers of his existing songs. During the 1970s and after, he published autobiographies and novels, many of which revolved around Lula, and he returned in the 1990s to painting in a figurative style.
By 1967, however, Rezvani abandoned his budding career in music and turned to writing although various artists petitioned him to write songs for them and continued recording covers of his existing songs. During the 1970s and after, he published autobiographies and novels, many of which revolved around Lula, and he returned in the 1990s to painting in a figurative style.
Lula by Rezvani
His wife Lula died in 2004 after a 10-year bout with Alzheimers. During this time they were victimized by a local mafia in the region that preyed upon ageing retirees who had migrated to the area. In a poignant coda to their relationship, Rezvani wrote a book in 2003 titled L’Eclipse recounting her 10-year decline and the thoughts it elicited about the meaning of love and personhood when faced with a disease that a specialist described to him as "death without a cadaver." He depicts Lula on the cover of his book with her distinguishing features turned from the world. Lula's own journal was published posthumously in 2022 under the title "Les Carnets de Lula."
Rezvani remarried with French actress Marie-José Nat in 2005 and moved to Corsica where she was born. Productions Canetti published an album-hommage to Jeanne Moreau in 2017, the year of her death, called “Le Tourbillon de Ma Vie” that featured 29 of Rezvani/Bassiak’s songs written for her, including previously unreleased ones.
Rezvani remarried with French actress Marie-José Nat in 2005 and moved to Corsica where she was born. Productions Canetti published an album-hommage to Jeanne Moreau in 2017, the year of her death, called “Le Tourbillon de Ma Vie” that featured 29 of Rezvani/Bassiak’s songs written for her, including previously unreleased ones.
The history associated with “Le Tourbillon” and its protagonists highlights the adage that reality sometimes trumps fiction. At a philosophical level, the notion of “whirlwind” seems to imply impersonal forces that suck one into a vortex of uncontrollable events and suggests a lack of agency. In contrast, one might note that those very forces can arise from human actions and personalities who are themselves adept at navigating the turbulence of chaos.
The “tourbillon” (whirlwind) recounted in the song had a succession of incarnations over the years that swirled around Jeanne Moreau. As mentioned, Rezvani originally wrote the song in 1957 based on his observations of the relationship between Moreau and her husband Jean-Louis Richard. François Truffaut subsequently used the song as a musical metaphor for the relationships between the three characters in his film “Jules et Jim.” Finally, in the years following the film, Rezvani’s neighbor, director Tony Richardson, pursued an affair with Jeanne Moreau which led to divorce between Richardson and Redgrave but no marriage between Richardson and Moreau. Moreau’s other reported liaisons included Miles Davis, Pierre Cardin, Louis Malle, William Friedkin (marriage 1977-79), Lee Marvin and Truffaut himself. As Moreau described her view on life: “Living is risking.” She commented to the New York Times: “life is going up until you are burned by flames.” Despite the gusts and comings-and-goings over the years, most of the people caught in the “whirlwind” chose to remain close to the eye of the storm while often left bobbing in its wake.
There is a video clip on YouTube that shows the movie sequence from “Jules and Jim” with Jeanne Moreau singing “Le tourbillon” and Serge Rezvani accompanying on guitar. The owner of that clip has excluded it from sharing on other sites, so we cannot show it here. However, readers can access it directly themselves on YouTube. Below, we share an audio-only version of the song from Jeanne Moreau’s CD/DVD “Succès et Confidences,” released by Jacques Canetti Productions. Readers can listen to the music and follow the lyrics in the translation. Moreau's verbal gymnastics are remarkable. Linguists may find it particularly exciting for its use of past tenses and reflexive verbs. Readers who view the original YouTube clip can note that about ¾ of the way through the clip Moreau makes a discrete hand gesture revealing a bit of fluster that she mixed up the words but she continues with a radiant smile. Despite the slip-up, Truffaut was charmed and chose to use this rendition in his film.
The song has 10 stanzas of which 5 have 4 lines; they alternate with 4 stanzas that have 5 lines, while the last stanza has 6 lines of which the last 3 lines are identical. There are rhymes, but no consistency emerges in the patterns.
The “tourbillon” (whirlwind) recounted in the song had a succession of incarnations over the years that swirled around Jeanne Moreau. As mentioned, Rezvani originally wrote the song in 1957 based on his observations of the relationship between Moreau and her husband Jean-Louis Richard. François Truffaut subsequently used the song as a musical metaphor for the relationships between the three characters in his film “Jules et Jim.” Finally, in the years following the film, Rezvani’s neighbor, director Tony Richardson, pursued an affair with Jeanne Moreau which led to divorce between Richardson and Redgrave but no marriage between Richardson and Moreau. Moreau’s other reported liaisons included Miles Davis, Pierre Cardin, Louis Malle, William Friedkin (marriage 1977-79), Lee Marvin and Truffaut himself. As Moreau described her view on life: “Living is risking.” She commented to the New York Times: “life is going up until you are burned by flames.” Despite the gusts and comings-and-goings over the years, most of the people caught in the “whirlwind” chose to remain close to the eye of the storm while often left bobbing in its wake.
There is a video clip on YouTube that shows the movie sequence from “Jules and Jim” with Jeanne Moreau singing “Le tourbillon” and Serge Rezvani accompanying on guitar. The owner of that clip has excluded it from sharing on other sites, so we cannot show it here. However, readers can access it directly themselves on YouTube. Below, we share an audio-only version of the song from Jeanne Moreau’s CD/DVD “Succès et Confidences,” released by Jacques Canetti Productions. Readers can listen to the music and follow the lyrics in the translation. Moreau's verbal gymnastics are remarkable. Linguists may find it particularly exciting for its use of past tenses and reflexive verbs. Readers who view the original YouTube clip can note that about ¾ of the way through the clip Moreau makes a discrete hand gesture revealing a bit of fluster that she mixed up the words but she continues with a radiant smile. Despite the slip-up, Truffaut was charmed and chose to use this rendition in his film.
The song has 10 stanzas of which 5 have 4 lines; they alternate with 4 stanzas that have 5 lines, while the last stanza has 6 lines of which the last 3 lines are identical. There are rhymes, but no consistency emerges in the patterns.
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Elle avait des bagues à chaque doigt Des tas de bracelets autour des poignets Et puis elle chantait avec une voix Qui, sitôt, m’enjôla Elle avait des yeux, des yeux d’opale Qui me fascinaient, qui me fascinaient Y avait l’ovale de son visage pâle De femme fatale qui m’fut fatal De femme fatale qui m’fut fatal On s’est connu, on s’est reconnu On s’est perdu de vue, on s’est r’perdu d’vue On s’est retrouvé, on s’est réchauffé Puis on s’est séparé Chacun pour soi est reparti Dans l’tourbillon de la vie Je l’ai revue un soir, aïe, aïe, aïe Ça fait déjà un fameux bail Ça fait déjà un fameux bail Au son des banjos je l’ai reconnue Ce curieux sourire qui m’avait tant plu Sa voix si fatale, son beau visage pâle M’émurent plus que jamais. Je me suis soûlé en l’écoutant L’alcool fait oublier le temps Je me suis réveillé en sentant Des baisers sur mon front brûlant Des baisers sur mon front brûlant On s’est connu, on s’est reconnu On s’est perdu de vue, on s’est r’perdu de vue On s’est retrouvé, on s’est séparé Puis on s’est réchauffé. Chacun pour soi est reparti Dans l’tourbillon de la vie. Je l’ai revue un soir ah! là là! Elle est retombée dans mes bras Elle est retombée dans mes bras. Quand on s’est connu, quand on s’est reconnu Pourquoi s’perdre de vue, se reperdre de vue? Quand on s’est retrouvé, quand on s’est réchauffé Pourquoi se séparer? Alors tous deux on est repartis Dans le tourbillon de la vie. On a continué à tourner Tous les deux enlacés Tous les deux enlacés Tous les deux enlaces. |
She had rings on every finger, Heaps of bracelets around her wrists And then she sang with a voice Which immediately seduced me. She had eyes, opal eyes, That fascinated me, that fascinated me There was the oval of her pale face, A femme fatale who was fatal for me A femme fatale who was fatal for me. We met each other, we knew each other, We lost sight of each other, again and again, We met again, we warmed up to each other again. Then we separated Each on his own left again Into the whirlwind of life. I saw her again one evening, oh oh oh, It’s been a really long time now, It’s been a really long time now. At the sound of banjos I recognised her This curious smile that so attracted me Her voice so fatal, her beautiful, pale face Moved me more than ever. I got drunk listening to her, Alcohol erases time, I woke up feeling Kisses on my burning forehead Kisses on my burning forehead We met each other, we knew each other, We lost sight of each other, again and again, We met again, we separated, Then we warmed up to each other again. Each on his own left again Into the whirlwind of life. I saw her again one evening, oh là là ! She fell back into my arms She fell back into my arms. When we met, when we knew each other Why lose sight of each other, again and again? When we met again, when we warmed up to each other again Why separate? So both of us left again, Into the whirlwind of life. We continued to whirl Both of us entwined Both of us entwined Both of us entwined. |
NB:
- Être connu et reconnu: this common phrase means “known” and “recognized,” “acknowledged” or “appreciated” in which “reconnu” carries a higher level of appreciation than “connu.”
- Ça fait déjà un fameux bail: the word “bail” means “lease” as in a rental, but informally it means “a long time.” The word “déjà” (“already”) amplifies the connotation and the word “fameux” amplifies it even further: “it has really been quite a while.”