After Hours

Françoise Hardy. Message personnel

Here we have the lovely FH singing one of the more popular seventies French ballads. Me, I think it's, like, sappy city, but what do I know? It's very French, which may explain why it's actually in French. For example, there's a lot of this when-you-say-stay-I-want-to-go-but-when-you-say-go-I-want-to-stay-and-I'm-really-afraid kind of stuff. But honestly, I can't see anybody navigating through life with the assistance of this song. Imagine how unfortunate that would be. Anyhow, there was a version of this in 8 Women. Isabelle Huppert sang it - not altogether badly. Her voice is - what's the right word? - distinctive. It a little rough and raspy, but she gets the job done just fine. Of course, she does even better with all that talking before the singing. Anybody can talk - except maybe for people who are mute - so that goes off without a hitch. Here's that version:

I have no idea where this falls in the film. I seem to recall that many of the songs have nothing to do with what's happening onscreen. That was one of my major beefs with it. Also, it wasn't that great of a film unless your only goal in life is to see Catherine Deneuve sing. Like almost everybody else in the cast except Isabelle Huppert, she does a fairly poor job. Speaking of Catherine Deneuve, I'll feature her tune tomorrow. That should be a reason to get out of bed. Or maybe not.