VINTAGE (CCLI)

Romy Schneider & Michel Piccoli - "La Chanson D'Hélène"

"This song, lyrics and music, was written by Phillipe Sarde when he was 25, for the 1970 Claude Sautet movie, Les Choses de la Vie. I only played it about thirty times the first day I heard it—in the bathroom as I shaved, drinking coffee when friends came over in the morning, late afternoon while sorting through some old papers, photos & magazines. Cooking. I think the only listening condition I missed out on was falling rain. Utterly melancholy and very, very beautiful. In the movie, Romy as Hèlène had been Pierre’s mistress for a while and he’s saying it’s finished now, he doesn’t feel anything anymore... the planes will be leaving without us. While she still loves him, it looks as if the separation is as drenched with regret for him as it is for her. Though less devastating than Piccoli's lyric—he’s saying outright I don’t love you anymore, we have to change our memories—Romy's lines, because they are full of resignation, seem infinitely sadder. Tu ne m'aimes plus, je regarde le soir tomber dans les miroirs. C'est ma vie. Le soleil n'y entrera plus... (You don't love me anymore. I watch the night fall in the mirrors...it's my life. The sun will never come back...). I don't really know much about Romy but it seems to me—it's in her every breath and word and look—that she could find her way around the world of loss blindfold. Perhaps, once, she had lived the song" (Peter Milton Walsh/The Apartments)