[2010-01-05] Alizée in TECHNIKART Magazine

[Deepwaters]

I get the sense that Corsica is more old-fashioned in that respect than Paris. I'm judging this not only by Alizée but also by my Paris correspondent who was also born in Ajaccio.

It's not just the sexual explicitness, though. Mylène Farmer is sexually explicit but not "trashy" in that all of her songs in which she does sing of sexual themes are either romantic or sexually exciting (and often rather kinky). Madonna likewise. Also the late great Freddy Mercury of Queen. With Lilly Allen, I find myself going, "Wow, that's kind of gross." And I get the feeling that's the intent. She kind of reminds me of Julie Brown.

[Jess]

Although I can't speak for Alizée and what she really meant by that, Lilly Allen is pretty trashy in the sense that she has no class or very little of it. Just like Amy Winehouse she has been known to get drunk and rowdy, and have bar brawls. She is very loud, has a very dirty mouth and has very little regards for what others think. She has been questioned on interviews about her behavior and she has no problem accepting this, in fact she thinks it's funny and I would even say she is kind of proud of this. This is common behavior for a lot of English people from what I've bean told, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't include all the English.

[wasabi622]

Mylene Farmer.. she knew what she was doing with Alizée.

She made her perfect. Sexy, seductive, but at the same time, unbelievable adorable and I-bet-you-want-to-cuddle-cute. But the cream on top was Alizée's seemingly very genuine personality!

The sexy image Farmer created, not so common.

[FanDeAliFee]

Originally Posted by Jess

...Lilly Allen is pretty trashy in the sense that she has no class or very little of it. Just like Amy Winehouse she has been known to get drunk and rowdy, and have bar brawls. She is very loud, has a very dirty mouth and has very little regards for what others think. She has been questioned on interviews about her behavior and she has no problem accepting this, in fact she thinks it's funny and I would even say she is kind of proud of this. This is common behavior for a lot of English people from what I've bean told, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't include all the English.

If the <i>Wikipedia</i> article about Allen is on the mark, socially, she does indeed seem to be a wantonly disrespectful, even callously hurtful, person. I have to shake my head in dismay at how the manifestly contrived social outrageousness of 1980's-era US "professional wrestling" seems now to embrace ever-wider circles of Western society.

[Rev]

Originally Posted by Deepwaters

She does slip now and then. And it's true, and amusing from this side of the pond, that the French and English really don't like each other. It looks a lot like sibling rivalry to me.

I may have to side with the French on this one. My Uncle dealt with the English on an international (law) committee, and he said they looked down on everyone else. He couldn't stand them because of their generally condescending attitude.

Originally Posted by Jess

Although I can't speak for Alizée and what she really meant by that, Lilly Allen is pretty trashy in the sense that she has no class or very little of it. Just like Amy Winehouse she has been known to get drunk and rowdy, and have bar brawls. She is very loud, has a very dirty mouth and has very little regards for what others think. She has been questioned on interviews about her behavior and she has no problem accepting this, in fact she thinks it's funny and I would even say she is kind of proud of this. This is common behavior for a lot of English people from what I've bean told, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't include all the English.

Is she an East Ender?

[Nafas]

From the interview:

"She lent herself to the game joyfully and had an answer for everything, speaking each time with enthusiasm and frankness with regard to the connection between the hit I played and her life: the anxiety of remaining a one hit wonder, the separation with Mylène Farmer, bad sales, the reprise of Julien Doré, being number 1 at 15 years of age, a star in Mexico, her connection with the elite, her coquettish image, her collaborations with Daniel Darc and the lyricist of Bashung... [note: to remind you, Jean Fauque also wrote for Bashung who is really big in France (see wikipedia)]"

who are these "elite", and what is their business with Alizée?

I ask this because i think the MJ video has a deeper meaning (wonderland and mind-manipulation)
I think there might be a connection.. someone help me out?

[Chuck]

Originally Posted by Nafas

I ask this because i think the MJ video has a deeper meaning (wonderland and mind-manipulation)
I think there might be a connection.. someone help me out?

"Wonderland And Mind Manipulation"? (Nafas, if you're going to put your font in color, don't choose white next time - too hard to see!)

All I know about this is that I've written things in these pages in the past, suggesting that there are veiled references to Mylène* in several of the songs in Psych. I'm not sure what else you may be referring to when you imply that "mind manipulation" may have deeper meanings. But in any case, yeah, the song seems to be against mind manipulation. (Unlike all those other "pro-mind-manipulation" anthems out there - loq)

"Wonderland?" Beats me, and I was just playing my old Jefferson Airplane L.P. a half hour ago. Surrealistic Pillow - the one with the song "White Rabbit" on it. Y'know? "Go ask Alice when she's ten feet tall.. (Hey, maybe THAT'S the connection!!??) White Rabbits - eh, sometimes they're Red Herrings, and sometimes they really are just regular rabbits that are white.

As far as connections with the elite, well, she's been on the inside track of the French entertainment biz since starting out with MF/LB. She didn't have to start out in clubs or touring or toiling for years, as most usually do. So yeah, she's just a little (tiny) bit spoiled. There. I said it.

Why do you need to know? You're not writing a doctoral thesis about "Mademoiselle Juliette", are you?
_______________________

*For what it's worth, nobody (including me) thought my "wild theories" about Psych actually proved anything. It was just surmising.

[CFHollister]

I'm coming to this thread very late, something I am regretting very much. I haven't had time to read any of the posts since the first.... Simply commenting on the original post/articles:

All I have to say is: WOW! Je t'aime, Alizée

This article, what the author has to say about Alizée and what Alizée herself has to say, very much reinforces all the deeper qualities which make me an enduring fan of Alizée rather than just having a passing interest: How her kindness, demeanor, and thoughtfulness are made apparent to author and readily related to the audience; and her integrity both personally and as a performer/artist.

Roman, thank you for the referral.

WOW

[FanDeAliFee]

Originally Posted by Deepwaters

Watch the video I linked of "It's Not Fair." In that song, Allen is singing in quite graphic terms of a thoroughly inadequate, inconsiderate lover. "Lying in the wet spot in the middle of the bed," "spending hours giving head," references to the classic wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am, I can see where Alizée would say that she could never do anything like this because she's too modest.

I think that's what she meant by "trashy."

Originally Posted by docdtv

I agree with you, Deep. Alizée favors a more modest, circumspect, implied sexuality, of which I think the <i>Mademoiselle Juliette</i> music video is our best example. For example, the women in the bathtub are surely nude, but not even their breasts are visible to the camera. Someone's hair is indeed being tenderly handled, but not a more intimate body part.

Originally Posted by Deepwaters

These are not subjects for polite conversation in mixed company, however much one may sympathize with the poor dear.

Originally Posted by docdtv

I think that is true for pre-Baby Boom generations and some of the Baby Boom itself. But among Americans, I have found that the later someone was born, and the more formal education they have, the more likely they are to treat such a taboo with contempt or even amusement. The subject of the sexual selfishness of men has long been a staple of chat shows, and not just those led by professional sexologists like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Westheimer">Dr. Ruth Westheimer</a>

The material above is from a posting I titled: <i>A time, place, and context to discuss everything requiring discussion?</i>

This morning at about 7:10am Eastern US time, I learned more about the Corsican girl when <i>Limelight by Alizée, la radio officielle d'Alizée</i> played for me Lily Allen's <i>It's Not Fair</i>, albeit without the slyly disorienting C&W announcer setup one sees in the music video version.

The betting window is now taking odds on whether Alizée would countenance Photoshopping her head into the revealing photo of the rudely gesturing Lily Allen <a href="http://www.beersteak.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/lily-allen-pussy-flash-landing-strip-no-panties-upskirt-01.jpg">here</a>. Note to Talmudic scholars: What is the aesthetic and moral difference between doing that and posing in the same manner for a photo yourself? Do different considerations about social signaling apply when one is playing a staged role or participating in spontaneous, personal social life? In which of these spheres, or both, do "publicity" media fall? And one final brain teaser: If Alizée were to use her personal digital artistry to synthesize "provocative" photos of Mylène Farmer (<i>sic.</i>) with the latter's acquiescence, using <a href="http://bellsouthpwp.net/d/o/docdtv/Technology/VirtualActors.htm">state-of-the-art-technology</a>, who would be posing that way? Alizée? Mylène? Both?

For additional background material, see: <a href="http://alizeeamerica.com/forums/showpost.php?p=159035&postcount=18"><i>Alizée, sex and AAm culture</i></a>

[Roman]

Originally Posted by Fenris

Got the mag today. For anyone who is interested, here are the parts with Chateau Marmont and Rob (don't know if this is already posted):

Image quality is not the best, but schould be readable.
Just don't expect me to translate it all...

And better late than never, here is my translation of the Château Marmont interview:

The quartet Château Marmont composed four (captivating) morcels for the ex-Lolita.

They still dreamed of her
Albeit they have still not released an album, Château Marmont find themselves parachuted into the principal composer of "Une Enfant du Siècle". How have they gone from underground senation to the accomplice of a popstar? Story of a dream become Alizée.

We came to know Alizée through Jean-René Etienne, who prepared the artistic direction of her new album. He suggested that we make a piece for her, we wrote something, she liked some of it, then we went to the studio, one thing lead to another and we found ourselves with four pieces on the disk.

Alizée's demand: good pieces. She was very open throughout the production of the disk. Jive/Sony had it once it was done, they liked it, this was a value beyond estimation. There were no compromises. We proceeded with carte blanche. (They had no interference by Jive/Epic/Sony. They could do whatever they wanted. I would add, perhaps because Alizée decided it would be that way. She produced the thing and licenced it to Sony.) We made some pieces that were more pop, more singing, some feminine. We especially thought of productions like the album of Adjani writen by Gainsbourg, of Glass Candy, of an ambiance femino-retro-futuristico-French. But our mode of creation has not budged a bit because of it. If you calculate your music based on how it will sell, it's dead, opportunism has rarely gone beyond the short term. Obviously we want it to do well, to be heard. We did things as we felt them, while realising for whom we were doing it. We did a thing which we are proud of, now it's kind of, the die is cast. No one has the secret to success. Except perhaps Phil Spector or Pharrel Williams. Financially, it's also not negligeable, it allows us a greater autonomy for what comes next.

Your favorite hits? Missy Elliott, Madonna "Music", Kylie Minogue "Can't Get Out Of My Head", all that club stuff like Imagination or Chic, the first U2 stuff, Elton John, 80s stuff like Nick Kershaw or even Jacky Quartz. 80% of the stuff they play on Nostalgie (a radio station). We make no bones about it. The first hits from Alizée produced with Mylène Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat? Who are they?

We make music very influenced by synth music, and unfortunately we are no longer in the era when one could hear "Oxygene" or "Radioactivity" on the radio, when Kate Bush was at the top of the charts. If recent years and their dumbing down had not existed, we might be at a stage where our music would appeal to a maximum of people. Who would not want their music heard by everyone? To become mainstream, if that means having greater means, turning towards better conditions while keeping total control, that's great. If it means having your face everywhere (in the press, for example) and 125 people to talk to for a yes or a no, that's less great. As long as you can continue exercise and create your art as you heard it from the beginning, it's cool. It's no doubt necessary to know how to make some compromises at certain times, that's all. In no case, sell off your music (I think that means make something just because you think it will sell rather than because it's your own expression of art). But, for the moment we aren't doing anything for it (?), there's nothing to do but listen to the ouverture of our new disk.

France being a country with a shitty mentality, where everyone judges in permanance, takes their opinion from the majority, or alternately knocks down to distance onself and stroke one's petty ego, it's difficult to put out something different destined for the general public, people aren't necessary open minded, they can quickly criticize things with which they no longer have a connection. (??) Anyway, we made a thing very accessible, and we mustn't exaggerate either. The risk for us is that one will propose a reiteration of the experience. We would be delighted to. We're not exactly trying to come off as erudite, it's the perception of people who tend toward that. The border between mainstream and underground is sometimes so slight musically.

Quite sincerely, it is a dream for us to work with a mainstream singer. But, we were thinking more about anglo-saxon artists like Britney or Fergie. We never would have thought about French artists. Yet, Alizée took the risk of innovation, novelty, and when you really think about it, it's hard to see how anyone else could have done that.

compiled by B.S.