AFP, published on Monday, April 18, 2022 at 9:00 p.m.
Béatrice Dalle, Jarvis Cocker or even Arthur H: this is the royal cast of the Printemps de Bourges for the farewell to the stage of Brigitte Fontaine, 82, an intractable singer, between poetry and sweet madness.
Obviously, “la Reine des Kékés”, nickname inherited from her album “Kékéland”, does not do the agreed to evoke this show, scheduled for Wednesday. The telephone interview with AFP is like her, apart.
When we say the words “farewell to the scene”, the singer-songwriter défouraille: “It’s absolutely stupid, I never said that, nor the opposite either. All that, it’s a fabric of lies, + farewell to the scene +, it’s ridiculous”. “Like saying that I’m a huge artist, it’s completely ridiculous, I’m a + modern poetic thriller +”. A “modern poetic thriller”, therefore.
Another flash when we talk to him about certain guests for his evening, such as the musician Rebeka Warrior or the actress Anna Mouglalis: “They say that I chose people that I really like, but I don’t know them, that’s how it starts and how it ends, I don’t know if this evening will take place for me, the others will be there”.
– “Fucking Night” –
“Brigitte, we are passionate liars, we will do whatever you want, has fun with AFP Boris Vedel, director of Printemps. She wanted to call this evening + Closing Night + (closing night) but now she wants + Fucking Night+”.
Insisting, the singer dwells on the guests she appreciates. “Béatrice Dalle, we’re a bit of friends, she almost acted in a play I had written but it didn’t happen”. “Philippe Katerine, oh yeah, I really like him, as well as Arthur H”. “Jarvis Cocker (ex-leader of Pulp), I really wanted him, he will certainly participate in my next album, just like Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth, his group, was already present on + Kékéland +, he will not be in Bourges )”.
Because the adventure therefore continues on disc, even if the glitches of health move it away from the scene.
What she slips in passing, questioned about her memories of Printemps, where she performed in 1978.
“I don’t really have any memories. I don’t see the future, I’m too myopic. The present: I have a lot of pain everywhere, the vertebrae, the diaphragm, the gums, the teeth, the feet, but it is not very interesting the state of health”.
Before ending the conversation (“you’ll see what the evening will be like if you come, I never know before”), she makes a final compliment. “Kervern and Delépine are not boring in their work, I like them a lot, they are nice”.
– “A revolt” –
“Ah, I thought she was going to say + I hate them + (laughs), I’m glad we escaped her anger”, comments to AFP Gustave Kervern.
With his accomplice director Benoît Delépine, he will reinterpret on stage one of his songs “C’est normal”.
“There is always substance with it, social, a revolt, in this song there is a fire in a building occupied by undocumented migrants”, complete for AFP Benoît Delépine.
Kervern and Delépine made it turn in their film “Le grand soir”. “We filmed her on video surveillance crossing the parking lot of a hypermarket with a cheese trolley, she cursed and made people who were hallucinating move aside”, recalls Delépine. “She wanted to wear her leather helmet which she puts on whenever she is south of the Loire (laughs)”.
“She represents poetry, the absolute unpredictable. She has a way of playing with words, seizing them, which belongs only to her”, underlines Delépine again.
“We want to pay tribute to him so much, through his personality and his work, he is a treasure of this country, develops Kervern. His speech is free when everyone practices the language of wood. It is unique, we can expect everything, even that she is not in Bourges (laughs)”.