Marie Laforêt

Biography

Marie Laforêt (born Maïtena Marie Brigitte Douménach; 5 October 1939 – 2 November 2019) was a French singer and actress, particularly well known for her work during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1978, she moved to Geneva, and acquired Swiss citizenship.

Birth name

Her first name Maïtena, which is of Basque origin, means "beloved" and is sometimes used by the inhabitants of Languedoc, especially in the Pyrénées.
Douménach, her last name, is Catalan in origin – Domènec in Catalan. Her birth name and her repertoire, which included pieces inspired from world folklore, have led to speculation of an Armenian origin of her parents. The singer herself used to define herself sometimes as "ariégeoise", i.e. from the region of Ariège in the south of France.

Early life and education

Marie Laforêt was born on 5 October 1939 at Soulac-sur-Mer, in the Médoc region of France, to Jean Doumenach and Marie-Louise (née Saint Guily). Her father's family were originally from Olette, a village in the Pyrénées Orientales on the border of Têt. Her father was an industrialist and served in the military in World War II. Her paternal great-grandfather, Louis Doumenach, headed a textile factory at Lavelanet in Ariège and her uncle, Charles-Joseph Doumenach, was a colonel and municipal counsellor. During the Second World War, Laforêt's father was a prisoner of war in Germany until the end of the war. At the age of three, Laforêt suffered a sexual trauma which affected her for a long time. During the war, the Doumenachs found shelter at Cahors and in Lavelanet. After the war, the family moved to Valenciennes where the father led a factory for railway utensils. Later they settled in Paris. After becoming more religious and having considered becoming a nun, Laforêt continued her secondary studies at the Lycee La Fontaine and Cours Raymond Rouleau in Paris. There she began to show interest for the dramatic arts and her first experiences in this domain proved to be therapeutically useful for her through their cathartic effect.

1960s

Her career began accidentally in 1959 when she replaced her sister at the last minute in the French radio talent contest Naissance d'une étoile (Birth of A Star) and won. Noticed then by Raymond Rouleau, she attended his theater classes as Director Louis Malle cast the young starlet in Liberté, the film he was shooting at the time but which he finally abandoned. Therefore, Laforêt first notably appeared onscreen opposite actor Alain Delon in René Clément's 1960 drama Plein Soleil (Purple Noon).
After this opportunities came to her rapidly. The original soundtrack of her second film, 1961's Saint Tropez Blues, where she sang the title song accompanied by her childhood friend Jacques Higelin at the guitar was released in 1960. Her first musical hit was 1963's Les Vendanges de l'Amour.
In 1961 her new husband, director Jean-Gabriel Albicocco, cast her in La Fille aux Yeux d'Or (The Girl with the Golden Eyes) based on the Balzac story, the source of her nickname, and in 1963 cast her Le Rat d'Amérique, based on the Jacques Lanzmann 1956 novel of the same name. She gained hit "Manchester Et Liverpool" in 1966.

1970s

By the end of the 1960s Laforêt had become a rather distinctive figure in the French pop scene. Her songs offered a more mature, poetic, tender alternative to the light, teenage yé-yé tunes charting in France at the time. Her melodies borrowed more from exotic folk music, especially South American and Eastern European, than from contemporary American and British pop acts. Her music stood out, perhaps too much for her new label CBS Records, which favored upbeat, simple songs. She was interested in making more personal records but finally gave in. Although her most financially successful singles ("Viens, Viens×Viens, Viens1973 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracksA1Pourquoi les hommes pleurent ?A2L’Amour comme à 16 ansA3On quitte toujours quelque chose ou quelqu’unA4Lady AnnaA5ArlequinA6Une petite villeB1Vivre à deuxB2Mais je t’aimeB3Le Mal d’aimerB4Le Coup de la panneB5Viens, viensB6Bonsoir... dans ma chambre", a cover of the German hit ″Rain Rain Rain″, and "Il a neigé sur Yesterday×Il a neigé sur Yesterday1977 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksA1Il a neigé sur Yesterday3:10B1J'ai le cœur gros du temps présent3:03", a ballad about the break-up of the Beatles) were released in the 1970s, Laforêt progressively lost interest in her singing career, moving to Geneva, Switzerland in 1978 where she opened an art gallery and abandoned music for the time being. Laforêt had worked with many important French composers, musicians and lyricists, such as André Popp and Pierre Cour, who provided her with a panoply of colorful, sophisticated orchestral arrangements, featuring dozens of musical instruments and creating a variety of sounds, sometimes almost Medieval, Renaissance or Baroque, other times quite modern and innovative.

1980 to 2019

In the 1980s, Laforêt concentrated on her acting career, appearing in a few French and Italian films. Some music singles were eventually released, but were not popular. She made a comeback however in 1993 with her final album, for which she wrote the lyrics. In the 1990s she again continued to work as an actress both on screen and on stage. She performed in a number of plays in Paris over the years, acclaimed by audiences and critics alike. In September 2005, she sang once again, touring in France for the first time since 1972. Every concert sold out. Laforêt resided in Geneva and obtained Swiss citizenship.

Personal life

Laforêt married director Jean-Gabriel Albicoco on 9 November 1961, and the couple divorced, in 1963. She next was romantically linked with Judas Azuelos beginning in 1965, the same year their daughter Élise (Lisa) was born. Lisa Azuelos would later become a French director, writer, and producer who made a film about another famous French singer, Dalida, in 2016. Lisa's brother Jean-Mehdi was born in 1967, the year their parents parted ways. LaForêt next married Alain Kahn-Sriber in 1971 and her third child, Eve-Marie-Deborah, was born in 1974. The couple divorced two years later. After being disillusioned by the music industry at the time, Laforêt moved to Switzerland where she was married to Swiss doctor Pierre Meyer in 1981 for a year. On 7 September 1990, she married Eric de Lavandeyra, a stockbroker, for two years. This last marriage ended in a publicly contentious divorce.

Death

Marie Laforêt died on 2 November 2019 in Genolier, Switzerland, a small town in the Nyon district near Geneva, from the consequences of a primary bone cancer. She was 80 years old. Her funeral took place in Paris, at the church on Saint-Eustache, on 24 November; followed by the burial in the family crypt at the Père-Lachaise Cemetery.

Folk music

Laforêt helped popularize the Bob Dylan song "Blowin' in the Wind" in France with her 1963 interpretation. The B-side of the same EP covered the 1964 Animals version of the folk ballad "House of the Rising Sun". Her other folk recordings include: "Viens sur la montagne×Viens sur la montagne1964 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracksA1Viens sur la montagne2:15A2Qu’est ce qui fait pleurer les filles2:35A3L’Amour qu’il fera demain2:15A4La Tendresse2:20A5La Tour de Babel2:50A6Après toi qui sait2:45B1Un amour qui s’est éteint2:50B2La Plage2:50B3Les Noces de campagne2:07B4L’Arbre qui pleure2:10B5Blowin’ in the Wind2:47B6Les Vendanges de l’amour2:25", a 1964 French adaptation of the African-American spiritual "Go Tell It on the Mountain" recorded by American folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary the previous year; "Coule doux" ("Hush-a-Bye"), another Peter, Paul and Mary song; 1966's "Sur les chemins des Andes", a French version of the traditional Peruvian "El Cóndor Pasa"; and "La voix du silence", a 1966 cover of American duo Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence".

Rock music

She also recorded some rock songs in the 1960s, her most famous being Marie-douceur, Marie-colère, a 1966 cover with different lyrics (contrafactum) of the Rolling Stones hit Paint It Black. Another popular recording was 1965's girl group-style A demain, my darling, known by English-speakers as The Sha La La Song written by Marianne Faithfull on her debut eponymous album.

Pop music

Some of her most memorable pop songs are those written or arranged by French composer André Popp, such as Entre toi et moi, L'amour en fleurs, Les noces de campagne, Mon amour, mon ami, and Manchester et Liverpool. The melody of the latter song gained fame in the former Soviet Union as the background music to the Vremya television news programme's weather forecast in the 1970s.

Other music

The quiet, bittersweet and minimally arranged ballad Je voudrais tant que tu comprennes (1966), composed by Francis Lai, is Laforêt's favorite. Homage was paid to the song in the 1980s, when French pop superstar Mylène Farmer added it to her own concert repertoire.
The 1973 hit "Viens, viens×Viens, Viens1973 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracksA1Pourquoi les hommes pleurent ?A2L’Amour comme à 16 ansA3On quitte toujours quelque chose ou quelqu’unA4Lady AnnaA5ArlequinA6Une petite villeB1Vivre à deuxB2Mais je t’aimeB3Le Mal d’aimerB4Le Coup de la panneB5Viens, viensB6Bonsoir... dans ma chambre" was a cover version of a German song "Rain, Rain, Rain" performed by Simon Butterfly.
Laforêt's 1977 hit "Il a neigé sur Yesterday×Il a neigé sur Yesterday1977 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksA1Il a neigé sur Yesterday3:10B1J'ai le cœur gros du temps présent3:03", perhaps her most well-known recording, was penned by musician Jean-Claude Petit, and lyricist Michel Jourdan, (famous for his work with Dalida, Nana Mouskouri, Michel Fugain and Mike Brant) and who had written the words for earlier Laforêt songs, such as "Les vendanges de l'amour" and "L'orage".

Additional sources

Pierre Fageolle & Egon Kragel, Marie Laforêt, éd. ... Car rien n'a d'importance, 1994
Pierre Saka, Yann Plougastel (dir.), La Chanson française et francophone, at the Internet Archive, Guide Totem, Larousse/HER, 1999 (ISBN 2-03-511346-62-03-511346-6)
Alain Wodrascka, Marie Laforêt - La femme aux cent visages, éd. L'Étoile du Sud, 1999
Alain Wodrascka, Marie Laforêt - Portrait d'une star libre, éd. Didier Carpentier, 2009 (ISBN 978-2-84167-612-5)
Alain Wodrascka, Marie Laforêt - long courrier vers l'aurore, Mustang éditions, préface de Nilda Fernandez, 2014