Françoise Hardy

Françoise Madeleine Hardy ( French:  [fʁɑ̃.swaːz aʁ.di]; born 17 January 1944) is a French singer and actress. Hardy is a popular figure in music and fashion.[1][2]

Contents
[hide]
 * 1 Biography
 * 2 On shyness and fame
 * 3 Cultural references
 * 3.1 Music
 * 3.2 Films
 * 3.3 Television
 * 3.4 Fashion
 * 4 Partial discography
 * 4.1 Albums
 * 4.2 Singles
 * 4.3 Compilations
 * 5 Selected filmography
 * 6 References
 * 7 External links

Biography[edit]
Hardy grew up in the 9th arrondissement of Paris with her younger sister Michèle. Her parents lived apart when she was young; her father contributed little financially to the family and had little to do with his daughters. He was, however, persuaded by the girls' mother to buy Françoise a guitar for her birthday as a reward for passing herbaccalauréat.[3]

Her early musical influences were the French chanson stars Charles Trenet and Cora Vaucaire[4] as well as Anglophone singers Paul Anka, the Everly Brothers, Cliff Richard, Connie Francis and Marty Wilde whom she heard on the English-language radio station, Radio Luxembourg.[3]

After a year at the Sorbonne she answered a newspaper advertisement looking for young singers. Hardy signed her first contract with the record label Vogue in November 1961. In April 1962, shortly after she left university, her first record "Oh Oh Chéri" appeared, written by Johnny Hallyday's writing duo. Her own flip side of the record, "Tous les garçons et les filles" became a success, riding the wave of Yé-yé music in France. It sold over a million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.[5] The track peaked at #36 in the UK Singles Chart in 1964.[6] She reportedly hated the song claiming it was recorded "in three hours with the worst four musicians in Paris." She was dating photographer Jean-Marie Périer at this time and his shots featured on many of her record sleeves.[7]

Hardy sings in French, English, Italian, Spanish and German, and has one interpretation in Portuguese. In 1963 she came fifth for Monaco in the Eurovision Song Contest with "L'amour s'en va". In 1963, she was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque of the Académie Charles Cros.[citation needed]

In 1981, she married her long-time companion Jacques Dutronc, who is the father of her son, Thomas Dutronc, born in 1973. Hardy lives in Paris and Dutronc in Monticello, Corsica, although they reportedly remain legally married.[citation needed]

In 1994, she collaborated with the British pop group Blur for their "La Comedie" version of "To The End". In 1995, she sang on Malcolm McLaren's single "Revenge Of The Flowers". The song appears on his concept album "Paris". In May 2000, she made a comeback with the album Clair Obscur on which her son played guitar and her husband sang the duet "Puisque Vous Partez En Voyage". Iggy Pop and Étienne Daho also took part. She has also recorded a duet with Perry Blake who wrote two songs for her award winning Tant de belles choses album.[citation needed]

On shyness and fame[edit]
Because of her difficult upbringing Hardy became painfully shy — a trait which is still part of her character today.[3] When asked about her shyness in an interview with John Andrew, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011 she said:

Cultural references[edit]
Françoise Hardy in 1969

Music[edit]
Hardy is mentioned in a poem by Bob Dylan, "Some other kinds of songs", which he wrote on the cover of his album Another Side of Bob Dylan, released in 1964.[8]

Films[edit]
Hardy made a cameo appearance in a scene from Jean-Luc Godard's film Masculin, féminin (1966). She also played a minor role as the Mayor's assistant in the 1965 film What's New Pussycat? starring Peter Sellers, and appeared as Lisa, the girlfriend of fictional Italian driver Nino Barlini, in John Frankenheimer's film Grand Prix (1966). In a scene from directorJohn G. Avildsen's film Save the Tiger (1973), Jack Lemmon's character Harry Stoner makes a reference to Hardy during a melancholy telephone call to his wife. Her song "Tous les garçons et les filles" played during the British film Metroland (1997) and Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers (2003). The French movie 8 Femmes (2002) features her song "Message Personnel" as sung by the French actress Isabelle Huppert. Her recording of "Träume" plays during the end credits of François Ozon's Water Drops on Burning Rocks (Gouttes d'eau sur pierres brûlantes) (2000).[9]

Her song "L'Amitié" is played during the end credits of Denys Arcand's movie The Barbarian Invasions (Les Invasions barbares) which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2003 (the main character had referenced her in an earlier scene in the movie). Her recording of the song "Il n'y a pas d'amour heureux", composed by Louis Aragon, is played in the Norwegian film Tatt av Kvinnen (2007).[10]

In the award-winning Greek film Attenberg (2010), her song "Tous les garçons et les filles" is played and sung by the two main characters in a lament of adolescent longing and loneliness.

"This is my favorite record album."

In Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom (2012), her song "Le Temps de l'Amour" features prominently. The film's two lead characters, a pair of 12 year old runaways in the year 1965, dance on the beach and have a romantic interlude as the song plays on a portable turntable. The female lead (Suzy) calls it her "favorite record album", and it is the only album she packs when preparing to run away from home.[11]

Television[edit]
Hardy's song "Ce Petit Coeur", was featured in the Gilmore Girls episode "French Twist". Her song "Ma Jeunesse Fout Le Camp" was also played in the television series  La Femme Nikita' s third season episode "Beyond the Pale" when Nikita pulls out an old record and plays the song. “Le Temps de l'Amour” featured in the closing sequence of the first season finale of Helix (TV series).

Fashion[edit]
Hardy's style is mentioned as inspiration for many fashion figures such as Alexa Chung and Nicolas Ghesquière, former head of the couture house Balenciaga and currently creative director of Louis Vuitton.[12]

Albums[edit]

 * Françoise Hardy (1962); in the USA also released as The Yeh-Yeh Girl from Paris! (1965)
 * Françoise Hardy (Vogue FH 1, 1963)
 * Françoise Hardy canta per voi in italiano (1963)
 * Mon amie la rose (1964)
 * Françoise Hardy (Vogue FH 3, 1965)
 * Françoise Hardy in English (1966)
 * La Maison où j'ai grandi (1966)
 * Ma jeunesse fout le camp... (1967)
 * Comment te dire adieu? (1968)
 * Françoise in Germany (1968)
 * Françoise Hardy en Anglais (1969)
 * Françoise (1970)
 * Soleil (1970)
 * One-Nine-Seven-Zero (1970)
 * Träume (1970)
 * La Question (1971)
 * Et si je m'en vais avant toi (1972)
 * If You Listen (1972)
 * Message Personnel (1973)
 * Entr'acte (1974)
 * Star (1977)
 * J'écoute de la musique saoûle (1978)
 * Gin Tonic (1980)
 * À Suivre (1981)
 * Quelqu'un qui s'en va (1982)
 * Décalages (1988)
 * Le Danger (1996)
 * Clair Obscur (2000)
 * Tant de belles choses (2004)
 * (Parenthèses...) (2006)
 * La Pluie sans parapluie (2010)
 * L'amour fou (2012)

Compilations[edit]

 * "L'Amitié", in The Barbarian Invasions, Denys Arcand (2003)
 * "Des ronds dans l'eau", in Remember Me, My Love, Gabriele Muccino (2003)
 * "Tous les garçons et les filles", in The Dreamers, Bernardo Bertolucci (2003)
 * "Tous les garçons et les filles", "Le Premier Bonheur du jour", in The Statement, Norman Jewison (2003)
 * "All Over The World", in The Boat That Rocked, Richard Curtis (2009)
 * "Le Temps de l'Amour", in Moonrise Kingdom Wes Anderson (2012)

Selected filmography[edit]

 * Nutty, Naughty Chateau, directed by Roger Vadim (1963)
 * What's New Pussycat?, directed by Clive Donner (1965, uncredited appearance in final scene)
 * Une Balle au cœur, directed by Jean-Daniel Pollet (1965)
 * Grand Prix, directed by John Frankenheimer (1966)