It was a trauma that took her a long time to overcome. “For a long time, it was difficult for me to go and sing in Germany, yet I met with great success there with (my songs). In reality, I was traumatized by the war and certain images haunted me for years”, confides Line Renaud in his latest book Line Renaud, a life of comedy, released on November 3.
Line Renaud
Indeed, the interpreter of My cabin in Canada explains that she experienced traumatic war scenes at the end of the Second World War in her small village in the north of France which prevented her from being able to go to Germany for a long time. “At Pont de Nieppe, my little village in the North, we lived opposite the Kommandantur. There were German soldiers everywhere and one day, when the war was almost over, they shot some forty soldiers before our eyes. men. Their bodies fell into the river, which turned red with their blood. I was 15 years old. It took me a little time to turn the page”, recalls with emotion the former leader of the review.
In 1959, Line Renaud finally agreed to participate in the German musical film Patricia, in which she played a French vamp. “Dressed in an extremely tight-fitting red dress, Line does not hesitate to go into contact with the customers of the cabaret, singing in German and giving C’est la vie and Chéri with a vengeance, typically French locutions aimed at establishing the Frenchy charm of the character”, explains Jérémy Picard, co-author of the book Line Renaud, a life of comedy. He specifies in particular that in this film, Line Renaud embodies Juliette, a stereotype of French woman such as foreigners imagine her in the 1950s: flirtatious, mischievous and seductive.
The presence of Line in the credits of this film will surprise many people at the time. In reality, it was Electrola, her record company across the Rhine, which placed her in this production, convinced that this was a good way to boost sales. In total, we learn in the book “Line Renaud, a comedy life” that in all 14 songs were interpreted in German by Line Renaud during her career.
They are all gathered in an album which will be released in 2015. We find there in particular Alles Glück dieser Welt, Pariser Nächte or Das ist so mit l’amour. This compilation is entitled C’est la vie, from the title of the song she sings in the film Patricia. In Germany, the film is released under the titles of Patricia and Tausend Sterne leuchten. In France, the choices curiously fall on Les Branchés du rock’n roll and Sur la piste du rock’n roll. Very surprising choices knowing that this musical style is very little present in the scenario of the musical film. For the little anecdote, when it was released, only a few cinemas in the east of France were showing the film. To date, this musical film is still unreleased in Paris and will not really make its fortune.