Now here's a clip that really takes us back to the heart of the social design: disco hippies. (Yes!) This film, 1968's Le Pacha, really does as much so very literally it even features a highly improbable nightclub titled "Les Hippies"...
Part of this vignette anyway is fabulous. And another part, well, a piece of shit. I haven't actually seen the entire film. Apparently from what I can detect it was never released in an English dub and my command of French doesn't carry me so very far beyond dining, shopping, and insulting. Maybe there's something sub-titled out there, though it probably doesn't matter since few of these films are even being considered for their plot.
Plot (or lack of) excused, there's some great vintage style here. Unfortunately it's a bit polluted, as clearly the "scene" has been rendered to serve as a fairly foolish counterpoint to the old detective. Note how almost every guy on the dance floor is basically an effeminate, spaced-out gypsy with a pashmina. (And though I rather like that in a club, it's as its own end, and here it is decidedly not.) A sort of dancing floral arrangement as Monsieur L'Inspecteur makes his way through the psychedelic clubscape. Pity since this blog is not about old detectives.
Well, if you can overlook the obvious bias, there still much to love. The kaleidoscopic intro with the strobe flash on the dancing girl scantily clad in what appears to be Mylar fringe: hello, terrific! A great segue into the dancers ornamenting a club which otherwise seems to be populated with little more than highly-visual ornaments. Of course that bar maid could not look more out of place if they had cast Doris Day in the role, and frankly it looks like they tried and settle for second best (or, as the case may be, worst). Hilarious! In that pink suit with the jeweled necktie. Oh dear. I am definitely not buying it!
Well, speaking of dancing floral arrangements. We actually encounter one, literally, by which I mean the creature in the blue peek-a-boo caftan with a head of posies. Shades of the notorious Atlanta drag queen Octavia L'Ampshade, circa 1996, really. In the film, too silly to be true, of course. Clearly the stylists went a little overboard. But otherwise some great fashions and body paint. Really what I like best in this scene is the controlled use of color and metallics against a black background. It's a rich effect.
The music is Serge Gainsbourg's Psychasténie. Of course we've considered this terrific sort of disco-raga mish-mash before...
Gainsbourg, from Le Pacha (1968)
and again from Manon 70 (1968)
1968 was a great year for electric bass and sitar, which Gainsbourg also married (with Michel Colombier) for the Catherine Deneuve vehicle Manon 70. Well, it really does set a tone, you cannot deny.
Gainsbourg actually appears in Le Pacha. Specifically performing the song Requiem pour un con, or Requiem for a Jerk. Very groovy percussion, I think you will agree. A rough translation of the lyrics follows. Says one viewer on YouTube: "Gainsbourg à l'apogée de sa coolitude..."
Listen to the organs, they are playing for you
This tune is dreadful
I hope you like it, good enough, isn't it?
It's the Requiem for a Jerk
Yeah
I composed it specially for you
In memory of you, scoundrel
On your pale face, on the prisons' walls
I'll inscribe myself: "silly jerk"
