A little lesson from Miss Bakaire on the essentials of fabulousness - a headpiece to die for, a couple of insinuating numbers, and a deathless belief in one's own mythos. Even here, with all the limitations of an early-TV variety special, in Germany yet, Josephine demonstrates why she was one of the very great sensations and, among other things, a matchless dancer...
Il y a seulement un Josephine, elle était spectaculaire!
ReplyDeleteI do believe that was just dandy. what a gal !
ReplyDeletenow now felix, let's not forget our consecutio temporum, or anon will come out of the woodwork and reprehend us for our grammar once again
ReplyDeleteil n'y avait qu'une seule Josephine, elle était spectaculaire
ou
il n'y a qu'une seule Josephine, elle est spectaculaire
(somehow the present tense appeals to me, Josephine never really left us)
for a moment now i swear that i heard the voice of mademoiselle Chatpuant, my french teacher at primary school - an unusually tall woman who walked to school accompanied by a big cat with an equally nasty temperament and pungent fishy odour, which years later brought up a few totally unfounded theories on why he was the only beneficiary in the old maid's testament - but that's a separate story although it still concerns la langue française in a way.
She didn't say anything about not touching her bananas.
ReplyDeleteOh there's kabuki and Felix. Hello ladies.
M.Fellini- my whole-hearted apologies. Like many Americans (I'm embarrassed to admit), I only speak English. So this is what happens when you rely on a web translation page without the knowledge to back it up.
ReplyDeleteBut also from the bottom of my heart and in English: Josephine is (was) (always will be) a treasure.
Oh MJ, you still here?
Ah, mes amours, along with Lucia I wholeheartedly endorse attacked les langues straight on. With un peu of French, un po of Italian, and, for me, even shwayat Arabic, we can face even the most peremptory of anons!
ReplyDeleteAnd lovely to see you all; so sorry to have been distracted of late. Trying to see what we can do about that, but really, la bella vita can be vy vy tarsome...
For most of it, there's an unfortunate focus on the ill-tailored bodice of her dress and one has an almost shameful preoccupation with what is going on down there, under her skirt.
ReplyDeleteYou say she's a matchless dancer but in the second one when she breaks free from the tight camera angle, I can't help feeling that she resembles nothing so much as the way one's parents get down on the dancefloor. A lot of enthusiasm but slightly weird.
No apologies are necessary my dear Felix. While you make your best in French, here in Brussels we contemplate the possibility of adding yet more languages to the babylon that is the EU.
ReplyDeleteWhen former Yugoslav states join the European Union, their individual languages will become institutionalised, with official documents translated also in Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin, on top of the other 23 current official languages.
I read on an article on the news.bbc.co.uk that Montenegrin is spoken by 630,000 inhabitants and apparently it is not more different from Serbian, than English spoken in Long Island is from English spoken in New Jersey.
That creates a certain discomfort for the 9 million people speaking Catalan or the 5 million people who speak Lombard, for instance, as their languages are not official languages of the European Union.
However nobody wrapped up the whole European linguistic dilemma better than Mrs Amplebosom, a surprisingly young looking project manager I happened to work with in London, who was not afraid to dress daringly and show her decolletessen. 'I speak two languages,' she said one day while solemnly swaying her statuesque ampullae with anticipation, 'English and Foreign.'
is she playing any rooms in town? i'd just love to see her this week.
ReplyDeleteWhile I am left wondering, Norma, whether you mean Josephine or Mrs. Amplebosom, I'll presume the former.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is that in a perfect world, she is forever playing at the Folies (closing the secnod act with her Mary, Queen of Scots number), while stealing off one or two nights a week for a late night set at Bricktop's. At which, of course, you and I, Thom and TJB, Felix and Pennee, and a few select others have a standing table ringside.
Didn't I catch Mrs. Amplebosom playing Belle Poitrine in the Islington Community Theatre production of Little Me a few years back?
ReplyDelete