Altaplana, world of Francois Schuiten and Benoit Peeters

the impossible & infinite encyclopedia of the world created by Schuiten & Peeters

User Tools

Site Tools


Action disabled: recent

Table of Contents

Trenet, Charles

harles Trenet in 1977 Charles Trenet (18 May 191319 February 2001), was a French singer and songwriter. He was most famous for his recordings from the late 1930s until the mid-1950s, though his career continued through the 1990s. In an era in which it was unusual for singers to write their own material, Trenet wrote prolifically and declined to record any but his own songs. Trenet's best-known songs include “Boum!”, “La Mer”, “Y'a d'la joie”, “Que reste-t-il de nos amours?”, “Ménilmontant” and “Douce France”. His catalogue of songs is enormous, numbering close to a thousand 1).

Two songs of Charles Trenet are linked to the Obscure World. La Mer is a song that Constant Abeels sings when he is walking in the rain to his house 2) The same song is played when Abeels in working in his shop in Brüsel 3).

Revoir Paris is mentioned by François Schuiten as one of the links to the album Revoir Paris.

La Mer

His song “La Mer”, which according to legend he composed with Léo Chauliac on a train in 1943, was recorded in 1946. Trenet explained in an interview that he was told that “La Mer” was not swing enough to be a hit, and for this reason it sat in a drawer for three years before being recorded. “La Mer” is Trenet's best-known work outside the French-speaking world, with more than 400 recorded versions. The song was given unrelated English words and under the title “Beyond the Sea” (or sometimes “Sailing”), was a hit for Bobby Darin in the early 1960s, and George Benson in the mid-1980s. “Beyond the Sea” was used in the ending credits of Finding Nemo 4).

“La Mer” has been used in many films such as Bernardo Bertolucci's 2003 The Dreamers, the 2010 German film Animals United, and more recently in the closing scene (on the beach) of Mr Bean's Holiday. A Julio Iglesias version plays in the final scene of the 2011 spy film, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The song was also used in the opening credits of the 2007 film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which used the song to highlight the paralysing effects of a stroke that felled his fellow Frenchman, Jean-Dominique Bauby. It was also used as the opening title song in Steve Martin's L.A. Story in 1991, and in a popular commercial for South Australia, promoting the wine region of Australia.Other Trenet songs were recorded by such popular French singers as Maurice Chevalier, Jean Sablon and Fréhel 5).

Revoir Paris

Another famous song by Charles Trenet is Revoir Paris. This song is mentioned by François Schuiten als one of the links to his album Revoir Paris 6). You can download the lyrics and score of Revoir Paris.

See also