Béart and Depardieu go Disco

Emmanuelle Béart and Gerard Depardieu, two of the biggest stars in France, have been attached to the prestigious new production "Disco". The comedy film is directed by Fabien Onteniente and geared to be the box office smash for the Christmas season. The story has Depardieu re-living his youth in the bleak town of Le Havre, dusting off his old dancing shoes. Expect a cd-friendly soundtrack filled with Sheila, Cerrone, Claude Francois, Dalida, Gibson Brothers, Santa Esmeralda and the rest of the usual home grown suspects. Watch this space for updated information.

Despardieu will be the club owner, Beart, the dance instructor, and stand-up comic Frank Dubosc will play the part of the former disco musician going back into the scene.

Gerard Depardieu co-starred with Andy McDowell and Bebe Neuwirth in "Green card" (1991)

- Ed

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Move Over, Hollywood Queens

We had all but given up hope when Quentin Tarantino and director Eli Roth triumphantly announced during last year's Venice film festival that yes, the real queen of international cinema, Edwige Fenech, has agreed to return to the silver screen. The coming summer the First Diva will be seen in a small but crucial role in Roth's sequel to his successful "Hostel", looking every inch the ultimate movie star she always was. For those way out of step this is the time to get fully into the Fenech phenomenon.

So, as you aficionados of disco-rabilia should be asking by now, what has this Italian-Algerian-French film star to do with music, how come we never came across any of her records? If those guys at Chez Youri's of Paris can't whip them out from the top shelves (where the most expensive and desirable vinyls like the Arpadys albums are kept ) she can't have been a chanteuse of any sort, let alone an underground disco sensation, right? The thing is while Edwige was never a singer, she is still of definite interest to anyone into the eurodisco aesthetic. She defined The Look. You girls watched as she sashayed across the room in dramatic black, shadowing you all with her massive hairdo. Boys gasped as her eyes flashed at them, heating them up and melting the tender flesh off their cheeks. Edwige would grab one guy with both hands, force him down and thrust her cleavage foward, only to quickly toss him aside, electrified by a furious bongos-and-organ groove from the hi-fi stereo. Throwing her hair wildly and respecting no limits in films like Mario Bava’s "Cinque Bambole Per La Luna D'Agosto / Five Dolls For An August Moon", she really was eurodisco personified. An skillful actress, Edwige could also be seen as a nun or a victimized plaything at the mercy of the sleaziest pimps in the history of cinema, until payback time of course.

For La Fenech at her most fabulous, as well as for Italian exploitation film making at it’s frenziest, check Giuliano Carnimeo’s "Anna – Quel Particolare Piacere", out as region 1 dvd (NoShame label) ridiculously renamed "Secrets Of A Call Girl". A caleidoscope of over the top tearful melodrama, tough action scenes, copious nudity and serious fashion statements, this is choice entertainment from the unrepentant seventies. The widescreen film kicks off with a brutal robbery sequence set to a scorching Shaft-style soundtrack, and moves on swiftly to introduce Edwige as Anna, a salesgirl blackmailed into a life in malavita, a digitally remastered underworld in the shadier side of Cinecittà. There’s nude dancing to an Amanda Lear-style pop disco tune, vicious fistfights, car chases and slow mo running along a beach at sunset, hand in hand. Forget everything they show in the multiplex – with the exception of "Grindhouse" of course – and rush out to buy your copy, and all other dvds with Edwige.

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The Asha Puthli Spring Collection

The legendary Asha Puthli has a new cd single out, "Pant & Fur", recorded in duet with Syr Gabryel, French manga-style animated character singer. The track is a concentrated dose of disco ingredients both shiny and new as well as classically euro, delivered with a cool jazzy style and a knowing wink. The cd also contain 2 new mixes of her "The Devil is Loose". Watch Discostyle.com for a proper article on Asha in the near future.

Image source

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Mondo Disco in Paris

Dj extraordinaire Aisha and I had the best ever gig in Paris Saturday night March the 24th, playing fast tempo boogie all night long to an appreciating full house. Check out some of the action at ...
www.discolounge.net/discoqueer/24mars/.

At one point I did an impromptu lipsync to Night School's original version ( not the AVI 12") of "Do You Speak French?" , conducting a call and response session with the mostly male crowd going: hello girls, this your first French disco lesson, now how do you say "love"?, and they would all reply "L'amouuur!" in a chorus. How do you say caress? - caresser! How do you say sexy?"-Zexy! at which point I yanked my t-shirt up to a wild cheer...must have been screams of horror there as well. But hey, what's done is done. Blame that and the 2 times I pushed the wrong button on the flu and too many 500mg painkillers.

And what sounds went down well along with the Night School? "Drum Dream" by Krenzell, The Scherrie Payne version of "One Night Only", Ritchie Family's "Summer Dance", Box-o-Lettes: "Feel Africa", Yellow Magic Ork: "Mad Pierrot", the Tom Moulton mix of Black Soul's "Mangous Ye", "One For Me One for You" by la Bionda, "Ite Missa Est" by Martin Circus, Asha Puthli's stunning "1001 Nights of Love (the fast version)", and naturally, "Volare" by Al Martino.

Aicha herself created a magnificently caleidoscopic soundscape with exotic percussion, familiar chants emerging from unexpected breaks, swirling violins rising higher and higher, all over a relentless euro beat pounding straight thru our skulls.

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