The British-born actor and singer Jane Birkin, who passed away earlier this month after captivating France for decades with her elegance and panache, was remembered on Monday by stars of the French film industry.
Her daughters Lou Doillon and Charlotte Gainsbourg, both well-known performers and singers, carried Birkin’s coffin into the Saint-Roch church in Paris as a multitude of onlookers gathered outside.
Legendary French actors Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni, and Isabelle Huppert were present inside the chapel, as well as fellow British performer Charlotte Rampling, who has also gained a significant fanbase in France and acted in French-language films.
Brigitte Macron, the wife of the president of France, and Rima Abdul Malak, the minister of culture, accompanied them.
Birkin’s contentious relationship with famed singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg and her strongly accented French, which became one of her trademarks in her adopted country, propelled her to recognition.
Birkin was the epitome of the “It girl” in the 1970s with her flared trousers, short dresses, and characteristic fringe.
Even though Birkin never abandoned her British heritage, particularly her London roots, the flowers that covered the square in front of the cathedral showed how fondly France held her.
Although the family had made it clear that only immediate family and friends would be let inside the church, a huge screen was erected up outside so that the general public could watch.
Charlotte Gainsbourg addressed the audience in a voice choked with sorrow as she paid respect to her mother and declared, “Now I am an orphan.” Serge Gainsbourg, her father, passed away in 1991.
