Max's Musings

No Regrets

Non, je ne regrette rien

This is a catch-up entry to "The Soundtrack of Your Life" 

Edith Piaf's 1960 recording of Je ne regrette rien is an all-time classic. You don't have to understand French to appreciate the song. It's driving tempo and her triumpant rendition say it all.

The lyrics are powerful even without the music. It certainly helps if you understand them. You can find a translation here:
https://www.frenchlyricstranslations.com/non-je-ne-regrette-rien-edith-piaf-fren...

Christopher Nolan's movie Inception reinforced my love for this song. This movie is about the power of memory and raises questions about how memory and reality intersect. The song is a perfect complement to the themes of the movie.

In fact, it's in the DNA of the movie.

It's obvious that the song cues the start of a "jump" to one of the movie's dream levels. What's less obvious is that all of the music in the score is a subdivision and mulitplication of the Piaf song, sometimes at varying tempos. For an audible example, there's this YouTube video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVkQ0C4qDvM
which plays Piaf singing at the normal tempo, then slows it down. The slow version is recognizable as the thudding blats that accompany the start of the transitions to new dream levels!

For a discussion, see this article in The Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jul/29/inception-soundtrack-edith-piaf

One genuis--Nolan--applying the genius of others--the lyricist, the composer, and Piaf's rendition. That's what makes this song so memorable for me.

I used this song in a chapter to a novel I'm working on. The chapter called for a young man to sing to his lover, and was inspired by this awesome rendition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=layECWup8sU
I even used the vocalist's appearance to describe my character!







Max Griffin
Please visit my website and blog at
https://new.MaxGriffin.net

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