Directed by Agnès Varda, the film is based on a screenplay she wrote through her conversations with Jane Birkin and the stories the latter told her about her life, her passions, and her romances, especially with her husband, the legendary Serge Gainsbourg.
According to Varda's account, the story of this film begins one day when the two women were walking in a public park, talking about their children. "Suddenly, Jane turned to me with fear and annoyance and said, 'Oh no, I'm forty years old!” The director calmed the artist's fears, telling her that forty is the most beautiful age for a woman. But it is also the most appropriate age to take stock. And so, from one sentence to another, from one story to another, the film was born. The film will contain a large number of archival interviews with the actress-singer, as well as interviews conducted with her for the film, and interventions from those close to her, whether they knew her in London before she moved to France where she built her life there that remained for decades, or during that French life.
Agnès Varda would later say that this film was born out of friendship and mutual admiration, even though Jane Birkin's daughter, Charlotte, would always say that she did not like this film, nor did she like Kung Fu Master. Perhaps this dislike is what drove Charlotte to make her own film about her mother years later. But Agnès Varda's film remains, frankly, exceptional in its portrayal of an exceptional woman, filmed with passion by a director who was also exceptional. Many have considered it the highest honor bestowed by an elite artist on a popular artist of her time.
It remains to be mentioned that one of the most beautiful moments in the film is when Jane, in front of Agnès' camera, performs roles that she said she would have loved to play, especially in films directed by Varda.
