Tag Archives: l’instant x

French “Madame X” Wishes You Merry X-Mas!

Posted on 23. Dec, 2012 by in Art, Film, History, Music, People, Vocabulary

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Famous French Lady singer Mylène Farmer, aka “Madame X”, wishes you “Merry X-Mas” in her very own special way:

Alors,

J O Y E U X

N O Ë L

to all of you, mes amis!

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Mylène Farmer - L’Instant X

Bloody lundi

Bloody Monday

Mais qu’est-ce qui 

What is it that

Nous englue la planète

Sticks us this planet

Et embrume ma comète

And mists my comet

C’est la loi des séries

It’s the law of series

Le Styx, les ennuis s’amoncellent

The Styx, troubles pile up

J’ai un teint de poubelle

I’ve got a trash tan

Mais, c’est l’instant X

But, it’s the X Instant

Qu’on attend comme le messie

That wait for like the messiah

Comme l’instant magique

Like the magical instant

C’est l’équation

It’s the equation

L’ax + b qui fait tilt

The ax+b which rings a bell

Mais pour l’heure, dis

But for now, say

Papa Noël, quand tu descendras du ciel

Santa, when you come down from the sky

Du fun, du zoprack et des ailes

Some fun, some Zoprack [verlan for Prozac!] and wings

L’an 2000 sera spirituel

The year 2000 shall be spiritual

C’est écrit dans “ELLE

It is written in “ELLE” magazine

Du fun pour une fin de siècle

Some fun for an end of a century

Humeur Killer 

Killer mood

C’est l’heure pour

It’s time for

Moi de prendre la pose

Me to take a break

De penser à aut’chose

To think of something else

C’est le cycle infernal

It’s the infernal cycle

Fatal, un rien devient l’Everest

Fatal, a little thing turns into Mount Everest

Mon chat qui s’défenestre

My cat that defenestrates 

Ah, à quand l’instant X 

Ah, when is the X instant gonna come

Qu’on attend comme le messie

Which we wait for like the messiah

Comme l’instant magique

Like the magical instant

C’est l’hécatombe, vernis qui craque

It’s a bloodbath, varnish cracking 

Asphyxie, pied dans la tombe

Asphyxia, a foot in the grave

Papa Noël, quand tu descendras du ciel

Santa, when you come down from the sky

Du fun, du zoprack et des ailes

Some fun, Zoprack, and wings

L’an 2000 sera spirituel 

The Year 2000 shall be spiritual

C’est écrit dans “ELLE”

It is written in “ELLE”

Du fun pour une fin de siècle

Some fun for an end of the century

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Notice that Mylène Farmer’s album cover for “l’Instant X” is strikingly reminiscent of the classic movie poster of “Madame X”, the earliest adaptation of which goes back to at least 1910. The movie is itself an allusion to the widely famous and quite controversial “fin de siècle” painting “Portrait de Madame X” (1884), by the renown American painter John Singer Sargent, who was living in Paris at that time

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Madame X Soundtrack (1967) – “Final Hour and End Title”

Portrait of Madame X
John Singer Sargent’s famous “Portrait de Madamde X“, which famously triggered quite an uproar at the Paris Salon of 1884