Charlotte Lucy Gainsbourg (born 21 July 1971) is a British-French actress and singer. She is the daughter of English actress Jane Birkin and French singer and songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. After making her musical debut with her father on the song "Lemon Incest" at the age of twelve, she released an album with her father at the age of fifteen. More than twenty years passed before she released three albums as an adult (5:55, IRM and Stage Whisper) to commercial and critical success. Gainsbourg has also appeared in many films, including several directed by Lars von Trier, and has received both a César Award and the Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award.

Background

Gainsbourg was born in London, to English actress and singer Jane Birkin and French actor and singer-song writer Serge Gainsbourg. Gainsbourg was born at the height of her parents fame as they had made headlines several years earlier with the sexually explicit song Je t'aime... moi non plus and by that point had become notorious for their turbulent relationship and multiple artistic collaborations. As a result her birth and childhood were well publicized.

"Just Like a Woman" is a song written by Bob Dylan and first released on his 1966 album, Blonde on Blonde (see 1966 in music). It was also released as a single in the U.S. during August 1966 and peaked at #33 on the Billboard Hot 100. Dylan's recording of "Just Like a Woman" was not issued as a single in the United Kingdom but the British beat group, Manfred Mann, did release a hit single version of the song in July 1966, which peaked at #10 on the UK Singles Chart. In 2011, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Dylan's version of the song at #232 in their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Writing and recording

In the album notes of his 1985 compilation, Biograph, Dylan claimed that he wrote the lyrics of this song in Kansas City on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1965, while on tour. However, after listening to the recording session tapes of Dylan at work on this song in the Nashville studio, historian Sean Wilentz has written that Dylan improvised the lyrics in the studio, by singing "disconnected lines and semi-gibberish". Dylan was initially unsure what the person described in the song does that is just like a woman, rejecting "shakes", "wakes", and "makes mistakes". The improvisational spirit extends to the band attempting, in their fourth take, a "weird, double-time version", somewhere between Jamaican ska and Bo Diddley.

Just Like a Woman is an 2012 English-language film directed by Rachid Bouchareb, starring Sienna Miller and Golshifteh Farahani. The narrative follows an American housewife and a North African woman who travel from Chicago to Santa Fe to participate in a bellydance competition. The film is a co-production between companies in France, the United Kingdom and the United States. Bouchareb intends it to be the first in a trilogy about the relation between North America and the Arab world.

Plot

The film depicts a few days in the lives of two women, Marilyn (Sienna Miller) and Mona (Golshifteh Farahani) who, on the outside, could not be more different. Marilyn is an American-born menial secretary at a small business. Mona is an Egyptian immigrant who manages the convenience store next door with her mother-in-law (Chafia Boudraa) and her husband, Mourad (Roschdy Zem). During brief encounters, the women find solace in each other from the stress of their daily lives. Marilyn's husband, Harvey (Jesse Bob Harper), is unemployed. Feeling jealous and emasculated, he criticizes her taking part in a belly-dancing class (believing that she is too old) and uses her money to spend his nights drinking at bars. Meanwhile, Mona endures the constant plague of verbal abuse from her mother-in-law who blames her for not conceiving a child. Though in love with his wife, Mourad refuses to stand up to his mother, a disappointment that leaves Mona feeling depressed and alone in their marriage.

Just like a Woman is a 1939 British comedy film directed by Paul L. Stein and starring Felix Aylmer, Jeanne de Casalis and Fred Emney. The film's plot follows a group of private detectives working for a jeweller who pursue a gang of thieves in Argentina.

Cast

References

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