Mylene Farmer is back with the title track of her Bleu Noir album released as a single last month, so I thought it worth it to have a look back at her first major success, the song Pourvu qu'elles soient douces.
With a total of ten number ones in France so far, a record for the country, this was her first from 1988, which unquestionably established her artistic reputation.
It was the third single from her second album, Ainsi Soit Je.., which remeains one of her most critically acclaimed releases
In no small part the credit for this has to go to the video, which with production values that were higher than many films of the era, costing around 1.5 million francs and needing 600 extras.
It works more as a short film than a music video, the music section of it only a fraction of its total running time. It was apparently scheduled for a cinematic release as a short before the main feature film, but this never happened for fear that it would make the main feature look bad.
Of course, were it made these days it would be mostly done with CGI for a fraction of the cost, and with less nudity and violence so as to be more broadcast friendly.
Mylene was certainly pushing the boundaries in the late 80s, and while others might
have continued to make videos that attract controversy, few have managed to do so with such artistic credibility.
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