1935 Normandie’s Smoking Room | Parlez Moi d’Amour | Lucienne Boyer

Music: 1924 Parlez Moi d’Amour | Lucienne Boyer 1930
Video: 1935 Normandie Fumoir 1re Classe | Jean Dunand | 6m x 6m laquer panels
1930s playlist: t.ly/TxIW
La Pêche
Les Sports
Les Vendages et la danse
La Conquête du Cheval
La Chasse
"An ambitious man, Jean Dunand (1877-1942) entered the school of decorative arts with great expectations. He eventually found a project that made his wildest dreams come true: decorating the biggest, most beautiful ocean liner ever built. Much more than just a ship, the Normandie was a technological wonder, the apex of French Art Deco craftsmanship and design - and Dunand’s masterpiece. The 58-year-old devoted all of 1934 to the monumental project, overseeing the production of ornamental features, supervising the development of technical systems and carrying out the finishing work himself. Dunand, 'working hard day and night, became so worn out that his health was seriously undermined for the rest of his life,' specialist Amélie Marcilhac wrote in her book about the artist. The depth of his devotion was equal to the grandeur of the Normandie, for which the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique pulled out all the stops.
The greatest French artists of the day worked on furnishing and decorating the ship. Architects Richard Bouwens Van der Boijen, Roger-Henri Expert, Pierre Patout and Henri Pacon chose, among others, Jules Leleu, Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann, Paul Follot, Raymond Subes, Georges d’Espagnat, René Lalique and Jean Perzel for the furniture, carpets, sculptures, paintings and lighting fixtures. Dunand was asked to decorate the smoking room, the corridors leading to it and part of the first-class salon.
[F]or several years [Dunand] had been developing a fireproof substance combining very fine clay from Southeast Asia and plaster hardened with liquid lacquer in his studio at 74 rue Hallé (14th arrondissement of Paris). He called it sabi, 'named after the Japanese lacquer made with sawdust, which is fireproof up to a temperature of 815°C for as long as two hours,' says Ms. Marcilhac. Poured into molds, this synthetic substance hardened before being lacquered. It did not require the use of wood, which was prohibited in the schedule of Normandie's specifications. In 1931 Dunand even summoned the press for demonstrations with a blowtorch.
The monumental whole [for the First Class Smoking Room] included five compositions, each measuring six meters high by 5.80 meters wide (19.8 ft high x 19ft wide). Made of gold lacquer in a style based on Egyptian art, their theme was Jeux et Joies de l'homme ('Games and Joys of man'). The fire door between the smoking room and the grand salon featured a rose compass surrounded by evocations of dawn, the night, the sea, the sun and the wind, while the smoking room panels depicted La Pêche and Les Sports on one side and La Conquête du cheval and Les Vendanges et la danse (The Wine-Grape Harvest and the Dance) on the other. In all 1,035 four-centimeter (1.57 in.) thick panels were juxtaposed, framed in brass and assembled with a clever fastening system welded to the ship’s walls.
Dunand let no one but himself work on the decoration. He transferred the final drawings with tracing paper before, armed with a gouge and a rasp, carving each part in very low relief and coating them with natural lacquer and gold leaf worn with powdered charcoal. 'Jean dreams of lacquer,' his wife wrote in her diary on January 3, 1919. The artist felt very early on that he could make his mark on the decorative arts with this challenging material. He certainly did."
(www.gazette-drouot.com/articl...)
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"Parlez-moi d'amour est une chanson écrite et composée par Jean Lenoir, interprétée et enregistrée par Lucienne Boyer en 1930. En 1924, Jean Lenoir, contrarié par son altercation avec son amie Mistinguett, dans la nuit qui suit et sous le coup de l'inspiration, écrit et compose Parlez-moi d'amour. La chanson, « orchestrée et prête à chanter », reste cinq ans dans ses cartons avant que Jean Lenoir la donne, sans conviction, à une jeune chanteuse débutante venue le solliciter. Elle l'interprète sur la scène de L'Européen où Lucienne Boyer la découvre et vient immédiatement la réclamer à Jean Lenoir.
C'est un succès considérable tant en France qu'à l'étranger puisqu'elle est traduite en 37 langues. Le Grand prix du disque français, qui vient juste d'être créé en 1931 par Joseph-Arthème Fayard et Jean Fayard, est décerné à l'interprétation de Lucienne Boyer par un jury composé de Colette, Maurice Ravel et Maurice Yvain.
Lucienne Boyer l'enregistre à trois reprises, en 1930, en 1948 et en 1951."
(fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parlez-...)