Que mon cœur lâche

In 1992, the pop singer Étienne Daho contacted several popular French recording artists to request their participation in the recording of a double album whose profits were to be donated to the research against AIDS. Farmer, who had until then not participated in charitable causes,[1] accepted. She and her writing partner Laurent Boutonnat composed "Que mon cœur lâche". However the song was rejected as the lyrics were considered to be too ambiguous,[2] seeming to advocate sexual intercourse without condoms.[3] As a result, instead of using "Que mon cœur lâche" for the charity album, Farmer re-recorded her 1988 song "Dernier sourire" (which dealt with the death of a sick person) in an acoustic style. This track was used for the compilation album Urgence – 27 artistes pour la recherche contre le SIDA.[4]

At the same time, Farmer and Boutonnat decided to release their first compilation album composed of Remixes, Dance Remixes, in December 1992. To promote the album, the song "Que mon cœur lâche" was released as a single,[5] which started airing on radio on 5 November 1992, although it aired for the first time four days before on M40, and released on 16 November.[2] The single cover used a photograph by Marianne Rosenthiel, originally made for the previous single "Beyond My Control", in which Farmer trains in a gym.[6] Unlike most of Farmer's singles, there was no CD maxi for this single.

Farmer also recorded an English version of the song, entitled "My Soul Is Slashed" (the English title is not a direct translation of the French version, the title of which roughly translates to "My Heart Gives Up"). This was the second time that Farmer had recorded one of her singles in a foreign language (the first one being "My Mum Is Wrong" in 1984, the English version of "Maman a tort"). Mainly edited for (Germany) and the US, the song was translated by Ira Israel in collaboration with Mylène Farmer. In an interview, Ira Israel said that it was especially difficult to write the lyrics of "My Soul Is Slashed" as Farmer was insistent that the song had to convey the right wording, rhythm, meaning, and feeling of the original, rather than being a direct and literal translation. Farmer disliked the first text he had composed and, as a result, they worked together on the English lyrics.[7][8]

The cover of "My Soul is Slashed" is similar to that of the French version, but with a black background. The English version of the song has never been performed on television or at Farmer's concerts, and is only available on the European version of the compilation Dance Remixes and on the long-box version of Farmer's 2001 greatest hits package Les Mots. Despite hopes that it would establish Farmer in the UK and the US, the English version was commercially unsuccessful.[9]

For the first time in Farmer's singing career, Laurent Boutonnat did not direct the song's video, as he was busy working on his feature film Giorgino. Thus, with Boutonnat's agreement, French film director, writer and producer Luc Besson shot the video (Farmer had previously been an extra in his 1983 film Le Dernier Combat). The video, which lasts 6:44, was filmed over four days at the studios of Arpajon, France, with a budget of around 100,000 euros. The white garment worn by Farmer was made by Azzedine Alaia and the black one by Jean-Paul Gaultier.[14]

There are three versions of the video : a first version with French subtitles, featured on Farmer's VHS and DVD, a second version with no subtitles and no title at the beginning, and a third version for "My Soul Is Slashed", similar to that of "Que mon cœur lâche". Before the song begins in the video, dialogue between Farmer and the two people who respectively portray God and Jesus, are in English language. The video also briefly features a Michael Jackson impersonator. The final scene in which Farmer blows a bubble with her chewing gum refers to a similar scene in Besson's film La Femme Nikita. The video was broadcast for the first time on M6, on 12 December 1992.[15]

At the beginning of the video, an old man dressed with a fancy suit – God, in Paradise – reads a newspaper with disgust, saying "Jesus Christ", which prompts the appearance of Christ, although God replies that "it's just an expression they have down there". Thinking that humans have damaged love, he decides to send his best angel to Earth to hold an investigation. Farmer, the chosen angel, appears. She's dressed in white as a ballerina. Initially she does not hear what God tells her because she is listening to music on a walkman (the song being played is actually the 'extended dance remix' version of "Que mon cœur lâche"). Once she's on Earth, the song begins. Blowing a black feather from her wrist she discovers three pairs of lovers : one couple who are quarrelling, the second one very modest and the third one very libertine. She goes near the entrance of a nightclub called 'Q', guarded by a large man. Two men, an older one and a younger one, are not allowed to go into this discothèque and get slapped in the face; the angel offers them to breathe in an oxygen ball. In between, a muscular young man in panties appears and begins to dance. Michael Jackson appears, briefly performing some of his signature dance moves, only to be crushed when a huge cross falls from the sky, accidentally dropped by Jesus. The angel is quite intrigued by the nightclub, so she dresses up in black clothes, blows a white feather from her wrist and enters into the discothèque. There, she sees people with ambiguous sexuality who are walking in a corridor made of white curtains. A topless woman makes her breathe from an oxygen mask, the angel's heart beats faster and faster and eventually explodes. After that, the angel, now very sexily dressed, comes back to Paradise and pops a bubble of gum in front of God.[16]

Hermann Hesse's novel Steppenwolf is one of the sources of inspiration of the music video.

Instant-Mag said the video was inspired by Federico Fellini and Mel Brooks' works, and especially by David Lynch's movie Blue Velvet. Indeed, as in this film, the video alternates between imaginary elements and real situations, while the use of an oxygen mask is a direct callback. It symbolizes the fact that "every person is looking for his drunkenness which can lead to extreme erotic games". It is an allegory of what fuels desire. The club named 'Q' in the video may be a reference both to the novel Steppenwolf, written by Hermann Hesse, but also to the bar "One-Eyed Jack" in Twin Peaks, in which the heroine Laura Palmer has lost her innocence being fascinated by this bar where fantasies can be satisfied. The message of this video is that, "behind the appearance of propriety is bursting the world of fantasies and its attractiveness".[17]

This video is also very critical of religions : God is presented as a very austere businessman. Moreover, according to some analyses, the video explains that to give free rein to sexual fantasies, it necessary to transgress social and religious norms (respectively represented by the bouncer and God). As for the white curtains within the nightclub, they would be a symbol of the hymen or condoms.[16] This video is very different from previous ones of Farmer, as it is much more humorous and ironic,[1] especially when Jesus asks God: "Father, why don't you send me on Earth?" and the latter replied: "The last time, it was a disaster". Farmer said that these dialogues were as a "smile", a "fickleness" she had not displayed in her former videos.[18]