Earlier this month, the magazine The Economist declared that the French economic model had emerged from the financial crisis looking far superior to others, especially the Anglo-American free market model. The French model, with its deep government intervention in the economy, heavy regulation, and welfare state hard-wired to protect its citizens from downturns, is faring much better now than the more extreme free-market capitalist model of the US and UK, which caused the global crisis and whose people are reeling from the blowout.

The article itself isn’t incredibly well-argued, but the fact that The Economist would say this is quite significant. The Economist is one of the most pro-market magazines in existence and spent the 90s and early 2000s telling the French they needed to get in line (i.e. be more like us) or face the consequences. That they would now say this is more evidence of the possibility that we are seeing an historic shift in international economic ideas and arrangements, perhaps as significant as the 1945 shift to the Keynesian welfare state or the 1980 shift to free-wheeling financial capitalism—we may be in store for a long-term return to heavy state intervention in the economy, but only time will tell.

French etatisme extends to the cultural sphere as well. French radio, by law, is required to play a certain proportion of music in the French language. The same goes for French cinema. The idea is to keep the hulking and bland American cultural juggernaut from eroding uniquely French culture, and they aren’t shy to use the government to do it.

Serge Gainsbourg is the type of uniquely French pop star the government’s law protects. A legend and constant point of reference in French music culture, his career spanned four decades—starting with romantic, sleazy jazzy pop, moving to romantic, sleazy rock pop, and ending with romantic, sleazy electronic pop in the 1980s. He is a fascinating and fantastically French character. Check his Wikipedia.

The following is perhaps his most famous song, from 1969. Translated as “I love you…me neither,” it was originally written with Brigitte Bardot, but she pleaded for him not to release it, so as to avoid her husband realizing that Serge was boning her. So he recorded it with Jane Birkin (pictured with him above), whom Serge at the time was boning. The lyrics are dirty.

Serge Gainsbourg with Jane Birkin - Je t'aime... moi non plus

In the 70s, Serge recorded an album called “Rock around the Bunker,” a 50s-style rock-and-roll album about Nazis, from whom the Jewish Serge had to hide during World War II. One big hit was “Nazi Rock.” But by the 80s, Serge had brought his French sex-poetry to new wave-inspired electronic dance music, such as this gem from 1987:

Serge Gainsbourg – Mon Legionnaire

Serge represents a lot of what we non-French intensely wish France was like—a lot of surly men smoking cigarettes constantly, drunk on wine, sleeping around with models, and doing outrageously controversial and sleazy things that no one really minds too much (I left out the bit about his duet with his 12-year old daughter, entitled “Lemon Incest” ). Basically, we romantically imagine France is full of men acting like this: