Rocking in the deep

Younger daughter has always been a Mr Bean fan, and lately has taken Mr Bean's Holiday out of the library more than once. We saw the film when it was in cinemas a dozen years ago, and I remember being rather bored by it.

It turns out that it's a film that improves with re-watching, but I was charmed in 2007, and remained charmed now, by the closing scene, where Mr Bean reaches his holy grail, the beach at Cannes, and is joined by the entire cast in a joyous rendition of Charles Trenet's La Mer.


La mer
Qu'on voit danser
Le long des golfes clairs
A des reflets d'argent
La mer
Des reflets changeants
Sous la pluie

La mer
Au ciel d'été confond
Ses blancs moutons
Avec les anges si purs
La mer
Bergère d'azur,
infinie

Voyez
Près des étangs
Ces grands roseaux mouillés

Voyez
Ces oiseaux blancs
Et ces maisons rouillées

La mer
Les a bercés
Le long des golfes clairs
Et d'une chanson d'amour
La mer
A bercé mon cœur pour la vie

Here is Charles Trenet singing it some time in the early to mid-sixties, judging from the beehives in the audience.


If the rather awful translations I've seen online are any indication, these are very difficult lyrics to render in English (the moutons - sheep - for example, probably refer to whitecaps). No wonder we ended up with "Beyond the Sea", which has its own charm, but has nothing to do with the original, aside from the melody.