Patricia Kaas was all set to make her acting debut eight years ago when Stanley Donen (the director who made Singin’ in the Rain) cast her in a film about the life of Marlene Dietrich. Unfortunately, the project was abandoned at the last minute and fans never got to see Patricia play the famous Blue Angel. Almost a decade later, the French diva has returned to the screen, however, playing the role of a cabaret singer in Claude Lelouch's film, And now, Ladies and Gentlemen.

«I'd cherished the dream of acting for a long time, the singer admits, But I'd just moved to Switzerland and decided to start enjoying life for a bit! When Claude called I agreed to go and see him because he's someone I've got a lot of respect for – I didn't turn up expecting to land a role in his next film though!» But Lelouch, who had already auditioned at least twenty other singers and actresses for the role of Jane the cabaret singer, had other ideas! After seeing Patricia's screen test, the popular French showbizz star insisted on signing her up for the role and Patricia followed in the footsteps of a long list of other French music stars (including Brel, Dutronc, Hallyday, Bruel, Nicole Croisille, Lio, Bécaud and Ophélie Winter) who have already worked with Lelouch.

In her first starring role Patricia plays Jane, a young singer disillusioned by love, who meets "gentleman jewel thief" Valentin (Jeremy Irons), who turns out to be as cynical and weary of the love game as she. As Jane earns her living singing in piano bars in luxury hotels in Morocco, the role is not a million miles removed from Patricia's own lifestyle. But fans will undoubtedly get a kick out of hearing their favourite music icon say her lines in French, English and German – for the singer insisted on dubbing the foreign versions of the film herself, a process she described as «a lot tougher than actually filming!»

Meanwhile, the delectable Ms. Kaas is also back in the record stores with a new album entitled Piano Bar by Patricia Kaas. This album, featuring covers of famous French chanson classics including Ne me quitte pas, Que reste-t-il de nos amours ?, Les Feuilles mortes and Et maintenant is used as the soundtrack to And now, Ladies and Gentlemen - although on a closer listen fans will discover that the album actually contains a bit more and a bit less than the film version!

RFI/Musique: The cover of your new album Piano Bar by Patricia Kaas is certainly striking and original…
Patricia Kaas: Yes, and deliberately so – it was me who chose it! The thing is, this wasn't really a new album, strictly speaking. It was more of a concept album which became the soundtrack to Claude's film, so I didn't feel it was appropriate to put my face on the cover. Anyway, what happened was while we were out in Morocco shooting we organised a photo session and I asked the photographer to do close-ups of different parts of my body. As soon as I saw the photos, the one I was most struck by was the photo of my foot and I knew that was the one I wanted to work on for the album cover. I insisted on the fact that the packaging should be completely mat with the rose next to my foot standing out embossed. I knew I wanted something out of the ordinary. That's why the album's called Piano Bar by Patricia Kaas, which you have to admit isn't a 'normal' album title.

Is this album supposed to take the place of the album you were always meant to be putting out in English – the one that was always about to be released and then abandoned at the last minute?
Well, it would be easy to say yes. We've been talking about doing an album in English for years, but the project's just never been finished. In fact what happened was Richard, one of my producers, has been going on at me for years, saying I should record an album of French chanson classics. The thing is, you can generally slip in a couple of chanson covers on a new album – but even that's not always easy! And if you're going to put out a whole album of chanson classics, then there's got to be a reason behind it. Anyway, the day I walked out of Claude's office after discussing his film with him, my head was suddenly full of the chanson idea again. It was a natural train of thought, after all, the woman I play in the film earns her living singing in piano bars and Claude said that's what he wanted to hear me sing! When you perform on the cabaret and piano bar circuit, you only do the big well-known numbers. But I was adamant that I didn't want to sing Ne me quitte pas the way Brel sang it. After all, the job of a piano bar singer isn't to hold the audience's pure, undivided attention, her job is to provide background music as entertainment. As far as the ambience on the new album goes, what I wanted was to capture the feel of a modern piano bar – that's why I chose to work with Robin Millar, the guy responsible for the brilliant sound on George Michael's album Older. But whatever happens, it's clear that the new album's directly linked to Claude's film. The album is the soundtrack from the film, after all, though there are slight differences here and there. Not all the songs from the movie are included on the album, but then again the album features a couple of tracks which aren't included in the movie as well.

Do you have any plans to perform your new chanson repertoire in concert?
Well, the thing is, these kind of songs are so personal and intimate that it's difficult to imagine them on tour. I'd like to perform them live somehow, but it would have to be in small venues where audience numbers were limited to say 400 or 800 at most. I'd throw in a few extra songs too, of course, but I don't know whether I really want to perform my own songs at the same time as well – if I did it would have to be in a sort of medley form, I guess. I'm planning to do a short series of concerts sometime in September or October, but I'm only going to play thirty or so dates at most. This is not going to be "Patricia sets out on mega-tour" or anything!

It's interesting you should say that because you seem to take a much more less upfront approach to singing on your new album…
Well, I don't know about that, I'd already experimented with that a bit on Je te dis vous, wouldn't you say? That was done by the same arranger in any case. The thing is, as I explained earlier, is that the idea this time round was to capture the sound of a contemporary piano bar and create a sort of background music. That's really the one coherent thread we wanted running throughout the entire album – even though in general I like my set to include slow songs and numbers I can really belt out. I wanted to feel a certain emotional closeness to people as I was singing. That's not necessarily something I want when I sing a song like Mon mec à moi but I have to have when I'm singing If You Go Away [the English version of Ne me quitte pas].



Did you find it easy to make the transition from singing to acting?
Well, Claude went about it in a very intelligent way really. My first few days on set consisted entirely of scenes where I was supposed to be singing. So that meant I was completely at ease because I was doing something I already knew how to do. What happened was, Claude only gave me the script a fortnight before we started filming so I didn't have time to learn all my lines. But he did that deliberately because he wanted me to express things my own way - he wanted Jane to be like me, more than the other way round! I'd never been in front of a film camera before in my life and there I was standing there expected to keep up a running dialogue and everything! Sometimes we'd finish our lines and we'd be waiting for someone to shout "Cut!" but the call never came. Claude was simply happy with what he saw going on in front of the camera and kept on filming – which meant we had to keep the same expression on our faces and make natural gestures while he mouthed new lines to us off-set … I actually thought the whole acting side of things would be a lot more difficult than it was, in fact. One of the reasons Claude gave me the role was that he thought I resembled the character he had in mind so in a way I was more or less playing myself. Maybe things would be a bit more difficult if I had to turn round and do a comedy tomorrow!

But on the whole you're happy with your first foray into film?
I'm happy it's been successful, yes. And I say that not because I particularly feel I've been successful, but because Claude's happy with the result. After all, it was Claude who went out on a limb and took a risk, not me! If I'd put in a bad acting performance, I'd still have my singing career – but it would have totally screwed Claude's film up!

Has this experience given you the desire to go on and make other films?
I honestly don't know. One thing's for sure, in my head I'm definitely not an actress. I've just made a first film and now I'm taking it from there, seeing what happens... I don't have any fixed ideas about going on and making a film with such and such a director! But if you were to ask me who I wanted to sing with, now I could tell you that like a shot!

So, who would you most like to work with in the music world?
George Michael, without a doubt. He's always been my favourite singer. I'd absolutely love him to write a song or produce an album for me!