Happy 80th Birthday Pierre Barough

Pierre Elie Barouh was born on February 19, 1934 in Paris, Île de France, France. Eli Baruch, his brother and sister lived happily with their parents until the Second World War, during which their parents hid in Montournais in Vendée, with three different families; Elijah, since renamed Pierre, took refuge with a couple now deceased. From these childhood years, he drew inspiration from songs such as ‘À bicyclette’, ‘Des ronds dans l'eau’, ‘Les Filles du dimanche’.

 
After the war he became a sports journalist and a player for the national volleyball team, Barouh spent a few months in Portugal, where he discovered Brazilian songs. In 1959, he embarked on a cargo ship to Brazil without meeting his singing idols. Back in Paris, he met the principal authors and composers of the Brazilian bossa nova.
 
As an actor, he played the role of the leader of the gypsies in “D'où viens-tu Johnny?” (1963) and the role of Pierre in “Une fille et des fusils”. As a writer and performer, he obtained some success with “La Plage”, immortalized by Marie Laforet, and especially guitarist Claude Ciari’s, “Tes dix-huit ans ou Monsieur de Furstemberg”. He makes a documentary, which became legendary on the beginnings of bossa nova, with his friend, Baden Powell Aquino.
 
Back in France in 1966, he participated in the film “A Man and a Woman” by Claude Lelouch, who gets the Palme d'Or at Cannes 1966. An cctor in the film and songwriter he performed songs from the soundtrack, with enormous success. Pierre Barouh married actress Anouk Aimée in 1966. They divorced three years later.
 
With his earnings he bought the first mill on the river where he spent his childhood Vendée. He installed a recording studio and hired house artists. He took the opportunity to highlight the talent of others, creating his own record label, Saravah, shortly before the release of the film A Man and a Woman.
 
He appeared in his only Euro-western “Another Man, Another Chance” as a street singer in 1977.
 
With his second wife, Dominique, he made a series of shows at the Theatre Mouffetard and the Théâtre du Ranelagh. Their son Benjamin is born, now the current head of Saravah in Nantes.
 
In 1979 he began production of the film, “Le Divorcement” with little success.
 
Pierre then married a Japanese woman Atsuko Ushioda, whom he accompanies each winter to Tokyo where they reside. In the 1980s, he participated in musical projects in Japan and opened an office in Saravah. Since then, he divides his time between Japan and the Vendée. He continues to release albums, making films and documentaries, and writing plays.