The film clip of “Suzanne,” the magical song by Leonard Cohen,” is from the French movie “Jules and Jim,” directed by legendary filmmaker Francois Traffaut. The 1962 film is based on the French autobiographical novel  “Jules Et Jim,” by Henri-Pierre Roch published in France (1953).

In the Roch book Jules arrives from Austria to bellepoque* Paris, where he is befriended by Jim. Together they embark upon a riotously Bohemian life, full of gaiety, color and bustle. And then there is Kate, the enigmatic German girl with the mysterious smile. Capricious, untamed and curiously innocent, Kate steals their hearts in turn, and so begins the moving and tender story of three people in love, with each other and with life. (Source: description from publisher)

* The term belle epoque soon found its way into English, where it came to be used to refer not only to the glory days of late 19th-century France, but to any similarly luxurious period. It is now used to more elegantly convey the sentiments of another nostalgic expression, “the good old days.” Merriam-Webster Dictionary

The video clip is appropriate for Cohen as his own life began in Montreal, Canada and him led to a life as a musician, novelist, poet, and lover of women and travel. He was a romantic at heart, a lover of life and people, and the magnificent cities of Europe and the Mediterranean Sea, including Greece.

Photos: Suzanne Verdal, Cohen from first album, 1967