Born in Iran in 1928 to an Iranian father and Russian mother, Serge Rezvani was a painter for the 20 first years of his artistic activity. He exposes from 1946 to 1996 in different galleries in Paris (Maeght, Arnaud, Durand, Berggrüenn) and London at Hanover Gallery. In 1960 he leaves Paris with his wife Danièle Lula -Woman of his life and the center of his artistic work- and settles in Garde-Freinet where he lives as well as Venice where he spends most of the year writing.

In the Sixties he adopts a nickname 'Cyrus Bassiak' and starts writing songs (lyrics and music ) for two major films of the French New Wave Cinema. François Truffaut asks him to write the now classic song ' Le tourbillon ' (made popular by french actress Jeanne Moreau) for his film 'Jules and Jim' starring Oskar Werner, Henri Serre and Jeanne Moreau and in which Rezvani appears in a cameo role. Truffaut’s friend and rival Jean-Luc Goddard also asks him to compose the songs of ' Pierrot le fou ' which starred Jean Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina. Thus Rezvani becomes despite himself the composer of the Nouvelle Vague or French New Wave Cinema under the pseudonym Cyrus Bassiak (sometimes credited as Boris Bassiak).

However Rezvani gained fame with his true name as a major French author of the 70's with two autobiographies ' Les années-lumière ' (1967) and ' Les années Lula ' (1968), ' Coma ', ' Les Américanoïaques ' and ' La voie de l'Amérique ', three novels published in 1970. ' Mille aujourd'hui ', 'Foukouli ' (1974) and 'Feu' are novels focused on his relation with his loved wife.

Having lived most of his life in France, Rezvani's work is essentially influenced by his country of adoption, nevertheless he did offer a new interesting translation of Khayyam's Rubayyat and his love of poetry does have a romantic echo from his Persian and Russian roots. He was also for some short time drawn towards political activism in France along with other Iranian expats in opposition to the Shah’s regime. This led him to write the play ' Le camp du drap d'or ' in the form of  a political satire mocking the Shah of Iran's Persepolis Celebrations and which was performed at the Festival of Avignon in 1971. In retrospective this was quite a mediocre play motivated by a rather vague knowledge of the political situation in Iran that misled so many progressive but at times naive intellectuals in the West such as Jean Paul Sartre or Philosopher Michel Foucault to morally support Ayatollah Khomeiny Islamic Revolution.

It would be wrong and unjust to reduce Rezvani’s opinions of the time or even his literary work to an insignificant play as ' Le camp du drap d'or ' for he has never been truly a political thinker nor claimed to be one and his early shy support for the Revolution was neither motivated by any sort of Religious sympathy or conviction. His life and work were for a good part inspired by his lifelong muse and beautiful French wife

In the 80's he contunued to explore this harmonious relationship with other essays like ' Le testament amoureux ' (1981), ' La loi humaine ' (1983). Combining his talents as a painter  (his works were exhibited at the Maeght Gallery and has work in the collection of the presidential palace, the Elysée.) and art critic he published many books and articles in regard to the History of Art as well as in relation to the Theater. The death of his wife in 2005 after struggling for 10 years from Alzheimers was a great blow to him both as a man and husband. He fortunately overcame his depression thanks to a newfound love in the person of French-Corsican actress Marie Joé Nat which he eventually married.

At Age 80 he seems as active and enthusiastic about the young generation of singers like Vanessa Paradis, and more recently Belgian singer/actress Helena Noguerra who are revisiting his music repertoire and reviving some of the most emblematic music scores of the French New Wave Cinema of the 1960’s.

Rezvani remains an interesting and touching icon in the arena of French Poetry whose love and respect for beauty and women seems to grow stronger and deeper as years go by …

VIVE REZVANI & VIVE LES MUSES!

Authors Notes:

Helena Noguerra’s latest album Fraise Vanille