Cultural Life: Jane Birkin, actress and singer

Jane Birkin

Film

I saw A Royal Affair with that beautiful boy Mads Mikkelsen. It was just a tiny bit square, but the actors were wonderful. There was one outstanding film called Cesare Deve Morire (Caesar Must Die) by the brothers Taviani. It's the story of a production of Julius Caesar performed largely by the Mafia in a prison in Rome.

Music

I'm completely subjugated by my own daughter Lou's [Doillon] album, Places. Rock & Folk [a popular French music magazine] have said it's one of the best albums to come out of France in the last 10 years. Since it was released in September, I've been cutting interviews out of newspapers and magazines the way mothers do.

Books

A friend has given me The Richard Burton Diaries. I was in hospital recently for about four months, so took it upon myself to read War and Peace. I should have read it when I was 19 – and I'm 66 today.

Television

My sister gave me the complete collection of Green Wing on DVD, because I'd giggled a lot when I watched it with them. French television is not very good.

Jane Birkin performs live, following a screening of her new film, 'Souvenirs of Serge', at The Arches, Glasgow (www.thearches.co.uk) on 29 January as part of the Glasgow Music and Film Festival (www.glasgowfilm.org)