The song is from a French movie that I cherish called "A Man and a Woman" ("Un Homme et Une Femme") from the 1960's. It's a moody and moving film about a couple slowly falling in love. The film tells the tale of a young widow named Anne whose late husband was a stuntman who perished in an accident and a widower named Jean-Louis who is a race car driver whose wife killed herself after Jean-Louis was in a near fatal car crash.
The two meet at the boarding school their children attend. They share a ride home to Paris one rainy night after Anne misses the last train. Their mutual attraction is obvious. The film depicts their relationship over the course of several trips to and from the school. As they fall in love, Anne tussles with feelings of guilt and loss regarding her deceased husband.
The couple share a magical first night together, but Anne finds herself unable to be unfaithful to the memory of her husband, and decides to leave Jean-Louis. I won't give away the ending except to say that is is unexpected, satisfying, and ambiguous (I love ambiguous endings).
The song is from a scene you should watch in which Anne is telling Jean-Louis about how remarkable her husband had been. She tells Jean-Louis a story about a time when Anne and her husband went to Brazil. Her husband embraced the joyful approach of the Brazilian culture. The scene flashes back to her husband, played by the French singer Pierre Barrouh, singing this song to her (see below for the lyrics in English). The joy he brings to her when he is singing the song is palpable.
I loved the song from the first time I saw the movie (in high school on a date at the Orson Welles Cinema in Harvard Square-- let's just say that it's an awesome first date movie). Really, it introduced me to my love of Brazilian music (well, that plus lots of Jobim songs). I bought the soundtrack when I was in high school and have been listening to it ever since. I must now have 30-40 Brazilian CDs.
"Samba Saravah" is a French version of the Brazilian song "Samba da Bençao" - written by Baden Powell with original lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes. Here is a version of the Brazilian song, sung by Toquinho, who is one of my favorite Brazilian singers.
The French lyrics are partly a literal translation of the Brazilian, but with a lot of new things added. Roughly translated (it's been a long time since high school French class):
To be happy is more or less what one searches for
I love to laugh and sing and I never want to keep people from feeling joy
Nevertheless can you have a samba without sadness?
That would be like a wine that does not intoxicate
A wine that does not intoxicate,
No, that is not the samba that I want
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