L'Ecume Des Jours

February 25, 2013 4:25 PM

Trailer for Michel Gondry's new film, Mood Indigo, based on the book Foam of the Daze (or Froth on the Daydream, depending on the translation) by Boris Vian.

“There are only two things: love, all sorts of love, with pretty girls, and the music of New Orleans or Duke Ellington. Everything else ought to go, because everything else is ugly.” -Boris Vian

See also:
-Vian's music
-Vernon Sullivan
-Pataphysics

posted by hopeless romantique (18 comments total)

That looks fun. Though I think I like Vian's music more than his books, possibly because j'suis snob.

(Is there some pun in the original title that is beyond my poor french, to make them translate "Jours" as "Daze"/"Daydream"? Or are they just having fun?)
posted by benito.strauss at 5:13 PM on February 25

They're just having fun. And to be super pedantic, French convention capitalizes only the first letter of a title, so it should read 'L'écume des jours.'

He wrote a lot of books, and a lot of poetry, and a lot of the titles are different from the others; he ranged wide and far. I remember the first time I picked up L'arrache coeur not knowing really who he was. That was a wild ride. I'm excited about this movie.
posted by TheTingTangTong at 5:40 PM on February 25

I'm excited about the movie because it looks beautiful, and maybe - possibly - it will capture the mood of the book, but there are so many parts and details of the book that I'm afraid will be left out.

Also, the ending to the book isn't happy at all. If this was from an American director, I'd be certain that the ending would be totally changed around, but since it isn't, I'm curious as to how Gondry will do it.
posted by hopeless romantique at 6:07 PM on February 25

FSG is releasing a new edition of the book titled Mood Indigo in September (thusly) so odds are good that that is when the film will come to the US. but I live in Montréal! I will get to see it in April and, if I practice my French a lot between now and then, I may even understand it! at least the words in it. oh, whatever. I will love it anyway.
posted by spindle at 7:13 PM on February 25

I have no idea what is going on here, but I am definitely going to watch it.
posted by brennen at 7:37 PM on February 25 [1 favorite]

This made me gasp aloud. I can't think of any better contemporary to adapt this to film. I am terribly excited, terribly sad that I'll be in Paris 3 weeks too early to see this, and terribly hopeful that this comes to the States soon after that.
posted by taltalim at 7:53 PM on February 25

Just here to point out that «écume» = "scum".

Oh, and that Romain Duris is the best new-ish French actor in quite a while.
posted by Wolof at 8:00 PM on February 25

This looks like pure delight.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:02 PM on February 25

And to be super pedantic, French convention capitalizes only the first letter of a title

Um, yeah, no.

You can take it up with the Petit Robert, Quid, and Le Bon Usage.
posted by Wolof at 8:23 PM on February 25 [2 favorites]

More Gondry: He recently screened at MIT his animated documentary of Chomsky, called Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?: An Animated Conversation with Noam Chomsky. MIT event page, with embedded trailer plus link to MP3 of the post-screening Q&A with both Gondry and Chomsky. The film is beautiful with a rough, handmade feel.
posted by shortfuse at 8:31 PM on February 25

«écume» = "scum".

I had thought it was more like "foam" or "lather", without all the strong negative connotations that "scum" has in English.

/not French speaker.
posted by benito.strauss at 8:38 PM on February 25

A film of concentrated Gondry?

It will be panned by most and die on its arse at the box office.
This reaction will herald the formation of the paramilitary wing of tumblr.
posted by fullerine at 1:42 AM on February 26

Wow, this looks glorious. I'm sold. (it even got books in it!)
posted by ouke at 3:05 AM on February 26

There's a blast from the past! I remember trying to decipher in my halting French the line about the blackheads retreating at the sight of their own ugliness and wondering what the hell this guy was on.
posted by BWA at 5:44 AM on February 26 [1 favorite]

Huh. Who knew. I dunno about Le petit Robert, I just grabbed the five closest books in French to me. They are, and I follow the system on their spines :

Comment fais-tu l'amour, Cerise ?
L'herbe rouge
Les Paradis Artificiels
Le beaujolais nouveau est arrivé
La voie et sa virtue

Of those, only the Baudelaire title resembles anything described on french.about.com (berk). So now I don't know how to describe the French system. I guess this isn't really very important, though. . . L'Ecume (scum, foam, or froth) Des Jours is for sure incorrect. I mean, probably.
posted by TheTingTangTong at 6:51 AM on February 26

ecume = crest ? (considering that the metaphor here is days = waves) but I'm sure there's an English word for ecume that doesn't evoke something as textural as foam does or is as depreciative as scum is.
posted by nicolin at 6:55 AM on February 26

Ah nah, I was right after all (regarding capitlized French titles): La règle générale dit que, pour un titre d'œuvre ou de périodique, les règles applicables aux noms propres s'appliquent et que les mots autres que les noms propres ne prennent une majuscule que s'ils sont le premier mot du titre. On écrira, par exemple, Mon oncle, Une saison en enfer ou Voyage au centre de la Terre. Grevisse est à cet égard le plus radical : il indique dans Le Bon Usage que « pour éviter l'arbitraire et les discordances, l'usage le plus simple et le plus clair est de mettre la majuscule au premier mot seulement, quel qu'il soit. » (p. 123). from
here .

The word for crest is crête. In the original French there really isn't any reference to any waves or anything, at least, not directly. I always imagined the days of your life leaving a trail and there being some kind of foam left behind.
posted by TheTingTangTong at 7:12 AM on February 26

I see you probably know the word for crest in French.
posted by TheTingTangTong at 7:28 AM on February 26