The sales of a book by
Madame de Lafayette, "La Princesse de Clèves", are up in France and there have been public readings of it in theatres and universities. The reason? Sarkozy
hates it. As Sarkozy's popularity
plummets, the "17th century tale of thwarted love" gets unexpected attention beyond the classroom.
Badges inscribed with "I am reading The Princess of Clèves" were the most popular item at the opening of the Paris book fair this week.
[more inside]
posted by lucia__is__dada
on Mar 19, 2009 -
29 comments
Shockingly, a novel about a Nazi officer who abets murder squads, transports Jews to Auschwitz, has sex with his twin sister, possibly kills his parents and then dies rich, old and reflective has caused a trans-Atlantic controversy among literary critics. Published in the original French three years ago, the English translation of
Jonathan Littell's The Kindly Ones hit American bookstores this week.
[more inside]
posted by zoomorphic
on Mar 11, 2009 -
86 comments
A tale of two countries Some time ago, the french & German tv channel
Arte had created an internet extension devoted to audio only,
Arteradio. This website contains hours of audio creations. This is the place where you can listen to
The first radio drama /la première fiction radio /in two languages and one version /en deux langues et une seule version /a BBC-ARTE Radio coproduction /enregistrée à Paris et London /recorded on location /diffusée en hertzien /broadcasted on BBC Radio 4 on February, 4th, 2009 /online on arteradio.com.
You can also listen to
McKenzie Wark, or to
the moment of silence created on September the eleventh 2002, to
Steve, to
English pupils in Paris, to
Susan George, to
Dean Hurley commenting his work, and then dive into the complete unknown, and pure French sounds, like
these testimonies about masturbation, or about
la chanson, like a Paris
postcard, or even a
street snapshot.
posted by nicolin
on Feb 10, 2009 -
3 comments
Once Upon a Time - a filmed fairy tale starring baby monkeys lost in frightening trees, a witch, crocodiles, a tiger, a "popotamus" and a lion, and even a "tremendously very bad mammoth." (In French, English subtitles)
posted by madamjujujive
on Nov 16, 2008 -
12 comments
At
One Minute Languages you can learn greetings, talking about names, counting, and more in
Catalan,
Danish,
French,
German,
Irish,
Japanese,
Luxembourgish,
Mandarin,
Norwegian,
Polish,
Romanian, and
Russian.
posted by sveskemus
on Nov 11, 2008 -
25 comments
Forty years ago, Swinging London was yet to swing. Everything was in black and white and, in class-bound Britain, fashion photographers were trades-men – polite, smart, seen but not heard. A new breed of snappers changed all that – Terry O’Neill, Brian Duffy, David Bailey and Terence Donovan. Bailey and Donovan started their careers in the West End studio of the doyen of fashion photographers – John French. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye
on Sep 1, 2008 -
11 comments
110% is a classic convivial québécois
sports Habs-centric debating talking heads french TV show, broadcasted every weeknight on TQS from 22:45 to 23:30 and
daily episodes are posted online almost in their entirety (usually only missing some minor bumpers) at around 00:30 AM everyday, if you can figure out how to start the weird flash player (tip inside) and stand the chopping of the main part of the show in four randomly-sectionned parts.
[more inside]
posted by jchgf
on Dec 12, 2007 -
10 comments
Luc Sante has started a blog (
according to Sasha Frere-Jones). Two entries so far, the first on a book cover from the 60's and the second on a picture of a rockabilly band. From the 2nd blog post:
And that is why we come here once a year to lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown rockabilly band: to persuade them to rest, and lay off the young. But just have a look at them--they were never meant to be! They should never have tried occupying the same stage, and they should have left music to find its own way home. The piano player, with his incipient Mickey Mouse ears, was clearly destined for a career working with puppets. The twins on guitar and bass were natural-born casino greeters. The other guitarist has the fine tapered hands of a pest-control agent specializing in silverfish. And the drummer--he was meant as an example. What happened to him should have been shown to driver-safety classes in every high school in the country. [more inside]
posted by Kattullus
on Dec 8, 2007 -
18 comments
Claude François was one of France's most successful popstars, a complete song-and-dance act who remained at the top of the charts for almost ten years before his career was tragically cut short when he tried to change a lightbulb while in the bath (youtube ahead).
[more inside]
posted by jacalata
on Nov 11, 2007 -
19 comments
This post isn't about the great Belgian guitarist
Philip Catherine - too many guitar posts recently - it isn't about the Belgian singer
Katerine (nothing to say). It is about the French singer Philippe Katerine, who has been changing the way lyrics are written, as well as giving a whole range of new topics to French song. With
Je vous emmerde (F*** you) he explains what's on a loser's mind.
Excuse-moi is about the things a man focuses on during sexual intercourse in order to avoid early ejaculation. The individual struggling with an meaningless society is always present :
Borderline (
warcraft version with English subtitles). His lists and his humor clearly link his work with the texts of Poets like Raymond Queneau, Boris Vian (and Serge Gainsbourg), or the prose of Georges Perec. He can be
Elegiac,
Paradoxical,
Funky,
prosaic, he's always twofold.
posted by nicolin
on Oct 25, 2007 -
13 comments
First she was a dancer but after an injury she had to sing to make a living. She still dances a little during her songs (a rare feat among flamenco cantaoras). I first heard about her when she made a whole record (cd) of Edith Piaf's songs in spanish. You can get a taste
here. She talks about it
here (spanish + french, excerpts). She sang
les feuilles mortes too. But nothing equals seeing her, I think : so here she is with two covers from a recent documentary : a song by
Edith Piaf, a song by
Lola Flores. Btw, If you get into french songs in the flamenco idiom, try
this.
posted by nicolin
on Oct 11, 2007 -
4 comments
"I've hidden myself and covered myself for too long. Now I want to show myself fearlessly, even though I know my body arouses repugnance. I want to recover because I love life and the riches of the universe. I want to show young people how dangerous this illness is." French Comedienne
Isabelle Caro, 27, an anorexic who weighs just 68 pounds, was displayed on Milan
billboards (NSFW) for
fashion designer Nolita as the city celebrated fashion week. The prevalence of eating disorders within the
fashion industry have only recently been
addressed officially, however
Georgio Armani has complained that since Caro isn't a model herself it proves
"even people who take no notice of fashion get anorexic."
posted by miss lynnster
on Sep 30, 2007 -
116 comments
Some more great french guitar players.
Nelson Veras first came to France to meet Pat Metheny (he was 14 then, it has been documented on video by Frank Cassenti) but upon meeting
some other jazzmen , he decided to stay in France and to experiment in
various settings.
Robert Crumb isn't exactly a "great french guitar player", but his decision to move to France (his or his wife's decision) and later his responsability in the creation of
Les Primitifs du Futur has played a part in the rebirth of ancient french styles ("musette") and the renewed interest in old jazz and blues forms.
[more inside]
posted by nicolin
on Sep 10, 2007 -
9 comments
Flamenco clearly belongs to spain. But so many immigrants came to France to find work or escape from the civil war that there is a small community of guitarists in southern France who are playing it with original voices.
Bernardo Sandoval was the subject of a
post in mefi music some time ago.
Antonio "kiko" ruiz is about to come to the United States with Renaud-Garcia-Fons : their work can be seen
here.
Serge Lopez is another great guitarist who puts some
guitar parts on his website.
Salvador Paterna adds to the traditional sound of flamenco both the 'oud and the violin.
They are all from or nearby
Toulouse.
posted by nicolin
on Sep 4, 2007 -
8 comments
Deleuze's ABCs A year before his sensational suicide by defenestration, the philosopher
Gilles Deleuze, known for his refusal to appear on television, offered to set the record straight with close student and friend, Claire Parnet, on the condition that it not be released until after his death. The interview, spanning eight hours, was conceived as an abécédaire, like a child's ABC book, with headings of "A comme animal," "B comme boisson," C comme culture". L'Abécédaire de Gilles Deleuze:
[Part 1][Part 2][Part 3].
Overview.
posted by Frankieist
on Aug 11, 2007 -
12 comments
