Category Archives: French culture

RIP Pierre Bourgeade (1927 – 2009)

RIP Pierre Bourgeade

RIP Pierre Bourgeade (1927 - 2009) by you.

Yaba Yayınları published Ölümsüz Bakireler, presumably a Turkish translation of Les Immortelles. –Sholem Stein

Pierre Bourgeade (November 8, 1927 – March 12, 2009) was a French writer, novelist, dramatist, poet, screenwriter, journalist, literary critic and writer. Rita Renoir met with her first critical success in the theatrical piece Les Immortelles by Bourgeade.

More on his importance to my universe in the coming hours.

Update: He wrote for French film magazines Positif and L’Écran français.

He is known to write in the category black comedy.

He participated in Peter Weibel‘s project Phantom of Desire.

He was a member of the jury of the Prix Sade.

He wrote prefaces for such authors as Stéphen Lévy-Kuentz and most recently Medi Holtrop.

Georges Bataille’s Story of the Eye: the film

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daaKRAWTjJ8]

Georges Bataille’s Story of the Eye is a 2004 American film adaptation of the 1928 novel by the French writer Georges Bataille. The film, directed by Andrew Repasky McElhinney, takes place in a seemingly abandoned house where a group of people engage in wordless acts of passion. The film covers a period from evening to morning, and the sexual couplings among the members of the house becomes increasingly harrowing as daylight arrives.

Georges Bataille’s Story of the Eye began as a video installation before being reconfigured into a feature-length film. It had its New York theatrical premiere in September 2004, and its support was led by Dave Kehr of the New York Times, who wrote of the production; “This is transgression in a literal sense, an act of aggression that Bataille would no doubt have appreciated. This is not a movie for passive consumption, but a film that bites back.”

Musidora @120

Musidora by you.

Musidora in Les Vampires (1915)

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_fdUROaJYo&]

Musidora in Les Vampires (1915)

Musidora (February 23, 1889 – December 11, 1957) was the stage name of a popular French silent film actress of the early 20th century. She is best-remembered for her vamp persona in the roles of Irma Vep and Diana Monti in the early motion picture crime serials Les Vampires (1915) and Judex (1916), respectively.

Poster for Les Vampires

Adopting the moniker of Musidora (Greek for “gift of the muses“) and affecting a unique vamp persona that would later be popularized in the United States of America by actress Theda Bara, Musidora soon found a foothold in the nascent medium of moving pictures. With her heavily kohled dark eyes, somewhat sinister make-up, pale skin (see the heroin chic aesthetic) and exotic wardrobes, Musidora quickly became a highly popular and instantly recognizable presence of European cinema.

Beginning in 1915, Musidora began appearing in the hugely successful Feuillade-directed serials Les Vampires as Irma Vep (an anagram of “vampire”), a cabaret singer, opposite Edouard Mathé as crusading journalist, Philippe Guerande. Contrary to the title, the Les Vampires were not actually about vampires, but about a criminal gang cum secret society inspired by the exploits of the real-life Bonnot Gang. The somewhat surreal series was an immediate success with French cinema-goers and ran in ten installments until 1916. After the Les Vampires serial, Musidora starred as ‘Diana Monti’ in another popular Feuillade serial, Judex, filmed in 1916 but delayed for release until 1917 because of the outbreak of World War I. Though not intended to be “avant-garde,” Les Vampires and Judex have been lauded by critics as the birth of avant-garde cinema and cited by such renowned filmmakers as Fritz Lang and Luis Buñuel as being extremely influential in their desire to become directors.

I’ve previously mentioned Les Vampires[1].

New erotic fiction in France

Coños. Juan-Manuel de Prada

Coños by Juan Manuel de Prada (in the Valdemar edition)

De Papieren Man reports[1] that French publishing house Seuil just launched an erotic fiction series in its Points collection of cheap paperbacks.

Nine titles have been published at the end of January. They feature strikingly bright pink covers. “Parce que la littérature est une provocation…” (Eng: Because literature is a provocation), goes the slogan to the new collection.

The slogan reminds me of Mallarmé‘s famous dictum on the subversive qualities of book reading “Je ne sais pas d’autre bombe, qu’un livre.” (I know of no bomb other than the book.)

Four titles were acquired from other publishing houses. Coños[2] by Juan Manuel de Prada, Le Beau Sexe des hommes by Florence Ehnuel, Le Fouet by Martine Roffinella and Légendes de Catherine M. by Jacques Henric on the exploits of his wife Catherine Millet. Other titles include La vie sexuelle de Catherine M. by Catherine Millet, Le Boucher by Alina Reyes and Putain by Nelly Arcan; an anthology of erotic poetry by Jean-Paul Goujon. Director of Points is Emmanuelle Vial. First prints range from 4.500 to 8.400 copies, price hovers between 6 to 8 euros. Every two books bought merit a “naughty gift” by lingerie brand Yoba. The first present was a mask.

It was not the first time that the color pink came to symbolize eroticism in the media. In the eighties started the popular TV series Série Rose.

Jean Richepin @160

Jean Richepin @160

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bAZPmgvQn4&]

contemporary version of La Glu by a certain Dorsannes

A la dérive by Jean Richepin

Jean Richepin (February 4, 1849 – December 12, 1926), French poet, novelist and dramatist, noted for perpetuating tropes such as La Glu (1881). He belonged to the Le Cercle des poètes Zutiques and was an important player in French cabaret, the French avant-garde, the history of the cruel tale and the history of derision.

Richepin was virtually unknown until the publication, in 1876, of a volume of verse entitled Chanson des gueux (see Les Gueux), when his outspokenness resulted in his being imprisoned and fined for outrage aux mœurs.

La Glu

La Glu by Richepin

La Glu first came to my attention[1] a year ago. It is a poem/song by French writer Jean Richepin. It is a story of motherly love, of a mistress who demands of her lover his mother‘s heart to feed to her dog.

The song was a staple in the French cabarets of the late 19th century and has been interpreted by various performers including Eugènie Valladon, Mistinguett and Polaire.

“La Glu” was brought to stage by Richepin for the Théâtre de l’Ambigu-Comique in 1883 and later adapted to musical drama set to music by Gabriel Dupont performed at the opera of Nice in 1910.

Hungarian writer József Kiss used the plot for his novel The Mother’s Heart (“Az anyasziv”, written between 1883 and 1889).

The origin of the story is probably an old Arabian tale. It was updated in the 1920s by Iranian poet Iraj Mirza.

The original lyrics of “La Glu” are:

Y avait une fois un pauvre gars
Et lonlon laire
Et lonlon la
Y avait une fois un pauvre gars
Qui aimait celle qui ne l’aimait pas.
T’es-tu fait mal, mon enfant ?
Et le cœur disait, en pleurant :
Elle lui dit : Apporte-moi d’main,
Et lonlon laire
Et lonlon la
Elle lui dit : Apporte-moi d’main,
L’ cœur de ta mère pour mon chien.
Va chez sa mère et la tue,
Et lonlon laire
Et lonlon la
Va chez sa mère et la tue,
Lui prit l’ cœur et s’en courut
Comme il courait, il tomba
Et lonlon laire
Et lonlon la
Comme il courait, il tomba
Et par terre, le cœur roula.
Et pendant que le cœur roulait
Et lon, lon laire,
Et lon, lon la,
Et pendant que le cœur roulait,
Entendit le cœur qui parlait.
Et le cœur disait, en pleurant
Et lonlon laire
Et lonlon la

RIP French singer Gérard Blanc

RIP French singer Gérard Blanc

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgbtKg9g1jI]

Can someone ID Gérard in this clip

Gérard Blanc (December 8, 1947 – January 24, 2009) was a French singer and guitarist, internationally best-known for his work with Martin Circus.

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzfZ85ipb_c&]

“Disco Circus“

Martin Circus is a French rock group formed in 1969. They are best-known for their single “Disco Circus,” released in 1978 in France and licensed by in the US by Prelude Records label, which commissioned additional remixes by New York-based French expat François Kevorkian.

Disco Circus (1978) – Martin Circus

Released as an album and a twelve inch single on the New York Prelude record label, Disco Circus by French outfit Martin Circus which first came to my attention as a favourite of the Detroit techno artists such as Juan Atkins and Derrick May (who listed it as his top 5 record in the late eighties). It is an example of the cross-fertilization of the European and North American disco markets of the late 1970s. Other examples of which are Orlando Riva Sound‘s Moon Boots single which was released on the American imprint Salsoul records

See French disco.

Proudhon (Property is Theft!) @ 200

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon @200

Anarchy in Palermo by lulazzo [non vede, non sente, non parla]

Click for image credits

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon(1809 – 1865), who I mentioned here[1], was a French anarchist. He was the first individual to call himself an “anarchist” and is considered among the first anarchist thinkers. He was a workingman, a printer and autodidact. Proudhon is most famous for his assertion that “Property is theft!“, in What is Property? Or, an Inquiry into the Principle of Right and Government (original title: Qu’est-ce que la propriété? Recherche sur le principe du droit et du gouvernement), his first major work, published in 1840.

The book’s publication attracted the attention of the French authorities. It also attracted the scrutiny of Karl Marx, who started a correspondence with its author. The two influenced each other: they met in Paris while Marx was exiled there. Their friendship finally ended when Marx responded to Proudhon’s The System of Economic Contradictions, or The Philosophy of Poverty with the provocatively titled The Poverty of Philosophy.

My fave quote of him I saw once written on several carriages of a train in Antwerp Central Station.

“To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be place[d] under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality.” (Pierre-Joseph Proudhon)

Introducing the late Tina Aumont

Tina Aumont in Frédéric Pardo‘s Home Movie

Male viewers pressed for time may want to scrub to 2.37

Tina Aumont (14 February 1946 – 28 October 2006) was an American actress of French, and Dominican descent.

Her parents

She was born in Hollywood, California, the daughter of actors Jean-Pierre Aumont and Maria Montez who he had met in Hollywood. Maria Montez was known as the Queen of Technicolor, an early camp icon and idol to American experimental filmmaker Jack Smith, whose Flaming Creatures (1963) is basically a travesty on Hollywood B movies and tribute to actress Maria Montez.

Back to Tina

Tina married actor and film director Christian Marquand in 1963, at the age of 17.

She made her debut as Tina Marquand in Joseph Losey‘s 1966 movie Modesty Blaise. She worked in Italian cinema with, among others, Alberto Sordi (Scusi, lei è favorevole o contrario?, 1966), Tinto Brass (L’urlo, 1968 and Salon Kitty, 1975), Mauro Bolognini (Fatti di gente perbene, 1974), Francesco Rosi (Cadaveri eccellenti, 1975), and Federico Fellini (Fellini’s Casanova, 1976).

In 2000 she retired from film work and died in France at age 60.

PS: Tina Aumont was brought to my attention via a Dutch blog. Moon in the Gutter was there[2] before me. Here[3] is a Tina Aumont photo taken by Frédéric Pardo from the site http://paris70.free.fr/ dedicated to French counterculture of the fashionable variety (as contrasted to the political variety). I discover Philippe Bone.

RIP French film director Claude Berri (1934 -2009)

RIP French film director Claude Berri (1934 – 2009)

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwGuJnqqYJI]

Claude Berri is internationally perhaps best-known for L’Ours[1], Gérard Brach‘s screen adaptation of The Grizzly King (1916) by American novelist James Oliver Curwood. The project was directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud in the 1988 film L’Ours, known in North America as The Bear.

On my curiosa viewing list is the Claude Berri written and directed sex comedy Sex Shop,[2] which offers, outside of the funky grooves of Serge Gainsbourg, a slice of life of the French sexual revolution, or perhaps even an early case study of the ending thereof.

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGl9DbuvN2Q&]

I give you the night club sequence from the Claude Berri movie “Sex Shop”

P.S. Berri has a bit part in Michel Gast‘s screen adaptation of Boris Vian‘s J’irai cracher sur vos tombes.