Vis-À-Vis: A Day With French & American Writers

The Vis-À-Vis: A Day With French & American Writers literary festival in Venice, California is in its inaugural year this May 2010. As stated in the literary event’s blog – “The driving force behind this project is the idea of dialogue, whether between France and America, or between the written and spoken words, for the American public and the French community.” Today’s program consists of three author panels, two children’s workshops, and one cocktail hour. I am attending two of the author panels, both of which are in Abbot Kinney Boulevard venues. The panels are:

“The novel vs. cinema and television”
Philippe Djian / Steve Erickson / Norman Klein
11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Consortium Gallery

“Writing on the city, writing on the margins”
James Frey / Richard Lange / Jean Rolin
2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the G2 Gallery

As a lover of all things French, I am looking forward to a day of hearing French, reading French, and perhaps even speaking French. Most importantly, this free festival is a chance to increase my literary awareness of contemporary French and American writers. However I do regret that I won’t be eating or drinking French today. That will have to be a treat for another day – perhaps while reading a work by one of the festival’s authors. Bonne lecture!


Images:
Left: Consortium logo from the website consortium-studios.com
Center: Front side of the Vis-À-Vis postcard

Right: G2 Galley from the website theg2gallery.com

Happy Birthday Gloria!!!

Gloria and I are longtime friends. Although I don’t recall the exact circumstances, we met at Clark University and she is the only one of my friends from that place with whom I am still in touch. Ah, if only social media was around at that time! Where is everyone? Sorry, I digress. Even if communication lines between Gloria and I have disappeared from time to time, they always reappear and that is a good sign of friendship durability. Although our lives since our undergraduate days have gone in different directions – married/single; kids/no kids; one location/several locations - we will always have that bond forged through dorm life in Hughes Hall, Sunday brunches in Jefferson, as well as cookies and cards in Carriage House. So Gloria my friend, on this day of your birth, I wish you the happiest of celebrations as you begin another year of life. Glorious Gloria!


Images:
Left: Hughes Hall. Photo is © An Adrean Darce Brent Image
Center: Graphic of CELEBRATE! Created by Adrean Darce Brent

Right: Clark University seal from a tile

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books 2010

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is in its fifteenth year this April 2010. I have been attending this book festival since its eighth year in 2003 when I went to four panels on Saturday 26 April 2003, including “Celebrating the Paris Review and the New York Review of Books”, and one panel – “Women in Hollywood” - on Sunday 27 April 2003 at the University of California at Los Angeles. Since 2004 I have volunteered for one shift during the festival’s annual April weekend and this year I worked the B shift – 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. – on Saturday 24 April 2010 at Young 50 and I was in charge of the stand-by line.

For the first two panels – “Biography: 20th Century Lives” and “Fiction: Behind Closed Doors” – there was no problem with getting all the stand-by people into the auditorium. The panel “Carolyn See & Lisa See in Conversation with Barbara Isenberg” was a different story. One man arrived two hours before the scheduled start of the panel to begin the stand-by waiting. An incredible number of people wanted to go to this panel and unfortunately about twenty stand-by people had to be turned away, although the majority of the people in the stand-by line were able to see the Sees.

Usually after my shift I go and check out the exhibitor booths. However, since I did a later shift than normal, I had walked in the exhibitor area prior to choosing my assignment. Picked up a Granta postcard and stayed with my tradition and bought a magnet as a festival souvenir. Last year they didn’t have the acrylic magnet, but they brought it back this year. Hurray! So, as I had already picked up my lunch when I checked in at the volunteer area, I left the campus right after my shift and walked into Westwood to catch a bus home. Despite the mass of humanity at the last panel I worked, it had been another pleasant day at the festival.

Besides author panels and exhibitors, the festival offers book signings, musical entertainment, readings, and children’s activities. The Festival of Books is a wonderful opportunity to meet an author you’ve always admired or to discover some writers previously unknown to you. And best of all, it’s free!




Images:
Left: Festival of Books logo from the website events.latimes.com
Center: Volunteer Map of the Festival of Books

Right: Acrylic magnet with 2010 Festival of Books illustration

Reel Rewind: “Gardiens De L’ordre”

French title – “Gardiens De L’ordre” / English title – “Sphinx”
This is not a direct translation of the French title into English, which would be “Guardians Of The Order”. I actually like the English title better – more in line with the film. Gardiens De L’ordre brings images of vigilantes, storm troopers, and knights templar to my mind. Sphinx actually is specific to the film, although Sphinx might bring to mind Egypt. In any case I would make “Le Sphinx” the French title and have “The Sphinx” be the English title.

It’s small. It’s round. It’s yellow. It glows in the dark. And it fires your brain into craziness. Sphinx is the newest platinum standard street drug that Julie and Simon need to find in order to dissolve the department cover up, which if it sticks, will cost them their police careers. They are on their own in pursuit of the drug suppliers and go undercover as drug dealers while performing desk duty at the police station. Still working at the police station gives them access to information and materials useful in catching the suppliers. Of course they are vindicated in the end and there were no real surprises in “Gardiens De L’ordre” – same situations seen in other films of this type.



Film Facts: Director: Nicolas Boukhrief, Writers: Dan Sasson, Nicolas Boukhrief, Cinematographer: Dominique Colin, Editor: Lydia Decobert, Musician: Nicolas Baby, Producer: Sylvie Pialat, Production Companies: Les Films du Worso, Gaumont, Entre Chien et Loup
Film Type: Crime/Thriller/Drama, Cast: Cécile De France (Julie), Fred Testot (Simon), Julien Boisselier (Marc), Nicolas Mane (le commissaire principal), Stéphan Wojtowicz (Gilbert), Nanou Garcia (Sandrine), Stéphane Jobert (Roland), Jean-Michel Noirey (Rudy), Gilles Gaston-Dreyfus (Christian), Foued Nassah (Joseph), Anthony Decadi (Stan), Length: 105’, Language: French, Country: France, Year: 2010.
Film trailer
No United States release date set as of this post.



Images:
Left: Front side of the ticket for “Gardiens De L’ordre” (“Sphinx”)
Center: Graphic interpretation of “Gardiens De L’ordre” created by Adrean Darce Brent

Right: Fred Testot as Simon and Cécile De France as Julie from the website ecranlarge.com

Reel Rewind: “Pierrot Le Fou”

French title – “Pierrot Le Fou” / English title – none
There is no actual English title of this French film to rate. I would go for the direct translation (of course!) and title it “Pierrot The Fool”. And a non-direct translation could be – “Ferdinand’s Folly”.

Here is my major French film confession – “Pierrot Le Fou” is only the second film by Jean-Luc Godard that I have seen. The other being “À Bout De Souffle” which translate as “At The End Of Breath”, but its actual English title is “Breathless”. Though they both deal with being on the run, the structures of the two films are different – “A Bout De Souffle” is a straight forward narrative that stays in chronological sequence, whereas “Pierrot Le Fou” is disjointed and without a linear chronology. The film is very much like the poem Marianne wrote about Ferdinand (or Pierrot as she calls him) – ‘tender and cruel, real and surreal, terrifying and funny…’ – a film that requires paying close attention due to everything that is thrown at the viewer. My assessment would be “artistic and ballistic”. Even though the setting is beautiful, being on the run is unsettling.




Film Facts: Director/Writer: Jean-Luc Godard, Novelist: Lionel White, Cinematographer: Raoul Coutard, Editor: Françoise Collin, Musician: Antoine Duhamel, Producers: Georges de Beauregard, Dino de Laurentiis, Production Companies: Films Georges de Beauregard, Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica, Rome Paris Films, SNC
Film Type: Crime/Drama/Romance, Cast: Jean-Paul Belmondo (Ferdinand Griffon), Anna Karina (Marianne Renoir), Graziella Galvani (Ferdinand’s wife), Samuel Fuller (Himself), Raymond Devos (The man on the pier), Dirk Sanders (Fred, Marianne’s brother), Jean-Pierre Léaud (The young man in the movie theatre), László Szabó (the political exile), Length: 110’, Language: French, Country: France, Year: 1965
Film trailer
United States release date Wednesday 8 January 1969



Shown before the film - the short “Allons-y! Alonzo!”
Director/Writer: Camille Moulin-Dupré, Producer: Vivement lundi!, Film Type: Animation, Length: 7’52, Language: French, Year: 2009
“A tribute to French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo.”



Images:
Left: Front side of the ticket for “Pierrot Le Fou”
Center: Graphic interpretation of “Pierot Le Fou” created by Adrean Darce Brent

Right: Jean-Paul Belmondo as Ferdinand Griffon and Anna Karina as Marianne Renoir from the website colcoa.org