30 October 2009

Berry Movies: The Films

Back from Cinéma Lux in La Châtre and Berry Movies!
Here is a list and some video clips with the competing films:

Nouveau monde, directed by Hervé André from Sauvigny-les-Bois
(Des êtres étranges, un langage incompréhensible, des expériences inquiétantes, ici tout est bizarre...);


Bric à brac, produced by a group from L'Ecole Méliès in Orly (click on the image). (Rencontre et cycle de vie, le temps d'une musique, de deux personnages faits d'éléments de récupération);
Alleluia, produced by the group 61 du Cygne from Clichy
("La religion est née le jour où le premier hypocrite a rencontré le premier imbécile", Voltaire);

ALLELUIA from 61 du Cygne on Vimeo.
Wesh, directed by Vivien Loiseau from Paris
(Ce soir, Jérémy a été invité à un dîner romantique par une charmante jeune femme. C'est normal, il a tout pour plaire: beau, jeune, intelligent... Entre deux rendez-vous amoureux, il sauve même le monde. Pourtant quelque chose cloche...)


WESH par floflo1971

Love and Pets
, produced by Videotrack from Poitiers
(Clip musical)

Meringue, alcohol and us - "Love and Pets" from VideoTrack on Vimeo.
Bob et Joséphine, directed by Liam Engle from Paris
(Bob veut séduire Joséphine. Mais son plus gros obstacle est peut-être...lui-même.)



En premier
, directed by Jon Smith from Bordeaux
(Clip musical)

Le vent en poupe, produced by La boîte à Fizz from La Châtre
(Une équipe TV suit le quotidien de Fabrice Poupe, maire de Pont-au-Julot /réputée pour sa production de chaussettes/ en lice pour les futures élections municipales)


Le Vent en Poupe par guiguidu36

Mets-toi à l'aise
, directed by Joli Rôle from Trans-sur-Erdre

(Journée ordinaire, pense Ghislain en quittant la maison. Au bureau, l'accueil n'a rien d'enthousiasmant, rien ne va. Et pourtant aujourd'hui c'est son anniversaire, il a 35 ans)

Mets-toi à l'Aise ! from tristan on Vimeo.
Lecture, stop, on rembobine, etc. directed by Sarah Wagner from Paris
(Au moment de la pause, dans le réfectoire d'une usine, quatre ouvriers aux habitudes très différentes tentent de cohabiter...)


Il était une fois la crise
, directed by Matthieu Le Texier from Nohant-Vicq
(Dans une région touchée par la crise, la lutte pour l'emploi fait rage. Un affrontement sans merci se prépare. Cinq cow boys pour une offre d'emploi...)

L'avant-dernier repas, directed by Julien Lefer from Angers
(Suite à une catastrophe planétaire, un survivant erre depuis des années se nourrissant de sales bestioles. Un jour, au milieu de nul part, il découvre un frigo qui fonctionne...).


L'AVANT DERNIER REPAS par Ehoan


"And the winner is...."

Nouveau Monde!

The idea to this film was quite original and it was carried out in a very entertaining and thought-provoking way.


The film opens with blurry pictures and a somewhat blueish colour and all of a sudden we see people surronding something or someone.
This someone is a baby (a couple of months old or more?) registering everything around him. What he thinks about his parents, the family, their friends, being looked at, hugged, caressed and played with, is made clear by a voice-over.

This was quite entertaining, displaying all the idiotic things we do with children and how this - possibly - could be perceived if children at that age had the possibility to speak out and analyzing events around them. Maybe they can?

This was one of my two favourite films.

Another favourite was Bric à brac (animation).
As this word is used in English too as another word for trinkets, I only have to say that the story circles around two figures made out of recycled things.
They are part of different items in a antiquity store and they both - in different ways - wants attention.
One is playing music and all of a sudden a fight or a contest emerges.
It gets so animated that one of them almost falls from a table. At that point the other figure tries to rescue his opponent (see for yourself below, if you feel like it).

This was technically perhaps the most complicated film to make and the story was well composed.
This my favourite came in fourth place in the competition.

Another four films were rewarded and those were:


2. Le vent en poupe
3. Il était une fois la crise
4. Bric à brac

5. Wesh
6.
Lecture, stop, on rembobine, etc.


Some pictures from this evening at Cinéma Lux:
These are the two berrichons in charge, Florent Choffel and Etienne Sautereau


This is the sheep in charge:

...and some of the laureates:



Berry Movies

Tonight the Short Film Festival in La Châtre - Berry Movies - is inaugurated!

This is a short film festival open for each and everyone! Those who want to participate don't have to be 'berrichons' as the locals call themselves and not even French.

This is the third time this festival is arranged and the organizers are working on a volontary basis but they do however get some financial support from the town and the region!

The winged sheep of Berry Movies - Le Mouton ailé


- is their 'trademark'.

Two of many people engaged in this film festival - and the 'founders' of the very same one can say - are Florent Choffel and Etienne Sautereau, former school mates of Aurore.

The jury were reunited on the 26th of September and among 50 films they selected the 12 short films we are going to see tonight!

18 October 2009

Rencontre de Chorales, La Châtre

In the church in La Châtre; Eglise St Germain de La Châtre, we overheard a choir competition today, called Rencontre des Chorales.
This is a recurring event in this town and in other towns too.

This competition consists of choirs from different towns in Berry who gather to compete in order to win a trophy.

For once I must say I was disappointed. The quality of these choirs did not please my ear.
As a Swede I'm used to a very high quality when it comes to choral singing and this is due to a long and vivid tradition of collective singing and also related to the great interest Swedes find in singing together like this.

Maybe this has to do with the collective mind of the Swede.
Although Swedes can be very individualistic at some levels, the possibility to hide in a group is, in my opinion, the over all sign of a Swede.

According to the information I've found there are around 600 000 choral- or choir singers in Sweden - amateurs- or/and professionals comprised.

Back to the choirs tonight.
The choir I found least bad - I'm sorry to say so but this is true - won.
The choir Aurore found least bad came in second place!
I won!

There are a lot of work to be done in order to ameliorate the quality of chorales both in this region and - I think - in France as a whole.
I've heard other church chorals from France (in French television) and I'm sorry to say that they didn't make me want to run to the next choir competition or church concert!
Maybe it's better when it comes to more professional choirs?

11 October 2009

Foire aux potirons Tranzault Indre 2009

This is called the fair of the potirons and a potiron is - in latin - Cucurbita Maxima, a sort of squash.

This is an event displaying all kinds of vegetables you can find in a garden on the countryside: Pumpkins, lagenaria vulgaris - which is a sort of Cucurbitaceae belonging to the squash family with among others the Calabash - parsnips and much more.

People from different farms in Berry sell their garden products but we were also given the possibility to eat and drink, not least products made from all these varieties of vegetables. We had the chance to watch an exhibition displaying how these vegetables could be used if not eating them!

Lien

Welcome:


This is the wonderful orchestra playing music sounding like a mixture of traditional Keltic or French country music and klezmer and they wandered around playing, walking in circles, stopping, dancing, creating a very nice ambiance!





'Nature-' or 'feuilles mortes'.

A plentitude of beautifully arranged vegetables! It's only to carry it home.

These pumpkins (below) are displayed before weighing them in order to decide which one weigh most. The winner weighed 468 kilos!
The record in France is however 553 kg and a female cultivator in Ohio, USA, holds the world record of 783 kg! , according to this article in La Nouvelle République.



This is the exhibition hall and below you can see puppets and marionettes made from the vegetables! Fantastically imaginative!

If you need a bed room lamp, a vase or any other decoration, you can find it here.

Talking about decoration: These birds and flowers make a beautiful substitute for the real ones! The man making them told us that it's very hard to 'sculpture' these vegetables, no doubt!

Finally we were demonstrated that music can be performed using any kind of tools, like in this case cucumbers or pumpkins...

...and this is the man responsible for these beautiful pieces of art, demonstrating that it's actually possible to play melodies!

His name is:
Patrick Chauvet

04 October 2009

...Château de Valençay

After our visit to Levroux we continued to Château de Valençay (photos above and below), a castle with a long and interesting history, dating back to 10th Century.

Already in the third and fourth century however, a villa was built at the site.
The first person who is said to have erected a castle-like building on the grounds, was Gauthier, seigneur de Valençay and this was at the end of the 10th century.
In those days the grounds covered an impressing 20 000 hectares!

Among many proprietors we find Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, regarded as one of the foremost diplomates in European history, born in 1754.
He first became a clergyman after studies in theology but after a political career, he became 'Président de l'Assemblée' in 1790.


Later on - as noted above - he became the most influential diplomate under the rule of Napoléon I, given the name 'the Prince of Diplomates' and the 'foreign minister' of France under the dictator.
In 1803 he became the proprietor of this castle, ordered to buy it by Napoléon who wanted him to live in a 'respectable' way.

Above you can see the castle from the frontage and just below from one of the sides where we in front of the castle see a multitude of flowers growing rather 'wild', though not uncultivated.

In other parts of the garden we found trees, bushes and flowers made into sculptural forms.

This is the castle from the rear....


...and this is the - in France - mandatory wine cellar.


Columns near the exit.
Help! I want to get out!

I don't. It's cool here.


Levroux...

This day we spent visiting Levroux and Château de Valençay!

We began with Levroux, a charming medieval town with around 3000 inhabitants.

It's the central town in this canton and resides over 12 other towns in the area.

As in many small (medieval) towns in France, you will find a lot of well preserved and interesting sites and a history dating back even to pre-medieval times.
This is the case with Levroux and the castle (château) Valençay.

The sculpture below is called The sleeping shepherd or in French Le Berger Couché and the sculptor is Ernest Nivet, a former student to Auguste Rodin.
Nivet should in 2011 have become 100 years old if he still had been alive and this is of course going to be commemorated.


This is the church La Collegiale Saint Sylvain:


Below one of the 'gates' or towers formerly protecting the city and through which people had to pass to get in to the city, called Porte de Champagne:


A photo of Maison de Bois, a Gothic building that serves as a halt for the pilgrims heading towards Santiago de Compostela (Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle):

Two heads in the church wall....


..and now we close the door to this town

03 October 2009

Saint Jacques de Compostelle

Besides being a rather central spot in Berry, La Châtre is also a town visited by pilgrims on their way to Sainte Jacques de Compostelle (Santiago de Compostella/Sainte James of Compostela).

In a former church (not used as such now and called a 'chapel'), we listened to a lecture concerning Sainte Jacques de Compostelle hosted by members of an organisation interested in and spreading knowledge around the history of pilgrimage and promoting pilgrimage as such.

The lecturers started talking about Sainte Jacques/Saint James and the origin of the scriptures in the Bible attributed to him:
Classical questions as: "Who was he"; "Was he the brother of John as is stated in the Bible?" etc.

According to legend he was the first of the apostles to die as a martyr during the reign of Agrippa I (or Herod Agrippa), in the year 44.
His body is said to have been transported to Spain in a miraculous way and he is also the Patron Saint of Spain.

The lecturers also talked about the different 'roads' a pilgrim can use when travelling through France. At least three main roads traverse France on the way to Santiago de Compostella.

Some pilgrims were present in the hall and they gave us their stories around and experiences of the pilgrimage. Some had done it using a bicycle but most of them had walked this road, halting in different towns in order to sleep and eat, e.g. La Châtre.

A couple of pilgrimes had done this trip several times and others once or twice.
My mother-in-law has hosted several pilgrims in her chambres d'hôtes - Les roses trémières - during these last three years and this year was no exception.



(Photo copyright: http://www.marypages.com/Santiago%20de%20CompostelaG.jpg)