Les aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec

...by Luc Besson is a film built on the cartoons (Bande-dessinée) by Jacques Tardi (not Tati!).
It's a series of cartoons where the main title is 'Les aventures....' or 'The extraordinary adventures of...' completed with subtitles ('Adèle et la bête'; 'Le demon de la Tour Eiffel' etc.).
I (Gunnar) haven't read the cartoons and neither have Aurore. However she knew about their existence - I didn't.
These cartoons about Adèle, was written between 1976 and 2007.
Adèle is somewhat more robust physically in the BD:s compared to the actress Louise Bourgoin, something Tardi had mentioned when also stating that Bourgoin was prettier than his heroine.

Adèle is an adventurous woman, having her opposite among men in Indiana Jones.
She is a novellist but goes on to become an investigative journalist being somewhat of an expert in archeology and many other specialities, to some extent a unversal genius.
The reason for her to become an investigative journalist is that she, through her adventures, stumbles over mysterious events, including corruption and other 'anomalies' and thus she becomes eager to reveal the truth.
In this case she is looking for a remedy for her sister who is dead! Brain-dead anyway.
In the middle of the film we get to know that her death was caused by an accident on the tennis court when the two sisters played against each other. Her sister fell on a hair pin that penetrated her brain.
Adèle takes on the responsibility for this accident and subsequently does everything she possibly can, in order to save her sister.
The 'remedy' is a mummy who is said to have been the doctor of one of the most influential pharaohs and she sets off to find this mummy and bring it back to Paris where she knows of a specialist who might be able bringing the mummy to live.
Of course she encounters different adventures and not least Dieuleveult (Mathieu Amalric), an egyptian who tries to stop her from taking the mummy, including trying to kill her.

Before this film was made, Tardi was sceptical in letting someone adapt his BD:s for the screen but obviously he accepted Besson as the latter himself is a great fan of BD and furthermore Tardi seemed to like the œuvres of Besson, whereby it became a film after all.

The story takes place in the Paris of the 1920's and not least in the Louvre and other museums.
One decade earlier La Gioconda was stolen by an Italian employee at the Louvre, because he thought that it belonged to Italy, not France. He kept it in his appartment for two years, before it was discovered.
In this film a mummy (in Egypt) and a bird (at the Natural Historic Museum) are stolen (or rather escapes in the case of the bird), the bird being a terradactyl (pterodactylus), both dead since long but as Adèle once say in the film: "Death is the only path to birth".

We found the film being very charming containing both humour and trails of 'classic'adventure-films but I can't say it was an extraordinary experience.
The jokes about mummies who scare people when appearing in public (asking for the way to a museum) felt somewhat dated.
On the other hand there was a scene in which Adèle tries to get access to the professor when he has been imprisoned, sentenced to death, and that one is quite amusing. She uses different disguises but is again and again exposed.
The characters we get to meet (the Egyptian, the professor, the polices and not least the mummimes) were however rather 'special'.
I wonder though if not the characters in the books are even more specific.
The masks and make up was extremely well done and Mathieu Amalric was totally unrecoginzable.
The special effects were not impressive but on the other hand, today one expect more and more when it comes to this technical side. However I'm seldom impressed by the technical achievements in films and it's far from the most interesting part of a film.
We'll see if there will be more films made about Adèle and her adventures. I wouldn' mind, even though I'm not overwhelmed by this first (and last?) one.

Sound Of Noise à Cannes - la Semaine de la Critique

This - The Sound of Noise - is one of the films competing in La Semaine de la Critique (Cannes Critics Week) this year. This is of course the more interesting for us since Aurore participated as Production Assistant on this film.
Directors: Ola Simonsson & Johannes Stjärne Nilsson. Producer: Olivier Guerpillon.
She also worked as Production Assistant on another film being selected for La Camera d'Or in 2008, namely Les Grandes Personnes. That film being the first Swedish-French film cooperation in decades.
Both of them produced by Dfm Fiktion (Aurore's workplace for some time) in cooperation with others.


(Photo poster copied from: http://www.bliss.fr/images/productions/soundOfNoise/Affiche-Sound-of-Noise.jpg)

Fantastic Mr. Fox

...by Wes Anderson (2009) (link Fantastic Mr. Fox).

We appreciated this animated film as it to a great extent re-connect or re-establish the earlier ways of making animated films, those we saw in the 1960's and -70s but whos history dates back much longer than that.
Today most digital animations try to outflank each other in technical skills but this film - though very well animated - does more take into consideration the world of puppies made by tissue of different kind, relating to a more genuine 'handicraft'-tradition.

Mr. Fox lives with his family, wife and a son, trying to leave his former life of 'chicken-hunting fox' behind him, instead becoming a journalist.
Unfortunately his not strong enough to resist one last 'raid' but although it starts of well it doesn't turn out to well in the end, leading to catastrophy not only for him and his family but for their animal friends or -adversaries in the forest.
Together with his wife, son, nephew - an unusual fox, expert in karate and also practicing yoga among other things - and other animals they try to fight the three big farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean, who all try to exterminate them.
It's from these farmers Mr. Fox has stolen chickens, turkeys and cider!

We both thought it was a very charming film with - as above indicated - references to traditional stories about thieves wanting to leave the old life behind but being tempted doing one last coupe, the 'perfect' one.
We saw references to Ocans Eleven but also stories abut the strong borders between different groups in society (the different animals), being each others enemies but united for one good cause.
It could be interpreted as somewhat of a criticizm against the huge agricultural units, industrially managed not wanting anyone or anything to interfer in their business, when trying to make as large a profit as possible.
The film also displays the human, unjust, indignation and anger against animals acting in the only way they know - the fox hunting chickens - but themselves being more violent murderers, not because they have to but only in the name of economical gain.
Of course things turn out well and Mr. Fox learns that he have to listen to others, not always thinking he knows best, though he has been very succesful in different fields.

There were children in the audience at Cinéma Lux but I don't know how they responded to a film like this as its not a straight forward 'action' based, short cuts-film - as for example G-Force - and as the animation-technic - as I wrote above - is more basic.

L'Academie du Berry à Déols

A couple of weeks ago we received an invitation to a conference with L'Academie du Berry, in French called: Seance Solennelle de Déols.

The invitation came from the chairman (le Président) of this academy, Alain Bilot, an old friend to my mother- and father-in-law and subsequently a friend of ours.

The academy aim at promoting and enriching the cultural heritage and life in Berry, the very landscape in which we - among other cities - find La Châtre.
The name Berry is ancient and today this region is divided between the two départements (administrative division) Indre and Cher.

This day started at 10.30 a.m. and ended at 5.30 p.m.

It all started with an interesting lecture about Déols, the monastery/abbey - Abbaye Notre-Dame-du-Bourg-Dieu - and its history, presented to us by monsieur Michel Delaume a member of L'Academie and historian.

This monastery has a long history dating back to the 10th century (built between the 10th and 14th century) and also being very important in the history of the Christian Church in France.
In this abbey resided one or more popes in the early history of this church building, at the time immensely big, covering many achers.

This day also included the reception of a new member to the Academy, namely Jean-Yves Clément, writer, editor and artistic director for Festival des Fêtes romantiques de Nohant and a passionate lover of Frédéric Chopin and the Romantic Movement on the whole.
He brought two books he had written about different aspects in the life of Chopin:
Les deux âmes de Frédéric Chopin and Nuits de l'âme 21 poèmes d'après les 21 nocturnes de Frédéric Chopin.

The title of his lecture was: "Franz, Frédéric et mot, de Bourges à Châteauroux... Itinéraire d'un Berrichon romantique".

He told us that Chopin in some way had followed him through the years even if he doesn't listen to his music each and everyday.

One of the first composers I started playing when studying the piano, was Chopin and the first piece of music by Chopin was one of his nocturnes, but which one? I don't remember.

A very nice day and outside the sun was shining, warming us outside and in and after the soul and spirit had been nurtured our abdomens was likewise nurtured, with a lovely dinner nearby.

Below some pictures from the event:

(Above)
The chair of the chairman, monsieur Bilot
(Above) The famous(?) sword with which 
the Academy (should) 'knight' their new members.

(Above) 
Monsieur Bilot waving his hands, using his body to talk and explain 

and beside him the newly 'knighted' Jean-Yves Clément, among others.

At the table - second from the left - we find monsieur Jacques Viard, restorer/conservationist, working with church-/mural paintings, not only in Berry but all over France.

He was awarded Prix de l'Académie du Berry 2009/2010, for his excellent work in different churches, preserving the cultural heritage.

He is above all interested in churchpaintings from the 18th century.
We had the pleasure meeting him last summer when working in one of the local churches in Indre.

(Above) Two of many figures in the old abbey, 

some of them depicting then existing people - 

noone knows who they were - 

others (like these ones) more mythological figures.

(Above) This is one of the wooden ports, 

earlier at the surface but throughout the centuries 

now having been placed under ground level.

(Above) To the right, me, Gunnar, 
listening to the historian M. Didier Dubant.

(Above) The very same monsieur Dubant 
animating the history aorund the abbey, for me and others.

(Above) In this photo we are looking at 
the model of the original abbey.

How to Train Your Dragon

Cinéma Lux and the animated film with Vikings and Dragons, directed by Dean deBlois and Chris Sanders.

This is - among other things - a story about the young viking Hiccup who is to young and fragile to be accepted among the other vikings, even the younger ones.
He is always kept aside when the dragons attack their village on the mountainside - taking their sheeps and other animals they can find - and as Hiccup is the son of the chief/herse, the latter expects him to become a real tough viking, not a sissy.
Hiccup will however use other means than brutal force in order to tame the dragons, as the film will reveal.
One day he fires a sling, using some sort of catapult, towards one of the worst but most unknown dragons.
He tells everyone that he has captured this creature but noone believes in him.
He decides to try to find the dragon, in order to show the others. He finds it tied by the rope he shot towards him and in conformity with the viking-rules, he decides to kill it.
However he is not able to do so. Instead a sort of 'friendship' develops between the two, not least after Hiccup construct a sort of 'fin' in order to replace one who is hurt.
He uses the dragon as his 'flying horse' and when the village is going to fight the last giant among the dragons, a giant that all the other dragons feed, he uses his dragon in the fight.
This is a very charming history of impossible friendship, on how to build bonds between creatures fighting each other just because one doesn't understand the other part.
It's a story of courage and the advantage of using the brain to a greater extent than the muscles, on how to transform ancient traditions, built on tales about creatures whos savagery often is exaggerated (think wolf and man).
It's also very well animated and even the skin on the vikings resembles our real skin, the hair is 'blowing in the wind' as real hair even though the characters as such are exaggerated when it comes to size and looks.

There were a great number of children in the audience and we as well as them enjoyed this film.

A beer at Duplex

When meeting Aurore after work today, we decided to take a beer on the restaurant Duplex in La Châtre.
This because it was a lovely day and because we were worth it!
At Duplex we met Marie - who works there and a woman Aurore has known for many years.
She is a cultural, well-read and humurous person .
More uncommon for a French woman (or man) - is that she loves the Swedish dish Surströmming, in English known as fermented Herring or fermented Baltic Herring (French: petit 'hareng [de la Baltique] fermenté).
Aurore likes it and we ate it in 2009 but before that I haven't eaten it since 1969!
There are not many foreigner - or Swedes - who like this dish as the odour is quite intensive - it smells corpse!
We had a nice chat with Marie - as always - and we've decided to meet for a barbecue later on this spring, not eating surströmming however.

(Photo copyright: http://hogtider.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/surstromming.jpg)

(Photo copyright: http://www.vk.se/uploaded/image/2009/4/20/surstromming_klamma.jpg)

Alice in Wonderland

As this Monday is a holiday we went to Cinéma Lux in La Châtre, to see the latest work by Tim Burton.

Beforehand this film was very talked about and of course made in 3D.
Unfortunately this movie theater is not equiped with the technical devices enabling them to show films in 3D but on the other hand, the technical side is hardly the most interesting aspect for a cinephile.
It's said that Burton was inspired by the animated film Alice (Neco z Alenky) made by Jan Svankmajer (in 1988), a film we saw last year (june 2009) during the film festival in Paris, Paris Cinéma.
I can't say that the influences were to obvious even though the characters and their behaviour, somewhat resembled their counterparts in Svankmajers film. On the other hand one don't know how much is derived from the fact that we've seen other screen adaptations about Alice in her Wonderful Land.
Technically we were not impressed at all, Aurore and I.
There were some 'jumpy' movements in the way some of the characters walked and ran, not at all unusual in modern film making using animated or half animated parts but on the same time somewhat surprising taking into consideration the technical possibilities today.
The mixture between the faces of 'real' actors (modified) and the computer animated bodies didn't always work out well. Sometimes one asked oneself why use the computer animated bodies instead of real but this has to do with the 3D in itself - unfortunately.
It's imaginative, as always with Tim Burton, but the question is if this version added something essential to the story or characters in the story, or to much relied on the technical skill of the animators.
On the whole not at all a bad adaptation and of course there were some interesting and fantastic moments but seen in connection to the above mentioned version by Svankmajer, we found that one - much more simplified from a technical point of view - at least as interesting and much more charming.

Shutter Island

...directed by Martin Scorsese and with a number of well known actors and actresses, e.g. Leonardo di Caprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow, Michelle Williams, Patricia Clarkson etc.

The story circles around US Marschal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo di Caprio) who is assigned to investigate a disappearance of a patient at the Boston's Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital, not an ordinary hospital but an institution for patients regarded as being very dangerous, having committed different kinds of serious crimes, often murders.
When he arrives with his partner Churck (Mark Ruffalo), he find the island very well protected and it's as if the guards are surveilling every step they take.
He gets to meet one of the responsible doctors, Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) when arriving and later on the other doctor, in charge of the treatments, Dr. Naehring (Max von Sydow).
However, Daniels suspects that the treatment is not following ordinary standards but on the contrary that it's both unethical and illegal and he tries to find out who is the main responsible for this.
He suspects - not least - Dr. Naehring as he thinks being a former nazi officer/doctor and of course he has brought his methods of 'treating' people to this institution, Daniel thinks.
As being an old officer himself, surving during World War II, he even thinks he has met this doctor before, during the war.
Besides this he has his own reasons for coming to the island as he's looking for the man who he thinks killed his wife and children.

This is a very well directed story and there's nothing particularly bad about the mise en scène or the acting but almost immediately one understand that a lot of the things happening on the spot - at the hospital, including flash backs depicting the main characters backround story, including the death of his wife and children - is something going on in his head. The question is whether it' s going on in Daniels head or....?
The end didn't at all surprise us but, as I wrote, the story was told in a professional and rapid way, moving forth and back in time, in order to make the viewers confused.

In this film we see Max von Sydow once more acting a somewhat 'mysterious' and suspect individual with a possible nazi background.
Last time I saw him in a film, he also acted a doctor (not nazi however) and that was in Oscar et la dame rose.

Scorsese also uses a woman called Rachel, somewhat resembling Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Something totally deliberate and therefore a bit unimaginative.

Celebrating five and four years!

Today we celebrate that it's five years since we first met, at Cinéma Sture in Stockholm (during the Norwegian Film Festival, 'Kjempegreit').

We also celebrate that it's four years since we got engaged!

Eating at a French-Belgian restaurant tonight, just the two of us!