The French Journal

Who is Dany Boon?

Thanks to the phenomenal success in France of the movie Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, there is a new king of French film actors: comedian Dany Boon, who wrote, directed, and starred in the picture. As is often the case, Boon is largely unknown here in the U.S. To help remedy that situation, let me give you a few facts about him.

Daniel Hamidou was born almost 42 years ago in Armentières in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region; his stage name is derived from the American frontiersman Daniel Boone. In the early days of his career, Boon was a street performer, worked in clubs as a comic, and provided voices for cartoons. In 1993, a television personality, Patrick Sébastien, spotted him and gave him a break, which led to a series of successful one-man shows. One of them, A s'baraque et en ch'ti, uses for comic effect the ridicule that many of his countrymen express about his birthplace. (I believe the title is roughly translated as "At his place and in Ch'ti," which is a Northern dialect.) The DVD of this show sold over 600,000 copies and undoubtedly paved the way for the smashing acceptance of Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, which uses the same theme for its story. The film is already the most successful French film of all-time in its native land, and only surpassed by Titanic, which les Ch'tis may yet overtake.

A few of Boon's movies have shown up stateside, including Joyeux Noël, La Doublure/The Valet, and most notably, Mon meilleur ami/My Best Friend, in which he bonds with star Daniel Auteuil. Following is an extract from one of Boon's comedy monologues, in which he attempts to entice visitors to the North. Needless to say, it's in French.

TJF news round-up: The Tower is spared, Nouvel, Delon, another Sarko divorce?, Steves on drugs

As many updates as I can squeeze into 25 minutes:

• At least my instincts were right. Praise be to Charles Bremner, who reports that the story about the redesign of the Eiffel Tower, which I blogged last week with the header "This is a joke, right?", is indeed a joke. Now if I could only retract the nasty-gram I sent to the Eiffel Tower authorities. (HT Learn French with the Bible.)
• Nouvel news. French architect Jean Nouvel has been awarded the Pritzker Prize, one of the most prestigious recognitions in the field. Nouvel is only the second French citizen to be so honored. Christian de Portzamparc was the first. (Business Week)
• Delon-ly life. A new box of DVDs featuring the lithe and lovely Alain Delon has been released in the United States. The New York Times's review of the set concentrates on La Piscine/The Swimming Pool, a roundelay of sex and sun. Amazon is selling the set for a dirt cheap $31.00.
• Bruni/Sarko divorce? Not really, but it's April Fools Day, and I need to liven things up.
• Steves on Mont Saint Michel, plus drugs. I just wrote about Mont-Saint-Michel, sort of, last week, so I'll simply make you aware that Rick Steves has syndicated his view of its magnificence for those who can never get enuff (CNN). BTW, Steves is praised in an NYT op-ed piece today for his progressive stance on the decriminalization of marijuana. And that isn't a joke.

Mister France - 2008

Because I have neither time nor pride this morning, here's a video with excerpts of the finale of Mister France contest for 2008. BTW, it's thirteen minutes long.

If you want full-screen, click on the video screen itself, which will take you to SPlanet site. (Not required. It's a matter of how much detail you want.)

Cinema of The (New York) Times #1: Louis Garrel

Tomorrow's news today. The New York Time's Sunday edition profiles French actor Louis Garrel, "an all-purpose heart throb." The headline refers to recent roles of Garrel's in which he played the love object of women, men, his (cinematic) sister, and his (cinematic) mother. I wrote a lot about Garrel last spring, when a series of his films hit these shores. Words to describe him are "nubile" (if a 24-year-old man can be such) and simply "sensual"; he's a French boy-toy fantasy. This week sees the release of Love Songs/Les chansons d'amour, Garrel's latest collaboration with director Christophe Honoré. It'a musical, apparently with almost as many amorous combinations as are possible with four people. The trailer heads this post.

If you speak French, try out the website Louis Garrel Addict for more of the goods. If you don't speak French, there are always the pictures.

France's top paid stars - 2007/2008

Okay, I know this blog has been heavy on movie stuff in the past few days, but it's that time of year. Which is a way of saying, "Get ready for another one."

Le Figaro has released its list of France's best paid stars, and it's occasionally surprising, if only for the high number of women on it. These calculations are usually dominated by male actors, so this is a promising development.

First, a word of explanation about the determinations. The numbers are based on total salaries from 2007, as opposed to salary per picture, which means that certain performers benefited from making several movies over the course of the year. And it seems to include only acting salaries earned in France, and not payment for other kinds of work or jobs outside the country. With those provisos, the ten biggest film stars in France, as measured by earnings, are:

1. Daniel Auteuil. He can demand a million and a half euros per film. Says Le Figaro: "Le public l'adore!"
2. Mathilde Seigner. A big year: four movies and a baby.
3. Thierry Lhermitte. Acting salaries are all that's counted here, but he apparently has made some wise investments in production companies as well.
4. Christian Clavier. A top comic actor who is almost completely unknown stateside.
5. Gérard Jugnot. His movies last year did not attain the levels of success of some of his past triumphs, but his has five films coming up in 2008.
6. Jean Dujardin. Highly paid per picture, plus a percentage of the gross.
7. Guillaume Canet. Hard-working, and -- at 34 -- relatively young.
8. Nathalie Baye. Two big successes last year, Le Prix à payer and Michou d'Auber; undemanding when it comes to perks.
9. Marion Cotillard. The new Oscar winner benefited from profit participation in La Vie en Rose/La Môme, which was negotiated when the film had some financing issues and she deferred part of her salary.
10. Audrey Tautou. At one million euros per film, the best paid actress per picture in France.

If you can read French, there are also intriguing bits of gossip weaved into Le Figaro article, like the demands for perks that some French stars make, or the fact that Nathalie Baye has taken a leave from acting to care for her daughter during an illness.

Oscar loves Edith: Marion Cotillard wins "Best Actress"

Of course, the big news in French pop culture today is that French actress Marion Cotillard won a well-deserved Oscar for her passionate portrayal of Edith Piaf in the film La Vie en Rose/ La Môme. You can relive the moment in the video above. One moving incident that you can barely see at the very end of the video is Cotillard, overcome, collapsing into Forest Whittaker's arms as they leave the stage.

A few facts for you:

• Cotillard is only the second actress to win a "best actress" award for a performance in a foreign language. Sophia Loren, who won for Two Women, was the other.
• Two other French actresses have won Oscars: Simone Signoret for Room at the Top and Juliette Binoche for The English Patient. You can decide whether to include Claudette Colbert, who won an Oscar for It Happened One Night, as well.
• Past French Oscar acting nominees (Le Figaro) include Isabelle Adjani, Charles Boyer, Gérard Depardieu, Anouk Aimee, Catherine Deneuve, Marie-Christine Barrault, and Colette Marchand.
• Cotillard was not last night's only French winner. Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald won Best Make-up for La Vie en Rose, and Phillipe Pollet-Villard won Best Short Film for Le Mozart des Pickpockets.
• Cotillard was recently featured as Russell Crowe's romantic interest in A Good Year. Upcoming roles include the female lead in Michael Mann's Public Enemies with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, and the musical Nine with fellow Oscar winner Javier Bardem.
• Cotillard's other awards for her portrayal of Piaf include recognitions from the Boston Society of Film Critics, BAFTA, the Golden Globes, the LA Film Critics, and -- of course -- the Césars. A few years ago, Adrien Brody also won an acting Oscar and the César for The Pianist, but I think Cotillard is the first actress to do so.
• She won her first César as supporting actress in 2004's Un long dimanche de fiançailles /A Very Long Engagement.
• The dress? She wore Jean-Paul Gaulthier. It had a fish scale patterning: The Boston Globe found it enchanting but the NY Times was less enthusiastic.

ADDENDUM: Just a little more about Cotillard backstage, right after her award, from the AP:

"OSCAR SHOCK: As Marion Cotillard stepped offstage with the best-actress Oscar for La Vie En Rose, Forest Whitaker enveloped her in a hug that lasted at least a minute.

"Then they looked at each other and laughed.

"'I'm shaking, like wow,' Cotillard trembled.

"Stopping by the backstage 'thank you' cam, she expressed her gratitude in French and studied her Oscar.

"'I'm shaking so much I think I can't talk,' she said.

"Whitaker led her arm-in-arm behind the stage on the winner's walk.

"'This is huge, this is huge,' she gushed as backstage workers applauded.

"At a stop for a makeup touch up she tried to breathe deeply.

"'This is crazy, this is totally crazy. Ooh la la la la! It's totally surreal,' she said."

Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1922 - 2008

Today we note the death of novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet (The Telegraph, U.K.). "Avant-garde," influential, and controversial, he is an originator of the "nouveau roman," works which were stripped down, sometimes eliminating conventional structures and techniques such as dialog, plot, and punctuation.

Born in 1922 in Brittany, Robbe-Grillet trained as a scientist, although his education was interrupted by time spent in work camps during World War II. By the mid-50's, he was devoted to writing, making waves with two books, Les Gommes/The Erasers and Le Voyeur/The Voyeur. A few years later he forayed into cinema with the screenplay of Last Night at Marienbad, director Alain Resnais's 1962 puzzle movie, and eventually Robbe-Grillet himself directed a number of movies.

Notoriety often followed him. Recently, a memoir by his wife, Catherine, was replete with stories of sadism and infidelity. Nonetheless, his stature is considerable. The Telegraph quoted critic John Fletcher, who said Robbe-Grillet was "France's most significant - though not necessarily greatest - living writer, a man who has changed the face of world literature for better or worse." R-G was a member of the prestigious Académie française.

You can view many sample pages of a translation of The Voyeur on Google books.

Henri Salvador, 1917 - 2008

Henri Salvador, the singer whose career spanned over seven decades and whose recent recordings won him renewed acclaim and audiences, has died. (AFP) Following is a post from last April that I wrote about him.

"Last year at this time, I knew only one recording by Henri Salvador, a nostalgic Christmas song, full of longing, called "C'est Noel, M'amie." Since then, however, I've become a fan. Salvador may not be the grand old man of French music -- there are other candidates, like Charles Aznavour, competing for the title -- but at the age of 90, he's a contender.

"Salvador was born in French Guyana to a Spanish father and a Caribbean Indian mother. At the age of seven Henri and his folks moved to France, and a few years later, the adolescent Salvador fell in love with jazz, a love which his parents supported by buying him a guitar.  By the time he was 16, Salvador was working in Paris cabarets and soon sharing a stage with one of his heroes, Django Reinhardt.

"The ensuing decades brought increasing levels of success. Salvador married, recorded hit records, starred on the stage, and performed on television in the U.S. and Italy. During the fifties, he formed a notable partnership with cult writer, Boris Vian, and together they wrote over 400 songs. Salvador's tunes often contained a touch of the comic, and his good humor is a significant part of his professional and personal reputation.

"Salvador never really retired, but his career has had a number of renaissances, including a smashing success in 2000 with the CD Chambre avec vue/"Room with view," which sold over two million copies and which won awards for Salvador in France for Best Male Singer and Best Pop Album. He recently released a Brazilian-influenced album, Rèverènce; he wrote most of the songs on it. Plans for the future include a role in a movie starring Oprah Winfrey, produced by Salvador's good friend, Quincy Jones.

"Two sources for this article are Radio France International's biography of Salvador, and a recent profile published The Guardian. The video is "Dans mon île" from Rèverènce."

Kouchner gets done by the NYT

The Sunday New York Times Magazine devotes thousands of words this week to a profile of French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. M. le Ministre comes across as forceful, stylish, egotistic, dedicated to the underdog and to the limelight. Did I mention egotistic? The article traces Kouchner's evolution from being a sixties radical, to founding Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders -- described in the article as “a sort of medical wing to the worldwide guerrilla movement.” Following a number of roles in government and work with the United Nations, his present position is a long-sought accomplishment. His chief skill would appear to be a great ability to get people who hate each other to sit down and talk, but the NYT is not convinced of his effectiveness.

There are odd allusions in the piece to Kouchner's fondness for women, but little detail; one can only presume that an American reporter may have been disconcerted by an occasional sexist remark, but the reader ends up wondering why they are there. And it ends this way: Having given the reporter a ride to his apartment after a long flight, "Then Kouchner dropped me off, and the car drove him to his splendid apartment overlooking the Luxembourg Gardens." A cheap shot.

Just an ordinary man...

While this is a French culture blog, and doesn't cover "news" as such, I'm going to switch gears briefly for two stories related to the most fascinating French person of the week: Jérôme Kerviel, who all by himself lost seven billion of Société Générale's dollars. Or is it euros? Anyway, a lot of money, and there've been rumors that more losses are in the pipeline. The NY Times profile of Kerviel suggests that he is a pleasantly handsome, nondescript guy, whose colleagues are struggling with the idea that he had the capacity to do what he's been accused of. And in a related sidebar,The Times also suggests that last Monday's panic in the French markets had as much to do with Société Générale's dumping of stocks in an attempt to minimize its losses as it did with a reaction to the American economic malaise.

You can also hie over to Charles Bremner for additional information; supposedly, Kerviel has a page on Facebook, but I couldn't find it. Most of his "friends" are dumping him faster than you can say "SocGen." However, a number of fan clubs have already sprung up.