Movie Preview: La Fée (The Fairy)

[post 141]

My old friend Bernie Collins, now living in Paris and performing as one half of BP Zoom, has alerted me to the Cannes Film Festival premiere of La Fée (The Fairy), co-starring Bernie's BP Zoom partner, Philippe Martz.  The film is written and directed by its other co-stars,  Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, and Bruno Romy. Their previous films are Rumba and Iceberg, and their style owes a lot to the silent film / physical comedy traditions.

Here's the trailer:

The movie is already getting good press here in the United States:

The Belgo-Canadian-French trio, who specialize in pantomime and circus-style theatrics, have a clownlike knack for finding humor in the everyday. Ketchup bottles, bicycle chains and folding chairs become instruments of uproarious inspiration -- a reminder of the degree to which good, old-fashioned physical comedy has faded from cinema. But unlike Peter Sellers, Jacques Tati and others who've excelled in this department, Dom and Fiona come as a pair, bringing a welcome dash of romance to the proceedings.

[You can read the whole Variety review here.]

CANNES -- Dishing out another slew of colorfully anarchistic sight gags, Belgium-based trio Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon and Bruno Romy are back with their latest Keystone-style romp, The Fairy (La Fee). Firmly grounded in the work of Chaplin, Keaton and especially Jacques Tati, to which they add a few welcome socio-political twists, these talented writers-directors-actors should have their wish granted with further arthouse exposure following an opening bow in the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

[And you'll find the whole Hollywood Reporter review here.]

Live from Paris: Lecoq Students at the Louvre

[post 119]  

During my March visit to Paris, the Louvre was hosting various groups doing performances and other events around the art work each Friday night.  The evening I visited, there were about half a dozen groups of students from the École Jacques Lecoq doing movement pieces in the Richelieu wing in front of glorious Renaissance tapestries and related art work.  I thought the evening a great success, bringing new life to a museum that, though indisputably great, can still benefit from more dynamic ways of engaging art.

Special thanks to old friend and Lecoq alumnus Bernie Collins for turning me on to this. And it was great meeting Lecoq teacher and acclaimed physical comedy performer Jos Houben, who had worked with these students, and to get to see Mme. Fay Lecoq again — who was in fine spirits and did not seem to have aged since I last saw her in 1990!

Here are two of the short pieces.  The first is a group scene in  The Scipio Gallery (right), the tenth tapestry from the set The Hunts of Maximilian.  The tapestry they performed in front of is attributed as follows:

Battle of Zama
After Giulio ROMANO
OA 5394: a tapestry depicting a hunting scene. 
Tapestry, wool and silk
Copy made at the Manufacture des Gobelins for Louis XIV in 1688–89, after the tapestry woven in Brussels, c. 1558, for the Maréchal de Saint-André.
 
Here's the tapestry:

And here's their piece:





The second piece in a neighboring room is an "eternal triangle" with some nifty partnering.  This room had smaller art works, mostly bronzes. Not sure if this piece is specifically based on one of these.