French News

If you want to know the latest in French News, and if you speak French, I have to recommend Martin Vidberg's new blog, "L'actu en patates".

Although I disprove of hosting this fantastic blog on the very socialist-oriented Le Monde website*, I can only applaud the finesse** of the observations from Martin, also known as "Everland".

"The democrats' campaign gets tough"

"UMP" is the name of President Sarkozy's party, recently getting incredibly low ratings.

He uses here his signature style patatoes' cartoons, as he previously did with his extremely successful Everland blog. I've been following his internet success for pretty much 4 years now, and was thrilled when he published to great success, last year "Le journal d'un remplacant" that had premiered on his blog.



One of my favorite ever from Everland (as I will always call him) is "The Planet". (Link on the bottom of the page)

It's always fascinating to see someone starting small on the web, and getting famous, rich and popular***. He even does french commercials now. Pfffff!!!!



And yes, it's narrated by Andre Dussolier, the famed French actor who also did the Voice Over for Amelie.

Both of Martin's blogs are linked on the right side of this blog, in the link section. Don't forget to check him out often.


* Irony
** En Francais dans le texte
*** According to the 2011 edition of Forbes "the richest comic artists".

Bjork frees Tibet...

Today, props to Bjork, the fantasicelandic singer, for shooting "Tibet, Tibet!" during her concert in China. Incredibly controversial, and right in your face. 100% pure Bjork.

As a reminder, I worked on one of the latest Bjork Video.
Here are a couple of pics I like...

First the slate of the shoot:




Then Michel Gondry directing, and Bjork performing:







This one I like a lot: Michel Gondry alone behing a computer, thinking God knows what...




And finally, one of my favorite, the video being edited, live in Final Cut Pro, during the shoot!



You can see all those pictures and much more on my SmugMug...

To conclude, of course, the video itself!!!
Enjoy...

Beijing New International Airport

Beijing (also known to some as Pekin), the chinese capital, has a new terminal for its airport. It's supposed to welcome the tourists for the Olympics this summer.

Its size is totally insane. Yes, I read that it's the equivalent of 170 soccer fields, but you get the idea only when you actually look at it.

Here is a picture of Paris, taken on Google earth, from 5km high (click for bigger view):





Now here's a picture of the new Beijing Terminal, from the same height! The terminal itself is seen here during construction. Now complete, it joins the upper, blue boomerang shaped structure, to the lower and red, similar one...





Yeah... Scary. And now just for fun, here's manhattan from the same height.





Let's hope they included some kind of monorail!

Short & Sweet

Bravo to Marion Cotillard for her win yesterday. And if you're smart enough to come to this blog, you knew already "No Country for Old Men" was gonna win, even though "There Will Be Blood" was the better film.

A category nobody usually cares about is animated short. It's too bad, it's always beautiful, it doesn't take much time to watch, and the visuals are often stunning. So I thought I'd post a couple here.

First is a French film, short and really funny, called "Meme les pigeons vont au Paradis". I especially like the title.



Then is a stop-motion stunning short From Canada, "Madame Tutli-Frutli". There's no dialogue, but a beautiful score. It's very dark and tormented, and don't expect the story to make sense. But those guys worked more than 2 years to create those 15 minutes, so they're well worth it. It's in two parts:



And part 2:



But the winner was a Russian take on the classic "Peter and the Wolf". It's almost 30-minutes long, so I won't post it here, but check it out THERE.

That's it for today, thanks for coming, and don't forget to comment!

Awesome, I fucking shot that!!!

As some of you know, I was tapped last summer by Michel Gondry to be one of the shooter, during Daft Punk Alive 2007 Tour.
The point was to shoot their Brooklyn concert with an amateur dv camera, from the crowd. More than 100 of us were there, and it was to be edited by Michel into a double-DVD of the concert shot "a la youtube".

Turns out, the final result is a music video for "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger", one of Daft Punk's most popular piece, and it's listed as directed by Olivier Gondry, Michel's own brother (and director of the famous HP's commercials).

Well, here it is. It's pretty freaking awesome:



Of course, I would be incapable of telling you what I shot myself and what was shot by others, but what the hell. It feels great to be part of such a huge project.

Finally, let me remind you that Michel Gondry's new movie, "Be Kind Rewind", featuring Jack Black and Mos Def, is out in the US tomorrow. The idea, as always with Gondry, is incredibly original, and if what the trailer promises holds true, it's gonna be a blast.



Finally, for you NYers out there, there's an exhibition at the Deitch Gallery in Soho where you can re-shoot your own movie, Be Kind-style. Check it out!

5 days to the Oscars...

Time for me to check if anyone is interested in this blog.
Would you like me to save BenZona and start posting again?

If so, you can either enter the Oscar poll (right here ->)
or comment here.

Thank you!

Support the Writer's Strike

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