Wednesday 17 January 2007
MOLIERE / Shakespeare Sur Seine / 8
By David Pitt, Wednesday 17 January 2007 - 20:19 :: Best
La Comédie-Française , the house that Molière built, is like most things in Paris just a couple of blocks from the Seine. It’s not on Avon but it’s every bit as central to French theater as the Bard. Stinging wit, high comedy and satire were Molière’s métier. He was the complete theater – actor, director and playwright and he particularly specialized in the caricature of vices. His ‘Precious Maiden Ridiculed’ (1659) launched him after an earlier attempt at Paris came to grief (bankruptcy) in 1643. He toured the provinces for 12 years before giving it another try. He was strongly influenced by Italian comedy, drew incisive portraits, and was extremely controversial due to his attacks on the church and the medical profession. I guess there was no doctor in the house when he died onstage while performing ‘The Imagined Malady’ in 1673. That’s giving it your all.
Original appearance Oct 17, 2005, © 2005 / MOLIERE / 1622-1673 / author, playwright, one word / best / A- / 8 / CIP 308, OO 10, RD 17, YP 30/4-17
Smack dab in the middle of the popular Latin Quarter, and kitty corner to the University of Paris, is the burial place of French luminaries – the Panthéon. The architecture and design (Soufflot and Rondelet) features a dome supported by a colonnade and, of course, the building is the normal French mammoth. The pediment relief by David d’Angers is particularly noteworthy. It is who is entombed inside that is even more impressive. Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Émile Zola and Marie Curie are perhaps the most notable. My choice though, is my hero Jean Moulin, leader of the French Resistance during the war.
The French seem to have a love affair with almost everything including photography. Of course there is Robert Doisneau, their equivalent of our Ansel Adams. And exhibits all over. One of the more interesting shows is a revolving photography exhibit on the fence of the Jardin de Luxembourg, right outside the Senate. When I was there last December it featured ‘108 Dragons’ by Yann Layma a recording of a 20 year odyssey through China from 1982-2002. Fascinating. Another ‘don’t miss’ is the Jeu de Paume, always a photographic exhibit in a colonnaded building at the entrance to the Jardin des Tuileries. Rineke Dijkstra was featured on my last visit. With so many fabulous subjects it is no wonder Paris is a photographer’s Mecca.
When the sulphur of the match matches the hue of the seldom if ever used ashtray – that is coordination to the nth degree. French women coordinate their outfits in such a fashion. It is a thing of beauty to see the strap of the shoe perfectly pick up the pinkie ring. I am lucky enough to sometimes have the shirt not actually clash with the sweater, but the complete coordination from the toenail to the top and everything in between, often including the room, is an art form practiced by the extraordinarily fashion conscious French. The end result is subtle subjugation. I am in love.
Scent sent from all quadrants. The aroma of the markets – fresh, fragile and full. Enticing, alive, even joyous; a mélange of fish and fruit, salmon and succulent. Or just wander under a kitchen window right before mealtime – breakfast, lunch, dinner; it doesn’t matter – the pungent wafting of herbs is to die for. Stop into a perfumery, it’s hard to go more than a couple of blocks without finding one. The legendary names: Guerlain, Chanel, Dior and on and on into infinity. I always loved the smell of my malamute Nikita, but truly there’s no comparison.
As a director, screenwriter. producer and particularly playwright Marcel Pagnol was elected to the Académie française in 1946. In America he is best known as the author of the three plays the movie Fanny was based on (Marius, 1930; Fanny, 1932; and Topaze, 1932). In France he converted the plays into 3 films starring Raimu that many claim are the best series of movies ever made. He was born in Aubagne which might be compared to Boulder, Colorado, and grew up in Marseille which is to Paris something akin to what Denver is to New York Pagnol wrote two semi autobiographical novels which became two classical French movies. ‘My Father’s Glory’ was the first, and ‘My Mother’s Castle’ the second. They are exquisite and really bridge some of the gap between the American Heartland and France. They are a recognition and a tribute to parents everywhere.