Thursday, July 31, 2014

Découverte: Les contrées sauvages

L’auteur de Quartier lointain nous propose un périple à travers les grands espaces.

“Au milieu d’une nature cruelle et ses créatures hostiles, l’homme est la proie de tout, et surtout de lui-même.”

“Dans cette anthologie en deux tomes, nous découvrons une facette encore méconnue en France de l’oeuvre de Taniguchi : l’époque où, nourri de bande dessinée européenne, il s’essayait à la BD de genre en y insufflant ce qui est aujourd’hui encore sa marque de fabrique : un immense talent de raconteur d’histoires.”

(Texte du site de l'éditeur)





Animeland nous apprend qu'un nouveau manga de Jirô Taniguchi devrait paraître en France cette automne!

Il s'agit de Les Contrées Sauvages (荒野より / Kōya yori / From Wilderness) une anthologie de onze histoires publiée au Japon en 2012 par Kobunsha — incluant “Nazuke enu mono” [名づけえぬもの / Innommable] préalablement publié en 2010 par Kodansha dans Comic Box Amasia, ainsi que “Kōya o ayume” [荒野を歩め / Le désert d'Ayume], “Rongunaifu” [ロングナイフ / Long couteau], “枯紫灘” [?], “Geronimo” [ジェロニモ], “Mori e” [森へ / Vers la forêt], “Tsuki ni hoeru” [月に吠える / Hurlant à la lune], “Saketa hōkō” [裂けた咆哮 / Hurlemant déchiré], “Yūkara no mori” [ユーカラの森 / La forêt de Yukar], “ Taka” [鷹 / Le Faucon] et “Irataka no juzu” [イラタカの数珠 / Le Rosaire d'Irataka].

La version française devrait paraître chez Casterman (collection Sakka) en deux volumes dont le premier sortira en septembre.

Les Contrées Sauvages vol. 1, par Jirô Taniguchi. Paris: Casterman (collection Sakka), septembre 2014. 240 pgs, 13.95 €, ISBN: 9782203084438.

[ Translate ]

Données sur les emprunts de livres

Un article dans la Gazette du 29 juillet fait une intéressante analyse des données sur les emprunts de livres dans les bibliothèques publiques de Montréal. L'auteur de cet article, Roberto Rocha (dont la chronique Data Points se spécialise dans ce genre d"interprétation de données), fait ce qui me semble la première analyse indépendante des méta-data sur les bibliothèques publiques que la Ville de Montréal avait rendu publique il y a quelques années au sein de son “Portail de données ouvertes”. On y trouve les statistiques d’emprunt pour les 4,4 millions de documents des 45 bibliothèques de la ville collectées depuis leur inclusion dans le catalogue Nelligan (c'est-à-dire entre le 27 juin 2007 et le 30 août 2011). Le site n'indique pas avoir été mis à jour depuis mais pourtant M. Rocha donne des statistiques pour l'année courante…

Les conclusions sont très étonnantes: il en ressort que la littérature jeunesse prédomine très largement les emprunts et tout particulièrement la bande-dessinée et les mangas ! Le top 10 des emprunts toutes catégories depuis le début de la compilation des données est le suivant:

Continuez après le saut de page >>

Jury of the Montreal World Film Festival

The Montreal World Film Festival has announced that the jury of the 38th Festival will be presided by Italian actor and director Sergio Castellitto. The jury will also be made of Rachid Bouchareb (Franco-Algerian director-producer), Andréanne Bournival (Quebec television programming manager), Fridirik Thor Fridriksson (Icelandic producer), Ana Torrent (Spanish actress) and Jane Zhang (Chinese pop singer and actress). (See the full press release)

The festival has also announced that it will pay tribute to international distributor-producer Michael J. Werner, chairman of film sales of Fortissimo Films. The veteran America-born producer has been located in Hong Kong over the past two decades from where he guided the production and distribution of Asian films to markets around the world. As part of the tribute to Michael J. Werner, the Festival will show five recent films distributed and/or co-produced by Fortissimo: Tears of the Black Tiger directed by Wisit Sasanatieng (Thailand, 2000), Norwegian Wood, by Tran Ang Hung (Japan, 2010, adaptation of the famous Haruki Murakami's novel), The Grandmaster by Wong Kar Wai (Hong Kong, 2013) and the Canadian premieres of The Great Hypnotist, by Leste Chan (China, 2014) and Black Coal, Thin Ice by Diao Yinan (China / Hong Kong, 2014), this year’s Golden Bear winner at the Berlin Film Festival. (See the full press release)

The only large competitive festival in North America accredited by FIAPF (the International Federation of Film Producers’ Associations), the 38th Montreal World Film Festival will run from August 21 to September 1, 2014.

[ Traduire ]

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

L'image du mer-fleurie

Cosmos, centre de l'Univers ? (Jardin avant, 2014-07-22)
Cosmos, center of the Universe? (Front garden, 2014-07-22)
Cosmos!

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Case of Kyoko, Case of Shuichi

WARNING: May contains trace of spoilers! People allergic to the discussion of any plot's elements before seeing a movie are strongly advised to take the necessary precautions for their safety and should avoid reading further.

“Minamisanriku, Japan, was devastated by the tsunami of March 11, 2011, with most buildings destroyed by waves of 16 metres or higher, and over half the town's population swept away or drowned. With 90% of the town gone, there's no "home" there anymore for former residents Kyoko and Shuichi. For psychological reasons as well: left behind were a mother and a child. What does the future hold for the living?” (Text from the Festival's program)

The Kiyosu Conference

WARNING: May contains trace of spoilers! People allergic to the discussion of any plot's elements before seeing a movie are strongly advised to take the necessary precautions for their safety and should avoid reading further.

“In 1582, before the unification of Japan, Nobunaga Oda was forced to take his own life at Honno-ji Temple during a violent revolt led by Mitsuhide Akechi. Following Oda’s death, the powers in Japan held the Kiyosu Conference -- the "conference that changed the course of history" -- to resolve the Oda clan’s succession of leadership and redistribute Mitsuhide Akechi’s territories. Hideyoshi Toyotomi, Nagahide Niwa and Tsuneoki Ikeda meet to decide on a successor. The conference would become Japan's first group-made political decision. In this film, director Koki Mitani, known especially for his comedies, gives us his unique interpretation of the intricate web of human relationships involved in this process as the brave general Katsuie Shibata and Hideyoshi Hashiba, who would later unify Japan, engage in a battle of wits, deceit and bargaining.” (Text from the Festival's program)

L'image du chat-medi

La maman chat-de-gouttière est de retour avec ses trois minous!
The alley cat mother is back with her three kittens!
(cour arrière / backyard, 7/24/2014)
She's baaack!
UntitledUntitled

Friday, July 25, 2014

Mourning recipe

WARNING: May contains trace of spoilers! People allergic to the discussion of any plot's elements before seeing a movie are strongly advised to take the necessary precautions for their safety and should avoid reading further.

“When Ryohei's wife, Otomi, suddenly passes away, Ryohei is deeply depressed, without the strength to live. Two weeks after her death, a woman visits Ryohei and gives him a recipe book which was left by Otomi, a "recipe book" for a happy life. Meanwhile, Ryohei's daughter Yuriko comes to visit him. Yuriko's own marriage is about to end in divorce and she will have use for Otomi's "recipe book".” (Text from the Festival's program)

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Voyage au Saguenay

Un peu plus tôt en juillet j'ai fait un court voyage au Saguenay avec ma famille. On est passé par Québec, a visité Tadoussac, fait une croisière dans le fjord du Saguenay, vu la petite maison blanche à Chicoutimi, trempé nos pieds dans le Lac Saint-Jean à Métabetchouan, etc. Voici un aperçu (en cent-cinquante-cinq images) des quelques neuf-cent photos que j'ai pris…

Earlier in July I made a short trip to the Saguenay with my family. We passed through Quebec City, visited Tadoussac, took a cruise in the Saguenay Fjord, saw the little white house in Chicoutimi, dipped our feet in the Lake Saint-Jean at Métabetchouan, etc. Here is an overview of the trip in one-hundred-and-fifty-five pictures (out of the nine-hundred-forty I took)…

Friday, July 18, 2014

Blindly in love

WARNING: May contains trace of spoilers! People allergic to the discussion of any plot's elements before seeing a movie are strongly advised to take the necessary precautions for their safety and should avoid reading further.

“Shy and socially inept, Kentaro Amanosizuku, 35, works for the city but lives with his parents, a pet frog and video games as his chief interests. Worried about their son's future, Kentaro's parents look into matchmaking services, seemingly to no avail. Then a nibble. Would Kentaro be interested in meeting their daughter Naoko? A meeting is arranged. Naoko is a beautiful young woman but she is blind. Kentaro is smitten. But Naoko's father has his doubts about Kentaro and the meeting comes to nought. Then, one day, Naoko's mother comes to visit at Kentaro's office. Is he still interested in her daughter?” (Text from the Festival's program)

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Le FFM se prépare à une 38e année difficile

Dès février, le FFM sortait ses premiers communiqués de presse de l'année en annonçant la nomination de monsieur Massimo Saidel comme ‘’conseiller spécial’’ pour le Marché international du film du FFM. Massimo Saidel apportera son expertise et se rapportera à Gilles Bériault, le directeur du Marché international du film pour la préparation et l’organisation du prochain marché en 2014, qui se déroulera durant le 38e Festival des Films du monde, du 21 août au 1er septembre 2014. (Voir le communiqué)

Lire la suite >>

Monday, July 14, 2014

Chineasy

“Chinese is considered one of the most difficult languages to master. However, using the Chineasy system, anyone can begin to understand and read Chinese. It works by transforming Chinese characters into illustrations to make them easy to remember. This book teaches the key characters on which the language is built and how these characters can be combined to form more complex words and phrases. Learning Chinese has never been this simple or more fun!”

“火 is the Chinese character for “fire.” It is not very easy to remember. But turn the character into an illustration of fire and it becomes much easier to recall. Two fires together means “burning hot.” Fire and mountain means volcano. Welcome to Chineasy, a groundbreaking approach to learning how to read and write Chinese.”


Fire / 2x fire = Burning hot                 fire + mountain = volcano

[From the back cover and the publisher's web site]

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Fantasia 2014


The 18th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival will be held in Montreal from July 17 to August 5, 2014. Screenings will take place mostly at the freshly renovated Concordia Hall Cinema. This year the festival is offering a lineup of over 160 features films and about 300 shorts. For more programming details check the festival's web page at www.fantasiafestival.com.

Here our main interest is the asian programming (over sixty movies from seven countries: 22 from Japan, 17 from South Korea, 7 from Hong Kong, 2 from Indonesia, one each from China, Malaysia and Philippines) and particularly the animation (twelve movies from four countries: 8 from Japan, 2 from China, as well as one each from South Korea and Indonesia — there's also one anime-related animation from Québec).

Update: For comments on the Japanese movies presented at Fantasia, I highly recommend reading Claude R. Blouin's article [in french], “Montréal, Fantasia 2014 : le Japon des exclus” on Shomingeki web magazine.

A recap list of the Asian programming titles follows (with links to full description).

Fantasia unveil their full 2014 lineup


2014 is the year that The Fantasia International Film Festival turns 18. We can’t believe it either. Fantasia’s 18th birthday means over 160 features and something in the neighbourhood of 300 shorts, many being shown for the first time on this continent, a good number screening here for the first time anywhere in the world.

In the previous weeks, they announced many programming highlights in a 1st and 2nd Wave of press releases and now the time has come to unveil the rest of the 2014 lineup.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Friday, July 11, 2014

This land is mine

I found this beautiful animation somewhere on Facebook and followed the link up to Vimeo. It is “A brief history of the land called Israel/Palestine/Canaan/the Levant.”


Thursday, July 10, 2014

Manga: The complete guide

“THE ONE-STOP RESOURCE FOR CHOOSING BETWEEN THE BEST AND THE REST!

Whether you’re new to the world of manga-style graphic novels or a longtime reader on the lookout for the next hot series, here’s a comprehensive guide to the wide, wonderful world of Japanese comics!

• Incisive, full-length reviews of stories and artwork
• Titles rated from zero to four stars–skip the clunkers, but don’t miss the hidden gems
• Guidelines for age-appropriateness–from strictly mature to kid-friendly
• Profiles of the biggest names in manga, including CLAMP, Osamu Tezuka, Rumiko Takahashi, and many others
• The facts on the many kinds of manga–know your shôjo from your shônen
• An overview of the manga industry and its history
• A detailed bibliography and a glossary of manga terms

LOOK NO FURTHER, YOU’VE FOUND YOUR IDEAL MANGA COMPANION!”

[From the publisher's web site]

Wednesday, July 09, 2014

Anime Classic Zettai

“This is a must-have guide to 100 essential Japanese animation films, TV series, and made-for-video series, from 1950s classics to the latest Cartoon Network hits.
Looking for something specific? Eight unique icons make reviews easy to browse. From Akira to Naruto, Pokemon to Sailor Moon, anime veterans Brian Camp and Julie Davis present over 100 black & white images alongside summaries, style notes, rare facts, viewer-discretion guides, and critical comments on films that fans absolutely—zettai!—must see.”

[From the publisher's web site]

Gloire du matin! / Morning glory !
Morning glory!
Morning glory!Morning glory!

Tuesday, July 08, 2014

GraphoLexique du Manga

“Ogives de bonheur, vent de solitude, spirale de candeur, figure heno-heno-mohe-ji… Voici 33 symboles graphiques des mangas japonais enfin décodés pour le lecteur occidental.

Plus de 100 illustrations : planches d'auteurs mangas connus en France ou vignettes inédites de jeunes illustrateurs japonais.

Véritable livre ressource pour les auteurs et illustrateurs européens souhaitant mieux connaître les techniques des maîtres mangaka.”

[ Texte du site de l'éditeur et de la couverture arrière ]

Continuez après le saut de page >>





Text in English follows:

Monday, July 07, 2014

June in review

June seemed like a very nice month (as good as May usually is) although we had a few days of heavy rain (my garage was flooded a couple of time: on the third, on the thirteen, but the worse was on the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth). Despite all this, I was able to finish repairing and painting the garage door. The garden also started to blossom in many colours. The Mom alley-cat that took up residence in the garden's shed (and who gave us Caramel last year) gave birth to another litter of kittens but was later chased from the shed by an invasion of raccoons!

I've complained many time to the city (using the official info and complain phone line) about the sidewalk's defect that cause the rain water to go to my driveway instead of the sewage's gutter and therefore flooding my garage. In three years nothing was done. Taking advantage of some errands near the borough Hall, I decided to pay a visit to my elected official. He was not there but I spoke with his assistant and explained the problem. She suggested that I email them pictures (which I did right away) and, to my great surprise, less than a week later there was city workers making markings on the sidewalk to prepare it for the repair!! Another week later some workers came back to cut the concrete. I expect the repair to be done soon… Now I know what to do to get results.

In june I also started working in a new location. I felt right away that the adaptation to this new work place would take some time. I have to learn a new routine and every place has its own particularities. However, a month into this new job, I must admit that I am quite disappointed. I remembered the place as very well organized, operating smoothly and quietly. Either I remembered wrong or something changed (well, a rapid succession of changes in management can fuck up the best of organization). I like the team, the place is indeed much more quieter and I now save between fifteen and thirty minutes on my commute, but so far I haven't been given any specific tasks, the work flow is extremely disorganized and chaotic and the reduced staff and budget means that we are always running to keep up with what needs to be done. Not much time to relax, so it is even more stressful and tiring that the previous place! I am not sure I made the right move… I still have time to adapt, but as soon as it's possible (I can't move for another year) I will start applying to other jobs in the hope of finding the dream job or at least something even closer to home.

The end of june and early july brought a heat wave with temperature around 30'C (going over 40' with the humidex)! We had many weeks without any rain, but it ended today. Hopefully, the rain won't last too long. I took another couple of weeks of vacation to travel a little, do some work around the house and catch up with my writing (if I ever can!). My first day off, I was so tired that I slept for nearly twelve hours! I haven't done that in a long time. I started updating my “Essential anime and manga references” moving it from the Protoculture website to my blog and adding more titles to this bibliography. I am planning on posting reviews for all those references (either updating the reviews that were previously published in PA, using some texts that had never been published before [like for the Dico Manga] or simply write new ones). I also wrote comments on the second volumes of Joséphine Impératrice and Le guide du mauvais père (both in french). It feels great! I hope to be able to keep that pace all summer.

Before the rain, I experienced a few of those perfect days of july. It reminded me of my childhood: a slight breeze in the trees, the songs of unseen birds, the distant shouts of children playing in the neighbourhood, the sun reflecting on the water. It brings back a feeling of deep quietness and idleness. Something that the europeans call farniente, I think. Unfortunately, in this busy life, it is only a fleeting sensation…

Not much happened in the news, but I nevertheless gathered a few worthy links that I gladly share with you after the jump:

Sunday, July 06, 2014

Le Guide du mauvais père (2)

“S'acharner sur son fils pour remporter une partie de jeu vidéo. Redoubler de mauvaise foi envers sa fille après avoir perdu à cache-cache. Pire, inventer une histoire de tueur psychopathe à la tombée de la nuit... Guy Delisle, un mauvais père ? Non, un auteur de bande dessinée qui sait puiser l'imagination là où elle se trouve, avec un sens aigu de l'observation et une bonne dose d'autodérision.”

[ Texte du site de l'éditeur; voir aussi la couverture arrière ]

Guy Delisle est surtout connu pour ses “travelogues” aux frontières hasardeuses de la géo-politique mondiale qu'on retrouve au Moyen et Extrême-Orient (les Shenzhen, Pyongyang, Chroniques Birmanes, Chroniques de Jérusalem, et qu'il me faudra bien commenter un jour), mais il a aussi commis des BDs plus traditionnelles (tels que Inspecteur Moroni ou Comment ne rien faire) ou des albums plus "familiaux" (tel que Louis au ski et Louis à la plage). Le Guide du Mauvais Père appartient à cette dernière catégorie. C'est un petit bijou fort mignon mais trop bref (192 pages peut être, mais avec seulement une ou deux grosses illustrations par page ce qui fait que le livre se lit très rapidement).

Continuez après le saut de page >>

Joséphine Impératrice (2)

“Joséphine, apprenant le décès de sa plus jeune sœur et la santé vacillante de son père, décide de retourner en Martinique. Elle emmène avec elle sa fille Hortense, tandis que son jeune fils, Eugène, doit rester à Paris pour parfaire son éducation de futur héritier de la famille de Beauharnais. À Paris, le peuple crie famine et réclame justice au Roi et à la noblesse. Alors que des groupes d’actions s’organisent, Agathon fait la connaissance de Saint-Just, un des acteurs de la révolte, qui tente de l’entraîner dans la fièvre révolutionnaire.”

“La vie tumultueuse et passionnée de Joséphine de Beauharnais, qui devint la femme de Napoléon et l'impératrice des Français !”

Volume 2 / 4

[ Texte du site de l'éditeur et de la couverture arrière ]

Continuez après le saut de page >>

Saturday, July 05, 2014

Rat-urday's picture

Quelle ne fut pas ma surprise mercredi dernier de découvrir une famille de cinq ou six ratons sur la balcon en train de piller la nourriture des chats! Veuillez d'ailleurs excuser les clichés flous: j'avais le iPhone d'une main et une tapette à mouche de l'autre, afin de me défendre et de chasser cette meute grondante. Non seulement ils ont dilapidé les choux de Bruxelles de notre jardin mais, le lendemain, la maman chat qui avait élue domicile dans la remise avec ses chatons a décidé que le coin était un peu trop fréquenté à son goût et a levé le camp illico avec toute sa famille!

Much to my surprise I discovered last Wednesday on the balcony a family of five or six raccoons looting the cats' food! Please excuse the blurry shots as I had the iPhone in one hand and a fly swatter on the other, to defend myself and chase this rumbling pack. Not only have they squandered the Bruxelles sprouts from our garden, but the next day the mother cat who had took up residence in the shed with her ​​kittens decided that the area was a little too crowded for her liking and decamped pronto with her whole family!

Racoon galore
Raton voleur

Friday, July 04, 2014

Dico Manga

“Depuis près d'un siècle, au Japon, la bande dessinée rêve et raconte la vie sous toutes ses formes à des générations de lecteurs enthousiastes, quels que soient leurs âge, sexe, origine ou statut social.”

“Plus récemment, au tournant des années 1980, le monde francophone s'est à son tour pris de passion pour les mangas, faisant un triomphe à cette manière originale de raconter des histoires en images.”

“Il manquait encore un grand ouvrage de référence à ce phénomène éditorial, matrice d'une nouvelle pop culture planétaire. Voici donc le DicoManga, dictionnaire illustré de la bande dessinée japonaise traduite et publiée en français. Pour la première fois, un panorama complet du monde foisonnant des mangas.” [ Texte de la couverture arrière ]

“Cet ouvrage exceptionnel propose un panorama complet du monde foisonnant des mangas parus en langue française. Avec 900 illustrations, et 1500 entrées c'est assurément le livre-événement pour tous les fans de mangas!“ [ Texte du site de l'éditeur ]

Continuez après le saut de page >>
English text follows

Wednesday, July 02, 2014

Tuesday, July 01, 2014

Fantasia announces a second wave of 2014 titles


The Fantasia International Film Festival is proud to unveil additional highlights to their 2014 film lineup.

Official Closing Film - Abel Ferrara’s WELCOME TO NEW YORK

Fantasia will close its 2014 edition with the North American Premiere of Abel Ferrara’s WELCOME TO NEW YORK, the controversial latest from the legendary filmmaker behind such landmarks as BAD LIEUTENANT, KING OF NEW YORK, NEW ROSE HOTEL and the recently re-released MS 45. It is loosely based on the DSK scandal and stars the iconic Gérard Depardieu in one of the bravest performances of his career. Co-starring is the equally sensational Jacqueline Bisset.

JU-ON: THE BEGINNING OF THE END to launch its Western haunt in Montreal

Fans of classic J-Horror, rejoice! The curse of Kayoko and Toshio is back! Fantasia will be the site of the International Premiere of JU-ON: THE BEGINNING OF THE END, the anticipated new Japanese production that reboots one of the most successful and terrifying horror franchises of the 21st century in a very wise way: by remaining faithful to the original material. Director/Co-Writer Masayuki Ochiai (HYPNOSIS) brings us back to the haunted house and reinstates, slowly but surely, its oppressive atmosphere through a refined and efficient use of mise-en-scene. Co-scripted by none other than Taka Ichise.