Michel Gondry + Boris Vian = Ze Big Union

Gondry’s Unofficial Poster – second film version(2013)

First Film Version (1968)

With the release in France of a second film version of L’Écume des Jours – Mood Indigo – by Gondry (cf. below for the 1968 version) the marriage of two French zany authors is a done deal!
Boris Vian (writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer!) is famous for his songs, his plays and his novels. He was also an integral part of the St. Germain des Prés cultural scene in the 1950s. The world of Jazz resonates throughout his work. At 39, he dies of a heart attack while watching an unauthorized film of his work; at his funeral, with a strike going on, his friends end up having to bury him. The singers Henri Salvador and Georges Brassens were in attendance… and the College of Pataphysics left a large wreath.
Find out why “faner le nénuphar” becomes vital to Chloé!

• L’Écume des jours (Foam of the Days) – famous for its “pianocktail” (1946, published 1947 by Éditions Gallimard; translated variously as Froth on the Daydream, Mood Indigo and Foam of the Daze) – It is number TEN in a list of the hundred best books of the XXth century!
• L’automne à Pékin (Autumn in Peking) (1946, published 1947 by Éditions du Scorpion, revised version published in 1956; Autumn in Peking)
• L’Herbe rouge (The Red Grass) (1948–49, published 1950 by Éditions Toutain)
• L’Arrache-coeur (Heartsnatcher)

Michel Gondry is an Academy Award-winning French filmmaker, whose works include being a commercial director, music video director, and a screenwriter. He is noted for his wild creativity.

• Human Nature (2001)
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
• The Science of Sleep (2006)
• Be Kind Rewind (2008)
• The Green Hornet (2011)
• The We and the I (2012)

The Website for L’Écume des Jours

A bit of an interview with Boris Vian in English


The first version of L’Ecume des Jours (1968) – complete version with Jacques Perrin, Marie-France Pisier, Sami Frey, Bernard Fresson

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