Queen's French Literary Festival launches 1st May

and continues at No Alibis on Friday evening....

Trois femmes / Three women: 9 avril 2014

Rachel, Philip and Chanel No5 - Photo: Monica Cummings

Rachel TRACEY made a welcome return to our events programme and treated us to some sights, sounds and scents as she delved into the life and work of three French women, Coco Chanel, Catherine Deneuve and Audrey Tautou.

The star of her talk though was the connections all three had with the perfume, Chanel No.5. Rachel reminded us that 2009 was a year in which two films on the life of Chanel appeared. The first Coco avant Chanel starring Audrey Tautau chronicled Chanel's early life and was followed by Coco and Igor, the story of Chanel's liaison with the Russian composer, Igor Stravinsky. Several biographies were also produced, Karen Karbo's The Gospel according to Coco Chanel and Hal Vaughan's Sleeping with the enemy - Coco Chanel's secret war.

Rachel highlighted Tilar Mazzeo's The secret of Chanel No.5 as having particular relevance to the evening's talk. Mazzeo compared Chanel's creation to Frankenstein's monster - not in a grotesque or derogatory way but rather both creations end up defining their creators.

Rachel outlined Coco's early life as a seamstress, moonlighting as a cabaret singer. Her song of choice was Qui qu'a vu Coco which is most likely how she got her nickname. On to 1908 and meeting the love of her life, Arthur "Boy" Capel who financed her first shops and supposedly inspired many of her fashion designs and the shape of the iconic bottle for No.5.

There followed a series of facts and figures including one from the French embassy which calculates that a bottle of the famous perfume sells somewhere in the world every thirty seconds. The sheer volume of sales has earned the perfume the nickname of Le Monstre. Rachel recounted the story of how the perfume was created and we were treated to connection with the Catherine di Medici, the Romanoffs, Ernest Beaux, Tsarina Alexandra and Galleries Lafayette!

It was surprising to learn that the product did so wełl in its early years despite the fact that there was no no marketing until the 1940s and it was during the Second World War that sales flourished. Chanel closed her fashion house as she believed, "Wartime was not the right time for fashion". She was able to sit out the occupation in rooms at the Ritz hotel in Paris. At that time, apparently unaware to Chanel, the perfume was being produced in a factory in New Jersey by the Vertheimer Brothers who being Jewish had fled France in the early period of the Occupation. Chanel charged that the product was no longer the original fragrance as created by her and could not be endorsed by her. Her efforts didn't succeed as No.5 had been transformed into a symbol of a pre-War time and a token of affection from soldiers and their sweethearts back at home.

Rachel then took us to the 1960s, to the world of glossy magazines and high fashion journals that depicted No.5 as the ultimate feminine accessory. By the 70s however the brand had lost much of its "Frenchness" and some serious revitalisation was needed. Catherine Deneuve was chosen as the new face of Chanel. Much to the delight of some in the audience we looked at an early advert. There was no doubt that the actress epitomised the qualities Chanel was promoting in her designs and perfume.

Next we turned to Audrey Tautau as the face of Chanel. Participants were struck by the physical resemblance of Tautau and Chanel. Rachel made the point that Audrey's face is a "double signifier" standing both for herself and for Coco. Another advert followed and we were treated to an exploration of its finely detailed homages to Chanel.

The talk, as is usual, ended with questions and comments; many of those present recounting when they got their first bottle of the fragrance - clearly treasured possessions. And although it is an expensive product, Rachel had brought just enough to ensure that everyone was misted with the fragrance before being "scent" on their way.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

French clubs supported by Alliance Française de Londres

Here is a link showing programmes of the wide variety of French clubs, including our Cercle, supported by the Alliance Française de Londres.

Click here.

Happy browsing!

The French Connection: 12 mars 2014

The origins of this talk by Hélène GUILLET & Philip McGRORY date back to an idea of then French President, Nicolas Sarkozy to mark Ireland's tenure of chairing the European Union.  The President had the idea of an exhibition charting connections between the two countries.  The exhibition was set out in a series of panels with commentaries in English, French and Irish. We were therefore honoured that the person tasked with providing the French translation was none other than our speaker, Hélène.

The Norman castle at Carrickfergus, County Antrim

We were taken on a tour from virtually the dawn of recorded history, through the arrival of the Normans, onto 1690 and the Williamite and Jacobite wars and to the flight of the Wild Geese.

Our speakers explained the origins of the Collège des Irlandais in Paris on the rue des Irlandais near the Sorbonne.  Hélène showed us a picture of a wedding ceremony being performed in the famous cultural centre. It was her wedding from two and a half years ago in which she married Cairan who also worked on the President's commemorative project mentioned above.

Next, Philip brought us closer to home and into Lisburn. He shared a little known fact that Lisburn was the only town in Ulster to have a French church, in which the minister conducted and the congregation followed services in French.

Numerous names of notables reinforcing the Franco-Irish connection were mentioned.  We had Sir Francis Beaufort, of wind scale fame, connections of the Mac-Mahon lineage and Richard Hennessy, an Irish officer serving in the army of Louis XV who went on to establish the renowned cognac house. 

Did you know that there were relatively few prisoners in the Bastille when it was stormed in 1789? And that one of them was Irish? And that there were Bastille day celebrations in Belfast in 1791 and '92? We learnt that.

Check out names on pillar columns

Have you ever been under the Arc de Triomphe and looked up at the 600 names commemorated there? Some of them are of Irish connection so next time, check out Charles Edward Jennings de KILMAINE inscribed on column 5 of the Northern pillar and Henri Jacques Guillaume CLARKE on column 11 of the Eastern pillar.

Sir Richard Wallace was Conservative and Unionist MP for Lisburn in the period 1873 to 1885. He spent a lot of his time at his home, the Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne.  Clicking on the following link to the Bagatelle reveals an interesting connection with Marie Antoinette.

Detail on fountain at Wallace Park, Lisburn

Sir Richard was also a philanthropist donating 2.5 million francs for the relief of poverty and he also provided the legacy of Wallace Fountains, enduring symbols of Paris and of which there are two remaining from the original five in Lisburn.

Philip and Hélène's talk covered military connections especially in the 20th century - we heard about Redmond, Messines and Samuel Beckett's resistance role in World War 2 and they shared a recent photograph showing troops from both sides of the border working with their French peers to train soldiers in Mali.

There was still plenty to connect... we looked at the French background of local, familiar faces - former Taoiseach Sean Lemass, previous Unionist leader, James Molyneaux, Field Marshall Montgomery and to the Irish background of the familiar General Charles de Gaulle whose maternal connections include the McCartan's of County Down.  In fact there were so many connections that Philip tested our knowledge with a picture quiz of 20 people with Franco-Irish connections.  These included artist Sir John Lavery, engineer Peter Rice, and designer and architect, Eileen Grey.

Our speakers were bringing their fascinating talk to a close but there was still something to explain.  Notice for the talk had referred to a sea-going snail, what was that about?  At the foot of several of their slides we had noticed a picture of a snail. They hadn't referred to it but all was about to be revealed.

It turns out that one of the earliest Franco-Irish connections is embodied in a snail, the Irish cepaea nemoralis.  Apparently this genus is found only in Ireland and the Pyrenees area. How did it get from there to here? 

Hélène and Philip left that to their appreciative audience.

Catherine LARGAN: 21 février 2014

Nous avons la grande tristesse de vous informer du décès, à l'hôpital, de Catherine LARGAN, secrétaire du Cercle français de Belfast. Nos pensées sont avec sa famille, son époux Ray, sa fille Anne et son fils Paul.  Nous les passons nos plus sincères condoléances. Nous perdons une femme bien aimé par tous ceux qui la connaissaient.

We are very sad to inform you of the death, in hospital, of Catherine LARGAN, secretary to the Cercle français de Belfast.  
Our thoughts are with her family; her husband Ray, daughter Anne and son Paul. We offer them our sincere condolences. 
We have lost a lady, much loved by all those who knew her.

Caféfrancophilo

Chers amis,

La première réunion du caféfrancophilo, au Cercle français de Belfast, aura lieu le 26 février 2014 au Dark Horse Coffee House, Belfast à partir de 19h.30.

Notre conférencier sera Jim Holland et notre thème: Traduire, c'est trahir?

Nous discuterons le poème, Quand vous serez bien vieille de Pierre de Ronsard et la version de William Butler Yeats.

L’entrée sera libre. 

En espérant vous voir nombreux!

Cordialement

CfB

QFT screens Louis Malle's Ascenseur pour l'échafaud

Chers Amis,

I nearly missed this little gem.  Only when an email from QFT dropped into my mailbox this morning did I realise that next week QFT will be showing one of the classic film noir thrillers of French New Wave cinema …..

Louis Malle’s “Lift to the Scaffold” (Ascenseur pour l'échafaud)

A handsome veteran of the Indo-China and Algerian Wars (Maurice Ronet) and his lover (Jeanne Moreau) plan the murder of her arms-manufacturer husband. But on his way from the crime scene he's trapped in a lift, she anxiously walks the night streets of Paris waiting for him, and a teenage couple steal his car and gun...

Jeanne Moreau, Paris and a score by Miles Davis – could you ask for anything more?

This digitally restored version will be at QFT fromSunday 9^th February until Thursday 13^th February.

For full details see QFT’s website … http://www.queensfilmtheatre.com

A bientôt,  Philip