In two volumes, now available through the BNF site: The Notebooks of Edgar Degas : a catalogue of the thirty-eight notebooks in the Bibliothèque nationale and other collections
Article about the notebooks (in French): Les carnets de Degas, pour entrer dans les arcanes de sa création artistique | Gallica.
The Criterion Collection, a video-distribution company selling “important classic and contemporary films” to film aficionados, just released Belle de Jour on BluRay and enlisted fashion illustrator David Downton to provide art for the cover and interior booklet.
Read the rest and see Downton’s other (sexy!) piece at Criterion Confessions. Buy the Criterion Belle de Jour at the Francophilia Amazon store!
If your Valentine happens to be both a Francophile and a cineaste, I think s/he might be quite pleased with Universal-France’s three-disc compilation, Nouvelle Vague: Chansons et Musiques de Films. The set includes selections from soundtracks composed by Michel Legrand, Georges Delerue, Miles Davis, Maurice Jarre, Serge Gainsbourg, Bernard Herrmann, and on and on, for films by such directors as François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Louis Malle, Claude Chabrol, Phillippe De Broca, Jacques Demy, and on and on.
Read more at Cinespect and buy Nouvelle Vague: Chansons et Musiques de Films at the Francophilia Amazon Store!
The race, which begins July 2 and wraps on the 24, begins along the Le Passage de Gois ou Gôa in northern France. The world renowned cycling race will be broadcast in nearly 200 countries and closely followed in real time on Twitter.
Read the rest and see the video at CBS News.
The work of Serge Gainsbourg, the large-nosed, Gitanes-smoking French icon whose jazzy, bohemian songs exemplified a sexually liberated France of the 1960s and 1970s, is enjoying a resurgence in the most unlikely of places — perfume ads.
Read the rest at Reuters.
…[T]he epic mess of Piaf’s love life, as well as the scale of her talent, make this story something special, while her brutal Dickensian childhood virtually ensured that she would spend her adult life in a doomed quest for perfect love and security.
Complete review at The Barnes & Noble Review. Buy the book at the Francophilia Amazon store.
Marcel Marlier illustrated the stories of Martine, an icon of 20th-century French pop culture. Written by Gilbert Delahaye, there were 60 titles published with more than 65 million copies sold in French and 35 million sold in other languages.
Know a little francophile? You can buy Martine titles (in French!) at the Francophilia Amazon store.
If you’re a fan of Serge Gainsbourg, who is arguably one of the best French songwriters of the 20th century, you won’t want to miss the soon-to-be-released 20th anniversary collection.
Pre-order on the official Serge Gainsbourg site.
The family shareholders of the French luxury goods maker Hermès will hold crisis talks tomorrow to discuss how to defend themselves against a potential takeover by the rival conglomerate LVMH.
via The Guardian
As you probably know, Barbie, the most popular doll around the world, is turning 50 next year. A grand show dedicated to this golden anniversary is to be staged during the New York Fashion Week in February.
Buy the Eiffel Tower Barbie at the Francophilia Amazon Store!
via MillionLooks.com
Here’s what Spielberg told us. “The first part of the film, which is the most mysterious part, certainly owes much to not only film noir but the whole German Brechtian theatre — some of our night scenes and our action scenes are very contrasty. But at the same time the movie is a hell of an adventure.”
via Empire