From 24th to 27th May, the French Institute, London will host the second edition of the BD&Comics Passion Festival.

Culturethèque is giving away 2 tickets to one of the festival's events: Grzegorz Rosinski telling “All about Thorgal,” which will take place on Sunday 27 May – 2pm-3pm, at the Institute.

Meet Culturethèque's team in the Comic Bar of the Festival

The Institut's Bistrot will be turned into a Comics Bar during the BD&Comics Passion Festival, on the 26th and 27th May 2012.

Learn how to create digital comics on your iPad in a single workshop
Workshop: learn how to make and publish digital comics on your iPad.
14h-17h / 15£ / 15 people max / Institut français' Médiathèque.

Get ready for four days of fun brought to you by the Institut français in association with Comica Festival, featuring extraordinary creators (Christophe Arleston and Jean-Louis Mourier, David B., Guy Delisle, Karrie Fransman, Tom Gauld, Pat Mills, Kevin O’Neill, Luke Pearson, Grzegorz Rosinski, Jonathan Ross aka Wossy), music (Mesparrow), performances (Freeeks Factory), films and the best booksellers (Gosh!, La Page, Cinebook).
With nearly thirty events including live drawing, talks, exhibitions, workshops, a drawing jam with Mesparrow and a dress-up party, this innovative festival will have something for everyone!

Witness London's most French reading group explore a comic book for the first time.
Focus on Marjane Satrapi with Comic book specialist Paul Gravett.

In my last blog post, I looked at La Gauche in French politics.
This time it’s the turn of right wing politics in France.

I’ve just returned from Paris and was fascinated to see the city in election mode - posters everywhere, the virtually constant political chat on all the news channels and in the city’s bars and cafes.

The first round is but a few days away, so here’s a brief insight into what the French Right are all about.

From Tuesday 15 to Sunday 20 May at the New Diorama Theatre, Regents Place, London NW1 3BF, London’s diverse audiences as well as visitors to London in this our Olympic year, will be able to experience a week of Playback Theatre with groups from France, Italy, Hungary, Norway, Greece, alongside UK-based ensembles.

This recipe is taken from the Muffins : 750 grammes de plaisir book available for free on Culturethèque. This book offers 60 recipes, including 30 illustrated ones, but all of them original and tasty!

Culturethèque is not the only repository of French books online, these are my top four websites (other than Culturethèque).

It seems to have had a period in the 60's-80's when it created beautiful short animations. It has an English language and a French language arm, so I'll focus on the French language ones, this being Culturethèque, but I recommend you get sucked into a youtube hole of watching animation after animation.

They have a website, where theoretically, you should be able to watch films for free, but they take a long time to load, so I recommend you go straight to Youtube.

Videos below. This is the ONF's suitably retro logo:

But it turns out I'm either an idiot or a hypocrite, because I can't stop listening to this song I came across on Air's Late Night Tales compilation.

Video games time machine http://www.dailymotion.com/sas/video-games-time-machine is a virtual museum dedicated to video games, that has been launched by MO5.COM, in partnership with Dailymotion.

MO5.COM is a non-profit organization whose mission is to preserve and to broadcast to the general public digital heritage.
The non-profit organization brings together collectors, heritage conservators, specialized journalists, enthusiasts, engineers, teachers, researchers, high-school students, students and young people from all over.

Also known as Mathieu Chedid, the grand son of French poet and writer Andrée Chedid and French musician Louis Chedid, M has been making his own melodies and albums for more than 15 years.

Its election time in France. In April we’ll see Nicolas Sarkozy’s centre right UMP face le Parti Socialiste (PS) of François Hollande. We’ve heard a lot about these two, but what about the rest?

However, Culturethèque requires that I pass on some useful information. So I will, magnanimously, conceal my green-eyed anger with my reading spectacles, and get to the point.

Ebouquin is a blog in French for ereader owners. While I'm ranting, why not vent my angst at the creators of this website? They have cheekily undermined my usefulness by writing this fantastic blogpost about where you find ebooks for free on the internet, which is more comprehensive than mine.

Despite being a fervent web addict and writing blogs and posts on Culturethèque’s Facebook wall, I have to confess that I am also a big fan of bakery. I don’t know why but I have always loved making sweet food. Maybe because I am – except when a catastrophe happens from time to time – pretty much sure that I (and by the way, my friends too) will without fail love anything made with chocolate, sugar and butter. When I arrived in London in late November, I came without my cookbooks – they stayed in France. Fortunately, the Christmas Holidays came and I had the opportunity to come back to London with some bakering equipment. Less fortunate, and due to luggage restrictions, I still have no cookbooks with me! That’s when Culturethèque enters onto the scene! Did you know that we have more than 470 books available for free? From salted to sweet, and drinks and dieting, there is something for every cooking enthusiast.

Among both the British and the French, we see this passion burning…quite literally, in many cases.

Patricia Kaas will be opening a world tour at the prestigious Royal Albert Hall, London on Monday 5th November 2012. The tour entitled ‘Kaas Chante Piaf’ meaning ‘Kaas Sings Piaf’ will focus on 21 of the great Edith Piaf’s iconic songs, arranged by Abel Korzeniowski and commemorate 50 years since the death of Piaf.
 
With innovative stage design, this unique show aims to be above all contemporary and urban.
It will include a video installation with lighting that is different from anything on the stage today.
Unedited, extraordinary, never seen images of Piaf will be the centerpiece of this unique event.

I'm trying to draw a parallel with Truffaut's birthday. Sure, Google remembered. Sure, none of the Culturethèque bloggers did. So I'm reporting on a little complaint we received.

But, you see, it's always Truffaut day on Culturethèque.

Source documents, overleaf.

Read on for my links.

Success, happiness and new cultural discoveries and re-discoveries on our digital platform.

Culturethèque.

Here's a link to a Yale course on the History of France since 1871.

Their wikipedia page.

Here is the link to the first episode of six, of Adieu Camarades (in French, for the moment).

Not only did this film-within-a-film almost certainly influence Irma Vep (see Intermission), but it could well be Truffaut’s most ingenious work…
La Nuit Americaine refers to the cinematographic trick of simultaneously under-exposing and avoiding sky so that nighttime scenes can be shot during the day. Hence the film’s US and UK distribution title, Day for Night.

Here we have a film review reposted from Paul Scott's blog.

This is the first in a series of blogposts on how that money is put to use.

The Ashmolean museum was recently refurbished (and when they were rebuilding, some sneaky undergrads would break in and climb up onto the roof, for one of the best night views around).

The Ashmolean has updated their website too, with lots of works viewable online. Here's something French. Click on the image for higher resolution.

I don't have the memory of an elephant, but I do have wikipedia links to French idioms with their meaning and direct translation, or a more complete list with their equivalents in English.

The idea is this: foreign language public domain texts are uploaded and commented on by the Tailored Texts community - user-generated lit crit, essentially, with handy translations. It is still quite small - the most discussed work is Voltaire's Candide with 2329 entries, that means 2329 little annotations to the text, and one user has submitted 2300 - but it looks like the beginning of something that could revolutionise literary commentary and the study of literary texts. The lay-out is not super enticing, but it uses wikis so it is maleable and suits its purpose.

Even if those very addictive American TV series have forced many of us to revert to the original version (I learned English thanks to «Lost»), dubbing remains the standard in France.

Some people have used this to create - what we could call "détournement" in French - dubbing which replaces the words with a humorous alternative dialogue.

My favourites are those made by the guys of «Message à caractère informatif» who had fun dubbing old companies' videos of the 70s. Click on the title of this blogpost to watch them.

I've started looking around for other options. It's the 21st century; I looked online. Thank the past for print journalism, because Le Point has told me where to go to fill the vacuum: Grooveshark, Musicme, radionomy and Jamendo. I'll tell you how it goes with each of them once I've tried them out.

NB. Don't try Beezik or Jiwa, they doesn't do long-distance.

So it is with immense generosity that I have spent some time looking for French food blogs, and will proceed to comment and link below. (click on the title of the blog post for a comprehensive list).

Pantagruel, Le Tiers Livre, Le Quart Livre and a bunch of other works (including Gargantua) in their entirety in medieval French on Wikisource.

This incredible website, set up by the University of Virginia, has uploaded .tiffs of editions of Rabelais from the 1540's and 1550's. They's got Panta, Gargs and the 3rd,4th and 5th books.

There's also this website if you want to read Gargantua but you hate Wikisource (why would you hate Wikisource?), and this one for Pantagruel.

The dinosaur-enthusiast: "I've discovered a great resource for watching out-of-copyright movies, oh wait, it's Youtube."

Read on for links to films (click on the title of this blogpost).

Poème du jour always includes one or two French poems, or foreign poems in translation, and they always ask a Comédie-Française actor to do the reading. They are never more than three minutes long, so remember to take your mp3 player with you next time you need to "just go and get something" or when you'll "be down in a minute, hang on."

Adobe Digital Editions is free software. You have to use it in order to read most of Culturethèque's contemporary fiction ebooks, and some of the ebooks in the classics section.

Adobe Digital Editions epubs are compatible with Sony and Samsung ereaders. A full list of the ereaders that are compatible with Adobe Digital Editions can be found here. It does not include Amazon's Kindle, as Amazon has created its own Kindle format, nor does it contain any Apple device.

Abbé Pierre probably sounds like someone from ‘Allo 'Allo, but he was actually very real. This is sort of what he looked like:

One such album was Agnès Bihl's, "Merci Maman, Merci Papa," which a part from having the obvious advantage of blaming all of one's shortfalls on one's parents, also had some incredible puns. Read on for links and examples of puns by clicking on the title of this blogpost.

The first indication came from my sister, who told me a friend of hers was on this website called Konbini. I was showing my friends this, and a Japanese-speaking friend told me Konbini meant "convenience store." Click on the title on this blogpost to see the video embedded.

A moment ago (and this is the second indication), I received an email from a friend suggesting I blog about a song, "the band are manged by Kitsune which is a French record label/ fashion house. Although I don't know if Culturetheque readers would be into it. I think the animation is excellent."
The video is the second one embedded below.

"Further to your recent blog post (no need to credit me by the way, I'm happy being your anonymous friend in the know), just watched this excellent Waldemar Januzsack programme on the impressionists."
(Click on the title of the blogpost to read on).

Conceived by BDDP Unlimited and Clément Beauvais, French director, illustrator, musician and photographer extraordinaire, the video is part of a campaign by Solidarités International to raise awareness about unhygienic water.
The video’s simple but moving ink-play reveals the ‘silent, invisible danger’ that dirty water poses us. It’s also good for your listening, too.

Give it a watch here then visit and sign the petition. World Water Day might have been four months ago (who knew?), but it’s never too late to help out, so, you know, do it.

What I mean is, this is yet more digitalised media for free online. In TIFF format, so, sorry epub/pdf lovers, no ereader-reading for you... but these are sumptuous books.

After a short browse, my two favourites are from China and from France.

Deezer suggests plenty of songs, it's like an online Spotify but you don't need to download a program.

La Blogothèque is also a very popular source of amusement, at least back when I was trouncing about Paris. It is the equivalent of the Black Cab sessions in that they record videos in an informal environment and artists are forced to perform their songs without studio help.

A little game: how many paintings can you identify? Just the name of the artists will do, but you get brownie points if you know the title of the paintings, too.
Watch the music video on this blogpost, then leave your guesses in the comment box below.

He also published a complete comic strip available for free online.

Unfortunately, it hasn't been translated yet but given there are a lot of drawings...

This is a list of podcasts that the French download the most:
(click on the title of the blog post for the list).

Wordreference is made using a combination of online dictionaries, but most importantly, user-generated forums on particular expressions. A translator's heaven.

Two other dictionary websites I like:

(Click on the title of this blogpost to see the full list.)

Read on for more details.

In the meantime, you could fill your days by writing a potential blogpost and emailing it to culturetheque@ambafrance.org.uk.

It is a like an enormous Culturethèque, so ... I like it.
The main difference is that all the content is volunteer-based and/or in the public domain.

For today's post, I thought a link to an audiobook of Goethe's Les Souffrances du Jeune Werther, in French translation, would be a nice start to this week of discovering the glories of the Internet Archive.

The exhibition is until the 26th June at the Musée Marmottan Monet.
Click on the title of this blog post to see a video contrasting their work.

This website has the last couple of years' worth.

Right at the end of their presentation there was a section on all their online freebies. I'd advise French learners to got to iTunes, go to iTunes store, go to iTunes U and search for "open university French". I just had a peek and there is plenty on offer, for free.

The lady giving the presentation also spoke of free annotated French books - do you know where I can find these?

The lay-out of Audiocite is horrific, but the content is the opposite.
And just for the heck of it, I've embedded a player of the reading of Hugo's The Last Day of A Condemned Man. (Click on the title of this blogpost to get to it).

Here is a selection of online virtual tours of museums in Paris.

In the context of this charity, a series of web-documentaries were made on the topic of different sorts of what France calls "mal-logements" (dodgy, or bad, housing). In 2010, 3.6 million French people were living in substandard conditions.
This series approaches the issue from a number of angles ranging from evictions, unhealthy or unsafe conditions to issues relating to social housing.

Director Samuel Bollendorf, uses an innovative narrative technique in order to get the message across, combining photos, videos and 360° interactive viewing of the houses with a faceless, factual voice-over from the residents, thereby managing to avoid personal or emotional voyeurism.

The documentaries are in French, with French subtitles.

Persée is great tool that's available anywhere in the world. It was set up by the University of Lyon who regularly digitilises thousands of scientific journals.

Cairn is only accessible from the Institut français in London and a selection of other libraries in the UK. Cairn gives you access to hundreds of human and social science journals.

Angot will also answer questions from the audience and sign copies of her books (which will be on sale). The event will be in French.

This is what she told me:
"The "Institut national de l'audiovisuel" offers, during the whole session of the Salon du Livre and until the end of the month of March, free and integral viewing of the programmes led by Bernard Pivot between 1975 and 1990, i.e. 724 programmes.
Internet users can view free of charge interviews of French and international thinkers such as Sojenitsyne, Nabokov, Yourcenar, Levi-Strauss, Bernard-Henri Lévy etc."

Yes, you can go and watch Milan Kundera and a man obsessed with spelling (Bernard Pivot) talk about Kafka and Orwell. I know you had a dream about it back when you were sixteen. Or was that just me? Oh.

Dedicated to the promotion of French higher education, CampusFrance offers international students a path to success and assists them with college counselling, information, and application procedures.

In partnership with the Coopération Universitaire Service of the French Embassy (student-services agency), this open day will serve to better familiarise representatives from UK universities with the resources and benefits open to those studying in France, by covering subjects ranging from education options to research facilities. Guidance regarding student transfers and general mobility will also be provided.

Click on the title of this blogpost for details of this open day.

I have copy-pasted the email and links below, so that my brief frenzy of research was not in vain.

The remixes will be released on a limited edition 7" out in collaboration between Oui Love and Sonic Cathedral.

Sat 14 Brighton, The Great Escape.
Mon 16 Bristol, The Louisiana.
Tues 17 Birmingham, Hare & Hounds.
Wed 18 Manchester, The Castle.
Thu 19 Liverpool, Liverpool Sound City.
Fri 20 London, CAMP (with after-party DJs until 4am)
Not only is the tour going happening, but the bands have remixed each other. You can stream and download the tracks here.

Prior to her residence at Kings Place on 17, 18 and 19 March 2011, the French cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton introduces three of her creations: Chants Juifs, Vita (Monteverdi's madrigals and Giacinto Scelsi’s Trilogy for cello solo) and D'Est in Music, with images taken from Chantal Akerman's film, D’Est. Sonia will discuss her upcoming programme, perform some extracts from her new CD Vita and talk around some images. This event is a unique occasion to discover the richness of this great musician and the links she creates between art forms and different worlds. There will be a Q&A and CD signing.

Tue 15 Mar 7.00pm | £10, conc. £8 | in English | Institut français du Royaume-Uni

www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk

Read a review here.

Watch the full film here on Culturethèque!

Première sélection for the Goncourt Prize 2010

Première sélection for the Renaudot Prize 2010

Premiére sélection for the Wepler Prize 2010

Discover this formidable documentary here on Culturethèque in the original French version or in English below:

Discover this amazing documentary here on Culturethèque in the original French version or in English below: