La suite de “Marius” est aussi merveilleuse en format bédé que dans les autres médias, et j’ai passé un beau vendredi après-midi ensoBilingual review!
La suite de “Marius” est aussi merveilleuse en format bédé que dans les autres médias, et j’ai passé un beau vendredi après-midi ensoleillé sur mon balcon à la feuilleter. Le même artiste qui a donné vie à l’œuvre de Pagnol via ces illustrations a fait un travail remarquable avec cet épisode de la « Trilogie Marseillaise » qui se tourne vers la petite vendeuse de coquillages en peine d’amour, qui cache un océan de courage sous son aspect si sage.
Marius est parti. César est misérable et furieux, et fait passer ces émotions sur tout le monde. Fanny est silencieuse et inconsolable, mais sa mère espère qu’avec le temps, elle se remettra assez pour accepter la demande en mariage de Panisse. Mais quand elle réalise qu’elle porte le bébé de Marius, Fanny se retrouve forcée à choisir entre sa loyauté envers l’homme qu’elle aime et la réputation et l’honneur de sa famille.
Ça peut sembler inconcevable pour quelqu’un qui lit cette histoire aujourd’hui qu’on fasse autant de drame au sujet d’une fille de la classe ouvrière qui a un bébé en dehors du mariage, mais dans les années 30, la pression sociale et religieuse que les femmes subissait était sévère et sans pitié. Les conséquences de cette grossesse non-planifiée aurait pu faire prendre au comptoir de poissonnerie de la famille toute leur clientèle, aurait pu la forcer à déménager là où personne n’aurait pu ête témoins de sa honte… Lire cette histoire avec des yeux modernes peut facilement rendre furieux, rien qu’à penser à la police de la moralité qui se donnait le droit de juger ainsi la sexualité des femmes, mais je n’irais pas plus loin dans ce sujet… Ce qui est remarquable dans cette histoire, c’est que l’instinct premier de Fanny n’est pas de se cacher ou de prétendre que son bébé est l’enfant de quelqu’un d’autre: elle veut avoir son bébé et attendre le retour de Marius, ce qui aurait exigé une grande bravoure d’une jeune femme à cette époque. Ce n’est, évidemment, pas comme cela que l’histoire se déroule, et Fanny prendra une décision qui va changer sa vie et le futur de la petite vie pour laquelle elle est maintenant responsable.
La seule petite critique que j’ai à faire est qu’un morceau de dialogue a été coupé d’une scène cruciale, qui est un des moments les plus émouvant dans le film, et j’ai été déçue de ne pas le voir sur la page. Mais c’est vraiment une critique de rien du tout venant de quelqu’un qui a lu la pièce et écouté le film beaucoup trop souvent, et ceci n’affectera en rien votre plaisir de lecture si vous en faites l’expérience pour la première fois.
Le dernier volume de la trilogie devrait arriver à ma librairie locale cette semaine et j’attends leur coup de fil avec impatience! Si vous avez accès à ces magnifiques livres, ils sont une magnifique façon de découvrir les histoires de Pagnol! Je recommande particulièrement cette trilogie ainsi que “La Gloire de Mon Père” et “Le Château de ma Mère”.
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The sequel to “Marius” is just as wonderful in graphic novel format as it is in other mediums, and I spent a lovely sunny Friday afternoon reading it on my balcony. The same artist who had been bringing the rest of Pagnol’s oeuvre to life with his illustrations did an amazing job with the episode of the “Trilogie Marseillaise” that focuses on the love-sick seashell girl who hides oceans of strength under her otherwise quiet demeanor.
Marius is gone. César is miserable and furious, and he takes it out on everyone. Fanny is quietly inconsolable, but her mother hopes that a little time will help her recover enough to accept Panisse’s proposal. But when she realizes she is pregnant with Marius’ baby, Fanny finds herself having to make an impossible choice between loyalty to the man she loves and her family’s reputation and honor.
It can seem inconceivable to anyone reading this story today that people would make such a big fuss about a working-class girl having a baby out of wedlock, but in the 1930s, the social and religious pressures women had to face were severe and unforgiving. The consequences of this unplanned pregnancy could have lost her family’s fish-stall all their clients, forced her to move some place no one could have witnessed her ‘shame’… Reading a story like this with modern eyes can make you furious about the morality police who felt it was their place to judge women’s sexuality, but I’m not going to get too carried away here… The point is that in this story, Fanny’s first impulse is not to hide or try to pass off her child as another man’s: what she wants is to have the baby and wait for Marius to return, something that would have taken incredible bravery for a young woman to do at that time. But this is of course, not how the story goes, and she makes a decision that will change her life for the sake of the small life she is now responsible for.
The one bone I have to pick here is that some dialogue of a crucial scene was cut, and it’s one of the movie’s most moving moments, and I was a little disappointed not to see it on the page. But really this is a tiny nit-picking from someone who has read the source material and watched the movies way too often, and will in no way mar the enjoyment of someone who is coming to this story with fresh eyes.
The final book of the trilogy should arrive at my local bookseller soon and I can’t wait! If you have access to these beautiful books, they are a wonderful way to get introduced to Pagnol’s work! I especially recommend this trilogy and “La Gloire de Mon Père” and “Le Château de ma Mère”....more
Dual-language review, as I am fairly certain that non-French readers may not be interested in/have access to these graphic novels. I previously publisDual-language review, as I am fairly certain that non-French readers may not be interested in/have access to these graphic novels. I previously published this review under volume 1 and 2 of this graphic novel, which has now been printed as an omnibus edition)
Quatre ans ont passés depuis que j’ai trouvé en librairie la première bédé adaptée de l’oeuvre de Pagnol (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...). Depuis, la collection a vraiment explosée, et j’ai fait le bonheur de ma librairie locale en commandant une grosse pile de titres il y a quelques semaines.
Je connais probablement le texte de “Marius” (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) par coeur. J’ai lu la pièce une douzaine de fois et je ne compte plus les visionements du film réalisé par Alexander Korda (et plus récement, la belle version signée Daniel Auteuil – il n’est pas Raimu, mais il adore tellement l’oeuvre qu’on s’en fout pas mal). Mais le plaisir de visiter de nouvelles interprétations est quand même très présent. Je dirais même que de toutes les bédés de cette collection, à date, “Marius” est probablement mon préféré.
Le texte, écrit pour le théâtre, se traduit très bien en format de bande dessinée, et le petit texte en annexe témoigne du travail qui a été fait pour tenter de récréer le plus fidèlement possible le Vieux-Port de Marseille avant la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, qui a défigurée une bonne partie du quartier ou se situe l’action. Les personnages ne ressemblent en rien à la distribution des films, ce qui est parfait: autant qu’on puisse adorer Pierre Fresnay et Orane Demazis dans les rôles principaux, ça ne servirait à rien d’essayer de capturer leur jeu sur la page. Sébastien Morice a donné aux personnages des visages nouveaux, mais fidèles à l’esprit de l’histoire que Pagnol imaginait lorsqu’il vivait à Paris et souffrait d’un grand mal du pays. J’adore également les petits clins d’oeil aux autres livres, films et pieces qui sont cachés dans les arrière-plans!
Bref, si vous aimez Pagnol, cette collection est un trésor et “Marius” en est le plus magnifique épisode.
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It’s been four years since I found the first graphic novel adaptation of Pagnol’s work in a bookstore. Since then, the collection has exploded, and I made my local book-seller really happy by ordering a huge pile a few weeks ago.
I probably know “Marius” by heart. I read the play at least a dozen times, and I can’t count how many times I’ve watched the classic Alexander Korda-directed movie (and more recently, the Daniel Auteuil adaptation – he’s not Raimu, but he loves the material so much that no one cares). It’s still an absolute pleasure to look at new interpretations. I would even say that of all the graphic novels in this collection to date, “Marius” is my favorite.
The text was written for the stage, and it lends itself very well to the graphic novel format, with a little annex discussing how much work went into faithfully recreating the Old Port of Marseille before World War II, as the bombings destroyed most of the neighborhood in which the story is set. The characters look nothing like the cast of the movies, which is perfect: you can love Pierre Fresnay and Orane Demazis in the main roles, but it would be silly to try to capture their performance on the page. Sébastien Morice gave the characters new faces, but kept them faithful to the spirit of the story Pagnol dreamt of when he was living in Paris and suffering from great homesickness. I also love the little references to other books, movies and plays that are scattered in the backgrounds!
In short, if you like Pagnol, this graphic novel collection is a treasure and “Marius” is its most magnificent instalment. ...more
A friend encouraged me to watch the tv series “The Boys”, knowing my love for the darker type of superhero comics, like “Watchmen” and “Doom Patrol” .A friend encouraged me to watch the tv series “The Boys”, knowing my love for the darker type of superhero comics, like “Watchmen” and “Doom Patrol” . I was about two episodes in when I clocked that this just had to have been a graphic novel before it was a tv show, and a few clicks confirmed that my suspicions were correct. Of course it’s a Garth Ennis graphic novel, too! With the gore and the language, I feel like I should have expected that! I got a copy of the first volume after wrapping up the first season (I am now officially all caught up!).
In a situation like this, it’s very difficult to not automatically compare the graphic novel and the tv show, and I might be voicing an unpopular opinion here, but I have a slight preference for the show. Part of that is because I very excited by the amazing cast: so many alumni from all my favorite nerdy franchises! Jack Quaid, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg!! And that’s just in season 1! But seriously, the cast is great, the show very well shot and the first season’s arch, which establishes the world, the main characters and the ideas, was gripping and smart.
I feel like this is a very contemporary, late-stage capitalist nightmare spin on Alan Moore’s idea of ‘who’s watching the Watchmen’ and in this case of course, it’s a CIA black ops team – the titular Boys. The ‘supes’ have organized themselves in a massive corporation that more or less loans them to cities in need of superhuman crime fighters, merchandizes the shit out of them, uses them as spokespeople for various brands looking for endorsements, makes terrible movies based on stories of their various exploits… while the so-called heroes rake in the cash and indulge in, well, whatever they want, really, since they are not really accountable to anyone. The Boys are a small team that tries their best to keep them in line when they can and expose their abhorrent behavior when all else fails, but how do you control people with insane super-human powers and broken moral barometers with a huge PR team behind them?
It's almost annoying how realistic Ennis’ conceit is, in the sense that if superheroes did exist, at this stage, yep, I would expect them to incorporate and run mostly on PR, running shoe endorsements and action figures. Of course, it would all get dysfunctional and gross really fast (like making female superheroes wear extremely revealing kits for no good reason, going around assaulting anyone they don’t like because who is going to stop them and so on), and of course people who would give the supes money would expect them to take their sides and espouse their views, because that’s how sponsorship works… The premise in and of itself is a fascinating speculative rabbit hole. It’s also a clear jab at the big franchises (the Seven are basically a looking-glass world version of the Justice League) and intellectual property right owners who aggressively merchandize other people’s art for an easy cash grab (*cough* Disney *cough*)– and my understanding is that Ennis has plenty of experience dealing with the corporate overlords and their desire to control creative output. I am very much on board with the criticism of all those things, which I believe makes me his target audience.
I understand the criticism about the crudeness, the often-gross violence, the deep unlikability of the Boys, which make this series a superhero comic with… no actual heroes because everyone… kind of sucks. I think that in this regard, the tv show does a better job of bringing a certain nuance to the characters: Hughie clearly struggles with his anger and the violent impulses brought on by his grief, he abuses Starlight’s trust but obviously hates doing it, he takes pleasure in his first kill, but also feels deeply uncomfortable that he did… It’s a lot to process for a character, and that might be easier to illustrate through a good actor than through drawing. I also think that while the illustrations of Homelander are wonderfully sinister, Anthony Starr brings the character’s dead-eyed insanity to another level that isn’t quite captured on the page; it’s not easy to be menacing while you smile, but he pulls it off (not to mention the fact that he ruined milk for me for ever)!
I will probably read the rest of the series, but more out a curiosity to see how both versions differ from each other than out of enthusiasm for the books. Eric Kripke took the spirit of Ennis’ story and ran with it, and that makes the comic undeniably good. I just happen to enjoy the show more – still totally worth reading if you find the ideas intriguing....more
This book is a cute little graphic novel about what happens to the younger characters of “Stranger Things” between seasons. I fully admit that I had nThis book is a cute little graphic novel about what happens to the younger characters of “Stranger Things” between seasons. I fully admit that I had not paid close attention to the content before I got my copy, so word of warning: this is definitely aimed at a young adult audience: the stories are fun, but some little teachable moments are added in there, for good measure.
“Zombie Boys” is about the AV Club gang getting together with a new student to make a zombie movie, which helps Will, who still feels quite rattled by his experience in the Upside Down and by his new nickname. “The Bully” is about Troy, the mean little bully El put back in his place twice over the first season, and his attempt to understand what happened. And finally, “Erica the Great” is about Erica Sinclair’s attempt to get her girlfriends to play D&D, and how that doesn’t quite work out the way she expected.
The first story was cute, and I do appreciate the underlying message, that art can help us heal and reclaim who we are after trauma – and that scary movies can actually help us cope with real-life scary stuff, and I simply loved the last story, but then Erica is one of my favorite supporting characters: she is utterly terrifying and tragically underutilized, I hope they fix that in season 5. The middle story about Troy was an interesting choice: it shows that bullies usually learn their behavior somewhere, and tend to be just as terrified as the people they pick on, albeit for different reasons. And this will sound harsh, but Stranger Things does disgusting bully characters so-well that I am kind of indifferent to attempts at redeeming them.
Overall, a cute and fun little collection of bite-sized stories, but I would not consider it a significant addition to the universe’s cannon....more
Morty decides he wants to learn how to play Dungeons and Dragons to impress a cute nerd girl he met at the hobby shop. Well, that was simply awesome!
Morty decides he wants to learn how to play Dungeons and Dragons to impress a cute nerd girl he met at the hobby shop. It turns out that Rick is a huge D&D fan who has very strong opinions about the game. The whole Smith family ends up getting involved and as in any good “Rick and Morty” adventure, things go completely off the rails quickly, as the family basically gets Jumanji-ed into their game.
One of the fantastic things about this graphic novel is that you do not have to be a D&D person to enjoy it, in large parts because there are basic and clear explanations provided through the story without ever veering into info-dumping. I don’t play D&D at all, and I was able to follow everything easily, though I do imagine there are plenty of little Easter Egg jokes in there for people who do. I also loved that even with a strong theme to build the story around, the graphic novels stays extremely true to the darkly hilarious and nihilistic style of the show. The characters ring absolutely perfect and faithful to the originals.
Long story short, this is exactly what the title promises! Highly recommended for the all the “Rick and Morty” fans out there!...more
(Totally fictional conversation that never happened)
Jonathan Hickman: What would you say if I told you Wall Street is actually an eldritch cult and th(Totally fictional conversation that never happened)
Jonathan Hickman: What would you say if I told you Wall Street is actually an eldritch cult and that the inconceivably rich families at the top of the pyramid are there because they had made pacts with demons and Old Gods that demanded blood sacrifices on a regular basis?
Me: I’d say that makes as much sense as most economic theories I’ve read. Go on…
My friend Skot clearly has my number, because he recommended this graphic novel to me, and I was instantly riveted. I mean, secret societies, Lovecraftian monsters and noir detective stories are some of my favorite things, so it wasn’t a hard sell, but this graphic novel is not only a solid blend of those elements, but a well-written and beautifully illustrated murder mystery. It is unrelentingly dark, bleak and it gets really gory, so be warned that if this isn’t your cup of tea, don’t pick it up. However, if you can stomach that sort of thing (or are as deranged as I am and nod appreciatively at well-staged crime scenes), you will love this story of power, betrayal, occultism and murder.
I ordered the second volume as soon as I had finished the first, if that tells you anything about how eager I am to see what happens next!
Merged review:
(Totally fictional conversation that never happened)
Jonathan Hickman: What would you say if I told you Wall Street is actually an eldritch cult and that the inconceivably rich families at the top of the pyramid are there because they had made pacts with demons and Old Gods that demanded blood sacrifices on a regular basis?
Me: I’d say that makes as much sense as most economic theories I’ve read. Go on…
My friend Skot clearly has my number, because he recommended this graphic novel to me, and I was instantly riveted. I mean, secret societies, Lovecraftian monsters and noir detective stories are some of my favorite things, so it wasn’t a hard sell, but this graphic novel is not only a solid blend of those elements, but a well-written and beautifully illustrated murder mystery. It is unrelentingly dark, bleak and it gets really gory, so be warned that if this isn’t your cup of tea, don’t pick it up. However, if you can stomach that sort of thing (or are as deranged as I am and nod appreciatively at well-staged crime scenes), you will love this story of power, betrayal, occultism and murder.
I ordered the second volume as soon as I had finished the first, if that tells you anything about how eager I am to see what happens next!...more