So hello, glad to be here again. Had some busy time - finishing the February conference and now starting several March ones, and going to Cyprus in between. By the way, what a short month February was! A week in Paphos (Cyprus) allowed to manage all the stress involved - if flying away from Moscow might be considered as management... The week in Cyprus was devoted to - lets` say - my growth as a person being in a relationship (balancing right now between being open and keeping it secret).
Well, the inspiration part now... I mentioned "Faisons un rêve" the other day. That is a theatrical play, in French, devoted to one simple story happening in one room during less than one whole day: since afternoon till the next morning. There are three characters in the play: a husband, a wife and a host, to whose apartment the family couple came, and who originally is an advocat and the rich husband`s sort of friend, and who within a couple of hours becomes the wife`s lover. Such an obvious resume sounds so obvious to be absolutely obvious, that it can`t be just that obvious. I mean - for me to write about it now... Anyway, in reality, it is simple as that, but the whole play is a fantastic piece of art. Brief, laconic and elegant. Funny and intuitive. No serious morality, but just lovely and lively.
The author and the actor, Sasha Guitry –
In English the title might sound as "Let`s dream" or "Making the dream" or something like that as far as I understand.
The author, Sasha Guitry, wrote it in 1916. He was also playing in the first versions of the play (he was the "lover" character). Later, in 1937, there was the film, again with Guitry and one of his wives (one at the time).
Film poster, antique –
There also was a version with Danielle Darrieux and Louis de Funès, the star of the Fantomas epic, who here was the husband, as you can imagine (1957 in Théâtre des Variétés, Paris) and some other later versions. I won`t be surprised if that is an everpresent classic for many smaller and provincial theatres, though my only conclusion is : to be successful this play strongly requires really classy actors, otherwise it might become an obvious and banal adultery.
In 2007 there was a thought on French TV, on France2 channel actually, to make theatre closer to common public, so they decided to restart an old idea with transmitting theatrical plays on TV, and even more - to transmit theatre on-air. Not sure the project still exists, but the idea was to make several issues, and « Faisons un reve » was the first one.
On-air –
Bernard Murat, quite a serious French theatre personality and director of Théâtre Edouard VII, situated close to the legendary Olympia concert hall in Paris (just turn the corner) was invited to make a play. Actually I have no idea who was invited to invite others, but anyway. The acting team was presented by Pierre Arditi (fantastically energetic), Michele Laroque (intelligently elegant) and François Berléand (sympathetically blunt acording to the script). There were only 3 presentations – with the audience - before the on-airing. Finally that was a big success, including me going to France to see it.
The team, to say it shortly (Berleand and Murat standing, Arditi and Laroque sitting)
After some editing and using shots from several days, the play was released on DVD
Now the same play is being presented in the same theatre since last autumn. Should be a succes as far as tickets are still being sold, and there are still several shows a week (attention, no Mondays). For the same reason of popularity, not everybody from the old (good old 2007) times can afford to be there (in Paris) almost every evening. So now Pierre Arditi is facing Clotilde Courau and Martin Lamotte.
Everyone from the cast is worth mentioning about. Pierre Arditi – in Russian I would use the word “fireworks” to describe him, but doubt it is an adequate equivalent in English. He is so full of life, laughs and irony! Once in the theatre, before the first show, there were exchanging remarks among the public (which I managed to pick up with my level of French), discussing something really special to follow soon as “the Arditi`s monologue in the beginning of the second act”. That sounded very promissing and expert-wise. Michele Laroque - I definitely can speak hours and hours about her. Briefly, she is a great person :) And there are all prooves that she is a strong actress. I saw a lot of Berleand in films, Lamotte looks like a more theatre person...
At some point I was so interested in everything around the play and its participants, that my investigation was pretty serious and quite detailed, including finding rare biographies, printing staff with broken French accents from internet etc. Interestingly, Arditi`s parents were French and Belge, if that makes a real difference (his father was a painter). Berleand`s father was of Russian origin, but actually of Armenian, and that makes a difference. Lamotte`s acting coach was Tania Balachova, French actress from Saint-Petersburg. As for Michele Laroque, her story looks one of the most amazing ones, with her mother running from Chaushesku Roumania in late fifties (and hers - still not twenties). I`d love to speak a lot about all of them, but trying to keep it short now.
Clotilde Courau is a real princess by the way with all the status involved. Once I saw her picture in the magazine (hello, the Moscow French Center), somewhere in the celebrities` lives section, which I admit reading, and there was a man standing with her on the photo with a “husband-like” look and quite a remarkable name - Emanuele Filiberto, which was my clue. His last name was also - « di Savoia », and as it turned out - he is the grandson of the last king of Italy, Umberto II.
It is quite exciting for me to start from a play, searching for its text and then finishing with conversations about communist Roumania or abolition of monarchy in Italy.
As for me, I can say that I have finally succedeed in implementing my innormous desire to translate the play into Russian (still unpublished though ahah). Not long ago I managed to find the magazine in the French library in Moscow, with the original text. But even before that happened, I have already done my translating exercise using the subtitles of the DVD :) That might be an example of my enthusiasm. That was fun anyway – the remarks in the play are lively enough not to be dull, so I was rewatching and rewatching... So now, if you have an intense wish for using the Russain text of the play, for a good purpose, just let me know :)
The magazine. With the real text :)
By the way, there is some nuance in French theatres I never heard about before: besides of the ticket you pay some extra for being sat. Private theatres in France have this thing – on the basis that they are private and, apparently, have auditorium staff as volunteers. Well, that was a news for me with my background which includes – among the rest – common and open "soviet" theatres (still for money though). So my first time there, enjoying my new knowledge, trying to be polite at maximum, armed with only a credit card and with just a minimum amount of coins available after buying a croissant earlier – I can only hope that the lady specially trained to accompany me to my seat finally forgave me... Defending their right to get this extra money, I would say - that makes some sense. The seats` order - does not.
Hope the French accents pressented here today looked correct, otherwise your computer should be responsible for not showing them properly.
Not sure why I have started all that nostalgia about the theatre. Perhaps I want to go to France again... Bye now, all the best !
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