Friday 20 was a big day for me - the day I defended my dissertation. I worked my ass off on my dissertation for one year and a half, I really enjoyed researching and writing, I put my heart and soul in what amounts to 200 pages filled with amazingly interesting details about a theme that thrills me.

Title: Tennessee Williams & the movies: birds and bees appear, fairies get tweezed. Problem raised: how is the sexuality in three plays by Tennessee Williams retranscribed on to the big screen? How does American cinema assimilate the sexuality at work in the three plays under study (A Streetcar Named Desire; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; Suddenly, Last Summer)

Abstract:

The perspective of this dissertation is global and part of a general reflection on the process of adapting a play onto the silver screen. But the study is limited to a theme – sexuality – in a given period – the 1950s United States – in three plays by Tennessee Williams: A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959). The comparative study on the two media – theater and cinema – is far from being exhaustive, and aims at tackling and titillating the concept of fidelity by highlighting how the 1950s films have recaptured the sexuality at work in the world of the playwright, by transposing it onto the big screen at a time when the Production Code (or Hays Code), which I would dub the cinematographic straightjacket, begins to collapse.

The study will also make precise references to the French and Spanish dubbed and subtitled versions so as to shed some light on the very notion of censorship.

This dissertation is my own master-piece, it's a piece of my own self, it's a work and research I particularly cherish. I promptly prepared my oral presentation, and when the moment had arrived, my heart pounded. In front of me, I had my sponsoring professor and another member of the jury. Behind me, I had two girl friends of mine and my coordinator (EAP California) to support me.

For 20 minutes, I explained why I had chosen this topic and how I conducted my research, I also explicate my outline and my reasoning. Then, my sponsoring professor ran a detailled account of my dissertation, emitting positive and negative criticism. He learnt quite a few things, considered much of my work "interesting," praised my deep and thorough analyses, discussed my annexes that shed an interesting light on my work and in the end, gave the floor to the second member of the jury. She started off by saying how great her week had been, reading my dissertation, how great, natural and easy-to-read my English was, and how passionate I was about the subject. She also made some positive and negative comments, and asked me a few questions.

I was then asked to leave the room for a few minutes, and as the jury was deliberating, I got my audience's comments - great comments. After something like two minutes, we were asked to re-enter the room. They stood there and solemnly gave me 18/20 (A+) with Summa Cum Laude.

Some of the previous comments reassured me, but the verdict enchanted me, quite literaly. They asked me about my future plans, congratulated me and left. I went back to my friends who praised me and my work to the skies - they warmed my heart. Pure bliss. I texted a lot of people to share my joy - I was walking on air. My work had paid!

In the wake of this dissertation, I have two plans: I'm going to get in touch with Tennessee Williams studies to see if they're interested in publishing some articles from my research; and I'm also try to re-translate Williams' oeuvre (or part of it) into French.

To be continued...

At the end of May, when I was still working on my dissertation, I replied to a casting call for a student medium-length movie to be shot in Saint-Etienne. As the whole matter was quite urgent, the director called me on the next day to schedule a mini-audition in Lyon. It was Tuesday and the shooting was supposed to start off on Friday.

The meeting with the director and his assistant went fine and they both seemed happy with my acting skills - I had to act out a scene with no dialog, and another with lines. They left after the interview that lasted more than one hour and they told me they'd get in touch with me on Thursday to take me on board... or not. I was quite stressed out but I had good vibes about the meeting.

On Thursday, I got an email from Nicolas, the director, telling me that the shooting had been postponed for a week, thereby allowing them to organize other auditions. I'd get the final answer the following week (beginning of June).

As I was walking towards my university to pay a visit to my coordinator (for my exchange with California), I got a phone call from Nicolas who broke the news: I was selected! I was elated and Christine was the first to know! She rejoiced as much as I did.

In a word, the movie is about three friends who have difficulties making the ends meet and decide to rob a bank, out of the blue. Genre: social comedy; title: Appelez-moi Sacha, s'il vous plaît (Call me Sacha, please); characteristics: the film is shot in black and white up to the robbery (which starts off when I get shot on my left foot... by myself!)

Everything went quite quickly. On the following day, I met Nico in Lyon to discuss my character (Micky, in his 20s, has a limp). I was invited to go to Saint-Etienne on the next day (Thursday) for 10 days (June 4-15), knowing that I would have to turn in my dissertation  on June 13 and that on June 15, I would have to go to Nice to take the entrance exams and interview for my Master's Degree Program on the 16, and I was scheduled to defend my dissertation on June 20.

On Thursday night, I got acquainted with my two friends, Alex (Timothée) and Juan (Jean), Nico's girlfriend, Valentine, another Valentine. I met again Matthieu, the director assistant, I met Thomas, the props man. Good atmosphere, nice people.

On Friday, I wasn't part of the scenes but I went on the set to see the others act, check in how everything was being done and learn quite a lot of things of how movies work. I also met the other actors - Laurent and Serge, the make-up girl, Mélusine, the continuity girl, Marina... During the weekend, we shot the robbery in an EDF agency. Here are a few disorganized details: I wore my clown mask; had a rifle longer than my leg in my slacks; I screamed and threatened people that weren't even there (that's the magic of the movies - thanks to the editing, you'll believe they were there at the same time!). A very rich and formative experience, despite the fact that it rained the whole weekend.

For the whole week, we would go to bed quite late in the night and wake up in the early morning. I had scenes every single day, indoors and outdoors, wearing the same costume (black slacks, black shoes, white short-sleeved shirt - the trendiest character of the three). We got quite lucky: it rained whenever we shot indoors and it was sunny whenever we shot outside.

A great experience that enabled me to learn lots of interesting things! I don't know whether my acting was good but the director said he was quite satisfied with my performances - I can't wait to see everything on the big screen! It's funny to see how everything is chopped up into small bits: a shot is the smallest unit and if you add them together, you get a sequence and the whole thing makes up the movie. Sometimes, I only had one line that I had to go over and over again, in different ways, to have several possibilities. The car sequence was quite intricate to shoot; the bedroom sequence (sequence shot) was quite tiring (in addition to the heat) but quite funny to do especially when some of the takes will end up in the bloopers; the slow sequence of the arrival at the bank, with the three of us walking and putting our masks on was awful for me, given the fact that I had to limp with the gun in my slacks - the least glamourous will be me, for sure! As for the running-away-with-the-gun sequence, we had to repeat it something like 8 times - and bear in mind that I had to run like a madman, with a limp! We were worn-out in the end!

They already started the editing of the movie that should be screened in Saint-Etienne someday in September, and then be sent to festivals.

To be continued...

I looked up at the blue sky of your eyes,
I grabbed some cotton clouds
And put them under my head;
The sun was setting in my heart.
The warmth of the wind carried the memory of your voice
And the words from your lips,
As sweet as honey,
Lull me to sleep.

Hey you guys,

sorry for not posting on the blog, I'm quite busy with the French film Festival (COL-COA) but you can get some news on the French version of this blog. As I'm bound to go back to France in less than 3 weeks and since I have a few things to do before going back home, it's very unlikely that I will be posting on here, but I promise to update here as soon as I'm back in France.

Do check out the French version.

Take care.

Everything went just fine for my second day at COL-COA - I was ticket-taking most of the evening. I saw Lelouch, Klapisch and the others and I could watch Female Agents (Fr. Les Femmes de l'ombre). A good movie about something I didn't know about World War II. Granted, the whole thing seems slightly glamourous for the period with the bunch of French actresses, but Americans will surely like it, and I recommend it.

Here is the trailer: