7/25/2005: Amazing French puppetry celebrating Verne

Thanks to Warch who spots this amazing French street puppetry, celebrating Jules Verne. The images shown here are pretty large but necessary to show the scale and the detail of the thing. It's massive, and it moves around in a natural way via its operators. They also have a massive elephant puppet, see the photo gallery here. Meanwhile the girl walks, rides her scooter, reacts to the crowd:



Warch also found two more amazing galleries before I could even post the images:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/jwz/489202.html

http://www.lean.to/gallery/royaldeluxe

And a full story that explains it in detail:

In 2005, France is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the death of one of its most popular writers: Jules Verne. The many events organised for this national commemoration will principally be held in Nantes, the novelist's birthplace in western France, and in Amiens, his place of residence, in the north.
...
Through his work, science (in the general sense, including the social sciences) became fodder for fiction. From 1862 until his death in 1905, encouraged by his editor Pierre-Jules Hetzel, Jules Verne produced some sixty novels grouped under the broad title Extraordinary Journeys. His genius lies in his ability to draw poetry out of the most austere learning and to create an atmosphere of fantasy based on exact scientific data.

The writer's dreamlike and avant-garde vision will be represented on stage by the street theatre company "Royal de Luxe" during a large town parade and four days of festivities in Nantes, from 19 to 22 May, and in Amiens, from 16 to 19 June.

The programme enticingly announces "The Visit of the Sultan of India Atop His Time-Travelling Elephant". The show will go on tour to Le Havre, in the north of France, in mid-July, then London in September, wrapping up in Bilbao, Antwerp and Calais in 2006. In parallel to this, video director Pierrick Sorin will present a short film on the same theme, inspired by the gigantic, elephant-shaped steam engine imagined by Jules Verne in his novel The Steam House.

Take that, Industrial Light & Magic. :lol:

Amazing. So frickin' cool.

Very good.
Maybe the french have finally found a game they can play.
Win?........we'll see. :headshake

The second link actually has captured video of the girl and an elephant. You have to see the motion on the girl to get the full idea that it is actually a humungo puppet. It's like a giant marionette with a combination of rope pulls and radio controls. It's amazing how many people it takes to work this chick. A cast of thousands.

The girl and the elephant are amazing... I'm not so sure about the cars stitched to the road though. I don't get it.

Those are just French "boots." The people in that picture are cussing and calling the parking cops to get them removed so they can drive home.

I don't quite get it either Jinx. The explaination as to why really wasn't there. There was some explaination as to how it was done. Pretty complex for art. Apparently, "they" actually cored through the pavement and threaded the rope underneath the blacktop. The rope is one piece. There was some mention on the detail in the cars (?) such as papers on the seats inside the cars and other stuff in the gloveboxes (again ?).

mrnoodle wrote:

Those are just French "boots." The people in that picture are cussing and calling the parking cops to get them removed so they can drive home.

..now that's funny as hell. :lol2:

Explanation was that it "came to the Little Giant in a horrible dream....and the dream was realized....." Not much of an explanation, but then again they are French.

Apparently the audience watched the little giant sleep and when she had to, she took a pee. Oui!

warch wrote:

Apparently the audience watched the little giant sleep and when she had to, she took a pee. Oui!

Good. Now make that into a haiku. :)

jinx wrote:

The girl and the elephant are amazing... I'm not so sure about the cars stitched to the road though. I don't get it.

That's the french NEA at work. ;)

What's gonna be nasty is when the puppet breaks free and starts devouring people.

test

I'm lucky to live in Nantes and the Royal de Luxe has offered us another fantastic show.

Several links :

the two giraffes and the giant's son were in Nantes in 2000 :

http://archives.volcreole.com/phpBB21/viewtopic.php?t=2553&view=next
http://membres.lycos.fr/harvey/nantes/royal.html
http://sslopez.free.fr/images/photos_rdl/rdl_01.jpg
http://www.lefourneau.com/journal/2000/girafes_royal/girafes.htm

the two giants in 1998 :

http://photos1.blogger.com/img/143/1501/1024/royal%20de%20luxe%20geant.jpg
http://www.chez.com/cinetoile/Royal/Ballade.htm (clic on "Suite")


the elephant was

- in Nantes in may :

http://www.nantes.fr/ext/royal_de_luxe_2005/
http://www.nantes.fr/detente/culture/art_675.asp
http://www.groupereflect.net/blog/archives/2005/05/la_visite_du_su.html

- in Amiens in June :

http://www.pbase.com/ericdeparis/royal_de_luxe_a_amiens
http://mcandelier.free.fr/elephant/page_01.htm

- LONDON : 8, 9, 10, 11 SEPTEMBER 2005

- ANVERS : JULY 2006
- CALAIS : 28, 29, 30, SEPTEMBER and 1 OCTOBER 2006
- BILBAO, PARIS, LE HAVRE, MARSEILLE, VALENCE EN 2006

Bye

Wow! Thanks bargalunan!

Say, is there anything happening in Nantes in October? I will be in the Loire Valley Oct.11-21 or thereabouts.

With all due respect for their effort, a giraffe with a vehicle the size of a cement truck and an army of redcoats up it's butt just doesn't impress me.
If it were an antique I could buy it, but in this day and age of technology.....I don't know.....I just don't get it. :confused:
Maybe if I saw it in action I could appreciate the the action or nuances....or something.
btw - Welcome to the Cellar bargalunan, thanks for the pictures and links. :)

Trying unsuccessfully to locate info on Royale de Luxe plans to be in London September 8 onwards - do you have any source address for them or the event to find out more. Having happened on the Amiens visit by chance when cycling around the area this June want to catch as much of the London event as possible. Just fear that bombings may have put them off...

Welcome to the cellar cyclefrance. :)
You might try calling Covent Garden Festival of Street Theatre, information at (020) 7836-9136. They might be able to help.

Katkeeper wrote:

Say, is there anything happening in Nantes in October? I will be in the Loire Valley Oct.11-21 or thereabouts.

You'll find info in French at :

http://www.nantes.fr/accueil/index.asp
http://www.loire-atlantique-tourisme.com/FR/pages/themes/theme_6.asp
It's only around Nantes and you'll have to wait. For october it's too early. :smack:

Under, that leads to several links, good luck :
http://www.paysdelaloire.fr/servlet/page?_pageid=4239&_dad=portal30&_schema=PORTAL30&178331_0=&site_folder_item_id=615_178338_178631&178331_0=

Managed to get contact details for the Royale de Luxe company from Nantes Tourist office - in case anyone wants to find out more about future programmes. The office is closed at the moment - re-opens 15 August - otherwise I would have posted more information myself.

Phone number is: 0033 2 40 20 44 85

Email is: [email]royale.de.luxe@wanadoo.fr[/email]

Hope above is of use to others like me who want o know about the London planned visit.

Cyclefrance

Just spoke with Royal de Luxe today and for those interested in their London visit advice is that this has now been postponed until next year - no fixed dates as yet.

My French is not so brilliant and their English was much the same so maybe I could ingratiate myself upon the kindness of Mr Bargalunan (in the interests of 'entente cordiale') to maybe confirm my understanding (telephone 0033 2 40 20 44 85) - Many thanks/merci beaucoup.

I've just seen your message. I will call them.

Cyclefrance wrote:

Just spoke with Royal de Luxe today and for those interested in their London visit advice is that this has now been postponed until next year - no fixed dates as yet.

Your French is brilliant enough. I've called them and they repeated me the same info.

bargalunan wrote:

Your French is brilliant enough. I've called them and they repeated me the same info.

Just saw yr message that you were calling them - thanks for contacting them. No explanation given for the deferral - wondered of it was anything to do with London bombings...?

Quite a few people were asking and have just discovered that the troup 'Royal de Luxe' will be presenting the giant Elephant and Puppet programme 'Visit of the Sultan' in London from 4th to 7th May 2006.

Other dates and venues (all in France):
Anvers - 6-7 July
Calais - 28 Sep-1 Oct
Le Havre - 26-29 Oct

Cyclefrance wrote:

Other dates and venues (all in France):
Anvers - 6-7 July

:headshake Anvers is in Belgium and Belgium is still not a part of France, despite a lot of famous French people are Belgian.

(Thanks for your info Cyclefrance)

Just call them Eurodates. :lol:

bargalunan wrote:

:headshake Anvers is in Belgium and Belgium is still not a part of France, despite a lot of famous French people are Belgian.

(Thanks for your info Cyclefrance)

Damn - you're right, Bargy, old boy (suppose you would be, being Francais and all that!) Anvers is known as Antwerp here - I was thinking it was another place though can't for the life of me think what place that was right now.... :o

Reminds me - ask anyone to name 10 famous Belgians and few get past two - and then even one of them turns out to be a fictional character.

Any takers...?

I can get past 2 because of art history classes ( Jan van Eyck, *cough*van Dyck and Peter Paul Rubens), but no where near 10. The inventor of the saxophone, Something Sax, was flemmish too though, wasn't he? (off to google)

belgians are like the canadians of europe......they don't really count, and no one cares.

Cyclefrance wrote:

Reminds me - ask anyone to name 10 famous Belgians and few get past two - and then even one of them turns out to be a fictional character.

You think about Hercule Poirot (Agatha Christie) ? or perhaps Tintin in comics

Bargalunan wrote:

despite a lot of famous French people are Belgian

It was just a joke :) Famous Belgian are mostly famous for French people :
Best French singers : Jacques Brel and Jean-Philippe Smet, well known as Johnny Halliday, rock singer (David Halliday's father if US people know him)

Merckx Eddy (cyclist), Georges Simenon (writer, "Maigret"), Justine Hennin, Kim Clijsters (Tennis), a lot of famous singers, actors, comics "designers ?" in French language...

I was going to forget "the cherry on the cake" : Jean-Claude Van Damme !!!

jinx wrote:

I can get past 2 because of art history classes ( Jan van Eyck, *cough*van Dyck and Peter Paul Rubens), but no where near 10. The inventor of the saxophone, Something Sax, was flemmish too though, wasn't he? (off to google)

You're right, I thought they were Dutch or German (Adolf Sax) :o
We really need to build Europe !

Famous Belgian people
.

Having that list doesn't really help. I don't think "famous in Belgium" counts.

Wasn't "Belgium" a really horrid curse word in HHTG?

HHTG ??? I don't understand

"Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams.

London programme details covering May 2006 visit available here

bargalunan wrote:

Famous Belgian people
.

The only famous Belgian I know is Django Reinhardt and he doesn't appear on that list.

Belgians are famously ignorant of him.

So is nearly everyone else. I dig his chops, though. Sweet. Shame the recording equipment was primitive. I sometimes weep over the about of music that we've lost because of our inability to capture it.

I know Reinhardt, but I thought he was French. Here's a philosophical and unanswerable question: would he have played as well or had such a distinctive sound if he'd had all his fingers?

I also like Grappelli who played with him a bit. Trivia: Grapelli played on one of the songs on Paul Simon's first solo album.

He was born in Belgium, but he was a Gypsy. He doesn't have a nationality, beyond being a Rom, as I understand it.

News and photos of the London event :

http://www.flickr.com/groups/30876692@N00/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/features/sultans_elephant/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2006/05/04/sultans_elephant_audiovideo.shtml
http://www.nantes.fr/ext/royal_de_luxe_2005/index.asp

The small Giantess and the Elephant of Royal of Luxe continue their voyage in 2006!

After Nantes, Amiens and London, the history of the sultan of the Indies on his "elephant to travel in time" will be told in Antwerten at the beginning of July, Calais at the end of September, Le Havre at the end of October.

You can meet Cyclefrance in :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/england/F2770282?thread=2888967&phrase=London

Bye