#franc chette

[365elephantsoap]

THANKFUL FRIDAY

The other night, I had a dream that made me believe in reincarnation and past lives. It was set in the 1800s, in a small but busy Western town owned by a shrewd businessman/rancher. This shrewd man had a gaggle of sons that he had spread out around town bullying people into order. No one sneezed in this town without the man’s permission. One of the sons, who’s legitimacy was always in question, wasn’t quite as bad his brothers but managed to get himself into a number of scrapes. On time in particular, he found himself being called out to a quick draw. All the people gathered along the street, half hidden by various barrels and carts. I was in that crowd and I looked over to see a boy raise a pistol to shoot the not so legitimate son. He had been hired by the gunslinger who had called for the draw. I jumped from my hiding place and tackled the boy. We wrestled, rolling in the dust, and I was finally able to grab the pistol free just in time to hear a gunshot. The shot had been fired from the son’s pistol, killing the gunslinger. I shoved the boy aside and said “I hope the penny he gave you was worth it.” I started to pull myself up from the ground when the son walked over and helped me up, dusting dirt from my skirt. He placed the palm of his hand on the side of my face and we looked into each others eyes. He asked me if I was alright and I nodded my head.

Then I woke up.

Their story rolled around in my brain for the rest of the day. I decided the son’s name was Chett and there was something between the two of us even though I was not the me I am today. The story I imagined for the two of them/us transcended generations and was filled with love, heartache and disappointment, but also redemption. My story travels from a dusty town in the west to a chateau of a winery in rural France. It is filled with big world/small world connections. It is an epic tale and one that feels very very real, even though I know it is a fiction of my own making. This is not the first time a dream has led to a novel in my head, nor is it the first time a dream has made me think about who I was in the past. Though, I’m not about to go all Shirley MacLaine over here. Except sometimes I really do think Pepaw is inside Josephine somewhere. I am sure these dreams have more to do with tapping into the vivid imagination section of my brain. I love it when they show up in my sleep because that tells me that my vivid imagination is still in there somewhere. It may be buried under a lot of useless crap, but it’s there. I wake up from these reincarnation dreams inspired to do something. To write. To sketch out a scene. To create.

I’ll be honest. Those last three things have been really hard for me to do in the past few months. Work has been so busy. Weekends have been booked up with activities. The Fortune Cookie diary has a fine layer of dust on it. None of this is bad. Well…Thursday was bad. Thursday was a broken microscope and cat puke on my bed bad, but all in all I’m busy doing fun things. It just has left me with little brain space for creativity. So little space, that I thought I was all done. These kinds of dreams tell me that I am far from done. There are stories and pictures locked inside me. Enough to fill pages.

Enough.

[sachaoak-blog]

Festival Ecran Mixte à Lyon - Funeral Parade of Roses

Salut ! Je vous retrouve pour un article sur le festival ayant eu lieu le mois dernier à Lyon et qui a pour objet la culture Queer dans le cinéma.

Au programme de nombreux films mettant en scène des personnages et des problématiques LGBTQI+ ainsi que des thématiques touchant au couple, à sa conception, à la pornographie (je pense particulièrement à la séance Po(rn)chette surprise au Lavoir Public !). Ayant été en plein concours blanc, je n’ai pas pu me rendre à autant de séances que je le voulais mais pour cet article je ferais un petit débrief d’un film en particulier qui m’a plus marqué que les autres ; Funeral Parade of Roses de Toshio Matsumoto !

C’est parti pour une ré-écriture d’Oedipe Roi dans le Tokyo Underground et Queer des années 60 !

Regardez moi ces queens !

Le Réalisateur ; Toshio Matsumoto.

Je dois avouer que je ne connaissais pas du tout ce réalisateur mais il semble qu’il ne soit pas très connu, du moins en France. Ce film de 1969 est son oeuvre la plus connue, mais il réalise en tout 4 longs métrages et quelques courts expérimentaux qui pourraient être pensé comme étant l’équivalent japonais de notre ‘Nouvelle Vague’ française. Il publie plusieurs ouvrages et photographies et fût président de la Japan Society of Image Arts and Sciences, selon sa page wikipédia. J’en conclu donc que c’est quand même pas n’importe qui dans le milieu !

Hello bitch

Résumé

Le film suit le parcours d’Eddie, une jeune travestie (Eddie étant genré au féminin dans le film, je le ferais aussi ici ;3 ) dans le milieu gay du Tokyo des années 60. C’est avant tout une ré-écriture du mythe d’Oedipe-roi ; Lorsqu’elle était jeune, Eddie tue sa mère et son amant. Son père a disparut il y a longtemps. Gonda est le propriétaire du club gay Le Genet et vendeur de drogue, son amante, Leda, est la gestionnaire de son club. Gonda la trompe avec Eddie, qui travaille dans le club également.  Leda tente de récupérer Gonda qui choisit finalement Eddie. Leda se suicide. Après l'enterrement de Leda, Gonda constate qu'il est le père d'Eddie, il se suicide et Eddie se crève les yeux. Oui, c’est pas hyper jojo tout ça.

Eddie est tellement fabuleuse !

D’accord, mais donc, c’est quoi concrètement ce film ?

Vaste question ! Ce film part dans tout les sens, enchaîne les boucles temporelles, déconstruit la chronologie et la narration. C’est avant tout, un film expérimental qui peut partir soudainement dans le WTF ?! Comme c’est le cas, par exemple, lors d’une dispute entre Leda et Eddie qui n’a strictement aucun sens ; case de BD puis parodie de western avant de passer dans le cartoonesque... Ce film explore de multiple champs de possibilités et c’est fabuleux de voir toutes les idées que peut avoir ce réalisateur !

Le personnage d’Eddie est interessant ; à la fois attachante et antipathique au début, nous comprennons de mieux en mieux son personnage au fil des boucles temporelles qui nous montre aussi bien le passé que le futur du personnage.J’ai beaucoup apprécié son coté “I’m the Queen of the Bitches, okay ?!”, elle est fabuleuse.

Plus que la narration et l’histoire en tant que telle, c’est réellement la manière de filmer du réalisateur qui m’a laissé sans voix lorsque le film s’est achevé (il s’achève d’ailleurs sur une GROS TROLL !). J’ai immédiatement été hypnotisée par la beauté du premier plan, qui est une scène de sexe en gros plan sur la peau. En très gros plan sur la peau. On en sent presque le grain, l’odeur, nous sommes réellement immergés dans le film. La beauté de l’écran blanc en plan fixe devant lequel finit par s’allonger un torse tout aussi blanc sur lequel se dépose lentement des lèvres est simplement époustouflante.

Verdict

Si vous en avez l’occasion, voyez ce film, c’est une petite perle détonnante qui ne ressemble à rien, vraiment à rien de ce que j’ai vu jusqu’à présent. Si l’occasion se présente au cinéma foncez ! Sinon, je ne sais pas s’il est disponible en streaming. En tout cas, c’était une très bonne expérience de cinéma que j’ai partagé avec une très bonne amie à moi ; que du bonheur.

(J’ai même acheté un pins trop cool du film !) (I’m so fab now !)

[thunderfcknroad]

Hey I feel like forever ago I found out you were studying theology?? maybe?? If that's true do you have anything to say about the amis and religion? or how they interact with it? In cannon, most of them, and definitely Enjolras ("you have a minute to pray") are religious, but have you ever thought about how that could play in a modern setting? If you're not studying theology Sorry!! I love your mood boards and have a wonderful day/night!!❤

RIGHT. You have waited long enough! (now obviously some of these are more detailed than others. Thats probably bc ive just thought about them more)

Enjolras: Anglican Christian family. Grew up surrounded by heavy Christianity… and not the nice kind. His parents were the ones standing outside abortion clinics and throwing holy water on gays, ya know. Because of this he doesn’t feel religious but his friends are a good reminder for him that it’s not religion that’s bad. It’s the people who abuse it.

Combeferre: Also a Christian family. Ferre and E’s parents met through church (thus how E and Ferre met) but Ferre’s family abandoned the local church when they realised the hate it was preaching. Combeferre still holds onto his faith somewhat but took some extra modules on religion (back when he studied philosophy and not medicine) and is very open to aspects of other religions influencing his life.

Courfeyrac: Grew up in an atheist family. Didn’t really think about religion until he met Ferre and E. Immediately does extensive reading on his friends’ religions so that he can make himself and his flat as accommodating as possible for them.

Grantaire: Grew up in a Roman Catholic Romani family but bc they’re a nerd they read up everything about Romani culture and discovered that the widespread religion is often Islam. After a bunch more reading they found they aligned heavily with that as opposed to their parents’ religion. Although they never fully converted (cynicism may have got in their way at some point), they keep aspects of islam in their life and they always do Ramadan and get all their friends Eid presents.

Joly: Eir grandparents on eir mother’s side are Jewish and, although eir mother didn’t carry it on, Joly is trying to reconnect with it as ey feel a strong pull to it. Eir parents were very supportive and offered to organise a Bah Mitzvah but bc of eir gender stuff ey ultimately declined. Wants to do a pilgrimage to Jerusalem at some point but eir leg is a hinderance at the moment. Boss once offered to piggy back em all the way there but ey declined. Eir religion is something ey need to figure out emselves.

Bossuet: Irish background = extremely Catholic grandparents. Boss didn’t actually meet his grandparents until he was 16 because his parents wanted him to understand how they dealt with catholicism outside of Ireland (Boss’ family are still catholic but…. like cool catholics. nah but theyre really chill about stuff). Has a tricky relationship with religion because of this but ultimately when he most needs it he still prays.

Jehan: Oh Jehan…. So Jehan never really knew their parents long enough to understand if they were religious and to what extent. They were raised by their aunt in the south of France and…. their aunt had a weird mix of Wiccan and Hinduism going on that Jehan absorbed. Jehan is thus extremely polytheistic and has statuettes of different deities all over their flat. 

Bahorel: Bahorel’s family was low key Christian when he grew up in Jamaica but he never really carried it through. When he was doing his family tree he discovered that like… 6 generations back he had Sikh ancestors and he was so surprised and also elated. Did extensive research and now he low key celebrates the Sikh holidays and festivals to honour them. Especially Diwali (which is also a hindu festival so Jehan and Bahorel during Diwali are an amazing team). so many candles.

Feuilly: Very much holds onto his catholic faith as that was what kept him afloat during times when he was on the street and struggling. 

+

Marius: Marius never thought about religions outside christianity before he met les amis. Since then he has been stuck in what seems like a permanent crisis of faith. it’s ongoing.

Cosette: So Zette grew up in a heavily Buddhist household bc JVJ is Buddhist convert (yes catch me in an au where the bishop was actually a buddhist monk. bite me) which she loved bc it reminded her of her mother and her Chinese roots. However, she recently started converting to Judaism. It was just pulling her she can’t fully explain it. JVJ is extremely supportive and learned Hebrew with her.

Eponine: Ep was extremely skeptical of religion bc of her upbringing and her ParentsTM and she was like wow if this is how God is treating me then fuck that lads. But when she started dating Cosette she was hit square in the soul with JVJ’s flavour of Buddhism. She doesn’t really go in for the more religious side but absolutely took in the philosophy. They meditate together sometimes #bonding. She also has a little statuette of the Buddha that she talks to when she’s scared.

Musichetta: Chetts grew up in a heavily Muslim family in Pakistan. When she discovered she might be trans she not only had a crisis of identity and gender but also a huge crisis of faith. She assumed her parents would not be ok with this because of their traditional faith. She took a year out to travel and called them 4 days before coming home to come out. They only answered that they would talk about it when she got home. When she did get home they were waiting for her with brand new traditional clothing that aligned with her true gender and her father had bought her a beautiful headscarf and asked if she wanted to wear the hijab because Allah still loves her. She accepted and cried. They cried. It took her another year to fully reconnect with her faith but she is extremely glad she has found it again.

Oh man this was fun ok!