The Living Theatre: A Day in the Life of Paris Français German By Jen Wallace and Marc Rickenbach   On May 25, at Le Pavé d’Orsay, a narrow empty space tucked away in Paris’ 7th, we attended the Introductory Cocktail and Press hour celebrating the return of The Living Theatre to Paris after a twenty year absence. The following weekend, in collaboration with the Bilingual Acting Workshop, The Living Theatre would hold a workshop and two perfor...

by Marc Rickenbach   The 64th edition of the Cannes International Film Festival opened with Woody Allen’s new film Midnight in Paris. The American filmmaker, who has been honored by the festival in the past, is famously known to keep his films out of any competition and often does not show up, even if nominated. To some this might appear as a slight against those who wish to celebrate his work, but Allen simply does not feel that films, or any art for that mat...

by Marc Rickenbach In recent months French filmmaker and arts and crafts enthusiast Michel Gondry has been popping his head up all over the place on both sides of the Atlantic. The director, most well known for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Science of Sleep (not to mention numerous music videos, which we’ll get to in a bit), released the big screen version of old time radio and comic book hero The Green Hornet in January. To promote the new film, he guest dir...

by Marc Rickenbach I was thinking recently about where we might see a crossover between music videos and films. There’s the obvious: some form of a narrative, maybe an experimental/auteur edge and some music videos even directly allude to films. But for the most part music videos stand as their own ‘genre’ of cinematic form. Then, not so long ago, a friend of mine sent me a video that could have been pulled directly from the young mind of Wes Craven. Or Satan. It wa...

by Marc Rickenbach El Guincho “Bombay” Sure, I’m a little late in bringing up the new El Guincho video for “Bombay”. Maybe it’s because I didn’t really know what to say about it. Or because I’ve just been too busy watching it on repeat, searching out all the films it made me think of, then watching those. And yes, this song would probably be more appropriate in hot weather. But regardless, here we are in the new year with a brilliant video that retreats back to th...

photo © Roc Herms by Marc Rickenbach Argentinian artist Sebastián Litmanovich is the sort of guy that can’t seem to stay still…creatively speaking. At any given time he is involved in several projects, putting his many talents that span different mediums to good use. While performing or releasing his loveable Spanish-language indie pop, he goes by the name Cineplexx under which he has released no less than three full length albums, countless remix EPs and just as man...

by Marc Rickenbach American mash-up master Girl Talk has been the subject of much controversy due to his copyright-bending art and wild live shows. With a new album out (available as a free download), we take a look at an artist who calls attention to the possibilities of the Internet in enhancing creativity via mash-up style music videos – which are in turn often put together from existing content. If there’s one musician who truly represents the current state of ...

by Marc Rickenbach With well over 100 videos shot and published, La Blogothèque’s Take-Away Shows are hardly a well kept secret anymore. They have become a standard stop for bands and artists of all styles and status that tour through the French capital. Arcade Fire, Animal Collective and Phoenix have all walked the streets of Paris in filmmaker Vincent Moon’s guerilla-style videos. The Take-Away Shows (Les Concerts à emporter) first saw the day of light in April of 2006...

by Marc Rickenbach Baby, Baby, Baby Kill me French duo Make the Girl Dance pretty much make it clear that they deserve the award for best use of a marketing budget. In the age of the flip-cam, iMovie and all the other cheap filmmaking paraphernalia that is too easy to get your hands on and use, music videos continue to cost labels a boat-ton of cash for over-the-top productions that more often than not fail to balance the books. Who knows why, but it’s the ca...

by Marc Rickenbach Continuing our celebration of music videos leading up to ÉCU’s inaugural Best European Music Video 2011 award, we take a look at some of our favorite animated and craft-savvy clips currently out there. The stylized live performance has been the go-to concept since music videos hit the scene some thirty years ago. Many lack a narrative, and if they do they tend to be trite and directly reference lyrics. In most cases we’ve built a sort of immuni...