Hiiiii,

Aahhhh, it's been almost a YEAR that I've written my last journal! Can't believe it!!!
And I still haven't re-subscribed... as we say in French : ça craint !

I've been so busy working these last months that I didn't realize time was passing so fast...
Just to sum up the situation : Until last year I was doing jobs that I didn't like (finance stuff). So I've worked a lot to change and it requires lots of energy and patience. Now I cannot say my situation is fully satisfying but I at last started another job in journalism departement. In fact it's been quite a while I've been writing articles for them, but the difference is that now I'm paid for it (not very much, though). So now I'm still busy but I will find a way to organize my work-time better.
But you know, watching movies and writing articles about them is soooo cool !

I didn't draw very much these last months, at least didn't finish any draw. My last finished one is my portrait of Azumi (Aya Ueto). From that time, I've started a pencil one - had to get back to pencil after a fully digital portrait - but it's not finished. In fact, I don't know how to finish it : there is one character on the left of the paper, and I like it, but there's nothing on the right. Every attempt to make another one has failed. Maybe because it wasn't meant to be a finished drawing : originally, I was just drawing to pass time, without really thinking, on a piece of paper. But then I started to enjoy what I was doing. And now I finished this character, there is a big blank on the right...
I'll try again to make something anyway, and I'll post it. Or I'll post it even before doing this second character, I don't know...

And I have many deviations to comment, too ! I saw that many beautiful ones were waiting. Right now, I have 1990 Deviations, 123 Messages and 35 comments to reply to... Sorry everybody for the delay. I cannot promess I'll comment everything but I'll try to do my best to visit every of my friends' page.

See you,
Elodie

Listening to: "Gafsa" by Natacha Atlas
Reading: "Le Dit de Tianyi" by François Cheng
Watching: Every Tadanobu Asano's movie I can get

Hello everybody!

I just wanted to apologise for the delay on commenting your deviations and replying to messages! I've been very busy these days, writing articles and stuff... So I couldn't come on DA as often as usual.
I wanted all of you to know that I will comment your artworks as soon as possible. I already had a look at the 345 thumbnails (!) waiting to be clicked on and I saw many wonderful pictures!

Have a nice week-end,

Elodie

Reading: "Le Dit de Tianyi" by François Cheng
Watching: My current obsession is Tadanobu Asano

Yeah, I saw Brian!!! Let me tell you about the context though...

I was at the Deauville Asian Film Festival from 03/10 to 03/13 (it started on 03/09) with for our webzine dvdrama. After a few administrative stuff (you know how French is) we had to do, we got the pass to get everywhere as journalists.

It was a very beautiful festival, the movie that were selected were better than last year, and we saw many great movies. I guess my favourite ones were:
- Kim Ki Duk's last movie "3-Iron" (french title is "Locataires" and it will be released in April in France, don't miss it!)
- "Survive Style 5+", a delirious japanese movie starring Tadanobu Asano
- "Electric Shadows", a very moving Chinese movie by a new director named Xiao Jiang. I cried at the end...

Other than that we had the chance to see Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu Hustle". Unfortunately Stephen Chow couldn't come so he left a message for the audience that we could see just before the screening,

As for the jury... hehehe (please, fans of Placebo, keep reading). There were two juries, one for the "official" competition, and one for another competition called "Action Asia". As if action movies were not as valuable, but well, at least we can see several action movies.
AND our dear Mr Molko was part of the jury "Action Asia", giving awards to the action movies. Two movies had an award because apparently they couldn't agree: "Arahan" had the main award, and "Survive Style 5+" had a special award.

Since we were here as journalists, we could interview a few people. Unfortunately Brian didn't wish to make any interview, probably because he mainly came to watch movies. And you know, I won't blame him for that: he was one of the most serious members of the jury, we saw him at many screenings. I was surprised because I had heard that the other years, some jury members were only watching the movies on video at their hotel. At least he and a few others were watching the movies with us, the audience. Every time I saw him in the theater, I think he was sitting next to Alain Berberian.

Caroline and I interviewed a few people. We interviewed Japanese director Takashi Miike (who made "Audition", "Ichi the killer")... I was so impressed to meet this strange guy I thought it wouldn't happen but we were informed we had an appointment just the day before, so I couldn't sleep during the night! But it went very well
We also interviewed Chinese director Fruit Chan, and also Chinese director Xiao Jiang. The interview of Miike is already available on dvdrama, but the other ones will be released very soon.
You can already read Caroline's report on the festival, btw. Of course it is in French...

We were also invited to a party celebrating the opening of a new French dvd collection called "Asian Star". And of course there was all the journalists there but also the jury and movie makers... It was fun! And Mr Molko was there Hehe, i wouldn't have interrupted his conversations to talk to him (i'm too shy, and anyway I didn't know what to say this is not the place where you can say "hey, I'm a big fan!!!"). But I was just next to him for a few minutes (he was conversing with a woman and I was talking to a journalist just next to them) and I can confirm you girls that he is definitely as cute as he is on the pictures Not very tall though, something like 1m65, and very thin too. He looks like a nice guy too, very warm with his friends as far as I could observe (yes I observed, trying not to be noticed while doing it ).

As for the pictures, I took some at the award ceremony on the last day, and we can see him on a few of them. Some of them are already on dvdrama, here is the link to the article:
[link]

For Placebo fans: on page 1, you'll see him with Isabelle Giordano, Alain Berberian and Jean Pierre Lorit (the pic is titled "Le Jury Action Asia"). Then if you go to the other pages, you'll see on page 3 two other pictures with the man

Enjoy!

Elodie

Listening to: "Madan" by Salif Keita
Reading: "Le Dit de Tianyi" by François Cheng
Watching: "Lord of the Rings" Trilogy...

Hi everybody!

My portrait of Brandon Lee is the first deviation that reached 50 favs!!!! When I posted it, I was far from suspecting it would be my most successful deviation!
Thanks so much to all the people who faved it!

Other than that, I have a question to post to French folks here:

Vous avez regardé La Nouvelle Star jeudi dernier?
Un jeune homme a eu le culot et le courage de chanter la chanson du générique de "Saint Seiya" en japonais (dakishimeta.. kokoro no kosumo...), devant un jury ébahi et pété de rire!
Bon évidemment, le jury n'étant pas très ouvert à ce qui se trouve en dehors de l'Europe et des Etats Unis, ils ont pensé qu'il venait de la planète Pluton, ou Mars peut-être... Ils n'ont peut-être pas compris que le mec chantait dans une langue terrienne. N'empêche que ce fameux Jérôme s'est récolté un "Oui", par Marianne James Il avait l'air tout timide, en plus, alors que j'ai appris sur le forum M6 (je suis allée voir les réactions!) qu'on parlait de lui depuis plusieurs semaines sur des forums manga! J'imagine que c'est une sorte de pari.
En tout cas ça nous a fait passer un moment rafraîchissant face à tous les autres qui chantent tous la même chose, qui aiment tous les mêmes choses. Là on a eu un authentique fan de Japanimation en vedette pendant une minute sur M6! ça valait le coup de regarder l'émission rien que pour ça!

Au fait, le Festival du Film Asiatique de Deauville, c'est bientôt! Pour plus de renseignement, voici le lien vers la news DVDRAMA: [link]

A plus,
Elodie

Hi everybody,

For those who can read French, my sister *CarolineL and I had an interview with Jet Li (yeah, that Jet Li!) for the webzine DVDRAMA, and it was published today!

Jet Li was in Paris for the promotion of Danny The Dog, two weeks ago. He attended all the premieres, and accepted to have an interview with us in his suite (wow, this hotel was impressive ). We were the first ones to interview him this day, just before TF1.
It's very interesting as he describes how he worked to prepare his role and tells about his work with the other actors (Morgan Freeman, Bob Hoskins). We also asked him if he wanted to convey messages in his movies. At the end of the interview, he talks about his career in Hollywood and reveals his next plans...

He was very nice and warm during the interview, we couldn't stop him at the end (but the publicist was there to tell us it was over!). Since he knew we had seen the movie, he asked us if we liked it after we finished. It was funny because he looked happy that we liked it, but when I told him his acting was very good in Danny The Dog, he said "thank you" but looked quite embarrassed That guy is afraid of compliments

Here is the link, enjoy!
[link]

- Elodie