2006 – Official Year of Armenia in France
Forgot to talk about it before but it's still time to mention that special aspect of France : it will officially begin in September 2006 for ending in july 2007. Last year it was the official year of Brésil, what a succession !
The event is titled “Arménie, mon amie” (Armenia, my friend)
http://www.ec-lapierre-evry.ac-versailles.fr/IMG/pdf/armenie.pdf
http://www.armeniainfo.am/news/view.php?news_id=250
So it’ll begin this autumn, but that perspective has already inspired the lightening of much various events related to Armenia and its culture.
Concretely it’s an accentuated collaboration between the 2 republics - Armenia and France; it will involve their public or private cultural big institutions (museums, theatres, concert hall…), for organising demonstrations (cultural ones most of the time : shows, expositions, conferences) in order to promote a better mutual knowledge of the two countries.
For example, a taxi driver of Erevan informed me last week (when I was there), that a hundred of Armenian french-speaking children coming from of all parts of Armenia, Karabagh included, would go in France for nearly a month in September. The 13 years old boy of the taxi had been chosen and the proud father was wondering whether the children would be placed in French or Armenian-french families… still don’t know the answer sorry ! Many things organised, so I can’t be exhaustive but I can mention a great exposition of The Louvres museum on the subject of “Armenia : Rocks, Letters and Crosses”, or another exposition of Madenataran’s collection to be done here (I just still don’t know where). Many other initiatives are also encouraged by this Year of Armenia so that local authorities could more get associated to the actions of hay associations, of course it’ll have its impact in all cities where Armenians live in mass.
For those who are in Armenia in September, I didn’t get more concrete info, but theorically a concert of Charles Aznavour is to take place in Erevan, Republic hrabarag, the 21th of September 2006, so stay aware !
Apart from that, this week the movie of the French film-maker Robert Guédigian was launched on screens “le voyage en Arménie” (the journey in Armenia) http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm=108910.html .
Robert Guédiguian is very well known here, and much appreciated, he has done some very touching movies in and about the town of Marseille where he comes from. I haven’t seen all his works, but most of the time, I liked his movies full of kind or more hard (realism) human touch.
His films are not particularly linked to Armenians : the last one he did, of 2005, was about the last months of Mitterand, the previous President of France who died few months after the election of the actual President Chirac (film’s title is “le promeneur du champ de mars” aysinkn the walker of the champ de mars, it’s a big parc in Paris).
But, as you can imagine, an Armenian character would often be around, and more often if his story takes place in Marseille, his beloved city of the south.
So this last movie of him (the journey in Armenia) is the first entirely about Armenians. Beyond the subject and the fact that I very much like some great actors (Simon Abkarian, Jean-Pierre Daroussin), it is highly attractive for me as I’ve just ended my first trip in Armenia last sunday… (snif!) The coming back in France was rather sad, so I’d probably go to see the movie very very soon… (in fact this evening ! hehe) and log more about it next time :o)
See you !
The event is titled “Arménie, mon amie” (Armenia, my friend)
http://www.ec-lapierre-evry.ac-versailles.fr/IMG/pdf/armenie.pdf
http://www.armeniainfo.am/news/view.php?news_id=250
So it’ll begin this autumn, but that perspective has already inspired the lightening of much various events related to Armenia and its culture.
Concretely it’s an accentuated collaboration between the 2 republics - Armenia and France; it will involve their public or private cultural big institutions (museums, theatres, concert hall…), for organising demonstrations (cultural ones most of the time : shows, expositions, conferences) in order to promote a better mutual knowledge of the two countries.
For example, a taxi driver of Erevan informed me last week (when I was there), that a hundred of Armenian french-speaking children coming from of all parts of Armenia, Karabagh included, would go in France for nearly a month in September. The 13 years old boy of the taxi had been chosen and the proud father was wondering whether the children would be placed in French or Armenian-french families… still don’t know the answer sorry ! Many things organised, so I can’t be exhaustive but I can mention a great exposition of The Louvres museum on the subject of “Armenia : Rocks, Letters and Crosses”, or another exposition of Madenataran’s collection to be done here (I just still don’t know where). Many other initiatives are also encouraged by this Year of Armenia so that local authorities could more get associated to the actions of hay associations, of course it’ll have its impact in all cities where Armenians live in mass.
For those who are in Armenia in September, I didn’t get more concrete info, but theorically a concert of Charles Aznavour is to take place in Erevan, Republic hrabarag, the 21th of September 2006, so stay aware !
Apart from that, this week the movie of the French film-maker Robert Guédigian was launched on screens “le voyage en Arménie” (the journey in Armenia) http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm=108910.html .
Robert Guédiguian is very well known here, and much appreciated, he has done some very touching movies in and about the town of Marseille where he comes from. I haven’t seen all his works, but most of the time, I liked his movies full of kind or more hard (realism) human touch.
His films are not particularly linked to Armenians : the last one he did, of 2005, was about the last months of Mitterand, the previous President of France who died few months after the election of the actual President Chirac (film’s title is “le promeneur du champ de mars” aysinkn the walker of the champ de mars, it’s a big parc in Paris).
But, as you can imagine, an Armenian character would often be around, and more often if his story takes place in Marseille, his beloved city of the south.
So this last movie of him (the journey in Armenia) is the first entirely about Armenians. Beyond the subject and the fact that I very much like some great actors (Simon Abkarian, Jean-Pierre Daroussin), it is highly attractive for me as I’ve just ended my first trip in Armenia last sunday… (snif!) The coming back in France was rather sad, so I’d probably go to see the movie very very soon… (in fact this evening ! hehe) and log more about it next time :o)
See you !
posted by Jilda at 4:59 PM
2 Comments:
Thanks for all the info. But, I doubt Charles Aznavour will be in Armenia at that time. He is giving his US farewell tour at that time.
Guediguian always uses the same actors, especially his wife Ariane Ascaride, who recently played an Armenian character in a French film.
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