Showing posts with label Dominique Blanc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dominique Blanc. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Cesar winner to perform in Hanoi

French Actress Dominique Blanc, who has won four Cesar awards, will perform the La Douleur play (The War: A Memoir) at the Hanoi Opera House at 8:00 pm February 24.

The drama, directed by Patrice Chereau and Thierry Thieu Niang, won Dominique the best theatrical actress the second time in her artistic career at the Moliere Awards last year after she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 65th Venice Film Festival in 2008.

“The War: A Memoir” is based on the diary Marguerite Duras kept during the war while she was waiting for her husband Robert to return from a concentration camp at Dachau.

She wrote the diary as a testimony of her own suffering during the war, which reflects a punishing absence, despair, the shame of being alive while waiting for a loved one to survive unspeakable horrors.

Dominique Blanc adds a unique resonance to the drama when her performance style is thought to be simple, yet intense.

Born 1956 in Lyon, Dominique Blanc trained at the French Drama School in Cours Florent.

Dominique, who is one of the most critically acclaimed French actresses, has won four César Awards including one for Best actress in 2000 for “Stand-by” and three for Best actress in a supporting role, in 1990 for “Milou en mai”, in 1992 for “Indochine” and in 1998 for “Ceux qui m'aiment prendront le train.”

Marguerite Duras - who was born in 1914 in Gia Dinh, near Sai Gon (now Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam - is the author of many novels, plays, films, essays and short fiction, including her best-selling, apparently autobiographical work L'Amant (The Lover) in 1984, about a fifteen-year-old girl’s relationship with an older Chinese businessman.

The late writer also wrote the script for the film “Hiroshima mon amour” and directed her own films, including “India Song”.

She died of throat cancer in Paris at the age of 81.

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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Cesar award winner to perform in Ha Noi

Simple setting: French actress Dominique Blanc will perform in French in The War: A Memoir (La Douleur) with Vietnamese subtitle on Thursday at Ha Noi Opera House. She has received best actress award for her part in La Douleur during the 24th Molieres theatre award ceremony last year. – Photo courtesy of French Cultural Centre

Simple setting: French actress Dominique Blanc will perform in French in The War: A Memoir (La Douleur) with Vietnamese subtitle on Thursday at Ha Noi Opera House. She has received best actress award for her part in La Douleur during the 24th Molieres theatre award ceremony last year. – Photo courtesy of French Cultural Centre

HA NOI — Actress Dominique Blanc will perform her one-woman theatrical odyssey La Douleur (The War: A Memoir) at the Ha Noi Opera House on Thursday night.

Directed by Patrice Chereau, the drama won Dominique a Moliere prize for best theatrical actress last year.

Born in 1956 in Lyon, Blanc trained at the French Drama School. She is one of France's most critically acclaimed actresses, with four Cesar Awards (the French Oscars) already under her belt.

Blanc met director Patrice Chereau while working on a production of Peer Gynt in 1981, and the pair have worked together on several successful productions since.

In 1989, Blanc won her first Cesar for her supporting role in May Fools. She also received Cesars for her supporting roles in Indochina in 1992 and Those Who Love Me Can Take The Train in 1998, while also winning best actress in 2000 for Stand-by. She also won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress in L'Autre at the 65th Venice Film Festival in 2008.

In The War: A Memoir, based on the diary of writer Marguerite Duras, Blanc adds a unique resonance to Duras's script. Her performance style is simple, yet intense.

Blanc will perform in French for one night only at the Ha Noi Opera House on Thursday at 8pm.

Born in 1914 in Gia Dinh, near Sai Gon, Viet Nam, after her parents responded to a campaign by the French government encouraging people to work in the colony, Marguerite Duras was the author of many novels, plays, films, essays and short fiction, including her best-selling, apparently autobiographical work L'Amant (The Lover) in 1984.

The book won the Goncourt prize in 1984. The story of her adolescence also appears in three other stories: The Sea Wall, Eden Cinema and The North China Lover. A film version of The Lover, produced by Claude Berri, was released to great success in 1992.

During World War II, Duras spent a long time waiting for her husband's return from a concentration camp. She wrote a diary as a testimony of her own suffering.

The War: A Memoir is a diary that reflects a punishing absence, a threatfull waiting, despair, the shame of being alive while waiting for a loved one to survive unspeakable horrors.

Despite her success as a writer, Duras's adult life was also marked by personal challenges, including a recurring struggle with alcoholism. Duras died of throat cancer in Paris, aged 81. — VNS

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