If you’ve been following my posts here at the Transparent Language French Blob, then you already know that I like movies and the French comic books called BDs. Later this year, I’m going to get served a double-header when Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets* hits theaters.

The latest movie from the great French film director Luc Besson, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is a sci-fi adventure movie based on a series of BDs featuring Valerian, intrepid agent of the future Space-Time agency, and his companion Laureline. Over the course of 2 dozen albums (not record albums, but issues of the comic), the duo have traveled through space and time ensuring the safety of future Earth. Given the source material, and Mr. Besson’s experience turning out interesting pictures, this latest endeavor is sure to be, if nothing else, a feast for the senses.

If you’d like to check out some of Luc Besson’s earlier work, I highly recommend The Fifth Element – another sci-fi extravaganza that features Bruce Willis and Mr. Besson’s at-the-time wife, the actress, model, and musician Milla Jovovich – and 1998’s Le grand bleu (The big blue) – a beautiful film about the rivalry between the two (real-life) champion plongeurs en apnée (deep sea diving without any equipment), Jacques Mayol and Enzo Maiorca (it also has a beautifully haunting soundtrack by French composer Eric Serra, a frequent collaborator of Mr. Besson).

If you want to see some of Mr. Besson’s truly early work, check out this video for the song Pull marine, written by Serge Gainsbourg et interpretée par Isabel Adjani (interpreted by/sung by Isabel Adjani, the star of La reine Margot).

Divers (Random)

A few weeks ago, I commented on the fact that most songs are really just poems set to music. Here is an example of a song that is literally just that, a poem, set to music, and sung by the great French singer Marc Lavoine. I was planning a whole post on it, until I found someone beat me to it! So I’ll just add here that the poem dates from the early 20th century and was written by Guillaume Apollinaire.

* Fun Fact: 40 years ago, another revolutionary film hit theaters in the US and around the world. In 1978, la Guerre des étoiles (Star Wars) changed our imagination of what movies could be – and launched a global franchise the is still going strong today. While George Lucas himself never mentioned it, there are many who see numerous comparisons between his epic space opera and this popular series of BDs from the early 70’s.