This is the last blog I write for my English class this school year. I may continue to write as this is a good way to work on my writing skill.

The first year at Sciences Po is going toward its end. We only have two weeks left, one for the workshop and the other for the exams. After that, all of us will leave Le Havre and return home. My plane ticket is for June 29^th.

After one year working here, I realised that studying at Sciences Po in fact was not as hard as I had imagined. When I first came here, everything was new. I had to adapt to the new situation and to learn how to do every single thing in foreign languages. That was hard in the beginning but this was also the only way that could help me to improve my French and English. After two semesters, I am now very happy that I can speak more fluently both languages. That is not to say that I am satisfied with my level but I am really glad.

About the English class, I do not really know what to say about it. I always love learning foreign languages and English is a language I really like. I have no problem with the fact that we have 6 hours a week just for English. But, the problem is that I do not really see my improvement with this class. I know that I can speak English more fluently now, but this is due to all the things I have to deal with in other classes. It is normal that after having 2 semester learning History and Economics in English I have improved a lot. I had to listen to the lectures in class, to take notes, to read books and documents, to writes essays and to make presentations. All those exercises were very useful for my English. But, honestly speaking, what I did in the English class was not that helpful. The teacher has made her best to help us, and I really appreciate that, I am truly grateful. I could correct some of my English faults, but this was not enough for me to improve my English. I once suggest that we could do like in the French class I had when I was young: working harder with texts and analyses. That was how I learned French in middle high and high school. But people in my class did not like this idea. 

In fact, when I think about it again, I realise that maybe it is not the problem of the English class itself. The fact that we use English everyday and everywhere erases the differences between the English class and other class. If we had the same class in a normal French school or a Vietnamese school, I would have seen the effect of it more clearly.

There might be another reason. The level of this class is not high enough. I had no challenge and did not have to make real effort. The only effort I had was to wake up too soon in the morning. But, maybe, just like I’ve said, it is because all my effort was poured to other classes that I could not see any effort I’ve actually made for this class. This class in fact has helped me a lot, but maybe I was too busy or too blind to see.

This is what I think about the English class this year. Like you can see, there is no clear comment. In fact I am not sure either about what I feel. There are many reasons and many elements that influence my opinion. I do not know what to suggest, for I hate learning vocabularies. I do not think that dealing only with vocabulary could help us to improve in other classes. We could not follow the lessons because we were lack of knowledge and information. Reading more about those topics could help at the same time to fill up the gaps and to learn more about the subjects.

I am writing the blog and listening to music. It’s been long time since I last listened that carefully to Celtic music. The song that is playing is “Exile” by Enya. I first heard that song 3 years ago and immediately associated it with Harry Potter. The song is really sad, slow and sad. The deep and pure voice of the singer makes the song resounding and soft like winter wind. I am trying to feel again what this song has brought to me back then but the feelings have gone. The only thing that is still here is a trembling sadness that could make me cry. But I know that this song truly was my source of inspiration.

I love Celtic music and everything related to the Celtic culture. The books I bought from Amazon and that I will read this summer are all about Irish folk-lore and Celtic legends. I cannot find those books in Vietnam. I was considered weird by my friends in Vietnam and now by my classmates in France. People keep asking me why a girl who comes from the far East could be interested in something like Celtic culture. The fact that I love Goth Metal and graveyards have surprised many people, but if they knew that I also loved Pre-Raphaelite paintings and medieval ruins, they would be even more astonished. 

I think there may be a link between all these things. Middle Ages and religions’ secrets, ruins and old documents, Celtic culture and music, medieval tales and Irish legends, dark music and graveyards … all of them bring me the same feeling and have the same appeal. I began with nu-metal before trying gothic and symphonic metal; I began with Renaissance before learning about Middle Ages; I began with Harry Potter before knowing about Irish tales; I liked Italian sculptures before falling in love with ruins and old statues in graveyards. That is why I do not know either what brought me here.

The second time I went to France, I was searching for something I did not understand. I always felt that I needed to find something but could not say what it was. I went to the Louvre Museum and Versailles’s garden and took many pictures of the statues there, but still could not feel satisfied. I saw the Roman ruins in Lyon and also learn about the Gaulois civilisation and legacies but still could not feel overwhelmed. I returned home happy but still could not understand what I needed.

And then, this was Père-Lachaise that gave me the answer. The moment I stepped in the graveyard was miracle. I understood immediately that was my world. I did not follow the guide and discovered the cemetery alone. I did not care about the people who lied below the gravestones. My love was for the ruins and statues, old, dirty and scary statues.

I spent many years to define my own love, but one of my friends here could use just one word to designate my liking: black.  This person is Melanie, she is in the English class too. After having listened to my story and music, she just said: “I know how to describe it for you. It is BLACK”. I felt very happy and grateful at that moment. Not only because I could use one word to define my passion but because there is someone who could understand it for me. That is something even more magical.

I can’t believe that I have just finished another TVB series, a-60-epidode one entitled “The Drive of Life”. This series was a cooperative production between TVB and the Chinese channel CCTV to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the return of Hong Kong back to China, from 1997 to 2007. The story is about three brothers who dreamed of producing Chinese cars for Chinese people. Two of them had left Beijing and had gone to Hong Kong, the other one stayed. And the whole series is about how this business family managed to build their firm and became the most important car manufactory of China.

The story began in 1995 and finished in 2007, during this period every member of this big family had lived through many difficulties. They had known bankruptcy and debts but still wanted to pursuit their goal. However, even though the story is about business and career accomplishment, the message conveyed is about love between members in a family. Whatever the situation could be, the most important thing for a person is his relatives.

There are many lines and messages in this series that please me.

When the father had to close the firm because of a financial mistake of his son, the young man went to the other company that had put them in this situation and beat the boss. His father found him and said that one could fail in business and that was normal but could not fail in being a man; that even though they had been cheated by the chief of the other company, they were the first to be blamed for this mistake; that taking responsibility did not only mean to talk to people in the firm but also to have the courage to really recognise there own fault and to change.  

Another time, one character in the series said that he did not like producing cars, he only liked to make money, that car was the passion of his father only. His friend then asked him why he could still continue to work with enthusiasm like that. He answered: “I don’t know either. But I think, may be, when you participate in something with all your heart and really try hard for that, one day you will suddenly realise its meaning.” I completely agree with him. Sometimes in life we have to do things we don’t really like but if we could forget about this feeling and try hard like other people in this job, one day we would understand its meaning, even though it could not become our own passion.

At another moment in the series, a girl told her friend that being rejected in love was of course very sad, but this was like illness, you neither could avoid nor force it to disappear, and that the only thing you could do was to learn how to let it go, one day this illness would naturally leave you.

There are many other things that I like in this series, but I cannot list all of them here. I cannot remember everything at once and do not have enough time to retell the story either. I just want to say that I am very satisfied by this series.

It’s been long time since I last checked Linkin Park’s news. Last week, I randomly went to the site lptimes.com and found out that LP had released two news video clips. Immediately, I went to youtube and tried the new song “We made it” that LP did with the rapper Busta Rhymes.

This song was truly amazing. They mixed hip hop sequences sung by Mike and Busta Rhymes with rock chorus sung by Chester.

I suddenly felt very good because LP had returned to their old style. Not only the mixture of hip hop and rock characterised LP’s particularity but the beautiful intro played by Mike differed LP from all other bands. That reminded me of the period of “Hybrid Theory” and “Meteora”,, when each song was signed with a remarkably wonderful intro, which made LP an outstanding rock band. 

The third LP album released last year, entitled “Minutes to Midnight” was not really satisfying for me. I found that LP had lost their strength in this album, the key song “What I’ve done” was not as good and impressive as “In the end” and “Somewhere I belong” in the past. I even thought that the demo version “Minutes to midnight XXL” of this album better then the official one. I was quite disappointed after spending 4 years waiting and hoping. I had expected that the new album would be better than or at least as good as the previous two. But no, the thirst album was too normal for me. They played more rock and less hip hop but also were lack of personal touches and colours.

But now, “We made it” is for me a sign of their return to their own style. This song is not among “Minutes to Midnight” tracks, but still, this is for me a real LP song. The music and the rhyme catch and, the piano solo in the intro as so emotional and the voices of the singers are truly amazing. Mike is in fact one of the most talented rappers and musicians in the world. He lives a simple life style; he just wants to compose, to rap and to play music. He does not care much about how to be a star. And everything Mike touches turns into gold! About Chester, I have to say that he was my passion, my love. His voice is a miracle, and that is not only because he has great technique but also due to the emotion he puts in every song. Singing or screaming, Chester always touches the hearts of the public. He can sing with a very soft voice and then switches to a very hard and aggressive one, without any difficulty and hesitation. Listen to the first two albums and watch all the live performances of Linkin Park in the past and you will see. The only problem for me is that I find his voice weakened with time. Chester’s voice is not as pure and powerful as it was before. He lost the strength and the transparency of his voice after more than 9 years singing hard rock. I feel now very sad and also worried for him. Not only because his special voice had made LP songs singular but this also was one of the most beautiful thing I could find in the nowadays’ music world. But now, I am afraid that he would lose this miracle one day.

This new song is interesting and enjoyable, but still, I am confused because this song shows that Chester seems to not be able to sing hard rock like he did before.

There is at least one thing that remains unchanged: his smile, the smile that shines my days. 

 

I love films, I love cinema and everything related to it. When I watch films and TV series, there is one thing I notice about artists : there are many very talented artists who can never be famous.

I’ll use the Hong Kong TV industry as example. If you are someone who watches TVB series for many years, you will notice that there are many artists you see everywhere. You see them in almost every series of TVB. They have played plenty different roles for years. People recognise them, remember them, but don’t know their names. They are never mentioned in movie awards, in interviews nor in magazines. But they are also vitally important for the series. Without them, there would not be any drama produced. Besides, they are all very talented, many of them are people of unique talent, who can play any role, any type of character. But the question is that why they never and never become first actors and actresses, never become stars, never become admired and famous like others.

For example, in TVB, there are too many artists who have been working for TVB for years but never can they become stars. At the same time, TVB always discovers new artists and brings them to the spotlight. Raymond Lam is very clear example. His is very young, and played for the first time in TVB’s 2001 series “A Step into the Past”. At that time, he was just a young actor, who acted for a secondary role beside famous stars like Louis Koo and Jessica Hsuan. But after that, he was appreciated and TVB wanted to make him a star. After 7 years, now, Raymond Lam is an international star in Asian. Compared to other actors in TVB, he does not have many experiences in acting. The only thing he may have is that he is much more handsome than others. In fact, in the past, Raymond was not as handsome as now. I don’t understand why being famous can make you look more beautiful, but the theory seems to work well for Raymond Lam. Anyways, he became famous after just one film, when others have worked for years without any success.

There is another way to explain. I think that fate and opportunity is the main element in this story. Raymond came to TVB when it needed a new face to replace Louis Koo who wanted to end his contract. Raymond happened to be an ideal resort as he looked a bit like Louis Koo. This was a big challenge for Raymond that time. He had to work hard to gain more experiences and to prove that he was not only someone in the shade of Louis Koo and was not in his shoes. After many years, I have to admit that he now enjoys great success. He looks less and less like Louis Koo and the way he acts is also very different. He becomes now a real great and charming actor.

However, this can’t explain why other actors can’t do the same. There are other actors in TVB who are waiting for an opportunity too, but the chance never smiles to them. Is it true that it’s luck that makes great stars and not talent? Yes, I think so. You can have a chance to become a star and then work well to be really worth the name. But if you don’t have any opportunity, even though you have talent, you can never step out of the shade. It’s sad, isn’t it?

The blog today will talk about the new TVB’s series I’ve watched these days, a TV drama entitled “The Master of Tai Chi”.

Before starting the brief presentation, I think it is necessary to mention TVB. TVB is a Hong Kong TV channel that produces TV series and broadcast many different TV programs. TVB’s series are my favourites; its productions are always better than other channels and are always interesting. With time, the quality of TV series that TVB produces is unceasingly improving when other firms are worsened. TVB always have new ideas and always brings new stories. The actors and actresses working in TVB are also the best in Asia, in my opinion. Many of the biggest stars of Hong Kong have worked for TVB before moving to the big screen. Not only that the artists are great, but the TVB crew is also the best in TV industry. They are talented producers who always know how to cast the best artists, amazing screenwriters who always give us very well elaborated scenarios, wonderful directors who make interesting series. I always love TVB’s series, even though their productions have lost the market share lately, due to the rise of Korean dramas and new style TV series. To be honest, I hate those Korean and Taiwanese series; they are all boring and cheesy, childish and kitsch. Their artists are always very young and can’t act, they are beautiful in the way I hate and can’t do anything but play kitsch characters in boring love stories. The stories in those series are also very ridiculous, the characters don’t do anything but get involved in complicated love triangles. I don’t understand how people can love this kind of series. The problem is that teenagers these days like those series, and prefer them to normal Hong Kong’s productions. Honestly, I find this new tendency very stupid.

Ok, it does not really matter, I always love TVB series. And the newest series I’ve just finished was “The Master of Tai Chi”. This is a 25 episodes series. You might say that 25 episodes are too much, that this series is too long, but in fact, 25 is already a number of a short drama. Tai Chi is a school of Chinese martial art that focuses on the lightness and the slowness of movement. Instead of using force and speed like other school, Tai Chi uses the soft movement and the slow technique to defend and then attack. In Asia, when you talk about kung fu, it does not only mean the art of fighting but also the way of training and searching for one’s mind. For Tai Chi, because the art of Tai Chi is being light but strong, slow but subtle, a man who uses Tai Chi must understand the philosophy behind it and must also understand about life the same way. The story in the series is about an orphan who lived with his master and learned the art of Tai Chi. His parents were killed when he was child and he wanted to revenge. His master wants him to understand how to forgive and how to live an peaceful life through Tai Chi. In fact, one can’t really become a real Tai Chi user if he does not know how to purify his mind and heart. The whole series is about how the hero transform from a normal man full of hate to a real Tai Chi master who can follow the life flow.

I wanted to find some documents for my expose about Indochina today. I will have to present this to my class with Vi in two weeks but I have not found anything really useful for my presentation. In fact, I have learned about this period of history long time ago, in high school, in both history and literature class. We worked a lot on this part of history.

 

Frankly speaking, even though we lived in miserable conditions and under a strictly oppressive regime ruled by the French colonisers, this part of Vietnam history is very fascinating. Not only the architecture and the city flourished during that period of early twentieth century, but also many talented writers appeared in the literature scene. They were all scholars influenced mostly by the French literature and philosophies. If you read the Vietnamese literary creations of that period of 1930-1945, you will realise that the style that time varied from romantic to realist novel, the genre varied from long story to journalistic report. They wrote stories about the lives of the peasants, how they felt, how they lived, how they suffered, fought and endured. They wrote stories about the urban life, how people there followed the occidental life style, how they got lost in the changing society, how they forgot their own belonging. They wrote stories about how the country changed, how even the forests, the rivers, the sky trembled with the humans’ suffering. Those books marked the golden age of the history of Vietnamese literature, even though this period only lasted for 15 years. They can make you cry, laugh, feel angry, touched, depressed and hurt.

But, unfortunately, most of them are not translated. Even if I really want to present those beautiful literary achievements to my foreign friends, I cannot make them read Vietnamese. In fact, there are some books translated, but they are not my favourites. Besides, one reason for which many books cannot be translated is that in some cases, the translation will damage the subtle nuance of literary language. Among the books I’ve read, there were some that contained many figures of speech, many uses of vocabularies and images that only Vietnamese people could understand and that could also be felt directly in Vietnamese.

I’ve wanted to learn Japanese for long time. To understand that, we have to go back in time, go back to the day when I started to read manga again. I began to read manga at the age of 7 but abandoned when I was 14. And then, when I was in the first year at my university in Vietnam, I suddenly wanted to read manga. Until now I don’t understand what made me interested in the manga universe again. Anyways, it does not really matter.

But, this time, I don’t read manga the way I did before. I think a lot while reading and select the series more strictly. And the most different detail is that I don’t like mangas for girls anymore but find myself truly attracted by mangas for boys, which contains quite a lot of violent scenes and bloody battles. But just like I said earlier, I select the mangas I read and once the story is interesting and the message conveyed is profound enough, I do not care if there are much violence or not. And curiously enough, most of the mangas for boys have more subtle plots than most of the mangas for girls.

Moreover, this time, I pay much more attention in the cultural aspects of the mangas than before, the Japanese language included. That can explain why I always feel very excited when I am in the Japanese class.

First of all, the fact that you can read another system of characters is really satisfying. From now on, I can understand all the hiragana and can read all the Japanese texts written in hiragana. What I saw as “weird codes” before become clear and understandable now. Secondly, learning new vocabularies and grammar is also exciting, which is very weird because normally I hate learning things like this. In the case of Japanese, learning new things means that I can understand more and can explain myself better in the language I’m curious about. Thirdly, learning Japanese makes me feel even happier watching the anime. Before, I loved hearing the voices of the characters in the anime and love the way they spoke. And now, sometimes I can recognise the words, the sentences and can understand some words they say. And reversely, when I am in class, I feel excited each time the teacher says a word that I’ve heard in the anime. The link between what passionate you and what you learn is really a great motivation for your studies.

In fact, the same thing happened between me and English, when my biggest love for cinema made me understand English more easier. The day when I started to love Harry Potter and Daniel Radcliffe was also the day when every English word I heard and pronounced began to make me happy. At that time, all the things related to English means “Dan” and “Harry” for me. I loved English because I loved Dan. People could say that this is just a crazy passion and that I was such an irrational girl. But I know that whatever people may say, the true passion is the only thing that can help you to study more efficiently, no matter what this passion is.

Have I ever told you before that I am a big fan of painting? I love art, I love drawing, I love painting and I love learning about art history. I spent many years learning about the history of the impressionism and the art of using colours. The books I’ve read influenced me a lot, and helped me to understand the world of colours.

In fact, for the impressionist painters, the way you paint your pictures reflects your eyes. You don’t have to follow any rule, just paint what you see and want to see and feel. You don’t have to pay any attention to what people may think about your pictures, just paint for yourself. The world people see and the world you see don’t necessary have to be the same. The impression the painting gives is the most important thing, not the beauty of the picture itself. Camille Pissaro once said: “The shadow of this tree is green for you? Then paint it in green. Is it blue for you? Juts paint it in blue.” They did not want to impose any human code and rule on the way they perceive life and the changes of nature. An absolute freedom of impression is one of the key particularities of the impressionism.

And thus, reading about their story, I started learning about the life of the colours too. How to use colours in a picture is not only a question of art learning but also a way to understand why and how colours can speak for the pictures. Sometimes the colours’ expressions are even more glaring and impressive than shapes and figures.  Understanding how to use them will also give us the capacity to read the paintings of others.

Let us take an example. A red sun that is rising in an opaque blue sky can reflect the slight warmth of the first sun light in a dark icy cold morning far better than any word. The sun attracts all the attention but the cold air still can dominate the picture. That is also what we really feel every morning. The sun is there giving light but still too weak to chase away the freezing ambiance of the end of the night. This is what the painting of Claude Monet “Impression, solei levant” gave to the public at the independent exhibition of 1873. The too simple composition and the restricted colour pallet of the picture shocked the public and received the name “impressionist” from a journalist in a negative and ironic article. But, this word “impressionism” then became the name of the school, if there was any, qualifying the painting of France in the end of the nineteenth century.

Yesterday was the first time I attended the Love Letter class. In fact, this class is one of the three electives we have this semester. The two other ones are about Political Philosophy and Diaspora. At first, I decided to go to the Political Philosophy group, but honestly, after two tries, I gave up and changed to the Love Letter group. And after the first lecture yesterday, I am very glad being in this group because of the passion the professor conveyed to us.

Yesterday, we were working on a small text extracted from a book, written by a French writer in the late 1970s. I do not really remember what the text was about, but I can say that I am passionate. At least, I can feel really happy doing something other than the whole politics and societies matter we are dealing with everyday. I love History and Japanese, but the passion and the emotions are things we can only find in the Love Letter class.

To be frank, normally, I do not like talking about love in a too explicit way. All the things that could seem romantic are not my style. But, in the other hand, I love literature and love letting myself overwhelmed by emotions. I love crying when watching films and reading books. And about love, loving someone is surely the most beautiful and enjoyable thing in the world. This is an experience one has to live through at least once in the life time. Even the sufferance in love, when you love someone without being loved back by this person, could be very beautiful. And in the Love Letter group, by reading and analysing texts, we can see how people have written about their love. We may disagree with these authors but this does not really matter as love is something you can not define and there is no common way to be in love. This class could be even better if each student of the class were all in love with someone. It could be great but also very embarrassing.  

   I have to say that this weekend was really really cool ! I could see my dad, visited the Ducal Castle with him and saw how was the city of Caen.

   Ok, let's begin with the Hotel first. Ha ha, I don't know if this is by chance or what, but I happened to stay at the Hotel where my mom had stayed during her last visit in Caen. My dad tried many hotels before choosing this one, just to find a best for me. "The best" here means that he wanted to find a safe, clean, "sympa", near the down town and not too expensive. This hotel was really cool, small but cute and clean, very calm and safe. The best thing was that this hotel was just about 5 minutes from the Ducal Castle and only about 10 minutes by tramway from my dad's university.

  I did not have enough time to go visit all the churches and abbey in Caen. To bad that the weather was suck, it was rainy all day long and very cold. The fact is that France has been facing a very annoying weather these days. There are hailstones and snow somewhere in France and it's very very cold. Even if I had time to go to the abbeys, I would not have enough courage to walk in such a heavy rain and a freezing wind just to have some medieval atmosphere in spite of my passion for the Middle Ages.

  The only thing that I had time to really visit was the Ducal Castle, the fortress built by Guillaume le Conquérant in 1060. This castle has gone through many restorations and fortifications from the 11th century until now. Some great part have been destroyed after the French Revolution in 1789 (those “stupid” republicans decided to erase all the marks that reminded the ancient regime) and shared the same fate as many other monuments of Caen, the castle was ruined buy the WWII. But fortunately enough, the walls, the ramparts, the donjons, some main gates and towers still survive. 

   I had a pretty wonderful moment there, passing under the gates, walking round the towers, running by the bridges and imagining all the medieval battles I had seen in the films, in spite of the annoying rain. The gates, the towers and the keeps reminded me of the Helm's Deep battle scenes in The Two Towers and the war of Jerusalem in Kingdom of Heaven. If you are someone who also loves those kinds of ambiance, you will understand how fascinating it felt like. When the wind blew through your hair and froze your ears, you would understand how were the emotions of a medieval soldier standing there alone, day by day and watching the unreachable horizon.

     When I run up the stoned stair case to go to one of the keeps, I recalled a scene in The Two Towers, where the elves’ leader was killed by an Uruk Hai’s narrow. He fell in Aragorn’s arms and died.

    Each stone there has witnessed a part of humanity's history and stands still while human society has changed. The Ducal Castle is certainly neither a particularly beautiful fortress nor a well known fortification of Medieval France, and of course this castle can not be compared either to the castles and fortresses of England, but at least it was nice and I could realise one of my dreams, which was to go, to see with my own eyes, to touch with my own hands a medieval castle.

    I dedicate this entry to Thao Ma, who will certainly like to wander in a medieval site and let the ambiance overwhelm her. Hope that one day we can promenade together. I thought of you so much when I passed this gate. I knew that you would be very excited going there and touching the stones with your own hands.  

Talking about the Lord of the Ring, the fans can spend hours and hours discussing about their favourite characters and sequences. Besides the handsome elfish prince Legolas, the charming King-fighter Aragorn and the wise wizard Gandalf, the character of Gollum must be one of the most mentioned.

Gollum is actually the most impressive and psychologically complicated character in the story even though he is not totally human. In the films, Gollum is a digital designed creature that was a cheerful Hobbits corrupted by the Ring and that follows Frodo and Sam to the Mount of Mordor.

I want to talk about Gollum today because I watched the documentations covering the process of making the character Gollum three days ago and I found it truly fascinating. This film-making process reflect not only the talent of the Lord of the Rings’s crew but also all the passion they all have toward the imagined world created by Tolkien.

As Gollum does not have a human appearance, bringing him to the screen demanded a huge research and effort of the crew. They first had to find a design for Gollum and this task has taken several months without any truly convincing result. Only until the director Peter Jackson cast Andy Serkis for the voice of Gollum that the design department decided to design Gollum’s face following Andy Serkis’s facial features.

Watching Gollum on screen, the public could not have any idea about how this character was made and would be very surprised of they learned that Andy Serkis was actually playing Gollum on the filming location of the LOTR, alongside with all the other artists. In fact, each scene had to be filmed twice, with and without Serkis, and of course all in front of a blue background. For the takes without Serkis, Gollum would be then added directly to the scenes and this was done in a so sophisticated way that nobody could realise any distant between the real actors and the digital one. But, for most of the time, the acting performances of the actors were the best in the takes with Serkis, as the true physical contact and the emotional communication helped the actors to portrait their roles way better. For this reason, a replacement of the digital images of Gollum to the place of Serkis was sometimes necessary.

Furthermore, Serkis did not only there to help the other actors to act but he actually had to play Gollum. Not only that the poor Hobbits could not seize the heart of the public without the unique “stony” and traumatising voice, but Gollum could not come to life without the act of Andy Serkis. All the actions of the actors in the takes were captured and transferred to the computers to be after the movements of the digital Gollum. The movement references given by Serkis were in fact essential for Gollum to look real and natural on screen.

After Serkis, we can not neglect the huge contributions of the design teams of the LOTR. They spent months and months to draw, to sculpt the model, to paint the skin, to create images on computers … and to add Gollum to the film. This process did not only require artistic works but also knowledge and understanding of the character of Gollum described by Tolkien. The crew had to discuss together to find out what could be the facial expressions of Gollum, what could be his movements, his habits, and his way of talking … as each person had his own image of Gollum in his mind.

Now that we already have Gollum on screen, the most successful and sophisticated digital character of the century, we can only enjoy the “final product” but totally ignore how were all the efforts the LOTR’s cast and crew put in the films. We can only say that “wow, this character is perfect” but can’t imagine how he was made. What I’ve just said is not to blame the public but to explain to which extend I admire the process of finding and bringing to life the character of Gollum

(To be continued …)

The Lord of The Rings (LOTR), the movie trilogy based on the books written by J.R.R.Tolkien, has been, since 2000, one of the most successful cinema franchises. Breaking many times the box office records, receiving 8 Oscars on 11 nominations for the third part of the trilogy The Return of the King, making New Zealand one of first destinations for tourists during the summer of 2004, The Lord of the Rings has been truly a phenomenon in the cinema industry.

Just like the trilogy Matrix, the LOTR’s three episodes were also made at once and were released one by one each year from 2000 to 2003. I ignore what was exactly the beginning of the filming process, but when Peter Jackson was chosen to be the director he had to start by the script, which means the very beginning of the whole project. The screenwriter of the trilogy was an English lady of extreme talent in literature and of outstanding understanding for Tolkien. As Peter Jackson is from New Zealand, he decided that the film’s location would be in his home land. To participate in such a huge project was a surprising and incredibly significant opportunity for the WETA workshop, a design workshop in New Zealand, to move to a higher level in the cinema industry. Besides, in order to bringing the literal and fantasy world of Tolkien to the big screen, Peter Jackson needed talented conceptual designers. The two designers invited to the crew were Alan Lee and John Howe, who had been illustrating the LOTR books for years. As many fans could notice next, the music composer of the LOTR was also an artist of unique talent Howard Shore.

All the necessary elements gathered, what they still had to find and could not do anything without was naturally the cast. There is not need for us to list here all the names in the cast and only need to remember that they were both very famous like Christopher Lee and Ian Mckellen, and very young actors like Elijha Wood, Sean Austin... The rest of the cast were talented and well known artists among whom we can mention Hugo Weaving, Liz Taylor, Cate Blanchett… But personally, the most important thing for me is that the director and the casting team could find the actors who fit the characters the most. Orlando Bloom is now one of the “most wanted” men for the fans but back then he was just only a student who had not sit in his final exams yet. Viggo Mortensen became one the most admired and recognised figures after the films but at that time, he was not largely well known. By searching for talents to portrait the characters, the LOTR helped some young and still unknown artist to be noticed by the public and added many new faces to the cinema industry.

This post is not my first post on LJ, but it's the first time I've properly posted something on my page. It seems strange ^^ ! But, because I don't have much time to look after my LJ. I always passing by others's pages and talk.
But, today, I reaslize that sometimes I have things to explain, and feelings to share. So, I will try to be more .. ^^ earnest in posting on LJ.
Hope that I will make more friends here and recieve comments from you.

A little thing to say, I can speak English, but not as good as French. So, if by chance, you want to use French talking to me, I will really happy.
^^

H