08/04/2022
By binternet
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The new critical edition of "Mein Kampf" is already a bestseller<

Welcome to the Box Office, the weekly meeting of the show Soft Power. Every week, we peel the trends of the culture and the biggest successes of the moment. In partnership with the GfK research institute for books and video games and CBO Box Office for cinema.

It's a best-seller that we could have done without: Historicizing evil: a critical edition of Mein Kampf (Fayard editions) finds itself in 7th place among the best sellers in France, with more than 3,000 copies sold all the same (according to the press). The object, which we had in our hands, is strange: very large and bulky, with an all-white cover: the volume is 864 pages and weighs its weight. It costs 98 euros, a price that had been thought to be dissuasive.

Hitler's text is caught in a vice in a very dense critical apparatus, 2,800 notes in total, which deconstruct his racist and criminal sentences. Until now, the translators tried to make sense of this pamphlet, to restore it in good French, to correct the silly syntaxes and the logical mistakes. There he was rendered in all his stupidity and madness. For example, Hitler seemed to write by concatenation, modeled on the nursery rhyme Three Little Cats Cats Straw Hat Cats; in short, by verbal delirium, by chains of ideas without reason. In Philosophie Magazine, we even learn from the translator Olivier Mannoni that Hitler's rhetoric resembles a conspiratorial speech: 20 facts are thrown out in a row, without links between them, unverifiable, which creates an effect of astonishment.

But while Historicizing Evil: A Critical Edition of Mein Kampf may be hemmed in with historians' notes, commentaries, and warnings, the damage is done. Sylvain Fort in l'Express writes: “I think something is wrong. We obscurely see a flaw: it is that we do not fight evil with proofs and demonstrations. The book has, like it or not, the evil aura of the filthy beast. It may be a little hard to admit, but the lesson of this book is that you don't historicize evil. This is the error, the fault perhaps, of the CEO of Fayard, Sophie de Closets, who succeeded in making Mein Kampf (whatever the precautions taken) a bestseller in France in 2021.

"Raoult, a French madness" enters the best sales

In 13th place in sales, a book co-signed by Marie-France Etchegoin and the journalist from Le Monde Ariane Chemin. Raoult, a French madness. It was time for someone to seriously tackle the Raoult mystery, a man who is both too talkative and little known, on whom it is imperative to show balance. On the one hand, his long and brilliant career as a researcher makes it difficult to automatically prosecute him for charlatanism or druidism. On the other hand, his thoughtless sallies, his sweeping declarations and his passion for polemics make it impossible to see him for what he dreams of being: the eccentric and virtuous sage in the City, the figure of the Medical Socrates who puts doctors and the institution face to face with their contradictions. While the French media had remained paralyzed in their treatment of Professor Raoult, either too gullible or too critical, the New York Times had made a high-flying portrait in May 2020. Ariane Chemin had also shared it at the time on social networks. May 2020 was right after Trump declared chloroquine a miracle cure. May 2020 is over a year ago, an eternity. This is the time it took for French journalism to rise to the occasion; so thank you to Ariane Chemin and Marie-France Etchegoin for this salutary assessment. The good sheets are available here.

The top 10 Essays-Documents in France this week, established by GfK.

La nouvelle édition critique de

In literature, big success for the French translation of volume II of 365 days, the novel by the Polish writer Blanka Lipinska, in 3rd place of the best sellers. 365 days is an erotic saga, a Polish-style 50 Shades of Gray, which had met with worldwide success with the adaptation of volume 1 by Netflix in June 2020. Since then, Blanka Lipinska has enjoyed her new international notoriety. Strange destiny for this former make-up artist, “make-up artist” say some media, cosmetologist even says Wikipedia (cosmetology being, we just discovered, the science of cosmetics).

The top 10 literature in France this week, established by GfK.

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Elden Ring, future worldwide success

In video games, there are reports of a future bestseller not yet released, Elden Ring, but the first excerpts of which have just been shared. Announced in 2019 by Japanese Hidetaka Miyazaki, living legend of game design and father of the Dark Souls saga, the screenplay is co-written by George RR Martin, the author of Game of Thrones. And the gameplay excerpts broadcast already announce a high-flying artistic direction. On the networks, gamers from all countries are panicking. Elden Ring will be released on January 21, 2022.

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"Adieu les idiots" and "Men" at the cinema box office

In cinemas this week, Adieu les cons directed by Albert Dupontel is still and always first in the box office. Among the new arrivals in the top 10, there is Des Hommes, in 8th place. Men, adapted from a novel by Laurent Mauvignier by Lucas Belvaux, was the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival 2020. It is a film about the torments of former French soldiers who returned from Algeria, Gérard Depardieu and Jean-Pierre Darroussin. 60 years after the war, the film shows them haunted by memories, cruel flashbacks, remorse, in short, by a whole memory which, despite the passage of time, does not pass.

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Lupine is back

I'm going to tell you about my nights, about sleep: I lacked some on Friday evening when around midnight I started watching the first episode of the second part of the Lupine series on Netflix, a French series by Gaumont: well, I couldn't stop myself. 5 episodes in a row in binge-watching. And it was worth the insomnia because of Paris and especially Omar Sy. Paris, who is the real hero of this Netflix series: Paris filmed magnificently, and as we have never seen it, thanks to the Covid (paradoxically) because an entirely deserted city is beautiful at night. The final scene at the Théâtre du Chatelet is gargantuan. And then Omar Sy. With Jean Dujardin, Dany Boon or Matthieu Kassovitz, is one of the best French actors, perhaps even the best. And what elegance! What sense of the game, tongue-in-cheek, pride without prejudice. The first part was a worldwide hit on the Netflix planet, more than 76 million households have seen Lupine around the world – that's the French soft power, Gaumont version which produces the series. From Brazil to Asia, Lupine seduced the crowds; it is the third most-watched series on Netflix in the United States. We will see the figures for this second part but we can already speak, like the poet, of this "hellish probity of the masses". Mainstream success therefore, before a third part finally announced and which we are already waiting for.

The Return of Coldplay

Music to end with this futuristic Coldplay video released this weekend for their title "Higher Power", which announces a new album. The clip is produced by Dave Meyers with special effects from start-up Mathematic and somewhat messy choreography from dance company Ambiguous Dance Company. A “VFX” clip, as we say in geek jargon, for “visual effects”.

Visual effects again with the very timely launch (the Financial Times tells us this Sunday) of a fashion line by Guy Berryman, the young bassist of ColdPlay. During confinement, the musician became a fashion designer. The name of his brand: Applied Art Forms. What is interesting here are these music stars who launch themselves into fashion and improvise stylists. Beyoncé specializes in sportswear, Kanye West and his wife Kim Kardashian in Nike then Adidas shoes, without forgetting Pharell Williams, Britney Spears or Justin Timberlake. Often, these stars team up with a big brand: Rihanna with LVMH for her Fenty collection or Kanye West (precisely) with Louis Vuitton. On the whole, the stars choose "sportswear" and "streetwear", that is to say urban luxury ("urban luxury" say the influencers). Why this phenomenon? Well precisely because pop or rap artists are great influencers for young people. Sometimes their brands are just "branding" - just promo with a big check in the bag - but sometimes it's high fashion work. And precisely, Cold Play bassist Guy Berryman seems passionate about his work: "I'm a total nerd", he says in the Financial Times, "my fashion brand is not a vanity project ["a vanity project"]".

In this category, however, the greatest success came not from music but from sports. He is a tennis player who wins the gold medal of fashion marketing: his name Stan Smith. We forgot the professional tennis player (now 74 years old) but no one forgot his shoes. Admittedly, he only lent his name, and never tanned the leather, but nearly 100 million people wear his shoes on their feet. They are Adidas, with small holes for breathing, white shoes with a green Achilles heel reinforcement. Since 1964, success has been there. Look down the street, there's a one in ten chance you'll see a Nike Air Max or an Adidas Stan Smith.

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