The 120 Days of Sodom, or the School of Libertinage is an unfinished novel by the French writer and nobleman Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade, written in 1785 and published in 1904 after its manuscript was rediscovered. It describes the activities of four wealthy libertine Frenchmen who spend four months seeking the ultimate sexual gratification through orgies, sealing themselves in an inaccessible castle in the heart of the Black Forest with 12 accomplices, 20 designated victims and 10 servants. Four aging prostitutes relate stories of their most memorable clients whose sexual practices involved 600 "passions" including coprophilia, necrophilia, bestiality, incest, rape, and child sexual abuse. The stories inspire the libertines to engage in acts of increasing violence leading to the torture and murder of their victims, most of whom are adolescents and young women.
Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, and poetry, explored such subjects as eroticism, mysticism, surrealism, and transgression. His work would prove influential on subsequent schools of philosophy and social theory, including poststructuralism.
André-Aimé-René Masson was a French artist.
The Prix des Deux Magots is a major French literary prize. It is presented to new works, and is generally awarded to works that are more off-beat and less conventional than those that receive the more mainstream Prix Goncourt.
Joyce Mansour nee Joyce Patricia Adès,, was an Egyptian-French author, notable as a surrealist poet. She became the best known surrealist female poet, author of 16 books of poetry, as well as a number of important prose and theatre pieces.
Marguerite Jeanne "Meg" Japy Steinheil, Baroness Abinger was a French woman known for her many love affairs with important men. She was present at the death of President Félix Faure, who was rumoured to have died after having a seizure while allegedly having sex with her. She was later tried for the murders of her husband and mother, but was acquitted.
René Clément was a French film director and screenwriter. He is known for directing the films The Battle of the Rails (1946), Forbidden Games (1952), Gervaise (1956), Purple Noon (1960), and Is Paris Burning (1966). He received numerous accolades including five prizes at the Cannes Film Festival and the Honorary César in 1984.
Alain Bashung was a French singer, songwriter and actor. Credited with reviving the French chanson in "a time of French musical turmoil", he is often regarded in his home country as the most important French rock musician after Serge Gainsbourg. He rose to prominence in the early 1980s with hit songs such as "Gaby oh Gaby" and "Vertige de l'amour", and later had a string of hit records from the 1990s onward, such as "Osez Joséphine", "Ma petite entreprise" and "La nuit je mens". He has had an influence on many later French artists, and is the most awarded artist in the Victoires de la Musique history with 12 victories obtained throughout his career.
Victoires de la Musique are an annual French award ceremony where the Victoire accolade is delivered by the French Ministry of Culture to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry. The classical and jazz versions are the Victoires de la musique classique and Victoires du Jazz.
Colette Peignot was a French writer and poet. She is most known by the pseudonym Laure, but also wrote under the self-chosen name Claude Araxe, derived from a phase in Virgil's Aeneid.
Henri Texier is a French jazz double bassist.
Louise Weiss was a French author, journalist, feminist and European politician.
Les Bleus : premiers pas dans la police is a French police television series about five rookie police officers learning the ropes. Episodes center on the young protagonists' amusing attempts to solve and prevent crimes with the help of their seasoned superiors. Though their lack of experience creates many humorous situations, the series is primarily an action-adventure police drama. Most of the action takes place at the Commissariat and on the streets of Paris.
Joseph-Marie Lo Duca was an Italian-born journalist, novelist, art critic, and film historian best known as the co-founder in 1951 of the influential French magazine Cahiers du Cinéma with André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, and Léonide Keigel.
Maîtresse Françoise is a publicly known dominatrix in Paris, France. Her autobiography was published in France by publisher Éditions Gallimard.
Dominique Mainard is a French translator of English novels, short story writer and novelist. She was born in Paris, France, in 1967 and grew up in the region of Lyon, and spent five years in the United States. She won the 2009 Prix des Libraires for her novel Pour vous. Mainard spent 2005 - 2006 as a resident of the Randell Cottage Writers' Trust in Wellington, New Zealand. Her book Leur histoire was adapted for the 2005 film Les Mots bleus by director Alain Corneau with actors Sergi López and Sylvie Testud.
Ivan Stanev was an author, theatre and film director, scenographer and new media artist, who has been living in Berlin since 1988, and more recently in Paris.
Bleu pétrole(Petrol blue) is the twelfth studio album by the French rocker Alain Bashung, released in March 2008 on Barclay Records. It was the last studio album released during his lifetime.
Les Mots bleus is a 1974 album by French singer Christophe based on the ballad of the same name. Along with its groundbreaking predecessor album Les Paradis Perdus it revived the career of Christophe in the 1970s which, had taken a downturn following the initial success of "Aline" in 1965. Jean-Michel Jarre wrote the lyrics for the title track, which has been described as "outstanding" by Billboard magazine. It is considered one of the top albums and songs of French pop music. In 2010, the French edition of Rolling Stone magazine put it at number 45 in its list of the best albums of French rock.
La Vie moderne: intégrale 1944-1959 is a 14-CD box set compilation of Léo Ferré studio and live albums recorded for Le Chant du Monde and Odeon Records between 1950 and 1958. The box set brings together for the first time nine historical albums, several 78s and 45s cuts, rarities and unreleased radio archives, with many alternative versions. Lyrics are not included. This is the first box set of a complete collection of works recorded by the artist.
