Thursday 5 January 2012

Tintin and I (Tintin et Moi) [2003]


I’ve been an ardent fan of the Tintin comic books since when I was a kid, and consequently chancing upon this documentary was a lucky break for me indeed. In fact, every admirer of the timeless and immensely loved Herge creation would find a potential treasure trove in this informative documentary by Anders Høgsbro Østergaard. Tintin might have been a globe-trotting boy-journalist, but its creator, Belgian writer and artist Georges Remi, aka Herge, was an armchair traveler with a fecund imagination and a brilliant mind. Through Tintin he didn’t just usher in the ligne claire drawing style, but also used vivid imagery and eye for details to make the Tintin books not just fascinating tales but also concise socio-political companion of the last century. This documentary, composed primarily out of candid interview tapes taken over 30 years back, chronicles the creative process behind the legendary comic books, as also the life and times of its reclusive author and how these influenced the evolution of the stories over the years. Thus we do not just get to know of interesting details regarding his political ideologues, his clashes with the Church, his obsession with details, and his personal travails, but also of his enduring friendship with a Chinese guy that is sure to bring a lump to one’s throat. Personally I would have liked the director to also touch upon the controversial initial couple of books too, instead of just focusing on the popular ones.









Director: Anders Høgsbro Østergaard
Genre: Documentary/Biopic
Language: French/English
Country: Denmark

3 comments:

Chris said...

Glad my recommendation worked ( :

I agree, an informative doc, and yes, I too would have liked them to have touched upon all the controversies and albums, but as with every doc, I suppose they had to limit themselves, so it was movie length.

Shubhajit said...

Yes, and thanks a lot once again for the recommendation :) I might not have known it had you not mentioned about it to me.

Yeah, I agree it is neither possible nor feasible to cover everything in a feature length docu. So, despite that omission, I too think the director did a pretty good job.

www.ChiCha.in said...

hii..

Nice Post Great job