If the name Serge Gainsbourg doesn’t ring a bell, then you might recognise one of his most famous musical achievements via Jane Birkin’s sensual whisperings, ‘Je t’aime, oh oui, je t’aime’. France’s iconic maverick is brought to the silver screen by graphic novel artist Joann Sfar in a style that is in a word sublime. Bringing to life the innermost workings of the visionary Gainsbourg’s mind and madness, Sfar has created a masterpiece.
BY LAURA SHEARER
www.queensfilmtheatre.com
Jean Luc Godard’s ‘Breathless’ was recently re-released and played in the QFT. Having seen both it and Jim McBride’s poorly reviewed 1983 remake recently, I began to wonder which was better. Godard’s original is regularly hailed as the masterpiece of the French New Wave, slick and cool, while full of subtext and vigorously innovative. To many, McBride’s decision to remake ‘Breathless’ was sheer egotism, on a par with Werner Herzog’s well-meaning remake of Nosferatu. You have to admit, it’s a brave thing to remake a highly regarded masterpiece and, like Herzog, McBride pulls it off.
BY MATTHEW MCKERNAN
In a major speech yesterday, Business Secretary Vince Cable has suggested that the current top-up fees system should be replaced with an alternative graduate tax. This graduate tax would see students pay a marginally higher income tax than non-graduates. While details have not yet emerged, student leaders hope that the Cable proposals will mirror those of the NUS ‘Blueprint’. In this document, the NUS outlined a similar idea, where the more a graduate earns, the more they pay back – but even then it is a small percentage at 2.5%.
BY EMMA GALLEN
It’s official, Guns N’ Roses are lined up to play their first ever Belfast gig. Formed in 1985, Guns N’ Roses became one of the defining rock acts of the late 20th Century, selling over 100 million albums worldwide. However, tensions within the band would see the original line-up slowly crumble away, and by 1997 vocalist Axl Rose was the sole remaining original member. Despite this, Guns N’ Roses soldiered on with a new line-up and in 2008 made their comeback with the highly anticipated album Chinese Democracy. Speaking with The Gown, Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal, who joined the band in 2006, talks about Guns N’ Roses coming to Belfast, playing Chinese Democracy material live, how he got started on guitar and more.
BY ANDREW SCOTT
The Manfred Mann song came to mind as I went down past the Lanyon Building one day last week at lunchtime on an errand. The hundreds of graduands, and wives and girlfriends thereof, stalking across the lawns and pavements in their 10 centimetre heels (I’m a bit of SI unit man myself) in their multicoloured best – while the men marched around awkwardly in the suits they hope will impress at those first interviews.
BY THE AULD WAN
Seamus Heaney officially opened the McClay Library on Tuesday 6th July during a black tie ceremony attended by various dignitaries associated with Queen’s University. The new library has been named after late benefactor Sir Allen McClay, and has been described by Lady McClay as an appropriate way to remember Sir Allen. In December 2009, The Gown reported on QUB’s failure to notify Heaney that the library in his name was no longer open.
BY BEN FINCH
On 22nd June, QUB Vice Chancellor Peter Gregson provided a brief summary to Senate on the Russell Group submission to the Browne Review. However, Shane Brogan, Students’ Union President at the time, believes that the summary failed to adequately describe what their proposals would mean for students.
BY KERRI-ANNE CAMPBELL