FRENCH TOUCH

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These days I'm keeping an eye on what goes on at the Alliance Française in Dublin. Over the last while they have had some interesting events which I have attended and subsequently blogged. When I saw the ad above in the newsletter I was interested. Anything to do with the web or the internet immediately catches my attention. So I put it in my diary and duly turned up last night (30/5/2017).

The reception downstairs, in La Cocotte, was OK. I had intended having my tea there before the event, a ham and cheese baguette. But they had stopped serving food earlier than usual because of the reception and I had to make do with a cup of coffee. Never mind, I scoffed a few morsels of pizza from the finger food at the reception and that kept me going for now.

Then it was upstairs to the newly refurbished library (médiatheque) for the main meal of the evening, so to speak. The still image, above, on the screen didn't really enlighten me about what to expect next.

In any event there was a guy there with a posh camera clicking away, so I'll have an alibi if there's a major bank heist elsewhere during the following hour.

A very obviously French man took the mic, welcomed us all, and said a whole lot of things I didn't understand.

And then the lights dimmed.

First off was a charming little French piece about a guy who got picked up by this woman on a park bench. On one of his later rendevous, instead of the woman it's her husband who turns up.

At this stage we're all expecting a bit of a scrap. But no. The wife has been sparkling since she started bedding the young man and the husband wants to know his secret. Is it oral sex? Is it S&M? What's the trick? Unfortunately the answer is "nothing". No tricks. Just a younger man.

This was a charming little piece, beautifully made. But at the end of the day, all we got were some snippets. It was clearly episodic and short episodes at that. The full story was residing elsewhere, somewhere.

Next was an amusing animated cartoon about a wee creature who was under attack by cartoony monsters, but he kept getting the better of them.

This was followed by some mafia type sequences and an item involving a young man trekking around the countryside accompanied by a young lady who occasionally vaporised and reappeared close by.

I was still wondering exactly what it was I was at, when it came time for the draw.

We had been told to put our business cards in a basket, and if we didn't have cards to write our names on pieces of paper. These all went into a basket for a draw for two free tickets to the Dublin Web Fest in November.

I didn't win and could make a few statistical comments but I'll forbear.

So, now that it's over, what exactly was I at.

Well, there seems to be a new trend developing where people make short episodic videos, designed mainly to be watched over the web on smart phones and I had just seen excerpts from the crème de la crème of such videos.

I would have known what I was letting myself in for if I had followed up the link in the Alliance notice above. You can get a fair view of the matter from the Press Kit on that site.

So next time - #RTFM