A sudden thought floated through my mind a few hours ago ...as they do.
What do all the characters in "Zazie dans le Metro" actually look like?
Clothes ... yes.... Gabriel's tutu, Zazie's bloudjinnzes.
Trouscaillon ,when he's Inspector Bertin Poirèe , wears his police uniform.
(At other times he is Aroun Arachide)
In most novels you generally get some sort of info about the appearance of their characters.
But not very much, I think, in Zazie !
And I really can't think of of any actual hints in the book of what any of them look like.
It's a while since I last read the whole novel, but I recently read the BD of it ..which I wrote about on post 902 and of course shows us what the artists made them look like.... presumably out of their own imaginations.
Here the link to what I wrote about the BD a short while ago....
902-zazie-le-bd.html
Then, of course, there's the film.
And that shows what the screenwriters thinks they look like.
Based on what, I wonder ?
So .... maybe there are some hints in the original novel..... and therefore I'm going to zip through it again and find out. It will be, as always, Terrrrrrific for My French.
But .... no doubt some of my excellent readers might know a bit about it ..... and/or you could read a bit yourself, and then if you DID find something you could let me know, either as a comment, or to my email .... [email protected]
Just to calm you down a bit, here's a spot of music ...
What I've found so far ...
[a] On page 88 I discovered that Charles has a moustache ! ( But not in the BD)
Il se tirait sur la moustache en biglant, morose, de nouveau le Sacré-Cœur.
[b] And on page 161 we discover that Bertin Poirèe's eyes get bloodshot when he's excited/aroused by the charms of Marceline ...
Bertin Poirèe : "Dèvetez-vous ! Eh bien, hurla-t-il brusquement, eh bien, ma toute belle, dèvetez-vous ! Et en vitesse ! A poil ! à poil ! "
Et ses yeux étaient injectés de sang.
[c] Plus .. Gabriel wears lipstick ! At the bottom of p30 we find this ...
Marceline : "Gabriel, Gabriel"
Gabriel : " Quoi ? Qu'est-ce qu'il y a ?"
Marceline: " Tu as oublié ton rouge à lèvres."
[d] He is also a big bloke ... towards the bottom of p98 Zazie tells us ...
Zazie : " Et elle biglait le colosse avec une certain langueur." ( He is in the BD too)
[e] The widow Mouaque is probably not a beauty .... on p113 we find this rather mean description of her demeanor ...
" Le type se retourna pour voir d'une façon un peu plus détaillé l'allure de cette rombière."
[f] And Charles and Zazie ( up the Eiffel Tower) reveal their ages on pages 85-86 .
Zazie: " Vous riez pas souvent, qu'elle lui dit. Quel âge que vous avez ?"
Charles: Quel âge que tu me donnes ?"
Zazie : "Bin, vzêtes pas jeune : trente ans."
Charles: "Et quinze de mieux."
Zazie: " Bin alors vzavez pas l'air trop vieux. Et tonton Gabriel ?"
Charles: " Trente-deux."
Zazie: " Bin, lui, il paraît plus"
~~~~~~~~~~~ More of this later, maybe ~~~~~~~~~~~~
There you are then.
I reckon there's a whole PhD thesis to be written about all that. Many of them.
And, of course, a huge range of French novels need to be scrutinised
in depth to dig up more gripping features such as size of ears, baggy trousers v. drainpipes, nose rings, floppy ears, wonky knees, missing fingers ...... the possibilities are endless. We need to start now !
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