Luca: La Raza’s giant boy puppet
Luca, a giant boy puppet supporting the La Raza soccer team seems likely to have been inspired by the Royal de Luxe ones, don’t you think?
Archive for the tag 'giant boy'
Now a giant boy marionette
Today I came across this photo of a giant boy marionette, taken in Sydney’s CBD in late January. It’s very much like Royal de Luxe’s little giantess (who has been visiting Santiago, Chile, in the company of a rhinoceros) but I doubt he is theirs. Does anyone know the film company, or what production they were working on?
Update: A couple of people have uploaded videos of the puppet. Apparently it is to be in a Korean clothing commercial of some sort:
Marionette
Giant Puppet in Syndey
I assume this was a practice session, since the articulation has a way to go, but it’s interesting to see how tricky it is after the seemingly faultless performances by Royal de Luxe. The hips look a bit too wobbly as if they might need to go back to the drawing board, but the untidy looseness in the legs and arms lend a bit of boyishness at times. I wonder what it is made out of? I’d guess plastic not wood. I was really surprised that Royal de Luxe uses wood.
Royal de Luxe: The elephant and the small giantess
Update: I’ve posted a lot about Royal de Luxe and it’s influence since this post. Click here to go to search links to all those posts.
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I’m blown away by the French street theatre company Royal de Luxe’s amazing street parade, ‘The Visit of the Sultan of India Atop His Time-Travelling Elephant’, which took place in Nantes last week, in honour of the centenary of Jules Verne’s death. A rocket landed just outside the cathedral in place Saint Pierre, and from it a young giantess emerged. Together with the Sultan’s huge 11 metre tall elephant with a house built into its back, she explored the streets of Nantes, taking time to eat an icecream, ride a scooter, take a shower and nap, be lifted up onto the elephant’s trunk, and eventually to return to take off in her rocket again.
I’ve been collecting links! If you are short on time go to the ones with asterisks. I also have an ongoing Royal de Luxe links list at del.icio.us for links as I find them.
2007:
- The Sultan’s Elephant in Santiago, South America, late January, with a rhinoceros.
- The Sultan’s Elephant in Reykjavik, Iceland 10 – 12 May, with the little giantess’s father. Here is a great close up of his face.
- Les Machines de l’île de Nantes
- Some influences of Royal de Luxe, including a giant boy in Korea, dog puppet in Barcelona, giant girl in Chile, stencil art and photographs
2006:
- Le Grand Géant in the water at Pont Du Gard, August (by krisyid) (added 29 Sept 2006)
- The Giraffes in Le Harve, September (by jeffreyhill) (added 29 Sept 2006)
- Machines of Spectacle at Le Grand Repertoire in Paris (by Tekrotzen) (added 29 Sept 2006)
- Le Grand Repertoire photo pool at Flickr (added 29 Sept 2006)
- The producers who brought The Sultan’s Elephant
to London in June this year are bringing out a book of photos,
reminiscences and articles about the event which will be published in
November 2006. (added 29 Sept 2006)
The Sultan’s Elephant in Antwerp (added 8 July 2006)
The Sultan’s Elephant in London (added 21 Apr 2006)
- The Sultan’s Elephant
- Artichoke (company bringing TSE to London)
- BBC coverage, including webcams of various locations (added 2 May 2006)
- BBC photo gallery – you can send in your photos (added 2 May 2006)
- Short interview with promoter Helen Marriage in The Guardian
- About the London promotion
- Flickr group photo pool: The Sultan’s Elephant in London (added 5 May 2006)
- Wonderful video footage of the elephant by Mike
- At Boing Boing
- BBC video: the event begins
- BBC TV news video early on. Poor quality.
- Simon Crubellier’s exellent gallery*
- Sean McManus’s photos
- a gorgeous little movie of edited sequences put to music*
2005:
Nantes official site (in French):
Other photo galleries:
- Ian Flanigan: fabulous photos, video clips and commentary; technical gallery and commentary (very cool)*
- Nantes: actualite,archetecture, photo
- Agora Forum
- Winona
- Guillaume Gautier
- Assblaster: elephant in transit at night
- Christophe Routhieau(added 19 June 2005)
- EpiTaF (added 19 June 2005)
- La Prise.org: part 1 (added 19 June 2005); part 2 – details of the elephant (23 June); part 3 – this has cool video clips! (9 Nov) (thanks darth!)*
- Raphael
- Emmanuel Bourgeau: carving and construction photos take link from ‘la gazette de l’atelier’ page (link updated July 2007)*
At Flickr:
Blog entries:
- dirty beloved: great links about the company; thanks Ajax! I’ve included most but not all of them here
- jzw:1, 2 (include accounts by Ian Flanigan)*
Amiens:
- Eric Pouhier’s photo gallery (including some of the puppeteers/manipulators) added 19 June)
- Renaud’s Gallery (added 23 June 2005) – cool!
- Ch_P at Flickr (added 23 June 2005)
- 2005 Amiens photo gallery
About Royal de Luxe:About Royal de Luxe (French sites):
- VTi: A Short Introduction
- Royal de Luxe – not an official site, but pretty comprehensive – history, links to photos and reviews (thanks for the image above)* (updated link 2 June 2006)
- Royal de Luxe
- French Wikipedia entry
- 1995-2002 – Karen Maldonado
- Interview with Jean-Luc Courcoult, director (in Spanish)
- Interview with Jean-Luc Courcoult, dirctor (pdf in English)
- BBC Royal de Luxe photo gallery, from older productions (added 6 May 2006)
Royal de luxe at Wikipedia (added July 2007)
Machines of Spectacle
- Machines of Spectacle exhibition
‘Hunters of the Giraffes’ photo galleries:
‘The Giant’
- Photo gallery
- The small black giant (single image, added 19 June)
- single image by Jordi Bover
Catamini Attraction
Poster
- Royal de Luxe poster for sale (image on the right)
Tour dates:
2005:
- Nantes (France) – 22, 23, 24, 25 May. Debut.
- Amiens (France) – 16, 17, 18, 19 June
- La Havre – mid July (didn’t happen as far as I know)
- London (UK) – 8, 9, 10, 11 September. (I think this did not happen because of the London bombings)
2006: (only London confirmed as far as I know)
- London (UK) – 5, 6, 7, 8 May. See here for official website coverage.
- Antwerp (Belgium) – 6, 7, 8, 9 July
- Calais (France) – 28, 29, 30 Sept & 1 Oct
- La Havre (France) – 26, 27, 28, 29 Oct
- Paris, Bilbao, Marseilles, Valance possible
