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Elise Truchan

Concepts of Film and New Media

Professor Dale Hudson

8 April 2022

Le Festin Storyboard Adaptation Critical Reflection

I adapted the song “Le Festin” (lyrics in French and in English below) from the Disney

movie Ratatouille for the Storyboard Adaptation assignment using sixteen shots. This particular

song is very interesting because the context of it is that it is a song in French for an American

movie performed by a French artist but written by an American composer. This song takes many

stereotypes about French people and France and uses them to tell about a feast. For my

storyboard the context in which I adapted the material was to use these stereotypes so that it

resembles a French New Wave film but breaks the story mold by using Alisa Lebow and

Alexandra Juhasz’s concept of Beyond Story while the story has nothing to do with reality or

with the politics of the time so that certain manifesto writers would call it a disgrace.

The French New Wave has a certain set of characteristics that I included in my

storyboard. My main reference in terms of film style was that of the film Breathless and I also

looked at André Bazin’s “On the Politique des Auteurs” reading as a New Wave critic and

theorist. Bazin describes how “the individual transcends society but society is also and above all

within the individual '' (Bazin: page 5) which is how I attempted to portray the characters in “Le

Festin”. Through the French stereotypes of wine, l’amour, and upturned noses I created these

characters as representing these because of the society that they live in but also show how they

are not only the culture of the society. Their lives are individuals within but on the outside they

are the portrayal of what everyone else sees that their culture is. As for the French New Wave
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film characteristics I included a few of them are jump cuts in a continuous scene (scene one:

shots one and two, scene 3: shots one, two, and three), using the natural sounds of the Paris

streets (cars honking and cafe babble), and actors addressing the audience directly to break the

fourth wall (scene one: shot 3 and scene three: shot three panel five). Another element of the

French New Wave film is that the main character is an anti-authoritation protagonist, but to

incorporate the Beyond Story aspect, I mixed this up.

As for the adaptation of the story, I used Lebow and Juhasz’s Beyond Story idea so that

the story is not a typical three act story that follows a protagonist that is part of a caused chain of

events. Their goal was to start a conversation “about alternatives to the traditional three-act,

character-led story” for filmmaking due to the political climate around how films must be

structured to be accepted in today’s film industry. For my adaptation I mostly focused on

changing how the story, or lack of story, is led. There is not a single protagonist that is focused

on or even a single storyline. Everyone in the film has their own situations that have nothing to

do with the situation the audience is watching in the story. Instead of a “who” technically leading

the story, I made it more of a “what” leading the story. I am choosing to leave this film open to

interpretation (I have my own interpretation but the audience has the freedom to define what they

want to) so that it could be the stars or even the wine that is leading the story, or the audience

may even see that a simple chain of fate is leading the story. Since there is no chain of events and

many different characters there is not a three act structure either in the way that there is no

inciting incident or climax or any of the other typical story structures. This also plays into the

French music that is being played for most of the adaptation because music in films usually helps

create the up and down beats for the structure of the film, but since it is constant music there

won’t be any beats to help the audience figure out if there are beats in the film. Although, I want
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to point out that this was not done due to carelessness. There is a very structured way that I

created the adaptation which purposefully leaves it open to debate. Also, since the Beyond Story

concept is relating to the political culture surrounding films, I created my adaptation with

purposefully no political intent which leads into the manifesto section of my reflection.

The manifestos that we have read in class usually call for a political revolution in

filmmaking so that films say something instead of just being about something. More specifically,

the “Manifesto of the Palestinian Cinema Group” talks about how “the Arab cinema has for too

long delighted with subjects having no connection to reality or dealing with it in a superficial

manner” (Palestinian Film Group: page 273). Even though I am not adapting “Le Festin” through

an Arab cinema perspective, I still wanted to point this out so that if the writers of this manifesto

saw my adaptation they would call it a disgrace because it has nothing to do with reality in any

way. Each character has their own personal life where they are their biggest problem and for

some of these characters their problems aren’t representing reality at all. One could say that the

pigeon needing to pay a Euro for his food and wine represents the cost of living rising because of

the politics in the world, or the pigeon is just dealing with the stereotypical upturned noses of the

French people and a Euro under his wing is all he has to please them. Or maybe someone would

interpret it as something completely different. The ending scene with the crying man eating

nothing from a plate that saying “l’espoir” (hope) could say that the man is doing this because

there is no hope left in the world and in reality, or it could just be that the man doesn’t like how

the curly letters are interfering with his attempt to eat the tiny bugs in the air.

To conclude, for my storyboard adaptation of “Le Festin”, I created a French New

Wave-esque film that uses the Beyond Story structure to make manifesto writers disappointed in

my creation that disregards reality and politics.

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Works Cited

Albruna. “Camille (France) - Le Festin Lyrics + English Translation.” Lyrics Translate,

https://lyricstranslate.com/en/Le-Festil-Feast.html.

Bazin, André, “On the politique des auteurs,” Cahiers du cinéma (1957) in The French

New Wave: Critical Landmarks, ed. Peter Graham and Ginette Vincendeau (London: BFI,

2009): 130–148

Camille, vocalist. “Le Festin.” from Ratatouille, by Michael Giacchino, composer, 2007.

Lebow, Alisa and Alexandra Juhasz, “Introduction: Beyond Story,” World Records 5

(2021): 9–13

Palestinian Film Group, “Manifesto of the Palestinian Film Group” (1973) in Film

Manifestos and Global Cinema Cultures: 273–275

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French Lyrics:

Le Festin

Les rêves des amoureux sont comm’(e) le bon vin

Ils donn(ent) de la joie ou bien du chagrin

Affaibli par la faim je suis malheureux

Volant en chemin tout ce que je peux

Car rien n’est gratuit dans la vie

L’espoir est un plat bien trop vite consommé

A sauter les repas je suis habitué

Un voleur solitaire est triste à nourrir

A un jeu si amer je n’peux réussir

Car rien n’est gratuit dans…

La vie… Jamais on ne me dira

Que la course aux étoiles; ça n’est pas pour moi

Laissez moi vous émerveiller et prendre mon en vol

Nous allons en fin nous régaler

La fêt(e) va enfin commencer

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Sortez les bouteilles; finis les ennuis

Je dresse la table, de ma nouvell(e) vie

Je suis heureux à l’idée de ce nouveau destin

Une vie à me cacher et puis libre enfin

Le festin est sur mon chemin

Une vie à me cacher et puis libre enfin

Le festin est sur mon chemin

English Lyrics:

The Feast

The dreams of lovers are like good wine

They bring joy or also sorrow

Weakened by hunger I am unhappy

Flying on the street all that I can

Because nothing is for free in life

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Hope is a plate far too quickly consumed

I am used to skipping the meal

A solitary thief is sad to eat

In a game so bitter I can't succeed

Because nothing is for free in...

Life... Never will they tell me

That the course of the stars: it's not for me

Let me amaze you and and take my flight

We can finally be happy

The celebration will finally begin

Get out the bottles; end the strife

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I lay the table of my new life

I am glad about the idea of this new fate

A life of hiding and then finally free

The feast is on my way

A life of hiding and then finally free

The feast is on my way