The Blue Notebook

Le cahier bleu #1

by André Juillard

English (translation)Original French

Genres: Comics, Bande Dessinée, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction

62 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

see http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%...

Reviews

[Warwick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Paris's airy chequerboard of immeubles haussmanniens – balconies, dormer windows, interior courtyards and a distinct aversion to curtains – offers a Hitchcockian wonderland of innumerable stolen glimpses into other people's lives, whether you want them or not. In fact sometimes the glimpses are not so much stolen as gift-wrapped and thrust upon you. From our little apartment under a mansard roof in the 6e, we would watch the comings and goings of the couple two floors down and on the other side of the courtyard from us, who liked to throw things at each other and eventually, like the conclusion to a silent and long-running soap opera, appeared to break up and go their separate ways. We picked this up despite moving our dining table so we couldn't see out of the window any more. And the memoirist and journalist John Baxter writes that when he first moved to the city, he found to his alarm that the family opposite him – mother, father, teenage daughter and young son – would all sit and eat breakfast together stark naked six feet from the window, before ironing their respective outfits for the day. Carefully, one hopes.

To that extent, Le Cahier bleu, a pretty but insubstantial bande-dessinée prizewinner, has a very Parisian set-up. Louise, coming out of the shower with a towel on her head, finds that the metro opposite her apartment has momentarily broken down (again, fairly true to life here), giving a carriage full of commuters a brief, inadvertent flash of herself dans, as the French say, le plus simple appareil.



What happens next however seem to push the bounds of credibility, even for Europeans. A man rings her doorbell fifteen minutes later to say that he just saw her naked through the window while he was on the train, and would she by any chance like to go on a date sometime? Instead of the classic ‘Dude what the fuck, I'm calling the police’, she executes a little moue, muses ‘I really must put some curtains up’, and ends up agreeing to dinner. This was probably supposed to be playful, but for me the tone came out all wrong, and it only got worse later as the ensuing story of obsession and missed opportunities seemed to get couched in a generalised, diffuse leeriness – Louise is ogled at by every man she comes in contact with, not least the one drawing her. Perhaps we are meant to feel uncomfortable and the whole thing is some comment on privacy invasion, but I thought it was too intrusive for the story it was trying to tell.



Unreconstructed male gaze aside, the artwork is everything you'd expect from Juillard, who now seems like a grand old man of French comic books, and whose clean, bright style, though not as technically brilliant as some of his compeers, has always exemplified something that I love about the tradition. I have liked him a lot more on other projects than I did on this, and despite the atmospheric views of Paris, I can't for the life of me understand how this nothingy story won Best Album at Angoulême the year it came out.

I think I bought it during a French exchange trip – little guessing that I'd one day be back to live in exactly one of the apartments I was reading about here, though in my case hopefully with less scrutiny from stranded commuters. Not especially recommended, but not an author to be altogether dismissed either.

[Orbi Alter · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,5
Interesantno slozen scenarij, ali sam ostala totalno ravnodusna na crtez. Sve u svemu, nis koristi :)

[Komuniststar · Rating 3 out of 5]

dva zapravo nepovezana romana spojena su u ovom izdanju u jednu cjelinu ca mi je na kraju smanjilo doživljaj priče jer su dovoljno slične da bi na prvu tvorile cjelinu. Zato sam veći dio drugog romana pokuša uhvatit poveznice s prvim, odnosno nisam prvog završio ko cjelinu nego sam očekiva nekakvo dodatno razrješenje u nastavku.

[Dario Malic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ovo Fibrino izdanje sastoji se od dva stripa: Plave bilježnice i nešto kasnijeg, i samo tangencijalno vezanog, Nakon kiše. Iako prvi slovi kao puno bolji, meni su bili podjednaki. Spomenuti stripovi su slične strukture, u pitanju su svojevrsni ljubavni trokuti (u drugom bi se moglo pričati i o nekakvom mnogokutu) koji se razotkrivaju kroz zapetljane priče s više-manje sretnim krajevima. Obje priče počinju dobro, intrigantno i pomalo misteriozno, no kako odmiču sve više padaju. Nakon kiše se u drugoj polovici toliko (bespotrebno) zapliće da nam preostaje jedino pitati se "Čemu?", ali ni Plava bilježnica ne briljira. Juillard je odabrao sve do kraja pokazati i objasniti te time u potpunosti eliminirao onu početnu, obećavajuću misteriju (za razliku od Prada u meni puno boljem Potezu kredom). Srećom tu je njegov crtež koji me, iako mi na prvu nije odgovarao, postepeno osvojio (ne toliko zbog crtačke vještine koliko zbog specifičnog kadriranja i slaganja tabli) i to do te mjere da ću se vjerojatno vraćati ovom izdanju da bih ga proučavao.

[Zeina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pourquoi la réalité nous apparaît-elle double quelquefois ? Peut-être que les villes sont trop densément peuplées ? Peut-être que l’être humain est trop jaloux ? Les probabilités sont telles... En tous cas, il n’y a plus de coïncidences à ce niveau là... les choses sont plus que ce qu’elles semblent être! Les affaires de la jeune québécoise Louise vont vite se compliquer.
Il faut noter aussi qu’André Juillard est à la fois scénariste et dessinateur ici... et ce double rôle donné d’excellents résultats

[Carlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mi primer "bande dessinée", aunque en español. El tratamiento visual es muy diferente a lo que esperaba y realmente es muy diferente a lo que estaba acostumbrado y a lo que esperaba, con cortes de cuadros que funcionan como prosodia visual y composiciones que nos dejan ver como se relacionan el personaje y el lugar.

Por cliché que parezca uno de lector no puede evitar enamorarse un poco de Louise y pensar que es un personaje más profundo de lo que vemos.

Si todo el género es así, creo que realmente disfrutaré mucho adentrandome en él.

PS

¿Seré yo o Víctor Sánchez se parece mucho a Vincent Cassel?

[Marjolein · Rating 2 out of 5]

---ENGLISH REVIEW BELOW---

Snel gelezen, en interessanter dan ik had verwacht. Soms was het wat verwarrend met de tijdlijn, maar alles bij elkaar was het interessant, met een intrigerend einde.

---ENGLISH REVIEW---

Fast read, and more interesting than I had expected. Sometimes it was a bit all over the place in terms of timeline, but all in all, it was interesting, with an intriguing conclusion.

[Gonzalo Oyanedel · Rating 4 out of 5]

La primera incursión de Juillard como autor completo explora el amor en sus matices y desengaños, jugando con giros y saltos temporales en el triángulo de Louise, Armand y Victor. Remarcar la belleza plástica de su trabajo es, a esta altura, redundante, pero merece destacarse el uso de los silencios y el excelente ritmo de una historieta muy bien lograda.

[StrictlySequential · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story is well conceived and delivered. The interest of the characters is paramount while romance and intrigue blend perfectly with mystery and revelation. Plus, the ending is priceless!

The art is entrancing. His mastery of people is studly but how he draws women should be studied by the world.

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okayish early European attempt at writing a comic that's more like what nowadays is called a graphic novel, I guess. The story isn't entirely convincing and the characters don't really come alive, and the melodrama at the end is just weird. But it was a nice try.

[Mauricio Díaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gran guión.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

C'est très bien dessiné et ca se lit bien. Voila

[Arsnoctis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Letto nell'edizione italiana di Acme comics.

[ISSEL · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5

[Stefan Van steenberge · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5

[Gözde Gün · Rating 5 out of 5]

Très facile à lire, les suites sont logiques malgré les happenings. Avec des personnages très attachants, il y a de la cohérence entre ce qu’ils sont/font et ce qu’ils leur arrivent.

[Mathieu Dionne · Rating 3 out of 5]

La protagoniste est Québécoise! Beaux dessins de Paris. Chassé-croisé amoureux avec des relents de polar.

[Hélène Espérou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superbes dessins d’héroïnes ( surtout) très attachantes par leur façon d’être, d’agir. Atmosphère nostalgique de Paris et intrigue bien tenue malgré qq ellipses..

[petit · Rating 2 out of 5]

(2,5)

[Camille Chopart · Rating 3 out of 5]

J'ai beaucoup aimé les illustrations mais l'histoire est un peu creepy, ça reste un stalker et un autre homme qui toque à la porte d'une femme parce qu'il l'a vue nue par la fenêtre...

[Julls · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[D.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know next to nothing about André Juillard; perhaps I've seen him in anthologies from the mid-90s, but I only own this book and After the Rain. All of which is surprising, because both are remarkable, beautiful and poignant works. The Blue Notebook, however, holds a special place in my heart, dealing as it does with obsessive infatuation, instant attraction and how such things can (and can't) turn out.
I wish I could read French, but this English translation perfectly captures conversational language and the delicate interplay that can exist between two people mentally testing the waters at the start of a relationship. I can only hope the original French is responsible for this.
Juillard's artwork is sublime. Though just left of reality, his exact linework manages to create an utterly believable reality of its own; his people are far from cartoony or caricaturish, but still not quite real, while his backgrounds remind me of nothing so much as Hergé's work in Tintin with its perfect draughtsmanship and attention to detail.
While I hesitate to give this book 5 Goodreads stars (simply because I can't honestly say I find it 'amazing'), I love it very much.

[Mikael Kuoppala · Rating 3 out of 5]

Andre Juillard has created a nuanced if somewhat aimless story about a woman lost between romanric fantasies, erotic desires and constraining female roles. The narrative moves forward fluently and succeeds on the aesthetic level, but doesn't really reach any truly original or thought-provoking levels.

[Nikola Š · Rating 2 out of 5]

Počne kao otrcani ljubić (ah, ona je tako savršena, gola šeta pokraj prozora i svi se zaljubljuju u nju), ali nastavi se relativno zanimljivo. Drugi dio stripa (tj. drugi strip) zato počne zanimljivo, a završi kao grozno konfuzan krimić. Niđe veze.

[K Kriesel · Rating 2 out of 5]

smooth artwork, bumpy plot and dialogue. It's a soap opera.