Louchébem

Grief can do strange things to a lonely butcher.  A dead lover, a fly and then a flight of fancy all figure large in this marvelous set piece from a group of students from ESMA, Boris Laprade, Fabien Masson, Stephanie Grard and Theo Girettes.

It is yet another example of the wonderful work which comes from the school, world renowned for training in 3D animation and special effects, visual communication design space and photography. I just adore the way this has been executed - almost photo-realistic animation combines in gorgeous black and white, enabling us to take a glimpse in to the soul of a man in an agony of sorrow which, for a moment, is transcended.

If you are finding a little difficulty with the translation of the title of the piece, Louchébem is an argot used by butchers in Paris and Lyon. Words are transformed by moving the first consonant to the end of the word, and the letter l is put at the beginning. In this way, the French for butcher, boucher, is transformed in to louchébem. This way of creating new words is still very much in use in France today (mostly confined to the meat retail business but some of these words do escape in to everyday French too). Oh and the music is from Nabucco by Verdi.