Results 1 to 5 of 5

Thread: La Bolduc

  1. #1
    Registered User Ranald's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2017
    Location
    Ottawa, Canada
    Posts
    1,733

    Default La Bolduc

    Madame Mary (Travers) Bolduc (1894-1941), known as "La Bolduc", was a very popular folk musician and recording artist in Quebec. As well as playing fiddle and harmonica, she composed songs in the traditional idiom. I just watched La Bolduc, a dramatic movie about her, released this year (2018), in French with English subtitles. It's very good, and should be of interest to devotees of Irish-Canadian and French-Canadian music. In fact, I'd say it's the best movie about an Irish/French-Canadian fiddler, harmonica player, and folksinger released this year. (By the way, Irish-Canadian and French-Canadian people are highly intermarried, as is their music.) Apologies for the images of actors playing instruments -- well, the star gets does away with pretending to play harmonica.
    I notice that there's also a different feature-length movie about Mme. Bolduc on YouTube.

    trailer:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpqi_4S6ouM



    Women's suffrage comes up in the movie. To put this is perspective, Canadian women gained the vote in federal elections in 1919, and in provincial elections in all provinces except Quebec, from 1916 to 1922. Quebec was the last province in which women had the right to vote, in 1940, due in large part to the influence of the Roman Catholic church.
    Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
    "I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
    Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.

  2. The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to Ranald For This Useful Post:


  3. #2
    Orrig Onion HonketyHank's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Location
    Beaverton, OR, USA
    Posts
    1,778
    Blog Entries
    1

    Default Re: La Bolduc

    The French I learned in my school days was of the Parisian variety and my school days were 60 years ago. But I still want to see the full movie. Happily for folks like me, it has English subtitles. Heck, I might even catch a few words from the dialog without the subtitles. Unhappily for me, I suspect that it won't get wide distribution down here in the States. I hope I'm wrong on that.
    New to mando? Click this link -->Newbies to join us at the Newbies Social Group.

    Just send an email to rob.meldrum@gmail.com with "mandolin setup" in the subject line and he will email you a copy of his ebook for free (free to all mandolincafe members).

    My website and blog: honketyhank.com

  4. The following members say thank you to HonketyHank for this post:

    Ranald 

  5. #3
    Registered User Ranald's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2017
    Location
    Ottawa, Canada
    Posts
    1,733

    Default Re: La Bolduc

    Quote Originally Posted by HonketyHank View Post
    The French I learned in my school days was of the Parisian variety and my school days were 60 years ago. But I still want to see the full movie. Happily for folks like me, it has English subtitles. Heck, I might even catch a few words from the dialog without the subtitles. Unhappily for me, I suspect that it won't get wide distribution down here in the States. I hope I'm wrong on that.
    Unfortunately, Hank, my experience in Canada was similar. I was taught French in the Parisian dialect in Windsor, Ontario. Windsor is the oldest continuous French-Canadian settlement west of Quebec, but heaven forbid that our French teachers would take us on a field trip to the neighbouring French-speaking communities where we'd be corrupted by the local dialect. French-Canadian classmates who attempted to speak to the teachers in French were usually scolded for their "misuse" of the French language. Altogether, a sad situation which did little to help the linguistic divide in our country. I believe things have changed somewhat since my schooling in the 1960's.
    I'm hoping the movie will be available on NetFlicks or similar sites. I found it on DVD at my public library.
    Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
    "I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
    Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.

  6. #4
    Orrig Onion HonketyHank's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Location
    Beaverton, OR, USA
    Posts
    1,778
    Blog Entries
    1

    Default Re: La Bolduc

    Oh man. I see a whole bunch of La Bolduc's tunes. La Pitoune is playing right now. Thanks for posting this and introducing me.
    New to mando? Click this link -->Newbies to join us at the Newbies Social Group.

    Just send an email to rob.meldrum@gmail.com with "mandolin setup" in the subject line and he will email you a copy of his ebook for free (free to all mandolincafe members).

    My website and blog: honketyhank.com

  7. The following members say thank you to HonketyHank for this post:

    Ranald 

  8. #5

    Default Re: La Bolduc

    Ranald: I added the film to my watch list and hope it becomes available soon. Merci beaucoup!

  9. The following members say thank you to PH-Mando for this post:

    Ranald 

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •