>> Festivals

FIRN in Frontignan
6th - 11th June 2006

Corinne Naidet
Translation: Helena Chadderton

 

The theme of the ninth international festival
of the detective novel this year was:

“The society of the spectacle”

This is a vast subject which is particularly fitting for the detective novel: as Michel Gueorguieff, the organiser of the event, explains ‘The public domain is filled with occurrences and actions inspired by the media. Whether it's about culture, justice policy or sport, our opinions, our admiration, our indignation are controlled by the way the TV feeds us information. We tend to see life as one huge show. Authors of detective novels take on this dimension and critically analyse it….'

Five panels thus allowed thirty invited authors (all having more or less a link to this society of the spectacle, either through their writing or through their profession) to debate often controversial topical questions before meeting a still larger public.

But the highlight of this festival was the presence of Elmore Leonard who was in France for the first time. For more than an hour and a half he spoke with humour and humility about the job of being a writer, something he has been doing for more than fifty years. Another meeting at the town's cinema allowed us to bring up his cinematic adaptations from 3H10 for Yuma (1957, a new adaptation starring Tom Cruise is planned for 2007) to Be cool (2005).

This listing only reflected the event's welcoming and festive atmosphere: on numerous occasions the readers were able to approach the writers and talk to them over a glass of Muscat and a few oysters enjoyed in the “Beach bar”. Michel Gueorguieff and his whole team have once again pulled it off: making FIRN one of the great French events of the detective novel: serious and quality debates, prestigious guests rubbing shoulders with new, budding authors, all in all, an omnipresent conviviality allowing everyone, famous or completely unknown, to leave enchanted by Frontignan.