An exhibition displaying posters of book covers opened on November 5 ahead of the French Literature Week in Hanoi. 

Poster of the French Literature Week in Hanoi (Source: Institut Francais Vietnam)

Vietnamese versions of the covers at the exhibition include French works which have been popular in Vietnam over the past 10 years. The books include Irene Nemirovsky’s French Suite; Françoise Sagan’s Hello Sadness and The Elegance of Widows; David Foenkinos’s Delicacy and Romain Gary’s The Life Before Us. 

The exhibition will also feature information about the writers and the movies being screened. The exhibition will run until November 18 at the French Cultural Centre (L’espace).

The week proper will begin on November 13 with a talk about cinema in Gary’s works. The participation will be director Do Van Hoang, book editor Dinh Van Tue and filmmaker Nguyen Hoang Thien Ngan. 

A highlight of the week will be a meeting with writer Foenkinos on November 15 at 5.30pm. Foenkinos is one the most revered and beloved French writers. His novel La delicatesse (Delicacy) was a bestseller in France. A film based on the book was released in 2011 with Audrey Tautou as the main character. 

Works by Foenkinos are popular in Vietnam including Delicacy, The Erotic Potential of My Wife and Our Separations. His book Charlotte will be published in Vietnam. Charlotte is Foenkinos’s 13th novel which earned the writer the French literary award Prix Reaudot and High School Students Goncourt Prize.

Vietnamese readers who are also fans of movies by Foenkinos will get an opportunity to watch Delicacy, Jealous and Les Souvenirs during the week at the L’espace, with screenings in French with Vietnamese subtitles. Foenkinos was co-director and screenwriter of Delicacy and Jealous and he wrote the script for Les Souvenir.

Foenkinos will share his success in both literature and filmmaking at the meeting.

A two-day workshop will be held on November 16 and 17 for young filmmakers to learn how to write a screenplay adapted from literature work. Under director Marcus Manh Cuong Vu, the workshop participants will research some French novels which were made into movies.-VNS