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Tintin et Moi: Entretiens avec Hergé is the Numa Sadoul book based on the taped interviews used to create the film documentary Tintin et Moi.

It just occurred to me that the film quite clearly talks about the input and editorial intervention that Hergé made when Sadoul was transcribing and editing his book, effectively altering everything that he'd said, often more than once. This contributed to the significant delay in getting the book together, a period of some years.

Yet the film is made directly from the taped audio of the interview, which presumably is the original, un-revised version of the story. I wonder if anything which he said is significantly different to how he re-presented it in the book?
Did he edit for clarity and style, or was he changing things which he thought reflected negatively on him, or which he didn't want included?

More to the point did any of this get into the film, or was it perhaps limited to using stuff that more-or-less agreed with the published version?

Has anyone made a comparison? I'd be interested to know.

Well this is a complicated area because the actual book of Entretiens avec Hergé underwent several revisions over the years.

The first edition was heavily edited and sanitised by Hergé.

Then, after Hergé's death in 1983, another edition added a few notes explaining the changes made, but did not expand on them. The "definitive edition", giving the original interview, was published ten years after that, and that's the version you're most likely to see today, with commentary and explanations by Numa Sadoul.

As for a comparison, I think the most famous one is cited by Harry Thompson, and I quote:
Asked whether he is travelling the world in order to flee Tintin, "Hergé" replies, "There's no question of fleeing, it's more a question of seeing and discovering new things, and recharging my batteries."
Originally, "Georges Remi" had replied, "That's partly it - a need to play truant for a while, to escape from this hard labour, which feels like slavery".

Ed

Ah! Thanks Ed! That is interesting! It had been niggling at the back of my mind since Greenwich; I wasn't aware the book had re-appeared un-expurgated. Did it undergo a title change too - gaining the Tintin et Moi? I seem to recall seeing it just as Entretiens Avec Hergé, with perhaps a blue cover?

The original title from 1975 was Tintin et Moi: Entretiens avec Hergé but the Tintin et Moi was removed from the 1983 edition, apparently because readers were unsure as to whether the "moi" of the title referred to Numa Sadoul or Hergé.

The modern reprints from about 2000 onwards have restored it.

Ed

I found a nice article on the documentary Tintin et Moi on the Danish film institiute website.

rastapopoulos
I found a nice article on Tintin et Moi

That's very interesting!

It does seem to back-up my personal feeling that the documentary was made from the point of view of someone seeking to emphasise only the melancholy side of Hergé's life, which while being one aspect of his complex character, was not the only one.

Østergaard seems to have gone into his research with that as his agenda, rather than looking at the whole picture and working out a more rounded view.

While the Tintin et Moi effort is good, I'm sure that the definitive Hergé documentary is still to be made.

I feel that was what was interesting about the documentary, the fact that Hergé's private life affected the content of his comics. The fact that Castifiore is a subconscious (or conscious?) reflection of Hergé's first wife is fascinating. You can see it in the way Haddock reacts to her presence.

These personal secrets with can be found in the comics are what make the documentary interesting.

Yes, Østergaard could have trawled through the history of Hergé and his work, but haven't we heard it all before? It's interesting that Hergé censored the Sadoul interviews.

That's journalism!

rastapopoulos said:

Østergaard could have trawled through the history of Hergé and his work, but haven't we heard it all before?

Actually I thought that the whole psychological angle was the one I'd heard before; I'd like something which didn't just focus on his neuroses, but told us about his positive side too - something where we heard about his thoughts on art and artists.

For example, the film tells us about his hope for his fine art, and his distress at its failure - but in terms of the psychology; it doesn't tell us how he painted, where he painted or why he painted.

Also, he maintained a relationship with Mme. Hergée up until she died, so she wasn't wholly repugnant to him. She must have meant something to him, and the documentary didn't balance that particular set of scales.

Jock123 said:
Østergaard seems to have gone into his research with that as his agenda, rather than looking at the whole picture and working out a more rounded view.

Whilst I agree that there were many aspects to Hergé's character, I think the central theme he chose - Hergé's nervous breakdown circa Tibet - was an interesting one, and worth exploring.

In the case of Tibet we clearly see how the pressures of his private life affected his work.

Being an intensely private man, Tibet is the most extreme example.

And it's not all gloom - it does still contain the most comprehensive biography on film to date where many other aspects to his life and work are explored.

I do agree however that the "definitive" Hergé documentary is still yet to be made. I suppose you could say that the general mood of it is entirely in keeping with the Scandinavian melancholy Swedes call Svårmod!

Has the book Tintin et Moi ever been, or will it be, available in English?

Has the documentary ever been released with English subtitles as part of the image or as an option?

And if so, who's selling it?