Tintin et moi

"Tintin and I" first of all struck me as a masterpiece documentary. The photography and the editing are truly breath-taking (almost anti-Dogma).

We follow the life of Tintin drawer Hergé through an open-hearted interview from 1971. The Tintin series was drawn on the background of the great ideological fights of the twentieth century. In the midst of these Hergé has his own demons to fight with, and much of his drawing activity seems like an attempt to tame these and to escape into a world of perfection.

Even though there are spectacular photographic panoramas of drawings from Tintin albums and also some reconstructions and reading of passages from the albums, the story of Hergé is told entirely through interviews and archive material, and never through reconstructions.

Hergé lived the turbulent life of a true, suffering artist. But the fantastic world that came of his imagination will continue to amaze readers again and again.

Tintin was one of my favorite heroes as a kid. I used to borrow the books from the school library every chance I got. My favorite one was "The Red Sea Sharks" - so much action and humor.

This documentary was a brilliant exposition of the background story of Herge and his development of Tintin. The film-maker's personal experience in interviewing Herge and the story of his relationship with the artist who was the inspiration for the Chan character was very moving.

A great documentary of a very talented and well-loved artist. A great example of someone who has become internationally renown, and has brought joy of millions of children (and the young at heart) all over the world.

After I first heard about this on the internet, I immediately looked high and low for this documentary. When I finally found it, I was all set in watching the whole TV special.

This documentary is about Herge and his life's work on the Tintin series. The whole thing is presented by a man who had a tape recorded interview with Herge back in 1972. Preserved all those decades and used for this TV documentary with the usage of visual reenactments and archive footage of Herge to give the documentary a spiritual/immortal feeling to it. A lot of the archive footage of Herge was redone in a pencil like format to make his appearance look like that of his own drawing styles. As well as a collection of screen-shots of various Tintin books combine with sound of fixes to give them a living effect to them. There's also a few interviews with people who knew Herge as a friend or as a relative who express their feelings about him.

The great thing about this documentary is it gives you the idea of what Herge was like when he was still living. And it has almost all of the important facts of his life. If you're a fan of the books, then you'll enjoy this documentary a lot. If it ever becomes available on Region 1 DVD, then I would definitely buy it.

Some thirty years ago, Author Numa Sadoul published a book length interview with the Belgian comic book artist Georges Remi (better known as Herge, the creator of Tintin). This movie catches up with Sadoul today as he recalls the interview, while we listen to the cassettes (Herge died in 1983) and see some old photos and footage of the man himself. Some parts of the interview were not published in the book at the request of Herge, and we now know these dealt with his separation from his wife, after he had an affair with one of his collaborators (who years later would become his second wife). An interesting thing the movie does not address well is the shift in the Tintin books from the early rightist and imperialist books (Tintin in the Congo, Tintin in the lands of the Soviets) to fairly anti-imperialist books just a few years later (The Blue Lotus). On the whole, I come out of this movie knowing a few more things about Herge and seeing him as a bit more unlikable than when I come in to the theater.

Quite frankly one of the best films I've ever seen about an artist and the process of creating art. I didn't grow up reading Tintin, but am mighty tempted to start now as an adult.

While the film succeeds at all levels in telling the story of Hergé's life, what really sets it apart is the filmmaker's masterful way of conveying the feeling of what it was like to be Hergé and what it means to live the greater part of one's life through the characters one has created. Time and time again, it was the emotion of the moment that got me, drawing me closer and closer to Hergé, and compelling me forward into the next scene and the next element of the artist's life, which cast yet another new light on who he was and what drove him.

This is an utterly timeless film about the joys and despair of being an artist. I can't recommend it highly enough.