Tarzan Musée du Quai Branly Paris

Musée du Quai Branly - 16 june to 27 september 2009

Tarzan,  hero of American literature and the comics, popularized by many movies, Tarzan is the subject of a famous exhibition at the Musée du Quai Branly. Excellent opportunity to rediscover the incredible destiny of Cheetah best friend. "Tarzan!" traces the history of this popular character was born from the imagination of a contemporary of Darwin, the American Edgar Rice Burroughs, who wrote in 1912 "Tarzan of the Apes" (Tarzan and monkeys), the story of a son of English landed aristocracy in the African jungle, collected and raised by a tribe of great apes in the death of his parents. Intelligent and cultured, he meets a human adult, sympathizes with the Waziri (a tribe allied Tarzan) travels to America before rejecting civilization and return to the jungle.  Like Jules Verne, Burroughs never left his country, but created "his" Africa and created a hero inspired the myth of Romulus and Remus, Hercules, but also "Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling and stories of 'feral children. Success translated into 56 languages, combines Tarzan adventures, exploits and reflection on society, nature, evolution, like this sentence from the novel "Tarzan felt the fragility of the boundary between the primitive and the civilized. "  The passage in cartoon (1929) gives a success reinforced by popular cinema, silent at first but very visual (the famous campaign-leopard skin), before they can push the famous cry through the film speaking. It is passing through the film establishes that breaks the myth but also the subtlety of the character. Character "cultivated and philosopher", it is on the big screen a "moron", sometimes racist, analyzes the curator of the exhibition Roger Boulay.  Visitors can compare the various designers who adapted Tarzan on paper and see many from the various feature films made between 1916 (first film adaptation) and today. There are 42 Tarzan films but also several television series and cartoons. Played by many actors, Tarzan is one of its best performances with Olympic swimming champion Johnny Weissmuller, who signs 12 films between 1932 and 1948 and found the spirit of the original Burroughs character in "Greystoke, the legend Tarzan, "with Christophe Lambert (1983).  The intergenerational and international success of "Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the bush" is due to the richness of character, "reveals our society's relationship with nature, culture, urban life," explains the Associated Press Roger Boulay, Doctor of Ethnology. "A sort of green before its time" defending "the jungle (...) his playground."  A circuit-entertainment for children is also value in the environmental dimension of myth, with a parallel relationship between Tarzan and nature, and attitudes to adopt to comply.  A soundtrack Cyril Lefebvre and Claire Thiebault was composed specially for the exhibition, which will result in several conferences around the subject.