Since the release of his breakout film Irréversible in 2002, Gaspar Noé (b. 1963) has been labeled the principal provocateur of twenty-first-century French cinema. While many of the filmmaker’s complex and daring works have been reduced by his critics to their (innumerable) depictions of hallucinogens, violence, and unsimulated sexual intercourse—the latter rendered into vertiginous 3D with his film Love—other viewers have remained in steady awe of Noé’s dizzying camerawork, immersive visuality, and expressive editing. Noé’s cinema greets the short attention spans of digital life with works of extremities and endurance for performers and spectators alike. This first-of-its-kind collection of interviews documents Noé’s engagement with the feverish reception of his work and received ideas about his life and politics. Collecting conversations with critics, scholars, and artists, including fellow directors Matthew Barney, Abel Ferrara, and Harmony Korine, Noé speaks about his process as a writer, director, cinematographer, and editor. Also examined are his engagement with developing film technology and his fascination and indebtedness to past filmmakers such as Pier Paolo Pasolini, Jean Eustache, Stanley Kubrick, and Sam Peckinpah. Noé discusses life in Buenos Aires and emigrating to France, his use of irony and melodrama, and his interest in documentary practices. Throughout, Noé explores his continuing examination of faith and secularism, body and mind, and the politics of spectatorship. Editor Geoffrey Lokke’s introduction provides a close reading of Noé in conversation, assessing what has changed over the years in terms of the filmmaker’s aesthetics and presentation of self, as well as what Noé is reticent to articulate about his life and art.

Follow the adventures of Gaspar, a freelance thief who stubbornly refuses to swear fealty to the Thieves' Guild. Cursed with a special affinity for calamity and mishap, and a talent for snatching defeat from the brink of victory, our hero blunders from one misfortune to the next, yet somehow always manages to survive to tell the tale. Accompanied by his long-suffering companions - Hubris, a spellbroker who refuses to pay his dues to Wizards' Hall; Marna, a feisty thiefess with a quick tongue and a quicker temper; and Drune, a mischievous wight with an unusual magical ability - our unlikely hero encounters looming retribution and imminent catastrophe at every step. Whether raiding a sinister funeral ship, foiling a scheming seductress, solving a puzzling murder, or confronting a gang of villainous ship-wreckers, Gaspar always somehow manages to narrowly side step disaster. But there's seemingly no end to the troubles he can find, and he soon finds himself an unwitting player in the siege of an ancient border fortress by a goblin army. Told with an appealing mixture of seriousness and humour, this is an exciting, fast-paced romp based in a fantasy world where anything can, and usually does, happen!

These one-act plays premiered at the Kansas City Fringe Festival from 2008-2012. "Hexing Hitler": A writer and his friends put a curse on Hitler to end World War II using witchcraft. "Sexing Hitler": German occupiers are contracting syphilis in astounding numbers, so Hitler orders the creation of inflatable pleasure dolls that they can carry in their packs to satisfy their urges. "Lingerie Shop": It begins as a steamy comedy, until one of the actresses curses the playwright and quits the play. A Pirandello-styled farce that deconstructs theatre and feminism. "Khaaaaan! the Musical": The Enterprise crew goes back in time to find the world trapped in 1980s culture and lorded over by the guitar god Khan. This rock-n-roll parody of "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan" explores our nostalgic fixation on the past. "Jesus Christ, King of Comedy": The familiar tale of Christ is used to satirize our celebrity worshiping society when Jesus goes into show business and becomes the biggest entertainer in the Middle East.

Erasmus' Familiar Colloquies grew from a small collection of phrases, sentences, and snatches of dialogue written in Paris about 1497 to help his private pupils improve their command of Latin. Twenty years later the material was published by Johann Froben (Basel 1518). It was an immediate success and was reprinted thirty times in the next four years. For the edition of March 1522 Erasmus began to add fully developed dialogues, and a book designed to improve boys' use of Latin (and their deportment) soon became a work of literature for adults, although it retained traces of its original purposes. The final Froben edition (March, 1533) had about sixty parts, most of them dialogues. It was in the last form that the Colloquies were read and enjoyed for four centuries. For modern readers it is one of the best introductions to European society of the Renaissance and Reformation periods, with lively descriptions of daily life and provocative discussions of political, religious, social, and literary topics, presented with Erasmus's characteristic wit and verve. Each colloquy has its own introduction and full explanatory, historical, and biographical notes. Volumes 39 and 40 of the Collected Works of Erasmus series - Two-volume set.