 by Fons Alkemade: Just recently the French movie L'écume des jours (Mood Indigo) was launched and I will certainly visit my local cinema to see it. (editor: for the fun of it see some of the wacky moviecars created for the film). For many years now I have been intrigued by the author of the novel on which this film is based, Boris Vian (1920-1959). He was a well-known author, musician, composer and more in the swinging and jazzy 1950s in Paris. One of the details of Vian's life which makes him even more interesting is the fact that Vian used to have a 1911 Brasier as his everyday means of transport in the early fifties. Before the Brasier, and after he acquired his driving licence in 1947, Vian had owned among other cars a 1934 Panhard Panoramique. Later on he drove an Austin-Healey and a Morgan. One of the many biographers of Vian, Marc Lapprand, has tried to find explanations for the fact that Boris Vian deliberately bought a 1911 car in 1950. He has come up with two: 1) After World War II there was an enormous boost of technical innovations which gave rise to a kind of adoration for gadgets among (French) people; 2) Vian, trained as an engineer, admired the way old cars had been built and was at the same time intrigued by the wear and the aging of objects in particular. Vian used his Brasier quite regularly, and even drove it from Paris to places like Saint Tropez and Caen. He had it painted in white as this showed its “mechanical purity”. It is said that among the pecularities of the Brasier were a water tank with a tap from which one could wash his hands and a water closet under the back seat... Anyone who knows what has become of Vian's Brasier? |
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What became of Boris Vian's 1911 Brasier?
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