All language subtitles for Herge - In The Shadow Of Tintin

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] This is
the fascinating story

of Georges Remi, alias Herge,

a press cartoonist
who became a legend

and a monument of
comic book culture.

His drawings reach record
prices in auction houses

and are today among
the most expensive

comic book artworks
in the world.

Tintin albums have
been translated into
almost 90 languages

and are read everywhere
in the world.

- We're talking about
200 million copies

of the Tintin books
have been sold,

more than a million are
published every year.

I mean, it is amazing.

Then he said he was
pinching himself

to see how this was happening.

He wouldn't believe it now.

(speaks in foreign
language), he would say.

"Absolutely impossible,
couldn't be."

- [Translator] Herge
said, "Tintin is me.

"Would you believe that I've
put my whole life into Tintin?"

And "my whole life"
obviously means

that he really sacrificed
a lot for Tintin.

- [Translator] What's
wonderful with Tintin

is that Herge conveyed much more

than you might
ever have imagined.

The character takes
priority in some ways.

Herge created something
bigger than himself.

- [Narrator] Who
was Georges Remi,

whose creature became
much more famous

than the man who created him?

This is the astonishing
story of an artistic genius

who lived as best he could
in the shadow of Tintin.

(elegant music)

(crowd chattering)

"My childhood seems
very gray to me,"

Georges Remi used to say.

Born in 1907 into a middle class

Catholic family in Brussels,

as a boy, Georges tried to
escape from a certain darkness

brought on by his
mother's melancholy

and his father's
regular absences.

When Brussels was
occupied by the Germans

during World War I,
he overcame boredom

by drawing stories of
a young Belgian boy

who played tricks
on the occupier.

The young self-taught artist
enthusiastically sketched

countless figures and
scenes in his notebooks.

The drawings were initially
signed Georges Remi,

then just the initials GR.

Soon enough, the budding
artist reversed them,

and the familiar
signature Herge was born.

As Georges himself often said,
his life changed radically

when he discovered
the Scout Movement.

(gentle music)

- Herge, on a
Saturday afternoon,

would go to a little,
what was a new cinema,

Actualite Cinema in Brussels.

He saw his first silent
films, with Charlie Chaplin,

and then it became all the
other great heroes of his,

Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton,

the Mack Sennett things,

and he developed
this fascination

in the early black
and white cinema.

- [Translator] In silent
films, everything has to be

expressed through
gestures, poses,

and all sorts of movement.

It doesn't happen through words,

and obviously it's wonderful

to be able to use
that in drawings.

(dramatic music)

(horse snorts)

(horse galloping)

(loud clunk)

(loud thud)

He appropriated the
rules of silent film

and used them to
invent a new language

specifically for comics.

- [Narrator] At the age of 18,

Georges was hired by the
newspaper The 20th Century,

an editorial spearhead
for Belgium's Catholic

and nationalist right wing, run
by an abbot, Norbert Wallez.

- [Translator] Herge was very,
very young at that point,

21 or 22, he was just a kid.

But he discovered a
mentor, who told him,

"Okay, you're going to do that,

"we're gonna train our readers
to become good Catholics,

"good 20th century Catholics,"

meaning good
conservative Catholics.

(people screaming)

- [Narrator] Abbe
Wallez had an idea

that he presented to Herge.

Why not create a
character like Totor

for the paper's supplement,

a pictorial hero without
fear and reproach

transmitting the paper's ideas?

What better way to
educate its young readers?

(playful music)

"The Adventures of Tintin,"

a reporter at the
Petit Vingtieme,

accompanied by the
faithful Snowy,

were first published on
January the 10th, 1929.

Playing with the codes
of the written press,

with drawings replacing an
article and photographs,

Herge participated in the
invention of modern comics.

- Herge himself, because
he worked in a newspaper,

he knew all about how
newspapers worked.

The Vingtieme Siecle,
being a national newspaper,

it had all international
editions there,

so he could see the big
names on the newspaper,

who would send their stories
from far-flung places

where exciting things
were happening.

And he thought this
was tremendous,

and, obviously, as a young man,

he would've loved to
have done that himself.

But what did he do?

He creates Tintin, who
he offers that job.

- [Narrator] Tintin would
embody investigative journalism

for youngsters, an intrepid
reporter traveling the globe

to bring back his sensational
stories in pictures.

Young Tintin's first
destination, chosen
by Abbe Wallez,

was Soviet Russia, the
new communist regime

which so appalled Europe's
Catholic conservatives.

In his first appearances
in the Petit Vingtieme,

the young hero's hair
is brushed forward,

but suddenly, after
a brisk car chase,

his quiff stands up straight,
and would continue to do so.

A quiff of blonde
hair standing upright,

soon to become the hero's
most recognizable feature

in his evermore
exciting adventures

from one week to the next.

(train horn blowing)
(train chugging)

(train crashes)

- [Translator] He created
a unique mix of adventure,

action, and burlesque humor,

which had never existed
before in that form,

notably by imposing
a very rapid pace.

When I read Tintin in the
Land of the Soviets today,

the story has aged, but we
can still feel the pace.

From the outset, Tintin
has to cross a river,

then snow-covered landscapes,
and something happens,

and then something else,

and finally he escapes by plane.

The nonstop movement is
quite simply unprecedented,

it was completely
new at the time.

(gentle music)

- Tintin's success was amazing.

It sold out the first issue
on January the 10th, 1929,

so the publisher of the
newspaper decided to double

the print run for the next week.

Sold out.

Trebled it for the
next week, it sold out.

He was becoming instantly known

in the French-speaking
world already

in his first year in 1929.

- [Narrator] In
just a few months,

the Petit Vingtieme's
intrepid reporter

became the newspaper's
star feature.

There was no question of
ending his adventures.

The thousands of readers
of the youth supplement

couldn't wait to find
out which continent

Tintin and Snowy would
take them to next.

- [Translator] He'd been
to Russia, which was fine,

and now Herge wanted
to send him to America,

because you couldn't have
one without the other.

And things were
happening in America.

There was a lot of
talk about Al Capone

and gangsters, et cetera.

But Abbe Wallez,
who was obviously

an advocate of Catholicism,

and for whom Belgium's
colony, the Congo,

was very important in terms of

the missionaries'
civilizing influence,

didn't see things the
same way as Herge.

He said, "It would be good
now to send him to the Congo

"so he can take stock of
what our companions are doing

"to bring civilization
to the darkies."

(gentle music)
(children shouting)

- [Narrator] In Tintin's
early adventures,

Herge didn't really have
a pre-established script.

Each week, he would simply dream
up a new twist in the tale.

As in "The Land of the Soviets,"

Tintin's only assistant was
his faithful friend, Snowy,

a wily fox terrier who
would play a key role

in the exotic adventure
in the Belgian Congo.

- [Translator] Herge had
never been to the Congo.

He researched it
as best he could,

and above all, he listened
to what was being said.

And, at that time, like the
French and other countries too,

the Belgians were colonialists.

Those were the times,

and so, it was something
of a caricature,

and looking back now,
rather unpleasant.

That vision of the Congolese
is obviously not at all

what it should have been.

- [Narrator] In hindsight,
Herge came to consider

that certain scenes
were not acceptable.

A lesson in geography, for
example, glorifying Belgium,

would be replaced by
a simple maths class.

In view of Tintin's popularity

among the paper's
younger readers,

Abbe Wallez suggested that
Herge publish an album

of the young
reporter's adventures.

And so, "In the Land of the
Soviets" was published in 1930,

"Tintin in the Congo" in 1931,

and then "Tintin in America,"

which he had finally
managed to visit, in 1932.

The imaginary scout
returned in a burlesque

transatlantic adventure
combining far West cowboys

and Chicago gangsters
in a comic tradition

born in the USA just
a few years before.

- [Translator] It's
the essence of comics,

which were always intended
to be comical and funny.

The humor was more
important than the story,

which was secondary.

At the end of each page,
something funny had to happen,

like someone falling over, or
something being knocked down.

(loud thud)

(loud thud)

(loud clank)

(punch thuds)

(loud clang)

(playful music)

(loud thud)

(spring reverberates)

- [Narrator] Georges
Remi was doing well,

both professionally and
in his private life.

After months of
patient courtship,

he managed to win
the woman he loved,

Germaine, Norbert
Wallez's secretary.

(gentle piano music)

After a brief engagement,

Georges and Germaine were
married at the Saint-Roch Church

in Laeken in July, 1932.

Germaine would be his
principal assistant

and a valuable adviser.

Georges was ambitious

and set up a graphics
and advertising company,

believing that his
talent and vocation

lay principally in
illustrations and posters.

- [Translator] Up
to a certain age,

probably about 28 or 29,

Herge was convinced that
his professional career

would be in advertising
and posters,

not in comics, or (speaks in
foreign language) in French,

a term that didn't even
exist at that time.

- [Narrator] Georges
Remi was a workaholic.

In addition to
his graphics work,

he was a mainstay of the
Petit Vingtieme's operation.

Every week, he had more
and more drawings to do

to fill the paper's 16 pages,

notably the cover,

various illustrations,

and a double-page Tintin story.

- [Translator] When we
see the time Herge spent

working in any one week, I
don't know how it was possible.

He did two pages of Tintin,
and one with Quick & Flupke,

he'd do the covers
and other things.

I don't know how it was
possible to work so much

and to obtain such
extraordinary results.

- [Narrator] In 1934,
Georges finally managed

to free himself from Abbe
Wallez's political directives.

(ship horn wails)

He was finally the
master of a creature

he could develop and
shape little by little.

The Tintin albums were now
published by Casterman,

beginning with the reporter's
adventures in the Middle East

on the trail of a
mysterious secret society.

(mysterious music)

(playful music)

(loud slapping)
(man groaning)

Herge gradually improved
his narrative style

and invented what would
be called Tintin's family.

(water splashes)

Inspired notably by his
father, who had a twin brother,

he created the police
officers Thomson without a P

and Thompson with a P, in
French, Dupont and Dupond,

who would henceforth
be regulars,

adding to the comedy
and the adventures.

Georges Remi was
finding his way.

Alone at his desk, he was
now preparing an album

that would mark the history
of comics and cartoons.

- [Translator] He could
have stayed as he was,

in a narrow, limited, and
stereotypical vision of society,

highly politicized.

But, paradoxically, it
was Tintin that gave Herge

a much broader viewpoint.

In the early albums, Tintin
spoke to practically nobody,

and, in fact, he
didn't have a mouth.

But as he met more people,
Tintin became someone

who was increasingly
attentive to others.

The turning point was
obviously "The Blue Lotus,"

with Tintin meeting Chang,

corresponding to Herge
meeting a Chinese friend,

also called Chang, who was
an artist of his own age.

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] Inspired
by Chang's calligraphy,

which Chang himself taught him,

in 1934, Herge drew Shanghai

as it had never been
depicted before.

Chang himself came every
Sunday to paint the ideograms

on the drawings
prepared by Georges.

Above all, Chang
convinced his friend

that the Chinese were
being treated unjustly,

caught between corrupt and
racist Western colonialists,

who were occupying Shanghai

and the aggressive Japanese,

who were preparing to
invade his country.

And so, real life politics
suddenly came to life

in "The Adventures of
Tintin," who chose his side.

Herge denounced Japan's
military intervention

and the occupation
of part of China.

His friend and colleague Chang

appeared as a
fictional character

in an historic
encounter with Tintin.

Like paper doppelgangers,

Tintin and Chang sealed
the friendship of Herge

and his young Chinese friend.

- [Translator] It was a magic
moment, "The Blue Lotus."

When I seen the
original drawings,

I'm moved that
they're extraordinary.

First, I think Herge is a great
black and white draftsman,

that cannot be overstated,

and obviously, that's
where I see the artist

as being unbeatable,
at his best.

Some of the pages
are breathtaking,

specifically in the mastery
of the black and white.

And the original prints have
these little blue washes,

which are quite disconcerting,
they're very beautiful.

I'd love to see a
facsimile edition

of the originals
with the washes.

It would be a comic book
that everyone should have

in their library, because,
and it's very rarely

that one can say this,

something happens when you look
at those original drawings.

- [Narrator] Georges Remi was
at the peak of his powers.

His narrative system was
now well-established.

Just 29 years old, the
young man from Brussels

had invented his
own graphic style,

(speaks in foreign
language), or the clear line,

which would influence
generations to come.

This concept was so-called
by a Dutch artist,

Joost Swarte, who was
himself influenced

by Georges Remi's
original style.

- [Translator] In
fact, for the catalog

of an Herge exhibition
in Rotterdam, in 1976,

we were looking for
a powerful title,

and I thought, (speaks in
foreign language) was ideal.

When we talk about the
(speaking in foreign language),

we're talking about
a drawing style

where we're not using shadow,

and contours are drawn with
strong lines of equal width.

- [Translator] Doubts or
shades don't exist with Herge.

From a graphical point of view,

this is pursued to the extent
that, in Herge's drawings,

there are no shadows.

Each scene, each panel
is perfectly lit.

And with these
clearly drawn lines,

ultimately the drawings almost
attain the purity of signs.

Signs and pictograms are
universally understood elements.

In my view, he invented
something that relates

to a universal language
through images.

It's the reason why his comics
can be read around the world

in the most diverse cultures.

(playful music)

- [Narrator] For Herge, the
(speaks in foreign language)

was, above all, a
matter of legibility

and narrative effectiveness.

"The Adventures of Tintin"
were similar to detective

or spy films, dramatic
yarns steeped in reality.

"The Broken Ear" is
based on the conflict

between Bolivia and Paraguay,

which was making the
news at the time.

"The Black Island" was based
on attempts by Nazi spies

to destabilize Great Britain

through the mass distribution
of counterfeit money.

(tense music)

In "King Ottokar's Sceptre,"

Herge's drawings
related the perils

of expansionist
polices in Europe.

- I particularly love
"King Ottokar's Sceptre,"

another wonderful
anti-fascist book.

Just as "The Blue
Lotus" was against

the fascism and imperialism

which the Japanese were
imposing on the Chinese,

we have the "Ottokar's Sceptre,"

which is a story
of a failed attempt

of a fascist dictatorship

to take over a neighboring
small country with a king.

And, of course, the
villain, who we never see,

but the villain is Musstler,

combination of
Mussolini and Hitler.

It's his wonderful way,
Herge relates world events,

things which are
happening, to the stories.

(gentle piano music)

- [Narrator] Georges
was a pacifist.

Through a character
named Mr. Bellum,

appearing on the front cover
of the Petit Vingtieme,

he attempted to denounce
Hitler as a danger

and announce his own opposition
to another world war.

(siren wailing)
(explosions boom)

But it was too late.

Tintin was swept aside
by the chaos of war,

and his adventures, for
the moment, were over.

(airplanes screeching)

(airplane roaring)

- [Narrator] Like
thousands of Belgians,

Georges and his wife
Germaine took to the road

and sought exile in France.

But after France collapsed,
there was nowhere else to go.

The couple returned to Brussels,
now occupied by the Nazis.

It was during these
troubled times

that Herge would
draw and publish

some of the masterpieces
that made Tintin a legend.

(ominous music)

- [Translator] The war
changed many things for Herge,

in the sense that the
invasion of Belgium

caused the Vingtieme
Siecle paper to disappear,

and the Petit Vingtieme too,

and so he lost his regular
publication medium.

- [Narrator] The thousands
of Tintin readers

were a much sought-after
audience, however,

and several newspapers
tried to hire him.

He refused an offer
from the Rexist Party

founded by Leon Degrelle,

Belgium's far right
Catholic party,

which had sought to use his
drawings for some years.

But he agreed to
work for Le Soir,

the leading national daily,

which was launching
a youth supplement.

This decision to publish his
drawings under the occupation

would be held against
Herge for a long time.

- [Translator] He agreed
to work for Le Soir,

which was an important paper,

but was obviously
controlled by the occupier.

All the papers published
during the occupation

were controlled by the occupier.

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] And so
it was in Le Soir's

daily youth supplement
that Tintin returned.

(loud slap)
(spring reverberates)

(loud slap)
(spring reverberates)

(loud clack)

- [Translator] What
happened during the war

was that Herge continued
to be dominated

by his character and
his comic creations.

It was all he could see.

He was living in a bubble,

in which Tintin was the
principal inhabitant.

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] His new
adventure took place

far from war-torn Europe,

surrounded by sand and sea

against a backdrop
of opium smuggling.

In his notebooks where he wrote

the first version
of his scenarios,

Herge imagined an
exotic detective story,

with no reference
to the world war.

"The Crab with the Golden Claws"

marks a key turning
point in Tintin history,

particularly for the
appearance of a new character

who would change the
reporter's destiny.

(playful piano music)

(bottle crashes)

(waves splashing)

(fire crackling)

(spring reverberates)

- [Translator] Captain
Haddock can do everything

that Tintin can't.

He can swear,

and there's even a dictionary
of his curse words.

He can drink.

Tintin first meets him when
he's a fully fledge alcoholic.

And in the following albums,
there is always a time

when Haddock loses control
and grabs a bottle.

It's the sign that something
serious is happening,

as if real life were
intervening in the story.

(crowd chattering)

"The Crab with the Golden
Claws" was a success,

but the tenth Tintin
story, "The Shooting Star,"

also published during
the occupation,

would be more controversial.

Beginning in an
apocalyptic atmosphere,

reflecting conditions
in war-ravaged Brussels,

"The Shooting Star"
is a fascinating

science fiction adventure.

What Herge was criticized for

was his conciliatory
portrayal of scientists

from Axis countries
or neutral states

such as Switzerland and
Portugal, and above all,

the caricatural depiction
of the story's baddie,

an American financier
with a Jewish name.

- [Translator] "The Shooting
Star" is less concerned

with propaganda than
"Tintin in the Congo,"

"Tintin in America," or "Tintin
in the Land of the Soviets."

"The Shooting Star" is, above
all, the story of a chase.

If you wanted to demonstrate
that there was a strong

ideological intention there,
you'd have a hard time

because there is no
ideology in the story.

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] The stories
were now published in Le Soir

in a format of just four panels.

Paper shortages led to the
demise of the youth supplement,

and also put paid to
any hopes of publishing

"The Shooting Star"
in a 120-page album.

Casterman wanted to halve
the number of pages.

In exchange, the
publisher offered

to print the album in color.

"It would be a
revolution," they said.

(gentle music)

In order to use his
original drawings

and to preserve the
legibility and clarity

of the (speaks in
foreign language),

Georges found a solution:

The colors would be printed
separately from the black.

On the reproduction of a page

where the lines had
become blue-gray,

the colors would be applied
by hand, then printed first.

The black lines were then
added to the color images.

The (speaks in foreign language)
enclosed the areas of color

and perfectly outlined every
element within the drawing.

- [Translator] He encouraged
his editor and the printers

to get the hightest
quality possible.

He knew all the techniques
that were used very well.

The hardbound 64-page album,

which is something
of a standard,

it was Herge who
contributed to that.

- [Narrator] "The
Adventures of Tintin"

continued uninterrupted
in the Le Soir.

"The Crab with the Golden
Claws appeared in 1941,

"The Shooting Star" in 1942,

"The Secret of the Unicorn"

and "Red Rackham's
Treasure" in 1943.

"The Secret of the Unicorn,"

which begins at a famous
flea market in Brussels,

is the story of a
timeless and exotic quest,

the quest for a treasure,

and above all, for
origins and roots.

This time, Herge
doesn't focus on Tintin

but on Captain Haddock, on
the trail of his ancestors.

With the splendid
panels of pages

of "The Secret of the Unicorn,"

Herge perfected his
coloring methods.

The clear line technique
surrounding the flat colors

enhanced the readability
of the panels

by giving equal priority to
every element in the drawing,

whether in the background
or the foreground.

(gentle music)

- [Translator] Herge
said that his job

was that of an illuminator.

There's something very laborious

about putting all
these panels together,

making sure they're well
drawn, clean, and readable.

And so, there's a homemade
craft element to it.

It's very demanding.

And on a daily
basis, it requires an
incredible discipline.

- [Narrator] After the
Thomsons and Captain Haddock,

Herge completed Tintin's family
in "Red Rackham's Treasure"

with an ingenious egghead,

an odd little academic

inspired by the explorer
Auguste Piccard.

- [Narrator] Professor
Cuthbert Calculus,

an absent-minded and
half-deaf physicist,

suddenly appears with
his ingenious inventions,

a character destined to
become an inexhaustible source

of gags and misunderstandings.

(loud thud)
(playful music)

(loud thud)

- The figures around
Tintin, his friends,

the what you call in French
(speaks in a foreign language),

the world characters around him,

they are very realistic.

You see every wrinkle on
Captain Haddock's face,

every detail about
Professor Calculus.

It's all terribly,
terribly detailed,

but also, the key thing,
which is more important,

is the hero, Tintin,

is wonderfully vague,
he's an anonymous figure,

with the round head,
just the quiff thing,

the two dots, the little nose.

And what's so clever about that

is that any reader can
identify with Tintin.

So, it's a brilliant combination
of the central figure,

Tintin, who is not well-defined,

and the very realistic
setting of the country

where the adventure
is taking place

and the characters around it.

(gentle piano music)

- [Narrator] Georges
Remi's imaginary world

was dramatically submerged
by the real world

when the Allies finally
liberated Brussels

in September, 1944.

(crowd cheering)

(woman laughs)

A period of joyous relief
was also a time of reckoning

for those suspected of
fraternizing with the enemy.

An accusatory finger
was pointed at everyone

who had worked at the
German-run Le Soir newspaper.

Georges Remi even
spent one night in jail

before the authorities
dropped the charges,

having found nothing
compromising in
Tintin's adventures

during the occupation.

- [Translator] The
immediate postwar period

was very hard for Herge.

All at once, he was
caught up in reality,

meaning that, like everyone
else, he was made aware

of the horror of
the extermination
camps, for example,

and so, like anyone else
who considered themselves

to be neutral, there were
questions to be answered.

Did I ignore what I
should've noticed?

Did I deliberately not
see things, et cetera.

And so they were troubled
times for many people,

and the bubble he
was locked inside

with Tintin finally burst.

Added to that, there were
depression and overwork,

which is a physical ailment.

There are letters which reveal

that he was really
sick of Tintin,

he didn't want to
hear about him.

He saw the younger
audience as a cruel monster

just waiting for
things to befall him.

There are some very harsh words
that are extremely poignant.

- [Narrator] What had the
past 20 years brought him?

20 years stuck to his desk

with no time off apart
from the odd Sunday.

Georges had the impression
life had passed him by,

that he was a prisoner
of his own characters,

and above all, of Tintin,

who he drew, at that moment,
with a whip in his hand.

- [Translator] The drawing
board is like a home,

it's a personal
and private place,

and is no doubt a source
of pleasure and dreams

for so many authors, and
definitely for Herge.

But it can become an
instrument of torture too.

It can become a source
of worry and of stress.

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] Despite
exhaustion and doubt,

Herge gave a favorable response
to three industrialists,

notably to Raymond Leblanc,

who suggested in
the autumn of 1946

that they launch
a Tintin magazine,

where he would
publish new adventures

after a two-year absence.

The magazine gave Georges
the possibility of completing

a project that was
close to his heart,

and which reflected his
state of mind at the time,

a disturbing, paranormal story,

in which the main
character was the mummy

of an Inca king, Rascar Capac.

(mysterious music)

(crystal ball crashes)

- [Translator] "The
Seven Crystal Balls"

is one of the most
frightening adventures,

one of the stories
most concerned with
the fear of madness,

which was a very
personal theme for Herge.

His mother, who was
extremely fragile,

had been interned several times,

and unfortunately, received
electric shock treatment,

if one could call it treatment.

In any case, it was
extremely hard on her.

Elisabeth Remi, Herge's mother,

wouldn't survive such treatment,

and she died in April, 1946.

"The Seven Crystal Balls"
and "Prisoners of the Sun"

perhaps metaphorically, but
nonetheless quite directly,

are marked by his concerns,
and at the same time,

a certain tolerance for various
perceptions of the world

which are perhaps not the norm.

- [Narrator] Georges's
depression worsened at times,

much to the dismay of the
"Tintin" magazine personnel.

He increasingly found refuge

in Switzerland or
at the seaside,

as he couldn't find the
strength to keep on drawing,

and refused to continue working
as the slave to a creature

that was sucking
the life out of him.

- [Translator] It's
very unpredictable.

What's wonderful with writers

is that things
just come to them.

They may wonder what's
going on, what's happening,

and everything may
be fine in some ways,

but then they lose something

and they can't find that thread

that they've been
following so easily.

It's very odd, that thread,

it's a thread that connects
you with childhood,

a link with the
childhood of the readers

for whom you're writing.

At times like that,
you're on a tightrope,

but you're able to
balance and juggle

with so many things.

(melancholy piano music)

- [Narrator] To protect
himself from overwork,

Georges made a decision.

He created a refuge
with Germaine,

a real retreat in a large
house in Ceroux-Mousty

in the countryside
outside Brussels.

The image was one of a
well-settled, satisfied couple.

Georges believed
his country retreat

could stave off his
existential anguish.

A second, and vital,
decision was to create

a better workplace, with
a team to assist him.

The Studios Herge was set
up in Brussels in 1950.

Georges could now
count on other artists

to create his
backgrounds and settings,

and colorists to complete
the painstaking job

of hand-painting every
panel in a Tintin story.

The studio team enabled Herge

to concentrate on
what he preferred,

drawing his characters

and dreaming up
incredible new adventures.

- [Translator] In a
way, Tintin led him on.

He was larger than life,

and he had an
incredible intuition

for finding whatever
enabled the character

and his world to grow.

He realized that each
album was an adventure,

an adventure for Tintin, but
also an adventure for himself.

He was looking for something.

It had to be exciting,

every page had to be
new and inventive,

he had to create and
surprise himself.

(elegant music)

- [Narrator] Largely thanks
to the team around him,

Herge was able to imagine
a futuristic adventure

that demanded a good deal
of scientific research

and technical drawings

that were unprecedented
for comic books.

(adventurous music)

(rocket rumbling)

In 1953, 16 years
before Neil Armstrong,

Tintin walked on the moon.

Herge and his heroes were
now ahead of their time.

Readers were thrilled
by the two-volume story,

and the albums were
phenomenally successful.

(playful piano music)

The teamwork organization

really proved itself in
"The Calculus Affair."

Herge had become a master

in scriptwriting
and plot breakdown,

borrowing the most
effective framing

and sequencing techniques
from the cinema.

In "The Calculus Affair,"

the panels are like
perfectly framed film shots,

building the intensity
of each scene

to a cliffhanger situation,

encouraging the readers
to turn the page.

The global success of
Tintin's adventures,

now translated into
numerous languages,

did little to appease Georges.

After 25 years of marriage,

his relationship with Germaine
was constantly deteriorating.

Georges succumbed to the charms

of a young colorist at the
studios, Fanny Vlamynck.

The sudden attraction
led to a relationship

as of autumn 1956.

As a scout steeped in the
values of honor and fidelity,

Georges felt guilty and was
ill at ease in his double life.

He worked harder than ever

and came up with an album

that was perhaps
the most personal

and poignant in the series.

- [Translator] Writing
a story isn't something

that you do artificially,

just inventing a character
and various events.

You put your whole
being into it.

"Tintin in Tibet" really
reflects what was going on

in Herge's life at that point.

He was wondering what to do.

He was in love with someone
else, but at the same time,

he didn't want to
make Germaine unhappy.

And in a certain way,

we can read "Tintin in
Tibet" in that light.

Tintin is certain that he can
find his friend Chang alive.

And that's the pretext for a
battle against the elements,

and ultimately, he has to
go beyond his own limits.

The dreams of white,

torments that Herge himself
experienced in his own dreams,

which he noted down at the time.

The white we can find
in "Tintin in Tibet"

is also very telling.

It's not by chance that Herge
was so fond of this episode,

it was the one in which he
invested himself the most.

- [Narrator] In the end,
against all the odds,

Tintin finally finds Chang,

and Herge regained
a certain serenity,

aided by oriental philosophers

who accompanied him
to the Himalayas.

Georges left Germaine
in the autumn of 1960

and moved in with Fanny.

A new life opened
up at the age of 53.

Far from the classic
bourgeois environment

of Ceroux-Mousty,
Georges gave vent

to his passion for
contemporary art.

He became a keen collector,

and surrounded himself
with abstract paintings,

Frank Stella, Serge Poliakoff,

Sonia Delaunay, Jean Dubuffet,

the Belgian Louis Van Lint,

or the slash canvasses
of Lucio Fontana.

- [Translator] I
remember the first time

I went into his office and
I saw what was on the walls.

It was quite surprising.

I'll tell you the
most striking thing.

There were some white tiles

with a plastic funeral
wreath underneath,

a piece by Raynaurd.

I remember Herge explaining
who Raynaurd was,

and why he generally
expressed himself

using very cold images,

with taboos and
transgressions, et cetera.

It can all be quite puzzling

for someone who
doesn't understand it.

So, he had that talent, that
interest in certain artists,

and he didn't but
things inadvisably.

He was drawn by the
artistic approach

as much as by the work itself.

- [Narrator] Art was
a breath of fresh air.

What if he was a
frustrated artist

who had missed his vocation?

Herge posed the question
himself in the early '60s

when he began painting
abstract subjects.

- Then he wanted, he said, "I
would like to do this myself.

"I would like to see
if I can do this."

So, in fact, he got in touch

with a leading Belgian
abstract artist and said,

"Could you give me lessons,
could you instruct me?"

and he had sessions with him.

And he did, I think,
37 abstract canvasses.

(gentle music)

But the judgment of the
artist who was advising him

and of his friends were, "It's
something you enjoy doing,

"perhaps getting
out of the system,

"but what you are best
at doing is Tintin."

- [Narrator] Herge
realized that painting

required a lifelong devotion.

He laid his brushes aside,

picking up his pen
and Chinese ink again

in order to finish
another album.

This was a weak low,

where nothing or very
little actually happens.

The whole Tintin family

is gathered together
at Marlinspike Hall,

and the vaudeville entertainment

could almost have
been the final album,

as "The Castafiore Emerald"
has an air of completion

and contentedness about it.

- [Translator] When you
create a family of characters,

at some point, readers become
attached to each of them

and wait for them to return.

People expect to see Calculus
and the Thomsons, et cetera,

and they're disappointed
if one is missing.

So, the system becomes
a little parochial.

What's extraordinary with
"The Castafiore Emerald"

is that he ultimately
manages to turn the system

on its head and
reverse everything,

with an idea that I think
is incredibly daring.

Tintin doesn't go anywhere.

As a child, you might
like this story a bit less

because maybe it's
too sophisticated,

but when you read it now,
it's quite a remarkable feat.

(static crackling)

(television buzzing)

(electricity crackling)

(static crackling)

What's wonderful with Herge

is that he really
believes in comics.

He believes that comics can
translate every type of emotion.

They can make you cry and
laugh, and puzzle you,

and haunt your dreams.

(gentle music)

- [Translator] Herge
is a veritable author,

in the sense that he
expresses his obsessions,

he presents his vision of
the world, a form of humor.

He makes it a very
personal form of expression

and, almost unconsciously,
a private journal.

Tintin is an idealized
projection of Herge,

but Herge is as much
Haddock, or Calculus,

or even perhaps the Thomsons,

and Bianca
Castafiore, who knows?

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] After 50
years of cohabitation,

Herge and Tintin
were reconciled.

He realized that, after
a string of adventures

begun in 1929, he had
finally created a major work

that would mark
comic book history

and, no doubt, art history too.

To celebrate their
golden anniversary,

Herge made a
caricature of himself

and his life as a prisoner,

gray-haired and chained
to his drawing table.

Mm, yes, we met
first five years ago.

- [Narrator] At the
end of the 1970s,

the modern art fan gained
a passion for pop art,

and his office featured
paintings by Roy Lichtenstein.

Andy Warhol himself
made the inventor

of modern comics a pop icon.

But time was running out
for Georges, he was ill.

He was diagnosed with
bone marrow cancer.

(crowd chattering)

(crows applauds)

He bought one last artwork,
in 1982, Bleu de Nuit,

a Polaroid mosaic
by Stefan de Jaeger,

in which a ghostly
double seems to emerge.

Georges Remi, Herge,
perhaps responsible

for raising comics and cartoons

to the status of the ninth art,

died on March the 3rd, 1983.

He specified that,
after his death,

no one else should ever create
another Tintin adventure.

(gentle music)