The James Bond Complex

We just finished our 2019 Montreal Comic-con panel. We took a few minutes of our busy day to have a cup of coffee and talk about this fantastic week-end. Our meet-up with Jeff Wybo of james Bond Canada and Jean Goyette of Club James Bond France. Our meeting with Michael Madsen (Damian Falco in Die Another Day) and James Bond comic book creator Mike Grell (Permission To Die) as well as encounters with other fans and fellow influencers.

Bonjour cher auditoire!

Durant les années 2000 même la série 007 a attrapé la fièvre de repartir le cadran à...euh... 00zéro. C'est donc en 2006 qu'EON a joué une des plus importantes mises de son glorieux histoire: Casino Royale, adapté du roman original d'Ian Fleming, avec un tout nouvel acteur et, qui plus est, faire passer cette aventure comme la toute première mission de James Bond comme agent ayant son permis de tuer.

Fidèle à leur devise, les animateurs Mathieu et Edgar font venir un ami pour en jaser. Cette fois-ci c'est monsieur Traversy, Simon Traversy. Instructeur d'arts martiaux et de combats, Simon se démontre comme étant un homme bien instruit, bon parleur, avec un goût pour les choses délectables dans la vie, comme se pointer dans un sauna très ''européen'' où les gentlemen et demoiselles s'entremêlent (plus de détails dans l'épisode!).

Nous espérons que l'auditoire partagera notre conviction que Casino Royale est non seulement un chef d’oeuvre, mais un film qui inspire toute sorte de discussions stimulantes. Lunettes fumées et hoodie durant une partie de poker, pour ou contre*? Dans combien de films Eva Green se met-elle à poil? Est-ce que démissioner des services secret équivaut à résilier un contrat de joueur de hockey?

Préparez-vous un martini, sortez vos cartes de jeux et passez du temps au fameux Casino Royale!

*Réponse: contre. Ne portez pas de lunettes fumées ni de hoodie. Dites-vous que vous pouvez toujours faire comme Eva Green!

Avis aux intéressés: ceux et celles qui désirent apprendre les formes d’auto défense sont les bienvenus au gym Angry Monkey à Montréal, où notre invité Simon offre des cours!

Hello, dear listeners!

Alright, alright. So we spent the better part of an hour waxing poetic about the mental toughness required to become a fighter, as well as the various styles combatants adopt given their disciplines. Talk is nice, but it’s action that defines who a person is.

Chit chat time is over. There are heavies to vanquish left and right! Friend of the show Simon Traversy of course returns this week to indulge hosts Mathieu and Edgar is some proper Bond talk, and boy does it get interesting. Connery, Lazenby, Craig and the like are all actors whereas Simon actually participates in and teaches combat, prompting very astute, informative, and honest comments on each actor’s style. Some fights that fans widely recognize as being among the best in the entire series might not be so perfect after all, at least if the filmmakers had gone for some extra realism points.  

Last week was all about theory and philosophy. This week things get bloody and bruised.

When is the best moment to gouge someone’s eyes out? How essential is speed when engaged in fisticuffs whilst the world’s fate is at stake? Does Brosnan only take seriously the fights with a personal history involved? How helpful is thinking on one’s feet to use one’s environment, like, say, a handy nearby decorative swordfish? Finally, Simon answers what is surely the most pressing query: how would he tackle the proverbial ‘’line’’, assuming each 007 lined up to challenge him (aka: how insanely difficult would it be to overthrow Roger Moore?!?).

No time to sit back this week, listeners! On your feet and get ready for the fight of your lives!

If anybody in the Montreal area is interested in receiving real punches from Simon, check out the Angry Monkey gym! 

http://www.angrymonkeymma.com

Hello, dear listeners!

We’ve all watched action movies featuring characters that get involved in some amazing fisticuffs, displaying high-octane combat moves that have us on the edge of our seats, even taking our collective breath away. Who hasn’t walked away from such movies thinking “Wouldn’t it be cool to be as well trained as that hero and kick butt as fantastically as they did in the movie?” We all want to be like Daniel Craig in the SPECTRE train fight scene. 

Mathieu and Edgar have certainly fantasized about being the heroes of such adventures, but this week they’ll get a dose of reality about what it is to be a fighter. You might even say they’ll get some sense knocked into them. New friend of the show Simon Traversy (and personal friend to Mathieu), an actual fighter and teacher of various defence skills, steps into the studio to talk about 007 and so much more. In fact, the conversation regarding martial arts, boxing and the like was so widespread that the hosts decided to split the episode into 2 parts, with this week’s first instalment essentially functioning as an introduction to the idea of being a fighter and getting mentally involved in a fight per say. We didn’t even start talking about the individual Bonds until the 2ndhour!

Simon regales Matt and Edgar with a plethora of personal experience, some of it coming with killer punch lines, as well as some theoretical basics about various fighting concepts. Rather than rambunctious and testosterone filled, the conversation turns rather philosophical. After all, as everybody knows, a real life fight is nothing like fighting in the movies. Well, as we soon discovered early in the episode, almost everyone knows that…

The bell has rung to commence the first of this 2-round special, The Fists of Bond. 007 awaits his turn next week. For now, we cover as much of the dojo mat as we can with an introduction to kicking *ss.

For anyone interested in receiving further wisdom from Simon, check out the Angry Monkey gym in Montreal!

http://www.angrymonkeymma.com

Hello dear listeners!

What do you hear when playing the various cues of the James Bond film scores? More importantly, what do you feel? Are you transported back to the movies and the very scenes those cues evoke, or do the magical musical notes take you elsewhere in your imagination and have your heart rattle to a different beat? 

Yes, fresh off of their Masters degrees in musicology from the John Barry School of Wa-Wa (a name change to the once Monty Norman Academy of Calypso), Mathieu and Edgar bask in the glory of the 007 music that characterized the films of the 1960s. The boys go through each film, from DN to OHMSS, chitchat a little bit about the albums in general, before diving into their personal favourite 3 cues from each. 

But what the hosts offer this week is more than just a random list of favourite cues and why the music is so good. Nay, Matt and Edgar get personal, revealing their innermost opinions on the musical movements, sharing what each makes them think of and feel. Which cue makes Edgar think of himself as a badass mother f*cker when leaving an airport? Which makes them think of a good time in the summer, or relaxing on the beach for that matter? And, above all else, which transports them to a wonderful, stimulating evening with a very special person?

Sit back, dust off your copies of John Burlingame’s book, and let the hosts take you on a musical and personal journey through the Bond sounds of the 60s. It’ll be music to your ears. 

Bonjour, cher auditoire!

Ceci va paraitre légèrement embarrassant, mais pour toutes les discussions palpitantes, longues, et détaillées qui ont eu lieu à date depuis le lancement de James Bond: Mission Déclassifiée, le duo d’animateurs Mathieu et Edgar viennent de réaliser qu’ils ne se sont jamais formellement introduit à ceux et celles qui clament pour entendre leurs voix enchanteurs. 

Tout ceci pour dire qu’après les sur-analyses de Dr No, Bons baisers de Russie, et deDemain de meurt jamais, les mecs prennent finalement le temps de d’offrir un portrait plus complet de leurs personnalités eu tant qu’admirateurs de la série 007. Pourquoi sont-ils si accros au juste? D’où vient cette fièvre de 007 degrés et pourquoi ne lâche-t-elle pas prise de leurs corps et esprits? Quel a été le premier film qui les a séduit et qui (ou quoi!) les a introduit à la série? Que ressentait Edgar lorsqu’il a vu une Bond Girl pour la première fois de sa vie à un jeune âge? Pourquoi George Lazenby a-t-il voulu personnellement les rencontrer en septembre 2017?!?

D’ailleurs, en parlant de communauté des admirateurs, Mathieu et Edgar révèlent la méthode de penser qui les a poussé à enregistrer des épisodes pour un auditoire francophone, une section de la dite communauté qui tombe souvent dans l’oubli. 

Et oui, pour la première fois depuis le lancement de James Bond : Mission Déclassifiée, vous ne serez pas confrontés à un épisode de 2 heures et demie (voir plus). Après tout, Dame Nature a finalement décidé que l’été peut commencer à Montréal. Prenons ça un peu plus relaxe ce mois-ci alors! 

Hello, dear listeners!

Ah, BBC America. Kind of like the BBC, but also not. A production company respected the world over for its quality radio plays, news reporting, documentaries, and television broadcasts. What’s that you say? In 2014 they released a 4-part miniseries based on the wartime experiences of Ian Fleming? Oh, how delightful! What could possibly go wrong?!?

That’s what hosts Mathieu and Edgar finnd out on this week’s show. Seeing as they are unequivocal experts on all things Fleming, they sniff out some of the less than accurate plot machinations, as well as sniff out some of the production’s more stinky aspects. There is much ground to cover, what with four 45-50 minute long episodes, but that doesn’t mean they rush to the finish line without analyzing the essential talking points. 

Is Dominic Cooper playing the role of Fleming too seriously? What was that other television show Lara Pulver is famous for appearing nude in and no other particular reason? Edgar admits to actually doing occasional research when the subject matter stimulates him, like Annabelle Wallis. How important is it that the show drops little hints of the creation Fleming would later give birth to? When is it useful to claim you’re a super major fan of Mein Kampf? Is it really that bad to be into BDSM? What happens when two secret agents on the run opt to take refuge inside a female elephant’s privates? What does Ian Fleming think of social media?

Yes, it’s another week of endlessly fascinating, engaging, and… juicy chatter at The James Bond Complex. *

*This week’s episode of The James Bond Complex is X rated. Have your martinis at the ready.

Hello, dear listeners!

The time has come for a major announcement. This will come as a surprise to many, possibly a shock to some. Mathieu and Edgar have been doing this show for well over a year now. On a weekly basis, they’ve delved into the fictional life of James Bond 007 in all its shapes and forms, from Fleming to the films and everything in between.

But this week will be different. Very much so in fact.

Now is the moment to peel back the onion layers and reveal details of life and times of the real James Bond! Yes, the hosts found a book by John Pearson titled James Bond: The Authorized Biography, in which its author relates many juicy details of 007’s early life and career as a secret agent directly from the man himself. His family, his loves, his world travels at an early age, his WWII service, his trials and tribulations while working for Her Majesty’s Secret Service, as well as how another author, Ian Fleming, who knew Bond, made use of the agent’s exciting life to publish a series of novels, fictionalizing his adventures. 

What’s that now? You don’t believe this to be true? Well, come now, it’s perfectly normal to scoff at the notion that James Bond was an actual person who existed because of what we know of the Fleming novels and films. You see, that’s the brilliance of this book. By publishing this “biography”, the world gets to know Bond’s real life whilst not believing that any of it is actually real. Very cloak and dagger, just like the real man himself. Art imitates life imitating art inspired by life. It’s really quite clear when you stop and think about it for a moment. By posing this as a piece of fiction, the reality is therefore concealed by the fiction therein, itself inspired by reality. 

So let us begin the summer reading season with something a little different, a not real book about a real person whose not real life was written by a real person who created a not real version of the real person this not real book is examining. 

Sheer brilliance.  

to be written. if you are reading this. Edgar forgot to write a synopsis.