La Mécanique du Cœur – Novel and Album

And novel it is indeed! La Mécanique du Cœur, by the French rock band Dionysos, is both a novel and an album of accompanying songs, telling the tale of a young boy from 19th Century Edinburgh, born with a heart so cold that his witch-midwife replaced it with a clockwork one, so that he may live.  A sad tale of Steampunk, then.
The video above is what clinched this for me, however, beautiful animation with a faint “Nightmare Before Christmas” feel to it, with the unfortunate young man finding that a clockwork heart can break just as easily as a real one.  More animated cogs than you can shake a beautifully designed pagoda parasol at, and a particularly sad ending to this miniature narrative.  I do not know what they’re singing, but I do not mind terribly – it’s perhaps even more lovely because of it.

Thank you so very much to Mr Martin for pointing this out – and you can read much more about it at the Filles Sourires blog.

  • Rafael
    Merci nightinggale girl. If you all like this video, I would also suggest you watch the video for "Flowers" by Emilie Simon.
  • This is a gorgeous story. I've read the original book and have listened to album. 'Tais toi mon coeur' is truthfully one of my most favorite songs.

    I'd like to inform all people of curiousity living outside of France that there is an English version of the book in the UK, existing under the title of "the boy with the cuckoo clock heart". An American version is going to come out in March of 2010.

    Here is a picture of the beautiful English cover: http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n61/n...

    The cover art was by the French artist Benjamin Lacombe, an extremely talented man who lives in Paris.
  • Featured.
    Amazing album. It isn't just in French though. There are a few English songs and I do believe one Spanish song on there as well.
  • UK Publisher
    La Mecanique du Coeur has been optioned for full-length animation by Luc Besson's production company. The book is currently being translated into English and will be published in the UK and the US as THE BOY WITH THE CUCKOO-CLOCK HEART in 2009.
  • The Good Sir Wi11i4m j4m3s
    doe anyone happen to know what the opening instrument is?
  • The Good Sir Wi11i4m j4m3s
    my life story
  • Widjet
    does anybody know if it (cd or book) will ever make it to the states? and i've heard talk about a movie (ah to dream)
  • Mario
    Every sensible man can identify himself in this video; he just want to stop the voice in his heart because love only lead to deception. I know it's sad. So he try to turn it into stone so he can stop the pain. Here in Quebec, most of the population understand both french and english; it's a unique vision of the world that we're so lucky to have. Real love is almost impossible i think, "they" want us to believe in that concept to sell us stuff like chocolate and flowers, i know that you wish i am wrong but look deeply inside of you like that guy and listnen...thank's for reading me
  • I think I'm going to have to track down this album and I'd love to read the book but my French is more than little weak...do you think they would ever dare to translate it to English? Not to be a jerk...or anything but It would be Shiny if they would...
  • Ginger
    Basically, Tais Toi means 'shut up'.
    Hence, he is telling his heart to be quiet. (or shut up)
    After he says tais toi mon coeur the female adds in "I do not recognize you". Thats basically the chorus of the song.

    Some of the lyrics get lost in translation, but I'll try my best to help!

    The first part (lyrics before the chorus) is basically him giving up and teling the "birds of his heart to give flight".

    The second part (after the first chorus) is a little harder to translate. He is singing about having a heart of stone to become a bigger boy so that she would be proud. He then goes on to sing:
    "But on a fine day like this
    You wake up with a stupid idea
    Digging up dreams and memories
    In the trash to passion."

    The third part (after the second chorus) translates as:
    "I have cracks
    In my shoes
    That knock upon my heart of stone
    Causing earthquakes."

    Im pretty sure this is how the song translates, but there may be some errors as I am only in my fourth year of french. But I really hope I helped!
  • So very beautiful... thanks for posting.
  • Yann
    Hi yes this is Theme Planet, you cn download it at No fat clips, here
    http://dekku.blogspot.com/
    (browse down a little)
  • Lovely video.
    Have you seen this one?
  • Oh man... I have been working on a song called "Her Clockwork Heart", I hope no one thinks I ripped the idea off from this? =(
  • maximum humphries
    anything with emily louizeau in it wins my vote, her video for ja suis jalose is quite steampunky, you can see it on youtube.
  • Brian Ghewette
    Listened to this album again, but once again I just couldn't find the ukulele infused pop/ alternative rock appealing. I still love this song its sadly the most consistent song on the album although I liked a few others none of them seem very appealing to U.S. listeners (I'm not talking about mainstream listeners either). This is some of their better work, considering their earlier albums which I'm not sure if I liked more or less. However, I will also add and ask: What exactly is the music scene in France right now? If someone could honestly tell me, that would be amazing.
  • Atomboy
    Tinkergirl disappears again. Perhaps an airship whisked her away to a place of gears and goggles. Me hopes all is well with her, as always, but hopes she returns with haste.
  • Arvid
    Oh, and the rythm of Je ne te reconnais pas- / Jen'te reconnai pas bloody rocks and whoever concieved it is a genius, unless this sort of thing is commonplace in french lyrics, in which case the french language deserves mad creds.
  • Arvid
    I just had to get a comment in while this item is the top post.

    Freaking mesmerizing. Extremly evocative once I learnt the lyrics to the chorus. It's all perfect: The clock estetics, iconic romantic cliff landscape, the whole subject matter is awesome, peaking with our hero finally rejecting that clockwork heart he has struggled to live with all this time. I absolutely love it, and I've watched it dozens of times now. I've already nicked the concept for something of my own. Well freaking done.

    And MobMentality: Absolutely, that would rock. Interstella 5555 is my favorite flick! If only the novel was available in english, though...
  • This is great! I just added to my Skype profile. :-)
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