HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Succès de scandale'' ( French for "success from scandal") is a term for any artistic work whose success is attributed, in whole or in part, to public
controversy Controversy (, ) is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of conflicting opinion or point of view. The word was coined from the Latin '' controversia'', as a composite of ''controversus'' – "turned in an op ...
surrounding the work. In some cases the controversy causes audiences to seek out the work for its titillating content, while in others it simply heightens public curiosity. This concept is echoed by the phrase "there is no such thing as bad publicity".


''Belle Époque''

The ''
Belle Époque The Belle Époque () or La Belle Époque () was a period of French and European history that began after the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 and continued until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Occurring during the era of the Fr ...
'' ('beautiful era') in Paris, roughly from 1871 to 1914, was notable for many ''succès de scandale''. This was also where and when the term originated. In the examples below, artists started their careers with some sort of scandal, with some connection to turn-of-the-century Paris. In other cities, provoking a scandal appeared more risky, as
Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...
found out shortly after his relatively "successful" Parisian scandal ('' Salomé'' in 1894, portraying the main character as a necrophile). * '' Le déjeuner sur l'herbe'' ("Luncheon on the Grass") by
Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French Modernism, modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism (art movement), R ...
, presented at the
Salon des refusés The Salon des Refusés, French for "exhibition of rejects" (), is generally known as an exhibition of works rejected by the jury of the official Paris Salon, but the term is most famously used to refer to the Salon des Refusés of 1863. Today, ...
, 1863: Even the
Emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...
was scandalised, but Manet had a nice start to his career. * Alfred Jarry shocked Paris in 1896 with the first of his absurdistic Ubu plays: '' Ubu Roi''. The performance of this play was forbidden after the first night, though Jarry got around the prohibition by moving the production to a puppet theatre. *A new group of artists, labeled disrespectfully ''" Les Fauves"'' ("The Wild Beasts") by an art critic, had their successful debut in 1905 Paris (and kept the name). *
Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; ; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer and conductor best known for his Tone poems (Strauss), tone poems and List of operas by Richard Strauss, operas. Considered a leading composer of the late Roman ...
had little success with his first two operas, which today are no longer performed. He then tried something different: he set music to Oscar Wilde's ''
Salome Salome (; , related to , "peace"; ), also known as Salome III, was a Jews, Jewish princess, the daughter of Herod II and princess Herodias. She was granddaughter of Herod the Great and stepdaughter of Herod Antipas. She is known from the New T ...
'' in 1905. It created a scandal, including in the New York Met, where the production had to be closed after one night. But Strauss wanted more, and his next opera ('' Elektra'', 1909) was so "noisy" that cartoons appeared with Strauss directing an orchestra of animals. However, the opera's
libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...
, written by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, was quite tame. *The 1912 ballet '' Afternoon of a Faun'', choreographed and headed by Vaslav Nijinsky, provoked strong reactions. The newspaper ''
Le Figaro () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It was named after Figaro, a character in several plays by polymath Pierre Beaumarchais, Beaumarchais (1732–1799): ''Le Barbier de Séville'', ''The Guilty Mother, La Mère coupable'', ...
'' wrote in a front-page review that the "movements are filthy and bestial in their eroticism".''Le Figaro'', 30 May 1912, "Un Faux Pas" Gaston Calmette editorial, cited in Buckle, Nijinsky, p.242. Buckle suggests Calmette was seeking to imply Nijinsky was showing bulging genitalia when seen in profile. Despite, or because of, this criticism, the ballet was sold-out in Paris. *''
The Rite of Spring ''The Rite of Spring'' () is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1913 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company; the original choreography was by Vaslav Nijinsky ...
'' (1913) *The original 1917 production of the ballet ''
Parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually some variety ...
''. * George Antheil's 1923 performance of futurist piano music at the Champs-Élysées theater. * Paul Chabas had won a most prestigious prize with his '' September Morn'' in Paris in 1912. Nudity as portrayed in this painting was, however, far from shocking to Parisians half a century after ''Déjeuner''. The market value of the painting remained low. Then, Chabas put it on display in a New York shop window in 1913. There, for the first time in history, it appears a ''succès de scandale'' scheme was set up by a publicity agent ( Harry Reichenbach), who "accidentally" tipped off a morality crusader to the picture. The scandal that evolved brought financial success and secured Chabas's place in art history books. Although later deemed
kitsch ''Kitsch'' ( ; loanword from German) is a term applied to art and design that is perceived as Naivety, naïve imitation, overly eccentric, gratuitous or of banal Taste (sociology), taste. The modern avant-garde traditionally opposed kitsch ...
, the painting ended up in one of the most prestigious museums of New York.


Other examples

Paul Chabas's ''September Morn'' was not the last time that Comstockery fanned the success it wanted to prohibit:
Mae West Mary Jane "Mae" West (August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American actress, singer, comedian, screenwriter, and playwright whose career spanned more than seven decades. Recognized as a prominent sex symbol of her time, she was known ...
quipped "I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it." after the Society for the Suppression of Vice had maneuvered to get her play '' Sex'' re-censored by the
Police Department The police are a constituted body of people empowered by a state with the aim of enforcing the law and protecting the public order as well as the public itself. This commonly includes ensuring the safety, health, and possessions of citize ...
Play Jury. A few years later, when she was over 40 years old, her sex-symbol status paid off when by 1933, West was one of the largest box-office draws in the United States and, by 1935, she was also the highest paid woman and the second-highest paid person in the United States (after
William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His extravagant methods of yellow jou ...
). Films qualified as ''succès de scandale'' include Louis Malle's 1958 '' The Lovers'', Bernardo Bertolucci's 1972 '' Last Tango in Paris''. and more recently Abdellatif Kechiche's 2013 '' Blue Is the Warmest Colour''. Scandal also boosted the success of writers of modest talent. Even famous writers like Flaubert and Joyce have been described as deploying ''succès de scandale'' recipes to their advantage.Valérie Bénéjam
"The Elliptical Adultery of ''Ulysses'': A Flaubertian Recipe for Succès de Scandale", pp. 76–93
in ''James Joyce and the Nineteenth-Century French Novel'' edited by Finn Fordham and Rita Sakr. Rodopi, 2011.


See also

*
Advertisement Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...
*
Cause célèbre A ( , ; pl. ''causes célèbres'', pronounced like the singular) is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning, and heated public debate. The term is sometimes used positively for celebrated legal cases for th ...
* Épater la bourgeoisie * Herostratus *
Publicity In marketing, publicity is the public visibility or awareness for any product, service, person or organization. It may also refer to the movement of information from its source to the general public, often (but not always) via the media. The sub ...
*
Publicity stunt In marketing, a publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized, or set up by amateurs. Such events are frequently utiliz ...
*
Streisand effect The Streisand effect is an unintended consequences, unintended consequence of attempts to hide, remove, or Censorship, censor information, where the effort instead increases public awareness of the information. The term was coined in 2005 by ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Succes de scandale French words and phrases Public relations techniques Belle Époque