French Weird
French Weird is a podcast that explores the darker, uncanny, and bizarre elements of contemporary France, moving beyond clichés like accordion music and cafés. It investigates counterculture, obscure art, and strange anomalies, blending cultural theory, esoterica, and literature. The show tracks liminal spaces, bizarre subcultures, and beautiful freak-outs from the mid-twentieth century to today, highlighting where high philosophy meets the profoundly bizarre. Each episode traces how France, a proudly rational nation, both absorbs global weirdness and exports its own mysterious brand, revealing truths about its politics, literature, and culture.
Episodes
Breton Folk Horror: Fairies, Found Footage and Arthur Machen
In this episode of French Weird we recall holiday travel to Brittany and explore Korriganed, a 2016 French "docufiction" film by Gaël Bizien that plays like a Celtic The Blair Witch Project.With your host Russell Williams, examine the Korrigan myth through Robert Kirk's 17th-century writing on fairy abductions, bizarre pop-culture crossovers like a 2011 Batman comic set in the Paris
The Spy behind The Fly: George Langelaan and David Cronenberg
In this episode of French Weird, host Russell Williams explores the fascinating, myth-laden life and fiction of Franco-British author George Langelaan (1908–1972). Best known as the author of "La Mouche"/"The Fly" (1957), the short story adapted into David Cronenberg’s iconic 1986 body-horror film, Langelaan lived a life that rivalled his most eccentric fiction.We unpack his W
The Morning of the Magicians: Fantastic Realism, Alchemy and the Occult
In this episode host Russell Williams thinks about Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier's book Le Matin des magiciens (1960), translated into English as The Morning of the Magicians or The Dawn of Magic. This is a book that Colin Wilson described as "a curious hodgepodge", "a series of wild speculations on magic; alchemy, telepathy, prophecy, strange cults, the Great Pyramid, Hitl
What's Weird about Michel Houellebecq? Lovecraft and beyond
In our first deep exploration, French Weird discovers the unexpected Weird in the work of notorious novelist Michel Houellebecq. Our starting point is his devotion to the work of a certain H. P. Lovecraft.For more information, visit www.frenchweird.com Reading listHouellebecq, Michel. Whatever. Translated by Paul Hammond, Serpent’s Tail, 1998.Houellebecq, Michel. H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World
An Introduction to French Weird
This is where it all begins. Your host, Russell Williams, gives an overview of the sort of things you might expect from French Weird.For more information, visit www.frenchweird.com Forget the accordion music, the cafés and the immaculate boulevards. There is a dark, uncanny and deeply strange texture pervading modern France—and it’s time to investigate.Welcome to French Weird, a podcast dedicated
