Nick Hammond
Le Lycéen
On the Cusp Between Childhood and Adulthood
Director Christophe Honoré has spoken of his latest film Le Lycéen (Winter Boy), which evokes the death of his father when Honoré was only 15, as his most personal yet. He has chosen, however, not to place the action in … Read More
MeanWeill: Berlin to Broadway (via Paris)
The Gritty, Bittersweet World of Weill
One of the joys of Paris is how often unexpected performances pop up in unlikely locations. I had been to La Cave Café in the 18th arrondissement before, but I imagined that the bar’s name (“cave” means “cellar”) hinted only at huge … Read More
Molière: Le Jeu du Vrai et du Faux
Plays on Truth
The subtitle of the National Library of France’s exhibition commemorating the 400th birthday of the great comic playwright Molière – “Le Jeu du Vrai et du Faux,” meaning “play on truth and falsehood” – not only captures very well a … Read More
Tout le Monde Aime Jeanne
French Stand-up Queen Excels On-screen
Tout le Monde Aime Jeanne is in some respects a very conventional movie. It follows all the rom-com clichés of a single woman having to decide between various men, with the probability that she will end up with the man … Read More
Tosca
Safe Choice for New Music Director
Pierre Audi’s 2014 production of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, revived in 2016 and again now at the Bastille, is fast becoming a stalwart of the Opéra de Paris’s repertoire, and it is easy to see why: with a set that is … Read More
Héroïnes Romantiques
Dramatizing Life and Death
In our world of conflict, plague, dictatorships and the rise of the far right, it is hard to escape the feeling that things are regressing rather than progressing. However, one discernible area of positive advancement can be found in the … Read More
La Nuit du 12
A Caring Copper
As crazy as it might seem to be going to the movies in the middle of a heatwave in Paris, over two hours spent in an air-conditioned cinema afforded a much-needed respite from temperatures that have been edging above 40 … Read More
‘My Paris’ & ‘Ravel: Concertos pour Piano-Mélodies’
Paris Is Flute. Flute Is Paris
When an album with the title My Paris appeared on the list of newly released classical recordings, I felt it would be rude not to review it for Paris Update. Australian flautist Ana de la Vega, who was inspired by … Read More
Parsifal
A Knightly Cult
I must admit to approaching British director Richard Jones’s production at the Opéra Bastille of Richard Wagner’s Parsifal with some trepidation. Jones’s previous productions of Wagner’s other works, especially the Ring Cycle, have had a tendency to trivialize the most … Read More
Elektra
Hard-Hitting Production of Dark Tale
Richard Strauss’s one-act opera Elektra, the first of his many collaborations with librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal, is unrelentingly hard-hitting throughout its one hour and 45 minutes. No room or time is given for light relief as the heroine singlemindedly pursues … Read More