Nick Hammond
Parisian Soundscapes
Parisians Attack Sun King with Scurrilous Songs The awful events in Paris this month have been keenly felt in other countries, not least in Britain, where the huge swell of empathy and support has been genuine and deeply felt. A … Read More
Moses und Aron
Breaking Out ofThe Operatic Comfort Zone A Charolais bull plays the golden calf in Moses und Aron. Photo © Bernd Uhlig If the slogan currently emblazoned across the huge facade of the Bastille Opera House – “Verdi or Schoenberg, why … Read More
Dheepan
Montesquieu Revisited for The 21st Century
Jacques Audiard is deservedly the most internationally respected and fêted French director around at the moment. Every one of his films manages at the same time to be powerfully memorable, horrifically violent and yet unexpectedly lyrical, whether it be through … Read More
Mustang
Home Imprisonment for Girls Who Want to Have Fun
Mid-July is never a good month for new French movies. Almost always at this time of year, distributors tend to release the films they know are complete stinkers, usually “comedies” involving middle-aged men going on vacation. So this week’s movie … Read More
Athalie
Discreet Paris Theater Gives Full Voice to Racine
Theater actors are not generally a self-effacing bunch. Dreams of having their names up in lights must be a powerful motivating factor. Indeed, many theaters, even on tour in the provinces, usually need a lead actor known from television or … Read More
La Sapienza
A Meditative Film Starring The Beauties of Italy
La Sapienza, Eugène Green’s fifth feature-length film, is a significant and often profound meditation on the passage of time, art and architecture, wisdom and knowledge (as the movie’s title implies) and the nature of love. Works by Green that have … Read More
Le Dernier Coup de Marteau
Hammer Blows of Fate Strike Broken Nuclear Family
Following Alix Delaporte’s success with her first film, Angèle et Tony (2011), which won acting prizes at the Césars for Clotilde Hesme and Grégory Gadebois, the director has teamed up with the same actors for Le Dernier Coup de Marteau (The … Read More
The No-Smoking Law in France: When the Fire Went Out(side) (2)
Ah, For a Breath of Fresh Outdoor Air! This is an actual photo from the Tour de France in the 1920s. It’s surprising how few riders smoke during the race today — wouldn’t top-level bicycle racers want the benefits of … Read More
L’Affaire SK1
Stalking a Serial Killer
Most crime dramas thrive on ever-increasing tension, long car chases and bloody shoot-outs, so the fact that Frédéric Tellier’s new movie has very few of these elements makes it refreshingly distinctive. Focusing on the police investigations into the murders committed … Read More
Pas Pleurer
Intimate Tales Illuminate Historical Conflict
The novel Pas Pleurer (Don’t Cry) by Lydie Salvayre was the narrow winner of France’s premier literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, at the end of 2014, beating the favorite, Kamel Daoud Meursault’s Contre-Enquête, by five votes to four in the fifth … Read More