Brittany is still a winner, especially in the heat!

parisdiaArchitecture, Art, Flowers and gardens, Happy moments, Movies6 Comments

In the summer, I love to take my little car and drive west with a few friends to visit. This year I went to château de Lassay, in Mayenne, with Hugues de Montalembert whose young cousins still inhabit this mid 15 th century military castle. Aymeri, Cecilia and their three super talented children (two girls are classicists at Ecole Normale … Read More

Happy May Day and long live Brad Pitt

parisdiaBooks, Movies5 Comments

On May 1, our Labour Day, the whole of France sells or picks Lily of the valley. So if you don’t have any in your garden here is a little bouquet for you. May its divine perfume stay with you all year! and to amuse you on this holiday, read the new biography which Frédéric Mitterrand, the former culture minister … Read More

“Dancing Pina” is not to be missed

parisdiaMovies, Performing artsLeave a Comment

It was very moving to hear the director Florian Heinzen-Ziob and one of the dancers, Lucieny Kaabral from Cabo Verde introduce the film at the first public screening at the Cinq Caumartin theater. One always says that the first day of a new film is the thermometer of its success and at 2 pm, the room was almost full. “Dancing … Read More

The film Tár is dark but overpowering

parisdiaMovies1 Comment

We all came out of the theater saying that Cate Blanchett was going to win the Oscar for best actress. She is so amazing in this film where she plays Lydia Tár, a prodigious and tough music conductor, that one comes out obsessed by her meanness and her perversity. She is in every image o the movie for 2 hours … Read More

Lou de Laâge is spectacular in “Le Tourbillon de vie”

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Le Tourbillon de la Vie (Julia in English) is a film about chance. What would have happened if I had decided otherwise? And there are three Julia s in this story. One who becomes a successful concert pianist and is utterly unhappy in her private life. One who marries early a successful physicist turned banker and ends up divorcing, another … Read More

To do and not to do this week

parisdiaArt, Movies4 Comments

For some reason there are many galas this month at Musée d’Orsay in the Munch exhibition,  at the Palais Royal for the Friends of Chantilly, at Cercle Carpeaux for the Académie de l’Opéra National de Paris, and they are all fun. “Les Amis du Louvre“, organized a screening of the wonderful film “l‘Ombre de Goya” (Goya’s shadow) in the Michel … Read More

Gérard Depardieu is irresistible in Les Volets Verts

parisdiaMovies4 Comments

The critic has been very negative and I don’t know why. “Les Volets Verts” (the green shutters), the new film by Jean Becker, with Gérard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant is based on an old story published in 1950 by George Simenon. The script is Jean Loup Dabadie‘s last one. He died in May 2020. It is an (almost) one man … Read More