You remember the time when Woody Allen had a new film out every year and it was a ritual (at least for me) to go and see it every time. Well, there had not been a new Woody film since “A Rainy Day in New York” in 2019, which featured Ellen Fanning and Jude Law, and I was totally excited … Read More
“Ma Famille Afghane”, a soothing new animated film
“Ma Famille Afghane” (My Sunny Maad in English) is the great surprise (animated) film of the spring. Made by Michaela Pavlátová, who runs the Academy of performative arts in Prague, it is the story of Herra, a beautiful Czech Economics student who meets Nazir, an Afghan, at university, and decides to follow him to Kabul in 2001. Adapted from a … Read More
The best and the worst, make your choice
What a relief to see at last a good painting exhibition at Lafayette Anticipations with the Chinese artist Xinyi Cheng show “Seen through others” and how sad to see the nightmarish “Pionnières” (pioneers) at Musée du Luxembourg. At least we have the choice not to go… I watched the new series on Netflix, “Drôle” (Standing Up), written by Fanny Herrero, who is … Read More
“Notre Dame on fire”, by Jean Jacques Annaud, what a film!
I was so terrified by the film that it took me a brisk 30 mn walk to calm down. The music by Simon Franglen is poignant, the images very strong, and the filming in the Bourges, Sens and Amiens cathedrals perfectly credible. Produced by Jérôme Seydoux and written and directed by Jean Jacques Annaud, 78, “Notre Dame on fire” is … Read More
Do not miss, this week!
The new film written and directed by novelist Marc Dugain after Balzac’s literary chef d’oeuvre “Eugénie Grandet”, which seemed like another cliché adaptation on the posters, is actually incredibly subtle and wonderful. All actors, Joséphine Japy, Olivier Gourmet, Valérie Bonneton and César Donboy are excellent in their sensitive acting and this story of a stingy winemaker near Saumur, who eventually … Read More
“Eiffel” the film and the tower
The very much awaited film of Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923), building his tower, should be one of the first to come out in May. It is the romantic story of the genius engineer who built an iron railway bridge over the Garonne in Bordeaux in 1857 as a young man and contributed to the structure of the Statue of Liberty with … Read More
Amos Gitaï and Yitzhak Rabin, a 25 year long story
It was incredibly poignant to meet film director Amos Gitaï at Bibliothèque Nationale de France this week. A small group of journalists were invited to visit the new exhibition of his archives on Yitzhak Rabin‘s assassination on November 4, 1995. Films, interviews, a play and a book, and numeric archives, the result of 25 years of research, are being bequeathed by … Read More