Nick Hammond
L’Uomo Femina
Women Rule!
I have long been an admirer of conductor Vincent Dumestre and his excellent period-instrument orchestra Le Poème Harmonique. Specializing in French music from the 17th and early 18th centuries, it has staged and recorded seldom-performed music for over 25 years. … Read More
Vivre, Mourir, Renaître
Life After HIV
There is something poignant in director Gaël Morel’s decision to situate his new film, Vivre, Mourir, Renaître (To Live, To Die, To Live Again), between 1990 and ’95; it was during that period that Morel first made his name as … Read More
Les Chevaux de Géricault
Equine Obsession
I wonder how many of the equestrian teams at this summer’s Paris Olympics managed to take time off to see the exhibition of Théodore Géricault’s paintings, “Les Chevaux de Géricault” (“Géricault’s Horses”) at the Musée de la Vie Romantique (due … Read More
L’Impossible Retour
You Can't Go Home Again
One of the things I love most about France is the seriousness with which the publication of up-to-the minute novels is treated. The most significant time for new works to appear is known as the “rentrée littéraire,” when all the … Read More
Médée
Stage Magic
Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s opera Médée (called a tragédie lyrique) has had a lot of waiting to do. The dramatist Pierre Corneille wrote his version of the Medea myth as early as 1634, at the beginning of his career. Thomas Corneille, 19 … Read More
Madame de Sévigné
Dearest Daughter . . .
The fact that the life of Marie, Marquise de Sévigné (1626-96) has, as far as I am aware, never been made into a feature film before is perhaps unsurprising. How does one remain true to the reason her name is … Read More
Klaus Mäkelä, Véronique Gens, Philippe Jordan
Music Made in France
Still not yet 30, Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä is the man of the moment in the classical music world. Not only has he been the music director of the Orchestre de Paris since 2021, but he is also chief conductor … Read More
Making Of
Through a Lens Darkly
There is nothing film directors like more than to make movies about their own craft. From classics like Fellini’s 8 1/2, Truffaut’s La Nuit Américaine (Day for Night) and Singin’ in the Rain to more recent examples like The Artist, … Read More
Bedbugs and Other Paris Vermin
Invasion of the Mutant Super-Rats
Recently, the press in France – and especially in other countries – has been whipped up to a frenzy with stories about Paris being infested by bedbugs (punaises de lit in French). After all, nothing energizes commentators writing about other … Read More
L’Été Dernier (Last Summer)
Echoes of Phaedra
Writer and filmmaker Catherine Breillat made her name with explicit, prolonged depictions of sex and sexuality, perhaps most notoriously in Romance (1999), in which she directed Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi in a number of unsimulated sex scenes, and À … Read More