Nick Hammond
Les Amours Imaginaires
Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan is almost indecently precocious. After writing, directing and starring in the favorably received J’Ai Tué Ma Mère (2009), he has now done the same thing in his second film, Les Amours Imaginaires. And he’s still only … Read More
Il Trittico
Tamar Iveri as Suor Angelica in the Puccini opera of the same name. Photo © Ian Patrick / Opéra National de Paris The operas of Giacomo Puccini, that most unapologetically sentimental of composers, are designed to make you cry. … Read More
The Flying Dutchman
Erik (Klaus Florian Vogt) bows his head in grief while the Dutchman (James Morris) watches from the doorway. Photo © Opéra National de Paris/Frédérique Toulet In the program notes for the current production of Richard Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman (Le … Read More
Markets and More
Having spent a good part of August driving around France, I am happy to report that provincial markets are as lively and eccentric as ever. From the stacked rows … No dead ducks, just dead geese at the marché … Read More
The Cunning Little Vixen
The vixen (Adriana Kucerova) converses with the badger (Slawomir Szychowiak). Photo: Opéra national de Paris/Christian Leiber Most writers and composers tend to create their greatest works in their early years, but Czech composer Leoš Janáček wrote his most memorable and … Read More
La Tête en Friche
Jean Becker’s new movie, La Tête en Friche (based on Marie-Sabine Roger’s book of the same name), is in so many ways hopelessly outdated. It portrays village life as it was represented on film in the 1930s and 1940s: gentle, … Read More
Please, Don’t Come In
Just because books are old doesn’t mean they are worth thousands of euros. Photo: Nick Hammond In an age where so many independent businesses, even in Paris, are being overtaken by chain stores, I recently visited a small bookshop in … Read More
Les Invités de Mon Père
Director Anne Le Ny has the confidence and chutzpah to deal with a number of broad themes and moral ambiguities in her second movie, Les Invités de Mon Père (My Father’s Guest), ranging from problems of immigration and cultural difference … Read More
Billy Budd
The British warship the HMS Indomitable prepares to attack a French vessel. Photo © Opéra National de Paris/ C. Leiber There is something deliciously ironic about being seated in Paris’s Bastille opera house watching an opera set on a fiercely … Read More