Nick Hammond
The Secret Life of France
Lucy Wadham appropriately chooses to begin her engaging and engrossing book, The Secret Life of France, with a quotation from Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part I: “Remember where we are,/In France, among a fickle wavering nation.” Her book is one in … Read More
Am Anfang
Anselm Kiefer’s monumental towers worked well on the enormous stage of the Bastille opera house. Photo: Charles Duprat/Opéra National de Paris Stop the presses! Watching walls being built is the new equivalent of watching paint dry. In Am Anfang (In … Read More
King Roger
The orgy scene becomes a swimming lesson in this production. Photo: Ruth Walz/Opéra National de Paris I must admit to having more than a little emotional investment in the opera King Roger (Król Roger), since Simon Rattle’s recording of the … Read More
Un Cœur Simple
Tragic Félicité
Adapting the great 19th-century novelist Gustave Flaubert for the screen has always been a tricky process. Claude Chabrol’s 1991 version of Madame Bovary, for example, never manages to capture the mordant irony of the original text. And provincial boredom, while … Read More
Il y a longtemps que je t’aime
Murder Mystery
Judging by the wildly diverse reviews that Il y A Longtemps que Je T ’Aime (I’ve Loved You So Long) has received, it seems likely that you will either love or hate it. As I tend to complain rather frequently … Read More
Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge
Length before Strength
Inspired by Albert Lamorisse’s celebrated 34-minute film dating from 1956, Le Ballon Rouge, the Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien has made a considerably longer movie on the same subject: a small boy is followed through Paris by a mysterious red balloon. … Read More
Mélac Bistrot à Vins
Through the Grapevine No shortage of wine here. With the smoking ban in French restaurants about to take effect on January 1, 2008, it is well worth praising a pioneer like Jacques Mélac, who has had a no-smoking policy for … Read More
Ce que Mes Yeux Ont Vu
Free Inspiration
This is a film full of good intentions. In his first full-length movie, Laurent de Bartillat has assembled a top-class cast, led by the wonderfully versatile Sylvie Testud (how many other young actresses are willing to be portrayed in unglamorous … Read More
Troyes
Treasures of Troyes Inside the Troyes cathedral. If you are considering a day or two away from Paris, Troyes is the ideal town to visit, only an hour and a half away by train and full of pleasant surprises. In … Read More
L’Heure Zéro
Overbaked Christie
Take an Agatha Christie novel, transport it to an old-fashioned house on the Brittany coast in the 21st century, throw in a few actresses who have even more famous parents (Laura Smet, daughter of Johnny Hallyday and Nathalie Baye, and … Read More