Joe Biden delivered a fiery State of the Union address Thursday night, made the case for American democracy, reproductive freedom, funding for Ukraine, a fair tax code, and lowering prescription drug prices. He also repeatedly underscored the threat of Donald Trump — whom he referred to only as “my predecessor.”
Biden entered the halls of Congress later than expected, glad-handing and kissing supporters and taking selfies as Democrats led a cheer of “Four More Years.” Standing before a backdrop of an American flag and flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Mike Johnson,...
Biden entered the halls of Congress later than expected, glad-handing and kissing supporters and taking selfies as Democrats led a cheer of “Four More Years.” Standing before a backdrop of an American flag and flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Mike Johnson,...
- 3/8/2024
- by Tim Dickinson
- Rollingstone.com
Welcome to ElectionLine’s A View From Abroad series, in which we speak with media figures who don’t live in America but keep a close eye on its politics. Every few weeks, these smart observers will provide a unique perspective on what promises to be a fraught and unpredictable campaign for the White House. This week, our interview is with Matt Frei, who serves as an anchor and Europe editor for Channel 4 News. He is nominated for the network presenter prize at the Royal Television Society Journalism Awards, which take place on February 28.
Donald Trump is building a wall. Not the concrete border between the U.S. and Mexico that was partially erected during Trump’s first term, but a metaphorical one of hardened electoral support.
That’s the view of Matt Frei, the veteran UK journalist who has chronicled Trump’s GOP career. “He’s building himself...
Donald Trump is building a wall. Not the concrete border between the U.S. and Mexico that was partially erected during Trump’s first term, but a metaphorical one of hardened electoral support.
That’s the view of Matt Frei, the veteran UK journalist who has chronicled Trump’s GOP career. “He’s building himself...
- 2/13/2024
- by Jake Kanter
- Deadline Film + TV
Previously, in Class Act Episode 5, Tapie became the Minister of Urban Affairs in 1992 after a meeting with President François Mitterrand. The President admired Tapie’s charisma, energy, and dedication to improving the prospects of young people. Nicole resigned due to growing debts and her disagreements with Tapie on how to handle them. Tapie’s impulsive decision to discuss the lawsuit with the president in front of journalists led to a great catastrophe in his life. This marked the end of Tapie’s political career. In the sixth episode of Class Act, Tapie returned to his business, selling Adidas and working to rebuild his reputation by revitalizing his club, Olympique de Marseille.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Did Dominique Leave Tapie?
Class Act Episode 6 began with Tapie taking a dive into the water and confiding in Dominique about restarting his career. Dominique wanted Tapie to leave politics, but even though Tapie promised her,...
Spoilers Ahead
Why Did Dominique Leave Tapie?
Class Act Episode 6 began with Tapie taking a dive into the water and confiding in Dominique about restarting his career. Dominique wanted Tapie to leave politics, but even though Tapie promised her,...
- 9/14/2023
- by Poulami Nanda
- Film Fugitives
Previously, in Class Act Episode 4, the Wonder factory workers, led by their union representative, Mrs. Leduc, went on strike to fight layoffs and unfulfilled promises from their boss, Tapie. Frustrated, they demanded job security and fair wages. Tapie initially avoided them but later had a crucial conversation with Leduc. He explained the need for a redundancy plan to make the business profitable but promised to personally deposit one million francs into each worker’s account, showing his commitment to their well-being. The strike ended, and Tapie decided to kickstart his TV show with an inspiring speech that garnered support from the audience and even President Mitterrand, who felt enamored by his speech.
Spoilers Ahead
How Did Tapie Become The Minister Of Urban Affairs?
In Class Act Episode 5, we witness a pivotal moment in Tapie’s life as he is summoned to the Elysée by President François Mitterrand. During their meeting,...
Spoilers Ahead
How Did Tapie Become The Minister Of Urban Affairs?
In Class Act Episode 5, we witness a pivotal moment in Tapie’s life as he is summoned to the Elysée by President François Mitterrand. During their meeting,...
- 9/14/2023
- by Poulami Nanda
- Film Fugitives
Exclusive: Brooklyn-based arthouse distributor KimStim has acquired all U.S. rights for French director Mikhaël Hers’ fourth feature The Passengers Of The Night, starring Charlotte Gainsbourg as a recently divorced mother battling to keep her family afloat.
The film world premiered in competition in Berlin before playing at Hong Kong and Sydney and is set for sold-out screenings at the BFI London Film Festival this week.
The Passengers Of The Night unfolds against a period of optimism in France in the early 1980s as Francois Mitterrand took the reins of power as the country’s first socialist president in more than two decades.
Gainsbourg stars as a woman whose marriage is coming to an end, leaving her to support her two teenage children on her own. She finds work at a late-night radio show. There, she encounters a troubled teenager, whose free spirit will have a lasting impact on her...
The film world premiered in competition in Berlin before playing at Hong Kong and Sydney and is set for sold-out screenings at the BFI London Film Festival this week.
The Passengers Of The Night unfolds against a period of optimism in France in the early 1980s as Francois Mitterrand took the reins of power as the country’s first socialist president in more than two decades.
Gainsbourg stars as a woman whose marriage is coming to an end, leaving her to support her two teenage children on her own. She finds work at a late-night radio show. There, she encounters a troubled teenager, whose free spirit will have a lasting impact on her...
- 10/3/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
The director of Diva and Betty Blue was often labelled all flash and nothing else but his finest work showed far much more
During Margaret Thatcher’s reign in the 1980s, British cinema was largely downbeat, caustic, political and oppositionist. But over the Channel in François Mitterrand’s France, the movies were glitzy and flashy, with a sexy if superficial neon sheen: the so-called cinéma du look. No director was more responsible for this than Jean-Jacques Beineix.
He became both famed and mocked for that colossal 1986 hit which launched the smouldering career of its star Beatrice Dalle: Betty Blue, a steamy drama in which an aspiring writer embarks on a passionate, destructive affair with Dalle’s impetuous siren, Betty. It was nominated for best foreign film at the Oscars, the Globes and the Baftas and got nine César nominations. But Betty Blue actually won just one César: the horribly appropriate...
During Margaret Thatcher’s reign in the 1980s, British cinema was largely downbeat, caustic, political and oppositionist. But over the Channel in François Mitterrand’s France, the movies were glitzy and flashy, with a sexy if superficial neon sheen: the so-called cinéma du look. No director was more responsible for this than Jean-Jacques Beineix.
He became both famed and mocked for that colossal 1986 hit which launched the smouldering career of its star Beatrice Dalle: Betty Blue, a steamy drama in which an aspiring writer embarks on a passionate, destructive affair with Dalle’s impetuous siren, Betty. It was nominated for best foreign film at the Oscars, the Globes and the Baftas and got nine César nominations. But Betty Blue actually won just one César: the horribly appropriate...
- 1/14/2022
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
In a close-up shot at the start of the mini-series “Voltaire in Love,” a baby François Marie Arouet (also known as French philosopher Voltaire) is pushed out of his mother’s birth canal in a scene of intense labor.
A graphic reference to Gustave Courbet’s famous painting The Origin of the World that continues to stir debate, this shot foretells both the revolutionary calling of the boy who’s just been born, and the radical style of this period drama that takes inspiration from Sofia Coppola’s “Marie-Antoinette.”
“Voltaire in Love” is a Franco-Belgian mini-series of four episodes directed by Alain Tasma and produced and co-written by César nominee Georges-Marc Benamou, who is no stranger to adapting the lives of historical French figures to the screen, after previous projects on François Mitterrand and Albert Camus.
Produced by Siècle Productions, with France Télévisions, Umédia, Wallimage, Rtbf and Pictanovo co-producing, the...
A graphic reference to Gustave Courbet’s famous painting The Origin of the World that continues to stir debate, this shot foretells both the revolutionary calling of the boy who’s just been born, and the radical style of this period drama that takes inspiration from Sofia Coppola’s “Marie-Antoinette.”
“Voltaire in Love” is a Franco-Belgian mini-series of four episodes directed by Alain Tasma and produced and co-written by César nominee Georges-Marc Benamou, who is no stranger to adapting the lives of historical French figures to the screen, after previous projects on François Mitterrand and Albert Camus.
Produced by Siècle Productions, with France Télévisions, Umédia, Wallimage, Rtbf and Pictanovo co-producing, the...
- 4/12/2021
- by Alexander Durie
- Variety Film + TV
With the world taking a seemingly dystopian turn due to the Cover-19 pandemic, “My First Family,” a high-concept series project set in an alternate world created by Maya Zaydman (“Our Boys”) and Ori Sivan (“In Treatment”), will likely strike a chord with audiences.
“My First Family,” which is being pitched as part of Series Mania’s virtual co-production forum, unfolds in a contemporary but fictional France where the conservative candidate Valery Giscard d’Estaing was elected in 1981, instead of François Mitterrand.
The country has evolved radically differently from the France that we know today. Following several political and social events, as well as various incidents, the country voted to create in 2002 a Certificate of Parental Aptitude that parents need to get in order to reproduce. Kids whose parents have failed the exam and who have become wards of the nation are paired with prospective parents, either couples or singles, during...
“My First Family,” which is being pitched as part of Series Mania’s virtual co-production forum, unfolds in a contemporary but fictional France where the conservative candidate Valery Giscard d’Estaing was elected in 1981, instead of François Mitterrand.
The country has evolved radically differently from the France that we know today. Following several political and social events, as well as various incidents, the country voted to create in 2002 a Certificate of Parental Aptitude that parents need to get in order to reproduce. Kids whose parents have failed the exam and who have become wards of the nation are paired with prospective parents, either couples or singles, during...
- 3/25/2020
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
‘Non-Fiction’ (‘Doubles Vies’ or its English translation ‘Double Lives) would be better entitled ‘Sex, Lies and Literature’.
[Contains spoilers]
According to its director, Olivier Assayas,
Our world keeps changing. It always has been. The challenge is our ability to keep an eye on that flux and to understand what is truly at stake in order to adapt, or not. After all, this is what politics and opinions are about.
As Assayas inserts politics and definitely inserts opinions in this fast-talking comedy about very French intellectual sophisticates today we are speedily swept into a romp about love and sex.
The digitization of our world and its reconfiguration into algorithms is the modern vector of a change that confuses and overwhelm us. Digital economy infringes rules and often laws. Moreover, it questions what seemed solid and granted in society. Yet, it dissolves on mere contact.
Everyone is “oh so at ease” as French intellectuals...
[Contains spoilers]
According to its director, Olivier Assayas,
Our world keeps changing. It always has been. The challenge is our ability to keep an eye on that flux and to understand what is truly at stake in order to adapt, or not. After all, this is what politics and opinions are about.
As Assayas inserts politics and definitely inserts opinions in this fast-talking comedy about very French intellectual sophisticates today we are speedily swept into a romp about love and sex.
The digitization of our world and its reconfiguration into algorithms is the modern vector of a change that confuses and overwhelm us. Digital economy infringes rules and often laws. Moreover, it questions what seemed solid and granted in society. Yet, it dissolves on mere contact.
Everyone is “oh so at ease” as French intellectuals...
- 4/15/2019
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Exclusive: New sequel to hit French time travel film starring Jean Reno and Christian Clavier set for 2016.
Some 20 years after Gaumont’s comic time travellers Godefroy the Hardy and Jacquasse the Crass first touched down in 1990s France, they are set to hit the big screen again next year in The Visitors: Bastille Day.
Gaumont International will launch sales on the third instalment of the highly successful time travel franchise at Berlin’s European Film Market (Efm) (Feb 5-13).
“The first two films were hits at home and also did well across Europe. We’re expecting it to be one of our top-selling titles at the Efm,” said Gaumont deputy head of sales Yohann Comte.
Popular French actor Christian Clavier, who is on a roll at the moment after the success of Serial (Bad) Weddings and Do Not Disturb, will reprise his role as Jacquasse the Crass, the uncouth servant of bumbling knight Godefroy the Hardy, played...
Some 20 years after Gaumont’s comic time travellers Godefroy the Hardy and Jacquasse the Crass first touched down in 1990s France, they are set to hit the big screen again next year in The Visitors: Bastille Day.
Gaumont International will launch sales on the third instalment of the highly successful time travel franchise at Berlin’s European Film Market (Efm) (Feb 5-13).
“The first two films were hits at home and also did well across Europe. We’re expecting it to be one of our top-selling titles at the Efm,” said Gaumont deputy head of sales Yohann Comte.
Popular French actor Christian Clavier, who is on a roll at the moment after the success of Serial (Bad) Weddings and Do Not Disturb, will reprise his role as Jacquasse the Crass, the uncouth servant of bumbling knight Godefroy the Hardy, played...
- 2/5/2015
- ScreenDaily
Photo © 2013 Wild Bunch - Alcatraz Movies - Arte France Cinema - Pandora Film Produktion.
Bastards [Les salauds] begins, like Garrel's Un été brûlant, at night, with a suicide. An explanation for the gesture will never come, although, through the film's near imperceptible ellipses, it comes close. A film of profoundly somber gloam, of loneliness and anger and even stifled madness, of complicity and solitude, its sadness is almost absolute.
A torrid string connects a cast predominantly made up from Claire Denis' family of actors: Vincent Lindon, Michel Subor, Alex Descas, Grégoire Colin. There are so many of them that they stand out as coming from somewhere before, some shared place, and their figures seem at once human and also something more so, grander, archetypal. (Lola Créton creates a similar effect in a small role with such a brief but so recognizable presence that it both reaches outside the story, as well as expanding something within.
Bastards [Les salauds] begins, like Garrel's Un été brûlant, at night, with a suicide. An explanation for the gesture will never come, although, through the film's near imperceptible ellipses, it comes close. A film of profoundly somber gloam, of loneliness and anger and even stifled madness, of complicity and solitude, its sadness is almost absolute.
A torrid string connects a cast predominantly made up from Claire Denis' family of actors: Vincent Lindon, Michel Subor, Alex Descas, Grégoire Colin. There are so many of them that they stand out as coming from somewhere before, some shared place, and their figures seem at once human and also something more so, grander, archetypal. (Lola Créton creates a similar effect in a small role with such a brief but so recognizable presence that it both reaches outside the story, as well as expanding something within.
- 10/11/2013
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
Loosely based on the life of French president François Mitterrand’s personal chef, “Haute Cuisine” is a cream puff of a film. It’s sweet and airy without much nutritional value. You will definitely leave the movie hungry, largely because each dish created by Catherine Frot’s Hortense Laborie is more mouthwatering than the last. Do not make the mistake of going to the theater on an empty stomach, because “Haute Cuisine” is like looking at food porn on Pinterest for two hours. We’ll be craving truffles on buttered toast for weeks.The film is framed by Hortense’s time as a cook at the Alfred Faure base in Antarctica, skipping back to her work at the Élysée Palace. She begins her life at the palace when she’s whisked from her bed and breakfast in Perigord to Paris, based solely on the word of Joel Robuchon. President Mitterrand...
- 9/22/2013
- by Kimber Myers
- The Playlist
I'm not a 'foodie.' I like sandwiches -- the simple things. That's why I was initially hesitant over a screening of a two hour film about French cuisine and a Q&A with the film's inspiration. I thought I'd be lost as first, second and third dishes were endlessly analyzed and flavors were discussed. Though some of that did happen in The Weinstein Company's drama "Haute Cuisine," the movie left me hungry for more. Based on a true story, the film centers on Hortense Laborie (played beautifully by Catherine Frot), who at the onset of the film is asked to become the first female personal cook for the French President, François Mitterrand. Though initially shocked and reluctant by her appointment of making all of the President's meals, she thrusts herself into her work creating mouthwatering and authentically French cuisine. Despite jealous resentment from the other kitchen staff, Hortense quickly establishes herself,...
- 9/19/2013
- by James Hiler
- Indiewire
Over time, French president François Mitterrand grew weary of the fancy foods being dished up by his chefs, and so it came to pass that a little-known provincial cook was invited, in the late 1980s, to take over the president's kitchen. In this diverting, fictionalized version of the story, Hortense Laborie (Catherine Frot) is stunned by the offer, but quickly rises to the challenge set forth by Mitterrand (87-year-old newcomer Jean d'Ormesson, who is marvelous): "If you cook for me like my grandmother cooked for me, I'll be perfectly happy." Writer-director Christian Vincent and co-writer Étienne Comar, aided by Frot's quiet intensity, imbue Hortense's quest to pull off culinary miracles with an urgency that's almost absurdly compelling, and all the more entertaining for...
- 9/18/2013
- Village Voice
Left-wing political appointee takes over from Sarkozy-backed Eric Garandeau.
Former socialist minister Fréderique Bredin is to replace Eric Garandeau as president of France’s powerful film financing body, the National Cinema Centre (Cnc).
Rumours that Garandeau, a former political advisor to Nicolas Sarkozy, was on the verge of being replaced have been rife ever since the latter lost the French presidency in May 2012 to socialist candidate François Hollande.
Cnc chiefs rarely outlive the governments that appointed them so Garandeau’s departure comes as little surprise.
French newspaper Le Figaro reported that relations been Garandeau and socialist French Culture and Communications Minister Aurélie Filippetti, who was instrumental in Bredin’s appointment, were not warm.
“I send my warmest thanks from the bottom of my heart to all the staff of the Cnc, as well as to film-makers and professionals for their confidence and I salute their friendship. I send my successor my best wishes,” said Garandeau...
Former socialist minister Fréderique Bredin is to replace Eric Garandeau as president of France’s powerful film financing body, the National Cinema Centre (Cnc).
Rumours that Garandeau, a former political advisor to Nicolas Sarkozy, was on the verge of being replaced have been rife ever since the latter lost the French presidency in May 2012 to socialist candidate François Hollande.
Cnc chiefs rarely outlive the governments that appointed them so Garandeau’s departure comes as little surprise.
French newspaper Le Figaro reported that relations been Garandeau and socialist French Culture and Communications Minister Aurélie Filippetti, who was instrumental in Bredin’s appointment, were not warm.
“I send my warmest thanks from the bottom of my heart to all the staff of the Cnc, as well as to film-makers and professionals for their confidence and I salute their friendship. I send my successor my best wishes,” said Garandeau...
- 6/27/2013
- ScreenDaily
Left-wing political appointee takes over from Sarkozy-backed Eric Garandeau.
Former socialist minister Fréderique Bredin is to replace Eric Garandeau as president of France’s powerful film financing body, the National Cinema Centre (Cnc).
Rumours that Garandeau, a former political advisor to Nicolas Sarkozy, was on the verge of being replaced have been rife ever since the latter lost the French presidency in May 2012 to socialist candidate François Hollande.
Cnc chiefs rarely outlive the governments that appointed them so Garandeau’s departure comes as little surprise.
French newspaper Le Figaro reported that relations been Garandeau and socialist French Culture and Communications Minister Aurélie Filippetti, who was instrumental in Bredin’s appointment, were not warm.
“I send my warmest thanks from the bottom of my heart to all the staff of the Cnc, as well as to film-makers and professionals for their confidence and I salute their friendship. I send my successor my best wishes,” said Garandeau...
Former socialist minister Fréderique Bredin is to replace Eric Garandeau as president of France’s powerful film financing body, the National Cinema Centre (Cnc).
Rumours that Garandeau, a former political advisor to Nicolas Sarkozy, was on the verge of being replaced have been rife ever since the latter lost the French presidency in May 2012 to socialist candidate François Hollande.
Cnc chiefs rarely outlive the governments that appointed them so Garandeau’s departure comes as little surprise.
French newspaper Le Figaro reported that relations been Garandeau and socialist French Culture and Communications Minister Aurélie Filippetti, who was instrumental in Bredin’s appointment, were not warm.
“I send my warmest thanks from the bottom of my heart to all the staff of the Cnc, as well as to film-makers and professionals for their confidence and I salute their friendship. I send my successor my best wishes,” said Garandeau...
- 6/27/2013
- ScreenDaily
Canine star of Oscar-winning film The Artist does publicity round for book, including lunch at famous Brasserie Lipp
It was Uggie's first time in Paris and he had places to go, people to see.
Thus after a book "signing" for the television cameras, a barking interview with a couple of French newspapers, and a quick photo call on the Champs Elysées with the Arc de Triomphe as a backdrop, Uggie hopped into a taxi.
The celebrated Jack Russell, widely considered the real star of the Oscar-winning black-and-white silent film The Artist – move over Jean Dujardin – had a full day of engagements to promote his memoirs, Uggie: My Story.
Or so his people led us to believe. In fact, Uggie was off for his first Gallic gastronomic experience and like a true star was giving the press and cameras the runaround.
Where else was a VIP pooch to dine...
It was Uggie's first time in Paris and he had places to go, people to see.
Thus after a book "signing" for the television cameras, a barking interview with a couple of French newspapers, and a quick photo call on the Champs Elysées with the Arc de Triomphe as a backdrop, Uggie hopped into a taxi.
The celebrated Jack Russell, widely considered the real star of the Oscar-winning black-and-white silent film The Artist – move over Jean Dujardin – had a full day of engagements to promote his memoirs, Uggie: My Story.
Or so his people led us to believe. In fact, Uggie was off for his first Gallic gastronomic experience and like a true star was giving the press and cameras the runaround.
Where else was a VIP pooch to dine...
- 10/24/2012
- by Kim Willsher
- The Guardian - Film News
François Hollande bested incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday to become France’s first Socialist president since François Mitterrand. Hollande will be inaugurated by mid-next week, just in time for the opening of the Cannes Film Festival, where there’s certain to be discussion about what his ascension will mean for the business. Issues like anti-piracy legislation, runaway production and who’ll be the next culture minister are likely topics, but for now, execs I’ve spoken with don’t seem too concerned. Pyramide Distribution’s Eric Lagesse tells me, “No one is expecting a big impact.” Patrick Lamassoure of FilmFrance, the body that promotes France as a filming location, echoes that to a degree, saying, “France has always had a strong film policy whether it’s the left or the right in power.” That’s true. France has one of the most generous subsidy systems in the world with a...
- 5/7/2012
- by NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor
- Deadline TV
Faye Dunaway not only graces this year's Cannes official poster, but she also received an award Sunday afternoon at the festival from France's Minister of Culture, Frédéric Mitterrand. Addressing Dunaway as "cher Faye Dunaway," Mitterrand, the nephew of the late French President François Mitterrand, lavished praise on Dunaway, who stood nearby and gushed in English and French. Mixing the two languages, Dunaway said that only in France does this kind ...
- 5/15/2011
- Indiewire
In 1980, the Francophile Vladimir Vetrov, a senior Kgb officer disgusted with the direction in which the Soviet Union was going, approached French intelligence offering to provide invaluable information about Soviet spies and the Kgb's penetration of the west. He was given the codename "Farewell", François Mitterrand shared the coup with President Reagan, and Vetrov helped hasten the collapse of the Ussr and brought about his own death.
Farewell is a somewhat fictionalised version of this relatively little-known story, with Emir Kusturica as the reckless, quixotic, idealistic Kgb agent (here renamed Grigoriev) and Guillaume Canet as the French engineer and the reluctant go-between. It is a richly intriguing tale about high intrigue, though at times a trifle uncertain, and comes over as a cross between two John le Carré novels, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and The Russia House. There's a neat turn by Fred Ward as Ronald Reagan.
Farewell is a somewhat fictionalised version of this relatively little-known story, with Emir Kusturica as the reckless, quixotic, idealistic Kgb agent (here renamed Grigoriev) and Guillaume Canet as the French engineer and the reluctant go-between. It is a richly intriguing tale about high intrigue, though at times a trifle uncertain, and comes over as a cross between two John le Carré novels, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and The Russia House. There's a neat turn by Fred Ward as Ronald Reagan.
- 4/30/2011
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
The new film The Iron Lady looks to capture the image of a woman capable of deploying sexual allure politically
Ever since French president François Mitterrand suggested that Margaret Thatcher had "the eyes of Caligula, the mouth of Marilyn Monroe", we've had to get used to the unbelievable truth that Margaret Thatcher was made of more than iron.
The publicity still of Meryl Streep released to promote her forthcoming performance in the film The Iron Lady continues that counterintuitive narrative. Not Thatcher, Milk Snatcher. But Thatcher, Seducer. The image ideally realises what Tory makeover people wanted Thatcher to be – not just the hard-as-nails Conservative who destroyed a nation's industrial base, but a woman capable of deploying sexual allure politically.
Streep, I feel sure, will be able to modulate that psychic transition subtly if her career as an actor and the photo of her as Thatcher are anything to go by.
Ever since French president François Mitterrand suggested that Margaret Thatcher had "the eyes of Caligula, the mouth of Marilyn Monroe", we've had to get used to the unbelievable truth that Margaret Thatcher was made of more than iron.
The publicity still of Meryl Streep released to promote her forthcoming performance in the film The Iron Lady continues that counterintuitive narrative. Not Thatcher, Milk Snatcher. But Thatcher, Seducer. The image ideally realises what Tory makeover people wanted Thatcher to be – not just the hard-as-nails Conservative who destroyed a nation's industrial base, but a woman capable of deploying sexual allure politically.
Streep, I feel sure, will be able to modulate that psychic transition subtly if her career as an actor and the photo of her as Thatcher are anything to go by.
- 2/9/2011
- by Stuart Jeffries
- The Guardian - Film News
Joann Sfar's bold debut is a highly enjoyable – if low on detail – life of the charismatic French singer Serge Gainsbourg
In the 1930s Warner Brothers developed a serious line in earnest, inspirational films celebrating great scientists, liberators and social benefactors, usually played by Edward G Robinson or Paul Muni, dedicated to Longfellow's lines in his "A Psalm of Life": "Lives of great men all remind us/ We can make our lives sublime/ And, departing, leave behind us/ Footprints on the sands of time." But Variety's contemptuous neologism "biopic" stuck, and biography has never had much standing in the cinema – unlike the literary world where, under the larger rubric of "life writing", it's a serious matter both to practise and study.
Orson Welles's Citizen Kane in the 1940s and the Italian Marxist Francesco Rosi's Salvatore Giuliano in the 60s attempted to find an inventive form that would...
In the 1930s Warner Brothers developed a serious line in earnest, inspirational films celebrating great scientists, liberators and social benefactors, usually played by Edward G Robinson or Paul Muni, dedicated to Longfellow's lines in his "A Psalm of Life": "Lives of great men all remind us/ We can make our lives sublime/ And, departing, leave behind us/ Footprints on the sands of time." But Variety's contemptuous neologism "biopic" stuck, and biography has never had much standing in the cinema – unlike the literary world where, under the larger rubric of "life writing", it's a serious matter both to practise and study.
Orson Welles's Citizen Kane in the 1940s and the Italian Marxist Francesco Rosi's Salvatore Giuliano in the 60s attempted to find an inventive form that would...
- 7/31/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Tiger Woods, who's been thrashed incessantly by the Us media over his extra-marital affairs, has submitted a request for extra-marital asylum in France. Layla Demay on the golfer's behalf, writes for Slate’s French arm. “While in my country one of our presidents underwent an impeachment process for having an affair with an intern, France allowed its president to have a wife, a mistress and an illegitimate child,” Woods might plead, referencing François Mitterrand, “living in tranquility without a single a drop of ink expanded by the media to talk about it.” “I know that in France, my sexual ...
- 12/18/2009
- Hindustan Times - Celebrity
Veteran actor Gerard Depardieu shocked TV viewers in his native France earlier last week when he insulted a fellow guest on a chat show. Depardieu appeared to be drunk during his appearance on arts program Ca Balance A Paris, where he was promoting his new cookery book Ma Cuisine. The Cyrano De Bergerac star repeatedly called fellow interviewee and journalist Martin Monestier "un abruti", roughly translated as "a prat", after becoming angry with Monestier's criticism of his book. When Monestier challenged Depardieu to call him something else, the actor swiftly labeled him "un tête de lard" - "a d**khead". Depardieu then ignored host Michel Field's attempts to restore order and said, "I don't like critics. I like critics when they are right. When they are positive... Or even negative." The 56-year-old then pretended to notice another guest, Mazarine Pingeot, the daughter of former French president Francois Mitterand, and exclaimed, "Hello beautiful. I didn't see you there," before kissing her on the cheek. Depardieu recently claimed to have cut back on his excessive drinking after undergoing an emergency quintuple bypass operation. Last month, he said, "I have learnt a lot about my body since my heart attack. I don't drink as much now as before. I do sometimes drink more than I should..."...
- 4/18/2005
- WENN
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