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Tag Archives: France
2025 Books Read
I ended last year with a flurry of Oscar Wilde’s short stories, declaring I’d read all the plays in 2025. I mean, there were only five, sadly, due to the homophobic violence of his own society. I know these plays … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Anton Chekhov, Austria, books read, Charles Lamb, children's books, Croatia, Czechoslovakia, Czeslaw Milosz, David Lynch, Dubravka Ugrešić, England, essays, fiction, France, Frankenstein, Germany, Guillermo del Toro, Hungary, Ireland, Jane Austen, Janet Malcolm, John Keats, Lord Byron, Mark Danielewski, Mary Gaitskill, Mary Shelley, Matthew Arnold, Memoirs, nonfiction, Oscar Wilde, poetry, Poland, politics, Rebecca West, Roald Dahl, Robert Kaplan, Robert Louis Stevenson, Russia, sci-fi, Scotland, scripts, Shakespeare, Spain, The Beatles, Twin Peaks, Yugoslavia
9 Comments
“I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.” — Rebecca West
It’s her birthday today. It is hard to talk about her without referencing the generations of writers she inspired, all of whom admit their debt. Robert Kaplan is the most open about it (in Balkan Ghosts, which launched his career, … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged Austria, Balkans, D.H. Lawrence, Ford Madox Ford, France, George Bernard Shaw, Germany, Katherine Mansfield, Leo Tolstoy, Mark Twain, nonfiction, politics, Rebecca West, Roman empire, Russia, Serbia, W.B. Yeats, war, Yugoslavia
21 Comments
Mirrors #26
Zoey Deutch and Aubry Dullin as Jean Sebert and Jean-Paul Belmondo in Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, one of my favorite films of the year. The film is a maze of mirrors, with mirror moments in almost every scene. There are … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged France, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Paul Belmondo, mirrors, Richard Linklater
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“The best actors in the world are those who feel the most and show the least.” — Jean-Louis Trintignant
It’s his birthday today. My first encounter with the intriguing, mysterious (and yet somehow still vulnerable) Jean-Louis Trintignant, was seeing The Conformist at The Music Box in Chicago, circa mid-90s. I was completely unfamiliar with him. Even just the look … Continue reading
August-November 2025 Viewing Diary
I haven’t watched much this year, beyond what I was assigned to review. Of course at end of year I have to scramble to catch up, which I am still doing. Instead I watched a lot of true crime, re-watched … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged baseball, Brazil, crime movies, documentary, drama, England, France, Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro, historical drama, horror, Iran, Iranian film, Italy, Jafar Panahi, Jennifer Lawrence, literary adaptation, Martin Scorsese, Nick Nolte, Patricia Arquette, Roman Polanski, romantic comedy, Russia, Sissy Spacek, true crime, Ukraine, women directors, X-Files
12 Comments
“My aesthetic is that of the sniper on the roof.” — Jean-Luc Godard
He was born on this day. Coincidentally, the year before Jean-Luc Godard died, I decided to watch his filmography in chronological order, starting with his shorts (many of which are on YouTube). I wrote about this experience in my December … Continue reading
“Being an actor means being an instrument for someone else. I want to give myself completely.” — Catherine Deneuve
It’s her birthday today. She was great right out of the gate. One of the unique things about her career (and she has few peers here) is that she has regularly been regaled as one of the most beautiful women … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Catherine Deneuve, France, Repulsion, Roman Polanski
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“I am the old story. L’histoire ancienne. But an old story can still be a good story, no?” — Anna Karina
It’s the birthday of French New Wave star Anna Karina, muse to many, fascinating onscreen persona, director of her own films. Anna Karina died in 2019, and you felt the loss in an almost palpable way, particularly in the New … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Agnes Varda, Anna Karina, France, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Paul Belmondo, women directors
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July 2025 Viewing Diary
2025 has not been a movie-watching year for me, outside of the things I’ve been assigned to review. I was feeling really down on myself for not keeping up but honestly something had to give. I had to work on … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged crime movies, documentary, drama, France, Jensen Ackles, true crime, women directors, X-Files
4 Comments
Review: Wild Diamond (2025)
Liane wants to be “the French Kim Kardashian”, perhaps (most definitely) a dubious goal, but understandable in the context of Wild Diamond. This isn’t your normal cautionary tale about social media and/or influencer culture. There’s something else going on – … Continue reading