Ozi: Voice of the Forest is an animated film with an ecological message. Its protagonist, Ozi, is a young orangutan who is separated from her parents during a forest fire. She finds refuge in a sanctuary where she learns sign language. But when she hears her parents are alive, she sets off to find them. … Continue reading “Orangutan Eco-Warrior”
Lyon’s Quais du Polar festival is celebrating its 21st edition from 4 to 6 April. This year the festival will welcome 160 authors from 17 countries, including several English-speaking ones. Two bestselling American authors will be “in conversation” on the stage of the Chapelle de la Trinité. Forty years after the publication of the Lloyd … Continue reading “Quais du Polar Lyon 2025”
The Mississippi is in the spotlight in April at the Institut Franco-Américain in Rennes. A talk and a documentary film explore the river. On 1 April, Hervé Nicolas, recently retired researcher from l’Institut Agro Rennes-Angers, will give a talk about the effects of climate change on the fourth longest river in the world. On 3 … Continue reading “Down the Mississippi”
Magnum photographer Steve McCurry may not be a household name but his photos are instantly recognisable, especially one of a young Afghan girl taken in Pakistan where her family had taken refuge in 1984. An exhibition at the Caumont Centre d’Art in Aix-en-Provence takes visitors around the world in his footsteps, to India, Afghanistan, Namibia … Continue reading “Around the World in 80 Photos in Aix”
Dennis Morris arrived in London from Jamaica as a child, part of the Windrush generation. He fell in love with photography at age eight and became famous for his photos of Bob Marley and other reggae bands, as well as early punk such as the Sex Pistols. A retrospective exhibition in Paris features his music … Continue reading “Dennis Morris: Music and Life”
Bridget Jones has accompanied a generation of readers and filmgoers in a series of romantic comedies about trying to find happiness in the modern world of love. Now, she’s back in a new film, widowed, a single mother, and ready to try to find love again. Helen Fielding originally wrote Bridget Jones’ Diary as a … Continue reading “Bridget Jones is Back”
2025 is the year to catch up on your Charles Dickens classics on ARTE. There are four TV adaptations of Dickens’ works on the station’s platform until 25 November. Oliver Twist Like the 1948 musical film classic by David Lean, this 2007 mini-series adaptation tells the story of an orphan, Oliver, who runs away to … Continue reading “A Year of Dickens on ARTE”
Wallace and Gromit are unlikely heroes: a not-very-good amateur inventor from the north of England and his long-suffering dog. But they have won hearts and minds all over the world since their first appearance in 1989 and now they are back in their second feature film: Vengeance Most Fowl. They have to face an old … Continue reading “Wallace and Gromit Are Back”
Ernest Cole spent the early part of his life photographing his life in South Africa as a black man under apartheid in the 1950s and 60s. He was able to publish some at the time but many waited until he felt forced into exile in the U.S.A. His book of his photos House of Bondage … Continue reading “Ernest Cole Photographing Apartheid”
The Théâtre national de Bretagne is staging Shakespeare’s history play in January. This production by Arthur Nauzyciel, originally created in Boston, whisks the play away from ancient Rome to reset it in 1960s America. The story of a plot to assassinate a leader who is considered too powerful and threatening despotism echoes the many political … Continue reading “Julius Caesar in English in Rennes”