The late Franco-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle is everywhere this year, with an exhibition in Aix-en-Provence and the second of the year in Paris. She was one of the first women artists to be recognised in her own lifetime, for works that denounce violence but also ones that celebrate joy and being a woman. … Continue reading “Niki de Sainte-Phalle Violence and Joy”
What’s Coming in Sci-Fi and Fantasy movies? From July to September, the world of English-language entertainment will be filled with imagination, wonder and a few long-awaited returns. Summer 2025 offers a rich selection of new sci-fi and fantasy releases — both on the big screen and on streaming platforms — with stories that explore identity, … Continue reading “A Fantastic Sci-Fi and Fantasy Summer on Screen “
The exhibitions at the Arles photography festival this year are regrouped under the title “Disobedient Images”. They offer a subversive vision of subjects from families to feminism, minorities to mainstream. Here are some of the highlights of the exhibitions depicting subjects from the English-speaking world. Caroline Monnet Echoes from a Near Future Canadian photographer and … Continue reading “Disobedient Images: Arles 2025”
Two of the exhibitions at the Arles festival 2025 look back at four photographers capturing American life and landscapes over the past century. The World of Louis Stettner (1922–2016) Louis Stettner was a skilled practitioner of street photography with a political bent, often photographing protests, workers and countercultural movements like the Beat Generation. He said … Continue reading “On the Street, On the Road”
When Aboriginal Australians say they are, or are going, “on country”, they don’t just mean they are physically on the lands their ancestors have inhabited for 60,000 years. It also implies that they are shaped by the place, connected to it, and recognize a responsibility to care for it. It is this meaningful phrase that … Continue reading “On Country”
In a world searching for hope, James Gunn revives the DC Universe with a humanist reinterpretation of Superman, its oldest superhero. With the global release of Superman on July 9, 2025, James Gunn officially launches the new cinematic universe of DC Studios. Following several uneven attempts to bring Superman into the modern age, this film … Continue reading “Superman 2025: Return of the Hero”
Ari Aster changes the setting but not the intensity. With Eddington, the American filmmaker plunges into a small New Mexico town shaken by the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. Far from the hallucinations of Midsommar or the neuroses of Beau Is Afraid, this new fiction explores the shifting ground of political divisions, power struggles, … Continue reading “Power, Fear, and Pandemic: Welcome to Eddington!”
Percival Everett received the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction for his reworking of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. James, as the title implies, looks at the events of the book through the eyes of Jim, the enslaved man who accompanies Huck on his raft ride when he runs away. … Continue reading ““Huckleberry Finn” from Another Point of View”
Richard Avedon was a famous fashion photographer, producing many Vogue covers. But between 1979 and 1984, he took a road trip through the Reagan-era American West to produce a series of portraits of the people he found there. Far from the stereotypes, Avedon photographed workers, some very young, and all sorts of interesting characters. The … Continue reading “In the American West”
Over the next few months, look out for these films in English that were chosen for the official competition at the Cannes film festival. As well as being the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Cinémathèque in Paris, Wes Anderson was back on the Croisette with his latest feature, The Phoenician Scheme. This is … Continue reading “Featured at Cannes”