The winner of the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction, Maggie O’Farrell, is doing a talk at the Irish Cultural Centre, or rather online, for the ICC, on 29 April. She’ll be discussing her winning novel, Hamnet, an imagined biography of Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet, who died at the age of 11. O’Farrell had been convinced that … Continue reading “Online Talk about “Hamnet” by Maggie O’Farrell”
It was a night of lots of superlatives. The first socially distanced Oscars ceremony, held in the vast halls of LA’s Union Station two months after the original date. The first woman of colour to win best director, and only the second woman at all. The oldest best actor, and a Korean-speaking best supporting actress, … Continue reading “Oscars 2021”
No, it isn’t fake news: Covid permitting, there will be an exhibition on Fake News running from 27 May 2021 to January 2022 at the Fondation EDF in Paris. Designed for school groups as well as the general public, it will be a great opportunity to have your pupils develop their critical-thinking skills. The exhibition … Continue reading “Fake News Exhibition”
News of the World has many features of a Western but its hero has much more psychological depth than Western heroes of old. The film takes its title from the main character’s job. Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd is a Civil War veteran who now makes his living by travelling from one small frontier town to … Continue reading “Searching for Answers in the West”
The longlist has been announced for Britain’s Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021, which will be awarded in July. The prize was created after the 1991 Booker shortlist contained no books by women writers. To celebrate its 25th year, readers voted for a “winner of winners”: Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun, … Continue reading “Women’s Prize Book News”
The Personal History of David Copperfield is far from the first adaptation of Charles Dickens’ semi-autobiographical coming-of-age novel. But Armando Iannucci has given the story a very new feel, while keeping Dickens’ humour and playing with that idea of autobiography and the art of inventing oneself through the act of writing. Iannucci is known for … Continue reading “David Copperfield: Dickens for the 21st Century”
How have women been portrayed in U.S. TV series in the past, and how has that been changing since #MeToo? That’s the topic of an online talk from the Institut Franco-Américain in Rennes on 23 March. Anaïs Le Fèvre-Berthelot from Rennes 2 University will take a look back at some significant female characters in the … Continue reading “A History of Women in U.S. TV Series”
Her books were once considered so scandalous that they were banned in Ireland, but at age 90, The Country Girls author Edna O’Brien received the honour of being declared a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by French Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot on 7 March. O’Brien has been prolific since the first of … Continue reading “Irish Author Edna O’Brien Honoured”
Here at Speakeasy News, we have been following the career of Chloé Zhao since her first film, Songs My Brothers Taught Me, was featured at the Deauville and Cannes festivals back in 2015. So we were delighted to hear that she was the first Asian woman, and only second woman, to win Best Director at … Continue reading “Golden Globes 2021: Congratulations Chloé Zhao!”
South African photographer Zanele Muholi describes themself as a visual activist. For the last 20 years, Muholi has explored the depiction of black women and the LGBTQIA+ community. Muholi’s photos are included in several modern art collections around the world and there is a currently a major exhibition of their work at Tate Modern in … Continue reading “Zanele Muholi: Visual Activism”
