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”
David Hockney’s new exhibition in Paris is entitled David Hockney, 25. Not a reference to the artist’s age – he will be 88 this year – but the focus he has put on the most recent 25 years of his work. Because he is still creating and still innovating, from iPad paintings to monumental landscapes … Continue reading “David Hockney: A Life in Pop Art”
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”