We asked several teachers and authors who attended Festival America book festival in Vincennes in September to give us their favourite picks amongst the authors and books they encountered. Cécile Sempéré-Brun, who teaches at Lycée Raynouard, Brignoles (83), recommends: The Verdun Affair, by Nick Dybeck A novel about love and loss, forgetting and remembering. Reading … Continue reading ““The Verdun Affair”, Love and Loss in WWI”
We asked several teachers and authors who attended Festival America book festival in Vincennes in September to give us their favourite picks amongst the authors and books they encountered. Gerald Kenny, who teaches at Lycée Saint-Sernin, Toulouse (31), recommends: The Barrowfields by Phillip Lewis Nobody gets the parents they deserve, and Henry Aster is no … Continue reading ““The Barrowfields”, a Haunting Family Tale from North Carolina”
How do you make a biopic about one of the most famous men of the twentieth century but who was famously private and discreet? There can be few people on the planet who don’t know who Neil Armstrong was, or rather what he did. But do many of us even know what the astronaut looked … Continue reading “Filming “First Man””
Jean-Michel Basquiat, one of the most remarkable American painters of his generation is the subject of an exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, from October 3, 2018 to January 14, 2019. From 1980 to 1988, Jean-Michel Basquiat managed to impose his underground style in the streets of New York, a city where hip-hop, graffiti and … Continue reading “Basquiat by Vuitton”
Well known for slow-burn, humanistic character study films, who would have thought that for his English-language debut, Jacques Audiard would have chosen one of the most characteristically American of genres, the Western? Adapted by Jacques Audiard and Thomas Bidegain from Patrick deWitt’s 2011 novel, The Sisters Brothers reinvents the Western in a sensitive story about … Continue reading “Brothers Out-laws…”
The Utopiales festival in Nantes is dedicated to science-fiction in all its forms. You can sign up your classes for the special schools day. The 19th edition of Utopiales will be taking place from 31 October to 5 November (or Halloween to Guy Fawkes!) Since that is mostly in the school holidays, Monday 5 November … Continue reading “Science-Fiction in Nantes”
Shakespeare may be known for his soliloquies, but it’s quite a challenge to present each of the Bard’s plays with one single actor plus a selection of household objects. Table Top Shakespeare is being performed as part of Paris’s Festival d’automne. We’ve all done it. You’re telling a story at the dinner table and feel … Continue reading “Shakespeare on a Table”
A Star is Born stars Bradley Cooper and music superstar Lady Gaga, in her first leading role in a major film. Cooper makes his directorial debut with this third remake of a classic Tinseltown story. In this new take on the tragic love story, Bradley Cooper (“Very Bad Trip “, “Happiness Therapy”, “American Sniper”, “American … Continue reading “Born Again”
The House with a Clock in its Walls is the new film adaptation of a well-loved American children’s book. With witches, warlocks, ghosts and a haunted house, it’s perfectly themed for Halloween. In classic children’s-fiction style, the hero of The House with a Clock in its Walls and the 11 books that followed is an … Continue reading “Haunted House for Halloween”
The shortlist for this year’s Man Booker Prize, Britain’s most prestigious prize for fiction, honours three Brits, two Americans and a Canadian. The winner will be announced on 16 October. It will be a hard task for the five judges to choose between six very different books. Last year’s winner Lincoln in Bardo was extremely … Continue reading “The 2018 Man Booker Prize Shortlist”
