Queen is approaching its fiftieth anniversary, and has had one of the most successful careers in rock history. After a string of hits in the 70s and 80s, brought to a halt by the death of frontman Freddie Mercury, their jukebox musical We Will Rock You gave the band a second career. Now the remaining … Continue reading “We Will Rock You”
An exhibition in Montpellier shows the 1960s civil-rights movement in the U.S.A. through 300 photos, many never exhibited before. The exhibition takes its name, “I am a Man” from the slogan of the sanitation workers’ strike Martin Luther King, Jr was supposed to lead the day he was assassinated 50 years ago. The photos collected … Continue reading “I Am a Man: Civil Rights Photos in Montpellier”
The This is England short films festival is returning to the Omnia cinema in Rouen from 12 to 18 November. Fiction, documentary and animated films running from 2 minutes to half an hour, there’s something for everyone. And special schools screenings every morning with accompanying teaching packs. Short films, like short stories, can pack an … Continue reading “British Short Films Galore in Rouen”
The Mona Bismarck American Center in Paris is hosting an evening on the theme “Into the Wild in the 1930s” in connection with the Dorothea Lange exhibition The Politics of Seeing. How did and does the Far West reflect American culture? The evening will be an exchange in English between Ken Sanders, American bookseller and … Continue reading “Wide Open Spaces: American Wilderness”
The winner of this year’s Man Booker Prize is a book about a divided society. Its author, Anna Burns, hails from Belfast, and the unnamed city in Milkman has echoes of the Northern Irish capital during the Troubles. But, as the chair of judges Kwame Anthony Appiah says, is about what happens in sectarian societies … Continue reading “Northern Irish Novel Wins 2018 Booker Prize”
The contentious nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court makes him the new colleague of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg aka Notorious R.B.G.. She is a feminist and pop culture icon and the subject of a documentary just released in cinemas. Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court was the most contentious nomination process in … Continue reading “Supreme icon”
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. Isabelle Brefort, who teaches at Lycée Jean-Baptiste Corot, Savigny-sur-Orge (91), recommends: The Mothers by Brit Bennett Can a secret ruin lives? Can our choices shape our … Continue reading ““The Mothers”, a Coming-of-Age Story”
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””