For this 44th edition the Grand Prize goes to THUNDER ROAD and two Jury Prizes have been awarded to AMERICAN ANIMALS and NIGHT COMES ON. Who are the winners of the 2018 Deauville American Film Festival? The Jury has given the following awards: Grand Prize THUNDER ROAD By Jim Cummings The story of Jimmy Arnaud, … Continue reading “2018 Deauville American Film Festival winners”
Festival America, the bi-annual event that celebrates the literature of North America, is back for its 9th edition in Vincennes from 20 to 23 September. It offers a weekend where booklovers will be hard-pushed to choose between all the delights on offer. This year, the focus is on Canada, both Anglophone and Francophone. The U.S.A. … Continue reading “Festival America”
A whole range of visions of America and from America will be screened from 31 August to 9 September at the 44th Deauville American Film Festival. Fiction (both films in competition and premieres) and documentaries combine to give fascinating insights into U.S. life and culture as it is, or as filmmakers imagine it. The jury … Continue reading “Welcome to Deauville!”
Spike Lee’s latest film, BlacKkKlansman, is based on the true story of an African-American police officer who managed to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s. Incredible as it sounds, Ron Stallworth masterminded an infiltration operation by posing as a white racist on the phone. The film, which won the Grand Prize at the … Continue reading “Spike Lee is Back”
In the year in which the bicentenary of the publication of Frankenstein is being celebrated, a new biopic of its author, Mary Shelley, turns the spotlight on the young author who has long been eclipsed by a creation which escaped the pages of her book to enter popular culture. Rather like the eponymous Dr Frankenstein … Continue reading “Making Mary Shelley”
Ten years after the smash-hit original film, Mamma Mia is back with a “prequel and sequel”. It’s the feel-good movie of the summer. Perfect for an open-air or drive-in showing, with a cocktail in hand, your dancing shoes on and singing voice ready. For a couple of hours, we can all be Dancing Queens (or … Continue reading “Here We Go Again!”
For a weekend in late July, the southern English city of Bristol hosts Europe’s biggest street-art festival. The Urban Paint Festival (Upfest) is celebrating its 10th anniversary from 28 to 30 July with a Simpsons theme. Bristol has form when it comes to street art — it is the home city of the mysterious Banksy, … Continue reading “Bristol: The Painting is on the Walls”
You’ve watched all seven seasons, and read the books. There’s a whole year to wait till the concluding season eight. Never fear, you can check out the Game of Thrones touring exhibition all summer in Paris. If you are one of the millions of fans of the series based on George RR Martin’s books, this … Continue reading “Winter is Coming… for the Summer”
In 2018, Britain is celebrating the centenary of a major milestone in the suffragette movement’s fight to obtain votes for women, which was led by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Sylvia and Christabel. Emmeline Pankhurst’s great-granddaughter, Dr Helen Pankhurst, is giving two talks in Paris: “From ‘Votes for Women’ to ‘Time’s Up’, Reflections on feminism … Continue reading “Votes for Women: Helen Pankhurst Lecture in Paris”
Jean Rhys (1890-1979) lived and wrote about her extraordinary life in the West Indies, London and Paris before producing her masterpiece, Wide Sargasso Sea, a prequel to Jane Eyre, telling the story of Bertha Mason, the Creole wife Mr Rochester married for her fortune, and who in Jane Eyre is portrayed as the madwoman in … Continue reading “Celebrating Author Jean Rhys”