“La-la Land” is usually an affectionately insulting nickname for Los Angeles, home of Hollywood and purveyor of unrealistic dreams. The film La La Land, however, is a hymn to the City of Angels, the golden age of cinema and musical comedies. La La Land is making a sensation, having won seven Golden Globes, more than … Continue reading “La La Land: Singing and Dancing all the Way to the Oscars”
The wonderful itinerant Footsbarn theatre company has taken up residence at the Cirque Romanès in Paris till 26 February with two shows: a drama, Cuckoo’s Nest, and a cabaret, Shakespeare Celebration. Footsbarn began in Cornwall but has been based in France (in La Chaussée (03)) for years. If you’ve been lucky enough to catch one … Continue reading “Drama and Cabaret with Footsbarn Theatre”
For three nights only, a play about the pioneer women actresses who were the celebrities of Restoration London in seventeenth century. In Shakespeare’s plays, the women’s roles were played by boy actors. In Puritan England, the idea of a woman acting on stage was considered scandalous. In fact theatres in general were considered immoral, and … Continue reading “Women on Stage: How Shocking!”
The bestselling teen books about the ill-fated Baudelaire children, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, have been given a second, equally doom-filled life in a new TV series. There are 13 books in the series, and in a fitting tribute, the TV series launched on Netflix on Friday the 13th, a bad omen in … Continue reading “A TV Series of Unfortunate Events”
Ben Affleck’s latest film is a return to a classic film genre: the gangster movie set during Prohibition-era U.S.A. Live By Night is actor Ben Affleck’s fourth film as a director, and the second to be adapted from a novel by Boston crime writer Dennis Lehane. His last film, Argo, won the best picture Oscar … Continue reading “Live By Night: Ben Affleck in Gangster Mode”
Sing is a feelgood movie about a singing competition designed to save a failing theatre in a city entirely populated by animals. From the animators who made Despicable Me, The Minions and The Secret Life of Pets, Sing is full of humour, hit songs and anthropomorphic animals. It is based on a trope we’re all … Continue reading “Born to Sing”
The Crown offers a fabulous insight in the British government in the second half of the twentieth century. The Netflix TV series could have just been a story of princesses and princes, crowns, palaces and fabulous dresses. And it is that, to a certain extent. But it also continues an examination of how Britain has … Continue reading “The Queen and her Prime Ministers”
McDonald’s is the company which represents what people love or hate the most about America. This biopic, based on the book of the same name covers the main moments in the company’s history. It begins in 1954 when Ray Kroc (the Founder of the title) meets the McDonald brothers in their fast-food restaurant in San … Continue reading “The Big Founder!”
Akram Khan, a British-born Bangladeshi dancer and choreographer, brings two shows to France which fuse classical Indian dance and stories with contemporary dance. Catch Until the Lions or Chotto Desh in and around Paris, Miramas, Angers, Sète, Brest or Reims between December and May. The 42-year-old Khan began his professional career at just 13, in … Continue reading “Innovative Indian Dance Shows Tour France”
New story, new characters — Rogue One is not Star Wars Episode VIII but a stand-alone film exploring one of the mysteries of the saga: How did the Rebel Alliance get the Death Star plans? In the first Star Wars film — A New Hope (the first episode of the original 1977 trilogy), we can … Continue reading “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”
