Quais du Polar Lyon is 20

Posted by Speakeasy News > Thursday 04 April 2024 > What's On

Lyon’s Quais du Polar festival is celebrating its 20th edition from 5 to 7 April. It has grown and grown and this year will welcome 135 authors from 15 countries. As far as the Anglophone contingent is concerned, you will no doubt recognise some stars like John Grisham and his legal mysteries; Donna Leon, specialised … Continue reading “Quais du Polar Lyon is 20”

Romeo and Juliet Without Words

Posted by Speakeasy News > Tuesday 19 March 2024 > Shine Bright Lycée What's On

British choreographer Matthew Bourne and his company New Adventures pride themselves in finding new ways of “telling stories without words”. In Romeo and Juliet, Bourne has taken one of the best-known words in the English language and transformed the familiar story in a reinvention which plays on the dystopian elements of the original script. Bourne … Continue reading “Romeo and Juliet Without Words”

Rumours, Rumours

Posted by Speakeasy News > Tuesday 12 March 2024 > What's On

Definitely not one to show your pupils! Wicked Little Letters is a delicious comedy with Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley,  set in a 1920s English seaside town, where the population starts receiving defamatory letters full of profanities. An Irish migrant with a good stock of swear words in her vocabulary, Rose Gooding is accused of … Continue reading “Rumours, Rumours”

And the Oscar Goes to

Posted by Speakeasy News > Monday 11 March 2024 > What's On

2023 was the year “Barbenheimer” revived cinema attendance around the world. But despite leading the box office, Barbie received only one Oscar, for best song, while Oppenheimer dominated this year’s Awards, taking home seven statuettes. Oppenheimer took best picture, best director for Christopher Nolan, and best supporting actor for Robert Downey Jr. (amazingly his first … Continue reading “And the Oscar Goes to”

Benediction: Siegfried Sassoon Biopic

Posted by Speakeasy News > Tuesday 05 March 2024 > Shine Bright Lycée What's On

Siegfried Sassoon was one of the most famous of the British World War I poets but unlike Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke or Edward Thomas, Sassoon survived the war he had despised while serving brilliantly. Terence Davies’ final film traces both the war service and the long life looking for meaning which followed, with Jack Lowden … Continue reading “Benediction: Siegfried Sassoon Biopic”

Doing the Right Thing

Posted by Speakeasy News > Tuesday 20 February 2024 > What's On

Most people would feel proud of saving hundreds of mainly Jewish children from Czechoslovakia just before the outbreak of World War II. But Sir Nicholas Winton was haunted by all the children he couldn’t save. Until a surprise 50 years later on a TV programme showed him all the good he had done. A new … Continue reading “Doing the Right Thing”

The Color Purple Returns

Posted by Speakeasy News > Wednesday 24 January 2024 > Shine Bright Collège Shine Bright Lycée What's On

Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film The Color Purple was extremely unusual for having an almost entirely African-American cast. (Alice Walker, whose 1982 novel it is based on, was the first ever African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.) The film is an enduring classic, and the musical-theatre version of the story is now hitting … Continue reading “The Color Purple Returns”