Poor Things, adapted into an award-winning film from the novel by Alasdair Gray, imagines a female Frankenstein’s monster who is fundamentally human, and her creator, who much like Dr Frankenstein, is perhaps more monstrous himself. Yorgos Lanthimos’s previous films such as The Lobster and The Favourite were far from mainstream, even if The Favourite won … Continue reading “Poor Things: Frankenstein Revisited”
Dr Martin Luther King, Jr was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for his leadership of the African American civil-rights movement. The Nobel committee has published a series of videos and a lesson plan for using them in class. Perfect for Martin Luther King Day, 17 January this year. You can download the lesson … Continue reading “Videos for Martin Luther King Day”
The West Side Story production that has just finished in Paris will be touring to Bordeaux, Lyons, Rouen and Nantes in February and March. A full stage production, it is in English with French surtitles. The musical comedy by Bernstein, Sondheim and Robbins is a reworking of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, with the Capulets and … Continue reading “West Side Story on Tour Around France”
The new Netflix TV series The Fall of the House of Usher is inspired by the famous Edgar Allan Poe story but in a pretty tangential way. The horror mini-series keeps the Usher twins Roderick and Madeline but far from being the last members of a dying family they are the heads of a family … Continue reading “Edgar Allan Poe 21st Century Reboot”
Gertrude Stein is probably best known for her “salon” in Paris where she nurtured artistic talents as diverse as Matisse and Braque, Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and James Joyce. But her experimental, minimalist writing has been highly influential on generations of creatives right up to today, as is shown in the Gertrude Stein and Picasso: … Continue reading “Gertrude Stein Multi-talented”
The Boston Tea Party wasn’t a social event. It was an act of rebellion and it helped start the movement for the U.S.A. to become independent from Britain. In 1773, Boston was the capital of Massachusetts, one of 13 British colonies in the future United States. For several years, the British government, in financial trouble, … Continue reading “Starting a Revolution with Tea in Boston”
On 16 December 1773, an event took place that went on to spark the American Revolution: citizens of Boston, Massachusetts, dumped hundreds of crates of tea into the sea to protest against British “taxation without representation”. This December, the city is celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. This article paired with two … Continue reading “250 Years of U.S. Democracy: The Boston Tea Party”
We were sad to hear of the death of Magnum photographer Elliott Erwitt at the age of 95. He had been taking photos for 80 years. The retrospective exhibition he curated himself at the Musée Maillol in Paris last year is currently on show in Lyon, till 17 March. It is a rich record of … Continue reading “Elliott Erwitt: A Life in Photos in Lyon”
‘Tis the season for various dictionaries to reveal their “words of the year”. It has been the word on everyone’s lips, so it’s not surprising that the UK’s Collins Dictionary, as well as Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary people’s choice was AI. But we came across a few we were unfamiliar with, such as “rizz” and “cozzie … Continue reading “Words of the Year: 2023”
Black Legends is a musical comedy that traces more than a century of African American music along with landmarks in the civil-rights movement and Black American history. We know some of you took classes when it was on last year. It’s back on in Paris until at least the end of January. The musical doesn’t … Continue reading “Black Legends”
