It’s that time of year: the cream of Hollywood, and independent U.S. cinema will be crowding the boardwalk at Deauville for the American Film Festival from 2 to 11 September. There are 13 films in the main competition, seven of them first films and a couple by joint directors. Hollywood is famously obsessed with LA … Continue reading “Deauville with an American Accent: Film Festival 2022”
The 2022 Oscar ceremony was memorable… But what about the winning films? Several of our favourite films of the last year came away with awards. And CODA beat off some favourites to take Best Picture. New Zealand director Jane Campion was the first woman to be nominated twice for Best Director, and this time she … Continue reading “And the Oscar Winners Are…”
Ever since Jane Campion burst onto the world stage with an Oscar for The Piano, she has shown a deft capacity to depict buttoned up, repressed emotions. The Power of the Dog, nominated for 12 Oscars, is no exception. The Netflix new-generation Western stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Jesse Plomens as Montana ranching brothers Phil and … Continue reading “The Power of the Dog”
We’re all used to disclaimers at the end of movies saying, “This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.” The new Netflix twist on a western, The Harder They Fall, turns that on its head, opening the film with the disclaimer, “While the … Continue reading “Go West!”
The exhibition “Sur la piste des Sioux” which opened at the Musée des Confluences in Lyon, takes us back to the origins of the limited and blinkered representation of the “American Indian” in Europe and France, and challenges many clichés . Since 1990, November is Native American Heritage Month, here is the good time to … Continue reading “Sur la piste des Sioux : the origins of “American Indian” iconography “
Which books and films are you planning to teach in LLCER anglais next year? This year for Terminale, we published six Reading Guides. There are three works left on the list. We are planning to publish a guide on one of them in the autumn, which would you prefer? This year we published guides on … Continue reading “Vote for Your Next Reading Guide!”
Nomadland, the multi-Oscar-winning film by Chloé Zhao, makes an excellent extension to Shine Bright LLCER File 7 On the Road for 1ère, or File 19 Modern Western for Terminale. It could also be interesting to use with Shine Bright AMC File 13 Land of the Free in connection with Freedom from Want. The story of … Continue reading “Nomadland: On the Road for the 21st Century”
Nomadland is a fascinating insight to a largely invisible U.S. community: modern-day nomads not so far removed from the Depression-era migrant workers from John Steinbeck’s novels. Based on the non-fiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the 21st Century by Jessica Bruder, it explores a diverse group of often elderly Americans who have decided to reduce … Continue reading “On the Road: Nomadland”
News of the World is a not-so-classic Western starring Tom Hanks as a newsreader travelling across the U.S. during a violent and tumultuous period after the American Civil War. In a neat inversion of Indian abduction narratives like John Ford’s classic The Searchers, the Confederate veteran here is trying to return a child to her … Continue reading “News of the West”
News of the World has many features of a Western but its hero has much more psychological depth than Western heroes of old. The film takes its title from the main character’s job. Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd is a Civil War veteran who now makes his living by travelling from one small frontier town to … Continue reading “Searching for Answers in the West”
