Contemporary France. News, Politics, Films, Books
On August 24, 2019 the Gilets Jaunes accomplished Acte 41. Relatively few people turned out; the movement has been hampered for some weeks both by the dangerous heat wave of summer and by the August vacation season–and, implicitly, I suspect, by the possibility of a …
In 1964, two movies were among those in competition at the Cannes Film Festival: The Soft Skin, directed by François Truffaut; and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, directed by Jacques Demy, which took the prize. The first starred Françoise Dorléac. The second starred Catherine Deneuve. They …
Just before the European elections in May 2019, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe suggested that Les Républicains were engaged in “reconstructing the Trocadéro Right” behind François Xavier Bellamy, the socially conservative head of their list. Deputy Eric Ciotti of the LRs fired back, saying that Philippe’s …
On July 14, 2017, new President Emmanuel Macron hosted new President Donald Trump at the Bastille Day military parade, an annual showcase for French military forces. Trump was impressed enough to want to imitate (and no doubt surpass) this event, which has not generally been …
One of the most important results of the European elections has been the collapse of the two traditionally strongest political forces in the Fifth Republic: the conservative party, now called Les Républicains; and the Socialist Party on the Left. The Socialists fell apart in the …
Now that the fire is out, Now that we know that the shell is intact, and the work of the medieval stonemasons has stood the test of time, Now that we know that the bell towers are still part of the skyline, Only now is …
Review of La Pirogue (Senegal/France, 2012), directed by Moussa Touré. Review of Anna Badkhen, Fisherman’s Blues: A West African Community at Sea (New York: Riverhead Books, 2018). France was in Senegal beginning in 1677, when they seized the island of Gorée in Dakar’s harbor as …
The story behind Le Chant des partisans is a simple one. In 1943 singer Anna Marly adapted a Russian marching song that had inspired her, Joseph Kessel and Maurice Drouon wrote the lyrics, it was broadcast on the BBC, and was then adopted by the …
“‘All politicians are the same, Left or Right,’ declared a sixty-year-old shopkeeper. ‘Always a lot of words, a lot of principles, but what do people see? The concrete. They see prices rising, insecurity, unemployment . . . and one day people get sick to see …
