Oscar Nominations for French Films!  

The official Oscar nominations were announced Tuesday, January 24th. French films represent seven categories, with nine total nominations!

Oscar nominees for the 89th annual awards were announced on Tuesday morning during a live-streamed event filmed in six cities around the globe.

The Academy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel for the first time, will air live on ABC on Feb. 26. French and French Language films represent seven categories, with nine total nominations!

Read Full Story: Oscar Nominations for French Films! | French Culture

Valentine’s day in Paris

Plan the most romantic Valentine’s possible with our guide to love in the city of light, Tuesday February 14 2017

Valentine’s Day in Paris should be foolproof, but then the reality kicks in – where can you find a romantic hotel that doesn’t cost hundreds of Euros a night? Which of the city’s thousands of restaurants is a good bet for an intimate dinner? And what can you see and do in the city in mid-February that will be in keeping with the mood?

Don’t worry – we won’t leave you to try and wring romance out of a youth hostel and a rain-sodden queue for the Eiffel Tower. Check out our selections below for the best places to sleep, eat, shop and more for the most romantic trip possible [ . . . ] Read Full Story at TimeOut Paris

Under the Covers

By Michael Stevenson

Occasionally an artist remakes a classic film or an iconic song, and the effort makes me wonder, “why bother in the first place?” I’ve always felt that it makes more sense to remake lousy movies or records, and try to make these into something halfway decent.

Why remake a masterpiece such as Hitchcock’s Psycho, or James Ivory’s A Room With a View? Wouldn’t it be better to remake Cameron Crowe’s recent films  – Elizabethtown, We Bought a Zoo, and Aloha – and make these something watchable?  And why would a singer make a record titled “[insert name here] Sings Frank Sinatra” or “[insert name here] Sings Patsy Cline”?

Sometimes the Cover or Remake Works

Philip Kaufman’s remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers was superior to the 1956 original, as was Coen Brothers’ version of True Grit. The Wizard of Oz that we all know and love (1939) was actually a remake of a 1925 bomb. As for music, the late Joe Cocker recorded a song off the Beatles’ Sgt. Peppers, and made it his own. The Beatles themselves forever swiped “Twist and Shout” from the Isley Bothers.

Forgive my Rachel Maddow-like preamble, but I now present Rodolphe Burger’s cover of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” – a ballsy and brilliant remake of one of the most iconic songs belonging to a true American music legend.

Give it a listen and tell me – what do you think

In France, a Farmer Turned Migrant Smuggler Has Become a Popular Hero

VENTIMIGLIA, Italy—Welcome to the sunny but chilly last stop on the Italian Riviera before you reach France. Rich tourists from across the border, who’ve been hanging out in Nice or Cannes or Monaco flock to the big street market here every Friday looking for cheap but chic Chinese-made jeans, leather goods and designer knockoffs.In the afternoon, they take the train or drive back with their treasures to glittering Monte Carlo or the Côte d’Azur resorts just 30 or 40 minutes away. Mostly they are oblivious to the so-called “mini Calais” of Syrian, Afghan and sub-Saharan African migrants that surrounded them here—not to mention an intricate underground network of smugglers, some working for free, some for profit between the borders. And they’re more apt to keep up with Monaco’s Prince Albert, Princess Charlene and their toddler twins than France’s new folk hero, a humble 37-year-old farmer named Cédric Herrou who lives in the rocky French hinterlands above Ventimiglia.But it’s Herrou who’s become a symbol of a new kind of anti-government resistance in France as the third year of mass migration across the Mediterranean to Europe begins.

Read Full Story: In France, a Farmer Turned Migrant Smuggler Has Become a Popular Hero – The Daily Beast