The Eiffel Tower lit up in green to mark the success of the Paris Agreement, Friday Nov.4, 2016 in Paris.
The Paris Agreement on climate change enters into force Friday faster than anyone had anticipated, after a year with remarkable success in international efforts to slash man-made emissions of carbon dioxide and other global warming gases. Inscription reads, “Paris Agreement it’s done”.
(AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Listen to a replay of Pauline Croze’s live Facebook concert for LCI on November 2,216
Source: LCI – Timeline
I rewatched Martin McDonagh’s brilliant In Bruges last night, this time anticipating my upcoming July vacation in Belgium, Paris and Provence. This morning, found this piece from The Guardian’s series on “My Favourite Film.” For me – it nearly is! [ Pas De Merde ]
The best films waste no time, and In Bruges hits the ground sprinting with this pin-sharp voiceover: “After I’d killed him, I dropped the gun in the Thames, washed the residue off my hands in the bathroom of a Burger King, and walked home to await instructions.”
Bam. Within 10 seconds, the story has begun. A young hitman, Ray (Colin Farrell), has botched his first job for East End crime boss Harry Waters (Ralph Fiennes) and needs to go away for a while – to Bruges. He is incandescently stroppy about this. Accompanying him is Ken (Brendan Gleeson), an older gangster who, guidebook in hand, greets the Belgian town and its misty pre-Christmas streets with the determined gusto of your dad on a camping trip, all deep nose-breathing and itineraries.
Bruges is really the fourth name on the cast list here: its 12th-century canals and lamplit cobbles form the perfect backdrop to the script’s crepuscular tone, as well as its somewhat medieval probing of morality and blame and redemption. Because (spoilers ahead!) Ray, in the course of performing a hit on a priest, has also inadvertently shot dead a choirboy. His rage at being stuck in this purgatorial “shithole” hides an anguish over what, if there is an afterlife, must surely be an unpardonable sin.
READ THE FULL STORY: My favourite film: In Bruges | Film | The Guardian
The British musician said he would appear at the inaugural show on Nov. 12, almost 12 months to the day after a terrorist assault at the venue killed 90 people.
Islamic State militants wearing suicide vests opened fire during an Eagles of Death Metal concert at the Bataclan on Nov. 13, 2015, an attack that was part of a series in and around the city that night.
“In reopening the Bataclan, we have two important tasks to reconcile,” Sting said in a statement on his website. “First, to remember and honor those who lost their lives in the attack a year ago, and second, to celebrate the life and the music that this historic theater represents. In doing so, we hope to respect the memory as well as the life-affirming spirit of those who fell. We shall not forget them.”
Proceeds from the concert will be donated to Life for Paris and 13onze15, organizations that provide support to victims of the attacks and their families.
READ THE FULL STORY: Sting to Perform at Reopening of Bataclan a Year After Paris Attacks – The New York Times
Moroccan-born Leila Slimani won France’s top literary prize, the Goncourt, on Thursday with a novel guaranteed to “scare the wits out of parents”. The chilling tale of a “perfect” nanny who murders the two children she is looking after, “Chanson douce” (roughly translated as “Sweet Song”) is based on the real-life story of a Dominican child-minder shortly to stand trial for the double murder of her charges in New York in 2012.The book – which begins with the words “the baby is dead” – is already a bestseller in France.
READ FULL STORY at Source: French-Moroccan writer Leïla Slimani wins Goncourt, France’s top literary prize – France 24
Due out later this November is Rachel Lang’s debut film about a dejected young Frenchwoman co-opted to help with some bathroom remodeling for her grandma. The “Baden, Baden”movie trailer looks very funny. Check out the FrenchCulture.org review below [ – Pas De Merde – ]
Like many in her generation, 26 year-old, free-spirited Ana lives a life teetering on the edge of comedy and melodrama. After a failed experience working on a film set, she returns to her hometown and decides to focus her energy on renovating the bathroom of her spunky, aging grandmother. Over the course of a scorching summer, Ana finds herself connecting and reconnecting with lovers and friends, as her (self-)improvement project gradually becomes more than she bargained for.
BADEN BADEN is a deceptively low-key feature debut from French filmmaker Rachel Lang, anchored by a slyly compelling, effortlessly confident lead performance by Salomé Richard, Lang’s alter ego and star of her two previous short films. Equally adept at narrative minimalism, psychological portraiture, and deadpan comedy, BADEN BADEN is a character study of great penetration and charm.
Source: BADEN BADEN | French Culture
