Mag 18
Outside the Law (l-r): Jamel Debbouze, Sami Bouajila and Roschdy Zem. ‘Bouchareb’s model is The Godfather’s tight?knit Corleone family.’ The still highly controversial colonial war that France fought in Algeria from the mid-1950s until the granting of independence in 1962 has only been patchily reflected in the cinema. It figures significantly in the background in …
Mag 18
Philip Roth, chronicler of ‘the sexually liberated Jew in postwar America’, beats stellar shortlist to take the fourth Man Booker International prize Alison Flood
Mag 15
From the moment it was published, the most recent book by sociologist Hugues Lagrange stirred a lively polemic. Although the controversy cannot be ignored, the book is a solid piece of work supported by robust data. The initial criticism had little to do with Lagrange’s research findings and general presentation of the issues. What is …
Mag 15
Beryl Bainbridge at her home with one of her paintings. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/Rex Features Beryl Bainbridge‘s daughter, Jojo Davies, is lifting one painting after another outside into her back garden so they can be photographed in a clear light. The paintings are by her mother. Beryl Bainbridge died of cancer on 2 July …
Mag 11
Cafe society: Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir in Paris, 1940. Photograph: Sipa Press / Rex Features One of the distinctive aspects of British culture is that the word “intellectual” seems to be regarded as a term of abuse. WH Auden summed it up neatly when he wrote: “To the man-in-the-street, who, I’m …
Mag 05
Roger Arpajou/Sony Pictures Classics Rachel McAdams and Owen Wilson in a scene from “Midnight in Paris.” More Photos » THE preview at MoMA calculated to ignite euphoric Oscar buzz over the studio’s new $60 million comedy ended and the lights came up, revealing an audience of 400, stiff, with eyes shut, bringing to mind …
Apr 30
The Dead Toreador, 1864-65: ‘Manet has positioned his hero to invoke the suddenness of fate, the upright body instantly felled.’ Photograph: © Widener Collection, courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington Manet, at the Musée d’Orsay, starts with a shock: a dead toreador laid flat upon the ground, crimson paint seeping from one shoulder like …
Apr 30
Erotic challenge … Olympia, 1862. Photograph: ©Patrice Schmidt/Musée d’Orsay Those who attack works of art are not, in one sense, wrong. You don’t assault something you are indifferent to, or something that doesn’t threaten you; iconoclasts rarely smash images out of apathy. Take the man who raised his walking-stick against Manet’s Music in the …
Apr 13
1. La conférence s’attachera à la réception et au traitement du mythe d’Ulysse et du récit de l’Odyssée dans la peinture italienne et flamande des xvie et xviie siècles. Elle montrera qu’une interprétation comique de cette histoire allait de pair avec l’idée d’un Ulysse découvreur, symbole de la grandeur intellectuelle et morale que la connaissance …