Paris In New York

French movies - this week

> now playing in Theatre :

Coco Before Chanel

The extraordinary journey of Gabrielle Chanel before becoming the legendary couturier who encouraged women of the Belle Epoque to break out of their corsets and slip into something more free and styly. 

Audrey Tautou plays the orphan Coco, named after a French ditty she performs in nightclubs. Arrogant and nakedly ambitious, Gabrielle seems destined for prostitution but her destiny changes when she becomes the kept woman of Etienne balsan (Benoit Poelvoorde) a rich gentleman farmer.

Shot in Paris and Normandy>

trailer

showtimes

> playing at the French Institute Alliance Francaise FIAF:

Colonel Chabert

A superior costume drama anchored by luscious cinematography and Gerard Depardieu’s arresting performance as the titular Colonel. Long thought dead, Chabert roams through France, ultimately discovering that his wife (Fanny Ardant) has remarried a wealthy Count and wants nothing to do with him. Fabrice Luchini delights as the lawyer who takes on Chabert’s case.

Tuesday, October 13th at 12.30 and 7.30pm

Book tickets

Moliere

Virtually nothing is known of the months spent between the end of Molière’s prison sentence in 1645 and when he began touring with his troupe. Tirard offers an inspired vision of this time, with the wealthy Monsieur Jourdain (Luchini) bailing out the writer in exchange for lessons in performance and courtship.

Book Tickets

> Selection of French movies on Sundance Channel this week :

Diary of a Chambermaid / Le Journal d'une Femme de Chambre

Late in his long career, the great Spanish filmmaker and surrealist Luis Bunuel made six features in France that remain among his finest work. The first was this updated adaptation of Octave Mirbeau's celebrated novel examining the foibles and hypocrisy of the landed gentry as seen through the eyes of a newly installed chambermaid (Jeanne Moreau).

Saturday, October 10th at 12am, Wednesday, October 14th at 6pm, Thursday, October 15th at 6.15am and 1.15pm

 

Trivial

French cinema icon Sophie Marceau (Braveheart) co-wrote, directed and stars in this suspense noir about Jacques Renard (Christophe Lambert), a police veteran whose career and future have been precarious since his wife's death. A tip from a mysterious femme fatale sends Renard on a visit to Deauville's Hotel Riviera, where he learns the owner (Robert Hossein) has disappeared. The enigma expands as family secrets, a disfigured corpse and the hotelier's wheelchair-confined wife (Marie-Christine Barrault) contribute to the evolving mystery.

Thursday, October 15th at 10pm, Friday, October 16th at 12.15pm

Queen Margot

Patrice Chereau and Daniele Thompson adapt Alexandre Dumas's epic historical novel about Marguerite (Isabelle Adjani), who enters into an arranged marriage with Henri of Navarre (Daniel Auteuil) at the behest of her mother Catherine of Medici (Virna Lisi), to end the religious wars between the Catholics and the Protestant Huguenots.

Friday, October 16th at 1.40am

Sample Sales - BONPOINT - Today and tomorrow -

Up to 75% off the most fashionable moms and dads shop.

Baby coats $70-$180 (retail $180-$450), girl's cardigans/pullovers $55 (retail $155), girl's coats $80-$175 (retail $180-$550), boy's pants $60 (retail $150) and shoes $35-$80 (retail $150-$260). 

Wednesday 8-7

Thursday 8-3

At the Metropolitan Pavilion

123 West 18 street (6-7 avenue) 5th floor

Quai des Orfevres and King Lear at the New Yorker Festival

Next Saturday at the Festival, Anthony Lane film critic at the New Yorker will screen and discuss Henri-Georges Clouzot’s 1947 film “Quai des Orfèvres” in the series of “overlooked masterpieces.” 

In “5001 Nights at the Movies,” Pauline Kael, well-known movie critic, raved:

"A stunningly well-made entertainment, this detective film by Henri-Georges Clouzot features the master actor Louis Jouvet in the role of a police inspector. His world is contrasted with that of the music hall, represented by the full-blown, hypersexual Suzy Delair. When this voluptuous slut sings “Avec Son Tra-la-la,” she may make you wonder if the higher things in life are worth the trouble. With Bernard Blier as Delair’s worshipful-masochist husband, Charles Dullin in the role of a lecherous hunchback, and, as a lesbian photographer, Simone Renant, at the time said to be the most beautiful actress in Paris. The film took the top prize at Venice, but in this country it never got the audience it deserved."

Saturday, October 17th at 1.30pm

Then Richard Brody, movie editor, will host a screening and discussion of the 1987 film King Lear, starring Peter Sellars as a descendant of William Shakespeare who attempts to restore his plays in a post-apocalyptic world : "Godard’s 1987 adaptation of “King Lear” may well be his greatest film; it is, at least, the one that condenses the greatest number of his ideas, styles, and obsessions...The extravagant, tragicomic setup yields extraordinary results. For Godard, Shakespeare’s play offers a chance at nothing less than a cosmogony, the reinvention of the world by means of art. Beethoven, Jean Cocteau, Virginia Woolf, Joan of Arc, and a host of other luminaries, as well as the majestic Swiss landscape, with its luminous mountains, sky, and lake, are on hand to support Godard’s overwhelming aesthetic vision."

Saturday, at 5pm

Directors Guild Theatre

110 West 57th Street.

Book tickets

Big Cheese, a new Fromagerie in the Upper East side

Opened 8 months ago on First avenue and 81st Street, Big Cheese offers a nice palette of excellent cheeses from artisanal and farmstead American to a vast array of Europeans cheeses. On the French side, I would recommand the smelly Berthaut's Epoisses washed in Chablis, the Roquefort, the Vacherin du Jura, the Morbier, the Brebiou or the Brie from Isigny.

To accompany your platter, Big Cheese also offers different spreads, jams and crackers. My selection : Tapenade (olive spread), Creme de Marron (you can also make amazing cake with it), Black Cherry spread with Liquorice or White Fig spread with Bay Leaf on your Goat cheese. 

Look also at their interesting vinegars with champagne or black currant.

For the aficionados of Raclette or Fondue, you will find the whole equipment and cheese.

Big Cheese

1566 First Avenue

212-249-5281

Paris in New York Literary Festival

Paris is coming to New York...Terence Gelenter, American expatriate in Paris and founder of Paris Through Expatriate Eyes, is inviting you to join him and his expatriate pals for a day of celebration of the city that inspired authors and produced an unrelenting canon of literature about the City of Light.

Saturday, October 10, 10Am-6PM

Program:

. Judith Jones, Julia Child’s longtime editor and author will discuss her books Cooking For One, The 10TH Muse and the Julia Child phenomenon including the  film Julia & Me.

. Mark Kurlansky/ The Belly Of Paris This masterful translation of Zola’s classic by the acclaimed author of COD, THE BIG OYSTER and SALT prepares you for the sights, smells, sounds, personalities and politics that gave vibrant life to a city within a city.

. Mark Ovenden/The Paris Underground

. Ina Caro/The Road From The Past: Traveling Through History In France-introduced by Robert Caro

. Jill Jonnes/Eiffel's Tower

. Terrance Gelenter-discussing the canon of Expatriate literature and presenting video clips of author interviews 

. Debra Ollivier/What French Women Know About Love, Sex and other Matters of the Heart and Mind, on video-Terrance will animate a panel discussion.

Registration café, lunch and cocktail party with the writers.

Reservations: terrance@paris-expat.com

Location: Starlight Loft of the Roger Smith Hotel, 501 Lexington Ave (47th & 48th)

French Institute - Many interesting events in October

Among others, I would recommend:

. the Cross Cultural Workshop : Interesting in moving to France ? How to assimilate quickly...

Mondays, 6–9pm 
October 5 and November 2: Vivre en France / Living in France 
October 19 and November 16: Travailler en France / Working in France

. Theatrical event :

Fabrice Luchini : "Le Point sur Robert"

Wednesday & Thursday, October 7 & 8, 2009 at 8pm
Florence Gould Hall

The French actor, winner of multiple Cesar Awards, will also present the movie The Discreet. 

Tue, Oct 6

. For the kids:

Cook in French (5-11yrs)- Sat, Oct 3

Bookmaking (4-6yrs)- Sat, Oct 10

Bookmaking (7-10yrs)- Sat,Oct 10

L'Heure du Conte - Thu, Oct 1 (3-6yrs): storytime program with French stories and songs

A Petits Pas Story Hour (2-3yrs) - Thur,Oct 8 : French stories for toddlers

Cine-club des Frimousses (3-8yrs) - Thur, Oct 8 ; french movie club

More Info, go to www.fiaf.org

Hermes - Sample Sales

When: 9/23/09-9/27/09, Wed. 9am-6pm, Thurs. 9am-8pm, Fri. & Sat. 9am -6pm, Sun. 1pm-5pm

Where: The Metropolitan Pavilion 123 West 18th Street (btwn 6th & 7th ave)

About Gay Marshall
Singer, actress, Playbill Top 10 Diva and unabashed Francophile, Gay Marshall, reprises her enchanting Piaf concert at the Metropolitan Room. The show, PIAF: Queen of Heart, is based on Marshall’s 2008 recording, Gay Marshall Sings Piaf, La Vie l’Amour.

Marshall, a Piaf historian, presents a unique view of her subject at odds with the popular perception of Piaf as an overwhelmingly tragic figure; Marshall portrays the joy and mischief of her subject as well. Marshall translated many of the show’s songs herself, and she has woven the repertoire in a way that makes it as accessible and meaningful for non-French speakers as others.

Air France, more legs space...

Air France is introducing Premium Voyageur, an intermediary cabin range located between Economy and Business Class cabins. Can you imagine 40% more space than the Economy Class !

The first Premium Voyageur cabin will be available on the New York-JFK route to Paris. Flight AF023.October 25th

More info

A talk with Guy Sorman, French Economist

Thursday 24th, 7pm

FIAF, skyroom

Guy Sorman, leading French intellectual, author, and economist, will present his new book, Economics Does Not Lie: A Defense of the Free Market in a Time of Crisis.

Peter Coy, Economics editor and senior Writer for Business Week will join Sorman for a thought-provoking and compelling dialogue about the model of the free market economic system.

Guy Sorman is the author of 20 books on contemporary affairs, covering the five continents. He is a regular columnist for Le Figaro, The Wall Street Journal, and other publications around the world. He taught Economics at the Paris Institute of Political Sciences from 1970 to 2000, and at many other Universities over the Globe. In 1985, he was a visiting scholar at Stanford, Hoover Institution.

He has also held several public offices, including advisor to the Prime Minister of France (1995-1997) and deputy mayor of Boulogne, near Paris.

Listen to a talk about his new book on YouTube

More info about the Evening at the FIAF

Juliette Binoche...everywhere in New York this month !

She will be dancing, exhibiting paintings, releasing a book and more. Many events will offer the american public an unique opportunity to discover a new facet of this multi-talented artist.

If you are nostalgic of Paris, don't miss the opening of the last movie from Cedric Klaplisch, "Paris", a kaleidoscopic letter to the City of Lights and its inhabitants, on Friday at the IFC Center.

From 09/10 to 10/09, 58 of her ink-wash portraits of herself and her co-stars of various films and poems will be on display at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy at 972 5th Avenue. Admission Free. From 1pm to 6pm.

Beginning of September, she also presented her book "Portraits. In-Eyes" at Barnes and Noble

From September 15 to September 26, she will be performing with Akram Khan a contemporary piece for two "In-l & Jubilations" at the BAM. Artist talk tonight.

And BAMCinematek will present Rendez-Vous With Juliette Binoche, a 14-film retrospective.

September 19, Damage

September 20, Flight of the Red Balloon

September 21, Blue, with Q&A and book signing with Juliette Binoche

September 22, Family Life

September 24, Mauvais Sang

September 25, Cache

September 26, Code Unknown

September 27, Summer Hours....

September 28, English Patient

September 29, Mary

September 30, Disengagement