Frederic Beigbeder heeft met zijn boek Windows on the World de Independent Foreign Fiction Prize gewonnen. De prijs wordt toegekend door de Arts Council England aan de beste vertaling in het Engels van een buitenlands boek. Windows on the World gaat over de laatste momenten van een familie in de bar bovenin het World Trade…
TOULOUSE – Het grootste passagiersvliegtuig ter wereld, de Airbus A380, is vanmorgen om 10H29 opgestegen om zijn eerste testvlucht te maken. Het ‘cruiseschip’ onder de vliegtuigen vertrok onder het oog van duizenden toeschouwers en 500 journalisten uit de hele wereld vanaf de luchthaven van Toulouse, de vestigingsplaats van Airbus. Gedurende viereneenhalf uur zal een aantal…
I am currently listening to Cinematic Orchestra’s new CD, Man With a Movie Camera. A great title for a great album. Cinematic Orchestra is jazz with a 21st century flavour.
In December 2001 I bought a cd solely on the basis of the name of the artist: Bonobo (a.k.a. Simon Green from Brighton), my favourite animal. The CD was called Animal Magic, and proved out to be a little gem. This week Ninja Tune released Bonobo’s second album Dial M For Monkey. This one is…
Will Britain stay an island forever, or join the happy European family?
The new book The Art of Travel by Swiss writer Alain de Botton is an inspiring carnet de voyages, that has little in common with a regular travel guide. In five chapters he connects people to places, philosophizing on the act of travel. Botton sketches a fascinating and concise portrait of Alexander von Humboldt, an…
FR 2003 (120′)- Dir.: Cédric Klapisch. With Marie Gillain, Vincent Elbaz, Zinedine Soualem. Official site Marie Gillain is probably one of only three women I would consider proposing marriage. In Ni pour, ni contre (bien au contraire), as is the full title of this film, she plays innocent cameragirl Cathy. Like L’Auberge Espagnole, Klapisch’ previous…
RUS/GER/FR 2002 (92′)- Dir.: Bakhtyar Khudojnazarov. With Aleksandr Yatsenko, Artur Povolotsky, Ivan Kokorin. It is not often that I get to see Russian films, not even in the Cinema capital of the World that is Paris. But two, and two good ones, in two days is a pretty good score. Three boys in a nostalgic…
FR/RUS 2002 (128′)- Dir.: Pavel Lungin. With Vladimir Mashkov, Mariya Mironova, Levani Outchaneichvili. Vladimir Mashkov turns Platon Makovski from a charming and naive scientist under the Soviet regime into an unscrupulous business man. The story is based on Boris Berezovsky, who is now wanted by the Kremlin. It is sad to see that such a…
