Quick Reads

Tonight, I’ll be taking part in a regular book series that local French culture consultant (I’m not sure if that’s the right term, but it’s the best I can come up with!) Elizabeth New. Her company is called French Affaires, and they hold frequent events for North Texas Francophiles, including wine tastings, cooking classes, book readings, and of course, guided tours of select French regions. It’s a job I would looooove, but I don’t quite have Dr. New’s (she is a former professor of French at the University of North Texas) experience, language and culture skills and extensive expertise in all things French. Still, I’m so excited about participating in the two-part book series, not the least because it’ll be a singular opportunity for me to meet fellow Francophiles locally. Those of you who live in more human-friendly cities like New York and Boston probably can’t fathom the fact that it can be difficult to meet like-minded folks who share your interests, given that your respective neighborhoods are relatively accessible to each other.

Dallas, on the other hand, sprawls far and wide to, basically, forever. I expect the region to someday swallow up everything between here and Abilene, including poor Fort Worth (of which I’m actually a resident). The meeting tonight will be a good half-hour drive through Dallas’ relentless and heartstopping traffic, courtesy of what one organization calls the second-worst drivers in the U.S. I believe it.

In any case, we’ll be discussing the book France, A Love Story: Women Write About the French Experience. Sadly, my copy only arrived yesterday, so I’ve only been able to read the first three or four chapters, but so far, so good. We’ll be chatting and ruminating the book’s evocation of French life and culture at The Whimsey Shoppe, a retail establishment that purportedly exudes “quaint charm” and which carries a number of French antiques and home accessories. Throw in a bit of wine and cheese and a clutch of eager Francophiles, and it promises to be an interesting party.

I’ll review the book next week, but in the meantime, here are some “Quick Reads” to get you through the rest of the week. Relax! It’s Thursday! (And yes, I realize that this list may be a wee bit too long to be called “quick,” but feel free to pick and choose subjects that interest you! I’ve broken it down into general categories to help you sift through it all.)

Art & Literature
Lucy Knisley. Surely some of you are avid comic book graphic novel aficionados. They’re still popular in the Philippines, although apparently their heyday was in the 1970′s and 1980′s, when hundreds of them filled the racks of sidewalk vendors, and you could follow a compelling drama for weeks, months or even years on end. They were cheap (less than the cost of a bag of peanuts in my neighborhood) and employed some of the country’s best artists and writers. Seriously. Now that the industry has waned a bit, a lot of these same artists have moved on to working for local animated television and film projects as well as international companies such as Disney. (A lot of the animated films you see at your local theaters? Drawn by artists based in the Philippines.)

Anyway, I digress. Newsarama features an interview with the hugely talented and articulate Lucy Knisley, whose first book, French Milk, was published last summer by Touchstone Publishing. It’s a lovely account of her visit to Paris with her mother, culled from her travel journal and sketches she drew in cafes and her hotel room as they skipped through the City of Light.

Home & Architecture
Apartment interior design. No matter the amount of money I have, my apartment will never look like the ones found in these photographs, mostly because the vast, vast majority of America’s corporate-designed apartment complexes were conceived by folks who will never live in them and who have no desire to give their dwellers a modicum of comfort and harmony. But a girl can dream.

Music & Cinema
Marion Cotillard’s still in the news. This piece from the Sydney Morning Herald offers a glimpse of Cotillard as a working actor, rather as simply a fashion plate. The Courier Mail (also Australia) has a similar article.

Charlotte Gainsbourg, star of the controversial film AntiChrist and the new face of the upcoming Balenciaga fragrance, has been much discussed lately as well, but here the Independent gives us a more in-depth, analytical piece about one of France’s most intriguing personalities, touching on everything from her relationship with her parents to her approach to her craft. The Guardian does the same here.

In the meantime, Vogue (UK) offers readers a glimpse into a Day in the Life of Ms. Gainsbourg. I would have liked an actual timeline, complete with specific time stamps, since this is more of a summary of how her days ordinarily are rather than a description of a specific day, but this’ll do.

A Kiwi article about Audrey Tautou and the upcoming film, Coco Before Chanel. I love how the piece ends with a rather diplomatic response from Audrey about why she prefers doing films at home over pursuing an international (read: “Hollywood”) career. Let’s face it: she’ll be wasted in Tinseltown. Exhibit A: The Da Vinci Code. She’ll be better off in France, where she’ll have her pick of complex, interesting characters, rather than be forever relegated to “pretty girlfriend” roles.

SkyNews makes just that point much more succinctly, to its credit. Although I think Tautou is being too modest. Choosing France over Hollywood in terms of her career doesn’t make her “spoilt;” it makes her smart. And that’s why we love her.

Another Audrey article, this time a brief one about her love of Chanel clothes.

And yet another, this time from the Sunday Herald (Scotland) with a more extensive biography of the actress.

Speaking of Chanel clothes, the Independent interviews Catherine Leterrier, wardrobe designer for Audrey’s film.

And in non-Audrey film news, the Wall Street Journal takes a close look at the new (and improved?) Cahiers du Cinema under the management of its new owner, Phaidon, and editor, Stephane Delorme. I’ll be the first to admit that I read more technically oriented rags like Screenwriter and Filmmaker Magazine, eschewing the more theoretical and aesthetic publications like Cahiers, but I attribute that to my American parochialism. Movie buffs who care about the future of filmmaking might be interested in reading about the art of film criticism and how Cahiers has contributed (or harmed?) its evolution. Since I review films for My Inner French Girl, it would probably behoove me to be a little more intellectual in the way I critique them, although I do avoid reading published reviews of the films I choose until I’ve actually gotten around to writing my own. Cahiers has an online English version of its venerable mag, so non-French-speaking film aficionados, we’ve no excuse for our ignorance.

Fashion & Beauty
Why I Love My Chanel. Four fashionistas (including the editor of Harper’s Bazaar in the UK) discuss their passion for the House of Chanel’s signature clothes and accessories. Despite the lack of photographs, reading it makes me want to dash out and buy a Chanel coat. If I had the money, of course.

FocusonStyle.com offers tips on how to dress like a chic Parisienne. (Actually, the term they use is “Parisianista,” which makes no sense to me since there’s a perfectly good and far more elegant term already in place.)

TheFrisky.com offers its own advice and observations on why “French women never look bad,” and although I disagree with some of its points (“Anything that Carine and/or Julia Roitfeld wear, you should copy?” Isn’t that the anti-thesis of dressing to fit your unique personality and look rather than simply imitating others, which sounds very anti-French?), it makes for some fun, if familiar reading.

Politics and Current Events
So Sarkozy fainted while jogging, and now a few waspish gossips are pointing the finger at Mme. Bruni-Sarkozy for her allegedly rigorous control over her husband’s fitness and nutrition regimen. Give me a break. The man is known for his intense energy, it’s the middle of a hot summer and it was apparently quite humid. Oh, and we’re suffering through a horrible global recession, so his entire country is looking to him to pull them out of it. Hmmm. Could that be the reason he felt a bit dizzy?

The Christian Science Monitor takes a more measured tone, analyzing France’s JoggingGate and the effects of celebrity journalism on real journalism in the coverage of a political leader. (And yes, I said it. Celebrity journalism is an oxymoron. So sue me.)

The Hartford Courant takes a different position, comparing Sarkozy’s experiences governing France with those of his neighbor, Silvio Berlusconi. Apparently, it pays to be a boring old leader, like England’s Gordon Brown. At least a mere headache on his part won’t end up sending his nation’s journalists into a rumor-fueled, misogynistic frenzy.

And swerving to a different subject, Yvonne Ridley offers a wonderful, acerbic and keenly insightful piece in the Middle East Online speculating on Sarkozy’s real reason for wanting to ban the burqa. You may or may not agree with her (I’m not really much for psychoanalyzing the motivations of political leaders), but she does offer some thought-provoking theories.

Food & Wine
A reporter for The National (United Arab Emirates) writes about her reluctant conversion from disliking “French” food to discovering its original charm and essence.

Francophile Blogs
My French Corner

And lastly, I’ve no clue what category to put this under, but it’s an intriguing (creepy?) story all the same about a man, 185 letters and some very desperate women.

Happy reading!

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