After a number of years in France there are a few odd things that you end up only knowing how to do only in French. For example, I can change the embrayage of my car with my eyes shut, but I cringe at the idea of touching the clutch. As a publisher, I know the ins and outs of brochage, but bookbinding totally befuddles me. I can poser une moquette or handle carrelage, but I’m lost when it comes to laying carpet or dealing with bathroom tiles. In fact, on the whole I’m not too bad as bricoleurs go, but if it’s one thing I’m not it’s handy! Continue reading “Pardon my French”
Harriet Welty Rochefort’s “French Toast”
When people learn that I have lived in France a little over two decades, the inevitable comment is “then you must have become French.” My spontaneous answer to that comment is “no.” But upon deeper reflection, I have to say that, while in many circumstances the cultural gap is, if anything, only greater, in others I feel that I have indeed become “almost” French.
Conversation with Filmmaker John Berry
It is mid-June and I am talking to the noted Yiddish scholar Jean Mouton in a restaurant in Belleville. Actually, that sentence is designed to fool any FBI agents who may still be on the trail of McCarthy-era survivor John Berry, the actor and director who, after three months of dodging a HUAC subpoena, traded America for the City of Lights in late March 1950. Continue reading “Conversation with Filmmaker John Berry”
Storming the Bastille and Beyond
When the last decade of the 20th century witnessed the collapse of communism throughout the Soviet empire … , proletarian traditions lost their grip on the 11th arrondissement, the vanguard of French class struggle ever since 1789. As protesters march between place de la Nation, place de la République and place de la Bastille – the three cardinal points of working-class militancy – one is struck by the dramatic fall in their ranks. Continue reading “Storming the Bastille and Beyond”
Twila Tharp’s Kinetic Meditations
Twyla Tharp’s motor runs fast. Probably the most famous American modern dance-maker since Martha Graham, she can come off as brusque, even intimidating. Her spiky personality is partly the defense of an admittedly shy person. But it is also that she is so brainy, and so busy, that she can’t afford to suffer fools gladly.
Summer ’97 in the City
The joy of being a tourist anywhere is that the stimulation is constant and you get to lose your innocence all over again. You re-enter the child’s world of discovery, observation and fascination. And this begins with your very first moment in the new country. At the airport, even. Okay, let’s back up a few days. To the day you arrived in Paris.
French Styles Grow Up and Out
My first bout with weight discrimination in France came while I was working as an illustrator for a now-defunct fashion house, Schiaparelli. Eyeing my tiny frame, the boutique director felt it her duty to warn, “Here, there are no 34s and certainly no 44s.” Okay, I could buy a size 36 and cut it down. But what do women tipping the other end of the scale do for clothes? Buy two dresses and stitch them together? Continue reading “French Styles Grow Up and Out”
Lambert Wilson in the Spotlight
“Just take a deep breath and relax!” Lambert Wilson tells me as we sit down to discuss his stage and film projects for the year. Given the actor-singer’s reserved character and his sometimes strained relationship with the press, the advice sounds more like self-encouragement.
How Do You Say Frisbee in French?
Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s the Hale-Bopp comet … no, it’s a “flying disc,” more colloquially known as a “Frisbee.” These days, more and more discs are being sighted hovering over French territory: this fast-growing sport now counts over 180,000 players nationwide. No one is prouder of this fact than the Fédération Flying Disc France, which celebrates its auspicious 20th anniversary this year. Created in 1977 to promote disc-related sports and structure disc competitions, the federation now boasts 24 official clubs, 30 teams and more than 450 licensed players in France. With more than 40 nations registered with the World Flying Disc Federation, “Frisbee” could be one of the most popular sports on the planet by 2000.
House Guests from Hell
The news is out. Nine million Americans are traveling abroad this year. But the more important statistic is how many will be visiting YOU this summer!
Calvin Klein’s Newest Obsession
It had to happen one day or another. After McDonald’s, Coca Cola and Woody Allen, the next major American institution to arrive in Paris is Calvin Klein. America’s best-known fashion designer is scheduled to open a 650-square-meter megastore at 49, avenue Montaigne. Designed by London architect Claudio Silvestrin, the interiors, fashioned after Klein’s Madison Avenue store, are faithful to the designer’s clean, luxurious signature style: pristine white walls, limestone floors, brushed and shiny stainless steel counters and dark walnut chairs. “Each detail was designed to communicate the quintessential idea of modernity, pure luxury and quality, void of ostentation and excess,” says a Klein spokesman.