Even art-loving dogs had to wrap up during the recent cold snap in Paris. Photo: Eric Tenin of Paris Daily Photo.
Wednesday, 15 February 2012 11:13
Paris Update Fashion Flash
FRENCH MICHAEL MOORE TAKES ON NATIONAL FOOD INDUSTRY
The motto of Le République de la Malbouffe: "Opacity, Obesity, Precarity."
Xavier Denamur, the owner of five small restaurants in Paris, is a man on a crusade. It began with the 2009 decrease in value-added tax from 21.6 percent to 5.5 percent on restaurant meals, which he says favored big chain restaurants without helping the small independents as promised. Going beyond that issue, he blames French government policies and a lack of transparency in the food industry for the increasing industrialization of food preparation and delivery, the degradation of food quality in France, and increasing obesity and public health costs. One of his campaigns calls for legislation that would create a label informing restaurant customers whether the food is prepared from fresh ingredients on-site or is factory-made or frozen.
Denamur has formed an association called La République de la Malbouffe (The Republic of Bad Food) and has just released a documentary film of the same name, directed by Jacques Goldstein. Unfortunately, the film lacks focus and does not get his laudable message across clearly. Shown only in a handful of Paris cinemas, it is also available on DVD (with issue no. 17 of Rue89 magazine, for €5). Denamur continues to hold debates and chase politicians, hoping to get them to listen to his call for transparency. “My goal is to get citizens interested in politics again,” he says, by encouraging them to vote and write to their representatives. Heidi Ellison
Tuesday, 14 February 2012 23:00
Paris Update Art Notes
ANDREAS SLOMINSKI
Recent works by Andreas Slominski at the Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Paris (through February 29). Video by Nikolaï Saoulski. Click here for larger screen.
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The name Chanel may conjure up images of the icons of the legendary fashion house – the quilted leather purse with chain shoulder straps, the braid-edged tweed jackets and suits, or even the simplicity of the Chanel Number 5 bottle – but behind this flagship of French luxury was a woman of great character: Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel.
A new film, Coco avant Chanel, directed by Anne Fontaine, offers a fascinating portrait of the young Coco from the time of her birth at the end of the 19th century up until she founded her own fashion house in the 1920s. She is beautifully and sensitively brought to life by Audrey Tautou (of Amélie fame), whose brown doe eyes effectively suggest the courage and determination that explain her character’s later success.
The young Chanel, an orphan, had to sing in bars for her supper à la Piaf but was armed with an iron will. She was ready to take on the world and change it after her own fashion.
She started out as a humble seamstress, repairing the torn petticoats of the more privileged. Her early world was full of feathered and flowered fancy ladies, still corset-bound, floating along in oversized hats and skirts.
The film shows Chanel as a high-spirited, independent young woman, realistic enough to enlist the help of wealthy male benefactors as she walks the tightrope between being a kept woman and a visionary rebel with the courage to dress in simple, boyish clothes.
Chanel dispensed with corsets, feathers and flounces, and her wealthy lover’s friends soon began to take notice. Since all this plays around World War I, the film takes on historical and sociological dimensions through the adventures of its young, determined heroine.
Coco’s love interests are played with charm and dash by Benoit Poelvoorde and Alessandro Nivola. And French actresses Marie Gillain as Coco’s sister and Emmanuelle Devos as her friend and benefactor add just the right Gallic feminine touch.
“Je veux être de ce qui va arriver” was a favorite saying of Mademoiselle Chanel. This film is the illustration of her success.
