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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Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, code name OSS 117, is a character based on the novels of French writer Jean Bruce (the pen name of Jean Brochet), published in the 1940s, before Ian Fleming’s James Bond thrillers came out.
OSS 117: Le Caire Nid d’Espions, a new film featuring the French spy, directed by Michel Hazanavicius, is not a straightforward spy thriller like the novels, however, but a spoof of one. If you squint, you’ll think you are watching 007 as played by Sean Connery: Jean Dujardin, famed for his recent comic turn as Brice de Nice in the favorite film of French schoolchildren, looks just as terrific as Connery in a tuxedo and is perfectly at ease in his role, grinning and laughing fatuously and wiggling his eyebrows expressively.
The suave French spy – not as bumbling as Inspector Clouseau or Max Smart but with something of their deluded self-confidence and innocence – is sent to Cairo in the 1950s on a difficult mission: protect French interests in the Middle East and secure peace in the region. As a calling card, OSS 117 hands out photos of French President René Coty, a joke the French audience found hilarious.
The politically incorrect plot involves a group of fundamentalists who are trying to take over the country. OSS 117, who knows nothing about Islam or the Middle East, is constantly insulting and patronizing the locals, but by the end of the film, he is speaking perfect Arabic.
The filmmakers nearly had something good here: Dujardin has wonderful comic potential (we are certain to see much more of him, and a sequel to this film is already planned), and the period sets and costumes give this film a great look, but apart from a few good gags here and there, the film is just silly, although it looks like it's already on its way to cult status in France. Let’s hope Dujardin gets a better vehicle next time.
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