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 conceit of Toi et Moi (You and Me) is that one of the main characters, the pretty, ditzy Ariane (Julie Depardieu), is the author of Toi et Moi, a roman-photo, a sort of comic-book version of a Harlequin romance, with simple bodice-ripping stories illustrated by carefully staged photos of actors looking hurt, surprised, shocked, angry, etc. Ariane herself is involved in a star-crossed romance with the rich, handsome Farid, who refuses to be pinned down to a serious relationship and knows how to play her like a yo-yo.
Ariane’s sister, Lena (Marion Cotillard), is a serious, shy cello player who lacks confidence in herself. She meets Mark (Jonathan Zaccaï) a dashing violin soloist who encourages her to break away from the orchestra and become a soloist herself. He also falls in love with her, of course, and in spite of her timidity and the fact that she lives with a nice-guy teacher named François (Eric Berger), she can’t resist having an affair with him.
Meanwhile, Pablo (Sergio Peris-Mencheta), a handsome Catalonian mason who is working on Ariane’s building, is falling in love with her and keeps popping up unexpectedly at her window.
All of this romantic activity is absorbed by Ariane and transformed into her roman-photo (with lots of wish fulfillment added: Ariane catches Farid cheating on her and shoots him; Farid repents and swears eternal love, etc.). These are the best moments of the movie, with the actors frozen in dramatic poses against surreal, candy colored backgrounds.
Director Julie Lopes-Curval could have used this device to greater effect – played it for real laughs, for instance, instead of mild chuckles. Toi et Moi wants to be a light, sophisticated romance, and while it’s all fairly entertaining and amusing, and cast with appealing actors, it is almost as two-dimensional and predictable as a roman-photo. The only surprise is that we aren’t sure if the ending belongs to the film or to the roman-photo.
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