News

Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of France’s far-right National Rally party, and father to French political leader Marine Le Pen, has died. He was 96.

Le Pen founded National Rally, then called National Front, in 1972 as a right-wing populist movement and led the party until 2011. He stood for president five times, most successfully in 2002 when he shocked France by defeating Socialist candidate Lionel Jospin in the first round of voting, Jacques Chirac in the second round, the first time a far-right candidate had gotten that far. Le Pen was soundly defeated, with Chirac winning more than 82 percent of the vote.

A controversial figure his entire political life, Le Pen was convicted and fined several times for contesting and downplaying the crimes of the Holocaust, in violation of French law. He once infamously described the Holocaust, as a “mere detail” in the history of World War II, and repeatedly praised France’s...

The French far-right party Rassemblement National made historical gains on June 9, dominating the European elections by a landslide with 31.5% of votes.

Fronted by the Rassemblement National’s 28 year-old lead candidate Jordan Bardella, the victory prompted French President Emmanuel Macron — whose party Renaissance came in second with 14.5% of votes — to dissolve the National Assembly and call early Parliamentary elections. These will take place in two rounds, on June 30 and July 7, less than a month before the start of the Olympic Games in Paris.

Perceived as a poker move by insiders, these snap elections could lead to seeing the Rassemblement National win the majority within the National Assembly and subsequently obligate Macron to cohabit with a prime minister belonging to the far right, most likely Bardella. Macron appears to be following the footsteps of Jacques Chirac, the right-wing former president, who dissolved the National Assembly in 1997 and called snap elections. After the socialist party won the majority,...

David Kessler, a well-respected French media industry veteran who had been heading the content division of the telco group Orange since 2014, died on Feb. 3 at his home in Paris. He was 60.

Kessler’s death was confirmed by his family to the newswire Afp. The cause of his death hasn’t been reported but sources close to Kessler said he had recently undergone surgery and had been hospitalized.

Spanning decades, Kessler’s career saw him navigating a number of top French institutions as head of the broadcasting authorities Csa and later the National Film Board (Cnc), to the field of journalism, as head of the radio group France Culture, the French version of the Huffington Post and the magazine les Inrockuptibles.

Kessler, who was known for his intelligence as well as keen analytical and diplomatic skills, also held key strategic positions in politics. A socialist at heart, he notably worked as...

At the time of his death he was director of Orange Content.

Respected French film and TV executive David Kessler has died at the age of 60 in Paris, local media reported on Tuesday.

At the time of his death, he was director of Orange Content, a division of French telecom giant Orange grouping cinema and high-end TV channel Ocs (formerly Orange Cinema Series) and production and sales division Orange Studio.

Orange created the entity in 2017 to bolster its presence in the content business. Kessler had joined Orange in 2014 and was at the heart of the company’s content strategy from the beginning.

Olivier Courson has been with the Canal Plus group since 2003 after a governmental career that included stints at the French state council, France’s state film organization the Cnc and as culture and communication advisor to Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. He’s since traded state affairs for studio politics as CEO of Canal Plus subsidiary Studiocanal. The Paris-based producer-distributor will kick off the festival with Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom on opening night before the world premiere of Alain Resnais’ competition entry You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet, the animated title Ernest & Celestine in Directors’ Fortnight and several new international

read more...

Often when the title of a foreign movie is adapted into English, the translation is not literal. "Le nom des gens," for example, means "People's Names," not "The Names of Love." "People's Names," in fact, would be a more descriptive title for this film since director Michele Leclerc and co-writer Bay Kasmi want us in the audience to realize, as Shakespeare did in "Romeo and Juliet," that your name should not be your destiny. "The Names of Love" has its heart in the right place: its message is politically liberal, it's sexual politics is free. Because this movie is meant primarily for a French audience, given its topicality, its cutting edge could be dulled outside French shores. Have you ever heard of Lionel Jospin, for example, a man who actually appears in a cameo? He was the Socialist Party candidate for President of France in the 1995 and 2002 elections. Imagine a...

An array of French stars turned out to pay tribute to French actress Marie Trintignant at her funeral yesterday. Trintignant - who died last week aged 41, after sustaining severe head injuries in a shocking domestic drama - was buried at Paris's Pere Lachaise cemetery, the resting place of Irish writer Oscar Wilde and American rocker Jim Morrison. Her internment followed a tribute ceremony attended by her family and friends including screen legend Catherine Deneuve. Former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, British actress Jane Birkin and director Claude Lelouch were among celebrities who gathered at the Edouard VII theatre, where they sang songs in memory of the daughter of movie star Jean-Louis Trintignant. The actress slipped into an irreversible coma on 27 July after an incident at her hotel in Lithuania, where she was shooting a film about the French writer Colette. She died on Friday after being flown to France. An autopsy showed her death was caused by repeated blows to the head. Her boyfriend, singer Bertrand Cantat of the top French rock bank Noir Desir, is being held in jail by Lithuanian authorities pending an investigation.