France

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Review: The Conquest

Xavier Durringer's recreation of the rise of Sarkozy
Xavier Durringer's dramatized recreation of the rise of France's Nicolas Sarkozy to the presidency is generally fair-minded and ambiguous.
By GERALD PEARY | December 13, 2011

Review: The Women on the 6th Floor

A kind of European version of The Help
Philippe Le Guay's '60s-set Parisian upstairs/downstairs, a kind of European version of The Help , has all the ingredients necessary for US consumption: political correctness, platitudes, saucy comedy; and a romance between a middle-aged bourgeois reactionary and a life-affirming, left-leaning babe 30 years his junior.
By PETER KEOUGH | October 11, 2011

Review: Thames Street Kitchen

Getting more than the food right
There's a new restaurant in Newport that may very well give the expression "tsk-tsk" new, enthusiastic meaning.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | September 20, 2011

Review: The Names of Love

Softcore sex and politics
Child abuse, genocide — those French have a way with romantic comedies.
By PETER KEOUGH | August 16, 2011

Review: Petite Jacqueline

French treasures
On a crowded night at Petite Jacqueline it is hard to hear your companion over the din.
By BRIAN DUFF | July 13, 2011

Review: L'Artisan Café & Bakery

More like a bistro than a bakery
Enough already. I got tired of a good foodie friend of mine badgering me about this bakery and gourmet food place he was in love with and wanted me to review.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | May 24, 2011

Review: The Dancing Pig

A great place for pigging out
The laid-back tone of the place is established by its name and accompanying cartoon logo of a smiling pig in a top hat. Inside, tasseled valances against burgundy walls suggest a bustling gray-haired granny in the kitchen.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | May 04, 2011

Review: East Ender

France meets New England
Those French know how to cook. But here in America, French cuisine too often comes with a demi-glace of pedantry and a side of self-congratulation.
By BRIAN DUFF | April 13, 2011

Review: Potiche

Screwball comedy meets political boilerplate
The eclectic François Ozon often combines the offbeat and the generic to the benefit of both.
By PETER KEOUGH | April 07, 2011

Review: Le Central

Cherchez la lunch
Their slogan is "Where the East Bay meets the Left Bank," and Le Central, in the middle of Bristol, usually does a fine job fulfilling the claim with more than good french fries. Gone are the days when the town had to settle for a Café La France on the spot.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | February 15, 2011

Unmitigated Gaul

Rogues and rebels in the Boston French Film Festival
The French pride themselves on their revolutionary spirit, no less in film than in politics.
By PETER KEOUGH | July 05, 2010

Kings of Queens

Why Mobb Deep are still the fittest
When it comes to legendary hip-hop duos, Southerners salute UGK and OutKast, whereas nostalgic heads anoint EPMD, and eclectic contrarians endorse Organized Konfusion.
By CHRIS FARAONE | June 26, 2010

Save the pool

Plans to alter the magnificent reflecting pool at the Christian Science Center should not be allowed
Noble architecture makes Boston a living work of art. Visitors flock to view Bulfinch's State House, Richardson's Trinity Church, and McKim's Copley Square Library, to name just the obvious.
By EDITORIAL | June 23, 2010

As the World Cup kicks off, Guinness and panic at Ri Ra

Goooooooool!
World Cup fever has not, exactly, gripped Providence.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 16, 2010

Stark reality

Your indispensable World Cup update
Steven Stark is known to Phoenix readers for his "Presidential Tote Board" odds-making feature, but it turns out that he and his son, Harrison, are also soccer aficionados, having become fans of London side Fulham FC during stays in the British capital.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | June 14, 2010

Review: Micmacs

Witty prologue spirals downward into clumsy plot
If he were judged solely by the first five minutes of his films, Jean-Pierre Jeunet would rank among the world’s top filmmakers. Unfortunately, the remaining 100 minutes or so place him among the most overrated.
By PETER KEOUGH | June 01, 2010

Minimalism and mementos

Jamey Morrill's sculptures and 'souvenirs' at Craftland
After 5 Traverse gallery closed in February, crackerjack curator Maya Allison, who was co-director there, lined up a handful of small independent projects and seemed like she might be on her way to starting her own operation before she landed a gig as curator at Brown University's Bell Gallery, which she began this week.
By GREG COOK | June 02, 2010

Messi situations

A giant tampon for BP; plus, the World Cup, and a big bash in Pawtuxet
Can’t you just imagine the high-level meetings taking place daily in the British Petroleum war room these days, full of top execs and engineers, neither of whom speak the others’ language, or have even close to the same concerns?
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | June 02, 2010

The garden of Vittorio De Sica

Mostly high points at the Harvard Film Archive
Vittorio De Sica, the subject of a major retrospective at the Harvard Film Archive, "Vittorio De Sica — Neo-Realism, Melodrama, Fantasy," was a movie star in Italy before he became a filmmaker.
By STEVE VINEBERG | June 02, 2010

Balls of fire

Porn stars, witch doctors, elephant farts, and the worst soccer team on the planet take center stage at this summer’s World Cup
For one month every four years, the United States — try as it might — can’t impose its vacuous culture on the rest of the planet. The World Cup arrives and the Americans are, at best, an afterthought.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG AND LANCE GOULD | June 01, 2010

Sweaty Palmes

The Cannes 2010 jury picks some winners, but some head-scratchers, too
Apichatpong Weerasethakul must have done something right in one or more of his previous incarnations.
By LISA NESSELSON | May 28, 2010

Leaves of Life from Arborea, and other Portland music news

Sibilance
BUCK AND SHANTI CURRAN , the husband-and-wife team behind ethereal folk band ARBOREA , have been touring nearly non-stop and curating compilations right from their home base in Lewiston.
By PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | May 19, 2010

Review: The Girl on the Train

The truth gets sidetracked in Téchiné’s Train
Here in this country, we’re familiar with the practice of pinning a crime on a member or members of another race.
By PETER KEOUGH | April 29, 2010

All you need is love

Marylou Speaker Churchill memorial, Emmanuel Music’s Haydn/Schoenberg, and more
Outpourings of love have been flooding the Boston musical scene.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | April 21, 2010

The Big Hurt: Say anything

The week in YouTube comments
It’s almost impossible to read a single page of YouTube comments without being confronted by society’s ugliest afflictions: ignorance, pointless fights, horrifying racism, and unfair criticism of Justin Bieber’s haircut.
By DAVID THORPE | April 12, 2010

Fine wine, fine cause

Distributors partner to raise money, educate Portlanders on wines of the world
Drinking for a good cause is starting to catch on in Portland.
By LEISCHEN STELTER | March 31, 2010

Making it sing

Dee Dee does Billie, plus John Stein & Ron Gill
If you come to Dee Dee Bridgewater’s new Billie Holiday tribute disc — or to her two Holiday shows at the Paramount Theatre this weekend — expecting a reverent impersonation, you could be in for a shock. Bridgewater has transformed the music and persona of the jazz icon.
By JON GARELICK | March 25, 2010