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Film Review: Les Hommes Libres

Image: Pyramides Distribution
Text: Susie Kahlich

History, as they say, is written by the winners. Certainly that’s true when it comes to war. Of course, whichever side wins not only gets to write the history, but also gets to be the hero and take all the heroic credit for itself. But as we’ve seen over the years—especially when it comes to WWII—from Schindler’s List to Inglorious Bastards to Valkyrie, the unlikely and unsung heroes of war can come in every color, country, and guise… and will probably never stop coming.

That’s a good thing, because as much as war tears the world apart, it also brings unlikely factions together, factions that have themselves seem to have forgotten they were ever on the same side.

Among these is the little-known story of the Great Mosque of Paris. During the German Occupation of Paris in WWII, the Muezzin and his fellow Muslims turned the Great Mosque into an underground railroad for Jewish families, children and resistance fighters, providing refuge for resistance fighters in its underground caves and tunnels, and false identify papers for Jewish families, claiming them as Muslim and helping to arrange safe passage out of France and away from the death camps.

Homeless World Cup Paris 2011

Image: HWC Paris
Text: Aidan Mac Guill

If you've been travelling past the Champ de Mars the past few days you might have noticed an impressive array of flags, cheering crowds and a general festival atmosphere surrounding a make-shift stand and football pitch. 

The reason is the Homeless World Cup, which has been taking place in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower since Sunday, the eight edition of the annual football tournament for homeless or otherwise socially disadvantaged players. 64 countries are battling it out over the course of the week, culminating in the grand final this Sunday 28 August.

48 teams are taking part in the men's tournament, while the women's competition, now in it's second year of existence, features teams representing 16 countries.

Viewing The Strauss-Kahn Scandal Through A Historical Lens

Image: AFP / Getty Images
Text: Corrie Goldman

This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared in The Human Experience.

On May 14, 2011, just before takeoff for a flight from New York City to Paris, police arrested French presidential hopeful Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and a leading candidate for the 2012 French presidential elections. Strauss-Kahn was charged with allegedly sexually assaulting a housekeeper at the hotel where he had been staying in New York. The resulting scandal, which has most recently seen Strauss-Kahn released from prison on parole, has revealed distinct differences between American and French perspectives on gender roles, riling the media and the public in both nations.

Cécile Alduy, an associate professor of French at Stanford University, has been following the case with great interest. Her research centres on the history of the body and of sexuality in literature, and she sees the furious debate that has erupted in the aftermath of the Dominique Strauss-Kahn scandal as a story with roots that trace back to Renaissance-era France.

 Alduy’s study of French poetry and literature, from the 16th century to today, has allowed her to examine the cultural history of France through a number of scholarly lenses. Her specific emphasis on the history of the representation of the female body in texts and art has broadened the scope of her literary expertise to include feminist and gender studies.

Close to 60% of respondents to a poll taken in France on May 16, 2011, shortly after Strauss-Kahn was indicted, believed he was more likely framed by a political competitor than guilty of the charges. In an opinion column published in the French newspaper Le Monde on May 26, 2011, Professor Alduy indicated that this first, massive wave of support for Strauss-Kahn and the little attention paid to the alleged victim in the first few days after the news are evidence of the way that issues of sexual harassment, sexual aggression, or sexism are routinely downplayed and under scrutinised in a society that on the surface appears to support gender equality.

Ai Weiwei Showreel

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei remains in an undisclosed location, having been detained by Chinese authorities on April 3 of this year. In an attempt to maintain attention to his whereabouts, the production company ikono.tv have created an Ai Weiwei showreel which will update with new information about exhibitions of his work happening around the world. Leviathan, Anish Kapoor's current exhibtion at the Grand Palais, was recently dedicated by the artist to Weiwei.

 

What Next For Jeudi Noir?

Text: Aidan Mac Guill
Image: Flickr CC Neno°

In January of this year riot police entered 22 avenue Matignon, a 4000 square metre office building in Paris' prosperous 1st arrondissement. They had been tasked with evicting a group reportedly made up of students, political activists, parliamentary assistants, office managers and journalists who had been occupying the building, which had lain unused since 2006. The occupation had made news headlines around the world, as the top floors of the building, owned by the insurance group AXA, looked down onto the neighbouring Elysée Palace, home of President Sarkozy.

The group was Jeudi Noir, so called after the day of the week where many students can be found desperately scanning the small ads in newspapers and magazines in search of a place to live. Their stated aim, according to their website, is to "denounce the government's indifference to a housing crisis that is becoming critical as the property bubble swells."

La Générale, In General

Text: Tristan Stansbury-Worthington
Image: La Generale

On the Avenue Parmentier, in a vast former electrical substation dating back to the early 20th century, people are playing ping-pong. The not so regular click-clack of the balls echoes high amid the great iron girders, mingling with the animated chatter of a rapidly growing crowd clustered around the bar. In the background -- music. Somewhere, an extremely talented guitarist and an equally gifted flautist are giving their expression free rein, their intricate strumming and soft warble describing a perfect play of harmonies. For the moment, they are obscured behind a great black curtain, from behind which a small boy suddenly emerges, intent on gaining the ping-pong tables, and hotly pursued by his mother who is more interested in getting him to eat something. Beyond the curtain, a silent few sit in thrall to the music. A tiny blond child is pushing a chair around. The musicians continue unperturbed. And when the ping-pong kid returns and decides it would be fun to run backwards and forwards in the spotlight and even throw out a few crazy shapes, there is no tutting or shaking of heads and everyone enjoys themselves all the more. Just another Vin du mois at La Générale.

It all began back in 2005 with an abandoned school in Belleville and a collective composed of creative militants passionate about turning an ideal into a reality: a creative and political laboratory, a space for free exchange where ideas could be given life. And somewhere to play ping-pong. Left-wing anarchist reactionaries? Maybe. There are rumours that the twice-monthly general meetings last four hours and resemble nothing so closely as a Soviet Party conference. Nonetheless, in the two and a half years of its existence, the first incarnation of La Générale would welcome over 5000 artists and associations looking for somewhere to create and showcase their work. Then the Mairie de Paris decided that they needed to do something useful with the space, so they threw out all the ping-pong players living in a dream world and built a mental hospital. With a ping-pong table.

Ireland In Focus At The Centre Culturel Irlandais

Text: Aidan Mac Guill
Image: Eamonn McCabe

The country of Ireland has long been famous for its fine literary tradition, while recently it has increasingly become a byword for financial disaster and inept governance. Fitting then that two events upcoming at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in the 6th will highlight both aspects. On Feb 17 the celebrated author John Banville will be launching 2 new translations of his books to French. Then on the February 23 the author and journalist Fintan O'Toole will be delivering a lecture on the future of Ireland & Europe.

A novelist and screenwriter, John Banville's first book, the short-story collection Long Lankin, was published when he was 25. Since then he has produced 18 novels. His 2005 work The Sea won him the Man Booker prize, for which he had previously been shortlisted for The Book Of Evidence (1989). He has also written 4 crime fiction books, under the pseudonym Benjamin Black. He is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books and the Guardian newspaper.

Irène Némirovsky At The Mémorial de la Shoah

Text: Emily Sands-Bonin
Image: Fonds Irène Némirovsky

The current exhibition on Irène Némirovsky at the Mémorial de la Shoah is a moving, tragic and exhaustive documentation of the life and career of a French-Ukrainian novelist, who achieved critical acclaim before being deported to Auschwitz where she died in 1942. Némirovsky’s unfinished last novel, Suite Française, received the Prix Renaudot posthumously in 2004. Suite Française has been translated into 38 languages and has sold 2.5 million copies. Her other novels, including Fire in the Blood, David Golder, The Ball, Jezebel and The Dogs and the Wolves have now been reissued and favourably reviewed by critics. The current exhibition on her life at the Mémorial de la Shoah reflects this recent resurrection of interest in her work.

While Irène Némirovsky is no stranger to the French literary scene, nor is she a posthumous newcomer. Those who can remember her original entry into the spotlight in 1929, at the age of 26 with the publication of David Golder (made into a popular movie in 1930) are now few and far between. Today, she is known primarily as a casualty of the Shoah and perhaps only secondarily as a writer, whose books are interesting and relevant in themselves, not only as documentation of the Shoah. It is cruelly ironic that her work would now fall into the category of “Shoah literature”.

Upcoming Readings At Village Voice

Text: Aidan Mac Guill
Images: Benjamin Loyseau / Alan Riding

There are two must-see/hear readings coming soon at the Village Voice bookshop in the 6th. First up on January 27 the Pakistani poet and journalist Fatima Bhutto will read from her family memoir Songs Of Blood And Sword. The following week author and former New York Times European cultural correspondent Alan Riding reads from his latest book And The Show Went On: Cultural Life In Nazi-Occupied Paris. 

Fatima Bhutto is the grand-daughter of former Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and the niece of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Her father Murtaza Bhutto was murdered during his sister's premiership, when Fatima was 14 years old. She has consistently alleged that Benazir or Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir's widower and current president of Pakistan, had a hand in her father's death. As a journalist she writes regularly for The Daily Beast and the New Statesman amongst others. Hers is a respected international voice in the realm of Pakistani socio-politics, although she has repeatedly intimated that she has no desire to pursue a career in politics.

The United Nations Traveling Film Festival at the Arts Arena

Image: Garbage Dreams

The United Nations Association Film Festival and its Traveling Film Festival celebrate the power of films and videos dealing with human rights, the environment, globalization, war and peace. In the last 12 years, UNAFF-selected films have included 15 that received Oscar nominations and five that won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. The Arts Arena has chosen five UNAFF films to be screened and discussed by distinguished panelists around the topic of FACES: Who are we? Who’s in charge? What do you do when the war ends? What do we do when the movie’s over?

The festival will begin on Saturday May 8, at 5pm with a cycled called Urban Faces. It will open with screening of Megalopolis by  Francesco Conversano, Nene Grignaffini, a stunningly filmed exploration of six of the worlds's largest cities that draws on the science fiction of the past. After an open panel discussion and drinks, a different image of the urban life will be presented with Garbage Dreams by Mai Iskander, a story of three boys born into the trash trade in the world's largest garbage village, a ghetto on the outskirts of Cairo and home to the Zaballeen, 'garbage people.'