Robert Doisneau: Photographer behind one of the world's most romantic images honoured in Paris
Culture
11:41
From the show
In this edition of arts24, we explore a major retrospective in Paris dedicated to legendary French photographer Robert Doisneau, best known for his iconic image "Le Baiser de l'Hôtel de Ville" ("The Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville"). The exhibition celebrates his poetic vision and timeless moments captured on film.
Also in the spotlight: "The Art of the Brick", the global LEGO phenomenon by American artist Nathan Sawaya, arrives in Bordeaux after captivating audiences in New York, London and Shanghai. The imaginative sculptures bring a new dimension to the world's most famous building blocks.
Plus, the Guardian newspaper's chief film critic Peter Bradshaw joins Eve Jackson to discuss his new short story collection "The Body in the Mobile Library and Other Stories". Known for his razor-sharp wit and literary flair, Bradshaw delves into surreal tales: from a playwright's pact with Satan to a politician's daughter laundering money in Benin. He also shares his top picks for this year's Cannes Film Festival.
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France 24
32 minutes ago
- France 24
Frederick Forsyth, author of 'The Day of The Jackal', dies age 86
Prolific British thriller writer Frederick Forsyth, who instantly became a global bestselling author when his book "The Day of the Jackal" was published in 1971, died on Monday aged 86, his literary agents Curtis Brown said. Forsyth famously penned his most famous work about a fictional assassination attempt on French president Charles de Gaulle by right-wing extremists in just 35 days after falling on hard times. "The Jackal" went on to be made into a hit film starring Edward Fox as the assassin. A Netflix remake last year with Eddie Redmayne in the lead role was released last year. "We mourn the passing of one of the world's greatest thriller writers," his agent Jonathan Lloyd said. Forsyth died at home surrounded by his family following a brief illness, according to Curtis Brown. The former journalist and pilot wrote over 25 books including "The Odessa File" (1972) and "The Dogs of War" (1974) and sold over 75 million copies worldwide. Many of his novels were also turned into films. "Only a few weeks ago I sat with him as we watched a new and moving documentary of his life ... and was reminded of an extraordinary life, well lived," said Lloyd. "After serving as one of the youngest ever RAF pilots, he turned to journalism, using his gift for languages in German, French and Russian to become a foreign correspondent in Biafra (in Nigeria)," he said. 'Spectacular luck' "Appalled at what he saw and using his experience during a stint as a secret service agent, he wrote his first and perhaps most famous novel, 'The Day Of The Jackal'," he added. A sequel to "The Odessa File", entitled "Revenge Of Odessa", on which he worked with thriller writer Tony Kent, is due to be published in August, his publisher Bill Scott-Kerr said. "His journalistic background brought a rigour and a metronomic efficiency to his working practice and his nose for and understanding of a great story kept his novels both thrillingly contemporary and fresh," Scott-Kerr added. Forsyth attributed much of his success to "luck", recalling how a bullet narrowly missed him while he was covering the bloody Biafra civil war between 1967 and 1970. "I have had the most spectacular luck all through my life," he told The Times last November in an interview. "Right place, right time, right person, right contact, right promotion -- and even just turning my head away when that bullet went past," he said. Asked why he had decided to give up writing -- although he later went back to it -- he told AFP in 2016 he'd "run out of things to say". "I can't just sit at home and do a nice little romance from within my study, I have to go out and check out places like Modagishu, Guinea Bissau, both hellholes in different ways," he said. Forsyth had two sons by his first wife. His second wife, Sandy, died last year. Conservative MP David Davis paid tribute to his friend as a "fabulous wordsmith". He told Sky News that Forsyth "was a great believer in the old values -– he believed in honour and patriotism and courage and directness and straightforwardness, and a big defender of our armed forces".
LeMonde
2 hours ago
- LeMonde
'The Day of The Jackal' author Frederick Forsyth dies aged 86
British thriller writer Frederick Forsyth, the author of The Day of The Jackal, has died at the age of 86, his literary agents Curtis Brown said on Monday, June 9. "We mourn the passing of one of the world's greatest thriller writers," his agent Jonathan Lloyd said. Forsyth died at home on Monday morning surrounded by his family following a brief illness, according to Curtis Brown. "Only a few weeks ago I sat with him as we watched a new and moving documentary of his life ... and was reminded of an extraordinary life, well lived," said Lloyd. "After serving as one of the youngest ever RAF pilots, he turned to journalism, using his gift for languages in German, French and Russian to become a foreign correspondent in Biafra (in Nigeria)," Lloyd said. "Appalled at what he saw and using his experience during a stint as a secret service agent, he wrote his first and perhaps most famous novel, The Day Of The Jackal, and instantly became a global best-selling author," he added. A pilot who turned to writing to clear his debts, Forsyth penned more than 25 novels, including 20 spy novels, often drawing on real-life experiences and selling 70 million copies worldwide. Forsyth honed a distinctive style of deeply researched and precise espionage thrillers involving power games between mercenaries, spies and scoundrels. For inspiration, he drew on his own globe-trotting life, including an early stint as a foreign correspondent and assisting Britain's spy service on missions in Nigeria, South Africa, and the former East Germany and Rhodesia. "The research was the big parallel: as a foreign correspondent you are probing, asking questions, trying to find out what's going on, and probably being lied to," he told The Bookseller magazine in 2015. "Working on a novel is much the same... essentially it's a very extended report about something that never happened – but might have." 'Stony broke as usual' He wrote his first novel when he was 31, on a break from reporting and in dire need of money to fund his wanderlust. Having returned "from an African war, and stony broke as usual, with no job and no chance of one, I hit on the idea of writing a novel to clear my debts," he said in his autobiography The Outsider: My Life in Intrigue published in 2015. "There are several ways of making quick money, but in the general list, writing a novel rates well below robbing a bank." But Forsyth's foray came good. Taking just 35 days to pen The Day of the Jackal, his story of a fictional assassination attempt on French president Charles de Gaulle by right-wing extremists, met immediate success when it appeared in 1971. The novel was later turned into a film and provided self-styled revolutionary Carlos the Jackal with his nickname. Forsyth went on to write a string of bestsellers including The Odessa File (1972) and The Dogs of War (1974).
Euronews
4 hours ago
- Euronews
Adolescence to be shown in French schools, says minister of education
Following UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcoming plans to air Netflix's hit show Adolescence in secondary schools, France is following suit, with French Minister of Education Élisabeth Borne stating yesterday that the mini-series will be screened from secondary school level upwards. In an interview for LCI news channel, Borne explained that the producer of the series 'gave us the rights' and that the Ministry of Education was therefore going to 'offer five educational sequences for young people based on this series'. These extracts from Adolescence, which have already been shown in British schools to stimulate debate and try to 'prevent young boys from being dragged into a whirlpool of hatred and misogyny,' are 'very representative of the violence that can exist among young people', according to Borne. The aim is to help raise awareness of the problem of 'overexposure to screens and the trivialisation of violence on these social networks,' as well as the spread of masculinist theories and misogyny, argues Borne. The four-part series follows how a father deals with the fallout of his 13-year-old son being suspected of stabbing one of his classmates to death. Beyond the spot-on acting, the show has felt like a cultural wake-up call, as it has prompted a wider discussion about toxic masculinity and the devastating influence of the so-called 'manosphere' on young minds who are faced with websites and online forums promoting misogyny and ultra-conservative models of masculinity that flirt with far-right ideologies. When it was confirmed that Netflix would be making the series available to all UK secondary schools, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote a column for the Daily Mail saying that he didn't see the good in the initiative, calling the show 'tosh'. He wrote: 'In making this announcement with full prime ministerial authority amid the ancient solemnity of the cabinet room, Keir Starmer has perfectly encapsulated the fundamental flatulence of the government, and its emetic finger-wagging mixture of humbug and wokery.' Johnson went on to say that he believes the move to show the series in school time demonstrates the government's 'cruel indifference to the real educational needs of children today,' adding: 'In case you haven't watched Adolescence I can save you the bother. It's tosh - well-acted tosh.' Predictably, Johnson also introduced race to his argument, saying that 'unlike the teenage couple in this drama, the victims and perpetrators are disproportionately young black males.' The show's co-creator Jack Thorne has already spoken out on this theory, saying, 'It's absurd to say that (knife crime) is only committed by black boys. It's not true and history shows a lot of cases of kids from all races committing these crimes.' Thorne also stated that the goal of the show was not about 'making a point about race' but to make a point 'about masculinity.' 'We're trying to get inside a problem,' he added. 'We're not saying this is one thing or another, we're saying that this is about boys.' The decision to show the series in French schools comes after Laëtitia Curetti, who has a 13-year-old son, wrote to Borne and launched an online petition to have the series shown in secondary schools across France. Curetti stated she believes the series could be an 'excellent educational tool' to raise awareness of the dangers of social networking, sexism, bullying and violence in schools. The discussion surrounding knife crime has increased since the success of the series in France. It has been further amplified after a 16-year-old stabbed a high school student to death and injured three other fellow students at the lycée Notre-Dame de Toutes Aides in Nantes on 24 April. "My thoughts go out first to the teenager who lost her life, to the three students who were injured, and I want to express all my support and solidarity to these victims, their families and their loved ones," declared Borne at the school, before paying tribute to the "establishment staff who intervened and neutralized the attacker." French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau spoke of "a tragedy that rocks us." He said he was "appalled" and "shocked" by "the violence that has been unleashed," before adding that the tragic incident was "not a mere news item but a societal issue."
