But beyond the business headlines, what's really fascinating about "The Intouchables" is the way it exposes the gulf in racial attitudes between France and the United States, along with another gulf that's just as wide, the one that has film critics and cinephiles on one side and popular audiences on the other. Viewers in numerous countries have eagerly devoured this feel-good fable about two men of different races and classes who forge an improbable friendship (dubbed by some wags "Driving Monsieur Daisy"). While the audience for foreign-language film is inherently limited in America, there's no reason to believe it won't do well here also. At the same time, heated transatlantic debate has erupted over whether "The Intouchables" traffics in offensive racial stereotypes, with Variety critic Jay Weissberg writing an uncharacteristically angry review that accused the film of "Uncle Tom racism" and compared the Senegalese caretaker character to a "performing monkey."

Continue Reading...

Aides had downplayed the rendezvous as simply aimed at getting to know one another rather than about hammering out any policy. Yet the future of Europe could hinge on whether these two leaders find a way to work well together.

Rarely have two people met for the first time with so much baggage. Merkel refused to meet with Hollande during his election campaign, and made the highly unusual step of publicly backing his rival, fellow conservative Sarkozy. Hollande for his part seemed to be campaigning as much against Merkel as the incumbent, pledging to renegotiate the fiscal pact that she had championed.

Now the two have finally met face-to-face and the encounter seemed cordial if hardly warm. Following the ceremonial reviewing of the guard of honor – during which Merkel had to gently nudge Hollande in the right direction on the red carpet – the two held an hour -long meeting. They then addressed the throng of international journalists in a joint press conference during which Merkel remained stony-faced during much of Hollande’s comments, interspersed with the odd smile.

Continue Reading...

Referring to his own electoral woes, Prime Minister David Cameron wrote Monday in an article in the conservative Daily Telegraph: “When people think about the economy they don’t see it through the dry numbers of the deficit figures, trade balances or inflation forecasts — but instead the things that make the difference between a life that’s worth living and a daily grind that drags them down.”

Cameron, whose own economic policies have worsened the daily grind dragging down most Brits, may be sobered by what happened over the weekend in France and Greece – as well as his own poll numbers. Britain’s conservatives have been taking a beating.

In truth, the choice isn’t simply between budget-cutting austerity, on the one hand, and growth and jobs on the other.

It’s really a question of timing. And it’s the same issue on this side of the pond. If government slices spending too early, when unemployment is high and growth is slowing, it makes the debt situation far worse.

Continue Reading...

There’s a new buzz in Brussels about pumping hundreds of billions into a Marshall Plan-inspired fund to get Europeans back to work, devaluing the euro to boost exports or sharing out the euro-zone debt burden.

“This generalized austerity is prolonging the crisis. I can’t accept that. We need growth in Europe,” says Francois Hollande, the Socialist leader tipped to win Sunday’s French presidential election.

“With every day that goes by, I have the feeling that my initiative is more and more understood in Europe,” Hollande said in comments posted on his website Monday.

Hollande is enjoying an eight-point lead over incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in opinion polls ahead of Sunday’s vote. His expected victory is the main catalyst behind the emerging pro-growth emphasis in Europe, but there are other factors.

Continue Reading...

As many analysts expected, Socialist Hollande scored higher than incumbent Sarkozy in Sunday's election, but thanks to a surge in the popularity of Marine Le Pen of the anti-immigration National Front party, a easy win is no longer the foregone conclusion that many predicted.

Hollande took 28.8 percent of the vote against Sarkozy's 26.1 percent, meaning they will face each other in a run-off vote on May 6. But what was expected to be a simple referendum on differing plans to rescue France's struggling economy has been complicated by Le Pen's showing of 18.5 percent.

As horse-trading begins for the support of those who voted for the eight lower-polling candidates now eliminated from the race, the problem now facing both Hollande and Sarkozy is how they can capitalize on the far-right turnout.

Continue Reading...

Continue Reading...

Continue Reading...

Meanwhile Segolene split with Francois and he hooked up with Valerie. After Dominique's troubles, Francois humiliated Segolene, but they made up so she can help him beat Nicolas.

The cast of husbands, wives, girlfriends and exes starring in the soap opera sub-plot to France's presidential elections can seem confusing, but Parisian gossip columnists and glossy magazines can't get enough.

With her husband lagging in opinion polls, the incumbent first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is playing an increasingly visible role in the election campaign ahead of the April 22 first-round vote.

The former supermodel-turned-singer-and-actress gave birth to President Nicolas Sarkozy's daughter Giulia in October. Her frequent campaign appearances and interviews have sought to present a kinder, gentler side to the notoriously tetchy president.

Continue Reading...

The German chancellor had announced she'd campaign in France to secure the reelection of President Nicolas Sarkozy, her sidekick in drawing up the continent-wide belt-tightening plan designed to pull the eurozone out of its debt crisis.

That never happened, despite lingering German fears that Sarkozy's main challenger Francois Hollande risks undermining Merkel's European fiscal discipline pact by embarking on an old-fashioned Socialist spending spree.

In the end, Sarkozy's advisors decided he'd do better by distancing himself from Merkelian austerity and focusing instead on tried-and-tested vote winners in France, like getting tough on immigration and erecting protectionist barriers against China and other perceived villains of globalization.

Continue Reading...

The 23-year-old, who was a French citizen of Algerian origin, also killed three Muslim soldiers, before being killed at the end of a 32-hour standoff in an apartment in Toulouse.

Now reports have emerged that Merah had traveled to Afghanistan and Israel in 2010 and had been interviewed by France's domestic intelligence Agency, Direction Centrale du Renseignement Intérieur (DCRI).

According to Le Monde, Bernard Squaricini, head of DCRI, was quoted saying that Merah asked for a local DCRI agent by name during the standoff.

Continue Reading...

The package was received at the station’s offices in the Montparnasse neighborhood and contained a memory card and a letter and has been given to Judicial Police who have authenticated the video, according to the newspaper.

Merah, who was shot dead on Thursday at the end of a 32-hour police siege in Toulouse, was believed to be responsible for a killing spree in the city and in nearby Montauban that left seven people dead, including three children.

Authorities had reported early on that Merah was believed to have worn a video camera as he carried out the killings.

Continue Reading...

A year abroad is far from a rare experience for American college students these days, but it's a surprisingly undercontemplated custom; Kaplan -- a professor of French at Yale and the author of a memoir and several prize-winning books on French history -- singles out a recently-published academic study by Whitney Walton. However, most attempts to understand the transformative visits of young Americans to other countries have come in the form of coming-of-age memoirs and autobiographical first novels. About Paris, above all, American youth has spun extravagantly romantic fantasies of self-discovery, blossoming cosmopolitanism and creative ferment.

Continue Reading...

On a day when France observed a minute of silence for the children and his four adult victims, the country’s education minister, Luc Chatel, said the teacher should be suspended.

The teacher is said to have called Merah a victim, and media and French President Nicolas Sarkozy invented his links to the terrorist organization Al Qaeda, AFP said.

Police shot and killed Merah on Thursday after a 32-hour standoff in Toulouse. He’s believed to have gunned down the three children and a rabbi outside a Jewish school, as well as killing three French soldiers earlier.

Continue Reading...

But it is clear that this event is, in the words of French political commentator Agnes Poirier, "France's 7/7." July 7th, 2005 was the day jihadi suicide bombers killed more than 50 people in London.

The body count in France is thankfully smaller but the reason Poirier makes the 7/7 analogy is that the killer is home grown. He is not someone sent from abroad to carry out a mission, but rather a French citizen, radicalized on French soil. A cursory reading of the French press shows another similarity. Although the victims were from minority groups this is a tragedy for the entire French nation.

The Guardian's Angelique Chrisafis is in Toulouse and put together a quick biographic dispatch on Mohammed Merah for the paper's live blog on the event (scroll down to 1:20 p.m.):

Continue Reading...

The man has been identified as 24-year-old Mohammed Merah, a French citizen of Algerian origin – who told police he was an "mujahedeen" and a member of al-Qaida, France Info radio reported.

Police have taken control of the top floors of the building, in Toulouse's northern Côte Pavée neighborhood, with residents evacuated via the roof and into waiting buses.

Interior Minister Claude Gueant, who is at the scene, told the French news channel BFM TV that in exchange for a "walkie-talkie," Merah threw a .45 mm gun from his window.

Continue Reading...

14 police and gendarme units have been deployed to secure the south of France. Guards have been stationed outside Jewish and Muslim places of worship, and Interior Minister Claude Gueant has ordered tighter controls at airports and railway stations, France Info reported.

Religious schools are also under surveillance, with field trips and carnivals canceled.

Continue Reading...

Continue Reading...

The obvious, and probably correct, answer might be: Tu plaisantes, non? (You're totally kidding, right?) On the other hand, long experience has taught all of us in and around the movie business never to bet against Harvey Weinstein on anything. He's already put some of his 2012 marbles on "The Intouchables," a cheerful Parisian comedy that pushes numerous contemporary buttons at once -- class, race, immigration, disability -- and that just opened the Rendez-Vous With French Cinema festival at New York's Lincoln Center. (It's currently scheduled for general release beginning May 25.)

Continue Reading...

The works on show run the gamut from portraits to still lifes and (rarer) history paintings; the majority of them have never before been exhibited in this country.

Over the phone, curator Jordana Pomeroy spoke with me about the obstacles these female artists faced, and their strategies for coping -- even thriving -- in a time of profound social and political change.

This show spans a highly turbulent time in French history. Can you talk a little about what changed over the course of this period with regard to women's place in the art world?

Continue Reading...

Continue Reading...