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Six Parisian museums celebrate the great French dressmaker with a dialogue between his haute couture creations, the works and artists that inspired him. In the French cinema premieres, ‘Rien à foutre’ and the highly anticipated ‘Notre-Dame se que que que que,’ about the fire that reduced the roof of the Parisian cathedral to ashes. And we’ll tell you about the winners of the French cinema Césars and the ‘Music Victories’, where two superstars shone, the rapper Orelsan and the sublime Clara Luciani.
The great French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent is the protagonist of a series of simultaneous exhibitions in six major Parisian museums. These spaces reveal to the public the diverse sources of inspiration of the stylist who died in 2008, who found in painting, sculpture or literature the raw material to sublimate the female body.
The Louvre, Orsay, Picasso, Modern Art, Pompidou Center and Yves Saint Laurent museums in Paris celebrate the 60th anniversary of Yves Saint Laurent’s first parade with this series of exhibitions. In each museum you can see the creator’s dresses alongside works by Matisse, Picasso, Braque, Dufi, Van Gogh or Mondrian, in a colorful dialogue between fashion and plastic art.
“With this series of exhibitions we wanted to explore to what extent sources of inspiration are important for a creator: how do ideas come about? What is the trigger to create something new? In the case of Yves Saint Laurent, there are a multitude of sources of inspiration: painting, sculpture, and also literature,” said Madison Cox, president of the Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent Foundation in Paris.
Two premieres and a César-winning period film
‘Rien à foutre’ arrives in cinemas, a film that describes the job of stewardess in a low-cost airline. Cassandre lives without attachments or responsibilities, chaining flights and parties with ephemeral friends. Through this character played by the French Adèle Exarchopoulos, ‘Rien à foutre’, she breaks down the pressing working conditions and the physical and psychological stress of flight personnel. An existence that pushes loneliness and disappointment, far from the cliché of an exciting life in the skies. This first film by Emmanuel Marre and Julie Lecoustre was presented at the Critics’ Week of the last Cannes Film Festival.
From heaven we go to hell on Earth with the film ‘Notre-Dame brûle’ (Notre-Dame burns), an impressive reconstruction of the fire in the famous Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. This tape recounts minute by minute the events of that sad April 15, 2019, when the roof of the cathedral was reduced to ashes before the astonished eyes of the world. Jean-Jacques Annaud’s ‘Notre-Dame brûle’ is a unique cinematic experience but also a tribute to the Paris fire brigade, who braved the flames at the iconic monument in the French capital.
We complete this review of French cinema with the film distinguished with the César for Best French Film in 2021: ‘Lost Illusions’ by Xavier Giannoli, an impeccable period film, based on the book by the writer Honoré de Balzac. ‘Lost Illusions’ tells the story of a young poet who tries to make a place for himself in the unforgiving Paris of the 19th century, where hypocrisy and deception reign.
Orelsan and Clara Luciani, at the pinnacle of French music
The French music industry handed out its awards to the best artists of the year 2021. Unsurprisingly, Orelsan and Clara Luciani dominated this ‘Victoires de la musique’ ceremony, monopolizing five of the nine awards that were handed out.
Rapper Orelsan won three awards in total: Best Male Artist, Best Audiovisual Creation and Best Song for ‘L’odeur de l’essence’.
On her side, Clara Luciani was consecrated as Best Female Artist and Best Album. Luciani has been at the top of her career for three consecutive years and her album ‘Coeur’ talks about meeting again after the confinement caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.