News

With antisemitism in France escalating since the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza, a short film portraying a Jewish family grappling with fear will be broadcast on every French TV network ahead of the UEFA Euro Championship Final on July 14, Bastille Day.

Directed by Katia Lewkowicz (“French Dolls”), the short film captures the many ways in which the rise of antisemitic hate incidents has affected the everyday lives of Jews living in France. The film revolves around the Cohen family and shows how each of its members is affected. They begin hiding their Judaism and are compelled to remove their last name everywhere they can, take out the mezuzahs from their door frames, pull the curtains when they gather for Jewish holidays and avoid saying anything suggesting they are Jewish while in public. A friend of the family, who is a young Black French man, witnesses...

After rollercoaster-like parliamentary elections, the French film and TV industry has expressed relief over the far right’s defeat.

Predictions had pointed to a triumph from Marine Le Pen’s National Rally based on the first round’s results, marking the first time that such a party would come into power since the pro-Nazi Vichy Regime, which had sparked an uproar within the French media landscape.

French President Emmanuel Macron then propelled the country into a state of panic after dissolving the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, in the wake of the far right’s victory in the European elections on June 9.

While Macron called these pivotal snap elections a democratic test and an “act of trust,” the initiative was widely perceived by media observers as a poker move.

If the far right had dominated the 577-seat National Assembly, the lower house of the Parliament, it would have threatened,...

In a surprise twist, the leftist coalition Nouveau Front Populaire dominated the second round of the pivotal parliamentary elections with approximately 172 to 192 seats, beating the far right and defying political pronostics, according to exit polls on July 7.

The turnout rate reached 67.10%, slightly more than the first round of the elections — it’s the highest rate for French elections since 1981.

The Nouveau Front Populaire, a coalition between socialist, green and hard left parties, including La France Insoumise (Lfi), won the largest number of seats in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, followed by the centrist coalition of France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Ensemble which secured an estimated 150 to 170 seats.

The far right, which had won the first round of the elections, was defeated as it came in third with approximately 132 to 152 seats. It was largely expected to win based on results of the first round.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader...

The left wing New Popular Front (Nfp) alliance triumphed in the second round of France’s snap parliamentary elections on Sunday, with the far right National Rally (Rn) party coming in third, according to first exit polls released immediately after voting closed.

Per the preliminary results, the Nfp bloc has won between 170 to 190 seats in the 577-seat lower house, while Rn has taken between 135 to 155 seats, behind President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Ensemble bloc which looks set to take 150 to 170 seats.

The result was unexpected with polls ahead of the vote predicting that Rn was on course to clinch between 200 to 230 seats, even if looked set to miss out on an absolute majority.

Early exit polls published by media in neighboring Belgium in the final hour of voting had also suggested Rn was on track to come out on top.

As the news of the Nfp alliance’s victory broke at 8pm local time,...

Updated with Vivendi response. French lawmakers are proposing new legislation aimed at protecting media independence amid growing concerns over big business interference and politicization in the sector in France.

The cross-party initiative has been prompted by an ongoing strike at Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, or Jdd, in protest at a move to install far-right journalist Geoffroy Lejeune as editor, by parent the Lagardère Group, which is currently in the process of being acquired by Vivendi.

The Jdd journalists have rejected Lejeune’s appointment saying his values are out of whack with those of the newspaper. They are also calling for a guarantee of editorial independence.

The industrial action meant the newspaper did not publish for a fifth consecutive week on Sunday (July 24), the longest period it has been absent from newspaper racks in its 75-history.

Lejeune was previously editor of the far-right magazine Valeurs Actuelles and supporter of...

On April 10, France went to the polls in the first round of voting for the 2022 presidential election. The results pit incumbent Emmanuel Macron versus far right leader Marine Le Pen with the determining second round vote to be held on April 24. In the wake of the first round, some 400 artists have lent their names to an op-ed published in Le Monde urging the electorate to put its voice behind Macron.

Signatories including Juliette Binoche, Jane Birkin, Guillaume Canet, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Mélanie Thierry wrote in the opinion piece, “Without illusions, without hesitation and without trembling, we will vote for Emmanuel Macron.” Of Le Pen, they said, “We cannot imagine, at the head of France, a candidate whose program remains that of xenophobia and withdrawal, a candidate who has made an alliance with totalitarian and warmongering powers. We cannot imagine what this terrible sign would mean for Europe and for the world.

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSSian Heder's Coda took home the Best Picture award at the 94th Academy Awards, Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car took Best International Feature, and Jane Campion won Best Director for The Power of the Dog. Find more of this year's Oscars winners here. We're saddened by the loss of Japanese filmmaker Shinji Aoyama, who recently died at the age of 57. Most revered for his 2000 film Eureka, about a trio who embark on a road trip after surviving a bus hijacking, Aoyama continued his humanist exploration of violence, family, and generation gaps in films like Desert Moon (2001) and Sad Vacation (2007), the loose sequel to Eureka. He was also a prolific novelist and critic, with his novelization of Eureka awarded the Yukio Mishima prize in 2001. Il Cinema Ritrovato has announced the programs of this year's festivities,...

François Hollande under pressure over economy, eurozone treaty and minister's comments that nuclear power was the future

Cracks have appeared in the new French government after a Socialist minister made a gaffe about the future of nuclear power and tensions mounted over the thorny issue of parliamentary ratification of the European budget treaty.

The Socialist president, François Hollande, and his prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, have seen their popularity ratings fall over the summer as the French economic crisis deepens. Already struggling with a difficult return to work after the holiday season, the government has now been shaken by the row over nuclear energy.

The Green party, which has two ministers in the Socialist-led government, was taken aback after the minister for industrial recovery, Arnaud Montebourg, described nuclear power as an "industry of the future", seeming to cast doubt on a commitment to shut power stations and reduce France's devotion to atomic energy.