Stories du Moment
French cinema is booming, a new look at SNCF, AI tensions, and meditations on garbage
It’s been awhile! Here are a few stories that have caught my attention recently.
LET’S GO TO THE MOVIES!
I’ve never been a huge movie goer but with a few restored or completely refurbished cinemas in Paris and some intriguing projects on the horizon, I’ve been enjoying it more and more. Judging by attendance data, film is among the arts the French consider almost a moral and civic duty to support. As the New York Time reports:
France was one of the few countries that saw an increase in movie theater attendance last year over 2023, with more than 181 million attendees, an uptick of nearly a million. Brazil, Britain and Turkey also saw an increase, said Eric Marti, a general manager of Comscore Movies France. But he said attendance numbers were down in every other European country, as well as in the United States.
And if you didn’t know:
France requires first-run movies to screen exclusively in French theaters for four months before going to video, and the CNC oversees a complex system of taxes on tickets and fees from TV channels and video streaming services that filters back into movie production.
There are plenty of art house cinemas in Paris (read more about this and cinema in my interview with Lost in Frenchlation founder Manon Kerjean) but the one I’m most curious to have access to is La Pagode, the 7th arrondissement’s faux-Japanese pagoda-meets-theater done up in enameled stoneware and stained glass that is slated to reopen later this year with 440 seats and 4 screens.
THE WOMAN WHO SHAPED PARISIAN FASHION
Without Agnès b., the fashion label launched in 1975 by Agnès Troublé, now 83 years-old, there would most likely be no A.P.C., Comptoir des Cotonniers, Maje, Sandro or Sézane.
“She combined simple, durable clothes with a strong brand identity. Simply hand-signing her first name on the label was a brilliant idea that inspired closeness and trust, creating a community of style and thought.” (New York Times)
I may not own a single piece from her brand but I do appreciate her candor in this interview with The Guardian. A few highlights:
I hate fashion. It’s not interesting. I’ve never looked at what other designers are doing, I don’t go to shows, I don’t go shopping. I have no time for it. We never advertised Agnès B; advertising makes people silly. I still have my communist vision from the 60s.
Memories are good, but I’m not nostalgic. At 83, I don’t feel older than I did 10 years ago. I have interesting people around me: grandchildren and great-grandchildren, musicians, models, colleagues who keep me young. I’m never bored.
FRENCH PUBLISHERS GO AFTER META
As first shared by The French Tech Journal (which you should absolutely subscribe to if you’re interested in keeping up with tech and start-up news), French publishers and authors have filed a lawsuit against Meta, alleging unauthorized use of their copyrighted works to train its AI systems. The National Publishing Union (SNE), the National Union of Authors and Composers (SNAC), and the Society of Men of Letters (SGDL) argue that Meta has engaged in "monumental looting" by using protected content without permission. This marks the first time publishers and authors have joined forces to fight against what they consider the “plundering” of works designed to train generative artificial intelligence (AI), and to enforce copyright.
This comes after a similar lawsuit in the U.S. In 2023, writers Richard Kadrey, Sarah Silverman and Ta-Nehisi Coates filed a complaint for copyright infringement. And it isn’t only Meta getting heat for such practices but OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT, is facing its own charges brought by the Authors Guild (of which I’m a member) and individual authors.
It’s hard to make a living anywhere as an author but this AI-driven future in our lives risks putting authors and creators into greater precarity. It’s worth noting that France has a history of protecting booksellers and authors—more than ten years ago, MPs voted to ban retailers such as Amazon from discounting books more than 5% from the sale price set by the publisher. The country does what it can to protect artists. But for how long will it be able to stave off the grip of AI?
ON GARBAGE
One of my favorite writers is Craig Mod, an American who has lived in Japan for more than 25 years. If you don’t know him, start here. His recent meditation on garbage immediately caught my attention:
The first time I walked into a random shop in Tokyo and asked to throw away something (a Starbucks cup, perhaps? an item I did not buy from the shop itself) was twenty-five years ago. The owner looked at me like I had just asked him if I could jump on his desk and take a shit. I’ve never bothered a shop with my garbage since.
—
This obsession with the immediate “unburdening” of a thing you created is common in non-Japanese contexts, but I posit: The Japanese way is the correct way. Be an adult. Own your garbage. Garbage responsibility is something we’ve long since abdicated not only to faceless cans on street corners (or just all over the street, as seems to be the case in Manhattan or Paris), but also faceless developing countries around the world. Our oceans teem with the waste from generations of averted eyes. And I believe the two — local pathologies and attendant global pathologies — are not not connected.
(Read the full piece)
Between the garbage, the presence of dog poo (usually smeared), and cigarette butts that collect everywhere and anywhere in Paris, I have always found it surprising that the French-Japanese love affair could be so everlasting (even with the Paris Syndrome!). The French have adopted plenty from Japanese culture, why not cleanliness?
A NEW LOOK FOR SNCF TRAINS
High-speed train travel is a European GIFT but if we’re nit-picking, I’d say the wear and tear of the carriages on SNCF trains are starting to leave a lot to be desired. They’re also hot boxes. Fortunately, a refresh is underway with the TGV M trains, entering service in 2026. The short of it: Color! Better design! Space! Accessibility!
For the 5th generation of its TGV trains, SNCF Voyageurs worked with the Japanese design firm nendo (sticking with a theme, here) nendo to reimagine the on board experience.
nendo’s design concept, here rooted in minimalism and efficiency, draws from the natural flow of water to envision this double-decker vessel as an entity that moves smoothly across the landscape. Its external body features abstract semi-circles in white and gray over a warm gray base, subtly evoking the ripples and waves of flowing water. (Design Boom)
Okay sure that sounds nice, but have you seen the images? The only reason for concern: a French journalist I know got an up close look at the new design and found the material used for the seats to be itchy. Eek!
OTHER READS / NEWS
Leave it to the French to think they can revive the dying department store model in America. Printemps opens a flagship in NYC (just don’t call it a department store). (Design boom)
Customs & Border Patrol denied a French space researcher entry to the U.S. because they found messages on his devices that were critical of the President’s cuts to science. The events of the last two months are chilling. (The New Republic)
In France, we may all soon learn how to survive all manner of “imminent threat”, including armed conflict and natural disaster, thanks to a manual being reviewed by Prime Minister François Bayrou. What a time to be alive. (The Guardian)
On se fait un kebab? I’m back in Bon Appétit (online now and soon in print) with a look at the best kebabs in Paris. There are so many! Try them all.
SOMETHING NEW: STUDY ABROAD FOR ADULTS
Studying abroad in France changed my life in every single way. But I was twenty years old and in college— the usual period of life when people take their studies on the road. But Carrie Angoff, an American in Paris whose career has taken her from Oxbridge Academic Programs to FTLO Travel, believes it’s never too late to have the experience. She recently launched Elective, a study abroad meets travel program created specifically for adults that offers immersive small-group courses led by local experts on a wide range of subjects, in the places that bring those subjects to life. And not only in the classroom!
She’s kicking things off this spring in Spain but has a Women in Paris program over eight days in June that is still accepting students. The theme speaks to me for obvious reasons but I think it will intrigue you, too. See where else Elective can bring you, here.
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Movies, Agnes B, & trash collection! So many of my niche interests in one newsletter 🥰 (Venetian trash collection is something to behold. A person rings our doorbell 6 days a week & we hand him our trash)
Ah les crottes de chien. Paris never disappoints. 😂 in the 80’s I think there were a series of TV public service ads that tried to use shame to control owners (Les Beurks) who let their dogs shit on the sidewalks. The ad had kids hold their nose, point and exclaim « oh le beurk! ». It brought us joy! I looked for it and couldn’t find it. Clearly it didn’t work!