Serial software entrepreneur, writer, translator, and mother of 3. Avid follower of French media, culture, history, and language. Lover of books, travel, history, art, cooking, fitness, and nature. Cultivating connections with francophiles and francophones.

Marjane Satrapi’s Woman, Life, Freedom: Tyranny and a Feminist Revolution

Golden Children of the Regime, by Bolaños

One of the contenders for this year’s Oscar for Best International Film is The Seed of the Sacred Fig. Secretly filmed in Tehran, the fictional screenplay takes place during the weeks of protest that followed the nonfictional death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman who died in police custody…

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Baraye and The Power of Music To Buoy a Cultural Revolution

Illustration by Shabnam Adiban

People worldwide will be tuning into the 2025 Grammy Awards on Sunday night. With my kids now out of the house, I’m no longer in the loop regarding this year’s list of nominees. However, this week I want to resurface a Grammy-winning ballad from 2023—Baraye, by Iranian singer-songwriter Shervin Hajipour.…

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Théophile Gautier’s Petulant Rats of the Paris Opera

Ballet at the Paris Opéra, Edgar Dégas

Last week I wrote about Edgar Degas’ most renowned sculpture, La Petite danseuse de quatorze ans. Degas’ portrayals of 19th-century dancers give us a window into the lives of young female professionals—a circumstance that was exceedingly rare. Referred to as rats, these budding ballerinas played a secondary and less desirable…

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Edgar Degas’ Little Dancer and the Artifice of Virtue

Bronze copies of Degas' wax dancers

I clearly remember my first exposure to Edgar Degas’ wax sculptures of ballerinas. As a high school graduation gift, my parents sent me on a student trip to France. At 18, I’d heard of the word Impressionism and, being an avid student of dance, I’d seen some of Degas’ behind-the-scenes…

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French Fingerprints on Two More Oscar-Worthy Works of Genius

Focus image French co-productions

Movie trends fluctuate over time and 2024 seems to have been a particularly fruitful year for the French film industry. While box office revenues in the United States are still well below pre-pandemic levels, ticket sales in France had largely recovered by the end of 2023 and continued to grow…

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Riad Sattouf Uncovers the Life of a Long Lost Brother

Moi, Fadi... focus image

Two years ago, when comics author Riad Sattouf released the sixth and final edition of his 6-part autobiography, L’Arabe du Futur, I was sad to be at the end of a fascinating saga, each book of which I’d eagerly devoured. Sattouf, whose mother is French and father is Syrian, had…

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Meilleurs Vœux, Best Wishes for the New Year

Vœux de Bonne Année, Philippe Geluck

With help from Le Chat and Belgian cartoonist Phillippe Geluck, below are wishes for a happy 2025 accompanied by a short vocabulary lesson. Je vous souhaite une anneé pleine de joie…I wish you a year filled with joy… Mais aussi de Réussite Bonne humeur Délices Volupté Douceur Euphorie Succès Amour…

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2025 Oscar Bound, This Ain’t Your Father’s French Cinema

Emilia Perez

France’s Emilia Pérez will Knock Your Socks Off When I bought a ticket to see Emilia Pérez in November, I was intrigued. I knew little about the film other than that France was about to submit it to the Academy Awards as the country’s entry for Best International Feature Film,…

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