#12 Culture Fix

La Rentrée Special Edition - Part 2 | Films, series, documentaries

The Culture Fix is the place where I share the books, films, music, articles, interviews, plays, exhibitions, places, and even food, I’ve enjoyed recently.

Recommendations may refer to content in either English, Spanish, French or Italian and sometimes not available in English. But since this is a publication called Abroad written by a multilingual foreigner in London, and hopefully appealing to those curious to explore beyond their own borders, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

I write these lines from the lovely city of Besançon, in the heart of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, which is famous for the cheese that carries the same name. Besançon is also the birthplace of French literary heavyweight Victor Hugo, who was born here on 26th February 1802. It is neither my favourite French cheese nor the author of Les Misérables what has brought me to the 33rd most populated city in France, near the Jura Mountains.

Coming from La Mancha, another region famous for both cheese and literature, one could easily assume I’m on a personal quest to pair dairy and books during my trips abroad. However, the reason for my presence in this city is that my sister is now one of its inhabitants and I’ve finally managed to visit her as a work trip took me to Paris last week and I thought it was my chance to jump on a train from the Gare de Lyon and do the other half of the way towards Besançon.

I admit that the trip from London was far more convenient when she lived in Paris instead of barely 100 km from Switzerland but, on the other hand, the accommodation is far better here as she doesn’t have to cram her life into 18 square metres.

And this, dear reader, is a short preamble to say that I’ve been very busy and I am very tired after an intense week in Paris and a weekend of sightseeing, but I promised you a special edition of the Culture Fix with a focus on films, series and documentaries and here it finally is. After all, Besançon is also the birthplace of the brothers Lumière, so my being here writing this newsletter is indeed serendipitious.

Besançon, birthplace of cinema

That’s it, I’ll stop the introduction here because if there’s something I’ve done since July is watch films. Lots of them, too many for my own sanity as at times I couldn’t remember if I had already seen that film I wanted to see. Given the volume, there have been some forgettable choices which haven’t made the cut to this special issue. Luckily, there has also been its fair share of fantastic films that made me exclaim, “This is what cinema is for!”

I have had less time for series and documentaries but there are a few recommendations in that department as well. And because I’ve spent a third of September in France, I’ve decided to include some French favourites in this issue. Be warned I’m fully embracing my Pierre Niney phase at the moment, so he’ll make several appearances in this edition.

And on that note, I leave you with this Culture Fix which hopefully will inspire you to watch something that wasn’t under your radar.

If you missed Part 1 of this Culture Fix - Special Rentrée Edition with a focus on book recommendations, you can read it below.

Series

— Emily in Paris, season 4 Part 2
I’ve developed the same kind of relationship with Emily in Paris that with Sally Rooney’s books. I can’t credibly complain about how terrible they are when I look forward to the next instalment to relish on the clichés, judge the ridiculous outfits, and wonder what kind of work VISA Emily has that allows her to stay in France for years without even speaking the language.

Besides, I’ve realised this show has the potential to outlive its protagonists stereotyping one culture at a time. In fact, Season 4 sees the cast heading to Rome (in Part 2 as Netflix has decided to split an already chaotic show into two mini seasons with little continuity) and when we thought this show was finally getting slightly better in representing French culture beyond clichés, we witness how its true brilliance lies in butchering a new culture when it’s run out of topics to exploit in the original setting.

To keep things familiar enough and not confuse loyal fans, towards the end of the last episode, when Sylvie suggests Emily leads the new office in Rome, Luc exclaims: “But Emily doesn’t speak any Italian!“ “She doesn’t speak any French either”, replies an unfazed Sylvie, who like Luc is fluent in three languages, including Italian. This seems to be a minor accomplishment in the face of Emily’s stubborn monolingualism. It’s obvious they can’t compete.

Et voilà, that’s a real coup de génie!

Truth be told, I watch it to see the wonderful Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu as she has become the real star of this show and along with Bruno Gouery my favourite characters. I hope the two of them get even more protagonism in S5 as the series shifts location to Rome and the two of them are fluent Italian speakers.

— Coisa Mais Linda (Girls from Ipanema)
On the other side of the coin of beautiful escapism, there is the hit Brasilian series Coisa Mais Linda. Set in the late 1950s in Rio de Janeiro the show follows Maria Luiza, a native of São Paulo, as she is intent on opening a live music club in Rio at the time bossa nova starts gaining attention and becoming the defining musical style of the country. The four main female leads act as vehicles to discuss class, race, and women’s rights at a crucial historical moment for the country. It’s a shame Netflix didn’t renew a third series despite the success but Coisa Mais Linda is a love letter to jazz, bossa nova and the power of music to change lives.

— Fiasco
If you miss Dix pour cent (Call My Agent), Fiasco may be just what you’re looking for. Created by Igor Gotesman and Pierre Niney, this series sees Raphaël, a young director (played to great comic effect by Niney) trying to shoot his first film while everything around him falls into pieces, eventually leading to a fatal incident. The series pairs Gotesman, Niney and Francois Civil, a trio who first came together in the French comedy Five and who have become a synonym for absurd comedies that take their protagonists to unexpected places to hilarious result.

— Tapie (Class Act)
Laurent Lafitte is superb in this biopic about Bernard Tapie. His performance alone could have won the show the 2024 BAFTA for Best International Series that Tapie bagged earlier in the year. Spanning three decades in the life of one of France’s most charismatic entrepreneurs and controversial public figures, whose fall was as fulgurant as his rise to power and fame, this Netflix original series explores the modest working-class origins of Bernard Tapie’s, whose wit and charisma led him to become a successful entrepreneur who owned Adidas in its heyday, the Olympic de Marseille and a cycling team that competed in the Tour de France. Tapie also dabbed into politics but his constant legal battles, caused by his lack of actual business acumen, eventually saw him end his days as a shadow of what he had been. As Laurent Lafitte said when receiving the BAFTA on behalf of the team, it is quite a good show, and not only because he’s in it.

Documentaries

— Britpop: The Music That Changed Britain
This four-part documentary is a must-watch to understand the factors that contributed to pave the way for a key period in British music that catapulted to world fame bands like Oasis and Blur as the nascen Brit Pop scene gathered momentum in the mid-90s and proved fertile ground for the UK to export a new sound in a very short period of time. The documentary is fully available on Youtube (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4) so you have no excuse to know your Pulp from your The Verve.

— La panthère des neiges (The Velvet Queen)
Based on the book by the same name by Sylvain Tesson, this documentary won the César Award for Best Documentary in 2022. Directed by Marie Amiguet and Vincent Munier, we follow Munier -a wildlife photographer- and Sylvain Tesson during a trip to Tibet to capture the snow leopard in its natural habitat as the pair reflects on the place of man within the natural world. This remains one of the most absorbing and moving documentaries I’ve ever seen, and can’t recommend it highly enough to reconnect with the overwhelming beauty of nature and one of its finest creations: the snow leopard.

Films

— The Favourite
This is my third Yorgos Lanthimos film and perhaps the one I’ve loved the most. The trio formed by Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone is a winning horse and the three of them create a wonderfully intricate game of checks in this period drama set in the court of Queen Anne (Colman) in the second half of the XVII century as Abigail Masham (Emma Stone) and Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz) compete for the Queen’s favour.

— Firebrand
Another royal drama, this time set in the late days of Henry VIII and focused on his marriage to Catherine Parr. Jude Law gives an astounding performance as the irascible Tudor monarch and every scene he’s in makes you feel intimidated and very uncomfortable, which is quite a feat. Alicia Vikander is a worthy opponent, both as his wife and his acting partner, but I felt cheated by the high-voltage trailer which makes you believe the movie will be far more thrilling than it is. Still worth watching to see Jude Law and his chilling incarnation of Henry VIII.

— The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
As the question of who will be the next Bond remains lingering and still unsolved, this summer I finally watched the film those cheering for Henry Cavill to fill in the shoes of Daniel Craig always reference to prove his credentials as a potential suave spy. I agree The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is a great opportunity to observe Cavill in a different role and imagine him as the new Bond, but while the film is visually very pleasing and recreates that 60s spy movies atmosphere to great success, it is a bit light on the plot and not even the appearance of my favourite Brit, Hugh Grant, can elevate the movie to more than what it is: a nice film to watch on a Sunday evening. As I did.

— The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
Another Guy Ritchie film, another attempt to see whether Cavill could be the next Bond. Like The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is once more a bit thin on the plot side despite being based on Operation Postmaster, a real mission during WWII to raid a Nazi ship. The potential for this film to be epic fizzles out quickly as more and more characters are introduced -but barely fleshed out- as we learn of the complications of an already implausible plan. Entertaining? By all means, there are worse ways to spend two hours in a day. Memorable? Not so much as it definitely lacks a bit of rythm and wow factor to make you think about it long after it’s over.

— Lee
Remaining in WWII, this by-the-book biopic of American photographer Lee Miller is a great opportunity to see Kate Winslet doing what she does best: master the screen. While Lee may not be groundbreaking in terms of storytelling and sticks to a rather linear biopic formula, it does a good job of bringing to the public the extraordinary life and work of Miller, who transcended her Surrealist muse status to become one of the first photographers to document the horrors of the concentration camps. Her goal was to share with the public what had been happening behind close doors so that it was neither doubted nor repeated A timely story in a world increasingly at war and seemingly indifferent to the suffering of others.

— The Critic
The cast is the highlight of this movie based on the novel Curtain Call by Anthony Quinn. Set in the mid 30s, this is a cosy crime that fails to deliver despite the best efforts of Ian McKellen in the leading role of theatre critic Jimmy Erskinne; Gemma Arterton as aspiring theatre star and object of Erskinne’s critics; Mark Strong as powerful business man and owner of the paper where Erskinne works; Romola Garai as his nazi-friendly daughter married to a Jewish husband who has an affair with Arterton; and Leslie Manville as Arterton’s caring and protective mother. Without knowing this was an adaptation, halfway through the movie I wondered who had written such a chaotic script that failed to give the characters free rein to develop fully. Apparently the book is far funnier while the adaptation has gone down a more vicious route. Worth a watch for the costumes and plush 30s decor.

— Scoop
This is the first of two fiction works out this year (the second one is A Very Royal Scandal ) based on the now famous Newsnight interview Prince Andrew gave to journalist Emily Maitlis in 2019 as allegations of his involvement with a minor at a party held at Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion became public. The film stars Gillian Anderson as Emily Maitlis and Billy Piper as Sam McAdam, the guest producer who secured the interview between Newsnight and the palace. Rufus Sewell is an incredibly convincing Prince Andrew who, like the real one, shoots himself in the foot at the first opportunity he has. What’s truly formidable is how realistically uncomfortable Sewell makes us feel watching him babble in front of an attentive Gillian Anderson. One would think no one in the position of Prince Andrew, with decades of media training, would dig such a hole for themselves like that if it weren’t for the original interview, which is a masterclass in how to tell someone there’s a rope in the room only to watch them go fetch it and put it around their neck of their own accord while they go on about why they’re making it tighter.

French films special 🇫🇷

— Sauver et périr (Through the Fire)
Pierre Niney offers a touching performance in this heartbreaking film about Franck, a young Paris firefighter committed to his job and aware of the responsibilities it comes with. Happily married to Cécile (played by Anaïs Demoustier, who also stars with Niney in The Count of Monte-Cristo) and with two young daughters, Franck enjoys barrack life and the sense of companionship it offers to him in a job where life is at risk on a regular basis. Inspired by the true story of Parisian firefighter Érick Vauthier, this film is a homage to those who make their duty to protect others, focusing on the dangers they face in every intervention and the uphill fight to rebuild themselves after a life-changing accident.

— Revoir Paris (Paris Memories)
Virginie Efira won the César for Best Actress for her portrait of Mia, a Russian translator that finds herself by chance at a restaurant to escape from the rain when a terrorist attack surprises guests. After fleeing Paris to escape the trauma of the events, she returns to the restaurant three months later and finds out a survivor group meets there regularly. Mia joins them in an attempt to retrieve her memories from the evening in the hope that remembering what happened helps her move on with her life. With the help of another survivor from that evening, Mia finally remembers the cook who held her hand during the attack and is intent on finding whether he’s survived as well.

—L’Innocent
Louis Garrel mixes comedy-romance-crime in his fourth film as director and the result is a refreshing story with some nice plot twists. Inspired by his own experience growing up, L’innocent presents us Abel (Garrel), a young widower worried about his chaotic artistic mother’s new flame, Michel, who is a former convict. Not fully convinced of Michel’s good intentions, Abel starts spying on him with the help of his friend Clémence (played by a hilarious Noémie Merlant), who has a more laissez-faire attitude towards life and romance. However, Abel’s obsession to unmask Michel will put him out of his comfort zone to a point of no return.

— 20 Ans d’écart (It Boy)
Between July and now I’ve seen two other films whose plot revolves around a young man falling for an older woman.
Neither The Idea of You (with a ravishing Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galiztine, a couple you struggle to believe are more than five years apart) nor A Family Affair (starring Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron both displaying such strange facial expressions that you don’t know if they’re elated or terrified to see each other) seemed credible enough for me. It might be on account of the larger-than-life fictional male characters that both actresses fall in love with in their respective on-screen storylines, which made the resulting romance felt a bit contrived.
However, 20 Ans d’écart ticked all the boxes for me. Perhaps what helps this film to be belieavable is that it comes from a country where the President is actually in a relationship with an a woman 25 years older than him. Having said that, the main duo in this film is played by Virginie Efira and Pierre Niney who bring a lightheartedness that feels effortless and makes the story flow without too many script flaws.
While the story would have benefitted from an extra 25/30 minutes to build character development as well as exploit Niney’s comedic timing, the disarming charm of Niney in a role that fits him like a glove and the initial reluctance of Virginie Efira to pretend she’s involved with a much younger man in order to secure a job promotion eventually pay off and the result is a truly feel-good movie that will keep you thinking about riding Paris in pink scooters to uplifting beats long after the credits have rolled.

— Le Prénom (What’s in a name?)
Alexandre de la Patellière et Mathieu Delaporte, directors of The Count of Monte-Cristo, sign this delightful comedy which is the adaptation of a play they wrote and was a hit on the stage. When Pierre (Charles Bering) et Babou (Valérie Benguigui) invite to diner Babou’s brother Vincent (Patrick Bruel) and his wife Anna (Judith El Zein), along with common friend Claude (Guillaume de Tonquédec) the five of them hope to spend a nice evening with good food.
However, when Vincent decides to play a joke on all of them about the name he’s chosen for his future child, the evening morphs into full-blown family drama where hidden secrets come to light.
Both Guillaume de Tonquédec and the late Valérie Benguigui won a César Award as Best Supporting Actor for their respective roles in this clever comedy reflecting on the symbolic meaning of the names we carry and decide to give to each other and how we react to them.

Film Highlights

— Thelma
After falling prey to a telephone scam that costs her $10,000, Thelma decides to investigate who is behind it. So far so logical. Except that Thelma is a 93-year old grandmother that barely leaves the house on her own. When her family learns about the scam, they begin wondering whether she should continue living alone at her age. Determined to prove that anyone in her situation would have reacted in the same way without thinking twice, she embarks in an adventure to find the culprit and recover her money.
Inspired by director Josh Margolin’s own grandmother experience, Thelma is a comedy with substance on how others perceive us when we grow old and how we can still prove them wrong. The film is a delight to watch thanks to the wonderful performances by June Squibb and Richard Roundtree.

— My Favourite Cake
A phenomenal Iranian film produced in Iran and which has made it to screens against all odds. My Favourite Cake is a reflection on the hopes and dreams of Mahin (Lili Farhadpour) a 70 year-old widow whose children have long left Iran, while she has remained at home alone and more and more isolated as friends live far away and the regime has curtailed the freedoms she enjoyed as a young woman.
As she resolves to open the door to romance in her life once again, we see her change her routine to favour an encounter with a potential love interest, which finally arrives as Faramarz (Esmaeel Mehrabi), a humble taxi driver and former soldier. The pair shares an evening in the quiet of Mahin’s house where they talk about their lives and their unmet dreams as they realise some people spend their whole lives without even sharing a moment like this.

— Kneecap
I’ve talked about Kneecap previously as I was blown away by it. A second watch confirmed that I really enjoyed this film because it is an example of what the role of cinema, and art by extension, is. That is to give a platform to stories that otherwise wouldn’t have been told or reached more people beyond its immediate audience.
So that’s Kneecap, a film based on an Irish-language hip-hop band from Belfast where the members of the band play the lead roles in a great Irish cast completed by Michael Fassbender, Simone Kirby, Fionnuala Flaherty, Josie Walker and Jessica Reynolds. While a film by an Irish hip hop band may sound niche, its message has resonated internationally as at its core this is a story about culture and language. Kneecap has been selected as Ireland’s entry for the 2025 Oscars so who knows if we may see the leading trio giving a thank you speech in Irish.

— Radical
Another great example of how art can be of service to shine a light on situations that otherwise we would continue to ignore. Radical is based on the real-life Mexican teacher Sergio Juárez and his experience at the Jose Urbina school in Matamoros. Thanks to his unusual teaching methods, Juárez managed to unleashed the potential of several students in a very deprived area near the US border. The results Juárez obtained with his unorthodox syllabus were captured in an article by Joshua Davis, which has served as the inspiration for the film. Davis is in fact one of the producers of the film, which sees Eugenio Derbez offers a powerful and compassionate performance as a teacher who is intent on elevating his students above the misery they are surrounded by and who is convinced that if he can ignite their curiosity, they will have no trouble reaching their full potential. A must-see film about the importance of education to rise against one’s circumstances in life and why a highg quality, state-funded education must be defended as a fundamental right.

— Dolomite is My Name
Eddie Murphy is a force of nature in this biographical comedy about larger-than-life American comedian, singer, actor and film producer Rudy Ray Moore. After moderate success as Dolemite, a foul-mouthed pimp alter-ego for his comedy shows, Moore decides that it’s about time to bring his stage persona to the big screen and embarks on the process of shooting a film, for which he engages actor D’Urville Martin (an utterly hilarious Wesley Snipes in a five-star performance) to star and direct. Supported by his entourage (Keegan-Michael Key, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and Craig Robinson among others), Dolemite won’t give up his dream to make a movie no matter what.

And last but not least

— Le Comte de Monte-Cristo
I’ve watched many amazing films this year and I’m sure there’ll be more to come, but I confess that the brilliant adaptation Alexandre de la Patellière et Mathieu Delaporte of Dumas’ masterpiece has exceeded all my expectations and then some. And it’s not easy when talking about adapting one of my favourite books, as discussed in the last Culture Fix.

However, and as much as I love Gerard Depardieu in this role, Pierre Niney has done a superb job in portraying a terrific Edmond Dantès, and infuses the character with all the traits we expect to find in him: the sweet innocence and generosity of his youth, the desperation and madness during his imprisonment, the hope for a second chance in life when he crosses paths with a fellow prisoner, and the thirst for revenge that acts as the ultimate motive and driving force of Dantès’ return to life as a free man.

Niney is joint by an excellent cast including Laurent Lafitte, superb as the power-thirst and opportunistic de Villefort; Patrick Mille, a greedy Danglars that is completely fascinated by the mysterious Monte Cristo; Bastien Bouillon as the jealous Fernand de Morcef; Anaïs Demoustier as the loving but remorseful Mercedes; Vassili Schenider as the naive Albert de Morcef; Annamaria Vartolomei as Haydée, the only voice of reason Dantès seems to listen to besides his own; and finally Julien de Saint-Jean as Andrea Cavalcanti, a young man who shares Dantès’ hatred towards de Villefort and sees in the help Montecristo offers him the perfect vehicle to carry out his own revenge. Pierfrancesco Favino in the role of the Abbé Faria was a delightful surprise as his character is the catalyst for the turn of events that take place in the life of the incarcerated Dantès.

The true achievement of this movie, the 18th adaptation of Dumas’ novel, is how it manages to capture the essence of a classic work of literature and the spirit of the first French hero/anti-hero in a way that has conquered both lovers of Dumas’ classic and those new to this work despite having taken many liberties with the source material.

Regardless of whether you’ve read the original book or not, it is impossible not to feel compelled to root for the character in the hope that all his suffering can eventually be alleviated by the downfall of those who have caused it. And that is the merit of Niney, who portraits a darker incarnation of Dantès/Monte Cristo, and allows us to see how he has carefully plotted his revenge and the dexterity with which he moves the strings to manipulate at will those around him in order to complete his revenge. And yet, when we thought this new incarnation of The Count of Monte Cristo was beyond the limits of morality, Niney brings back the pureness of heart of the young Dantès in a final gesture that signals payback time has come to an end.

While the film hasn’t been chosen as France’s entry to the Oscars despite its critical and commercial success (8 million people have seen the film in France, and it is credited to have attracted a younger audience back to cinemas), The Count of Monte Cristo has proven that audiences will always be drawn to great stories that transcend time and have the power to stay with us and transform us, generation after generation.

More importantly, the creative duo formed by Alexandre de la Patellière and Mathieu Delaporte, who were behind the two new The Three Musketeers film adaptations last year, seem to have mastered a winning formula by combining the quality of classic works of French literature with modern cinematic techniques and a strong cast to produce successful films that draw in audiences thanks to its compelling narrative, performances, and stunning cinematography.

Like Edmond Dantès the only thing I can do now is to wait and hope for de la Patellière and Delaporte to bring us more films like this in the future. Perhaps a new non-musical version of Les Misérables? Pierre Niney will make a convincing Jean Valjean in a few years’ time so there’s no rush.

The Culture Fix - La Rentrée edition Part 3 will be out next week with a focus on music recommendations.

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Abroad is an independent publication about identity and belonging, living in between cultures and languages, the love of books, music, films, creativity, life in London, and being human in the age of artificial intelligence.

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