Notebooks

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Eric Rohmer’s timeless antidotes

The French film director Eric Rohmer observed and chronicled the behaviour of his contemporaries, and offered an alternative rooted in Christian morality.

Muriel Zagha July 3, 2024

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The constitutional casualties of the French election

Facing an unprecedented defeat in the French Parliamentary elections, Emmanuel Macron is forced to confront the previously unthinkable: a government led by the far right.

Angus Brown July 1, 2024

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The Berlin Airlift’s lessons for Taiwan

If China blockades the Taiwan Strait, Taipei’s friends would need to launch an airlift even more comprehensive than the Berlin one.

Elisabeth Braw June 24, 2024

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The Third Man’s cuckoo clock mystery

The 1949 film The Third Man is recognised as one of the greatest pieces of British cinema of all time. The answer to a mystery at the heart of some its most famous lines might lie ..

Thomas W. Hodgkinson June 19, 2024

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South Korea between the great powers

South Korea rests between two great powers, China and the United States, and its foreign policy must navigate the economic, political and security dynamics of an increasingly polar..

Lukasz Bednarski June 18, 2024

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James Ensor, the man behind the masks

When the Belgian artist James Ensor died 75 years ago, he left behind a set of paintings that seemed to glory in the macabre. His art, however, reveals a profound passion for light..

Cath Pound June 17, 2024

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Françoise Hardy’s English connections

The late French singer captured the hearts of multiple generations of England's rock fraternity.

Alexander Larman June 13, 2024

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Macron’s very French gambit

By calling parliamentary elections, will Emmanuel Macron save the constitution by drawing on a distinctively French legacy of political action, or risk the future of the republic?

Angus Brown June 11, 2024

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The magic of Merchant Ivory

The unconventional backgrounds and insider-outsider credentials of the film-makers Ismail Merchant and James Ivory qualified them to chronicle, with such precision and power, E.M. ..

Muriel Zagha June 10, 2024