France
Dario Ivkovic: 'people don’t seem interested in roots of Balkan music'
Best-known as a member of both the German touring group Shantel & The Bucovina Club Orkestar and French band Les Yeux Noirs, the Serbian accordionist is an electrifying personality onstage. We talk music legends, Balkan beats and why 'girls like guitarists better'
Are you confiscating my ipod? EU citizens against ‘Acta’ treaty
A proposed worldwide ‘anti-counterfeiting trade agreement’ (ACTA) would impose a legal framework on online intellectual property rights. The term 'internet' is not even mentioned once in the entire treaty, infuriating European citizens who fear for their freedoms and about censorship
france, italy, germany, techno-media, censorship, hadopi, internet
Odd ode to Eric Cantona
The Olympic Marseille football club is beginning to form a reputation as the starting block for 'wannabe presidents'. Following in the footsteps of George Weah and his candidacy for the presidency in Liberia, it’s now the turn of Eric Cantona to make his ambitions for high office known, writes one French blogger, 'ASL'
france, football, money, economical crisis, economy, housing, revolution
Arturo Ripstein: ‘Making films is like waking from a nightmare’
The Mexican director was the guest of honour at a French international festival of film schools in the town of Poitiers. Whilst he has been in the business for more than forty years, with twenty films under his belt and numerous Cannes appearances, the 68-year-old remains unknown for a European public
Dinner for one in 2012
The Brits have spent the end of year in a 'lull' whilst the Germans are going through 'new year's fatigue'. In their new year's addresses at least, Europe's Franco-German leaders warned us it won't be getting any better this new year
france, cinema, tower of babel, christmas, germany, alcohol, languages
Pesetas, liras, franks and drachmas: euro is living on borrowed time
Multiple defaults, a return to the lira, pesetas and francs, the break-up of the monetary union and Europe comes crashing down. Sounds like an endless chain of unreal events? Perhaps not: the end of the common currency is no longer a taboo for European press and economists
france, italy, economical crisis, germany, euro, best of cafebabel.com, economy
Europe's new 'Germanophobia': Who's afraid of big bad Germany?
Tones of anger against German chancellor Angela Merkel's lack of action over the eurocrisis and a 'Germanophied' Europe, are getting louder and more intense
france, economical crisis, angela merkel, germany, dictature, german chancellor, national socialism
Hipster director, Quebecer, who cares? Welcome to Xavier Dolan's world
European cinema nourishes a certain ignorance towards the seventh art, cinema - particularly when this cinema comes from Canada. One director is in the process of taking all philistines of Canadian cinema down a peg at the age of 22
france, cinema, homosexuality, quebec, canada, best of cafebabel.com, culture
Sexist grammar: the French and German cases
Poor adjectives need take their husband's name no more. Sort of. Whilst one French association has attacked a centuries-old 'oversight', the Germans (or at least their moderate feminists) have taken plural forms to task. In all, the debate succeeds in desexualising our common language
france, feminism, germany, men and women, languages, best of cafebabel.com, society
University initiation rites debate hits France and Belgium
In the UK at least three people had died by 2008 because of initiation ceremonies for undergraduates, whilst recent incidents in France and Belgium featuring physical abuse and comas have helped raise awareness about a dangerous student ritual
france, integration, university, integration, students, belgium, society
Contentious Guéant circular rejects work visas in France
France’s governmental memo on employment for their residing non-European students caused quite a commotion, and we’re not talking Jerry Maguire style. Graduates like Nabil Sebti are taking a stand against what could either turn into a long-term policy of sealing France off or be a strategy to gain votes in 2012 elections
france, integration, university, protest, claude guéant, paris, immigration
French actress and singer Melanie Laurent’s directorial debut: ‘The Adopted’
At the age of 28, the actress and singer released her first film as a director, ‘Les Adoptés’, on 23 November in her native France. Do all good things come in threes? Film review
france, cinema, film, culture, mélanie laurent, love, chronicle
Big city life: Europe’s pigeons
Doves and pigeons are one and the same except that the former got the 'symbol of peace' gig and the latter became the grey critters affectionately known as ‘rats with wings’. Whence the flight of fancy?
france, italy, tower of babel, europe, germany, animals, languages
French cartoonist on German neo-nazi terror
Germany has been stunned by the news of three suspects in a secret terror cell in Zwickau which literally got away with murder over the last decade. Is it news well received over the border in France, where Marine Le Pen, head of the national front party well-known for fraternising with neo-nazis itself, is a candidate for 2012 elections?
france, jean-marie le pen, germany, neo-nazis, right wing extremism, politics, extremism
Spain, country in a (property) bubble
Dearest European neighbours: I am sorry to inform you that the crisis in Spain does not have anything to do with the crisis in your countries. Our case is not simply rooted in 'structural problems', as it were, but literally in cement
france, economical crisis, europe, germany, unemployment, best of cafebabel.com, construction
How to make Polish potato pancakes
It’s cheap and available, warm and nourishing, omnipresent in most traditional European cuisines – but the starchy crop only hit the continent from South America as late as the 16th century
france, italy, netherlands, cooking, poland, potato, united kingdom
French caricaturist on satire magazine petrol bombing
On 2 November the Paris HQ of Charlie Hebdo, a French weekly satire magazine, were completely burnt in a Molotov cocktail attack at the next day's planned release of the paper called 'Charia Hebdo', dedicated to Tunisia's moderate islamist election victory. One French cartoonist replies
france, controversy, techno-media, newspaper, islamic terrorism, news, islamophobia
‘Nos plusieurs’: autistic theatre stars meet Indian epic in French documentary
In filming a theatre production performed almost entirely by young people with learning difficulties, French director Fred Soupa blurs the boundaries of what we typically perceive as ‘normal’. His ensuing documentary ‘Many Of Us’ is released in national cinemas on 28 September
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