Cannes kicks off with a time-travel film by Woody Allen – and it’s good!

Cannes has begun. The proof? Journalists elbowing each other to get into the morning press screening of Woody Allen's “Midnight in Paris” -- and with good reason. The movie is a fresh, fast-moving ode to Paris and the pursuit of fantasy.

A croissant in the oven at the Elysée?

The rumor mill in France is turning at a frantic pace with the following, and still unconfirmed, tale: First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy will give us an Elysée baby in the Fall.

Woody, the Sarkozys, and other notables outside the main Cannes line-up

What stands out among films outside the central line-up this year? Woody Allen in Paris (with First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy), President Sarkozy skewered onscreen, a teen romance by Gus Van Sant, and the latest from French heavyweight André Téchiné.

The Élysée Palace on show at Cannes

Powerful forces have brought French President Nicolas Sarkozy and First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy together at Cannes 2011, but it’s a movie date they may be reluctant to keep.

A tale of two women and an inconvenient truth

Entrusted with the responsibility to write the first post of this blog, I have been looking for a topical subject which would provide for an immediate introduction to contemporary Iran and offer an insight into my approach as one of the contributors to the blog. This, I found in the story of two women and the differing treatment they have so far received in Mainstream Western Media.