2025 Cannes Film Festival management banned nudity on the red carpet and in the festival environs.
2023, Semolina Pynes, a character in Out of Competition attending another festival on the Riviera, took on the vexed subject:
The Nude Truth
Out of Competition and Democracy
Grifters, sharks, wannabes, liars, creativors cruise the seaside Promenade as an enfranchising of an entire festival grows out of protest, taking voting from annual juries and giving it to the fans, without whom the festival would not be.
When I was writing this the second invasion of Ukraine hadn’t happened. When I was in the the final draft oligarchs lived only in Russia. Now they’re hard at gaming America. When I was in the final draft, political sycophancy was in its infancy now it’s fully grown.
When I was in the final draft there was still an operational Democratic Party, now a couple State governors are performing CPR on its seemingly lifeless body. When I began writing this most of America believed in habeas corpus, personal and civil rights, accountability and independence of the judiciary.
When I was writing this novel it wasn’t clear how much damage the right wing of the Supreme Court could inflict on America.
Is American democracy at death’s door …..
The No Kings Protest, and then what happens..
Who am I – who I am
I am a writer, novelist, living and writing on the south coast of France, where I swim and continue renovating my apartment.
I am very close to finishing a novel set in 1963. My recently published novel Out of Competition, published by JEF Books, Illinois, October 1, 2024 won the Kenneth Patchen Award for the Innovative Novel.
Uncorrected Proof and Out of Competition can be found at bookshop.org.
Oh dear, oh dear
This old block of apartments was once one of the few examples of an older more interesting building along Cannes’s waterfront. There seems little virtue in destroying interesting architecture, especially with original wrought-iron balcony railings, high ceilings, old shutters. But now it’s gone – while Antibes has kept its past.
Except for the Carlton, what historic buildings are left on Cannes’s waterfront? Why not remodel a site like this?
Well they have.
The developer’s sign says the new offering will provide a private treated heated pool for two penthouse apartments – just a hop, step and tiny jump away from the Mediterranean.
71 Films
Years ago I saw and argued in print with a Hong Kong reviewer, who disparaged the film. And now I see how right I was to defend it!
Great performance by Al Pacino, in a deft screenplay, whose power is masked by a film which seems to be presenting itself more as entertainment than biting satire.
69 + 1 films -Missing
67 + 2 films
| The Paper | Ron Howard |
| Delicatessen | Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro |
‘The Great Dictator’ resonating in 2025
“Let us fight to free the world to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all people’s happiness.”
Swimanög 