Culture

StoryShort-Cycle Prose: Georges Perec, the Washing Machine’s Poet

Bélinda Ibrahim 27/05 17:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Georges Perec Washing Machine Writer Literature Poet Culture

A drum, a muffled sound, cycles, programs. A round door swings open onto the world’s laundry. A washing machine, yes – but for Georges Perec, it’s never just an appliance. It’s a trigger – his engine for writing. In the workshop of this master of literary constraints, even the most ordinary object can become a source of invention. ...

Fast, Fearless, Female: France’s Stunt Star Conquers Hollywood

This is Beirut 27/05 16:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Suntwoman Film Sarah Lezito Entertainment France Culture

When Sarah Lezito began messing around with motorbikes at 13 she never dreamed that one day she would become the stunt double of some of Hollywood's biggest stars. The French winemaker's daughter has stood in for Scarlett Johansson - twice - on Avengers 2 and Black Widow and appeared in a dozen films including The Batman. The 32-year-old is one ...

Salman Rushdie Says 'Pleased' With Attacker's Jail Sentence

This is Beirut 27/05 10:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Literature Salman Rushdie Justice US London Culture

Salman Rushdie said Monday he was "pleased" with the maximum 25-year jail sentence handed to a man who tried to kill him with a knife at a New York cultural center in 2022. "I was pleased that he got the maximum available, and hopefully he uses it to reflect upon his deeds," Rushdie told BBC radio in an interview. Hadi Matar was sentenced to 25 ...

PortraitAdèle Exarchopoulos: Behind the Spotlight, Raw and Unmasked

Marie-Christine Tayah 26/05 19:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Adèle Exarchopoulos Actress Cinema Cannes Culture Art

Born in Paris in 1993, Adèle Exarchopoulos shot to fame at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival through Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue Is the Warmest Color. At the request of jury president Steven Spielberg, she was awarded the Palme d’Or alongside the director and her co-star Léa Seydoux—her “greatest love story on screen,” as she recently ...

Filmmaker Panahi Cheered on Return to Iran After Cannes Triumph

This is Beirut 26/05 15:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Iran Jafar Pahani Film Cannes 2025 France Culture

Iranian filmmaker Jafar Pahani was given a hero's welcome on his return to Tehran Monday by supporters after winning the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, footage posted on social media showed. After being banned from leaving Iran for years, forced to make films underground and enduring spells in prison, Panahi attended the French ...

Lilo & Stitch Smash Box Office in Holiday Weekend Surge

This is Beirut 26/05 14:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Disney Cinema Movie Box Office Culture Art

Theaters across North America are enjoying an exceptional Memorial Day holiday weekend, with two new much-anticipated blockbusters bringing in an estimated box office totaling well over $250 million, analysts said Sunday. Disney's family-friendly Lilo & Stitch earned an estimated $183 million, a record for the four-day Memorial Day weekend, ...

Salam Awards Theater Legend Rifaat Torbey on Stage

This is Beirut 26/05 12:45 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Joseph Aoun Nawaf Salam Rafic Torbey Lebanon

For the first time in Lebanon’s political and cultural history, a Prime Minister awarded a medal to an actor on stage, during a live performance. In a landmark moment blending politics and the performing arts, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam presented the Lebanese Order of Merit (Silver Grade) to veteran stage actor Rifaat Torbey on Friday evening, ...

Cabriolet Film Festival 2025 Launches with Bold New Vision and Nationwide Reach

This is Beirut 26/05 12:35 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Baalbeck Lebanon Saïda Byblos Cabriolet Film Festival

Lebanon’s beloved Cabriolet Film Festival is back for its 16th edition, launching June 6–8, 2025, with renewed energy and a powerful message: connecting Lebanese regions through the love of cinema. Organized by Laboratoire d’Art, the festival expands beyond Beirut this year, bringing open-air short film screenings to more than a dozen ...

Marcel Ophuls, Legendary Filmmaker Who Shattered French WWII Myths

This is Beirut 26/05 10:10 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Cinema Documentary Culture Art Marcel Ophuls

Oscar-winning filmmaker Marcel Ophuls, who blew the lid off the myth that France resisted its World War II Nazi occupiers in The Sorrow and the Pity, has died aged 97, his family said Monday. Ophuls, who was the son of renowned German Jewish director Max Ophuls, "died peacefully on May 24", his grandson Andreas-Benjamin Seyfert said in a ...

Behind the Scenes'Just an Accident:' The Iranian Film That Won Over Cannes and Took Home the Palme d’Or

Bélinda Ibrahim 25/05 18:30 - Reading : 7 minute(s)

Cannes 2025 Iran Cinema Cannes Film Festival Jafar Panahi

From the very start of this 78th edition, the tone was set. The official poster, showing a couple running along a beach, taken from Claude Lelouch’s A Man and a Woman, said it all: a nod to romance, but also to the familiar. This year, Cannes offered both comfort and disruption. Comfort, in the form of familiar faces: Claude Lelouch, Daniel ...

"It's in our blood": How Vietnam Made the Latin Alphabet Its Own

This is Beirut 25/05 13:25 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Vietnam Calligraphy Culture Latin

At a calligraphy class in Hanoi, Hoang Thi Thanh Huyen slides her brush across the page to form the letters and tonal marks of Vietnam’s unique modern script — Quoc Ngu — in part a legacy of French colonial rule. The history of romanised Vietnamese, or Quoc Ngu, links the arrival of the first Christian missionaries, colonisation by the ...

SpotlightCannes 2025: A Closing Full of Tears, Power and Purpose

Marie-Christine Tayah 25/05 10:10 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Cannes Film Festival Cannes2025 Cinema France Culture Closing Ceremony

After ten intense days, Cannes brought down the curtain in an atmosphere of artistic elevation. It was a festival that felt political, raw and deeply human—where voices rose to fill the silence onscreen. As always, the iconic “Aquarium” piece from The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns played before each red carpet entrance, ...