Study in China

  *Please read through to the end of this post for instructions on how to enter the giveaway. Delicacy by David Foenkinos is a beautiful love story that is a short, quick read, but packed with so much charm. Natalie has the perfect life with Francois. Even their story of how they met is perfect. No couple has ever been more in love or had a happier marriage than the two of them. Then a horrific tragedy strikes and Natalie has to figure out how to go on with life when she really doesn’t even want to anymore. She throws herself into her work, but her boss, Charles, is interested in more than her work. Then odd circumstances have pushed her toward a coworker, Markus. He is someone she normally would not have given a second thought. Now she finds that she is definitely thinking about him. I very highly recommend this book. It is a delightful and charming story with drama, romance, and even some great humor. The author is French and th...

Leos Carax’s story of two homeless bums and their relationship is built around these contradictions and tensions that make the film a struggle to grasp. It’s a warm, beautiful and intimate film, but it’s also filled with harsh, repulsive imagery and a protagonist who is so rampantly selfish he makes spats of the film hard to watch as this almost naïve and childlike relationship is filled with dark, abusive undertones. Alex (Denis Lavant) is one of the many bums wandering around the city of Paris with no clear directon or purpse. He keeps up residence at the decaying old bridge, the Pont Neuf, but when he returns one night to find Michèle Stalens (Juliette Binoche) has taken his place, he suddenly has a new pursuit in life and quickly becomes obsessed over discovering more about this strange woman with an eye-patch. While it initially appears that Michèle’s gradual descent into decaying eyesight might be a romantic metaphor for true love, a love that is blind...