Interview back issues from October 2001:
LETTERS.
Oct 01, 2001 ... LOOK OUT, FRANK-N-FURTER Dear Inteiview, I just saw Hedwig and the Angry Inch [August] at Union Square in NYC--the movie was amazing. The audience was talking back to the film and cheering at the end of every song as if watching a live show. The music was phenomenal ....
That certain je ne sais quoi Ehrlich, Dimitri.(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001 ... IT'S EFFORTLESS. IT'S INDESCRIBABLE. IT'S WHAT YOU WANT "It's a certain ... I don't know what," I said to a friend the other day, with a dramatic flourish of my hand, explaining my newfound worldview. Of course, in English, it just doesn't have the same ring. But several ...
VIVE LE HIP-HOP: Doc Gyneco.(French rapper)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... A TALK BETWEEN TWO MUSIC HEAVYWEIGHTS PAUL OAKENFOLD: After the release of your 1997 debut solo album, you became one of the most successful rappers in France. You've recently collaborated with RZA and Dr. Dre. Yet you now say that rap is finished in France. Why? DOC ...
Movie Start--Kiera Chaplin.(actress)(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001; ... GRANDPA WOULD BE PROUD Born in Belfast, schooled in Switzerland and currently residing in Paris, Kiera Chaplin has inherited a legacy that could intimidate just about anyone: Her great-grandfather was Eugene O'Neill, and her grandfather was a chap named Charlie. But this worldly ...
Music Upstarts--M83.(French rock group)(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001 ... Goldman, Vivien NICE BEATS FROM NICE The dulcet strains of the self-titled disc by M83, the new duo whose electronica seems to bask in the heat of their native Antibes (in the south of France), open with a neat contrast: a ghostly German voice intoning its love of ...
INSIDE PARIS FASHION.(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001; ... "Why Paris? It's a kind of recent question. A few years ago nobody would have asked it. And it was even out of the question to ask such a question: Paris was the place! Is Paris happening again? Maybe, in a different way than before. Too much idleness and solitariness was not ...
Art to Make Socrates Grin--Fabrice Hybert.(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001; ... ART THAT ASKS ALL THE RIGHT QUESTIONS Artist Fabrice Hybert is fixing the wand--and we should all be glad. A Parisian for the past five years (he called the city of Nantes home for the past 10 years), his work scrambles history, technology and social engineering with a ...
Sports with a Kick--Fabien Barthez.(French soccer goalkeeper)(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001; ... SOME SET GOALS. HE STOPS THEM The great French pop philosophers nowadays aren't Left Bank existentialists or Sorbonne professors, but soccer players. Fabien Barthez, formidable goalkeeper for Manchester United and France, has the same penchant for cryptic epigrams as his retired ...
Movie News--Julie Durand.(French filmmaker)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... PUTTING SMILES ON FACES SCOTT LYLE COHEN: Your debut film, Du Poil Sous les Roses, has been called a French rip-off of American Pie. Is this fair? JULIE DURAND: No. The director has been asked this question. The script was already written before American Pie came out ....
Movie News--Sylvie Testud.(French actor)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... GOING PLACES SEAN KENNEDY: What inspired you to become an actor? SYLVIE TESTUD: When I was 11, I saw L'Effrontee [1985], with Charlotte Gainsbourg, and I just loved it. Later I went to university, but after two months, I dropped out to go to theater school. My family ...
Music on the Rise--Benjamin Diamond.(French musician)(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001; ... FROM CHOIRBOY TO CLUB SAVIOR Unlike most of the current French electronica artists, Benjamin Diamond is a singer first. At the age of eight, his mother enrolled him in a church choir. "That was torture," he says of his years singing in Latin. "When I was 13, I discovered you ...
Jazz Notes--Malik Mezzadri.(French musician)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... PARIS IS STILL DRAWING THE GREATS Malik Mezzadri, a flute virtuoso born on the Ivory Coast and raised in Guadeloupe, is among a group of European musicians who've merged traditional acoustic jazz with contemporary influences, from electronic beats to world music. "Magic Malik," ...
Music Avant-Garde--Brigitte Fontaine.(French musician)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... STILL KEKE AFTER ALL THESE YEARS KIM GORDON: You've been putting out avant-garde French pop albums since 1970, and you've established quite a cult following. I hear that your eighth album is coming out in January. What's it called? BRIGITTE FONTAINE: Keke Land ...
Actor to Watch--Jalil Lespert.(French movie actor)(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001; ... MOVE OVER, FREDDIE PRINZE JR. Laid-back Jalil Lespert is the new face of French cinema. His good looks are far from classic, his charm brash--puppy teeth crowd the scamp smile. The 25-year-old, one of France's most promising young actors, seems to have found a ...
Inside Paris Fashion--Jean Paul Gaultier.(French fashion designer)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001 ... INGRID SISCHY: Hi, Jean Paul. It's nice to hear your voice. JEAN PAUL GAULTIER: You, too. I feel as if you are just next to me. It's the quality of the American phones, I think, because the French ones are not so good. IS: [both laugh] I want to talk to you about ...
Inside Paris Fashion--Sonia Rykiel.(French fashion designer)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001 ... INGRID SISCHY: Sonia? SONIA RYKIEL: Oui. Bonjour Ingrid. IS: Hello. Tell me about Paris and fashion. SR: You can create fashion everywhere in the world, but the place where you are crowned is Paris. It's where you are the queen, or the king. For me, ...
Inside Paris Fashion--Nathalie Rykiel.(French fashion designer)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001 ... INGRID SISCHY: So, Nathalie, you were barn into fashion. Right? NATHALIE RYKIEL: [laughs] I am first and foremost a Parisian. For me, it's always been Paris, and it's even more than Paris. It's the Left Bank of Paris. Actually it's two areas. The first was the one where I spent ...
Roche and Lavaux.(French architects)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... WHERE TECHNO AND ORGANIC MEET Francois Roche and Stephanie Lavaux, partners in the Paris-based architecture firm R & Sie, have until now designed solely conceptual projects. This fall they will complete their first building, a house. CHRISSY PERSICO: Your work involves a lot of ...
Jakob and Mac Farlane.(French architects)(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001; ... WHERE TOUTE PARIS MEETS (AND EATS) For evidence of Paris' renewed commitment to cutting-edge architecture, look no further than Georges, the restaurant at the top of the Pompidou Center. By embracing new technologies and dissolving the boundaries between architecture and other ...
Gay Paris!--Sebastien Lifshitz.(French filmmaker)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... BOY MEETS BOY. ACTION HOWARD FEINSTEIN: Can you tell me a bit about your background? SEBASTIEN LIFSHITZ: I studied art history, specializing in contemporary art. I am a big fan of historical photography from the 19th century till now, from Julia Margaret Cameron to ...
Movie Bigwig--Charles Berling.(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... A REASON TO SHELL OUT SOME FRANCS SHEILA BENSON: What kind of films are you able to make in France that you couldn't in the United States? CHARLES BERLING: [laughs] Movies like L'Ennui [1998] [a film about sexual obsession]. Perhaps also a period film like Ridicule ...
Inside Paris Fashion--Tom Ford.(clothes designer, creative director of Gucci Group)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001 ... INGRID SISCHY: So Tom--Paris. You're growing up and-- TOM FORD: Growing up? I'm getting old! IS: [laughs] I'm taking you back to when you were a child. TF: Oh, I thought you meant now. [laughs] IS: Later for now. So when you were a young pup did ...
Art that Moves you--Annette Messager.(artist)(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001; ... SHE PUT THE WOMAN IN FRENCH ART For some 30 years, Annette Messager has been a key figure on the French art scene, all the more so because she was for many of them one of the very few women to receive any recognition there. She's achieved a kind of cult status in feminist art ...
French Music that Fries and Shakes--Etienne de Crecy.(music producer/musician)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... THE SPIRITUAL FATHER OF FRENCH ELECTRONICA NILE RODGERS: You were one of the first Parisians to release a house music track in the States and your debut album, Tempovision, just came out here. But I want to know about the gossip. I hear that you are from a very aristocratic ...
Happening Art--Philippe Parreno.(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001; ... A COMMUNITY IS BROUGHT TOGETHER Philippe Parreno's work is about bringing other artists together. For instance, in 1999 he, along with Pierre Huyghe, purchased the rights to Annlee, a Japanese cartoon character. Each artist then used the character in a different film, planning, ...
Happening Art--Pierre Huyghe.(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001; ... A STAR IS BORN Pierre Huyghe, a Paris-based artist who represented France at this year's Venice Biennale and who has shows scheduled at New York's P.S.1 and San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art, takes cinema as the starting point for his invention. In "The Third Memory" (2000), ...
Inside Paris Fashion--John Galliano.(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001 ... JOHN GALLIANO: Ingrid! INGRID SISCHY: Hi, John. How are you? JG: I'm good, and you? IS: Fine. We are doing this special issue about the fact that Paris seems to have come back from the dead. Tell us about your decision to leave London and go to Paris in ...
Inside Paris Fashion--Phoebe Philo.(artistic director Chloe)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001 ... INGRID SISCHY: Well, Phoebe, congratulations on taking over at Chloe. Are you excited? PHOEBE PHILO: I'm really thrilled. Some days it's really exciting, and some days it's like, "Oh God!" It's quite liberating giving it a go on my own. I've just got to really buckle down and ...
Talent Scouting--Jeremie Elkaim.(actor speaks of new film: Sexy Boys)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... AN ACTOR WHO'S SITTING PRETTY SCOTT LYLE COHEN: Your new film, Sexy Boys, opens in France in a couple of months. What's it about? JEREMIE ELKAIM: You know American Pie? It's a teen comedy like that, and in France that's very bizarre. They simply aren't made here. ...
Scandal!--Guillaume Dustan.(author)(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001; ... THIS LITERARY LION'S CAUSING AN UPROAR Edmund White called him "the toughest new writer to emerge in a land known for its incorrigibles," but the disaffected club kid and dancer-turned-writer Guillaume Dustan prefers to call himself an "anticonformist." Dustan is nothing if not ...
Music Hipsters--Sully Sefil.(French musician)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... IT'S HIS TURN NOW TIARRA MUKHERJEE: After 14 years collaborating with other hip-hop artists like Joey Starr and Busta Flex, you recently released your first single, "J'Voulais," which has been a huge success. Where do you draw your inspiration from today? SULLY ...
Music Hipsters--Alex Gopher.(French musician)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... HE FIXES AND MIXES AND IT WORKS DIMITRI EHRLICH: You opened a lot of doors for the Paris electronic scene with your 1995 EP Gopher. Why did you take your name from Gopher, the character on the 1970s American TV series The Love Boat? ALEX GOPHER: Gopher was the name of ...
Soul Sisters--Les Nubians.(French musicians)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... THIS DUO'S GOT THE FUNK ANGELIQUE KIDJO: Princesses Nubiennes, your debut album, did surprisingly well in the States. What is special about the French music scene? HELENE FAUSSART: It's extremely diverse, thanks to immigration. We have a big world music scene in ...
Music Tonic--Bob Sinclar.(French musician)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... WARNING! THIS MUSIC'S GOT A SENSE OF HUMOR MICHEL GONDRY: When you use samples, are you referencing music you listened to growing up or just music from the past? BOB SINCLAR: Well, in 1988, I discovered Eric B and Rakim and De La Soul, and hip-hop was the new thing ...
Inside Paris Fashion--Marc Jacobs.(French fashion designer)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001 ... INGRID SISCHY: So Marc, when you were growing up, did you have a romance about Paris and fashion? MARC JACOBS: I definitely had a romance about it. Growing up in New York City, I looked at Paris fashion and thought, Wow. That must be something. I first visited Paris when I was ...
Movie Sportlights--Nathalie Richard.(French actress)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... A PERFORMER WHO PUTS CLICHES IN JAIL JONATHAN FOREMAN: You've worked with all sorts of amazing directors--Godard, Jacques Rivette, Olivier Assayas. Is there anyone in the States who you'd like to work with? NATHALIE RICHARD: I'd like to work again with James Ivory ...
Movie Sportlights--Virginie de Clausade.(actress)(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001; ... THE ACTRESS WHO DID GET ARRESTED Virginie de Clausade might have just wrapped her first feature, Les Rois Mages, but her life already plays like a movie. Consider the way the 20-year-old actress met her ex-boyfriend, American actor Michael Pitt (Bully, Hedwig and the Angry ...
An Accidental Actor--Stanislas Merhar.(French actor)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... DISCOVERED ON A STREET CORNER SEAN KENNEDY: How did you first get involved in acting? STANISLAS MERHAR: The director of Nettoyage Sec [Dry Cleaning, 1997], Anne Fontaine, was tired of meeting all the young professional French actors--she wanted to find someone new. So ...
Must-see Director--Claire Denis.(French filmmaker)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... ENVELOPE-PUSHING, RISK-TAKING MOVIEMAKING GRAHAM FULLER: Did growing up in West Africa influence your work as a filmmaker? CLAIRE DENIS: It influenced the human being I became, as any childhood does. What Africa did give me, on top of an awareness of the beauty of a ...
Inside Paris Fashion--Hedi Slimane.(French fashion designer)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001 ... INGRID SISCHY: Hedi, in your mind, is Paris a place which has fashion in its blood? HEDI SLIMANE: Oh, definitely. Fashion is definitely part of the culture. IS: And-- HS: It became quite relevant again, recently. IS: Why? HS: There ...
Composer who Scores--Yann Tiersen.(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... HE MAKES THE SOUND OF TYPING BEAUTIFUL "When I'm working, I need to be alone," says composer/songwriter Yann Tiersen. "In a big city like Paris, it's easy to feel alone, so it's a good place for me to write music." As a child in Britanny, Tiersen received formal classical music ...
Dub Music--Doctor L.(aka Liam O'Farrell)(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001; ... THE MEDICINE IS IN THE BEATS The good Doctor L is frequently described in the French press as a "sound sorcerer" who possesses what the Gallic media are pushing as the French Touch." In fact, though raised in Paris, Liam O'Farrell was born in Dub, a.k.a. Dublin; particularly apt ...
ViewWomen--Francoise Hardy.(French musician)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... HER INFLUENCE IS STILL REVERBERATING BAABA MAAL: At 17, you began writing your own songs and singing in French clubs. You released your first album in 1962, and you've been extremely popular ever since. What do you think has given you this longstanding success? ...
ViewWomen--Sophie Calle.(author)(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001; ... YOU WANT WILD? Sophie Calle is very much a special case: a conceptual artist who successfully reaches a diverse audience--her first book, Suite Venitienne (1983), was a best-seller in France. Although her work is rooted in '60s conceptualist strategies such as documentation and ...
Inside Paris Fashion--Maison Martin Margiela.(Hermes designer)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001 ... INTERVIEW: Why does Paris equal fashion? MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA: At this stage, its the inertia that this town has amassed over the years. An inertia that draws creativity and those attracted to it into its core. Yet Paris is not essentially different from any other great city "of ...
Inside Paris Fashion--Rei Kawakubo.(designer)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001 ... "Paris is a well organized city for our business. This is probably because France regards fashion as necessary and something to be valued. All the journalists and buyers come here and look at clothes. But lining up everything conducive to business does not necessarily mean it is the best ...
Inside Paris Fashion--Michael Kors.(French fashion designer)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001 ... INGRID SISCHY: Michael? MICHAEL KORS: [coming to phone] Ingrid. How are you? IS: Very good, and you? MK: I'm well, thank you. IS: The reason I'm calling you is we're doing this entire special issue on Paris and we wanted to talk with you not ...
Movie Sportlight--Marion Cotillard.(French actress)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... THIS KIND OF ROMANCE? IT MUST BE FRANCE SCOTT LYLE COHEN: You got your big break in Taxi [1998], one of France's first big blockbusters. Since then you've been pretty busy. MARION COTILLARD: [laughs] Yeah. I broke out with Taxi. After that people didn't stop calling me ....
Music to Know About--Cassius.(French musician)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... HOUSE MUSIC SERVED SUNNY-SIDE UP SEAN KENNEDY: You two have been making influential music with groups like Motorbass and MC Solaar for years. Then you put out your own record, 1999 [Astralwerks/Virgin], as the duo Cassius. How would you describe your sound? PHILIPPE ...
Movie Mix--Marie Gillain.(actress)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... A CHILD ACTRESS GROWS UP SEAN KENNEDY: Your first film was Mon Pere ce Heros [1991], which was remade by Hollywood, without you, as My Father the Hero [1994]. MARIE GILLAIN: Yeah. The American version was bad, but the French one was really moving. SK: ...
Movie Mix--Victoire Thivisol.(actress)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... A CHILD ACTRESS WHO'S ABOUT TO SEAN KENNEDY: How did you first start acting? VICTOIRE THIVISOL: A woman who worked for [director] Jacques Doillon came to my school and saw me. Jacques phoned my mom, and then my mom asked me if I wanted to act in Ponette [1996], and I ...
Happening Band--Phoenix.(rock group)(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001; ... JUST WHEN NO ONE EXPECTED THEM There was something strange about it last year, when we French people found ourselves dancing to hits by Phoenix. Their music is filled with cliches that Europeans might have about the lifestyle in, say, Miami: Jeeps, palm trees and porn stars, ...
Inside Paris Fashion--Emanuel Ungaro.(designer)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001 ... INGRID SISCHY: When you were growing up--EMANUEL UNGARO: --many years ago-- IS: --last year. [both laugh] When you were growing up, did you think of Paris in terms of fashion? EU: Inevitably. You know, I'm not Parisian; I was born in the south of France and, for me, ...
Inside Paris Fashion--Giambattista Valli.(artistic director Emanuel Ungaro.)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001 ... INGRID SISCHY: Giambattista, you're an Italian, now dedicated to a French house, the House of Ungaro. What did Paris symbolize for you before you got there? GIAMBATTISTA VALLI: I always thought that Paris was the town of freedom--freedom for creativity, for fashion. All of my ...
Music that's Blasting Off--Micronauts.(music group consisting of Christophe Monier)(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001; ... REMEMBER THIS NAME There's a new term being used in music magazines: "The French Touch." It refers to the success of a new wave of French artists but is embodied most perfectly by Micronauts. Despite the plural name, today Micronauts is only one person--Christophe Monier--who ...
Paris Flashback--Frederic Sanchez.(record store owner comments on French music)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... HE'S GOT A GALLERY A RECORD STORE AND A POINT OF VIEW DIMITRI EHRLICH: We speak with you regularly about what's going on with European music. Now it feels like a real moment, not so much for French music in general, but for electronica. Why do you suppose that is? ...
Who's Heating Things Up?(contemporary art galleries in Paris)(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001; ... THE DEALERS WHO KNOW THE DEAL An unassuming side street in Paris' eastern most fringes is ground zero for the city's edgiest contemporary art establishments: Galerie Jennifer Flay, Air de Paris and Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin. Four years ago, in search of off-the-beaten-path digs ...
TV Powerhouse--Marc-Olivier Fogiel.(producer/talk show host)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2001; ... THEY CALL HIM "THE PIT BULL" At 32, Marc-Olivier Fogiel is one of the fastest-rising stars in French media. He is a producer who currently hosts two television programs--the weekly late-night interview show On ne Peut pas Plaire a Tout le Monde (You Can't Please Everyone), and ...
Paris blasts from the past.
Oct 01, 2001 ... "Well, like Humphrey Bogart says, we'll always have Paris." JEAN-LUC GODARD, Interview, July 1994 "I wake up and immediately begin my toilette. If I thought about work, the anxiety would begin. It shouldn't be thought about at all. Then one could stay in bed for days ...
Movie Sportlight--Helene Fillieres.(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001; ... WANTED BY DIRECTORS ANDREA MEYER: You're only 29, but already you've worked with some of France's brightest directors. Cedric Klapisch, Tonie Marshall, your sister, Sophie Fillieres--which we'll get into later [Fillieres laughs]--and, of course, Claire Denis. What was it like ...
The Bouroullec Brothers.(Ronan and Erwan)(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001; ... DESIGNERS WHO LET YOU DECIDE Thirty-year-old Ronan Bouroullec and his 25-year-old brother Erwan comprise one of the hottest design duos at work in Paris today. It's a partnership that began officially in 1999, when the younger of the two graduated from art school and joined his ...
A New Kind of Pedigree--Catherine Breillat.(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001; ... A DIRECTOR WHO'S NOT ON A LEASH JOAN DUPONT: Ever since 36 Fillette [1988], your movies showing women's worst sexual nightmares--deflowering, rape, humiliation--have provoked violent reactions, haven't they? CATHERINE BREILLAT: That's putting it mildly! These days, ...
All the dish by Brand Goldfarb.(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001 ... PARIS IN NEW YORK As any seasoned traveler knows, there is no better way to soak up the atmosphere of a foreign city than by parking yourself in a restaurant or cafe there, pointing to what the couple next to you is having, and letting yourself be transported by whatever the ...
Shots in the Dark.(sex in current French films)(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001; ... A FAR CRY FROM HOLLYWOOD Any number of thorny--perhaps unanswerable--questions are being raised by the explicit depiction of penetrative and oral sex in current French films. For example: When does a film cease to be art and start to be pornography? Is the showing of ...
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR OCTOBER.(Brief Article)
Oct 01, 2001 ... For almost 200 years, every generation in the West (and in large part in the East, too) grew up in part on a Paris of legend: there was the city in the grip of revolution; there was technology transforming its medieval alleys into broad premonitions of the cities of the 19th and 20th ...