In 1941, the writers Louis Aragon and Elsa Triolet fled the Nazi-occupied zone of France, arriving in Nice. There they met and befriended Henri Matisse. Aragon resolved to write a book about the grat painter, but it wasn’t until 1970, just after Elsa’s death, that he finally completed “Henri Matisse, roman”.Read More »
Three French conscripts with diverse political motives, are sent to a disciplinary battalion in the midst of the Algerian war. Major Lecoq is to build an elite unit with these wayward soldiers who are exposed to war, torture and death.Read More »
On 9 January 1836, Pierre Lacenaire goes to the guillotine, a murderer and a thief. He gives Allard, a police inspector, his life story, written while awaiting execution. He also asks Allard to care for Hermine, a lass to whom he has been guardian for more than ten years. In flashbacks, from the prison as Lacenaire writes, from Allard’s study as he and Hermine read, and from other readers’ memory after the book is published, we see Lacenaire’s childhood as he stands up to bullies, including priests, his youthful thieving, his first murder, his brief army career, his seduction of a princess, and his affair with Avril, a young man who dies beside him.Read More »