Nous princesses de cleves

Director: Régis Sauder
Cast: Abou Achoumi, Laura Badrane, Morgane Badrane
France, 69’, 2011, color
French with Turkish subtitles

Ah, the high school English class, where works of great literature are foisted upon students as required reading. Those great tomes filled with heady prose and characters from another era are supposed to be vitally important to every young person’s education, but how relevant are they to the realities of daily angst-ridden teenage existence? In a refreshing and inspired look at the lives of contemporary youth, director Régis Sauder attempts to make that elusive connection between classic literature and contemporary teenage life through the authentic voices and emotions of one Marseille high school class studying the 17th century French novel La princesse de Clèves. A tale of love and duty in the 16thcentury court of King Henri II, this classic text has been taught in French classrooms for decades. But Sauder gives it a new spin, juxtaposing its narrative with the lives of the students themselves, a diverse population of teens from predominantly working-class and immigrant families. As they gradually begin the stressful preparation for their baccalaureate exams, the students recite assorted passages from the book and speak candidly about their hopes and dreams, love and heartbreak, family and friends and their own place in today’s French society.

Summer of Giacomo

Summer of Giacomo

Nous princesses de cleves

Nous princesses de cleves

Belle Épine

Belle Épine

Un poison violent

Un poison violent

Memory Lane

Memory Lane

La vie au ranch

La vie au ranch

The Ottoman Way of Serving Coffee

The Ottoman Way of Serving Coffee

Coffee was served with much splendor at the harems of the Ottoman palace and mansions. First, sweets (usually jam) was served on silverware, followed by coffee serving. The coffee jug would be placed in a sitil (brazier), which had three chains on its sides for carrying, had cinders in the middle, and was made of tombac, silver or brass. The sitil had a satin or silk cover embroidered with silver thread, tinsel, sequin or even pearls and diamonds.

Baby King

Baby King

1638, the year Louis XIV was born –his second name, Dieudonné, alluding to his God-given status– saw the diffusion of a cult of maternity encouraged by the very devout Anne of Austria, in thanks for the miracle by which she had given birth to an heir to the French throne. Simon François de Tours (1606-1671) painted the Queen in the guise of the Virgin Mary, and the young Louis XIV as the infant Jesus, in the allegorical portrait now in the Bishop’s Palace at Sens.

Postcard Nudes

Postcard Nudes

The various states of viewing nudity entered the Ottoman world on postcards before paintings. These postcards appeared in the 1890s, and became widespread in the 1910s, following the proclamation of the Second Constitutional Monarchy, traveling from hand to hand, city to city.