DAVID HOCKNEY RIP Privileged to have seen the exhibition at the Louis Vuitton gallery last year which included more than 400 of his works from 1955 to 2025 including this self-portrait. And at the Orangerie in 2022, citing François de la Rochefoucauld's maxim " Remember You Cannot Look At The Sun Or Death For Very Long." @LouisVuitton @MinistereCC @ifecosse @ifru_london @royalacademy @NatGalleriesSco

CURTAIN UP on Agnès Jaoui's operatic satire for the age of #MeToo: Read more here: eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/cres… @FrFilmFestUK @ifecosse @ifru_london @StudiocanalUK @StudiocanalFR @MinistereCC @francediplo @FranceintheUK @afglasgow @EyeForFilm

OUT OF THE BOX: French Film Festival UK's Schools programme is now available to peruse. Pick up a copy at @ifecosse or read online here: frenchfilmfestival.org.uk/le… @ifecosse @IFE_education @ifru_london @MinistereCC @scottishcilt @Filmhouse @FrenchEdUK @afglasgow @francediplo @FranceintheUK @copymade11837

**** VERDICT on the first of the two-film DE GAULLE project by Antonin Baudry with Simon Abkarian and Simon Russell Beale. Read more here: eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/de-g… @EyeForFilm @PatheFilms @PatheIntsales @ifru_london @ifecosse @afglasgow @MinistereCC @francediplo @FranceintheUK

ANNIVERSARY EXTRAVAGANZA in Karlovy Vary. Read more here: eyeforfilm.co.uk/news/2026-0… @KVIFF @CZinLondon @CzechCentreLnd @screenscots @EyeForFilm

THE ULTIMATE act of friendship: Robin Campillo on picking up the threads of Enzo from the late Laurent Cantet. Read my extensive interview here: eyeforfilm.co.uk/feature/202… @EyeForFilm @FranceintheUK @ifecosse @CurzonFilm @Filmhouse @afglasgow @glasgowfilm @BFI @MinistereCC

Never mind JR and the Pont-Neuf ... Daisy has her own bit of @ville_deparis - a canine friendly toy version of the Eiffel Tower. She's getting an Eiffel of her own but not quite sure how to proceed. @FranceintheUK @FrFilmFestUK @ifecosse @afglasgow @LaTourEiffel

WORK OF ART - or extravagant folly? A temporary art work by JR has plonked a mountain range across the Pont Neuf in the centre of Paris - except because of damage caused by high windows nobody has been able to make the free of charge crossing. It’s 18 meters tall and 120 meters long but the interior remains a mystery. The creators currently are busy replacing the damaged sections. For the moment the jury’s still out but La Caverne du Pont Neuf certainly makes an impression on the city scape but not necessarily in a good way. The artist's name is derived from his first name, Jean-René whose reputation rests on his speciality of flyposting large black-and-white photographic images in public spaces. So what do YOU think? @FrFilmFestUK @ifecosse @ifru_london @FranceintheUK @MinistereCC @Paris

Out of a sense of patriotic duty I turned up bleary-eyed with 150 other early birds at UGC Ciné Cité in les Halles for the first 10 am Parisian release screening of De Gaulle: Résistance - all 160 minutes of it . The second tranche De Gaulle: Liberté is due out on 3 July. Unveiled out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival it looks as if this big budget extravaganza (give years in the making) will have wide appeal with a couple of hypnotic performances from Simon Abkarian as De Gaulle and Simon Russell Beale’s quirky Winston Churchill whose mutually affectionate yet frequently strained relationship is well observed and derived from its source material - British historian Julian Jackson’s biography A Certain Idea of France. It’s a triumphant tale of faith, sheer audacity and a quest for freedoms on a scale by director Antonin Baudry of which David Lean would have been proud with a terrific ensemble cast among them Benoît Magimel, Mathieu Kassovitz, Niels Schneider and Anamaria Vartolomei. At its conclusion there was a round of enthusiastic applause. Bring on Part Two. @FrFilmFestUK @ifru_london @ifecosse @PatheFilms @UGCcinemas @filmhubscotland @afglasgow @FranceintheUK

HAPPY HARARI: With the world premiere of his body-swap thriller L'Inconnue (The Unknown) at @Festival_Cannes no wonder Arthur Harari (co-writer with Justine Triet of Oscar-winning Anatomy of a Fall 10,000 Nights in the Jungle) is all smiles - well almost - alongside Léa Seydoux and Niels Schneider . Time to recall his visit to @FrFilmFestUK with his first feature Black Diamond (Diamant Noir) back in the day accompanied by his older brother Tom, also his cinematographer, in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London. And, to keep it in the family, his younger brother Lucas wrote the graphic novel The Case of David Zimmerman on which the new film is based. Here's to the next time. @ifru_london @ifecosse @cgfEdimbourg @screenscots @filmhubscotland

HOT TICKET - don't miss out! @ifecosse @afglasgow @FrFilmFestUK @MinistereCC @ifru_london @cgfEdimbourg @EyeForFilm

UNE VIE DE FEMME de Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet foule les marches de la Compétition ce soir au Festival de Cannes. Avec Léa Drucker, Mélanie Thierry, Charles Berling, Marie-Christine Barrault… En salles le 9 septembre.

With the @Festival_Cannes in full swing, you can catch last year’s Palme d’Or winner A Simple Accident at @ifecosse on Friday when I’ll be introducing it and the work of Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi. The director is the epitome of resistance having survived a year-long prison sentence, and a two-year travel ban among other restrictions. A Simple Accident which was made in secret on his release from incarceration, was chosen to represent France at the Oscars. It was also short listed for the Lux Audience Award which was won by the Spanish film Deaf. Other contenders comprised Love Me Tender by French director Anna Cazenave Cambet; Christy by Irish director Brendan Canty and Sentimental Value by Norway’s Joachim Trier (and showing at IFE in September). The winner was chosen by filmgoers across Europe, as well as the Members of the European Parliament. Its choice for the Oscars is said to reflect France's values and the country as a welcoming place for filmmakers from all over the world, allowing their unique and universal voices to be heard in favour of tolerance, peace, and freedom. The screening on Friday at 18.00 is free of charge but advance booking advised. @ifru_london @EUdelegationUK @cgfEdimbourg @FrFilmFestUK @EyeForFilm