Articles

Dancing to Nowhere, review of “La Grande Bellezza,” New York Review of Books blog, Jan. 9, 2014

If the character Marcello in Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita—played unforgettably by Marcello Mastroianni—had spent another four decades flitting about the high life of Rome he might have turned into someone like Jep Gambardella, the protagonist of Italian film director Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty). A self-conscious twenty-first century version of the Fellini classic, La Grande…

HOW SNOWDEN’S REVELATIONS SAVED SARKOZY, New Yorker, April 18, 2014

One of the most interesting results of France’s nationwide municipal elections was something that didn’t happen. In the weeks leading up to the elections, late last month, a series of potentially damaging recordings of former President Nicolas Sarkozy were leaked and published in various press outlets. If the motive was to influence voters, though, the…

THE FRENCH RIGHT SCORES A HISTORIC VICTORY, New Yorker, March 31, 2014

Sunday’s municipal elections in France offer at least three historical firsts: a historically poor result for the socialist party of President François Hollande; the best-ever results for the right-wing National Front party of Marine Le Pen; and a national record for low voter turnout. The left lost mainly because its own electorate—discouraged by the disappointing…

AN ANTI-GAY-MARRIAGE TEA PARTY, FRENCH STYLE? New Yorker, March 18, 2014

Last month, marchers filled the streets of Paris and Lyon to protest same-sex marriage, which became legal in France last year. The day after the demonstrations, François Hollande’s Socialist government announced that it would not be putting forward new legislation to make it easier for gay couples to adopt children or have them with the…

ITALY’S YOUNG PRIME MINISTER IN A HURRY, New Yorker, March 6, 2014

Sixty-three governments in sixty-eight years, with twenty-seven different Prime Ministers—so why should we care that Italy has a new government, with yet another Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi? It is understandable if observers find the dizzying nature of Italian politics exhausting and pointless. It can seem like a merry-go-round: the people on the painted horses change,…