Bistro Marc, the new French bistro breathing life back into Stockport’s historic Winter’s building

Ben Croll For some time, the French VFX sector suffered an acute case of brain drain, as young professionals would graduate from internationally admired institutions and nearly immediately take their talents abroad.“Years ago, when I spoke with students from [the renowned school] ArtFX, something like 95% of them planned to leave after graduation,” says VFX supervisor Emmanuel Pichereau. “Only when I consulted with this year’s graduating class, I saw many of them change their mind about staying in France.”What changed, of course, has much to do with France’s newly revamped tax plan, which now offers a 40% rebate to productions that spend at least $2.27 million with local VFX studios.

Audrey Diwan’s opened to an estimated $34k on four screens in NY and LA this weekend for a PTA of $8,500. The locations on both coasts — IFC Center/AMC Lincoln Square and The Landmark/AMC The Grove — while limited showed the abortion drama set in 1968 France competing successfully in commercial crossover multiplexes as well as arthouses.

Neil Patrick Harris smashes a bouquet of roses into a trash can in the first look at his new Netflix series, Uncoupled.

Guy Lodge Film CriticWhat comes to mind when you picture the likely protagonist of a film titled “Anaïs in Love?” If it’s not a flighty, free-spirited young Frenchwoman, cycling around Paris with flowers in her bike basket, completing a Masters literature thesis (long past deadline) on “17th-century descriptions of passion,” and wearing bright floral sundresses in all weathers, you’ve tried too hard to avoid the obvious — not something you could easily accuse Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s blithe, gossamer-light debut feature of doing in imagining said heroine. Is it too on the nose if she’s played by reliably winsome starlet Anaïs Demoustier? Don’t answer that: she is.At first rosy blush, then, “Anaïs in Love” appears to gently parody an idealized screen vision of Gallic femininity (a manic pixie dream fille of sorts) that has endured in various incarnations from the French New Wave to “Amelie” and beyond.

We first meet the intriguing heroine of “Anaïs in Love,” appropriately enough, when she's rushing. The opening scene of the French romantic comedy has her running down a Paris street with a bouquet of flowers.She's late, which is a constant thing.

“A Walk Around the Sun," Erika Lewis (Independent)There's a sense of urgency in the lyrics of “A Walk Around the Sun," a hidden gem of a country-Americana project by a singer-songwriter known previously as the singer in a brassy French Quarter busker band called Tuba Skinny.It starts to make sense when you know her back story.Erika Lewis learned in 2020 that she needed surgery that had the potential to damage her vocal cords. A friend urged the singer to record some songs she'd been working on before she had the operation.

Lil Nas X has confirmed details of his first headline tour. The Long Live Montero tour, named after his 2021 album of the same name, begins in September with a run of shows in North America.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorCity Parks Foundation has announced the 2022 season of Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage, New York City’s outdoor performing arts festival, bringing nearly 90 free and benefit shows to Central Park and 12 neighborhood parks across the five boroughs.Citywide parks and venues hosting SummerStage this season include Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem, Von King Park and The Coney Island Amphitheater in Brooklyn, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, Crotona Park in the Bronx, Corporal Thompson Park in Staten Island, as well as the newly refurbished SummerStage flagship venue at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park. All performances will be free and open to the public, except for benefit concerts, and select shows will also be live-streamed on SummerStageAnywhere.org.

Wordle. As the Times named Joseph Kahn its new executive editor Tuesday, succeeding former honcho Dean Baquet, the Old Gray Lady sanctioned a splashy portrait and profile of their nascent leader for New York Magazine — which captured the promotion in a disarmingly seductive way.The resulting, perhaps unintentional, erotica — featuring enough arched-back and come hither gazes to make pinup pioneers Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe proud — might just drive foot fetishists everywhere into a frenzy, as well.

Brooklyn Beckham is a proud husband and he's not afraid to show it. Two weeks after the 23-year-old married Nicola Peltz in a lavish ceremony in Palm Beach, Florida, Brooklyn is continuing to show off their newlywed bliss.On Monday, Brooklyn posted a photo of himself and Nicola sharing what appears to be a French fry on Instagram. «My wifey,» he captioned the post along with a heart emoji.

Mike Bossy, one of hockey’s most prolific goal-scorers and a star for the New York Islanders during their 1980s dynasty, has died after a battle with lung cancer. He was 65.

I’ve been following the career of French actress Noemie Merlant since I saw her in Celine’s Sciamma queer romance film Portrait of a Lady on Fire at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019.  Since her performance as Marian in Sciamma’s film, Merlant has worked non-stop as an actress appearing films including: 

In a repeat of 2017, France’s 2022 presidential election is now down to the same two candidates: the incumbent Emmanuel Macron and far right leader Marine Le Pen. In first round voting which took place on Sunday, centrist Macron emerged with 27.6% of the votes while Le Pen managed 23.4%. This is a bigger showing for Le Pen and her National Rally party (formerly National Front) than five years ago. The determining second round vote will be held on April 24.