‘Elementary’ Review: French Docmaker Claire Simon Returns to the Schoolroom With Endearing Results

She is six months into her role in Hollyoaks and soap queen Rita Simons is loving her time on the show, but isn’t finding it easy being away from her family and friends.The former EastEnders actress who played Albert Square’s fan favourite Roxy Mitchell took on the part of Marie Fielding in the soap and is thrilled to be part of the cast. But accepting the Hollyoaks job meant she had to relocate from her home in London to the North West and away from her loved ones – a tough decision for the devoted mum of 18-year-old twin daughters. And it has certainly been a roller-coaster few years for the star who also appears in reality show Drama Queens and has spoken out about her menopause experience, hysterectomy and marriage break-up.

Murtada Elfadl The melancholy, fable-like French drama “Eternal Playground” has a glowing warmth from its very first moments. That comes from the open beaming face of its lead actor, Andranic Manet. He plays Gaspard, a young music teacher in Paris who’s grieving the death of his twin sister.

Adorable Prince Louis, six, has stolen the show at Trooping the Colour after being spotted letting out a huge yawn.The youngest prince couldn't help but show how he was feeling, as a body language expert explains to OK! that it's inevitable he would feel 'bored' and start to 'mess with things.' Adrianne Carter exclusively told OK!: "Louis is getting bored; he's starting to mess with things.This is a sign that Louis is still the lovely and bright personality that we've come to recognise. Louis's big yawn was unspotted by Kate so he was able to give it his all!" But luckily, the prince later seemed to be enjoying himself more as he was seen dancing along to the music.

EXCLUSIVE: Tomer Capone has long been a household name on Israeli screens, having worked on a number of successfully exported TV shows such as Hostages, political thriller Fauda and When Heroes Fly. He won an Ophir (equivalent to an Oscar in Israel) after he was handpicked by Natalie Portman for the romantic lead in her directorial debut A Tale of Love and Darkness. But when he was cast as series regular Frenchie (or Serge) in Amazon’s hit series The Boys, he was catapulted into the mainstream. His depiction of Frenchie, a former assassin with a murky past who is mired by deep childhood trauma, and the character’s heartfelt relationship with Kimiko (played by Karen Fukuhara) has offered audiences moments of respite from the superhero satire’s often dark, violent and lewd storyline. 

Ben Croll Stop-motion giant Henry Selick is back circling the Neil Gaiman adaptation “The Ocean at the End of the Lane,” confirming ongoing work with the English author alongside plans to make the project his next feature. The filmmaker holds Gaiman’s 2013 novel in high esteem – calling the book Gaiman’s crowning achievement – and envisions the film as a companion piece to the duo’s modern classic “Coraline,” describing the development title as “almost a sequel.” “Instead of a child going to this other world with a monstrous mother, it’s a monstrous mother who comes into our world to wreak havoc on a kid’s life,” he tells Variety.

Jamie Lang Japanese director Kenji Iwaisawa‘s debut feature “On-Gaku: Our Sound” was a hit at the 2020 Annecy Animation Festival, where it played in the festival’s Contrechamp competition and won best original music. This year, the filmmaker returns to Annecy to present his next film, “Hyakuemu.”, in a dedicated Annecy Work in Progress session. Based on the original manga “Chi: Chikyū no Undō ni Tsuite” by Uoto, the film tells the story of Togashi, a child born to run.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Eurozoom, a leading French distributor for Japanese animation, has forged a strategic partnership with major French animation producer Special Touch Studios, led by founder and CEO Sebastien Onomo. “We both share the same passion for animation and want to tell bold stories with a particular attention to professional diversity,” said Eurozoom’s CEO-Founder Amel Lacombe, who added that they were jointly working on a six-animation feature lineup. Leading the pack is “Melvile,” directed by Romain Renard and Fursy Teyssier.

Ethan Shanfeld There must be cause for celebration at Lumon Industries, as Mark Scout carries balloons through the office’s frightening, fluorescent hallways. Is that his face on them? “Your innie has already seen this image,” taunted Apple TV+ in a social media post revealing a first look at “Severance” Season 2 featuring Adam Scott. The sci-fi series went into production on Season 2 in October 2022 but was then delayed due to creative disputes and then the dual Hollywood strikes.

No amount of rewatching, revisionism, and distance makes the leaden “Star Wars” prequels good, sorry (lord knows I’ve tried). But teeming with terrifically substantive ideas, just not convincing in the execution of any of them, the most juicy and complex legacy that George Lucas ever left “Star Wars” with—something the franchise always seems to flirt with and yet never fully embrace—is the notion of failure, and the Jedi Order as a deeply flawed and ultimately ruinous organization.

Angelina Jolie and her 15-year-old daughter, Vivienne, are deepening their involvement in the world of theater, showcasing their passion for the performing arts. On Thursday, May 30, the Oscar-winning actress and her daughter attended the opening night of “Reefer Madness: The Musical” in Los Angeles, making a striking appearance on the red carpet.The mother-daughter duo, known for their elegant yet understated fashion, posed for photos alongside Kristen Bell.

Guy Lodge Film Critic Nobody really makes AIDS dramas anymore, which seems as good a reason as any to make one now. The disease that, forty-odd years ago, decimated a generation of queer people and prompted a prejudice-driven global panic hasn’t gone away — least of all in various developing countries, where it isn’t popularly defined by gender or sexuality, and death rates are still high.

Snow Patrol have today (May 30) shared new single ‘The Beginning’ and announced their eighth album ‘The Forest Is The Path’ with a supporting 2025 UK and Ireland arena tour.‘The Forest Is The Path’ is the band’s first full-length record in six years, following on from 2018’s ‘Wildness’, and will arrive on September 13 via Polydor. You can pre-order/pre-save it here.Produced by Fraser T Smith, the album was written by Gary Lightbody, Nathan Connolly and Johnny McDaid, and features 12 tracks as well as writing credits from Smith, Will Reynolds, Roy Kerr and Troy Van Leeuwen from Queens Of The Stone Age.Speaking about the new single, which was written on a trip to Somerset, Lightbody explained: “The first day we wrote ‘The Beginning’, start to finish.”McDaid added: “And he did the vocal in one take. “Straight after writing the lyrics.

Guy Lodge Film Critic No major film festival is complete without at least one Love Letter To Cinema™ from a filmmaker of some renown, to advocate the joys of the medium to an audience that doesn’t have to be told twice. French writer-director and Cannes regular Arnaud Desplechin brings that to the Croisette this year with “Filmlovers!,” a duly warm and nostalgia-washed cine-valentine, but one with a little more to say than just, “Movies, amirite?” Indeed, the film’s somewhat inelegant English-language title risks concealing the more specific focus of this unassuming but winning hybrid documentary: The French title, “Spectateurs!,” makes clear this is first and foremost a celebration of spectatorship rather than filmmaking, probing the dynamics of cinema audiences and their relationship to the screen.

Alissa Simon Film Critic Unusual in tone and content, “Simon of the Mountain” is a small, low-budget drama in which the title character tries to find his comfort zone. Unfolding in short vignettes, the Argentine feature centers on a group of nonprofessional performances: independent-minded adolescents with cognitive disabilities. The only professional actors featured on-screen play the title character and the working adults they interact with.

Eamonn Holmes returned to TV today after it was revealed he and wife Ruth Langsford had split - and he was in no mood to pull in any punches.The presenter, 64, fronted his Breakfast with Eamonn and Isobel show on GB News from 6am, following the announcement that his 27-year relationship with Loose Women's Ruth is over. He addressed the news in a brief statement, saying: "I'd like to thank people for their support for Ruth and I over the last few days as to the news of our separation.

Ant McPartlin was all smiles when he returned to work following the birth of his son Wilder two weeks ago. The TV personality, who welcomed baby Wilder into the world with wife Anne-Marie on Tuesday, 14 May, beamed from ear to ear as he returned to his Britain’s Got Talent presenting duties alongside close pal Declan Donnelly.The duo, who looked suave in matching navy blue three piece suits, reunited on Monday, 27 May for the first of this year’s Britain’s Got Talent live semi-final shows at the Hammersmith Apollo in London. Fans at home welcomed 48 year old Ant’s return to work with open arms and many took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to praise the TV presenter’s appearance on the ITV show.

Simon has a strong twitch that drives him to shake his head, meaninglessly. He sometimes dribbles. The way he looks out at the world from under his brows, especially when people are talking to him, suggests he can’t quite keep up with what they’re saying. When he meets a group of young people from a local daycare center for the intellectually disabled, he naturally falls in with them. He befriends Pehuen Pedre (playing a version of himself) on the top of a mountain, where the group has walked and gotten into difficulties in high winds. When they all manage to get down and back on the bus, Simon gets on board with them. This is where he belongs. 

Guy Lodge Film Critic Love, as everyone has long agreed, makes you do crazy things. Silly things, too, and vastly indulgent things, and occasionally even beautiful ones.

Anita Gou is no stranger to the festival circuit. Her L.A.-based Kindred Spirit banner saw a raft of its first projects debut at Sundance (think Lulu Wang’s Mandarin-language comedy The Farewell, which made $23M worldwide, Shia LaBeouf-starrer Honey Boy and Sam Levinson’s Assassination Nation) but, more recently, her co-production Silent Twins was selected in Un Certain Regard in 2022, while Dominic Savage’s Close To You premiered in Toronto last year. The company’s Mubi-acquired doc The Last Year of Darkness, which explores the lives of alternative Chinese youth, was awarded a Special Mention prize in the Next:Wave section at the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival last year.

Argentinian director Federico Luis’s first film Simon of the Mountain has won the Grand Prize at the 63rd edition of Cannes Critics’ Week.