Sunday 16 August
Paris, UGC Maillot • Fjord (2026), the 2026 Cannes Palme d’Or winner, is set in the vertiginous beauty of a Norwegian fjord. The seemingly unsolvable conundrum facing a bicultural family recently settled in a somewhat remote community is made all the more painful in those surroundings. The plot, reportedly based on an actual incident, is told with enough nuance that the ambiguous ending left me pondering for quite some time after I left the cinema, a sign of great scriptwriting.
Tuesday 18 August
Paris, UGC Maillot • I’m not naturally drawn to comic-book films, and yet the successive Spider-Man incarnations have always provided unexpected appeal. The hero’s tensions between his humanity and his superpowers are usually well handled by scriptwriters, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) was no exception. I was won over by the way Tom Holland put his mark on the arachnid superhero, and by the almost choreographic visual treatment of the nemesis’s powers.
Saturday 22 August
Seefestspiele Mörbisch • A trip to Vienna allowed me to attend my first production — also the season’s last — at the Seefestspiele Mörbisch, about 70 km outside the Austrian capital. The 2026 production on the huge lakeside open-air stage was the musical version of La Cage aux Folles, starring Alfons Haider, also the festival’s artistic director, and Mark Seibert. The required suspension of disbelief was higher than usual given the scale of the stage, which accommodated three dozen Cagelles, not what you’d expect from a basement, slightly sleazy seaside cabaret. Thankfully that generosity extended to the well-sized orchestra, which did justice to Jerry Herman’s melodic score and Jim Tyler’s lush orchestrations.
Tuesday 25 August
Paris, Théâtre du Palais-Royal • A French-language adaptation of Tony Award-winning A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (titled Le Guide du parfait gentleman assassin) turned out to be a welcome back-to-the-theatre experience after the summer break. The three-piece orchestra captured most of the score’s charm (probably demonstrating that the original orchestrations didn’t have that many layers to offer), while the cast handled the characters and absurd situations with excellent comic timing. Benoît Cauden brilliantly walked in Jefferson Mays’s shoes by portraying eight different characters, often appearing as two completely different personas in the space of a few minutes.
Wednesday 26 August
Paris, UGC Maillot • L’Inconnue (2026) started like a thriller but turned out to be much more — a disturbing, careful dissection of the consequences of an arguably absurd triggering event (which, as a reviewer rightly noted, is a cousin of the villain’s superpower in the Spider-Man film). It became clear after a while that the script couldn’t possibly lead to a rational, explanatory ending but would inevitably leave the characters hanging in a precarious, awkward situation. One of the many production companies credited called itself Bathysphere, a word probably familiar mostly to musical-theatre aficionados thanks to the lyrics of Follies’s “I’m Still Here”.
Thursday 27 August
Paris, Comédie de Paris • Tout feu tout flamme, a new musical farce about Joan of Arc, was not without merits. It was not based on an existing property, even though there was a discernible Spamalot influence; it managed to be reasonably funny without being gross; and it was served by a good cast, providing additional proof that there is a generation of well-trained, professional French performers. Its cardinal sin, however, was to rely on prerecorded music, an option I cannot bring myself to sanction.
Friday 28 August
Paris, UGC Maillot • Soudain (2026), a three-hour “French” film, was an unlikely candidate for a rewarding evening, and yet I felt drawn in by its humanity and quiet emotion. Japanese director Ryūsuke Hamaguchi has a knack for balancing what needs to be shown, what needs to be said, and what can remain off-screen, expertly creating heightened feelings and deep connections. Actor Pierre Bénézit, whom I’d seen the previous day on stage in Tout feu tout flamme, made an unexpected appearance.