Posted on 06/23/2009 6:23:40 PM PDT by Cincinna
Ex-president's nephew named as culture minister Link with idol of the left seen as ultimate prize
He's a TV personality with a trademark booming voice, a writer, film-maker and gay activist who is not only an expert on world monarchy but part of the closest thing the French republic has to a royal family: the Mitterrand clan.
Frédéric Mitterrand, the nephew of the late socialist president François Mitterrand, has been appointed France's culture minister in a highly symbolic move by Nicolas Sarkozy.
The unashamedly rightwing French president has a deliberate strategy of poaching high-profile personalities from the left. Sarkozy's "rainbow cabinet" of all political colours, including the leftwing foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, was always intended to wrongfoot his critics and weaken the moribund French left. But Mitterrand's appointment in the mid-term government reshuffle announced tonight was seen as the ultimate prize – it is as close as Sarkozy can get to the respected former socialist president and idol of the left.
"sn" Frédéric Mitterrand, 61, a recognisable TV face who has written scores of books and directed several films, could bolster Sarkozy's efforts to counter charges that he is France's first philistine president and prefers jogging to the arts.
Unlike François Mitterrand, the enigmatic, bookish president who served from 1981 to 1995, Sarkozy is better known for enjoying American thrillers on DVD, cheesy French Elvis impersonators and slagging off 17th century French literature. But this image has been tempered since Sarkozy married the model turned folk singer, Carla Bruni. The couple now make highly publicised trips to the theatre and hold private meetings with arts and film figures, such as Woody Allen.
Mitterrand has spent the past eight months as head of the Villa Médicis French cultural academy in Rome, one of the most prestigious French cultural institutions abroad.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
It is going to be an interesting trip to France this July!
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Another huge coup for Sarko! And another kick-in-the-a$$ to the Socialist elites.
Frederic Mitterrand started out on the Left, but was a supporter of Chirac, then later on, Sarko.
I love his video bios of great cinema stars like Marilyn Monroe and Marlon Brando, and his great filmed bios of Royalty like Princess Grace of Monaco,{rincess Diana, and Farah Pahlavi, former Empress of Iran, and endless others. Fred is very pro-American, and loves American culture. Speaks perfect English as well.
The Left, especially the PS (Socialist Party) is fuming and ranting against Sarko for bringing in another big fish.
The rest of the new Cabinet is interesting as well, but the scale of this coup equals that of Bernard Kouchner, who remains in his post.
Wikipedia already has an entry on this, but it looks as if they could use some help filling it in.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Mitterrand
Sarko should be given a medal for his burka stance. Obama must be having a bird :)
I see the possibility of Sarko getting into legal trouble over the banning of wearing the burka. How is banning the burka not also a violation of freedom of religion?
The couple now make highly publicised trips to the theatre and hold private meetings with arts and film figures, such as Woody Allen.
I understand your concern. ASs an American, I value our First Amendments and the protection it offers from government intervention in religion.
French Law is different. The idea of “laicite” is in their Constitution. They have no 1st Amendment.
Sarko cannot personally ban the burka or anything else. He can, however, have a law passed doing so.
There is already a Law on the books in France that prohibits wearing “ostentatious” displays of religion, such as the Islamic head scarf, the yarmulker, and the cross in all public schools and instotutions.
If you are a Christian and wear a cross, or a Jew who wears a yarmulker or a Muslim who wears a head scarf, you cannot be employed and work uin any government business. Not the Post Office, not the bank, You cannot wear it to work in a public place, or to school.
As an American, I find that apalling.
The burks thing is a whole other kettle of fish.
80% of the French public want the burks banned in public.
The French love movies. There are more movie theaters within walking distance of my apartment in Paris than there are in all neighborhoods in NY put together.They are usually full.
Woody Allen is a yalented and creative, inventive film maker. His earlier films are wonderful. We watched “Take the Money and Run” and “Bananas” ay a movie party and laughed ourselves silly. I still love Annie Hall. His later films, IMHO, are very dark and negative;not my taste at all.
Woody Allen lost all popularity in the US because of his affair with his wife’s under age daughter, Soon=Yi Previn, whom he later married. He was also accused of child molestation in the case of his his own child with Mia Farrow. The huy is a sick-o and a pervert.
Americans care about that, and won’t go to his movies.just like they will not support Michael Jackson.
In France they don’t care about peoples’ “private life”, just their art.
That is why Roman Polanski is a huge icon there, even though he cannot ever return to America because he fled bail on statutory rape charges.
I always loved Jerry Lewis as a kid, and think he is genuinely talented. Saw him on Broadway a few years back in a remake of “Damned Yankees” and and loved him in the part.I met him a fwq timesd in Paris with his family and he was incredibly gracious and nice.
To answer your question : THEY ARE FRENCH!
Thanks Cicero. Wikipedia is very slow, and very inaccurate on most things.
They mention littled of Frederic Mitterrand’s career, which is extensive, They don’t even mention Robert Mitterrand, his father who was President Mitterrand’s brother/
Allen was never married to Farrow. And the affair with Soon-Yi Previn started when she was 22, not underage.
Allen's loss of popularity in the US has a lot more to do with the film's he's chosen to make, although they've had more commercial success in recent years--Match Point and Vicki Christina Barcelona did decent business.
The thing about Allen is that, while his movies aren't big hits, they consistently do okay compared to their cost. He gets name talent to work at scale. He doesn't do big special effects. And they do decent business overseas. So the studios are always ready to bankroll the next one.
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