French Riviera luxury lifestyle and glamorous events.
Category: Art
The French Riviera offers all artistic and cultural genres and vernissages, major exhibitions, museums and “métier d’Art” workshop abound all year round.
The sixth edition of the Israeli Film Festival closed on March 17 at Pathé Massena in Nice, in the presence of the greatest movie and theater star of his generation and the guest of honor of the festival of Israel cinema, the actor Lior Ashkenasi, who presented the “Golden Mimosa” for best feature and short films. This year’s winners are Meni Yaesh’s “Neighbors of God” and “Nyosha” by Liran Kapel and Yael Dekel.
This major, increasingly popular cultural event of the city of Nice this year has achieved its objective. This edition spanning on five Sundays confirmed its success with an increase in attendance and a projection of five feature films and seven short films. More than 1,800 spectators discovered a quality program with films by confirmed or emerging directors. The Israeli film production is internationally recognized for its creativity, sense of urgency and self-criticism.
Barnea Hassid, Consul General of Israel in Marseille, Claude Bensadoun, President of Golda Meir Bnai Brith, Laurent Gahnassia from the Israeli Tourist Office in Paris and Eric Ciotti, President of the Alpes Maritimes General Council were attending the closing ceremony of the Israeli cinema festival. After the ceremony, Professor Daniel Benchimol, Nice Deputy for Health and General Counselor, presented Lior Ashkenasi with the Medal of Honor of the City of Nice.
Friendship and exchange relationship between Nice and Israel are illustrated by many cooperation and fruitful exchanges in culture, education and higher education, Francophonie, urban development, sport and health, manily with the twin city of Netanya since 1968, and more recently with the city of Haifa.
After the success of “Late Marriage” (2001) and “Walk on Water” (2004), Lior Ashkenazi became a real star for the French who love his Latin lover and hero at all costs side. Very Actors Studio in his acting, with an additional touch of seduction, Lior Ashkenazi, a darling of Israeli telenovelas and many series, has finally gained his spurs in the 7th Art. Born into a Turkish family, he is cradled in his childhood by the Ladino (Judeo-Spanish). Received in the prestigious Beit Zvi drama school, he began his career in theater before being caught by the cinema. The enormous success in the United States of “Walk on Water” rocks this fragile man, because nobody calls him any more abroad for several years and his career remains Israelian. Eytan Fox’s favorite actor, he will also appear in “The Bubble” (2006). The same year, he starred in “Wild dogs” by Arnon Zadok, where he is confronted to a psychopath played by Alon Abutbul. In France, he shared the bill with Gérard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant Graham Guilt’s film “HelloGoodbye” (2008), and starred in by Alain Tasma’s “Ultimatum” (2009). For Joseph Cedar’s “Footnote” (2011), he played a famous professor at the University of Jerusalem. In 2012, he triumphed at the theater playing in several cities, in Hebrew, the role of Patrick Bruel in “Le prénom” (First Name).
For the G20, the City of Cannes organised a five month-long exhibition featuring 55 works of sculptor Laurence Jenkell, the bonbons-drapeaux (sweet flags) representing G20 participating countries and guests, to eat with the eyes all over the streets of the town, mainly on the Croisette and around the Palais des Festivals. The exhibition was very succesful and chief-of-states took their countries sweet-flags back home.
To thank the City of Cannes, Laurence Jenkell offered two 2 meter-high sweet-flags, France and Europe, now standing in the park in front of the Town Hall, unveiled at a ceremony on Saturday March 2, in the presence of Deputy-Mayor Bernard Brochand, First Deputy David Lisnard, personnalities and guests. During her speech, the artist thanked Cannes for having welcomed her and is pride to have her work exhibited at Cannes town hall. After having recalled the excellent organisation of the G20 that took place in November 2011, Bernard Brochand voiced his pleasure to look at Jenkell’s works of art when opening his windows in the morning: “Having a sweet in this difficult time is a “positive attitude”, and makes life enjoyable and full of hope. A work of art means that: after it, it is never like before.”
The MACM – Musée d’Art Classique de Mougins – (Mougins Classical Art Museum) was awarded in January the “Ken d’Or” (Golden Ken) for 2012 Best Museum, joint prizewinner with the “Louvre Museum” in Paris, by the website “New Cultural Tourism”. Richard Gally, Mayor of Mougins received Christian Levett, owner of the MACM, Mark Merrony, Director and Deputy Director Leisa Paoli, to congratulate them and affirm his support for this unique museum.
Once upon a time, there was an English gentleman, Christian Levett, who, when he wasn’t working, was collecting. He was collecting every valuable antiques he could lay hands on: coins, paper, Greek sculptures, Egyptian sarcophagus, vases… When he considered his collection wide enough to deserve being seen by the public, as he had a house in Mougins, he decided to meet its Mayor Richard Gally, and propose him to create a museum in his city. His idea was to show his collection in a hall through which people would pass and admire his collections. Mr Gally immediately sized the opportunity and offered the gentleman to create a real museum in the old village. After two years work, the heart of Mougins village was hosting an amazing world-class Classical Art Museum: on four floors, more than 600 works of Chris Levett’ collections were showcased to the public from June 3, 2011. One can discover remarkable Roman marble and bronze, Greek sculptures, Egyptian sarcophagus, vases, coins, jewelry and glass objects dating back millennia in a perfect state of conservation. During the visit, from the Egyptian crypt in the basement to the fourth floor revealing the largest private collection of antique armoury and weapons in the world, one can admire a hundred works of Art by contemporary artists such as Picasso, Chagall, Matisse, Duffy, Cézanne, Degas, Klein, Man Ray, Cocteau, Sosno, delicately mixed within ancient works, as a mirror to go through across centuries. After Mr Richard Gally’s own words, this museum was “the little Louvre in Mougins”. Mr Gally’s visionnary prediction revealed true as the Best Museum Gold Ken has been awarded to the Museum of Classical Art in Mougins as joint prizewinner with… the Louvre in Paris. The Mougins Museum of Classical Art has won this prestigious recognition for hosting the most English welcome in France (read perfect welcome…), a permanent exhibition mixing the ancient with the ultra contemporain, and color touch screen placing visitors in the historic prespective of the displayed works. Events – all remarkable – are organized for the residents and tourists of the village, world-famours for its Etoiles de Mougins culinary festival. The Gold Ken awards each year 10 categories of achievement having worked in New Cultural tourism that can be defined as: an engineering taking into account the behavior of new visitors, new customers in emerging countries and the latest digital technology.
On the occasion of thanking Christian Levett, Mr Richard Gally presented him with the Medal of the City of Mougins, an award only presented twice before him: the first time to Roger Vergé, from the Moulins de Mougins restaurant who contributed to Mougins worldwide culinary notoriety, the second time to Roger Duhalde, former Mayor of Mougins for 24 years, and at last, Mr Levett, who highly contributed to the city’s artistic notoriety through the entire world.
The museum is still in the spotlight in the greatest way possible: the MACM has been nominated for the European Museum of the Year as unique French museum among the 28 European museums chosen by the EMYA team, after two criterium: Quality Tourism cultural site and the ranking of the Journal des Arts. The European Museum of the Year (EMYA) Prize was founded in 1977 by the Council of Europe, and is the most prestigious award in Europe, because its ambition has not changed since its inception: to testify to the excellence of European museums and encourage innovative processes. Innovative compared to the traditional view that emphasizes collections rather than their use for the benefit of society. Innovative in substance, ie the life of the museum, its management, its staff, its management and strategies. Museums candidates are evaluated on the basis of what is considered exceptional for a museum services offered to its visitors. Fulfilling a multicultural and social role, the Mougins MACM perfectly corresponds to the new role assigned by the EMYA museums. The 2013 Winner of EMYA be announced during the ceremony at the Gallo-Roman museum of Tongeren in Belgium, during May. We hope very much that, with the Golden Ken, first recognition prize, the MACM will outweight other museum.
