Doesn’t happen too often but I was for once ahead of the FT. Vanessa Friedman met Joel Arthur Rosenthal, the owner of JAR (or even JAR himself), aka the Fabergé of our time, for the Lunch with the FT series. It was some years ago when I had a very entertaining dinner with JAR (and Pierre) in the Hotel Costes in Paris as I was introduced by a common friend. JAR told Friedman that he plans to do a film. Funnily, I clearly remember how JAR was making jokes about how bad all those contemporary actors were.
And coincidence wants it that I went later pour un verre with a film maker named Joan Chemla. We met in the Café de Flore, where the crowd is an odd mix of French celebrities and American tourists (and now double packed because the Deux Magots is closed for renovation work). Joan has made some short films (among them the fantastic adoption of Charles Bukowski’s Dr. Nazi) and is now in the making of her first long play, filming mainly in Marseille. We talked about dedication and seriousness (two things I am never ever really sure how to take them). When we left the Flore there was this guy recently released from prison asking for money. Joan approached him introduced herself and started questioning him with her incredible seriousness and dedication. And everything happened before the place where there used to be La Hune, THE Paris bookshop, now replaced by a Louis Vuitton store. Seriousness.