2:00

in Slovakia. And schools in

2:02

the US state of Oklahoma have been ordered

2:04

to incorporate the Bible into their lessons. Stay

2:06

tuned to Monocle Radio throughout the day for

2:09

more on these stories. But

2:11

first, how loudly are the far right

2:13

knocking at the gates of power in

2:15

France? This weekend, a nation

2:17

shocked into voting in unexpected parliamentary elections

2:19

could deliver an even bigger shock, if

2:22

the polls are correct, by handing up

2:24

to 35% of its votes to Marine

2:26

Le Pen's

2:28

national rally. And not just that, second

2:30

place is expected to go to a

2:33

left-wing alliance with the centrist party of

2:35

President Emmanuel Macron, trailing at around 20%.

2:38

Well, I'm joined now by the journalist and writer, Christine

2:41

Ocrant. Very good morning to you, Christine. Good

2:43

morning, Emma. In all your experience, have you ever

2:46

seen anything like this in terms of the way

2:48

that France is reshaping itself? No,

2:50

it's an absolute shock.

2:52

And people are really in disarray,

2:54

because whatever political

2:57

opinions may be, the

3:00

shock of Macron's

3:02

decision, which was totally unexpected,

3:04

even if his own political

3:07

party did very poorly at

3:09

the European elections, the

3:11

fact that we have the Olympic

3:13

games coming up in

3:16

less than three weeks. And

3:19

the idea that the extreme

3:21

right could

3:23

very legitimately be

3:26

running the country with

3:28

a prime minister, 28-year-old

3:31

Jordan Bardella, who has

3:33

never held any

3:35

other job other than

3:38

the party job, it's quite

3:41

something. And overall,

3:45

people are really, really shocked.

3:48

There is a real sense that there

3:50

will be a very high turnout this

3:52

weekend, because it has absolutely spurred France

3:55

into political consciousness, hasn't it? Well,

3:58

I mean... UBS

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54:12

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find out how we could help you,

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contact us at ubs.com. Now

54:26

to Paris, where Monocle has just opened

54:28

a new bureau in the Marais. Monocle's

54:30

editor-in-chief Andrew Tuck sat down with our

54:32

deputy head of radio Tom Webb to

54:35

talk about the exciting new addition. Tom

54:37

began by asking Andrew why it had

54:39

to be in the City of Light.

54:41

Well, Paris has always been important to

54:43

Monocle, but I think over the last

54:45

few years we've just seen a growth

54:48

in interest in stories coming out

54:50

of France for our readers. So whether

54:53

it's the music industry, whether it's museums

54:55

and culture, architecture, design, just

54:57

so many stories hitting page in Monocle

55:00

and being told here on the radio

55:02

as well, that we realized

55:04

it was time to make a bigger commitment there.

55:07

We're also a business. I'll be clear that

55:09

the decision where we build up big offices

55:12

is also because we have

55:14

partners in those cities. So we have

55:16

done a huge amount of work with

55:18

amazing partners in France, many

55:21

on the fashion brand side, for example, but also

55:23

at a city level, that

55:25

we also felt this was a good time to be there. Just

55:28

for example, we've just done a great companion, one

55:30

of these paperback books that goes on to newsstand,

55:32

50 essays, and

55:34

it was done in partnership with Saint-Gobain,

55:36

which is one of these amazing, huge

55:38

French companies that does a huge amount

55:40

of building materials, helps build our cities,

55:42

is behind many of the skyscrapers and the

55:44

projects you see being raised

55:46

from the ground. So lots of reasons

55:48

to be there. And as I

55:51

think a few people may have noticed, there's one or

55:53

two stories hitting the headlines of late that also make

55:55

it a good news gathering spot. And

55:57

let's talk about one of those headlines. to

56:00

the Olympics, now Monocle Radio is going

56:02

to be there for two weeks for

56:04

full coverage. How has the magazine touched

56:06

on the Olympics so far? Well,

56:09

we've done a few things in the run

56:12

up to the games. We're always interested in

56:14

the crossover between sporting events

56:16

and soft power. So we've looked at

56:18

some of the athletes attending these games

56:21

and what it means for their nations

56:23

to have a sportsman or

56:25

woman competing there in

56:27

Paris. We've also been trying to look at

56:30

what the legacy will be for these games. And

56:32

not only in Paris, in the current issue we

56:34

have, we returned to Munich actually

56:36

to look at a piece of legacy

56:38

there with the athletes stadium and how it became

56:40

a place where people really want to live in

56:42

that city. So trying to touch on what legacy

56:44

will mean for Paris. And

56:46

over time we've been out of the centre, we've been

56:49

to Saint Denis to look at the

56:51

work being done there. So again, as

56:53

outsiders when we go to Paris or

56:55

any city, it's very easy to be

56:58

seduced. But when you go to the outskirts, when

57:00

you go to the Bolognese,

57:02

you see that there are many communities

57:04

that need a helping hand. And

57:06

actually there is one piece of legacy.

57:09

They're not building many buildings for the

57:11

Paris games, but they're building this amazing

57:13

aquatic centre. And in the neighbourhood

57:15

around there in Saint Denis, the hope is

57:17

that this will give people pride, it will

57:20

give people job opportunities, it will help revitalise

57:22

a space that needs it. So

57:25

beyond our editorial coverage, what

57:27

is Monocle's new physical commitment

57:29

to Paris going forward? Physical,

57:32

I think it's looked good and handsome,

57:34

hey? Sorry, that'd be my physical

57:37

commitment. It might take a little bit of effort. We've

57:40

been doing that for years already. We're

57:43

going to start, we're at the starting

57:45

point. So we have just literally cut the

57:47

ribbon on a new office, which is

57:49

just on the edge of the Marais.

57:52

And it's a compact office, but we're going to

57:54

have a bureau chief there. We're

57:56

going to have one or two of our staff here

57:58

from London who are relocated. to Paris. And

58:01

we're also going to have a commercial presence

58:03

there as well. So we'll have a nice

58:06

squad there. But we have

58:08

big ambitions for Paris and the estate

58:11

agents and the realtors of Paris are

58:13

already being called up because we

58:16

hope in the coming months to announce a much

58:18

bigger presence in the city that

58:20

will hopefully include retail, a radio studio

58:22

so we can do stuff like this

58:24

in Paris and also a space

58:27

for the cafe as well. So we

58:29

want to be there not

58:32

behind closed doors, but we want to

58:34

be there with a welcoming mat in

58:36

Paris as well, because it's worked super

58:38

well for us in Zurich at Dufourstrasse.

58:41

And there you see the kind

58:44

of the life that begins to evolve around a

58:46

great bureau. And here in London too, when you

58:48

see the cafe, the cafe

58:50

is a place to go and get a coffee. But

58:53

the number of people you bump into who have come

58:55

to see that cafe because they want

58:57

to be part of the Monaco world and they want to hear

59:00

what we're doing, see what we're doing. And

59:03

that's the ambition for Paris as well. Monaco's

59:05

Andrew Tuck there in conversation with Tom Webb.

59:07

The time here in London is 7.53 time.

59:10

Now for a quick look at film and the world

59:12

of cinema with the critic Karen Krasenovich. She joins me

59:15

in the studio now. Good morning. Welcome back, Karen. Well,

59:18

we've got a fast look at

59:21

Isabelle-Upere winning the Lumiere prize. Tell us

59:23

a little bit more about it. Just

59:25

to explain the legend of Isabelle-Upere, for

59:28

people who haven't encountered

59:30

this woman with this as

59:32

astonishing sort of canon

59:34

of brilliant French films and the American ones

59:36

too. She's now been given

59:38

the Lumiere award. Yeah, absolutely.

59:40

And she's 71, although you

59:42

wouldn't know it when I saw her in the

59:45

Catwalk red carpet, excuse me, as

59:47

a Freudian slip. She's

59:49

been working on, well, she's got

59:51

156 acting credits to

59:54

her name. She's worked with auteurs

59:56

from the French New Wave to

59:59

Asian cinema. to European

1:00:01

cinema and American independence. She's

1:00:03

a favorite of directors all over the

1:00:05

place. And the New York Times actually

1:00:07

said that she's second in

1:00:10

the list of best actors

1:00:12

of all time. It is incredible that actually when

1:00:14

you do, when you think of best

1:00:16

actors of all time, one immediately

1:00:18

gravitates towards Hollywood. Yeah, France has

1:00:20

produced Isabelle Uppah, that we still

1:00:23

have to explain who she is

1:00:25

to lots and lots of viewers.

1:00:27

Well, you will have

1:00:29

seen her, but you may

1:00:32

not have recognized her. She's known for her

1:00:34

portrayals of sort of cold women who have

1:00:36

no morality. So if you see somebody like

1:00:38

that who speaks French, one

1:00:41

of the greatest actresses of all time,

1:00:43

of course, is 16 nominations and two

1:00:46

wins. She's got César, BAFTA, Lumiere, Berlin

1:00:48

Awards, nominations at Cannes, Golden Globe,

1:00:50

and an Academy Award nomination as well. And

1:00:53

it's difficult. Everybody's got

1:00:56

their favorite Isabelle

1:00:58

Uppah movie, if you know of her.

1:01:00

She's quite petite. She's got an angular

1:01:02

face, and she also has a lot

1:01:04

of freckles. So a lot of people

1:01:06

go, oh, it's the lady with the freckles. And the

1:01:09

relevance to the Lumiere Festival in Lyon, it's a sort

1:01:11

of classic film festival, isn't it? It

1:01:15

is. I mean, since 2009,

1:01:17

they've been giving an award for a cinema

1:01:20

personality for the entire body of their work.

1:01:22

And at this point, Isabelle Uppah

1:01:24

has been, she

1:01:26

was born in 1953, and she has worked for

1:01:29

several films virtually every year of her

1:01:31

career. So it's really quite incredible.

1:01:33

But the range of what she can do is

1:01:35

what's really astonishing. Let's talk a little bit about,

1:01:38

I mean, she's not that long

1:01:40

since there was a sort of terrible incident

1:01:42

involving Singapore Airlines, and already they're making a

1:01:44

documentary about it. I mean, this is, this

1:01:47

is called, I think what was described as

1:01:49

a fast turnaround. What's all this about? Fast

1:01:51

turnaround, yeah. Well, okay. There's

1:01:54

a Singapore Airlines turbulence

1:01:56

documentary that is

1:01:58

being funded now by by several

1:02:00

different TV companies across the world,

1:02:02

Australian, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and

1:02:04

the UK, as well as in

1:02:06

Belgium and Switzerland, are

1:02:09

all adding money into this

1:02:11

documentary about the tragic turbulence

1:02:14

issue that happened in Singapore Airlines

1:02:17

in February of this year, where

1:02:20

one person died of heart attack, and

1:02:22

then there was a UK man who

1:02:24

was left with life-changing injuries from

1:02:27

this. And I think it's because there's

1:02:29

a fascination with true life

1:02:31

horror, and also the fact that turbulence

1:02:33

is supposed to be increasing now due

1:02:36

to climate change. It's interesting, I know

1:02:38

that in the Nelson household, there is

1:02:40

quite a lot of those documentaries

1:02:43

about terrible things happening in the air.

1:02:45

They seem to be a perpetual favorite

1:02:47

on the screens in our lounge. There

1:02:50

is that fascination, isn't there? Especially with things

1:02:52

like the Boeing 737-800 scandal, then

1:02:56

we have the MH17 scandal. And

1:02:59

what is always amazing is you have

1:03:01

these strange theories that are

1:03:03

posited to explain exactly what happened,

1:03:05

and then that just sort of

1:03:07

becomes dissipated in dreadful conversations over

1:03:09

dinner. It does, with the

1:03:11

Singapore Airlines, it's one of those things

1:03:13

that you hope that clear-headed and factual

1:03:15

contributors are going to be included in

1:03:17

this, rather than wild conspiracy theorists. I

1:03:19

hope with the amount of money and

1:03:21

the amount of interest it's getting, I

1:03:23

think it's going to have to be

1:03:25

quite factual. Although what I

1:03:27

suspect will happen is that the factual

1:03:30

one will come out first, sort of

1:03:32

like the Thai cave boys

1:03:34

being stuck, and also the

1:03:36

miners in South America that were stuck. We

1:03:38

waited a long time for those movies. This

1:03:40

one we're not having to wait for. So

1:03:42

I think we'll get the documentary, and then

1:03:44

we'll get a fictional version right after this.

1:03:46

And we have the glorious knowledge that everyone

1:03:48

filmed it happening as well. So the movie

1:03:50

is made immediately. I mean, that really changes

1:03:52

the way things are done there, absolutely. I

1:03:54

mean, this plane dropped 176 feet in four

1:03:56

seconds, and Bradley Richard, who's the UK man

1:03:58

who was left with six friends. and his

1:04:00

spine. I'm sure he's not going to be

1:04:02

entertained by this film, but he did say

1:04:04

it was right out of a movie. Karen

1:04:07

Krasunovich, thank you so much for joining us

1:04:09

on Monocle Radio. You're listening to The Globalist

1:04:11

and that's all the time we have for

1:04:13

today's programme. The warmest of thanks to all

1:04:15

my guests and to our producers too, Laura

1:04:17

Kramer and Tom Webb. Our research was George

1:04:19

Ruskin and our studio manager, Mariela Bevan, with

1:04:21

editing assistance from Lily Austin. After the headlines,

1:04:23

there's more music on the way. The briefing

1:04:25

is live at midday here in London. Hope

1:04:27

you can join me for that if you

1:04:30

can and The Globalist is back at the

1:04:32

same time on Monday. But for now from

1:04:34

me, Emma Nelson. Goodbye, thank you very much

1:04:36

for listening and have a great weekend. you