Henri Astier
@henriastier.bsky.social
Paris-born, London-based journalist. Main outlets: BBC, Times Literary Supplement, The Critic, Persuasion. https://henriastier.substack.com/
René Viénet — docker's son, situationist, sinologist, scourge of Mao-worshippers, filmmaker — on uncovering ancient prejudice among fellow radicals. Guest post on Out of France henriastier.substack.com/p/left-wing-...
Left-wing antisemitism: an infantile disorder
A French rebel remembers how an old hatred resurfaced among post-1968 revolutionaries
henriastier.substack.com
Hundreds of French film professionals declare war on their paymaster - then demand he keeps paying. My latest Substack piece henriastier.substack.com/p/blood-on-t... #Canalplus #Cannes2026 #ZapperBolloré
Blood on the red carpet
At the Cannes festival, the French film industry erupts into farce
henriastier.substack.com
A 30-year-old with no government experience but a huge TikTok following is the favourite to become French president within a year. My latest piece: henriastier.substack.com/p/bardellas-... #Bardella #RassemblementNational #France2027
Bardella's populism with French characteristics
Meet the banlieue boy in a dark suit knocking on the Elysée's door
henriastier.substack.com
My latest Substack on the "earthquake" agitating the small world of French publishing. For many, the firing of Grasset boss Olivier Nora by billionaire owner Vincent Bolloré signals a totalitarian threat. Really? #Grasset #Bolloré #Nora bit.ly/3OEh0hK
The media mogul and the martyr
Shockingly, a business owner fires a star employee who disagrees with him
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The late Lionel #Jospin, France's prime minister from 1997 to 2002, was hailed as a model of integrity. But his concealed Trotskyist past challenges that widely accepted image. My piece for American Purpose #France bit.ly/4sl7VrP @americanpurpose.bsky.social
Lionel Jospin: French Prime Minister, Secret Trotskyist
What his complicated legacy tells us about France.
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The 11th-century Chinese scholar Mi Fu had a habit of bowing before his favourite stone and chanting "Glorious rock, I am your slave." Roger Caillois (1913-1978) thought this was entirely reasonable. My thoughts on the eccentric French polymath and his passion for minerals t.ly/WgbFi
Roger Caillois's dreams of stone
A Paris exhibition provides a rare window onto one of France's most original authors
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Long before anyone in France had heard of Karl Popper, Roger Caillois dismissed psychoanalysis as a pseudoscience. My latest on one of the most original French writers of the 20th century (piece in French) bit.ly/40yI58l
Caillois, la psychanalyse et les rêves
Roger Caillois, un des écrivains français les plus originaux du XXe siècle, fut un des rares penseurs à récuser frontalement Freud.
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Belgium's media ethics council has rebuked an outlet for publishing JD Vance's Munich speech in 2025 verbatim without comment. The ruling: journos have a duty to shield audiences from the VP's words by correcting them first. The Belgian council just made his case for him substack.com/@henriastier...
Roger Caillois définit sa conception de la poésie par la négative/Caillois, one France's most original 20th-century minds, drew up a list of the 23 things poets should never do (text in French below) medium.com/@henri-astie...
L’art poétique selon Roger Caillois
L’un des esprits français les plus originaux du XXe siècle dit ce qu’un poète ne doit jamais faire.
medium.com
"There is no crime that cannot be condoned when 'our' side commits it," Orwell noted. He could have written that about the killing of a French nationalist in Lyon. My latest: bit.ly/3MLnYjQ #Lyon #JeuneGarde #Mélenchon #LFI #antifa #Orwell
Murder in Lyon: a study in doublethink
Killing people is wrong. Exploiting their death, apparently, is just as bad.
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"Your generosity is infinite. May I abuse it further?" - Jack Lang to Jeffrey Epstein, 2017. The French former minister and the US predator were an ideal match. My latest henriastier.substack.com/p/epsteins-b... #JackLang #Epstein #France
Epstein's best French friend
Why the flamboyant former minister Jack Lang and the disgraced financier were made for each other
henriastier.substack.com
Why has the French Revolutionary Terror inspired so few novels, plays, or films? A belated discovery of Bernanos' "Dialogues of the Carmelites" made me realise just how rare such works are. Some thoughts (in French) t.ly/e8PXo
Dialogues des Carmélites : Les sœurs et le commissaire
Pourquoi Georges Bernanos est un des rares auteurs à avoir mis en scène la Terreur
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The film "Hamnet" is full of sound and fury. But what does it signify? My take 👇 henri-astier.medium.com/film-review-...
Film review: Hamnet ★★☆☆☆
Much ado about Stratford
henri-astier.medium.com
US legal issues aside, Roberto Saviano (of Gomorrah fame) sets the record straight on Venezuela: there "criminality does not infiltrate power. The two coincide... [The Venezuelan regime] protects drugs, facilitates their transit, taxes them and uses them as a geopolitical lever." bit.ly/49xgkBd
Roberto Saviano: 'Venezuela is not a narco-state, but a state that uses drugs as an instrument for the survival of those in power'
OP-ED. Western democracies have allowed the regime to survive, enabling it to strengthen itself by becoming increasingly criminalized. Today, Venezuela acts as a hub state, exhibiting advanced forms o...
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My latest Substack post is about the best way for a public broadcaster to lose friends and alienate people henriastier.substack.com/p/how-public... #journalism #media #BBC #radiofrance
How public broadcasters perish
The BBC and its French counterparts face populist assault. Only one has the neutrality to survive it
henriastier.substack.com
Pierre Boncenne's illuminating autobiographical essay, Colombiennes, shows what it's like to be Franco-something in a country that doesn't do hyphenation. My review here: henriastier.substack.com/p/comment-pe... #France #identity
Comment peut-on être français?
A memoir by Pierre Boncenne, a French writer with Colombian ancestry, reveals uncomfortable truths about dual heritage
henriastier.substack.com
Excellent analysis of Putin's "multipolar" world, which points to the rest of Europe as the decadent enemy. This vision jibes with Trump's anarchic new world order, where everything is up for grabs as big guys cut deals and bully small ones @institutmontaigne.bsky.social bit.ly/49giV3K
Le monde multipolaire de Vladimir Poutine
par Bernard Chappedelaine
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Nicolas Sarkozy is now sitting a cell in Paris - a historic act of accountability, or a troubling sign of judicial overreach?👇 bit.ly/48IPLua #France #Sarkozy #Justice
From Élysée Palace to prison
The jailing of Nicolas Sarkozy marks a watershed in French democracy, but is this really justice?
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Experimental works by Turner are on show at a Sussex grand house he often visited. My latest travelogue: travelingue.substack.com/p/turners-un... #Turner #BritishArt @nationaltrust.org.uk
Turner's unvarnished masterpieces
An exhibition of sketches and studies shows the artist's raw genius
travelingue.substack.com
A president tasks the same PM with the same impossible job. How might it turn out? My take on Macron's endgame: henriastier.substack.com/p/macron-a-p...
Macron - a presidential tragedy
How a bold centrist project left illiberal radicals poised to take power
henriastier.substack.com
“‘…[the Nobel Peace Prize] is the ‘Lay Down Your Arms Prize’, its most distinctive content…can be summed up in one word: disarmament’.” #thisweekthosebooks via @medium.com medium.com/this-week-th...
Macron gets blamed for France's political chaos. But as I explain in @americanpurpose.bsky.social, that's mostly unfair - and misses the deeper problem www.persuasion.community/p/the-end-of... #Macron #Lecornu #CrisePolitique
The End of Macronisme
Relentless instability is destroying France’s center.
persuasion.community
On the strange fascination of a post-modern populist with Old England... Some cogent observations by Rashmee
Dr Rashmee Roshan Lall@rashmee.bsky.social · 11mo agoTrump’s reality state visit to Big Brother house in England, England www.rashmee.com/trumps-reali...
When a country seethes with discontent, is it better for prime ministers to waltz out every six months - or cling on for dear life? My thought on political stalemate on both sides of the Channel ↓ #France #Britain #Starmer #Lecornu #PoliticalCrisis henriastier.substack.com/p/france-and...
France and Britain (II): a tale of two gridlocks
A prime minister falls in France and one in the UK stumbles. Which nation's political system is more broken?
henriastier.substack.com
@henriastier.bsky.social is very clear, if a tad dispiriting, in his @Persuasion piece, about the problem with #France today: “given the current system, which incentivizes going for broke, there is no obvious way to make France governable again.” open.substack.com/pub/persuasi...
What Makes a Country Ungovernable
France is pushing the limits of its Fifth Republic constitution.
open.substack.com
Crunch time for #France and prime minister François Bayrou, so @henriastier.bsky.social offers an excellent reckoning up of the state of its crisis. Might #Britain be in even deeper trouble, in terms of public debt? open.substack.com/pub/henriast...
France and Britain: a tale of two debts
Both governments are deep in the red, but which is more broke?
open.substack.com
France has no money and is about to lose its government - but is Britain really better off? The answer in my latest Substack piece: henriastier.substack.com/p/france-and...
France and Britain: a tale of two debts
Both governments are deep in the red, but which is more broke?
henriastier.substack.com
Arctic Norway is lovely to visit, but why would anybody want to live there? The answer in my latest travelogue #norway #alta travelingue.substack.com/p/magnetic-n...
Magnetic north
Discovering why people have been drawn to Arctic Norway for 12,000 years
travelingue.substack.com
