By now, you've probably seen the film everyone is talking about. "A Star is Born" is, by most accounts, something special.
In the latest version of this archetypal story, Lady Gaga becomes an actress. Bradley Cooper becomes a director. Gaga convinces us that she has yet to achieve stardom, and Cooper becomes a grizzled country-music performer who sings and plays his own guitar.
Musicals can be trite, but this one uses each song as an opportunity to move the story forward, helped considerably by live stage performances, including a Glastonbury concert where Cooper introed for Kris Kristofferson.
It must be said, too, that the music is fantastic, with Gaga having helped write some of the songs, and Willie Nelson's son also getting in on the act. The Guardian has named "Shallow," which hit #1 on iTunes, as the defining song of 2018.
Bradley Cooper also speaks French - and quite well.
In this interview with France's Quotidien, he tells us why he never reads reviews, how he picked Lady Gaga as his leading actress three years ago after seeing her performance of Edith Piaf's "La Vie en Rose," how he convinced her to remove her make-up for the movie, and how difficult it was to pitch to Warner Brothers a movie without special effects, a director who had never directed, and an actress who had never done a movie.
He also passes a French reading test and reveals his playlist, inspired by his daughter's fondness for Russian children's songs.
Despite Cooper's insistence that more than a few Americans speak French, the interviewer and audience are palpably impressed by his abilities.