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Laura O'Brien

@lrbobrien.bsky.social
1.2K followers 349 following 75 posts

Cultural historian of France, Meathwoman, crafter, multifaceted fangirl. Thinks a lot about Napoleon in cinema/theatre; Paris; caricature. She/her.

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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Right now I am joining colleagues @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social on picket. I should be preparing for a seminar today on barricade fighting and 1848. Do you know how *hard* it is for me to not be doing this session?! That’s how much we care about this action in defence of pensions, pay, and bargaining.
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Alexa play “My Happy Place” by @divinecomedyhq.bsky.social merciiiiii
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
Saw this on the other place. Immediately thought of @onslies.bsky.social. #nuntastic
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
Extremely hot book cover klaxon! “Napoleonic Objects and their Afterlives”, edited by @matildagreig.bsky.social and Nicole Cochrane, coming on 6 February (and featuring a chapter from me on Napoleonic performance w/Albert Dieudonné as key case study). www.bloomsbury.com/uk/napoleoni...
Cover of Napoleonic Objects and their Afterlives.
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
21 January: execution of Louis XVI. “Something for crowned jugglers to ponder”, as this contemporary print warns. Mort aux tyrans, indeed…
A black and white print from 1793 depicting the decapitated head of French ex-king Louis XVI
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
My niece is going through a pear phase. “Draw one with a happy face. Okay now a sad face. Okay now a mad face.” This is proof that research *is* transferable in the most unexpected circumstances, I think. 🍐 #ifyouknowyouknow #channellingphilipon
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
If you’re among the people lucky enough to be visiting the newly reopened cathedral, and you go into the treasury, look out for a recumbent figure in white at the bottom of the large stained glass window. That’s my guy Denis, surrounded by medieval bishops and religious figures.
Photograph of stained glass window inside the Treasury of Notre Dame
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 28/12/2024
For whatever reason, RTÉ seems to show Close Encounters every year between Christmas and New Year and I’m always grateful for the opportunity to just enjoy the Truffaut/Balaban vibes.
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
I love a pre-Christmas byline, me. My review of Sebastian Smee’s “Paris in Ruins” in this week’s @thetls.bsky.social www.the-tls.co.uk/arts/visual-...
A photograph of a newspaper page
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
This excerpt in particular, absolutely nailing the bizarre narrative that’s gained common currency that republicans somehow controlled every aspect of the public imaginary.
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 07/12/2024
Thematic brooch closeup
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 07/12/2024
Local Woman Overly Excited By Cathedral; Wears Thematic Brooch On TV
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
(I then read the first couple of chapters over mushroom pasta and this lemon pie insanity at Circolo Popolare.)
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 01/03/2024
Literally just finished typing this sentence, my Pomodoro timer stopped, I check my email and they’ve released the presale tickets for the Cinémathèque Napoléon in July. The uncanny vibes remain impeccable.
Location filming in Corsica in 1926 only served to consolidate the image of Dieudonné as a kind of reincarnation or even resurrection of Napoleon Bonaparte, evoking the long-
standing supernatural aspects of the Napoleonic legend. Forty years later, the actor used conspicuously spectral terminology to describe an encounter with a lone shepherd on the Corsican scrubland while in costume and on horseback. The man seemed to "struggle to understand the presence of this revenant", Dieudonné recalled in 1964, "..the shepherd never stopped looking in my direction...and without seeking an explanation for this apparition, he saluted...a memory."
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 12/02/2024
When I tell you I literally screamed at my desk when I opened the email IT’S HAPPENING IT’S SEVEN HOURS LONG (ps I will literally fight people if I don’t get to this)
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 22/11/2023
Me on BBC Newcastle this morning. Literally. A very merry Napoleonic Specialist Christmas to all those who mark the occasion. #NapoleonMovie
An edit of the scene from Muppet Christmas Carol where Scrooge asks the bunny what day it is.
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