Eurovision

Swiss region to vote on cost of 'blasphemous' Eurovision 2025

BY AGNèS PEDRERO

  • He slammed "blasphemic performances", some verging on "the occult", decrying that this year's performance by Irish artist Bambie Thug as "almost a public form of Black Mass".
  • Basel voters will decide Sunday on whether to spend tens of millions of dollars to host the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest, with opponents decrying a "waste" of public funds for a "blasphemous" music performance. 
  • He slammed "blasphemic performances", some verging on "the occult", decrying that this year's performance by Irish artist Bambie Thug as "almost a public form of Black Mass".
Basel voters will decide Sunday on whether to spend tens of millions of dollars to host the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest, with opponents decrying a "waste" of public funds for a "blasphemous" music performance. 
If inhabitants in the northern Swiss region of Basel-Stadt block the nearly $40 million-credit needed to put on the annual TV extravaganza, "Eurovision will need to be scaled way back", Edi Estermann, head of communications for the 2025 edition, told AFP.
The event, currently planned to last around 10 days with numerous public happenings around Basel, "would be reduced to a big TV show" on a single evening, he said.
"And that would of course create far lower value for the city and for all of Switzerland."
Swiss singer Nemo's 2024 Eurovision victory in Malmo, Sweden gave Switzerland the right to host next year's event, with a huge global audience guaranteed.
Basel in August beat other Swiss cities to secure the event, but the financial demands raised objections.
Swiss voters are used to having a direct say on how taxes are spent, and some bristled at the potential costs and hassle of the Eurovision circus.
Fear of the occult -
Last month, the small, ultra-conservative, Christian fundamentalist Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland (EDU) submitted the signatures needed to push through a referendum on whether to grant the 34.96 million Swiss francs ($39.5 million) approved by regional authorities for the show.
"The first argument is financial," Philippe Karoubi, an EDU board member, told AFP. "This is a totally disproportionate public expenditure, a true waste." 
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) media alliance, which owns Eurovision, finances the contest, but deems that given the financial benefits host cities typically reap, they should help to cover security costs especially. 
Based on recent contests in Malmo, Sweden, and Liverpool, Britain, Basel hopes to make about 60 million Swiss francs from the event, in particular in tourism and hospitality.
EBU said that Malmo has since the contest in May seen "a large number of international visitors coming to the city, spending generously while there".
The problem, Karoubi said, was that public funds would be used, while the financial benefits would mainly be pocketed by private actors, like hotels. 
Besides the financial argument, he said EDU opposed financing a show that it believes has become "a vector of ideological provocations, which are clearly contrary to Western Judeo-Christian values".
He slammed "blasphemic performances", some verging on "the occult", decrying that this year's performance by Irish artist Bambie Thug as "almost a public form of Black Mass".

Dwindling options

The competition, he charged, had also become "an international platform that has been completely instrumentalised to promote ideologies" promoting things like "wokism" and trans rights. 
EDU has also decried how the contest, which is supposed to be neutral, increasingly finds itself invaded by debate over international conflicts like the Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.
The party, which states on its website that it "stands unconditionally alongside the state of Israel as the fulfilment of biblical prophecies", has also expressed shock at the "true harassment" Israeli contender Eden Golan suffered in Malmo.
Karoubi slammed the "anti-Israel and anti-Semitic demonstrations", insisting the hostility shown was "unacceptable and incompatible with the 'United by Music' spirit of the competition".
While some of EDU's warnings may appear fringe, its financial arguments could gain traction among Swiss voters who typically like to keep a tight hold on the purse strings.
But if the credit is rejected, there is little room left to maneuvre in time for the May 17, 2025 finale.
It could be moved to another Swiss city, Estermann said.
But that "would have to be carefully considered", he said.
"Preparations are already well advanced in Basel."
apo/nl/tw

Global Edition

Banana taped to a wall sells for $6.2 mn in New York

BY ANDRéA BAMBINO

  • It represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community," Sun was quoted as saying in the Sotheby's statement. 
  • A fresh banana taped to a wall -- a provocative work of conceptual art by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan -- was bought for $6.2 million on Wednesday by a cryptocurrency entrepreneur at a New York auction, Sotheby's announced in a statement.
  • It represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community," Sun was quoted as saying in the Sotheby's statement. 
A fresh banana taped to a wall -- a provocative work of conceptual art by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan -- was bought for $6.2 million on Wednesday by a cryptocurrency entrepreneur at a New York auction, Sotheby's announced in a statement.
The debut of the edible creation entitled "Comedian" at the Art Basel show in Miami Beach in 2019 sparked controversy and raised questions about whether it should be considered art -- Cattelan's stated aim. 
Chinese-born crypto founder Justin Sun on Wednesday forked over more than six million for the fruit and its single strip of silver duct tape, which went on sale for 120,000 dollars five years ago. 
"This is not just an artwork. It represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community," Sun was quoted as saying in the Sotheby's statement. 
"I believe this piece will inspire more thought and discussion in the future and will become a part of history."
The sale featured seven potential buyers and smashed expectations, with the auction house issuing a guide price of $1-1.5 million before the bidding. 
Given the shelf life of a banana, Sun is essentially buying a certificate of authenticity that the work was created by Cattelan as well as instructions about how to replace the fruit when it goes bad.
The installation auctioned on Wednesday was the third iteration -- with the first one eaten by performance artist David Datuna, who said he felt "hungry" while inspecting it at the Miami show.
Sun, who founded cryptomoney exchange Tron, said that he intended to eat his investment too.
"In the coming days, I will personally eat the banana as part of this unique artistic experience, honoring its place in both art history and popular culture," he said.

'Gone mad'

As well as his banana work, Cattelan is also known for producing an 18-carat, fully functioning gold toilet called "America" that was offered to Donald Trump during his first term in the White House.
His work is often humourous and deliberately provocative, with a 1999 sculpture of the pope stuck by a meteor titled "The Ninth Hour."
He has explained the banana work as a critical commentary on the art market, which he has criticized in the past for being speculative and failing to help artists. 
The asking price of $120,000 for "Comedian" in 2019 was seen at the time as evidence that the market was "bananas" and the art world had "gone mad," as The New York Post said in a front-page article.
The banana sold on Wednesday was bought for 35 cents from a Bangladeshi fruit seller on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, according to The New York Times. 
Sun has hit headlines in the past as an art collector and as a major player in the murky cryptocurrency world. 
He was charged last year by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for alleged market manipulation and unregistered sales of crypto assets, which he promoted with celebrity endorsements, including from Lindsay Lohan. 
In 2021, he bought Alberto Giacometti's "Le Nez" for $78.4 million, which was hailed by Sotheby's at the time as signaling "an influx of younger, tech-savvy collectors."
Global art markets have been dropping in value in recent years due to higher interest rates, as well as concern about geopolitical instability, experts say.
"Empire of Light" ("L'Empire des lumieres"), a painting by Rene Magritte, shattered an auction record for the surrealist artist on Tuesday, however, selling for more than $121 million at Christie's in New York.
arb-adp/jgc

health

K-drama for mental health? Binge on, one expert says

BY CAT BARTON AND HIEUN SHIN

  • - The idea that a K-drama binge can help with mental health may seem far-fetched, but it chimes with decades-old psychotherapy ideas, one expert said.
  • If you've ever binge-watched an entire season of a K-drama like "Squid Game" or "Crash Landing On You", one Korean-American expert has good news: it's likely improved your mental health.
  • - The idea that a K-drama binge can help with mental health may seem far-fetched, but it chimes with decades-old psychotherapy ideas, one expert said.
If you've ever binge-watched an entire season of a K-drama like "Squid Game" or "Crash Landing On You", one Korean-American expert has good news: it's likely improved your mental health.
High production values, top-notch acting and attractive stars have helped propel South Korean TV shows to the top of global viewership charts, but therapist Jeanie Chang, says there are deeper reasons so many people are hooked.
With soap-like plotlines that tackle everything from earth-shattering grief to the joy of new love, watching K-dramas can help people reconnect with their own emotions or process trauma, she says, giving the shows a healing power that transcends their cultural context.
"We all have family pressures and expectations, conflict, trauma, hope," she said, adding that watching heavy topics being successfully managed on screen can change people's ability to navigate real-world challenges.
For Chang, who was born in Seoul but raised in the United States, K-drama was particularly helpful in allowing her to reconnect with her roots -- which she rejected as a child desperate to assimilate.
But "the messages in Korean dramas are universal," Chang said.
"Mental health is how you're feeling, how you relate to others, psychologically, how your brain has been impacted by things. That's mental health. We see that in a Korean drama."

'Soften my heart'

Global K-drama viewership has exploded in the last few years, industry data shows, with many overseas viewers, especially in major markets like the United States, turning to Korean content during the pandemic. 
Between 2019 and 2022, viewership of Korean television and movies increased six-fold on Netflix, its data showed, and Korean series are now the most watched non-English content on the platform.
American schoolteacher Jeanie Barry discovered K-drama via a family funeral, when a friend recommended a series -- 2020's "It's Okay to Not Be Okay" -- she thought could help her after a difficult time.
"There was something about it, the way that this culture deal with trauma, mental depression, just really struck a chord for me," Barry, who had travelled to South Korea as part of a K-drama tour organised by therapist Chang, told AFP.
"I started to grieve when I had not been. It was a lot of tears during that drama, but it also made me see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel," she said.
Immediately hooked, Barry said she had watched 114 K-dramas since discovering the genre, and effectively given up watching English-language television.
"They let me soften my heart," she said.
Fellow tour member and American Erin McCoy said she had struggled with depression since she was a teenager, but K-drama helped her manage her symptoms.
With depression, "when you live with it that long, you're just numb and so you don't really feel bad necessarily but you don't ever feel good either," she said.
"You just don't feel anything," she said, adding that K-drama allowed her to experience emotions again.
"There're so many highs and lows in every one of them, and as I felt the characters' emotions, it just helped me relate to my own more," she said.
"I feel like I was able to express and experience emotion again." 

 'Art therapy'?

The idea that a K-drama binge can help with mental health may seem far-fetched, but it chimes with decades-old psychotherapy ideas, one expert said.
"Watching Korean dramas can be beneficial for anxiety and depression from the viewpoint of art therapy," Im Su-geun, head of a psychiatry clinic in Seoul, told AFP.
First used in the 1940s, art therapy initially involved patients drawing, but evolved to incorporate other artistic activities.
"Visual media like Korean dramas have significant strengths that align well with psychotherapy," he said. 
K-drama -- or television and cinema generally -- can help viewers "gain insights into situations from a new perspective, fostering healthy values and providing solutions to their issues," he said.
It is unlikely to be prescribed by a doctor, he said, but if a therapist were to recommend a specific drama that related to the patient's case, it could be helpful.
For example, it can provide a roadmap for patients "facing specific situations, such as breakups or loss," he said.
ceb-hs/sn/cwl

tourism

Screen to reality: South Korea targets K-pop, K-drama tourism boom

BY HIEUN SHIN AND CAT BARTON

  • Preserved from the set of popular 2018 historical series "Mr Sunshine", the location in Nonsan, 170 kilometres (106 miles) from Seoul, is replete with painstaking replicas of everything from a turn-of-the-century tram to South Korea's most famous Buddhist bell.
  • Deep in South Korea's hinterlands lies a perfect replica of 1900s Seoul: welcome to Sunshine Land, the latest K-drama theme park to cash in on booming K-culture tourism.
  • Preserved from the set of popular 2018 historical series "Mr Sunshine", the location in Nonsan, 170 kilometres (106 miles) from Seoul, is replete with painstaking replicas of everything from a turn-of-the-century tram to South Korea's most famous Buddhist bell.
Deep in South Korea's hinterlands lies a perfect replica of 1900s Seoul: welcome to Sunshine Land, the latest K-drama theme park to cash in on booming K-culture tourism.
Fans of K-pop mega group BTS have long flocked to the South to see sites associated with the boy band, from the dorms where they slept as trainees to recent music video shoot locations.
But as the popularity of South Korean drama has soared overseas -- it is the most-viewed non-English content on Netflix, the platform's data shows -- more and more tourists are planning trips around their favourite shows.
The idea that foreign tourists would pay good money and drive hundreds of miles out of the capital Seoul to see a K-drama set seemed "crazy" to tour guide Sophy Yoon -- until she saw one of her guests break down in tears at Sunshine Land.
"At that moment, it hit me: For me, it was just a studio, but for them, it was something much more," she said.
Preserved from the set of popular 2018 historical series "Mr Sunshine", the location in Nonsan, 170 kilometres (106 miles) from Seoul, is replete with painstaking replicas of everything from a turn-of-the-century tram to South Korea's most famous Buddhist bell.
"It's like when we go to the Spanish steps in Rome where Audrey Hepburn had ice cream," Yoon said, referring to the 1953 classic movie "Roman Holiday".
For South Korea's growing number of K-drama tourists, "every door, every wall has a meaning from a drama that impacted their lives".
"I get a lot more requests for specific 'K-drama tours' now," she said.

'Felt right'

The rise of South Korea as a global cultural powerhouse "has contributed to the appeal of Korean tourism," said Kwak Jae-yeon, the Hallyu content team director at the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO).
South Korea welcomed 1.4 million tourists in September, up 33 percent year-on-year and the highest since the pandemic, with more than a third saying they had decided to come "after being exposed to Korean Wave content", according to a 2023 KTO poll.
In Seoul's central Jongno district, tourists like Sookariyapa Kakij are typical. Wearing a hanbok, traditional Korean dress, the 40-year-old had travelled from Thailand specifically to see where her favourite dramas were filmed. 
"I want to find locations where 'Itaewon Class' was shot," she told AFP, referring to the popular 2020 drama, filmed largely on location in its namesake district of Seoul.
Jennifer Zelinski told AFP she had never left the United States before, but after she discovered K-drama -- through the 2019 series "Crash Landing on You" -- while stuck at home during the pandemic, she decided to visit South Korea.
"I binged the whole show in a week. I barely slept and went through two whole boxes of tissues," she said. 
This "snowballed" into her watching more and more K-drama, Korean variety shows and listening to K-pop, she said, until finally she "felt like I really wanted to see it in person".
"My family and friends were shocked when I said I was travelling to Korea and on my own," said Zelinski, but for her "it just felt right."

Beyond Seoul

The travel industry is racing to catch up: one South Korean tour company on the travel platform Klook said interest in its BTS day tour has "skyrocketed" recently, and they were "completely booked until next February." 
"We are planning to add additional tours for other K-pop idol groups, including Seventeen and NCT 127," they said.
But most of this new type of tourism is concentrated in Seoul, Jeong Ji-youn, a Kyungpook National University professor, told AFP.
Tourism in rural areas has tended to focus on more traditional Korean experiences, which is not interesting to younger travellers eager to explore the land of K-pop and K-drama.
"There is a need to develop more tourism resources related to contemporary culture that allow people to experience hallyu outside of Seoul," she said.
The port city of Pohang is better known for shipbuilding and steel plants than tourism, but Emma Brown, 30, from Scotland, travelled more than 8,800 kilometres (5,468 miles) to see it because of "When the Camellia Blooms".
The 2019 romance series "changed my life", she told AFP, adding that she felt she "had to feel the drama in person."
"I just couldn't miss the opportunity to visit Pohang when I was already in South Korea," she added.
hs/ceb/sn/lb

music

Lady Gaga, Green Day, Post Malone to headline Coachella 2025

  • The line-up reveal came months earlier than usual, one day after Post Malone slipped in his own tour schedule release that he'd be playing concerts during the anticipated festival dates in Indio.
  • Lady Gaga, Green Day and Post Malone will headline 2025's Coachella music and arts festival, organizers said Wednesday, while Travis Scott will play a special guest slot.
  • The line-up reveal came months earlier than usual, one day after Post Malone slipped in his own tour schedule release that he'd be playing concerts during the anticipated festival dates in Indio.
Lady Gaga, Green Day and Post Malone will headline 2025's Coachella music and arts festival, organizers said Wednesday, while Travis Scott will play a special guest slot.
Missy Elliott, Charli XCX and Megan Thee Stallion will also feature at the major event in the California desert that kicks off the music festival circuit.
Coachella takes place over two three-day weekends in the spring, this year April 11-13 and 18-20.
The line-up reveal came months earlier than usual, one day after Post Malone slipped in his own tour schedule release that he'd be playing concerts during the anticipated festival dates in Indio.
Scott's performance will come four years after he was slated to headline the 2020 festival, which was ultimately scrapped due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
South Africa's Tyla will perform at the 2025 edition after pulling out last year due to an injury.
Other acts of interest include famed conductor Gustavo Dudamel along with the LA Philharmonic, along with a return to the desert for Brazil's Anitta and electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk.
Last year's festival was headlined by Lana Del Rey, Doja Cat and Tyler, the Creator. It also featured a special reunion performance from No Doubt.
Taylor Swift was also an overwhelming presence at the grounds flanked by the San Jacinto Mountains in 2024 -- although as a spectator, not a performer.
mdo/nro

music

One Direction stars attend Liam Payne's funeral in UK

BY AKSHATA KAPOOR

  • He died from "multiple traumas" and "internal and external haemorrhaging" after the fall from the hotel room, a post-mortem examination found.
  • Family and friends of One Direction star Liam Payne, who died last month after falling from a Buenos Aires hotel room, gathered for his funeral in Britain on Wednesday.
  • He died from "multiple traumas" and "internal and external haemorrhaging" after the fall from the hotel room, a post-mortem examination found.
Family and friends of One Direction star Liam Payne, who died last month after falling from a Buenos Aires hotel room, gathered for his funeral in Britain on Wednesday.
Payne's former bandmates Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson were among the dozens of mourners at the private service at St Mary's Church in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, just outside London. 
Payne's tearful parents were joined by his two sisters, his girlfriend Kate Cassidy and former partner Cheryl Tweedy, with whom he has a son.
Around a dozen fans watched from behind a nearby cordon as guests hugged each other before walking past floral tributes into the 12th-century church to pay their final respects.
"Because his death was such a public death, to have the funeral in a private way... I think it was very nice," said onlooker Sheila Morris, a 65-year-old from Amersham. 
"It's a beautiful church... it's a very beautiful place for a funeral," she said.
Payne's coffin arrived in a white horse-drawn hearse topped with floral tributes spelling the words "Son" and "Daddy", followed by his parents.
Payne was found dead on October 16 after falling from the balcony of his third-floor room at the Casa Sur Hotel in the Argentinian capital.
His death, at 31, prompted a global outpouring of grief from family, former bandmates and fans, with thousands gathering in cities around the world to offer condolences.

'Completely devastated'

Payne shot to stardom as a teenager alongside Styles, Horan, Tomlinson and Malik after their appearance on the UK talent show "The X Factor" 14 years ago.
He died from "multiple traumas" and "internal and external haemorrhaging" after the fall from the hotel room, a post-mortem examination found.
The balcony attached to his room overlooked a rear patio that was about 14 meters (45 feet) high. 
Hotel staff had called emergency services twice to report a guest "overwhelmed by drugs and alcohol" who was "destroying" a hotel room.
Investigators have said he was alone at the time and appeared to have been "going through an episode of substance abuse".
In a short statement following his death, Payne's family said: "We are heartbroken. Liam will forever live in our hearts and we'll remember him for his kind, funny and brave soul."
One Direction said they had been "completely devastated" by his death.
After forming in 2010, the band went on to release an album of radio-ready songs each year in time for the holiday shopping season and became one of the highest-grossing live acts in the world.
In 2016, after Malik left, the group said it was on an indefinite hiatus but not splitting up.
Payne's first solo single "Strip That Down" peaked at number three on the UK charts and number 10 on the US Billboard top songs list.
But in recent years he had spoken publicly about struggles with substance abuse and coping with fame from an early age.
His last solo work, the single "Teardrops", was released in March, with a second album announced at the time.
Payne was born and raised in Wolverhampton, central England.
aks-pdh/jwp/js

trial

French comedian faces victims of drug-fuelled car crash

BY ALEXANDRE MARCHAND AND MARYAM EL HAMOUCHI

  • He said would "ask forgiveness from the very depths of his being" for the crash, which happened after he engaged in a three-day chemsex party without sleep.
  • A French comedian on Wednesday asked forgiveness in court from the victims he maimed in a car crash he caused while on drugs after a chemsex party, before being handed a five-year prison sentence, with a minimum of two years behind bars.
  • He said would "ask forgiveness from the very depths of his being" for the crash, which happened after he engaged in a three-day chemsex party without sleep.
A French comedian on Wednesday asked forgiveness in court from the victims he maimed in a car crash he caused while on drugs after a chemsex party, before being handed a five-year prison sentence, with a minimum of two years behind bars.
The case of Pierre Palmade, a 56-year-old star of French films and stage plays, caused a media frenzy in his home country over his risky lifestyle as well as the rights of unborn children.
Palmade tested positive for cocaine and a synthetic drug in February 2023 after he crashed into a car driven by a 38-year-old man.
The stricken vehicle was also carrying the driver's six-year-old son and pregnant sister-in-law, both of whom were left fighting for their lives.
The woman's unborn daughter, whom she has named Solin, could not be saved after an emergency caesarean section.
"It's very difficult for me to appear today in this courtroom. I've had to do a lot of work with my psychiatrist," the woman, who worked with disabled school pupils, told the court in Melun south of Paris.
The court in Melun, southeast of Paris and near the site of the crash, sentenced him late Wednesday.
"One cannot be too lenient when driving under the influence of drugs has caused a tragedy," state prosecutor Marie-Denise Pichonnier told the court in requesting the five-year sentence.

Chemsex party

Palmade, snared in addiction for years since his glory days in the 1990s and 2000s, told the court he was "overwhelmed" by the victims' testimony about the harm they had suffered.
He said would "ask forgiveness from the very depths of his being" for the crash, which happened after he engaged in a three-day chemsex party without sleep.
"We were really like zombies, vegetables, naked and streaked with blood," Palmade told the judges.
The comedian had faced up to 14 years in prison and a fine of 200,000 euros ($211,000) on charges of causing serious injury.
But he was not charged with homicide, as requested by the victims' lawyers, as the lost baby never lived independently outside the womb.
That failed to meet a legal standard set by France's Court of Cassation, the country's highest for civil and criminal cases.
"I expect this jurisprudence to change and for Solin to be the key that unlocks this change," the female victim told the court.
Her lawyer Mourad Battikh said that better protecting unborn babies in such cases would not put women's right to secure an abortion at risk.
Yuksel Yakut, the man who was driving the other car, appeared in court leaning on a crutch with his arm in a sling, sitting only with difficulty.
"I will never be able to get back to the way I was before," he said, speaking in Turkish through an interpreter, describing injuries to his intestines, liver and hips.
His son, whose jaw was deformed in the accident, "doesn't want to go out with his friends and had to repeat the year at school," Yakut added, describing how the boy had been bullied over the way he now looks.
meh-amd/tgb/js/gv

film

Gl-icked? Movie theaters pin hopes on big 'Wicked,' 'Gladiator' weekend

BY ANDREW MARSZAL

  • The first five months of the year were hampered by a thin release schedule, stemming from the production delays caused by Hollywood strikes and Covid.
  • US movie theaters are hoping the lightning-in-a-bottle magic of last year's "Barbenheimer" phenomenon can strike again this weekend, with the simultaneous release of two of 2024's most hyped films: "Wicked" and "Gladiator II." "Wicked" is the movie adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, starring pop sensation Ariana Grande, while "Gladiator II" marks Ridley Scott's return to ancient Rome, 24 years after his epic original won the best picture Oscar.
  • The first five months of the year were hampered by a thin release schedule, stemming from the production delays caused by Hollywood strikes and Covid.
US movie theaters are hoping the lightning-in-a-bottle magic of last year's "Barbenheimer" phenomenon can strike again this weekend, with the simultaneous release of two of 2024's most hyped films: "Wicked" and "Gladiator II."
"Wicked" is the movie adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, starring pop sensation Ariana Grande, while "Gladiator II" marks Ridley Scott's return to ancient Rome, 24 years after his epic original won the best picture Oscar.
Whether audiences will embrace the tongue-in-cheek "Glicked" (or "Wickiator") memes being hopefully circulated by marketing departments -- or even dress up in witch hats and togas -- remains to be seen.
But cinema lobbies and shopping malls across the country are being daubed in the pink-and-green shades of the "Wicked" witches, and kitted out with cardboard miniature Colosseums, ahead of a period that analysts say will be crucial for the industry.
"I am certain that this is going to be the biggest Thanksgiving the industry has ever seen," said Jordan Hohman, an executive at Phoenix Theatres.
"Wicked" alone is "the biggest opening film in terms of advance sale tickets" in the US chain's 24-year history, currently pacing 63 percent ahead of "Barbie," added president Cory Jacobson. 
While rival Hollywood studios have traditionally been wary of launching two major films on the same weekend, the record-breaking summer of 2023 showed it can be mutually beneficial -- with the right movies.
Like "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer," the female-skewing "Wicked" and male-focussed "Gladiator II" are "oriented to different audiences," said analyst David A. Gross, of Franchise Entertainment Research.
"Wicked" has inspired promotional tie-ins like a makeup line and a cupcake kit, while "Gladiator" ads have been ubiquitous during NFL telecasts.
"There is zero issue in terms of stepping on each other's feet," said Gross. 
Still, matching the heady heights of "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" will be a tough ask. Those films took $245 million combined on their opening weekend in North America alone.
"Barbenheimer was an example of two films massively over-performing... an unexpected best-case scenario," cautioned Daniel Lora, senior VP of content strategy for Boxoffice Media.
But part of the industry's current bullishness comes from another massive film, Disney's "Moana 2," which will join "Wicked" and "Gladiator II" in multiplexes just a week later.
"I don't think this is a two-picture experience. I think it's a three-picture experience," said Jacobson.

Marketing blitz

Should the next few weeks live up to hopes, it will come at a much-needed time for Hollywood.
Despite a profitable summer featuring hit sequels like "Inside Out 2" and "Deadpool & Wolverine," 2024 has been a mixed bag for an industry still dreaming of a return to pre-pandemic numbers.
The first five months of the year were hampered by a thin release schedule, stemming from the production delays caused by Hollywood strikes and Covid.
The fall has also been a disappointment, with box office dud "Joker: Folie A Deux" foremost among a series of flops and middling releases. 
But the early signs for this weekend look promising.
"Gladiator II" opened in dozens of other countries last week, taking a whopping $87 million overseas. Paramount will be hoping for similar numbers in the US this weekend.
"Wicked," from Universal, the studio behind "Oppenheimer," is predicted to take north of $100 million this weekend in North America alone.
Both movies have benefited from long, expensive marketing campaigns.
At a major Las Vegas movie theater convention in April, Paramount began their annual presentation with an executive riding into the Caesars Palace arena on a chariot flanked by Roman soldiers.
Universal's presentation ended with thousands of plastic flowers held aloft by audience members to create a giant green-and-pink "Wicked" themed electronic lightshow. 
Eight months later, both studios will learn if those strategies have converted into ticket sales.
"When something really catches fire, and it's not just a marketing campaign flogging it, honestly it can just take off and go higher than anybody can predict," said Gross.
"So let's see what happens."
amz/hg/dw

entertainment

'Rust' premieres three years after on-set shooting death

BY ANNA MARIA JAKUBEK

  • The "Rust" premiere is not the only controversy at the festival, whose jury head this year is Oscar winner Cate Blanchett.
  • The Western "Rust" got its world premiere on Wednesday at a Polish film festival, three years after its cinematographer was killed in an on-set shooting.
  • The "Rust" premiere is not the only controversy at the festival, whose jury head this year is Oscar winner Cate Blanchett.
The Western "Rust" got its world premiere on Wednesday at a Polish film festival, three years after its cinematographer was killed in an on-set shooting.
Hollywood star Alec Baldwin was accused of violating gun safety rules in the 2021 death of Halyna Hutchins, but his involuntary manslaughter trial collapsed earlier this year.
Hutchins's mother refused to attend the premiere "when there is still no justice for my daughter".
"Baldwin continues to increase my pain with his refusal to apologise to me and take responsibility for her death," Olga Solovey said Tuesday. 
Director Joel Souza, who was wounded in the shooting, introduced the movie at the Camerimage film festival -- known for celebrating cinematography -- in Torun, northern Poland.
He told AFP the "massive devastation" of the shooting had left him an emotional wreck.
"'Rust' just became this sort of insane hurricane," he said. "You're just left to sort of pick up the pieces." 
The filmmaker had been "on the fence" about completing the movie.
"There was a time when I thought I just didn't want to make movies anymore," he said.
But what convinced him to finish it was learning that Hutchins's husband wanted her final work to be seen.
Camerimage said it was Hutchins's "dream" to have her work shown at the festival. 
The premiere was preceded by a minute of silence for Hutchins, whom Souza described as "a real joy to know" and "someone who spoke Westerns very well".

'Unsettling' parallel

Baldwin, 66, did not attend the festival.
The Emmy-winning actor was holding a revolver during a rehearsal on set in New Mexico when a live round was fired, fatally wounding 42-year-old Hutchins.
In a tragic irony, the film centres on an accidental killing -- a parallel that Souza called "unsettling". 
"It's a strange one to unpack. When people hear about it, they generally fall silent for a few moments because they can't believe" it, he said. 
Souza and Baldwin developed the script from Souza's research on the youngest person ever to be hanged in the Old West.
"Rust" tells the story of an outlaw who rides to rescue his 13-year-old grandson from execution for an accident being treated as murder.
The film's armourer, Hannah Gutierrez, was sentenced to 18 months in prison after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter for accidentally loading Baldwin's prop gun with a live round.
Baldwin's trial collapsed in July when it emerged that prosecutors had not turned over a batch of bullets that detectives had found during their investigation.
Filming was completed last year in Montana.
Cinematographer Bianca Cline, who took over from Hutchins, said her job involved just "copying what she did", including by using the same lenses and matching the lighting. 
She said they tried to retain as many of Hutchins's frames as possible.

'Authentic'

Visually dark, the movie frequently shows characters in silhouette or with their faces partly in shadow. The shaky camera gives the Western a rough feel. 
In addition to violence of all kinds -- gunfights, beatings, brawls in the mud -- another motif is the grandson's longing for his late mother.
When his younger brother asks what she looked like, he says: "I can't remember". 
Film school student Michal Wozny, who attended the screening, said he thought of Hutchins and her now motherless son during those scenes. 
"Not only do you watch a movie and feel for the characters, but you're also aware of what happened in real life and all the feelings there," the 24-year-old told AFP.
He called the movie "beautiful and authentic". 
Hutchins, a former journalist from Ukraine who grew up on a Soviet military base, had been named one of the industry's rising stars in 2019 by American Cinematographer magazine.
While the tragedy prompted some calls for banning firearms from sets altogether, new Hollywood guidelines now specify that only an armourer can hand a weapon to an actor.
Prosecutors said Baldwin was handed the gun on set by the film's first assistant director, who later pleaded guilty to negligent use of a deadly weapon.
Souza said "the safety bulletin doesn't go quite far enough. I think they should mandate that no real weapons be used". 
The "Rust" premiere is not the only controversy at the festival, whose jury head this year is Oscar winner Cate Blanchett.
French director Coralie Fargeat pulled her movie starring Demi Moore, "The Substance" -- which won best screenplay at Cannes --  "after discovering the highly misogynistic and offensive words" of festival founder Marek Zydowicz.
Zydowicz appeared to suggest that including more women cinematographers might lead to "mediocre film production" in the line-up. He later apologised.
amj/mmp/sbk

Arts and Entertainment

Star K-pop producer of NewJeans quits after legal spat with BTS agency

  • The move sparked a sprawling legal and PR battle, with Min accusing HYBE of copying her star-making formula for a competing girl band, which has seen the boardroom workings of K-pop hashed out in South Korean courts.
  • The South Korean superproducer behind the chart-topping girl band NewJeans resigned from her label Wednesday, following a protracted legal battle with BTS's agency HYBE that has rocked the country's K-pop industry.
  • The move sparked a sprawling legal and PR battle, with Min accusing HYBE of copying her star-making formula for a competing girl band, which has seen the boardroom workings of K-pop hashed out in South Korean courts.
The South Korean superproducer behind the chart-topping girl band NewJeans resigned from her label Wednesday, following a protracted legal battle with BTS's agency HYBE that has rocked the country's K-pop industry.
Min Hee-jin announced her departure in a statement following what she called a "hellish dispute with HYBE" and vowed legal action against the company. 
The saga began in April, when HYBE launched an audit of subsidiary ADOR -- NewJeans' label -- and attempted to push Min out, accusing her of breach of trust.
The move sparked a sprawling legal and PR battle, with Min accusing HYBE of copying her star-making formula for a competing girl band, which has seen the boardroom workings of K-pop hashed out in South Korean courts.
Min slammed HYBE's action against her as a "witch hunt" in a statement Wednesday, saying she would take "necessary legal actions" against the company and individuals over the dispute.
She added that she would embark on "new K-pop journey" in future.
Min, who joined the industry in the early 2000s, is widely regarded as one of the most successful producers in K-pop, having worked with stars such as Girls' Generation, EXO and SHINee.
NewJeans, a K-pop phenomenon that made its debut in 2022 and whose members are all under 20, is among HYBE's most successful K-pop groups along with BTS.
It has topped global charts, including the Billboard 200, and broke the Guinness World Record last year for "Fastest K-pop act to reach 1 billion streams on Spotify".
The members of NewJeans have publicly shown full support for Min and demanded that she be reinstated as ADOR's CEO at a livestream in September.
The girl group also sent a formal legal notice to HYBE last week, demanding six specific actions, including reinstating Min, and warning that failure to meet them could lead to the termination of their exclusive contracts.
ADOR said in a statement Wednesday that it was "regrettable that Min unilaterally notified us of her resignation". 
"ADOR will continue to provide our fullest support to NewJeans to help them grow and thrive even further," it said.
hs/ceb/dhc

auction

Magritte painting nets auction record of $121 million

  • After a nearly 10-minute bidding war on Tuesday, "Empire of Light" ("L'Empire des lumieres") was sold for $121,160,000, "achieving a world-record price for the artist and for a surrealist work of art at auction", according to auction house Christie's.
  • A painting by Rene Magritte shattered an auction record for the surrealist artist on Tuesday, selling for more than $121 million at Christie's in New York.
  • After a nearly 10-minute bidding war on Tuesday, "Empire of Light" ("L'Empire des lumieres") was sold for $121,160,000, "achieving a world-record price for the artist and for a surrealist work of art at auction", according to auction house Christie's.
A painting by Rene Magritte shattered an auction record for the surrealist artist on Tuesday, selling for more than $121 million at Christie's in New York.
The seminal 1954 painting had been valued at $95 million, and the previous record for a work by Magritte (1898-1967) was $79 million, set in 2022.
After a nearly 10-minute bidding war on Tuesday, "Empire of Light" ("L'Empire des lumieres") was sold for $121,160,000, "achieving a world-record price for the artist and for a surrealist work of art at auction", according to auction house Christie's.
The painting -- depicting a house at night, illuminated by a lamp post, while under a bright, blue sky -- is one of a series by the Belgian artist showing the interplay of shadow and light.
"Empire of Light" was part of the private collection of Mica Ertegun, an interior designer who fled communist Romania to settle in the United States where she became an influential figure in the arts world.
She died in late 2023 and was married to the late Ahmet Ertegun, the music magnate who founded the Atlantic Records label.
The sale of the Magritte painting was an expected highlight of this week's autumn sales season in New York, at a time when the art market has seen a slowdown since last year.
Christie's -- which is controlled by Artemis, the investment holding company owned by the Pinault family -- said sales totaled $2.1 billion in the first half of this year.
That is down for the second straight year, after a peak of $4.1 billion in 2022 as the world emerged from the coronavirus pandemic.
During the same Christie's auction on Tuesday, a celebrated 1964 painting of a gas station by 86-year-old Ed Ruscha, titled "Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half," sold for $68.26 million, setting a new auction record for the American pop artist.
arb/pno/sco/rsc

film

Lights, action, melodrama! Silent films get new reel at London haven

BY HELEN ROWE

  • Only a small proportion of silent movies have survived.
  • The black and white silent movie flickered into life as the pianist started up with a dramatic flourish.
  • Only a small proportion of silent movies have survived.
The black and white silent movie flickered into life as the pianist started up with a dramatic flourish. Cue the latest exploits of daring master criminal "Three-Fingered Kate".
The head of a gang behind a string of audacious robberies, Kate -- who is missing the last two digits of her right hand -- always manages to outwit her rival, Sheerluck Finch, aka fictional detective Sherlock Holmes.
Nearly a century after the first "talkies" displaced silent movies for good, a society of London cinephiles still gather regularly to celebrate these largely forgotten works from the dawn of cinema.
The Kennington Bioscope searches out rare films from the era -- many not seen for many decades -- and screens them with live improvised accompaniment on the piano, just as they would have been a century ago.
In a curious twist, the cavernous venue where the Bioscope meets -- now home to London's Cinema Museum -- was formerly the chapel of the 19th-century south London workhouse to which a young Charlie Chaplin was sent.
"It's an amazing synchronicity," silent film devotee Alex Kirstukas, 32, told AFP.
Chaplin, the legendary British comic actor and director, grew up in poverty nearby before beginning his career in the silent era.
Along with his struggling theatre hall artiste mother and elder brother, he was sent to the workhouse -- grim institutions for the destitute -- twice before the age of nine.
Now a cornucopia of film memorabilia, the building is crammed with vintage projectors, publicity posters and other pieces of cinematic history.

'Glamour'

Bioscope regular Kirstukas said "bringing together rarities" in a place where "decades and decades" of film history had been assembled made it a one off.
"There is such a strange charm and uniqueness to the place," the American postgraduate film student said, adding that he had been in love with silent movies since discovering them as a child.
"It's a different world, a different type of story-telling with an incredible variety and imagination to it," he said.
The Bioscope's Michelle Facey said she was initially attracted by the "glamour" of the silent movie stars.
But she soon realised just how important the films were, both in their own right and for their influence on later film-makers.
"They were innovating all the time because it was early film and it's still a quarter of all film history that is in this silent film period," she said.
"If you watch 'The Trial' by Orson Welles there's an overhead shot of a huge space with all these desks in it.
"When I saw King Vidor's 'The Crowd' from 1928 there was that shot -- that's where he got it from. It's so interesting to see the clear line between these things," she added.
The silent movie era is generally considered to have begun in 1894. By the early 1930s it had had its day.
The first feature-length sound film "The Jazz Singer" was released in 1927, kickstarting the total transformation of the industry.

Lost movies

The "Three-Fingered Kate" short film -- "Kate Purloins The Wedding Presents" -- was a classic Bioscope find.
Kate, played by French actress Ivy Martinek, and her gang of fellow reprobates tunnel through a fireplace to swipe gifts from a neighbouring house.
Martinek starred in dozens of films made by the British and Colonial film company, including the series of seven "Kate" crime capers made between 1909 and 1912, only one of which survives.
As a convention-flouting "gang leader", her appeal lay very much in not being a "goodie", according to Ian Christie, professor of film and media history at Birkbeck College University of London.
But despite her star status, Martinek and other silent movie stars remain "shadowy" figures due to the loss of so much of their work.
Only a small proportion of silent movies have survived.
For British movies in particular there is a "great gap" between 1906 and the early 1920s, said Christie, making the work of groups like the Kennington Bioscope to find and show long lost gems all the more important.
The small gatherings of several dozen dedicated silent movie lovers are a world away from the heyday of silent films.
In the early 20th century huge crowds flocked to cinemas to see their favourite stars.
With few of the films these cinema-goers enjoyed still in existence, the search goes in dusty archives and private collections.
"Until recently I despaired of ever seeing any of 'Three Fingered Kate'," Christie said. Sometimes "no sooner do you find something and it disappears again", he added.
har/phz/fg

manga

Japan's manga powerhouse 'Dragon Ball' turns 40

  • Films, video games and other spin-offs followed as the franchise grew into a global phenomenon.
  • "Dragon Ball" fans on Wednesday celebrated 40 years of the globally beloved Japanese manga, anime and video game franchise, just months after creator Akira Toriyama's unexpected death.
  • Films, video games and other spin-offs followed as the franchise grew into a global phenomenon.
"Dragon Ball" fans on Wednesday celebrated 40 years of the globally beloved Japanese manga, anime and video game franchise, just months after creator Akira Toriyama's unexpected death.
The original "Dragon Ball" manga was first serialised on November 20, 1984, featuring a boy named Son Goku who collects magical balls containing dragons to help protect the Earth.
The comic books have since sold more than 260 million copies in Japan and worldwide, according to publisher Shueisha.
Toriyama died aged 68 in March because of a blood clot on his brain, sparking an outpouring of grief from fans, including tributes from world leaders.
The first part of the manga series was turned into an anime for TV also called "Dragon Ball" from 1986. Dubbed in different languages, the show captured children's hearts with its madcap battles.
"Dragon Ball Z", an adaptation of the later part of the manga, took the series' popularity to even greater heights.
Films, video games and other spin-offs followed as the franchise grew into a global phenomenon.
"Happy birthday to Goku and all his friends. And eternal farewell to Akira Toriyama," anime fan account Catsuka said on its X page, which boasts more than 230,000 followers.
The franchise is particularly popular in Latin America, and several tributes appeared in Spanish on Instagram, including from a Mexican newspaper.
"It's a seminal work that celebrates victory gained through friendship and hard work. I think the simplicity of the story has been an important factor in the series' success," 19-year-old student Tsutomu Tanaka told AFP in Tokyo.
The latest anime series in the franchise, "Dragon Ball Daima", began airing last month, and Saudi Arabia has announced it will build the world's first "Dragon Ball" theme park.
"The commercial machine is already there" for "Dragon Ball", said journalist and anime expert Tadashi Sudo.
But while the popularity of the franchise is secure in the short-term, "the challenge remains whether it can maintain its creativity without Toriyama".
mac-kaf/cwl

Rembrandt

'Operation Night Watch': Rembrandt classic gets makeover

BY JAN HENNOP

  • "But it's such delicate work and it's a amazing to witness the restoration process which will still take years," she told AFP. Removing old varnish from The Night Watch's surface is the third stage in a research and conservation project that started five years ago.
  • Shielded from the public by glass panels and staring intently through microscopes, a team of specialists has started work restoring Rembrandt's The Night Watch, one of the most iconic paintings of the Dutch golden age.
  • "But it's such delicate work and it's a amazing to witness the restoration process which will still take years," she told AFP. Removing old varnish from The Night Watch's surface is the third stage in a research and conservation project that started five years ago.
Shielded from the public by glass panels and staring intently through microscopes, a team of specialists has started work restoring Rembrandt's The Night Watch, one of the most iconic paintings of the Dutch golden age.
Eight art conservators are painstakingly removing multiple layers of varnish from Rembrandt's masterpiece depicting Amsterdam's civil guard on patrol.
"Operation Night Watch", as their work has been called, is so difficult that they do not know when it will end at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum.
The varnish was applied to the 3.62 metres X 4.37 metres work -- painted in 1642 -- as past restorers sought to preserve its beauty as well as fix it after attacks by vandals.
The last varnish was applied in 1975 after a man slashed the painting 12 times with a dinner knife, in 1981 and in 1990 after it was attacked with acid.
"We monitored The Night Watch for years and we saw that over the past few years the varnish had yellowed and also become at some points less transparent," Rijksmuseum director Taco Dibbits said.
"Former restoration projects happened very, quickly, very fast," Dibbits told AFP.
"Operation Night Watch" seeks to remove the varnish and expose the original paint, before a new specialised varnish is applied to restore the painting "as close as possible to its former glory."

'Naked' Night Watch

Inside an enclosed area, but in full view of curious visitors, Anna Krekeler carefully applied a tiny piece of highly absorbent tissue to a part of the painting depicting the sleeve of a militia drummer.
In a delicate operation that takes barely a minute, she applied the tissue, laced with solvent, to the painting, before covering it with a flexible plastic square.
"When we remove it, all the varnish is absorbed into the tissue and comes off," fellow conservator Esther van Duijn explained.
The restorers then use a cotton swab to remove remaining varnish residue that may be left on the painting's delicate surface.
"I think the most exciting and perhaps the scariest bit is that the people are watching over our shoulders, but once you are working you tend to forget that," laughed Van Duijn.
Added Dibbits: "During this process the public can come and see something that's very exciting and very exceptional." 
"You will be able to see the Night Watch, in a sense, naked, without make-up, and that's what I think is so amazing in this period to see."

'Delicate work'

Outside the room, curious visitors film and intently discuss the process.
"It's my first visit to Amsterdam and I didn't expect to see the Night Watch in a room behind a glass screen," said Daniela Bueno, 57, from Brazil.
"But it's such delicate work and it's a amazing to witness the restoration process which will still take years," she told AFP.
Removing old varnish from The Night Watch's surface is the third stage in a research and conservation project that started five years ago.
It will leave the masterpiece appearing much greyer, but it would be "temporary" the conservators said. 
The next stage will be the new varnish, retouching the old damage and then finally, a new frame.
"Hopefully then it will look almost as good as it did in its former glory," said Van Duijn.
Rijksmuseum director Dibbits said it was not possible to say when "Operation Night Watch" will finish.
"The painting itself decides how long it will take, what the pace will be," he said. 
jhe/tw

film

'Gladiator 3' already in works, say director and star

BY ANDREW MARSZAL

  • The plot of "Gladiator II" was also "planned to leave it wide open to a sequel," added Scott, a famously prolific filmmaker who is still directing roughly a film per year at the age of 86.
  • Ridley Scott's long-awaited "Gladiator" sequel has not even hit US theaters yet, but the veteran director is already hard at work on a third installment.
  • The plot of "Gladiator II" was also "planned to leave it wide open to a sequel," added Scott, a famously prolific filmmaker who is still directing roughly a film per year at the age of 86.
Ridley Scott's long-awaited "Gladiator" sequel has not even hit US theaters yet, but the veteran director is already hard at work on a third installment.
"Gladiator II," which arrives in North American cinemas Friday, stars Irish actor Paul Mescal ("Normal People") as Lucius, the son of Russell Crowe's Maximus from the multiple Oscar-winning original.
A bloody, blockbuster epic of revenge, treachery and -- yes -- gladiators, it has drawn positive reviews and already hauled in a muscular $87 million at the global box office since opening in several countries last week.
"Given the performance in the rest of the world that we've seen yesterday, there's certainly going to be a 'Gladiator III,'" said Scott, in Los Angeles on Monday for the movie's glitzy US premiere.
"Because it also becomes financial, and you'd be insane not to consider a third version," said the British director of seminal films such as "Blade Runner" and "Thelma & Louise."
The plot of "Gladiator II" was also "planned to leave it wide open to a sequel," added Scott, a famously prolific filmmaker who is still directing roughly a film per year at the age of 86.
The second film opens with Lucius -- sent into exile by his mother to avoid certain death in Rome -- battling in vain to defend his adopted North African home city from the arrival of seemingly unstoppable Roman soldiers.
Captured as a prisoner of war, he is brought back to the imperial metropolis, where he must prove his worth in the Colosseum in order to exact revenge on invading general Marcus Acacius, played by Pedro Pascal.
Danish actress Connie Nielsen reprises her role as Lucilla from the 2000 original, while Denzel Washington is already earning Oscar buzz for his conniving, mercurial and highly flamboyant ringmaster, Macrinus.
"Jewelry, sandals and everything -- I just looked like a Roman pimp... I couldn't put on enough rings," joked Washington on Monday.

'Political'

Mescal -- whose character battles bloodthirsty baboons, rhinos and sharks in addition to humans in "Gladiator II" -- also expressed excitement about returning for another film.
But he said Scott had discussed a new direction for the plot that would not simply "go back to the arena as we know it." 
"The last time I spoke to (Scott) he said he had nine pages. Yesterday, he said he had 14," Mescal told journalists.
"I would be excited for it to go into a more political sphere," with Lucius thrust into a world of court intrigue that he does not want to inhabit, like Michael Corleone in "The Godfather," added Mescal.
Asked how the second film's themes tackled power and politics differently, some 24 years after the original Scott said: "They're exactly the same."
"A super-rich man thinks he can take over the Empire. Is that familiar?" he said, just days after billionaire Donald Trump's re-election as US president.
"We don't learn historically anything. We keep repeating the same mistakes. We're going through exactly the same thing right now in several parts of the planet," he added.
amz/aha

US

Phone documentary details Afghan women's struggle under Taliban govt

BY ROMAIN FONSEGRIVES

  • She tutored them on how to film themselves with their phones -- resulting in a moving depiction of the intertwined stories of three Afghan women.
  • A rare inside account of the Taliban authorities' impact on Afghan women hits screens next week with the smartphone-filmed documentary "Bread & Roses."
  • She tutored them on how to film themselves with their phones -- resulting in a moving depiction of the intertwined stories of three Afghan women.
A rare inside account of the Taliban authorities' impact on Afghan women hits screens next week with the smartphone-filmed documentary "Bread & Roses."
Produced by actress Jennifer Lawrence ("The Hunger Games") and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, this feature-length film immerses the viewer in the daily struggles endured by half the population of Afghanistan since the withdrawal of US troops paved the way for Taliban leaders to seize power.
"When Kabul fell in 2021 all women lost their very basic rights. They lost their rights to be educated, to work," Lawrence told AFP in Los Angeles.
"Some of them were doctors and had high degrees, and then their lives were completely changed overnight."
The documentary, which debuted at Cannes in May 2023, was directed by exiled Afghan filmmaker Sahra Mani, who reached out to a dozen women after the fall of Kabul.
She tutored them on how to film themselves with their phones -- resulting in a moving depiction of the intertwined stories of three Afghan women.
We meet Zahra, a dentist whose practice is threatened with closure, suddenly propelled to the head of protests against the Taliban government.
Sharifa, a former civil servant, is stripped of her job and cloistered at home, reduced to hanging laundry on her roof to get a breath of fresh air.
And Taranom, an activist in exile in neighboring Pakistan, who watches helplessly as her homeland changes.
- Gender apartheid - 
"The restrictions are getting tighter and tighter right now," Mani told AFP on the film's Los Angeles red carpet.
And hardly anyone outside the country seems to care, she said.
"The women of Afghanistan didn't receive the support they deserved from the international community."
Since their return to power, Taliban officials have established a "gender apartheid" in Afghanistan, according to the United Nations.
Women are gradually being erased from public spaces: Taliban authorities have banned post-secondary education for girls and women, restricted employment and blocked access to parks and other public areas.
A recent law even prohibits women from singing or reciting poetry in public.
The Taliban authorities follow an austere brand of Islam, whose interpretations of holy texts are disputed by many scholars.
"The Taliban claim to represent the culture and religion while they're a very small group of men who do not actually represent the diversity of the country," Yousafzai, an executive producer of the film, told AFP.
"Islam does not prohibit a girl from learning, Islam does not prohibit a woman from working," said the Pakistani activist, whom the Pakistani Taliban tried to assassinate when she was 15.
The documentary captures the first year after the fall of Kabul, including moments of bravery when women speak out.
"You closed universities and schools, you might as well kill me!" a protester shouts at a man threatening her during a demonstration. 
These gatherings of women -- under the slogan "Work, bread, education!" -- are methodically crushed by Taliban authorities. 
Protesters are beaten, some are arrested, others kidnapped. 
Slowly, the resistance fades, but it doesn't die: some Afghan women are now trying to educate themselves through clandestine courses. 
Three years after the Taliban fighters seized power from a hapless and corrupt civilian administration, no countries have officially recognized their new government.
In the wake of Donald Trump's re-election to the US presidency, Taliban leaders have made it known that they hope to "open a new chapter" in relations between Kabul and Washington, where a more transactional foreign policy outlook is expected to prevail.
For Mani, that rings alarm bells.
Giving up on defending the rights of Afghan women would be a serious mistake -- and one the West could come to regret, she said.
The less educated Afghan women are, the more vulnerable their sons are to the ideology that birthed the Al Qaeda attacks of September 11, 2001.
"If we are paying the price today, you might pay the price tomorrow," she said.
"Bread & Roses" begins streaming on Apple TV+ on November 22.
rfo/hg/acb/bgs/st

music

Beyonce to headline halftime during NFL Christmas game

  • "Although the details of her performance are under wraps, Beyonce is expected to feature some special guests who are featured on the Cowboy Carter album," Netflix, which will stream the NFL Christmas games, said in a statement.
  • Beyonce will perform during the National Football League's Christmas programming this year, she and game broadcaster Netflix announced over the weekend.
  • "Although the details of her performance are under wraps, Beyonce is expected to feature some special guests who are featured on the Cowboy Carter album," Netflix, which will stream the NFL Christmas games, said in a statement.
Beyonce will perform during the National Football League's Christmas programming this year, she and game broadcaster Netflix announced over the weekend.
Her performance during the match-up between the Houston Texans and the Baltimore Ravens is anticipated to be the first live show to include songs off her pivotal country album, "Cowboy Carter."
"Although the details of her performance are under wraps, Beyonce is expected to feature some special guests who are featured on the Cowboy Carter album," Netflix, which will stream the NFL Christmas games, said in a statement.
Notable features on the album included Shaboozey, Miley Cyrus, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Linda Martell and Post Malone.
Netflix will host both NFL Christmas Day games this year, with the second game pitting the Kansas City Chiefs against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Beyonce is no stranger to the NFL: she headlined Super Bowl XLVII in 2013 in New Orleans, and also performed during the 2016 championship game with Coldplay and Bruno Mars.
The 43-year-old recently became the Grammys' most nominated artist ever, and she leads the pack for most chances at Grammy gold this season with 11.
mdo/adp

Society

Composer of Piaf's 'Non, je ne regrette rien' dies aged 95

BY JéRéMY TORDJMAN

  • "Non, je ne regrette rien" has since become an unforgettable classic of Piaf, who died in 1963.
  • Songwriter and singer Charles Dumont, who composed the song "Non, je ne regrette rien" ("No, I do not regret anything") made world famous by Edith Piaf, has died aged 95, his partner told AFP Monday. 
  • "Non, je ne regrette rien" has since become an unforgettable classic of Piaf, who died in 1963.
Songwriter and singer Charles Dumont, who composed the song "Non, je ne regrette rien" ("No, I do not regret anything") made world famous by Edith Piaf, has died aged 95, his partner told AFP Monday. 
Dumont, who had also collaborated with American singer Barbra Streisand and French-Italian 1960s star Dalida, died at home after a long illness.
French Culture Minister Rachida Dati called Dumont "a towering figure of French chanson".
A trumpeter by training, Dumont saw his career transformed at the turn of the 1960s when he convinced the star singer Piaf to perform one of his compositions, after having been forcefully refused several times.
"We turned up at her home, and she let us in," Dumont told AFP in 2018 about the day in 1960 when he managed to see Piaf together with his lyricist, Michel Vaucaire.
"I played the piece on the piano, and ... we became inseparable," he said, adding that the song -- which he had written in 1956 aged 27 -- revived Piaf's career that he said had been flagging.
"Non, je ne regrette rien" has since become an unforgettable classic of Piaf, who died in 1963.
"My mother gave birth to me, but Edith Piaf brought me into the world," Dumont told AFP in a 2015 interview. 
"Without her, I would never have done everything I did, neither as a composer nor as a singer," he added.
For Dumont, this meeting marked the beginning of a fruitful working relationship with Piaf, resulting in his writing more than 30 songs for her.

'Goodbye young man'

On occasion she straightened him out, like one night after a concert when he complained to her that the audience had not been good.
"She looked me straight in the eye and said: 'It's not them who are bad. It's you who was no good'," he remembered.
The collaboration with Piaf gave Dumont the confidence to approach Streisand, who was already a star in the 1960s and well on her way to becoming one of the biggest-selling recording artists ever.
A music publisher suggested he should offer her his services, advice he later described as "destiny" giving him "a kick in the behind".
He went to New York, and played for her on a piano in her dressing room in a Broadway theatre. "She said to me 'I like this very much. I'll make the record. Goodbye young man'," he said.
Streisand released a single with Dumont's "Le Mur" sung in French on the A side, and its English version "I've Been Here" on the B side, in 1966.
Dumont's last appearance on stage was in 2019 in Paris.
"When you come back in front of an audience, who come to see you as they came 20, 30 or 40 years ago and give you the same welcome, then they give you back your 20s," he said.
burs/jh/sjw/rl

film

Quincy Jones awarded posthumous Oscar

BY ANDREW MARSZAL

  • Jones produced seminal Hollywood movies including "The Color Purple," and received multiple Oscar nominations for film songs and soundtracks including "In Cold Blood" and "The Wiz." 
  • The late Quincy Jones was posthumously awarded an honorary Oscar at an emotional and star-packed Hollywood gala on Sunday that also handed golden statuettes to the producers of the James Bond movie franchise.
  • Jones produced seminal Hollywood movies including "The Color Purple," and received multiple Oscar nominations for film songs and soundtracks including "In Cold Blood" and "The Wiz." 
The late Quincy Jones was posthumously awarded an honorary Oscar at an emotional and star-packed Hollywood gala on Sunday that also handed golden statuettes to the producers of the James Bond movie franchise.
US music industry titan Jones died from pancreatic cancer at the age of 91 just two weeks before he was set to receive one of the Academy's coveted lifetime achievement prizes at the Governors Awards. 
His daughter, the actress Rashida Jones, accepted the Oscar, telling the audience that the legendary hitmaker had been "really excited to attend tonight."
"He often said 'live every day like it's your last and one day you'll be right.' And he did that... the best, most beautiful life," she said, to a huge ovation.
Jones was best known for producing smash hit records for a who's who of music industry legends from Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson.
"Truth is, the man had an equally powerful impact on the world of film," said actor Jamie Foxx, introducing his award.
Jones produced seminal Hollywood movies including "The Color Purple," and received multiple Oscar nominations for film songs and soundtracks including "In Cold Blood" and "The Wiz." 
Selena Gomez, Jennifer Lopez and Zoe Saldana were among A-listers holding back tears in the audience as Jennifer Hudson sang a musical tribute. 
Hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the swanky black-tie Governors Awards each year honor film industry veterans, many of whom are felt to have not received their dues at the regular Oscars.
The event also offers a chance for stars and studios to court Academy voters -- and size up their rivals -- as the next Oscars campaigns begin to take shape.
At Sunday's reception, "Succession" stars Kieran Culkin and Jeremy Strong -- campaigning for their news films "A Real Pain" and "The Apprentice" -- enjoyed a lengthy catch-up.
Acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodovar ("The Room Next Door") conversed with his exiled Iranian counterpart Mohammad Rasoulof ("The Seed of the Sacred Fig.")

Bond, James Bond

Daniel Craig -- who stars in this year's William S. Burroughs adaptation "Queer" -- chatted with friends by the bar, his lips firmly sealed about the identity of his successor as James Bond. 
Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, the half-siblings who have controlled the beloved 007 espionage franchise since 1995's "Goldeneye," were among the honorees Sunday.
Passed the reins by Broccoli's film producer father Albert, the duo have overseen several of the Bond series' biggest-ever movies including the $1 billion-grossing "Skyfall" in 2012, in which Craig played the suave British spy with a license to kill.
Anticipation continues to swell for the announcement of who will next play the world's most famous fictional spy.
"Just to get something out the way, we came here this evening to find out who the next James Bond is," joked Craig, on stage introducing their award.
"Don't look at me. But he might be in the room," he added -- before insisting he was joking. 
British writer and director Richard Curtis, 68, who created "Notting Hill," "Bridget Jones's Diary," "Love Actually" and "Four Weddings and a Funeral," received the Jean Hersholt statuette, which is specifically for humanitarian work by a film industry figure.
Curtis co-founded Comic Relief, a British charity that has raised some $2.5 billion over four decades by bringing together comedy and entertainment stars for zany challenges and wildly popular fund-raising telecasts.
A fifth honorary Oscar went to Juliet Taylor, the acclaimed casting director behind "The Exorcist," "Taxi Driver," "Annie Hall," "Sleepless in Seattle" and "Schindler's List."
amz/sn

heritage

Stray dogs in Giza become tourist draw after 'pyramid puppy' sensation

BY MENNA FAROUK

  • "This is Anubis," one tour guide told two American tourists, comparing Apollo, now known as the "pyramid puppy", with the ancient Egyptian god of the dead, often depicted as a man with a jackal's head.
  • Beneath the blazing Egyptian sun, crowds at the Giza Pyramids gazed up at the ancient wonders, but some had their eyes peeled for a new attraction.
  • "This is Anubis," one tour guide told two American tourists, comparing Apollo, now known as the "pyramid puppy", with the ancient Egyptian god of the dead, often depicted as a man with a jackal's head.
Beneath the blazing Egyptian sun, crowds at the Giza Pyramids gazed up at the ancient wonders, but some had their eyes peeled for a new attraction.
"There he is," one Polish tourist told his wife as they spotted a scrappy dog perched on one of the stones.
They were talking about Apollo, a stray who became an overnight sensation last month after being filmed scaling the Great Pyramid of Khafre, one of the seven wonders of the world.
The viral footage, captured by American paragliding enthusiast Alex Lang and shared online by his friend Marshall Mosher, showed Apollo fearlessly climbing the 136-metre monument, barking at birds from the summit. 
"He was acting like a king," Lang told AFP.
As news of Apollo's daring climb spread worldwide, interest grew in the dogs who have long made their homes among the ancient stones.
"He is climbing over there," said Arkadiusz Jurys, a tourist from Poland, craning his neck for a better view.
"It is unusual," he added, describing Apollo as surveying the picture-snapping crowd from above.
Another visitor, Diego Vega from Argentina, felt a special bond with the dogs.
"Connecting with them feels like connecting with the pharaohs," he said, while petting a member of Apollo's pack.

Sales up

Apollo's newfound fame has even inspired local guides to include him and his pack in their stories for tourists.
"This is Anubis," one tour guide told two American tourists, comparing Apollo, now known as the "pyramid puppy", with the ancient Egyptian god of the dead, often depicted as a man with a jackal's head.
"He and his pack are now part of our tour conversations," said Sobhi Fakhry, another tour guide.
Businesses around the Giza plateau are also seeing a boost.
Umm Basma, a 43-year-old woman selling souvenirs near the Khafre pyramid, reported an increase in sales thanks to the influx of tourists eager to meet the so-called pyramid dogs.
"We've always seen these dogs climbing the pyramids, but we never thought they would become a blessing for us," she said.
One pyramid guard, who preferred to remain anonymous, also said that some celebrities had paid for permits to have their own dogs photographed with Apollo.
Apollo, a three-year-old Baladi dog, is part of a pack of about eight that has made their home among the ancient ruins.
The dogs, a local breed, are known for their resilience, intelligence and ability to survive in Egypt's harsh climate.
Ibrahim el-Bendary, co-founder of the American Cairo Animal Rescue Foundation, which monitors the pyramid dogs, described Apollo as the pack's "alpha male".
"He is the bravest and strongest in his pack," he said.
Apollo was born in a rocky crevice within the Khafre pyramid where his mother, Laika, found shelter. Sadly, some of Apollo's siblings did not survive the site's perilous heights.
A sympathetic guard eventually relocated Laika to a safer spot where Apollo now stands out with his distinctive curled tail and confident nature.

Dog adoptions

The initial focus of Lang and Marshall was the daring canine climber, but their visit led to a deeper connection with Cairo's stray dogs.
Intrigued by the challenges they face, Mosher decided to adopt a puppy from the pack: Anubi, who is Apollo's daughter.
Anubi will join Marshall in the US after she receives the dedicated care she needs in Egypt to grow up healthy.
At the pyramids, local animal care groups are now working with the government in order to set up food and water stations for the strays, as well as for other animals including camels and horses.
A permanent veterinary centre will be established at the pyramids with staff set to receive animal care training, said Egypt's tourism minister.
Vicki Michelle Brown, the other co-founder of the American Cairo Animal Rescue Foundation, believes that Apollo's story can make a difference.
"It sheds so much light on the dogs and cats that are here," Brown said.
"I definitely believe him (Apollo) climbing the pyramids can help all of the dogs in Egypt to have a better life."
maf/sk/smw/rsc