Ball Gowns Galore! And Other Cannes Film Festival Fashion Statements

At the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, the larger the ball gown, the better. Here, Sharon Stone in Dolce & Gabbana.Credit...Brynn Anderson/Associated Press
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Forget comfort clothing. Seriously, forget it. The year of the nontraveling sweatpants has come to an end.

The Cannes Film Festival that just ended was notable for a number of things (besides simply being the first Cannes Film Festival since 2019): That a female director won the Palme d’Or for the first time since 1993; Jodie Foster’s special award; Adam Driver’s singing in “Annette.” And the fact that it was proof positive, if anyone was in doubt, that the year of the nontraveling sweatpants has well and truly come to a close.

Like, put a stiletto in that one and stick it to the wall-of-history close.

If the Oscars kicked off the Return of the Red Carpet, Cannes took it to a whole other level. For 10 days the plumage was out: tulle and tuxedos, glitter and glamour, as if to make up for dressing down of the last, lost year. This film festival, of all film festivals, has become the greatest real life — or real life-ish — runway of the year, other than the Met Gala. Perhaps even more than the Met Gala, which can be handicapped by sometimes silly theme. » | Vanessa Friedman | Monday, July 19, 2021

Johnsons Wette

Öffnungen in Großbritannien
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: In Großbritannien schießen die Infektionszahlen wieder in die Höhe – und trotzdem sind fast alle Corona-Maßnahmen gefallen. Das Risiko, das Boris Johnson damit eingeht, ist hoch.

Es klingt paradox: In Großbritannien schießen die Infektionszahlen wegen Delta wieder in die Höhe, und der geimpfte Gesundheitsminister Sajid Javid ist an Covid erkrankt, weshalb sich jetzt auch Premierminister Boris Johnson in die Selbstisolation begeben hat. Trotzdem sollen von diesem Montag an fast alle Corona-Maßnahmen aufgehoben werden. Das Argument lautet: Die Impfquote ist hoch, die Hospitalisierungsrate niedrig, es wird also schon gehen. » | Ein Kommentar von Oliver Georgi | Montag, 19. Juli 2021

« Nous sommes entrés dans une quatrième vague », affirme Gabriel Attal

L’OBS : Le porte-parole du gouvernement a mis en garde ce lundi contre la dynamique « extrêmement forte » de l’épidémie. Dans des dizaines de départements, la hausse des contaminations est extrêmement rapide.

« Nous sommes entrés dans une quatrième vague du virus », a prévenu le porte-parole du gouvernement Gabriel Attal à la sortie du conseil des ministres ce lundi 19 juillet.

« La dynamique de l’épidémie est extrêmement forte, nous constatons une vague plus rapide, une pente plus raide que toutes les précédentes », a-t-il mis en garde, notant le nombre de nouveaux cas détectés avait doublé en une semaine. « Nous avons franchi le seuil des 10 000 cas positifs chaque jour », a-t-il précisé, tandis que le taux d’incidence a augmenté de près de 125 % en une semaine. » | Par L’Obs | lundi 19 juillet 2021

Un abonnement à L'Obs est disponible pour 3 mois pour 1€ , sans engagement, ici

Democracy Now! Top US & World Headlines — July 19, 2021

Alone Out Here: A Gay Farmer on Love, Isolation, and Disrupting the Meat Industry in Australia | The New Yorker

Jun 9, 2021 • In “Alone Out Here,” by Philip Busfield and Luke Cornish, an Australian rancher who is openly gay in a conservative industry fights to reduce carbon emissions through his cattle farming.

Friendships That Saved Lives during the Holocaust

Jul 30, 2020 • When Pennsylvanian teen Jane Bomberger and American exchange student Robert Harlan learned about Nazi persecution of Jews, they wanted to take action. They were able to help their friends flee Nazi Germany and Austria. Assistance from abroad was vital because few people could obtain the necessary paperwork and permissions needed to emigrate from Nazi-occupied Europe in the 1930s. On the United Nations International Day of Friendship, join Museum experts to learn about individuals who helped their Jewish friends find refuge. Speaker Susan Goldstein Snyder, Curator, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Moderator Dr. Edna Friedberg, Historian, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Not A Still Life | Gay Jewish Documentary Portrait

Aug 13, 2018 • In this documentary portrait, a charismatic older, gay, Jewish man undergoes an evolution of awareness amid the joys and sorrows of his wild and fully lived life. In revealing his “naked truth,” he offers viewers an opportunity for reflection about the complexity of human identity.

In the words of the film’s spirited subject, “This is the story of a gay, Jewish, animal rights, vegetarian, recovering alcoholic ... individual.” Steve Stone is an ebullient, extroverted character and an engaging storyteller with a life full of captivating tales. He is also not unlike many gay men of a certain age who were almost brought to extinction with the AIDS epidemic of the 80’s. In that sense, this film, a portrait of a man, is also a chronicle of a time that was.

This one man’s story, his struggles with sexual orientation and various addictions, love and loss, taps into themes that encompass all our lives. His quirky and entertaining reflections come from a unique perspective. We cannot help but see ourselves in, and be inspired by, his distinctive outlook because for all the ways that we may not share his “outside the box” personality, his evolution, his journey through life and his deep desires are ours. They exemplify the conflicts and complexities in every human heart.

Not a Still Life punctuates the stories of Steve’s personal journey through the decades with a judicious use of title graphics to reflect key aspects of gay social history in America. His is the tale of a man who, in the homophobic period of the 50s, was ridiculed and dismissed as a child which led his irreverence, hyperactivity and rebelliousness. Determined to be himself rather than conform to social mores that made him uncomfortable, he came out to everyone in the early 60’s at the age of 17. Eight years before the Stonewall Rebellion, this was a brave move. Steve Stone has been openly gay for fifty years!


Viewer discretion is advised. Warning: Not suitable for children! – Mark

Brazil’s Homosexual Couples May Be Prioritized in Housing Program

THE RIO TIMES: Bill 1947/21 includes homosexual couples with their union recognized by the State among the groups to be prioritized in the selection and ranking of beneficiaries for the 'Casa Verde e Amarela' housing program.

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - Under analysis by the Chamber of Deputies, the draft amends Law 14.118/21 which deals with the program and currently provides that priority is granted to families in a risk or vulnerable situation, where a woman is the head of the household or that include disabled or elderly people.

"In practice there is pure veiled discrimination, whereby LGBT families have tremendous difficulties in being selected," says the bill's author deputy Rafafá (PSDB-PB).

"The delays in getting answers expose the subtle and perverse discrimination to which these citizens have been submitted," he points out . . . » | The Rio Times | Monday, July 19, 2021

Subscriptions to ‘The Rio Times’ are available here

P&O Australia to Launch First Ever LGBT+ Pride Cruise, And It Sounds Fabulous

The P&O LGBT+ Pride cruise will set sail in November, 2022. (Twitter/ QScreen)
PINK NEWS: P&O Australia has announced that its first ever LGBT+ Pride cruise will set sail next year, including lectures, educational and spiritual events, same-sex weddings and… sequins.

The three-night cruise, which will depart from Sydney on 4 November, 2022, will be a “celebratory weekend” for the LGBT+ community and their friends, families and allies, and will “honour pride in self, the diversity of the community and the endless variety of talented artists, entertainers and educators in it”.

Australian LGBT+ organisations will be onboard, including the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation, Australia’s longest-running HIV charity, and Queer Screen, which will be putting on its first Queer Screen @ Sea Film Festival.

The cruise will also feature a queer entertainment line-up “with plenty of feathers, sequins and flamboyance”, featuring America’s Got Talent star and self-described “international superstar, sex symbol, accordionist and Berlin boy-wonder” Hans the German. » | Lily Wakefield | Saturday, April 24, 2021

Mini-Serie über lesbische Liebe: «Ich wäre so gern verliebt geblieben»

In der neuen Mini-Serie durchlebt man mit Hanna all ihre vergangenen Liebschaften. Foto: Screenshot ZDFneo
TAGES ANZEIGER: Die ZDFneo-Serie «Loving her» erzählt leicht und gefühlvoll aus der Perspektive einer jungen lesbischen Frau. Das ist selten im Fernsehen.

Hanna fühlt sich ausgebremst. Sie hat das Literaturstudium abgeschlossen, aber keinen Job in Aussicht. Der Pandemie-Alltag nervt, Liebeskummer auch und dann wirft der Vermieter ihre WG aus der schönen Berliner Altbauwohnung.

Jetzt kehrt sie zurück nach Bielefeld zu ihren Eltern, bis sich etwas Neues ergibt. Als sie mitten im Umzug Pizza holt, trifft sie ihre Schulliebe Franzi. Die Begegnung wirft die 25-Jährige in der Zeit zurück. » | Lena Reuters | Dienstag, 6. Juli 2021

Homosexuels et lesbiennes dans l’Europe nazie : les déportés oubliés

Insigne et matricule de Josef Kohout, déporté homosexuel autrichien. (Coll. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington DC))
L’OBS : Le Mémorial de la Shoah, à Paris, éclaire le sort des gays et lesbiennes, victimes de la répression nazie. Le musée retrace les multiples aspects de la persécution, en s’appuyant sur des parcours de vie saisissants, des documents et des témoignages inédits. Retour sur une page d’Histoire méconnue.

C’est une première en France. Après plusieurs mois de minutieuse récolte de documents et de témoignages inédits, le Mémorial de la Shoah, revient sur la persécution des populations homosexuelles sous le Troisième Reich.

L’exposition s’inscrit dans le temps long. « Il faut comprendre que la période nazie n’est pas une parenthèse incompréhensible mais qu’elle s’inscrit dans une longue histoire de répression de l’homosexualité en Europe » explique Florence Tamagne, commissaire de l’exposition. Le parcours débute à l’aube des premières revendications politiques des homosexuels, incarnées par le militant Magnus Hirschfeld, qui meurt en exil à Nice, en 1935. Leur bête noire : le paragraphe 175 du Code pénal allemand, introduit en 1871 et qui condamnera les homosexuels jusqu’en 1994. » | Par Paul Lonceint | dimanche 27 juin 2021

Mitch Lowe, Co-founder of Netflix: “American Series Are So Predictable”

MONACO TRIBUNE: We talked to the co-founder of Netflix about European cinema, the future of the industry, and why he thinks the Monaco Streaming Festival is a sign of the times.

The industry had come a long way since Netflix was mailing DVDs to its clients. Yet, twenty years later, Mitch Lowe is still at the forefront of innovation. “I think this is a period of Renaissance for the arts,” he says when we meet before the start of the Monaco Streaming Film Festival, of which he is the co-director. The festival is dedicated entirely to streamed content – a first for the industry. “Because the tools to create art, media, literature are all so easily accessible.”

A high-school dropout, after leaving Netflix Mitch Lowe continued his run as a film start-up founder, developing the likes of Redbox and MoviePass, a movie theatre subscription service. » | Francesca German | Sunday, July 11, 2021

Michael Bublé : Haven't Met You Yet

Gay Smooch of the Day

Image courtesy of Google Images

Kurt Westergaard, Danish Cartoonist behind Muhammad Cartoon, Dies Aged 86

Kurt Westergaard has died aged 86. The Danish cartoonist’s depictions of the prophet Muhammad sparked protests across the Muslim world. Photograph: Peter Endig/EPA
THE GUARDIAN: Westergaard was known for drawing a caricature of the prophet Muhammad which sparked outrage around the Muslim world

Danish artist Kurt Westergaard, known for drawing a caricature of the prophet Muhammad that sparked outrage around the Muslim world, has died at the age 86, his family told Danish media on Sunday.

Westergaard died in his sleep after a long period of ill health, his family told newspaper Berlingske.

The illustrator was behind 12 drawings published by conservative daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005 under the headline The Face of Mohammed, one of which sparked particular anger. Islamic tradition says no image of the prophet should be produced or shown.

The anger escalated into anti-Danish violence across the Muslim world in 2006 in which dozens died, with Danish embassies attacked, including the one in Damascus which was burned down. » | Staff and agencies | Monday, July 19, 2021

The Danish cartoonist who survived an axe attack »

Guto Harri Quits GB News as Nigel Farage Is Given Prime-Time Show

GB News presenter Guto Harri taking the knee. He formally resigned on Sunday. Photograph: GB News
THE GUARDIAN: Former BBC journalist vents anger at rightwing channel for suspending him after taking a knee on air

Guto Harri has quit GB News after he was suspended for taking the knee during a discussion about racism towards black footballers.

The former BBC news journalist had been taken off air by the rightwing news channel, but there was talk of him returning at some point.

On Sunday he vented his anger at the channel, describing it as “rapidly becoming an absurd parody of what it proclaimed to be”. At the same time it emerged that the former Ukip leader Nigel Farage was being hired by GB News to host a nightly prime-time show.

By Sunday afternoon it became clear that Harri had formally quit the channel. In his resignation letter, seen by the Guardian, he writes that he signed up “in good faith and with genuine enthusiasm”. » | Mark Brown | Sunday, July 18, 2021

Katie Hopkins to Be Deported from Australia ‘Imminently’ after Visa Cancelled

Katie Hopkins will be deported and her Australian visa has been cancelled after she boasted about breaching hotel quarantine conditions. She travelled to Sydney to appear in Big Brother VIP. Photograph: Neil Mockford/Alex Huckle/GC Images
THE GUARDIAN: Minister Karen Andrews says British far-right commentator entered country with support of NSW government to appear on Seven Network’s Big Brother VIP

The Australian government has cancelled Katie Hopkins’ visa after the far-right commentator boasted about breaching hotel quarantine conditions.

The cancellation was announced by the home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, on Monday – and follows a decision by Endemol Shine Australia to cancel her contract to appear on Seven Network’s Big Brother VIP. Hopkins will now be required to leave the country.

Hopkins, 46, broadcast a live video from what she claimed was a Sydney hotel room on Saturday morning, describing Covid-19 lockdowns as “the greatest hoax in human history” while joking about elaborate plans to breach quarantine rules. In the Instagram video, which is no longer available to view, she said she was trying to “frighten” security guards by answering her hotel door naked and maskless.

Guardian Australia understands Hopkins is likely to leave the country on a flight departing Sydney mid-afternoon on Monday. » | Paul Karp | Monday, July 19, 2021

Léonard de Vinci : la manière moderne | ARTE

Nov 3, 2019 • Les dernières recherches établissent que Léonard de Vinci retravaillait inlassablement ses toiles, parfois pendant des années. Ce documentaire explore le processus créatif du maître de la Renaissance. Une plongée inédite dans une oeuvre fascinante de modernité.

Fils illégitime d'un notaire et d'une paysanne, Léonard est né le 14 avril 1452 à Vinci, un village de Toscane. Il a 12 ans lorsque ses dons pour le dessin lui valent d'être placé par son père dans l'atelier de Verrocchio, à Florence. Dès lors, le jeune artiste n'aura de cesse de combler ses lacunes académiques par l'observation méticuleuse de la nature et du vivant. Ce sont ensuite l'étude de la lumière puis celle du mouvement qui aiguisent son insatiable curiosité, lumière et mouvement qu'il n'arrêtera pas de chercher à capter dans son travail de peintre. Pourtant, lorsque l'on se penche sur les tableaux laissés par l'artiste, leur petit nombre – moins d'une vingtaine selon les experts – est frappant en comparaison des quelque 6 000 pages de notes et croquis de ses carnets parvenus jusqu'à nous. Processus créatif Ses activités d'ingénieur, d'inventeur de machines, d'anatomiste, de poète, de botaniste ou de concepteur de fêtes, à Milan ou à la cour de François Ier, où il a vécu ses trois dernières années jusqu'à sa mort, en 1519, ont longtemps laissé penser que la peinture fut pour Léonard de Vinci une activité de second plan, et que plusieurs de ses tableaux sont restés inachevés a alimenté cette thèse. Mais les dernières recherches historiographiques et scientifiques démentent cette croyance, établissant au contraire que l'artiste retravaillait inlassablement ses toiles, parfois pendant des années comme ce fut le cas pour La Joconde, dont il ne s'est jamais séparé. Déroulant le fil de sa vie et décryptant de manière pédagogique le processus créatif du peintre, Sandra Paugam et Flore Kosinetz nous convient à une plongée inédite dans une œuvre unique, dont la modernité ne cesse de fasciner. L'exposition que le musée du Louvre consacre à Léonard de Vinci se tient du 24 octobre 2019 au 24 février 2020.

Léonard de Vinci : la manière moderne – Documentaire de Sandra Paugam (France, 2018, 52mn)

Le code d'intégration n'est pas disponible pour les blogueurs. Pour cette raison, le documentaire doit être visionné sur YouTube lui-même. S'il vous plaît, cliquez ici pour visionner cet excellent documentaire. – Mark

The Pandemic Has a New Epicenter: Indonesia

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The suffering that ravaged places like India and Brazil — with deaths soaring, hospitals overwhelmed and oxygen running out — has reached Southeast Asia.

BEKASI, Indonesia — By the thousands, they sleep in hallways, tents and cars, gasping for air as they wait for beds in overcrowded hospitals that may not have oxygen to give them. Others see hospitals as hopeless, even dangerous, and take their chances at home.

Wherever they lie, as Covid-19 steals their breath away, their families engage in a frantic, daily hunt for scarce supplies of life-giving oxygen.

Indonesia has become the new epicenter of the pandemic, surpassing India and Brazil to become the country with the world’s highest count of new infections. The surge is part of a wave across Southeast Asia, where vaccination rates are low but countries had until recently contained the virus relatively well. Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand are also facing their largest outbreaks yet and have imposed new restrictions, including lockdowns and stay-at-home orders. » | By Fira Abdurachman, Richard C. Paddock and Muktita Suhartono | Saturday, July 17, 2021

Far Right Online: The Rise of "Extreme" Gamers | The Economist

Jul 16, 2021 • In America, the intelligence services deem far-right extremism a greater domestic threat than Islamist terrorism. The pandemic has exacerbated the spread of white supremacism and neo-Nazism.