Hermann Vaske with 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman and Anne-Katrin Titze on the journey to interview Cate Blanchett for Can Creativity Save the World?: “It started when Cate was shooting The Monuments Men [in 2013] in Berlin with George Clooney. And the Dp was a friend of mine, Phedon Papamichael who works with James Mangold.”
Hermann Vaske’s evermore timely Can Creativity Save The World? (with a lively score by Mark Reeder and Micha Adam) features on-camera interviews with Cate Blanchett, Golshifteh Farahani, Isabella Rossellini, Angelina Jolie, Willem Dafoe, Umberto Eco, Shirin Neshat, Garry Kasparov, Marina Abramović, John Cleese, Salman Rushdie, Luisa Neubauer (of Pussy Riot), Bono (of U2), Oscar Niemeyer, David Bowie, Marlene Knobloch, Sean Penn, Radu Jude, Amos Oz, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Oliviero Toscani, Björk, Campino (of Die Toten Hosen fame), Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Lakshmi Thevasagayam, and Lia Mizrahi Goldfarb (co-editor and production designer of the documentary).
Hermann...
Hermann Vaske’s evermore timely Can Creativity Save The World? (with a lively score by Mark Reeder and Micha Adam) features on-camera interviews with Cate Blanchett, Golshifteh Farahani, Isabella Rossellini, Angelina Jolie, Willem Dafoe, Umberto Eco, Shirin Neshat, Garry Kasparov, Marina Abramović, John Cleese, Salman Rushdie, Luisa Neubauer (of Pussy Riot), Bono (of U2), Oscar Niemeyer, David Bowie, Marlene Knobloch, Sean Penn, Radu Jude, Amos Oz, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Oliviero Toscani, Björk, Campino (of Die Toten Hosen fame), Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Lakshmi Thevasagayam, and Lia Mizrahi Goldfarb (co-editor and production designer of the documentary).
Hermann...
- 4/17/2024
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Qatar’s Doha Film Institute (Dfi) has unveiled the 44 titles selected for its 2023 autumn funding round, with titles including Ana Naomi De Sousa’s Naseem, Fight With Grace about the British-Yemeni boxer Naseem Hamed; and Mohamed Jabarah Al Daradji’s Arkala Gilgamesh’s Dream.
Thirty-three of the projects are feature films, plus two TV series in development, and nine shorts.
Scroll down for the full list of selected features
The features are divided into Middle East/North Africa (Mena) titles, and those from outside that region; and then again divided by documentary or narrative; and by production stage.
Currently in post-production,...
Thirty-three of the projects are feature films, plus two TV series in development, and nine shorts.
Scroll down for the full list of selected features
The features are divided into Middle East/North Africa (Mena) titles, and those from outside that region; and then again divided by documentary or narrative; and by production stage.
Currently in post-production,...
- 1/22/2024
- ScreenDaily
Qatar’s Doha Film Institute (Dfi) has announced the recipient projects for its fall 2023 grants cycle, featuring 44 films by first and second-time directors hailing from 32 countries. (scroll down for full list)
The awardee projects span short, medium, feature-length and drama series format, fiction and non-fiction, and are in various stages of development and production.
Highlights include UK director Ana Naomi De Sousa’s documentary Naseem, Fight with Grace about British-Yemeni featherweight boxer Naseem Hamed, aka Prince Naseem and Naz.
Fiction features in the mix include Iraqi director Mohamed Al Daradji new film Arkala Gilgamesh’s Dream about a street child who dreams of bringing back his dead parents through the mythical figure of Gilgamesh, King of Uruk.
Other highly anticipated upcoming features include Moroccan director Alaa Eddine Aljem’s dark comedy Eldorado, the Taste of the South, which is in production, and Palestinian-French-Egyptian filmmaker Rani Massalha’s The Return of The Prodigal Son.
The awardee projects span short, medium, feature-length and drama series format, fiction and non-fiction, and are in various stages of development and production.
Highlights include UK director Ana Naomi De Sousa’s documentary Naseem, Fight with Grace about British-Yemeni featherweight boxer Naseem Hamed, aka Prince Naseem and Naz.
Fiction features in the mix include Iraqi director Mohamed Al Daradji new film Arkala Gilgamesh’s Dream about a street child who dreams of bringing back his dead parents through the mythical figure of Gilgamesh, King of Uruk.
Other highly anticipated upcoming features include Moroccan director Alaa Eddine Aljem’s dark comedy Eldorado, the Taste of the South, which is in production, and Palestinian-French-Egyptian filmmaker Rani Massalha’s The Return of The Prodigal Son.
- 1/22/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Pictures Of Ghosts (Brazil’s Oscar submission and a highlight in the Main Slate of the 61st New York Film Festival), shot by Pedro Sotero and produced by Emilie Lesclaux transports us to Recife, the director’s hometown, the capital of Pernambuco, Brazil and unravels the history of its big cinemas - those gone and those still standing strong, what was and what has become. But before that, he takes us home to the apartment where he lived on and off for 40 years.
We see old photographs and moving images of family life and film life, how his mother remodelled the place, how his brother Múcio, an architect, added an Oscar Niemeyer touch to the roof...
We see old photographs and moving images of family life and film life, how his mother remodelled the place, how his brother Múcio, an architect, added an Oscar Niemeyer touch to the roof...
- 10/17/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Production designer Patrick O’Keefe drew inspiration from brutalist architecture, graphic artist Syd Mead and British punk band The Sex Pistols when animating the world of “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.”
As Miles Morales crosses path with different Spider-People from other dimensions, it was up to O’Keefe and his team of animators to create visual worlds that reflect those counterparts.
With Variety, he breaks down the looks of each world and shares his favorite easter eggs that pay homage to the Canadian animators who worked on the film.
Earth 928
“Whenever it comes to developing anything for the film, I’m always asking myself, whose point of view are we seeing this from? And what does it need to do?
In animation, we have this awesome opportunity because we don’t have to take the look of the world around us for granted, it can be anything we want. We’re going...
As Miles Morales crosses path with different Spider-People from other dimensions, it was up to O’Keefe and his team of animators to create visual worlds that reflect those counterparts.
With Variety, he breaks down the looks of each world and shares his favorite easter eggs that pay homage to the Canadian animators who worked on the film.
Earth 928
“Whenever it comes to developing anything for the film, I’m always asking myself, whose point of view are we seeing this from? And what does it need to do?
In animation, we have this awesome opportunity because we don’t have to take the look of the world around us for granted, it can be anything we want. We’re going...
- 6/10/2023
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
New Delhi, June 6 (Ians) The second edition of the Bihar Museum Biennale will be inaugurated on August 7 at the Bihar Museum in Patna.
Organised by the state government’s Department of Arts, Culture and Youth Affairs, the first-ever Museum Biennale in the country and the world was opened in March 2021 in a hybrid format providing a gateway to the richness and treasures of Indian museums and also bringing together a highlight of key collections from various museums across the world.
The biennale aims to sensitise the public to the importance and significance of museum culture in India and facilitate an understanding of the Indian culture, building a strong sense of identity, nationhood, and the self. Dr Alka Pande will be the chief curator for the forthcoming event.
As a Curtain Raiser to the Biennale, the museum will present a photography exhibition titled “Brasilia 60+ and the Construction of Modern Brazil” from...
Organised by the state government’s Department of Arts, Culture and Youth Affairs, the first-ever Museum Biennale in the country and the world was opened in March 2021 in a hybrid format providing a gateway to the richness and treasures of Indian museums and also bringing together a highlight of key collections from various museums across the world.
The biennale aims to sensitise the public to the importance and significance of museum culture in India and facilitate an understanding of the Indian culture, building a strong sense of identity, nationhood, and the self. Dr Alka Pande will be the chief curator for the forthcoming event.
As a Curtain Raiser to the Biennale, the museum will present a photography exhibition titled “Brasilia 60+ and the Construction of Modern Brazil” from...
- 6/6/2023
- by Agency News Desk
- GlamSham
Indie filmmakers in or near Brazil may be interested to know that the Rock Horror in Rio Film Festival is now accepting submissions until March 1st. The festival is now receiving both short films and feature films for the 2019 season. Continue reading for more details. Also in today's Horror Highlights: DVD release details for Matriarch and screenings for the anthology series Horrors of the Pnw.
Rock Horror in Rio Film Festival Call for Entries: "The Rock Horror in Rio Film Festival is accepting submissions until March 1st.
Until March 1st, the Rock Horror in Rio Film Festival is receiving submissions of shorts and features for the 2019 edition in the genres: horror, thriller, sci-fi, fantasy, and animation.
The Rock Horror in Rio Film Festival is more than a competition, it’s an event that unites the best of the horror, thriller, and fantasy films with rock & roll in a big party for moviegoers who love music,...
Rock Horror in Rio Film Festival Call for Entries: "The Rock Horror in Rio Film Festival is accepting submissions until March 1st.
Until March 1st, the Rock Horror in Rio Film Festival is receiving submissions of shorts and features for the 2019 edition in the genres: horror, thriller, sci-fi, fantasy, and animation.
The Rock Horror in Rio Film Festival is more than a competition, it’s an event that unites the best of the horror, thriller, and fantasy films with rock & roll in a big party for moviegoers who love music,...
- 1/31/2019
- by Tamika Jones
- DailyDead
There’s a joke among Brazilians that the best thing about the city of Niteroi is its view of Rio de Janeiro. Not anymore. While in Los Angeles last week, Niteroi mayor Rodrigo Neves and Brazilian Minister of Culture Sérgio Sá Leitão unveiled ambitious plans to convert the Guanabara Bay city into an international hub for film, television and new media production.
Speaking at a reception hosted by Ambassador Márcia Loureiro, Consul General of Brazil in Los Angeles, and the Brazil- California Chamber of Commerce, Neves and Sa Leitão announced the following measures:
● The creation of a new film/TV/digital investment fund of around $1.6 million (R$6 million reales) in 2018, through a matching fund partnership between the city of Niterói and national film agency, Ancine; upping the fund in 2019 to $5.2 million (R$20 million reales)
● A special funding line of $260,000 (R$1 million reales) in 2019 for international productions shot in Niterói;
● A...
Speaking at a reception hosted by Ambassador Márcia Loureiro, Consul General of Brazil in Los Angeles, and the Brazil- California Chamber of Commerce, Neves and Sa Leitão announced the following measures:
● The creation of a new film/TV/digital investment fund of around $1.6 million (R$6 million reales) in 2018, through a matching fund partnership between the city of Niterói and national film agency, Ancine; upping the fund in 2019 to $5.2 million (R$20 million reales)
● A special funding line of $260,000 (R$1 million reales) in 2019 for international productions shot in Niterói;
● A...
- 7/23/2018
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
The Recycled Orchestra of Cateura at the United Nations Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In Robert Altman's The Player, Tim Robbins (as Griffin Mill) walks on the street at night, in Pasadena, past Megadeth posters pasted on the wall signalling a significant event to come in the film. In Brad Allgood and Graham Townsley's Landfill Harmonic, co-directed by Juliana Peñaranda-Loftus and co-produced with Alejandra Amarilla, we see the flag of Paraguay painted with the name Megadeth by members of the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura doing the trick to bring David Ellefson, Dave Mustaine, Shawn Drover, and Chris Broderick to perform with them Symphony Of Destruction.
Favio Chávez: "There are events that happen that build a story." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock's North By Northwest, Nicole Kidman in Sydney Pollack's The Interpreter, and Audrey Hepburn in Stanley Donen's Charade as a Un interpreter came to...
In Robert Altman's The Player, Tim Robbins (as Griffin Mill) walks on the street at night, in Pasadena, past Megadeth posters pasted on the wall signalling a significant event to come in the film. In Brad Allgood and Graham Townsley's Landfill Harmonic, co-directed by Juliana Peñaranda-Loftus and co-produced with Alejandra Amarilla, we see the flag of Paraguay painted with the name Megadeth by members of the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura doing the trick to bring David Ellefson, Dave Mustaine, Shawn Drover, and Chris Broderick to perform with them Symphony Of Destruction.
Favio Chávez: "There are events that happen that build a story." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock's North By Northwest, Nicole Kidman in Sydney Pollack's The Interpreter, and Audrey Hepburn in Stanley Donen's Charade as a Un interpreter came to...
- 9/9/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Jaden Smith was every bit the model as he struck a few poses at the Louis Vuitton 2017 Crusie Collection show in Niteroi, Brazil over the weekend. Jaden Smith Models Lv Smith, 17, was outfitted entirely in Louis Vuitton Fall 2016 womenswear for the Louis Vuitton Cruise 2017 show at Oscar Niemeyer’s Niteroi Contemporary Art […]
The post Jaden Smith Models Louis Vuitton In Brazil appeared first on uInterview.
The post Jaden Smith Models Louis Vuitton In Brazil appeared first on uInterview.
- 6/1/2016
- by Chelsea Regan
- Uinterview
Gwyneth Paltrow may have felt a little humiliated by her much buzzed about Antonio Berardi dress, but the British fashion designer behind the head-turning frock thought the actress commanded the commando look perfectly! "Gwyneth manages to bridge the gap of glamour and modernity," Berardi told E! News of the Goop gal, who hit the Iron Man 3 premiere in a gown from his AW13 collection. "She makes things look iconic!" Indeed, we doubt any starlet could have pulled off the racy frock, which featured sultry sheer side panels that showed off the star's toned legs and derriere, with as much grace as Paltrow. But if you ask Berardi, who found his inspiration for the design from architect Oscar Niemeyer,...
- 4/26/2013
- E! Online
Cinema at London's Serpentine, Jim Shaw's imagination and Kevin Harman's subversive portraiture – all in your weekly art dispatch
Exhibition of the week: Jonas Mekas
The film-maker Jonas Mekas has been a hero of the New York art scene since the 1960s. He is not just an underground film-maker but the organiser and orchestrator of an entire cultural movement of alternative cinema that transformed ways of making art 50 years ago and still resonates today. Mekas helped Andy Warhol to become a film-maker and provided a personal record of Warhol and other avant garde figures, as well as of New York, in his own film diaries. Back then it seemed a strange idea for artists to make deadpan visual records of real life. Today the radical idea of everyday cinema that Mekas pioneered is everywhere in art galleries. Here is an artist who has truly shaped our time.
• Serpentine Gallery, London...
Exhibition of the week: Jonas Mekas
The film-maker Jonas Mekas has been a hero of the New York art scene since the 1960s. He is not just an underground film-maker but the organiser and orchestrator of an entire cultural movement of alternative cinema that transformed ways of making art 50 years ago and still resonates today. Mekas helped Andy Warhol to become a film-maker and provided a personal record of Warhol and other avant garde figures, as well as of New York, in his own film diaries. Back then it seemed a strange idea for artists to make deadpan visual records of real life. Today the radical idea of everyday cinema that Mekas pioneered is everywhere in art galleries. Here is an artist who has truly shaped our time.
• Serpentine Gallery, London...
- 12/7/2012
- by Jonathan Jones
- The Guardian - Film News
Richard Phillips Gagosian Gallery Through October 20, 2012
I am running late, so I park the Ducati on the sidewalk and toss the keys to an eager production assistant. It is incredibly hot and crowded as I push my way through a crowd of background actors to the location, which has been carefully designed to look like a gallery. Wardrobe has given me an antique Ramones t-shirt (which actually has some of Debbie Harry's vintage blood on the sleeve) and a period Hugo Boss Nazi SS uniform jacket with five firing-squad bullet holes through the left lapel (vintage blood carefully removed). Also, store-torn Alexander McQueen jeans (a gift from an Olsen twin, I think) and flip-flops, which are decorated with pictures of colorful monkeys.
I stop to talk to Rachel Weisz, who seems to remember me from her chemistry reading for the part of a "kindly doctor" in Stasi Sluts II but suddenly excuses herself,...
I am running late, so I park the Ducati on the sidewalk and toss the keys to an eager production assistant. It is incredibly hot and crowded as I push my way through a crowd of background actors to the location, which has been carefully designed to look like a gallery. Wardrobe has given me an antique Ramones t-shirt (which actually has some of Debbie Harry's vintage blood on the sleeve) and a period Hugo Boss Nazi SS uniform jacket with five firing-squad bullet holes through the left lapel (vintage blood carefully removed). Also, store-torn Alexander McQueen jeans (a gift from an Olsen twin, I think) and flip-flops, which are decorated with pictures of colorful monkeys.
I stop to talk to Rachel Weisz, who seems to remember me from her chemistry reading for the part of a "kindly doctor" in Stasi Sluts II but suddenly excuses herself,...
- 9/22/2012
- by bradleyrubenstein
- www.culturecatch.com
The Belgium/France "documentary/fiction hybrid" Kinshasa Kids, set in the capital of Congo, is slated to screen at the upcoming New York Film Festival (September 28-October 14). The 85-min film by Belgian director Marc-Henri Wajnberg (2001's Oscar Niemeyer, un architecte engage dans le siecle) follows several kids in the streets of Kinshasa, Congo who are disowned by their families who believe they're "witch children". In the film, also billed as a musical, these resilient youngsters form a band and pursue their dreams as musicians. One of Kinshasa's stars, Rachel Mwanza, won the Best Actress Award at this year's Berlin Film Festival for her...
- 8/29/2012
- by Vanessa Martinez
- ShadowAndAct
Director Gary Hustwit is fast making a name for himself as a documentary filmmaker focused on the seemingly mundane. His first movie, 2007′s Helvetica, was entirely about the titular font. In 2009, he tackled industrial design in Objectified. Now he’s wrapping his design film trilogy with another documentary about something you see every day and never think twice about. This time it’s urban planning and design in Urbanized.
Urbanized premiered this year at Toronto, and we’ve got the trailer below.
Synopsis:
The final documentary in director Gary Hustwit’s design film trilogy (Helvetica and Objectified), Urbanized asks who is allowed to shape our cities, and how do they do it? How does the design of our cities affect our lives? Traveling to over 40 cities and exploring a diverse range of urban design projects around the world, from massive infrastructure initiatives to temporary interventions, Urbanized frames a global discussion on the future of cities.
Urbanized premiered this year at Toronto, and we’ve got the trailer below.
Synopsis:
The final documentary in director Gary Hustwit’s design film trilogy (Helvetica and Objectified), Urbanized asks who is allowed to shape our cities, and how do they do it? How does the design of our cities affect our lives? Traveling to over 40 cities and exploring a diverse range of urban design projects around the world, from massive infrastructure initiatives to temporary interventions, Urbanized frames a global discussion on the future of cities.
- 9/23/2011
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Urbanized
Directed by Gary Hustwit
2011, USA/United Kingdom, 82 minutes
I expect that fans of director Gary Hustwit’s previous films Helvetica and Objectified are already making plans to see his latest work. They won’t be disappointed. The audience at Friday’s screening certainly wasn’t. Observing the sea of people armed with library books, copies of The New Yorker, and NPR on iPods, Hustwit remarked that the output of Toronto’s creative community had been brought to a halt. To everyone else, then: the object of this review is to convince you that Urbanized is a witty, informed, and essential examination of one of the world’s most vital issues.
This documentary is a heady (but not at all overwhelming) mix. Urban design experts—architects, developers, city planners, academics, urban activists, and more—discuss their part of the field over slick cinematography featuring the some of world’s most iconic cities.
Directed by Gary Hustwit
2011, USA/United Kingdom, 82 minutes
I expect that fans of director Gary Hustwit’s previous films Helvetica and Objectified are already making plans to see his latest work. They won’t be disappointed. The audience at Friday’s screening certainly wasn’t. Observing the sea of people armed with library books, copies of The New Yorker, and NPR on iPods, Hustwit remarked that the output of Toronto’s creative community had been brought to a halt. To everyone else, then: the object of this review is to convince you that Urbanized is a witty, informed, and essential examination of one of the world’s most vital issues.
This documentary is a heady (but not at all overwhelming) mix. Urban design experts—architects, developers, city planners, academics, urban activists, and more—discuss their part of the field over slick cinematography featuring the some of world’s most iconic cities.
- 9/14/2011
- by Dave Robson
- SoundOnSight
Maverick director best known for his film of Ulysses – widely seen as a noble failure
There must be something quixotic about a director who sets out to make a film of James Joyce's Ulysses. A passionate Joycean, Joseph Strick, who has died aged 86, was undeterred by the challenge and the obstacles: "Even before I made it, people were saying it was unfilmable. I think the truth is, some people just find the book unreadable."
The iconoclastic Strick first envisaged an 18-hour version, faithful to every word, but unsurprisingly he could not get anyone to finance it. When the final two-hour version, shot in Dublin, was completed in 1967, it fell foul of censorship – just like the novel. The British Board of Film Censors requested 29 cuts to remove sexual references from Molly Bloom's final, expletive-laden soliloquy. Strick obliged by replacing all of the offending footage with a blank screen and a high-pitched shrieking sound.
There must be something quixotic about a director who sets out to make a film of James Joyce's Ulysses. A passionate Joycean, Joseph Strick, who has died aged 86, was undeterred by the challenge and the obstacles: "Even before I made it, people were saying it was unfilmable. I think the truth is, some people just find the book unreadable."
The iconoclastic Strick first envisaged an 18-hour version, faithful to every word, but unsurprisingly he could not get anyone to finance it. When the final two-hour version, shot in Dublin, was completed in 1967, it fell foul of censorship – just like the novel. The British Board of Film Censors requested 29 cuts to remove sexual references from Molly Bloom's final, expletive-laden soliloquy. Strick obliged by replacing all of the offending footage with a blank screen and a high-pitched shrieking sound.
- 6/17/2010
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Jean Nouvel, winner of the Pritzker Prize in 2008, is to design this year's Serpentine Pavilion in London. For the past decade, the gallery, situated in Hyde Park, has been home to some of the most innovative pop-up structures designed by a whole raft of architectural luminaries, including Zaha Hadid, Olafur Eliasson, and Frank Gehry, whose 2008 structure of timber and glass was absolutely breathtaking.
[youtube 5HsZbmhI954]
Previous pavilions have--with the exception, perhaps, of Oscar Niemeyer and Rem Koolhaas' designs--blended in with the Serpentine's bucolic surroundings, particularly Japanese duo Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, aka Sanaa, with their delicate open-sided glass and chrome structure.
Not Nouvel's. The architect, who famously wears only black in winter, and white in summer, has gone for the brightest shade of red imaginable with his design, which incorporates a 12 meter-high freestanding wall which juts out of the ground at a hairy angle. It will be fascinating to find...
[youtube 5HsZbmhI954]
Previous pavilions have--with the exception, perhaps, of Oscar Niemeyer and Rem Koolhaas' designs--blended in with the Serpentine's bucolic surroundings, particularly Japanese duo Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, aka Sanaa, with their delicate open-sided glass and chrome structure.
Not Nouvel's. The architect, who famously wears only black in winter, and white in summer, has gone for the brightest shade of red imaginable with his design, which incorporates a 12 meter-high freestanding wall which juts out of the ground at a hairy angle. It will be fascinating to find...
- 3/23/2010
- by Addy Dugdale
- Fast Company
Brad Pitt indulged in his love for architecture on Sunday when he travelled to Spain to view the construction of Brazilian building mastermind Oscar Niemeyer's latest project.
The Hollywood actor, who has been fascinated by building projects since he was a child, left his partner Angelina Jolie and their young family's retreat in the south of France and flew to Aviles, Spain for a special tour of the city's new International Cultural Center.
The $45 million (£30 million) environmentally sustainable construction is scheduled for completion next summer, but Pitt was treated to a special tour of the building site on Sunday.
Donning a hard hat, Pitt joined Aviles' Mayor Pilar Varela to watch the early stages of Niemeyer's cultural creation come together.
And the star is keen to get more involved in the centre, which counts director Woody Allen as one of its artistic advisers.
Varela says, "He is interested in supporting the project, both from its cultural aspects as well as its architectural design."
However, the local official insists nothing has been finalised yet, adding, "It is a little early to announce anything concrete."...
The Hollywood actor, who has been fascinated by building projects since he was a child, left his partner Angelina Jolie and their young family's retreat in the south of France and flew to Aviles, Spain for a special tour of the city's new International Cultural Center.
The $45 million (£30 million) environmentally sustainable construction is scheduled for completion next summer, but Pitt was treated to a special tour of the building site on Sunday.
Donning a hard hat, Pitt joined Aviles' Mayor Pilar Varela to watch the early stages of Niemeyer's cultural creation come together.
And the star is keen to get more involved in the centre, which counts director Woody Allen as one of its artistic advisers.
Varela says, "He is interested in supporting the project, both from its cultural aspects as well as its architectural design."
However, the local official insists nothing has been finalised yet, adding, "It is a little early to announce anything concrete."...
- 9/1/2009
- WENN
Like any couple with large family commitments and a late-summer vacation, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are seemingly making up for lost time with a pre-Labor Day getaway. The couple - who have been ensconced in their South of France chateau for two weeks - took separate daytrips over the weekend, demonstrating that with access to helicopters and private aircraft, their interests are quite far-flung. In a "Honey, take care of the kids! I'm off to see Napoleon's birthplace" excursion Friday, Jolie took Shiloh to Ajaccio, on the Mediterranean island of Corsica. The actress and her daughter strolled around the palm-lined Place Foch,...
- 9/1/2009
- by Peter Mikelbank
- PEOPLE.com
Brad Pitt was in his standard uniform these days and a hard hat as he visited the construction site of the Oscar Niemeyer's International Cultural Center in Aviles, Spain, today. The architecture enthusiast traveled to the country over the weekend and was spotted dining out with friends last night. The mayor of the city talked about why Brad wanted to learn about the project saying, "He is interested in supporting the project, the cultural as well as the architectural aspects." Brad is also apparently enthusiastic about the environmental and sustainable parts of the construction, which is something he's talked a lot about throughout his Make It Right campaign. View 15 Photos › To see more Brad just read more. View 15 Photos ›...
- 8/31/2009
- by Molly
- Popsugar.com
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has bestowed Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling with the honorary title of knight, the country's highest honour. Rowling, 43, became an honorary recipient of the country's Legion d'honneur (Legion of Honour) in a ceremony at the Elysee presidential palace on Tuesday.
The British writer's seven-part series about the boy wizard Potter has sold more than 400 million copies worldwide and inspired a series of blockbuster films, launching Rowling to international fame.
Rowling's fifth book in the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, became the first book in English ever to top the French best-sellers' list in 2003 - before it was translated into the country's native tongue.
Foreigners cannot be officially inducted, though they are routinely made honorary recipients.
Other foreign recipients include American actor Jerry Lewis, director Steven Spielberg, singer Barbra Streisand and Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer.
The British writer's seven-part series about the boy wizard Potter has sold more than 400 million copies worldwide and inspired a series of blockbuster films, launching Rowling to international fame.
Rowling's fifth book in the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, became the first book in English ever to top the French best-sellers' list in 2003 - before it was translated into the country's native tongue.
Foreigners cannot be officially inducted, though they are routinely made honorary recipients.
Other foreign recipients include American actor Jerry Lewis, director Steven Spielberg, singer Barbra Streisand and Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer.
- 2/3/2009
- WENN
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