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TROPICAL TIDINGS: BRANDO’S TAHITIAN IDYLL, CARIBBEAN HIDEAWAYS AND BORNEO'S JUNGLE PARADISE FRENCH FANCIES: BORDEAUX’S NEW WAVE, PARIS’S EMERGING QUARTIER AND A MAJESTIC REBIRTH Plus: The Biennale Report – art and jewels take centre stage

WINTER 2014

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124 PARTY ON Pomellato Divine jewellery for morganite, sapphire and cocktail hour and beyond diamond Pom Styled by Shannon Adducci Pom ring Photography Marcus Nilsson

ISSUE 4, 2014 FEATURES 110 130 142 WELL SUITED PARADISE FOUND BORDEAUX BOUNCE Formal or relaxed - this Marlon Brando’s vision of an Avant-garde winemakers season’s ensemble for the eco-resort on his Tahitian are turning the region style-conscious gentleman hideaway has come to fruition upside down Styled by Brian Coats By Ned Zeman By Jeffrey T Iverson Photography Kalle Gustafsson Photography Roberto Frankenberg Illustrations Valero Doval

118 138 148 THE ART OF TIME SÃO PAULO RISES MUST BE MUSTIQUE Lovingly crafted métiers d’art After a successful biennial, Private properties, now watches are causing a stir in Brazil’s largest city is truly available to rent, make the the world of horology elevating its cultural acumen island ever more alluring By Laurie Kahle By Claire Rigby By Laurie Kahle PHOTO NILSSON MARCUS

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21 26 FROM THE EDITOR Regulars CONTRIBUTORS

66 CHECKING IN China’s ever-growing high-end hostelry scene; London openings; Etihad’s sublime suite in the air

70 FANTASY ISLAND Amid rare fauna and flora, a unique experience awaits off Borneo’s coast

74 GLOBAL GOURMAND Culinary updates from the US, Australia and Spain, plus the latest gastronomic tomes

29 Style & beauty Blackbook 81 ZIP IT UP 29 Which to choose this ROOM REPORTS season – and what to wear it with From the Alps to the Caribbean, the very latest in luxe hotels, villas, suites 90 and chalets FIT FOR PURPOSE Gadgets, gyms and gear for looking 36 good and staying in shape ALL AREAS 74 Citizenship investment programmes 92 offer something akin to a global passport THE ESSENTIALS A selection of must-have items to 38 ensure the ultimate stylish look TOKYO NOW The Japanese capital revs up for the future with a nod to its storied past Art & design 99 46 CUTTING EDGE YOUNG AT HEART The bladesmiths who provide top A design-cum-eatery project aims to chefs and – increasingly – keen MANDARIN ORIENTAL, JAMES WOJCIK JAMES ORIENTAL, © MANDARIN be the centre of a new Parisian cool amateurs with the sharpest of knives

52 38 102 TURKISH DELIGHT JEWEL FEST

Why Istanbul is proving to be a Paris’s Biennale des Antiquaires DIRTY FRENCH, © thoroughly modern city showcases the crème de la crème in timeless design 54 COSTA RICA CALLING 106 A glamorous hideaway is worthy of CULTURAL CACHE the country’s spectacular surrounds Exhibitions across the globe, as well as a new museum in the French capital 62 RETURN TO GLORY 108 The Peninsula Paris captures the THE TURNAROUND SALCHER, THADDAEUS TOP: FROM spirit of la belle époque while adding 92 Maserati is celebrating its centenary a modern twist in style with a remarkable new saloon PHOTOS

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co-star130 Tarita CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM Teriipaia during a break in the filming of Mutiny on the

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Ten years after the elusive actor’s death, a new eco-resort on his Tahitian hideaway adds an intriguing appendix to the strangest chapter of his life.

WORDS BY NED ZEMAN/PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROBERTO FRANKENBERG

hen I arrived at ’s Faa’a And then came the rain. It poured for last tiki shop in Papeete, I was a prisoner International Air port, in two solid days, in sheets, accompanied by of my hotel room. I squinted out at the capital city of Papeete, wind swells that churned the sea and bent the ocean, cursing Brando and Wmy first impressions were more or the palm . The rain was so relentless wondering what kind of fool would visit, less in line with my preconceptions and the sky so convulsive that the short let alone build, a €3,000-a-night ecolodge about tropical travel destinations. flight to Tetiaroa, Marlon Brando’s private – one fueled by coconut oil, seawater and Even then, at the crack of dawn on a island and the site of a new five-star sunshine – on some godforsaken blip typical March morning, the humidity ecolodge that bears his name, was delayed in the South Pacific. I’ve since come to was such that my T-shirt was soaked indefinitely. “I like to be optimistic,” said regret those words. with sweat. There was an abundance Silvio Bion, The Brando’s general manager. When the greatest actor of his of ukulele music, semi-authentic tiki “But I’m sorry.” generation first laid eyes on Tetiaroa in

PHOTO PICTURE-ALLIANCE lamps and pasty white tourists. By day three, having scoured every 1960, he was not in what you might call

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Sea life around the island includes starfish Cycling is a key way of traversing the resort Captain on board: setting off for a diving trip

the island spirit. Brando was only 36 the film’s director: Marlon Brando. , the rebellious sailor at the time, but years of mental and Hairline receding, heartache mounting, who defied the ship’s captain, took familial strife were taking their toll. His patience dwindling, Brando was damn charge of the ship and returned to Tahiti, first marriage, to actress , near desperate to get as far away from where he’d fallen for a local woman. had ended a year earlier; his second Hollywood as possible. Such was his That the production was a flaming marriage, to Movita Castaneda, another angst that he rejected one very golden shipwreck – the Waterworld of its day – film star, was already on the rocks. ticket – the lead in Lawrence of Arabia, was not the fault of any single person. because he couldn’t stomach spending Producers, actors, writers – they endlessly n the meantime, Brando’s relationship “two years of my life on some fucking bickered about the script, the ship, the I with Hollywood was growing strained. camel” – in favour of a production filmed weather; at one point, MGM essentially The brutishly charismatic life force who’d in the far-flung idyll of Tahiti. pushed director overboard already been nominated for five Oscars turned out to be and replaced him with another guy and won one, for , seemed Brando’s most brilliant mistake . From (). Once the whole increasingly adrift. His latest film, a the very beginning, the production nightmare was over, after two years at called One-Eyed Jacks, had been a creative became a kind of meta incarnation of sea and the loss of millions in budget and commercial disappointment, thanks in the true-life mutiny on which the film overruns, nobody agreed on anything, part to delays and expenditures caused by was based. Fittingly, Brando played except for this: the worst part was Brando.

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Honey farm: The Brando’s beehives Liroy and Ariitu, two of the hosts for activities A bathroom in one of the single-bedroom villas

This marked the official start of The interest in Hollywood celebrity. Tahitians, unlike any other in Polynesia. Amid Bad Marlon Period , in which the actor he’d say, were among the only people on the natural splendour – 1,200 acres of came off as a petulant, pretentious lout earth who rarely, if ever, requested his pristine exotica, including a neon-green who phoned in his performances and autograph or pitched him movie ideas. lagoon, endless coconut trees and a bit the hand that fed him. In this film, as small army of sea turtles – sat crumbled in others that followed, he undermined hile the film’s cast and crew cursed remnants of Tetiaroa’s storied past. directors, flubbed lines and missed call Whis name, Brando went native. He Centuries ago, the first humans to set times. He alienated everyone around wore silk sarongs and ventured around foot on the atoll turned the place into a him. And he couldn’t have cared less. Polynesia. But his true come-to-Jesus kind of ancient Fantasy Island, replete Because he was in love. moment occurred while riding a dinghy to with pagan orgies and taboo rituals. Brando pulled a Fletcher Christian. an atoll that seemed more accessible than Later, in the 18th century, Tetiaroa was For starters, he fell for a lovely Tahitian it actually was. To reach the white-sand visited first by Captain James Cook and woman, Tarita Teriipaia, an actress who beaches of Tetiaroa required the dinghy then by his second-in-command played his love interest in the film (and to assay an inhospitable and occasionally William Bligh, the deposed leader of who also happened to be 19 years old). treacherous coral reef that encircles the atoll, the HMS Bounty. Mostly, though, the atoll He also fell for the Tahitian people – a as if insulating it from the outside world. was to Tahitian royalty as St Barths is to generally easygoing lot who evinced scant Then, as now, Tetiaroa was a sight holidaying Russian plutocrats.

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130_137_Q414_CEN_UK_08_FEA_BRANDO.indd 133 15.10.14 11:18 PER BRANDO’S DIRECTIONS, THE BEACH REMAINS WHOLLY free of commercial DEVELOPMENT

So it made a certain kind of sense “He had people come over,” recalled n an island with virtually no when, in 1966, the atoll was purchased Medavoy, whom Brando named an executor Oinfrastructure – no electricity, no by Hollywood royalty (albeit after a of his estate. “I know a lot of people who water system – Bailey said, “The power rather awkward period in which Tetiaroa went there. I talked to . He required for cooling is too great.” was owned by a rich Canadian dentist). spent a few weeks there. I talked to Quincy “Oh,” Brando replied, “it’s possible.” Brando paid $270,000 for the whole Jones. He spent time there.” Three days into my rain-slogged stay place, which he viewed in spiritual Ultimately, the lodge was as long in Papeete, the clouds above the Pacific terms. It would be, in addition to his on good intentions as it was short on were angry and volatile. And so was I. second home, the place where his ashes amenities and functionality; in a tropical One of Bailey’s deputies, a cheerfully would one day be scattered. outpost as humid and muggy as this efficient Frenchman named Laurent More than anything, he endeavoured one could be, only so many visitors Darcy, repeatedly informed me that our to bring Tetiaroa back to the future. He’d tolerated a lack of air-conditioning. So, pilot was prohibited from lifting off clean up the messes past owners had left in an effort to conceptualise a hotel that with such limited visibility – especially behind while simultaneously protecting would be cool in both senses of the word, given that the only plane available was a and preserving the atoll’s natural glory. Brando pored over academic journals single-engine prop that Darcy described “If I have my way,” he said, “Tetiaroa and books on the climate and consulted as “rather compact”. will remain forever a place that reminds experts like John Craven, PhD, the Darcy took me to meet Bailey, a trim Tahitians of who they are and what they former chief scientist for the US Navy and fit fellow who, like pretty much were centuries ago.” Special Projects Office. “I want to build everyone involved with The Brando, a resort that’s 100% self-sufficient on looks as if he just stepped out of a travel rando preached this gospel to renewable energy,” he told prospective brochure. Bailey, who operates six hotels Bpretty much everyone he knew. investors . This was in the late 1990s, and resorts in Polynesia, struck me as This included , a famed when “renewable energy” was an en- the kind of corporate player Brando Hollywood executive who, during his vogue term oft used by the eco-friendly, would have instinctively mistrusted. And stewardship of three movie studios environmentally-sensitive set. my hunch was right. “Dirty capitalist,” (Orion, TriStar and United Artists), “Impossible,” replied Richard Bailey, Brando called him. produced a raft of classics, among the president and CEO of a noted hotel “Crazy actor,” Bailey replied. For them Annie Hall, Raging Bull, Network, group called Pacific Beachcomber. five years, the two men endeavoured to Amadeus and The Silence of the Lambs. Medavoy and Brando grew friendly while collaborating on and . “Tetiaroa was Marlon’s way to get away from all the things you and I do every single day in Hollywood – talking to people, constantly moving,” Medavoy said. “I always remember the e-mail he sent when I was given a star on Hollywood Boulevard. I called him up, and I said, ‘Marlon, they’ve asked me to get a couple of my friends to write a nice letter about me.’ And he wrote me a letter that read: ‘I’m going to be laying on a beach in Tetiaroa. I’m going to be looking at the stars and thinking about all the birds shitting on your star. You don’t need a star to tell you who you are.’ ” Medavoy hastened to note that Brando wasn’t the antisocial hermit he was reputed to be. Among Brando’s pet projects on Tet iaroa was the construction of a (very) modest, ecofriendly lodge. Alfresco breakfast taken beachside

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join Bailey’s pragmatism with Brando’s same at a resort in Bora Bora. the 25-minute flight to Te tiaroa . The idealism. The actor, who was obsessed “Brando was really excited about plane, as it buzzed out over the Pacific, with octagons, wanted the hotel designed that,” Bailey said. “He wanted to come headed straight toward and through a accordingly. “Um,” Bailey explained, “an down and celebrate. Unfortunately, he thick cumulus cloud that stretched all octagon is hard to furnish.” wasn’t able to make it.” the way down to the sea; spray coated Brando, Bailey said, had another the windshield, making it hard to see concept that was ultimately put on the his period coincided with the actor’s anything but mist. back-burner: “He had this idea that he Tworsening personal travails – none Then, just as quickly, we emerged could create a floating platform that greater than the tragedy that befell Brando’s into brilliant sunlight that revealed, would be like a bar out in the lagoon eldest son, Christian, and Brando’s ahead, what looked like a psychedelic that he would rig with kites or parasails. Tahitian-born daughter, Cheyenne. In oil spill. This was Tetiaroa. Thanks to And he would anchor this to the bottom 1990, Christian fatally shot Cheyenne’s its coral reefs, which create a protective of the lagoon with some slack in the boyfriend, Dag Drollet, the son of a Papeete outer shelf, Tetiaroa sits amid a vast, lines. And these kites would lift the bar notable, during a boozy domestic dispute shallow lagoon that glows electric out of the water.” at their father’s mansion in Beverly Hills. turquoise when hit by sunlight. Increasingly, though, the two men Christian went to prison; Cheyenne later Our pilot banked sharply before found common ground, especially once committed suicide. Their father died on making a somewhat harrowing Bailey came to appreciate that Brando, July 1, 2004 – ten years, to the day, before landing on a modest airstrip on the despite his “weird” obsession with The Brando opened its doors. atoll’s main islet. Alighting from renewable energy, was crazy like a fox. “We must go now,” Darcy told me. It the plane, we moved past a series By the mid-2000s, green technology was early the next morn ing, during a rare of construction sites. More than 200 had advanced to the degree that air- break in the weather. “Fingers crossed.” workers – Tahitians, all – were putting conditioning could indeed be fueled by Within minutes, six of us squeezed the finishing touches on buildings sea water. Bailey had accomplished the inside the wee aircraft and commenced and roads. Some of the guys had been

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130_137_Q414_CEN_UK_08_FEA_BRANDO.indd 135 15.10.14 11:18 there since the beginning. A typical Parisian restaurant with two Michelin Bailey project in Bora Bora takes about stars. Alternatively, there’s a more casual 28 months; this one took 40. That’s place called the Beach Front. Both will what happens when you have to build serve primarily local Polynesian fare – everything – water systems, electrical much of it grown on Tetiaroa. Because wiring, waste management – from scratch. The Brando is all-inclusive , guests can Arriving guests will never see the tow eat wherever, whenever. “On the other trucks or workers’ dorms; instead, they hand,” Darcy said, “we expect that many will be escorted down a flower-laden of our guests will want room service.” road leading to a kind of village centre The Brando has honeymoon written dotted with blondish wooden buildings all over it. Each of its 35 villas is a that answer the question: what happens temple of privacy, shielded by dense when you marry Tahitian traditional with walls of foliage. Inside one of the 96 sq Danish modernism? You get some pretty m one-bedroom spaces, you’ll find a damn cool “huts”, starting with a two- plush sitting area with a vaguely Malibu story concierge centre. Like many other sensibility . To the right you’ll find a buildings there, this one features pillars bedroom with a king-size bed from rendered from the trunks of aito trees. which you can see clear to the Pacific; the Because the aito is not native to Tetiaroa bathroom has twin plantation-style sinks

“TETIAROA WAS Marlon’s way to get away”

– Brando planted them in order to and an outdoor tub. Step outside onto conceal the landing strip – Bailey’s design the back patio and there’s your own little repurposed them, in order to make room plunge pool. Take a few more steps and for other indigenous flora. suddenly you’re standing on what is, for all practical purposes, your own private arcy led me along a winding ramp beach. At no point will the neighbouring Dthat brought us to the money villas be visible to you: per Brando’s shot, which arrived in the form of a directions, the beach remains wholly free sprawling indoor-outdoor expanse of commercial development. The lagoon known as Bob’s Bar; it’s named after the feels like your lagoon. ramshackle drinking hole at Brando’s Most importantly: The air-conditioning is original lodge. “Actually, he called it perfect. This is no small accomplishment; Dirty Old Bob’s Bar,” Bailey told me. in fact, Darcy seemed most excited when “But that seemed a bit much.” showing off the resort’s renewable-energy The outdoor patio, which includes a processes: solar panels, zinc-bromine series of private ramps and sitting areas, flow batteries, a biofuel thermal power offers panoramic views of … pretty much station and, last but not least, sea water the entire South Pacific, including Tahiti. air conditioning. Basically, the resort This is the spot at which guests will take ran a large pipeline out into the ocean; and post the most selfies, in order to it sucks in cold seawater, which is then express their material dominance over transformed into a coolant. The process is everyone else. Already I resent them. as simple as it is spectacular. And yet ... even as I beheld the eco- ust up the road stands a structure splendour, part of me couldn’t help but Jthat resembles a ship’s hull. This is wonder if the whole green thing was just the resort’s fine-dining restaurant; its shtick – a branding strategy to rope in executive chef is Guy Martin, whose rich holidaymakers who want to feel like portfolio includes Le Grand Véfour, a they’re making a difference.

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I felt better once Darcy showed me “I’m not really interested in the a large “eco-station” that houses two Hollywood part,” Bagnis said. “The new labs – one indoor, one outdoor man was a visionary. He brought the – that serve as a kind of think tank Smithsonian here around the early ’80s for scientists and students devoted to to research and protect [Tetiaroa].” As preserving and studying the atoll’s for the resort: “The commercial part biodiversity. There I came across a doesn’t bother me, because it’s the vision marine biologist studying the coral reefs; of Brando. Preservation is hard. The in the background, a group of schoolkids government doesn’t have much money. A were getting lessons in conservation. hotel can bring some money and help the Already the eco-station has developed preservation. It’s worth it.” relationships with three US colleges. It Ultimately, though, the one person was the brainchild of Brando himself. who could best assess The Brando’s For years the resort was the subject of merits didn’t live long enough to see it. heated debate and haggling – at times So we’ll just have to take Bailey’s word some of Brando’s own children were for it when he said: “I’ve felt Marlon up in arms. The resort wasn’t built until looking over my shoulder every step everyone got a piece of the action. of the way. Hardly a single decision Perhaps the most persuasive Tahitian was made without weighing how it fit I met that week was an attorney named with his vision – not just out of respect Hinano Bagnis. She runs the Tetiaroa for him, but because he really did Society, a nonprofit organisation understand what was the good thing devoted to sustainable development. to do on his island. We’re very much Bagnis does this in part because of the trying to realise that vision. I think it’s a impact Brando made on both her and great vision.” ♦ the atoll. She met Brando back in the The Brando starts at €3,000 a night for up to , when she was just one of the local two people, with a minimum of three nights; kids he loved to play with. thebrando.com

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