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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 01_Q414_CEN_UK_00_COVER.indd 1 13.10.14 15:55 CONTENTS WINTER 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 NILSSON MARCUS By Laurie Kahle By Claire Rigby By Laurie Kahle PHOTO 14 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM 14_16_Q414_CEN_UK_01_CONTENTS.indd 14 13.10.14 17:51 WINTER ISSUE 4, 2014 CONTENTS 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 leather jacket 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 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 16 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM 14_16_Q414_CEN_UK_01_CONTENTS.indd 16 15.10.14 11:09 PICTURE-ALLIANCE One of The Brando’s thatched PHOTO beachside huts on Mermaid Bay; facing page: the iconic actor with co-star130 Tarita CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM Teriipaia during a break in the filming of Mutiny on the Bounty 130_137_Q414_CEN_UK_08_FEA_BRANDO.indd 130 15.10.14 11:17 BRANDO’S lost ISLAND 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 Tahiti’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 trees. 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 PICTURE-ALLIANCE of ukulele music, semi-authentic tiki “But I’m sorry.” generation first laid eyes on Tetiaroa in PHOTO lamps and pasty white tourists. By day three, having scoured every 1960, he was not in what you might call CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM 131 130_137_Q414_CEN_UK_08_FEA_BRANDO.indd 131 15.10.14 11:18 A hermit crab in one of the atoll’s forests Mermaid Bay, where 13 of the resort’s villas are scattered along the verdant beachfront 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. Fletcher Christian, 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 Anna Kashfi, 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 Carol Reed overboard already been nominated for five Oscars Mutiny on the Bounty turned out to be and replaced him with another guy and won one, for On the Waterfront, seemed Brando’s most brilliant mistake . From (Lewis Milestone). Once the whole increasingly adrift. His latest film, a western 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. 132 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM 130_137_Q414_CEN_UK_08_FEA_BRANDO.indd 132 15.10.14 11:18 The treatment cabin at Varua Polynesian Spa stands seven metres high in the palm tree canopy Tuna sashimi by resort chef Antoine Gonzalez 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).