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lifestyle MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013 MUSIC & MOVIES Japanese direc› tor

Actress Miori Takimoto poses during the photocall of “Kaze Tachinu” (The Wind Rises) presented in competition at the 70th Venice Film Festival yester- day at Venice Lido. — AFP Luke Steele of Empire of the Sun performs during the 2013 Budweiser Miyazaki retiresMade In America Festival at Benjamin apan’s Hayao Miyazaki, a director of feature-length Franklin Parkway on animations and manga artist who has been com- August 31, 2013 in Jpared to Walt Disney, is retiring after a four- Philadelphia, decade career, the head of his production company Pennsylvania. —AFP said yesterday. “Miyazaki has decided that ‘Kaze Tachinu’ will be his last film and he will now retire,” Koji Hoshino, head of Studio Ghibli, which was co-founded by Miyazaki, told reporters at the Venice film festival. The film, entitled “The Wind Rises” in English, tells the fictional story of a fighter jet designer and is one of 20 movies competing for the Golden Lion award at the Director: ‘Night Moves’ festival on the floating city’s Lido Island. Hoshino did not give any further details, saying only that Miyazaki would hold a press briefing in Tokyo. The director him- self was not at the film festival. The 72-year-old Miyazaki has won hearts and accolades around the not a political statement ndie filmmaker Kelly Reichardt, for the she also said she how small projects can sake of her dog, drives back and forth make a difference when she was invited Ibetween her New York home and the recently on a tour of five African nations Oregonian landscape that shapes her films, with former President Bill Clinton’s founda- noting along the way the increasing toll of tion. “I think the three characters are all look- industrialization. The observation has rele- ing for that kind of connected feeling and vance for her latest film, “Night Moves,” this is their way of feeling plugged into the which tells the story of three young envi- world, and plugged into the movement and ronmentalists who plot to blow up an activism,” she said. “Their maybe rash choice Oregon dam choking a stream and flooding is from a place of just wanting to feel a part old forests. The plotline puts front and cen- of it, and kind of being annoyed at the rest ter the issue of eco-terrorism - a term that of the people around them that they are not Reichardt does not endorse. “I would call it seeing it.” direct activism,” Reichardt said in an inter- “I think it happens with all kinds of differ- view Saturday ahead of the film’s world pre- ent things and not just activism. I certainly miere in competition at the Venice Film have moments where I’m like, ‘Am I the only Festival. “But if there is radicalism, I guess I person who feels this way? Seriously?” would say it is on behalf of the corporations. Fanning said. Eisenberg worked for several Photo taken on January 1, 1952 shows US-born When I drive cross-country and I see the months on the organic farm that was Russian Jewish violinist Yehudi Menuhin , as he sits face of America, to me it feels radical in how Reichardt’s starting point for the film, living next to his teacher Romanian composer, violinist little remains untouched.” in a yurt and working in cabbage fields - an and conductor Georges Enescu in Paris. —AFP “Nightmoves,” a thriller at heart, but with experience that helped the actor connect Reichardt’s thoughtful pacing, stars Jesse with his character’s motives. “It just gives Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter you a different sense of living,” Eisenberg Actress Dakota Fanning, director Kelly Reichardt and actor Jesse Eisenberg Top musicians gather Sarsgaard as environmentalists who have said. “When you are planting the food that pose for photographers on the red carpet for the screening of the film Night chosen a radical - and perilous - action to you eat, you feel a direct sense with interact- Moves. —AP/AFP photos protest environmental degradation. ing with the world for practical reasons, and for Romania’s Reichardt films in detail as the three organ- “a pretty dark character. He has a lot to feel of radicals, and I think the downsides are alternatively you are feeling disgusted by a ize the bombing, revealing the edginess of really, really right about, and that can be equally weighed.”The scenery informs this lot of modernity just by being separate from Eisenberg’s Josh, the almost carefree calm of dangerous.”Reichardt insists the film is not a movie, as in all of Reichardt’s work, and it. That is what my character is mainly driven ‘absolute’ composer Fanning’s Dena and the cavalier daring in meant to make a political statement. Rather Fanning said filming on location brought by. “My character thinks of himself as a sol- Sargaard’s Harmon as they buy a boat, fig- “it’s really a character film, and just based on the dilemmas home to her. “There is a scene dier in a war fighting what he views as mod- ehudi Menuhin described the Romanian vio- ure out how to get another 500 pounds of what I think would be the conversation of when they are on the boat going through a ern society that’s been co-opted by business linist and composer George Enescu as “the ammonium nitrate fertilizer and prepare the our time.”And she deflects questions about tree grave yard, with stumps sticking out of and technology,” he said. “I suppose there is Yabsolute by which I judge all others”. And 58 explosives. They are alternately meticulous whether she reveals details that might be the water. They used to be trees, but the a kind of irony if he is fighting to create a years after Enescu’s death, more than 4,000 musi- and careless. “These are not professionals” useful to would-be copycats. dam has changed the level of the water,” more beautiful, peaceful and sustainable cians from around the world, including top sym- Reichardt said. “Harmon has a sort of casual- “There was so much on the Internet, if Fanning said in an interview. environment, but doing it through kind of phonic orchestras, will gather in Bucharest for a ness that makes him dangerous and Dena is you wanted a manual,” she said during a Fanning said she could understand the dangerous means. He views his acts as right month to pay tribute to Romania’s greatest compos- at an age that makes her so self-assured, at press conference. “I am not sure the film cel- characters’ frustration with general apathy in and just, and he views the damage as collat- er. Conductor Daniel Barenboim yesterday opened least at the beginning.”She describes Josh as ebrates the glory. It is about the complexity the face of environmental destruction, but eral damage. — AP the four-week “Enescu international music festival”, considered by critics as one of the most prestigious in Europe. He will conduct the Berlin Staatskapelle orchestra and internationally acclaimed pianist Radu Lupu for Poverty and reces› Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsody no. 2. “Bucharest has always been a major musical centre and it has an added magic because of the name of Enescu,” Barenboim told a press conference. “Enescu was a very unusual figure, he was not only very well known as a wonderful violinist, he was a composer, icolas Cage reinhabits a low-life that economics had pretty much trans- the movie ... I hadn’t worked for one year he was a pianist and one of the most admired musi- version of his “Leaving Las Vegas” formed the industry. “The film business is and then I found this script,” Cage said at cal figure of the twentieth century,” he added. Nalcoholic in the Southern gothic undergoing a systematic change - not a news conference with his co-actors and “Joe” screened on Friday at the Venice systematic, systemic change. Everything the director. “For me it was a chance to The festival features international orchestras like Film Festival while a German film explores we know in this from the past doesn’t return to some very in-depth character the Rome-Accademia Santa Cecilia, the Amsterdam the dark issue of wife beating in the latest apply,” Schrader, who made the latest analysis, character building and to work Royal Concertgebouw or the London Royal competition offerings. Poverty, and the Lindsay Lohan movie “Canyons” on a low with David,” said Cage, who won the Philharmonic. The rising Chinese piano star Yuja effects of the 2008 economic crash on budget, told a news conference. Oscar for best actor for his portrayal of an Wang will play with the Pittsburgh Symphonic people and society, as well as the film In “Joe”, directed by David Gordon alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter drink- Orchestra. Also performing will be Russian pianists industry, were emerging themes at this Green and based on a novel of the same ing himself to death in the 1995 film Boris Berezovski and conductor Antonio Pappano, year’s festival, which opened on name by Larry Brown, Cage plays a hot- “Leaving Las Vegas”. For that film, Cage the director of the London Royal Opera House. “It is Wednesday and will conclude on Sept 7 headed, bourbon-swigging southerner said he learned how to portray a drunk by (From Left) US writer Bret Easton Ellis, actor James very rare to see such a density of top musicians over videotaping himself after a few drinks. Deen, director Paul Schrader and actress Tenille such a short period,” Ioan Holender, the former This time, he said he and co-actor Tye Huston pose during the photocall of “The Canyons” director of the Vienna State Opera told AFP. Sheridan, the teenage boy for whom Joe presented out of competition. —AFP Romanian-born Holender is acting as artistic becomes a surrogate father, simulated director of the festival and has been trying for years the feeling by spinning around to make to make Enescu’s music better known around the themselves dizzy. Lohan skips world. Enescu was born in the village of Liveni in northern Romania to a family of 12. His first violin Triggers for abuse Venice to focus lessons came from a local Roma fiddler. He entered “Die Frau des Polizisten” (“The Police the Vienna Conservatory at the age of 7, graduating Officer’s Wife”) shows a young family in with distinction as a violinist at the age of 10. He provincial Germany whose seemingly on health played to Brahms and knew Bartok, Strauss, Ravel, carefree life descends into violence. Director Philip Groening, who made the indsay Lohan says she skipped the Debussy and Shostakovich. Acclaimed international- 2005 art-house hit “Into Great Silence” Venice Film Festival to “focus on my ly as a violinist, he was less known in the West as a about Carthusian monks in the Swiss alps, health and well-being.” Lohan wrote on composer though he wrote operas like “Oedipe”, L said that while the film was mostly about her website Saturday that she never con- rhapsodies and symphonies inspired by Romanian the emotional and psychological triggers firmed she would be in Venice to promote traditional music. for abuse, economics also played a role. Paul Schrader’s “The Canyons.” She said In 1958, the Enescu festival was set up in “The film does not deal with domestic would have enjoyed being at the festival, Bucharest to pay tribute to his music. The biennial From left, director David Gordon Green, actors Nicolas Cage, Tye Sheridan violence only, the film is also dealing with “but my focus is on my health and well- festival was banned by the communist regime in and Ronnie Blevins arrive for the screening of the film Joe at the 70th edi- the love between the mother and the being. Plain and simple, it is of the utmost 1971 but came back to life after the fall of dictator tion of the Venice Film Festival. —AP daughter,” Groening said. “There is also importance.” Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989. Today it attracts around the poverty aspect to the film.” Schrader declared himself “a free man” 120,000 spectators. During the festival, concerts will with the awarding of the Golden Lion tro- who befriends a young boy who comes Patrol policeman Uwe works shifts after she failed to show Friday, saying ‘for also take place on the streets, in cafes and even in phy for best film. On Wednesday, Mexican from a violent background. Poverty oozes and has essentially no career prospects. the last 16 months I’ve been hostage, by tribunals. Contemporary artists will expose their director Alfonso Cuaron said his big-bud- out of almost every scene, from the bat- His wife Christine and little daughter own choosing, to a very talented but works in public squares. “The international press get space disaster drama “Gravity”, the tered GMC truck Joe drives to pick up Clara appear steadily more confined to unpredictable actress. “He said she had usually writes about Romanians linked to crime and festival opener, had almost been derailed black workers he employs to poison a for- their small home. “We tore out all the ceil- confirmed she would be there. Lohan, 27, corruption but we wanted to show the creativity of by the crash. est for clearance, to his neighbours in ings so we could light every corner of the has been plagued by legal and substance this country”, Oana Marinescu, PR manager for the Director Paul Schrader, who wrote tumbledown shacks who eat wild ani- house,” Groening said after the screening, abuse problems in recent years. She com- festival, told AFP. — AFP “Taxi Driver”, “Raging Bull” and other big mals they find by the side of the road. adding that several aspects of family life pleted her latest court-ordered stay in hits of the 1970s and ‘80s, said on Friday “I was very careful in the selection of are under the microscope. —Reuters rehab in July.