lifestyle TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

MUSIC & MOVIES Lebanese film director briefly detained over visit ebanese film director Ziad Doueiri, through art, Doueiri responded angrily “I strug- detained briefly for previous visits to Israel, gled for the Palestinian cause before you were Lblasted yesterday people who accused him born.” He then told the journalist that he will not of normalization with the Jewish state saying his respond to his questions. Joelle Touma, Doueiri’s work is for the good of and the ex-wife and co-writer of “The Insult,” told Palestinian cause. It was not clear why the - reporters there that he had come to for the based Doueiri, director of the award-winning civ- film’s opening. She said he was stopped at the air- il war film “West Beirut,” was detained Sunday port, where he was questioned for about 90 min- night, as he has visited Lebanon several times utes before authorities confiscated his Lebanese since traveling to Israel. Lebanon and Israel are in and French passports. He was allowed to leave on a state of war and Beirut bans its citizens from the condition that he appears before a military visiting Israel or having business dealings with court the following day for further questioning, Israelis. she said. Doueiri told reporters after three hours of Culture Minister Ghattas Khoury tweeted in questioning at a military court in Beirut yesterday that “Ziad Doueiri is a great Lebanese direc- that authorities found that he has “no criminal tor who has been honored around the world. intentions against the Palestinian cause.” Doueiri’s Respecting and honoring him is a must #Lebanon.” latest film, “The Insult,” opens in Lebanon this Lebanese film director Ziad Doueiri, holds up his Lebanese and French In this Dec 8, 2012 file photo, Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri poses for Doueiri’s lawyer, Njaib Lyan, told reporters that week, after winning the best actor award at the Passports as he speaks to journalists after being released by a military photographers after receiving The Golden Star award, for his film “The after three hours at the military court his client was earlier this month. Doueiri court, in Beirut, Lebanon yesterday. — AP photos Attack” during the 12th Marrakech International Film Festival in released without any charges. He said some peo- said that Kamel El Basha, the Palestinian awarded Marrakech, . ple envy Doueiri’s international fame. He added best actor at the Venice Film Festival, spent two that inside the court Doueiri was told that he visit- years in Israeli jails. He said some journalists are ed Israel without permission from Lebanese trying to undermine him ahead of the film show- Abi Saab, who is opposed to any dealings with to carry him on our shoulders and welcome him “dirty words against some people and accused authorities. Lyan said Doueiri had told authorities ing in Beirut, which begins on Thursday. Israel, wrote a column in the daily Al-Akhbar last as a conqueror,” Abi Saab wrote. “We will not them of being Zionists.” at the time that he planned to visit Israel for a Doueiri’s previous film, “The Attack,” was week titled “Ziad Doeiri, apologize for your Israeli accept that the crime be covered,” he wrote, refer- movie he is working on but never got a response. banned in Lebanon and most Arab countries. The slip.” He said that Doueiri spent months in Israel to ring to Doueiri’s visits to Israel. Speaking to A great Lebanese director “The Insult is the pride of Lebanon’s industry. We in movie is about a Palestinian surgeon living in Tel film “The Attack,” spending money there and reporters outside the military court, Doueiri said “My mother breastfed me Palestinian milk and Lebanon do Hummus and Shawerma well, and we Aviv who discovers that a suicide attack in the speaking to Israeli media defending his movie he was well treated by Lebanese security agen- the Palestinian cause. Members of my family were do very good movies as well,” Doueiri said referring city that killed 17 people was carried out by his amid criticism in Lebanon. cies during his brief detention but blasted jour- killed while fighting with the Palestinians,” Doueiri to national dishes. — AP wife. The movie was filmed in Israel and featured “Today, Ziad Doueiri is coming on a white nalists he refused to name “that are fabricating said. When a journalist asked him a question several Israeli actors. Lebanese journalist Pierre horse from Venice with a new movie expecting us things to block the new movie.” He said they used about normalization of relations with Israel Russian film turns classic author into sexy supersleuth

new Russian film aimed at a youth audience whose most famous work was the novel “Dead being released in two versions, one with a 16+ reinvents classic novelist Nikolai Gogol as a Souls” published in 1842 — grew up in today’s certificate and another more graphic one with an Agothic-style detective who battles dark Ukraine and was inspired by its folk traditions. 18+ age limit. supernatural forces to solve a series of ritual mur- ders. Critics have queried the lashings of eyeliner, Compulsory reading Silicone lips plumped-up lips and lack of historical rigour, while “We made up the possible circumstances in Played in the film by 28-year-old actor the makers say the film will breathe new life into which Gogol wrote ‘Evenings on a Farm Near Alexander Petrov, Gogol is pale and brooding the 19th-century writer’s works for today’s school Dykanka’,” said producer Alexander Tsekalo. “We with dark-rimmed eyes. He periodically falls into pupils. Mist swirls, black horses gallop through linked up all the scary incidents into a sequence epileptic fits, waking up with the latest clue to the murders. “You see what other people can’t see!” says one of the characters. He also enjoys lusty encounters with beautiful young women, some of (from left) Actor Benedict Cumberbatch, director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, Michael whom have suspiciously plumped-up lips. “I don’t Shannon, Nicholas Hoult and executive producer Michael Mitnick attend ‘The Current think they brought silicone to Dykanka in Gogol’s War’ press conference during the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival at TIFF Bell day. I also don’t think Gogol wore eye makeup,” Lightbox on September 10, 2017 in Toronto, Canada. — AFP photos complained a reviewer in Vokrug TV entertain- ment website. Interfax news agency in turn slammed the dialogue as lacking in historic accu- racy, saying characters “talk like salespeople in a mobile phone store.” But the makers stress the film isn’t meant to be taken too seriously. At a presentation of the film in Moscow, they wore T-shirts with the slogan “Sorry Gogol”. A promotional clip for the film shows an actor playing a flustered school teacher, who laments: “I never in my life expected to see Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol without his trousers on.” “The slight trashiness is intentional,” director Yegor Baranov told Momenty, a regional entertainment A man walks past posters of the “Gogol. The Start” film as he enters a cinema in Moscow.—AFP site. The film’s poster shows Gogol holding a blood- stained quill, with the cutline: “The darkest hour comes before dawn.” dark forests and naked witches leap over bonfires and gave them a single perpetrator, a serial killer, Although the film’s playing fast and loose with in the first film in a planned series of four, called you could say,” Tsekalo said at a press conference. the classics outraged some, critics generally said “Gogol. The Start,” which opened in cinemas on “Gogol, as he awaits a new investigator, is forced to the film worked on its own terms. The reviewer August 31 and will also be shown in an eight- investigate these crimes himself.” “All the rest is for Vokrug TV concedes that if the series contin- episode television version. Gogol, and even the fact that he worked as a scribe ues on the same level “young people could get a The film is based partly on the author’s real life, in the Third Department (political police), and nice locally made horror flick.” “As a horror B- with references to his epileptic fits and a brief job came to Dykanka in this job-all that happened in movie, it’s not bad,” wrote Rossiiskaya Gazeta as a clerk for the tsarist political police-as well as to real life.” Gogol’s works are compulsory reading in government newspaper, citing the “nudity and his fear of being buried alive. In the film, Gogol Russian schools. One of the film’s scenarists disembowelling.” — AFP Benedict Cumberbatch interacts with fans as he attends “The Current War” premiere. works alongside a famed tsarist investigator, who is Natalya Merkulova praised the film as “a giant step sent to rural Ukraine to probe a series of murders of forward” for giving Gogol “new life”. young women. The plot references Gogol’s works, He and other classic writers “hang in class- especially the spooky tales of peasant life collected rooms in big dusty portraits-and everyone is sick Edison, Westinghouse row in “Evenings on a Farm Near Dykanka.” Gogol- to the back teeth of them,” she claimed. The film is electrifies Toronto film fest scar nominees Benedict Cumberbatch who had achieved a great deal from humble Carey’s rap collaborations and Michael Shannon electrified audi- beginnings, who felt assailed in the world. I Oences at the Toronto film festival don’t think that ever left him.” Sunday with their portrayals of Thomas Edison Edison, he said, was “someone who chose to be honored at VH1 event and his rival in the race for marketable elec- really not to hear repeated truth... and that ariah Carey’s many collaborations Dirty Bastard, Nas, Snoop Dogg and Diddy. tricity, George Westinghouse. “The Current corrupted him.” “It’s an ugly truth, but it’s with rap artists will be celebrated at The event will be hosted by actress Regina War” was directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, formed out of something that’s very human. I the 2017 VH1 Hip Hop Honors. VH1 Hall and will also honor actor Martin who described Edison as someone “who came think there’s some degree of salvation in the M from a world of spontaneous invention with- sense that he (eventually) admitted that he said yesterday the singer will be honored at Lawrence. Missy Elliott will perform. VH1 said the Sept 17 taping, dubbed “Hip Hop Honors: the TV special honoring hip-hop’s foray into out really seeing the purpose for it at first, and was wrong.” To prepare for the role, The 90’s Game Changers,” at Paramount pop culture will also “recognize the victims of created a purpose for something.” In contrast, Cumberbatch said he read an extract from Studios in Hollywood, California. It will air the hurricanes and provide viewers with ways he said, “Westinghouse could immediately Edison’s diary in which the inventor talked Sept 18. Carey, who has launched countless to take action to help.” — AP contextualize something and see how it could frankly about his dreams, “his diet and bowel pop hits, has been known for her collabora- be greater for society.” “The rivalry between movements, or lack thereof,” literature, “his them was interesting,” Gomez-Rejon said, fantasy world” and how he once “got into a tions and remixes with rappers, including Jay In this file photo, Mariah Carey arrives at the Kids’ Choice Z, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Busta Rhymes, Ol’ because of “what it said about the world and mess in New York because he asked a conduc- Awards at the Galen Center in Los Angeles. — AP how we can, through invention and technolo- tor on a tram which stop to get off at and he gy, leave it better than how we found it.” couldn’t hear him.” Edison and his team conducted the first Edison had suffered from partial hearing incandescent lightbulb tests in 1879 and a few loss since childhood. “He was very funny, very years later began broad distribution of elec- self-deprecating,” Cumberbatch commented. David v Goliath: Deezer seeks musical edge on Spotify tricity using a direct current. Westinghouse, Shannon had a wholly different challenge in whose interests in gas distribution and tele- preparing for the role because Westinghouse rom Brazilian gospel to Puerto Rican reggae- Deezer Chief Executive Hans-Holger Albrecht Blavatnik, is nonetheless sinking tens of millions of phone switching led him to look into electrical destroyed all his personal papers before his ton and Dutch hip-hop, music streaming com- said he would target selected markets in Latin euros into this local music drive. Its strategy is based power distribution, saw that Edison’s use of death, wanting posterity to judge him only for Fpany Deezer is scouring the globe for gaps in America, Asia and Africa where Spotify was not on a bet that music streaming will continue to grow low-voltage DC had a limited range. After his deeds. “My goal wasn’t to try and create an the market where it can survive and thrive against already predominant. They include Guatemala, rapidly to eventually eclipse all other forms of music reading about European AC systems, he set exact replication of George Westinghouse-it’s Spotify and Apple. The French firm has little hope of Bolivia, Paraguay, Colombia, Nigeria, Senegal and listening. The paid streaming market is expected to out to develop and market AC power systems just not possible-so I more considered his success going toe-to-toe with its far bigger rivals in South Africa. “I strongly believe in the localisation of grow 16 percent to $28 billion by 2030 in terms of that could distribute electricity over long dis- point of view, his way of being in the world the mass-market realms inhabited by the likes of content,” he told Reuters. “While Spotify is mainly annual revenue, according toGoldman Sachs tances to dispersed US populations. He was and dealing with people,” said Shannon. Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran. Instead it is focusing on playlist-focused, we are betting on local differentia- “Streaming is a very young market, with just about also able to achieve greater economies of “Nobody’s gonna come along and say you local music genres in fast-growing, often non- tion, and this has helped us become number one in 10 percent penetration globally, so there is a lot of scale with the use of centralized power gener- messed that up, because nobody knows.” English language markets, areas where it believes it gospel in Brazil.” potential still,” said Albrecht. ation, allowing him to sell electricity at cheap- Before the start of filming, Gomez-Rejon had can steal a march. It is targeting local listeners while But finding a path to profit represents a formida- Spotify is also loss-making but is nevertheless er rates. The movie also stars Nicholas Hoult as found a rare and very old leather-bound book also looking to position itself for a global audience ble task for the loss-making company. It has a simi- valued at $13 billion because of this market poten- inventor and futurist Nikola Tesla. about Westinghouse, and shared it with him. as a “cool”, non-mainstream alternative. lar “freemium” to market leader Spotify, whereby it tial, as well as investor expectations that its fast- “It was almost a tribute to George As part of this strategy, launched this year and attracts users by offering advert-supported free growing user base will allow it to negotiate increas- Conflicted historical record Westinghouse. It was written by someone called Deezer Next, it is dispatching local teams of access and charges a monthly fee of about $10 for ingly lower royalty payments to labels. Cumberbatch said he knew very little who had a great deal of respect for him, talked “editors” to identify talent in niche genres and create the full service. However it has only 12 million active The company, a millennial megabrand, is eying about Edison before taking on the role. “I real- about what a great man he was and all of his original content, Netflix-style. The aim is not only to users - about 9 million paying - compared with a stock market listing this year or next, and Albrecht ly was in the dark,” he quipped. His portrayal accomplishments,” Shannon recalled. “By the differentiate its catalogue but also to reduce its Spotify’s 60 million paying subscribers, and brings in said Deezer could also consider going public should of the American icon is alternately sympathet- time I finished reading it, it really done a num- reliance on the record labels that take the lion’s just a tenth of the Swedish firm’s $3 billion annual that flotation prove successful. — Reuters ic, and not. Various Edison biographies, he ber on me, so that was the foundation of my share of streaming services’ revenue. It has 40 edi- revenue. noted, offer a “varied understanding and work on the film,” he said. — AFP tors globally, and is looking to recruit more. Deezer, controlled by billionaire investor Len appreciation of the man.” Cumberbatch’s own interpretation of him, he said, is that of “a man