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Established 1961 29 Lifestyle Music & Movies Sunday, October 1, 2017 Indian theater actor Tom Alter has died at age 67 Tom Alter, a well-known Indian theater, television and popular movies included Shatranj Ke Khiladi (Chess 1947, his grandparents stayed in Pakistan, while his parents Bollywood actor of American descent, has died in Mumbai Players), Gandhi, Parinda (Bird), Kranti (Revolution), moved to India. He had schooling in the northern Indian hill of cancer. He was 67. A statement issued by his family on Aashiqui (Love) and Junoon (Obsession). Alter also was a resort of Mussoorie and later joined the Film and Saturday says Alter died Friday night at home with his cricket enthusiast and had written for several sporting Television Institute in the western city of Pune from 1972 family around him in Mumbai, India’s financial and enter- journals. He won the Indian government’s “Padma Shri to 1974. He made his Bollywood acting debut in 1976. tainment capital. He had been diagnosed with skin cancer Award” in 2008 for his contribution to the fields of arts He is survived by his wife, one son and one daugh- last year. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed and cinema. ter. Alter’s body was cremated on Saturday in Mumbai, his grief and recalled Alter’s contribution to the film world Alter was the son of American Christian missionaries. the Press Trust of India news agency quoted his son and theater. His grandparents had migrated to India from Ohio, the Jamie Alter as saying. A memorial service will be held Alter acted in more than 300 films in several Indian lan- United States, in 1916 and settled in Lahore, now in next week. — AP guages, including Hindi, Bengali, Assamese and Telugu. His Pakistan. After the partition of the Indian subcontinent in Plotting return, Rita Ora to host MTV Europe awards Ready to launch an album after several work “lyrically driven.” “I had a lot to years of reluctant silence, pop singer write about,” Ora said. “There was a Rita Ora will return to her hometown of lot of frustration and a lot of sadness- London to host the MTV Europe Music and happiness-as I couldn’t put out Awards in November. The youth culture music for the past few years,” she said. network announced Ora-a household “There are moments when I’m really name in Britain who has been trying to lashing out and there are moments crack into the US top ranks-will lead where I’m really vulnerable.” the EMAs at Wembley Arena on Ora added she was continually writ- November 12. ing music even as she became known for A self-proclaimed lifelong EMA view- on-screen roles-both on “The X Factor” er, Ora promised to put on a lively show. and other television contest shows and Like its main US-based counterpart-the in movies, including the erotic thriller This combination photo shows Ryan Gosling at CinemaCon 2017 in MTV Video Music Awards-the EMAs “Fifty Shades of Grey.” In May, Ora put Las Vegas, left, and Jay-Z performing at a campaign rally for are more closely watched for pop cul- out the album’s first track-”Your Song,” Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in Cleveland. — AP ture moments than for the actual win- a giddy dance number co-written with ners. The 26-year-old also told AFP she Ed Sheeran on which she declares, “I would perform a new song from her don’t wanna hear sad songs anymore / I ‘SNL’ gears up for new season upcoming album-which she confirmed only wanna hear love songs.” was finished and highly personal in sub- Ora will be the second consecutive ject matter. host of Albanian descent. Bebe Rexha, launch with Gosling, Jay-Z Ora has topped the British charts with the New York-born pop singer whose “Saturday Night Live” kicks off its new Both actors recently won Emmys for catchy hits such as “How We Do (Party),” parents are Albanian, hosted last year’s season with Ryan Gosling as host, Jay-Z their work, as did Kate McKinnon, who an adaption of a track by slain rap leg- EMAs in Rotterdam. Born in Kosovo, as the musical guest - and pretty likely played Hillary Clinton on the show. The end The Notorious B.I.G. In 2008, she Ora’s family moved to London when some jokes at the expense of the White 90-minute show is now entering its 43rd looked set to break big in the United she was a toddler but she has enthusi- House. The sketch comedy show starts season. It has grown so popular that it States when rap mogul Jay-Z signed her astically embraced her heritage, serv- up again Saturday and is hoping to build spun off the half-hour “Saturday Night to his Roc Nation imprint. But she later ing as an honorary ambassador. “I tend off one of its most-watched seasons in Live Weekend Update Summer Edition” filed a lawsuit, saying Roc Nation had to really represent my country wherev- more than two decades thanks to Alec while the main show was on break.—AP little time for her while the contract kept er I go,” Ora said. “I’ve always been Baldwin’s turn as President Donald her from pursuing music on her own. very proud of where I’m from and Trump and Melissa McCarthy’s appear- Her upcoming album, her second, where I was born.”—AFP ances as former White House press sec- will come out on major New York label retary Sean Spicer. Atlantic Records-and she called the Toned down, tuned in, Curtain goes up on Miley Cyrus turns a documentary-rich country balladeer She transitioned from wholesome TV kid to 1970s pop-rock, a gentle electric guitar riff car- New York Film Festival pansexual media sensation-and now Miley rying a mid-tempo beat. “Malibu” climaxes into Cyrus is reinventing herself again. On “Younger the most rocking track on the album, a beat Ninety-nine feature films will dot the ing night film. A “return to form” is often reuniting with old friends, comrades: Now,” the sixth album in her already storied coming in after Cyrus describes a journey of sparkling lineup at the 55th New York said of Allen’s later works but the gala What does that mean? How are we career, the 24-year-old dips back into country- building trust and love on the sun-kissed Film Festival, which kicks off Thursday slot is a clear sign of belief in Allen’s lat- the same? How are we changed? These the music of her father, singer Billy Ray Cyrus. California beach. By the third track, night with Richard Linklater’s “Last Flag est. Set in 1950s Coney Island, it stars are big questions in all of our lives,” said But the album, which was released Friday, is “Rainbowland,” she goes full country-collabo- Flying.” There is no way, really, to take as Kate Winslet, who will also sit for a Linklater. “There’s nothing like an despite its oxymoronic title no straightforward rating with her godmother and fellow a whole an 18-day festival that will staged conversation at the festival. impromptu reunion with people who you return to her childhood-or the innocent days of Tennessee-born cultural figure Dolly Parton. include new films from Todd Haynes, Opening the festival is “Last Flag went through something with a long time her country-singing “Hannah Montana” Disney Woody Allen, Agnes Varda, Claire Denis, Flying,” a road trip reunion of three for- ago to make you examine your own life.” persona. Mellow and reflective Greta Gerwig and Hong Sangsoo. But the mer Navy men (Bryan Cranston, Steve Linklater has a gift for giving thoroughly Instead, Cyrus finds through country story- However sensational her on-stage antics or common denominator at the sober-eyed telling a window to relay a maturing life story of divisive her artistic choices, critics of Cyrus are New York festival has always been quali- discovering love, heartache and a political voice. hard-pressed to dismiss her voice, whose rich ty, as discerned through an especially “Younger Now” begins with a title track in timbre and four-octave range make her one of global outlook. which Cyrus declares she has no regrets over a the more versatile singers in pop. On “Younger The only currency that matters at the scrutinized life-whose memorable moments Now,” Cyrus shows off her lower vocal range Film Society of Lincoln Center’s annual include scantily clad twerking and joyful hits and dusts off her country twang which, while it uptown event is the movies, themselves - from a bong. “I’m not afraid of who I used to be never vanished, she has downplayed as her not red carpets (they’re typically short / No one stays the same,” Cyrus sings, adding: career developed. and perfunctory), not prizes (there aren’t “I feel so much younger now.” But in showing her new maturity, “Younger any) or even Oscar buzz. The New York On the title song and the album’s first single, Now” also turns the page on some of the spunk Film Festival generates a lot of conversa- “Malibu,” Cyrus crafts a modernized take on that gave Cyrus her musical success. After the tion by keeping the noise at bay. frenetic hip-hop energy of her defining 2013 “I see a lot of things shifting in the film album “Bangerz” and the playful psychedelia of festival world, and they’re shifting for 2015’s “Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz,” reasons that have to do with things other “Younger Now” is a mellow affair. Much of the than the art of cinema,” says Kent Jones, lyricism appears to reflect on Cyrus’ on- and- the festival’s director. “We’re 55 years now reportedly-off-again relationship with old now and we’ve always stuck to our Australian actor Liam Hemsworth. mission. And I think that means a lot to “I know that I gave you my heart / But you the audiences and the filmmakers.” The This image released by Lionsgate shows Laurence Fishburne, from stomped it to the ground,” Cyrus sings on festival’s main slate, its most curated left, Bryan Cranston and Steve Carell in a scene from Last Flag “Week Without You,” a country tune tinged selections, numbers 25 films this year. Flying. — AP with a doo-wop harmony. Some fans online sus- Most of them (“Lady Bird,” “Call Me pected that “She’s Not Him”-with the lines “I By Your Name,” “Mudbound,” “The just can’t fall in love with you / You’re not him”- Square”) have been plucked from the Carell, Laurence Fishburne) who are planned, minutely detailed scenes an was an explanation by Cyrus, who identifies as standouts of Sundance, Cannes, Telluride something like older, grown-up versions easy naturalism. Chloe Zhao’s sensational pansexual, of her feelings for New Zealand and other festivals. But this year’s festival of the main characters in Hal Ashby’s sophomore feature, “The Rider,” goes model Stella Maxwell, with whom she has made is also intent to play by a different set of “The Last Detail” (1973). In Linklater’s further in blending fiction with nonfiction. out in public. rules than other major international film film, which Lionsgate and Amazon will A deeply heartfelt heartland elegy, it Cyrus ends on a more subdued note, with a festivals. The main slate is light on world release Nov. 3, the trio reunites to bring stars real Sioux cowboys in South mournful violin behind the guitar featuring on premieres, a much-sought designation home the dead son of Carell’s character, a Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation, follow- “Inspired.” The song pays tribute to her father. for prominent entries elsewhere. Others young soldier killed in Iraq. ing a rodeo star (Brady Jandreau) forced But Cyrus has said she wrote the songs to come will play in a different format: Arnaud “I thought it was such an interesting to contemplate quitting. Including Zhao, to terms with Donald Trump’s election after the Desplechin’s “Ismael’s Ghosts” will portrait of middle age, and I hadn’t done a third of the films in the main slate are singer, like many celebrities, campaigned for screen in a director’s cut that differs from a lot of that, although I’m there myself, directed by women - many of which rank Hillary Clinton. Questioning how “we can the version that opened the Cannes Film age-wise,” said the 57-year-old among the class of the festival. Zhao is escape all the fear and all the hate,” Cyrus Festival in May. Linklater, whose career (“Boyhood,” just starting out but Agnes Varda, the 89- This file photo shows US singer Miley implores the world: “You’re the handle on the There will still be several much- “Before Sunrise,” “Dazed and Confused”) year-old French filmmaking legend, has Cyrus performing on stage during door that opens up the change.”—AFP watched premieres. Allen’s “Wonder has often chronicled seminal stages of been at it for decades. —AP NBC’s Today show at the Rockefeller Wheel,” the 81-year-old filmmaker’s sec- life. “It was fun to deal with these themes Plaza in New York City. — AFP ond film for Amazon Studios, is the clos- of memory and past experience and