ARAB TIMES, SUNDAY, JANUARY 29, 2017
NEWS/FEATURES
20
People & Places
Obits
Barbara Hale dead at 94
Versatile UK actor
Hurt dies aged 77
LOS ANGELES, Jan 28, (AP): The versatile actor
Sir John Hurt, who could move audiences to tears
in “The Elephant Man,” terrify them in “Alien,” and
spoof that very same scene in “Spaceballs,” has died.
He was 77.
Hurt, who battled pancreatic cancer, died Friday in
London according to his agent Charles McDonald.
Twice nominated for an Oscar for playing the tortured John Merrick in David Lynch’s “The Elephant
Man” and for his role as the heroin addict Max in
“Midnight Express,” Hurt’s career spanned over 50
years. After minor television and film appearances,
his breakout came in 1966 as Richard Rich in Fred
Zinnemann’s “A Man For All Seasons,” followed by
his portrayal of Caligula in the BBC miniseries “I,
Claudius” in 1976.
The wiry Hurt brought
gravitas to Alan Parker’s 1978
film “Midnight Express,” for
which he received a supporting actor Oscar nomination (he
lost to Christopher Walken for
“The Deer Hunter”) and an uneasy humor to Kane in Ridley
Scott’s “Alien,” immortalized
by his disturbing death scene,
which Mel Brooks later poked
Hurt
fun at with Hurt’s help in
“Spaceballs.”
“It was terribly sad today to learn of John Hurt’s
passing,” Mel Brooks wrote on Twitter. “He was a
truly magnificent talent.”
Memorable
Hurt is unrecognizable in perhaps his most memorable role as the lead in David Lynch’s “The Elephant
Man.” He endured eight hours in the makeup chair
daily to transform into John Merrick. The elaborate
mask prohibited him from sleeping lying down or
even eating while it was on. His would eat his last
meal midmorning as the mask was being applied —
usually raw eggs mixed in orange juice — and not
again until after midnight.
“To be quite honest, the film was misery to make
because of the physical problems, so if it’s working
I’m jumping for joy,” Hurt said in a 1980 interview.
Hurt did score a lead actor Oscar nomination for the
role, but lost out to Robert De Niro’s performance in
“Raging Bull.”
Hurt was also a prolific voice actor, appearing as
Hazel in the animated “Watership Down,” and as
Aragorn in Ralph Bakshi’s “The Lord of the Rings.”
He also voiced The Horned King in “The Black Cauldron” and provided the narration for “Dogville.”
In the “Harry Potter” films, Hurt played the wandmaker Mr. Ollivander. In recent years, he appeared in
notable fare such as “Melancholia,” ‘’Tinker Tailor
Soldier Spy,” ‘’Only Lovers Left Alive” and “Snowpiercer.”
“We’re all just passing time, and occupy our chair
very briefly,” Hurt said in a 2015 interview while undergoing treatments for the early stage cancer.
As prolific as ever, Hurt recently appeared alongside his “V for Vendetta” co-star Natalie Portman in
the Oscar-nominated film “Jackie” as a priest who
consoles and advises the recently widowed first lady.
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Barbara Hale, a movie actress who found her most
famous role on television as steadfast secretary Della
Street in the long-running “Perry Mason” series, has
died. She was 94.
Hale was surrounded by family when she died
Thursday at her Los Angeles area home, said Jaqueline Stander, an agent for Hale’s son, actor William
Katt (“The Greatest American Hero,” “Carrie”).
“She was gracious and kind and silly and always
fun to be with,” Katt posted on his Facebook page
Thursday, calling Hale a wonderful actress and a
“treasure as a friend and mother.”
Stander declined to provide the cause of death.
Hale appeared in “Perry Mason” on CBS from 1957 to
1966, winning an Emmy as best actress in 1959. When
the show was revived in 1985 on NBC as an occasional
TV movie, she again appeared in court at the side of the
ever-victorious lawyer played by Raymond Burr.
She continued her role after Burr died in 1993 and
was replaced by Hal Holbrook for the movies that
continued into 1995.
“I guess I was just meant to be a secretary who
doesn’t take shorthand,” she once quipped. “I’m a
lousy typist, too — 33 words a minute.”
Hale was born in DeKalb, Illinois, daughter of a
landscape gardener and a homemaker. The family
moved to Rockford when she was 4, and she later took
part in a local theater. But her goals were to be a nurse
or journalist.
When her ambition turned to art she studied at the
Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, where she was often
sought as a model. Her work for a modeling agency
prompted an offer for a routine contract at the RKO
studio in Hollywood.
When she reported to the casting director, he was
speaking on the phone to someone who needed an immediate replacement for an actress who was sick.
“It hit every paper the next day: the Cinderella story,” she recalled in a 1993 Chicago Tribune interview.
“Of course they said it was a starring role. I had one
line, but you know about those things.”
The movie was a quickie, “Gildersleeve’s Bad
Day,” but she went on to appear with Pat O’Brien
in “The Iron Major,” Frank Sinatra in “Higher and
Higher” and Robert Young in “Lady Luck.”
Another co-star was a blond actor named Bill Williams (real name: William Katt), with whom she appeared in “West of the Pecos” and “A Likely Story.”
They had met over coffee in the studio commissary
and married in Rockford in 1946. The couple had
three children: Nita, William and Jody.
Also:
LOS ANGELES: Mike Connors, who starred as a
hard-hitting private eye on the long-running television
series “Mannix,” has died. He was 91.
The actor died surrounded by family Thursday afternoon at a Los Angeles hospital from complications
of leukemia that had been diagnosed a week earlier,
said his son-in-law, Mike Condon.
“Mannix” ran for eight years on CBS beginning
in 1967. Viewers were intrigued by the tall, smartly
dressed, well-spoken detective who could mix it up with
the burliest of thugs and leap on the hood of a racing car
to prevent an escape. Episodes normally climaxed with
a brawl that left the culprits bruised and beaten.
“Up until Mannix, most private investigators were
hard-nosed, cynical guys who lived in a seedy area
and had no emotions,” Connors theorized in 1997.
“Mannix got emotionally involved. He was not above
being taken advantage of.”
Canadian actor Ryan Gosling receives a bouquet of flowers from Japanese actress Ryoko Yonekura during the Japan premiere of his film ‘La La Land’ in Tokyo on
Jan 26. (AFP)
Film
Arts bring healing in ‘Newtown’
‘Kyra’ an ode to life on NY fringes
Recording artist Ricky Martin performs during Calibash Las Vegas at
T-Mobile Arena on Jan 26, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (AFP)
Kate
Bowie
Variety
MANILA: Luis Singson, a larger-than-life
Filipino tycoon who has brought the Miss
Universe pageant to Manila, has much in
common with the man who owned the franchise two years ago: US President Donald
J. Trump.
Both men are immensely wealthy and
are immersed in politics. Both have a
cologne named after them. And, in their
own countries, both are synonymous with
a globally televised beauty contest that has
often been buffeted by politics.
Singson, a provincial police chief who
survived bloody gunbattles in a family feud
and then became a governor, however says
he doesn’t see himself as a Trump in the
making.
“We’re very different”, Singson said
in an interview at his Manila mansion, its
walls hung with photos of him posing with
wild animals he has hunted and killed.
“I’m going to give away my money. I don’t
think Trump can do that”.
Singson’s LCS Group of Companies said
it has paid $13 million in a one-off deal
to bring Miss Universe to the Philippines,
where the contest will be held on Monday
morning to cater to Sunday night TV audiences in the West. It will be carried on the
Fox network in the United States. (RTRS)
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LOS ANGELES: The Duke and Duchess
of Cambridge, Prince William and Kate
Middleton, will attend the 2017 BAFTAs.
William, who has served as President
of BAFTA since 2010, and the Middleton will walk the red carpet at London’s
Royal Albert Hall and attend the awards
ceremony, according to a release issued
by the Academy on Friday. The Duke will
also present the BAFTA Fellowship, the
awards’ lifetime achievement award.
“The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
are fantastic supporters of BAFTA. We
very much look forward to welcoming
Their Royal Highnesses at the EE British
Academy Film Awards on Sunday, Feb
12,” said Amanda Berry OBE and Chief
Executive of BAFTA. (RTRS)
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LOS ANGELES, Jan 28, (RTRS):
There’s an awful lot of ravishing beauty on display in “Where Is Kyra?”,
Nigerian-born filmmaker Andrew
Dosunmu’s startling new visual ode
to life on the New York fringes, and
it’s safe to say the characters on screen
see none of it. Through the lens of
ingenious cinematographer Bradford
Young, dingy apartment corridors turn
to blazing crimson purgatories, drab
Goodwill ensembles turn to iridescent
haute couture, and the extraordinary
face of Michelle Pfeiffer remains,
well, that same extraordinary face —
though one senses that Kyra, the neardestitute divorcee she plays to scarring
effect in this downward-spiraling economic tragedy, long ago stopped seeing anything in the mirror.
Every bit as formally exciting as
Dosunmu’s previous film, 2013’s glorious Yoruba-focused drama “Mother
of George”, “Where Is Kyra?” proves
a cooler, less emotionally rewarding experience, with Darci Picoult’s
ultra-lean script giving Pfeiffer’s fearless performance fewer notes to play
as it goes along. Commercial interest
in “Kyra” will be sparse as a result:
Though the casting of Pfeiffer and
Kiefer Sutherland hinted at a crossover
project for Dosunmu, this is daring,
even radical work that asserts its maker’s singularity first and foremost. For
Pfeiffer, meanwhile, one hopes this
will prove a gateway into the kind of
independent cinema where her crisp,
canny gifts as an actor are both wanted
and needed. After a four-year absence
from screens, preceded by such wasteful commercial projects as “The Family”, it’s a positive joy to see her playing a living, breathing, bruised human
being — even if “joy” is not a word
likely to be re-used in any description
of this sad, shattered character study.
Dosunmu and Picoult take their time
in revealing the exact circumstances of
Kyra’s misfortune, though Young’s
shadow-wrapped images plunge us immediately into her forlorn headspace.
In a masterfully constructed shot near
the outset, viewed through not one but
two doors left ajar, Kyra and her ailing
mother Ruth (Suzanne Shepherd) are
viewed pensively alone in neighboring
rooms, before Kyra joins Ruth to assist with bathtime — an aching tableau
of tender weariness, all caught in a
(RTRS)
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NEW YORK: Leading techno DJ Dave
mere sliver of the frame. Dosunmu and
Young make us wait for a closeup, and
viewers might feel they’re squinting
to see Kyra clearly in the permanent
gloaming of her mother’s tired Brooklyn apartment.
That’s no accident in a portrait of a
woman at whom nobody cares to truly
look. Not the few, shuffling guests at
the funeral after Ruth quietly passes.
Not the bosses at the grim, cheap offices and diners she trudges through
for failed job interview after failed
job interview. And in what becomes
a narratively crucial point, certainly
not the tellers at the bank where she
cashes Ruth’s disability checks. Even
in close-up she threatens to vanish,
as whole planes of Pfeiffer’s face are
masked by Young’s velvety shadows:
Without a word of rhetoric from the
script, Dosunmu pointedly illustrates
how society renders single women
above a certain age invisible. In a recurring image, introduced in the opening shot and contextualized as the
narrative progresses, a stooped, elderly-looking woman struggles along the
sidewalk, her face obscured — a bleak
symbol of sorts for society’s disenfranchised, here granted the admittedly
dim spotlight.
Slowly the specifics of Kyra’s desperation trickle out, though it’s nothing you couldn’t guess at: the recent
collapse of a longstanding marriage in
Virginia, being made redundant from
her job there, moving back home.
It’s sob story to which only scuzzy,
tattooed slacker Doug (Sutherland),
whose life is perhaps one iota more assembled than Kyra’s, lends a listening
ear; to her surprise, a casual romance
develops between them, but it’s clear
that this is not a world of happily-everafters. (Or happily-ever-befores, for
that matter.)
Oppressive
The sheer monotony of Kyra’s despair is appropriately oppressive — if
she doesn’t get a break from her life,
neither should the audience — though
it does make Dosunmu’s film an increasingly tough, alienating sit. (Philip
Miller’s metallic, sometimes screechingly abrasive score, while in tune with
our protagonist’s inner agony, doesn’t
make it any easier.) The emotional
range of Pfeiffer’s riveting perforClarke says he will boycott the United
States as a protest after the election of
President Donald Trump.
“I have maximum respect for the influ-
Also:
NEW YORK: A new documentary
shows how a children’s play helped
the people of Newtown, Connecticut,
find solace and a sense of community
after a disturbed gunman slaughtered
20 first graders and six educators in
their town four years ago.
“Midsummer in Newtown”, which
opened in US theaters on Friday, follows the young actors from their first
auditions to opening night as Michael
Unger, a New York-based freelance
theater director, and his team ushered
them through a pop/rock adaptation of
William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer’s Night Dream”.
“It was a way of using art to try to
find meaning in places where these
children were a little shell-shocked”,
said the film’s director, Lloyd
Kramer. “It bonded them through
the play”.
Many of the children in the play had
been in the school during the shooting.
ence of American music and some US
culture in my life but I will not be renewing
my work visa,” said Clarke, who is British
but primarily based in The Netherlands.
“I simply cannot consider coming to
the US professionally when there is a
Misogynist Narcissist Racist President
in office, and to be fair maybe my work
permit would not be renewed due to his
‘Hire American’ policy,” Clarke wrote on
Facebook. (AFP)
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LOS ANGELES: India Arie is defending
LONDON: David Bowie is to appear on a
range of British postage stamps as a tribute
to the musician who died last year, the
postal service has announced.
“This is the first time Royal Mail has
dedicated an entire stamp issue to an individual music artist or cultural figure,” the
company said in a statement. The Beatles
and Pink Floyd have previously been
honoured with a stamp issue, it said.
The 10 stamps featuring album covers
as well as Bowie performing live will go
on sale from March 14, 50 years since
the Londoner released his first album and
in the year that he would have turned 70.
mance isn’t a broad one, though this
frequently nonverbal film is entirely
reliant on her cutting powers of expression as she progresses from harrowed to exhausted and back, at risk of
disappearing into herself entirely.
It’s ostensibly a generous showcase for the actress, and certainly her
strongest screen role since 2002’s
“White Oleander”. But Pfeiffer rather
selflessly applies herself as a component in Dosunmu’s intoxicating miseen-scene, blending into and assuming
the mood of its exacting compositions. Young has been practicing and
expanding his signature aesthetic of
intimate underlighting in ever larger
projects — recently nabbing a deserved Oscar nomination for his work
on Denis Villeneuve’s “Arrival”.
“Where Is Kyra?” returns him to his
small-scale roots in a seductive, quasiexperimental manner, playing liberally
with saturated color, extreme depth of
field and the manifold textures of darkness. As a painter of light on human
skin, he may be without current equal
in American cinema: A key sustained
shot of Pfeiffer’s face in unhappy repose, as dancing emergency-services
lights change its angles and accents,
is this challenging film’s most brilliant
example of thespian and filmic technique in perfect symbiosis.
In this photo taken on Jan 26, Miss Universe contestant Mariam Habach of Venezuela presents during the national costume and preliminary competition of the
Miss Universe pageant at the Mall of Asia arena in Manila. (AFP)
Chrisette Michele’s decision to sing at
an inaugural ball for President Donald
Trump.
Arie says in an open letter posted
Wednesday that she “never” would have
performed at the ceremony herself. But she
says Michele shouldn’t be “shouted down
or abused” for doing so. She chalks up
Michele’s decision to take part to a “career
misstep.”
Director Spike Lee wrote ahead of the
inaugural last week that he was considering using Michele’s “Black Girl Magic” in
his upcoming Netflix series, “She’s Gotta
Have It” but won’t anymore because of her
performance.
Michele responded to the controversy
with a poem on Instagram this week, denouncing her critics’ “hateful words.” (AFP)