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Ouija: Origin of Evil
By the time it gets to the Polish-speaking ghosts and the ghoulish Nazi doctor, you're so invested in the characters that you're willing to buy…
By the time it gets to the Polish-speaking ghosts and the ghoulish Nazi doctor, you're so invested in the characters that you're willing to buy…
It's a pity that Jack Reacher: Never Go Back fails to support Cruise and his costars, all of whom are acting as if their lives…
Roger Ebert on James Ivory's "Howards End".
"The Ballad of Narayama" is a Japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. What a space it opens…
A CIFF 2016 dispatch on Nathan Adloff's "Miles," Shawn Convey's "Among Wolves" and Cailtin Parrish and Erica Weiss's "The View from Tall."
A dispatch from CIFF on new films by Pablo Larrain and Asghar Farhadi.
An article about Hillary Clinton's historic nomination as the first female presidential candidate and the most qualified
A report on Robert Feder's recent article about Roger Ebert's political writing.
In light of Polish director Andrzej Wajda's recent passing, an alphabetical list of his ten best films.
A comparison between the recent version of "Ben-Hur" and the classic 1959 version by William Wyler.
The latest and greatest on Blu-ray and streaming services, including The Infiltrator, Cafe Society, Blood Father, and a Criterion edition of Boyhood.
David Paterson on "The Great Gilly Hopkins"; Rise of magical realism on TV; Missing found-footage masterpiece; The rom-com is dead; Sarah Paulson and Mark Duplass.
"Honey," a character study about a young woman that helps terminally ill clients commit suicide, is an equally fascinating and frustrating feature debut. Italian filmmaker Valeria Golino's adaptation of Mauro Covacich's novel "A nome tuo" ("In Your Name") is best when Golino teasingly speculates about her title character's actions. Golino gives us just enough information to speculate why Irene (aka: "Honey") why she needs to control everything about her patients' last moments, right down to the music they listen to as they die. But beyond that, we're free to think whatever we like about Irene (Jasmine Trinca).
Unfortunately, while Irene is a complex subject, our limited view of her is often frustrating. Her platonic relationship with Carlo (Carlo Cecchi), a suicidally depressed patient, only tells us so much. "Honey" is consequently only sometimes compelling. Its story is never as interesting as its conflicted heroine.
When we first meet Irene, she's rushing to a patient's bedside. She's nervous, but she doesn't show it once she's on her bike, on her way. From then on, Irene is Honey. You can see the difference between the woman and her persona in a later scene in which she rehearses the lies she's going to tell a pharmacist (she needs to euthanize her sick 14-year-old dog… he's very ill… she wants to attend to him personally…). Still, these opening scenes establish that Irene and Honey only appear to be different people when nobody's looking.
But Irene's smooth routine is immediately derailed when she learns that Carlo, an older patient, is not physically ill, but rather depressed. That revelation makes Irene desperate: helping Carlo kill himself violates her personal ethics. So, because she feels responsible for him, Irene bonds with Carlo, and tries to ease his pain in other ways.
Irene's relationship with Carlo is frustrating for a number of reasons, especially since she essentially makes his death wish all about her. Because he wants to die, she has him put her mind at ease. Their relationship is ostensibly deeper than that, but that's really what their connection boils down to: intimacy fostered by insecurity. Carlo's one more thing thing for Irene to worry about. He's made it harder for her to believe in what she's doing, and that intrusion forces Irene to take stock of her priorities. She becomes more careless in her affair with Stefano (Vinicio Marchioni), a married man, and that leads him to discover her double life. "Honey" is, in that sense, a drama about a control freak, albeit a very human one.
That's "Honey"'s main strength: Golino and her screenwriters acknowledge, but refuse to judge Irene's selfishness. Irene knows that imposing herself on Carlo is a fundamentally self-serving thing to do, even if it has mutually beneficial effects for him and her. But it's telling that the best scenes in "Honey" are the ones where Irene is losing herself. They're the moments where she allows herself to unclench, like when she rides her bike, or swims, or stares at the sun. Trinca's body language makes these beguiling scenes count. Irene's not just altruistic, nor is she selfish. Her anxieties often speak for, whether she means for them to or not. And that's refreshing.
Still, only knowing so much about the film's main protagonist often makes "Honey"'s dour tone feel oppressive. Because watching such a sympathetic character use the men in her life to chart her emotional distress is frustrating. Carlo, Stefano, and confidante/ex-lover Rocco (Libero De Rienzo) are essentially Irene's foils. That kind of dynamic is not necessarily bad. Male protagonists use women as their mirrors all the time. But that technique is only so useful in "Honey" since these man-shaped mirrors can only reveal so much.
This message came to me from a reader named Peter Svensland. He and a fr...
A look at this year's competition for Best Actress.


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A milestone takeoff for THAI's First A380
THAI's no. 1 A380 takes off from Airbus' Toulouse, France facility on 28 September 2012 for a flight to Bangkok in advance of the milestone jetliner's service entry. This 507 seat aircraft – which is the first of six the airline has on order – will operate on THAI's Bangkok to Singapore and Bangkok to Hong-Kong routes when it begins revenue operations in October.
On the same theme

subset: commoncrawl


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New Orleans Hornets point guard Chris Paul will earn his third consecutive All-Star appearance when the reserves are announced today for the Feb. 14 game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
A league source confirmed Paul's selection on Thursday afternoon, and he will be joined in the backcourt with Utah's Deron Williams as reserves on the West team. Paul's teammate David West was not selected, ending his two-year run as an All-Star reserve forward.
The last time Paul was selected as a reserve was 2008 when the All-Star Game was played in New Orleans. Paul leads the league in assists with an 11.1 average and is the Hornets' top scorer with a 20.5 average.
After a sputtering to a 7-11 start, the Hornets (25-20) have moved into the eighth and final spot in the Western Conference playoff race. In Wednesday's 123-110 victory against the Golden State Warriors, Paul scored a game-high 38 points on 14-of-19 shooting.
In last week's fan voting, Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant and Phoenix Suns' Steve Nash were selected as the starters with Paul finishing third with 1,055,789 votes among Western Conference guards. But the reserves are picked by the coaches and they were required to turn in their ballots on Tuesday. They will select two guards, two forwards, a center and two additional players.


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- Film fighters
July 20, 2013
Video volunteers have been shooting short, candid film clips on official apathy.
- Leaving tiger watching to raise rice
July 20, 2013
Ecologist Debal Deb, who did his post-doctoral research from IISc in Bangalore, started his folk rice gene bank Vrihi in 1997.
- The crorepati writer
July 20, 2013
He's the man who gives Big B his lines. RD Tailang, the writer of KBC.
- In This Section
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From the Times Of India
Jobs in Detroit's car factories are moving to India.
Chidanand Rajghatta
Can 'bindaas' or 'jhakaas' survive transliteration?
Shobhaa De
India's first superstar died almost a lonely life.
Robin Roy
The passion portfolio
In a new report titled 'Profit or Pleasure?', Barclays has explored the motivations behind treasure trends. Indians, it says, let emotions drive their investment decisions. TOI-Crest spoke to Satya Bansal, CEO-India Wealth & Investment Management, for more insights
The recent 'Profit or Pleasure' wealth report by Barclays reveals that 68 per cent of the treasures held by Indians are acquired to impress social circles. What does it say about our high net worth individuals?
The decision to own treasure assets is primarily driven by passion rather than the need to make a financial investment. Emotions play a larger role in making this decision and this could be driven by personal enjoyment, social motivation or even the desire to preserve one's heritage. According to the report, globally HNIs like to share and display treasures like vintage cars, art and sculptures, antique furniture, stamp collections. They believe that they earn respect by owning these rare treasure assets.
What are the top passion investments for Indians?
The survey found that 93 per cent of Indians said they own precious jewellery which indicates that inheritance and heritage are the key drivers. The report does not specify the brands of the assets or any specific bias towards certain assets. But from the knowledge available in the public domain I can safely say that Indians, mostly from the royal families, have always had a soft spot for vintage automobiles like Aston Martins, Chevrolets and Rolls Royces.
What are the trends for the future?
According to the report, the top five treasure assets that Indian investors would look at investing over the next years would be: fine art pictures and paintings (60 per cent); precious jewellery (58 per cent); classic automobiles (57 per cent); antique furniture (48 per cent) and precious metals (44 per cent).
The trend of owning sports teams and clubs is catching on here. Do you see this becoming bigger in the coming years?
Ultra high worth families and sports go hand in hand globally. Now, we are seeing the same trend in India. IPL was the first initiative and now we are seeing more such projects in other sports like football.
India has a growing population of the "nouveau rich". What kind of passion investments are they making?
India is still at an early stage of the aspiration cycle. Hence, most wealthy individuals still prefer to invest in assets where they expect some returns. Given some of the difficulties associated with maintaining, securing and liquidating treasure assets, it appears that precious metals and jewellery are still a favourite. The survey brings to light that around 72 per cent of Indians feel they should invest their money so it is made available for others to use productively, rather than buy desirable items for personal enjoyment.
What other interesting trends does the report reveal?
Indians have a high propensity to let emotions rule in financial decisions. The emotional connect together with the inherent altruistic nature is reflected in the study findings which states that 82 per cent of Indians agree that it is their duty to share valuable possessions for the good of society. Seventy six per cent said they would lend some of their possessions to museums or exhibitions. The social motivation among Indians to hold treasure is so high that 87 per cent agree that the financial value of art is driven largely by public taste rather than intrinsic worth. Indians currently form the largest proportion of respondents who own precious jewellery (93 per cent) and classic automobiles (79 per cent).
What role do passion investments play in the economy?
In India, most passion investments are related to creative arts. These are investments that families like to engage with and spend time with. They could be sub-optimal from a financial risk perspective. With more wealthy Indians pursuing their passions, such investments will lead to promotion of art and culture in the domestic market. It will create a ripple effect in the economy and more artists will be able to safely pursue their creative careers, just the way it happens in, say, Western Europe.
Do people expect long term returns from passion investments?
As many as 79 per cent of Indians agreed that emotions influence financial decision making. Relatively fewer wealthy individuals own treasure solely for its financial characteristics. The survey proves that only 18 per cent of the treasures that survey respondents own are held purely as an investment and only 21 per cent are believed by their owners to provide financial security if conventional investments fail.
Investors who do seek financial returns or insurance from their treasure typically favour commodity-like items, such as precious metals, coins and jewellery. They derive relatively low enjoyment from what they own and are more likely to sell their treasure than those who are influenced by other motives.
No investment, let alone treasure, is held entirely for financial reasons or emotional ones. Treasures, are often regarded as a part of an individual's personal holdings (assets which are owned to support lifestyle or enjoyment purposes), rather than as a separate asset class in the investment portfolio. Owning treasure can also be a social activity such as sharing with friends or showing it to people. Some wealthy individuals may also acquire treasure for its heritage value. These individuals enjoy what they own, and want their descendents to enjoy it too. They are often reluctant to sell their treasure at any price and believe that they have a duty to share what they own for the good of society.
In India do most people sell their treasures or keep it with them within the family? What's the trend here with treasure maintenance?
The survey reveals that across the globe Indians hold the highest proportion of assets for cultural reasons (58 per cent) and as heirlooms (67 per cent) to be enjoyed by children and grandchildren. Most families in India want to keep their legacy alive and private museums best serve this purpose. Museums help preserve personal assets of wealthy individuals without family funding. If there are some revenue streams like viewing fees, etc. those can be used for the preservation of the assets. The popularity of private museums is growing despite the rich in India investing only a small proportion of their wealth in treasure assets as we have been increasingly requested by our clients to help them in setting up private museums to display their treasure assets.
Given the ongoing slowdown, what kind of passion investments will you recommend?
Wealthy individuals should be clear about their motivations for acquiring treasure and they should ensure that it is considered in the context of their broader wealth. Those that acquire treasure primarily for financial reasons must be aware that it is immensely difficult to earn consistent returns. For most individuals, however, the principal role for treasure will be the enjoyment that it brings and its ability to enrich life.
I bought new shoes!
Yawn. So what's new.
No. These are the latest and trendiest beauties out there.
You must've bought another pair of those red Christian Louboutin heels. You've spent a mini-fortune on them already!
No dearie. I have moved on. These are gold. The real stuff and not the kind Elton John wears.
Gold? No wonder it's so expensive now. They've started making shoes with it.
Don't be silly. These are understated chic.
Right. Gold isn't blingy at all. By the way, how much gold are we talking about here?
Each shoe has 23. 75 carat gold-leaf signature heels and it takes 20 hours alone to just gild the heel. That's not counting the 120 other processes that go into making this Rupert Sanderson shoe.
23. 75 carats. Maybe the next time recession hits, you can actually sell your shoes.
I'm not selling these ever. These are so exclusive. You can only get them in Hong Kong.
Oh I wouldn't sit back just yet. I'm sure all Indian jewellers must be placing orders to sell them in their showrooms. Your mom and aunts will want a pair just as much.
Shudder. These would look really nice next to my beige flats with the gold leaf decoration, also a Sanderson original.
You already had shoes with gold on them? What is this world coming to?
Darling, don't you a know a woman can never have enough shoes. But I'm so sad I couldn't get my hands on the blue courts. A woman bought a dozen pairs for herself!
I bet she bought them so that she could melt all the gold and make herself a nice new necklace.
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Letter | Frustration with city's permitting process
I am writing because of our absolute and complete frustration over the permitting system at the City of Mercer Island.
Two years ago, my husband Arthur Walden and I decided that we would pursue building a woodworking shop, about the size of a two-car garage, and a patio cover on a portion of our deck. We decided to also build the workshop so that it could at some future date be used as an ADU. We would have the plumbing and sewer stubbed to the workshop. Our architect, Rich Jones of Nash Jones Anderson — a very qualified person who I personally know, and I am familiar with many of the homes he has designed on Mercer Island — assured us it was his experience that this small project could be designed and approved in short order.
On Sept. 9, 2010, we went through the ADU approval process and that was approved in short order. It is since then that we feel we have been put through the wringer. We have been required to hire the following professionals: James Strange of Geotech Engineer, a soils engineer; Ron Hughes, a drainage engineer, Mike Mitchell of Mitchell Engineering, a structural engineer; all of whom are professional engineers and can charge handsome fees for their opinions and work. We are required to install a huge water retention system and build the workshop with a hydraulic pin pile system in the foundation. We have gotten bids for this work and the amount of cement alone that is required is beyond comprehension. The latest news we had before actually starting the permit process is that we have to obtain and pay for a separate permit to install new lines and upsize the water meter. We originally were Intake Screening Number 1009-067, which has since been changed to Intake Screening Number 1102-120.
While this seems extremely over the top, to put it mildly, we have recovered from the news of the financial impact and decided to continue in our plan to build this Taj Mahal.
Since sometime in February we, as well as our architect, thought the approval of our permit was eminent. Each time we have checked on it, we have found that the whole project has been kicked out of the system because of some question or missing item, i.e., a missing engineer's stamp that fell off in the electronic transmission of the project from the architect to the Development Department. A phone call to either me or my architect would have been helpful. This took care of the month of May. On May 31, my husband and I spent about half a day in the city offices trying to understand why we were on this merry-go-round. On May 31 the whole project was re-submitted electronically and hand carried to the city by our architect. We got an email from Linda Pineau on June 1 telling us that the project was once again in final review, and if all went well, it would be approved by June 14. I had also asked Dave Henderson to put me down as the project manager so that I can be apprised of any problems and delays. I called in on June 17, and was told they contacted my architect a couple of days previous with questions about the patio roof, and in lieu of the work our very qualified architect has done we may have to hire a structural engineer.
This is absolutely unacceptable. It seems like we are stuck in this train and will never get off. Each time it goes before one of the many different "reviewers," they feel it is their duty to find something new to either request or object to, and we have to start all over.
Suzanne Lane
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Halloween may be a month away, but ArtsQuest is getting a jump start on the fun.
ArtsQuest unveiled the first Steelstacks scarecrow competition and exhibit Monday.
Crafters were invited to create a straw man and enter it in different categories to win cash prizes.
The public can check out the scarecrows and cast their votes until Oct. 13. The winners will be announced on Oct. 14, and the display will be up through the end of October.