Aurelia Butler

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    Where to Stream the Films of Alain Delon

    A look at 10 standout films featuring the actor, who died on Sunday at 88.Most reviews of the films Alain Delon made at his 1960s and ’70s peak mention either his beauty or his inscrutability. Very often they bring up both.Despite his looks, the French star, who died on Sunday at 88, was not a typical leading man. He did not do romance and mostly avoided the relationship dramas so popular in his home country, even though he won his single César Award for one, “Notre Histoire” (1984). For the most part, Delon steered clear of lighthearted fare — the over-the-top spaghetti swashbuckler “Zorro” (1975) is one of the few such outliers. Instead, Delon will forever remain associated with the bleak thrillers and noirs he focused on after the mid-1960s. Sometimes he played the cop, other times the criminal. Always he looked as if he was withholding something — as an actor, he was never afraid of silence.Luckily, a large number of Delon classics are available to stream. Here are 10 of the best ones, in chronological order.‘Purple Noon’Stream it on the Criterion Channel; rent or buy on Apple TV or Amazon.Has there ever been a more handsome, conscience-free psychopath than Delon’s Tom Ripley? The actor was 25 when his breakthrough hit came out, in 1960, and his magnetism made the character’s dangerous pull on men and women completely inevitable. Delon is a major reason this film remains one of the best Patricia Highsmith adaptations ever, and his youthful cockiness and lethal charm continue to burn the screen.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘The Interview’: Jelly Roll Cannot Believe How His Life Turned Out

    We’ve all had the experience of being in a bad emotional place and, in response, putting on a song. We know that song isn’t going to fix the problem, whatever it may be, or even change the feeling. But the music we turn to when we’re struggling can be like a hand on our shoulder. For a legion of Americans today, the music that does that is by Jelly Roll.Listen to the Conversation With Jelly RollFrom jail and addiction to music stardom — the singer tells David Marchese he’s living a “modern American fairy tale.”Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon | iHeart | NYT Audio AppJelly’s real name is Jason DeFord, and he’s from Antioch, Tenn. He’s 39-years-old, burly (though he’s trying to lose weight), with a face covered in tattoos. In a sign of the breadth of his audience, he has been able to score on the country, rock and pop charts with hit singles like “Need a Favor” and albums like 2023’s “Whitsitt Chapel.” His southern-rock and hip-hop-inflected country songs are almost all about clawing toward some semblance of stability, which is an experience that informs a lot of his music, because it’s one he knows well. Jelly was in and out of prison starting as a teenager and into his mid-20s. He has dealt with personal loss and substance-abuse issues — both his own and that of his teenage daughter’s mother. He has also dealt with the professional despair of a long run to nowhere as an aspiring rapper. But that’s before he switched to singing and, beginning in 2021, started to hit it big.The musician — one half of a down-home power couple with his wife, Bunnie Xo, who hosts the popular Dumb Blonde podcast — will set off on a cross-country headlining arena tour later this month. He also has a new, highly-anticipated album, “Beautifully Broken,” scheduled for release this fall. He is, by any measure, a star — and still figuring out just what that means.Can you share some of the things that fans come up and tell you? I’ve heard it all, Bubba. I’ve heard everything from “Your music was played at my daughter’s funeral; she had an accidental overdose” to “Your song helped me get through rehab; I listened to ‘Save Me’ on repeat for 30 days straight.” Or “It was our morning song before we did our gratitude list.” Yeah, everything from funerals to hospitals to recovery centers. I’ve heard the good stories, too: “I got sober.” It’s crazy, the range of emotions.Is it ever hard for you to be the recipient of that? Nah, I feel honored that I have a purpose. I spent so much of my life being counterproductive to society that to be in a place where I’m able to help people has completely changed my mentality. More

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    Awkwafina Won’t Forget This Play’s Monologue Anytime Soon

    “It gives me the chills right now thinking about it,” said the actress and comedian, who stars in the film “Jackpot!” with John Cena and Simu Liu.When Awkwafina started training for Paul Feig’s action-comedy “Jackpot!” — about the winner of a dystopian California lottery — her co-star, the professional wrestler John Cena, had some advice.“It’s kind of obvious science, but your brain is a muscle, so you have to work it out every day,” she said, explaining his theory in a video call from Los Angeles. “He was learning jazz piano in his trailer.”Now Awkwafina, a scene-stealer in “Ocean’s 8” and “Crazy Rich Asians” and a Golden Globe winner for “The Farewell,” has established a routine incorporating physical and mental exercise. And, she added, a new relationship that doesn’t exist for her in any other capacity.“I’ve definitely begun my fitness journey because of this movie,” she said, ticking off squats, planks, weight reps and posture exercises. “But honestly, it’s like play. It’s fun and it’s thrilling and you want to do well.”She also spoke about the book her mother gave to her before she died; her karaoke go-to, Cam’ron’s “Hey Ma”; and crossing the language divide with “My Cousin Vinny.”These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1Fried Egg and Soy Sauce on Top of White RiceMy grandma used to make that for me, and it’s a little bit of a Broke Boyz meal. There’s something so warm about the rice and the egg that feel like a hug.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    All the ‘Alien’ Movies, Ranked

    With “Alien: Romulus” hitting theaters, the 45-year-old series is getting a new jolt of life. How does the latest film stack up against its predecessors?Just like the space creature it’s named after, the 45-year-old “Alien” franchise has proved hard to kill: Every time you think the series has been dealt a death blow by a disappointing installment, a new movie rolls around, rekindling fans’ hopes. Following that pattern, here comes “Alien: Romulus” in theaters, seven years after “Alien: Covenant.”The series (all the older titles are streaming on Hulu) has endured for many reasons. Thematically, it has touched, often in a pioneering way, on many subjects we now confront daily: corporate malfeasance, science gone rogue, artificial intelligence, cloning and the very meaning of life. And it has done so by pitting regular working stiffs against the cryptic title life form, whose motivations boil down to reproducing their own kind, and exterminating everybody and everything else in a viciously gory manner.Whether you are new to the “Alien”-verse, need a refresher or are looking for a spirited argument, here is a ranking of the seven core movies, on a scale of one 👽 (not too spooky) to 👽👽👽👽👽 (terrifying).1979‘Alien’ 👽👽👽👽👽Few films are so perfect that you can’t imagine changing anything; Ridley Scott’s brilliant second feature, written by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett, is one of them. Lured to an isolated moon by a mysterious signal, the crew members of the towing ship Nostromo run into a terrifying life form that decimates them one by one. In just under two hours, the grittily realistic yet eerily poetic “Alien” modernizes cinematic space creatures, reinvents bio-horror and anticipates the contemporary discourse about capitalist greed and artificial intelligence. It also introduces to the science fiction canon the xenomorph (the creature’s biomechanical-looking life stage, a biped with a double set of fangs) and an action heroine for the ages in Warrant Officer Ripley (Sigourney Weaver). Even the trailer was amazing. No notes.1986‘Aliens’ 👽👽We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Book Review: ‘The Instrumentalist,’ by Harriet Constable

    In her debut novel, “ The Instrumentalist,” Harriet Constable paints a vivid and nuanced portrait of the groundbreaking 18th-century violinist and conductor Anna Maria della Pietà.THE INSTRUMENTALIST, by Harriet ConstableThough plenty of talented women have performed and composed music in Europe over the last several centuries, few are enshrined in the classical canon. Why have their names and works disappeared from history?There are many explanations. Women were rarely allowed to perform in public; they lacked the kind of alone time, free of child care and housework, that enabled men to pursue their craft wholeheartedly; they had limited musical options, since women were prohibited from playing certain instruments, like the cello (lascivious) and the flute (unflattering); and in some cases, they were denied adequate recognition for their musical contributions, labeled “muses” to male artists rather than being credited as collaborators.In her debut novel, “The Instrumentalist,” Harriet Constable offers her own answers to this question through a complex and vivid portrait of Anna Maria della Pietà, an 18th-century Venetian violinist and conductor, and a favorite pupil of the composer Antonio Vivaldi.Born in Venice in 1696, della Pietà was handed over as an infant to the Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage where girls were given a home and an education, including in music. There, she met Vivaldi, who led the Pietà’s widely celebrated orchestra, the figlie di coro. Centuries before major orchestras began hiring women, the orphans of the figlie di coro earned incomes, acquired jewels and commanded the adoration of kings and queens. Even among these stars, della Pietà shone, and eventually, she became the master of music at the orphanage.Beyond these details, little is known about della Pietà’s life. Though she was a renowned musician during her time, she was eventually forgotten. With “The Instrumentalist,” Constable fills in the gaps, giving this remarkable figure the kind of nuanced origin story that has rarely been afforded by history to female artists.The book opens with della Pietà as baby Anna Maria, and right away Constable sets up the first glimmers of her relentless character. In a harrowing scene, her teenage mother, a sex worker lost in a daze of postpartum anguish, attempts to drown herself and her child. The baby, Constable writes, “is a raging firestorm of a thing, and she cannot hold it back.” Anna Maria’s fervor causes her mother to change course and drop the baby off at an orphanage instead of killing her.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    A Virtuoso Cellist’s Painstaking Path From Long Covid Back to the Stage

    For over three years, long Covid has presented Joshua Roman with health challenges — and has indelibly shaped the music he makes.Since he began playing cello at 3, Joshua Roman’s talent has taken him from his hometown of Mustang, Okla., to concert halls all over the world.He was the youngest principal cellist of the Seattle Symphony, at 22, and has been a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and many other orchestras. His daily routine often included 10 hours of playing, along with a six-mile run.Then, on Jan. 9, 2021, in Jacksonville, Fla., the morning after performing Prokofiev’s Symphony-Concerto, a piece he loves for its “giant sections of flashy, virtuosic excitement,” everything changed. He woke up and found he couldn’t smell his toothpaste. Later that day, he tested positive for Covid.He was only 37 years old, but he felt extreme fatigue, as if “wearing a coat of weighted down metal inside my body.” It would be a month before he had enough energy to fly home to Manhattan. He was so weak that he got stuck on a staircase landing, crying until he managed to crawl up the rest of the steps.Eventually, most excruciating of all, he lost the stamina to play his cello for nearly three months.“I just let it sit literally collecting dust.”Mr. Roman described his fatigue as like “wearing a coat of weighted down metal inside my body.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Maurice Williams, Whose ‘Stay’ Was a Hit for Him and Others, Dies at 86

    A chart topper in 1960 for him and his doo-wop group the Zodiacs, it inspired several notable cover versions and was heard in the 1987 film “Dirty Dancing.”Maurice Williams, the singer and songwriter whose 1960 single “Stay,” recorded with his doo-wop group the Zodiacs, shot to No. 1 and became a cover-song staple for a long line of musical acts, including the Four Seasons, the Hollies and Jackson Browne, died on Aug. 6 in Charlotte, N.C. He was 86.His death, in a hospital, was confirmed by Ron Henderson, a former member of the Zodiacs.Mr. Williams owed a considerable career debt to a girl he dated when he was 15. She provided the inspiration for his two biggest hits: “Little Darlin’,” recorded when his group was called the Gladiolas, which hit No. 41 on the Billboard pop chart in 1957; and “Stay,” which briefly topped the chart in 1960.Mr. Williams recalled the origins of “Stay,” his only chart-topping single, in a 2018 video interview. “This young lady I was going with, she was over to my house, and this particular night, her brother was supposed to pick her up at 10,” he said. “So he came, and I said, ‘Well, you can stay a little longer.’ And she said, ‘No, I gotta go.’”The next morning he woke up and wove that and other snippets from their conversation — “Now, your daddy don’t mind/And your mommy don’t mind” — into song form, building to its indelible signature line, which, seven years later, the Zodiacs’ Henry Gaston would render in a celestial falsetto: “Oh, won’t you stay, just a little bit longer.”Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs’ recording of the song stood out not only for its infectious hooks but also for its eye-blink length — slightly over 90 seconds.“We wanted to make it short so it would get more airplay,” Mr. Williams said. And, he added, “It worked.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Missouri Woman Charged in Scheme to Defraud Presleys and Sell Graceland

    A woman named Lisa Jeanine Findley was arrested and accused of a brazen effort to foreclose on Elvis Presley’s home in Memphis.Federal authorities arrested a Missouri woman on Friday and accused her of orchestrating a brazen effort to shake down the Presley family by threatening to fraudulently foreclose on Graceland, Elvis’s home in Memphis, which is now a popular tourist attraction.The authorities said that they had arrested Lisa Jeanine Findley, 53, of Kimberling City, Mo., on charges of mail fraud and aggravated identity theft.“The defendant orchestrated a scheme to conduct a fraudulent sale of Graceland, falsely claiming that Elvis Presley’s daughter had pledged the historic landmark as collateral for a loan that she failed to repay before her death,” said Nicole M. Argentieri, the principal deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department.The arrest was made on the anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley, who was found unresponsive at Graceland on Aug. 16, 1977, and pronounced dead soon after at a hospital in Memphis. He was 42.If convicted, Ms. Findley faces a mandatory minimum of two years in prison for aggravated identity theft and a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for mail fraud. A spokesman for the Justice Department said Friday afternoon that she had been detained and was in the custody of the U.S. Marshals pending extradition to Memphis.Exactly who was behind the threat to sell Graceland, a popular and lucrative tourist attraction that draws 600,000 visitors a year, had been a mystery.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More