Aurelia Butler

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    Marianne Faithfull Was an Unforgettable Style Paragon

    Marianne Faithfull, who died on Thursday at 78, “seemed to touch all the moments,” helping define the look of the 1960s with an influence that is still seen today.She was a figure out of fiction, right down to her Jane Austen name. The daughter of a baroness and a British major (a spy during World War II), Marianne Faithfull — who died this week at 78 — was discovered by the Rolling Stones’ manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, at a record release party in the 1960s while still in her teens. “My first move was to get a Rolling Stone as a boyfriend,” she was often quoted as having said. “I slept with three and decided the lead singer was the best bet.”The bet paid off for both parties. Mick Jagger and Ms. Faithfull dated from 1966-70 and during that time she recorded a series of pop songs, most memorably “As Tears Go By.” Mr. Jagger wrote imperishable Stones hits like “Wild Horses” under the direct inspiration of Ms. Faithfull — lovely, feckless, druggie and unfettered. She was “a wonderful friend,” Mr. Jagger wrote on Instagram this week, “a beautiful singer and a great actress.”She was also a style paragon from the outset.“She seemed to touch all the moments, from Mod to rich hippie to bad girl and punk, corsets to leather to the nun outfit she wore when she performed with Bowie,” the designer Anna Sui said this week by phone. “She was there, through all those periods — performing, participating in events, acting and singing and also in the tabloids, very much in the eyes of anybody loving those periods.”Ms. Faithfull was introduced to much of the world through her relationship with Mick Jagger, but her style and talent made her fame last.PA Images, via Getty ImagesA British journalist once described Ms. Faithfull, in the late 1960s, as “the flowing-haired, miniskirted, convention-knocking epitome” of a “drug generation” that her elders were challenged to understand. What more accurately she epitomized was a spirit of bohemian laissez-faire better located in class than any particular era.Cultured, if not conventionally educated, Ms. Faithfull was as offhand about her looks as only a natural beauty could afford to be. And she was as indifferent to the strait-jacketing conventions of the bourgeoisie as those of her background (she spent her early years in an upscale commune her father founded in Oxfordshire) often are.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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    Best Movies and Shows Streaming in February: ‘The White Lotus,’ ‘Yellowjackets’ and More

    The third seasons of “Yellowjackets” and “The White Lotus” arrive, along with “Clean Slate” and “Win or Lose.”Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to their libraries. Here are our picks for some of February’s most promising new titles. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)New to Amazon Prime Video‘Clean Slate’ Season 1Starts streaming: Feb. 6One of the last projects that Norman Lear worked on before he died in 2023 at age 101, this dramedy follows in the Lear tradition of shows that tackle controversial social issues with frank honesty and snappy humor. George Wallace plays Harry, a carwash owner in Alabama owner whose cheery outlook on life is tested when the child he knew as Desmond, who has been estranged for decades, comes back as Desiree. Laverne Cox (also a co-producer and co-writer on the series with Wallace and the co-creator Dan Ewen) plays Desiree, who comes home looking for some closure with the family and friends in her small town.Also arriving:Feb. 6“Invincible” Season 3Feb. 7“Newtopia” Season 1Feb. 13“My Fault: London”Feb. 20“Reacher” Season 3Feb. 27“House of David”Haley Louise Jones and Şafak Sengul in “Berlin ER.”Apple TV+New to Apple TV+‘Berlin ER’Starts streaming: Feb. 26If telephiles haven’t gotten enough of a vintage “ER” fix from HBO Max’s excellent recent medical drama “The Pitt,” Apple TV+ may fill the need with its latest foreign import. The simply titled “Berlin ER” stars Haley Louise Jones as Dr. Parker, an accomplished young physician who for personal reasons decides to challenge herself by taking over the emergency department in an understaffed, underfunded hospital in one of the German capital’s roughest neighborhoods. The show offers all of the visceral, fast-paced thrills that genre fans have come expect — with lots of gory injuries and life-threatening diseases, treated in seconds under appalling conditions — while also depicting one woman’s attempt to earn the respect of her cynical staff.Also arriving:Feb. 5“Love You to Death”Feb. 14“Goldie” Season 1“The Gorge”Feb. 21“Onside: Major League Soccer”“Surface” Season 2We 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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    At Sundance Film Festival, a Sense of Uprooting Onscreen and Off

    As it searches for a new home beyond Park City, Utah, the film festival showcases a neo-western, a promising comedic debut and two unsettling documentaries.If a festival can be summed up in one word, then the word for this year’s Sundance Film Festival is weird. That was the adjective that drifted through my mind as I circled in and out of screenings, chatted with other attendees and scanned local headlines. Weird could apply to some of the selections in the event, which ends Sunday. But it wasn’t so much the lineup that struck many of us, it was the festival, the pre-eminent American showcase for U.S. independent cinema and beyond. The vibe felt off, we murmured, the energy muted.For good reason, too. The fires in Los Angeles County were still burning when Sundance opened on Jan. 23. Park City, Utah, is a long way from the Hollywood sign, but Sundance and the mainstream industry have always been codependents, and when the mainstream feels unsettled, you can feel the anxiety in the air. Making matters worse is that the conflagration in California is just the latest crisis facing the movie world, which continues to grapple with the aftershocks of the pandemic and back-to-back strikes, along with its self-inflicted wounds.Adding to this Great Movieland Unsettlement is Sundance’s search for a new home. Last year, the festival announced that it was exploring alternatives to Park City, where it has been held for decades. Among the stated reasons is that the event has outgrown the resort town, which has a population of just over 8,200 and an infrastructure that remains ill-equipped to handle such a large annual inundation. Every year, tens of thousands of movie lovers swarm into Park City, straining resources and local patience. Now, after a search, Sundance has settled on three alternatives: Cincinnati; Boulder, Colo.; and Salt Lake City, where the festival already screens movies, with some events remaining in Park City.Questions about where Sundance will land percolated throughout this year’s event, which features the usual great and good, bad and blah selections. Among the standouts is Geeta Gandbhir’s documentary “The Perfect Neighbor,” which tracks how friction between a white woman and her multiracial neighbors in Florida turned progressively heated and then horrifyingly lethal. Consisting largely of imagery culled from police body cameras and interrogation interviews, it offers up a horrifying look at everyday racial animus and stand-your-ground laws. It also underscores, as the white woman makes one 911 call after another, that there’s nothing funny about the prejudices and pathologies of a so-called Karen.“The Alabama Solution,” a documentary by Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman, looks at the state’s notoriously deficient prison system.Sundance Institute, via Associated PressWe 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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    Karla Sofía Gascón, ‘Emilia Pérez’ Star, Apologizes for Posts on Muslims, George Floyd and China

    The Oscar-nominated actress, who plays a cartel leader in “Emilia Pérez,” was criticized for derogatory comments about Muslims, George Floyd and China.Karla Sofía Gascón, the star of the movie musical “Emilia Pérez” and the first openly transgender actor to be nominated for an Academy Award, apologized on Thursday after social media posts she wrote denigrating Muslims, George Floyd and China were resurfaced.“I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt,” Gascón, 52, said in a statement provided by Netflix, the distributor of “Emilia Pérez.” “As someone in a marginalized community, I know this suffering all too well and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain. All my life I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness.”In one of the posts on X, which were published in Spanish and shared in screenshots by the journalist Sarah Hagi, Gascón wrote that Islam was “becoming a hotbed of infection for humanity that urgently needs to be cured.” In another, she wrote that “the religion is INCOMPATIBLE with Western values.”Gascón also described Floyd as a “drug-addicted con artist” in a 2020 post criticizing people who were protesting his deadly arrest by police officers. Later that year, during the coronavirus pandemic, she wrote that “the Chinese vaccine, in addition to the mandatory chip, comes with two spring rolls.”She deleted her account on Friday.Gascón, who came out as a trans woman in 2016, was born in Spain and was a star of Mexican telenovelas before landing the title role in “Emilia Pérez,” in which she plays a cartel leader who goes into hiding after a gender transition. The movie leads the pack with 13 Oscar nominations, including for best picture. More

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    Jay-Z Will Seek Dismissal of Assault Lawsuit His Lawyer Calls a ‘Sham’

    The woman who accused him of raping her in 2000, when she was a minor, acknowledged to NBC that there were inconsistencies in her account, but stood by her claim.Lawyers for Jay-Z plan to ask a judge to toss a lawsuit accusing the rapper of raping a 13-year-old in 2000, pointing to what they described as “glaring inconsistencies” that emerged in an NBC interview of the accuser, who was not named in the suit.In the lawsuit, which was filed last week, the unnamed accuser said that she had been raped by Jay-Z (born Shawn Carter) and Sean Combs at a party at a private residence after the MTV Video Music Awards in Manhattan in 2000. Mr. Carter strongly denied the allegation.NBC News published an interview with the accuser on Friday evening in which she acknowledged inconsistencies in her account, but maintained that her allegation of assault was true.The woman’s lawsuit claimed that after the encounter she was picked up by her father, whom she called from a gas station. But NBC reported that her father, who would have had to drive hours from his home in upstate New York to pick up his daughter following the after-party, did not recall having done so. The father was also unnamed in the report.The plaintiff, who now lives in Alabama, also told NBC that she had spoken to the musician Benji Madden, a member of the band Good Charlotte, at the party after the awards that night. But Mr. Madden, who was not accused of any wrongdoing in her suit, was on tour in the Midwest at the time.Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Mr. Carter, wrote a letter Friday night to U.S. District Court Judge Analisa Torres saying that Mr. Carter intends to file a motion to strike the complaint, citing the NBC report. “The interview outs plaintiff’s allegations for what they are: a sham,” he wrote in the letter.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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    John Eliot Gardiner’s Once and Future Orchestras Duel

    Banished from his ensembles after striking a singer, John Eliot Gardiner has assembled a new group, with the same programming at the same venue.Marten Root, a flutist specializing in historical instruments, has played under the conductor John Eliot Gardiner for over 35 years, and considers him a profoundly intelligent and honest musician.Root, 68, has also had severe enough verbal disagreements with Gardiner, 81, that he twice temporarily quit working with him. The reasons were “incidents which happen if you’re a flute player in an orchestra,” Root said in a video interview. “You’re the top of the score. You’re always in the line of fire.”Both times, he returned. Playing under Gardiner, an eminent performer of Baroque music who has recorded every single Bach cantata, was “no easy job to do,” Root said, “but basically, I decided to go back to the orchestra twice, because it’s musically more than worth it.”In August last year, Gardiner struck the singer William Thomas following a performance of the opera “Les Troyens” in France. Gardiner apologized and announced that he was temporarily withdrawing from all conducting.Now, Gardiner has returned — but not with his old organization, Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras, which didn’t want him back. Instead, Gardiner has just completed a tour with a new ensemble he founded, the Constellation Choir & Orchestra.The two groups almost collided recently, playing nearly identical concerts at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Germany, on Dec. 7 and 14. Heard so closely together, the performances offered an unusual glimpse of what’s ahead for Gardiner’s once and future ensembles. Although the concerts looked similar on paper, they sounded strikingly different.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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    Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie Give a Surprising Education in Opera

    “Paris & Nicole: The Encore,” a sequel to “The Simple Life,” is a comedic lark about creating an opera, with enlightening lessons along the way.It was a sight I certainly didn’t expect to see this year, or ever: Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie sitting down with Thomas Adès, one of the greatest living composers, to learn about opera.Adès is a longtime fan and admirer of them, he tells the camera in “Paris & Nicole: The Encore,” a sequel to “The Simple Life” now streaming on Peacock. The women come to him with a tune, which he echoes at the piano. Can he, they wonder, just write their opera?He tells them, with evasive politeness, that he’s not sure he’s the right person for the job. Before leaving, they ask him how long it takes to write an opera. One to five years, he says.They have less than a month.It’s an enlightening moment, one of many it turns out, in “Paris & Nicole,” a three-episode lark about Hilton and Richie reuniting to write an opera based on their decades of friendship. This art form, they learn with jaws dropped, isn’t easy. In fact, as the series shows in a surprisingly effective opera education, it’s unbelievably hard.Still, they are determined. Hilton and Richie, visibly mature and mostly shaking their Y2K-era ditsy personas, set out to compose an entire opera using just one word: sanasa.As fans of “The Simple Life” may remember, Hilton and Richie have often sung “sanasa, sanasa” at each other, to the tune of Elvis’s entrance music. You could generously describe it as having the nonsense of Dada yet the communicative power of a wordless Meredith Monk vocalise. They have seen the song as a vibe check, or an exclamation of joy.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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    Jacob Collier, Megan Moroney and Clay Aiken Issue Holiday Albums

    Our critics on Christmas records from Jacob Collier, Megan Moroney, two “American Idol” alums and more.A holiday album offers musicians a chance to adopt — or reinvent — a classic format and show fans a different side of themselves. Here’s a sampling of this year’s releases, from singers exploring the standards and artists rethinking the meaning of the holidays.Clay Aiken, ‘Christmas Bells Are Ringing’This is Clay Aiken’s second holiday album; the first arrived two decades ago, the year after he gawkily crooned his way to second place on the second season of “American Idol.” In the intervening time, he’s been on Broadway, he’s run (unsuccessfully) for political office and he’s been on “The Masked Singer.” But he never lost his voice — all these years later, Aiken still sings with a lovely flutter, and with real punch, too. His first holiday collection, “Merry Christmas With Love,” was overflowing with earned pomp — a singer who excelled at targeted bombast given free melodramatic reign. His new one, a covers collection, is a touch more polished, though he does convey true mischief on “Magic Moments” and, on “Do You Hear What I Hear,” accesses the kind of pyrotechnic fifth gear that’s the stuff of “Idol” finales, musical theater blockbusters and Christmas morning celebrations. JON CARAMANICACarpenters, ‘Christmas Once More’The Carpenters’ 1978 holiday release “Christmas Portrait” is not only one of the most enduringly enjoyable Yuletide pop albums of its era, it’s also one of the most ambitious works that Richard Carpenter ever arranged: a grandly orchestrated, elegantly realized suite that weaves together an extended medley of Christmas favorites as though they were a single song. That fluidity is preserved on the new collection, “Christmas Once More,” even though it’s a compilation that features remixed and remastered material culled from both “Christmas Portrait” and its slightly inferior though still lovely 1984 sequel, “An Old-Fashioned Christmas.” These 16 tracks represent most of the highlights from each release, including a festive take on “(There’s No Place Like) Home for the Holidays” and a rerecording of the Carpenters’ own 1970 holiday hit “Merry Christmas, Darling,” featuring accompaniment from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Streamlining the best material from the two previous LPs eliminates some of the compositional pomp that occasionally distracted from the warm, down-to-earth intimacy of Karen Carpenter’s voice, and the finely executed new mix gives it an added gleam. LINDSAY ZOLADZJacob Collier, ‘Three Christmas Songs (An Abbey Road Live-to-Vinyl Cut)’Earlier this year the multitalented polymath Jacob Collier recorded a continuous, 14-minute set of three Christmas classics live at London’s Abbey Road Studios. He uses his piano, guitar and voice all in a similarly searching manner, leaping along scales and octaves with a daredevil’s flair. That approach works best here on piano, particularly during a spellbinding deconstruction of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” enlivened by its twinkling cascade of high notes. Collier’s voice is more of an acquired taste than his piano playing, and despite his impressive range, his showy runs can overly complicate the emotions meant to be translated through these songs. Regardless, though, this recording captures a skillfully executed performance and ends with one of its most enchanting moments, as Collier conducts a choir — its members just happened to be sitting in the audience — in a beautifully understated “Silent Night.” ZOLADZDean & Britta & Sonic Boom, ‘A Peace of Us’“A Peace of Us” brings indie-rock introspection to seasonal sentiments. Dean Wareham, from Galaxie 500 and Luna, and his longtime duo partner and wife, Britta Phillips, collaborated with Sonic Boom, from Spacemen 3, on mostly lesser-known Christmas songs, from John Barry and Hal David, David Berman, Randy Newman, Merle Haggard, Boudleaux Bryant and Willie Nelson, whose “Pretty Paper” is remade as whispery, pulsing electro-pop. The songs play up the mundane aspects of the holiday, and the tone is hushed and hazily retro, with subdued vocals and reverbed guitars alongside the sleigh bells. Even the Lennon-Ono standard, “Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” drifts away instead of building up. JON PARELESBen Folds, ‘Sleigher’Christmas would seem to present a prime topic for Ben Folds, whose piano virtuosity, keen eye and skeptical but ultimately kindly spirit can turn domestic moments into show tunes waiting for a show. “Sleigher” has one standout: “Christmas Time Rhyme,” a song about the annual family reunion where “We arrive half alive from the last weird trip around the sun.” It’s a jazzy waltz that juggles childhood memories and grown-up insights. The rest of the album — including songs from the Mills Brothers and Mel Tormé — struggles to match it. PARELESWe 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