#olivier laude

[fidjiefidjie]

Bon Soir 🆕️ 🎧 🚔💙

Dombrance 🎶 Double Trouble (Bayrou+Copé)

[digitalphrenology]

Olivier Laude

[federer7]

Tuyền Vestida. From the «Lifestyles» series 2014

Photo: Olivier Laude

[ilikethisacompletelynormalamount]

In the true story, BAFTA winner Scott, also coming off rave reviews for All Of Us Strangers, is set to play Group Captain James Stagg, the Allies’ Chief Meteorologist whose job it was to inform Supreme Commander General Eisenhower of weather conditions that would make-or-break their Normandy invasion. The decision-making was critical in the fate of the war and the course of history.

Anthony Maras (Hotel Mumbai) will direct the ticking-clock thriller, which is due to start shooting in the UK this September. Additional casting is underway, with Studiocanal handling world sales.

Olivier award-winner David Haig and Maras wrote the screenplay based on Haig’s critically lauded play, which ran in London’s West End before going on to be performed for the late Queen Elizabeth II and world leaders to mark the D-Day 75th anniversary in 2019. The official synopsis reads: “In the seventy two hours leading up to D-Day, all the pieces are in place except for one key element—the British weather. Britain’s chief meteorological officer James Stagg (Andrew Scott) is called upon to deliver the most consequential forecast in history, locking him into a tense standoff with the entire Allied leadership. The wrong conditions could devastate the largest ever seaborne invasion, while any delay risks German intelligence catching on. With only his trusted aide Captain Kay Summersby to confide in, and haunted by a catastrophic D-Day rehearsal, the final decision rests with Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower. With only hours to go, the fate of the war and the lives of millions hang in the balance.” Haig’s play explores the personal and military stresses on Stagg and how tensions grew between the teams with different weather forecasts for the date of the proposed D-Day. The film will concentrate on the pressure-cooker of the decision-making but also capture the scale of the landings. Studiocanal previously had commercial and critical success with WWII story The Imitation Game while Working Title similarly scored box office and Oscar recognition with WWII film Darkest Hour.

[ncisfranchise-source]

Morgan Freeman, Olivier Marchal and Simone Ashley will be lauded at the Monte-Carlo TV Festival in June. Prince Albert II of Monaco will present Freeman with Festival’s Crystal Nymph award.

It had already been announced that civil war drama The Gray House, which Freeman exec produced with Kevin Costner, Leslie Greif and Lori McCreary, will have its world premiere at Monte-Carlo.

The Honorary Golden Nymph, the Festival’s highest distinction, will be presented to the French actor and director Olivier Marchal (36 quai des Orfèvres, Braquo), at the Festival’s closing ceremony. Simone Ashley, whose credits include Bridgerton and Sex Education, will receive the Golden Nymph for Most Promising Talent.

Events for fans and public include an Anniversary Tea Party to mark the 50th anniversary of the primetime drama Little House on the Prairie. Michael Weatherly, Cote de Pablo, Brian Dietzen and Wilmer Valderrama will be in town for a behind the scenes event for NCIS, which is celebrating its 1000th episode.

[primaopoi]

Twin Peaks by Olivier Laude

[denimbex1986]

'I almost knock into Andrew Scott before I see him. He’s just dashed out of the Tate Modern, frantic and slightly late: “There’s just so many entrances!” he exclaims. His patrician forehead crinkles, and the brown eyes charmingly plead: Forgive me! He was just inside, picking up his membership card. Surely he can get in for free? “Excuse me,” he huffs, “I’m a fully paid-up member.” Then he flashes the broad grin that seduced a legion of Fleabag viewers, and we’re off.

The plan today is to meander in a loop along the Thames. On a midafternoon Friday in London, this involves much ducking and diving through crowds, which suits Scott just fine. The weather is one of those bright, springlike days that convinces you that winter is over—except the rain-swollen river is now sloshing ominously onto the pavement. We slow down to regard an underwater section of our route. “I don’t think we’re gonna get through there,” he says. “I’ve probably got a hole in my trainers.”

We head for the road instead, words pouring out of the 47-year-old actor in that mellifluous Irish lilt, peppered with “you knows” and interrupted frequently by his laugh. It’s no surprise that his colleagues quickly become friends: “It was clear from the moment that I met and worked with Andrew that he was an exceptionally gifted actor,” says Julianne Moore, who starred alongside Scott on Broadway in 2006’s The Vertical Hour. It was both actors’ Broadway debuts, though Scott has juggled screen and theater from the start. “I’ve always done both,” he says, though he acknowledges modestly: “I used to do maybe a few plays a year and one television show. Now maybe it’s kind of the opposite.” That’s somewhat underselling his dramatic accomplishments. Scott has won two Olivier Awards, for the experimental A Girl in a Car With a Man in 2005 and Noël Coward’s Present Laughter in 2020. He has performed in productions of Eugene O’Neill, Oscar Wilde—he’s played Hamlet, too, and was nominated for an Olivier for that as well. “Scott gives carefully controlled, thrillingly virtuoso physical performances,” wrote The Guardian last year, when he performed eight roles from Uncle Vanya by himself, in a much-lauded West End solo adaptation of the Chekhov play. (A New York transfer could not be confirmed when this piece went to press, but seems highly likely.) “He wore his talent so lightly and modestly,” Moore says. “He was joyful and fun and an amazing partner to have onstage and off.”

Scott was born in Dublin, sandwiched between two sisters; his mother is a teacher and an artist, and his father works at an employment agency. As a child, he was brought to art galleries and theaters. A performance by the great Irish actor Donal McCann in Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock when he was 11 or 12 made a lasting impression: “There was just something about the power in his stillness—people think that, in theater, it’s all about the grand gesture, but stillness onstage is absolutely mesmerizing.”

An eerie stillness characterizes all of Scott’s performances as well. As Moriarty in Sherlock, the BBC One show that catapulted him to fame in Britain in the 2010s, he requested fewer lines to play up the villain’s spookiness. And then there is that agonizing stretch of silence in Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag right after its titular protagonist confesses her love. Has the line “It’ll pass” ever been delivered with so much pathos? Scott’s acting is all submerged passion; when he does speak, his words have depth. “Andrew has an intensity and a precision in his work,” Moore tells me. “I love his vulnerability, the way his eyes glitter onscreen.”

As a child, Scott was sent to drama classes to get over his shyness. He still remembers his first role, as the Tin Man in a production of The Wizard of Oz. “I felt completely free,” he says, seemingly transported to the moment he launched into “If I Only Had a Heart” onstage. “I felt joy—that’s the word. Not only did I feel it, but I felt that other people felt it when they were looking at me…. Some intuition told me as an 11-year-old: ‘You have to be this expressive, that’s what theater is!’ Nobody taught me that. I just felt it.” Then he swerves to avoid a clutch of tourists on Tower Bridge, and the reverie is lost.

These days, walking around London is something of an ongoing pastime for Scott. During the press rollout for Andrew Haigh’s Golden Globe–nominated romance All of Us Strangers, he and costar Paul Mescal went to their PR engagements on foot. One day, two boys on bikes clocked the pair and started chasing after them in an alarming fashion: “We escaped them—it was quite fun, actually!” Does he ever feel slightly protective of Mescal, two decades his junior? “Not any more than I would with any of my other people in my life. Because he’s got his head screwed on, you know? I absolutely adore Paul,” Scott adds, though he wants to make one thing clear: “Bromance is not the word that we associate with it, because neither of us are very bro-ey.”

Waller-Bridge, who has known Scott for 15 years, describes him as “an absolute pixie of mischief.” When asked to elaborate, she continues: “I could write a novel. But I love how naughty he is. He has the magical ability to make you feel instantly present—no matter what’s going on in your life, you’re suddenly there in the moment and feeling joyful. I think that’s what it’s like to watch him as an actor too…like he can stop time with his honesty.”

Between 2020 and 2021, Scott also traversed the lengths of the Thames, pondering the script from Ripley, his upcoming eight-episode project for Netflix, in which he plays the titular protagonist. “Quite unusually, I got sent all eight scripts at the same time,” he remembers. Steven Zaillian, the screenwriter behind Schindler’s List and Gangs of New York and the director and writer behind All the King’s Men, had written all eight at the outset.

Tom Ripley is crime novelist Patricia Highsmith’s slipperiest literary creation; a pathological liar and murderer with whom she felt a strange kinship—she sometimes signed letters with some variation of “Pat H., alias Ripley.” It is not so much a spoiler as an ongoing feature of the books that Ripley, despite splurging on Venetian palazzi and Gucci suitcases, never gets caught. If anybody comes close, there is always a conveniently located oar or glass paperweight nearby. Ripley, in other words, is the hero of the tale. “That’s why he fascinates so many,” says Scott. “There’s been so many iterations of him. I think it’s because people root for him.” Actors like Alain Delon and Dennis Hopper have tried the role; Matt Damon played him as an obsequious, lower-class naïf; John Malkovich, as a slimy, camp killer. Scott’s Ripley is different; a watchful loner escaping rodent-infested poverty, more at home among art than he is around people. Musician and actor Johnny Flynn plays his first victim—the monied Dickie Greenleaf—and Dakota Fanning is Dickie’s suspicious ex-girlfriend. “I find Tom quite vulnerable,” Scott tells me. “I don’t think he’s necessarily lonely, but I certainly think he’s solitary…. He seems to me by his nature that he just can’t fit in. He’s trying to survive.”

In Ripley, Zaillian extracts maximum Hitchcockian dread from every creaky footstep. But most sinister of all is Scott’s face, which exhibits a sharklike steeliness throughout. It’s a performance that exudes queasy force. Is Ripley a scammer, a psychopath, or both? “There’s so many things lurking beneath him that I’ve been very reluctant to diagnose him with anything. I never thought of him as a sociopath or murderous,” Scott declares. “It’s up to everybody else to characterize him or call him whatever they want.”

As we weave through tourists near the Tower of London, barely anybody notices Scott, save for a faint glimmer of recognition among mainly young women. He seems to draw reassurance from it. “I don’t like to think about it too much, if I’m honest,” he muses of fame. “I find it a little bit, er, frightening.” He is known but not blockbuster-recognizable, although he is in the upcoming Back in Action with Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx. What stunts did he do? “I can’t give that away, I’m afraid, or somebody from Netflix will come and shoot me in the head.”

What’s been on Scott’s mind the most hasn’t been acting at all, in fact, but art. As a 17-year-old, he was offered his first movie role on the same day he was given a scholarship to study painting. He chose acting, but has recently been thinking about Oliver Burkeman’s philosophical self-help tract from 2021, Four Thousand Weeks, which makes the case for focusing on the five things you truly want to accomplish. “For me at the moment, it’s like, What do you want to do? What do you want to say?”

He scrolls through his phone to show me his work. There’s a watercolor of a couple arguing in a restaurant in rich reds and greens, line drawings of friends and people on the beach, and two self-portraits. “It’s a bit weird,” he acknowledges of his depiction of himself, all bulbous forehead and Pan-like tufts of hair. His brisk, nervy lines are reminiscent of Egon Schiele or Francis Bacon, who turns out to be one of his favorite painters. “Well, God, I’ll take that,” he mutters at the comparison. He would like someday to go to art school. “I don’t ever regret it,” he says of acting. “But I suppose you just get to a stage where you think, What else? That’s one of the big painful things in life for me, where you can’t quite live all the lives.” As he gets older, he feels the tug toward revisiting old working relationships, including with Waller-Bridge: “We’ve definitely got things cooking,” he smiles. “I’d love to work with her again. She’s just a singular, wonderful person.” For her part, Waller-Bridge says: “I’d love to see him do a fully unhinged slapstick comedy character. Someone who is outraged at everything, all of the time.”

As we round the pavement and the Tate Modern looms back into sight, he recalls a poster he received in 2017—a monstrously large graphic that detailed every week in a human life span. “It’s your entire life if you live to 80—you have to fill in all the bits that you’ve already lived,” he remembers in awe, “a visually terrifying gift.” What did he do with it? “I didn’t hold on to it for too long.” Easy come, easy go: We finally finish our loop around the Thames and, as Scott disappears back into the throng, anonymous just the way he likes it, it occurs to me that the actor has many lives to live yet.'

[doamarierose-honoka]

LONDON -- Michael Gambon, the Irish actor who played Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films, has died at 82.

"We are devastated to announce the loss of Sir Michael Gambon," a statement from his family said. "Beloved husband and father, Michael died peacefully in hospital with his wife Anne and son Fergus at his bedside, following a bout of pneumonia. Michael was 82. We ask that you respect our privacy at this painful time and thank you for your messages of support and love."

Born in Dublin on Oct. 19, 1940, Gambon made both his film and stage debuts in 1962 and 1965 productions, respectively, of William Shakespeare's "Othello." He was among the first ensemble of actors to join the Royal National Theatre in London, alongside the likes of Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith and Michael Redgrave, to name a few. In 1998, he received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth.

He would go on to star in films like 2001's "Gosford Park" and 2010's "The King's Speech," both of which earned him Screen Actors Guild Awards for best cast in a motion picture.

Gambon took over the role of Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, beginning with the third "Harry Potter" film following the death of Richard Harris in 2002. Harris played Dumbledore for the first two films and Gambon played him for the remaining six in the series.

On the small screen, Gambon won four British Academy Television Awards for best actor. He won for "The Singing Detective" in 1987, "Wives and Daughters" in 2000, "Longitude" in 2001 and "Perfect Strangers" in 2002. He also earned two Primetime Emmy Awards for "Path to War" in 2002 and for "Emma" in 2010.

Gambon was a much-lauded stage actor and received three Olivier Awards, often considered the British equivalent of the Tony Awards, during his career out of 13 nominations. He won trophies for "A Chorus of Disapproval" in 1985, "A View from the Bridge" in 1987 and for "Man of the Moment" in 1990.

He would go on to make his Broadway debut in 1997 in "Skylight," for which he earned a Tony nomination.

Gambon's "Harry Potter" co-star Rupert Grint, who played Ron Weasley in the film series, took to social media to pay tribute to the late actor.

"So sad to hear about Michael," Grint wrote in an Instagram post. "He brought so much warmth and mischief to every day on set. He captivated me as a kid and became a personal role model of mine for finding the fun and eccentricities in life. Sending all my love to his family, Rupert."

Gambon is survived by his longtime wife Anne and their son Fergus.

[ikram1909]

Maybe I’m reading into it too much, but like maybe part of the reason Lewandowski refuses to or hasn’t yet acknowledged the fact that he’s on the decline might be insecurity, if that makes sense. Like, he was always one of the main guys at Bayern and barring his first season with them, I’m pretty sure that Lewandowski never scored less than forty goals per season(this is across all competitions). His first season here at Barcelona he scores 33 goals, which is obviously great, but in comparison it pales to Lewandowski’s prior seasons and was probably the first inkling towards the fact that he was on the decline. Not to mention that now he seems to be consistently failing to score when he needs to, and like you said he doesn’t take accountability for his shortcomings and instead passes the blame onto the team for failing to create chances for him. Going back to the point of insecurity, it may be due to the fact that someone like Lewandowski, who’s consistently been lauded as one of the best strikers of our generation and who’s never had trouble scoring goals, can’t or won’t acknowledge that he’s not who he used to be when there are other players who are his age or older and are similarly held in the same regard as he is who don’t seem to be on the decline like him. Players like Angel di Maria, Lionel Messi, Nicolas Otamendi, Edin Dzeko, Sergio Ramos, Thiago Silva, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos, Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Suarez, and Olivier Giroud who are all still performing well despite their advanced age, it might be a point of insecurity for Lewandowski in that he’s their age but seems to be more rapidly declining then they are. Of course there are other players who are 35+ and still performing well, but they’re just the ones off the top of my head.

You're absolutely right. He's in denial for sure and the thing is I think he can still perform if he actually focuses on what he's doing wrong instead of taking the easy way out and blaming it on everyone else. Like maybe stay in the box where you belong instead of pretending to be a midfielder?

[jgroffdaily]

Merrily We Roll Along reviews (part 3)

User reviews are available at Show-Score.com, with a review summary at West End Theatre:

Time Out

Groff, Radcliffe and Mendez are so appealing as performers that they moot the pinched negativity of their characters’ first appearances. All three deliver exceptional work. 

As the story moves backward, Groff’s pallid Frank begins to glow with excitement and sincerity; he makes you feel how much Frank loves writing music, and what a self-betrayal his abandonment of it represents.

But who will get to see them? This Merrily is in an ironic position: It’s too big of a hit. Tickets for the limited Off Broadway run sold out more or less instantly, which means that we can only now hope for a Broadway transfer. This is a show that makes demands of its audience, perhaps sometimes unreasonable ones. But as Charley sings during a loving argument with his friends: “What’s the point of demands you can meet?” Friedman’s production meets the audience halfway, and a Broadway audience today just might be able to make up the difference as couldn’t in 1981. Cross your fingers: It finally might be Merrily’s time. 

The Guardian

Frank can often come across as a jerk, a sellout. But this framing device softens him. If he is pulled back into the past, then it must be his own unhappiness, his own irresolution doing the tugging. It helps, too that Groff has boyishness to him and a niceness backing up that flexible, emotive voice. His Frank seems less craven than pragmatic.

Maybe this was the real unspoken problem with that first production, that audiences resisted following a character they didn’t like. But Friedman has solved this. Frank is more likable now and his sins – wanting to make a little movie, dubious taste in second wives – are forgivable. In this light, he seems to be a projection of Sondheim’s own anxieties. How did he balance commerce and art? What did he sacrifice along the way?

Talkin' Broadway

The device effectively gives the events of the story more cohesion, and it establishes Frank as reflective and more sympathetic than we typically see him. Groff, who is an immensely likeable performer in everything, is terrific here, and he serves Sondheim's songs beguilingly. He plays the role as someone who is naturally charming and yet is aware of the power of that charm. You can't take your eyes off him.

And that's a problem.

Groff's dominance throws off the equilateral triangle's balance, particularly in Frank's relationship with his friend and writing partner Charley Kringas (Daniel Radcliffe). A self-aware Frank makes the moral compass Charley dispensable, and as hard as Radcliffe works (performing with the mannerisms and disheveled appearance of a young Woody Allen), the character keeps getting sidelined.

Telegraph (UK)

"Maria Friedman's acclaimed London revival of Merrily We Roll Along transfers to New York. Might Broadway beckon?"

"It’s taken a decade for director Maria Friedman’s lauded London revival of Stephen Sondheim’s infamous Broadway flop Merrily We Roll Along to hit New York – but it’s definitely been worth the wait. Like the Olivier Award-winning production that originated at the Menier Chocolate Factory in 2012, the current incarnation, playing Off Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop, is a stellar, musically sumptuous affair featuring a captivating score by the late composer-lyricist. And this time the cast includes Daniel Radcliffe, who delivers a winning and wittily engaging turn as one of a trio of American friends whose bonds break down over 20 years."

"Having already done How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying on Broadway in 2011, he [Radcliffe] fits in well with these lesser-known but more seasoned musical theatre performers: Mendez, who turns her underwritten character into the show’s emotional centre, and Groff, who finds the midlife disenchantment in a potentially unlikable lead character. High points come in the buoyant songs all three sing, especially the optimistic finale, “Our Time”, when they’re together for the first time watching Sputnik in orbit."

AM New York

Radcliffe (as the principled Charley) and Mendez (as the heartbroken Mary) are wonderful, but it is Groff’s dashing and unusually sympathetic performance as Frank that makes this one of the most persuasive and moving productions of “Merrily” to date.

[colonycorps]

I’m glad Oliver was wearing her seatbelt. Very sensible

I guess that's why she's whatever rank she is then. Colonel? Captain? This wouldn't be the first/fifth time you've been concussed though at the very least this time it wasn't the fault of your actions. Not wearing a seatbelt is decidedly an action you didn't take after all. And who was to predict Slim would just slam on the breaks in this Slugmeister Colonial Utility Transport Vehicle.

Hear you loud and clear! The most auspicious of laudes that can come into one's possession, rivaling a Stone Eagle, or Ten-Punched Utilities Subservience Card. A beautiful "Gold Star".

You do not posses any stickers of that kind or think that's a real thing, But it is the thought that counts nonetheless. Its been a long time coming. You can hope to one day be worthy of your own glittery golden mark of honor.

Olivier does appreciate it. Dividi is saying things. And Slim just sent this vehicle into a screeching halt. About time we check out what's going on.

After an Impromptu break for the various holidays, Carver and Colony Corps are aiming to update for Wednesdays weekly.

[digitalphrenology]

Olivier Laude

[movienation]

Classic Film Review: Murder, Corruption, Catholicism and DeNiro and Duvall acting out a Sibling Rivalry -- "True Confessions" (1981)

The first time the phrase “the finest actor of his generation” was attached to Robert Duvall was in a cover story in “American Film” magazine in the fall of 1981. Duvall already had “The Godfather” movies, “Apocalypse Now” and “The Great Santini” to his credit. But a story headlined “America’s Hardboiled Olivier,” about the actor and his prep and performance opposite the already widely-lauded…

[thxnews]

São Tomé Commits to End Statelessness: UNHCR

São Tomé and Príncipe Commits to Ending Statelessness

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has recognized São Tomé and Príncipe's commitment to eradicating statelessness by joining two key international conventions. This critical move enhances the nation's contribution to global efforts addressing this significant issue.   Accession to Key Conventions On January 15th, São Tomé and Príncipe officially became the 98th State Party to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 80th State Party to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. These accessions underscore the country's dedication to resolving the challenges faced by stateless people and safeguarding their rights and dignity. UNHCR Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Abdouraouf Gnon Konde, lauded this development as a testament to São Tomé and Príncipe’s commitment to addressing and preventing statelessness.  

A Step Towards Global Change

This milestone aligns with the UNHCR's #IBelong campaign, a global initiative aimed at ending statelessness. It also marks São Tomé and Príncipe's transition to the Global Alliance to End Statelessness, a significant leap in the worldwide fight against this issue. Statelessness restricts individuals' access to fundamental human rights, including education, healthcare, employment, and marriage. Over 4.4 million people in 95 countries are currently stateless or have an undetermined nationality, and the actual global figure is believed to be much higher.   Challenges and Opportunities in São Tomé and Príncipe While specific data on statelessness in São Tomé and Príncipe is not yet available, the country's accession to the conventions lays a strong foundation for identifying and addressing the causes and challenges faced by stateless people. UNHCR Representative for São Tomé and Príncipe, Olivier Guillaume Beer, emphasized the nation's commitment to establishing a legal framework that guarantees everyone's right to nationality, following their pledge at the 2023 Global Refugee Forum.  

UNHCR's Continued Support

The UNHCR remains committed to assisting São Tomé and Príncipe in implementing measures to prevent and reduce statelessness. This collaboration aims to build a more inclusive society and positively impact the lives of stateless individuals in the region.   Sources: THX News & UNHCR. Read the full article

[journalsmente]

India's Junior Men's Hockey Team Stuns Netherlands, Secures Semifinal Spot.

India’s junior men’s hockey team showcased resilience, overcoming a 0–2 deficit against Netherlands in the FIH Junior World Cup 2023 quarterfinals.

The Men in Blue orchestrated a remarkable comeback, winning 4–3, leaving fans in awe of the epic turnaround. Social media buzzed with reactions, praising India’s grit and determination.

Despite an aggressive start by Netherlands, India faced a 0–2 setback by halftime. Aditya Lalage’s field goal ignited hope, and Araijeet Singh Hundal’s penalty stroke equalized the score. Olivier Hortensius reclaimed the lead for Netherlands, but India persisted. Sourabh Kushwaha and Uttam Singh’s goals secured a thrilling victory.

Indian fans celebrated on social media, lauding the team’s outstanding performance. The junior team faces Germany in the semifinals on December 14, promising an exciting clash. The potential for an India vs. Pakistan encounter in the final adds anticipation to the upcoming matches. Stay tuned for more updates on the FIH Junior World Cup. #JuniorHockey #IndiaVsNetherlands.