By Ed Boitano

The best films of 2023 proved to be an eclectic and exciting mix of thought provoking cinema. Narratives ranged from genocide, lost loves and rebirth, immigrant experiences, stories pulled from headlines and a teacher with a distracting lazy eye at a small boarding school in New England. The year was rich with directorial vision and personal styles: the unblemished truth by documentarian Frederick Wiseman, lonely science fiction from Andrew Haigh, the exploding imagery of Martin Scorsese, Justine Triet’s moments of tensity, the Bressonian minimalism of Aki Kaurismäki and Jonathan Glazer’s dialectical montage with the collision of image and sound.

Only time will tell if the list of films stands the test of time. As Jean Renoir once said, The best films are those that leave a lasting impact, that linger in your mind long after the credits roll.

15 TOP FILMS FROM 2023

1. The Zone of Interest:
   Jonathan Glazer (UK)
2. Past Lives:
   Celine Song (US)
3. Killers of the Flower Moon:
   Martin Scorsese (US)
4. Fallen Leaves:
   Aki Kaurismäki (Finland, Germany)
5. May December:
   Todd Haynes (US)
6. All of Us Strangers:
   Andrew Haigh (UK)
7. Anatomy of a Fall:
   Justine Triet (France)
8. Showing Up:
   Kelly Reichardt (US)
9. Passages:
   Ira Sachs (France)
10. Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros:
    Frederick Wiseman (France, US)
11. Poor Things:
    Yorgos Lanthimos (UK, US, Ireland)
12. Return to Seoul:
    Davy Chou (France, Germany, Belgium, Qatar, Cambodia)
13. The Holdovers:
    Alexander Payne (US)
14. Trailer of the Film That Will Never Exist: “Phony Wars”:
    Jean-Luc Godard (France, Switzerland)
15. Oppenheimer:
    Christopher Nolan (UK)

BEST DIRECTOR

Jonathan Glazer/The Zone of Interest

Runner-up: Martin Scorsese/Killers of the Flower Moon

BEST DIRECTORIAL DEBUT

Celine Song/Past Lives

Runner-Up: Raine Allen-Miller/Rye Lane

BEST MALE ACTOR

Franz Rogowski/Passages

Runner-Up: Cillian Murphy/Oppenheimer

BEST FEMALE ACTOR

Greta Lee/Past Lives

Runner-Up: Sandra Huller/Anatomy of a Fall & The Zone of Interest

BEST SUPPORTING MALE ACTOR

Robert De Niro/Killers of the Flower Moon

Runner-Up: Robert Downey, Jr/Oppenheimer

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE ACTOR

Tilda Swinton/The Killer

Runner-Up: Rachel McAdams/Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret

BEST ACTING DEBUT

Park Ji-Min/Return to Seoul

Runner-Up: Dominic Sessa/The Holdovers

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Rodrigo Prieto/Killers of the Flower Moon & Barbie

Runner-Up: Hoyte Van Hoytema/Oppenheimer

Best Original Screenplay

Samy Burch/May December

Runner-Up: Celine Song/Past Lives

Best Original Score

Mica Levi/The Zone of Interest

Runner-Up: Robbie Robertson/Killers of the Flower Moon

Best Editing

Thelma Schoonmaker/Killers of the Flower Moon

Runner-Up: Laurent Senechal/Anatomy of a Fall

Best Sound Effects

Johnnie Burn/The Zone of Interest

Runner-Up: Mark Ulano/Killers of the Flower Moon

Most Disappointing Film

Silent Night/John Woo

Runner-Up: Barbie/Greta Gerwig

The post Traveling Boy Selects Top Films From 2023 appeared first on Traveling Archive.

1. NYFF61 Festival Report
   
   The 61st New York Film Festival recently closed up shop, which means that it was once again time for Film Comment’s Festival Report, with our annual live overview of the NYFF that was. Devika and Clint convened an all-star team of critics: Molly Haskell, Adam Nayman, and Kelli Weston, for a spirited wrap-up analysis of the highlights and lowlights from the NYFF61 lineup. In front of a lively audience, the panel discussed and debated Todd Haynes’s May December, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist, Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, and many other noteworthy selections.
   
    
   
   
   
   
2. Are the Palestinians Wrong about Everything? (An Average Israeli Perspective)
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Online calculator can gauge stress level of air travel
   FlightsFinder has introduced an online Airport Stress Calculator to help travelers avoid hassles while flying or prepare for potentially difficult situations. Users can enter their departure time, airline and airport and the tool will analyze how busy the airport is likely to be, the chances of having a flight delay and airlines’ specific baggage restrictions.
   
   
   
   
4. Best Directorial Film Trilogies
   
   
   
   
5. Upcoming Book-to-Screen Adaptations
      
   • The Other Black Girl
     by Zakiya Dalila Harris
     Zakiya Dalila Harris’ 2021 mystery-thriller follows twentysomething publishing assistant Nella Rogers, who is tired of being the only Black employee in the office. So she’s delighted when Harlem native Hazel joins the team as another woman of color. But things get quickly and severely weird when a series of unsettling events turns Nella’s world upside down. The new Hulu series adaptation premiered in September, and the creative team cites some varied inspirations, from Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel Passing to Jordan Peele’s instant-classic 2017 horror film Get Out.
     
   • The Changeling
     by Victor LaValle
     Victor LaValle is one of the most innovative writers working in speculative fiction these days. (For immediate proof, check out his 2016 quick-read novella The Ballad of Black Tom.) LaValle’s 2017 novel The Changeling follows an antiquarian book dealer who travels through eldritch realms to save his family. LaValle’s book is a slow-motion collision of dark fantasy, gritty realism, and parental anxiety. The Apple TV+ adaptation, starring LaKeith Stanfield, premiered its first three episodes on September 8, with eight total planned for release through the fall season.
     
   • Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
     by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
     Check the reader reviews and you’ll find that people have a deep and genuine affection for this 2021 coming-of-age YA novel. The story introduces two Mexican American teens living in 1980s Texas and explores themes of family, queerness, and ethnic identity. The big-screen adaptation, in theaters now, features up-and-coming actors Max Pelayo and Reese Gonzales as Aristotle and Dante, respectively. Also on board: Eva Langoria, as Dante’s artistic mom, and Lin-Manuel Miranda behind the scenes as producer.
     
   • Black Cake
     by Charmaine Wilkerson
     A Goodreads Choice Award nominee for both Best Historical Fiction and Best Debut, author Charmaine Wilkerson’s 2022 novel concerns two siblings, a strange bequeathment, and a famous Caribbean recipe with a loooooong history. Black Cake shuttles back and forth in time, as the siblings learn about their family’s astonishing past and how stories are passed down through generations. (Sometimes via cake recipe!) The TV series adaptation, from Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films, is set to debut on Hulu November 1.
     
   • Killers of the Flower Moon
     by David Grann
     Investigative journalist David Grann made all the best-of lists in 2017 with this book about a terrible and largely forgotten chapter in American history. In the 1920s, dozens and perhaps hundreds of Osage Native Americans were murdered in a vicious dispute over oil rights in Oklahoma. Probably the most high-profile adaptation of the year, director Martin Scorsese’s long-awaited film will debut in U.S. theaters on October 20, with an Apple TV+ release later in the year. The cast includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Blackfeet Nation actress Lily Gladstone.
     
   • Lessons in Chemistry
     by Bonnie Garmus
     Another incoming AppleTV+ adaptation-premiering October 13-Lessons in Chemistry is based on author Bonnie Garmus’ warmly received debut novel from last year. The setup: Brilliant chemist Elizabeth Zott finds herself hosting America’s most popular cooking show, where she challenges 1960s notions of what a woman can do in her professional life. A genuine hit with both readers and critics, the book earned the attention of Hollywood A-lister Brie Larson (Captain Marvel!), who is fittingly both lead performer and executive producer. You really can have it all!
     
   • All the Light We Cannot See
     by Anthony Doerr
     Winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Anthony Doerr’s World War II novel follows the parallel stories of a blind French girl and a reluctant German soldier whose lives come together in occupied France circa 1940. Netflix’s four-part limited series is set to drop on November 2, with all episodes available upon debut. This is prestige-picture territory for Netflix, and the production has attracted some top-shelf talent including Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie, and newcomer Aria Mia Loberti, a legally blind actress who won the role after a global casting process.
     
   • The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
     by Suzanne Collins
     Both spin-off and prequel, this 2020 dystopian sci-fi novel from Suzanne Collins marks her return to the colossal pop culture phenomenon that is the Hunger Games series. Set 64 years before the events of the first book, the novel provides an origin story for ultimate boss villain Coriolanus Snow. Is he the good guy in the new book? Is he the bad guy? The answer is yes. The movie adaptation, starring Tom Blyth as young man Snow, hits theaters November 17. Rachel Zegler plays Snow’s protégée, Lucy Gray Baird.
     
     
     
     
   • Leave the World Behind
     by Rumaan Alam
     Author Rumaan Alam’s popular 2020 novel fits squarely with a long and noble tradition in the psychological thriller genre: the Vacation Gone Wrong. Two families end up at the same luxurious Long Island rental property when word comes that a mysterious blackout has struck New York City. Then things get really weird. The star-studded film adaptation-featuring Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Myha’la Herrold, and Kevin Bacon-is slated to premiere December 8 on Netflix, with a limited theatrical release likely as well.
     
   • Eileen
     by OttessaMoshfegh
     The first full novel from author Ottessa Moshfegh, Eileen was a surprise sensation in 2015, winning the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for debut fiction. Genre designations are terminally blurred with this one, and that’s part of the book’s strange, dark appeal. The story-one fateful week in the life of two women in 1960s Boston-is a kind of literary thriller, inspired by Shirley Jackson, Vladimir Nabokov, and the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Anne Hathaway and New Zealand actress Thomasin McKenzie headline the movie adaptation, coming to theaters December 1.
     
   • Foe
     by Iain Reid
     Canadian author Iain Reid specializes in the shadowy areas between cerebral horror, haunting sci-fi, and psychological thriller. In his sophomore novel, Foe, a near-future marriage is tested when the husband is replaced by his biomechanical double. While technically science fiction, the story is much more interested in the people involved than in the technology. The film adaptation, starring Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal, will debut in theaters on October 6, with a later streaming debut on Amazon Prime.
     
     
     
     
6. The T-Boy Society of Film & Music’s Top Five North-American-English Language Travel Novels
   
   
   
   
7. Florida lawmaker who penned “Don’t Say Gay” law sentenced to prison
   Joseph Harding, a former Florida lawmaker who penned the state’s controversial “Don’t Say Gay” law has been sentenced to prison for wire fraud, money laundering and making false statements in connection with obtaining $150,000 in COVID-19 relief loans.
   
   
   1. What Really is Halloween
   • Halloween or Hallowe’en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows’ Eve, or All Saints’ Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on October 31, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints’ Day. It begins the observance of Allhallowtide, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed.
     
     One theory holds that many Halloween traditions were influenced by Celtic harvest festivals, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain, which are believed to have pagan roots. Some go further and suggest that Samhain may have been Christianized as All Hallow’s Day, along with its eve, by the early Church.Other academics believe Halloween began solely as a Christian holiday, being the vigil of All Hallow’s Day. Celebrated in Ireland and Scotland for centuries, Irish and Scottish immigrants took many Halloween customs to North America in the 19th century, and then through American influence various Halloween customs spread to other countries by the late 20th and early 21st century.
     
     
     
     
     
8. T-Boy Society of Film and Music’s Favorite Food Destination Cities
   
   
   
   
9. ‘Every single day I am ready to be killed’: The KGB defector who writes about Putin
   
   
   
   

The post NY Film Festival, Halloween, Books to Film appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Curated by Ed Boitano.

Parasite: Park Dong-ik  (Sun-kyun Lee) noticing that very distinct smell of new driver Kim Ki-taek (Kang-ho Song), who had egregiously orchestrated the dismissal of his previous chauffeur.

1917: Lance Corporal Schofield (George MacKay) rises from the dead and staggers to the edge of what was a house, and experiences a dreamlike apocalyptic light show of fire and smoke that makes no more sense than the war in which he serves.

The Irishman: “They wouldn’t dare! They wouldn’t dare!” Al Pacino’s Jimmy Hoffa expressing indignation to Robert Di Niro’s Frank Sheeran upon the hint that he might be knocked off.

Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood: The ethereal beauty and innocence of Margot Robbie’s Sharon Tate as she lights up the Playboy mansion, oblivious to the fate that waits her. As it turns out, the joke is on us.

Little Women: Saoirse Ronan as Jo; the pages of her book arrayed on the floor as she moves them around by candlelight.

Ad Astra: The first power surge.

The Irishman: Teamster troops part like the Red Sea as Al Pacino’s Jimmy Hoffa marches through the lines in a red Cossack hat.

The Loudest Voice (TV Mini-Series): Russell Crowe’s remarkable performance as Fox News founder, Roger Ailes, giving this tragic character both depth and nuance.

Us: The arrival of the first doppelganger, which launches Lupita Nyong’o’s tour-de-force performance as both Adelaide Wilson and Red.

Three Subways Scenes of a Different Kind

Marriage Story: Scarlett Johansson’s Nicole and Adam Driver’s Charlie keeping their distance in the subway carriage, with a very distinctive pole in the middle.

Joker: Three men in a subway carriage get their kicks by harassing a lone female passenger, while Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck watches uncomfortably in the front. Unable to subdue his laughter due to an anxiety disorder, the hoodlums readdress their ire on him, pounding Arthur into a bloody pulp. Suddenly, Arthur reveals a borrowed gun and kills all three men. A disturbing precursor of what is to come.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: Passengers packed into a subway carriage recognize Mister Rogers, and begin to sing in unison, It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Rogers takes the compliment in stride, he’s used to it, and joins in on the song. Sitting beside him is Matthews Rhys’ Lloyd Vogel, a cynical journalist, assigned to write what he considers a ‘fluff’ piece about Rogers, and begins to realize how popular this man really is.

Parasite: Bong Joon Ho’s stunning mise-en-scène.

Bombshell: Margot Robbie’s Kayla Pospisil being seduced by John Lithgow’s Roger Ailes; a disturbing moment of vulnerability, where she is trapped and at the mercy of someone so powerful.

Two Whispers

Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood: Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) finally nails the scene, and receives reaffirming praise from cast and crew. His co-player, a wise-beyond-her-years adolescent played by Julia Butter, whispers to him, ‘That was the best acting I’ve ever seen in my whole life,” moving Dalton to tears.  As she departs, he whispers out loud, “Rick fuckin’ Dalton.”

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: Mister Rogers’ (Tom Hanks)  whispered words into the ear of the dying Jerry Vogel (Chris Cooper). Unlike Lost in Translation, later we learn what he said: “I asked him to pray for me. Anyone going through what he is going through must be awfully close to God.”

The Irishman: The fish scene.  The levity beneath the gravity of it all.

Pain and Glory:  The adult Mallo (Antonio Banderas) recognizing the boy in the drawing as himself.

1917: The hand of human kindness when Lance Corporal Schofield (George MacKay)  remembers to shake the hand of Lieutenant Joseph Blake (Richard Madden) after informing him that his brother had died.

Jojo Rabbit:  Jojo  (Roman Griffin Davis) and friend Yorki (Archie Yates), members of Hitler Youth,  find protection by a building as Red Army cannons begin to obliterate Berlin. Yorki, “Definitely not a good time to be a Nazi. I am going home to my mother. I need a cuddle.”

Parasite: The naivety of Park Yeon-kyo (played by Yeo-jeong Jo), mother of the upper class Park family; a ripe field to plunder by the confrontational Kim Ki-jung (Park So Dam), posing as the ultimate authority on art and therapy – topics she has just learned online that that morning – as the perfect teacher for the Park’s troubled son.

Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood: Brad Pitt’s Cliff Booth becoming a responsible man with Pussycat (Margaret Qualley), a young Manson Family hitchhiker, looking for a little action.

Cliff: “You got some I.D., you know, like, a driver’s license or something?”
Pussycat: [laughing] “Are you joking?”
Cliff: “No, I’m not. I need to see something official that verifies that you’re eighteen, which you don’t have because you’re not.”

Judy: Renée Zellweger’s Judy Garland, penniless at a hotel, her career down the drain; reassures kids that things will be ok.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Rey (played by Daisy Ridley) passing the light saber to Adam Driver’s Finn, using the force.

Joker: Arthur dancing on the car, surrounded by rioting masses.

Ford v Ferrari: Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) takes ‘tough-as-nails’ CEO Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) on a little test run.

Shelby: “Are you ready?”
Ford II: “I was BORN ready!.”

The Irishman: Joe Persci’s understated Russell Bufalino overhearing Frank’s first phone conversation with Jimmy Hoffa: “I hear you paint houses.” Frank replies, “I also do my own carpentry,”  which provokes a rare chuckle from the no nonsense Russell.  After the call ends: Russell, “He likes to talk, don’t he?”  Frank, “I felt like I was talking to General Patton.”

Pain and Glory: Cecilia Roth, long time player in Almodóvar films, steps into the picture as Mallo’s long time assistant, Zulema, and gets his life back together; organizing the return from his descent into the world of procrastination, self-pity and heroin addiction.

Parasite: The Kim family rearranging themselves to steal Wi-Fi.

The Irishman: The banter in a rare sit down between mafia kingpin, Angelo Bruno (Harvey Keitel), and Robert De Niro’s nervous Frank Sheeran about his freelance agreement with a third party to burn Cadillac Linen Service to the ground. An obvious nod to past confusing word-play between Keitel and De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets and Taxi Driver.

Bruno: “You  know who owns the Cadillac Linen Service?”
Frank: “Some Jews in the laundry business. That’s what they told me.”
Bruno: “They own a part of it. Somebody else got an interest in that. You know who?”
Frank: “No”
Bruno: “I do.“
Frank: Who?
Bruno: “No, I do! I own the other part! Not I know somebody who owns the other.”

And finally: A reference to an earlier off screen agreement with Russell and Bruno, which would have had tragic consequences for Frank, as the stoic Russell looks on.

Bruno: “You got a good friend here. You don’t know how good a friend you got.”
Frank: “Oh, I know.”
Bruno: “No, you don’t know.”

Judy: Richard Cordery as MGM studio head Louis B Mayer, dressing down Judy Garland  (Renée Zellweger), showing us the ugly side of real Hollywood glamour: “Your name is Frances Gumm. You’re a fat-ankled, snag-toothed rube from Grand Rapids. Your father was a faggot, and your mother only cares about what I think of you. Now do you remember who you are, Judy?”

Us: Winston Duke’s Gabe Wilson, no longer the macho man in charge, becomes visibly uneasy by the unknown people who stand in his driveway who refuse to leave. “Let’s make some traps or something, like some ‘Home Alone’ type stuff. That way, if they come…”  Adelaide Wilson cutting him off with, “Tell me you did not just reference ‘Home Alone.’”

Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood: The pitbull attacking the Manson family.

Marriage Story: Charlie singing “Being Alive,” turning the spotlight on himself for once.

Jojo Rabbit:  Sam Rockwell’s Captain Klenzendorf, gallantly charges into the bloody mayhem between Red Army soldiers and the Volkssturm (Germany’s citizen army) on the streets of Berlin. Dressed to the max in full Nazi regalia, complete with a red silk cape ala  Julius Caesar, moments later we see him and his tattered uniform in a garbage dump of captured men. Soon, Jojo is thrown into the mix.  Klenzendorf  gives him a heartfelt embrace, and then quickly rips off  Jojo’s Hitler Youth garb and condemns him as a Jew for a Russian soldier’s eyes to see. It works. We follow Jojo as he is released to safety, but hear the sound of machine gun fire, sealing Klenzendorf’s fate.

Judy:  Mickey Dean beginning to tire of ageing Judy’s constant need of attention: “Sweetheart, I already said I love you nine times today.” Garland: “Well maybe I need ten or twelve, once an hour, like a cuckoo clock. Cuckoo! I love you!”

Parasite: The Kim family plays a dangerous kind of hide-and-seek when the Park family returns early from a vacation.

Jojo Rabbit: Jojo follows the flight of a butterfly, flying knee length from the ground. The butterfly stops by a pair of resplendent-looking  woman’s shoes, also hanging in the air. He knows those shoes as belonging to his mother (played by Scarlett Johansson). He is unable to look up, knowing his mother is hanging from the rope for her anti-Hitler statements.

Ford v Ferrari:  Ken Miles (Christian Bale) and son Peter (Noah Jupe) enter the showroom to look at the new Ford Mustang. Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas), a pompous Ford Executive, is annoyed that this working-class man and son are spending too much time examining the car.  He charges over to them, taking exception to Peter running his hands on the car.

Leo Beebe: Would you ask him to keep his hands off the paintwork?
Ken Miles: Who are you?
Leo Beebe: Leo Beebe, Senior Executive Vice President, Ford Motor Company. I’m responsible for the launch of the Mustang.
Ken Miles: Ah! At least now we know who’s responsible. Don’t get me wrong, Lenny. It looks fantastic. But inside, it’s a lump of lard, dressed up to fool the public. My advice is, lose the inline-six and that idiotic three-speed, shorten the wheelbase, somehow lose half a ton, and lower the price. But even then, I’d still choose a Chevy Chevelle. And that’s a fucking terrible car.

Artists Doing What They Do Best

Judy: Judy (Renée Zellweger) belting out a heart-wrenching final number that touches the souls of both the club’s audience and theatre attendees of today.

Ford v Ferrari: Race car driver Ken Miles (Christian Bales) tears along the course, occasionally offering words of encouragement to his Ford Shelby.

Jojo Rabbit:  Thomasin McKenzie’s Elsa, the sympathetic Jewish girl Jojo’s mother had been hiding in the attic, steps out into the street for her first breath of freedom. She contemplates the moment, and then settles a past score by slapping Jojo. But, what to do next? They look at one another without a clue. Elsa begins to slowly dance. Jojo joins here and then snaps his finger, and David Bowie’s Heroes (Helden) blasts on the soundtrack, with Bowie, a former Berlin resident, almost screaming the lyrics in German. Their dance intensifies, now in harmonious  movement. The screen turns back and the credits begin to roll, and we see and feel these final words:

“Let everything happen to you
Beauty and terror
Just keep going
No feeling is final”

— Rainer Maria Rilke

T-Boy Society of Film & Music’s Best Pictures of 2019

Best Picture

1. Parasite: Bong Joon-ho
2. The Irishman: Martin Scorsese
3. Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood: Quentin Tarantino
4. Pain and Glory: Pedro Almodóvar
5. 1917: Sam Mendes
6. Joker: Todd Phillips‎
7. Marriage Story: Noah Baumbach
8. Us: Jordan Peele
9. Synonyms: Nadav Lapid
10. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: Marielle Heller

Honorable Mention

1. High Life: Claire Denis
2. Little Women: Greta Gerwig
3. The Souvenir: Joanna Hogg
4. The Image Book: Jean-Luc Godard
5. The Dead Don’t Die: Jim Jarmusch
6. An Elephant Sitting Still: Hu Bo
7. Ash Is Purest White: Jia Zhangke
8. Bacurau: Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles
9. Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc: Bruno Dumont
10. Portrait of a Lady on Fire: Céline Sciamma
11. Uncut Gems: Josh and Benny Safdie
12. Ford Vs Ferrari: James Mangold

MORE

Anna Karina: The French New Wave Icon, Has Died at Age 79

Anna Karina, the Danish-born actress who became a symbol of  La Nouvelle Vague in Jean-Luc Godard’s seven 1960s films, died last month in Paris. Her death was confirmed by France’s culture minister, who said the cause was cancer.

Hanne Karin Bayer was born on Sept. 22, 1940, in Solbjerg, Denmark, a suburban town on the country’s east coast. Her father left the family a year after her birth. Her mother ran a dress shop. Hanne lived with her maternal grandparents for three years and was in foster care for four years but eventually went back to live with her mother. She dropped out of school at 14, sang in cabarets and worked as a television model. At 17, she ran away from home — hitchhiking to Paris — and was discovered by the casting director of an advertising agency while sitting at Les Deux Magots, the fashionable Left Bank cafe. During a photo shoot for Elle magazine, she met fashion designers,  Coco Chanel and Pierre Cardin, who advised her to change her name.

MORE

The post Pre-Pandemic: Movie Moments from 2019 appeared first on Traveling Archive.

By T-Boy Society of Film and Music

Versatile ‘Seventh Seal’ actor and frequent Ingmar Bergman collaborator has died at 90.

Max von Sydow (pronounced: “see-doh”) the Oscar-nominated actor best known for playing chess with Death in Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal has passed away. He was 90 years old.

His wife, Catherine Brelet, announced the news without citing a cause of death in Paris Match. “It is with a broken heart and with infinite sadness that we have the extreme pain of announcing the departure of Max von Sydow on 8 March 2020,” she said, according to The Guardian.

The Swedish actor became an international star in the late fifties and sixties due to his appearances in eleven Ingmar Bergman films. In particular, his first film with writer/director Bergman, The Seventh Seal – where he played a pensive knight returning home from the Crusades during Black Plague, who challenges Death to a game of chess – put both von Sydow and Bergman on the world map. The Seventh Seal is considered a classic of world cinema, as well as one of the greatest movies of all time. It established Bergman as a world-renowned director, containing scenes which have become iconic through homages, critical analysis and even parodies.

Von Sydow followed with Wild Strawberries in a bit part as a gas station attendant. I fondly recall audiences’ surprise when they noticed their heroic knight pumping gas in a contemporary film.

Von Sydow was blessed to be part of Bergman’s family of actors – in the vein of John Ford,  Preston Sturges and Rainer Werner Fassbinder – one of the greatest acting troops in the history of the cinema, which included Gunnar Björnstrand, Ingrid Thulin, Harriet Andersson, Bibi Andersson, Gunnel Lindblom, Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson. Von Sydow considered Bergman a genius, and was more than happy to play any part in which he was offered.

The Magician was the last of his three Bergman films photographed by the esteemed Gunnar Fischer. He followed with The Virgin Spring;  Through a Glass Darkly;  Winter Light; Hour of the Wolf;  Shame; The Passion of Anna and The Touch with Sven Nykvist behind the camera, one of the world ‘s greatest cinematographers. It should be noted that Bergman’s style shifted from Fischer’s hard, contrast lighting to the naturalness of Nykvist’s lighting schemes.

Bergman and von Sydow continued working together throughout the sixties, a decade during which von Sydow alternated between film and theatre.

“Ingmar has these special characters who are reincarnated from film to film,” von Sydow told Life in 1971. “There is the very sensitive, very emotional person who cannot bear his own feelings. He is usually destroyed by the second type of character, the one who is emotionally inhibited by his intellect, who never has had any real emotional experience and longs to be almost the victim of an emotional explosion just in order to  feel something.”

His stature was such that his Hollywood debut was in George Stevens’ The Greatest Story Ever Told, where he played Jesus Christ.

Von Sydow said of his craft in an 1965 interview, “In a theater, the part is mine and I can control it as I want to. In the movies, I don’t have direct contact and not always continuity, and I am fighting technical machinery. But what the movies do is give me an opportunity to go places. Now, I’m not only a Swede but an American, not just a man of my time but I’ve been living 2,000 years ago — and not just in a new country, America, but in the Holy Land, too.”

Within a decade, he was the star of William Friedkin’s blockbuster The Exorcist. Although his character receive little screen time in the horror film, it was von Sydow’s ability to play a priest who could display confidence in the face of a demon that brought the film together. He was 44 at the time the movie came out, but makeup effects made him look older, adding weight to the role. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for the performance but did not win. In 1988, von Sydow directed his only film, Katinka, a love story about a married woman falling in love with another man.

Known for his versatility, von Sydow also appeared in supporting roles in esteemed films such as partner of Barbara Hershey’s character in Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters; a director of a futuristic police force in Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report; and a dubious professor in Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island.

He would switch over to playing leading roles in Pelle the Conqueror, and in Jan Troell’s The New Land, The Emigrants and Hamsun, his last great lead  as Norwegian Nobel Laureate, Knut Hamsun, which covers his controversial support for the Nazi regime during WW2 and its consequences for the Hamsun family after the war.

Von Sydow was a man who liked to keep working, appearing in 120 films, with some light years away from his prestigious work with Bergman: Kojak: The Belarus File (TV Movie), Footloose, Conan the Barbarian, Strange Brew, Exorcist II and the voice in Ghostbusters (Video Game).

Von Sydow kept a busy schedule of projects up to his death, and is slated to appear in filmmaker Nicholas Dimitropoulos’ upcoming Echoes of the Past.

Von Sydow was married twice. He met his first wife, Christina Olin, while in theater school; the couple, who had two sons, divorced in 1979. He married Brelet in 1997 and, according to The Guardian, subsequently became a citizen of her native France.

Interview: Juliette Binoche

By Nicolas Rapold on March 12, 2020

In Film Comment’s March and April issue, Molly Haskell writes eloquently of the new film The Truth: “It seems remarkable yet somehow unsurprising that the celebrated Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda should move seamlessly into the French language and a Parisian household in this autumnal portrait of an aging actress, a diva extraordinaire named Fabienne, played, naturally, by Catherine Deneuve. The occasion is the publication of Fabienne’s memoirs, which her daughter and family have come warily to celebrate. But the daughter, Lumir (Juliette Binoche), a screenwriter living in New York, has another agenda: to finally read the manuscript that her mother had promised to send her in advance. Memory and unreliability are at the center of this masterful exploration of a classic Kore-eda theme: the way in which families construct their mythologies, often at variance with whatever truths can be rescued from a past that has been pushed and pulled, rewritten and reshaped into forms that family members can live with.”

I sat down with Binoche last September at the Venice film festival, where The Truth had its world premiere as the opening night selection. Given the fascinating interplay between Binoche and Deneuve, and Binoche and Kore-eda, I initially focused on a few scenes, which the actor expounded upon with an electric intensity, as she did her upcoming projects. The Truth, which kicked off Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, opens March 20 at Film at Lincoln Center.

What was the first Kore-eda film you remember seeing?

Nobody Knows. I was very touched by that.

When did you first speak to him about The Truth?

We met in 2004, I think, and after that, we saw each other once in a while. Once I went to check in, and we went to Kyoto and spent time together. But I think when he met with Catherine, it clicked, and then the script started working on him.

What was your way into your character and her relationship with her mother and her career?

First of all he said to us, “It’s a comedy.” So that brought me a raw feeling for it. And then he said to me, “You really have to go into the shadow of your mother.” I was interested, because before that, I’d acted in [Clouds of] Sils Maria — I was the actress, and then all of a sudden I was like the assistant. He said to me, “I’m interested in the shadows,” probably because he’s like the sun for his group of people in Japan who work with him. Like when all the bees work for the queen. We chose colors — all greys in the clothes, and no-make-up kind of thing.

I was quite fascinated, because while we were shooting, he wrote the scene at the end with my daughter, in my old bedroom. It’s after she goes to see my mother, her grandmother, and she comes to me and I say, “So, did it work?” And she asks, “What’s the truth?” And I don’t really answer. I love the fact that he found that scene while we were shooting, because he was still exploring, still working through the complexity of these characters and all the layers of the story.

That’s a wonderful scene. I was going to ask about it because there’s that close-up on you — but it’s not a close-up that reveals. You respond to her, but it’s not a totally candid response.

Yeah. I remember, it was at the end of the day, at the end of shooting, and we were all exhausted. And he said to me, “You have to have this big smile, beaming.” And I said, “How do you want me to beam?” [Laughs] Because I’m cooked. I have nothing more to give. But he has a way of asking: so human and so subtle, not demanding. There’s something about life that he’s able to share in. He reminds me actually of when I read Anton Chekhov: I’m always very moved by the person, because he knows about human beings also because he’s been a doctor. Also, Chekhov was writing for his wife and showing the dark sides of a character as well as the light sides. But he always loved them no matter what. I think Kore-eda has the same quality of loving, even though we can be the worst and the best. That’s probably why I wanted to work with him so much. I felt there was something in him that is so human, without pushing, without wanting.

Another striking scene is one with Catherine Deneuve that’s basically one long take. You’re embracing and, at the end, it abruptly seems that her character, Fabienne, was treating it all as material for a future performance. Can you talk about shooting that scene? 

Well, it was interesting. When we rehearsed, my first impulse in the scene — and her impulse as well — was that she came over to my shoulder. And I was cuddling her.

Right.

Catherine is not very comfortable, I think, with too much physical closeness, and she asked the crew to go away because she felt too much. There was too much attention on how we were going to deal with that scene. So we’re kind of alone with the director and the translator. So, after rehearsing several times, she allowed me to come to her shoulder. And there’s the complexity of my [character’s] needs as a little girl, because you always need the mom who’s going to protect you or fill in all the doubts. And it was almost impossible to stay on that shoulder, because she’s going through stuff herself. So I felt like Catherine opened up, and I remember her saying after doing the scene, “Oh, she’s terrible, she’s terrible.” She was surprised by it.

So she was able to channel her energy in an extraordinary way for that moment. 

I don’t know where it came from. I was surprised by it. She was surprised by it, and she could have enough distance to feel that it was awful to behave like that. You know, I remember living things in life and saying, inside of me, “How wonderful it would be to act that!” Of course you’re observing — it’s like a painter seeing some light and saying, “I want to reproduce this light, you know — this light is the most beautiful moment,” or “This is so truthful, I’ve never seen that before.” Of course you go into that, because it’s a part of the need to observe and take things in, in order to recreate it into a new art form.

It’s a moment of such genuine emotion for your character.

I think that’s the interest in being an actor. You know you’re in a fiction, you know it’s not true, and yet you have to be true within the fiction. And very much like in life, somehow you know it’s not the truth, the reality is somewhere else — yet you have to act fully as being truthful. Because we’re actors of our lives and we’re acting into a situation. Like now: you’re playing the journalist and I’m playing the actress. You have to be truthful in what you felt or in your questions. That’s the game of it all, but being truthful means being close to what you feel and being able to say what you feel, and not making it too beautiful, or too whatever, in projecting it.

It feels like Lumir has some common language with Fabienne in the form of imagination and being able to communicate things that way. But it can be dangerous, because you can get far away from your actual emotions. Did it feel like Lumir was trying to find a language through which she could communicate with her mother?

Being a scriptwriter, you mean? What was interesting to me is that the mother seems to be setting all the colors of what’s true or not true. Because she has that power: she wrote that book and she’s recognized and all. In some situations, it’s the daughter who’s actually writing, but her mother says whatever she wants at the end of the day. It’s the funny situation of it all — life is very comical but tragic at the same time. Where do you place the truth? Where does it come from? That’s why the film is fascinating, because it has so many layers.

There’s something especially raw about the mother’s absolute devotion to her art, versus her feelings toward her family. 

Yeah, she’s assertive about that. She’s made a decision, and that decision is good for her: leaving everybody behind. [Laughs] Whether they have problems or not. I don’t know anyone who’s been like that. It reminds of the film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? with Bette Davis and Joan Crawford — and then [Crawford’s] daughter wrote a book about how nasty her mother was and all that. That’s the closest I can think of. Maybe this film brings out a lot of these questions of how much you put in your career, acting, world recognition, the need to be important, that kind of power. Personally, I don’t know anyone, any actress, who has done or felt that [toward their child]. You learn very early, as a little girl, that having a family and having children was important. And yet when I found acting, it was such an opening, it was a place where I could express myself and explore. For me, it was always such a joy and an important dimension, an inside dimension.

The Truth definitely reminded me of Clouds of Sils Maria and your character in that film, Isabelle. That movie also gets deep into the living details of being an actor, and the behind the scenes of life. How would you compare Fabienne and Isabelle?

Well, Kore-eda talked to me about Sils Maria.

Really!

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember seeing him and talking to him after Sils Maria, which maybe he had seen in Cannes. It felt like he was fascinated by the subject matter and by the film. So when he met with Catherine, something probably clicked in him. Also, he was very attached to an actress who had been in his films and who died recently. Because he had a real love and a fascination for her. And directors have to deal with actors so much, you know…

It’s familiar. 

It’s familiar, so is it related to his own mother? I don’t know. You know, you have to be very, very intimate in order to go into [things]. We had a translator, so you couldn’t be one-on-one and really share intimate things. But I felt very early on that there was a natural complexity and intimacy with Kore-eda, because there’s something in his eyes that is very available, and soft, and he gets into you. He doesn’t keep his distance. The language keeps distance more than his eyes.

What’s the next film you’ll be shooting? 

After Kore-eda’s film, I have a film by Emmanuel Carrère, a French novelist. It’s going to be his second film. He’s done a documentary, but this is a fiction film. It’s an adaptation of a well-known book, Le Quai de Ouistreham, and I’m the only actress in it, with non-actors. It’s about maids, mainly, and I’m a writer going into their world and pretending to be a maid in order to see what it is really. So it has the complexity of the truth at the end, when they learn that I’m not actually a maid — that I was there as somebody who wanted to know the truth of what it is to have nothing. You know, 50 years old and you’re starting from nothing.

Tomorrow, I will be finishing a film that I started two months ago. It’s a comedy by Martin Provost, a French director. It’s his first comedy, and it takes place at the end of the ’60s, when there were a lot of schools in France for making good wives. Schools to prepare young girls, usually from the middle[-class], not rich people.

A finishing school sort of thing?

For three years, they had to learn how to cook and sew, and the principles of being a good wife. And you had to submit to the husband’s sexual needs or whatever needs they have. This existed before the Second World War, but it really exploded after the war, seven hundred schools like that. And then it stopped with the ’70s.

I would hope so. 

Because there was so much anger. And my character is flipping out. I’m the head of the school, with 20 young girls, having to deal with the learning process. Then it gets into ’68. And they go to Paris to do the revolution!

The post Max Von Sydow Remembered appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Patrons, industry folks, actors, and media representatives gathered for the Opening Night Gala at the Directors Guild, which officially kicked-off this year’s festival. After feasting on a wide variety of nibbles and libations, we were ushered into the Renoir Theatre for the screening Les Misérables, co-written by Alexis Manenti and director Ladj Ly.  Shown for the first time in the U.S., in association with Amazon Studios, it won the Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best First Film and is France’s 2020 Oscar submission for Best International Feature.* I must say that would not have been my first choice as we’ve seen a variation on that theme many times before.  The story revolves around of low-income housing projects in the Les Bosquets neighborhood of Montfermeil, France.  It features bad cops, a good cop, petty thieves, the Muslim Brotherhood, and a sad group of street kids left to their own devices who figure out how to retaliate against the abusive cops – nothing that we haven’t seen before. (Cast: Daniel Auteuil (Victor), Guillaume Canet (Antoine), Doria Tillier (Margot), Fanny Ardant (Marianne), Michael Cohen (Maxime), Denis Podalydès (François), Pierre Ardidi (Pierre)

In my opinion, a much more compelling film, with a very unique story line, is In Safe Hands. Written and tenderly directed by Jeanne Herry, who assembled an excellent acting ensemble, each of whom gives a heartfelt performance, the story takes us through the fascinating, intricate, and gentle process of adoption in France.  One could only wish we had a similar, almost painless, procedure here in the U.S. (Cast: Sandrine Kiberlain, Gilles Lellouche, Élodie Bouchez, Olivia Côte, Miou Miou)

Other films worth mentioning:

Hungry for Love, written by Laure de Colbert and well directed by Renaud Bertrand, the story revolves around the coming of age or “spring awakening” of a young girl named Chloé, fascinatingly played by Luna Carpiaux, who captures the teenage angst of young love.  The story takes us through the trials and tribulations of her first love, as well as touching upon the potential devastating consequences of social media. (Cast: Luna Carpiaux, Armelle Deutsch, Marilyn Lima, Jules Houplain)

Conviction is a fascinating courtroom drama written by Isabelle Lazard, Karim Dridi, and Antoine Raimbault, who is a first-time director. Based on a true story, the drama revolves around the second trial of Jacques Viguier, a law professor accused of murdering his wife who mysteriously vanished ten years ago. The story is both compelling and intriguing, as parts of a complicated puzzle are woven together.  Highly polished performances are given by the ensemble. (Cast: Antoine Raimbault, Isabelle Lazard, Karim Dridi, Marina Foïs, Olivier Gourmet, Laurent Lucas, Jean Benguigui)

One of my favorite films is Papicha, a stunning look at the life and times of young girls in Algeria trying to live like normal teenagers.  The powerful script written by Fadette Drouard and Mounia Meddour, who also directed, draws back the curtain on what a group of young women, attending a private school, endure because of Sharia law, sometimes enforced by violent women wearing burkas.  Despite the looming brutality, these spirited young women manage to enjoy some of the forbidden activities. A joint venture between France, Algeria, Qatar, and Belgium, hopefully one of those countries will submit Papicha for Best International Feature consideration. (Cast: Lyna Khoudri, Shirine Boutella, Amira Hilda Douaouda, Zahra Doumandji)

Writer/director Jérémy Clapin’s, I Lost My Body, won both the Audience Award and COLCOA Critics’ Award.  Honestly, the reason for the awards escapes me.  The film basically revolved around a hand searching for its body. (Cast: Hakim Faris, Victoire du Bois, Patrick d’Assumçao)

Cyrano My Love, one of two closing night films, won the American Students Award.  I absolutely loved this wonderfully written and directed film by Alexis Michalik, who also plays the lead role of the 20-year-old playwright who is commissioned to write a play while struggling with writer’s block.  Based on Michalik’s hit play, the story is set in turn-of-the-century Paris and said to be somewhat based on fact.  It is a hilarious look at how this playwright stumbles upon lines for his script. Cyrano My Love is deliciously photographed by cinematographer Giovanni Fiore Coltellacci, who captures the beautiful textures of that period of time. (Cast: Thomas Solivérès, Olivier Gourmet, Mathilde Seignier, Tom Leeb)

The second closing night selection was La Belle Époque.  Written and directed by Nicolas Bolduc, who also did the cinematography. (Maybe too many hats?) The story revolves around a theatrical troupe that specializes in historical re-enactments. I found the film tedious, and as it was getting late, I actually thought about leaving before the ending, but my professionalism prevented me from so doing.  Suddenly the fire alarm sounded and lights began flashing around the perimeter of the room.  We were asked to vacate the theatre but in a few minutes were allowed to re-enter.  However, I barely sat down in my seat when we were asked to leave again.  With fire trucks outside the Directors Guild building, I decided to call it a night. (Cast: Thomas Solivérès, Olivier Gourmet, Mathilde Seignier, Tom Leeb)  The film was screened the next day, but alas, due to a prior commitment, I was unable to make that screening.  Oh well. C’est la vie and… a l’année prochaine.***

*The COLCOA French Film Festival is the premier festival for French films in Los Angeles and is an acronym for City of Lights, City of Angels, the original name of the festival in Hollywood, which began in the 1990s.

**Formerly referred to as Best Foreign Language Film

*** “That’s life” and “See you next year”

The post Directors Guild of America Hosts COLCOA – The Annual French Film Festival appeared first on Traveling Archive.

I met Lois at an April Fool’s Tea Party fundraising event over a year ago. We hit it off when she said she once was a consulting technical editor for USC. Lois is a senior who wants to do something with her dormant skills. Since that day, I have referred work to her when my clients needed a proof reader. Every once in a while she would contribute jokes for this TGIF email blast. She would share anecdotes, poetry and even songs.

One day, Lois asked if I was interested in illustrating and helping to publish her children’s book. She said when her kids were growing up, she would make up stories to put them to sleep. In fact, they liked her stories better than books she would read. One particular story was about “Tom the Mouse.” She said she thought it up at the spur of the moment. “Tom the Mouse” was by far their favorite bedtime story because it allowed them to participate in making animal sounds. Lois would repeat that story over and over. Lois’ kids have passed on that legacy to their own kids and grandkids.  With a history of 60+  years, there was no doubt that I wanted to do this story. We met once and threshed out the general concepts and I made the illustrations and added a few ideas. We made it an interactive book where kids will learn to read, make sounds, and search for hidden images. At the end of the book, there is a double-page spread full of graffiti names on a wall. We hope parents and kids will enjoy looking for their own names. This project was more difficult than I expected, but it was fun.

Guess what? The book is out!  “Tom the Mouse” has just been made available on Amazon! Just do a search for three words: “Tom Mouse Lois” and you will find it. If you want to do me a huge favor, BUY THE BOOK! It’s a perfect gift to give to parents with young kids. It’s just over ten bucks. If you have Amazon Prime, 2-day shipping is free. Buy two and shipping is free. How’s that for a shameless commercial plug? Oh, and please give us some feedback and please spread the word. Thank you!

When I see Lois all smiles and excited showing off her book, I know I made the right decision. I know I helped make a dream come true. I know I created a legacy for my friend.

CLICK HERE to buy the book!

“A book is a dream you hold in your hands.”

— Neil Gaiman

TGIF people!

Important Question

Shared by Don of Kelowna. B.C.

Best Friends
Sent by Don of Kelowna, B.C.

This is one of the cutest videos ever. More cute than funny. I wish I had a friend like this when I was growing up … these days I have to settle for “The Cat.” (Still resisting her cuteness, though).

WATCH VIDEO

Crazy Success of “Crazy Rich Asians”
Sent by Art of Sierra Madre, CA

That movie is raking it in. This is a good analysis of this unlikely Hollywood success story.

WATCH VIDEO

Don’s Puns

From Don’s collection of puns

Parting Shot

Thanks to Rodney of Manitoba, B.C. who shared this photo

The post Old Friends appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Journalists from around the world gather to cover this annual celebration honoring the filmmakers who obtain financing outside of the studio system, and therefore are not constricted by studio demands. This allows them to make films that are true to their artistic vision and the Film Independent Spirit Awards honors their achievements.

With Nick Kroll and John Mulaney presiding over this entertaining non-black tie ceremony, celebrity guests and honorees showed up for the pre-show lunch in the familiar Big Tent more dressed than the usual torn jeans with knees poking through.  With no language restrictions, the co-hosts took full comic advantage in both delivering prepared jokes and off-the-cuff remarks, including comments on the epidemic of sexual misconduct with some mention of yes, Harvey Weinstein.  The “anything goes” is at the heart of the Film Independent Spirit Awards and is what makes it unique, relaxed, and fun.

Among some of the presenters were, Fred Armisen, Chadwick Boseman, Alison Brie, Timothée Chalamet, Ava DuVernay, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Danai Gurira, Jon Hamm, Ethan Hawke, Spike Lee, Ben Mendelsohn, Janelle Monáe, Kumail Nanjiani, Elizabeth Olsen, Robert Pattinson, Salma Hayek Pinault, Margot Robbie, Amanda Seyfried, Molly Shannon, Sarah Silverman, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Lena Waithe. Sunflower Bean was the house band.

This year’s major winners were Get Out, which won Best Feature and Best Director; Call Me by Your Name, which won Best Male Lead and Best Cinematography; I, Tonya, which won Best Supporting Female and Best Editing; Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which won Best Female Lead and Best Supporting Male; Lady Bird, which won Best Screenplay; Ingrid Goes West, which won Best First Feature; The Big Sick, which won Best First Screenplay; Life and Nothing More, which won the John Cassavetes Award; Faces Places which won Best Documentary and A Fantastic Woman, which won Best International Film.

The coveted Robert Altman Award was given to Mudbound director Dee Rees who accepted on behalf of cast members Jonathan Banks, Mary J. Blige, Jason Clarke, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Mitchell, Rob Morgan, and Carey Mulligan and casting directors Billy Hopkins and Ashley Ingram.

So once again, thousands of dishes were cleared away and the tents were folded up until next year when Film Independent Spirit Awards would once again return to the little city by the sea to bring its own special brand of celebrating the world of outstanding independent filmmakers.  As far as the weather, it held up just about until the end of the day when the skies suddenly darkened, the temperature dipped, the wind began to blow, and tiny droplets sprinkled on the departing guests.

Following is a complete list of the winners:

Best Feature:
Get Out (Universal Pictures)
Producers: Jason Blum, Edward H. Hamm Jr., Sean McKittrick, Jordan Peele

Best Director:
Jordan Peele, Get Out (Universal Pictures)

Best Screenplay:
Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird (A24)

Best First Feature:
Ingrid Goes West (NEON)
Director: Matt Spicer
Producers: Jared Ian Goldman, Adam Mirels, Robert Mirels, Aubrey Plaza, Tim White, Trevor White

Best First Screenplay:
Emily V. Gordon, Kumail Nanjiani, The Big Sick (Amazon Studios)

John Cassavetes Award (For best feature made under $500,000):
Life and Nothing More (CFI Releasing)
Writer/Director: Antonio Méndez Esparza
Producers: Amadeo Hernández Bueno, Alvaro Portanet Hernández, Pedro Hernández Santos

Bonnie Award
Chloé Zhao

Best Supporting Female:
Allison Janney, I, Tonya (NEON) 

Best Supporting Male:
Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Fox Searchlight)         

Best Female Lead:
Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Fox Searchlight)

Best Male Lead:
Timothée Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name (Sony Pictures Classics)

The post On The Beach With Film Independent Spirit Awards appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Beatles’ Rare Fan-Club Christmas Records: A Complete Guide

Band’s brief, whimsical holiday discs – released from 1963 through 1969 and newly reissued – offer a glimpse into their stunning evolution

In honor of a new reissue, Rolling Stone takes a detailed look at the Beatles’ whimsical series of fan-club-only Christmas records.

MORE

Oyster Stew on Christmas Eve

Early Americans were absolutely oyster crazy. When the first English settlers arrived at Plymouth Rock, oysters were a reliable and tasty source of nutrition. Coastal American Indian Nations had already been harvesting them for at least 3,000 years. As the young colony’s population grew and spread to cover much of the East Coast, folks along the shores devoured oysters. In stuffings, chowders, pan roasts and on the half shell, both rich and poor enjoyed as many oysters as they could eat. America’s oldest still operating restaurant, the Union Oyster House of Boston, opened in 1826 to showcase the bivalve. And New York City pushcarts sold the by the bushel, freshly harvested from the Hudson Bay. A whopping 700 million were harvested from the Bay in 1880 alone.

MORE

56 Essential Christmas Cookies

Courtesy Genius Kitchens

From classic sugar cookies to gingerbread men, these top recipes will sweeten your holiday – and make you the darling of all your cookie swaps.

MORE

How the Wrong Holiday Gift Traumatized Me as a Transgender Child

Giving the perfect gift can be stressful for anyone during the holidays. Regardless of your religion, if you do participate in the tradition of giving gifts, there are children who want to receive toys based on their preferred gender identity — not necessarily the one they were assigned at birth. Throughout my 24 years of wish lists, I have always wanted more feminine presents, and I know the importance of receiving a gift that will bring pure joy.

MORE

Mark Twain’s “A Letter From Santa Claus”

In 1875, Mark Twain wrote a letter to his daughter Susie, who was 3 years old at the time, which he signed “Your loving Santa Claus.” You can read it in its entirety below, but first a little bit of pretext. Twain was very close to his daughter, all the way up to her untimely death at age 24 in 1896, and that year she had written her first letter to Santa Claus. Twain, being a writer, couldn’t stand for his young daughter to feel like her work went unheard, so he decided to pen the following letter to “My Dear Susie Clemens” from “The Man in the Moon” himself.

MORE

He’s Back: Adam Sandler — “The Chanukah Song, Part 4”

I did a show with some friends in San Diego and recorded a new one for you.

Have a great holiday season.

— Adam Sandler

Saturnalia & the History of Christmas

The middle of winter has long been a time of celebration around the world. Centuries before the arrival of the man called Jesus, early Europeans celebrated light and birth in the darkest days of winter. Many people rejoiced during the winter solstice, when the worst of the winter was behind them and they could look forward to longer days and extended hours of sunlight.

MORE

A Timeline of the Shocking True Story of the Modern Latke

Warning: This may be upsetting to traditionalist latke lovers.

Courtesy Gabe Friedman

The latke is one of those Jewish foods that feels steeped in tradition, as if it’s been made the same way since the days of the Maccabees.

But in a revelatory article, Atlantic senior editor Yoni Appelbaum explains that the latke as we know it — grated potatoes fried in olive oil — is a relatively new culinary invention. Here, in brief, is the Hanukkah staple’s origin story.

MORE

The Modern Day Chanukah Potato Latke & Recipe

Latke (pronounced LOT-keh, LOT-kah or LOT-kee) is Yiddish for “pancake.” On Chanukah, it is traditional to serve latkes (most often potato) fried in oil to celebrate the Chanukah miracle, which involved the oil of the Temple menorah lasting for eight days instead of just one. Jews eat foods that reflect the significance of a holiday — such as matzah on Passover and apples dipped in honey on Rosh Hashanah — and Chanukah is no exception. For at least the last thousand years, Jews have traditionally eaten oily foods on Chanukah.

MORE

The Deeper Meaning of the Chanukah Oil Miracle

The Paradoxes of Oil as a Guide for Living

By: Rabbi YY Jacobson

Dedicated by David and Eda Schottenstein
In the loving memory of:
Rabbi Levi Yitzchok ben Zalman Yuda Deitsch and Alta Shula Swerdlov
And in honor of the birth of their daughter Yetta Alta Shula, “Aliyah”

Why Celebrate Oil?

The kindling of a menorah during the eight days of Chanukah commemorates an ancient miracle that occurred in our Jerusalem Holy Temple, some 2300 years ago. Following the victory of the Jews over their Greek oppressors who desecrated the Temple and attempted to destroy Judaism, a little cruse of unsoiled olive oil found in the Temple lasted and burned for eight days, till the Jews managed to purchase new pure oil for the daily kindling of the Temple Candelabra. To commemorate this display of Divine grace in a world usually enslaved to nature, the sages of Israel instituted the eight-day holiday of Chanukah, in which we kindle a menorah each night.

MORE

Christmas Around the World

Discover how Christmas is celebrated in different countries and cultures around the world!

MORE

The Greatest Christmas Film for the Ages

With apologizes to the fans of the Frank Capra classic, It’s A Wonderful Life, our pick is Ernst Lubitsch’s stunning 1941 masterpiece, The Shop Around the Corner.

Random Acts of Canine Kindness

Cedric the Dog takes a well-earned break after organizing a protest at an alt–right Neo-Nazi rally in Idaho.

Dog Quotations

Would You Live in ‘The Best Airport in the World’ for a Month? This Guy Just Did!

Courtesy Ashley Rossi

Survivor meets The Truman Show. As a pretty clever marketing ploy, the Helsinki Airport invited Chinese actor and TV personality, Ryan Zhu, to live in the city’s airport for 30 days.

MORE

Hard Day’s Night 2017

The Story of Chanukah (Hannukah)

Courtesy Chabad.org

Under Syrian Rule

More than 2000 years ago there was a time when the land of Israel was part of the Syrian-Greek Empire, dominated by Syrian rulers of the dynasty of the Seleucids.

In order to relate the story that led up to Chanukah, we shall start with Antiochus III, the King of Syria, who reigned from 3538 to 3574 (222-186 B.C.E.). He had waged war with King Ptolemy of Egypt over the possession of the Land of Israel. Antiochus III was victorious and the Land of Israel was annexed to his empire. At the beginning of his reign he was favorably disposed toward the Jews and accorded them some privileges.

MORE

Christmas Facts

Each year, 30-35 million real Christmas trees are sold in the United States alone. There are 21,000 Christmas tree growers in the United States, and trees usually grow for about 15 years before they are sold.

MORE

The 12 Days of Christmas

The 12 Days of Christmas start on Christmas Day and last until the evening of the 5th January – also known as Twelfth Night. The 12 Days have been celebrated in Europe since before the middle ages and were a time of celebration.

The 12 Days each traditionally celebrate a feast day for a saint and/or have different celebrations:

MORE

Twelfth Night of Christmas

Twelfth Night was a time of great celebration with people holding large parties. During these parties, often the roles in society were reversed with the servants being served by the rich people. This dated back to medieval and Tudor times when Twelfth Night marked the end of ‘winter’ which had started on 31st October with All Hallows Eve (Halloween).

MORE

A Retired Couple Travel 12,000 Miles from Oxford to Hong Kong Using Only Public Transport

MORE

Time Capsule Cinema

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage – A Look Back

By Walt Mundkowsky

MORE

Hands down, this Canadian gem is our pick for the most hilarious, madcap travel show on the cybersphere.

Here’s a look back as the Travel Guys take on the Yukon.

WATCH Travel Guys Take on the Yukon

Song Facts: Tangled Up in Blue by Bob Dylan

MORE

This Holiday Season Pay Respects to Liz Taylor, Walt Disney at this Glitzy Graveyard to the Stars in Glendale

LA Times

This is one of the grand cemeteries in the world — in setting, in scope, in star power. Step inside Forest Lawn Glendale and honor the memories of Elizabeth Taylor, Walt Disney and Jimmy Stewart, among dozens of other famous names.

MORE

The post Humor, Facts & Stats, Trivia and More appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Mark Twain’s “A Letter From Santa Claus”

In 1875, Mark Twain wrote a letter to his daughter Susie, who was 3 years old at the time, which he signed “Your loving Santa Claus.” You can read it in its entirety below, but first a little bit of pretext. Twain was very close to his daughter, all the way up to her untimely death at age 24 in 1896, and that year she had written her first letter to Santa Claus. Twain, being a writer, couldn’t stand for his young daughter to feel like her work went unheard, so he decided to pen the following letter to “My Dear Susie Clemens” from “The Man in the Moon” himself.

“A Letter From Santa Claus” by Mark Twain

My Dear Susie Clemens,

I have received and read all the letters which you and your little sister have written me…I can read your and your baby sister’s jagged and fantastic marks without any trouble at all. But I had trouble with those letters which you dictated through your mother and the nurses, for I am a foreigner and cannot read English writing well. You will find that I made no mistakes about the things which you and the baby ordered in your own letters — I went down your chimney at midnight when you were asleep and delivered them all myself — and kissed both of you, too…But…there were…one or two small orders which I could not fill because we ran out of stock…

There was a word or two in your mama’s letter which…I took to be “a trunk full of doll’s clothes.” Is that it? I will call at your kitchen door about nine o’clock this morning to inquire. But I must not see anybody and I must not speak to anybody but you. When the kitchen doorbell rings, George must be blindfolded and sent to the door.

You must tell George he must walk on tiptoe and not speak — otherwise he will die someday. Then you must go up to the nursery and stand on a chair or the nurse’s bed and put your ear to the speaking tube that leads down to the kitchen and when I whistle through it you must speak in the tube and say, “Welcome, Santa Claus!” Then I will ask whether it was a trunk you ordered or not. If you say it was, I shall ask you what color you want the trunk to be…and then you must tell me every single thing in detail which you want the trunk to contain. Then when I say “Good-by and a merry Christmas to my little Susy Clemens,” you must say “Good-by, good old Santa Claus, I thank you very much.” Then you must go down into the library and make George close all the doors that open into the main hall, and everybody must keep still for a little while. I will go to the moon and get those things and in a few minutes I will come down the chimney that belongs to the fireplace that is in the hall — if it is a trunk you want–because I couldn’t get such a thing as a trunk down the nursery chimney, you know…If I should leave any snow in the hall, you must tell George to sweep it into the fireplace, for I haven’t time to do such things.

George must not use a broom, but a rag — else he will die someday…If my boot should leave a stain on the marble, George must not holystone it away. Leave it there always in memory of my visit; and whenever you look at it or show it to anybody you must let it remind you to be a good little girl. Whenever you are naughty and someone points to that mark which your good old Santa Claus’s boot made on the marble, what will you say, little sweetheart?

Good-by for a few minutes, till I come down to the world and ring the kitchen doorbell.

Your loving Santa Claus
Whom people sometimes call
“The Man in the Moon”

He’s Back: Adam Sandler — “The Chanukah Song, Part 4”

I did a show with some friends in San Diego and recorded a new one for you.

Have a great holiday season.

— Adam Sandler

How the Wrong Holiday Gift Traumatized Me as a Transgender Child

Courtesy of Corey Rae

The middle of winter has long been a time of celebration around the world. Centuries before the arrival of the man called Jesus, early Europeans celebrated light and birth in the darkest days of winter. Many people rejoiced during the winter solstice, when the worst of the winter was behind them and they could look forward to longer days and extended hours of sunlight.

Giving the perfect gift can be stressful for anyone during the holidays. Regardless of your religion, if you do participate in the tradition of giving gifts, there are children who want to receive toys based on their preferred gender identity — not necessarily the one they were assigned at birth. Throughout my 24 years of wish lists, I have always wanted more feminine presents, and I know the importance of receiving a gift that will bring pure joy.

True story: I asked for a Cinderella dress and a Barbie at the age of two. When I was around four, my grandparents sought advice from a psychologist about me asking for female-targeted toys. The psychologist recommended enforcing “boy toys,” like cars and action figures. On Hanukkah I unwrapped presents with my family, including my brother and twin cousins (a girl and boy only five months older than I) at my grandparents’ home.

To my dismay, I got a Batman toy, the same as my male cousin, while my female cousin got a baby doll. Upon unwrapping it, I immediately said, “I didn’t want that.” My grandma looked up at my mom and repeated what I had just said. My mother, who had asked my grandparents not to listen to the psychologist’s advice and reiterated that I wanted a Barbie, said, “Corey, that’s not polite—you just say thank you and we’ll take it to the store and get another one. Why don’t you say thank you anyway.” As you can see in the video below, I started tugging at the vest I was wearing in frustration (subconsciously trying to strip myself of my male exterior), and asked my cousin to play with her new doll.

There’s a debate over how to raise a child who has transgender tendencies, and whether or not to allow that child to choose their own gender. Some parents believe the gender assigned at birth should indicate the type of toys their child should play with. Other parents, like my mom, believe in allowing their children to grow into themselves on their own. My brother and I are prime examples proving that children should be allowed to express themselves freely at any age. My brother, who played with cabbage patch dolls when he was very little, grew into a cisgender man, and I stayed on my path of femininity.

I watched a fascinating BBC documentary called “Transgender Kids: Who Knows Best?” showcasing both points of view. I’ve preached that transgender people have always been a part of human society, which Cheri DiNovo, member of the Provincial Parliament in Ontario, confirms. In the video, Dr. Norman Spack of Boston Children’s Hospital explains, “The variance in gender identity and expression are not psychiatric differences, they are differences in the human condition.”

Presents can create crucial memories and shape how that child views themselves and the world. If you or someone you know is struggling with what to give a transgender child, please remember that unwrapping presents can create crucial memories for children and shape how that child views themselves and the world around them. It’s extremely important to bring joy to any child through a present they truly desire.

The recipient’s happiness should come before anything else when considering a gift. If you’re unsure of what to get, consider books or gender-neutral toys. Through self-discovery, some children will go through different interest phases (like my brother), and some, like me, will continue to break gender binaries.

MORE

The Story of Chanukah (Hannukah)

Courtesy Chabad.org

Under Syrian Rule

More than 2000 years ago there was a time when the land of Israel was part of the Syrian-Greek Empire, dominated by Syrian rulers of the dynasty of the Seleucids.

In order to relate the story that led up to Chanukah, we shall start with Antiochus III, the King of Syria, who reigned from 3538 to 3574 (222-186 B.C.E.). He had waged war with King Ptolemy of Egypt over the possession of the Land of Israel. Antiochus III was victorious and the Land of Israel was annexed to his empire. At the beginning of his reign he was favorably disposed toward the Jews and accorded them some privileges.

Later on, however, when he was beaten by the Romans and compelled to pay heavy taxes, the burden fell upon the various peoples of his empire who were forced to furnish the heavy gold that was required of him by the Romans. When Antiochus died, his son Seleucus IV took over, and further oppressed the Jews.

Added to the troubles from the outside were the grave perils that threatened Judaism from within. The influence of the Hellenists (people who accepted idol-worship and the Syrian way of life) was increasing. Yochanan, the High Priest, foresaw the danger to Judaism from the penetration of Syrian-Greek influence into the Holy Land. For, in contrast to the ideal of outward beauty held by the Greeks and Syrians, Judaism emphasizes truth and moral purity, as commanded by G‑d in the holy Torah. The Jewish people could never give up their faith in G‑d and accept the idol-worship of the Syrians.

Yochanan was therefore opposed to any attempt on the part of the Jewish Hellenists to introduce Greek and Syrian customs into the land. The Hellenists hated him. One of them told the King’s commissioner that in the treasury of the Temple there was a great deal of wealth.

The wealth in the treasury consisted of the contributions of “half a shekel” made by all adult Jews annually. That was given for the purpose of the sacrifices on the altar, as well as for fixing and improving the Temple building. Another part of the treasury consisted of orphans’ funds which were deposited for them until they became of age. Seleucus needed money in order to pay the Romans. He sent his minister Helyodros to take the money from the treasury of the Temple. In vain did Yochanan, the High Priest, beg him not to do it. Helyodros did not listen and entered the gate of the Temple. But suddenly, he became pale with fright. The next moment he fainted and fell to the ground. After Helyodros came to, he did not dare enter again.

The Madman: Antiochus

A short time later, Seleucus was killed and his brother Antiochus IV began to reign over Syria (in 3586 – 174 B.C.E.). He was a tyrant of a rash and impetuous nature, contemptuous of religion and of the feelings of others. He was called “Epiphanes,” meaning “the gods’ beloved.” Several of the Syrian rulers received similar titles. But a historian of his time, Polebius, gave him the epithet Epimanes (“madman”), a title more suitable to the character of this harsh and cruel king.

Desiring to unify his kingdom through the medium of a common religion and culture, Antiochus tried to root out the individualism of the Jews by suppressing all the Jewish Laws. He removed the righteous High Priest, Yochanan, from the Temple in Jerusalem, and in his place installed Yochanan’s brother Joshua, who loved to call himself by the Greek name of Jason. For he was a member of the Hellenist party, and he used his high office to spread more and more of the Greek customs among the priesthood.

Joshua or Jason was later replaced by another man, Menelaus, who had promised the king that he would bring in more money than Jason did. When Yochanan, the former High Priest, protested against the spread of the Hellenists’ influence in the Holy Temple, the ruling High Priest hired murderers to assassinate him.

Antiochus was at that time engaged in a successful war against Egypt. But messengers from Rome arrived and commanded him to stop the war, and he had to yield. Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, a rumor spread that a serious accident had befallen Antiochus. Thinking that he was dead, the people rebelled against Menelaus. The treacherous High Priest fled together with his friends.

The Martyrs

Antiochus returned from Egypt enraged by Roman interference with his ambitions. When he heard what had taken place in Jerusalem, he ordered his army to fall upon the Jews. Thousands of Jews were killed. Antiochus then enacted a series of harsh decrees against the Jews. Jewish worship was forbidden; the scrolls of the Law were confiscated and burned. Sabbath rest, circumcision and the dietary laws were prohibited under penalty of death. Even one of the respected elders of that generation, Rabbi Eliezer, a man of 90, was ordered by the servants of Antiochus to eat pork so that others would do the same. When he refused they suggested to him that he pick up the meat to his lips to appear to be eating. But Rabbi Eliezer refused to do even that and was put to death.

There were thousands of others who likewise sacrificed their lives. The famous story of Hannah and her seven children happened at that time.

Antiochus’s men went from town to town and from village to village to force the inhabitants to worship pagan gods. Only one refuge area remained and that was the hills of Judea with their caves. But even there did the Syrians pursue the faithful Jews, and many a Jew died a martyr’s death.

Mattityahu

One day the henchmen of Antiochus arrived in the village of Modiin where Mattityahu, the old priest, lived. The Syrian officer built an altar in the marketplace of the village and demanded that Mattityahu offer sacrifices to the Greek gods. Mattityahu replied, “I, my sons and my brothers are determined to remain loyal to the covenant which our G‑d made with our ancestors!”

Thereupon, a Hellenistic Jew approached the altar to offer a sacrifice. Mattityahu grabbed his sword and killed him, and his sons and friends fell upon the Syrian officers and men. They killed many of them and chased the rest away. They then destroyed the altar.

Mattityahu knew that Antiochus would be enraged when he heard what had happened. He would certainly send an expedition to punish him and his followers. Mattityahu, therefore, left the village of Modiin and fled together with his sons and friends to the hills of Judea.

All loyal and courageous Jews joined them. They formed legions and from time to time they left their hiding places to fall upon enemy detachments and outposts, and to destroy the pagan altars that were built by order of Antiochus.

The Maccabees

Before his death, Mattityahu called his sons together and urged them to continue to fight in defense of G d’s Torah. He asked them to follow the counsel of their brother Shimon the Wise. In waging warfare, he said, their leader should be Judah the Strong. Judah was called “Maccabee,” a word composed of the initial letters of the four Hebrew words Mi Kamocha Ba’eilim Hashem, “Who is like You, O G‑d.”

Antiochus sent his General Apolonius to wipe out Judah and his followers, the Maccabees. Though greater in number and equipment than their adversaries, the Syrians were defeated by the Maccabees. Antiochus sent out another expedition which also was defeated. He realized that only by sending a powerful army could he hope to defeat Judah and his brave fighting men.

An army consisting of more than 40,000 men swept the land under the leadership of two commanders, Nicanor and Gorgiash. When Judah and his brothers heard of that, they exclaimed: “Let us fight unto death in defense of our souls and our Temple!” The people assembled in Mitzpah, where Samuel, the prophet of old, had offered prayers to G‑d. After a series of battles the war was won.

The Dedication

Now the Maccabees returned to Jerusalem to liberate it. They entered the Temple and cleared it of the idols placed there by the Syrian vandals. Judah and his followers built a new altar, which he dedicated on the twenty-fifth of the month of Kislev, in the year 3622 (139 B.C.E.).

Since the golden Menorah had been stolen by the Syrians, the Maccabees now made one of cheaper metal. When they wanted to light it, they found only a small cruse of pure olive oil bearing the seal of the High Priest Yochanan. It was sufficient to light only for one day. By a miracle of G‑d, it continued to burn for eight days, till new oil was made available. That miracle proved that G‑d had again taken His people under His protection. In memory of this, our sages appointed these eight days for annual thanksgiving and for lighting candles.

After Chanukah

The brightness of the first Chanukah light had dwindled down. But the holy fires on the altar burnt again in the Beit Hamikdash, from morning to morning, as prescribed by the Law. The priests were again busily officiating in the old customary ways, and day in, day out they prepared the offerings. Order and peace seemed established.

The Jewish farmer longed to return to his land after two years of hardship, privation and danger in the victorious Jewish army. It was high time to break the ground and to till the soil, if the barley was to grow and ripen in time for “Omer-offering” on Passover. The Jewish farmers had left their ploughs to rally about the heroic Chashmonaim. The first victories had drawn even the hesitant into the ranks of the enthusiastic Jewish rebels, led by the sons of Mattityahu. Farmers had forsaken their land, merchants and tradesmen their stores and shops. Even Torah students had emerged from the four walls of the Bet Hamidrash to join the fight against the oppressors.

But the songs of victory, which had filled the reclaimed Holy Temple with praise and gratitude for the merciful G‑d, had ceased. The goal of the battle seemed reached, and Torah again was supreme law in Israel.

One man, though, realized that the time for a return to normal living had not yet come. Israel could not yet afford to relax; it would have to stand ready and prepare to carry on the fight against the overwhelming odds of the enemy. This man was Judah Maccabi. His name was upon everyone’s lips and in every Jewish heart. He was admired as a hero, as a man with the heart of a lion and the simple piety of a child; as the one whose mighty armies fought and conquered, yet who never failed to pray to G‑d, the Master of all battles, before he entered the fray.

It was not the spirited warrior’s joy that made Judah Maccabi stay in camp. His heart, too, longed to return to his former peaceful life, to Modiin, the quiet town of priests, which held the grave of his adored father. Bloodshed and battle meant a hard and unwanted profession for the men of Judea, who preferred peace to strife. Yet this was no time for relenting. Not only had he to stay, but with all the persuasion of his magnetic personality he had to hold back his comrades-at-arms. His own reasoning and his two wise brothers, Shimon and Yonatan, told him that only the first phase of this war of liberation had passed. Hard and desperate times were yet to come. Clever enemies merely needed an extended lull to prepare new assaults with more troops and better equipment. And there were enemies all about Judea, besides the defeated Syrians. The neighboring countries begrudged the dazzling victories of the small Jewish armies. They would much rather have seen the people of Judea oppressed and humiliated, than armed and spirited, a threat to their own lands. Whence had come the sudden source of strength, courage and fortitude? What was there in this nation that made history in proud seclusion and isolation from other nations? Old hatred was revived. The descendants of Edom (the Idumeans), the Ammonites, the Philistines and Phoenicians, they all revived their ancient jealousies.

Messengers arrived from Gilead. The pagan people joined forces to destroy Judea. From Galilee came the bad news of similar evil intentions and active preparations in Ptolemais, Tyre and Zidon. The messengers found Judah Maccabi already at work. Fortifications had to be thrown up around Zion. Towers, walls, battlements and moat had to be constructed opposite the fort still held by their worst enemies, the Hellenistic Jews, under the leadership of the false priest Menelaus. These hated everything Jewish, and lived in the hope of the return of the Syrian masters. Judah Maccabi prepared Jerusalem against them and against imminent assault by the troops of Antiochus. Under his supervision the Jewish people worked feverishly to refill their arsenals and turn the whole country into a stronghold.

Once this most important task was accomplished, Judah Maccabi led his freshly trained troops to the aid of the regions and villages harassed by the spiteful neighbors of Judea. He drove the Idumeans from Hebron, which they had annexed, and he punished the people who had acted with hostility towards the Jewish settlers. Then he led his army across the Jordan River against the Ammonites. Their capital fell before the furious onslaught of the Jewish troops, and so did their fortress, Yaeser. Judah’s brother Shimon led an army north to aid the plagued Jews of Galilee. He defeated the enemy and cleared the Jewish land. At his urging, a great many of the Jewish settlers who had fled to Jerusalem, returned to rebuild in safety what had been destroyed during the years of weakness. Judah Maccabi and Yonatan joined forces and marched against Gilead, where they were met with the toughest resistance. By Shavuot, this campaign was successfully concluded.

Judea was again free, and all parts captured by the neighboring nation had been recovered. Celebrations and festivity transformed Jerusalem and the Holy Temple, hardly half a year after the victories over the Syrian armies. The Jewish people expressed their joy and gratitude to G‑d in the form of psalms and offerings. For He had restored glory and liberty to the Jewish land.

Christmas Facts

• Each year, 30-35 million real Christmas trees are sold in the United States alone. There are 21,000 Christmas tree growers in the United States, and trees usually grow for about 15 years before they are sold.
• Today, in the Greek and Russian orthodox churches, Christmas is celebrated 13 days after the 25th, which is also referred to as the Epiphany or Three Kings Day. This is the day it is believed that the three wise men finally found Jesus in the manger.
• In the Middle Ages, Christmas celebrations were rowdy and raucous — a lot like today’s Mardi Gras parties.
• From 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was outlawed in Boston, and law-breakers were fined five shillings.
• Christmas was declared a federal holiday in the United States on June 26, 1870.
• The first eggnog made in the United States was consumed in Captain John Smith’s 1607 Jamestown settlement.
• Poinsettia plants are named after Joel R. Poinsett, an American minister to Mexico, who brought the red-and-green plant from Mexico to America in 1828.
• The Salvation Army has been sending Santa Claus-clad donation collectors into the streets since the 1890s.
• Rudolph, “the most famous reindeer of all,” was the product of Robert L. May’s imagination in 1939. The copywriter wrote a poem about the reindeer to help lure customers into the Montgomery Ward department store.
• Construction workers started the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree tradition in 1931.

A Timeline of the Shocking True Story of the Modern Latke

Warning: This may be upsetting to traditionalist latke lovers.

Courtesy Gabe Friedman

The latke is one of those Jewish foods that feels steeped in tradition, as if it’s been made the same way since the days of the Maccabees.

But in a revelatory article, Atlantic senior editor Yoni Appelbaum explains that the latke as we know it — grated potatoes fried in olive oil — is a relatively new culinary invention. Here, in brief, is the Hanukkah staple’s origin story.

As early as the 14th century: Deep-fried ricotta cheese

That’s right. Latkes were originally an Italian cheese dish.

According to Appelbaum, they were inspired by The Book of Judith, set hundreds of years before the Maccabean Revolt. The book, from the Catholic Bible, tells the story of a daring widow who seduced and killed the Assyrian general Holofernes to save Israel from invaders.

In an obscure Hebrew version of the story, Judith distracted Holofernes in part by feeding him pancakes “salted and mixed with cheese.” Italian Jews adopted the custom of deep-frying cheese pancakes on Hanukkah to honor the story, which they apparently conflated with that of the Maccabees.

Up to the 19th century: Grain pancakes

Appelbaum notes that potatoes were originally cultivated in South America and weren’t introduced to Europe by Spanish explorers until the second half of the 16th century. Potatoes weren’t widely grown and consumed in Eastern Europe — the Old World from which many Jews emigrated to the United States — for a couple more centuries.

Until the early 19th century, Eastern European Jews made pancakes from grains, such as buckwheat and rye, according to food historian Gil Marks. Those were among the few crops available to them during the frosty early winter, when Hanukkah is celebrated.

The 19th century: Potatoes fried in schmaltz, not oil

In the 1800s, even after potatoes took root in Eastern Europe, latkes were still not fried in olive oil (as they are today, providing a convenient link to the oil-rich story of Hanukkah). Olive trees were uncommon in the region, and people cooked with schmaltz, fat rendered from chickens, geese or beef.

In fact, schmaltz remained a traditional latke ingredient well into the 20th century. Appelbaum cites a stipulation from a 1927 issue of The American Mercury magazine (which he says includes the first mention of the word “latke” in English) that the potato pancakes be “fried in schmaltz.”

From the 20th century: Today’s latke — potatoes fried in oil

The advent in 1911 of Crisco, the first shortening made entirely of vegetable oil, changed the way latkes (and many other fried foods) were made. Kosher, Crisco was once marketed as the miracle for which the “Hebrew race had been waiting 4,000 years.”

When Crisco “fell from favor,” as Appelbaum writes, olive oil took its place at the Hanukkah table — and the modern latke was born.

“So what’s a latke?” asks Appelbaum.

Simple: “It’s a shredded Andean tuber, fried like a buckwheat pancake, which was substituted for Italian cheeses, once eaten to honor a mistaken reading of obscure variants of an apocryphal text.”

But it’s crispy, and delicious.

The Modern Day Chanukah Potato Latke & Recipe

Latke (pronounced LOT-keh, LOT-kah or LOT-kee) is Yiddish for “pancake.” On Chanukah, it is traditional to serve latkes (most often potato) fried in oil to celebrate the Chanukah miracle, which involved the oil of the Temple menorah lasting for eight days instead of just one. Jews eat foods that reflect the significance of a holiday — such as matzah on Passover and apples dipped in honey on Rosh Hashanah — and Chanukah is no exception. For at least the last thousand years, Jews have traditionally eaten oily foods on Chanukah.

Why Latkes Go With Sour Cream

Potato latkes are traditionally served with applesauce and/or sour cream, but they are perfectly tasty with nothing at all In addition to being delicious with fried foods, sour cream is symbolically significant. Dairy treats are reminiscent of the milk-based (and intoxicating) meal that the brave Judith fed the Greek general before she decapitated him in his sleep.

Ingredients:

5 large potatoes, peeled
1 large onion
3 eggs
1/3 cup flour
1 tsp. Salt
¼ tsp. pepper
¾ cup oil for frying

Use: 10-inch skillet
Yields: 4 to 6 servings

Grate potatoes and onion on the fine side of a grater, or in a food processor; or put in a blender with a little water.

Strain grated potatoes and onion through a colander, pressing out excess water. Add eggs, flour, and seasoning. Mix well.
Heat ½ cup oil in skillet. Lower flame and place 1 large tablespoon batter at a time into hot sizzling oil and fry on one side for approximately 5 minutes until golden brown. Turn over and fry on other side 2 to 3 minutes.

Remove from pan and place on paper towels to drain excess oil. Continue with remaining batter until used up, adding more oil when necessary.

Serve with applesauce and/or sour cream on the side.

The 12 Days of Christmas

The 12 Days of Christmas start on Christmas Day and last until the evening of the 5th January – also known as Twelfth Night. The 12 Days have been celebrated in Europe since before the middle ages and were a time of celebration.

The 12 Days each traditionally celebrate a feast day for a saint and/or have different celebrations:

• Day 1 (25th December): Christmas Day — celebrating the Birth of Jesus
• Day 2 (26th December also known as Boxing Day): St Stephen’s Day. He was the first Christian martyr (someone who dies for their faith). It’s also the day when the Christmas Carol ‘Good King Wenceslas‘ takes place.
• Day 3 (27th December): St John the Apostle (One of Jesus’s Disciples and friends)
• Day 4 (28th December): The Feast of the Holy Innocents — when people remember the baby boys which King Herod killed when he was trying to find and kill the Baby Jesus.
• Day 5 (29th December): St Thomas Becket. He was Archbishop of Canterbury in the 12th century and was murdered on 29th December 1170 for challenging the King’s authority over Church.
• Day 6 (30th December): St Egwin of Worcester.
• Day 7 (31st December): New Years Eve (known as Hogmanay in Scotland). Pope Sylvester I is traditionally celebrated on this day. He was one of the earliest popes (in the 4th Century). In many central and eastern European countries (including Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland and Slovenia) New Years Eve is still sometimes called ‘Silvester’. In the UK, New Years Eve was a traditional day for ‘games’ and sporting competitions. Archery was a very popular sport and during the middle ages it was the law that it had to be practised by all men between ages 17-60 on Sunday after Church! This was so the King had lots of very good archers ready in case he need to go to war!
• Day 8 (1st January): 1st January — Mary, the Mother of Jesus
• Day 9 (2nd January): St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen, two important 4th century Christians.
• Day 10 (3rd January): Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. This remembers when Jesus was officially ‘named’ in the Jewish Temple. It’s celebrated by different churches on a wide number of different dates!
• Day 11 (4th January): St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American saint, who lived in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the past it also celebrated the feast of Saint Simon Stylites (who lives on a small platform on the top of a pillar for 37 years!).
• Day 12 (5th January also known as Epiphany Eve): St. John Neumann who was the first Bishop in American. He lived in the 19th century.

The Deeper Meaning of the Chanukah Oil Miracle

The Paradoxes of Oil as a Guide for Living

By: Rabbi YY Jacobson

Dedicated by David and Eda Schottenstein
In the loving memory of:
Rabbi Levi Yitzchok ben Zalman Yuda Deitsch and Alta Shula Swerdlov
And in honor of the birth of their daughter Yetta Alta Shula, “Aliyah”

Why Celebrate Oil?

The kindling of a menorah during the eight days of Chanukah commemorates an ancient miracle that occurred in our Jerusalem Holy Temple, some 2300 years ago. Following the victory of the Jews over their Greek oppressors who desecrated the Temple and attempted to destroy Judaism, a little cruse of unsoiled olive oil found in the Temple lasted and burned for eight days, till the Jews managed to purchase new pure oil for the daily kindling of the Temple Candelabra. To commemorate this display of Divine grace in a world usually enslaved to nature, the sages of Israel instituted the eight-day holiday of Chanukah, in which we kindle a menorah each night.

In that sense, oil embodies the essence of the Chanukah narrative and serves as the main focus of the festival of lights. Indeed, in many a Jewish household, the Chanukah lamps consist of wicks dipped in olive oil, replicating the Temple Menorah lamps. Throughout the holiday we eat various foods soaked in oil, from latkes to donuts (oy, the calories).

This is strange. The miracle of the oil, it would seem, was of minor significance relative to the military victory. Besides the fact that this was a miracle that occurred behind the closed doors of the Temple with only a few priests to behold, it was an event concerning a religious symbol without any consequences on life, death and liberty. If the Jews would have been defeated by the Greeks, there would be no Jews today; if the oil would have not burnt for eight days, so what? The menorah would have not been kindled. Would the latkes taste any worse?

Why did the main focus of the Chanukah become oil?

Many insights have been offered. In this essay, we present a symbolic explanation, relating to the inner psychological universe of man. It is based on a pre-Chanukah letter penned by the Lubavitcher Rebbe in 1947.[1]

Four Qualities of Oil

Olive oil contains four interesting qualities.

A) Olive oil is produced by crushing and beating ripe olives. The olive must be severely “humbled” and pressed in order to emit its oil.

B) Olive Oil, as many other oils extracted from minerals, plants and animals, penetrates solid substances deeply. We all know how difficult it is to remove the oily grease that makes its way into our fingers or our clothes. Various oils have been used throughout history as remedies for bodily wounds and diseases, since oil penetrates the body far beyond its external tissue.

C) Oil does not mix with other liquids. When you attempt to mix, say, oil with water, the oil will remain distinct and will not dissolve in the water.

D) Not only will oil not mix and become dissolved in other liquids, rather staying in place or sinking downward, but furthermore, the oil will rise, floating atop any other liquids.

On a symbolic level, these appear as paradoxical characteristics. Is oil “humble” or “arrogant?” It is beaten badly, yet it rises to the top!

From Spiritual to Physical

In the writings of Jewish Mysticism, all physical properties of any existing object are seen as continuums of their metaphysical properties. Every object originates in the realm of the spirit, embodied by a particular sublime energy. Then the energy evolves to assume a physical reincarnation, giving rise to particular physical characteristics that mirror their spiritual source.

This, parenthetically, constitutes an extremely rich component of Judaism. From the vantage point of Torah, the truths of science, physics, chemistry, biology etc. and the truths of philosophy, spirituality and psychology are merged together in a perfect mosaic, since the physical evolves from the spiritual.

The same principle applies to oil as well. The four above-mentioned qualities displayed in oil are essentially a physical manifestation of four spiritual and psychological attributes from where oil originates. They, in turn, evolve and assume the four physical forms of expression outlined above.

Four Cardinal Principles

In our lives, we must learn how to become “oil”-like. We must learn to cultivate the four properties characterizing oil.

A) The crushing and pressing of the olives, which allows you to become oil, represents the notion of humbleness, the antithesis of arrogance and self-inflation. Seeing ourselves for who we really are, being open to discover our biases, blind spots and errors, allows us to genuinely grow.

B) The direct result of this “pressing” is your ability to become oil-like and, just like oil, penetrate others deeply. When you’re haughty and pompous (usually because of a lack of self-confidence and hence the need to create a delusional self-confidence), you are incapable of sharing yourself with others, or allowing them to share themselves with you. You hide in a bubble, afraid of being vulnerable and authentic. You can’t be in a real relationship. Only when your fake ego is crushed a little bit, either by choice or by life’s circumstances, you have the courage to show up in the world, and to show up to other people, with the real “you.” You can then connect with other people’s hearts profoundly.

C) Humility and genuine relationships must never allow you to be pulled down and completely defined by the relationships. You must never forfeit your individual identity and to dissolve in the emotions or choices of the other person. The beauty and magic of a relationship lay precisely in the fact that two distinct individuals choose to share themselves with each other. Just like oil, you know how to feel and experience another human being deeply, while still not becoming consumed and nullified by the other’s identity. Like oil, you must always retain your distinctiveness.

The holy master Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk (1787-1859) once remarked: “If I am I because you are you and you are you because I am I, I am not I and you are not you; but if I am I because I am I and you are you because you are you, then I am and you are.” Now we can begin to schmooze.

D) This threefold process of crushing yourself, bonding with others and at the same time retaining your distinctiveness – should ultimately cause you to rise—just like oil—to the top, and “float” head and shoulders above all which is around you. Realizing that you are a “Piece of the Divine,”[2] and that at every moment you are an ambassador of G-d to our world, allows you to experience yourself as invincible, wholesome and way above the gravel that you may encounter in yourself or others. This comes not from arrogance but from realizing that your core is part of the infinite. Just like oil, you, too, rise to the top.

The Talmud states,[3] “The messenger of a person is just like sender.” If G-d chose you and sent you on a mission to this world, you are G-dlike! If you can only identify that space within yourself, nobody can compare to you.

This was the deeper mystical significance of a miracle that caused oil to increase. And it is why we celebrate with focusing on oil, for this story captures the rhythm of life. For me to become a glowing menorah, casting light in me and around me, and lighting up the world, I must be oil-like: First, I must discover the art of humility and integrity; second, I must allow myself to show up in my relationships genuinely and wholesomely; third, I must retain my distinctiveness and individuality; fourth, I must always recognize that part in me which is always “on the top.”

Judaism, particularly its festival of Chanukah, comes to teach ordinary human beings how to become oil-like. If we wish to ignite a fire in our lives, we ought to take a good and deep look at the olive oil in our Menorahs

Happy Chanukah – but let’s go easy on the physical oily foods, but not on the spiritual message of oil.

Twelfth Night of Christmas

Twelfth Night was a time of great celebration with people holding large parties. During these parties, often the roles in society were reversed with the servants being served by the rich people. This dated back to medieval and Tudor times when Twelfth Night marked the end of ‘winter’ which had started on 31st October with All Hallows Eve (Halloween).

At the start of Twelfth Night the Twelfth Night cake was eaten. This was a rich cake made with eggs and butter, fruit, nuts and spices. The modern Italian Panettone is the cake we currently have that’s most like the old Twelfth Night cake.

A dried pea or bean was cooked in the cake. Whoever found it was the Lord (or Lady) of Misrule for night. The Lord of Misrule led the celebrations and was dressed like a King (or Queen). This tradition goes back to the Roman celebrations of Saturnalia. In later times, from about the Georgian period onwards, to make the Twelfth Night ‘gentile’, two tokens were put in the cake (one for a man and one for a women) and whoever found them became the the ‘King’ and ‘Queen’ of the Twelfth Night party.

In English Cathedrals during the middle ages there was the custom of the ‘Boy Bishop’ where a boy from the Cathedral or monastery school was elected as a Bishop on 6th December (St Nicholas Day) and had the authority of a Bishop (except to perform Mass) until 28th December. King Henry VIII banned the practise in 1542 although it came back briefly under Mary I in 1552 but Elizabeth I finally stopped it during her reign.

During Twelfth Night it was traditional for different types of pipes to be played, especially bagpipes. Lots of games were played including ones with eggs. These included tossing an egg between two people moving further apart during each throw — drop it and you lose and passing an egg around on spoons. Another popular game was ‘snapdragon’ where you picked raisins or other dried fruit out of a tray of flaming brandy!

The first monday after Christmas feast has finished was known as ‘Plough Monday’ as this was when farming work would all begin again!

In many parts of the UK, people also went Wassailing on Twelfth Night.

Twelfth Night is also known as Epiphany Eve. In many countries it’s traditional to put the figures of the Wise Men/Three Kings into the Nativity Scene on Epiphany Eve ready to celebrate Epiphany on the 6th January.

It’s also traditional to take your Christmas decorations down following Twelfth Night.

Twelfth Night is also the name of a famous play written by William Shakespeare. It’s thought it was written in 1601/1602 and was first performed at Candlemas in 1602, although it wasn’t published until 1623.

Would You Live in ‘The Best Airport in the World’ for a Month? This Guy Just Did!

Courtesy Ashley Rossi

Survivor meets The Truman Show. As a pretty clever marketing ploy, the Helsinki Airport invited Chinese actor and TV personality, Ryan Zhu, to live in the city’s airport for 30 days.

As noted on the campaign website, the Helsinki Airport is the most-connected airport in Northern Europe and it serves over 18 million passengers each year. It’s also been awarded the best airport in the world by Travellink. To find out if it really is the “best airport in the world,” you can follow Zhu’s journey on social media with the hashtag, #LIFEINHEL. Each of the 30 days is made into a short video, which you can find here.

From following checked luggage to experiencing a Helskini stopover, Zhu discovered the ins and outs of everything “the best airport in the world” has to offer in 30 days.

Zhu moved in on October 10 and completed the 30 days last week. He slept in a small cabin set up for him inside the airport terminal. His prize? A trip to the up-and-coming Finnish Lapland with friends and family.

This Holiday Season Pay Respects to Liz Taylor, Walt Disney at this Glitzy Graveyard to the Stars in Glendale

LA Times

This is one of the grand cemeteries in the world — in setting, in scope, in star power. Step inside Forest Lawn Glendale and honor the memories of Elizabeth Taylor, Walt Disney and Jimmy Stewart, among dozens of other famous names.

The 300-acre cemetery dates to 1917 when Hubert Eaton took it over in hopes of celebrating eternal life. It hosts funerals, art shows and weddings. Ronald Reagan married Jane Wyman in one of its chapels.

Grab a map from the info booth as you enter the lush and hilly cemetery. Out of respect for privacy, the map will not guide you to the stars’ graves, but other resources offer maps.

From the front gate, follow signs to the wonderfully gothic Great Mausoleum, where Elizabeth Taylor is buried and honored by a giant angel at the end of the hallway. L. Frank Baum, of “Wizard of Oz,” fame is buried to the west of the Great Mausoleum, with a hefty tombstone.

Michael Jackson? He rests in a private section not open to the public.

But Jimmy and Gloria Stewart are marked by humble graves that are open to public viewing – though not easy to find.

As you face the Wee Kirk O’ the Heather chapel, they reside up the hill to your left: space 2, lot 8, small markers near the statue of a man holding an arrow.

Clustered at the Freedom Mausoleum, you’ll spot the graves of Walt Disney, Spencer Tracy, Errol Flynn, George Burns and Nat “King” Cole.

Where: 1712 S. Glendale Ave., Glendale, Calif., about 15 minutes from downtown Los Angeles, in Los Angeles County.

How much: Free

Info: Forest Lawn Glendale, (323) 254-3131

The post Holiday Season Humor, Facts & Stats, Trivia and More appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Documentary filmmaker Maggie Betts has written and directed her first narrative feature, “Novitiate,” a riveting, captivating, look at the life of a young girl who becomes intoxicated with Catholicism and decides to devote her life to God.  Under Betts’ sharp direction, Margaret Qualley gives an outstanding performance as the young postulant in training to become a nun at the Order of the Sisters of Blessed Rose.  The convent is run with an iron hand by the Reverend Mother, played chillingly by Melissa Leo, who tries to defy the radical changes in the religion as put forth by Vatican II, lifting many of the rules that guided nuns through the ages.  Without taking an editorial position, Betts skillfully unveils the harsh, often inhumane realities of devoting one’s life to God, and at the same time illuminates the young postulant’s human desires of sexuality and physical contact. 

For the roles of the nuns, Betts assembled an incredible cast of mostly unknown actors, each of whom gives a stirring performance.  They include:  Lisa Stewart Seals, Alyssa Brindley, Chelsea Lopez, Liana Liberato, Morgan Saylor, Eline Powell, Rebecca Dayan, Hannah Renee Jackson, Angela Fox, Neva Howell, Ashley Bell, Dianna Agron, Maddie Hasson, and Marshall Chapman.  The rest of the excellent supporting cast is comprised of Eliza Mason as 7-year-old Cathleen, Sasha Mason as 12-year old Cathleen, and Peggy Walton-Walker as the nuns’ teacher.  Rounding out the cast is Julianne Nicholson as Cathleen’s mother who gives an outstanding, heartfelt performance of a mother struggling to understand her daughter’s chosen life’s trajectory.  Special kudos to Director of Photography Kat Westergaard, who is responsible for the intimate, gorgeous look of the film.

Maggie Betts and Margaret Qualley recently sat down with your journalist for an exclusive interview, which has been edited for content and continuity for print purposes.

What was it about the book on Mother Teresa that motivated you to write and direct “Novitiate?”

 Betts:  I thought the book would be a biography – kind of an overview of Mother Teresa’s accomplishments.  It was actually a collection of letters that she had written over the course of her life to friends, confidantes, and family members.  They were super painfully intimate letters that were consumed with her love relationship with her “husband,” which was God. That was way more interesting to her than anything else in her life.  It was torturous, filled with highs and lows and very intense and was way more interesting to her than anything else in her life.  For example, she would write a paragraph about this orphanage we’re doing in Calcutta and then spend another paragraph about how I’m feeling lonely because God isn’t talking to me today and I’m really sad.  I love him so much.   She focused on love as that apparently was the most important thing to her.  I only read this one book so I don’t want to appear as an expert.  But, it seemed to me that love consumed all her energy and was the thrust of her life.  It mirrored my most intense romantic relationships and I was mesmerized that the woman could have a non-physical relationship like that with God.

Do you have any thoughts on the fact that all these nuns are “married” in a non-physical relationship with God?

Betts:  But it’s literal. It’s literal like taking the body of Christ is literal. It’s their literal husband.

Do you think it’s more of a symbolic husband than literal because literal would mean reality vs. fantasy?

Betts: It’s not symbolic.  It’s difficult for us to understand and I don’t understand it entirely, but I feel like I got closer to it.  How could it be literal?  I’m not saying that I think God is in a relationship with the nuns and he exists in their day-to-day lives.  But one of the tenets of Catholicism is that there is this lateralization of certain things. For the nuns, it’s suppose to be taken as reality and that’s the context that I’m using.  Margaret beautifully depicts that aspect of her character as she is in a constant conversation with this entity, or this boyfriend, or this lover, day in and day out.

Did you ever love someone like these women love God?

Betts: I was so in love with my first boy friend and was completely obsessed with him.  I projected a lonely, sad, desperately needing love young girl and everything revolved around him. This guy had to fill all of that for me.  After the relationship was over, in looking back years later, I realized the guy had none of the qualities I projected onto him.  He was actually a loser but was like God to me because I put everything into him and it was literal.

How long did it take you to write the script?

Betts: Writing the script did not take long.  The first draft, which is always total crap, was not good.  But it had pages 1 to 50 and it took about four to six months, but the research took five to six years.  I wrote a 40-page research document for myself that had everything that was interesting to me.  By the time I got to writing the script, I knew there would be certain scenes including the wedding scene.  I knew exactly what was going to happen in that scene.  I knew it was to start with Cathleen as a young child in school, so I followed that arc.  Ultimately, it wasn’t hard to write the script because I saturated myself with the research.

Did you have an easy time getting financing for the film?

Betts:  No.  Not an easy time.  No.  It went up and down.  You think you’re going to get money and then you’re not.  I think making an independent film is like a marathon endurance test.  You have to be able to pace yourself through endless let downs and disappointments and just stay determined to get your film made.  You have to just keep going or it won’t get done.

Did you get any opposition or assistance from the Church and you did have any advisers on set?

Betts:  We didn’t get any resistance from the Church, but we did have a priest and a former nun on set that served as tech advisers.

How did you find the very talented Margaret Qualley to play the central role of Sister Cathleen?

Betts:  It was like finding a needle in a haystack.  I had contacted different agencies and told them we were looking to cast a new face – someone who is comparatively unknown and somebody who has to possess special qualities because the role is that of a nun in the 1960s.  The agencies were very excited about the project and did everything to facilitate us finding that individual.  But, a lot of girls in the character’s age group were in their teens and not getting heavy dramatic roles.  The agencies were very helpful, almost overwhelmingly so as there was a period of months where I was skyping or meeting with another young actress each day.  I met with so many incredible young women, but I hadn’t found exactly what I was looking for.  It was a Wednesday and I had already talked to six girls that week and was not in the mood for one more audition.  I had watched a little bit of Margaret’s reel on “Leftovers,” which was good and it was clear that she was very talented.  But that character was very angsty and kind of like a sarcastic, angry teen and as far away from the character of Sister Cathleen that I was looking for.  That character is completely un-ironic, has no sarcasm, is pure, and is totally idealistic.  So I didn’t want to do this Skype with Margaret, but felt it was unprofessional to cancel.  We got on Skype together and it was like oh my God this is the girl.

What did you that set her apart from all the other actresses?

Betts: People have asked me that question many times.  Margaret is incredibly beautiful.  Margaret is incredibly intelligent.  Margaret has a natural magnetism that will even jump through a Skype screen.  That said, I can’t identify one particular quality that made her stand out.  But, she knocked me over and I knew she was who I was looking for.  When I got off the phone, I started pacing down streets in New York.  I couldn’t believe she had dark hair because I always pictured the character as blonde.  Not that I have any preference between blond or brunettes but I had spent years and years with this image of this character in my head and I thought, “Ain’t that something;” she has dark hair.  When I was done pacing the streets for a half hour, I then called my casting directors and told them I found the girl.

 That haunting love scene between the two novices clearly depicted ( postulant)  Cathleen’s need to be touched which overrode momentarily her devotion to  God/husband.  Was that one of the most intense scenes for you?

Qualley:  The scene where the young novitiates confess their flaws was actually more intense because we shot for three days on our knees and listened to confessions.  The whipping scene was also intense.  Over my director’s objections, I used a real whip because I wanted to experience what it felt like.  My back was covered with welts and bruises.

After all those years of Sister Cathleen being devoted to Catholicism and determined to become a nun, beginning as a young child, why did you choose that ending?)

Betts: In the script, it was resolved and you knew what happened to her.  It was Margaret’s idea to push for that ending in the film and she was 100% right.

What would you like the audience to take away from this film?

Qualley:  There are a lot of things you can take away from the film.  One of the things that hit home for me is the overwhelming desire to be perfect.  All these young girls are trying desperately to be perfect and are very hard on themselves.  I’m not religious at all, but one of the things that was exciting about this film was to have a love story with Jesus, which sounds insane.  I think it’s a testament to how much you can project onto somebody and how much we live in our imaginations and then at a certain point, that is not enough.

Well done.  I wish you a strong box office success.

Betts & Qualley:  Thank you.

The post Up Close & Personal With “Novitiate” Writer/Director Maggie Betts appeared first on Traveling Archive.