Aurelia Butler

The film director and designer did double duty in Venice, Italy, debuting a film at the Venice Film Festival along with his curation of Homo Faber, the craftsmanship exhibition.Luca Guadagnino has added creative director to his list of jobs.As a filmmaker, his credits include “Challengers,” the Oscar-nominated movie “Call Me by Your Name” and the upcoming “Queer,” an adaptation of William S. Burroughs’s semi-autobiographical novella starring Daniel Craig, which recently premiered at the Venice Film Festival. He is also the founder of Studio Luca Guadagnino, an award-winning interiors firm in Milan that has designed several homes, boutiques and, most recently, the Palazzo Talia hotel in Rome.Now, Mr. Guadagnino has marshaled the staging and curation of Homo Faber, a monthlong, biennial craftsmanship exhibition that opened on Sunday at the Giorgio Cini Foundation, a cultural center on San Giorgio Maggiore island in Venice. Homo Faber, which means “man the maker” in Latin, is put on by the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship, a Geneva-based non-profit established by Italian author Franco Cologni and luxury industry billionaire Johann Rupert, chairman of Richemont, which owns the brands Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Alaïa. Mr. Guadagnino partnered with his design studio project manager, Nicolò Rosmarini, to conceive this third edition as a “holistic experience — like a narrative,” he said.To achieve this, Mr. Guadagnino and Mr. Rosmarini created an immersive journey throughout the island’s 16th-century Palladio-designed monastery and assorted buildings that carries visitors through 10 multisensory set pieces, each dedicated to an aspect of the human experience like Childhood, Courtship and Dreams. They designed everything (“the lighting system, the uniforms, the tote bag, the tables, the cover of the cable on the floor,” Mr. Guadagnino said) then filled the rooms with 800 objects by 400 artisans from 70 countries.Reef by Josh Gluckstein, a piece in the exhibition.Matteo de Mayda for The New York TimesJust My Cup of Tea(r)s by Irene Cattaneo.Matteo de Mayda for The New York TimesTanagra’s Metamorphosis 2 by Claire Lindner.Matteo de Mayda for The New York Timesribbon imagined by Studio Luca Guadagnino.Matteo de Mayda for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

At the Venice Film Festival with his co-star, Lady Gaga, would the actor answer questions about dropping out of a Todd Haynes movie?Joaquin Phoenix has never been eager to face the press. The 49-year-old actor grants few interviews, speaks with great reluctance about his process, and once walked out on a journalist when asked whether his film “Joker” might inspire copycat violence.Knowing all that, you could already expect tension at the Venice news conference for “Joker: Folie à Deux,” a sequel to the 2019 hit that has Phoenix reprising the comic-book role that won him the Oscar. Still, this meeting with the media was expected to be particularly fraught as Phoenix has not done any press since August, when he dropped out of a film from the director Todd Haynes just days before it was supposed to shoot, scuttling the production and exposing the star to potential legal action.Hollywood has been buzzing about Phoenix’s murky motivations for weeks, not least because the project — a sexually explicit gay romance co-starring the “Top Gun: Maverick” actor Danny Ramirez — was based on an original idea by Phoenix, who brought the project to Haynes and co-wrote it with the “May December” director.Would Phoenix be willing to shed any light on the situation while in Venice or would he skip the news conference entirely, as “Don’t Worry Darling” star Florence Pugh did two years ago amid rumors of a feud with that film’s director, Olivia Wilde? While waiting for the conference to begin on Wednesday afternoon, journalists placed bets on whether Phoenix would bail twice.They were surprised, then, when Phoenix bounded into the room smiling, followed by his director, Todd Phillips, and co-star Lady Gaga. “First of all, hi everyone!” he told the press. “It’s nice to see you.”Phoenix remained upbeat and unexpectedly willing to answer questions until several minutes into the news conference, when a journalist asked whether he would share his reason for leaving the Haynes film. The actor began to answer, then paused, thinking it over.“If I do, I would just be sharing my opinion from my perspective, and the other creatives aren’t here to share their piece,” Phoenix said, referring to Haynes and his partners.He continued: “It doesn’t feel like that would be right. I don’t think that would be helpful, so I just don’t think I will.”Then he added brightly, “Thank you!”Since Phoenix dropped out of the Haynes film, it’s been reported that the actor often gets cold feet and nearly bailed on making the first “Joker.” Phillips implied as much when he talked about how he convinced Phoenix to star in a sequel. “If we were really going to do it, it had to scare him in the way the first one did,” Phillips said.The director admitted to his own nerves in bringing “Folie à Deux” to Venice, since the first film won the festival’s prestigious Golden Lion. “It’s easier to come in as the insurgent instead of the incumbent,” Phillips said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Source: Election results and race calls are from The Associated Press.Produced by Michael Andre, Camille Baker, Neil Berg, Michael Beswetherick, Matthew Bloch, Irineo Cabreros, Nico Chilla, Nate Cohn, Alastair Coote, Annie Daniel, Saurabh Datar, Leo Dominguez, Andrew Fischer, Martín González Gómez, Will Houp, Junghye Kim, K.K. Rebecca Lai, Jasmine C. Lee, Alex Lemonides, Ilana Marcus, Alicia Parlapiano, Elena Shao, Charlie Smart, Jonah Smith, Urvashi Uberoy, Isaac White and Christine Zhang. Additional reporting by Mathew Brownstein; production by Amanda Cordero and Jessica White.
Editing by Wilson Andrews, Lindsey Rogers Cook, William P. Davis, Amy Hughes, Ben Koski and Allison McCartney. Source: Election results and race calls are from The Associated Press. More

Source: Election results and race calls are from The Associated Press.Produced by Michael Andre, Camille Baker, Neil Berg, Michael Beswetherick, Matthew Bloch, Irineo Cabreros, Nico Chilla, Nate Cohn, Alastair Coote, Annie Daniel, Saurabh Datar, Leo Dominguez, Andrew Fischer, Martín González Gómez, Will Houp, Junghye Kim, K.K. Rebecca Lai, Jasmine C. Lee, Alex Lemonides, Ilana Marcus, Alicia Parlapiano, Elena Shao, Charlie Smart, Jonah Smith, Urvashi Uberoy, Isaac White and Christine Zhang. Additional reporting by Mathew Brownstein; production by Amanda Cordero and Jessica White.
Editing by Wilson Andrews, Lindsey Rogers Cook, William P. Davis, Amy Hughes, Ben Koski and Allison McCartney. Source: Election results and race calls are from The Associated Press. More

Source: Election results and race calls are from The Associated Press.Produced by Michael Andre, Camille Baker, Neil Berg, Michael Beswetherick, Matthew Bloch, Irineo Cabreros, Nico Chilla, Nate Cohn, Alastair Coote, Annie Daniel, Saurabh Datar, Leo Dominguez, Andrew Fischer, Martín González Gómez, Will Houp, Junghye Kim, K.K. Rebecca Lai, Jasmine C. Lee, Alex Lemonides, Ilana Marcus, Alicia Parlapiano, Elena Shao, Charlie Smart, Jonah Smith, Urvashi Uberoy, Isaac White and Christine Zhang. Additional reporting by Mathew Brownstein; production by Amanda Cordero and Jessica White.
Editing by Wilson Andrews, Lindsey Rogers Cook, William P. Davis, Amy Hughes, Ben Koski and Allison McCartney. Source: Election results and race calls are from The Associated Press. More

Kareem Ayas waxes poetic.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesWEDNESDAY PUZZLE — The rebus is the uninvited dinner guest of the New York Times Crossword: You never expect it to show up, and when it does, you have no choice but to accommodate it. I can tell you that everyone’s going to have to squeeze in for today’s puzzle, constructed by Kareem Ayas, because he has brought us a rebus — on a Wednesday, no less. The gall!As the host of this column, I insist that you not let this surprise spoil your appetite. Even the most timid early-week solvers are capable of tackling Mr. Ayas’s theme; we’ll just take it one course at a time.Today’s ThemeBefore we continue, let’s review what the heck I’m talking about. A rebus, in the parlance of the Times Crossword, is a visual trick within the puzzle that often requires the solver to enter more than one letter in a single square. (We go over the ways to do that in our rebus tipsheet.) The trick is revealed, usually through some kind of wordplay, in one of the grid’s entries. You’ll see what I mean as we go over Mr. Ayas’s theme.Today, we get a nice hint: The circled squares look to be our focal points for the rebus. 17-Across, for instance, can’t be solved without some kind of adjustment to its entry for [It will change the way you see yourself]. I wanted the entry to be “fun house mirror,” but crossings gave me only FUNHOU_RROR. And isn’t that [Red-haired toon who is always seeing red] at 39-Down supposed to be Yosemite Sam, instead of YO_TESAM?In a rebus puzzle, the revealer tends to hint at how to interpret its words in order to fill in any missing letters. All we get at 63-Across is that [First- and third-quarter moons] are examples of something that “hint to the puzzle’s theme.” At the first quarter and third quarter of its cycle, the moon looks like a half-circle. Oh, hang on — they’re SEMICIRCLES.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee summoned the secretary of state for testimony just days before an expected report on the U.S. exit, in which 13 American service members were killed.The Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday issued a subpoena for Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken’s testimony, threatening to hold him in contempt if he failed to address the panel later this month about the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.In his letter subpoenaing Mr. Blinken, the chairman, Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, wrote that receiving the testimony was important for committee members as they prepared “potential legislation aimed at helping prevent the catastrophic mistakes of the withdrawal,” after the expected release of an investigative report into the subject next week.“You served as the final decision maker for the department on the withdrawal and evacuation,” Mr. McCaul wrote in the letter, demanding that Mr. Blinken appear before the panel on Sept. 19 to speak about his role, and complaining that he had missed previous deadlines to comply.In a statement, Matthew Miller, the State Department spokesman, said Mr. Blinken would not be available on that date and criticized the committee’s refusal to accept what he called “reasonable alternatives to comply with Chairman McCaul’s request for a public hearing.”“It is disappointing that instead of continuing to engage with the department in good faith, the committee instead has issued yet another unnecessary subpoena,” Mr. Miller wrote, noting that Mr. Blinken had testified before Congress 14 times, including four appearances before Mr. McCaul’s panel.The summons comes amid fresh political squabbling over the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 as the presidential race enters its final weeks. Democrats denounced former President Donald J. Trump for shooting video for his campaign last week at Arlington National Cemetery, where he appeared for a wreath-laying ceremony to honor service members killed during the evacuation. Mr. Trump has stepped up his attacks on President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, maintaining that they mismanaged the U.S. exit from Afghanistan and blaming them personally for failing to prevent the deaths of 13 Americans at Abbey Gate, outside the Kabul airport.Mr. McCaul’s report, the culmination of nearly three years of investigative work, is expected to lay similar blame at the feet of Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris.“It will serve as an indictment on the administration’s reckless refusal to properly prepare for the withdrawal,” Mr. McCaul said in a statement last week announcing the release of the report. “President Biden and Vice President Harris can no longer sweep their unmitigated disaster of epic proportions that they created under the rug.”In a statement last week, Representative Gregory W. Meeks of New York, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, dismissed Mr. McCaul’s threats to subpoena Mr. Blinken as “political stunts that show the Republican Party’s desperation to score headlines during an election season.”Tuesday’s subpoena is the third that Mr. McCaul has issued to Mr. Blinken in conjunction with the panel’s Afghanistan investigation. The previous two sought documents related to the inquiry. More

In places like San Francisco, Phoenix and Las Vegas, robot taxis are navigating city streets, each without a driver behind the steering wheel. Some don’t even have steering wheels: But cars like this one in Las Vegas are sometimes guided by someone sitting here: This is a command center in Foster City, Calif., operated by […] More