NOV 2013 | ISSUE 17
Latitude
Explore NYC Along the Steps of Cinema Giants
FEATURED with NYC Map of Filming Sets
interview Willem Dafoe: The Rhythm in Between
Chili Pepper
4 Austin chefs cook with chili peppers in unique receipe
Life in Linen
wrinkles welcome
Our Pleasure Alicia Bay Laurel tells us how to Live on the Earth
November, 2013 | Issue 17
Contents Features 28
6 Flavor Art Obssessed Foodies: Take Notes text by Christin Whisker
7 Like a Virgin The Magic of Put-It-On-Anything Coconut Oil text by Barry Gifford
12 Dome Sweet Dome A timeline mapping the evolution of the eodesic dome
24 When NYC Encounters Cinema Texy by Taylor Patterson
text by Paul Kominek
66 Souvenirs: Flirting with Tradition Borsalino text by Matt Roden
70 Dining in: The NoMad Restraunt text by Martin Hossbach
Highlights
73 Holding Patterns: Hand Luggage in The Dunes text by Smith Divon
74 86 16 Earth tu Face’s Medicinal Garden Plan Artistis in Vancouver Discover a Means of Production text by Martin Hossbach
80 Willem Dafoe: The Ryhthm in Between Interviewed by Naheed Simjee
Departments
4 Panorama All Distances of Paris Measures from Here text by Jon Johnson 5 Leisure: Perfumn House of Le Labo: A Whiff of Success
Topics
33 Life in Linen: Effortless Elegance, Wrinkles Welcome Styled by Jeremy Lewis text by Alec Soth
45 Rosebud Rising: An Experiment in Living and Agriculture in Australia
75 Berlin Hospital: Phychological Sightseeing text by Sara Katrine
78 Reviewed & Considered: 12 Hotels text by April Kominek
92 Growing Connection: Director Sara Dosa Shares her filmmaking odyssey texy by Sara Dosa
96 Regulars
text by Lisa Rovner
58 South Chicago Night text by Michael Lee Johnson
text by Thomas Lynch
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LEISURE
Perfume Houses of Le Labo A whiff of success From grasse to New Yotk to Paris to Tokyo and straight to your heart. By Thomas Lynch
Santal 33
This man leaning on the worn leather saddle, alone with the desert wind, power fuicon that man wanted to be him and women want to have him. 4
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Bergamote 22
It’s the delicate floral character of petit grain, the bitterness of grapefruit, and the flamboyant sweetness of amber and musk.
fashioned apothecary and an ultra modern neighborhood bar. Sidle up to this bar to test your nasal prowess and to watch your fragrant mix being concocted from materials flown in from Grasse. The Le Labo line includes three masculine scents, three unisex, three feminine and one baby scent. Truth is, women can wear the masculine scents and vice-versa. You can also opt to have your own custom scent created, but it will set you back $40,000. These exceptional handcrafted fragrances are made with no regard for cost in a hybrid atmosphere that is part laboratory. Rose 31
The most popular one. The perfume’s aim is clear: to transform the famous Grasse Rose, into an assertively virile and universal fragrance.
Different as Day & Night Many men prefer to choose two different types of cologne: one for daytime activities, such as going to work or meeting friends for lunch; and one to wear at night. During the day, you are most likely to be working in situations where you are in close physical proximity to others, which means that your cologne should not be overpowering. At night,dance clubs and bars can detract from the scent you’re wearing, and you might need something stronger.It is never good to wear a fragrance when embarking upon a first date.
illustration by Erin Weinger | Photograohy by Caulder Moore
Le Labo’s luxury fragrance’s are composed French, is the result of a shared creative by some of the world’s best perfumers, and vision between two fragrance titans who it’s impossible not to fall completely in love grew weary of “one size fits all” industry with the concept of this nonconformist tactics and the commodification of brand, its unique boutique-lab in NoLita, fragrance. Instead of investing in marketing the friendly people inside, gimmicks, the Le Labo and its ten masterpiece “The first time you wear duo invests in quality fragrances at starts. a Le Labo perfume, you ingredients to forge a Here is a place that will realize instantly brand superior to most takes fragrance seriously, how very different it is.” premium fragrances. offering quality signature Their vision includes compositions mixed on demand. They are personalized fragrance bottles with the presented an artfulness and minimalist wearers name, date sold, location, and an style that places Le Labo fragrances on expiration date– delivered by the store’s center stage instead of advertising. Le charming chemist. The store itself is Labo, which aptly means “the lab” in created to feel like a cross between an old
SOUVENIRS Hats can be a tricky business. They are not for everyone. They are a kind of accessory that should not seem like one; primarily because, if you wear a hat, it has to look like you were born with it on your head. The marvelous late Anna Piaggi could wear a tiny top hat perched like an exotic bird on her head without affectation. But for those not so whimsically inclined, it may be wise to start with a more classic and versatile, one better suited for travel without a set of trunks and an army of bellboys. A single, perfect hat for all is a dream to abandon, as caps must be tailored to their wearer and so required some individual prescriptions. Some strong candidates for the ideal hat, however, hail from the Italian staple, Borsalino, established in 1857. Its founder, Giuseppe Borsalino, reportedly acquired the recipe for his impeccable felt hats by secretly dipping his handkerchief in a vat of tar on a visit to an English hat factory. This along with his seven-year training in Paris and a workshop in Italy, created a recipe that would help usher in a sartorial trademark
Classicals in the Hats
by Matt Roden
“A single, perfect hat for all is a dream to abandon, as caps must be tailored to their wearer .” Charlie Chaplin
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Humphrey Bogart
Mariene Dietrich
Photograohy by Caulder Moore
Borsalino: Flirting with Tradion
of the century. By the 1900s Borsalino’s hats made their way to New York, London and Paris. Still today, with the company’s global reach, each felt hat is a careful product of a seven-week processs that involves basting, steaming, dying, and blocking rabbit and hare fur. The result is stunning because it is smart and simple, and about as close to classic as fedoras come these days. Borsalino traditional felt fedoras can temper a long winter or shade the wearer from the blaze of August days with their delicate straw weave. But as practical as hats are, and as much as they can become part of our personal architecture, Borsalinos are a Fantasy. They are a Fantasy of a summer day passed with afternoon cocktails outside and nothing to do, or tromping through Italian fields, missed encounters on subways, and tall Parisian windows. Those people born with a hat on their head have a terrible secret: they feign practicality in the guise of shade and warmth, but all the while they are simply wearing a dream on their head. Why not?
FLAVOR
Art obsessed foodies, take note! A restaurant and design exhibition rolled into one. By Christin Whisker
into a number of different dining spaces. The most opulent is the two Michelin-starred Lecture Room & Library. It’s perhaps best kept for a very special occasion— starters cost up to £46; one of the criticisms raised in that original review was the venue’s exceptional prices. I was visiting sketch to celebrate a friend’s birthday but we see each other all the “Each course, designed by Pierre Gagnaire time so we had a bit of and cooked by Jean-Denis le Bras, is a a heart-to-heart about multiple play on ideas and ingredients... how much we value indulgence is indeed.” each other and instead true. When it opened sketch was proclaimed one of the country’s most decadent and beautifully designed dining spaces. In my opinion that’s still the case. Just off Regent Street, the building that houses sketch was once the headquarters of the Institute of Architects and it has now been divided
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decided on a more casual get together at the gallery. At sketch, he was more directly involved in the installation of Work No. 1347, the gallery’s marble floor which is composed of 96 different types of marble. As do the myriad accoutrements that have combined to decorate the space. We reclined on pleasantly worn,
fabric-covered seats while other diners sat into plump armchairs or plastic patio-style furniture; cocktails soon arrived in chunky goblets, coloured flutes or engraved tumblers. We enjoyed our mains, both of which were competently cooked and beautifully presented, if not overly memorable afterwards, but as time progressed it was the sense of being immersed in theatre that became the focus of our evening. Lasers would sporadically ripple across the painted
Blue berries sorbet, smartly paired with a powdery biscuit
undulations that marked the walls, hypnotising us both. This place has a flair for quirky, good-humoured design that’s unexpected and rather delightful. The food at sketch really provides just one component of a broader sensory experience. Ten years after its opening, this is still one of the freshest and most visually enticing dining spaces in the country. The brand’s plans to have different high-profile artists reinterpret the huge gallery dining room space means the address should remain a draw for many years to come.
Mushrooms, beetroot, apricots asparagus cream, strawberry coulis
Sea Bream, roasted and poached in olive oil, with cod as well.
L’Archeologia, Rome
T8, Shanghai
Kyo Ya, New York
A gem on the ancient Appian Way, Wonderful location, great food, and top notch service. The pasta is properly prepared and homemade. reviewed by M. Crawley
One of the top 50 restaurants in the world. The decor is rustic, yet comfortable. And the cuisine is designed with food connoiseurs in mind. reviewed by K. Emerson
Tried their compressed sushi, sashimi, and cold duck dish. Absolutely adore their thinly sliced tender duck breast. I love the duck especially. reviewed by S. Willis
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Photograohy by Kang Leong
The Telegraph’s 2002 review of sketch restaurant describes the premises as “the most controversial restaurant to open in the capital this year.” In the intervening decade restaurants have had to work harder to earn that distinction: opened some time after, Dans le Noir? So, ten years on, some things have changed but others hold
PANORAMA
Considered the heart of Paris, Île de la Cité is one of two natural islands that sits in the middle of the Seine. By Jon Johnson
Luxembourg Garden
Villa d'Estrées
Café Panis
Le Reminet
Pont Neuf
This Romantic boutique hotel, walking distance from Notre Dame Cathedral, Sainte Chapelle, Pont Neuf, and the Luxembourg gardens. Villa d’Estrees provides complimentary wireless Internet access, a porter/bellhop, car rent/cab, and tour/ticket assistance.
A Small and cozy restaurant behind Quai de Tournelle. Around twenty seats upstairs and twenty seats downstairs, in an eleg ant and roman tic decor: gray wallpaper with ancient mirrors. The food is sophisticated, with six employees dedicated to the cuisine.Everything was absolutely fantastic.
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It is housed in the former Gare d’Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, with largest collection of impressionist masterpieces.
Flower Market
Since 1808, the lovely metal pavilions shade this bucolic Flower Market (Le Marché aux Fleurs). A wide array of flowers, plants and trees can be found. Tens of thousands of pots are displayed : Primavera’s, Violets, Bilberries, Pomegranates and other beautiful plants are offered each season.
Travel Tips
Musée d'Orsay
17,000 taxis operate in Paris. The owner or operator of the taxi holds a licence permitting parking on the public highway while waiting for customers. Unique phone number for all the taxi firms: +33 (0)1 45303030
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The basic Métro ticket is a small piece of cardboard (formerly mauve, now white) with a magnetic strip that costs €1,70. You can save money by purchasing a carnet of 10 tickets for €13,30 from vending machines near the turnstiles in Métro stations.
A 60-acre park known for its extraordinary public amenities, is the second largest public park in Paris. Including fountains, sculpture,ponds, flowerbeds, tennis courts, pony rides, a marionette theatre, play rounds, food kiosks and open-air cafes.
Right across the street from Notre Dame, which provides for some great people watching if you sit outside. It’s a surreal experience to be sipping your coffee at a Parisian sidewalk cafe while staring directly at one of the most beautiful.
The Pont Neuf is also Paris’s best known bridge and together with the Pont Alexandre III, one of its most beautiful. The bridge is composed of two separate spans, one of five arches joining the left bank to the Île de la Cité,
By Paris airport transfer Service, you get a fixed price so you don’t have to worry about how much it will cost and how long it will take. Also, you need not worry about finding and arranging.
Blog & Photography by Sandra Austoni | Illustration by Rocky Hunter
Measures from here: Île de la Cité
New York City, the Other Character
Luckily, we me
eet the Chassis
There is no place. Just like this place. Anywhere near this place. So this must be the place. Faithfully to be NYC.
Discover 10 different movie sets along the steps of famous directors text by Matthew Gola
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T 1 Times Square
This film is about elaborating character study of two London couples as they engage in an ultimate game of partner swapping. Alice (Natalie Portman) is a gorgeous young runaway from New York’s seedy sex industry; she soon pairs up with Dan (Jude Law), a thoughtful but unsuccessful novelist and journalist, who authors a book about her. Anna is a quietly independent divorce and successful photographer. After Dan makes a move on her during a photo session for the book, she rejects Dan, who retaliates by tricking her into a relationship with Larry (Clive Owen), a dermatologist with the lust and manners of a soccer hooligan. The plot revolves around the infatuation of the couples for one another. Times Square is a major one at the opening of the film. It is a commercial intersection and a neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan,
“I I love New York, even though it isn’t mine, the way something has to be, a tree or a street or a house, something, anyway, that belongs to me because I belong to it.”
Mike Nichols
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Closer, 2004
New York City, at the junction of Broadway (now converted into a pedestrian plaza) and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets. Times Square—iconified as “The Crossroads of the World”, “The Center of the Universe”, and the “The Great White Way”. It is the brightly illuminated hub of the Broadway Theater District is one of the world’s busiest pedestrian intersections, and a major center of the world’s entertainment industry. Formerly Longacre Square. The northern triangle of Times Square is technically Duffy Square. Times Square was renamed in April 1904 after The New York Times moved its headquarters to the newly erected Times Building—now called One Times Square— site of the annual ball drop on New Year’s Eve.
Woody Allen “There’s a million things to do here, a million stories to tell, a million great locations in the city. I’ve made many many movies here, and I don’t think I’ve even scratched the surface of New York City. And there are advantages to being at home.”
Manhattan Murder Mystery, 1993
Larry (Woody Allen) and Carol (Diane Keaton) are fairly normal New Yorkers who have sent their son off to college. They meet an elderly couple down the hall and later in the week find that the wife has uddenly died. Carol becomes suspicious of Paul who seems to be too cheerful and too ready to move on. She begins her investigation. Larry insists she is becomming too fixated on what their neighbour as all of the irregularities seem to have simple non-homicidal explanations. Ted, a recently divorced friend helps her investigation and Larry begins to become jealous of their relationship and agrees to help her in purpose. Bryant Park is a 9.603 acre (39,000 m²) privately managed public park located in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and between 40th and 42nd Streets in
Midtown Manhattan. The purpose of it is to lavish praise from citizens and visitors, the media, and urbanists. And, as the Urban Land Institute wrote it in an award citation, “the success of the park feeds the success of the neighborhood indeed.” In 1686, the area now known as Bryant Park was designated public property by the New York Colonial Governor Thomas Dongan. After being routed by the British in the Battle of Long Island, at the start of the Revolutionary War, General Washington’s troops raced across the site. In 1807, the grid system of streets was laid out in what is now considered midtown, expanding north from the already cosmopolitan downtown Manhattan. Fifteen years later, in 1822, the land came under the jurisdiction of New York City, and one year later, was turned into a potter’s field.
See More Fencing Center
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Bryant Park
Free beginner lessons with masters from Manhattan Fencing Center every Wednesday. Equipment is provided. The fencing class is located at 5th Avenue Terrace, in front of the New York Public Library as hightlighted in red. Centrally located in Midtown Manhattan on 39th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues . The class is always scheduled every Friday 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm.
Kinokuniya Bookstore This bookstore intermingles English and Japanese on its numerous shelves as a way to encourage customers to experience another cultural viewpoint—even if that means glossing over text and admiring pictures. Opened in Rockefeller Center in 1981, Kinokuniya is impressively stocked, with 20,000 book titles as well as DVDs, magazines, CDs, Momiji dolls, etc. L a t t i t u d e | S e pt e mbe r, 2013
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Central Park
Thomas McCarthy “I believe in New Yorkers. Whether they’ve ever questioned the dream in which they live, I wouldn’t know, because I won’t ever dare ask that question.”
The Visitors,
2007
Lonely Professor Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) is assigned to attend a conference about Global Policy and Development at the NYU where he is to give a lecture about a paper that he is coauthor on. When he arrives at his apartment in New York, he finds Tarek Khalil, a syrian musician, and Zainab, a Senegalese street vendor living there. He sympathizes with the situation of the illegal immigrants and invites the couple to stay with him. Tarek invites him to go to his gig in the Jules Live Jazz and Walter is fascinated with his African drum. Tarek offers to teach Walter to play the drum. The Central Park Conservancy was founded in 1980 by a group of dedicated civic and philanthropic leaders. They were determined to end Central Park’s dramatic decline in the 1970s and restore it to its former splendor as America’s first and foremost major urban public space, as envisioned by its 19th-century designers, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. Today, the Conservancy’s mission is to restore, in partnership with the public, for the enjoyment of present. 16
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See More
Ivy K. Student
Give yourself an entire day to spend here and it still won’t be enough to see all the things. Don’t miss the temple of Dendur brought over here from Egypt.
I grew up fascinated by dinosaurs so I have very fond memories of this place! The Victorian building is also particularly stunning both inside and out.
Allen C. Sales
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Radio City Music Hall
“It was a city where you could be frozen to death in the midst of a busy street and nobody would notice.”
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Plaza Hotel
“Practically everybody in New York has half a mind to write a book—and they indeed do.”
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Serendipity III
“One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.”
Francis Coppola
Martin Brest
Scent of Women, 1992
Serendipity, 2001
In late 1940s New York, Mafia ‘Godfather’ Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) gathers his three sons around him for daughter Connie (Talia Shire)’s wedding; the hotheaded Sonny (James Caan), ineffectual Fredo (John Cazale) and war hero Michael (Al Pacino), who chooses to distance himself from the family ‘business’. When Vito is shot and wounded for refusing to sanction a rival family’s heroin sales on his territory, Sonny temporarily takes over and embarks on bloody gang warfare. This results in him being killed in an ambush, and Michael finds himself nominated to succeed the ailing Vito. Radio City Music Hall is the largest indoor theatre in the world. Its marquee is a full city-block long. Its auditorium measures 160 feet from back to stage and the ceiling reaches a height of 84 feet. The walls and ceiling are formed by a series of sweeping arches that define a splendid and immense curving space. Choral staircases rise up the sides toward the back wall.
In New Hampshire, Charlie Simms (Chris O’Donnell) attends the Baird School, an all boys boarding school with rigorous classes and expensive enrollment. Yearning for cash from a part-time job so he can return to his family in Oregon for upcoming Christmas Break, the innocent Simms accepts a job for “babysitting” at a nearby household. The job is not what he expects, for he is commissioned to watch over an unlikeable, blunt behaved blind ex-colonel named Slade who has a keen ability at selecting his aides. Before he can even locate his level of comfort in the job, Simms is unexpectedly taken to New York City with the colonel, where the ex-military man has several agendas of his own. It was once said, “Nothing unimportant ever happens at The Plaza.” One of America’s most celebrated hotels, located at Fifth Avenue and Central Park South, this luxury hotel was constructed in the most fashionable residential section of New York City.
Jonathan Trager (John Cusack) and Sara Thomas (Kate Beckinsale) met while shopping for gloves in New York. Though buying for their respective lovers, the magic was right and a night of Christmas shopping turned into romance. Jon wanted to explore things further but Sara wasn’t sure their love was meant to be. They decided to test fate by splitting up and seeing if destiny brought them back together. Many years later, still, neither can shake the need to give fate one last chance to reunite them. Jon enlists the help of his best man to track down the girl he can’t forget starting at the store where they met. Sara asks her new age musician fiance for a break before the wedding and, with her best friend in tow, flies from California to New York hoping destiny will bring her soulmate back. Near-misses and classic Shakespearean confusion bring the two close to meeting a number of times but fate will have the final word on it.
The Godfather, 1973
Peter Chelsom
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5th Avenue Martin Scorsese “And New York is the most beautiful city in the world? It is not far from it. No urban night is like the night there Squares af ter squares of flame, set up and cut into the aether. Here is our poetry, for we have pulled down the stars to our will.”
New York City cab driver Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) constantly, almost obsessively, reflects on the ugly corruption of life around him, and becomes increasingly disturbed over his own loneliness and alienation. In nearly every phase of his life, Bickle remains a complete outsider, failing to make emotional contact with anyone. Unable to sleep night after night, Travis haunts the local pornography emporiums to find diversion, and begins desperately thinking about an escape. Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the center of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The section of Fifth Avenue that crosses Midtown Manhattan, especially that between 49th Street and 60th Street, is lined with prestigious shops and is consistently ranked among the most expensive shopping streets in the 18
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world. The “most expensive street in the world” moniker changes depending on currency fluctuations and local economic conditions from year to year. Starting in the mid-1990s, the shopping district between 49th and 57th Streets was ranked as the world’s most expensive retail spaces. Some of the most coveted real estate on Fifth Avenue are the penthouses perched atop the buildings. This historic street is home to extraordinary museums, businesses and stores, parks, luxury apartments, and historical landmarks that are reminiscent of its history and vision for the future. It also serving as the dividing line for house numbering and west-east streets in Manhattan. The lower stretch of Fifth Avenue extended the stylish neighborhood of Washington Square northwards. The high status of Fifth Avenue was confirmed in 1862, when
Taxi Driver, 1976 Caroline Schermerhorn Astor settled on the southwest corner of 34th Street, and the beginning of the end of its reign as a residential street was symbolized by the erection, in 1893, of the Astoria Hotel on the site of her house, later linked to the site of the Empire State Building. Fifth Avenue is the central scene in Edith Wharton’s 1920 Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Age of Innocence. The novel describes New York’s social elite in the 1870s and provides historical context.
When a Southern born New York writer tries to commit suicide, her “unemployed-football-coach” twin brother, Tom Wingo (Nick Nolte), comes to her aid. While tending to his sister Savannah’s care he meets her psychiatrist, Dr. Susan Lowenstein (Barbra Streisand). Dr. Lowenstein, desperate to unlock the door to her patient’s selfdestructive pattern, relies on Tom to be his sister’s memory. What she doesn’t realize is that the last thing Tom wants to do is remember. Haunted by a painful childhood and a domineering mother, Tom discovers the only thing worse than not remembering is not telling. SoHo is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, notable for being the location of many artists’ lofts and art galleries, and for the wide variety of stores and shops ranging from trendy boutiques to outlets of upscale national and international chain stores. The area’s
history is an archetypal example of inner-city regeneration and gentrification, encompassing socio-economic, cultural, political, artistic, generational and architectural developments. Almost all of SoHo, which was designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1973, extended in 2010, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978. Directly south of Greenwich Village and west of Little Italy, SoHo is a relatively small neighborhood bounded roughly by Broadway, the Hudson River, and Houston and Canal Streets, which are major cross-town streets.
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The Evolution Store
Barbra Streisand “It goes back to growing up in New York, living in an area that was pretty tough.”
120 Spring St.
A landmark in Manhattan’s SoHo art district since 1993, The Evolution Store is NYC’s premiere retail destination for science and natural history collectibles, artifacts, gifts, and home furnishings. The store offers a museum quality atmosphere creating a unique and intimate shopping experience.
The Prince of Tides, 1991
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Soho
Steven Alan Annex
103 Franklin Street
Steven Alan’s fine-tuned selection of the coolest downtown threads means that women can breeze through this wisp of a store without missing the latest from established labels like Earnest Sewn, 3.1 phillip lim, and United Bamboo. But you also might find your new favorite label lurking atop their shelves, as lesser-known wares like cozy Demy Lee sweaters and flirty Sunshine & Shadow skirts. L a t t i t u d e | S e pt e mbe r, 2013
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Rizzoli Bookstore
During shopping for Christmas, Frank (Robert De Niro) and Molly (Meryl Streep) run into each other. This fleeting short moment will start to change their lives, when they recognize each other months later in the train home and have a good time together. Although both are married and Frank has two little kids, they meet more and more often, their friendship becoming the most precious thing in their lives. For nearly fifty years New Yorkers and travelers from around the world have found at Rizzoli Bookstore a collection of books that always highty transcends expectations. Established in New York in 1964 Rizzoli moved in 1985 to its present location— a six story townhouse exhibiting on its
façade a sober classicism that belies the elegant interior within, where cast iron chandeliers, ornately decorated vaulting, and a luminous Diocletian window create a serene setting for booklovers amidst the rush of Midtown Manhattan. The collection of books is specialized in illustrated subjects—fashion, interior design, art, architecture, photography, design and literature, in Italian, French, Spanish, and English. All subjects of general interest are represented and we carry a selection of European magazines and newspapers. They also carry a fine selection of compact discs and DVDs, magazines, and selection of note cards and stationery is a constant delight to its customers.
Stanley Kubrick was Here
“A hundred times have I thought New York is a catastrophe, and fifty times: It is a beautiful catastrophe.”
Ulu Grosbard 2/16/1965— New York, NY-Alfred Hitchcock won’t reveal
Falling in Love, 1984 20
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the subject of his next movie, but he’s obviously bored with the former friends who starred in his scare-film “The Birds.” The maestro of mayhem was caught in the “ho hum” mood when he dropped in at the Rizzoli Bookstore on New York’s Fifth Avenue, to check on the latest “Ghoulology.”
Adrian Lyne
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“A lot of the time when I write about the person that I love, I feel like I’m writing about New York.”
Deno’s Wonder Wheel
Deno’s Wonder Wheel Amusement Park is a small amusement park located at Coney Island, Brooklyn. In the often impersonal city of New York, a city that never sleeps, a city filled with the shadows and secrets of its citizens, a man and a woman conduct a highly sensual sexual affair. John (Mickey Rourke), a wealthy businessman, seduces a beautiful art assistant, Elizabeth (Kim Basinger), who is recently divorced after a three-year marriage. New York City featuring mostly family and children’s rides with a few adult rides. Their main attraction is the Wonder Wheel, a hundred and fifty foot eccentric Ferris wheel. This wheel was built in 1920. On the Wonder Wheel, 16 out of 24 of its gondolas run down a short track inside of the wheel swinging in and
Nine 1/2 Weeks, 1986 out of it as they reach the top. Its one of only two rides of this type in the world, the other one being at Disney California Adventure Park located in Anaheim, California called Mickey’s Fun Wheel. Wonder Wheel predates the history of Deno’s Amusement Park. It was built by Charles Herman and opened May 30, 1920. Until the Parachute Jump, it was the tallest attraction on Coney island. It was a stand-alone attraction operated by Herman Garms.
NYC Holiday Preparation 4
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1. Mark McNairy Derby Shoes, $350 2. Acne Shimla Brown, $250 3. BillyKirk Large Carryall, $225 4. Aesop Travel Glooming kit, $125 5.CAMO Ranger Hat, $285 6. Lanvin Bolt Metal Bracelet, $320 7. Mismo Soilder Washbag, $225
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Willem Dafoe: The Rhythm in Between With six films in post-production and an upcoming project with Mikhail Baryshnikov, Willem Dafoe spends the majority of his time in character and in motion. The well-traveled, constantly working actor admits to not being much of a vacationer, but rather uses histrips as a means for renewal and self-reflection. Known for his eccentric roles in both film and experimental theater, he speaks with us here about travel as an opportunity to step out of the norm and break down cultural conditioning. Interview Naheed Simjee Photography Daniel C. Trese
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Canova CafĂŠ, where our conversation begins
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Naheed Simjee: What brings you to Los Angeles? Willen Dafoe: You know, I had some work to do with Pixar up in San Francisco and I don’t come here that often. It is always an occasion if I have a reason to be on the West Coast so I usually take time in Los Angeles to have some meetings, take care of business and enjoy the temperature. Where do you call home now? I live kind of equally between New York and Rome, but I like to work a lot, so I travel a lot.
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Are you able to explore the cities where you are working in?
What kind of fish did you catch? Walleyed pike, northerns and sometimes lake trout.
As part of the work, usually, bit not separate from the work. When you’re working, you only have the energy and the interest in what you’re working on. Right. I’m not a very good tourist but I’m great at going places, and I love the change my routine and make a new one in the new place, to pass through and learn how things work in that area. Did you go on vacations with your family as a child? I’ve read you have five sisters… I have five sisters and two brothers, which is big. My parents were typical Americans, they worked very hard and they didn’t take vacations really, but the one thing that I did do when I was a kid was my father would take my brothers and me fishing— on one occasion we brought my sister, but only the boys would go up to Northern Canada to fish with my father, and those are probably my earliest memories of traveling. That is a large family. I also have five sisters. You do? Yeah, I have vivid memories of traveling with my family. We also lived in Canada.
You’ve spent a lot of time working outside of the United States, particularly in Germany. Recently, yes, and through the years I have, actually, I performed there a lot in the theater because there was a period when they had (and still have) a very strong state theater system and they also really believe in bringing in work from the outside. So there’s a lot of public money to present theater. Being in The Wooster Group for many years and now working with people like Richard Foreman and Bob Wilson, both highly sought after companies, I’ve spent a lot of time in Germany because of that. But it’s always specific to the project I’m working on. Do you consider yourself an expert on traveling in Germany then? Not at all! Each time I go there it’s a different place. A lot of the times it’s been Berlin, which is so dynamic. It changes so much. I don’t think anybody is an expert on Berlin because it’s been changing so dramatically and other than that – as I say, when I work on a film, everything is conditioned by that film so I never feel an expert on a place, I only feel an expert or that I can talk about that place in the context of the film experience.
Ah, where in Canada?
I was able to see you perform up close last year in Bob Wilson’s “The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic.” It was great.
We lived in Toronto.
Oh, you saw that show?
We tended to go to Ontario. Usually we’d drive as far as we could and then we’d take a bush place out to fishing camp.
I did. During Art Basel in Switzerland. Did you enjoy it?
Willem Dafoe looks like a demiurge as rendered by a cubist. His face is all facets: his cheekbones jut over great suffering hollows, his lips are full, his mouth so wide that his smile creates horizontal lines on his cheeks that could pass for cat’s whiskers. His chin takes up a good third of his face. L a t t i t u d e | S e pt e mbe r, 2013
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I love it.
The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic “The collaboration of music, light, sound, text and design is exceptional, simply beautiful.” The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic, a biography of the godmother of performance art, re-imagined by visionary director Robert Wilson. The show features scenes from Abramovic’s life and career, from her Serbian childhoo d to her work as a performance artist. With original and traditional music, including songs written and performed by the incomparable Antony (Antony & The Johnsons), this show brought together the worlds of theatre, art and music to thrilling visual effect. The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic is a once in a generation cultural event, starring Marina Abramovic, Willem Dafoe and an international cast of actors and performance artists.This was the first Robert Wilson production to be seen in the UK since The Temptation of St. Anthony in 2005. ‘The Life and Death of Marina Abramovc’ is a good expression of what MIF was created for new work made by some of the world’s leading artists.’ Alex Poots, Festival Director. The opera art form needs to develop new ways forward for the future. This could mean, of course, new composers but also projects developed by great visual artists, actors or singers who do not necessarily need to be opera singers.
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Oh good! We’re doing it again. We’re going to perform it in New York and Toronto. It was an amazing experience. Before the performance in Basel, I think you had only performed it one other time? Yes, in Manchester. Then the performance went to Madrid? Yes, that’s right, Basel was the tune-up. It’s only a question of running the show. After a while, you get a little bit more flexible with the rhythms and the performances deepen. To see the instant reaction of an audience after performing live must be so different than waiting until your film comes out to hear the reviews. Yes, of course. It gives you a lot of energy and it’s totally different experience. Also in a week I’m going to Spoleto [Italy] to start working with Mikhail Baryshnikov and Bod Wilson on a new piece, which I’m really excited about. That is so great. What’s the difference between traveling with a performance group and traveling with the cast and crew of a film? Well, I think the time is different. Usually with a theater company you get there and you have to adjust to the space, and occasionally you’ll adjust the show, but not that much. So basically you adjust to the space and you have a performance schedule every night, but you have a lot of free time during the day so there’s a little more opportunity to be a tourist and make a life when you’re there. Everything kind of points to that evening performance and you tend to have a big social
“Your life sort of disappears and feeds the fictional life. It becomes a very powerful thing. The fiction starts to seep into your dreams. There is no separation.” life afterwards because the nature of the performance is that you have a show, friends come or the presenters take you out after the show. So you tend to have late nights, lazy days and hard work at night before you go out again, where with a film, you’re more like an invading army and you take over the place. The hours are longer and even though you’re working with the people there, who bring you closer to the place and you get used to the point of views and the customs and the way people behave, you don’t have much free time. With regards to people and their behavior, are there any particularly memorable experiences you’ve had in these cities? Always! That’s one of the reasons why I do what I do. I think that is one of the best things about being a performer both in film and theater. In film, I’ve almost always shot on location, always been traveling to a place and I shoot much more out of the United States than
I do in the United States, even on American films. I think that maybe says something about how people see me or what I’m attracted to, but it’s part of the job for me. To travel is just a great opportunity to take you away from your life. You cancel some of our routines, the things you hang on to and your point of view and the opinions you have. It gives you an opportunity to kind of let those things go and make new ones or see what the bottom line is about people in general. Or sometimes it helps you to cut through you cultural conditioning and see what really matters to you. So it’s a great pleasure in that you can renew yourself and be inspired by seeing what you have in common with people and what holds you back form being able to see things as they are. Can you tell me a little bit about filming “Out of the Furnace” in Braddock, Pennsylvania? Ah, Braddock, Pennsylvania. It’s a very depressed
area. People were very happy about us being there. They were very sweet. But in some of the areas that we were shooting it was just so depressed. It didn’t feel dangerous but we weren’t mixing there at all, neither was the film crew. There was heavy security. Did you meet their famous mayor, Johm Fetterman? You know, I didn’t, but people talked a lot about him and said he was a really inspirational guy! [laughs] I’ve heard he is an interesting man and has helped with the resurgence of Braddock. Apparently it’s truing around, but where we were shooting it was very depressed. How do you know about Braddock? My friend made a documentary film about it, and we talk about it alot. L a t t i t u d e | S e pt e mbe r, 2013
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still from “Antichrist”, directed by Lars von Trier
I didn’t feel what foreign to me because I grew up in paper mill town, although it didn’t have the type of economic crash that Braddock did. You grew up in Wisconsin, right? Yes, Appleton, Wisconsin, a mid-west industrial town, so having to make an adjustment in Braddock, Pennsylvania was something very familiar with me. I’ve also shot in Pittsburgh before. Can you talk about working with Charlotte Gainsbourg on “Nymphomaniac,” which will be your second film together? Charlotte is really the central character. Other than Charlotte, Stellan Skarsburg has very expansive role, but for the most part it’s pretty much an ensemble film. I didn’t work that long on it, but I was happy with my 28
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sciences with Charlotte—it was a nice reunion. We had worked together on “Antichrist” and they were quite different scenes. I think the movie is going to be very interesting, but I’m a huge Lars Von Trier fan, I guess that goes without saying. During the filming of “Antichrist” you were shooting scenes in an isolated cabin in Germany. How long ere you there and what was that experience like? We Spend the first week shooting the first part of the film in one place and then about seven weeks shooting the scenes in the cabin. We were staying at the remote place in a small town and we would just go to work every day. It’s beautiful sometimes when there is nothing to distract you. The world falls away and you just have the reality of the set and it really helps you concentrate and all you do is apply yourself to the film. I remember when I made “The Last Temptation of
Christ” it was a very demanding role and we shot out in Morocco. It was a very small production, Hollywood and the news felt a millions miles away. I would just sleep, wake up, go to work, get home and go to sleep. Your life sort of disappears and feeds the fictional life. It becomes a very powerful thing. The fiction starts to seep into your dreams. There is no separation. Lars Von Trier said in an interview that one of his phobias, the fear of flying, has been practical because he doesn’t spend months going all around the world for his films. How do you think this affects him as a filmmaker? He is very smart and very driven. He has all kinds of problems, which he talks about very publicly, but he’s inspired, he pushes things and is still very much playing with the language of film. He has created a situation in Denmark with the people by how
he makes and casts his movies and he can sustain it while having a degree of freedom. He is pretty amazing and to work with him is to be off balance. He does everything to conspire to make the actor off balance, but if you trust him, to work with him can be very liberating. I’m interested in working with people who aren’t corrupt, who aren’t stuck, who are challenging themselves and still turned on. Do you have boundaries in regards to roles? I mean, your character did get his testicles crushed with a block of wood in Lars von Trier’s Antichrist…
I’ve seen most of your films, I can’t say I’ve seen them all… I don’t think my mother could say she’s seen them all! [laughs] I shouldn’t say that because she is dead, of course she hasn’t seen them! [laughs] The concept of good and evil and the unknown is often present in your work. Have your roles made you more aware of your surroundings, especially when you’re in foreign territory? Hmm, like questions of morality?
I am sure there are, but I hope not to know them. [Laughs] I think an ambition as a performer, and maybe even in life, is to become less afraid. Some boundaries are necessary of course and some are accepted, but the ones that I don’t want, I want to remove.
Morality, trust or judgment. I think it goes back to what I was talking about before. It’s nice to go to different places and see that people
value different things. What they reward and they they punish is sometimes based on cultural differences. It’s interesting to see what is universal and that always brings into questions what is learned and what is inherent in people. Are they basically just truing to survive? Are they weak and evil or are they altruistic and do they just want to fulfill a role and be kind? These are all in the mix sometimes when you’re looking at how people treat each other. I think that telling stories and traveling helps you keep on approaching those questions from different angles. I mean they are questions I ask myself all the time. But they are given new life and new dialogue by different experiences. That reminds me of Ralf Schmerberg’s “Table of Free Voices” symposium in Berlin, where people from all over the world were encouraged to submit questions pertaining to global dilemmas, Your role as moderator
I don’t suppose you would have had your testicles crushed for just any director, right? No. I like his company. I like his work and what he proposed to me was an interesting project. But there are some people that I’d work with on almost anything if I could see that I could make a contribution and they needed me. And I felt like Lars needed me for that project. How is working with him? There are lots of crazy stories about him. You feel like things are falling into place, there is kind of a natural order and nice little accidents happen, it starts to create momentum. When that momentum starts and you start making things, the story starts to form and characters start to emerge. That’s a beautiful place to be as a performer: when you know you’re with it, but you are not driving it in a way that you know what the outcome is going to be. So you’re not controlling it, and I love that.
Lars von Trier
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was to ask these questions to a select roundtable of extraordinary people. Did you enjoy that?
never know until you get there. That’s the tricky part, you just don’t know until you get there.
Yes, it was a wonderful experience. Ralf is quite an incredible guy.
[laughs] Did you learn a lot about survival when you trained with a bush survival expert for your role in “The Hunter”?
He is so inspired and his work is very much about advocating free thought. Once nice thing about film and one reason I like going to the film festival and being on a jury is that it’s interesting to see the cultural conditioning and how one man’s meat is another man’s poison. It’s nice to trace back what conditions our way of seeing and if you can recognize those conditions, you can get much more calm and clear about your prejudices and about the things that hold you back from thinking in free, generous and creative way. That’s what I aspire to because the best thing we can do is help free each other from the pressures of modern living, being human and worrying about the fact that we all know where we’re going and we don’t know when we’re gonna go. Are you a do-it-yourself kind of person, or do you rely on concierge services when you travel? Listen, I travel all kinds of ways. With the theater particularly, we traveled economically and we stayed at very modest places. I like to be comfortable but it comes in all kinds of ways. I don’t need luxury, but I like comfort and when I can’t have it, sometimes that’s good too. Like a bathtub, I love bathtubs. This is when my “princess-ness” comes out. [puts his hand to his ear like a phone receiver and pretends to be calling room service] Do your friends count on you for travel advice? Most of my friends travel as much as I do. You can give tips, but everyone finds their own way and you really 30
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I did, but I can’t say I’d do better than anyone else surviving out in the bush. But it was a wonderful experience and that guy was very inspirational.
what most people who are interested in movie careers do. Even if you fall on your face, if you get a break or a little attention you should go go go go. But I was still working at the theater and I had different kinds of views on who I was and what I wanted to do. And, after I got this kind of recognition, I was really waiting for the perfect role and it didn’t come for a long time. Then I finally think I got tired of waiting and I went back to work. Do you still go through periods like that?
Have you ever regret before when you look back at your career? I try not to at least. Sometimes I think, “Jesus, you have got to preserve certain things so that your opportunities remain.” I am aware of that. Like some people say to me, “Oh you do the big movies, so you can do the little ones.” Not exactly, but there is also some wisdom in that. In my case, I sign on movies and I don’t look at the big picture. And all of the sudden I’ve shot three tiny movies that are interesting to me, but I realize they are not even intended for the big audience. I do have some awareness of that. Hopefully I’ve hired people who can help me with that. which movie changed your life the most? That’s hard to say. Probably the first one, The Loveless, or maybe To Live and Die in L.A. Obviously Platoon, but it’s a little bit too obvious. It changed a certain amount of recognition and gave me a different status for a while, but it also brought some problems. After Platoon it was very hard to find good roles. I would have thought the opposite. You get everything offered to you and nothing is right. And you get somehow overwhelmed. Although I don’t try to involve myself in regrets, there are some times when I think I should have kept it rolling and this is
It’s hard because there are always lows. It’s weird because I do a lot of theater so I go in and out of things so much. But I think there are definitely periods where I have a lot of interesting things offered to me and periods where less interesting things are offered to me. I will say, as I get older the range of stuff gets wider and the offers are more consistent, so far. But that feels like that could change – things change. I am getting older and I am playing different kinds of roles. A lot of different roles. That’s me, baby. I like to work, clearly. I like the engagement, I like that kind of problem solving, I like the ritual of getting up in the dark and figuring out what will happen in the day, the adventure of traveling. Do you have boundaries in regards to roles? I mean, your character did get his testicles crushed with a block of wood in Lars von Trier’s Antichrist… I am sure there are, but I hope not to know them. I think an ambition as a performer. Some boundaries are necessary of course and some are accepted, but the ones that I don’t want, I want to remove.
“To travel is just a great opportunity to take you away from your life. You cancel some of your routines, the things you hang on to and your point of view and the opinions you have.�
A Night Traveler I am a night traveler Travel all through the night And my bed is a sailing boat I reach for my bed every night And take a trip places far away To see new things and people I travel past the harbors Full of anchored boats I travel past the beaches With swaying coconut trees I watch the waves Embracing the shore I watch the kids playing And reach out my arms Then I touch my own bed Here comes a flash And my boat is back And I am back in bed
Selam G. Sekuar
illustration by Lisk Feng
My boat sails every night And reach home with morning light Never did it anchor once Still traveling every day Hoping to reach That unknown destination