For Blood Ties, Guillaume Canet gathered together a cast both familiar and not – including his own real-life partner, Marion Cotillard. The French actress, who won an Oscar for 2007’s La Vie en Rose, had worked with Canet on his 2010 film Little White Lies, but was focusing on James Gray’s The Immigrant in the run-up.
“I would work at night and he would work during the day, and we would say ‘hello’ in the morning. So we wouldn’t share a lot. It was like shift hours,” Cotillard recalls.
While in Gray’s film she plays a Polish immigrant, here Cotillard and Canet decided her character Monica – the prostitute ex-wife to the film’s central character Chris (Clive Owen) – would be Italian. “It took me as long to learn four sentences in Italian than 20 pages in Polish. I don’t know why – I just can’t manage Italian. It was a really stressful experience,” says Cotillard.
In truth, her work is as impeccable as ever. “I’m happy to know it was good,” she says. “I don’t think I want to know if it’s not, because I cannot change it.”
Intriguingly, for a remake of a French film set in 1974 New York, Canet took on an international cast – from Cotillard’s Rust and Bone co-star, the Belgium-born Matthias Schoenaerts, to the Hollywood star Zoe Saldana, who plays an abused woman, caught in a masculine world of crime and cops.
“Guillaume was like, ‘I really want you to play Vanessa,’ and he told me the whole background of him doing the movie first in France and then wanting to adapt it to New York culture in the 1970s,” says Saldana. “As a New Yorker, that really enticed me.”
Owen came on board after he received a phone call from his Children of Men director Alfonso Cuarón – a good friend of Canet – who encouraged him read the script. To prepare, he gorged on 1970s Hollywood movies, everything from Taxi Driver to The Panic in Needle Park.
“I always try, whenever I’m doing a film, to watch films that are related in some way for inspiration,” Owen says. “And it was a golden period. They’ve made some fantastic films. And these were big, mainstream popular films. They were well-crafted and well-acted, they were intelligent and they were adult.”
Of course, it helps when you have James Caan in the cast; a star of The Godfather, one of the most iconic Hollywood films ever made. Caan plays the father to Owen’s ex-con Chris and his brother Frank (Bill Crudup), a rising star of the NYPD – and it’s this increasingly tense dynamic that truly drives the film.
“There just seemed to be an awful lot to play with … from an acting point of view,” says Owen. “There’s no scene that’s ever simple and straightforward. It wasn’t about a good guy and a bad guy. It was about people that are linked through their blood and the difficulties that can bring.”
• Blood Ties is out now in UAE cinemas
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- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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MATCH STATS
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Aston Villa 1 (El Ghazi 90 4' pen)
Red cards: Joao Moutinho (Wolves); Douglas Luiz (Aston Villa)
Man of the match: Emi Martinez (Aston Villa)
When Umm Kulthum performed in Abu Dhabi
Known as The Lady of Arabic Song, Umm Kulthum performed in Abu Dhabi on November 28, 1971, as part of celebrations for the fifth anniversary of the accession of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan as Ruler of Abu Dhabi. A concert hall was constructed for the event on land that is now Al Nahyan Stadium, behind Al Wahda Mall. The audience were treated to many of Kulthum's most well-known songs as part of the sold-out show, including Aghadan Alqak and Enta Omri.
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
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The specs
Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo flat-six
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more from Janine di Giovanni
Anxiety and work stress major factors
Anxiety, work stress and social isolation are all factors in the recogised rise in mental health problems.
A study UAE Ministry of Health researchers published in the summer also cited struggles with weight and illnesses as major contributors.
Its authors analysed a dozen separate UAE studies between 2007 and 2017. Prevalence was often higher in university students, women and in people on low incomes.
One showed 28 per cent of female students at a Dubai university reported symptoms linked to depression. Another in Al Ain found 22.2 per cent of students had depressive symptoms - five times the global average.
It said the country has made strides to address mental health problems but said: “Our review highlights the overall prevalence of depressive symptoms and depression, which may long have been overlooked."
Prof Samir Al Adawi, of the department of behavioural medicine at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman, who was not involved in the study but is a recognised expert in the Gulf, said how mental health is discussed varies significantly between cultures and nationalities.
“The problem we have in the Gulf is the cross-cultural differences and how people articulate emotional distress," said Prof Al Adawi.
“Someone will say that I have physical complaints rather than emotional complaints. This is the major problem with any discussion around depression."
Daniel Bardsley
The specs
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
