Almost 40 years ago, in The Purple Rose of Cairo, the film director Woody Allen showed a character step out of a movie into the cinema, to fall in love with a member of the audience.
It’s a clever fantasy and a complete reversal of what happens when many of us see a great film. We enter into it in our imagination. The characters come to life so that we feel their pain, their happiness, their sorrow.
Given the state of the world right now, this time of year is one of my favourite for precisely that sense of escaping reality. Gale-force winds are rocking much of Britain. Lashing rain is coming in from the west. But I’ve been gorging on the brilliant escapism and warmth of the big screen.
There will be news about the top Oscar nominations today, with critics talking of the awards going to “Barbenheimer” – the battle between Barbie and Oppenheimer for the most coveted prizes. There has rarely been a contest between two films that manage to be both engaging pieces of art but also polar opposites in storytelling, style and substance.
Hollywood is in good shape, you may be sure, when critics see the contest for best picture between the pink world of children’s dolls, the brilliantly scripted antics of Barbie and Ken in the most garish colours imaginable, pitted against the politics and science of the atomic age, and the eccentric genius and tempestuous life of J Robert Oppenheimer.
We enter into the film in our imagination. The characters come to life so that we feel their pain, their happiness, their sorrow
But with the British equivalent of the Oscars – the Baftas – also coming up next month, I’ve been viewing dozens of films in one of the most creatively diverse awards seasons that I can remember. It’s been an antidote to the all-too-real miseries of the world outside.
Napoleon, for example, directed by Ridley Scott (now in his mid-eighties), annoyed some critics for not being historically accurate. It’s certainly true that the real Napoleon wasn’t watching the execution of Marie Antoinette. But as a theatrical event – which is what we as audiences pay for – the Battle of Austerlitz on ice includes the most extraordinary battle scenes I’ve ever watched in the cinema. Historically accurate? I don’t know. Entertaining? Absolutely.
Then there is the almost indescribable joy of Poor Things, from Yorgos Lanthimos. This film has some relationship to the old story of Frankenstein, but it’s not a horror movie. Ultimately, it’s indescribable. You just need to go to see it, and I hope like me you will be transfixed and astonished for two hours and 21 minutes, especially since the central character, played by Emma Stone, is surely an Oscar possibility.
The other surprise, for me at least, was how diverse this year’s children’s movies have become. They range from Spider Man and Chicken Run Two to Elemental and the Japanese animation The Boy and the Heron. But for me, three films that will never rival the popularity (or the budget) of Barbie or Oppenheimer sum up the wonderfully inventive spirit of the times.
American Fiction centres on a learned African-American writer whose work doesn’t sell. “Black Gangster” fiction is much more successful and so, almost as a joke, the writer adopts a “gangsta” persona. It’s a clever and funny satire of racial stereotypes and of the American literary world. Another beautifully scripted gem is Anatomy of a Fall in which a man dies after falling from his house balcony. Did his wife murder him? It’s a simple idea, and a tangled web of relationships to the very end.
But the film I have been thinking about most is The Zone of Interest. Superficially, it’s a kind of domestic family drama set around an enormous factory, with the husband about to be relocated to a new job. His wife likes things as they are. She resents the idea of a move. Boring? No, because the husband is Rudolf Hoess, the real-life SS commandant of the Nazi death factory, Auschwitz, at the peak of the Holocaust.
In the foreground, there are meetings about his “production” targets in the camp, plus the tension in his family about the prospect of moving. In the background, there is occasional smoke, shouting and distant gunfire. The horrors are always off-screen, never shown, and the brutality is even more chilling for the fact that it is always unseen and in the viewer’s imagination.
The film’s genius is to remind us of what the German philosopher Hannah Arendt once called “the banality of evil”. The Zone of Interest illustrates perfectly the dull little lives and trivia of bureaucrats and functionaries whose priorities are about their personal comforts and possibilities of promotion, while they go about their business involving the most unspeakable horrors.
It’s not Woody Allen’s characters stepping out of the film. It’s those of us in the audience stepping inside a newly created world of the film director’s imagination. It’s about empathy and understanding and about how ordinary people are capable of terrible things, then sit down for a quiet meal with their families. And that revelation is always worth the price of a ticket to the movies.
Score
Third Test, Day 2
New Zealand 274
Pakistan 139-3 (61 ov)
Pakistan trail by 135 runs with 7 wickets remaining in the innings
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Types of fraud
Phishing: Fraudsters send an unsolicited email that appears to be from a financial institution or online retailer. The hoax email requests that you provide sensitive information, often by clicking on to a link leading to a fake website.
Smishing: The SMS equivalent of phishing. Fraudsters falsify the telephone number through “text spoofing,” so that it appears to be a genuine text from the bank.
Vishing: The telephone equivalent of phishing and smishing. Fraudsters may pose as bank staff, police or government officials. They may persuade the consumer to transfer money or divulge personal information.
SIM swap: Fraudsters duplicate the SIM of your mobile number without your knowledge or authorisation, allowing them to conduct financial transactions with your bank.
Identity theft: Someone illegally obtains your confidential information, through various ways, such as theft of your wallet, bank and utility bill statements, computer intrusion and social networks.
Prize scams: Fraudsters claiming to be authorised representatives from well-known organisations (such as Etisalat, du, Dubai Shopping Festival, Expo2020, Lulu Hypermarket etc) contact victims to tell them they have won a cash prize and request them to share confidential banking details to transfer the prize money.
* Nada El Sawy
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
A new relationship with the old country
Treaty of Friendship between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates
The United kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates; Considering that the United Arab Emirates has assumed full responsibility as a sovereign and independent State; Determined that the long-standing and traditional relations of close friendship and cooperation between their peoples shall continue; Desiring to give expression to this intention in the form of a Treaty Friendship; Have agreed as follows:
ARTICLE 1 The relations between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates shall be governed by a spirit of close friendship. In recognition of this, the Contracting Parties, conscious of their common interest in the peace and stability of the region, shall: (a) consult together on matters of mutual concern in time of need; (b) settle all their disputes by peaceful means in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.
ARTICLE 2 The Contracting Parties shall encourage education, scientific and cultural cooperation between the two States in accordance with arrangements to be agreed. Such arrangements shall cover among other things: (a) the promotion of mutual understanding of their respective cultures, civilisations and languages, the promotion of contacts among professional bodies, universities and cultural institutions; (c) the encouragement of technical, scientific and cultural exchanges.
ARTICLE 3 The Contracting Parties shall maintain the close relationship already existing between them in the field of trade and commerce. Representatives of the Contracting Parties shall meet from time to time to consider means by which such relations can be further developed and strengthened, including the possibility of concluding treaties or agreements on matters of mutual concern.
ARTICLE 4 This Treaty shall enter into force on today’s date and shall remain in force for a period of ten years. Unless twelve months before the expiry of the said period of ten years either Contracting Party shall have given notice to the other of its intention to terminate the Treaty, this Treaty shall remain in force thereafter until the expiry of twelve months from the date on which notice of such intention is given.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned have signed this Treaty.
DONE in duplicate at Dubai the second day of December 1971AD, corresponding to the fifteenth day of Shawwal 1391H, in the English and Arabic languages, both texts being equally authoritative.
Signed
Geoffrey Arthur Sheikh Zayed
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The 12 Syrian entities delisted by UK
Ministry of Interior
Ministry of Defence
General Intelligence Directorate
Air Force Intelligence Agency
Political Security Directorate
Syrian National Security Bureau
Military Intelligence Directorate
Army Supply Bureau
General Organisation of Radio and TV
Al Watan newspaper
Cham Press TV
Sama TV
MATCH INFO
Champions League quarter-final, first leg
Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City, Tuesday, 11pm (UAE)
Matches can be watched on BeIN Sports
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What's in the deal?
Agreement aims to boost trade by £25.5bn a year in the long run, compared with a total of £42.6bn in 2024
India will slash levies on medical devices, machinery, cosmetics, soft drinks and lamb.
India will also cut automotive tariffs to 10% under a quota from over 100% currently.
Indian employees in the UK will receive three years exemption from social security payments
India expects 99% of exports to benefit from zero duty, raising opportunities for textiles, marine products, footwear and jewellery
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Du Football Champions
The fourth season of du Football Champions was launched at Gitex on Wednesday alongside the Middle East’s first sports-tech scouting platform.“du Talents”, which enables aspiring footballers to upload their profiles and highlights reels and communicate directly with coaches, is designed to extend the reach of the programme, which has already attracted more than 21,500 players in its first three years.
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
