Theatre review: A Streetcar Named Desire July 31, 2014 ★★★★★ Is there room in that hot, sweaty, studio-flat for more than one great performance? Gillian Anderson runs away with it in this, Benedict Andrews’ brilliant, sultry, disorientating, modern dress production. There are strong supporting turns from Vanessa Kirby and Ben Foster but Anderson owns the stage with a captivating interpretation of the fantasist Blanche [...]
The future of the commute July 30, 2014 Driverless cars are poised to go mainstream. But what of the other modes of transport beloved of science fiction? DRIVERLESS CARS (likelihood: 100%) Science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov wrote a short story in 1953 called Sally that takes place in 2057 and features cars controlled by “positronic” brains. The cars don’t require human drivers and communicate [...]
Why Bartholomew Beal is set be a future master July 29, 2014 Figures stand isolated, lost in unfinished landscapes of saturated planes and floating shapes. Bartholomew Beal’s paintings are as open-ended as they are dramatic, as lurid as they are dark, as rich with meaning as they are ill-defined. At only 24, Beal is already a master of ambiguity. It should come as no surprise, then, that [...]
The godfather of fashion photography July 29, 2014 With a life spanning the whole of the 20th century, Horst P Horst (1906-1999) documented a number of momentous changes in the worlds of photography and style. One of the first fashion photographers to perfect the use of colour, the German-American also charted the glory days of haute couture in pre-war Paris and the explosion [...]
The world’s most exclusive shirt July 29, 2014 You would expect a company called Billionaire to pull out all the stops with the launch of its new made to measure service, but the Italian menswear label still manages to surprise you with the sheer opulence of its offering. Not content with fine tailoring, it allows customers to incorporate details including wool infused with [...]
The limited edition Longines pocket watch July 29, 2014 This limited edition Longines pocket watch has been created to commemorate the Chinese year of the horse. The timepiece is a re-issue of a stunning 1927 creation which is on display at the Longines museum. The detailed carving of a horse flying over a fence on the back of the watch is a nod to [...]
Meet elBulli’s Ferran Adrià: We interview the world’s greatest chef July 29, 2014 Once upon a time, the language of culinary pretension was French. If a chef wanted to bump up the prices on his menu, all he had to do was add a dash of “jus”, a splash of “vin”, perhaps a little “petit”. French words forged a connection between whatever slop the chef was serving up [...]
What your business card says about you July 29, 2014 A man pats his slicked back hair as he slides his business card across the table to his colleagues. It’s off-white and the words “Patrick Bateman, Vice President” are embossed on it in a finely etched black font. “Picked ‘em up from the printers yesterday. That’s bone. And the lettering is something called Silian Grail,” [...]
The New York power breakfast: A world of billion-dollar deals and $23 bowls of cereal July 29, 2014 Every morning, Leigh Wynn, the maitre d’ of the most expensive and exclusive breakfast spot in New York, wakes up at 4.30am. From 7am to 10am, her job is to find a table for some of the biggest and most demanding names in business, media and politics, and personally cater to their every whim, while [...]
Time flies: the best pilot’s chronographs July 29, 2014 Full Metal Jacket, Saving Private Ryan or Apocalypse Now? Pish and tush – as any 13-year-old boy ought to know, the greatest war movie ever made is Where Eagles Dare. In its fabulously mysterious opening scene, a camouflaged trimotor Junkers 52 flies low over the German Alps to deliver Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood to [...]