Suki Waterhouse Wears Romantic BurberrySuki Waterhouse Wears Romantic Burberry

Franziska Krug/Getty ImagesFranziska Krug/Getty Images
The Star: Suki Waterhouse

The Moment: Mytheresa.com and Burberry dinner in Munich, November 19, 2014.

The Elements: A Burberry floral-print dress.

The X-Factor: To complement her newly lightened hair, the model opted for a delicate mustard-and-light-gray printed dress. She evened out the ethereal look with a pair of chunky platform heels.

WOMEN'S FASHION

Marc Jacobs and Damien Hirst Team Up for Charity

By RENATA MOSCI

The designer and the artist have collaborated with the art publisher Other Criteria on a limited run of T-shirts based on Hirst’s painting of Mickey Mouse, “Mickey.” More...

An Illustrated History of Great Films

 
In a new book, the Criterion Collection takes a look back at 30 years of art commissioned for the classic movie titles the company distributes. Here, "Berlin Alexanderplatz," directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1980. Illustration by Eric Skillman

Tucked into the back of “Criterion Designs,” a new coffee-table book from the Criterion Collection ($100), is a visual index of every cover the New York-based art-house and cinema video distribution company has ever produced. The tome, which will be released Nov. 25, celebrates the company’s 30th anniversary and its longstanding mission to “marry publishing and movies” for discerning fans of film.

For those unfamiliar with Criterion, the company’s president, Peter Becker, likens it to the Modern Library and the Norton Critical Editions, doing for movies what the latter do for literature. “Even when an impossibly iconic image already exists for a film, we usually like to start over, look for a new way to present it graphically,” he explains. “These films are not museum pieces. They are alive, and we want our designs to reflect that, so we turn to top contemporary artists to look at the classics of world cinema with fresh eyes and communicate their vitality to today’s audiences.” The book showcases some of the best examples of the brand’s designs, beginning with Orson Welles’s “Citizen Kane” — originally released on laser disc, a state-of-the-art medium back in 1984 — and ending with Guy Madden’s “My Winnipeg,” coming out on digital Blu-ray this fall.

Like any great retrospective, the book includes works-in-progress, alternate covers and cutting-room-floor drafts of the 100 original interpretations represented, like Rossellini’s “War Trilogy,” early Cronenberg, select Hitchcock, vintage Charlie Chaplin, the complete Wes Anderson and more.

For now, the first printing of 5,000 copies are already sold out — but another 5,000 are set to ship before the end of the year.

Correction: November 25, 2014
An earlier version of this post misidentified Peter Becker's role at the Criterion Collection. He is the president, not the founder and publisher. Also, the book will be released on Nov. 25, not Nov. 26.

Up From Rubble to Lead a Revolution

'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1’ Opens

There’s a clever bit in the latest “Hunger Games” in which Katniss Everdeen, the boundary-smashing butch goddess of dystopian cinema, acts in a propaganda video. The idea is for Katniss, who’s both the spark of a revolution and its flinty strength, 

to rouse the masses with a heroic scene. Slicked up in lipstick and a Joan of Arc breastplate, she delivers her lines — “with energy,” the video director hopefully instructs her — but the scene needs tweaks. Eventually, they get it right, and the video ends with a call to “join the fight,” an exhortation that’s clearly addressed to more than one audience. It’s a funny, self-aware moment, given how extreme the stakes have become in this fascinating and strange pop epic.  Each “Hunger Games” movie makes so much noise — it’s where the deafening clamor of commerce meets the roar of true fan love — that it’s a wonder you can detect the human heartbeat under the tumult. But it’s there, thumping and sometimes racing in a franchise that, more than most industrial movies and even putative indies, speaks to both its audience and its time. There’s heart in the vague yet stirring liberation story that comes to the fore in this chapter and that’s echoed in real-life struggles around the world. And it’s there, of course, in Katniss, the backwoods savior who, as played with guileless appeal by Jennifer Lawrence, is mounting an attack on the forces of oppression.

Broken Codes, Both Strategic and Social

                     ‘The Imitation Game’ Stars Benedict Cumberbatch

 “The Imitation Game” is a highly conventional movie about a profoundly unusual man. This is not entirely a bad thing. Alan Turing’s tragically shortened life — he was 41 when he died in 1954 — is a complex and fascinating story, bristling with ideas and present-day implications, and it benefits from the streamlined structure and accessible presentation of modern prestige cinema. The science is not too difficult, the emotions are clear and emphatic, and the truth of history is respected just enough to make room for tidy and engrossing dramaAll of this is a lot for a single movie to take in, and “The Imitation Game,” directed by Morten Tyldum from a script by Graham Moore, prunes and compresses a narrative laid out most comprehensively in Andrew Hodges’s scrupulous and enthralling 1983 biography. The film interweaves three decisive periods in Turing’s life, using his interrogation by a Manchester detective (Rory Kinnear) as a framing device. Turing tells the investigator — who thinks he is after a Soviet spy rather than a gay man — about what he did during the war. Later, there are flashbacks to Turing’s school days, where he discovered the joys of cryptography and fell in love with a slightly older boy named Christopher Morcom.

The adult Turing is played by Benedict Cumberbatch (his younger self is Alex Lawther), expanding his repertoire of socially awkward intellectual prodigies, real and fictional. What has made Mr. Cumberbatch so effective as Sherlock Holmes and Julian Assange — and what makes his Alan Turing one of the year’s finest pieces of screen acting — is his curious ability to suggest cold detachment and acute sensitivity at the same time. If he did not exist, 21st-century popular culture would have to invent him: a sentient robot, an empathetic space alien, a warm-blooded salamander with crazysex appeal.

His Turing, whom the film seems to place somewhere on the autism spectrum, is as socially awkward as he is intellectually agile. He can perceive patterns invisible to others but also finds himself stranded in the desert of the literal. Jokes fly over his head, sarcasm does not register, and when one of his colleagues says, “We’re going to get some lunch,” Turing hears a trivial statement of fact rather than a friendly invitation.

NOW, Steve Jobs' Biopic Has No Producer

Initially Christian Bale was expected to play the part but he withdrew from the project.

The upcoming movie about the co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, is expected to be one of the most anticipated biopics in recent memory, but the production's future is unknown as Sony Pictures have decided to pull out.

The highly anticipated project, which was been plagued with casting and directing changes, is based on Walter Isaacson's book and adapted into a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin that follows Mr Jobs preparing for three presentations throughout his life that were pivotal moments for himself and the technological company's success, reported Deadline.

Scott Rudin, Mark Gordon and Guymon Casady will be producing, and British filmmaker Danny Boyle is slated to direct the untitled film, which is expected to focus on the launches of Apple's original Macintosh computer (1984), NeXT Cube (1990), and original iPod (2001).

Other studios will now have the opportunity to bid for the rights to the production.

Universal Studios have deep interest in making the biopic with aiming for a release for next year's awards season. However, Sony may have dropped the film due to being unable to cast a leading man to play Mr Jobs.

Initially Christian Bale was expected to play the part but he withdrew at the start of this month. Michael Fassbender has most recently been linked to take on the leading role.

Furthermore, Seth Rogen is reportedly in discussions to portray the other co-founder Steve Wozniak, but no official casting announcement has yet been made. Neither Universal nor Sony have commented on the project as of yet.

Belles of the AMA ball::: JLO, TAYLOR, SELENA and KATE

Jennifer Lawrence Credits Mockingjay Co-Star Liam Hemsworth For 'Toughening Her Up'

Jennifer says that Liam taught her how to be fair and to stand up for herself. (Image courtesy: AP)

Actress Jennifer Lawrence has credited Liam Hemsworth, her co-star in the film The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1, for "toughening her up".

The 24-year-old said in an interview to Nylon magazine that she was surprised to find a lasting friendship with Liam, and has formed an unexpected and strong bond with him, reports contactmusic.com.

Asked about her time working on the franchise, the Oscar winner said, "I guess the thing that surprised me is that I would never expect to ever have a man this good looking ever be my best friend. I just would never assume those things could happen, but he is. He's (Liam) the most wonderful, lovable, family-oriented, sweet, hilarious, amazing guy. He actually taught me how to be fair and to stand up for myself. It's my biggest weakness: negotiating."

"I'm a wimp about standing up for myself and Liam is always fair. He's always on time, he's always doing his job, and he's good about making sure that things stay fair. He's teaching me to toughen up a little bit. That was important, I need that," she added.

The film is set to release in India on November 28.

Oscar For Unbroken Would be 'Great', Says Angelina Jolie

Actress Angelina Jolie says it would be a "great deal" for her if her forthcoming movie Unbroken can win her an Oscar.

Unbroken is about the life of World War II hero Louis 'Louie' Zamperini, a former American Olympic track star who survives a plane crash in the Pacific, and after being discovered floating on a raft after 47 days, is made a prisoner of war by Japan and spends two-and-half years being tortured whilst incarcerated.

The Hollywood star has said that it meant a lot to her to be able to bring Mr Zamperini's story to the big screen and therefore she would cherish any Oscar win even more than her first Academy Award 14 years ago for Girl, Interrupted, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

Speaking at the British premiere of the film here, she said: "I love directing and most of all I felt very responsible to this story and this man's life."

When asked what Oscar success would mean, she replied: "It would mean a great deal to me, for sure."

The much anticipated film is set to release on December 25.

Winter Storms Bring Fresh Misery to Gaza War Homeless

GAZA CITY, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES:  As the wind whistles through gaping holes in her ruined house, 62-year-old Suad al-Zaza and her daughter huddle together for warmth on a bed made of a wooden door laid on breeze blocks.

"I wake up cold, I sleep on the bed, afraid that it will break. I'm covered with two blankets that we were given," she says as rain drips through the ceiling inside the wreckage of her home in Gaza City's Shejaiya neighbourhood. 

"Before the war, I was happy, safe, comfortable in my life and now we are living in the middle of this destruction." 

Three months after an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire ended a bloody 50-day war between Israel and Hamas militants, more than 100,000 Gazans remain homeless and the much-hyped reconstruction has yet to begin.

And a fierce winter storm which has battered the region since Monday has brought further misery to tens of thousands of Palestinian families who are living in temporary shelters or in the rubble of their destroyed homes.

In Shejaiya, one of the worst-hit neighbourhoods where huge areas were reduced to rubble by Israeli tank fire, there is no sign of any construction.

But there are still those desperate enough to return home.
Ibtisam al-Ijla, 46, sits on a filthy, battered sofa in the blackened shell of her former home as her husband huddles in the corner, prodding at a fire, their only source of heating.

Corrugated iron sheets cover holes in the front wall, and wires hold up dirty blankets to create a thin illusion of privacy.

"I'm really worried about the weather but there is nothing that I can do about it," she tells AFP before the full force of the storm hits.
She and her husband fled barefoot at the height of the bombardment only to return to ruins.

With no money to rent elsewhere, they were forced to move back in.
Grubby bedding lies on the floor. Draughty and exposed to the driving rain, the house has no front door, no electricity and no running water. 

The toilet is completely open to the crater of rubble out back.
"Being here reminds me of my old life, of my neighbours who used to live here and are now gone. In the past, we would all sit together with family and friends," she says.

"Now I'm almost completely alone." 

FT-1 Vision Gran Turismo®6 Concept

The Toyota FT-1 concept is a pure performance, track-focused sports car model created by CALTY Design Research, Toyota's North American Design branch. The FT-1 concept is a symbol that captures elements of the emotion and energy we can expect to see in future Toyota vehicles designs. Its design is heavily influenced by Toyota's long sports car tradition that includes vehicles such as 2000GT, Celica, Supra and most recently, FT-86 (Scion F-RS).

Read the FT-1 Concept press release in the Toyota Pressroom.

See what Motortrend is saying about the FT-1.

Here is a sneak peek of a very special version of the Toyota FT-1 sports car concept that will soon be available for download in Gran Turismo®6, exclusively on PlayStation®3. This exciting concept was designed by Toyota's Calty Design Research in Newport Beach, CA. Stay tuned for more!