Author: NY TIMES

To be a director is to be a madman of sorts. It’s a rare artist that has the will and belief required to pull together so many forces to create a movie, let alone a good or even great one. In other words, it’s a space only occupied, perhaps, by the delusional or self-involved.“Cobweb,” directed by Kim Jee-woon, mines the comically absurd reality that is filmmaking, at times with bouncy cinematic verve, at others somewhat aimlessly and a little too indulgently.In the film, set in early-1970s South Korea, a director, Kim (Song Kang-ho), desperately struggling to prove he isn’t a…

The silver crown is set with diamonds. Rubies, sapphires, emeralds and seed pearls are peppered through the design. And the red velvet cap inside would be fit to cushion the head of a monarch.Except that the whole thing is only an inch tall.The jeweled miniature, a copy of Britain’s Imperial State Crown, is part of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, on display at Windsor Castle outside London, where the everyday objects, luxuries and curiosities of royal life in the early 20th century are reproduced at one-twelfth scale.Scrutiny of Britain’s royal family was supercharged this past week by the announcement of King…

When Francesca Amfitheatrof, Louis Vuitton’s artistic director of watches and jewelry, started looking for a muse for her first fine jewelry collection for men, she didn’t choose a pop star, celebrity or influencer.Instead, she looked to the Vuitton family tree, landing on its lone third-generation heir who eventually took over the brand: Gaston-Louis Vuitton.Born in 1883, Gaston-Louis Vuitton is known today through his collections of antique books, toys and especially trunks, the company’s initial product, which have been the subject of touring exhibitions and a book. Some are on display in the former family home, a belle epoque villa in…

It’s frowned upon when N.F.L. players complain to the referees. But at least they don’t urinate on them.The same cannot be said for the competitors in the Puppy Bowl, Animal Planet’s canine football game that takes place in October but does not air until the afternoon of Super Bowl Sunday.The event’s referee, Dan Schachner, stays ready for all eventualities by keeping five identical uniforms in his dressing room so he can change when accidents occur. Mr. Schachner, 49, admitted he had gotten lax about handing out penalties for “premature watering of the lawn” since he began calling the game in…

The Directors Guild of America on Saturday night handed its top prize for feature-film directing to Christopher Nolan for his hit biopic, “Oppenheimer,” starring Cillian Murphy as the physicist who helped design the atomic bomb. This is the latest major trophy Nolan’s film has won, after taking top honors from the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards last month.“The idea that my peers would think that I deserve this means everything to me,” the 53-year-old director said in his acceptance speech.Though this is Nolan’s first DGA win, he is a favorite of the guild and has received four other nominations…

Soldiers fight in freezing, muddy trenches bombarded by artillery, or in warrens of burned and blown-up houses in urban combat. Casualty rates are high and dangerous missions, such as storming enemy-held tree lines, abound.As they planned for a renewal of Ukraine’s military under extreme conditions, both the country’s former top commander and his replacement have emphasized the same looming problem: a need to relieve exhausted, battered troops whose combat tours have stretched nearly two years.In a tumultuous week for Ukraine’s war effort, President Volodymyr Zelensky removed his commanding general, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, on Thursday, while aid from the country’s largest…

The “Holdovers” star Da’Vine Joy Randolph has had a charmed run through awards season so far: Considered the favorite for the supporting actress Oscar, she has already taken the Golden Globe, Critics Choice Award and prestigious trophies from both the New York Film Critics Circle and Los Angeles Film Critics Association.The 37-year-old actress is well-aware of the power of those prizes, and knows that even being in the Oscar conversation can change the course of a career. But does that mean her awards season has been easy to navigate?“It’s overwhelming, if I’m being really honest,” Randolph told me in a…

Petrified Gazans in the cramped southern border city of Rafah scrambled to evade bombardment on Saturday as they prepared to flee an expected Israeli ground offensive, dreading the prospect of again searching for safety in a place with few, if any, options to escape the war.Israeli officials have declared that the next phase in their effort to destroy Hamas will be in Rafah, and on Friday, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that “any forceful action in Rafah would require the evacuation of the civilian population from combat zones.”The Israeli government has not specified where the civilians would…

Finns will elect a new president on Sunday in the first national election since the country joined NATO, choosing a leader who will be critical to shaping the country’s role in the alliance at a time of increasingly fraught relations with Russia.The election might typically gain little notice beyond the borders of the sparsely populated northern European country of 5.6 million. But Finland, the newest member of NATO, shares the longest border with Russia — some 830 miles — and its politics have taken on special interest to its European and American allies as the geopolitical order shifts.U.S. power is…

Desde hace tres semanas circulan por internet videos de Michael Cera en los que se afirma que el actor es el fundador de CeraVe, la marca de cuidado de la piel.Michael Cera. CeraVe. ¿Entiendes?A finales de enero, en Page Six y la revista People aparecieron fotografías de Cera cargando bolsas gigantes de CeraVe por la ciudad de Nueva York. Esa misma semana, Cera fue visto repartiendo crema hidratante a peatones y firmando botellas de CeraVe en Euro Chemist, una farmacia de Brooklyn.A los influentes como Kirbie Johnson y Haley Kalil se les pagó como parte de la campaña de mercadotecnia…