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Friday, June 16, 2017
celebrity With Karin Herig and Cara Hunt
HIT
SPLIT
HIT
FAIL
Scarlett Johansson ”Ghost in the Shell”
Demi Moore ”Empire”
Zoë Kravitz ”Big Little Lies”
Molly Ringwald ”Riverdale”
Karin says: “I’m still all about the jumpsuits this summer, and this is a fabulous one. The red is stunning on her. It’s such a simple and comfy outfit, yet it still wows. Her silver accessories and red lip round off a perfectly style ensemble. And on Zoë, unlike Scarlett, I’m loving the extremely short hair.” Cara says: “I am always a fan of a cute romper/ jumpsuit and I am loving this red one on Zoë. It’s simple but still makes a fabulous statement, particularly with the really cute shoes that she is wearing. She is rocking the hair and make-up as well.”
Karin says: “This is literally a ‘mom is going to her tea party’ look. Where is the style? Where is the glamour? And those clunky brown sandals that in no way match the black and white clutch? Girl, I know they were probably comfier than some high-heeled pumps, but there must have been a better alternative.” Cara says: “I don’t fault her dress, it’s cute enough, if a bit cheap looking. What I really don’t like is the choice of mismatched accessories. The brown shoes are not that cute and I don’t like them with the handbag she chose. The overall look is just a tad bit weird.”
Karin says: “OK that weird helmet hair has to go. I’m all for short ‘dos on women, but this cut just makes her look like an alien. As for the dress, it’s not a ‘wow’ gown, but it’s quite sleek and fits her perfectly. Even though it is full-on sequined, it manages not to look tacky or cheap (maybe the silver is intentional and she’s going full out alien). Cara says: “Full sequined sparkly dresses can be difficult to pull off, because you want to avoid that wrapped in foil look, but Scarlett manages it quite well. The dress looks really cute on her. Love the cut-outs at the bodice. The hair is a bit severe, but it works in that it doesn’t overpower the look.”
Karin says: “Demi’s looking so much better! (And to think she just recently lost her front teeth due to stress). The dress is actually more suited to a beach party than a red carpet, but I do really like the rainbow colouring. Unfortunately, the bands are pinching the (I’m sure) minimal amount of fat she has, but I guess we’ve all been there, ladies.” Cara says: “I am on the fence with this dress. On the one hand, the colours are interesting and the shape of the dress is nice. What throws me are the bands around the waist. They look like they are too tight and are cutting off her circulation. But hey, Demi still has it and is looking good.
PHOTOS BY EVAN AGOSTINI/INVISION/AP
The Weekend Fashion Report World premiere of “Rough Night”
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Friday, June 16, 2017
fashion
Sun, sand and sea inspire new SurfLife collection PHOTOS/SHAWN HANNA
Showcase to feature music, dance and comedy performances By JEFFARAH GIBSON Tribune Features Writer jgibson@tribunemedia.net
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esigner Delano Marc said he could not find a more beautiful source to draw inspiration from for his Summer swimwear collection than the turquoise waters of the Bahamas. The designs, which he describes as “trendy”, will be unveiled during the SurfLife fashion showcase this Sunday at the Dundas Centre for the Performing Arts. Doors open at 6.30pm. During the show, the emerging Bahamian designer will present his new collection which features both women and men’s swimwear. The fashion showcase will feature an “amazing blend of neon and pastel swimwear,” Delano told Tribune Weekend. “I was inspired by the ocean and the diversity of colour associated with it.” Elements of nature rule, he said, so the show’s theme is also inspired by the sun. “The bright neon greens/yellows, pastel pinks and purples will give the audience a tropical yet trendy feel,” he said. The show will mainly consist of Delano Marc Models taking to the catwalk, four of whom were featured last year in the designer’s “Love Letters and Poems” collection. “Not only will the audience be exposed to high-quality work designed
Designs by Delano Marc and sewn by myself, but the entertainment will consist of rap, poetry, dance and stand-up comedy. Guests are guaranteed to see one-of-a-kind swimwear. Each look will be styled to runway perfection, but will be wearable and fully functional,” he said. Over the past few years, Delano has been steadily making a name for himself in the world of fashion. As a innately creative individual, he decided to embrace his gifts and pursued
fashion education at the Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute. During his studies Delano had the opportunity to meet many creative people that have inspired his unique style. One of his goals is to become a textile designer, create prints on fabric, and hopefully sell them worldwide. Back in 2015, a ball gown designed by Delano captured second place in the Miss Bahamas Top Model Com-
petition. Delano’s piece was inspired by pop star Rihanna’s song “Towards the Sun”. He noted that music has become a major source of inspiration for him. The fitted dress was layered with yellow fabric, accessorised with a graphic cape which featured an airbrushed design, and covered with a cluster of leaves. Miss Universe Grand Bahama Darronique Young modelled the gown during the competition.
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books
Kids connect to their creativity through reading Summer event to foster a love of books
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ith the onset of the long summer holidays, the non-profit organisation Connection to Creativity has launched a book initiative designed to motivate children to read throughout their school break. Stephaney Davis, the founder of the organisation, explained that many students experience what educators call the summer slide where they forget much of what they learn because they are not studying or learning during the break. “We wanted to help alleviate that by encouraging children to read over the summer in a way that would be fun for them and not a chore,” she explained to Tribune Weekend. The Battle of the Books: Beat the Summer Bug is a competition open to kids ages six to 12 throughout the months of July and August. “We know that children learn and express themselves differently, and we want to accommodate all the different ways that they do in this challenge. So we are encouraging them to read a book of their choice or even a newspaper article, anything that they want to read and then interpret it in one of three ways, either through poetry song or a drawing. The children will be judged based on their grade levels for a chance to win back-to-school prizes.” Since its launch, six schools have signed up to participate, including Woodcock Primary School, where Connection to Creativity partnered with Youth By Youth and Brighter Bahamas to donate 400 books to help the kids participate in the initiative. Other schools include the primary schools Eva Hilton, Albury Sayles, Gambier, Stephen Dillet and TG Glover. She encouraged students from all
DAKARAI DAVIS, son of Connection to Creativity founder Stephaney Davis.
ALIKO COLLINS, who died at age 21, was the inspiration for the Connection to Creativity non-profit organisation.
over the country to accept the challenge and have fun as they read over their summer break. Ms Davis originally started Connection to Creativity in tribute to her oldest son, Aliko Collins, last year. “He struggled as a reader in school and at the time. I couldn’t find programmes or tools that were free and available to help him. I wanted to find a way that would help bring the magic of reading to children,” she said. Unfortunately, Aliko passed away earlier this year at the age of 21, but the organisation’s work continues in his memory. “It is dedicated to improving the literacy rate of children between six and 12 through a number of reading initiatives. Reading skills are fundamental to ensuring their success throughout their education, and they develop a child’s imagination, opening doors to all kinds of new worlds,” said Ms Davis. “Since 2016 we have hosted over 50 events and successfully engaged over a thousand children. The events include the Books Under the Stars programme.” This is a monthly event held outside
in a traditional storytelling atmosphere where children can enjoy books written by Bahamian and other Caribbean authors. One of the major highlights of this event is having the featured author reading their books to the children themselves. Books Under the Stars not only promotes reading, but it creates a platform for local authors to showcase their talents. The evening also includes games and prizes and is sponsored by Aliv. Additionally, Connection to Creativity hosts a Swap and Read programme at the South Beach Library. “It is held every third Saturday. The purpose of this programme is to have children join their local libraries, giving them access to thousands of free books,” said Ms Davis. “We are looking to extend the programme to other libraries and this summer we will partner with the 4H Club to host Swap and Read at the Lillian Weir Coakley Library starting August 5. One of our goals is to have 500 children join libraries island-wide.” Persons interested in the Battle of the Books can contact Ms Davis at books@connectiontocreativity.com.
KIDS take part in a Connection to Creativity event.
“Reading skills are fundamental to ensuring their success throughout their education, and they develop a child’s imagination, opening doors to all kinds of new worlds.”
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Friday, June 16, 2017
gardening
Summer planting Summer is here and it is important to take care of your plots and pots. Jack Hardy advises to solarise your soil to prevent nematodes and weeds from taking over your garden.
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y tomato season is just about over. I have five vines left with one or two fruits still to ripen then that will be the end of another season. A successful one, I should mention. The large bowl on the kitchen counter was never empty from the end of November to the end of May, and sometimes there were two bowls filled with dark Black Krim, Amish Orange, Red Rose, Estonian Green, Ananas Noire, Blue Beauty, yellow Jubilee and other heirlooms. I grew some hybrids as well. Years ago I only grew heirlooms but gradually came to realise hybrids perform a valuable service by producing so many fruits for a long period and also by being disease resistant. For these reason I now make it a habit to grow Bush Steak and Celebrity hybrids as the backbone to my tomato
collection. Bush Steak has compact plants that produce an abundance of good-sized fruits while Celebrity is nematode resistant and can be planted as a successive crop early in the year to take over from the first exhausted heirlooms. For years I have kept zoysia grass at bay from my 12x5 vegetable plots. That involved heavy digging at the beginning of each season as well as some sprays of weed and grass killer. With age the muscles I once had seem to have evaporated and heavy digging is no longer on my worksheet. Instead of digging I laid down black felt-like mulch on a couple of plots and started growing my tomatoes and peppers in containers. I also have a 30x30 enclosed extension to the back (south facing) patio that was once solely the province of ornamentals but now is a mixture of beauty and edibility. When everything you grow is in containers you must water as assiduously as a monk prays. Containers must be watered with a hose end sprayer and this takes a long time. Even a thundershower of rain brings little respite because very little water ends up in the pots. The system has an added benefit. Up to now I have covered my garden plots with clear plastic sheeting
during the hot summer months. This helped control nematodes and certainly kept the plots weed free during their unproductive season. Nowadays I find myself with dozens of large pots filled with a good mix that will not be used for tomatoes until the beginning of October. Through June, July, August and September I can grow temporary summer-loving crops like eggplants, snake beans, cucumbers and okra with very little effort. I just rejuvenate the soil in the pots and plant the seeds. Nematodes can attack tomato roots even when the plants are in pots filled with good potting mix. When I pull a spent tomato vine and see swollen carbuncular roots I water the soil medium well and enclose the whole container in a black plastic trash bag. The temperatures reached during our summer months should bake the contents of the bag pretty well and kill off anything living. That is my plan for the summer. Your own garden circumstances will be somewhat different, of course, but I do urge you to solarise your soil - that’s the technical term for laying down clear plastic sheeting on your garden plots. Solarisation is laughably cheap when you consider the cost of treating nematodes with chemicals. Solarisation also kills off
weeds and weed seeds so you can start the new season’s crops in ‘steam cleaned’ soil. Pull your sheeting back every two weeks or so and give the soil a soaking of water. Damp soil conducts heat much more efficiently than dry soil. If you are really clever you can remove the sheeting when the forecast is calling for heavy rain. Rain water is better for your garden than city water. Cheaper too. Your nursery may have plastic sheeting for the purpose but your hardware store certainly will have. Use heavy gauge sheeting and it will last you for a few years before succumbing to the sun. Gardening friends have told me that they like to make slashes a few inches long in the sheeting where it lies lowest. After heavy rain you can see where the water puddles and make your cuts there. This will help maintain moisture in the soil but will probably mean you cannot re-use the sheeting. The new vegetable growing season will begin in mid August. It would be a shame to visit your favourite nursery and find that every other gardener on the island had the same idea ahead of you and the selection of tomatoes and other veggie seeds is limited. The 2017 seeds are there now. Buy them and store the packages in the refrigerator until you need them. If, like me, you have a large container or two available you may wish to grow cucumbers during the summer months. Patio cucumbers have short vines but the fruits grow to full size, about 12-inches long. If your main reason for growing cucumbers is to quick-pickle them – for a few hours or a few days – then gherkins may be your best bet because they take summer heat much better than regular cucumbers. There is an in-between cucumber called Picklebush that has smooth skin (not like gherkins) and grows to a mere six inches. This provides the best of both worlds. I usually start my snake beans in May, but this year I planted the seeds in a large container in March and the foliage has already reached the top of the eight-feet poles they climb on. There are several flowers and young beans on the way. If I were limited to just one summer crop each year it would always be snake beans. They are both tasty and prolific. • For questions and comments e-mail j.hardy@coralwave.com
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film
review
A questionable murder derails ‘Rough Night’ fun ROUGH NIGHT RUNNING TIME: 101 MINS
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n “Rough Night” four women on a wild and crazy bachelorette weekend in Miami accidentally kill a guy and try to get away with it. You know it’s coming. It’s right there in the trailer. In the middle of the party, Jillian Bell’s coked out character runs full speed toward a male stripper to straddle him and inadvertently knocks the guy over. As his seat falls back, his head cracks into the sharp edged fireplace ledge behind him. Others have tried to venture into this questionable terrain before, like the insanely awful “Very Bad Things,” in which the dead stripper is referred to as a “105 pound problem.” Comedies are welcome to test our moral flexibility, but it was extremely hard to get on board with the privileged cover-up antics of the “Rough Night” crew after the man bleeds out — no matter what narrative gymnastics they try to concoct to make it OK. Not even “Weekend At Bernie’s” had the gall to make the protagonists the murderers. The thing is, there is a lot of funny in “Rough Night,” the directorial debut of Lucia Aniello, who wrote the script with her partner Paul W Downs (he also plays the straight-laced fiancé of Scarlett Johansson’s character). The comedy duo has the chops to make something wild and great — they’ve worked as co-producers and writers on the wonderfully manic millennial friendship comedy “Broad City,” which
The girls do shots in a Miami nightclub
(L-R) Kate McKinnon, Ilana Glazer and Zoe Kravitz in Columbia Pictures’ “Rough Night” Aniello also directs occasionally. For “Rough Night” they assembled a great (and brilliantly random) cast, including “Broad City’s” salty star Ilana Glazer, Saturday Night Live’s pinch-hitter Kate McKinnon, the fearless up-and-comer Bell and the wonderfully versatile Zoe Kravitz.
They’re put in an initial situation that’s both relatable (college friends reuniting years later for a bachelorette) and gives room for things to get out of control (just add some cocaine, missed connections and a pair of crazy neighbors in Demi Moore and Ty Burrell). We meet the girls briefly in college.
Jess (Johansson), Alice (Bell), Blair (Kravitz) and Frankie (Glazer) are inseparable and unapologetically sloshed at a frat party owning a game of beer pong. Cut to few years later and they’ve gone their separate ways and grown up, sort of. Jess is even running for office, sporting a politician crop and dowdy wares. That most have evolved beyond their college selves makes the reunion feel a little bit like forced joy at the outset. But that’s a good thing, and you find yourself cringing and laughing in equal measure as they negotiate how the weekend is going to go. Things take a turn, too, when Jess’ friend Pippa (McKinnon, affecting an Australian accent) from a semester abroad shows up — throwing Alice into a jealousy spiral. But then the stripper comes, and dies, and it’s excruciatingly hard to care or worry about whether or not they’re going to get away with it, let alone how the friendship is going to survive this trial. There are some wild moments that come after, and some of them are fun (watch out for the “sad astronaut”). I just wish they weren’t in service of a throwaway gimmick that is too dark to stomach. LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer
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Friday, June 16, 2017
literary lives – alfred hitchcock
The demands of a cinematic master Sir Christopher Ondaatje takes a closer look at the life and enduring work of “The Master of Suspense” himself, Sir Alfred Hitchcock, one of the most renowned filmmakers of the 20th century.
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lfred Joseph Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone, England on August 13, 1899. The youngest of three children, he was the son of a London East End greengrocer, William Hitchcock, and Emma Jane Whelan. He had a very normal upbringing – raised as a strict Catholic at Saint Ignatius College, a school run by Jesuits. When he was five years old his father sent him to a police station after he had behaved badly and asked
“It was impossible not to see that the love scenes were filmed like murder scenes, and the murder scenes like love scenes ... In Hitchcock’s cinema ... to make love and to die are one and the same.”
– Francois Truffaut
them to lock him up – which they did for five minutes. This experience ingrained in Hitchcock a lifelong fear of policemen. When he was 16 years old he became a draughtsman for the Henley Telegraph and Cable Company and somehow began his life-long obsession with the movie industry. He went to cinemas, read American trade journals, and did a little writing for the in-house Henley magazine. Five years later he used his talents as an illustrator to get his first job in the film industry – drawing film sets for the London branch of Famous Players-Lasky, the London production division of Paramount Pictures. It was there that he met his future wife Alma Reville, although he never spoke to her until the director of a film ‘Always Tell Your Wife’ (1923) fell ill and Hitchcock was asked to complete the film. They then began to collaborate. When Famous Players left London. Hitchcock remained on the studio staff and was hired by Michael Balcon and Graham Cutts (eventually Gainsborough Pictures) to do a variety of jobs, including screenwriter, art director, and director. His rise to film director took five years and followed a series of low budget failures: ‘Number 13’, ‘Woman to Woman’ (1923), ‘The White Shadow’ (1924), ‘The Passionate Adventure’ (1924), ‘The Blackguard’ (1925), and ‘The Prude’s Fall’ (1925). His final film for Michael Balcon, ‘The Pleasure Garden’ (1925), co-produced with the Frelke Company in German, was also a flop. However, he was impressed with the German directors FW Murnau and Fritz Lang, and many of his later works were influenced by their Expres-
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Continued from page 21 sionist techniques. In 1926, Hitchcock’s luck changed with the silent film ‘The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog’, released in 1927 about the serial killer Jack the Ripper. It was a commercial and critical success. In 1926, he married his assistant director Alma Reville. She was to become Hitchcock’s closest collaborator and muse for the rest of his extraordinary film career – something seldom acknowledged until the end of his life, as she sought to avoid any kind of public attention. “I beg permission to mention by name only four people who have given me the most affection, appreciation and encouragement, and constant collaboration. The first of the four is a film editor, the second is a scriptwriter, the third is the mother of my daughter, and the fourth is as fine a cook as ever performed miracles in a domestic kitchen. And their names are Alma Reville.” ‘Blackmail’ (1929) was the 10th Hitchcock film and the first British sound picture. This early film used many Hitchcock suspense characteristics as well as the use of famous landmarks for film sequences. The climax of the film takes place in the Dome of the British Museum, with one of his longest cameo appearances, showing him being bothered by a small boy as he reads a book on Hitchcock (1899 - 1980) was a prolific screenwriter, director, producer and televithe London Underground. ‘Elstree sion personality. Calling’ (1930) and ‘An Elastic Affair’ were his next two directional involvements. Hitchcock worked with Michael Balcon again in 1933 on ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’ (1934), and then ‘The 39 Steps’ (1935) – still considered to be one of his best early films. It made Hitchcock famous in the United States and established his first use of the “Hitchcock Blonde” (Madeleine Carroll) as features in his female starring roles. The film was followed by ‘The Lady Vanishes’ (1938) which featured the first of his now-famous train sequences. Hitchcock received the 1939 New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director – the only time he ever received an award for his direction. “Blondes make the best victims. They’re like virgin snow that shows Hitchcock strangles a bust of himself on the Universal Studios lot. up the bloody footprints.” PHOTO: UNIVERSAL PICTURES/PHOTOFEST In 1939, David O Selznick
Friday, June 16, 2017
(producer of ‘Gone with the Wind’) signed Hitchcock to a seven-year contract, and the Hitchcocks moved to Hollywood. Selznick, however, with his continuing financial problems, leased Hitchcock out to the wealthier larger studios. He only made a few films each year, but one of them in 1940 was the Daphne du Maurier novel ‘Rebecca’. Starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine it was set in Cornwall and won Best Picture at The Academy Awards Ceremony. Selznick, rather than Hitchcock, decided to receive the coveted Oscar statuette. There were other problems between Hitchcock and Selznick who always wanted to put his own stamp on the films Hitchcock made and complained about Hitchcock’s complicated “jig-saw” editing process, which made it almost impossible for him to interfere with the finished production. Hitchcock’s next film, ‘Foreign Correspondent’ (1940), produced by Walter Wanger and starring Joel McCrea, was also nominated for the Best Picture but didn’t win. All through the 1940s Hitchcock made a variety of films from ‘Suspicion’ (1941), ‘Saboteur’ (1942), ‘Shadow of a Doubt’ (1943), and ‘The Paradine Case’ (1947). Joan Fontaine won the Best Actress Award for her role in ‘Suspicion’, which also starred Cary Grant in a surprisingly sinister role. Both ‘Saboteur’ and ‘Shadow of a Doubt’ (Hitchcock’s favourite) were made for Universal Studios. “Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.” Although the Hitchcocks bought the 200-acre Cornwall Ranch in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 1940, and the Bel Air house in Los Angeles in 1942, they moved back to England in 1943, anxious to contribute to the English war effort. While there he made two films Bon Voyage and Aventure Malgache for the British Ministry of Information. In 1945 he also served as an advisor on a Holocaust documentary, also made by the British Ministry of Information, to provide evidence of Nazi war crimes. Returning to Hollywood, and working with David O Selznick again, Hitchcock directed ‘Spellbound’ starring Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman, and followed this with ‘Notorious’ (1946) using Cary
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Friday, June 16, 2017
Hitchcock with his wife Alma Reville and daughter Patricia Hitchcock in the 1940s.
Hitchcock was among the first film producers to take advantage of the powerful medium television would become with his TV series ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’. Grant and Ingrid Bergman – another Selznick deal sold to RKO Radio Pictures for $500,000 to help finance his financially troubled ‘Duel in The Sun’ (1946). Hitchcock’s independent production company, Transatlantic Pictures, formed with Sidney Bernstein, who had worked for the British Ministry of Information, had a short unsuccessful life producing only two films: ‘Rope’ (1948) and ‘Under Capricorn’ (1949). Hitchcock produced his own films after this for the rest of his life. “A good film is when the price of the
“A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theatre and admission and the babysitter were worth it.”
dinner, the theatre and admission and the baby sitter were worth it.” The 1950s were great years for Hitchcock. He produced some of his most notable and popular films and was able to get the pick of his favourite stars who tolerated his single-minded determination to get the film he wanted. They correctly trusted his judgement. ‘Stage Fright’ (1950) made for Warner Brothers used Jane Wyman with Marlene Dietrich as well as Michael Wilding, Richard Todd and Alastair Sim. ‘Strangers on a Train ‘ – the complicated murder novel by Patricia Highsmith was made in 1951 with Farley Granger and Robert Walker; and ‘I Confess’ was set in Quebec with Montgomery Clift playing a Catholic priest. These films were followed by ‘Dial M for Murder’ starring Grace Kelly (for the first time), Ray Milland and Robert Cummings. The next year, 1954, Hitchcock moved to Paramount Pictures to film ‘Rear Window’, with Grace Kelly and James Stewart. The film, loosely based on the photographer Robert Capa, is mostly shot in Stewart’s small apartment and cleverly uses the expressions on Stewart’s face to show the other characters’ reactions to what the photographer sees. Grace Kelly appeared a third and final time in a Hitchcock film ‘To Catch a Thief’
(1955), filmed on the French Riviera with an ageing but glamorous Cary Grant. It was an immensely popular and colourful film. “Drama is life with the dull bits left out.” ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’ was remade by Hitchcock in 1956 using James Stewart and Doris Day, and in 1957 he made his last film for Warner Brothers with ‘The Wrong Man’ starring Henry Fonda and Vera Miles. He used James Stewart for the fourth and last time in the classic ‘Vertigo’ (1958) with co-stars Kim Novak and Barbara Bel Geddes. More than any other of his films, Hitchcock explores the relationship between sex and death in the film, and openly deals with his obsession of a man who changes a woman into someone who he desires. Camera techniques used in the film have been copied many times by modern directors, and its reputation has grown immensely over the years. It is a deeply disturbing film. “Fear isn’t so difficult to understand. After all, weren’t we all frightened as children? Nothing has happened since Little Red Riding Hood faced the big bad wolf. What frightens us today is exactly the same sort of thing that fright-
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Alfred Hitchcock and Tippi Hedren at the Cannes Film Festival in 1963. The filmmaker preferred his leading ladies to be icy blondes. Continued from page 23 ened us yesterday. It’s just a different wolf. This fright complex is rooted in every individual.” After ‘Vertigo’, Hitchcock made three of his most popular and famous films: ‘North by Northwest’ (1959), ‘Psycho’ (1960), and ‘The Birds’ (1963). Cary Grant was used again in ‘North by Northwest’, and this was followed by the black and white ‘Psycho’ where the terrifying violent shower scene spawned the film’s incredible popularity both in North America and in Europe. Spurning his meagre salary in exchange for 60 per cent of the film’s profits, Hitchcock earned well in excess of $15 million when the film was distributed. He eventually exchanged his rights to ‘Psycho’ for 150,000 shares of MCA Inc, making him the third largest shareholder in the profitable company for whom he worked. ‘The Birds’, the film of another Daphne du Maurier story, was Hitch-
cock’s 49th film and introduced the blonde newcomer Tippi Hedren and the Australian Rod Taylor to audiences. The horror-thriller was again a popular success and Hitchcock cast Hedren opposite Sean Connery in Marnie the following year. Rumours that Hedren was never used again by Hitchcock because she rebuffed his sexual advances may or may not have been true. He did however keep her under contract for two years preventing her from accepting any other film offers. Hedren complained that it effectively ended her career. “Some of my films are slices of life, mine are slices of cake.” Both Walt Disney and Hitchcock were among the first film producers to take advantage of the powerful medium television would become. From 1955 to 1965 Hitchcock was the host of the TV series ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’. It made him much more of a celebrity than before. He later intro-
duced a series of books using his now famous name which prompted popular acceptance. Constantly overweight, Hitchcock struggled with his health during the last 20 years of his life. Neither ‘Torn Curtain’ with Paul Newman and Julie Andrews, nor ‘Topaz’ (1969) – based on the Leon Uris novel – were good films and they received severe criticism. He returned to England to make ‘Frenzy’ (1972) which had a similar plot to his earlier ‘The Lodger’ (1927) about a serial killer in London, and then made one more film, ‘Family Plot’, in 1976. It, too, was not a success and not a faithful rendering of the sinister novel ‘The Rainbird Pattern’ by Victor Canning. Hitchcock died in his Hollywood home of renal failure on April 29, 1980. He was 80 years old. His funeral mass was held at the Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Beverly Hills the next day, after which his body was cremated and his ashes scattered over the Pacific Ocean.
An unusually sensitive and creative film director, Hitchcock planned his film scripts down to the smallest detail. However he admitted that once filming began it was imperative for directors to enter the area of compromise. “When you finish the script, the film is perfect. But in shooting you lose perhaps 40 per cent of your original conception.” Nevertheless, Hitchcock relied on his writers a great deal, although exasperating them with his interference and his insistence on detail, and demands to tell the story through visual rather than verbal means. Hitchcock’s films, too, were extensively storyboarded in precise detail. Armed with his “storyboard” he refused to change a film from his initial vision. He was rumoured never even to look through a view finder. However Bill Krohn in his critical biography Hitchcock at Work dispels this theory, observing that Hitchcock often re-wrote screenplays and deviated from original film concepts – although he promoted the general and public belief in his inflexibility so as to get his own way with less studio interference. ‘Notorious’ (1946), ‘Strangers on a Train’ (1951), ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’ (1956), and ‘North by Northwest’ (1959) were prime examples where Hitchcock changed his story when his creation veered in a different direction. The brilliant crop-spraying scene in ‘North by Northwest’, for example, did not have an original storyboard. “I never said all actors are cattle; what I said was all actors should be treated like cattle.” Hitchcock’s dislike of actors was legendary – but grossly exaggerated. He would not tolerate the popular “method approach” explaining that theatre and film were different mediums, and that whereas the theatre allowed actors the space to move and perhaps improvise, in film the mechanical discipline of close-ups and cutting was better left to the director. In an explanation of this difference Hitchcock was to say to Truffaut: “In my opinion, the chief requisite for an actor is the ability to do nothing well, which is by no means as easy as it sounds. He should be willing to be utilised and wholly integrated into the picture by the director and the camera.”
The Tribune | Weekend | 25
Friday, June 16, 2017
Forgotten facts Paul C Aranha So as to create suspense and tension in his films Hitchcock used a wide variety of techniques. He would alternate between different shots to extend cinematic time as in ‘Saboteur ‘(1942), the crop-duster sequence in ‘North by Northwest’ (1959), and the shower scene in ‘Psycho’ (1960). In his earlier black and while films he used exaggerated shadows and light as in the glowing milk scene in ‘Suspicion’ (1941), and the ominous dark reflections in ‘Shadow of a Doubt’ (1943) and ‘Notorious’ (1946). Hitchcock was a master of cinematic effects and hated to film on location where he would have less control than in the studio. He was also a great admirer of early Italian directors: “Those Italian fellows (Michelangelo Antonioni and Federico Fellini) are a hundred years ahead of us. ‘Blow-Up’ (1966) and ‘8½’ (1963) are bloody masterpieces.” Hitchcock’s use of blonde actresses (mostly in leading roles) was legendary: Anny Ondra, Madeleine Carroll, Joan Fontaine, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Eva Marie Saint, Kim Novak, Vera Miles, Janet Leigh and Tippi Hedren. “The most interesting women, sexually, are the English women. I feel that the English women, the Swedes, the northern Germans and Scandinavians are a great deal more exciting than the Latin, the Italian, and the French women. Sex should not be advertised. An English girl, looking like a schoolteacher, is apt to get into a cab with you and to your surprise, she’ll probably pull a man’s pants open ... Without the element of surprise the scenes become meaningless. There’s no possibility to discover sex.” He repeatedly used his favourite actors in films, directing Cary Grant in four films: ‘Suspicion’, ‘Notorious’, ‘To Catch a Thief’ and ‘North by Northwest’; Leo G Carroll in six films: ‘Rebecca’, ‘Suspicion’, ‘Spellbound’, ‘The Paradine Case’, ‘Strangers on a Train’, and ‘North by Northwest’; and James Stewart in four films: ‘Rope’, ‘Rear Window’, ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’, and ‘Vertigo’. However, he directed Clare Greet (an English stage and film actress) in seven films: ‘Number 13’, ‘The Ring’, ‘The Manxman’, ‘Murder!’, ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’, ‘Sabotage’, and ‘Jamaica Inn’. In ‘Number 13’, an unfinished film made in 1922, Clare Greet was given the starring role. Hitchcock’s uncle, John Hitchcock, invested in the film and, when that money ran out, Greet contributed more funds. It wasn’t enough. Filming was stopped and everybody lost their investment. Hitchcock never forgot Greet’s generosity and she appeared in more Hitchcock films than anyone other than Hitchcock himself – who appeared in a trademark cameo role in all but 18 of the 56 films he directed.’
In a forgotten colony
A map of Grand Bahama in 1926
I
couldn’t resist the title of Amelia Dorothy Defries’ 1917 book ‘In a Forgotten Colony’ and was rewarded with a griping account of this English lady’s 1916 odyssey to Grand Bahama. World War I was being waged and Freeport did not yet exist. Defries had met an English woman who was planning to take her two babies on the mailboat to Grand Bahama and made a spur-of-the-moment decision to accompany her, the logic being “If she can go, with two babies, I can go”. Her only question was “When does the schooner sail?” Next morning, she had trouble finding the 15-year-old schooner – 50 feet long and 18 feet wide – with a deck strewn with bananas, coconuts, limes and onions, plus kegs of flour and barrels of hominy. Add to this the dried fish that smelled horribly and the piles of conch that made matters
worse, aboard what she described as an “indescribably disreputable boat”. The vessel was overrun with rats and cockroaches and passengers slept on the deck - for five nights. When it rained they used a sail for cover. She was afraid of falling overboard, but the concerned wife of a sponge fisherman protected Defries by sleeping between her and the water, saying “you can’t fall off across me”. For five days and nights, the author never took her clothes off and, except for “a little drop of Horlick’s milk, and some coconut water, had no food for the last three days”. This mailboat made stops in Abaco, “to set down passengers, deliver mail, and ship and unship cargo, at various villages”, and arrived safely in Grand Bahama’ Defries felt a newfound respect for Bahamian seamen, a respect that continued to grow on
the trip back to Nassau, despite a delayed start caused by a cow. While she and other passengers waited, “the men” went off to fetch the cow and load it onto the boat, but the “horned lady” jumped a wall and ran into the bush. “For four solid hours they chased her!” Finally, the cow was being led to the ship, when she escaped again, but despite her reluctance she ended up on board, “meekly standing tied by her horns to the foremast”. This vessel was “as clean as a new pin” and Defries wondered why the mailboat had not been like that. Once underway, they stopped at “little places along the coast” of Grand Bahama. At one, they took on a load of grapefruit; at another, a black cow and a black pig, which were tied to the mast, with the first cow. At another stop, some of the men and women went ashore, “to join a ring-dance that was in full
swing, along the water’s edge.” “The refrain reached us and everyone on board, except the two cows and the pig, beat time to it. Everyone on board were like one happy family, calling each other ‘Brudder’ and ‘Sister’ and, when I became seasick, they were as gentle to me as to a child, and called me ‘sister’ too!” She overheard the captain and crew discussing the falling barometer, as they studied every cloud and every breeze, justifying the decision to head for Nassau with the words: “If so be’s you’se lived good an’ near God, can’t come to no harm, an if a man don’t live near to God, he’ll go the bottom anyway, when the time comes”. Now and again, a wave swept the deck and all hands got wet. She heard a man say “Dere’s an art in sailing a boat, orlright”, while the women just kept still and “praised the Lord”. The cows were silent. “We’se all safe, praise God” said a woman, while the others echoed “Praise God” and “Safe in his keeping”. Defries summed it up: “I have sailed in many craft and in many seas and I never saw finer seamanship than these seemed to have.” In her opinion, the men handled the ship with an ease that comes when work has become second nature. For more of Defries’ story, visit http://www. jabezcorner.com/grand_ bahama/defries1.htm • Send comments and responses to islandairman@gmail.com
ese and spinach makes a light and tasty snack 26 | The Tribune | Weekend
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The Tribune | Weekend |27
Friday, June 16, 2017
animals Animal matters Kim Aranha
Cruisin’ canines
M
y husband and I were lucky enough to go on a once-in-a-lifetime vacation recently. Part of that vacation was spent on the week-long transatlantic crossing on Cunard’s totally refurbished and magnificent Queen Mary ll. I was no stranger to transatlantic travel as my mother was very fearful of flying when I was young and my brother and I crossed from New York to Southampton or Le Havre (France) yearly and back. We earned ourselves the nickname of “the Cunard kids”. However, my last crossing was many moons ago and the memory of it dim, but still sufficiently vivid for me to remember the elegance and glamour of it all. Of course being a child who loved animals I was always very interested in the fact that the old queens (Mary and Elizabeth) had kennels for the pets. Looking back, I suppose those poor darlings were headed to a six-month confinement in the prison-like quarantine kennels of yesteryear. This is no longer the case, thank goodness. You can imagine my delight when I found out that the Queen Mary ll also has kennels. They are only in use for transatlantic travel, and are closed when cruising is the order of the day. After all, the transatlantic trip is travel from point A to point B, a very long and special way to travel. When I found out that there were kennels I decided I would very much like to visit them. My first attempt as president of the Bahamas Humane Society failed miserably and I was very politely told that it simply was not possible. It would upset the dogs and the owners would not like their pets disturbed. Alas, the Bahamas is not terribly well known as we found out when we presented the British immigration officer (Yes, they do pre-check aboard ship during the crossing) with our Bahamian passports. I assured him that we were part of the Commonwealth, but, with a smile, he very politely
Marvellous Marathon By The Bahamas Humane Society
PET OF THE WEEK
M
arathon is about one year old. She’s female and was found in the area of the Mall at Marathon. Marathon would like to let you know that she’s part of the current dog/puppy cat/kitten adoption special. Adult dogs and cats are $5; all puppies and kittens are half price (for example $25). Please note: this does not apply to the small house dogs! If you’d to adopt a cat to keep Marathon company that would be fine by her. Of course, she gets along well with other dogs and is learning to walk on a leash. If you’d like to adopt Marathon, come in and complete an adoption application so your yard check can be completed before the special ends. Adoption hours are 11am to 4pm, Monday to Friday, and 10am to 4pm on Saturday, or you can call 323-5138 for more information. Marathon looks forward to meeting you!
PHOTO/PATRICIA VAZQUEZ
A canine passenger with the Cunard kennel manager whipped out his little book to see if I was telling the truth. Yes ,indeed, he replied, I’ve never seen one of those
before, and proceeded to scrutinise each page. So back to trying to gain access
to the kennels...My second attempt proved to be far more fruitful. I told them I wrote a weekly column for the Bahamian paper The Tribune, and everything changed. We were invited to visit the kennels the next day. However, could not have access inside where the cages are located. We found ourselves at “walkies time” with a fascinating array of dogs of all sizes. The largest was a splendid female Newfoundland Hound, the smallest a slip of a Chihuahua. There were a couple of dogs of undetermined breed that would have definitely fit the description of potcake if in Nassau. They were all very well behaved and interacted with each other most politely, lots of nose touching, sniffing and waggy tails. I shuddered to think how badly my bunch might have behaved had they been in similar circumstances. My Chiefie is not a great one for canine “fellowship”, and let’s not even mention Garmin, who has difficulty bonding with the dogs he lives with. The manager of the kennels ushered us to a corner where we would not disturb the dogs, though by then a lovely eight year-old English Bulldog had attached herself to me because I had given her an ear rub. This beautiful lady with her amazing overbite and squashed in nose was headed to Brussels where her “dad” was being posted to the Canadian Embassy. When he had tried to book her passage on the Queen Mary ll he had been told that the next available kennel space would be in 2018! However, at the last minute there was a cancellation, so she and her dad rushed to New York (from Canada) in order to catch the trip over. As he pointed out, being an English Bulldog it was not safe for her to fly (Bulldogs are prone to death on aircraft). This beloved pooch was going to Aberdeen to live with relatives until her dad returned to pick her up and drive her to their new life in Brussels in July. How much he must have loved his girl to go to all that trouble and expense to have her with him! And we see people in the Bahamas constantly giving up their pets because they choose to move into an apartment that does not allow pets. Different cultures (how I hate that word). • To be continued in next week’s Animal matters column.
28 | The Tribune | Weekend
Friday, June 16, 2017