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Largest ever exhibition of Vermeer paintings to open in Amsterdam

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Largest ever exhibition of Vermeer paintings to open in Amsterdam

Twenty-eight paintings by Johannes Vermeer go on display at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam this week, the largest-ever exhibition of works of the 17th-century Dutch master, known for his expertise at rendering light and intimate household scenes.

The show gathers half the works that Vermeer, who died aged 43 and worked slowly, is thought ever to have painted and three-quarters of those that still exist. He likely never saw so many of his own works together at one time.

Rijksmuseum director Taco Dibbits said Vermeer was a man who lived with a large family and had a busy life as an art dealer but still managed to obsessively refine works of quiet beauty, bathed in light rendered with almost photographic accuracy.

“It’s this … complete focus and tranquillity in his paintings that we still love today,” Dibbits said.

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Alongside famed works like “Girl With A Pearl Earring” (1664) and “The Milkmaid” (1659), the exhibit features Vermeer’s two known outdoor paintings, several large canvases, and a string of his portrayals of women — including playing instruments, reading and working.

“What’s quite striking when you look at Vermeer is that in his paintings, it’s mostly women who are the protagonists,” said curator Pieter Roelofs, noting Vermeer had seven daughters.

Though no letter written by Vermeer exists, a key document is an inventory of possessions drawn up after his death, which left the family in debt. Furniture and many objects mentioned on the list appear in the paintings.

Roelofs said major advances have been made in understanding how Vermeer worked, including identifying pinholes at the focal point in some paintings such as “The Milkmaid”, part of a system of strings he used to help ensure perfect perspective.

Artists and scholars dispute whether Vermeer may have made use of a ‘camera Obscura, a forerunner of the modern photo camera.

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Roelofs said Vermeer’s works are more than something a good eye and skilled hand can create. Recent analysis shows the composition of “The Milkmaid” changed several times, notably by stripping things out to simplify it.

“That is what Vermeer is: it’s never good enough and he keeps working on it until he thinks it’s sufficient to hand over to clients,” Roelofs said.

Author Tracy Chevalier, whose novel “Girl with a Pearl Earring” was adapted to a movie of the same name, said for her the exhibition evoked an image of Vermeer as a reserved man who “plays his cards close to his chest.”

“His paintings are so quiet and there are no children … he must have compartmentalized his life and said ‘no, no kids in the studio’.”

Museums in Germany, France, Japan, Britain, Ireland and the United States contributed to the exhibition, which opens on Friday and runs until June.

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Quentin Tarantino doesn’t want Brit actors in his last movie

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Quentin Tarantino doesn't want Brit actors in his last movie

Quentin Tarantino – the famous movie director – wants to make his last venture a strictly American affair by excluding the British actors as he thinks they really don’t represent the US culture.

“Obviously, nothing against the Brits, but we’re living in a really weird time now,” he said in an interview given to a magazine at the recently-held Cannes Festival.

Tarantino – known for films like Pulp Fiction, Inglorious Basterds, Kill Bill Volume 1 and Kill Bill Volume II, The Hateful Eight – said, “I think when people look back on this era of cinema, and it’s just all these British actors pretending to be Americans and all these Australian actors pretending to be Americans, it’s like phantoms. Nobody is acting in their own voice.”

“I think it’s just a case that a bunch of Brits became more famous than the others. The Americans ceded their own ground. When I look at ’70s cinema I want to see Robert De Niro, I want to see Al Pacino, I want to see Stacy Keach, you know, I want to see people like that reflecting the culture back to me.”

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According to Tarantino, it is based on a man who wrote for a pornographic magazine and set in 1977’s California. The guy was never really famous and used to write movie reviews.

It means the inspiration comes from Tarantino’s teenage job where he would load pornographic magazines into a vending machine and empty quarters out of the cash dispenser. He explains, “All the other stuff was too skanky to read, but then there was this porno rag that had a really interesting movie page.”

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3rd man charged in 2002 shooting death of Run-DMC star Jam Master Jay

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3rd man charged in 2002 shooting death of Run-DMC star Jam Master Jay

A third man has been charged in the 2002 shooting death of Run-DMC star Jam Master Jay, prosecutors said Tuesday, marking the latest movement in a case that languished for years.

Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York filed a superseding indictment on Tuesday, charging Jay Bryant, 49, in the death of Jason “Jay” Mizell, known professionally as Jam Master Jay.

Two other men, Ronald Washington and Karl Jordan Jr., had previously been indicted in August 2020 for the death of Jay. The hip-hop trailblazer was shot in the head in his studio on Oct. 30, 2002.

Bryant’s attorney, César de Castro, said in an email that they had just learned of the charges.

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“Securing an indictment in a secret grand jury, applying an extremely low burden of proof, is one thing. Proving it at trial is another matter,” he said.

Bryant, from Queens, was in custody already on unrelated federal drug charges.

At the time the other two men were indicted, authorities said Jay’s death involved a drug deal gone bad. In a letter filed with the court on Tuesday, prosecutors said Bryant and the two other men entered the building that evening, and then fled after the shooting. They said Bryant was seen going into the building, and his DNA was recovered at the scene.

Jay was in Run-DMC with Joseph “Run” Simmons and Darryl “DMC” McDaniel in the early 1980s. The group helped bring hip-hop music into the mainstream. Run DMC’s hits include “King of Rock,” “It’s Tricky” and a remake of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.”

For years, Jay’s death lingered as a cold case, with witnesses reluctant to speak up despite reward money being offered. 

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Nora Fatehi admires Helen, wants to play in her biopic

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Nora Fatehi admires Helen, wants to play in her biopic

who starred in a Bollywood blockbuster Sholay – and now wants to be play in her biopic whenever there is an opportunity, as she responded to a question on the subject.

According to Fatehi, she studied all her videos properly, even the breathing spaces of the shoulder movements, the hands and just the aura. “I had to be feminine, I had to be poised, I had to be very flirty, and I had to own it.”

Fatehi, 31, said it would be honour. “If the filmmakers ever think of me, because I feel like we have so many similarities.”
“She came from a different country, I did, it was tough for both of us, we were introduced to the world through dance and that too in a different genre of dance.”

Helen Ann Richardson Khan, now in her 80s, has appeared in over 1,000 films and is known for her supporting, character roles and guest appearances in a career spanning 70 years.

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A recipient of Padma Shri by the Government of India, she has received two Filmfare Awards and is considered as one of the most popular dancers of her time.

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