Category: Culture

How a Gang of Thirsty Thieves Stole Over $500,000 Worth of Wine

ONE DECEMBER NIGHT IN 2014, a group of wine aficionados congregated in front of Thomas Keller’s famed French Laundry restaurant. They hadn’t called ahead to see if the Yountville, California, institution, which has an infamous, months-long waitlist, could accommodate them. Since it was Christmas night, the restaurant wasn’t even open.

Regardless, the crew got what they came for. They broke in and walked out with over $500,000 worth of wine, including some of the most coveted bottles in the world.

Nearly four years later, investigators have recovered all but a handful of the 110 missing bottles. Earlier this year, the Department of Justice released a statement confirming that two of the thieves—Alfred Georgis and Davis Kiryakoz—also conspired with others to steal and transport fine wines from Alexander’s Steakhouse in Cupertino, California (that theft clocked in at $32,000). Additionally, Kiryakoz admitted that he’d been part of a group that swiped $290,000 worth of wine in 2013, from San Francisco’s Fine Wines International, according to SF Gate. Both men have since been sentenced to time in prison.

 

That this band of thieves pulled off several large heists is remarkable. The bandits planned sophisticated, well-surveilled thefts—they robbed the French Laundry, for instance, the day after it closed for a months-long renovation. No one was on the premises, so they easily pried open the door, then stepped into the wine cellar. The French Laundry’s state-of-the-art alarm system—which had been deactivated, for once—didn’t stop them either. And not just any thief could have absconded with such valuable booty. Continue reading “How a Gang of Thirsty Thieves Stole Over $500,000 Worth of Wine” →

Film Review: 3 Days In Quiberon

[ VARIETY FEBRUARY 19, 2018 ]

One year before her tragic death at the age of 43, Romy Schneider posed for photographs and gave an extensive interview to a German journalist while staying at a Breton spa hotel in Quiberon. Her magnetic personality and evanescent moods were memorably captured in the monochromatic images, and the interview turned into an unvarnished, emotional self-appraisal at a time when she was roiled in insecurities. That’s the setting of Emily Atef’s respectful, by-the-numbers semi-recreation “3 Days in Quiberon,” a fictionalized treatment inspired by those sessions. Marie Bäumer’s uncanny resemblance and fine central performance anchor what is ultimately a predictable treatment of a tortured actress, nicely lensed in black and white, that will find resonance in countries where Schneider remains a much-beloved star.

Schneider’s tremendous European popularity never made it across the ocean, largely because the “Sissi” films that made her a major celebrity at the age of 17 never achieved the cult status in the States that they did in Austria, Germany, and beyond. The film series was a highly romanticized concoction about Empress Elisabeth of Austria, and for many, Romy became the embodiment of that fiction. The teenage purity and sweetness worked against her as a woman, and her frustration at not being able to break free from the Sissi image led to her moving to France, where she chose ever more challenging roles designed to counter the studio’s anodyne construction. She also engaged in a series of well-publicized affairs, marriages, and divorces, making her major fodder for the tabloids. Continue reading “Film Review: 3 Days In Quiberon” →

Film Review: ‘Back to Burgundy’

As rich and full-bodied as a fine French wine, Cédric Klapisch’s Burgundy-set family drama draws character from the soil on which it’s set.

[VARIETY] When I was 13 years old, my great-aunt arranged for me to visit a vineyard in France’s Loire valley, where I was allowed to spend an afternoon planting grape vines with the family who had worked those fields for centuries. Together, we visited the facilities where the harvest was crushed and fermented, and tasted the wine these artisans had produced from previous years. An experience like that forever changes one’s perspective on wine, from something that comes from a bottle to a living, breathing thing, originating from the earth, planted and harvested by hand, shaped by the attitudes and sensibility of those who cultivate it.

Cédric Klapisch’s “Back to Burgundy” is the closest any film has come to expressing that special symbiotic relationship between real people, the soil they tend, and the ineffably personal concoction that results from that connection.

Though not a documentary, this gorgeous French family saga benefits enormously from Klapisch’s natural curiosity, informed by research (he participated in a harvest in order to observe its nuances) and elevated by his insistence that they film over the course of a full year, so as to capture the impact of the seasons on both viticulture and its human stewards. Continue reading “Film Review: ‘Back to Burgundy’” →

“Jane and Serge: family album”: the mythical photos of Birkin and Gainsbourg by Andrew Birkin

“Jane and Serge: family album”: the few words that define the new exhibition of the Museum of Fine Arts in Calais perfectly summarize the relationship of the iconic couple. A man, a woman, a family in the broadest sense, the 1960s, freedom and love, all told in about sixty photos captured by Andrew Birkin, Jane’s brother.

More story and video at Source: “Jane et Serge : album de famille” : les photos mythiques de Birkin et Gainsbourg par Andrew Birkin

Rodolphe Burger – Cannes Selection 2018

Cannes Film Festival – Official Selection of the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, Interview-Duel # 1 – Rodolphe Burger

For this episode of Radio Vinyl,  Rodolphe Burger will looks over the shelves of vinyl records electro, jazz, blues, rock or pop. Ornette Coleman, Kraftwerk, James Ulmer Blood and Iggy Pop are among his platinum choices. As a bonus, Rodolphe Burger offers us a cover of the song “Hard Times”, bluesman Skip James.  | More Radio Vinyl,

Cannes 2018

Cannes
Official Cannes 2018 Poster

The Cannes Film Festival has unveiled its official poster for this year’s 71st edition, featuring an image from Jean-Luc Godard’s 1965 film “Pierrot le Fou.”

The poster, designed by 27-year-old graphic designer Flore Maquin, is inspired by the work of French stills photographer Georges Pierre and features “Pierrot le Fou” stars Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina.

The new poster shows Belmondo and Karina leaning out of their cars to share a kiss. The two play lovers on the run who settle for a time on the French Riviera, which is also where the Cannes Film Festival takes place.