Audrey Tautou stars as the titular character in this charming French romantic comedy directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. After mistakenly diagnosing her with a heart condition, Amélie is homeschooled by her mother and is raised isolated from other children. The film focuses on her young adulthood in Paris, where she’s surrounded by characters almost as quirky as her. A chance discovery of a box of childhood treasures in her apartment leads her on a search for their owner, which in turn leads Amélie on a search for love.
The film has a distinct visual palette, defined by a yellow hue pierced with bright colours and deep shadows, as well as its creative use of magical realism. Here are fifteen of the most creative shots from the film.
Our Culture is privileged to present an interview with Hamish Steele, creator of the DeadEndiacomic series.
DeadEndia “follows the adventures of Barney and Norma, two humans who stumble upon the supernatural secrets of Dead End, an amusement park haunted house! Joining their adventures are Pugsley, a pug possessed by a demon king, and Courtney, the guardian of the elevator to the 13 Planes of Existence!”
We sat down with Hamish to talk about his work, DeadEndia, and what’s next on the horizon.
Hamish, it’s a pleasure to talk with you. Please introduce yourself for our readers!
Aw thank you! I’m Hamish Steele! I live in London and by day I’m an animation show runner / writer person and by night I’m a comics creator. I won a Most Promising Newcomer Eisner a couple of years ago and I reaaaally love gators.
The announcement of the DeadEndiaseries from Netflix is terrific. How did that come about?
I’ve been in the world of animation development for about eight years. In fact, my first proper job in the industry was a DeadEndia short for Cartoon Hangover. We developed that for a little bit at Nickelodeon but it didn’t end up happening. But I did do a couple of pilots there and they got me in touch with Blink Industries and I’ve worked there ever since. Between the short and now, I developed DeadEndia into a webcomic on the side and the planets ended up aligning where Alexi Wheeler, the guy who originally wanted to make DeadEndiaat Nickelodeon, moved over to Netflix. Sometimes it takes many years for the right time, right place to happen but it does happen.
What are the challenges or advantages of translating the comic to an animated format?
In most adaptations, you have to cut things out for time. But I’ve found we’ve had this amazing opportunity to expand on everything: the characters, the world, the humour, the horror. In fact, scares have been the best advantage of the animated form as in comics you don’t have music, sound and timing to help you with the atmosphere. But obviously there’ve been huge challenges – setting an animated series in a bustling theme park is asking a LOT of the animation and design team. This is a BIG show.
DeadEndia is openly and wonderfully LGBT-inclusive. How does it feel to be able to continue that into the animated adaptation?
I feel amazingly grateful to Annie Liu, our main Netflix exec for not only letting us have the diversity I wanted but championing it and pushing me to tell the story I want to tell. GLAAD reviews all our scripts, we have cast the show responsibly and our writers room is a reflection of the characters. With so few trans storylines on tv, let alone as the lead character in a kid’s show, we know we can’t be everything for everyone. But this is Barney’s story and I can’t wait for people to get to know him.
What do you want most out of this programme?
If one lonely kid feels like someone out there has their back, that’ll be my job done. With kids tv, the impact is never felt at the time of its release. We can look at reviews and ratings and get some idea, but the real impact will come 5, 10, 15 years later when the kids who watched it are making the next generation of tv.
Are there any other projects on the horizon?
We have just launched the kickstarter for Croc and Roll, a new comic book series written by me and with art by George Williams (@neatodon on twitter). It’s kinda like a mix of TMNT and Jem and the Holograms but very gay. We’ve already funded Issue 1 but I hope we are aiming for a series of 6 issues!
Steele’s latest endeavour: Croc and Roll.
How can our readers support both DeadEndiaand Croc and Roll?
The DeadEndiagraphic novels are available on the Nobrow Website and at all good local book and comic stores. The Croc and Roll kickstarter is here.
As for the DeadEndiashow, look forward to it arriving in 2021. I promise it’ll be worth the wait!
We can’t thank Hamish enough for sitting down with Our Culture. To see more of his work in the meantime, check out his eclectic work on his website.
Los Retros, a Oxnard-based artist, has released a superb euphonious five-track EP named Everlasting, featuring Los Retros’ latest single New Humanity. The EP was released via Stones Throw Records.
Everlasting is the follow up to Los Retros’ debut EP Retrospect, which held his breakout single Someone To Spend Time With, it has currently gained over 20 million streams and views since its release day.
Tracklist for Everlasting
1. Cry of The Humble
2. Sweet Honey
3. The Messiah
4. New Humanity
5. Fruitful
Reece van der Merwe, a photographer and creative out of South Africa, has presented a superb editorial-like series named Leg Day. In this short but fantastic series, Merwe explores the graceful limbs that are legs through vibrant and eye-pleasing visuals. The model for the series is Cheri’ van Wyk.
Kasabian have officially announced that frontman Tom Meighan is leaving the band due to “personal issues”.
The band posted a statement on Twitter explaining the singer’s departure: “Tom Meighan is stepping down from Kasabian by mutual consent. Tom has struggled with personal issues that have affected his behaviour for quite some time and now wants to concentrate all his energies on getting his life back on track. We will not be commenting further.”
Meighan had been the lead singer with the Leicester group since they formed back in 1997. Along with original guitarist and close friend Sergio Pizzorno, the band went to become one of the UK’s biggest alternative rock acts, headlining Glastonbury Festival in 2014 and landing five UK Number 1 albums and 12 UK Top 40 singles, including hit single ‘Fire’.
The news comes as somewhat of a surprise, as just last month the singer had confirmed that Kasabian were working on their seventh studio album. “We’re going to try and make a new record as soon as we can but we can’t really do anything while we’re restricted. Serge has been writing songs for Kasabian so it’s all good,” Meighan told Skye News.
The band’s last album was 2017’s For Crying Out Loud, while Pizzorno put out a solo album under the name The SLP last year. It is not yet clear whether Kasabian will continue to tour and make music following Meighan’s departure.
Tom Meighan is stepping down from Kasabian by mutual consent. Tom has struggled with personal issues that have affected his behaviour for quite some time and now wants to concentrate all his energies on getting his life back on track. We will not be commenting further.
Sir Elton John has become the second artist to be honoured in the Royal Mint’s new ‘Music Legends’ collection of commemorative coins, following an official coin in honour of Queen.
Designed by Bradley Morgan Johnson, a UK artist and digital sculptor, the coin features the rock icon’s trademark straw boater hat, as well as a Union Jack and a music note. The commemorative coins are now available to buy in gold proof, silver proof, and brilliant uncirculated editions. The cheapest coins are being sold for £13 while a one-kilo gold proof coin, with a face value of £1,000, is priced at £68,865. Check out the coin below.
“It really is a fabulous honour to be recognised in this way,” Elton John said in a press release. “The last few years have contained some of the most memorable moments of my career, and this is another truly humbling milestone on my journey.”
Clare Maclennan, Divisional Director of Commemorative Coin and the Royal Mint Experience, said: “Elton John is without a doubt a British music legend and is recognised as one of the most successful singer-songwriters of his generation.”
She added: “We are delighted to honour Elton’s significant contribution to British music on a UK coin. This is the second coin in the Royal Mint’s new Music Legends series, marking the work of our exceptional British musicians.”
Ennio Morricone, the legendary Italian composer who scored films such as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The Mission and Cinema Paradiso, has died at the age of 91.
Morricone had broken his femur a few days ago in a fall and died during the night in hospital in Rome. His family confirmed the news on July 6 in the Italian publication Corriere Della Sera.
The two-time Oscar winner, also known as “The Maestro”, was born in Rome in 1928. Morricone started playing the trumpet at an early age – his father was a trumpet player – and wrote his first composition when he was just 6 years old. He went on to study classical music before he was hired by RCA in Italy as an arranger for theatre and radio, but also wrote for pop artists including Paul Anka, Françoise Hardy, and Demis Roussos. It wasn’t until the mid-1950s that he started writing for film, at first as a ghostwriter on films credited to other well-known composers, and then with Luciano Salce, starting with 1961’s Il Federale (The Fascist).
The Rome native went on record over 400 scores for cinema and television spanning different genres, from spaghetti westerns to horror and sci-fi films. He is perhaps most remembered for his collaborations with director and former schoolmate Sergio Leone, with whom he first collaborated on 1964’s A Fistful of Dollars (for which they used the Anglicized pseudonisms Bob Robertson and Dan Savio in an effort to convince Italian moviegoers that the movie was a product of Hollywood). “Gradually over time, he as a director and me as a composer, we improved and reached our best, in my opinion, in Once Upon a Time in America,” Morricone said of the Robert DeNiro-starring 1984 gangster drama, which was also Leone’s last film.
Though most known for his work on Spaghetti westerns (a term he was not particularly fond of), the prolific composer also worked on John Carpenter’s The Thing, Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven, Brian de Palma’s The Untouchables, and Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso. He was a big influence on Quentin Tarantino, who hired him for his 2015 western The Hateful Eight. His score earned him his first competitive Oscar after receiving the Honorary Academy Award in 2007 “for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music.”
Director Edgar Wright paid tribute to the late composer on Twitter, writing: “Where to even begin with iconic composer Ennio Morricone? He could make an average movie into a must see, a good movie into art, and a great movie into legend. He hasn’t been off my stereo my entire life. What a legacy of work he leaves behind. RIP.”
The UK government has announced a support package to protect the “future of Britain’s museums, galleries, theatres, independent cinemas, heritage sites and music venues”, according to a press release. The funds will be provided to help support the UK’s arts industries, who have suffered severe financial losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Read the government’s full press release here.
“Our arts and culture are the soul of our nation. They make our country great and are the lynchpin of our world-beating and fast growing creative industries,” Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said. “I understand the grave challenges the arts face and we must protect and preserve all we can for future generations. Today we are announcing a huge support package of immediate funding to tackle the funding crisis they face. I said we would not let the arts down, and this massive investment shows our level of commitment.”
The package, which marks “the biggest one-off investment in UK culture”, comes after weeks of pressure from the arts and heritage sector. Last week, over 1,400 artists including Dua Lipa, Radiohead, Coldplay, and the Rolling Stones signed an open letter addressed to Oliver Dowden as part of the #LetTheMusicPlay campaign to prevent “catastrophic damage” to the music industry in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
“From iconic theatre and musicals, mesmerising exhibitions at our world-class galleries to gigs performed in local basement venues, the UK’s cultural industry is the beating heart of this country,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. “This money will help safeguard the sector for future generations, ensuring arts groups and venues across the UK can stay afloat and support their staff whilst their doors remain closed and curtains remain down.”
The funds include a total sum of £1.15billion directed towards cultural organisations in England, which will be delivered through a mix of £880 million in grants and £270 million in repayable loans. The government said the loans will be “issued on generous terms”.
The package will also allocate £100million to national cultural institutions in England and the English Heritage Trust, as well as £120million of capital investment to help restart construction on cultural infrastructure and heritage construction projects in England that were paused due to COVID-19. It also includes more funding for “the devolved administrations” in Northern Ireland (£33million), Scotland (£97million) and Wales (£59million).
Arts Council England, the Royal Opera House, the Music Venue Trust, the Society of London Theatre, and UK Theatre were among those who responded to the news of the package. “This fund provides the opportunity to stabilise and protect our vibrant and vital network of venues and gives us the time we need to create a plan to safely reopen live music,” said Mark Davyd, chief executive of the Music Venue Trust. Last month, the Music Venue Trust and over 500 UK music venues wrote an open letter to the government asking for £50million in emergency funding for UK music venues.
Though many welcomed the announcement as a necessary step in the right direction, shadow culture secretary Jo Stevens described it as “too little, too late”. She added: “The Government needs to ensure that this vital funding gets to those theatres and other organisations currently teetering on the brink and fast.”
But many industry professionals remain optimistic. “This is a vital next step on the road to recovery for the industry and will help to support and sustain the UK’s vibrant arts ecology through this crisis,” Alex Beard, Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House, said. “Over the months ahead we will need to draw all on our collective ingenuity and determination to adapt to the realities of re-opening our theatres.”
ARTS NEWS
🎭A £1.57 BILLION emergency support package
🩰 Weeks in the making to make this world leading fund to help the arts weather the storm of Covid
🎶 I said I wouldn’t let the arts down. Culture and the arts matter, and this Govt backs you@RishiSunak@ace_national
Arts and culture make our lives richer in every sense
That's why we’re announcing a world leading, £1.57bn package of support – the biggest ever one off investment in UK culture – to help them weather the storm of Covid-19 pic.twitter.com/l78mXdqZz9
Stephen Chbosky’s popular young adult novel of the same name was adapted for the big screen in 2012 to positive reception. A fifteen-year-old boy named Charlie (Logan Lerman) must face high school as an introvert whose only friend is his English teacher (Paul Rudd). However, he finds that he fits in with a group of misfits who happen to be seniors (Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, Mae Whitman). But Charlie is also struggling to cope with his friend’s suicide and his own dark past.
With David Bowie’s “Heroes” as its featured song, the film has a very nostalgic visual aesthetic to complement its setting and soundtrack. Here are ten of the film’s most beautiful stills.
It’s official: Kanye West has announced he is running for president of the United States in 2020. As if this year hasn’t already been crazy enough, the rapper declared his candidacy in a tweet posted on Independence Day (July 4).
“We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States!” he wrote, along with the hashtag #2020VISION.
We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States 🇺🇸! #2020VISION
This is not the first time West has talked about his ambitions to become president – back in November, he said during an event: “When I run for president in 2024, we would’ve created so many jobs that I’m not going to run, I’m going to walk.” He also posted a tweet that simply read “2024”. This time, it seems he has moved his hopes up one cycle.
It is unclear whether the 43-year-old West has filed any official paperwork to appear on state election ballots – the filing deadline for adding independent candidates has passed in several states, but not all. But the unlikely challenger to Donald Trump and Joe Biden has the endorsement of at least one prominent figure: Elon Musk.
“You have my full support,” Musk tweeted. Just a couple of days ago, West posted a photo of him and Musk side by side with the caption “When you go to your boys house and you’re both wearing orange”.
