Latest news with #Danish-born
CairoScene
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- CairoScene
Renowned Chef Mads Refslund Loves the Chaos of Egypt's Food Culture
In this Scene Eats exclusive interview, Refslund takes us through what it takes to create a dining experience that speaks to the people, place and culture of a space. Jul 16, 2025 On Egypt's North Coast, where the Mediterranean softens into a salt breeze and the desert exhales into design, Chef Mads Refslund is doing what he does best: starting from scratch. 'Everywhere I go,' he says, 'I'm trying to tell a story from the time and place I'm at.' That place, for now, is Ramla - Marakez's sandy beachfront escape, built for the art of slow living, is now the refined stretch of shoreline hosting the opening act of WHEN WE EAT's Signature Dinner Series - a month-long culinary project bringing global chefs to Sahel's coast from July 15 to August 15. First to arrive is Refslund, the Danish-born co-founder of Noma - one of the most influential restaurants in the world - and the chef behind Brooklyn's genre-defying ILIS, named Best New Restaurant 2023 by Esquire and Most Important Restaurant Opening 2024 by La Liste. A pioneer of the New Nordic movement, Refslund is known for his fire-and-ice cooking philosophy, his obsession with fermentation, and a forager's respect for the natural world. His three-night residency - running July 16, 17, and 19 - reframes coastal Egyptian ingredients through his singular lens. Think seafood, fruit, salt, flame. But don't expect a menu printed in advance. 'Everyone wants a menu up front,' he says, 'but I want to create it when I get here - when I can smell and taste everything.' That meant a 4 a.m. trip to Alexandria's oldest fish market, where chaos and tradition mingle in a salt-stung air. 'It felt like walking into something that's been happening for 60 years. Very hectic. But I loved it.' From those stalls to the seaside table, Refslund builds his menu in real time: hyper-local ingredients transformed through fire and intuition. 'It'll be a mix of the way we cook and all the ingredients from here,' he says. 'It has to feel rooted.' And though the flavours may be unexpected, his hope is human. 'Hopefully a lot of these people will become friends,' he says. 'Sharing a good meal is something that talks to the heart.' Refslund is just the beginning. He'll be followed by Kelvin Cheung of Jun's in Dubai (ranked No. 7 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025), known for his vibrant takes on diasporic Indian-Chinese flavours, and Brando Moros of Michelin-starred 11 Woodfire (No. 28 on the list), whose food draws power from char, smoke, and the purity of a single flame-kissed ingredient. The season's final supper takes place on August 15th, when Alex Atala - chef of D.O.M. in São Paulo (2 Michelin stars) - prepares a one-night-only multi-sensory dinner beside Ramla's tidal pools. For bookings head to:
Daily Mirror
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
King Charles and Queen Camilla send special message to senior royal
Charles and Camilla have wished a happy birthday to the Duchess of Gloucester on her 79th birthday, as she continues her lifetime of service to the Firm King Charles and Queen Camilla have sent a special message to the Duchess of Gloucester on her 79th birthday, sharing a unique portrait of the senior working royal. Marking her birthday on Friday, the King and Queen shared an elegant photo of Birgitte on social media, wishing her the best for her birthday celebrations. The photograph showed the Duchess dressed in a cream ensemble with a wide-brimmed hat and pearl necklace. The photo was captured during her hosting of the Not Forgotten Association garden party at Buckingham Palace in May. The birthday message featured a simple caption reading "Happy Birthday to The Duchess of Gloucester!" accompanied by a celebration emoji. The Danish-born royal, who is married to the late Queen Elizabeth II's cousin Prince Richard, continues her extensive programme of royal duties as one of the senior working members of the royal family. Birgitte, Duchess of Gloucester - born Birgitte Eva van Deurs Henriksen on June 20th 1946 - first met Prince Richard while studying at Cambridge University in the late 1960s, with the couple marrying on July 8th 1972 at St Andrew's Church in Northamptonshire. On her wedding day, Birgitte opted for a dress created by one of the late Queen Elizabeth's favourite designers Norman Hartnell, and teamed the stunning look with a floral headpiece instead of a traditional tiara. Just six weeks after their wedding, Prince Richard's elder brother, Prince William of Gloucester, was killed in a flying accident, with Prince Richard then unexpectedly became heir apparent to the dukedom. Prince Richard and Birgitte assumed their current titles as Duke and Duchess of Gloucester when Prince Richard's father, Prince Henry, passed away in 1974. The Gloucesters have three children together - Alexander, Davina and Rose. The couple's union has now spanned five decades, as they continue their years of service and dedication to the Crown, attending many royal engagements alongside King Charles and Queen Camilla. Recently, the Duchess made a notable appearance earlier this week at the Garter Day procession in Windsor, having been invested as a Royal Lady Companion to the Order of the Garter last year. She also attended Royal Ascot on Wednesday.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Norwegian Director Joachim Trier Talks ‘Sentimental Value': ‘People That Deny Emotions Make Terrible Choices'
'Brat' summer is dead — long live 'Joachim Trier Summer,' as proclaimed by Elle Fanning, and her playful T-shirt, at Cannes. 'After three years of hard work, I'd love to have a three-year-long summer,' laughs the Danish-born Norwegian director after the premiere of 'Sentimental Value.' More from Variety 'Aisha Can't Fly Away' Review: Buliana Simon Stuns in Morad Mostafa's Intriguing if Uneven Immigrant Tale 'Resurrection' Review: Bi Gan's Extravagant Act of Surrender to the Seductions of a Century of Cinema 'The Party's Over' Review: South of France-Set Satire Follows an Escalating Class Conflict Starring Renate Reinsve — reuniting with Trier after the hit 'The Worst Person in the World' — Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas and Fanning, it premiered to rave reviews. But unlike some other Palme d'Or contenders, it touched the audience as well. 'I'm grateful and a bit exhausted, but most of all relieved. I had a feeling yesterday that people received it well, and I was in a room with a lot of love. It's an emotional, personal piece of cinema,' he tells Variety. In the film, sisters Nora (Reinsve) and Agnes (Lilleaas) have to say goodbye to their late mother — and hello to their absentee father Gustav, a film director struggling to get new feature off the ground. But he recently wrote a script about his own mom, who killed himself when he was a boy. And wants the newly famous Nora to play the lead. Although he's talking about a fellow director, Trier 'doesn't feel like Gustav,' he says. 'I started writing it from the perspective of the sisters and then I tried to humanize Gustav. He comes from a completely different generation; he's a part of that '80s, '90s cinema. But you're right: maybe I'm exercising my anxieties of what it's like to come to an end of a directorial career?' He adds: 'That's why I like Westerns: so many of them are about the end of an era. That's just the way things go. Many people from that generation are slowly fading away from our industry, and one day it'll be my turn.' Before he wanders away like John Wayne in 'The Searchers,' Trier's happy to talk about 'Sentimental Value' and the main trio who's back at their old house and facing old secrets — including that of Gustav's mother's past. 'The hardest part was to represent the past traumas of the Second World War, which I know from my family. It takes it into a slightly more political or historical perspective than I have in some of my other films. I grew up with a grandfather who was in the resistance and was tremendously traumatized: he was caught and barely survived. It created a climate of survival in the homes of our parents'. And that affected emotional communication.' Trier 'wanted to explore how inherited grief travels through the house and through the family.' Working with regular co-writer Eskil Vogt made it easier to get some distance. 'There's also this notion of humanist cinema. I can't write about antagonists, even though the world is all about that right now. The antagonist and 'the other' as an enemy. It doesn't interest me. I'm interested in understanding the complexity of why people end up hurting and disappointing each other. I'm interested in tenderness. I think it comes from the director's personality as well. I genuinely … like people. I'm an extrovert and I'm curious. And if some find that style too 'emotional,' fuck it. That's who I am.' Gustav's avoiding emotions, which makes things hard for his daughters. But at least he can write a script. 'That's the core of the story: that's all he can do. In the beginning, we think he's an asshole for doing it. We think he's trying to benefit from Nora's fame. I'm generalizing a bit, but Gustav Borg, and other men of his generation, weren't raised with the capacity for that emotional, tender language,' he says. 'I get asked a lot about gender perspectives on characters. I need these characters to be myself as well. They're me and then they are not. I know Renate, so she can come back with some feedback. But why should it be easier to write a man like Gustav, so much older than me, than to write a woman who's closer to my age?' he wonders. 'Me, I was [allowed to cry]. I used to skateboard, and we did talk a lot about emotions, but we were also kind of tough. I broke my arms and legs, and that's not when you cry. There's this kind of shamefulness around it, but people that deny emotions make terrible choices.' A third-generation filmmaker, he's had a camera in his hands all his life. 'It's easier for me than writing or doing anything else.' But while Gustav hires U.S. star (Fanning) to act in his English-language movie, Trier enjoys his own way of working for now. 'When I grew up, everyone was playing music. I was a shitty drummer and got kicked out of the punk band I was in. But I'm a filmmaker now, and I try to have the same band,' he says. 'This industry is so big. I love experimentation, and I love mainstream, but I'd say: Maybe we can do something in between? That's a big question: Can you stay at home and be successful? Right now, I'm experiencing my dream, which was to be a local band that had fans around the world. 'Fans' sounds a bit pretentious, but at least an audience,' he says. 'With this one, it really felt like we were in it for the right reasons. We have Neon in the U.S., and they're doing a great job, but what's Hollywood today, really? I love the fact we have films with Tom Cruise, and I will see 'Mission: Impossible,' but I'd never compromise the kind of creative control I've had from film one. I don't know another system that could offer me this way of working.' He doesn't take it for granted, he admits. 'With every film, I have this little demon at the back of my head, telling me it's the last one. You never feel safe. Making a film means always going through a little bit of a crisis. I remember reading an interview with Philip Roth once, and he said that with every new book, it felt impossible. I found it so comforting.' Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Talk/Scripted Variety Series - The Variety Categories Are Still a Mess; Netflix, Dropout, and 'Hot Ones' Stir Up Buzz Oscars Predictions 2026: 'Sinners' Becomes Early Contender Ahead of Cannes Film Festival
Metro
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
The ‘must-watch' film of 2025 just received a 19-minute standing ovation at Cannes
Joachim Trier's film Sentimental Value has been praised at the Cannes Film Festival with an incredibly long standing ovation. Sentimental Value has made history at Cannes as it received a 19-minute standing ovation – the third longest ovation in the festival's history. It premiered at the Grand Théâtre Lumière on Wednesday night and wowed the audience with a tale about a successful actor who is dealing with crippling stage fright and complicated relationships with her family. The comedy-drama is reportedly moving and meditates on sisterhood, fatherhood, and abandonment. The film is set in Oslo and comes from Danish-born Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier, who was praised for his 2021 film The Worst Person in the World. Starring Renate Reinsve (who also appeared in The Worst Person in the World), Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Elle Fanning and Cory Michael Smith, it has a completely stacked cast who all looked in awe by the reception of the film. The festival has become known for some outrageously long standing ovations to show the audience's admiration for a film. In top spot is Guillermo del Toro's 2006 Pan's Labyrinth with 22 minutes, then the 2004 documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11 taking second spot with 20 minutes. So far at the 2025 festival, The History of Sound starring Josh O'Connor and Paul Mescal received a nine-minute standing ovation, while Pillion got an eight-minute applause. Scarlett Johannson's directorial debut, Eleanor The Great, received a six-minute ovation, as did Highest 2 Lowest from Spike Lee. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme received a seven-and-a-half-minute ovation, and Die, My Love starring Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Lawrence received an impressive nine-minute ovation. The film has also received a huge Rotten Tomatoes score with a 100% ranking from the 10 critics who have already released their reviews of the film. For Indie Wire, David Ehrlich said: 'A layered masterpiece that 'The Worst Person in the World' director Joachim Trier has been working toward for his entire career.' Richard Lawson said for Vanity Fair: 'Trier has once again crafted a film that is graceful and limber, thoughtful and surprising. Sentimental Value doesn't land with the same wallop as 'Worst Person', but it is plenty affecting in its own insightful, poignant way.' For Variety, Peter Debruge said: 'I tend to think of 'therapy through filmmaking' as a bad thing, by which I mean that artists with unresolved personal issues would do better to sort those matters out in private. Joachim Trier's 'Sentimental Value' offers an inspiring exception.' Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you.
Metro
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
The 'must-watch' film of 2025 just received a 19-minute standing ovation
Joachim Trier's film Sentimental Value has been praised at the Cannes Film Festival with an incredibly long standing ovation. Sentimental Value has made history at Cannes as it received a 19-minute standing ovation – the third longest ovation in the festival's history. It premiered at the Grand Théâtre Lumière on Wednesday night and wowed the audience with a tale about a successful actor who is dealing with crippling stage fright and complicated relationships with her family. The comedy-drama is reportedly moving and meditates on sisterhood, fatherhood, and abandonment. The film is set in Oslo and comes from Danish-born Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier, who was praised for his 2021 film The Worst Person in the World. Starring Renate Reinsve (who also appeared in The Worst Person in the World), Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Elle Fanning and Cory Michael Smith, it has a completely stacked cast who all looked in awe by the reception of the film. The festival has become known for some outrageously long standing ovations to show the audience's admiration for a film. In top spot is Guillermo del Toro's 2006 Pan's Labyrinth with 22 minutes, then the 2004 documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11 taking second spot with 20 minutes. So far at the 2025 festival, The History of Sound starring Josh O'Connor and Paul Mescal received a nine-minute standing ovation, while Pillion got an eight-minute applause. Scarlett Johannson's directorial debut, Eleanor The Great, received a six-minute ovation, as did Highest 2 Lowest from Spike Lee. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme received a seven and a half minute ovation, and Die, My Love with Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Lawrence. The film has also received a huge Rotten Tomatoes score with a 100% ranking from the 10 critics who have already released their reviews of the film. More Trending For Indie Wire, David Ehrlich said: 'A layered masterpiece that 'The Worst Person in the World' director Joachim Trier has been working toward for his entire career.' Richard Lawson said for Vanity Fair: 'Trier has once again crafted a film that is graceful and limber, thoughtful and surprising. Sentimental Value doesn't land with the same wallop as 'Worst Person', but it is plenty affecting in its own insightful, poignant way.' For Variety, Peter Debruge said: 'I tend to think of 'therapy through filmmaking' as a bad thing, by which I mean that artists with unresolved personal issues would do better to sort those matters out in private. Joachim Trier's 'Sentimental Value' offers an inspiring exception.' Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Tony Todd's 'mortality hung over everything' on Final Destination set before his death MORE: 'Heartwarming' new comedy storms up Netflix chart with staggering 20,000,000 views MORE: Kevin Spacey fights back tears before declaring 'I'm still standing' in fiery Cannes speech
