Latest news with #Elie
Boston Globe
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Madonna's crosses, Scorcese's temptations: why did so much art in the 80s talk about God?
It was a hinge year. The previous decades' protest and countercultural movements left fertile ground for creativity, as artists from Warhol's associate Basquiat and musicians from U2 to Madonna to Leonard Cohen to the Smiths began to produce a flood of what Elie terms 'crypto-religious' art. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'Crypto-religious art, in my formulation, is work that uses [religious] imagery, motif, theme, and patterns but in a way that expresses something other than conventional religious belief,' Elie says. Encounters with this type of work tend to invite listeners and viewers and readers to question our own beliefs — particularly when the work also introduces tension between the spiritual and the sexual. 'The second Vatican council in the 1960s changed many things,' Elie says, 'and one was to empower ordinary Catholics to use their own consciences to make decisions,' especially about their own sexual lives. While the emerging freedom sought by the city's LGBTQ population was often at odds with religious establishments, regular lay Christians understood that when Prince sang 'I would die for U,' he was speaking as your lover and as your savior. Advertisement Not surprisingly, this work attracted anger from institutional religious forces, and far too many churches saw the devastating AIDS crisis burning through New York's artistic community as validation for their fear and hatred. And yet, the art created in New York in the 1980s, in all its messy duality of saints and sinners, has endured over the past four decades. Elie suggests that past is prologue. 'In the 80s you had a very worldly president making common cause with the religious right and exalting wide-open capitalism, and the media rushing to consecrate it as the age of Reagan,' he says. 'So now you have a very worldly president making common cause with a religious right, and a wide-open capitalism, and the media rushing to consecrate the age of Trump. But to speak of the variety and vigor and vitality and power of the work that was produced in those times is to know that it can happen now.' Paul Elie will read at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 29, at And now for some recommendations…. Ocean Vuong's ' Advertisement Stephen King writes too many books for so many of them to continue to be this good. In the witty and propulsive ' Caroline Fraser won big praise for her previous book, 'Prairie Fires,' which told the dual story of Laura Ingalls Wilder and the daughter whose behind-the-scenes work helped make her mother an icon. In ' Kate Tuttle edits the Globe's Books pages. Kate Tuttle, a freelance writer and critic, can be reached at
Los Angeles Times
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
‘The Last Supper': Paul Elie feasts on artistic ferment over religion in the '80s
In his gripping and essential new book 'The Last Supper,' Paul Elie captures a pivot point in 20th century social history, when certain ideas about religion, art and sex in the '80s crashed headlong into each other during an epoch that tends to be shrugged off by historians as a quiet interval between the gas shortages and political malfeasance of the '70s and the emergent technological revolution of the '90s. But it was in fact a breeding ground of artistic ferment, in which creatives grappled with what Elie calls crypto-religion, that 'liminal space between belief and disbelief' that produced a wealth of thought-provoking popular art. Elie's masterful survey is a group portrait of artists and their fellow travelers who participated during a bloody crossroads in American life, when Ronald Reagan's ascension to the White House in 1980 collapsed the walls between church and state, sparking a counterrevolution across the arts. It is this dialogue, this back-and-forth, that drives Elie's fascinating survey, placing the reader in the thick of a convulsive era when ideas about the role of religion in modern life were fighting it out in the public sphere in ways that we haven't seen since. Among these voters that swept him into the presidency in 1980, Reagan was a savior, wresting the country away from the unchecked permissiveness and aggressive secularism of the prior two decades into a new era of 'family values' that encompassed adherence to the straight and narrow, of which biblical scripture was the key text. Gathering up zealots like Jerry Falwell under his new revival tent, Reagan preached the virtues of heterosexual marriage, of preserving the life of the unborn fetus, of chastity and moderation. The Roman Catholic Church had Reagan's back. Pope John Paul II, who had ascended to the papacy in 1978, toured the world like a beatific rock star, preaching the gospel of this new sobriety in football stadiums across the country. This was Christianity leached of all nuance or moral ambiguity, a battering ram of religious doctrine. What emerged from this great leap backward was a diverse efflorescence of art that directly addressed the very things the church ignored. Elie calls it crypto-religion, in which artists negotiated the 'liminal space between belief and non-belief,' and in so doing, created a rich body of work that raised the question 'of what the person who made it believes, so that the question of what it means to believe is crucial to the work's effect.' Elie's cast of characters — an eclectic list that includes Andy Warhol, Sinéad O'Connor, Bob Dylan, Bono, Czeslaw Milosz, Martin Scorsese and Robert Mapplethorpe — were, to varying degrees, children of the church who had internalized its tenets at a time when religion was still a central fact of life in America and Europe in the '50s and '60s. As Elie astutely points out, even an artist as outwardly estranged from religious life as Warhol carried with him the lessons of the Polish Byzantine Order of his youth. 'He made silk-screen images of skulls, memento-mori style,' writes Elie. 'He dressed dolls as priests and nuns and photographed them.' As an adult, Warhol attended church, albeit sporadically, and accepted a commission to refashion Leonardo's da Vinci's 'The Last Supper' for an exhibition in Milan. What these crypto-religious artists shared was a vision of divinity shot through with doubt and wonder, weighing the desires of the flesh against the ephemerality of the holy spirit. It was necessary for these insurrectionists to embrace faith on their own terms, transmuting their internal theological dialogues into popular art. On his 1979 album, 'Slow Train Coming,' Dylan had come out in no uncertain terms as a man who now held fast to Jesus love. That record would have a profound influence on O'Connor, the Irish singer who wrestled with God like a scorned lover: 'Tell me, where did the light die?' she sang in her song 'Troy.' U2, whose lead singer Bono also looked to Dyan as an exemplar, turned the tropes of arena rock inside out, so that a garage-rock classic like 'Gloria' becomes a 'crisis of faith,' an 'anthem of self-surrender' in which the devotion Bono feels 'involves something larger than himself, and he's trying to empty himself of everything that's not in it.' As religion and crypto-religion were locked in mortal combat, the AIDS plague was sweeping across gay communities like a firestorm, to the complete indifference of the federal government and their Christian handmaidens. The gay artistic community was ravaged, many of its greatest creative geniuses felled by the disease. But a groundswell of protest art was answering the call with a new kind of ardent feeling that damned the false piety and hypocrisy of homophobic Christian doctrine. Peter Hujar, who would die from AIDS in 1987, used solemn, stark portraiture to create a new kind of crypto-religious iconography, while his compatriot David Wojnarowicz, another victim of AIDS, channeled his rage toward homophobic indifference into mixed-media pieces that restored his subjects' bruised humanism. Then there was Scorsese. The filmmaker, who had been raised in a strict Catholic household in New York's Little Italy and had in his prior films grappled with ideas of belief in a violent world, was obsessed with adapting Nikos Kazantzakis' 1955 novel 'The Last Temptation of Christ.' It took years to drum up the financing, but when the 1988 film was completed, the religious right did everything in its power to block its release. No wonder: Here was crypto-religious art writ large, a vision of Jesus who was all too human, plagued by doubt and a troubled inner life. It was, according to Elie, the 'Jesus of history more than the Christ of faith' — a man first, in other words. This dovetailed with the work of scholars such as Elaine Pagels, who were framing Jesus as a historical figure, rather than the 'Christ of faith.' Where has all of this crypto-religious practice left us in 2025? That liminal space that Elie describes between belief and disbelief has closed, at least for the time being. Yet even as 'the American population has become less religious and religiosity more diverse,' the idea of mainstream artists grappling with religion no longer exists, perhaps because such matters are irrelevant in an aggressively outward-directed, spiritually bereft time. Elie's brilliant book is a bracing reminder of art's far-reaching power in matters of the heart and soul. His expansive vision of the '80s rings out like a clarion call for a new era of rigorous artistic engagement with the unknowable and the unseen. Weingarten is the author of 'Thirsty: William Mulholland, California Water, and the Real Chinatown.'
USA Today
21-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Rockets, Mario Elie celebrate 30-year anniverary of iconic ‘Kiss of Death' in NBA playoffs
Rockets, Mario Elie celebrate 30-year anniverary of iconic 'Kiss of Death' in NBA playoffs It was exactly 30 years ago when Mario Elie sparked Houston to its most recent NBA championship. With his iconic 'Kiss of Death' at Phoenix, it was the last elimination game those Rockets would face. Known best as the 'Kiss of Death,' this Tuesday marks the 30th anniversary of the most famous shot in Houston Rockets franchise history, courtesy of three-time NBA champion Mario Elie. Via his X account, Elie shared highlights and interviews to celebrate the occasion. It was May 20, 1995, when Elie hit a corner 3-pointer with under 10 seconds left in Game 7 at Phoenix. The legendary shot broke a tie and lifted the Rockets to victory in the game (box score) and the Western Conference semifinal series, which they had previously trailed by a 3-1 margin. Led by Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson, the Suns (59-23) were much better than Houston (47-35) in the 1994-95 regular season. But true to their nickname, 'Clutch City' was a different beast in the playoffs. And just a few weeks later, those Rockets secured their second straight NBA championship. (Elie captured his third title in 1999 with San Antonio.) On Tuesday's anniversary, via their social media outlets, the Rockets posted video of Elie's heroic shot — which proved to be the final elimination game that Houston would face on its 1995 championship run. The Phoenix shot is perhaps best remembered for what occurred right after it, with Elie blowing a kiss in the direction of the home bench. The Suns never had a realistic shot to tie the game after Elie's make, with head coach Rudy Tomjanovich opting to foul the Suns with a 3-point lead. In a story on the shot's 20th anniversary, Elie told the Houston Chronicle that the kiss was gestured at backup Suns center Joe Kleine. Elie said: He started that in Game 5. It started as fun, but I got the last kiss. It was just emotion, friendly competition, and us going at each other for the second year in a row. It was a somewhat risky play by Elie on multiple levels. With the shot clock off, Tomjanovich ideally wanted the Rockets to take the game's last shot, so that the worst-case scenario was overtime. Because Elie shot early, a miss would likely have allowed the Suns a shot to win in regulation. Those Rockets also had two future Hall of Famers on the court in Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler. On paper, one of those two would seem be the preferred option in a late-game scenario. But Elie was open after a cross-court pass by Robert Horry, and he fired without hesitation. 'Robert threw a high pass, and I had to jump to get it,' Elie said. 'But I had time to gather myself and get a great look at the basket.' Olajuwon and Drexler each had 29 points in the victory, which was just the fifth time in NBA history that a road team had won a Game 7. But it was the final shot of an 8-point outing by a veteran role player — known best for his defense and toughness — that the game is best remembered for. 'My kids don't think the old man could play,' Elie told the Houston Chronicle in 2015. 'I can show them on video that I was pretty good.' Unfortunately, the 30-year anniversary of Elie's heroic shot also reflects the last season in which the Rockets won the NBA championship. But Houston (52-30) just finished up a 2024-25 season with the league's fourth-best record and a relatively young and improving roster, so there's hope that the drought could end in the not-too-distant future. More: As Rockets celebrate anniversary of 1990s titles, Ime Udoka shares his personal connection
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Shifting Baselines,' Examining SpaceX's Impact on Boca Chica, Home to Elon Musk's Starbase, Picked Up by Filmotor (EXCLUSIVE)
Prague-based doc specialist Filmotor has picked up the rights for Julien Elie's 'Shifting Baselines,' set to have its world premiere in the international feature competition at leading doc festival Visions du Réel. 'I first encountered the project at VdR-Work in Progress last year and immediately felt the strong urgency to distribute this poetic and creative documentary about the space race and Space X. After the American elections, we felt it even more… It's crucial that we pay attention not only to the events on our planet but also to what's happening in space and our orbit,' Filmotor CEO, Michaela Čajková, tells Variety. More from Variety 'The Eukrainian' Director on Documenting Ukraine's Fight for a European Future Ahead of CPH:DOX Premiere (EXCLUSIVE) 'Ai Weiwei's Turandot,' Behind-the-Scenes Look at His Radical Opera Production, Lands Sales Deal With Rise and Shine (EXCLUSIVE) Documentary Filmmakers Blast Proposal to Shut Down Miami Beach's O Cinema: 'An Attack on Freedom of Expression' Set in the Texan border town of Boca Chica, 'Shifting Baselines' examines the transformation of the area due to SpaceX's Starbase, the rocket launch facility that serves as a primary testing and production ground for Elon Musk's Starship launch vehicles, which he hopes will take Man to Mars. Located on the edge of the Gulf of Mexico, it is surrounded by protected lands, part of a national wildlife refuge home to hundreds of species, including sea turtles and rare birds. Some of this land is now littered with rocket debris from failed launches. When Elie first arrived in Boca Chica with his camera in 2022, he had little idea of what he would find. What he discovered, he tells Variety, was a striking setting for a film. 'For a filmmaker, it's a dream: it's like a cinema set! You even have the characters because there are people from all over the world – Japan, China, Canada, America. They talk to you about their fears, about how bad the world is doing, about the pandemic. People just like the idea of escaping this world.' Elie draws a parallel between the space enthusiasts – who proudly wear 'Occupy Mars' T-shirts – and their ancestors, who took over indigenous lands in America. Just as earlier colonization led to the displacement and massacre of native peoples, these space pioneers now view Mars as the next frontier. 'I mean, we probably will go to Mars, maybe 25 or 30 years from now, not in two or three years. But people are really convinced. [They think] everything is destroyed here, so we have to escape, we need to have a plan B planet, rather than try to make things better here on Earth,' says Elie. 'That's what the film talks about: the nonsense of humanity's endless drive to conquer every available territory. Now, the sky is the ultimate limit.' With most of Boca Chica's homes bought up by SpaceX, the village has been turned into a sprawling compound for hundreds of workers, an entire ecosystem built around the Starbase. The film takes viewers on a cinematic black-and-white journey through the village and its surroundings, to meet the few remaining residents, the space enthusiasts drawn to the site, and the activists raising alarms about its environmental impact. Elie also interviews astrophysicists, who are part of a growing number of scientists warning of the growing risks posed by the unchecked expansion of satellite networks and space debris. 'They help us understand the danger posed by the space race, the contamination caused by satellites and space debris. The small village of Boca Chica is like the meeting point of that contamination, between the sky and the Earth, where biologists are trying to preserve birds' nests in a place that's being destroyed by human activity,' he says. The film's title was inspired by a concept coined by marine biologist Daniel Pauly, who also appears in the doc: 'Shifting Baselines explains our habituation to environmental changes,' Elie explains. 'Watching the sky transform with the proliferation of satellites, I thought of applying this concept, which was first invented to explain the disappearance of fish, to the new space conquest that will transform the sky forever.' The monochromatic aesthetic lends the film a poetic, dramatic quality which seemed fitting. 'When I first saw those rockets, I thought they looked like they were from another age, another civilization,' Elie says. 'This film is like a portrait of humanity today, as if captured by others. Black and white creates a kind of distance… Are they fake? Are they toys? When you look at the SpaceX installation and those rockets, it feels like you're in a 1960s science fiction movie from Russia or Eastern Europe,' he smiles. Elie's previous credits include 2018 multi-award winner 'Dark Suns,' about the epidemic of femicides in Mexico, and 'La Garde Blanche' (2023), also set in Mexico, which explores the terror and violence forged by the collusion between big corporations, drug cartels and the government. 'Shifting Baselines' is produced by Elie, Andreas Mendritzki and Aonan Yang at Montreal-based GreenGround Productions. It will have its world premiere at Visions du Réel on April 5. Visions du Réel runs from April 4 to 13 in Nyon, Switzerland. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Oscars 2026: First Blind Predictions Including Timothée Chalamet, Emma Stone, 'Wicked: For Good' and More What's Coming to Disney+ in March 2025
ME Construction
17-03-2025
- Business
- ME Construction
Ohana Development breaks ground on ‘Elie Saab Waterfront By Ohana'
Industry News Ohana Development breaks ground on 'Elie Saab Waterfront By Ohana' By The project will feature the fluid curves of a veil swaying gracefully in the breeze and is scheduled for completion in Q2 2027 said the developer Ohana Development has commenced construction on ELIE SAAB Waterfront by Ohana, a residential project on Abu Dhabi's Al Reem Island. Designed to set new benchmarks in luxury living, the development will bring ELIE SAAB's design vision combining art and architecture, the developer said. Inspired by the concept of 'sculpture in motion', ELIE SAAB Waterfront by Ohana will feature fluid curves of a veil swaying gracefully in the breeze. The architecture will be crowned by a dual-level penthouse complete with an infinity pool, the developer explained in a statement. 'ELIE SAAB Waterfront by Ohana represents our commitment to redefining the UAE's luxury real estate landscape. By collaborating with ELIE SAAB, the world-renowned fashion designer, we are creating a residential experience that merges unparalleled design with the highest standards of quality,' commented Husein Salem, CEO of Ohana Development. The project will comprise 174 units, and each residence is said to be designed to reflect ELIE SAAB's attention to detail and commitment to elegance. Amenities include a children's playground, outdoor pool, landscaped gardens, additional visitor parking, a fully equipped gym, an electric vehicle charging station, and padel court. Scheduled for completion in Q2 2027, ELIE SAAB Waterfront by Ohana will offer panoramic views of the Arabian Gulf and Abu Dhabi's skyline. Residents will have convenient access to Abu Dhabi's destinations, including Reem Mall and Reem Central Park. With its location and amenities, the project promises an unparalleled lifestyle of sophistication and comfort, the statement concluded.
