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Scherzetto review – Toni Servillo brings gravitas to a dithering Neapolitan ghost story

Venice film festival The Venice fixture plays an illustrator haunted by his boyhood in Mario Martone’s part spooky, part sentimental oddity It’s always good to see the veteran Italian star Toni Servillo at Venice; in fact, the festival is pretty much unthinkable without him. But this initially promising prospect – adapted from a novel by Domenico Starnone – is a minor, quibbling tonal oddity, unsure if it wants to be scary or sentimental. Servillo lends it as much gravitas as he can: his mere presence is valuable ballast and the streetscape scenes of Naples are handled with a connoisseur’s touch by director Mario Martone, whose previous Naples-set movie Nostalgia was far superior. Daniele (played by Servillo) is a septuagenarian book illustrator whose old-fashioned, hand-drawn artistry is something he testily treasures. He has come back to his family home in Naples, to the gloomy apartment where he was brought up, just behind the train station, and where his grownup daughter Betta (...

French FA accuses Infantino of ‘seriously damaging’ football as it withdraws support

‘Image and unity’ of game affected, FFF president says It will consult sacked former Fifa official Kevin Lamour The French Football Federation’s president, Philippe Diallo, said Gianni Infantino had “seriously damaged the image and the unity of football” as he announced the end of France’s support for the Fifa president’s re-election. The FFF’s executive committee unanimously voted on Thursday to withdraw its backing, which had been formalised at the end of June. Diallo referred to “events during the World Cup” which had “flagrantly gone against the way we believe our sport should be run” and to Infantino’s World Cup sell-off plan, which was revealed in July and scrapped after a widespread backlash. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/zWG8DYl

Péter Nádas obituary

Hungarian author who explored memory and history in his fiction and was nominated for a Nobel prize The writer Péter Nádas, who has died aged 83, transformed the modern history of his native Hungary into epic fiction that rooted its upheavals and calamities in the minds, and bodies, of his all-too-human characters. “I’m not a historian,” he said. “I’m not an anthropologist, nor am I a sociologist. I work with the fates of individuals.” Those individuals filled a series of books that, in their scope, depth and stylistic ambition, made Nádas a perennial contender for the Nobel prize in literature. Yet it would be his younger compatriot László Krasznahorkai, drawing on the senior writer’s example, who took that honour in 2025 . Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/wLdcC5U

Ikea wins right to launch legal action against Belgian far-right party

EU’s highest court allows Swedish furniture firm to begin proceedings after Vlaams Belang used its trademarks in immigration campaign Ikea has won the right to take legal action against a Belgian far-right political party that parodied the Swedish flatpack furniture firm’s branding in its anti-immigration campaign. In a ruling on Tuesday, Europe’s highest court said that Ikea had the right to oppose the use of its trademarks and distinctive graphics by Vlaams Belang, a rightwing Eurosceptic political party that advocates for an independent Flemish state. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/W2qLkbS

‘Safety, security and service’: behind the scenes with police at Arsenal v Chelsea

Facial recognition and spotters part of operation at Emirates that involved a dozen incidents and two arrests The concourses are silent when, deep in the Emirates Stadium’s bowels, Chief Inspector Pete Dearden’s briefing begins. Arsenal’s 4.30pm kick-off against Chelsea is still hours away but the fixture carries significance as a London derby and because the Premier League champions are hosting a realistic challenger. Dearden is a senior officer in the Metropolitan police’s public order command and Sunday’s matchday commander. He is, to borrow football jargon, giving the pre-match team talk, running through intelligence and in-game tactics. “Set the right style and tone,” he says. After Dearden has finished, the police room becomes a pseudo-station for the afternoon, with all incidents triaged by the same crime officer. Football offences can be found in niche legislation, and the Met wants London’s matchdays to be, so far as possible, policed uniformly. Continue reading... from Th...

Hawaii declares state of emergency as Hurricane Lowell approaches islands

Storm, which may make impact as soon as Monday, is third system in weeks to threaten state during hurricane season Hawaii has declared a state of emergency as powerful Hurricane Lowell makes its way toward the islands, with the first impacts expected as soon as Monday. The storm is the third system in just over three weeks to threaten Hawaii during an active hurricane season in the central Pacific. Lowell remained a category 3 hurricane early on Sunday morning, packing winds of 125 miles per hour while moving north-west at six miles per hour. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/E12JqVy

European football: Lamine Yamal’s double powers Barcelona to rout of Valencia

Fermín, Raphinha and Pedri also score in 5-0 La Liga win Goalkeeper Koeman Jr scores two penalties in Eredivisie Lamine Yamal struck twice for Barcelona as they demolished Valencia 5-0 on Sunday to maintain their 100% start in La Liga. The reigning champions moved three points clear at the top of La Liga after Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid lost 1-0 at Real Betis on Friday. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/FAXCPMW