ObituaryPaul Rivière obituaryStanding by the Republic
On June 17, 1940, France's new prime minister, Marshal Petain, announced that he had asked the Germans for an armistice. 'The fighting,' he said, 'must cease.' For the officers and cadets of the Saumur cavalry school, to surrender without fighting was unacceptable. Thus came the first Resistance action, as for three days the Saumur contingent held up the German advance.
Amongst the Saumur fighters was Paul Rivière, who has died aged 86.
Philip French's classic DVDFritz LangReview(Fritz Lang, 1928, Eureka!, PG)Reeling from the box-office disaster of his monumental science-fiction movie Metropolis, Fritz Lang was still contracted to Berlin’s UFA studio, whose bosses now demanded a cheaper surefire success in the crowd-pleasing style of his early thrillers. The result was Spione (aka Spies), which circulated in severely truncated versions until 2006, when the German restorers drew on a variety of prints to bring it back to the original three-hour duration.
ArtWith his odd symbols and signs, the East German painter created a ‘democratic’ style in defiance of the state. A new exhibition shows how his vision was inspired by the trauma of conflict and the cold war
In 1979, the Stasi entered Ralf Winkler’s Dresden studio and trashed the place. It was the culmination of a harassment campaign against the artist, who found fame under the pseudonym AR Penck, for refusing to make social-realist propaganda.
Through the roofHawaii firesThe Maui wildfires illuminated the ongoing failures of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act
On a one-acre farm at the foot of Maui’s dormant Haleakalā volcano, Kekoa Enomoto grows dragonfruit, pineapples, yuzu, avocado, kabocha squash and chilli peppers. She tends to a laying chicken, two honeybee hives and an aquaponics system that spawns Mexican oregano, lemongrass and tilapia.
As a beneficiary of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, a century-old program to return Native Hawaiians to their ancestral lands, Enomoto, 77, pays just $600 a month in mortgage fees for the farm and three-bedroom house where she’s lived for the past two decades.
FilmReviewJacob Estes directs his offspring in this experimental lockdown tale about a brother and sister trying to exorcise a prowler from their home
Marketing this film as a Blumhouse-style found-footage horror does this genuinely interesting and experimental lockdown effort a bit of a disservice. Conceived during Covid times by Jacob Estes (responsible for the excellent 2004 teen drama Mean Creek) and his children Iris and Lucas, the horror elements are more sweetly vindictive than scary.
Illinois This article is more than 8 years oldIllinois high school will keep Midgets as mascot despite Little People's petitionThis article is more than 8 years oldAthletes will keep the nickname thanks to 500 traditionalists, despite the objections of a group representing people with dwarfism, who find it offensive
Athletes at a southern Illinois high school will keep the nickname Freeburg Midgets, despite the objections of a group representing people with dwarfism, who find the name offensive.
Music This article is more than 9 months old‘It’s been a wild ride’: funk legend Sly Stone announces memoirThis article is more than 9 months oldThank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) will ‘cover all aspects’ of the musician’s life, including his battles with drug use, and is set for release this September
Sly Stone, the indefatigable frontman, songwriter and producer of funk progenitors Sly and the Family Stone, has announced that his memoir, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) will be released this October via White Rabbit.
Ruth OzekiOur features have been obscured by masks, or viewed on screens, for months. We may never look at ourselves in the same way again, writes novelist Ruth Ozeki
Last April, I ran into a neighbour on the street. This was not a person I knew well, just someone I used to see from my window, walking masked around the neighbourhood during that first locked-down winter of the pandemic. But by spring 2021, the dangers seemed to be subsiding.
Observer business profileKristalina GeorgievaInterviewKristalina Georgieva: the IMF boss tackling Covid, the climate crisis and, now, warLarry ElliottThe attitudes of the first fund chief to come from a former communist country were shaped by her early life, but her focus is now on a greener post-Covid future
Anyone in charge of the International Monetary Fund would be concerned about what is happening in Ukraine, but Kristalina Georgieva has a personal reason for being anxious about events in eastern Europe.
PhilosophyObituaryLord Quinton obituaryOxford philosopher, Tory thinker and regular on popular Radio 4 panel showsAnthony Quinton, who has died aged 85, was the funniest philosopher since Hume. A political philosopher and metaphysician, as well as a writer about ethics, philosophy of mind and the history of ideas, he taught at New College, Oxford, for 23 years. He went on to be president of Trinity College from 1978 to 1987, and chairman of the board of the British Library from 1985 to 1990.