PEOPLE AND LIFESTYLES

THE BEST AND THE WORST OF THE YEAR BY MAXIMILLIEN de LAFAYETTE AND GISELE VON GUNTENBERGERSEN

 

The year witnessed two stars scale the ladder of global superstardom. In the laydeez' corner is Beyonce Knowles, who became a solo phenomenon thanks to a whole lot of rump-shaking. The all-conquering man is Justin Timberlake, who collected a fistful of MTV awards - and caused a ripple by dirty dancing with Kylie Minogue at the Brits. He was denied a solo UK chart-topper, but shared the spoils of the Black Eyed Peas' best-selling single by providing backing vocals to Where Is The Love? While their stars went stratospheric, other colossal musical forces saw their fortunes falter. Madonna, 20 years at the top of her game, released American Life to fans' delight and mixed critical reaction But her collaboration with Britney Spears - sealed with a Sapphist clinch - seemed a less canny move, and their single faltered at 38 in the US charts. Lesbianism briefly became an integral part of pop music earlier in the year, courtesy of Mother Russia. School uniform-clad teen duo Tatu created a stir with their self-styled mutual love - and scored a number one smash. The pair represented their country at the Eurovision Song Contest, behaved impeccably on the night and came a creditable third behind Turkey. Le Royaume Uni's fortunes made far more of a splash, as hapless pair Jemini finished at the bottom of the heap without a single point. But it wasn't all red faces for British music - new offerings from Coldplay, Blur and Radiohead picked up plenty of points from fans far and wide. Homegrown songstress Dido returned to the fray, repeating the formula of her debut and turning in the swiftest-selling album of the year. It was the unheralded Suffolk town of Lowestoft that provided the year's most unusual musical success story. Spandex catsuits, ear-piercing falsettos and the retro flavor of rock seemed an improbable hit recipe in 2003 - but The Darkness made their mark. See The Darkness perform I Believe In A Thing Called Love on TOTP

Photo: Justin Timberlake and Kylie Minogue's raunchy routine sexed up the dour Brit Awards.

Photo: The most scandalous kiss on the American tube.

Rock with a touch of goth topped the charts courtesy of Arkansas's Evanescence, who became the darlings of black-clad teens across the land. Kylie Minogue's star continued to shine in the UK, although she caused a few ripples in November when the star famous for her skimpy costumes said she was "horrified" by the amount of sex portrayed in the music industry. On the bling scene, hard-bitten rapper 50 Cent emerged as a major star  and cleaned up at the Mobo Awards, while Jamaican Dancehall seeped into the mainstream thanks to Sean Paul.He hogged the charts with three solo hits, and hooked up with divas Beyonce and Blu Cantrell to make an even greater dent in the hit parade. While Ms Dynamite crept out of the limelight to have a child, the crazy strains of Dizzee Rascal caught on with the Mercury Music Prize judges. The Brit Awards were a low-alcohol affair punctuated by fistfuls of anti-war sentiment from the stars, especially winners Coldplay. Away from the winners' rostrums, reality TV talent still filled the music scene, but interest was beginning to fall off. Elfin teen Alex Parks soared to glory in Fame Academy, but her predecessor David Sneddon quit the pop arena. Girls Aloud ended the lives of boy rivals One True Voice, but Cheryl Tweedy captured the front pages with a conviction for assault. Original Pop Idol Will Young bounded back to huge success, and is unlikely to be troubled by his successor in the year that lies ahead. The year brought us great losses. The world of art lost Celia Cruz, Bob Hope, Charles Bronson, Katharine Hepburn, Gregory Hines, John Ritter, Johnny Cash, Barry White, Nina Simone and Gregory Peck. Also bad news made headlines: The arrest of world famous celebrities such as Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson, Kobe Bryant, Robert Blake, etc.,  The year also had its losers and winners. The most famous losers were David Blaine, Robert Blake and the ousted Jessie “The Body” Ventura. The winners on the top of the list were: Governor Arnold, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman,  Ozzy Osbourne, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Mick Jagger, Tori Amos, Amanda McBroom, Vincenzo Balsamo (Elected Best Artist/Painter of the Year),  Gary Jules, Norah Jones, Madonna, Cher,   Sean Connery, Al Pacino, George Clooney, Bill O’Reilly, Kylie Minogue, Beyonce, Britney Spears, Cindy Benson who has been recognized this year as the best comic lead/star of the American theater.  On the TV front, the world community recognized the following personalities as the leading figures in the industry and the best of the best of the American tube (News, Shows and Entertainment): Bill O’Reilly, Larry King, Monica Crowley, Nancy Grace (Court TV), Oprah Wimfrey, Catherine Crier, Jay Leno, David Letterman and Dan Rather,  despite his Bush's record notorious reporting, which turned to be a TV disgraceful mishap. Among the most admired, respected and trusted American TV talk shows, reporting and news programs hosts are Geraldo Rivera, Alan Colmes and Sean Hannity. Mr. Rivera is highly respected in the United States and most particularly on the international news scene. With Mr. Rivera, you will always get the most alert and meaningful analysis on various topics. He is first class, la crème de la crème of world television. Our readers were genuinely impressed by the intellect and fairness of Mr. Alan Colmes. Our recent polls shows that Mr. Colmes was selected among the 20 most trusted and respected TV personalities. His colleague and associate Sean Hannity was nominated by our readers as the most out spoken, truthful and “right on the nail” American television news host.The flowering of Scottish jazz is based on a flourishing live music scene, unhampered by the licensing laws which plague promoters and musicians in England and Wales. The recent Licensing Act, making all live music subject to a full entertainment licence, looks like making life even more difficult. They say that art thrives on constraint, but this is ridiculous. The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music recently launched a new range of jazz products for saxophones, trumpet and so on. If only 1 per cent of students decide they want to become serious performers, where are they going to play? Don't ask us. Ask Tessa Jowell. She's supposed to be in charge.

 

 

THE BEST AND THE WORST OF THE YEAR

 

THE BEST AND THE WORST OF THE YEAR

Jazz of the Year: It seems everybody wants to be a jazz singer nowadays. People of all ages turn up at 'open mic' sessions to perform their party piece. But why this sudden eruption of would-be vocalists? Maybe because singing looks easier than playing an instrument, although it isn't. Or maybe it's because there are so many good jazz singers in Britain to inspire them. There's Stacey Kent, Tina May, Claire Martin, Clare Teal, Anita Wardell, Sheena Davis, Cathie Rae and plenty more. Until recently, the guys had fewer role-models, but then along came Jamie Cullum whose career received a mighty boost when he was signed by Universal. Of course, Universal didn't actually discover him; he already had a CD out on the smaller Candid label. This is the way it works in jazz and has done for decades. Since the end of the Second World War, every major figure in jazz - Parker, Davis, Coltrane - has first appeared on a small label run largely on enthusiasm and flair. So that's where to look if you're seeking the next wave of outstanding jazz musicians.Take, for instance, the astonishing Soweto Kinch, who won this year's Mobo Award for 'best jazz act'. He is a phenomenal saxophonist, but his musical imagination and the facility with which he juggles his ideas are simply mind-boggling. His CD, Conversations With the Unseen, is on Dune, a label operated out of a single office in Harrow. Some of the most impressive British jazz of the past year has come from Scotland, in particular from Caber, another shoestring label, in this case run by drummer Tom Bancroft. Three Caber releases were quite outstanding, those by pianist Dave Milligan, bassist Mario Bacuris and trumpeter Colin Steele. And then there is saxophonist Tommy Smith, Scotland's one-man music industry, whose own label, Spartacus, came up with a couple of gems, a series of duets between Smith and pianist Brian Kellock and a set by Smith's own sextet. Films of the year: The deftest movers this year, though, were producers The Neptunes, and in particular Pharrell Williams. Not satisfied with masterminding all the prettiest R&B productions, Pharrell cropped up in his charges' videos, playing drums and showing off his tattoos, and finally released his own single. Rarely has a backroom fixer moved in front of the camera with such style. In the UK Top 10, the quality of pop was kept buoyant with great singles by Girls Aloud, Junior Senior, Panjabi MC, and more sweet dancehall, thanks to Wayne Wonder and Kevin Lyttle. There were indications, too, that the pre-teen pop market had reached saturation point. Gareth Gates struggled, as did Rachel Stevens and countless other talent-show also-rans whose names, even now, we struggle to remember. Bucking the trend were the surprisingly durable Will Young, the depressingly durable Westlife and Busted, whose canny repackaging of American pop-punk prefigures what will almost certainly be the way forward for boy bands in 2004. The new name on everyone's lips, though, was The Darkness. The story of how some unreconstructed Queen fans with receding hairlines became superstars in 2003 could only gladden the heart. But then they started being hailed as saviors of rock. The Darkness may have brought a welcome ray of bright catsuitery to our pop landscape but you suspect Darknessmania may have had more to do with a safe, parodic repackaging of heavy rock for Robbie Williams fans than the genuinely fascinating, ugly beast itself.   

Just as entertaining were The Libertines, whose volatile mix of lurching tunes, break-ups, drug problems, prison stints, reconciliations and unannounced gigs in front rooms kept fans mesmerized. Less thrilling was the disinterring of Elton John and the triumph of the safe and mediocre in Jamie Cullum. From the rock gutter to faux-lesbian titillation: the Russian teens Tatu did it best, in conjunction with a ridiculously catchy single. Madonna and Britney's snog whiffed faintly of desperation as their careers idled. Madonna hooked up with Missy Elliott to flog some trousers, too, detracting further from her once unassailable mystique. Despite not releasing any music in 2003 (unless you count Posh's single on 29 December), Victoria Beckham and Courtney Love gave excellent soap opera. Posh went hip hop, to the dismay of her record label. It didn't do her much good, but it made Roc-A-Fella magnate Damon Dash a household name in the UK. Love, meanwhile, lost the plot on prescription drugs, lost custody of her daughter, and her debut solo album, America's Sweetheart, was delayed for the umpteenth time. Trouble flared around Michael Jackson, arrested on suspicion of child abuse. Phil Spector's mansion was the setting for a gun drama that left an actress dead and Spector arrested on suspicion of shooting her. As December closed a triumphant year for The White Stripes, Jack White was accused of assaulting the lead singer of Detroit band The Von Bondies, who had spent 2003 making disparaging comments about the Stripes. Pete Townshend and Massive Attack's Robert '3D' del Naja were swept up in the UK's child porn investigations, but cleared. It was tempting to connect 3D's arrest with his outspoken views on the Iraq conflict, but it left his commitment undimmed. Blur's Damon Albarn also took a principled stand, as did the Dixie Chicks whose criticisms of George W. Bush caused a furor in the US. Radiohead's Hail To The Thief was the most obvious musical response to the war, but Super Furry Animals's Phantom Power also decried the hubris of The Man. In a year where pop's glitz and sparkle shone especially bright, it was heartening to see a few were not blinded to real events.On a more positive note, some new directors emerged and several young ones confirmed their promise. Spike Jonze surpassed himself with Adaptation. Lilya 4-Ever, the third film of the Swedish director Lukas Moodysson, was a fine work marred by sentimentality. Dylan Kidd made a striking debut with the American independent production Roger Dodger, as did the Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles with his devastating look at gang warfare in the slums of Rio, City of God. After an unimpressive low-budget debut with the curious road movie The Last Great Wilderness, the Scottish moviemaker David Mackenzie made a quantum leap with his second film, Young Adam , a sombre adaptation of Alexander Trocchi's bleak Clydeside thriller, in which the ubiquitous Ewan McGregor gives his best performance to date. Charlotte Rampling (The Swimming Pool), Cate Blanchett (Veronica Guerin) and Max von Sydow (Intacto) gave decisive performances in minor movies. Julianne Moore (Far From Heaven) and Jack Nicholson (About Schmidt) were cardinal elements of first-rate movies. In two minor movies - White Oleander and Matchstick Men - Alison Lohman emerged as one the most gifted young American actresses of recent years. Two movie trends of the past year are intriguingly complementary or contradictory. One is a fascination with confidence tricksters - the subject of a cluster of films including Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can, Ridley Scott's Matchstick Men, James Foley's Confidence and Ji Yang's Chinese noir thriller Blind Shaft, where two homicidal con men shake down corrupt coal-mining officials. The world is being manipulated by crafty exploiters. Seemingly contrasted with this is our trust in facts. Increasingly, documentaries, carefully edited from hours of film, are finding sizeable cinema audiences. This year we've had the marvelous French film about a rural teacher and his one-room class, Être et avoir; the hilarious autobiography of the self-destructive movie tycoon Robert Evans, The Kid Stays in the Picture; and a revealing look at the American high school spelling bee, Spellbound.

BIG TIME MOVIES: Far surpassing the popularity of the documentary has been the success of another genre. Its significance has been recognised recently by the introduction of an Oscar for best full-length animated movie. Among a field of cartoon corn there have been three tremendous movies - Finding Nemo by John Lassiter's Pixel team in California, the quirky French animator Sylvain Chomet's Belleville Rendezvous and the Japanese master Hayao Miyazake's Spirited Away. This has been a poor year for world cinema. The best Iranian picture, Crimson Gold, has been banned in its native country, as has the best Chinese movie, Blind Shaft. Except for the steady trickle of subtitled pictures on BBC4, television - most culpably BBC2, Channel 4 and FilmFour - has neglected its cultural duties to foreign films. Yet it has been an ambitious time, although the aspirations have not always been realised. After several years' absence, Quentin Tarantino gave us a coldly immaculate fusion of Western and Eastern styles in Kill Bill: Volume One, first part of a cinematic diptych on which the jury will return its verdict in February. Arriving, complete, from France, was an arthouse product trailing praise that was not entirely justified: Lucas Belvaux's Trilogy, about a fugitive terrorist disrupting Grenoble, went downhill from a strong start. Two other trilogies, each multi-million dollar productions, were completed this autumn with simultaneous premieres around the world. The Wachowski brothers's Matrix trilogy began sensationally but took a nosedive as intellectual pretensions and special effects took over. All the Matrix films have in common with Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy is the presence of the Australian actor Hugo Weaving. Jackson's version of Tolkien's three novels is a triumphant work, an extraordinarily confident undertaking that grew from film to film. Though Hollywood-financed, and drawing in artists from Europe and the US, the movie is an astonishing achievement for New Zealand, which also produced another, rather more modest, inspirational mythic film in Whale Rider. Good news was also to be found in the revival of dying genres. Pirates of the Caribbean is the best Jolly Roger swashbuckler since The Crimson Pirate 50 years ago. Even better is Peter Weir's outstanding Master and Commander: The Other Side of the World, which brings to the screen one of Patrick O'Brian's novels of naval life during the Napoleonic Wars. It arrived late in the year alongside Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Anthony Minghella's Cold Mountain, true epics all, to excite us by their combination of spectacle and intelligence. They reminded us why we leave home to experience movies on the big screen with wonderfully rich sound and images that tower over us visually yet involve us intimately in their urgent action.  

 

 

THE BEST AND THE WORST OF THE YEAR

 

THE BEST AND THE WORST OF THE YEAR

But though we could stomach dramas about murder and politics and even journalism (if the hacks were Nighy and John Simm, that is), we were not in the mood at all for 40, which saw national treasure Eddie Izzard become the undeserving victim of Contemporary Dramatitis, symptoms of which include loathsome, two-dimensional, navel-gazing characters, an awesomely pointless plot and witless non sequiturs masquerading as dialogue. Izzard was not alone, either: a good cast, including Hugo Speer, Kerry Fox, Joanne Whalley, Nimmy March, Vincent Regan and Mark Benton (it's been a very busy year for Benton) were forced to make a mid-life drama out of a crisis, which, when it wasn't busy being portentous and pretentious, was just plain unpleasant. Luckily, when it all got too much, the Boohbahs arrived to plump up the daytime schedules: five fat, furry atoms with bulbous tummies, blinking eyes and retractable heads, which sleep nestled in a modernist organic chandelier and at bedtime are whirled away across the world to the rainbow's end - perfect escapism for toddlers of all ages. And then, if you still weren't in the mood for being challenged, there was always the ad for the Honda Accord, which was a small masterpiece. Trash TV never looked trashier than it did in 2003 and even though Big Brother couldn't decide whether to be Big Bore or Big Brothel, it still failed to capture the hearts and minds of the nation. But for top-quality 'ohmigod' watercooler trash, you needed to look no further than almost any edition of Wife Swap, which gripped us guiltily in its vice. Mind you, much as I love a bit of rubbish, I found C4's How Clean Is Your House?, one of the big summer ratings hits, despicably exploitative. The one-off miracle that was Martin Bashir's Living With Michael Jackson aside, a good documentary will rarely beat a so-so drama in the ratings, though, given the choice, I'd take a documentary any day. Channel 4's strand Cutting Edge can still cut it (the film Bad Behavior was terrifyingly sad but still managed to leave you feeling as though your heart had been pumped full of helium). Meanwhile, in current affairs, the excellent Fighting the War came perhaps a little too hot on the heels of the real thing to engage viewers, but was a brilliant instant rewrite of the first draft of history, while Panorama celebrated turning 50 with a bruising, brutal look at the outcome of 'friendly fire' that came too close to John Simpson for comfort. Other dramas of note included Russell T. Davies's The Second Coming, a fine piece about an ordinary Mancunian Messiah called Steve (Christopher Eccleston) who worked in a video shop and didn't have much luck with the ladies until he claimed to be the Son of God, which came, as it were, not a moment too soon. But for every State of Play, Second Coming, The Deal (Stephen Frears's exemplary slice of dramatic faction with a couple of extraordinary performances from Michael Sheen as Blair and David Morrissey as Brown), Second Generation (a delicious Anglo-Asian tale of romance, betrayal, death and passion featuring the most beautiful cast of the year) or Prime Suspect (perhaps the most completely satisfying of 2003, period), there is, unfortunately, always something that bills itself as 'powerful', 'disturbing' or 'harrowing' and which, invariably, is simply shorthand for another lousy bloody drama about child abuse (this year's was called Real Men).

 

THE BEST AND THE WORST OF THE YEAR

Or something chilly and forgettable in which Amanda Burton does her Amanda Burton thing, or something laughably butch in which Ross Kemp does his Ross Kemp thing, or yet another Cold Feet rip-off, which, inevitably, makes life feel infinitely shorter than it should. But even worse than these is a pointlessly glossy piece like Cambridge Spies, in which male students wear pullovers without holes and the bluestockings have perfect Marcel waves and the art directors are all so terribly chuffed with themselves. On the other hand, a drama such as This Little Life, about the impact on his parents of the birth of a premature baby, was every single thing Real Men aspired to be but failed. Harrowing without being in any way exploitative, mawkish, gratuitously miserablist or plain tasteless, it was perceptive, life-enhancing and unforgettable. But for the best all-round easy-going entertainment, week in, week out, where did we turn? Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Will and Grace, Sex and the City, Friends, Scrubs, Malcolm in the Middle, The Simpsons - name your tune. For these, if not for Dubya, God Bless America. TV TOP TEN: #1 Prime Suspect ITV1. #2  State of Play BBC1. #3  The Deal C4. #4 The Second Coming ITV1. #5 Second Generation C4. #6 This Little Life BBC2. #7 Wife Swap C4. #8 Canterbury Tales BBC1. #9 Honda Accord ad. #10 Curb Your Enthusiasm BBC4 (Special by Katherine Flett)

WACJ International Poll: America’s All Time Best Cabaret, Concert, Recital, Musical and Torch Female Singers : #1 Cher, #2 Madonna, #3 Barbra Streisand, #4 Doris Day, #5 Liza Minelli, #6 Dianna Ross, #7 Bette Midler, #8 Peggy Lee, #9 Barbara Cook, #10 Debbie Reynolds, #11 Linda Ronstadt, #12 Vicky Carr, #13 Mary Rose Clooney, #14 Gloria Estefan, #15 Ann Margret, #16 Rita Moreno, #17 Julie London, #18 Joan Baez, #19 Judy Collins,  #20 Diane Worwick, #21 Lena Horne,  #22 Keely Smith, #23 Nina Simone, #24 Ertha Kitt, #25 Bernadette Peters.

    

 Lorraine Serabian             Deborah Gibson            Claire Martin                           Andréa Marcovicci            Julie Wilson

 

WACJ 2003 International Poll: Cabaret: Best Performers/Entertainers/Players of the Year:  #1Amanda McBroom, #2 Andrea Marcovicci, #3 Anna Bergman, #4 Anne Kerry Ford, #5 Simone Marchand, #6 Julie Wilson, #7 Lorraine Serabian, #8 Kim Zimmer, #9 Claire Martin, #10 Deborah Gibson, #11 Lorna Dallas, #12 Pam Bricker, #13 Julie Wilson, #14 Naomi Newman, #15 Marilyn Scott, #16 Julie Budd,  #17 Rebecca Kilgore, #18 Linda Purl, #19 Stacey Kent, #20 Lisa Lauren,  #21 Claire Martin, #22 Patricia O’Callaghan, #23 Sophia Bilidis, #24 Kim Nalley, #25 Dottie Burman.

Favorite Winners and Turkeys of the Year. What Peers and Colleagues Think?

What were the triumphs and the turkeys of the arts world this year? Those on the scene pick their favorites and reveal their hates. Kathy Burke (Actress):  Electric Six, Big Brovaz, The Darkness and Beyoncé put everyone else in the shade but Electric Six's videos, which made even my dirty old jaw drop, get the vote for outright cheekiness. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon put a massive smile on my face. My absolute highlight of the year is The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh at the National. I've seen it twice and plan on going again. A brilliant, spooky play that made me laugh, cry and jump out of my skin. Turkey: this year's Big Brother lost me as a fan. Russell T. Davies (TV writer): Great year for television drama, with State of Play and Prime Suspect. My own cultural revolution came about with Sky Plus, I bloody love it. Turkey: television news just gets thicker and thicker. On all channels, the war brought out a simple, jingoistic reportage. And by the end of the year, we've got ITN reporters telling us that to be with Ian Huntley is to be 'in the presence of evil'. Vital, complicated issues are being reduced to limericks for idiots. We should all be ashamed. Anne Reid (Actress): Scenes from the Big Picture by Owen McCafferty is a play about a day in the lives of 21 people living in Belfast - clearly drawn, rich characters, they're made even more interesting because we are never told what their religious or political affiliations are. It was brilliantly directed at the National Theatre by the great Peter Gill. A Play Without Words, also at the National, knocked me out of my socks. The choreography is stunning. A kaleidoscope of intricate shapes and patterns. It's dramatic with wonderful flashes of comedy. But the pinnacle was at the Festival Theatre, Chichester, where Desmond Olivier Dingle was reading his The Complete History of the Entire World and Shakespeare: The Truth. I laughed until I was in real pain. Turkey: I would like to stuff all those pseudo-eavesdropping actuality programmes on TV and put them in a very hot oven. Estelle Morris (Minister for the Arts): It's been a great year for Turner enthusiasts like myself, with shows in all three of the cities closest to my heart: Manchester, Birmingham and London. Turner: The Late Seascapes at the Manchester Art Gallery was wonderful. These are pictures to drink in - as powerful from a distance as they are close to. Some of the work has never been on show in this country, and it is a real privilege to see them at last, and in such impressive surroundings. Equally, Tate Britain's Turner and Venice was tremendous. The Hours is my film of the year. It is a jewel, beautifully structured and powerfully acted. The English National Ballet's Rite of Spring at Sadler's Wells was another triumph. I found the intensity and power of the dancers quite hypnotic, and a stunning complement to Stravinsky's music.  

 

THE BEST AND THE WORST OF THE YEAR \

 

Blues and reds, you can see what the Hollywood studios aimed for with Technicolor. In Titian's Allegory of Time Governed by Prudence, it's as if Martin Scorsese has commissioned Titian to do the posters for Casino. At the Edinburgh Festival, nothing so impressed me and made me bellylaugh constantly as Reginald D. Hunter's White Woman show. It taught me that everybody has an idée fixe about other groups of people and that even the most liberal of us can be racist and sexist. The most amazing art show I saw was when I attended Her Majesty's Prison Bullingdon. Charles Saatchi needs to buy the place; a triumph in Brit Art minimalism. I have never seen so many unmade beds under one roof. Turkey: the worst show I attended this year, was indeed my own Edinburgh premiere. Things got better as the run went on, but, according to age-old laws of chivalry, I, a commoner, who had touched a royal personage, had to die, and I did... frequently. Peter Conrad (Author, critic): The two performances I won't ever forget came from divas who respectively specialise in agony and ecstasy: Vanessa Redgrave strung out on morphine in the Broadway production of O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night, and the soprano Karita Mattila exposing both soul and body in her glorious, dangerous account of Strauss's Salome at the Paris Opera.

The most eye-opening exhibition was Saved! at the Hayward Gallery, sampling the treasures added to our patrimony with some help from the National Art Collections Fund. Nicholas Hytner (Director, National Theatre): Two astonishingly inventive shows did things that were genuinely new to me: Simon McBurney's The Elephant Vanishes at the Barbican and Shunt's Dance Bear Dance under a railway arch in Bethnal Green. I was overwhelmed by a Royal Ballet revival of Kenneth MacMillan's Song of the Earth. Fernando Meirelles's City of God confirmed that South America is now home to the world's most exciting filmmakers. Turkey: I've directed too many turkeys of my own to want to point the finger at anyone else. John Simm (Actor): Glastonbury Festival was incredible this year. We arrived to torrential rain, the sun came out for Echo and the Bunnymen, and from then on, it was three days of joy. Radiohead were stunning, as were Primal Scream, but the highlight for me was The Coral. It was a great year for music, old and new. Missy Elliott, Dizzee Rascal and Blur all pushed things forward, while The Go-Betweens, The Coral, Outkast and The White Stripes all released truly special albums. City of God was the best film I saw this year, it had all the energy and passion of Scorsese's finest work. I also enjoyed Être et avoir and Kill Bill Volume One. On TV I loved David Morrissey as Gordon Brown in The Deal and Chris Eccleston in Flesh and Blood. Stephen Woolley (Film producer): The production of The Pillowman at the Cottesloe; Martin McDonagh's play was astounding. The documentary Être et avoir was wonderful. I also loved the book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. Turkey: The insufferably boring David Blaine in his glass box. David Lan (Director, Young Vic): The best theatre I saw was Luc Bondy's production of Anatol in Vienna. An exhilaratingly deep reading of it. Merce Cunningham in the midst of Tate Modern's Weather was the most astonishing event, while Peter Sellars's staging of an Artaud monologue at the same address was the most soporific. Manu Chao were played constantly driving into work and Michael Connelly's series of Harry Bosch crime novels proved effective at making the world go away.

 

 

 

THE BEST AND THE WORST OF THE YEAR

But his honor is for services to music. As the Stones retain their power to pack 'em in on their world tours, that is altogether a less controversial subject. As the band celebrated their 40th anniversary with the release of the compilation album 40 Licks, they embarked on another world tour - one which took them to new territories, including India. Though the Sars outbreak affected their plans to play China, they did play Hong Kong later  this year. In July Jagger celebrated his 60th birthday with a scandal-free party in Prague. Perhaps, as his senior years beckon, he is leaving his rock bad boy days behind. Another Great Winner of the year: Gary Jules remains at number one: Mad World by Gary Jules and Michael Andrews has become the final number one single of the year. There were no new entries in the top 20, as few records are released in the week after Christmas. Gary Jules and Michael Andrews' song, a cover of a Tears For Fears classic, was the surprise Christmas number one last week. The track, which was recorded in Andrews' basement for $50 (£29), had been used in the soundtrack for the cult film Donnie Darko. The song emerged from being a 50-1 outside chance in late November to being joint favourite with The Darkness' Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End) after Jules and Andrews' played the song on UK TV. In the album charts two albums moved back in to the top 20 - Christina Aguilera's Stripped, from number 23 to 13, and Alicia Keys' The Diary of, which moved from number 26 to 20. In the shadow of impending war, the egotistical thrust and sparkle that traditionally accompanies the trophies seemed strangely muted. Critics favored the earnest work of Stephen Daldry's The Hours and Roman Polanski's The Pianist over the high jinks of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can. But every rule has its exception, and this year it was Chicago - the first musical to win best film at the Academy Awards since Oliver in 1968. Cashing In: Perhaps it was this wariness of the public mood which fuelled the plethora of turgid sequels that dominated 2003: Terminator 3, Charlie's Angels 2, Tomb Raider II, Legally Blonde II and The Matrix Reloaded were just a few of the lacklustre follow-ups cashing in on a ready-made audience. Celebrity swagger and marketing hype could not hide the lame scripts and routine direction. And thundering soundtracks and digital acrobatics could not diminish the hollow ring of the cash tills. Thank heavens for X Men 2 and Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, bright spots in an otherwise bilge-like morass.

Photo: The Return of the King

Original spin: Studios continued to hark back to established plots and characters, championing a wave of remakes - among them British classic The Italian Job. A homage, rather than a remake, it moved the action to Los Angeles and gave the traffic jam a hi-tech spin. But in aping a classic, it could not help but disappoint fans of the original. Shekhar Kapur's The Four Feathers marked the fifth remake of the AEW Mason novel, but the book's jingoistic colonialism did not respond well to modernisation. And even Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh, and George Clooney's naked buttocks, could not save Solaris, a re-working of the 1970s Russian classic. False heroics: X-2, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Daredevil and The Hulk were among this year's parade of superheroes, of which Hulk was the most hotly anticipated. Yet despite Ang Lee's considered direction, The Hulk proved a disappointment. Psycho-babble aside, Banner and his lurid alter-ego shared the personality and menace of a Kinder toy. With its comic book violence and smug filmic reference, Tarantino's comeback Kill Bill divided fans and critics. Many applauded the director's stylish set-pieces and black humor, while others derided the fragmented screenplay and wafer-thin characterization.

Photo, left: Arnie moved from Terminator to Governor.

Crowd-pleasers: Comedy and independent films bucked the trend in what was otherwise a despondent year at the movies. Summer saw the swashbuckling hit Pirates of the Caribbean, with a stand-out performance from Johnny Depp. It was a film to put the wind back in Hollywood's sales. Anger Management and Bruce Almighty proved undemanding crowd-pleasers, taping into the public desire for control in an unpredictable time. Across the pond, British comedy gave us Calendar Girls - a surefire hit in middle England with its blend of country values and tasteful nudity, while simultaneously appealing to the American penchant for British eccentricity.

Photo: Kill Bill  

::.: CLUB SPORTIF SAINT MICHEL ::.:

 

 

 

 

THE BEST AND THE WORST OF THE YEAR

Libeskind quickly discovered that he was going to have to accommodate Larry Silverstein, the far-from-retiring developer with control of the site, in line to collect the biggest insurance claim in history. Silverstein, despite being seen to embrace Libeskind in the presence of Mayor Bloomberg, already had an architect - David Childs, New York boss of the architectural multinational practice SOM, which had withdrawn from the competition after submitting its entry. The 10 months that have followed have seen an ever more bitter struggle between Libeskind and Childs for control of the design process. During the summer, after what, with masterly under statement, was described as 'an often spirited debate', a form of words was thrashed out which suggested that the Freedom Tower, the centre-piece of the development 'proposed' by Libeskind, would 'be given form' by Childs. Shortly afterwards, Silverstein announced that the design team would be joined by Norman Foster - whom Libeskind must have assumed he had beaten in the original competition - Jean Nouvel, Fumiko Maki and Santiago Calatrava. Norman Foster pursued his apparently unstoppable progress, changing the faces of cities all over the world, though none more so than London, where his Swiss Re's Tower was completed, along with equally extensive developments at Tower Bridge, London Wall and Battersea. Two other British architects just as successful at exporting their designs, but with rather less to show at home, were David Chipperfield, who has started work on the reconstruction of Berlin's Neues Museum, and Zaha Hadid, who finished Cincinnatti's Centre for Contemporary Arts, her first major building to be completed - the first of many more. Foster's tower looks like being only the first of several other high-rise towers in London. Renzo Piano got planning permission for his shard of glass that would be the tallest in Europe, and Richard Rogers is working on a wedge-shaped tower close to his Lloyds building in the city of London.  ARCHITECTURE TOP TEN:  #1 Laban Centre, London SE8 Herzog and de Meuron. #2 Selfridges, Birmingham Future Systems. #3 30 St Mary Axe/aka Swiss Re/aka The Gherkin, London EC3 Foster and Partners. #4 Serpentine Pavilion, London W2 Oscar Niemeyer. #5 Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles Frank Gehry. #6 Kunsthaus, Graz Peter Cook and Colin Fournier. #7  Contemporary Arts Centre, Cincinnati Zaha Hadid. #8 Hampstead Theatre, London NW2 Bennetts Associates. #9 Dirty House, London E2 David Adjaye. #10 30 Finsbury Square, London EC2 Eric Parry Associates. Turkey of the year: Saatchi Gallery, London SE1 RHWL (Special by D. Soudjick).

THE WORLD’S MOST POPULAR SHOW

Photo: Kitsch as they come: a Holiday on Ice poster from the 1950s

If you added together the total audiences for Cats, Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera and The Mousetrap, they would scarcely fill the front row of the stalls of the most successful show in history, the naffest show on earth. Reviled by critics, adored by coach parties, and seen by many millions - in fact, the show passed the 300 million mark last autumn - Holiday on Ice returns to the Wembley Arena next month, to celebrate its 60th anniversary. The show is now directed and choreographed by the blush-proof former Olympic gold medallist Robin Cousins. In his international skating days, critics rapturously observed that he brought the aesthetic of classical ballet to the athletics of competition figure skating. He has now recruited many former professional colleagues to dance on ice to music by Strauss, Albinoni, Madonna, the Bee Gees, and Kylie Minogue. The show was launched in 1943 in Ohio, by Carl Snyder and Donn Arden, who christened their modest skating show Holiday on Ice because it started in the Christmas holidays. Two years later, the small-town stars glided off the ice and on to the road, when two entrepreneur brothers, the Gilberts, bought into the show, creating the first portable ice rink so that it could tour anywhere. The naive glamour of the show was perfect for wartime and the grey postwar era. The show became a phenomenon, regularly changing ownership but scarcely changing itself. After the war it became the first American show to tour internationally, playing in Mexico City in 1947, Europe in 1950, and Japan in 1953. In 1959, at the height of the cold war, Holiday on Ice went to Moscow, where it was watched, apparently rapturously, by Nikita Khruschev. In 1988 it won its place in the Guinness Book of Records as most watched show of all time, when a French woman, Isabelle Challier, became the 250 millionth visitor. It has toured to 620 cities in 80 countries. It is now run from Amsterdam, and military-style planning keeps three shows, with 200 skaters, touring the world. Elaborate lighting and pyrotechnic stage effects have been added, but the show is still big on sequins, getting through at least a million a year, along with 40 tones of rhinestones. At a time when costs mean UK touring productions have been pared to the bone, Holiday on Ice is about to hit venues from Bournemouth to Sheffield, with a cast of 60. Other theatre managements may mock - but they do so in awe.-(Special by Mav Kennedy).

Articles & News Contributors: Fiachra Gibons, Alison Robert, Louise Buck, Ralph Knot, Gema Bowes, Liza Hoggard, Serena Davie and Simone Nokes. WACJ Staff Writers: Valerie Constand, Lydia Broussard, Emile Lebrun, Elaine Gerard, Louis Ross, Erica Schell, Ric Nye, Cy Bradley, Esther Cohen-Hamilton, Genevieve Bresson,  Gisele von Guntenbergersen, Erica Soderholm, Fabiola Rossi, Penelope de Vassy, Marie-Louise de Chambertin, Sylvain Arcenaux, Catherine Combs, Alfred Charnier,  Sharon Richards, Aldria Turnbach, Carmen Ortega, Celeste Rosellet, Shoshanna Rosenberg, Soshanna Rosenstein, David Rosenbloom,  Rachel Goodman.