The Golden State Warriors got a gritty win against the Houston Rockets in game 7 of the first round The Warriors’ defense locked their opposition down NBA analyst Kendrick Perkins was impressed with the defensive effort that Golden State carried out Kendrick Perkins on the Warriors victory said tonight was one of those nights where I would go back to the last championship against the Boston Celtics doing all the defensive things when he was struggling in that first half “All of a sudden it was a ripple effect all of a sudden Buddy Hield comes up with a block Again the defensive side of things was huge tonight for the Golden State Warriors.” the Warriors are now 5-0 in playoff series against the Rockets They've closed out the last three of those in Houston.Game 7 in 2018Game 6 in 2019Game 7 in 2025 Also Read: Stephen Curry’s Playoff Record- What is the Three-Point King’s Win-Loss Record in NBA Playoffs? the Steve Kerr side got quite serious about defense shutting down Fred VanVleet who caused them major damage from beyond the arc The Warriors became more physical with VanVleet and many times even doubled on him to avoid three point shots This strategy had a cascading effect as Fred VanVleet scored 17 points from 6-13 FG the Houston Rockets lacked on the scoring front who started the game slowly picked up his defensive efforts Curry had more contribution to the defensive end where his ferocious guarding forced multiple turnovers who has been guarding Curry in this series with all kinds of strategies Curry also stole possessions multiple times breaking any formation of momentum for the Rockets Steph’s contribution may look little who has been struggling for Golden State throughout the series He rose to the occasion when other players struggled to make a difference The forward scored 33 points and had an impressive accuracy with 12-15 FG The Warriors had been searching for someone to step up the scoring beyond Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler taking advantage of Rockets’ strategy doubling on Curry and Butler The Warriors will need Buddy Hield to continue in the next series against the Minnesota Timberwolves in in-depth analysis (breaking down numbers and converting them into reader-friendly content) I got into the sports media industry while looking for an entry into the media field and since entry without majoring in the subject was difficult while majoring in International Relations on one side I also love covering Sports as part of the journey as a young Journalist.Message to Readers: Keep reading I promise I won’t bore you with robotic stats and dry recaps Get the biggest stories delivered straight to you - for free you consent to our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy nad to receive marketing and account-related emails from The Playoffs The Playoffs has been a go-to source for sports and sports betting enthusiasts Our mission: To help bettors make the best choices with in-depth analysis Our motto: Share our passion for sports and betting our editorial teams work to deliver the most accurate and relevant information so you can place bets with confidence—and most importantly and understand that betting is a form of entertainment—not a way to earn money If gambling stops being enjoyable or starts affecting your life negatively don’t hesitate to seek support or take advantage of self-exclusion tools provided by betting platforms responsible betting is the key to a safe and enjoyable gaming experience DISCLAIMER: This site is 100% for entertainment purposes only and does not involve real money betting COPYRIGHT © 2025 - THE PLAYOFFS - SHARE THE PASSION FOR SPORTS AND BETTING The Franklin County Coroner's Office has identified a man found dead in a Groveport retention pond Groveport Police Chief Casey Adams said police received a report of an abandoned vehicle at around 4:30 a.m at the intersection of Opus Drive and Rohr Road The Madison Township Fire Department responded to the area at 12:40 p.m after a male body was reported floating in a retention pond a battalion chief for the Madison Township Fire Department Adams said April 14 that there were no physical signs of foul play on Taormina's body but the Franklin County Coroner will ultimately determine his cause of death Public Safety and Breaking News Reporter Bailey Gallion can be reached at bagallion@dispatch.com When the sensory overload that “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” delivers as if you’ve arrived home for the holidays yourself seeing Emily (Matilda Fleming) and her immediate family including her mother Kathleen (Maria Dizzia) and father Lenny (Ben Shenkman) overwhelmed by relatives they’re delighted to see for the first time in forever and perhaps trying to avoid the ones they’re not too fond of as soon as they walk in the door you aren’t likely going to think too much about the filmmaking involved nor should you though in fact the number of shots required to summon such an intense and immediate feeling of gathering around the tree that makes it so transporting Yet when the film is bound to be revisited as both a yuletide staple and a master class in evoking the sensations of the season what Tyler Taormina and crew accomplished in any given sequence of the film where so many scenes exist within single scenes with so many characters and so little time has the capability of breaking the brain wide open “That’s the challenge of filmmaking is that you have to break down a kaleidoscopic image into its pieces and understand at all times where each fractal fits into the mosaic of the whole,” says Taormina who has been perfecting this approach since his debut “Ham on Rye.” “And what’s really beneficial for this film is that I’ve had a lot of time with it so I know it so well and now I’m efforting myself to forget it but I’ve had it so fresh in my mind for so long that at any point in time whatever’s in front of me on the screen I just know how these beats make a resounding effect to the entire grand picture.” Taormina means “grand” only in size, but the term applies in all respects to his third feature, a celebration of cultural ritual that breaks cinematic tradition at every turn. A product of the Omnes Films collective it’s a film where the collaboration runs deep and adheres to Taormina’s belief that casting a key grip is as crucial as anyone who appears in front of the camera That level of personal investment required by all involved yields a warmth that usually feels manufactured when it comes to films about the holidays but effortlessly spills out onto the screen in “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” where each image is crafted with as much care as an uncle is shown putting into his sausage dressing that he’s hovered over the stove for hours preparing When that ends up only being part of the eventual smorgasbord that’s laid out for its central family to dig into the film becomes a feast on multiple levels when relatives inevitably squawk and squabble over dinner where only one person may be charged with carving the turkey but everyone seems capable of a cutting remark to open an old wound and a quickly bored set of teenagers duck out to make some fun of their own With the only adult supervision around taking the form of Gregg Turkington and Michael Cera driving around as a pair of cops anarchy is bound to occur and Taormina is able to take the measure between the freedom of the young to roam about with their lives ahead of them while the older members of the family are hemmed in by choices they made long ago and thoughts of the future can be paralyzing “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” at once can be appreciated for freezing a moment in time while revealing the dangers of being stuck as a soundtrack of doo wop and a perpetually soft focus are enchanting and the threat of surrendering to how it’s always been rather than consider what could be becomes stark After premiering at Cannes earlier this year the film is bringing some much needed joy at a time when it’s most needed and Taormina graciously took the time to talk about trying to make the ultimate home movie and managing to wring out a great performance from a disobedient dog How’d this come about but one of the points where it was born was actually on the night of my parents’ 30th wedding anniversary We watched their wedding video for their first time in 30 years and I really think it’s one of the most powerful cinematic experiences I’ve ever had just seeing my family deal with ritual and time and all the time that’s been lost This medium is so where I belong.” There’s one scene in the film that plays with home movies and my ambition for this project was to take something of these mundane home videos many of which I don’t even have the emotional ability to watch in my own life and bring the beauty of that cinematic language [I’ve] developed into these mundane documents There did seem to be a specificity to the locations My writing partner Eric Berger and I grew up in Smithtown so a lot of our screenwriting actually is born of ideating in memory It can even be as specific as sort of closing our eyes and remembering what it’s like to navigate these spaces and the people in them and the film was definitely born out of that specific remembrance It also seems like the music could be foundational How early are you thinking about needle drops we would listen to the soundtrack of “Scorpio Rising,” for example and we would dream about this party and these people and the way that it felt to the songs it’s pretty obvious which specific songs led to us having specific dreams of things that could happen so a lot of the scenes are constructed to the music specifically as any needle drop film like “American Graffiti,” which was a key text for us the way in which one song leads to another In the casting alone you’ve always had these interesting worlds colliding – on “Ham on Rye,” the nostalgia could be felt through some of the familiar faces you might see on Nickelodeon amidst nonprofessionals who gave it a sense of reality What’s it like figuring out the right people to cast It’s always the same in a way where I try to cast as wide of an net as I can in getting to see people’s faces and if they leave me at all with some physiological experience there’s a vulnerability or purity or a spice of life in this person that I could feel in my body then we’re gonna fit them in the film however we can and I looked at 100,000 headshots on Backstage as one way we did the casting and the other actually sourcing through my family I asked them all who they knew who would be interesting to be in a film and it didn’t matter if they’re an actor or not That’s how we got a majority of our cast That was born of the same thing of who do you know that has that special thing to them and I remember on “Ham on Rye,” your approach was giving the cast only their own part of the script rather than the whole thing to get surprising interactions I really could have employed that idea for this film and perhaps I should have but we actually did allow everyone to read the script on this one But what’s similar to what you just mentioned is that Eric and I did extreme psychological snapshots of the entire family tree we were tracking the death of the patriarch There’s no grandfather [physically] in this film and his death came at such a young age for him tragic death that it led to a lot of trauma and that trauma took the form of the way the parenting styles affected each generation and how they echoed that style or didn’t and how it created a lot of differences between the way people relate in the family whether that would be embracing in a maybe toxically codependent way or taking an arm’s length All these things became very obvious to us of how these people became the way they are But we didn’t tell the actors any of that We write these really rich and specific characters that give us emotions that you’re not going find that all in a person I also don’t really want anyone to bend to that either so I think there’s a beautiful thing that happens where I find someone and I become very excited about them and who they are and what is specific to their essence and that thing that they hopefully don’t even realize that they are emanating at all times and that becomes the wild card where now this character exists in between the intention that we set for them and the context which we wrote that intention for Part of the casting for me is that they do have a naïveté to themselves that is endearing and pure so to see them all come into it through that part of unknowing There was something very magical about the way this film was cast because when I watch films where the family doesn’t feel like a real family actually do make me believe that they have that history Is it true that you had them bring their own Christmas decorations What really is interesting about that is that in my home we have Christmas decorations that we bring out every year and there are certain items — ornaments on the tree or things that are tchotchkes around the house — that have been there so long that they grow more and more important in the way they have meaning to me They even might glow in my eyes when I notice them for being as historic in my family as they are What’s amazing is that this fictitious house we created is filled with that sentimental item for everyone in the town It’s the whole town’s most precious items that have so much history to them together in one space so if you were to believe in the Japanese way that [objects] can embody and carry and memories that are with them this place would have been overflowing with different spirits And the beauty is they are actually just mundane objects that’s a nice little vintage relic.” But I noticed when I see the film that when my family’s items are in the frame So it’s very personal as in its specificity and I hope that like this entire film that the specificity of all these things shake up that universality in everybody This is silly to ask but you end up with a remarkable dog performance in the film – the one that puts its paw up to the window longingly which really captures that melancholy holiday feel That dog was so insanely hard to work with — that dog actually had an attachment issue with its owner which is the worst quality for a stage dog to have But we figured out how to use that to our benefit where we just put the owner on the other side of the window and that’s the dog yearning to be with his owner it wasn’t written that the dog was up there doing that which has become an iconic image of the film now It was pretty funny how that worked out that way What’s it been like to take this film out into the world I always intend to honor the Virgin Mary and it always becomes the Whore of Babylon but how I interpret that now is that once the creativity is done and the film is out there the purity of the whole process is done for me And I find it almost mostly painful to show [because] it’s just so vulnerable I am touched by the reactions and someone brought something up to me that there are going be people watching the film now who might be Emily’s age Emily being Matilda Fleming’s character in the movie and they might have the film in their lives and watch it again when they’re Kathleen’s age which is her mother played by Maria Dizzia and this movie could stay with audience members through those moments in their lives “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” opens on November 8th in limited release, including New York at the IFC Center and in Los Angeles at the Laemmle NoHo 7, Newhall and the Claremont 5 You must be logged in to post a comment This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. « Back How To Wear It The Cartier Tank Cintrée In-Depth Examining Value And Price Over Time With The ‘No Date’ Rolex Submariner Watches In The Wild The Road Through America, Episode 1: A Model Of Mass Production A special colorway for British Watchmakers Day 2025 the M60 Taormina is something of a Goldilocks-sized diver for most wrists The dial numerals are three-dimensional slices of X1 luminescent material that Vertex claims glows 1.6 times longer than standard luminous markers Anyone who has experienced Vertex lume will probably concur and it has become something of the brand's calling card The rest of the specifications also bear attention Inside ticks a chronometer-certified Selitta SW360-1 no-date movement boasting 56 hours of autonomy off the wrist while the steel case is rated for 600 meters of water resistance whose unique profile was inspired by the elevation adjustment wheel of a World War II Bren gun is unidirectionally 60 clicks with a bright blue ceramic insert that matches the hue of its dial The watch comes with three strap choices: a quick-release steel bracelet (with dive extension) a soft rubber strap with signed pin buckle all delivered in a waterproof Pelican-style "ruck" case Pricing for this whole package is £2,950 (including UK VAT) or £2,458 (excluding VAT) That's a range of roughly $3,160 - $3,790 USD and the watch will be available for purchase on March 8th at the British Watchmakers Day show as part of a 50-piece limited edition that can also be ordered via the brand's website When Vertex released its M60 Aqualion back in 2022, James Stacey wrote in his hands-on review "each element feels as though it has been considered by someone who really loves the sort of watch they are making." As an owner of one of the original M60s Having worn and dived with about 200 watches over the years I still place the M60 among the best in terms of fit All the touch points that one looks for in a dive watch are there—excellent bezel superior visibility in all conditions (that lume!) That's nothing to sniff at from what could still be considered a "micro-brand." If I had any quibbles with the bog standard M60 that pull from a military background or inspiration tend to appear functional and purpose-built almost to a fault That's by design and serves one well at 100 feet deep finning through a shipwreck sometimes you want a little more visual interest it's amazing how introducing a bright blue dial and bezel it transports the watch from the grey North Sea or stormy English Channel to the vivid blues of an Italian diving holiday without sacrificing legibility or capability is evidence of a small brand that is simply trying harder to win people over That's not easy to do for a company whose watches are nearly impossible to see in person whether at a retailer or on someone's wrist "in the wild."  if you're lucky enough to make it to British Watchmakers Day on March 8th or can swing by Vertex's London boutique in Mayfair I suspect they won't stick around for long Brand: VertexModel: M60 TaorminaDiameter: 40mmThickness: 14mmCase Material: SteelDial Color: BlueIndexes: AppliedLume: Molded X1 Super-LumiNova Water Resistance: 600 metersStrap/Bracelet: Quick-release steel bracelet (with dive extension) secondsPower Reserve: 56 hoursWinding: AutomaticFrequency: 28,800 vphChronometer Certified: Yes Price: £2,950 (~$3,790 including UK VAT) or £2,458 (~$3,160 excluding VAT) Availability: March 8th for British Watchmakers DayLimited Edition: Yes For more, click here. Introducing The Doxa Sub 200, Now With A Steel Bezel Introducing Seiko Prospex 1968 Heritage Diver’s GMT 60th Anniversary Edition SPB519 Business News Rolex Will Raise U.S. Prices In Response To Tariffs Six Of The Coolest CPO Rolex Watches I Saw In London's Old Bond Street Rolex Boutique Reference Points The Cartier Tank Louis Introducing The Christopher Ward C12 'Loco' (Live Pics) Hands-On Tudor's Black Bay Pro Gets A Surprisingly Dramatic Facelift With An Opaline Dial FILE - As a lead-in to the Stockade Walkabout in 2007 1798 Schenectady Mayor Joseph Christopher Yates (portrayed by Frank Taormina) met then-Schenectady Mayor Brian U Stratton at the statue of Lawrence the Indian in the Stockade neighborhood on Wednesday Both discussed old and new history of Schenectady The provided photo from 2014 shows Frank Taormina at the Schenectady County Historical Society NISKAYUNA — Frank Taormina may have left the classroom way back in the late 1960s but he never stopped being a history teacher While he went on to become the high school principal at Niskayuna as well as the district’s assistant superintendent before retiring in 1986 Taormina never lost his love or interest in history A past president and longtime board member and volunteer at the Schenectady County Historical Society Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content The tentative 2025 Niskayuna town budget proposal would raise the homestead tax rate by four percent with the town administration proposing the closure of the town transfer station in Blatnick Park next spring as part of the spending plan Email notifications are only sent once a day Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: Account processing issue - the email address may already exist Have the latest food and drink articles delivered to your inbox every Thursday Have the latest local news delivered every afternoon so you don't miss out on updates Sign up today to receive email newsletters of local daily obituaries Get the Register Star and Daily Mail E-edition delivered directly to your inbox Have the latest local news delivered every morning so you don't miss out on updates Invalid password or account does not exist Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account having driven up the coast of Sicily from Catania they have one of those “I can’t believe I’m here” pinch-me moments And although I always love travelling beneath those sun-drenched skies seeing that towering hilltop town over the valley from Mount Etna Taormina is one of Italy’s most popular destinations — thanks in part to season two of The White Lotus which was filmed on the lush Mediterranean hillsides But the story of one of Italy’s best-loved hotels goes back long before these shores hit our screens Villa Sant’Andrea in 1926COURTESY OF HENNY MANLEYIt all started with my great-great-grandfather Robert Trewhella Having worked alongside Isambard Kingdom Brunel as an engineer he was commissioned to come from Cornwall in the 1850s to help modernise Sicily’s infrastructure He soon settled and helped to build Sicily’s roads bridges and railways across the island — including the Circumetnea a narrow-gauge line winding around the base of Mount Etna At the start of their married life Percy and Gertrude lived in an imposing palazzo on Via Regina Margherita in Catania But their hearts were drawn to the shores of Taormina When Percy found a picturesque seaside plot with a fisherman’s hut on the shores of Mazzaro Bay in 1908 They’d found their dream little slice of Sicilian paradise Over the years they set about building a house and creating terraces of lush English-style gardens that over generations evolved into the Villa Sant’Andrea Gwendoline outside the villa in 1934COURTESY OF HENNY MANLEYMazzaro bay in 1950GETTY IMAGESMy grandmother the ceremony took place in Taormina’s historic San Domenico chapel (in a former monastery that is now the luxurious Four Seasons Hotel the main setting for The White Lotus) and the wedding party afterwards was at the villa beside the beach the Villa Sant’Andrea remained at the heart of my family’s Sicilian life the villa was turned into a German officers’ mess Thankfully most of the family’s valuables were spirited away and hidden by the gardener in the surrounding hills — with one curious exception A set of library curtains were sent to Hermann Goering — apparently to be repurposed into a makeshift toga was among the first British officers to reach Taormina after the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943 He headed straight to the villa and reclaimed it from German occupation In the postwar years Percy and Gertrude transformed their summer escape into a hotel What began as a simple venture quickly blossomed into a magnet for the Italian and English elite and was expanded and improved over the years in 1959 Percy and Gertrude were killed together in a freak accident just outside the villa’s gates falling over a parapet after being startled by a speeding car Their memory lives on in the beautiful gardens of the hotel Dickie and Jane Manley on the Villa Sant’Andrea terrace 1969COURTESY OF HENNY MANLEYHenny and her mother on the beach in 1969COURTESY OF HENNY MANLEYThe Manley sisters Sarah Henny and Antonia in front of the villa entrance in 1975COURTESY OF HENNY MANLEYAs a young couple my parents They poured their souls into redecorating and expanding the hotel to attract friends and luminaries from all over the world including Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor When Francis Ford Coppola arrived to film The Godfather he and Al Pacino made Villa Sant’Andrea their base for a few months and consulted my father on scouting locations featured in the film Coppola returned a few years later to film The Godfather Part II When I was growing up in the Seventies and Eighties My sisters Sarah and Antonia and my brother Rod and I spent endless summers on Mazzaro Beach The family dining room was the hotel’s restaurant returning to its original role as our family residence: a sprawling my family’s connection to Sicily came to an end bidding a poignant farewell to a place that had been part of our lives for so long An aerial view of Villa Sant’Andrea in Mazzaro bay with Isola Bella and Mount Etna in the backgroundThe private beach is now lined with elegant loungersToday the Belmond Villa Sant’Andrea continues to welcome travellers from all corners of the world —albeit in a slightly more formal way The private beach that was our childhood playground is now lined with elegant loungers and inviting cabanas and there is now a music-filled beach club called Lido Villeggiatura The wisteria-framed terrace where our family dogs would scamper and entertain the guests now exudes understated glamour with stylish seating that invites guests to drift through in the evening and look out at the bay was renowned for producing exceptional Italian cuisine Today the tradition of culinary excellence continues: the executive chef Agostino d’Angelo turns out exquisite pieces of edible art beautifully decorated hand-crafted chocolate eggs The terraces of lush English-style gardens at Villa Sant’AndreaThe plaque commemorating Percy and Gertrude in the gardens of the villaAlthough the building has significantly expanded from the 38 bedrooms my parents created to 66 the interiors still exude the timeless glamour and comfort soft pastel hues and sumptuous fabrics initiated by my parents In the living rooms and passageways some of my family’s original antique pieces remain including writing desks and glass-fronted bookcases filled with familiar volumes in a charming gesture to commemorate the family a chic cocktail lounge named after my grandmother But for me it’s home: a place filled with memories of our family and of generations of fun I can’t help but feel that a part of me never really left Starting rate at Villa Sant’Andrea, A Belmond Hotel, Taormina Mare is 900 euros for a Superior Room including taxes and breakfast, belmond.com David Jenkins stephanie jade Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point is a Yuletide classic in the making and its director has a sincere fondness for the holiday season One of the supreme highlights of my 2024 Cannes experience was discovering the films of New York filmmaker Tyler Taormina Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point is presented through its marketing as a cheesetastic holiday movie but is in fact a wide-eyed paean to the dynamics of family and the suburbs as a place of ecstatic joy It’s his feature follow-up to 2019’s Ham on Rye a strange coming of age movie in which the suburbs is not painted in such a dewy-eyed light was a film that was critical of life in the suburbs I would say that there are thorns presented to that particular rose Ham on Rye is for me the story of staying in the womb too long and not cutting the cord I think that Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point is the story of how tempting it is to stay in the suburbs The bosom of childhood is what the suburbs becomes in this film But I think we present a little bit of darkness and some of the limitations I wanted to make a Christmas film in a way that was warm and inviting and not written with cynicism the germinating seed of the film really is my writing partner and I sort of waxing poetic about our memories with family members and these little details that have become sort of characterised in our minds It really was with an affection for those memories that started the whole thing How were you able to select and assemble the soundtrack of wall-to-wall Christmas tunes but none of the songs in the movie are Christmas songs The soundtrack is really one of the germinating seeds of the work and it came to us from listening to the Scorpio Rising soundtrack We wrote the script listening to that soundtrack It was very difficult to get all the licensing for the songs there’s a lot of songs that sort of just sound like the period so that we can play the bigger more expensive songs that are really important your films – including this one – are more like passing through a moment of time and seeing that time from many different perspectives I definitely am aware that I am not working in a sort of traditional dramaturgical way And I think that the way in which Eric Berger and I approach a script we’re really studying a sort of milieu and what it’s like to be there and what it’s like for a camera curiously going from person to person What did the initial script for the film look like The way in which I understand these films is actually through drawing out the space What I mean is we drew a house on the top left corner of a piece of paper and we populated all the scenes we wanted to be there sort of left to right in order you’re going to see them It’s like you’re trying to trap a moment in amber with this film the first Christmas ornaments were made of amber And I kind of regret not naming the main character Amber LWLies 107: The Sinners issue – Out now! Ryan Coogler: ‘I’m more confident in my film language than I am in my English’ I’m Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today: The Video Shop at the End of the World The 2025 Cannes Film Festival line-up is here! The empty showboat of cinematic one-shots Inside the academic conference taking Terrifier back to school By Hannah Strong A large Italian-American family gather for the holidays in Tyler Taormina's freewheeling festive feature Little White Lies was established in 2005 as a bi-monthly print magazine committed to championing great movies and the talented people who make them we’ve been described as being “at the vanguard of the independent publishing movement.” Our reviews feature a unique tripartite ranking system that captures the different aspects of the movie-going experience Check out the new Weekend Update Page to see a list compiled of the movies coming out this weekend and be directed to the Fandango page for that film No filmmaker has ever captured the warped euphoria of a family Christmas party quite like Tyler Thomas Taormina in ‘Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point’ Having no ‘plot’ other than an Italian-American family reuniting on December 24th for what’s likely to be one last dinner in their ancestral home and longing sense of finality that Christmas brings to them each year He begins with a brilliant opening credits scene that sets the table for what’s to come a celebration of Christmastime more than actually depicting a story within that setting Some may strongly refer to it as a “vibes” movie where the atmosphere and visual/aural pleasures offered by Taormina count more than plot and character development None of the characters presented in this movie have any tangible development or arc They’re people whom you may know and may reflect upon you when Taormina positions them within his constantly dizzying camera that careens around the house like an invisible participant at a party Cinematographer Carson Lund deftly captures fragments of conversation exactly the kind of thing that happens during a party where too many people are present We cannot hear everything said in the living room where some of the men get away from the chaos to smoke cigars but discern enough to understand what’s happening The family is preparing for the eventual death of Aunt Isabelle (JoJo Cincinnati) who has lost most of her ability to function over the past year and they discuss what their options are as they know this is likely their last Christmas together This situation hit me like a whiplash because I was one of the members who was stuck in the middle of a discussion on a likely final Christmas with our grandfather lost most of his ability to function and passed away just a few months later The realization that this would likely be the case was heartbreaking even as we tried to spread as much ‘cheer’ as possible within the house This also occurs in the movie – Lund strikes our eyes with a sequence that examines how a child sees a parade of Christmas lights as pure never knowing what they were born into and what the ‘adults’ are talking about they’re spending their time in the basement playing video games They have no idea what’s happening upstairs and likely won’t until Isabelle dies This is all fed through Taormina’s supremely confident visual style that’s never flashy nor too involving or how editor Kevin Anton cuts between the settings within the party is enough to fully immerse us into the proceedings that we inevitably become part of the discussion and the realization that this could be it for the family One such scene affirming this belief occurs before the movie transitions away from the party and follows a group of teenagers some of them played by Francesca Scorsese and Elsie Fisher As the family reunites in front of the TV to watch a home video Taormina and Lund slowly zoom onto the TV and plunge us inside the video I began sobbing uncontrollably in a puddle of tears because I saw my family reflected inside the tape My grandparents have kept VHS tapes of me as a child and family parties of the 1980s-1990s that were recently digitized and seeing them for the first time in such incredible clarity not long ago was an overwhelming experience for all of us either when you were a baby or a small toddler (and in the case of my family there’s no sense of nostalgia because you likely don’t remember this having happened there’s a longing anguish that our time on this Earth is finite and time has passed so quickly that we barely have an idea what happened in those events that were captured on tape for us to hold onto I was ready to hail Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point the greatest Christmas movie ever made because Taormina tapped into something so true and reflective of how we perceive this time as human beings that it put every single filmmaker who made a Christmas picture to shame as it moves away from the dinner and follows the teenagers in their adventures of buying alcohol and evading two emotionless police officers respectively played by the kings of deadpan comedy While their presence is more than welcomed and contains lots of laughter in its final sections the teenager proceedings feel far more unfocused than the party sequence which imbued its images with so much incredible meaning that quickly drew us into the chaos Taormina loses the chaos in favor of subtlety when he doesn’t have much to say about the characters he’s filming who feel distant from the audience (and a movie like this requires closeness to the action it’s hard to continue ourselves to a picture that started out strong but isn’t sustaining itself the more it drags on That doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything to hold onto and the final shot hits you with intense amounts of devastation so powerful it may lead to a reappraisal of its concluding section when Taormina overwhelms your senses in its first half with impeccably controlled vérité camerawork and visual storytelling you expect the rest of the movie to follow suit the sense of proximity with the characters must continue it ultimately renders the last half of Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point more like a series of listless vignettes that don’t have the same impact as its bravura party scene did this is a movie to see with your whole family provided you leave as soon as Taormina cuts away from the home video never reaching the emotional apex he built with one simple gesture Villa Sant'Andrea opened Belmond's first destination beach club in June Travel + Leisure Senior Editorial Director Nina Ruggiero oversees T+L's award-winning travel content across digital platforms. She is also the co-founder of Be A Travel Writer an online course for aspiring travel journalists When she's not traveling between her current home in Los Angeles and T+L HQ in New York City Nina can often be found in Italy or the UK and has traveled extensively through Europe Travel + Leisure Senior Editorial Director Nina Ruggiero oversees T+L's award-winning travel content across digital platforms. She is also the co-founder of Be A Travel Writer Lido Villeggiatura brings a fresh and refined experience to Taormina balancing luxury with the relaxed charm of seaside living Things got out of control in another physically imposing NBA Playoffs game Golden State Warriors guard Pat Spencer had it with Alperen Sengun in the fourth quarter of the game This incident had a chain reaction where other players With around four minutes left for the end of the Rockets vs Dillon Brooks captured the rebound while Moses Moody tried to take the ball away A little pushing and shoving started from there Alperen Sengun crashed his shoulders on the Warriors guard WARRIORS-ROCKETS SCUFFLE 😳Pat Spencer gets ejected after headbutting Şengün. pic.twitter.com/7HbtzzNB4o Also Read: Rockets vs. Warriors: Fred VanVleet, Amen Thompson Lead Houston to Game 5 Blowout Over Golden State The 28-year-old was having none of it and gave it back to Sengun by headbutting him Trayce Jackson-Davis joined in to protect his teammate and gave a hard push to the Turkish international coaching staff were all on the court to separate the two sides While Alperen Sengun who was the initiator of the whole brawl was given one technical foul The Houston Rockets have had the approach of derailing the Warriors’ momentum by resorting to physicality on the court Just when the Golden State’s bench was slowly creeping back into the game The Golden State Warriors had a poor game five by all the standards as their starters barely had any foot on the game the Warriors were down by 27 points and looking for the continuation of the trend coach Steve Kerr called back his starters by the third quarter Kerr gave opportunities to his bench against the Houston Rockets And the inexperienced players didn’t disappoint They cut the 27 point lead of the Rockets by half at the start of the fourth quarter Kevin Knox were all part of the mini comeback Pat Spencer scored 11 points in just 14 minutes of action the Warriors guard could have ended with better figures The Golden State Warriors now head back to Chase Center with another chance to close out the series Tyler Taormina has cemented himself as one of the most perceptive chroniclers of small-town America tracked a gaggle of high school seniors as they geared up for prom night and life away from home Shot by Taormina’s regular cinematographer the film heralded two motifs that would haunt the director’s cinema an interest in immortalizing perfectly anonymous stretches of US suburbia as dreamlike an unresolved tension between our need for communion and the forces that inevitably pull us apart.  Everyone longs to connect in Taormina’s films but few ever manage––a tragic state of affairs that was basically the plot of Happer’s Comet (2022) a nocturnal snapshot of a US town and a few of its residents Which is a good way of thinking about Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point Shot again by Lund and written by Taormina and Eric Berger (the director’s co-scribe in Ham on Rye) the film follows an Italian-American family over the course of one last dinner-cum-reunion at grandma’s Long Island home unbeknownst to the overarching majority of this garrulous bunch For all its gags and absurdist humor––much of it courtesy of two hopelessly incompetent cops played by Michael Cera and Gregg Turkington––Christmas Eve is drenched in nostalgia It’s a story told by someone with an insider’s knowledge of this world and its arcane rituals––someone who knows this may well be the last time they all sit together With its restless zig-zagging between characters and conversations Christmas Eve may not offer much in the way of plot But it does nail a vibe: a preemptive longing for a time and place that are evaporating as we watch.  After Christmas Eve premiered at Cannes this year Taormina and I sat to discuss the significance of rituals in the film his ability to wring the surreal out of the most quotidian activities and his disorienting handling of time.   The Film Stage: As it was for Ham on Rye and Happer’s Comet Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point is also concerned with rituals I was hoping we could start by unpacking that leitmotif I’ve learned about this interest––or rather I’ve found the context for it––only last year at my little sister’s wedding easily one of the happiest days of my life in the sense that right at the beginning there was this horrific existential dread; I was so anxious… but once the ceremony wrapped I kept thinking about my friends’ own weddings My family’s pretty conservative and emblematic of average America––much more so than my friends I realized that they were the ones who didn’t seem to buy the whole sacrament And what I realized with Ham on Rye especially is that the more we can let loose to rituals Rituals are also inherently sentimental––we are here Slavoj Žižek says that even if you don’t believe in Christianity there are things about its ceremonies that can complicate matters and you partake in all these very specific choreographies––same as a wedding You’re basically repeating gestures that people have done all through time That’s another aspect I find very interesting There’s also something to be said about the relatively short time span of these rituals Your films seldom stretch longer than 24 hours; what is it that interests you about these time-constrained narratives when I fell in love with movies in a really deep way I was in my early twenties and I started to look for trends in those that spoke to me the most Voci nel Tempo… they were movies that seemed to focus mostly on ambience and characters And the way I framed it in my mind is that these are ecosystem films They don’t explore a story in any conventional way It’s as if you placed the camera in space and the camera became the character The camera’s curious and wants to know who’s there There’s something very ontological about it and I feel like you would lose a lot of that ontology in a more elliptical narrative I’m happy to hear you use the word “ecosystem”; like its predecessors Christmas Eve is also a film primarily concerned with moods and atmosphere How does one work on a script that’s powered less by plot beats than vibes I’m going to have to speculate here because I’m not too sure how these things came to be but I think I’ve had a bit of practice with the previous films by the end of them I can also sense the totality of what I experienced and that’s what creates this thing in my body that I don’t understand That’s where I think the true expression lies The trick is to convince someone to follow you for the whole journey and keep them wanting more different ways to intrigue and parse information then the hope is that by the end they will think back to those earlier scenes and feel the displacement of where and how long they’ve traveled but I’m also very proud of it because by the end but a sense of wonder as well––it feels like this distant thing that I can’t quite believe I was there for There were so many details here that looked like they had been cribbed from someone’s childhood.  Christmas Eve really is based on my own experiences and the inspiration was my emotional inability to watch home movies Only by making the film was I finally able to conquer this burn of time passing and I feel like I captured the energy as if in a jog It’s like I’m watching my own life onscreen Of course it’s not just mine: it’s also Eric Berger’s We really brought in a lot from our own families including some specific characters from each Even the dialogue you hear in some of the home movies played in the film is often reenacted Much of our research was simply just a matter of looking into the past that way A translation can never be literal; it just doesn’t work that way There’s an emotional truth as well that just feels right Plus there’s plenty in the film that’s just fictitious and part of that was the beginning of our writing process Eric and I went through the whole family tree And one of the things that was most informative––and this is kind of going back to what I was saying earlier about our relationship with rituals––is that we decided that the patriarch had died while the kids were still young and that their overbearing mother had parented them all in different ways and that they themselves had become different parents to their own children But the trauma had been passed down through generations which helped us chart this big psychological portrait of the family Christmas Eve is powered by the same tension that fueled Ham on Rye––between our desire to come together and the forces that But first I wanted to say one more thing that you sparked in me just now: I really do believe that life is worth celebrating so hard to find a space to dance and enjoy and sing Come to think of it: a big part of why I like to explore rituals is to confront the fact that on my best day I can actually do those things I think the scene where the teens all pair off is so deeply central to the heart of this movie because––and this is just my interpretation––it seems to me this is the engine that motivates our crossing the threshold into the next age the day before Christmas… it’s an entryway to tomorrow And what’s driving these people to grow is almost a sort of automatic need They have to explore this sexual realm that’s completely foreign to them Some of my early sexual memories as a teenager still blow my mind; it felt like I was being born for the first time and love are so central to our being I feel like they make great subjects As Christmas Eve moves away from the grown-ups to track their teenage children I was wondering if there were any substantial differences in how you wrote and directed the two cohorts––adults and kids––and if you left the latter more room for improv I think that has partly to do with the fact that a lot of these youngsters were non-professional actors; I thought they might shine a little more if they were just being prompted for topics and having fun together I know I wanted the kids’ section to feel like a betrayal and I wanted the whole film to feel like it was unfurling and slowly wilting like a flower That’s how I pictured its form: a slow and gentle opening that points to death I just feel that each puzzle piece has its own function and things it must accomplish to feel true to me And by the end I knew the film’s chemistry so well that I didn’t think in terms of what this or that scene needed to do By restlessly zig-zagging between different characters and chats your camera fosters a kind of omniscient narration But how did you manage to retain a temporal continuity amid all the hopscotching What informed your conversations with your editor That’s something accomplished in the script phrase And that’s also why Kevin is credited as a story editor not actually writing screen pages but listening to how the narrative pinballing would operate it left us very little room for improvisation and rearrangement in the edit room these scenes all have some portions of the family in them So you have to be extremely careful about the sequencing; there’s this weird contemporaneous logic that you need to be conscientious of how we did it is we drew out the whole storyline in space Which meant I was able to see where everyone was at each time And the contemporaneity had to be understood at the script level to give the film that feeling of psychedelia: this is all chaos and everyone’s out and about living their lives That’s something I was extremely interested in how these people could both share a sense of togetherness and also a sense of inescapable alienation They’re all under the same roof but have separate experiences and are never fully cognizant of one another And I also think the soundtrack helped lots with the sequencing you were describing There were songs in Christmas Eve that felt like bridges between different conversations; as they did in Ham on Rye I didn’t realize this until much later in the process but I was so fascinated by the lyrics of these songs or I need you so badly… and the singers all had this manic frenzy I wanted to reappropriate those lyrics in different contexts A mother who’s losing her influence over her 16-year-old daughter or the cousin who can’t seem to extricate himself from the family womb I thought there was an interesting interplay with the lyrics that I didn’t even intend Take the lyrics of “The Point of No Return”: You just can’t get off a train / That’s moving down the track / I’m at the point of no return / And for me there’ll be no turning back that’s pretty incredible in the context of this movie I didn’t choose these songs for their lyrics which makes absolute sense for the way I think of cinema and this story specifically.  If Christmas Eve conjures that surrealism we were talking about that’s also credit to Carson Lund’s cinematography How did you two wring out so much wonder from such unassuming settings?  though we don’t really need to talk that much at this point [Laughs] He’ll read [the script] and he’ll go I know what this is!” I think that’s because our upbringings were very similar and so are our points of nostalgia––as you could see in Christmas Eve and Eephus We also share the same sensibility in terms of ambient cinema and the storyboards are probably 70-to-80% representative of what you see in the film I’ll share them with Carson and we’ll discuss ideas And once on set we won’t look at the storyboards unless it’s absolutely necessary like for scenes that require some complex blocking Otherwise we just go by our memory of the storyboards He chimes in with great ideas and I’m always open to his beautiful mind.  How much did you end up shooting and how much did you cut out in the end?  But as far as the odds and ends of each scene are concerned Speaking of time: there’s something beautifully disorienting about the way you handle it here I’m still not sure I could pinpoint when exactly the film is set Some of your temporal markers (like the brick-sized mobile phones) seem to suggest the late ‘90s so obviously we didn’t want to show modern cars or iPhones or anything of the sort I actually think that the 2010s marked an incredible decline in aesthetics Even the way we would decorate our homes with those “Live Laugh Love” signs––it all became incredibly ugly and I didn’t want to photograph it but I find that the home décor of the film’s period has a warmer feeling the clothes––just to photograph that is emotional But to single out specific historical events of the era like when people reference things that are happening around them at the time Except for Ricky D’Ambrose’s film [The Cathedral] and I didn’t want the film to be read through that part of your brain I don’t want that part to be working here; I wanted to stimulate something different.  I like how some of these objects do not just blur one’s temporal coordinates And what was the rationale behind the amalgamation?  You know those decorations that have been around like your whole life Isn’t it weird how these objects gain this weird power over time the whole film is filled with things from the entire community we shot with everyone’s most sentimental possessions are right in every shot If memories could sort of physically overlap one another in this house they would create such a dense fog––you couldn’t even cross through it But yes: Paris Peterson was our production designer Bear in mind the house you see in the film is actually four different houses And in three of those the matriarchs had passed that same year––which is to say last year And the kids were about to sell the properties which is essentially the plot of this movie.  It’s as if reality had magically spilled into it.  But these people now have this film as a beautiful artifact Though the main house you’re probably thinking of that one we completely changed and turned into a little swirl of a memory I’m contractually obligated to ask about your collaboration with Gregg Turkington.  channeling something of his On Cinema persona; his near-robotic moves and drone-like delivery I’ve been watching him act for years now and I still don’t know if he can move his neck.  [Laughs] And I think that stiffness was maybe part of the directions I gave him I really wanted him to be totally non-human hoping to catch her as she flees with the bagels… those runs are so brilliant I think Gregg’s gonna love this movie.  How and where did you cross paths with Turkington and Michael Cera And how did you end up recruiting them?  Michael saw Ham on Rye in 2019 and he reached out saying he really liked it he said he wanted to write a film together At first I didn’t know how and if I could write a studio comedy Then when he pitched me his film called Gummy I realized why he’d thought of me: we are on the same page and we’ve been collaborating creatively ever since I hope it’ll be his directorial debut; we are looking to produce it as soon as we can But anyway: Michael then connected me with Gregg Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point opens on November 8 An Italian-born, UK-raised film critic, Leonardo Goi is an alumnus of the Locarno Critics Academy and Berlinale Talents, where he coordinates the Talent Press. Along with The Film Stage, he writes for MUBI, Senses of Cinema, and Kinoscope. For reviews and reports from the festival circuit, follow him on Twitter at @LeonardoGoi Interviews Across the three features he’s made to date Tyler Taormina has emerged as a true American independent with an inquisitive eye and extraordinary depth of feeling for adolescent rites of passage that unfold — poignantly with a sense of romantic possibility — amid the suburbs’ lonely “Ham on Rye,” captured the nervous anticipation of a group of teenagers preparing for a formal event that will shape their lives forever — not a prom where they are to pair off and confront the arrival of a disquieting “Happer’s Comet,” a somnambulant tone poem of alienation filmed in the early days of lockdown was more vividly experiential and wordless observing as unnamed townsfolk broke away and fled into the night on rollerblades “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point,” Taormina’s third and most miraculous feature yet follows three generations of an Italian-American family returning to an ancestral Long Island residence for the holidays only for a wistful sadness to settle in for some of them as it’s revealed the cherished home will soon be put on the market This sense of longing to preserve time and space as it begins to fade into memory is a hallmark of Taormina’s filmmaking Continuing his partnership with cinematographer Carson Lund who shot “Ham on Rye” and “Happer’s Comet,” Taormina envisions this family gathering as a shimmering holiday fantasia within which many varieties of familial drama coincide with moments of surreptitiously surreal opulence with a nostalgia that appears to be crystalizing imperfectly before our eyes drawing not only from their childhoods on Long Island but from the strange interrelationship of their personal recollections with cultural rituals of Christmas time writ large to form another warmly impressionistic portrait of a silent night Taormina works with a vast ensemble of professional and non-professional actors; Maria Dizzia all contributing to both the garrulous spirit of the occasion and the sense of melancholy that underlies it Taormina and Lund at a certain point break away from the festivities letting the adults wind down as their teenage children sneak out into the night to consecrate the holidays in their own furtive where “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” had its world premiere in the Directors’ Fortnight section (alongside “Eephus,” Lund’s directorial debut scheduled to be released by Music Box Films next spring) Taormina graciously sat down with RogerEbert.com to discuss the poetic opportunities of space and the “coming of consciousness” that all his films explore This interview has been edited and condensed a Los Angeles-based collective of filmmakers that formed at Emerson College a decade ago I understand that you’re all close friends but do you see a shared idea you’re all pursuing as well in a way; our friendship is so powerful because we have similar hearts and minds and souls and we all have similar sensibilities that are a product of those things If we were to bring any other films into Omnes—which I would love to do to champion and create a modern canon of American cinema that I can get behind—it would have to feel as purehearted or there would have to be at least something formally ambitious about it that I couldn’t put into words and seeing each other’s ideas come to life Your collaboration with your cinematographer has extended through all the films you’ve made What conversations did you have about the specific look and feel of this one We only discussed the look of the film a little and I wanted it to be a complete reveal of how the film has a totally psychedelic aim That’s the end of itself; that scene has no other reason but showing you this craziness You’ve said in the past that you make “ecosystem films” that focus on studying faces and objects in an environment collectively impart a sense of that space and the experience of existing there for a time I’m curious how you approached mapping out the milieu of “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point.” The home where it’s largely set is this domestic space with intimate personal meanings for its characters I have to admit I’m not too sentimental about specific spaces; maybe that’s just because I haven’t had my childhood house sold yet It doesn’t have any existential threat at the moment But I’m highly interested in space as a poetic opportunity because I feel like cinema gives you the opportunity to put yourself in a space and have a curiosity as to all the life that inhabits it A spatial relationship is incredibly important in the work I do because I feel like the camera is a curious creature who wants to check every nook and cranny How are these people interacting with each other and with the ideological networks surrounding it I think it’s an incredible chance to study life in an ontological sense your films reflect this multiplicity of experience the distinct personal and emotional relationships each character has to the space; everyone’s moving through the house differently with their own levels of comfort and familiarity and so much of that has to do with this idea of coming home for the holidays I couldn’t help but to notice that the majority of the films that I’ve made and conceived of all take place on different holidays in the now.” We’re engaging in these codes and these rituals that also bring attention to the now.  I like what you said about how you get a sense of how everyone’s relating to space and what’s on their minds It’s interesting that it comes off that way because the way I think that’s achieved is that we did so much work in creating a psychological snapshot of this whole family tree how that affected the parenting of the four kids how it affected their relationship with each other and their parenting; we would study these past traumas and events in their personal lives We didn’t actually tell the actors any of this information but I think having that in the script—which is extraordinarily detailed I’m talking nine pages of detail that were omitted for the shooting script—made every moment seem so incredibly loaded.  You can interpret a whole world of psychological entropy; you don’t even realize what’s on your mind half the time Bresson spoke a lot about this: that we do things automatically that we’re not aware of what’s going on in the unconscious I like to think of every person having a conversation with this part of their mind but we know where the rest of their mind is—or simply that it is filled with this other energy This was another good excuse to set it around Christmas because all of these reminders of family and tradition—how we heed tradition or not how we buy into it and enjoy it or not—ignite that area under the tip of the iceberg those elements of a family’s holiday gathering that are also more unhappy or uncomfortable: those relationships with the extended family members you don’t stay in touch with the melancholy of recognizing that certain relationships have frayed we know the impending morning; it’s so much more pregnant with anticipation Although this is simply the Italian-American tradition of celebrating Christmas Eve all through the night it’s beautiful how it’s also a pretext for tomorrow You don’t celebrate Christmas Eve in the daytime It’s all about this pregnant energy of change especially “Ham on Rye” and “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point,” have to do with this collective protagonist looking at an array of all ages; perhaps this allows me to study and ruminate on where we lose ourselves or we lose our parts of ourselves in this experience I’m incredibly smitten with and clinging to my innocence I feel like I’ve peeled away too much of it [laughs] It’s so incredibly self-conscious I’ve never had my photograph taken so many times and I never have realized what that would actually feel like I want to study where we lose this innocence—and do we ever get it back I look at the ensemble as a point of study If you’ve ever seen the film “Voci nel tempo,” by Franco Piavoli I saw this film after making “Ham on Rye,” but this was the film that had been playing in my head; he had this same idea to explore Another film comes to mind there: “Toute une nuit,” by Chantal Akerman has about it this sense of alienation and loneliness but also possibility and escape in the night where all your films eventually end up…  That was a huge reference point for “Happer’s Comet,” my previous film is that people are much more conforming into a certain rhythm of sleep No one’s ever awake at certain times of night you can break away from the community and be your own person which can be exhilarating and disquieting at the same time when you follow the character of Emily out into the night there’s escape but also another kind of community she’s hoping to fit into And deviation is everything in these films You could see how the friend group that they have they’re conforming to their own collective normality which is only different from their individual families It’s funny that they go from one to the other.  But what is true is that the difference between family and friends allows them to explore sex one of the most formative expressions of the self that we have in our whole life It’s the definitive first step away from the family It’s the one thing you can’t do with the family I look at this sequence where they’re all pairing off as like popping open the hood of a car and looking deep into what the engine is What’s the combustion chamber of this whole piece “Ham on Rye” explores this through its staging of this ceremonial dance at a deli to collapse all these rites of passage into one sequence: the beauty and mystery of maturing of coming together with others by existing on your own terms It’s the clearest way to see that which is driving us into tomorrow but it’s so interesting to explore that through an embodiment You realize what’s pushing us along this path It’s almost as inherent as our telomeres shrinking; it’s just this force That’s when I fell in love with the film most of all conceiving that scene as the center of it all.  There’s an exaggerated holiness to the way you approach multiple sequences in “Miller’s Point” as well an absurdity that reveals an artifice in what’s unfolding but there’s a distrust or suspicion of the ritual that you’re conveying simultaneously.  In “Ham on Rye,” it almost is a social suspicion I think Haley in “Ham on Rye” should be suspicious of what’s going on; it requires domination and betrayal I had terrible sleep issues while trying to finance this film I felt like something happened to my subconscious; it was really intense but  there are other parts of the brain that get in the way of a sense of grace you should think about the genocides as the pretext for that But it’s interesting how our grace is compromised by things that are savory and unsavory I’ve heard your films described as coming-of-age movies and I’m not sure how you feel about that descriptor “you should go see this coming of age film I’d describe yours more specifically as coming-of-consciousness films To experience the creature comfort of ritual requires a certain surrendering of consciousness; you have to step inside the snow globe Your characters struggle to do that amid teenage years that are all about these successive awakenings of self.  it reminds me of a quote from “Letter from an Unknown Woman,” by Max Ophüls which I think is one of the greatest movies ever made the day of his physical birth and the beginning of his conscious life.” And I think that’s why I’m so interested in teenage study That’s when I felt an awakening almost like what people attribute to taking a psychedelic drug; their world is something different but I think there’s actually a lot of joy in what these friends will experience that the family doesn’t actually remember One composition of a woman skating on a frozen lake and it feels like “Miller’s Point” slows down and becomes even more consciously dreamlike in some of those later moments The film has to make a formal change to feel the departure of the deviation to outline the deviation not just in terms of where the characters go but also through a formal way of arousing not only discomfort but a sense of wonder because there’s a lot of lustful dreaming of this woman in the center They all know it’s time for these cars to become impossible to look into To your earlier observation about the camera exploring every nook and cranny but your camera is constantly alighting on these consciously overstuffed compositions What importance did all these ornamental details—a salad bowl of red and green M&Ms retro video games—hold to your film?  as with “Ham on Rye,” was about the burden of consciousness although it’s also Plato’s allegory of the cave in that consciousness is something we should strive for I’m getting emotional just thinking about it but the end of this movie is the confrontation with a next level of consciousness you just won’t achieve.  because what I’m so interested in is akin to how Bresson outlines a full world of entropy au hasard the entropy is a point to study how we all have this alienation which maybe is inherent to being a human being or is maybe indicative of capitalism in American society and suburbia There’s a great deal of alienation going on all the time And the camera can become aware of it; it can go from alienation to separation The camera can capture the objects passing from one sphere of alienation of a person to another In “Ham on Rye,” it’s when we see the pig; in this movie it’s the red-wrapped gift and the salami sticks and these objects are representative of entire worlds floating around you that you will never ever know about because that’s the reason why I’m making these movies—or one of them left on a table in the hall by Uncle Ray (Tony Savino) which makes for one of the film’s most unexpected moments and that’ll be the scene.” And when we were editing it “Holy s—.” And what’s beautiful is that I don’t know if this character could write like this I realized this is another player piano; it’s this dream It’s more like what he wished it read like.  You said you didn’t offer the actors too much in terms of psychological portraits of the characters But these are such fully dimensionalized performances To what degree did you encourage your actors to bring elements of themselves to these characters And how much were you seeing them as fully realized characters as opposed to more abstract impressions that the actors fill out Bresson emphasizes that translation is never literal you have to change things to reach a perfect translation And then we meet these people who have their own whole worlds I have to cast someone who has this whole world that I find incredibly beautiful and moving some of the actors are professionals who know how to get into that I’m just showing you what I love about these people “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” is in theaters Nov Isaac Feldberg is an entertainment journalist currently based in Chicago who’s been writing professionally for nine years and hopes to stay at it for a few more TJ Taormina has returned to New York City radio in a way that few could ever achieve – with his own station. TJ98.7, which was introduced on WEPN by Emmis Corporation over the Labor Day weekend is a “pop-up” station dedicated to the Z100 alum WEPN started stunting Hot AC music and the new moniker on August 31 at midnight The product is a result of a partnership between Emmis who is still seeking a buyer for the signal Taormina will now be temporarily competing directly with his old boss in the market Other contributing voices to the station include Jai Kershner and famed voiceover talent Steve Kamer Local and national programming for TJ98.7 is driven by Radio.Cloud’s cloud-based automation technology This follows Good Karma Brands’ decision to not renew their Local Marketing Agreement with Emmis instead leasing the WCBS-AM signal from Audacy leading to a format change for the All-News station starting August 26 United Stations COO Charles Steinhauer stated “I want to thank Emmis Corporation for helping us continue our long standing commitment to fun and new ideas in the audio space The TJ Show has been growing in each market of operation – it’s unique and joyful and I’m looking forward to the reaction of the NYC audience.” and website in this browser for the next time I comment Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value" Taormina discusses how “sonder” informs the shape and texture of his work The logline of Tyler Taormina’s third feature might make it sound like Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point has the trappings of a standard-issue holiday movie The far-flung members of a large family descend on their ancestral family home in Long Island for what many realize could be the final time That gradually beckoning awareness of tradition fading into transience provides the animating tension of the film though it seldom rises to the level of standard narrative conflict driving the events of the plot Taormina’s mosaic-like approach to capturing characters and spaces coalesces into what he’s dubbed “ecosystem film.” It’s a cinema defined by his attunement to the vastness of experiences and energies contained within a space Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point extends the tonal register of Taormina’s first two films about American alienation, the absurdist coming-of-age story Ham on Rye and the wordless mood piece Happer’s Comet to show how such isolation can exist in tandem with a smothering sense of togetherness It’s an expansive work capable of accommodating a wide ensemble of characters—all while still making room for an audience to see their own memories refracted through its wide-spanning exploration of Yuletide interactions I spoke with Taormina prior to the theatrical release of Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point Our conversation covered how the concept of “sonder” informs the shape and texture of his work and what his practice of interviewing every single participant in the film contributed to making the project feel like a familial effort but they don’t operate according to a ruthless causal logic One of the things that interests me most in the writing process is the shape of a film’s narrative I like to draw it out to physically represent the space shades and abstractly representing the way movements fit a chemical composition I like to see the whole shape of the film in one view that really helps me to avoid a sort of causal logic and conventional narrative propulsion it’s a film driven by curiosity that carries the audience through a narrative shape How were you approaching the film’s setting but this could be taking place anywhere or anytime Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point is a period piece [as] it actually does specifically take place in 2006 the location is very specific to Long Island But I think that what was really important was to avoid those corny pitfalls of period pieces where they show you the brands at the time or [when] someone parrots the news headlines I think that period and location come from the evocation of a moment and a space The details are just a way in which we can conjure and sustain an impression not to show you these were the songs that were on the radio we use a lot of different time periods of nostalgia that are referenced to feed into an amalgamation of impressions Was that a conscious decision to hold off on a signifier like a cellphone until about 30 minutes in [Director of photography] Carson Lund and I approach this thing similarly The only thing that was really conscious was that we didn’t want to see new cars I think that’s the worst development of American aesthetics Someone told me recently they heard a quote from someone saying then I would believe in the American dream as well.” My production designer [Paris Peterson] and I really learned that the 2000s to 2010s are where the aesthetics at large Did designing the sound and the silences of Happer’s Comet prepare you to orchestrate the much more frantic mix of Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point this is more of an image movie.” I think that this is far more an image film than a sound film is because the creativity and world that I was proposing in Happer’s Comet allowed for the sound to be so unchained from reality that I could do whatever I wanted with it it was very important that the sound was just honoring the reality There’s little room for impressionism in the sound and I think that the sound is where we can really depart the most Even when you watch silent films and you’re just listening to a wall of orchestra there’s such an artifice that’s present in sound so the sound approach for this film was just really being very true to what was being experienced in the spaces the use of music was a big part of the sound in terms of the jukebox musical aspect of the film remaining exciting and compulsive Does your own background in music influence both your approaches to image and sound so my ability to work on these digital audio workstations is very important I know exactly now all the specs of the type of reverb I want for a specific moment the background in music is affecting my storytelling the most at the script level I’m okay with experiencing a narrative that’s only felt instead of understood I think that comes from years of going to noise shows and ambient drone shows where I just became very accustomed to sitting and floating in a tone for an hour That became a very spiritual thing in my relationship with art Capturing the energy of a big party is a delicate and difficult task how did you and Carson Lund pull off shooting these in a way that captures their spontaneity without making it impossible to film A lot of my decisions in the way I shoot and write scenes you’re gonna have the camera going in between all the rooms and roving around?” And I was like absolutely not!” I like the idea that we really partition and compartmentalize all the different family members and objects so that it could be as kaleidoscopic as possible I was much less interested in having a tactile camera than I was in creating a carousel of images Carson and I had a lot of fun in certain moments taking scenes that were once six or seven shots and doing them in one [We were] taking the lead from someone like Hou Hsiao-Hsien where the composition of the scene evolved with the mise-en-scène to do the work of coverage It’s something I really just feel out a lot more The film’s visual echoes of Sirk by calling back to All That Heaven Allows highlight a tension between irony and sincerity How do you think about these two competing registers within Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point It really shocked me when the trailer for this film was released that a lot of people online were expecting the film to be a slasher They couldn’t understand sincere nostalgia or earnest earnestness In terms of the way I approached the spectrum you’re speaking of It boils down to my relationship with my own country I’m extraordinarily critical of it and even averse to American living and our story I have all the love in my heart for this place And I’m communicating both of those things I’m communicating the romance that was intoxicating us in the ’20s and ’40s in Hollywood and how that same romantic dance has guided us into this late capitalistic nightmare and yet I see full well the devastation just below it At what stage in the filmmaking process are you finding the center of gravity within your large ensembles Is that something you’re working out in the script stage and it’s what I’m describing in terms of finding the chemical composition and making sure that this is a balanced affair with all these different subplots It’s a gradient of attention that gives the illusion that the amount of life around us is unending and boundless It’s not just a sitcom where there’s A/B/C/D story It’s more the fact that some things will remain unresolved or some things we only will see a little bit of and then we’ll be left to wonder But to make sure that everything is balanced in this ensemble I think it’s really something that you feel Is it important or necessary to echo the sonder that you’re seeing on screen in your production ethos I’m thinking about how the opening credits of Happer’s Comet say it’s a film produced by you and your family and you listed everyone who provided the Christmas decorations in the end credits of Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point We didn’t share the script in its entirety with anyone in the cast They were left to be alienated from the whole piece it was no mystery to us that we were ambitious to make a film way So I wanted it to be a very familial affair I wanted it to feel opposite of alienating I wanted to bring people together to just enjoy the entire experience it takes the form of interviewing everyone who comes onto the film What I’m saying these days is that the key grip and the dolly grip are as important as casting the lead role Because when everyone shares the same energy and lust for life the lead performer—if there was one—I think they’re free I think that’s why this seems to be a real family when you watch the film and not a bunch of actors or people The more I do these interviews with directors the more I become interested in the role as a people manager rather than as some singular auteur I think those kinds of things are just as important The films are reflected in the vehicle and the apparatus that brings the films to life It’s not a coincidence—and it’s not conscious either—that we [Omnes Films a collective that includes Taormina and Lund] make films out of a collective about building things collectively This is your third feature working within what you call the “ecosystem film.” How have your perceptions of how to cultivate and create these environments changed This film is special because it’s the first time I actually dealt [with professional actors] It didn’t make a lot of sense for a learned actor to be in either of the first two films and that was a really interesting progression in the form of something completely ethnographic versus something that delves a little bit into traditional filmmaking practices That’s probably the one difference I could see as a path that I’ve been taking Marshall Shaffer is a New York-based film journalist and other commentary on film also appear regularly in Slashfilm document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id" "ac3d698b7e2f1bc9dd3bbea64925879f" );document.getElementById("facec42938").setAttribute( "id" the team has signed Robert Woods to a one-year deal worth $2 million Source: The #Steelers are signing veteran WR Robert Woods to a 1-year, $2M deal. A new target and big-time locker room presence for… whoever their QB ends up being. The former #Texans WR lands in a great spot. pic.twitter.com/19YldvwvsI Pittsburgh was in need of depth on the outside behind DK Metcalf and George Pickens but it did not select a receiver in the 2025 NFL Draft Woods should now help fill that void at a tenable price point He spent this past season with the Houston Texans and finished with 20 catches for 203 yards across 15 games While he also spent the 2023 season with the Texans Woods is best known for his time as a member of the Los Angeles Rams the USC product and California native logged 367 catches for 4,626 yards and 23 touchdowns in 68 games while helping the Rams win Super Bowl LVI over the Cincinnati Bengals in his final year with the team Woods began his career with the Buffalo Bills who selected him in the second round of the 2013 draft He also had a brief stint with the Tennessee Titans during the 2022 campaign where he put up 527 yards and two scores on 53 receptions Make sure to bookmark Steelers On SI to get all your daily Pittsburgh Steelers news, interviews, breakdowns and more! JACK MARKOWSKI The content on this site is for entertainment and educational purposes only Betting and gambling content is intended for individuals 21+ and is based on individual commentators' opinions and not that of Sports Illustrated or its affiliates All picks and predictions are suggestions only and not a guarantee of success or profit If you or someone you know has a gambling problem crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER Caught in the crosshairs of civilisations for centuries, thanks to its vulnerable geography, Sicily enjoys an unusually complex cultural mosaic for such a small, ravishing island and some of the best hotels in the Med. Yet among its vast array of food religion and architecture lies a fiercely unified identity – one that separates it from mainland Italy and makes it endlessly alluring Sicily’s best hotels reflect this curious blend of unity and variance – each whispering a different tale of conquest and confrontation all honouring their extraordinary natural surroundings and offering sweet breakfast feasts of cannoli From 18th-century palaces salvaged from Palermo’s crumbling splendour to porous time-warp rooms inhaling the Aeolians’ salty Tyrrhenian air For more inspiration on where to stay in Italy and Sicily TaorminaThis Sicilian grande dame is the high-octane Taormina stay of Slim Aarons reverie – where pool views look good from all angles and a pianist (and negronis) cajole couples to dance on the balcony against a menacing backdrop of Mount Etna wallpapered rooms spill onto terraces doused in golden sunlight – where elaborate breakfasts of granita brioche tea regalia and sugar-dusted pastries sweeten the view Following a long siesta under one of the beach cabanas of sister hotel guests fling on their finery for Otto Geleng’s foodie theatre And it’s quite a performance: flickering oil lamps trace swirls of lace along the table and animate plates of seafood that would make an artist blush perhaps even the restaurant’s namesake German painter While a magnificent Greek amphitheatre and Amalfi-style Taormina is right on the hotel’s doorstep tiered gardens and elegant poolside scene makes for a relieving retreat Hotel Address: Belmond Grand Hotel Timeo, Via Teatro Greco, 59, 98039 Taormina ME, ItalyPrice: Rooms from about £327 per night and terraces gazing out wistfully towards the other smoking Aeolians the greenest of Italy’s Aeolian islands off the North Eastern coast of Sicily This is an island scattered in Malvasian vineyards from the mule tracks wiggling down to rocky coves to the topsy turvy antiques shops and Piaggio Ape’s groaning under carts of grapes falls under the menacing gaze of two (extinct) volcanic peaks Principe di Salina can be found in quietly pretty Malfa and the occasional cobalt accent (a bowl of lemons or a cushion) interrupts a consistent whitewashed aesthetic 12 cubic suites may recall those peppering the sun-baked fringes of Greek islands with their colonnaded terraces peering out towards the Thyrannean yesteryear trinkets and local craft pieces warm the blinding white spaces – antique coat hooks handmade ceramics – and cloud-soft beds encourage a traditional Sicilian siesta (book Superior rooms for guaranteed sea-views) (as is catching neighbouring Stromboli’s fiery belch from the mouth of its volcano at dusk) and best viewed from the bar with an apéritif sampled its Malvasian wine at vineyards surrounding Malfa (like Capofar run by the infamous Tasca d’Almerita family) or simply lounged poolside to absorb the sea-meets-volcano views guests can feast on island ingredients at Principe di Salina’s Ristorante della Casa who runs the hotel with her husband Francesco has leveraged her master’s in nutrition to craft a menu that’s as nourishing as it is wildly delicious towing the hyperlocal line with garden salads doused in capers spanking fresh seafood pasta and couscous salads with Sicilians almonds and orange and full days are swallowed up on Verdura’s three along with a cavernous spa (well-stocked with Irene Forte’s nature-meets-science Sicilian beauty products) is made all the more seductive for parents with the resort’s superlative kids’ club Far from a tot pen with a few colouring books Verdura Resort sets the standard in the Mediterranean with Verdùland where children learn how to rustle up classic Sicilian recipes their football skills at one of the resort’s coveted academy weeks It buys parents time to lean into their own cooking class safe in the knowledge that their broods are gulping in plenty of fresh air and mastering a new skill Olga Polizzi’s has warmed the contemporary and cubic glass suites and villas with her hallmark restrained elegance (plush with their private pools and sweeping terraces Verdura Resort’s farm-to-table ethos is prevalent across its four restaurants from its swishy adult-only Zagara to the more easy-going Liolà where families tuck into well-excuted Sicilian classics their soggy pool hair slowly drying in the hot breeze Most of the restaurant’s bounty is grown on-site including the herbs sprinkled into cocktails at the lively Granita bar shiny facilities and sun-bleached acres to even contemplate leaving this country club-on-sea but the ancient temples of Agrigento and Selinunte await adagio clack of Italian shoes pacing the archways and ubiquitous whiffs of sun-scorched countryside lower shoulders several inches on arrival and sets the tempo for a leisurely stay near-sacred structures are gently eased into modern relevancy by architect Corrado Papa in the case of the family’s private 19th century chapel left untouched and congruous with new additions lined with Noto artist Sergio Fiornentino’s abstract spins on classicism Sicilian daylight into celestial stepping stones while an orchid-clad library showcasing Helmut Newton prints is a smooth Outside, it’s all about the pool – two which are carved with contemporary candour from Modican stone and surrounded by elegantly dialled down suites and bucolic views Pool villas are scattered amongst the surrounding citrus and olive groves fiercely private cubes of marble baths and preposterously comfortable four poster beds Then there’s the food – good enough to warrant never leaving for the surrounding baroques’ much lauded restaurant scene From refined brioche con gelato and Etna berry breakfasts and high-octane almost alchemic tasting menus at Principe di Belludia to the more home-spun style CasaPasta for ‘express’ lobster and sausage tagliatelle with Tasca D’Almerita whites Address: Il San Corrado di Noto, Contrada Belludia SP51, 96017 Noto SR, ItalyPrice: Doubles from £496 per night drifting away from its volcanic neighbours Clinging to the foot of one of its volcanoes and occupying the old Mediterranean sunshine sieves through a wild tangle of lemon trees animating a nostalgic scene of chipped shutters cast-iron furniture and elaborate cocktails Rooms recall an 18th century novelist’s genteel bolthole with mahogany furniture decorating a simple Sicilian tile canvas and cut-work white curtains swelling in the breeze They share the same other-worldly views across the Tyrannian to Panarea and Stromboli’s coils of smoke as the terrace where refined suppers of sea urchin with creamy mash potato and breaded scabbardfish with tiger milk showcase the island’s land-and-sea bounty and Signum owners’ daughter Martina Caruso wild creativity (the youngest Italian chef to receive a Michelin star) The faded grandeur of its main house (a carefully renovated 17th-century monastery) is as magnetic as Etna herself whose fertile slopes are combed with olive groves The volcano’s mystic presence looms over a scatter of 24 design dens renovated old-meets-new barns and villas which blink out over a bucolic scene of rolling hills that greet the sea soul-nourishing estate leverages its 60-acres of organic harvest for its destination restaurant ancient courgettes parmigiana and various Italian classics allow the superb ingredients to take the lead Breakfasts are as equally thrilling – expect fresh scrambled eggs sprinkled in wildflowers from the farm and black bee honey drizzled on homemade Sicilian bread using ancient grains Afternoons heed the famously Sicilian Il Dolce Far Niente: drifting off to soft jazz and ice tinkling in glass of Sicilian gin by the volcanic pool or leaning into Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s ‘The Leopard’ on a soft with a glass of Etna red balancing precariously on the grass Hotel address: Monaci delle Terre Nere, Via Monaci, Via Pietralunga, sn, 95019 Zafferana etnea CT, ItalyPrice: Doubles from £480 per night the cool innards of the main house (a peachy peeling vestige of grand Sicily) now pose as a smart set by shifting fruit trees and occasionally interrupted by the rumble of the train (worth booking a room that doesn’t back onto the track) Lava stone slabs line the walls in Iraci Architetti’s photogenic Iconic Rooms and Poolside Villas glass structures and sharp furniture greatly contrast the main house’s soft antiquity and cleverly pull the clementine trees indoors This is one of Sicily’s lesser-known hotels a favourite with Italians wrapped in fluffy towels oscillating between spa and pool (sliced into volcanic rock with contemporary finesse) before tucking into Guiseppe Raciti’s signature uovo poche croccante and soul-stirring pasta plates Address: Zash Country Boutique Hotel, Strada Provinciale 2 I-II N60, 95018, Riposto, Sicily ItalyPrice: Doubles from £158 per night along with the discerning eye of interior designer Draga Obradovic The estate’s masseria soul remains fully intact tiled rooms blending seamlessly into the surrounding prairie-like scrub and lush Sun-dappled courtyards decorated with wrought iron day beds and large terracotta pots lead into pared-down pastel-hued bedrooms and a light-filled dining room where local cheeses apricot pastries and brioche spill across a farmhouse table for breakfast This is savoured on a weathered stone terrace with views of Val di Noto’s gold and green haze framed by disfigured classical columns salvaged from the abandoned estate Even the pool area seems to have seized upon the organic theme – where moonlight toys with the water’s tar-like ripples in the evening as diners drizzle focaccia generously with the estate’s own olive Address: Dimora Delle Balze, SS287, Noto SR, 96017, ItalyPrice: Doubles from £114 per night Polizzi GenerosaAmong golden wheat fields and expanses of rural land an impressive stretch of nature in the interior of Sicily The property dates back to the late 1800s when the Saeli-Rizzuto family would work on the farm cultivating wheat Manfredi and his siblings restructured the farmhouse into a countryside cottage filled with character and charm Rural Sicily still plays an important role throughout the property – the restaurant is located inside the old barn where the siblings used to play together among the haystacks Even today agriculture is still fundamental at Susafa The organic olive oil is made from their own olive trees the bread (freshly baked and served steaming hot every morning) and pasta are made from the wheat cultivated onsite and the farm-to-table cuisine is focused around vegetables and herbs picked by Chef Salvatore in their garden every morning guests can delve into Sicilian culinary traditions with Rita who hosts cooking classes on a daily basis be sure to watch her making fresh tomato sauce that you can try or purchase to take home as a little souvenir Address: Contrada Susafa, 90028 Polizzi generosa PA, ItalyPrice: Doubles from £259 per night and one that creates a micro universe of characters rollicking against the most fanciful backdrop Address: Villa Igiea, Via Belmonte, 43, 90142 Palermo PA, ItalyPrice: Doubles from £472 per night LinguaglossaA scenic drive along the foot of Mount Etna leads to the small village of Linguarossa and Palazzo Previtera Here Alfio welcomes guests into his home – the B&B has been in his family for over 350 years Together with his parents Alberto and Mariella Alfio spent 10 years restoring the pre-Baroque building and the antique furniture within An additional integration of designer furnishings – a 1970s sofa by Vico Magistretti a chaise longue by Antonio Citterio – adds a touch of contemporaneity to what is otherwise a perfect preservation of the past A wonderful botanical garden surrounds the four rooms and two self-catered apartments with a myriad of plant and flower species from the centenary cherry tree to Asian and Sicilian frangipani Arabic jasmine and over one hundred kinds of roses Perched above the garden is a balcony from where you can peek at the brooding crater of Mount Etna This is also a perfect location for setting out on an eight-hour guided hike (or a jeep journey for the less athletic) to the top of Etna or an outing to discover the vineyards and wineries on its slopes Address: Via D. Alighieri, 24, 95015 Linguaglossa CT, ItalyPrice: Doubles from £146 per night ItalyChevron SicilyChevron TaorminaChevron All listings featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. If you book something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. up-to-the-minute voice in all things travel Condé Nast Traveler is the global citizen’s bible and muse We understand that time is the greatest luxury which is why Condé Nast Traveler mines its network of experts and influencers so that you never waste a meal or a hotel stay wherever you are in the world 20253 Dreamy Sicilian Vacations for the Design ObsessiveThe vibrant Italian island is bursting with visual inspiration Courtesy of Rocco Forte HotelsIt’s hard not to fall in love with Sicily and some of the best cannolis you’ll ever consume the lush destination offers one sensorial delight after another But those who appreciate the art of design are arguably best served by the historic Italian island’s charms Because of its prime location in the Mediterranean Sea (east of Western Europe west of Greece and the Middle East) the area has been occupied by multiple civilizations all of whom have deeply influenced and evolved the region’s art and architecture over the course of centuries A melting pot of visual inspiration unlike anything else in the world ranging from ornately decorated Byzantine churches to dramatic Greco-Roman temples It would take years to fully soak up all the awe-inducing sights the area has to offer and Siracusa—are all excellent places to start Palermo was founded in the eighth century by the Phoenicians but was conquered and reimagined by countless other societies (including the Byzantine and Roman Empires) It’s a particularly apt destination for the art history buff as it boasts the kind of expansive and opulent churches many people have only seen in historical movies just wandering around the ancient city is enough to get the creative juices flowing… the winding cobblestone streets and laundry and flowers hanging from curving metal balconies will win over even the most jaded of travelers There’s no shortage of beautiful sights at the opulent Villa Iglea Originally a privately owned art nouveau palazzo overlooking the sea it was transformed in the early twentieth century to become one of the era’s buzziest hotels visited by the likes of King Edward VII and the King of Siam Now it’s still one of the most luxurious places you can stay in Sicily complete with verdant gardens overlooking the ocean and decor that reflects Palermo’s rich culture “Much of the interiors have been sourced from the surrounding areas of Palermo and there are many Sicilian touches such as locally sourced Sicilian marbles and tiles,” says Rocco Forte’s director of design Olga Polizzi who worked on revamping Villa Igiea when it was acquired by the hotel group in 2019 While she aimed to maintain much of the original building’s key features like maiolica tiles and a mirrored ballroom complete with an Art Deco mural the renovations also include modern elements from artisans around the island and local antiques “We wanted to bring a feel of the past combined with current pieces so we would go to marvelous auction houses in Palermo to source,” she says where we found many of the statues and larger pieces of furniture in the hotel.” an airy trattoria that serves updated Sicilian specialties—just the menu to match the restaurant’s modern take on old-school Italian decor (think dark wood trim and checkerboard tiles alongside industrial-style lighting and big windows) TaorminaThis scenic town, located on the craggy Eastern coastline of Sicily, burst into the mainstream consciousness in 2021 when it served as the backdrop for the wildly popular second season of White Lotus have known for years that this is one of the most enchanting spots you can stay on the island complete with breathtaking seaside views and a city center filled with hidden alleys and quaint shops selling local artisan wares If you’d like to be close to town, but still somewhat secluded, stay at VRetreat’s dreamy Atlantis Bay location Built on the side of a cliff overlooking the ocean is the only resort available in Taormina’s secluded Bay of Mermaids Mediterranean-influenced decor and stone terraces overlooking the clear blue water while the sleek and airy common areas (including an open-air pool which specializes in Italian delicacies) also offer seaside vistas Chef and owner of Michelin Star restaurant La Capinera an iconic spot that specializes in the icy treat try the almond and café flavors together and scoop it using pieces of brioche like a spoon While you’ll find plenty of visual stimulation by merely taking in the town’s medieval architecture you’ll want to make time to see the ruins of Taormina’s Ancient Greek amphitheater which was built in the early third century and offers stunning views of the neighboring Mount Etna volcano a baroque church that dates back to late 17th century is another architectural gem filled with lovely frescos and intricate stucco work Be sure to also make time for the lovely Villa Comunale public gardens and the lush topography they have to offer—complete with striking statues and stunning ocean views And don’t forget to pick up a few local souvenirs: In particular while Antica Orologeria is ideal for vintage watches and beautiful objects of decoration Originally one of the most important port cities of the ancient world Syracuse (or Siracusa in Italian) is steeped in history at every turn You’ll want to stay—or at least spend a day exploring—the island of Ortigia and where the Greeks began building nearly 3000 years ago you’ll discover a plethora of awe-inspiring old-world buildings and stately open air squares surrounded by a panoramic look at the Ionian Sea Inside one of the rooms at Palazzo Artemide Architecture lovers will marvel over subtle details everywhere at the Palazzo Artemide where meticulous pains have been taken to maintain much of the building’s historical elements—such as its original columns Much of the building’s limestone (a key material in Greek temples and baroque structures) has also been preserved Rooms that boast balconies overlooking the bustling stone streets of the city below They make for a lovely place to sit with one’s thoughts (and a glass of Prosecco) at sunset One of the city’s most satisfying meals can be found at Fratelli Burgio a beloved salumeria (butcher shop) that dates back to 1978 The ambience is bustling and a little retro; the food is delicious and unfussy (think cured meats Pro tip: There’ll definitely be more to try than you can consume in one sitting so it helps to come with a big group and order a few sharing platters versus committing to one or two dishes an adjacent restaurant serving traditional Sicilian food made with ingredients grown and produced on-site Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker first she will take on a quality field of fellow females in Saturday night's Group 3 Ladies Bracelet (520m) at Wentworth Park She goes into the final off a flying 29.49 heat win last week and a resume of Group performances in her short 19-start career The daughter of Fernando Bale and Ritza Millie has already been second in the Group 1 National Futurity and a finalist in the Group 1 Golden Easter Egg FIELDS AND FORM WENTWORTH PARK SATURDAY NIGHT Jodie and Andy Lord prepare the bitch for long-time client Pat Sofra Pat did all the early breaking in and pre-training with her in Victoria Taormina for Jodie Lord has clocked the quickest heat win for this years Evans & Son Ladies Bracelet series. The G3 Final will be run next Saturday at Wentworth Park. pic.twitter.com/5yNcrydzNt she could go to Queensland for the Flying Amy We are sending Destroying for the race as well." The heats of the Group 1 Flying Amy Classic (520m) at Q2 Parklands will be run on May 31 Destroying (Plaintiff-Submission) has raced five times for four wins including Wentworth Park wins in 29.50 and 29.58 Of Taormina's chances in the Ladies Bracelet Andy said the bitch is well drawn in the three in big races you really do need to draw inside you don't get to Group finals without being a good dog Meanwhile, Lord announced that retired superstar She's A Pearl whelped six dogs and four bitches in her mating to Explicit on Wednesday. "All black except for one brindle," Lord said. She's A Pearl's first litter by Fernando Bale are 18 months old and getting close to racing. "They are down to 24.50 around Goulburn and that's pretty good," he said. "They‘ve been to Wenty and showed us plenty. They even matched what Destroying has done. Lord will be eyeing a third Ladies Bracelet with Taormina on Saturday night. "A third would be nice," he said. "They always say good things come in threes." Million Dollar Chase winning trainers Peter Lagogiane and Jodie and Andy Lord have dominated the Ladies Bracelet in recent years. Lagogiane landed back-to-back Bracelets in 2021 and 2022 with Pay Call and French Martini before Lord landed last year's final with Midnight Spritz after the race wasn't staged in 2023. On Saturday night, Lagogiane is represented by second elect She's That Girl (box 2) who scored in 29.79 to extend her Wentworth Park record to five wins from as many appearances. Included in that win streak was victory in the G3 New Sensation in March where Taormina was among the beaten brigade. As well as the top two in betting, Group 1 winner Gets Late Early (box six) and impressive heat winner Miss Zig Zag (box four) loom as formidable chances in the all female event. 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