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SHANGHAI — Li Minsheng is one of the junior members of the “Old Jazz Band” at Shanghai’s ornate Fairmont Peace Hotel. He’s 76.

Frequently described as the oldest jazz band on the planet and once recognised as such by Guinness World Records, its six wizened members range from a relatively youthful 63 to a scarcely believable 97-year-old trumpeter.

They are an institution in Shanghai and a rare constant in a city and country that are modernising at breakneck speed.

“I have been performing jazz for at least 40 years,” Li, an alto saxophonist with a soft face and gentle air, told AFP.

“I got this saxophone in the 1960s and have played it ever since.”

Born during the tumult and war following Japan’s late-1930s invasion, Li — like other Chinese his age — has witnessed remarkable change.

“I started playing jazz and performing after the opening-up,” said Li, referring to the economic reforms launched in the late 1970s by Deng Xiaoping that propelled China from a basket case to the world’s second-largest economy today.

“We were not able to play before the opening-up due to the political situation then,” Li said, moments before going on stage once more in a red bow tie, crisp white shirt, pristine white blazer and black trousers.

That meant practising at home in secret.

“Back then I would play at home a little bit and enjoy it by myself. I didn’t play outside.” 

Jazz is more readily associated with New Orleans or New York than Shanghai, but the Chinese city has its own proud heritage in that regard that flickers on.

And the Peace Hotel, completed in 1929 and a prime example of Art Deco architecture on Shanghai’s historic riverside Bund area, is in many ways central to it.

The bar where the “Old Jazz Band” now plays 365 nights of the year was originally an English-style pub and it retains that flavour with its bar stools, dark-wooden fittings and slightly musty feel.

During Shanghai’s hard-partying 1930s heyday the bar became so well known for its jazz — which arrived in the city around that time with American musicians hired to play at nightclubs — that it became simply known as “The Jazz Bar”.

Then came war, the 1949 Communist takeover and the political turmoil of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, when virulent campaigns against anything foreign made playing or even listening to jazz a dangerous hobby.

‘Long way to go’

Emerging from all that, the “Old Jazz Band”, which attempts to revive the bar’s 1930s air, has been a fixture at the hotel since 1980.

Former US presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan are among the dignitaries who have dropped in for an evening of jazz — Clinton, who plays the sax, even joined in.

The band, which has an average age of 82, plays what it calls “soft jazz” and with a Shanghainese flavour.

“Jazz has come to China bit by bit,” said Li, who has been in the band for more than 30 years and was put forward by his fellow members to speak for them.

“After China’s opening-up, the influx of Western jazz had a huge impact on the jazz scene here. By watching their performances, we were able to learn from them and improve our music.

“But of course, compared to the top jazz scenes in the world, we still have a long way to go.”

And the million-dollar question: when does Li plan to close the lid on his saxophone case for the last time?

“Generally speaking, playing the sax has an age limit,” he said, smiling.

But as long as he remains enthusiastic and people keep filling the bar to listen, he plans to carry on.

“Interacting with the audience is the greatest thing for me. Without anyone to listen, we’d have no reason to perform.”

People with higher incomes tend to be “weekend warriors”, who are sedentary much of the time but exercise a lot on their days off, a recent US study suggests. 

Plenty of previous research has linked affluence to a higher likelihood of intense physical activity and more time devoted to exercise compared to people with lower incomes. But these findings have typically relied on individuals to report on their own workout habits, a notoriously unreliable measure of physical activity, researchers note in the journal Preventive Medicine. 

For the current study, researchers examined income and activity data for 5,206 adults who were asked to wear accelerometers to track their movements during waking hours for one week. 

Compared to people making less than $20,000 a year, individuals earning at least $75,000 annually were 1.6 times more likely to meet physical activity guidelines of 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous workout during a two-day period. Over the entire week, the more-affluent people were 1.9 times as likely to meet the guidelines. 

“Meeting physical activity guidelines is important for longevity, improved quality of life, mental and cognitive health and chronic disease prevention including type 2 diabetes and some cancers,” said lead study author Kerem Shuval, director of physical activity and nutrition research at the American Cancer Society in Atlanta. 

In one respect, lower-income individuals in the study came out ahead. They tended to spend less time overall sitting or standing still than their more affluent counterparts. 

“Although lower income individuals are less likely to meet physical activity guidelines, they are less sedentary and engage in more light activity,” Shuval said by e-mail. “To improve our health, we should strive to sit less, move more and attempt to incorporate exercise into our weekly routines.” 

High-income individuals engaged in 9.3 fewer minutes of light intensity activity during a typical day and spent 11.8 more minutes sedentary, the study found. 

The more-affluent study participants also spent 4.6 more minutes a day on average doing moderate or vigorous exercise. 

This adds up to more than 30 minutes more exercise in a week, enough to make a meaningful difference in health, Shuval said. 

While the study focused on a large, nationally representative sample of adults, it was not designed to prove whether or how activity levels and sedentary time influence health. 

It’s possible that income levels contributed to different patterns in activity levels and sedentary time because of the types of jobs people had, with more-affluent individuals more tethered to desks, the researchers note. 

Lower-income people might have gotten more light activity during the week because they did more housework or were on their feet more at their jobs. It is also possible that richer people worked out more outside of their jobs because they could afford gym memberships. 

Wearing the accelerometers might also have changed participants’ exercise habits, producing results that do not reflect what people really do in a typical week, the authors note. 

Regardless of what job people have or how much they earn, there may still be ways to get more exercise and reduce sedentary time, said Hannah Arem, a researcher at the Milken Institute for Public Health at George Washington University in Washington, DC, who was not involved in the study. 

“Strategies to increase physical activity outside of the gym include taking the stairs instead of an elevator and parking farther away or getting off a bus a stop early and walking in cities, through bike share programs and increasing walking and biking infrastructure,” Arem said by e-mail. 

“Some studies have shown that active commuting is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease.” 

Depression is a mental illness that is not taken as seriously as it should be, at least in my home country, India. When one of our highest paid Bollywood actresses confessed to suffering from this ailment, she was ridiculed by all and sundry. It was almost as if, with a successful career like hers, in addition to the enormous wealth and fan-following that she enjoyed, she had no right to feel melancholic. Thankfully, she took the help of medical practitioners and managed to overcome the disorder but there are millions of others, who continue to get neglected. 

We all have mood swings and every female of the species is familiar with it. But feeling irritable, sad or angry occasionally is very different from being in a continuous state of anxiety, unhappiness or emptiness that may lead to attempting or actually committing suicide.

Taking one’s own life or self-annihilation is what the latest Blue Whale Internet game is all about. It exist in several countries and allegedly consists of a series of tasks assigned to players by administrators during a fifty day period, with the final challenge requiring the player to kill oneself. These daily tasks start off easy, such as listening to certain genres of music, waking up at odd hours, watching a horror movie, among others and then slowly escalate to carving out shapes on one’s skin, self-mutilation and eventually suicide.

It is still not clear how a participant plays the game. While some say the user has to install a particular application on their smart phone, others say it is via social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook that the administrators get in touch with the participant. 

Named after the whales that occasionally beach en masse and die, it originated in Russia in 2013 and supposedly was the cause of a suicide in 2015. Philipp Budeikin, a former psychology student who was expelled from his university, claimed that he invented the game. Budeikin stated that his purpose was to “clean” the society by pushing to suicide those he deemed as having no value.

Right! So why my friends and family should be worried is because the rate of undetected depression, especially among teenagers, is high in our country and mental health is usually disregarded for years. Therefore India ranks among the top ten nations with a high, basal suicide rate and we have to be more vigilant than we normally are, especially when our children are between the gullible ages of ten and nineteen. 

What we can do to prevent it from happening is to look for signs and behavioural changes, especially when our progeny are on their smartphone, tablet or computer. Communication channels between them and us should always be kept open and their time online must be monitored. 

Keeping that in mind, I tried to question my nine-year-old nephew recently. I asked him to name the different kind of fish. 

“Shark, tuna, goldfish, salmon, mackerel, tilapia, trout,” he rattled off. 

“A group of them together is called a school of fish,” he informed me. 

“Have you heard of whales,” I queried. 

“They are huge marine mammals with a blubber of fat,” my nephew said. 

“What is the difference between veil and wail?” I changed the subject. 

“Sounds the same,” he responded. 

“One is a head covering,” I prompted him.

“The other means to cry aloud,” he cut in. 

“You know what the Blue Whale Challenge is?” he asked suddenly. 

“Tell me,” I invited. 

In a step that heralds a new era in cancer treatment, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Wednesday it had approved a form of gene therapy that is highly effective at fighting an aggressive form of leukaemia in young patients with no other options.

The treatment, to be marketed under the name Kymriah, is neither a pill nor an injection, but a personalised medicine service that functions as a “living drug”. Patients would have their body’s own disease-fighting T cells fortified and multiplied in a lab, then get the cells back to help them fight their cancer.

In clinical trials of 88 patients with a relapsing or treatment-resistant form of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, 73 went into remission after receiving the experimental treatment.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, himself a survivor of blood cancer, predicted that this new approach to cancer treatment would “change the face of modern medicine”.

Cancer researchers and physicians outside the agency shared Gottlieb’s enthusiasm.

Dr Crystal L. Mackall, associate director of Stanford University’s Cancer Institute, called Kymriah “a transformative therapy. … It represents an entirely new class of cancer therapies that holds promise for all cancer patients”.

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is the most common form of paediatric cancer, affecting some 3,000 children and young adults yearly in the United States. Though it is considered highly curable in most patients, about 600 each year either do not respond to chemotherapy or see their leukaemia return after an initial round of successful treatment.

“Those patients don’t make it — none of them do,” said Dr Stephan A. Grupp, director of the cancer immunotherapy programme at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who administered the first course of Kymriah five years ago when it was an experimental treatment called CTL019.

That initial patient, 7-year-old Emily Whitehead of Philipsburg, Pa., saw her leukaemia remit completely within three weeks of getting the treatment. Now 12, she was among those calling on the FDA to approve Kymriah for other patients like her.

“Certainly for blood cancers, this is a game-changer,” Grupp said. Adapting this therapy for patients with solid tumours, he said, will be “the work of the next five years”.

The new approach was designed to fight some of the most stubborn cancers by giving the body’s immune system a very specific assist.

It starts by harvesting a cancer patient’s T cells, the warriors of the immune system. The cells are delivered to a specialised lab where scientists alter their DNA, essentially reprogramming them to target cancer cells. These re-engineered cells are called chimeric antigen receptor T cells, or CAR-T cells.

The new and improved cells are copied millions of times before they’re sent back to the patient. Once infused into the bloodstream, the CAR-T cells are much better equipped to hunt down and kill cancer cells, wherever they may hide.

Novartis, the company that developed Kymriah, intends to have 32 certified treatment centres up and running by the end of 2018. Patients up to the age of 25 would go to one of these centres to have their T cells harvested and later reintroduced in their modified form.

The cells themselves will be genetically engineered at a Novartis manufacturing facility in Morris Plains, New Jersey.

Kymriah is the first CAR-T treatment to come before the FDA, but it won’t be the last. No fewer than 76 CAR-T treatments are currently under review at the FDA, and Gottlieb predicted other approvals would follow.

Therapies that would operate in similar ways — engineering T cells to fight disease more effectively — are under investigation for a host of other conditions, including HIV/AIDS, genetic and autoimmune disorders and other forms of cancer.

“Today’s FDA ruling is a milestone,” said Dr David Maloney, medical director of cellular immunotherapy at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle. “This is just the first of what will soon be many new immunotherapy-based treatments for a variety of cancers.”

Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceutical company that is gearing up to provide Kymriah to as many as 600 patients a year, said it would charge $475,000 for the treatment.

Novartis representatives said they calculated a “cost-effective price” for the therapy that fell between $600,000 and $750,000. But the company chose instead to charge a price that it said would “cover costs”, and to introduce a novel approach to billing. Chief Executive Joseph Jimenez said the company would not charge hospitals for the therapy if the patient did not fully respond in a given period of time.

The company also said it would launch a patient assistance program for those who were uninsured or underinsured, and provide some travel assistance for patients and caregivers seeking the treatment.

Novartis’ application for Kymriah came just seven months ago. The agency tagged the application with two designations that ensured its speedy review.

First proposed in 1972, the idea of correcting or enhancing genes to treat disease has a history buoyed by promise but also buffeted by failures.

In approving Kymriah, the FDA warned it had the potential to cause severe side effects, including cytokine release syndrome, an overreaction to the activation and proliferation of immune cells that causes fever and flu-like symptoms, and neurological events. Both can be life-threatening.

The FDA called for continuing safety studies of the new therapy.

Replacing the outgoing Viano nameplate and re-adopting the V-Class moniker as of 2014, Mercedes-Benz presents the latest generation of highly practical large people carrier that is better than ever, and makes a compelling argument as an alternative to a saloon or SUV. 

With more emphasis on design, luxury and technology, the new V-Class is an evolutionary improvement with noticeably better ride and cabin refinement, and handling ability and agility that was unexpected for a large van-based vehicle. Offered with a single smaller petrol engine in Jordan, the 2-litre turbocharged V250 offers better efficiency than its 3.5-litre V6 Viano predecessor.

A decidedly more charismatic and muscularly assertive design than its predecessor, the V-Class features an interplay between convex and concave shapes and surfaces at the sides and fascia, including more emphasised upper and lower creases along its flanks and smoother, better integrated bumper surfacing. Bearing strong familial resemblance to Mercedes’ passenger car model lines, the V-Class’ large upright grille features a three-dimensional tri-star badge flanked by twin chrome-like louvers and rising, stretched around headlights with a moodier aesthetic and LED elements that seem to frame the grille. A bulging bonnet and single louvre lower side intakes also lend more presence and elegance. 

Cavernous and quick

Driven in the longest Extra Long version of three available lengths, with extended 3200mm wheelbase and longer rear overhang, the V-Class’s features a very subtly descending roofline and low CD0.31 aerodynamics for efficiency and low wind noise. It’s long, tall and wide rear loading bay and body allow for hugely cavernous cargo and passenger space, among the best in the MPV and van segments, and simply unmatched by SUVs or estate cars. At the rear, the new model features smaller, better integrated rear lights than the Viano, a low loading lip, electric tailgate and smaller glass hatch opening for more convenience for loading smaller items.

Offered in most markets with a 2.15-litre turbodiesel engine, the sole petrol V250 variant, available in Jordan, is powered by Mercedes’ now familiar and effective 2-litre turbocharged direct injection four-cylinder. Replacing its Viano predecessor’s 3.5-litre naturally-aspirated V6, the V250 develops 208BHP at 5500rpm and 258lb/ft torque throughout 1200-4000rpm, and is approximately capable of 0-100km/h in 9.4-seconds and a 210km/h top speed. At a 20BHP disadvantage to the Viano yet gaining 4lb/ft, the V250 nevertheless feels the more responsive, suitable engine and certainly more efficient engine, and benefits from a well-sorted and brilliantly geared version of Mercedes’ also familiar 7-speed automatic gearbox, in place of the Viano’s 5-speed.

Lively and
surprisingly agile

With quick-spooling turbo and responsive aggressively geared first and second ratios, the V250 feels sprightly and responsive from standstill, with turbo lag all but seemingly absent when driven in Comfort or Sport gearbox response mode. In Economy mode, revs are kept lower and gears higher, so naturally lag becomes slightly more apparent, but efficiency improves, and also benefits from taller top gears. Brawny, lively and versatile with muscular mid-range pull for inclines, overtaking and hauling, the V250’s engine belies a hefty 2055kg estimated weight, and is smooth, refined and willing to be revved hard to its redline, where engine roar is slightly more evident.

Another significant benefit courtesy of the V250’s downsized engine is that its front end feels noticeably lighter than its predecessor, with a crisper and more eager turn-in than expected from a large MPV, let alone one that is van-based. Tidy into corners with good front grip and little understeer when pushed too aggressively, the V250 Extra long is surprisingly agile through switchbacks, with its front engine and rear drive balance working in its favour. Meanwhile its long wheelbase provides good rear grip, and predictably telegraphed oversteer if provoked by a pivot to tighten a cornering line, or with too much throttle coming out of a corner.

Balance and comfort

Similar to other Mercedes passenger cars, the V250’s electric-assisted rack and pinion steering is positive, precise and eager to self-centre. And with better feel and feedback than some cars and many MPVs, vans and SUVs, the V250’s steering, upright driving position and balanced chassis, one feels involved and in the middle of the action. With a tauter and more rigid and refined feel to its construction and driving dynamic than the Viano, the V250 rides on independent rear suspension with variable dampers that soften to allow for supple ride comfort and tighten for comparably good body lean control through corners and to press wheels tautly into the tarmac.

Stable and refined at speed for its segment, the V250 is, however, in its comfort zone when cruising, while its optional Avantgarde trim 245/45R19 tyres provide a good compromise between control and comfort, and braking is reassuring. Riding well and smooth, the V250 can wallow very slightly over particularly choppy road surfacing, and on heavy braking, there is slight brake dive — both of which were less than expected. With a tight 12.5-metre turning circle, the V250 Extra Long is more manoeuvrable than its size suggests, but given its length and forward driving position, one often needs to turn-in later than intuitive when driving a car.

Manoeuvrable
and configurable

Enormous at 5370mm long, 1928mm wide and 1880mm tall, the V-Class Extra Long is, however, relatively easily manoeuvrable, especially when moving forward. To help with rear visibility, which can be tricky owing to size and height, the V250 Avantgarde version driven featured a 360° and reversing camera parking package. Meanwhile for overtaking and lane-changing manoeuvres, in which lower cars aren’t completely visible in big blind spots and, optional blind spot and lane assistance systems were invaluable. Over shoulder visibility is better when second row seats are configured to be front-facing, while bigger van-like side mirrors would be a welcome addition, even if at the expense of aerodynamics and aesthetics.

Refined, luxurious and superbly comfortable inside, the V250 Avantgarde has a classy and modern ambiance, with a contemporary dashboard, leather upholstery and steering, user-friendly infotainment and convenience features, soft textures, good fit and finish, tinted rear windows, and contemporary car-like dashboard and steering. In terms of practicality, the luxurious Avantgarde version features plenty of storage spaces and two — rather than one — huge electric and remote operable sliding doors to easily access the rear two seat rows. Accommodating 8-passengers with two rear bench seats, the 7-seat Avantgarde, however, featured twin middle row captain’s seats and a table unit, all of which are detachable and configurable along twin long flush rails.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 2-litre, turbocharged, in-line 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 83.1 x 91.9mm

Compression ratio: 9.8:1

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, direct injection

Gearbox: 7-speed automatic, rear-wheel-drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 208 (211) [155] @5500rpm

Specific power: 104.5BHP/litre

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 258 (350) @ 1200-4000rpm

Specific torque: 175.8Nm/litre

0-100km/h: 9.4-seconds

Maximum speed: 210km/h

Fuel tank: 70-litres

Length: 5370mm

Width: 1928mm

Height: 1880mm

Wheelbase: 3200mm

Track, F/R: 1666/1646mm

Overhang, F/R: 895/1045mm

Aerodynamic drag co-efficiency: 0.31

Unladen weight: 2055kg (estimate)

Steering: Electric-assisted, rack and pinion

Turning circle: 12.5-metres

Suspension F/R: MacPherson struts/semi-trailing arms, coil springs, anti-roll bars, variable damping

Brakes: Ventilated discs

Tyres: 245/45R19

Parents who put babies to sleep in their own rooms report the infants get more rest and have more consistent bedtime routines than parents who share a room or a bed with their babies, a recent study suggests. 

The study focused on infants 6 to 12 months old. Researchers examined data from a questionnaire completed by parents of 6,236 infants in the US and 3,798 babies in an international sample from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Great Britain and New Zealand. All participants were users of a publicly available smartphone app for baby sleep. 

Overall, about 37 per cent of the babies in the US and 48 per cent in the international sample slept in a separate room, the study found. In both groups, parents of infants who slept in a different room reported that babies had earlier bedtimes, took less time to fall asleep, got more total sleep over the course of 24 hours and spent more time asleep at night. 

“There are a number of possible reasons that babies sleep better in their own room,” said lead study author Jodi Mindell, associate director of the Sleep Centre at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. 

“One main reason is that they are more likely to self-soothe to sleep,” Mindell said by e-mail. 

Parents who put babies to sleep in a separate room were less likely to feed infants to help them fall asleep at bedtime or when they awoke during the night, according to the study, published online August 11 in Sleep Medicine. 

When babies had their own rooms, parents also perceived bedtime to be less difficult. 

One limitation of the study is that parents with concerns about infant sleep might be more likely to download an app and complete a sleep questionnaire than parents without these concerns, the authors note. This might mean the results are not representative of what would happen in a larger population of households. 

The results are also at odds with infant sleep recommendations. 

Last year, the American Academy of Paediatrics (AAP) issued new guidelines recommending newborns sleep in the same bedroom as their parents for at least the first six months of their lives to minimise the risk of sleep-related deaths. Ideally, babies should stay in their parents’ rooms at night for a full year, AAP advised. 

That is because babies sleeping in the same room as parents, but not the same bed, may have a lower risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The safest spot for infant sleep is on a firm surface such as a crib or bassinet without any soft bedding, bumpers or pillows, the guidelines stressed. 

“Paediatric providers have been struggling with what to tell parents since the release of the AAP recommendations,” Mindell said. “Once a baby is past the risk of SIDS, by 6 months of age, parents need to decide what works best for them and their family, which enables everyone in the family to get the sleep they need.” 

The recommendations target the highest-risk period for SIDS, from birth to 6 months, but these deaths can also occur in older babies that were the focus on the study, said Dr Lori Feldman-Winter, a coauthor of the AAP guidelines and paediatrics researcher at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in Camden, New Jersey. 

“If the only goal is to increase sleep, then the results may be compelling,” Feldman-Winter said by e-mail. “However, since we don’t know what causes SIDS and evidence supports room sharing as a method to decrease SIDS, giving up some sleep time may be worth it.” 

VENICE — The 74th Venice film festival kicked off on Wednesday with “Downsizing”, a sci-fi drama starring a miniaturised Matt Damon, opening to enthusiastic early reviews.

Occupying a curtain-raising slot that has come to be seen as a strategic launchpad for films with Oscar ambitions, Alexander Payne’s part satirical, part save-the-planet new work was hailed by the trade press as an intriguing and original breath of fresh air from the “Sideways” and “Nebraska” director.

The Hollywood Reporter said Payne had “hit the creative jackpot”, while Variety welcomed a “ticklish and resonant crowd pleaser for grown ups”.

London’s Evening Standard was more reserved, praising the film as “often very funny” but bemoaning the abandonment of its initial satirical edge.

Set in the near future, the film is based on the premise that Norwegian scientists have found a way to literally reduce humanity’s environmental footprint by downsizing humans to 12.5-centimetre versions of themselves.

Soon, however, the technological breakthrough is being exploited for different reasons, as a means of enabling people to access a much more luxurious lifestyle than they could ever afford in the big world.

A combination of ecological and material motivations for being shrunk appeal to Paul Safranek (Damon), a kindly and well-meaning but stressed and frustrated occupational therapist from Omaha, and his wife Audrey, played by Kristen Wiig.

They sign up for the surgery but she gets cold feet at the last minute, leaving Damon to embark alone on his adventure in the miniaturised world he inhabits post-surgery.

Among those he comes into contact with there are a Christoph Waltz, who plays Dusan, his louche, party-loving neighbour in his miniature condominium, and Vietnamese cleaner Ngoc Lan, played by Hong Chau.

She, it turns out, had been forcibly miniaturised after being imprisoned as a dissident in her homeland and has lost a leg below the knee as a result of being smuggled into the United States in a television box.

Intrigued, Damon strikes up a friendship with her, taking the film in an unexpected Romcom direction that allows Payne to tie up his themes about the search for a better life, impending environmental catastrophe and the need, above all, to live in the moment.

Scripted by Payne, a two-time Oscar winner for his screenplays, and frequent writing partner Jim Taylor, the film will be hoping to emulate the success of “La La Land”, “Birdman” and “Gravity”, all Venice openers in recent years which went on to bag a bunch of awards.

Also being unveiled on the opening day was “Nico”, a bio-pic focusing on the final years of the Velvet Underground singer and Andy Warhol muse which is being shown in the festival’s “Horizons” section dedicated to cutting-edge productions.

Redford and Fonda

“Downsizing” is one of 21 films competing for Venice’s top prize, the Golden Lion, which will be handed out on September 9, along with a string of other awards including the first for films in a new competition for virtual reality productions.

As usual the international film line-up at Venice ranges from big-budget Hollywood productions, like George Clooney’s sixth directorial outing, “Suburbicon”, to new works by indie favourites Andrew Haigh and Warwick Thornton, via documentaries such as Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s epic look at the global refugee crisis, “Human Flow”.

British director Haigh will be presenting “Lean on Pete”, his first film since the acclaimed “45 Years”, while Thornton arrives in Venice next week to promote “Sweet Country”, a Western set in 1920s Australia that deals with the treatment of the country’s indigenous peoples.

Along with Clooney, the major stars due on the red carpet include Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, who will pick up lifetime achievement awards while plugging their new film “Our Souls at Night”, a Netflix drama about an unconventional romance between two elderly neighbours.

The theme of love after a certain age is also addressed in “Leisure Seeker”, in which Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland star as an independent, free-spirited couple coming to terms with Alzheimer’s.

Bloodied heart

Spanish superstar couple Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz team up again for a new drama about Pablo Escobar, “Loving Pablo”, in which Bardem plays the Colombian drug baron and Cruz his long-term mistress.

Bardem is also to be seen playing opposite Jennifer Lawrence in “mother!”, a new film by “Black Swan” director Darren Aronofsky, that is one of several thrillers vying for honours.

Promoted by a Mother’s Day-release of a poster showing Lawrence holding her own bloodied heart, the film tells the tale of a couple thrown into turmoil by uninvited guests.

Another spine-chiller features Ethan Hawke in Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed”, which turns around a dark secret harboured by members of a church who are tormented by the deaths of loved ones.

Also expected to make waves, with an out-of-competition world premiere, is “Victoria & Abdul”, Stephen Frears’ treatment of the true story of the elderly Queen Victoria’s later-life friendship with an Indian clerk.

British director Frears is to be honoured on Sunday for his innovative contribution to cinema.

LOS ANGELES — There is no getting around it: this weekend’s domestic box office is a catastrophe.

In the grand scheme, it can seem like a small issue when compared with Hurricane Harvey — the deadly natural disaster that tore through the Gulf Coast of Texas on Friday, dumping more than 51cm of rain, according to the National Weather Service. But Harvey also had at least some impact on the business, forcing theatre closures in South Texas. Still, the degree to which the storm hurt the bottom line of moviegoing is up for debate.

Another factor under inspection is Saturday evening’s boxing match which saw Floyd Mayweather beat Conor McGregor with a 10th-round TKO. The fight was estimated to reap as much as $1 billion in revenues, and among the biggest pay-per-view draws in history. Numbers regarding the amount of viewers will be released later in the week, but some analysts predicted the highly-anticipated brawl could keep those who would ordinarily see a movie, out of theaters.

All that said, no amount of outside factors can excuse the reality that no major releases this weekend managed to connect with audiences in a significant way. The overall box office this weekend is not expected to pass $65 million, and the top 12 films will gross less than $50 million. Those figures are the lowest in more than 15 years.

There have been lulls around this time in recent years. In 2014, the first weekend in September made $66 million overall. Two years before that, the September 7-9 frame made $67 million overall and $51.9 from the top 12. 2008 saw a similar slump in the September 5-7 frame.

But not since late September in 2001 have they dropped quite so low.* The September 21-23 frame in 2001 earned $59 million overall and the top 12 made $43.5 million. The year before, September 15-17 fell to $53.7 million for the weekend and $37.9 for the top 12.

Back to the current day, once again, “Hitman’s Bodyguard” and “Annabelle: Creation” will top the charts for Lionsgate and Warner Bros., respectively. “Bodyguard” is expected to earn $10.1 million from 3,377 theatres — combined with last weekend, its total domestic gross should be $39.6 million. And “Annabelle” will make $7.4 million from 3,565 locations, raising its current domestic cumulative audience to $77.9 million.

“We expect it to continue to perform well right into September,” said Lionsgate’s distribution president David Spitz.

Otherwise, TWC made two of the weekend’s biggest plays with the animated feature “Leap!” and the expansion of Taylor Sheridan’s “Wind River”. The former opened at 2,575 locations in North America, and is expected to take in $5 million. The film was acquired for a low cost of $3 million, and under its title in every market outside of the US, “Ballerina”, has already picked up $58.2 million from foreign locations. It is billed as a musical adventure comedy about an orphan girl who aspires to become a dancer. The voice cast is led by Elle Fanning, and also includes Maddie Ziegler, Carly Rae Jepsen, Nat Wolff, Kate McKinnon, and Mel Brooks. Critics smushed it to 37 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences earned the film an A CinemaScore.

“It’s a tough weekend out there in the marketplace when a $5 million movie is ranked third,” remarked Laurent Ouaknine, distribution boss at TWC. “On our side, we have a film that audiences love,” he said, adding that, while the audience is predominantly young and female, they’re seeing that boys “that are coming with their family like it too”.

“Wind River”, meanwhile should make an additional $4.4 million this weekend from 2,095 locations. The film, now in its fourth week of release, is intended as the conclusion of a trilogy that includes “Sicario” and “Hell or High Water.” During its first weekend at four theatres, the thriller scored one of the year’s best per-screen averages, but its mass appeal seems more questionable. “Hell or High Water”, which earned a best picture nomination at the Oscars, also made $4.4 million during its fourth weekend, but from fewer locations (1,303).

“We did decide to go a little bit wider,” Ouaknine said. “We saw the room in the marketplace and that there was nothing new out there for the intended audience,” he added, touting that TWC is responsible for two of the top five films in the marketplace.

Also, “Birth of the Dragon” is opening at 1,618 locations to $2.5 million. That’s below the $3.25 million goal set by the distributor. BH Tilt and WWE Studios co-acquired the film after its premiere at the 2016 Toronto Film Festival. The marketing campaign was inexpensive and focused on digital promotion, and targeted events. The movie — an homage to Bruce Lee’s style of martial arts films — lends its inspiration’s name to the main character, played by Philip Ng. Set in 1960s San Francisco, Lee challenges kung fu master Wong Jack Man (Xia Yu) to an epic fight.

And Sony’s “All Saints”, from Affirm Films and Provident Films should earn $1.55 million from 846 locations. The faith-based film has a low budget, and is generally embraced by critics (89 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes) and audiences (A- CinemaScore). John Corbett and Cara Buono lead the cast of the flick, directed by Steve Gomer. Steve Armour wrote the script, based on a true story, that centres on a salesman-turned-pastor and a group of refugees from Southeast Asia.

Despite the recent popular assertion that movie releases are moving to a year-round schedule with fewer dead zones, August remains a predictably sleepy month for theatres. Still, years past have managed bigger successes than we are seeing in 2017. Last year at this time, for example, Sony’s Screen Gems launched “Don’t Breathe”, which grossed $26.4 million in its opening weekend. While a similar sort of horror hit would be difficult to position between “Annabelle” and September release “It”, there is potential for movies to perform well at the tail end of summer. That “Wonder Woman” and “Baby Driver” saw their theatre counts upped only adds as further emphasis that studios see the hole in the schedule — they just are not quite sure how to properly fill it.