Entertainment

Marianne Faithfull, rock ’n' roll chanteuse and Rolling Stones muse, dies at 78

Published

1 year ago

January 30, 2025

Marianne Faithfull, rock ’n' roll chanteuse and Rolling Stones muse, dies at 78

Marianne Faithfull, the singer, actress, steely-eyed “It” girl of Swinging ‘60s London and subject of numerous Rolling Stones songs including “Wild Horses” and “Sister Morphine,” opened her 1994 autobiography with a disclaimer: “Never apologize, never explain — didn’t we always say that? Well, I haven’t and I don’t.”

Faithfull, who once described herself as “the drug-drenched Duchy of Chelsea,” died peacefully in London on Thursday accompanied by her family, a spokesperson confirmed to The Times. She was 78 and previously had been suffering from the long-term effects of a nearly fatal COVID-19 infection in 2020. A cause of death was not revealed.

“She will be dearly missed,” the spokesperson told The Times in a statement.

Faithfull’s unflinching songs, adaptations and roller-coaster life illustrated her unapologetic approach. Described by Irish playwright Frank McGuinness as “interesting … difficult and strange,” Faithfull was descended from Austro-Hungarian aristocrats and first earned fame in 1964, at age 17, with “As Tears Go By,” written by a young Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

Across 50 years as an artist, she issued solo albums including 1979’s bracing comeback, “Broken English,” 1987’s Hal Willner-produced “Strange Weather” and 2018’s “Negative Capabilities” with Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.

Along the way, she channeled her cigarette-stained rasp to interpret the work of Berthold Brecht and Kurt Weill, Elton John and Bernie Taupin, Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, Leonard Cohen, PJ Harvey, Neko Case, Dolly Parton, Morrissey and others.

An artistic force, Faithfull reinvented her musical style with each passing decade, eagerly embracing contemporary sounds and collaborators as engines for her distinctive alto, one that grew more menacing the older she got.

She was a soprano when she met her future boyfriend Jagger at a party in London also attended by Richards, Paul McCartney and Peter Asher. Scouted by Rolling Stones producer Andrew Loog Oldham, Faithfull was in the recording studio with him, Jagger and Richards a few weeks later.

A regular in London’s gossip press of the 1960s, Faithfull was soon at the center of the thriving music and fashion scenes. She sang backing vocals on the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” and the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil,” and hung with Bob Dylan during his historic 1965 run of shows in England. In 1967, Faithfull was famously photographed draped in a fur rug during a drug bust at Richards’ estate.

With sharp wit, keen intellect and disarming beauty, Faithfull accessed rooms where millions of Beatles-loving teens longed to be. She wrote in her autobiography of hanging out with Dylan and the Beatles during their peak success: “Jesus, how could I have ever thought these scared little boys were gods?”

Her lineage may have prepared her for the bohemian life. Faithfull was born Dec. 29, 1946, to a mother, Eva, who was a baroness. She descended from a line that included Leopold Baron von Sacher Masoch, who coined the term “masochism” in his erotic book “Venus in Furs.”

Faithfull’s father worked as a spy for British intelligence and was “a truly obsessed eccentric,” she wrote in “Faithfull: An Autobiography.” That ran in the family too. Her paternal grandfather, a sexologist, invented a device called “the frigidity machine,” designed to “unlock the primal libidinal energy” and cure the world’s ills.

After the success of “As Tears Go By” (the Rolling Stones recorded their version a year later), Faithfull continued her recording career and, until 1970, her relationship with Jagger. She characterized those years in her autobiography as: “Desultory intellectual chitchat, drugs, hip aristocrats, languid dilettantes and high naughtiness. I knew I was on my path!”

Most traveled during the 1970s was the path that led to drugs. She described her years homeless and strung out succinctly: “I took the train to London and didn’t return home for years, except for the occasional bath,” she wrote. Anonymous and penniless, she didn’t have a phone or an address. “I was incredibly frail. I never ate. I lost my looks.”

Absent a record contract or musical support, she only made the news as the junkie ex-girlfriend or disgraced aristocrat.

Faithfull got clean in the mid-1970s and returned to upend expectations in 1979 with “Broken English.” Her voice lower from damaged vocal cords, too many cigarettes and other addictions, the album arrived shortly after the British punk explosion, but it wasn’t a punk album per se. It was just hard, unflinching, vulgar, honest.

In addition to the title track, Faithfull transformed John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero” into a feminist anthem and drew wide-eyed attention for “Why’d You Do It,” a harsh, profanity-laden indictment directed at an unfaithful lover. The album earned Faithfull her only Grammy nomination, for female rock vocal performance.

“The Ballad of Lucy Jordan,” from “Broken English,” scored a memorable midnight drive through the desert in the 1991 movie “Thelma and Louise.” Rolling westbound, Susan Sarandon’s Louise plays the Shel Silverstein-penned song on the car stereo, and Faithfull sings of a desperate woman who, at the age of 37, realizes “she’d never ride / through Paris in a sports car/ with the warm wind in her hair” and decides to change the plot.

Though she never earned chart success in the United States, Faithfull was a critics’ darling throughout her career. Her 1987 album, “Strange Weather,” saw her interpreting Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Keep It With Mine,” Leadbelly’s “I Ain’t Goin’ Down to the Well No More” and Dr. John’s “Hello Stranger.”

“Faithfull: An Autobiography” was published in 1994. The first of three memoirs, it recounts her trysts and escapades with humor, brashness and power, and remains an essential music memoir. She issued studio albums at an even pace across the last 25 years of her life, one every few years with a new round of songs and a voice just a little more ragged.

Courtney Love sits next to Marianne Faithfull on a sofa

For her 2008 album, “Easy Come, Easy Go,” Faithfull covered songs by Judee Sill, Randy Newman, Brian Eno and Merle Haggard. Her rendition of Morrissey’s “Dear God, Please Help Me” hits its climax when Faithfull bellows at full volume, “There are explosive kegs / Between my legs / Dear God, please help me.”

The musician had a long, successful career as an actor as well. She performed Chekhov at the Royal Court Theatre, Shakespeare at the Roundhouse and Brecht and Weill at the Gate Theatre in Dublin.

Most famously, Faithfull starred in “The Girl on the Motorcycle,” a sexually charged, LSD-inspired 1968 love story that became one of the first films to be given an X rating by the Motion Picture Assn. of America. She appeared as a vision in “Lucifer Rising,” a notorious 1972 cult film by Kenneth Anger, an experimental filmmaker in Los Angeles. In 2001, Faithfull played God in a memorable series of dream sequences in the British comedy “Absolutely Fabulous” (her longtime best friend, Anita Pallenberg, played the devil).

Faithfull was nominated as best actress at the 2007 European Film Awards for her role in “Irina Palm,” in which she stars as a grandmother who performs anonymous sexual favors to earn money for her grandson’s cancer treatment. In 2011, Faithfull was awarded Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, one of France’s most esteemed cultural honors.

Her 2018 album, “Negative Capability” was typically adventurous. Teaming in a studio and living space with longtime Nick Cave collaborator Warren Ellis, the album saw her write songs with artists including Cave, Ellis, British songwriter Ed Harcourt and producer Rob Ellis. She told the Guardian that it was “the most honest record I’ve ever made. There are no hidden corners.”

She added, “What a joy, hanging out with those wonderful men.” That, of course, was a setting in which she often found herself, whether she invited it or not.

“My main priority in my head was always my work. But then, of course, the men came,” she explained, “and it wasn’t really what I wanted, but I was too pretty to be left alone.”

In 2021, she released “She Walks in Beauty,” a haunting spoken-word recording of Lord Byron and other British Romantic poets, the backing music — ambient at times — provided by Ellis, Eno, Cave and Vincent Segal. It was her 21st and final album

In her final years Faithfull, who was married three times, had her share of challenges. She broke her back in a fall in 2013 and a year later broke her hip. She was hospitalized for three weeks during the early days of the pandemic in 2020 when she tested positive for COVID 19.

Faithfull is survived by a son, financial writer Nicholas Dunbar, and three grandchildren.

Movie Reviews

Movie review: Ballet-themed erotic drama ‘Dreams’ dissipates in finale

Published

4 hours ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

Movie review: Ballet-themed erotic drama ‘Dreams’ dissipates in finale

Mexican writer/director Michel Franco explores the dynamics of money, class and the border through the spiky, unsettling erotic drama “Dreams,” starring Jessica Chastain and Isaac Hernández, a Mexican ballet dancer and actor.

In the languidly paced “Dreams,” Franco presents two individuals in love (or lust?) who experiment with wielding the power at their fingertips against their lover, the violence either state or sexual in nature. The film examines the push-pull of attraction and rejection on a scope both intimate and global, finding the uneasy space where the two meet.

Chastain stars as Jennifer McCarthy, a wealthy San Francisco philanthropist and socialite who runs a foundation that supports a ballet school in Mexico City. But Franco does not center her experience, but that of Fernando (Hernández), whom we meet first, escaping from the back of a box truck filled with migrants crossing the U.S./Mexico border, abandoned in San Antonio on a 100-degree day.

His journey is one of extreme survival, but his destination is the lap of luxury, a modernist San Francisco mansion where he makes himself at home, and where he’s clearly been at home before. A talented ballet dancer who has already once been deported, he’s risked everything to be with his lover, Jennifer, though as a high-profile figure who works with her father and brother (Rupert Friend), she’d rather keep her affair with Fernando under wraps. He’s her dirty little secret, but he’s also a human being who refuses to be kept in the shadows.

As Jennifer and Fernando attempt to navigate what it looks like for them to be together, it seems that larger forces will shatter their connection. In reality, the only real danger is each other.

The storytelling logic of “Dreams” is predicated on watching these characters move through space, the way we watch dancers do. Franco offers some fascinating parallels to juxtapose the wildly varying experiences of Fernando and Jennifer — he enters the States in a box truck, almost dying of thirst and heat stroke; she arrives in Mexico on a private plane, but they both enter empty homes alone, melancholy. During a rift in their relationship, Fernando retreats to a motel while working at a bar, drinking red wine out of plastic cups with a friend in his humble room, ignoring Jennifer’s calls, while she eats alone in her darkened dining room, drinking red wine out of crystal.

These comparisons aren’t exactly nuanced, but they are stark, and for most of the film, Franco just asks us to watch them move together, and apart, in a strange, avoidant pas de deux. Often dwarfed by architecture, their distinctive bodies in space are more important than the sparse dialogue that only serves to fill in crucial gaps in storytelling.

Cinematographer Yves Cape captures it all in crisp, saturated images. The lack of musical score (beyond diegetic music in the ballet scenes) contributes to the dry, flat affect and tone, as these characters enact increasing cruelties — both emotional and physical — upon each other as a means of trying to contain their lover, until it escalates into something truly dark and disturbing.

Franco, frankly, loses the plot of “Dreams” in the third act. What is a rather staid drama about the weight of social expectations on a relationship becomes a dramatically unexpected game of vengeance as Jennifer and Fernando grasp at any power they have over the other. She fetishizes him and he returns the favor, violently.

Ultimately, Franco jettisons his characters for the sake of unearned plot twists that leave the viewer feeling only icky. These events aren’t illuminating, and feel instead like a bleak betrayal. The circumstances of the story might be “timely,” but “Dreams” doesn’t help us understand the situation better, leaving us in the dark about what we’re supposed to take away from this story of sex, violence, money and the state. Anything it suggests we already know.

‘Dreams’

(In English and Spanish with English subtitles)

1.5 stars (out of 4)

No MPA rating (some nudity, sex scenes, swearing, sexual violence)

Running time: 1:35

How to watch: In theaters Feb. 27

Entertainment

Soho House sued after bartender alleges she was ‘drugged and raped’ by her supervisor

Published

6 hours ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

Soho House sued after bartender alleges she was ‘drugged and raped’ by her supervisor

A bartender who worked at Soho House’s exclusive Soho Warehouse in downtown Los Angeles is alleging a supervisor at the posh membership club and hotel drugged and raped her, according to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday.

The woman, who filed as Jane Doe, said in her complaint that she was “subjected to repeated sexual advances and unwelcomed physical touching” by one of her supervisors, Leonard Marcelo Vichique Maya, immediately after she began working as a bartender at Berenjak, the club’s restaurant, in September 2025.

Doe is suing Vichique Maya, Soho House, Soho House Los Angeles and Soho Warehouse for sexual harassment, retaliation and other claims..

“This is as egregious an instance of callous corporate indifference to workplace sexual violence that anyone can experience,” said her attorney Nick Yasman of Los Angeles-based West Coast Trial Lawyers in a statement.

Representatives for Soho House and Vichique Maya were not immediately available for comment.

Doe has further alleged that Vichique Maya made “numerous comments” about her appearance, propositioned her to be his “hook-up buddy” and told her that she “would be pregnant by now” had they met earlier, all within earshot of her supervisors and colleagues.

After two weeks on the job, Doe said that she reported Vichique Maya’s conduct to two male supervisors, including Soho House’s floor manager and food and beverage director, states the complaint, but “neither took any semblance of corrective or investigatory action.”

According to the suit, Doe claims that despite “his pattern of harassing behavior and complaints,” the company, did not address his alleged misconduct. ”

She claims his behavior escalated after a “team-bonding” work event on Sept. 13, where Doe said she became disoriented after drinking with supervisors and co-workers, eventually losing consciousness, and woke up naked in Vichique Maya’s apartment.

“Paralyzed and speechless despite her consciousness slowly returning, Plaintiff was condemned to simply watch in horror as [sic] MARCELO repeatedly raped her inanimate body,” states the suit.

The next day, Doe said that she reported to her floor manager that Vichique Maya had “sexually assaulted her.”

She said her general manager “confirmed” that he “appeared to be preying” on her during the work event, telling her that “These things happen between coworkers.”

When she proclaimed that she could no longer work with Vichique Maya,” she said the general manager dismissed her concerns telling her: “I have a restaurant to run; I can’t have it blow up on me.”

Despite informing three managers that she was “raped,” Doe said she was continuously scheduled to work shifts with Vichique Maya during which he repeatedly sexually harassed her.

In December, Doe filed a complaint with Soho House human resources, and she was assured that an investigation would be opened and “immediate corrective action” taken.

However, during the investigation, Doe said that she was placed on indefinite leave while Vichique Maya continued working. A month later, she was informed the company had completed its investigation and found her report of rape “was uncorroborated” and he “would not be disciplined.”

In February, the plaintiff said that she was forced to quit her job.

One of the first, exclusive members-only social clubs, Soho House debuted in London in 1995 and quickly became the bolt-hole of choice for celebrities and the deep-pocketed. It expanded globally with 48 houses in 19 countries.

It drew high-profile investors, including Ron Burkle through his investment fund Yucaipa.

In 2021, the company filed for an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, but it has faced financial challenges. .

Last year, Soho House went private, selling itself to a group of investors including Apollo Global Management and actor Ashton Kutcher, who also joined its board of directors, at a $2.7-billion valuation.

Movie Reviews

MOVIE REVIEWS: “Mercy,” “Return to Silent Hill,” “Sentimental Value” & “In Cold Light” – Valdosta Daily Times

Published

16 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

“Mercy”

(Thriller/Crime: 1 hour, 39 minutes)

Starring: Chris Pratt, Rebecca Ferguson, Kali Reis

Director: Timur Bekmambetov

Rated: PG-13 (Violence, bloody images, strong language, drug content and teen smoking)

Movie Review:

“Mercy” is a science fiction movie based on one of the more common themes of moviedom lately, artificial intelligence (AI). This crime thriller cleverly creates an intriguing story using technology and the justice system, yet it fails to be consistently interesting and intelligent throughout. The conclusion is less significant than the initial setup, as the concluding scenes become typical action sequences.

Detective Chris Raven (Pratt) of the LA Police Department is a huge supporter of the city’s new judicial courtroom. Crimes are now judged by an AI program (Ferguson) in the Mercy Court. The court is run by an artificial program that makes decisions based on all of the evidence before it without any prejudice. Detective Raven is all for this system until he is convicted of killing his wife. Now he must use all of the data, including the AI‘s ability to tap into everyone’s electronic devices, security cameras, and even into government files, within reason, to prove he did not murder his wife.

Mercy is an interesting movie. It entertains throughout, even when the story gets sloppy and characters’ actions are irrational. This mainly occurs during the final scenes. The movie tries too hard to insert unneeded narrative twists. This is disappointing because the story is interesting. What makes it fascinating is that it happens in real time. This is the most brilliant facet.

All the other theatrics are unnecessary. Director Timur Bekmambetov (“Profile,” 2018; “Wanted,” 2008) and “Mercy’s” producers should have just kept the ending simple, no plot twists or superfluous action sequences.
Grade: C (This flick needs some mercy. Let the trial begin.)

“Return to Silent Hill”

(Horror: 1 hour, 46 minutes)

Starring: Jeremy Irvine, Hannah Emily Anderson and Robert Strange

Director: Christophe Gans

Rated: R (Bloody violent content, strong language and brief drug use.)

Movie Review:

“Return to Silent Hill” is about one man’s quest to return to the love of his life. The problem is she has moved on to the afterlife. Meanwhile, audiences lose part of their life watching this movie, which is unlike any of the two prequels in this series. This one is a psychological horror that bores.

Artist James Sunderland (Irvine) decides to return to Silent Hill, a place where many people died during a devastating illness that nearly enveloped the entirety of the city’s population. What is left there is a horror show of freakish creatures, all with violent intent. Still, Sunderland searches for the love of his life, Mary Crane (Anderson).

Think of this movie as a slow suicide, where a guy goes back to retrieve his dead girlfriend. To do so, he must travel to the modern land of the dead that Silent Hill has become. This one is a type of swan song by the main character, and the movie becomes less scary while lackluster romantic notions wander aimlessly.

Grade: D (Do not return to see this.)

“Sentimental Value”

(Drama: 2 hours, 13 minutes)

Starring: Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas and Elle Fanning

Director: Joachim Trier

Rated: R (Language, sexual reference, nudity and thematic elements)

Movie Review:

“Sentimental Value” is a Norwegian film that won the Grand Prix in France’s Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Motion Picture. It is a solid drama filled with symbolism and family connections. It is brilliant performances by a talented cast under the direction of Joachim Trier (“The Worst Person in the World,” 2021).

This screenplay is about Gustav Borg (Skarsgård). He is a father, grandfather and a famed film director. He stayed away from his two daughters, actress Nora Borgwhile (Reinsve) and historian Agnes Borg Pettersen (Lilleaas), while he was creating works as a filmmaker. The director comes back into the lives of his daughters after the death of their mother. Their reunion leads to a rediscovery of their bond at their family home in Oslo.

Stellan Skarsgård is always a solid actor. He takes his roles and makes them tangible characters that seem like you know them, even when they’re speaking a foreign language. That is the quality of his act and why he gets nominated for multiple awards each season.

“Sentimental Value” is a valuable movie filled with enriching sentiment. It is an enjoyable film for those who value a good drama. The acting and original writing alone make the movie worth it. “Sentimental Value” starts in a very simple way, but everything in between, even when low-key, remains potent. Joachim Trier and writer Eskil Vogt have worked together on multiple projects such as “The Worst Person in the World” (2021). Their pairing is once again worthy.

Grade: A- (Any motive valuable movie.)

“In Cold Light ”

(Crime: 1 hour , 36 minutes)

Starring: Maika Monroe, Allan Hawco and Troy Kotsur

Director: Maxime Giroux

Rated: R (Violence, bloody images, strong language and drug material)

Movie Review:

“In Cold Light” sticks to a very straightforward story, primarily taking place over a short period. The problem is the story leaves one in the cold. Audiences have to guess what is being communicated because this movie uses American Sign Language (ASL) without subtitles. For those moviegoers who do not know ASL, they are left deciphering characters’ actions and facial expressions during some pivotal scenes.

Ava Bly (Monroe) attempts to start a legit life after prison. Her life changes when Ava’s twin, Tom Bly (Jesse Irving) is murdered while seated next to her. As her brother’s killers pursue her, Ava must evade law enforcement, which contains some crooked cops led by Bob Whyte (Hawco).

For a brief moment, this movie hits its exceptional moment when Oscar-recipient Helen Hunt enters the picture as a motherly Claire, a crime boss who seems more like a social worker/psychologist. Her long scene is wasted as it arrives too late.

French Canadian director Maxime Giroux’s style has potential in his first English-language film, but it does not fit a wayward narrative. A rarity, this crime drama has characters commit many dumb actions at once.

Moreover, Giroux (“Félix et Meira,” 2014) and writer Patrick Whistler forget to let their audiences in on their story. They allow much to get lost in translation, especially during heated conversations between Monroe’s Ava and her father, Will Bly, played by Academy Award-winning actor Troy Kotsur (“CODA,” 2021).

Grade: C- (Just cold and dark.)

More movie reviews online at www.valdostadailytimes.com.