Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2022 - Issue 83 i The Rake

If Ric Flair didn’t exist, America would have to invent him, so perfectly does he embody the populist mindset of the nation. “I’m a Rolex-wearing. Diamond-ring-wearing. Kiss-stealing. Wheeling, dealing. Limousine-riding. Jet-flying son of a gun. And I’m having a hard time holding these alligators down. Wooo.” These are the immortals words, called down like cerebral lightning from the Mount Olympus of the mind, of one Richard Morgan Fliehr, better known by the name he assumed, like a mantle of glory, to entertain millions of wrestling fans the world over: Ric Flair. So perennial is his appeal, so everlasting is his legend, that this year, at the age of 73, he stepped into a ring to do battle one last time, making him the world’s oldest wrestler ever to perform in…

In 1923, the writer and editor C.K. Scott Moncrieff produced a barbed ode called A Servile Statesman, which read, in part: Sir Philip Sassoon is a member for Hythe He is opulent, generous, swarthy and lithe The houses he inhabits are costly but chaste But Sir Philip Sassoon is unerring in taste The recipient of these lampooning lines — politician, arts patron, aviator, munificent host — might have been disappointed at the sentiment. After all, Scott Moncrieff was notable as the translator of Marcel Proust’s mammoth opus À La Recherche du Temps Perdu, and Proust was Sassoon’s favourite author; he knew a fellow voluptuary of the senses when he devoured one. But he probably wouldn’t have been surprised. Though he worked his way into the British establishment, serving on the…

For the princely sum of $20 (plus shipping), you will receive in the mail four — count ’em — autographed photos of Cindy Morgan. And not just randomly signed images but personalised ones. Got a bit more to spend? How about having sex kitten Lacey Underall at your birthday bash? O.K., we’ve probably lost some of our younger readers here, so let’s have a priapic refresh. The year was 1980 and the film was Caddyshack. Fresh off the success of Meatballs, but before Stripes, writer Harold Ramis was in the middle of a purple patch that harnessed the comedic genius of Bill Murray. Caddyshack, whose storyline involved a destructive gopher and similarly rascally new blood at a staid golf course, boasted some of the era’s comedy heavyweights. As well as…

The dignified, sophisticated and technologically awe-inspiring world of watchmaking is, we cannot deny, overseen by conglomerates, enormous companies that wish to nurture their ancient brands through the 21st century. Still, no brand can survive without the artisans who create what is one of the more practical forms of art that money can buy. Regardless of the vast budgets assigned to sporting events and global advertising campaigns (which sometimes involve various militaries or Hollywood’s elite), the men and women who quietly ply their trade at their workbenches form the core of each watch brand and its production. It is reassuring, then, to say that Breguet have as their Chief Executive a man who has risen through the ranks. Lionel a Marca is one of few industry leaders who have assembled a…

August is pretty terrific, isn’t it? It’s the last chance to enjoy some vacation time before September arrives, which, for many, is a kind of alternative new year, especially for those of us with children of school age. But August also marks the start of shooting season, while an entire country — Italy — basically shuts up shop, with its farmers harvesting tomatoes, potatoes and other crops for our degustation pleasure. I will be back in Bargemon, in the south of France, where, as F. Scott Fitzgerald put it, “the diffused magic of the hot, sweet south… the soft-pawed night and the ghostly wash of the Mediterranean far below” will help my stresses and strains to dissipate, and I can contemplate important things, like whether brown really should never be…

Ismael Cruz Córdova is on a mission. For the 35-year-old, acting isn’t just an art form or a mode of self-expression but an urgent calling, a means to improve representation for generations that follow him. It’s why the Puerto Rican is so excited to see the release of the Amazon Prime series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Córdova plays the warrior elf Arondir, as part of a new era in the franchise in which young Afro-Latinos will be able to watch someone they identify with in these sweeping fantasy universes. “I didn’t have that growing up,” Ismael tells The Rake, “so it’s part of a legacy I want to leave behind.” Aside from blockbuster franchises, Ismael is also working with filmmakers such as Guillermo del Toro…

He is our very own Corinthian in the pre-war mould,” Mark Birley said of my father, Nick Chamberlin. The line was read out at my father’s 70th birthday party, in a speech given by his best friend, Gavin Rankin, who also happened to be Mark’s right-hand man during the Birley heyday. There were 175 of my father’s closest friends filling two long tables at the Cavalry and Guards Club, a re-enactment of William Salter’s Waterloo Banquet. There were knowing nods a-plenty at this particular description, yet I sat ignorant and curious. What is a Corinthian and how does my father fit in? The ‘prewar mould’ I understood — my father is a man of punctuality, chivalry, Victorian stringency, hard work and stiff upper lip. But Corinthian? This needed more investigation.…

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Jumbo Extra-Thin ‘The most wearable’, ‘the most groundbreaking’, ‘the most coveted’… Superlatives have rained down on the Royal Oak, the most famous watch in the history of Audemars Piguet, ever since a piece in stainless steel with an octagonal bezel secured with hexagonal screws first appeared on the market for a then astronomical price tag of CHf3,750 half a century ago. Today, the Royal Oak is, to its much-lauded Swiss maker, what the DB8 would be to Aston Martin had the British marque continued making new versions of it up to the present day. In honour of its anniversary this year, there have been a slew of innovative updates, across various references. This — a fresh iteration of the 39mm Royal Oak ‘Jumbo’ Extra-Thin — might…

Everyone needs a man like Atticus Finch in their corner. Since Harper Lee published her semi-autobiographical novel To Kill a Mockingbird in 1960, Finch, the Alabama lawyer, has become a folk hero and an embodiment of progressive American values. There’s the Gregory Peck performance you’re no doubt familiar with, a role that — for all of the actor’s other work — he seems most remembered for. Good lawyers still refer to him as a symbolic figure; public sculptures have been commissioned in his honour; and Barack Obama quoted Finch in his farewell address as president. “If democracy is to work,” Obama said, “each one of us must heed the advice of one of the great American characters, who said, ‘You never really understand a person until you consider things from…

Michael is a Floridian turned New Yorker who began his photography career in the fashion industry as an agent for models. While developing and maintaining the careers of some leading models, he had a desire to return to his lifelong ambition of capturing still and moving images. Since changing careers he has not looked back, having shot for several iconic brands, including Hugo Boss, Victoria’s Secret, Vogue and GQ. He lives in New York with his girlfriend and his badass Pomeranian called Biggie. Michael returned to The Rake to photograph Michael Shannon for our cover and accompanying story (page 80). Paul is a film and television director with credits including the groundbreaking Bridesmaids, The Heat, Spy, Last Christmas and the remarkably rakish A Simple Favour (the sequel for which has…

As anyone who’s stayed in their seat for a film’s credit roll can see, it takes a village to raise a motion picture. The obsession with directors, or ‘auteurs’, over the collaborative process is deeply misleading, a product of the human mind’s unwillingness or inability to process the concept of teamwork. Among the thousand names scrolling down any screen, screenwriters are the most consistently ill-served category, but rivalling them for contribution over acclaim is the cinematographer. This makes James Wong Howe’s renown, at least in the world of cinema buffs, all the more remarkable. As a cinematographer, the man behind the cameras, he still has no equal. He enjoyed the advantage of an early start, making his way in the industry just a little after its birth, but in every…

I have seen and coveted Cifonelli suits for a very long time. They appear to come from another era and yet fit seamlessly into the present day for any man who has the confidence to pull them off. The exacting fit, the gorgeous sculpted flow of the double-breasted waistcoat, the regal silhouette: to me, it adds up to more than a suit. It’s as if it’s possible to wear the sartorial equivalent of a Rolls-Royce, all tailored by a fairytale king in the form of Lorenzo Cifonelli. So, when my good friend Tom Chamberlin asked me if I would like to have a bespoke Cifonelli suit tailored for me by the master himself, I pinched myself extremely hard, said “ouch”, and then said yes at the speed of light. My…

There is a sense of proportion in mechanical objects that imbue a vision of beauty in the eye of the beholder — proportions that appeal and are seen as intrinsically harmonious. Concorso d’Eleganza in Italy is the aesthetic heaven you would expect it to be. Since 1929, the elegant, the sartorially resplendent, the well-wheeled and the well-heeled have converged on the shores of Lake Como at Villa d’Este to parade in spectacular surroundings. It is arguably one of the world’s premier automobile concours, and A. Lange & Söhne have been one of its main partners for the past decade. Villa d’Este is a divine setting, quite literally. Originally built as a summer palace for Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio of Como around 1570, the residence became a resort for politicians, intellectuals and…