The Monocle Minute

At the eleventh hour, the US put a temporary pause on its all out trade war in North America. Nevertheless, as the continent edged towards the brink, watching the global markets plunge and the already overheating dollar soar ever closer to the sun, I couldn’t help but wonder whether this could be the US’s Brexit moment. In those heady days ahead of the 2016 referendum to determine whether the UK should leave the European Union, most economists warned that it would have damaging effects on the pound, the country’s GDP and the attractiveness of doing business with Blighty. But they were shouted down and the rest, of course, is history. The UK is still living with an economy muddied by the consequences of voting “out”.

Now it might be the US’s turn and it feels as though reality is about to take a big, greedy bite. In the run-up to November’s election, economists were again urging caution. Gorging on a buffet of tariffs, they said, would ultimately prove inflationary – a fattening of the arteries of world trade in return for dubious economic benefits. Donald Trump argues that it’s all in the name of coercing his neighbours – Canada and Mexico – to get their porous borders in order. But as Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, urged his people to buy Canadian rye instead of Kentucky bourbon, it was clear that this is the very opposite of the kind of cross-border co-operation that’s needed to tackle smugglers of people and drugs.

In 2016, the UK was a relatively diminutive fish in a pond of big economies. The US, by contrast, has much of the world dangling by its purse strings, from the dollar peg to the vast pools of private equity. Trump has returned to power promising to improve the lives of ordinary Americans and give them more bang for their buck. Perhaps in the long term his bullying tactics will get results and the numbers coming into the country illegally will fall. But if the price of goods starts to rise and supply chains are once again snarled up, the heat will be on the president. As disillusioned Brexiteers will tell you, buyers’ remorse is a terrible thing. Americans can’t say that they weren’t warned.

Christopher Lord is Monocle’s executive editor. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

To witness a prime example of how corporate giants can meaningfully insert themselves into the life of a city without plastering their branding all over the place, make your way to Tokyo’s Ginza district. If you have visited it in the past eight years, you might have noticed the transformation of one of its most prominent corners, Sukiyabashi Crossing – once the most expensive piece of real estate in the city. First came the demolition in 2017 of the Sony Building, a towering slice of futurism that originally had 2,300 cathode-ray tubes on its façade. Built in 1966 by architect Yoshinobu Ashihara, the structure embodied the vision of its creator, Sony co-founder Akio Morita, and announced the ambition of one of Japan’s most successful brands.

Now a new landmark has emerged in its place: Ginza Sony Park, an intriguing hunk of concrete that’s open to the street and the elements. For Monocle’s February issue, which is on newsstands now, we spoke to Daisuke Nagano, the president of Sony Enterprise, about the new building’s unconventional exhibition space. Pick up a copy to read more.

About 160,000 people took to the streets in Berlin last week to protest against tougher migration rules proposed by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and backed by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). Though the bill was eventually rejected in the Bundestag, many say that it goes against an unwritten postwar principle to never pass a motion with the support of the far-right. The CDU’s new leader, Friedrich Merz, doubled down on his party’s anti-immigration position yesterday at its convention in Berlin and stoked controversy by saying that he wanted to turn away asylum seekers at the border.

But the protests probably won’t shift the electoral needle ahead of the federal elections on 23 February. “The polling numbers haven’t really budged,” Aaron Burnett, senior fellow at the Democratic Strategy Initiative Berlin, tells The Monocle Minute. “It’s a sign that voters aren’t quite as up in arms about this as some of the country’s political elites might think.” Should Merz’s CDU win the election without a majority, however, forming a coalition government with alienated mainstream parties and colleagues could prove difficult.

The surprise star of this season’s film awards has undoubtedly been The Substance. The gory satire has been nominated for a slew of gongs in recent months and is now in the running for five Academy Awards, including best director for Coralie Fargeat, best actress for Demi Moore and best make-up and hairstyling, following Moore and co-star Margaret Qualley’s extensive on-screen transformations. Monocle spoke to the film’s special make-up effects designer, Pierre Olivier Persin, about his work.

How do you feel about being nominated for an Oscar?
I was on set, dragging a dummy of a dead body across the floor, when I heard the news. I’m very proud of the team’s work on The Substance. Coralie Fargeat is a fantastic director. The prosthetics, make-up and styling were so important for this film. They were perhaps the most challenging work that I have ever done.

How arduous was the daily make-up-and-prosthetics process?
It took anywhere between 45 minutes and six hours per day. But Demi Moore was particularly patient. It’s not fun to sit still for hours while people are poking at your face – and that’s all before acting.

You adopted quite an analogue approach for ‘The Substance’. Tell us more about this.
Some people think that there are too many digital effects in Hollywood films and audiences notice this. I’m used to working on auteur films in France, where we rely on such methods less. Fargeat wanted to use as many practical effects as possible to make the film feel organic. It’s an old-school nod to the 1980s.

‘The Substance’ is out now. You can listen to the full interview with Pierre Olivier Persin on‘The Monocle Weekly’.

UK singer-songwriter Vashti Bunyan is celebrating her 80th birthday with a new edition of her 2005 record Lookaftering, including added demos, live versions and sleeve notes from its producer, Max Richter. The lyric booklet features paintings by Bunyan’s daughter, which beautifully brings to life the wistful, dreamy tracks. Robert Bound sits down with Vashti Bunyan to discuss the cult reception to her work and how a younger generation breathed new life into her music.