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Stanley Kubrick’s brutal trick to film one of the most terrifying scenes in ‘A Clockwork Orange’: making it real

April 5, 2026 by usatoday24

In the 70s, the world of cinema experienced a period in which some directors pursued realism in ways that are unthinkable today: scenes were filmed without doubles, with extreme practical effects and with days that dozens could be repeated (or even more than a hundred) times until the desired result is achieved. That obsession with authenticity left unrepeatable moments… and also stories that are difficult to believe today. Real pain. At that time in history, the sector was going through a period of radical experimentation where some directors were willing to take its actors to the limit in order to capture something authentic on the screen. In that context, one of the most disturbing scenes of modern cinema, a sequence that not only sought to make the viewer uncomfortable, but ended up transferring that suffering directly to the body of the leading actor. Thus, what should be a representation of control and violence ended up becoming a extreme physical experience that would forever mark the person who played it. Along the way, he would extend the legend of a director: Stanley Kubrick. When perfectionism is risk. Stanley Kubrick was already known for his obsession with detail, but in this case he crossed an extremely dangerous line. As? Instead of simulating the most famous scene of Clockwork Orangedecided to make it as real as possible: the devices that kept Alex’s character’s eyes open They were not propsand the medical procedure wasn’t a cinematic illusion either. In other words, the search for absolute authenticity led to a situation in which actor Malcolm McDowell’s security was compromised. in the background compared to the final image, reflecting a way of directing where the result justified practically any means. The impossible scene: hours of open eyes. Yes, McDowell was literally tied to a chair with his eyelids forced to remain open while he watched violent images during long days of filming, exactly as happened to the character he played. a real doctorin charge of keeping his eyes hydrated, had to constantly apply drops to avoid irreversible damage. However, the situation became complicated when that same doctor received instructions to act on the scenedividing his attention between his medical function and his improvised role. The result was a disastrous environment where control was diluted just when it was needed most. An avoidable injury. The failure was as simple as it was disturbing: while the instruments kept the actor’s eyes open, the eyelids began to slide out of their position. directly scrape the cornea. Plus: under anesthesia, the actor could not feel the damage at that moment, which made the situation even more dangerous. When the effect wore off, the pain was immediate and extremeto the point of requiring urgent treatment with morphine. The most shocking thing was not the injury itself, that too, but its character completely avoidable: it was enough that the doctor had been focused on his role or that the scene had been filmed with simulated effects. The price of perfection. Far from stopping, filming continued. The director, dissatisfied with some plans, demanded to repeat the sceneforcing the actor to once again face an experience that he already knew was painful. That decision turned an accident into a conscious process of sufferingone where the anticipation of pain was as harsh as the physical damage itself. In short, if the scene that the viewer perceives was uncomfortable, it was because, to a large extent, he was not alone in front of a sublime performance (which also, of course), he was in front of a real reaction in an extreme situation. Kubrick and his actors. The truth is that the episode was not an exception, but part of a pattern. Kubrick’s method was based on countless occasions in repeating takes until the actor’s emotional defenses are broken and more authentic reactions are obtained, as also happened in another case famous with actress Shelley Duvall in The Shining. His way of working has been celebrated for the results, but also questioned for the human cost which it implied. In this case, the line between demanding management and unnecessary risk became especially blurred. The final paradox. For years, McDowell himself came to resent the film for what it had cost him, physically and emotionally. Over time, however, ended up accepting that had been part of an unrepeatable work. The great irony here is that one of the most iconic scenes in modern cinema owes part of its force to a suffering that should never have happened. If you will, it is also an uncomfortable reminder that, sometimes, behind cinematic perfection there is not only talent, but also errorsrisks and decisions that today would be difficult to justify. Image | Warner In Xataka | The wildest race on the Olympic tracks in Cortina was in 1981. A man launched himself dodging bullets and assassins on a motorcycle In Xataka | One of the best comedies in history turned this simple scene into the most expensive. 9/11 and a highway were to blame

The trailer for the ‘Harry Potter’ series innovates zero things with respect to the film. Just what millennials want

March 27, 2026 by usatoday24

HBO has just released the first trailer for its television adaptation of ‘harry potter‘, and the most widespread reaction is neither enthusiasm nor rejection: it is that of a certain déjà vu uncomfortable. The series premieres on Christmas 2026 and already raises the question that has been floating for two years without an answer: what does this contribute that the film saga that started in 2001 and that marked the generation does not have? millennial? The trailer. The first season of this series based on the saga of children’s wizards by JK Rowling, titled ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ (that is, everything indicates that it will focus on the first volume), will premiere on Christmas 2026 with eight episodes. Earlier than expected, since the calendar pointed to early 2027. The trailer presents the new leading trio: Dominic McLaughlin as Harry, Arabella Stanton as Hermione and Alastair Stout as Ron, along with a gallery of strong secondary actors: John Lithgow as Dumbledore, Paapa Essiedu as Snape, Janet McTeer as McGonagall and Nick Frost as Hagrid. Everything the same. “I don’t know how to explain it, but this looks like the live-action version of a live-action movie,” he wrote. a Reddit user a few hours after the trailer was published, and there are those who consider that phrase a perfect summary of the most widespread reaction. Another noted: “I feel like I woke up in an alternate reality where the series looks and sounds the same, but the characters have other faces.” The same suits, the same reference planes, the same spaces, but different faces. They had already warned. It can’t be said that we didn’t know. In August, Chris Columbus (director of the first two films and largely responsible for the aesthetic representation of the books on screen) declared that, upon seeing photos from Hagrid’s filming, the character was wearing “the exact same costume we designed. Part of me thought, what’s the point of this? I thought everything was going to be different, but it’s more of the same.” The trailer gave shape to their fears with absolute precision. The amusement park variable. There is an economic variable that is rarely mentioned, but that is decisive. Since Universal opened the first Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando in 2010, the parks’ annual attendance has doubled and revenue grew by 109% between 2010 and 2015until reaching 3,340 million dollars. Today the ecosystem extends to Japan, Hollywood, Beijing and, in the coming years, an ambitious resort in Bedford, United Kingdom. All that framework (castles, costumes, interactive elements, stores) visually replicate the movies, not the books. TO JK Rowling It is also good for you to maintain that consistency. The second largest source of income for the author It is her participation in the profits of the theme parks, which makes her an interested party in ensuring that the aesthetics of the franchise remain stable. Rowling, who is also listed as an executive producer on the series, stated that worked closely with the scriptwriters in adaptation. Everything under control. Not all bad. There have also been positive reactions: some fans they perceive details of the books that the movies left out: these encyclopedic fans have been waiting for decades for a version that does literal justice to Rowling’s original, and as Columbus recognizedbeing able to adapt each book in ten hours allows us to include many aspects that were left out in the movies. The trailer, of course, has to focus on what is recognizable, on what the millennials They expect to see, and hence the mirror effect has been sought. The series, when it premieres, will have to find the balance between surprise and predictability. In Xataka | A Harry Potter fan fiction was so successful that it changed the names of its protagonists. And thanks to this he earned 3 million dollars

Marlon Brando rejected an Oscar in 1973. His authentic story is worthy of the best thriller film

March 14, 2026 by usatoday24

On March 27, 1973, Marlon Brando rejected the Oscar for Best Actor for ‘The Godfather’ as a protest against the treatment of Native Americans. What no one knew then is that the statuette would not disappear, but would tour through some very famous hands in Hollywood, among others Roger Moore and Charlie Chaplin. This is the story of a prize that never existed and, even so, was doubled The rejection. On March 27, 1973, before an audience of 85 million viewers, Sacheen Littlefeather took the stage at the 45th Oscars ceremony and rejected the Best Actor award for ‘The Godfather’ on behalf of Marlon Brando. The gesture was historic: it was the first live political speech at the gala, although not the first time that someone rejected the statuette (Brando was preceded by screenwriter Dudley Nichols in 1936 – out of solidarity with the Writers Guild – and actor George C. Scott in 1971 – who called the ceremony “a two-hour meat parade” -). But what happened to the statuette after that night was a mystery that lasted decades. What no one saw. Sacheen Littlefeather never touched the statuette. Roger Moore (a few months away from debuting as James Bond, but already famous for his television role as The Saint) supported her throughout the speech. When Littlefeather left the stage, Moore followed her with the trophy in her hand and verified that no one had devised any protocol for collecting a rejected Oscar. So he took it with him. The 1616. As reconstructed by Bruce Davis, former executive director of the Academy, the statuette (serial number 1616, not 1601 as was believed for years, a failure whose explanation we will now see and which still contaminates multiple chronicles of the journey of this award) accompanied Moore to several parties after the gala. In this way, he presided over tables full of food and drink and received “almost Bondian attention from a good number of women” before stopping for two weeks at the mansion of producer Albert Broccoli. Eventually, Moore’s publicist, Jerry Pam, returned her to the Academy. Jump to 1995. The story seemed closed until, in 1995, the actor turned agent Marty Ingels called a press conference with an explosive statement: a client of his owned the Oscar rejected by Brando and was willing to auction it to benefit a charitable cause. The Academy responded bluntly: that Oscar did not exist. And technically, the Academy was right. Or not at all. Two 1601s. Ingels revealed the trophy’s serial number: 1601. Academy records indicated that number corresponded to a statuette on loan at an exhibition in New York, and a phone call confirmed that it was still there. But then Ingels sent a photograph of the trophy in his possession and indeed, it could be seen that the engraved number was 1601: there were two statuettes with the same number. Something that had never happened since the Academy began recording serials on the trophies in 1950. The explanation for the mess appeared in a record book prior to the computerization of the archives. Above the entry indicating the loan of the 1601 statuette was another line erased with white concealer. Viewed against the light, the page revealed the original text: “1601 — missing during the 45th Oscar ceremony.” The most likely hypothesis, according to Davis, is that the person responsible for the inventory of figurines that night had a duplicate made of the number 1601 and quietly returned it to the archives. But… why? What else happened in that ceremony that led to a duplicate being made? First robbery. The 1601 that Ingels had was not Brando’s Oscar. It was the duplicate of another trophy stolen that same night: video images of the ceremony show that one of the statuettes for the best documentary award, ‘Marjoe’, was left forgotten on the podium when the lights went out for an advertising break. It is, according to Academy records, the only theft of an Oscar directly from the stage in its entire history. Now, Chaplin. While the riddle of the 1601 was being solved, the fate of Brando’s authentic Oscar (the 1616 returned by Moore) took another turn. Charlie Chaplin had won his first Oscar that same year for the soundtrack of ‘Footlights’, a 1952 film that, due to a regulatory loophole already resolved the following year, was eligible twenty years after it was filmed. The Chaplin figurine was mailed to Europe and arrived damaged. Chaplin’s family returned it to the Academy asking for a replacement, and the Academy engraved Chaplin’s name on Brando’s Oscar and sent it to London. Fifty years later. In August 2022, Academy President David Rubin issued a formal apology to Littlefeather in which he called the treatment received for his statements on Brando’s behalf (boos and stamping from the Academy’s leading men) “disproportionate and unjustified” and acknowledged that the damage to his career was “irreparable.” Littlefeather replied wryly.: “It’s only been 50 years. We have to keep our sense of humor; it’s our survival method.” He died on October 2 of that same year, a few weeks after the tribute ceremony that the Academy held in his honor. The trophy marked 1601(A), the duplicate manufactured to cover the theft, never appeared in public again. In Xataka | The 30 best gangster movies: gangsters, triads, camorra and yakuza show the guts of organized crime

‘Heat’ has become a cult film for many men. Now they get what they have been waiting for for years.

March 1, 2026 by usatoday24

Michael Mann has officially announced ‘Heat 2’, the sequel/prequel to the 1995 film that, over the years, has become much more than a police thriller: it is a cultural code, a cult film that defines a certain masculine sensibility very attached to its time. Its arrival just now and with this cast is not exactly a coincidence. A cult process. ‘Heat’ it was notat its premiere, the film loved by everyone that it is today. When it hit theaters in 1995, it received good reviews but also had a modest commercial reception: it grossed $67 million at the domestic box office against a budget of $60 million. It was in international markets (where Michael Mann was better regarded) where the film doubled those figures. From there, ‘Heat’ grew, gaining fame as one of the great American thrillers of recent decades, at a time when, on the verge of the bombing of ‘Matrix‘, the pyrotechnic spectacle was going to become a priority in action cinema. The origin. Everything that surrounds the film has ended up acquiring a special aura. For example, its origin. Mann wrote the original screenplay in 1979, based on Chicago detective Chuck Adamson’s real-life manhunt for professional thief Neil McCauley. The two men met face to face in a parking lot and instead of shooting each other they went to have a coffee. McCauley died in a shootout with police in 1964. Mann it took fifteen years in being able to bring it to the big screen with the budget and cast that he considered appropriate. The Pacino-De Niro clash. The most iconic scene of the film has done a lot to give it a special packaging. The coffee scene between the two actors was the first in history in which both actors shared a shot, since in ‘The Godfather II’ their characters existed in different timelines and never interacted. Mann built the entire narrative of ‘Heat’ as an inevitable path toward that moment, and when it arrives, the encounter is neither a fight nor a chase: it’s two men talking about mundane topics. And it has remained an idealized model of male conversation in which things are not said directly but are understood. That masculinity (contained, professional, stoic) is one of the keys to the cult that ‘Heat’ has earned. As it has been saidwhat Mann explores is not crime but its cost: the loneliness of men who don’t know how to live outside of their work, who come to love too late or with too much baggage. That tension between the professional world and personal life resonates with a certain generation of men, and explains the devoted following he has gained over the years. From that point of view, that films like Christopher Nolan’s trilogy of Batman films, Mann’s own ‘Collateral’ or Ben Affleck’s ‘The Town’ owe so much to ‘Heat’ and generate follow-ups with comparable audiences explains everything. Work for men. Mann described his own film as a “symphonic drama.” That operatic tone (a “nothing” of passion: men who do not tell what they feel, who channel their entire emotional life into work, who arrive late or do not arrive at love) is combined with the definition that Mark Kermode made Man’s cinema: hypermasculinity that tends towards implosion, destroying the social relations around it not out of malice, but out of inability. The theme of the film is male alienation, and it is what has resonated with so many men. McCauley’s code (don’t tie yourself to anything you can’t get away from in thirty seconds) is self-help in reverse, and also a fantasy of radical autonomy that a certain sector of men has been claiming for years. He totem paper of ‘Heat’ makes all the sense in the world: these men in one piece, which Mann describes without judging, had not yet been deactivated by the irony of post-heroes like The Rock or the fragile Marvel characters, full of flaws and nuances. Only with films are experiments like the podcast possible’One Heat Minute’which dissects the film minute by minute. And now, ‘Heat 2’. The sequel carries a gestation process which promises to be comparable to its predecessor. It has taken more than three years to find financing, it has changed studios in the midst of budget negotiations and it has seen how the director reduced the budget from an initial $200 million to $150 million that United Artists (a division of Amazon) has approved. The starting point is a novel that Mann published in 2022 with Meg Gardiner. It works as a prequel and sequel, with a non-linear structure that jumps between 1988, 1995 (immediately after the first film) and the year 2000. Although McCauley has been dead since 1995, the novel goes back to his formative years and moves forward with the survivor played by Val Kilmer. Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale have been confirmed in the cast, and this is also a declaration of intentions: there are few actors as loved and respected by the male audience as them (among other things, for the devotion that manosphere towards films as ridiculously misinterpreted as ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ and ‘American Psycho’). Filming will begin in August of this year and the premiere is scheduled for 2027. Great expectations. Since 2004’s ‘Collateral,’ Mann has had a few punctures at the box office: ‘Blackhat’ cost 70 million dollars and grossed 19.6, and ‘Ferrari’ cost 95 and barely made it to 16. It is an opportunity to make amends and also to meet his audience: the one at the center of a cultural debate on masculinity that has charged the original film with a meaning that it did not have in 1995. All this, if we season it with the inevitable nineties nostalgia, there we have it: one of the possible next box office phenomena. In Xataka | On TikTok there are men shaving their eyelashes to look more masculine. Science has bad news for them

The director of Sirat criticizes commercial cinema. But meanwhile, four out of ten directors film once a decade

January 23, 2026 by usatoday24

Oliver Laxe’s statements comparing commercial cinema to “bimbo bread”, especially pointing out the contradiction of making films for Netflix. have generated an unexpected controversy in the Spanish audiovisual sector, relativizing the extraordinary career of ‘Sirat’. The film not only got five statuettes at the European Film Awardsbut it has also received eleven Goya nominations and two Oscar nominations. The debate arises at a significant moment: a study by the European Audiovisual Observatory reveals that four out of every ten European directors and screenwriters who released a feature film in 2015 did not sign another one during the following ten years. A complicated metaphor. Oliver Laxe conceded an interview with The World in which offered his diagnosis on the crisis of youth attendance at the theaters: “It is our fault and our responsibility that young people do not go to the cinemas. They have been given fodder, bimbo bread and their palates are accustomed to sugar and processed foods.” The food metaphor did not stop there. Laxe went on to argue that when these viewers are offered “a rye bread or a pure cereal,” the palate is not prepared, although he insisted that “the sensitivity is there.” The filmmaker, whose film has exceeded three million euros at the Spanish box office and has attracted precisely a young audience, closed his reasoning with a resounding statement: “Having very political proclamations, but then making a movie with Netflix seems like a pure contradiction to me that nullifies your speech.” The accounts don’t work out. The answer did not take long to materialize. Jota Linares, a filmmaker from Cádiz who has often filmed for Netflix, replied in the SER questioning Laxe’s analysis. Linares challenged the simplification of the problem: “I will tell you what allows me to continue maintaining political ideas and express them freely despite having directed series and films for Netflix: my social class.” And he added: “I assure you that, due to my social class, I would be incapable of supporting myself by making only auteur films spaced over time for about two or three years. It doesn’t work out for me, although I see that it does for you.” Finally, he concluded that “you don’t hack the system from within with a six million euro movie with thirty publicists working at your feet. No, dear Oliver. That’s being at the top of the mainstream.” ‘Sirat’s’ money. The contrast between both positions reveals broader tensions in the sector. Laxe speaks from a relatively privileged position, since his film had the financial backing of Movistar Plus+ and is now enjoying an international campaign that has taken him to the Oscars. Linares, for his part, represents a silent majority of filmmakers who fight to get each new opportunity. Precariousness as a backdrop. The debate takes on a more urgent dimension when confronted with the data that published El País based on the study of the European Audiovisual Observatory. The research, which analyzes the careers of 38,762 professionals, covering some 30,000 projects, provides revealing figures: 40% of those who released a feature film in theaters during 2015 did not sign another film again in the entire subsequent decade. At the same time, more than half of the films released each year are debut films. The report’s conclusions leave no room for doubt: there is “an impressive turnover and great precariousness.” Cinema versus television. The document also shows a growing separation between film and television. Only 11% of directors and scriptwriters worked in both formats between 2015 and 2024, dismantling the idea of fluid transfer between screens. On television and platforms, 85% of screenwriters and 91% of directors active in 2015 continued working later, compared to the 60% that disappear from theatrical cinema. “The majority survive poorly. Those who endure have family financial support behind them,” explained director Cristina Andreu in 2021. Little seems to have changed since then. Structural contradiction. Can the industry demand “rye bread”, as Laxe says he does, when the system expels 40% of its creators after a film? Is it fair to hold the public responsible for having a palate “accustomed to processed” in an ecosystem where professional continuity is more the exception than the norm? Laxe himself acknowledges that ‘Sirat’ was considered “a suicide” during the search for financing. If even an ultimately successful project faced that initial diagnosis, what happens to proposals from filmmakers without a safety net? The tension between the discourse of cinematic quality and the precarious reality of European production raises uncomfortable questions about who can afford to cultivate discerning palates. When, furthermore, the system itself does not guarantee anything. In Xataka | Many agree that ‘Stranger Things 5’ lowers the quality of the series. But that doesn’t change Netflix’s ambitious plans.

The film industry has been stagnant for more than a century. Netflix wants to change it: Crossover 1×34

January 10, 2026 by usatoday24

Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack, all brothers, decided to open their first movie theater in Pennsylvania in 1903. Considering that the movie industry was in its infancy at the time, the bet was risky. Those brothers ended up being the most famous in that industryand in fact they made it clear in the name of their company: Warner Bros. They would soon buy more theaters and, over time, discover that distribution was important, but content was even more important. They ended up becoming a film producer that managed to be a pioneer with the famous ‘The Jazz Singer’, the first talking film. More films would arrive, and a 1948 ruling in the US meant that she and other production companies had to dedicate themselves only to generating content. It wasn’t a bad deal, and for more than a century the film industry has done really well and has strengthened that idea that content is king. Netflix also discovered it over time. Although it was also born focusing on distribution – with its famous DVD rental service by mail – its leap into the world of streaming caused it to even take steps from Warner Bros. and decide to create its own content. This is how series like ‘House of Cards’ or ‘Stranger Things’ were born, which have turned it into a true steamroller in the field of audiovisual content. So much so that after more than 100 years without major changes, Netflix could fully enter the “traditional” industry if he manages to buy Warner Bros.. The recent offer to have options to get ahead, but everything is to be decided. What is clear is that if that happens there will be a change of direction in this gigantic industry. We talked about all this in the last installment of Crossover, we hope you enjoy it! On YouTube | Crossover In Xataka | Netflix promised them very happy with their huge purchase of Warner. Until Paramount and Saudi Arabia appeared

In 1932 Hedy Lamarr performed the first nude in film history. And then he went to invent WiFi

December 22, 2025 by usatoday24

Throughout its 85 years Hedy Lamarr He dedicated himself to chaining lives. First there was Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, the name her parents gave her when she was born in Vienna in 1914, and with which she became a gifted child and a pioneering actress: the first to appear naked from head to toe and fake an orgasm in a commercial film. For a few years she was also Mandl’s Lady, his wife and “slave” (as she herself would later define that stage). by the Viennese Fritz Mandla jealous, controlling and tyrannical magnate, who provided weapons to Hitler and Mussolini. Towards the end of the 1930s, in Hollywood, she became Hedy Lamarr, the name with which producer Louis B. Mayer baptized her and with which she would rise to fame. Already a diva of the cinema, she was the engineer Lamarr, who dedicated her nights to cultivating her side of inventor and managed to develop a key technology for the subsequent development of wireless communication of mobile phones, GPS or WiFi technology. Already in the last years of her life she had to assume the saddest role: she secluded herself in her mansion in Florida, obsessed with operating rooms, kleptomaniac and hooked on pills. How to improve WiFi at home The life in three acts of a woman who passed through the world as if she were playing her best and most demanding Hollywood role. Lamarr won the title of “most beautiful woman” of golden cinema and (already at the end of his days), when his technological contributions were echoed, he obtained numerous recognitions from the scientific community: the Pioner Award, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), or the Viktor Kaplan medal from the Austrian Association of Inventors and Patent Holders, among others. The date of his birth, November 9, has become International Inventor’s Day. Act one: the first nude in cinema The future Hedy Lamarr was born in Vienna, in 1914, with the name Edwig Eva Maria Kiesler. Theirs was a Jewish family, cultured and wealthy. His father was a prosperous banker from Lemberg and his mother, a pianist from Budapest raised Catholic. Since she was a child, she received a careful education that soon revealed her prodigious intelligence. It is said that when he was only five years old he satisfied his scientific curiosity by gutting musical boxes that he would then put back together piece by piece. Kiesler began his engineering career, but abandoned it to dedicate himself to his other great vocation: acting. In 1932, at only 19 years old, he starred in his first bombshell: Ecstasy, a film by Gustav Machaty in which she broke molds by appearing on screen as God brought her into the world and faking an orgasm. That bravery was met with the anger of his family, the indignation of a good part of the prudish society of the time, and even provoked the wrath of the Vatican. The sensual and intelligent Viennese woman fascinated Fritz Mandl14 years older than her. The tycoon got Kiesler’s parents They approved the wedding and the couple walked down the aisle in 1933. Mandl, an arms businessman who worked with the Nazis, soon showed himself to be a sexist tyrant. In a fit of jealousy he tried to buy all the tapes of Ecstasy so that no one could see Kiesler’s scenes, and he even prohibited her from bathing or undressing if he was not in front of her. He also forced her to accompany him to his business meals. Fed up with that slavery, in 1937 the young woman he pulled his wits to escape: He hired a maid who looked like him, sedated her, dressed like her and managed to evade the surveillance of his confinement. She sold her jewelry and set sail for the United States after stopping in London. “He had played at keeping me prisoner. I played at escaping. He lost,” she would later relate. This first act of her life closes with a thrilling escape while Mandl’s thugs are hot on her heels to force her to return to her golden cage. Second act: the great diva of Hollywood Destiny awaited Kiesler around the corner. Specifically, on the ship he boarded to travel to North America. There he met Louis B. Mayer, the famous producer, who showed off his unfailing eye for celluloid. He offered her a job and renamed her Hedy Lamarr, a peculiar tribute to the actress Bárbara La Marrwhose life had been taken prematurely by tuberculosis and nephritis just a decade earlier. In Hollywood, Lamarr deployed all his talent in front of the cameras, she won the title of “most beautiful woman” and fulfilled the role of femme fatal. He acted in Algiers, Lady of Tropics, Comrade…And dozens of other titles. He shared the bill with some of the brightest stars in Hollywood and they say that the creators of snow white and catwoman They were inspired by her stunning beauty. The most famous role he played was that of Delilah in Samson and Delilah. Her fame could have been much greater if Lamarr or those who advised her had had more aim when choosing roles. He rejected the main characters in two bombshells that would go down in cinema history: Casablanca (!) and Dying lightwhich together had almost twenty Oscar nominations. Throughout his career, Lamarr produced his own films. In his private life, he had six marriages that ended in as many divorces. She ended her days retired in Florida, a kleptomaniac, obsessed with cosmetic surgery, succumbing to drugs and starring in notorious scandals. She died at the dawn of the new century: on January 19, 2000. “She was a victim of the system,” comments one of her sons in one of the documentaries filmed about her. Proof of how little society knew how to value her is the anecdote that happened to her when, during the Second World War, she offered her collaboration to the United States as a brilliant engineer. The answer … Read more

Russia’s biggest threat in Ukraine is not a drone or a missile. It is a film agency with 30 secret floors

October 28, 2025 by usatoday24

That the war in Ukraine has become the largest drone laboratory combat power on the planet is beyond any doubt. In fact, both Russia like, to a greater extent, Ukraine, have elevated these devices to configure a war industry unprecedented that places machines as the army of the future of any conflict. What was not so well known was where most of Ukraine’s drones came from. Origin and metamorphosis. What started three years ago as a location and props agency in basements and garages has mutated into a war industry on an almost industrial scale: Fire Point, whose owner and executives come from from the world of cinema and the construction of outdoor furniture, has gone from assembling drones with commercial parts to producing, according to its executives, hundreds of propelled and long-range munitions from at least thirty secret locations scattered throughout Ukraine. But there is much more, because the company has grown so much that it has currently consolidated itself with contracts for around billion dollars in a single year. A transit that reflects the rapid professionalization and commercialization of initiatives born out of patriotism and urgency in February 2022, when improvised underground workshops became an effective (although precarious and fragmentary) response to a large-scale invasion. Production, design and employment. Fire Point products, such as your FP-1 droneare simple machines in materials (polystyrene, plywood, plastics, and carbon fiber from cycling) but assembled with a logic of volume production: rocket-assisted takeoff, two-stroke engine, range measured in hundreds of kilometers and warheads of more than fifty kilos in some designs. Its catalog also includes the promising Flamingo missilea larger device, with a jet engine and a theoretical autonomy and load that, if confirmed at scale, could reconfigure the Ukrainian capacity to hit deep targets. The Ukrainian industrial philosophy here is clear: cheap, disposable, massive. Efficiency does not require reprocessing or longevity, only that some specimens cross the defense networks and fulfill their unique mission. An FP-1 Military strategy and effects. The proliferation of these munitions has allowed Ukraine to sustain a systematic campaign against energy infrastructure Russian companies (refineries and logistics nodes) seeking not only a tactical effect but also strategic pressure and leverage in eventual negotiations. In fact, the multiplicity of manufacturers domestic forces and technical adaptability have forced Russia to face a daily erosion of its apparent air immunity, forcing it to reallocate defensive resources and contemplate low-cost warfare as a decisive vector. Transparency and control. Fire Point’s meteoric rise has not been free of shadows: Public complaints and audits point out opaque awards, absence of mandatory price negotiations, questions about initial technical quality and the possible involvement of actors linked to the media and business environment close to power. In fact, the National Anti-Corruption Agency has inspected links with figures associated with the presidential circle and there are parliamentary calls to investigate pricesspecifications and the destination of multimillion-dollar benefits. Despite this, the public narrative combines suspicion and exaltation: national heroes and strategic businessmen who have shored up the defensive capacity, while activists and analysts demand more controls and transparency in war contracts. Industrialization and ecosystem. The phenomenon is not an isolated case but the center of an industrial revolution: Thousands of companies, hundreds focused on long-range drones and dozens competing for contracts, attract foreign funds, partners and joint venture projects. State agencies charter incentiveswhile international funds (such as the recent Norwegian-Ukrainian vehicle) show that the ecosystem is beginning to professionalize and seek commercial and technological legitimation beyond the emergency. For European and North American defense, Ukraine now offers a unique experience in unmanned missions and rapid design, which arouses interest both military as industrial. Ethical dilemmas. There is no doubt, the balance raises dilemmas: the domestic war economy reduces dependence on allied donations and scales offensive capacity, but it raises questions on democratic control, accountability and the risk that lucrative war businesses are perpetuated beyond strategic necessity. Plus: the proliferation of cheap and massive systems exacerbates the asymmetric nature of the conflict and poses risks of escalation and diffuse responsibility for selective objectives and collateral damage. Perspectives. In sum, the Fire Point history summarizes the Ukrainian phenomenon: industrial creativity (in many cases, they have no other choice) converted into a strategic muscle, an industry that emerged from volunteering transformed into key actor of the military apparatusbut also in focus of controversy due to its speed, its margins and the opacity typical of a country at war. The future challenge is twofold: to consolidate technological and productive capabilities that continue to perform in combat, and at the same time insert this thriving sector into frameworks of governance and transparency that prevent war efficiency from evolving towards economies of corruption or political capture. How Ukraine resolves this binomial will define whether its revolution dronistics It remains a collective merit or becomes an institutional burden. Image | xMezha In Xataka | They call it Skyfall, Burevestnik, or flying Chernobyl. The problem is not the name, it is what Russia’s latest missile does In Xataka | The war in Ukraine was a drone war. Now it is a war of drones that are not actually combat drones

Adam Driver contacted Soderbergh to make a more “personal” film about Kylo Ren. Until Disney stopped them

October 21, 2025 by usatoday24

It is the eternal tension between creativity and corporate control that grips a Hollywood devastated by the presence of franchisesand which especially suffocates Disney, which either fails to get some of its most iconic brands to overcome the feeling of wear and tear (Marvel), or fails to get them to take creative flight (Indiana Jones, ‘Star Wars‘). The last test, the cancellation of a project that could have been a bubble of fresh air in George Lucas’s galactic saga. The return of Ben Solo. In one interview with The Associated PressAdam Driver revealed that Disney rejected a sequel film focused on Ben Solo, better known as Kylo Ren), titled ‘The Hunt for Ben Solo’, which he developed with director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns for two years. Despite enthusiastic support from Lucasfilm, including Kathleen Kennedy and Dave Filoni, the project was vetoed by Disney CEO Bob Iger and co-chairman Alan Bergman, who argued that they were not sure Solo would still be alive after his redemption and death in ‘The Rise of Skywalker‘, from 2019. How it was going to be. The project was born from Driver’s personal interest in closing the arc of Kylo Ren, a character whose evolution he felt was incomplete. Originally, Driver had believed that there would be a reverse arc to that of Darth Vader that we saw in the prequels, but the trilogy produced by JJ Abrams did not develop it as the actor expected. After a call from Kennedy in 2021, Driver teamed up with Soderbergh to create a more intimate, character-driven film, inspired by the somewhat more twilight tone of ‘The Empire Strikes Back’. How would I resurrect? Driver insists in that the apparent death of Ben Solo was just that, apparent, and that Disney was carried away with a literal vision of the films. And with this he left aside the tradition of the ‘Star Wars’ universe of resurrecting characters through clones, spirits, time travel or mystical forces, as happened with Emperor Palpatine himself in ‘The Rise of Skywalker‘. Driver suggests with his statements that, once again, instead of betting on imagination and betraying expectations, Disney embraced linear and conventional narratives. The shadow of Han Solo. In Marvel only in recent times and with very specific cases, such as ‘The Marvels‘, ‘Eternals‘ either the latest installment of Captain AmericaDisney has encountered box office failures that, in any case, have not been resounding either. On the other hand, we have been six years since the last ‘Star Wars’ film, and this despite the notorious success of the last trilogy. The reason may have been how poorly received proposals such as ‘Han Solo‘ or ‘Rogue One’, which tried to propose narratives outside the Skywalker Saga. Stage fright. However, that saga has ended and Disney seems paralyzed by a stage fright that could be reinforced by the poor reception of series like ‘Obi Wan Kenobi‘ either ‘The Acolyte‘. The success of parallel projects with a certain radical component such as ‘Andor‘ do not seem to encourage the company to pursue alternative paths for the franchise, knowing that it has to invest a disproportionate amount of budget and marketing in selling new films in the series, and that is the reason why in recent years we have seen more cancellations than ideas coming to fruition. Maybe things will change with the (for now) film starring Ryan Gosling that seems well underway. Although until the time comes, we may see a few corpses along the way like this ‘The Hunt for Ben Solo’ In Xataka | One thousand euros for the Star Wars Death Star: the most expensive Lego set to date does not make all fans happy

The most watched film in history on television is not a Hollywood success, but a classic from the most carpet-loving Spain

October 10, 2025 by usatoday24

You will have heard on more than one occasion that every time ‘Pretty Woman’ is broadcast on television, audiences skyrocket. Nowadays it is no longer so true: Telecinco broadcast it a couple of days ago and the result It wasn’t spectacular.. In any case, not even the film by Richard Gere and Julia Roberts has come to live up to what is the greatest milestone in television cinema: the most viewed film in history in Spain has nothing Hollywood about it. Neither cathete nor cathete. On January 14, 1992 (that is, with the private ones already at full capacity, but still unable to stand up to depending on the customs of the Spanish viewer), the broadcast on La 1 of ‘Cateto a port’ had an average audience of 10,078,000 viewers and a stratospheric share 60.5% (for comparison, the final of the last Copa del Rey, the most watched in years, it didn’t reach 50%and the daily program that exceeds 15% is rare). Tremendous landism. ‘Cateto a port’ is a 1970 Spanish comedy starring Alfredo Landa. In it, a simple young man, after multiple attempts to avoid military service in order to take care of his little brother, ends up joining the Navy, having to face multiple difficulties due to his lack of experience. The film uses simple humor for all audiences, contrasting the naive protagonist (the recruit Cañete, whose name will soon become iconic) and the highly regulated environment of the Navy. All seasoned, of course, with its mild military propaganda, showing the modernity and friendliness of the institutions. Why do you like ‘Cateto a port’? His conciliatory tone, so typical of the last years of the Franco dictatorship, guaranteed him notable box office success, and above all, as with other stars of the time such as Paco Martínez Soria, the favor of the public. Its comedy of manners with a very friendly tone makes ‘Cateto a port’ very digestible by audiences of all ages, just what brought ten million people to the television screen. The most aggressive landismo was yet to come, full of plots with Spanish boys chasing Swedish women among images of medium intensity eroticism. It would be inaugurated, precisely, that same 1970 with a film by the same director, ‘You will not desire the neighbor on the fifth floor’. Relative milestone. Of course, we are talking about an absolute record… since there have been measurements, something that started in Spain in 1986. In 1992, audiences had already atomized due to private ones, so it is possible to think that in the seventies and eighties, when the population’s primary entertainment was television, the audiences for other films (or even this one) could have been much larger. Before measuring with audiometers, The audience was measured through the General Media Study (EGM) since 1968, which used interviews to estimate consumption. Other successes. There are only four feature films registered that have exceeded 9 million on average: the humorous western by Clint Eastwood and Shirley McLaine ‘Two Mules and a Woman’, with 9,598,000; the tremendous ‘The Priest’s Son’ by Fernando Esteso, with 9,287,000 spectators; We were talking about ‘Pretty Woman’ and there it is, with 9,223,000 viewers; and finally, ‘Dirty Dancing’ with 9,110,000 viewers. Be careful, because they are all broadcasts from 1992 (with the exception of ‘Pretty Woman’, from 1994), which suggests that, despite the arrival of private broadcasts, there was a general increase in people watching television in the early nineties.

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