Category: Новини

Actress and model Gloria Hendry became the first African American to play a so-called James Bond girl, debuting in the 1973 movie Live and Let Die. In an interview with VOA, Hendry reflected on what the role meant for her and other Black actresses at the time. More from Genia Dulot in Los Angeles.

Camera: Genia Dulot
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A fatal shooting during the production of a movie called “Rust” is raising questions about safety on movie sets. Authorities are still investigating the October 21st shooting south of Santa Fe, New Mexico. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with Tim Forrest, director of the film program at Central New Mexico Community College about safety measures on production sets.
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A pair of diamond bracelets that once belonged to Marie Antoinette, the famed wife of French King Louis XVI who met her fate at the revolutionary guillotine, sold for 7.46 million Swiss francs ($8.34 million) on Tuesday. 

The opulent bracelets, among the rare pieces of jewelry from the ill-fated French royal that are still up for public sale today, were among standout features to a Christie’s auction in Geneva.

They feature 112 diamonds and each weighs 97 grams (3.4 ounces) and include silver and gold. 

The pair sold for much more than the presale estimate of between 2 million and 4 million Swiss francs ($2.2 million to $4.4 million). The final price included taxes and fees on top of the hammer price. The buyer was not identified.

After Marie Antoinette’s death in the French Revolution in 1793, the bracelets that had been commissioned some 17 years earlier were passed on from her daughter Marie-Therese and kept within royal lineage for over 200 years, Christie’s said. 

On Wednesday, as part of regular Geneva jewelry auctions, rival house Sotheby’s is set to put under the hammer a 26.8-carat oval sapphire surrounded by diamonds, and matching ear clips that once belonged to Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia — pieces that were whisked out of Russia during the country’s 1917 revolution.

The trio is expected to garner as much as 480,000 francs ($525,800). 

On Thursday, Sotheby’s will auction a pair of high-top Nike sneakers from Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard who died in a helicopter crash in California last year. The basketball shoes are expected to fetch up to 35,000 Swiss francs ($38,400). 

Bryant wore the sneakers in a March 17, 2004, victory over the L.A. Clippers, according to the auction house. 

 
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The dramatic retelling of a decisive Korean War battle between Chinese soldiers and U.S.-led United Nations forces smashed box office records last month to become China’s third-highest grossing film of all-time, according to state media, amid a new push for patriotic-only historical accounts by the Communist Party. 

Released over China’s National Day holidays in early October, The Battle at Lake Changjin is set during November 1950 and recounts how Chinese soldiers forced a retreat of U.N. forces from the Choisin Reservoir in present-day North Korea. 

The film has already earned $875.5 million (5.6 billion RMB) since opening on September 30, according to the e-ticketing platform Maoyan, and it is still showing at some cinemas in China more than a month after opening.    

The Battle at Lake Changjin was commissioned by the Chinese government ahead of the Communist Party’s 100th anniversary this year, and it is the latest in a series of patriotic war-time films to hit Chinese theatres in the last few years. 

Other notable hits include The Korean War epic, The Sacrifice, The Eight Hundred, which recounts the 1937 Battle of Shanghai between invading Japanese forces and the National revolutionary Army, and The Wolf Warrior action film franchise about contemporary People’s Liberation Army soldiers.

In China, the Korean War is officially known as the war to “Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea,” and it has inspired multiple films — but this time the story has changed. According to a review by The Washington Post newspaper, The Battle at Lake Changjin emphasizes the defeat of the United States rather than China’s close bonds with North Korea.

“The Korean War has always been used as propaganda by Beijing — that’s nothing new — but I think what is new is in recent years the elevated level of nationalism as well as the new circumstances in which China and the United States find themselves in,” Adam Ni, a China watcher and editor of the newsletter China Neican, told VOA.   

“The Battle at Lake Changjin,” Ni said, “speaks to the moment” of souring U.S.-China relations — as well as the Party’s renewed emphasis on China’s history and an accompanying crackdown on “historical nihilism” that questions its official narrative of events.    

In one of the most high-profile incidents, Chinese journalist Luo Changping was detained in early October for criticizing The Battle at Lake Changjin, according to The New York Times. Luo wrote on social media that more than 50 years later “few Chinese people have reflected on the justifiability of the war.”  

Luo’s criticism could not have come at a worse time, however, as the Party celebrated its 100th anniversary on October 1. China’s historical narrative has remained front and center throughout celebrations and will be the subject of a resolution this week at the Sixth Plenum of the Central Committee — a meeting of more than 300 of China’s top leaders in Beijing.    

“The Party sees the construction of historical narrative as an integral part of its power and of its legitimacy, so that’s why it’s come down pretty hard on historical nihilism — people who have visions of historical events that are different from the Party in a way that the Party perceives them to be harmful,” Ni said.   

This trend is already making its way into popular culture where the Party is “rectifying the entertainment sector,” he said, by rewarding more patriotic films and pushing out more subservient ones. Less than a month after the success of The Battle at Lake Changjin, the government already announced a sequel — although other films may not be as lucky.  

“The Party has a lot of resources and if your agenda overlaps, if your aesthetic and creative agenda overlaps with the party it could be a lucrative market opportunity because the Party has leverage over market opportunities,” Ni said. “But the other hand you get to the case of ‘boy love’ (LGBTQ-themed) stories or fantasy stories … you could be successful creatively and commercially, but on the other hand, you run the political risk of upsetting the Party.” 
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Thousands of people flooded the hometown of late Brazilian country music star Marilia Mendonca Saturday to pay an emotional tribute to the beloved singer, a day after she was killed in a plane crash at age 26. 

Mendonca, a Latin Grammy-winning superstar of Brazilian “sertanejo” music, died with four other people Friday when a small plane carrying her to a concert crashed in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais. 

Her body was flown Saturday to the central city of Goiania, her home, where crowds of distraught fans lined up to file past her white-draped casket at a massive public wake. 

Known for her soaring voice and sorrowful songs, Mendonca managed to break into a country music scene long dominated by men and machismo. She was a leading figure in a burgeoning sub-genre known as “feminejo,” or sertanejo music by women. 

But her massive fan base included men and women alike. Many mourners outside the stadium where the wake was held could barely find words to describe their sadness. 

 

“It’s an emotion so strong we don’t even know how to express it. It’s an immense pain, for all Brazilians,” 22-year-old Matheus Alves told AFP. 

“It was a tremendous loss. It’s such a blow I don’t even have the words to explain it,” said 16-year-old student Gustavo Lacerda, before breaking into one of Mendonca’s songs, “Eu Sei de Cor” (I Know it By Heart). 

Fans started lining up at dawn outside the 15,000-capacity arena, where large floral arrangements arrived in a steady stream. 

About 100,000 people were expected to attend, said Goias state Governor Ronaldo Caiado. 

The star and an uncle who worked with her, also killed in the crash, were to be laid to rest later in a small private ceremony at a local cemetery. 

Mendonca’s producer and the plane’s two pilots were also killed in the crash, which left their twin-engine Beechcraft King Air C90A shattered against the rocks near a picturesque waterfall outside the city of Caratinga, where the artist had been scheduled to perform. 

Authorities said the plane hit an electrical tower just kilometers from the Caratinga airport, but it was unclear whether that caused the accident or if the aircraft was already on its way down. 

Air force officials were at the scene Saturday investigating. 

Nicknamed the “Queen of Suffering,” Mendonca was known for ballads of heartbreak and spurned lovers, but also for singing of women’s empowerment and the need to “overcome” — the title of one of her most famous songs. 

She had 22 million subscribers on YouTube, 39 million followers on Instagram and more than 8 million monthly listeners on Spotify. 

Her death drew heartfelt tributes from figures ranging from Brazilian music legend Caetano Veloso to football superstar Neymar to President Jair Bolsonaro, who said the country was “in shock.” 

“She was one of the greatest artists of her generation,” Bolsonaro wrote on Twitter. 

Mendonca, however, was no fan of the far-right president, who has often been accused of sexist remarks and anti-women policies. 

The wake for Mendonca and her uncle was carried live on national TV, and drew wall-to-wall coverage in the Brazilian media. 
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