epistimistavrou

When it comes to historical movies about brilliant minds, especially in the realms of math or the sciences, audiences can all but expect a tale of ego. Films such as A Beautiful Mind, The Theory of Everything, and The Imitation Game all lean in some way on the idea of the inaccessible genius-a mathematician, computer scientist, and theoretical physicist all somehow removed from the world.

Hidden Figures is not that kind of film: It's a story of brilliance, but not of ego. It's a story of struggle and willpower, but not of individual glory. Set in 1960s Virginia, the film centers on three pioneering African American women whose calculations for NASA were integral to several historic space missions, including John Glenn's successful orbit of the Earth. These women-Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan-were superlative mathematicians and engineers despite starting their careers in segregation-era America and facing discrimination at home, at school, and at work.

It's not really a horror movie, but sort of character study, so if you're looking for something like Saw, this isn't it, even though the cover suggests that.

It was made on a very low budget, there's a special feature that shows a local news show reporting on the making of the little independent movie being made in their city. As long as you're not expecting a big Hollywood production, and don't mind independent movies, you'll probably enjoy it.

The actress that played the girl being held captive in the basement, was very good, she's beautiful, but she has a natural look that sets her apart. I tried to find more of her work, but this is just about the only thing she's done, which is a shame, I hope she comes back to acting at some point.

That is Chéreau's dramatic adaptation about the arranged marriage between Margot de Valois, sister of the idiot Catholic King Charles IX, and the Protestant King Henri of Navarre, as a political disguise to "achieve" peace between Catholics and Protestants - or Hugenots, as they became to be known - in the tumultuous year of 1572, circling around the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre carried out by the infamous Catherine de Médicis. The latter brings me to the smashing performance of Virna Lisi, the disgusting, manipulative, cold-blooded, calculative female pig, orchestrating a series of hideous acts behind the curtain. Her stare is enough to communicate fractions of the psychology of her character. Her prize at Cannes was more than deserved.