Features

LOS ANGELES, United States — Immigration, abortion and the eternal search for the American Dream make up the ingredients of "La Cocina", a new film that examines the United States' most divisive issues through the microcosm of a New York restaurant kitchen.

The tense, claustrophobic drama stars Oscar nominee Rooney Mara ("The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo") as an American waitress at a bustling Times Square tourist trap staffed mainly by immigrants.

"It's a film about contrasts — the contrast between back-of-house and front-of-house, between gringos and Mexicans, between the different hierarchies within a kitchen," said Mexican director and writer Alonso Ruizpalacios.

"Kitchens are an easy way to understand the dynamics we experience on the streets," he told AFP.

Its release in Los Angeles theaters Friday, and nationwide next week, coincides with a US presidential election in which both sides have vied for Latino votes, and migration has been a fiercely contested issue.

In recent days, an off-colour joke by a comedian at a New York rally for Donald Trump, calling the US territory of Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage", has caused particular controversy.

For Ruizpalacios, restaurant kitchens are "melting pot of cultures" that naturally attract people of all nationalities, making them perfect settings for "highlighting the frictions between cultures."

"They are also places where the pressure is very, very high... sometimes very painful things come out, and sometimes occasionally hopeful ones too," he said.

Though based on a 1957 play of the same name, "La Cocina" focuses more directly on immigrants' experiences, and how the dream of progress through hard work can prove an illusion.

Ruizpalacios based his script on his own experiences working as a dishwasher in a similarly giant, commercial restaurant in London, during his student years.

No saints 

In "La Cocina," undocumented Mexican immigrant and idealistic dreamer Pedro (Raul Briones) falls in love with Mara's waitress Julia, who only partly reciprocates his passion.

While he yearns for an idyllic future with her, Julia is preoccupied with a more practical dilemma -- whether to abort the baby she is expecting.

"I wanted to show the people behind the closed doors of the kitchens," said the director.

"Behind those doors there are people who have families, who have dreams, and who work very hard and for very little money."

His immigrants bear their own flaws and even dark sides.

"Often in these types of films, in order to make the American observe his own racism and prejudices, we simplify the other and turn him into a saint -- I was not interested in that," said Ruizpalacios.

"They are also complex people, with contradictions."

While the film's themes resonate in the context of the imminent election, Ruizpalacios expressed hope that it can provide broader insight into the enduring fabric of US society.

He shot the film in black-and-white, to avoid tying it to any particular era.

"There is something timeless in this story," he said, referring back to the original 1957 play.

"It is still relevant 70 years later."

KANDANOS, GREECE — German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Thursday asked for "forgiveness" for the crimes perpetrated by the Third Reich in Greece during a visit to a village in Crete razed by the Nazis.

"Today I would like to ask forgiveness on behalf of Germany," the head of state said in Greek in an emotional speech at the village of Kandanos, which he called "a place of German shame".

"I ask forgiveness from you, the survivors and descendants, for the grave crimes that the Germans committed here," he continued in German.

Kandanos was wiped out, with the loss of some 180 lives, as its inhabitants had taken part in the Battle of Crete, a desperate effort by Allied forces to repel the airborne invasion by Nazi paratroopers in May 1941.

The first German head of state to visit Crete, Steinmeier was greeted by survivors of the massacre and a crowd, some of whom shouted slogans about Berlin's continued refusal to pay wartime reparations.

There were shouts of "justice" and "the fight continues".

"It is a difficult journey to come to this place as German president," Steinmeier admitted.

"You have offered us the hand of reconciliation, and I am deeply grateful to you," he added.

Little known outside Greece, the 1941-1944 Nazi occupation was one of the bloodiest in Europe, marked by famine and the extermination of some 90 per cent of the Greek Jewish community.

Steinmeier also spoke at length about the fact that the Nazi war criminal Kurt Student, who was responsible for the destruction of Kandanos, was never held accountable after the war for the crimes he committed in Greece.

This was another "shameful chapter", he said, adding: "I ask your forgiveness for the fact that my country delayed for decades in punishing these crimes."

Prior to visiting Crete, the German president cut short the demand for reparations, reaffirming during talks with Greek leaders in Athens on Wednesday that Germany considered the issue "closed under international law".

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis countered that the reparations issue is "still very much alive".

"We hope that at some point we will resolve them," Mitsotakis said

TOKYO — Fans of the “Dragon Ball” franchise are set to see a host of product launches in the coming weeks, including a new video game and animated series, despite the series creator having died this year.

Japanese manga artist Akira Toriyama, who died in March, launched “Dragon Ball” in 1984 and it has since become one of the best-selling manga franchises of all time, spawning countless anime series, films and video games.

“Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO” will be released on Friday with a record 182 characters doing battle.

“It’s a very important launch for us, we hope it will work,” Maurice Fontaine, product manager in France for Bandai Namco, the game’s publisher, told AFP.

A new animated series, “Dragon Ball Daima”, will also be released to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the franchise.

In a statement last year, the studio behind the series credited Toriyama with dreaming up the title.

He is also named as a writer on the show and the statement quotes him as saying “daima” is an invented word roughly meaning “evil” in English.

Fans of the franchise are nervously waiting to see if the new products can carry on Toriyama’s legacy.

“My first contact with the series was video games,” Tsutomu Tanaka, a 19-year-old Japanese student, told AFP, stressing the “simplicity” of the story and the characters.

Initially published in 1984 in Japan’s Shonen Jump, a magazine beloved by Japanese boys, it told the adventures of a monkey-tailed boy called Son Goku through multiple fantastical universes.

Part comedy, part absurdist adventure, the series fused martial arts action with a story influenced by the classic Chinese tale “Journey to the West”.

Over more than 500 chapters, the hero with spiky black hair fights otherworldly enemies in his quest to find seven mystical dragon balls.

“My father’s generation loved Dragon Ball, we watched them as a family,” said Ayase, a Japanese woman in her thirties, adding that the franchise was “part of our lives”.

Translated all over the world, “Dragon Ball” spawned countless anime cartoons, films, video games, trading cards and collectible figurines that made it an immense money-spinner.

Saudi Arabia announced earlier this year it intended to create the world’s first theme park inspired by Dragon Ball.

The comics have sold more than 260 million copies worldwide, according to publisher Shueisha.

There have been more than 100 video games since 1986, selling tens of millions of copies, and five animated series.

But while the short-term future of the franchise as a moneyspinner seems assured, the longer term is less clear, according to Tadashi Sudo, journalist and cartoon specialist.

“The commercial machinery is in place,” said Sudo, but “the challenge ahead will be to see if the creativity can be maintained without Toriyama”.

“If new ideas stop emerging, everything could become repetitive, and it could be difficult to appeal to the new generations,” he added.

PARIS — The trial of French actor Gerard Depardieu on sexual assault charges opened on Monday in the absence of the celebrity, who had declared himself to be ill.

His lawyer, Jeremie Assous, had said earlier that Depardieu, 75, was "extremely affected" by ill health, and that he had asked for proceedings to be delayed until he could attend in person.

"Unfortunately his doctors have forbidden him from appearing here today," the lawyer said on arrival for the trial.

He said would ask the court for a six-month suspension of the trial, which comes after numerous other complaints and with a possible second court case already lying in wait.

The actor is the highest-profile figure to face accusations in French cinema's version of the #MeToo movement, triggered in 2017 by allegations against US producer Harvey Weinstein.

Depardieu faces charges of abuse that allegedly occurred during a 2021 film shoot. The names of the two women accusing him have not been made public.

One of the plaintiffs, a set dresser now aged 55, reported in February that she had suffered sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexist insults while filming director Jean Becker's "Les Volet Verts" ("The Green Shutters") in a private house in Paris.

"I expect the justice system to be the same for everybody and for monsieur Depardieu not to receive special treatment just because he's an artist," the plaintiff's lawyer Carine Durrieu-Diebolt told AFP.

Assous said that Depardieu's defence would offer "witnesses and evidence that will show he has simply been targeted by false accusations".

He accused the plaintiff of attempting to "make money" by claiming 30,000 euros ($32,500) in compensation.

The plaintiff told French investigative website Mediapart that Depardieu had started loudly calling for a cooling fan during the shoot because he "couldn't even get it up" in the heat.

She claimed the actor went on to boast that he could "give women an orgasm without touching them".

The plaintiff alleged that an hour later she was "brutally grabbed" by Depardieu as she was walking off the set.

The actor pinned her by "closing his legs" around her before groping her waist and her stomach, continuing up to her breasts, she added.

She described the actor's bodyguards dragging him away as he shouted: "We'll see each other again, my dear".

"My client expects that the justice system will find Gerard Depardieu to be a serial sexual assaulter," Durrieu-Diebolt said.

The second plaintiff in Monday's case, an assistant director on the same film, also alleges sexual violence.

'Hiring an assaulter' 

Anouk Grinberg, an actor who appeared in "The Green Shutters", told AFP that Depardieu had used "salacious words... from morning till night".

"When producers hired Depardieu to work on a film, they knew they were hiring an assaulter," she added.

Grinberg said that in her experience, Depardieu had "always used sexual, smutty language" -- but that his behaviour had become "much, much worse, with permission from his profession, that pays him for it and covers up his offences".

Around 20 women have now accused Depardieu of various sexual offences.

Actor Charlotte Arnould was the first to file a criminal complaint.

A judge has yet to rule on a request from prosecutors in August for Depardieu to stand trial for raping and sexually assaulting her.

An investigation is also underway in Paris after a former production assistant accused Depardieu of a 2014 sexual assault.

And actor Helene Darras filed a sexual assault complaint that fell foul of the statute of limitations.

Spanish writer and journalist Ruth Baza has accused Depardieu of raping her in 1995.

"Never, but never, have I abused a woman," Depardieu wrote in an open letter published in conservative daily Le Figaro in October last year.

Weeks later, President Emmanuel Macron shocked feminists by complaining of a "manhunt" targeting Depardieu, who he called a "towering actor" who "makes France proud".

Macron's remarks followed the broadcast by an investigative TV show of a recording of Depardieu making repeated misogynistic and insulting remarks about women.

Depardieu is the biggest star to face accusations in French cinema's #MeToo movement.

Directors Jacques Doillon and Benoit Jacquot are among the other major figures accused of sexual violence.

LOS ANGELES, United States — The new Columbia/Marvel superhero film “Venom: The Last Dance” failed to match the openings of its two previous episodes but still topped the North American box office with ticket sales estimated at $51 million, industry watchers said.

“Venom: Let There Be Carnage”, the follow-up to the original “Venom”, enjoyed a $96 million opening weekend in 2021, but “Last Dance” faced stiff competition for viewers from a classic baseball World Series featuring the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Tom Hardy again plays a disgruntled journalist who morphs into a terrifying alien with huge jagged teeth — and what has been described as a Gene Simmons tongue — in a cast that includes Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple and Rhys Ifans.

With Halloween only days away, meanwhile, Paramount’s horror film “Smile 2” slipped just one spot from last weekend’s opening, taking in $40.7 million, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations said on Sunday. 

Naomi Scott plays a troubled pop star afflicted by a grim curse.

Third place went to the new religious thriller “Conclave” from FilmNation, with $6.5 million.

Ralph Fiennes, playing a cardinal called on to “manage” the election of a new pope, finds himself caught in shadowy, back-stabbing intrigue while wrestling with questions of his own faith — and ambition.

Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow play fellow cardinals, each with his own agenda, and Isabella Rossellini is a tough-minded nun. 

The movie has gotten considerable buzz as a possible Best Picture dark-horse contender at the Oscars.

Edward Berger (“All Quiet on the Western Front”) directed “Conclave”, which is based on a Robert Harris thriller of the same name.

In fourth, down two spots, was Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s “The Wild Robot”, about a robot having to get along witih fuzzy woodland creatures after being stranded on a remote island. It took in $6.5 million.

And hanging steady in fifth was “We Live in Time”, a romantic drama from StudioCanal, at $4.8 million.

Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh star.

By Dina Halaseh,
Educational Psychologist

How do we decide between two or more options that appear equally attractive at first glance?

Blind spots

Decision-making typically combines intuition with rational thought. 

Critical elements like personal biases and blind spots often operate unconsciously, making the process difficult to fully understand or manage.

Strategies

To make consistently good decisions, try these strategies: Gather as much relevant information as you can.

Consider all possible alternatives and weigh their pros and cons. 

And take time to reflect on major choices before making a final decision.

It’s important to note that there is not just one “right” choice.

With so many choices available, it’s easy to become overwhelmed or feel less content with the choices you make.

You might even end up blaming yourself when, in reality, you’re experiencing “choice overload”. 

The key is to simplify

your decision-makingprocess and avoid dwelling on the paths you didn’t choose.

Skills needed

Decision-making can be challenging and follow-through is crucial.

It’s important to recognise that feelings of fear and self-doubt are often part of the process.

Here are some of the skills we need when making decisions:

Critical Thinking: Analysing and evaluating information, arguments and ideas to make informed decisions.

Problem-Solving: Identifying solutions to challenges or obstacles that arise during the decision-making process.

Attention and Focus: Concentrating on relevant information while filtering out distractions or irrelevant data.

Memory: Recalling relevant past experiences, knowledge and information that can help you in taking a decision.

Logical Reasoning: Drawing conclusions based on evidence, logic and structured thinking.

All these skills usually go into making decisions, so ensuring they are up to the needed level is key.

All students, parents, and even professionals, need these skills and often use them without noticing.

Training these cognitive skills is crucial for an individual’s success.

Developing critical thinking, problem-solving and logical reasoning enhance the ability to make sound decisions.

Improving attention, focus and memory helps in processing and retaining essential information.

Emotional regulation

Strengthening emotional regulation ensures that emotions do not cloud judgment. This technique leads to more rational decision making.

Fostering creativity and assessing risks lead to innovative and informed decisions. Meanwhile, developing social awareness promotes effective collaboration and a better understanding of others’ perspectives.

Overall, these skills contribute to more effective decision-making, leading to better outcomes in both personal and professional life.

Decision-making styles

There are four decision-making styles:

1. Analytical Decision-Making: Using data and information from multiple sources.

2. Directive Decision-Making: Relying on personal knowledge and past experiences.

3. Behavioural Decision-Making: Focusing on the impact of decisions on people and relationships.

4. Conceptual Decision-Making: Considering the big picture and future implications.

What is analytical decision-making?

Analytical decision-making involves evalua ing all available data before making a decision.

The decisionmaker relies on multiple sources of information to ensure the most informed and effective solution is reached.

What is directive decision-making?

Directive decision-making occurs when the decisionmaker relies on existing knowledge and past experiences without seeking additional data, outside information, or expert advice. 

The focus is on making decisions based on what is already known.

What is behavioural decision-making?

Behavioural decision-making requires everyone to cooperate and reach a mutual agreement.

The process is group-focused, where the leader presents options for the group to discuss, weighing the advantages and disadvantages. 

The main focus is on fostering relationships and achieving group consensus.

What is conceptual decision-making?

Conceptual decision-making, or abstract decisionmaking, focuses on the broader perspective. 

It involves considering potential future variables to address complex or long-term issues Having said all this, choosing the right decision-making style depends on the context and nature of each choice.

You can tailor your approach to fit the situation for the best outcomes.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine.

PARIS — French actor Gerard Depardieu will stand trial on Monday for sexually assaulting two women, and faces separate charges of rape and numerous further criminal complaints.

Depardieu, 75, is the highest-profile figure to face accusations in French cinema’s version of the #MeToo movement, triggered in 2017 by allegations against US producer Harvey Weinstein.

Depardieu’s lawyer Jeremy Assous told AFP the actor “plans to appear before the court” on Monday to be tried over alleged sexual violence during a 2021 film shoot.

The names of the two women have not been made public.

One of Depardieu’s two accusers, a set dresser now aged 55, reported in February that she had suffered sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexist insults while filming director Jean Becker’s “Les Volet Verts” (“The Green Shutters”) in a private house in Paris.

“I expect the justice system to be the same for everybody and for Monsieur Depardieu not to receive special treatment just because he’s an artist,” the plaintiff’s lawyer Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, told AFP.

Assous said that Depardieu’s defence would offer “witnesses and evidence that will show he has simply been targeted by false accusations”.

He accused the plaintiff of attempting to “make money” by claiming 30,000 euros ($32,500) in compensation.

The plantiff told French investigative website Mediapart that Depardieu had started loudly calling for a cooling fan during the shoot because he “couldn’t even get it up” in the heat.

He went on to say that he could “give women an orgasm without touching them”, she claimed.

The plaintiff alleged that an hour later she was “brutally grabbed” by Depardieu as she was walking off the set.

The actor “pinned” her by “closing his legs” around her before “groping” her waist and her stomach, continuing up to her breasts, she added.

Depardieu made “obscene remarks” during the incident, she said, including: “Come and touch my big parasol. I’ll stick it in your pussy.”

She described the actor’s bodyguards dragging him away as he shouted: “We’ll see each other again, my dear”.

“My client expects that the justice system will find Gerard Depardieu to be a serial sexual assaulter,” Durrieu-Diebolt said.

The second plaintiff in Monday’s case, an assistant director on the same film, also alleges sexual violence.

Anouk Grinberg, an actor who appeared in “The Green Shutters”, told AFP that Depardieu had used “salacious words... from morning till night”.

“When producers hired Depardieu to work on a film, they knew they were hiring an assaulter,” she added.

Grinberg said that in her experience, Depardieu had “always used sexual, smutty language” — but that his behaviour had become “much, much worse, with permission from his profession, that pays him for it and covers up his offences”.

Around 20 women have now accused Depardieu of various sexual offences.

Actor Charlotte Arnould was the first to file a criminal complaint.

A judge has yet to rule on prosecutors’ request in August for Depardieu to stand trial for raping and sexually assaulting her.

An investigation is also underway in Paris after a former production assistant accused Depardieu of a 2014 sexual assault.

And actor Helene Darras filed a sexual assault complaint that fell foul of the statute of limitations.

Spanish writer and journalist Ruth Baza has accused Depardieu of raping her in 1995.

“Never, but never, have I abused a woman,” Depardieu wrote in an open letter published in conservative daily Le Figaro in October last year.

Weeks later, President Emmanuel Macron shocked feminists by complaining of a “manhunt” targeting Depardieu, who he called a “towering actor” who “makes France proud”.

Macron’s remarks followed the broadcast by an investigative TV show of a recording of Depardieu making repeated misogynist and insulting remarks about women.

Depardieu is the most famous figure to face accusations in French cinema’s #MeToo movement.

Directors Jacques Doillon and Benoit Jacquot are among other major figures accused of sexual violence.

LOS ANGELES, United States — Thousands of artists including ABBA singer Bjorn Ulvaeus, Hollywood actress Julianne Moore and Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro have signed a statement warning about the unlicensed use of artificial intelligence. 

Some 11,500 stars of music, literature, screen and stage had put their names to the statement by Tuesday, as fears mount over tech companies using existing creative works to train up AI models without permission from their original creators. 

"The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted," says the brief statement.

In Hollywood, studios have been experimenting with AI in recent years, from bringing deceased movie stars back using realistic "digital replicas," to using computer-generated background figures to reduce the number of actors needed for battle scenes.

Similar fears have gripped other creative industries.

The statement was organized by British composer and former AI executive Ed Newton-Rex, The Guardian reported.

Newton-Rex told the newspaper that generative AI companies including his former employer Stability AI were using copyrighted contented to train their models without paying the original creators.

"When AI companies call this 'training data,' they dehumanise it. What we're talking about is people's work -- their writing, their art, their music," he said.

Last year, authors including John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and George RR Martin sued OpenAI for "systematic theft on a mass scale".

Hollywood stars including Pedro Pascal, Jane Fonda and Mark Hamill last month backed a sweeping AI safety bill in California that was ultimately vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom.

Other artists have chosen to collaborate with AI.

Facebook owner Meta last week announced that Hollywood actor Casey Affleck and horror studio Blumhouse were partnering to test its AI movie generating software by making a series of short films.

Among other famous signatories to Monday's statement were Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, author James Patterson and actor Kevin Bacon.

CARLOW, Ireland — It’s a job that didn’t exist until recently but becoming an influencer is an ever more popular career path among Gen-Z youth in the modern era of social media.

Now a first-of-its-kind course at an Irish university is teaching wannabe influencers how to convert online presence and content on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube into revenue streams.

“Influencing is something that’s catching fire,” course director Irene McCormick told AFP at South East Technological University (SETU) in Carlow, an hour’s drive southwest from the capital Dublin.

The idea grew out of a summer crash course “Digital Hustle” launched by McCormick that was taught by TikTokers and attracted 350 applicants for 30 places.

“It got amazing traction, we could see the appetite for more, so we broadened it to degree level,” said McCormick, a former television producer and director.

After two years of development the course — a four-year-long bachelor’s degree in “Content Creation and Social Media” — received accreditation and welcomed its first intake of 15 students last month.

On the state-of-the-art campus, students chatted, took selfies and scrolled their social media feeds on smartphones during a break between classes.

“My friends tell me I talk a lot so I thought I might as well make money out of it and try this course,” Harry Odife, 22, told AFP in the campus TV studio during a roleplay exercise.

Most of the students are already immersed in the digital space or working in it and want to expand their toolset and knowledge, McCormick said.

“You can try to learn yourself at home but being empowered with practice and theory about how to connect with target demographics online is going to make a big difference to your career,” she added.

Person branding 

The term “influencer” was officially added to the dictionary in 2019, and refers to a person well-known through use of social media who uses their celebrity to endorse, promote, or generate interest in products and brands, often for payment.

Now the most prominent such as YouTube challenge stunt creator Mr Beast and gaming vlogger KSI tap vast online audiences, earning huge sums per sponsored post or via brand sponsorships and advertisements.

Surveys consistently show that most Gen-Z youths — those born between 1997 and 2012 — would consider a job as a vlogger, YouTuber or professional streamer.

“Of course people want to make money from influencing, so we look particularly at person branding, how to monetise being influential over large online followings,” said McCormick.

Students said they hoped the course would help them leverage their interests and hobbies which range from beauty and fashion to entertainment, social justice, and sport.

“I post a lot of the hairstyles I do on TikTok and Instagram, it would be nice to have the knowledge to grow that into an actual business,” said Favour Ehuchie, an 18-year-old hairdresser.

Another student, keen equestrian Marta Hughes Bravo, said horse stud farms now seek staff who are social media-savvy.

“Companies are all over Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. One girl who works for a farm has been pulling in brand deals. To know how to do that would be fantastic,” she said.

‘Serious business’ 

Degree modules include creative video and storytelling psychology, entrepreneurship, celebrity studies, storytelling psychology, data analytics and podcasting.

“A lot of people think it’s an easy life being an influencer, just posting 60-second videos on TikTok, but there is way more to it,” said Hughes Bravo.

Creating content involves “editing, planning, organising, and so on, it takes up more time than you might think, people don’t understand that quite yet”.

Practical elements of the course include camera and microphone learning, and work placements.

“Having influencer knowledge like how to be comfortable in front of cameras will help us build our confidence, whatever we end up doing,” said another student Naoise Kelly, adding that becoming the next big thing on social media is not her top priority.

McCormick said employment opportunities for influencer talent are multiplying exponentially, either in front of camera or behind the scenes.

“Yes, influencer posts on social media may sometimes be frivolous, but the actual business is not, it is a very serious business,” she added.

“So many Gen Z young people buy a lot of bling, and that bling is being sold through influencers.

“Around 70 per cent of marketers now believe in influencers as the future of marketing, governments are also using them to message people, that’s how we access markets now.”