All posts tagged: catapults

‘Gentle Monster’ at Cannes Catapults Léa Seydoux Into Best Actress Race

‘Gentle Monster’ at Cannes Catapults Léa Seydoux Into Best Actress Race

Gentle Monster, the latest work of Austrian auteur Marie Kreutzer, had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival late on Friday night. The dark and disturbing drama, which is playing in competition at the fest, was enthusiastically cheered by the audience inside the Grand Théâtre Lumière, especially when its leading lady, Léa Seydoux, was shown on the screen. Indeed, the film’s standing ovation clocked in at six minutes, but only came to an end because Kreutzer accepted a microphone and began addressing attendees; I suspect that, if not interrupted, it would have gone on for quite a bit longer. The subject matter of the film is heavy, to be sure: a woman (Seydoux) who is happily married and the mother of a young child has her life upended when — spoiler alert — the authorities arrest her husband (Laurence Rupp) for possession and distribution of child pornography. It’s not immediately clear if her husband was involved in the material’s production and/or if their own child was among those exploited, but the woman knows that her …

AI boom catapults San Francisco median home price above  million

AI boom catapults San Francisco median home price above $2 million

The artificial intelligence boom has driven up San Francisco’s median home sales price to a record $2.15 million. Real estate brokerage firm Compass said that recent transactions showed that some parts of the tech capital have emerged from its doom loop on the back of the surge in AI investment and hiring. “The economic changes created by the Iran war — such as rising interest rates and financial market volatility — have not affected the extremely heated market dynamics in San Francisco, which are being fueled by the new employment and wealth generated by the AI startup boom,” Compass Chief Market Analyst Patrick Carlisle said in a statement. The March median home price, up 18% from last year, surpassed the April 2022 peak of $2 million, according to Compass. Median condo sale prices jumped to $1.36 million, up 27% from a year earlier, and slightly below the $1.37 million peak in April 2022. The new data show how the rise of AI is making it more expensive and competitive to live in San Francisco, home …