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Red Sparrow
''Red Sparrow'' is a 2018 American spy thriller film directed by Francis Lawrence and written by Justin Haythe, based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Jason Matthews. The film stars Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Charlotte Rampling, Mary-Louise Parker, and Jeremy Irons. It tells the story of a Russian intelligence officer, who is sent to make contact with a CIA officer in the hope of discovering the identity of a mole. Matthews, a former member of the CIA, advised the production on the depiction of spying. Based on historic Soviet sexpionage and contemporary Russian use of kompromat, filming took place in Hungary, Slovakia and Austria. ''Red Sparrow'' premiered at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. on February 15, 2018, and was released in the United States on March 2, 2018. The film grossed $151 million worldwide, becoming a modest box-office success, and received mixed reviews from critics, who described it as having "more style than substance" an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Sparrow (novel)
''Red Sparrow'' is a novel written by Jason Matthews (novelist), Jason Matthews, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative, published by Charles Scribner's Sons, Scribner on June 4, 2013. The book describes the mundane aspects of the intelligence field, the techniques it employs, and Red Sparrow's unique ability to discern the nature of people by seeing their emotions in colors (through synesthesia). Synopsis Dominika Egorova, or "Red Sparrow", is a former Russian ballerina who is forced by her uncle (Colonel Egorov) to undergo espionage training for the Russian government at the Sparrow School, where people are trained to seduce their targets. Other key figures are Marble, a Russian double agent who provides intelligence to the CIA, and Nate Nash, a CIA internal-ops officer who recruits and handles intelligence assets for the agency. Each chapter in the book, as well as its two sequels, includes a reference to a specific prepared food, and ends with a recipe for it. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francis Lawrence
Francis Lawrence (born March 26, 1971) is an Austrian-born American filmmaker and producer. After establishing himself as a director of music videos and commercials, Lawrence made his feature-length directorial debut with the superhero thriller ''Constantine (film), Constantine'' (2005) and has since directed the Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic horror film ''I Am Legend (film), I Am Legend'' (2007), the romantic drama ''Water for Elephants (film), Water for Elephants'' (2011), three of the four films in the The Hunger Games (film series), ''Hunger Games'' film series, and the spy thriller ''Red Sparrow'' (2018). Early life Lawrence was born to American parents in Vienna, Austria. His father was a theoretical physicist who taught at California State University, Northridge, and his mother is a vice president of technology at a public-relations agency based in his hometown. He moved to Los Angeles at the age of four. Lawrence worked as second assistan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Newseum
The Newseum was an American museum dedicated to news and journalism that promoted free expression and the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, while tracing the evolution of communication. The purpose of the museum, funded by the Freedom Forum nonpartisan U.S. foundation dedicated to freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of thought for was to help the public and the media understand each other. The seven-level, museum was located in Washington, D.C., and featured fifteen theaters and fifteen galleries. Its Berlin Wall Gallery included the largest display of sections of the wall outside Germany. The Today's Front Pages Gallery presented daily front pages from more than 80 international newspapers. The Today's Front Pages Gallery is still available on the Newseum's website, along with a few other galleries. Other galleries presented topics including the First Amendment, world press freedom, news history, the September 11 attacks, and the history o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and Slovenia to the southwest, and Austria to the west. Hungary has a population of nearly 9 million, mostly ethnic Hungarians and a significant Romani minority. Hungarian, the official language, is the world's most widely spoken Uralic language and among the few non-Indo-European languages widely spoken in Europe. Budapest is the country's capital and largest city; other major urban areas include Debrecen, Szeged, Miskolc, Pécs, and Győr. The territory of present-day Hungary has for centuries been a crossroads for various peoples, including Celts, Romans, Germanic tribes, Huns, West Slavs and the Avars. The foundation of the Hungarian state was established in the late 9th century AD with the conquest of the Carpathian Basin by Hungar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kompromat
(russian: links=no, компромат, short for "compromising material") is damaging information about a politician, a businessperson, or other public figure, which may be used to create negative publicity, as well as for blackmail, often to exert influence rather than monetary gain, and extortion. Kompromat may be acquired from various security services, or outright forged, and then publicized by use of a public relations official. Widespread use of has been one of the characteristic features of the politics of Russia and other post-Soviet states. Etymology The term is a borrowing of the Russian KGB slang term from the Stalin era, which is short for "compromising material" (russian: компрометирующий материал, translit=komprometiruyushchy material). It refers to disparaging information that can be collected, stored, traded, or used strategically across all domains: political, electoral, legal, professional, judicial, media, and business. The orig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sexpionage
Sexpionage is the involvement of sexual activity, or the possibility of sexual activity, intimacy, romance, or seduction to conduct espionage. Sex or the possibility of sex can function as a distraction, incentive, cover story, or unintended part of any intelligence operation. Female agents who use such tactics are known as sparrows, while male ones are known as ravens. A commonly known type of sexpionage is a honey trap operation, which is designed to compromise an opponent sexually to elicit information from that person. Sexpionage is a historically documented phenomenon, though a book review published by a CIA publication in 2008 noted that the three English-language books about it suffered from errors of fact and lack of documentation. Homosexual entrapment with the NSA Discrimination and cultural attitudes toward homosexuals have pressured them into spying or not spying for a certain entity, sometimes with drastic consequences. For example, Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mole (espionage)
In espionage jargon, a mole (also called a "penetration agent", "deep cover agent", or "sleeper agent") is a long-term spy (espionage agent) who is recruited before having access to secret intelligence, subsequently managing to get into the target organization. However, it is popularly used to mean any long-term clandestine spy or informant within an organization (government or private). In police work, a mole is an undercover law-enforcement agent who joins an organization in order to collect incriminating evidence about its operations and to eventually charge its members. The term was introduced to the public by British spy novelist John le Carré in his 1974 novel ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' and has since entered general usage, but its origin is unclear, as well as to what extent it was used by intelligence services before it became popularized. Le Carré, a former British intelligence officer, has said that the term mole was actually used by the Soviet intelligence agency, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, and analyzing national security information from around the world, primarily through the use of human intelligence (HUMINT) and performing covert actions. As a principal member of the United States Intelligence Community (IC), the CIA reports to the Director of National Intelligence and is primarily focused on providing intelligence for the President and Cabinet of the United States. President Harry S. Truman had created the Central Intelligence Group under the direction of a Director of Central Intelligence by presidential directive on January 22, 1946, and this group was transformed into the Central Intelligence Agency by implementation of the National Security Act of 1947. Unlike the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which is a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russian Intelligence Community
The intelligence agencies of the Russian Federation, often unofficially referred to in Russian as ''Special services'' ( rus, Спецслужбы), include: * Federal Security Service (FSB), an agency responsible for counter-intelligence and other aspects of state security as well as intelligence-gathering in some countries, primarily those of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS); reports directly to the President of Russia. * Main Directorate of Special Programs of the President of the Russian Federation (GUSP), is a federal executive agency that performs functions to ensure the fulfillment of the authority of the President of the Russian Federation in the field of mobilization training and mobilization in the Russian Federation. The scope of their competence is described in the Federal Law "On Mobilization Preparation and Mobilization in the Russian Federation." * Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), an agency concerned with collection of intelligence outside the CIS; re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary-Louise Parker
Mary-Louise Parker (born August 2, 1964) is an American actress. After making her Broadway debut as Rita in Craig Lucas' '' Prelude to a Kiss'' in 1990 (for which she received a Tony Award nomination), Parker came to prominence for film roles in ''Grand Canyon'' (1991), ''Fried Green Tomatoes'' (1991), ''The Client'' (1994), ''Bullets over Broadway'' (1994), ''A Place for Annie'' (1994), ''Boys on the Side'' (1995), ''The Portrait of a Lady'' (1996), and '' The Maker'' (1997). Among stage and independent film appearances thereafter, Parker received the 2001 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her portrayal of Catherine Llewellyn in David Auburn's '' Proof'', among other accolades. Between 2001 and 2006, she recurred as Amy Gardner in the NBC television series ''The West Wing'', for which she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2002. She received both a Golden Globe and a Primetime Emmy Award for her portrayal of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charlotte Rampling
Tessa Charlotte Rampling (born 5 February 1946) is an English actress, known for her work in European arthouse films in English, French, and Italian. An icon of the Swinging Sixties, she began her career as a model. She was cast in the role of Meredith in the 1966 film ''Georgy Girl'', which starred Lynn Redgrave. She soon began making French and Italian arthouse films, notably Luchino Visconti's '' The Damned'' (1969) and Liliana Cavani's ''The Night Porter'' (1974). She went on to star in many European and English-language films, including ''Stardust Memories'' (1980); in ''The Verdict'' (1982); '' Long Live Life'' (1984), and ''The Wings of the Dove'' (1997). In the 2000s, she became the muse of French director François Ozon, appearing in several of his films, notably ''Swimming Pool'' (2003). On television, she is known for her role as Dr. Evelyn Vogel in '' Dexter'' (2013). In 2002 she released an album of recordings in the style of cabaret, titled ''As a Woman''. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thriller Film
Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. Tension is created by delaying what the audience sees as inevitable, and is built through situations that are menacing or where escape seems impossible. The cover-up of important information from the viewer, and fight and chase scenes are common methods. Life is typically threatened in a thriller film, such as when the protagonist does not realize that they are entering a dangerous situation. Thriller films' characters conflict with each other or with an outside force, which can sometimes be abstract. The protagonist is usually set against a problem, such as an escape, a mission, or a mystery. Screenwriter and scholar Eric R. Williams identifies thriller films as one of eleven super-genres in his screenwriters' taxonomy, claiming that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
