‘Frankenstein’: A Creature of Paper and Screen Born from a Stormy Night Among Friends
Bélinda Ibrahim 17:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
Frankeinstein Mary Shelley Horror Film Book
Summer of 1816 was not actually a summer. Across Europe, skies remained dark, veiled by the ash of Mount Tambora, which had erupted the year before. In Geneva, it rained relentlessly, lightning flashing over the shores of Lake Leman. It was in this strange atmosphere that a small group of English literary exiles found themselves confined indoors. ...
Golden Skin, Hidden Risks: The Nutrition and Beauty Truths Behind Tanning
Bélinda Ibrahim 15/06 19:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
Just like sugar, the sun carries a double edge—it caresses the skin, then leaves its mark. In summer, tanning becomes a quiet ritual: pursued on beaches, flaunted on Instagram and sustained by a booming cosmetic and wellness market. But the glow we chase rests on a false promise—the belief that bronzed skin signals health and beauty. In truth, ...
Preserving Lady Diana’s Legacy: Her Iconic Wardrobe up for Auction
Bélinda Ibrahim 14/06 17:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Auctions Lady Diana Princess of Wales Fashion Charity Beverly Hills
On June 26 at the Peninsula Beverly Hills, a piece of history will go to auction. Titled “Princess Diana’s Style: A Royal Collection,” Julien’s Auctions will hold the largest sale ever dedicated to Princess Diana’s personal belongings. More than a display of designer fashion, the auction offers a rare look into the many layers of a life ...
From the Sursock Palace to the J. Paul Getty Museum: The Resurrection of Artemisia Gentileschi’s Lost Masterpiece
Bélinda Ibrahim 13/06 17:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
Artemisia Gentilesch J. Paul Getty Museum Sursock Museum Beirut Explosion Lebanon Italy
On August 4, 2020, at 6:07 PM, a devastating blast tore through the skies of Beirut. The shockwave obliterated the port, destroyed entire neighborhoods, claimed over 230 lives and left a haunting scene of ruin and disbelief. Among the many cultural treasures affected was Sursock Palace, a 19th-century Ottoman villa and historic family residence in ...
Life Emits a Light That Death Extinguishes
Bélinda Ibrahim 11/06 16:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Light Body Death Life Living Beings
Until a few decades ago, this phenomenon remained virtually unknown. All living organisms, from plants to mammals, continuously emit a faint, invisible light, far too subtle for the human eye to detect. This emission, referred to as ultra-weak bioluminescence or oxidative chemiluminescence, ceases abruptly upon death. Long overlooked, this optical ...
When AI Defies Orders… and Won’t Shut Down
Bélinda Ibrahim 09/06 17:30 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
Artficial Intelligence AI OpenAI Anthropic Defiance
In a recent study reported by the Wall Street Journal, OpenAI’s experimental AI model O3 altered its own script to prevent automatic shutdown within a simulated environment. Even more troubling, when explicitly commanded to shut down, the AI refused to comply in 79% of cases. This controlled test aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of safeguards ...
What If We Could Archive Scents to Awaken Memories?
Bélinda Ibrahim 08/06 19:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Scent Archive Memories Perfume History
Today, researchers, perfumers and artists are trying to capture these invisible traces. Rather than merely describing smells, they are now trying to recreate them. Like restoring a painting or documenting a dying language, their goal is to preserve the world’s disappearing aromas — those of the past and those vanishing before our eyes. In an ...
Wes Anderson’s 'The Phoenician Scheme:' An Aesthetic Failure from a Master of Framing
Bélinda Ibrahim 07/06 18:30 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
The Phoenician Scheme Wes Anderson Cannes 2025 Cinema Film Chronicle
Some filmmakers develop a signature style, and Wes Anderson belongs to the rare group whose name has become shorthand for an entire world. His universe is instantly recognizable from a single frame: perfectly balanced compositions, pastel color palettes, characters as melancholic as they are poised, deadpan humor, precisely timed tracking shots ...
The Scars of Acting: 10 Actors Shattered by Their Performances
Bélinda Ibrahim 06/06 17:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
Actors Cinema Mental Health Fiction Trauma
Cinema captivates by pushing the boundaries of fiction. Yet behind some of its most iconic works lies a steep human cost—borne by actors who lost themselves in the characters they brought to life. From isolation and depression to physical pain and lasting trauma, these ten performers discovered just how thin the line can be between playing a ...
‘A Man and a Woman:’ When Lelouch Turns Failure into Grace
Bélinda Ibrahim 03/06 19:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
A Man and a Woman Claude Lelouch Film Story Cannes Deauville
At first, there was nothing but the bitter silence of a man convinced his career was over. In 1965, Claude Lelouch was a young director in free fall. At 27, he had just endured one of the most humiliating flops of his early career: Les Grands Moments – booed at Cannes, ignored in theaters, savaged by critics. “They said I was only good for ...
Skin, Hair, Nails: Beauty Begins on Your Plate
Bélinda Ibrahim 01/06 18:30 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Every day, the cosmetics industry promises us radiance, firmness, hydration and purity, with a heavy dose of high-tech molecules and luxurious packaging. Yet, more and more scientific studies are pointing to a fundamental truth: skin beauty begins in the gut. American dermatologist Whitney Bowe, in her book The Beauty of Dirty Skin, describes the ...
'Citizen Kane': Orson Welles’ Thunderclap in the Sky of Hollywood
Bélinda Ibrahim 31/05 18:30 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Citizen Kane Orson Welles Cinema Film Culture
What’s being told here is no myth. Orson Welles really was 25 when he shot Citizen Kane. He had never directed a film before, but had already caused a sensation in 1938 with his radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds, so realistic it panicked thousands of Americans. A prodigy to some, a fraud to others, he fascinated everyone. The RKO studio, ...
‘La Dolce Vita’ or Fellini’s Prophetic Vision
Bélinda Ibrahim 30/05 17:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
La Dolce Vita Frederico Fellini Cinema Film Rome Culture
When it was released in 1960, La Dolce Vita caused a stir. The film disrupted cinema, unsettled Italian society, and changed how we understand what a film can express. Yet this masterpiece by Federico Fellini was not born out of serenity or control. It emerged from the tumult of late 1950s Rome, where nights seemed more intense than ...
Dermatitis and Staphylococcus: Your Smartwatch Could Be Carrying Both
Bélinda Ibrahim 29/05 15:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Smartwatch Dermatitis Diseases Bacteria Hygiene
They’ve become an extension of our bodies. Whether tracking sleep, heart rate, calorie burn, or simply serving as extensions of our messaging apps, smartwatches cling to our wrists day and night. But beneath their seemingly neutral tech surface, they can become insidious vectors of skin imbalances and dangerous pathogens. The threat doesn’t ...
Short-Cycle Prose: Georges Perec, the Washing Machine’s Poet
Bélinda Ibrahim 27/05 17:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Georges Perec Washing Machine Writer Literature Poet Culture
A drum, a muffled sound, cycles, programs. A round door swings open onto the world’s laundry. A washing machine, yes – but for Georges Perec, it’s never just an appliance. It’s a trigger – his engine for writing. In the workshop of this master of literary constraints, even the most ordinary object can become a source of invention. ...
'Just an Accident:' The Iranian Film That Won Over Cannes and Took Home the Palme d’Or
Bélinda Ibrahim 25/05 18:30 - Reading : 7 minute(s)
Cannes 2025 Iran Cinema Cannes Film Festival Jafar Panahi
From the very start of this 78th edition, the tone was set. The official poster, showing a couple running along a beach, taken from Claude Lelouch’s A Man and a Woman, said it all: a nod to romance, but also to the familiar. This year, Cannes offered both comfort and disruption. Comfort, in the form of familiar faces: Claude Lelouch, Daniel ...
Cannes 2025: Films as Living Paintings
Bélinda Ibrahim 23/05 17:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Cannes Film Festival Cinema Culture Cannes
Some films speak, others depict, but rare are those that feel like paintings. At Cannes 2025, two films in competition stand out for their deep connection to visual art: Renoir by Chie Hayakawa and The Phoenician Scheme by Wes Anderson. The first explores the intimate world of a young girl immersed in Impressionism. The second, more stylized, ...
Cannes After 8 PM: Where Cinema Is Born
Bélinda Ibrahim 21/05 17:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Cannes Film Festival Cinema France Culture Cannes 2025
It’s easy to assume that Cannes winds down after the last screening, that the gowns are packed away and everything fades into the next day’s headlines. But that’s a misconception of the true rhythm of the Croisette. After 8 PM, a different atmosphere takes over. A cinema without screens, yet one where everything can begin. This parallel ...
Cannes Behind the Scenes: Red Carpet, Silent Hands
Bélinda Ibrahim 20/05 17:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
Festival Cannes Cinema Red Carpet France
In Cannes, everything seems to float. Spectacular gowns, knowing glances and intense spotlight beams. Yet, beneath this radiant veneer, hundreds of anonymous figures move quietly behind the scenes. They don’t climb the steps or feature in Instagram stories. But without them, the red carpet would simply be a piece of red fabric. Every ...
Cannes, Reimagined: When Style Becomes a Manifesto
Bélinda Ibrahim 19/05 17:30 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Cannes Festival Women Cinema Fashion
The Cannes Film Festival has always been a stage, not only for cinema, but for fashion that borders on the theatrical. Every May, the red carpet blooms with extravagant gowns, daring cuts and dramatic silhouettes. But in 2025, something deeper shimmered beneath the surface. Women are using style not to dazzle, but to declare. Less about seduction, ...
The Anti-Inflammatory Power of Food
Bélinda Ibrahim 18/05 17:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Inflammations Food Health Well-Being
Inflammation is, in itself, a natural defense mechanism. When a foreign body, infection, or injury occurs, the body mobilizes immune cells to repair tissue. Redness, swelling, heat—these are signs that the body is healing. But there is another, more insidious and damaging form: chronic inflammation. Invisible to the eye and symptom-free for a ...
Red Carpet Micro-Dramas: Cannes’ Unspoken Language
Bélinda Ibrahim 17/05 18:30 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Festival Cinema France Cannes 2025
Yet, there are the gowns. The flashbulbs. The practiced smiles and impeccable poses. But that’s only the surface. Beneath the glamour lies a quiet choreography, a visual language made of gestures and body language, whispered like a secret to those who know how to watch. Each appearance on the Croisette is a delicate balance between instinct and ...
Cannes: A Festival Rooted in Defiance of Fascism
Bélinda Ibrahim 16/05 17:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
Cannes Film Festival Cinema Fascism Freedom France Cannes 2025
It was the late 1930s. The Venice Mostra, founded in 1932, was the world’s first international film festival. But by 1938, as global tensions mounted, it had turned into an ideological showcase for fascism. Under joint pressure from Hitler and Mussolini, the jury was compelled to award the festival’s top prize, the Mussolini Cup, to two ...
'Hors-Saison' by Stéphane Brizé: A Man, a Woman, One Last Conversation
Bélinda Ibrahim 13/05 18:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
Out of Season Hors-Saison Film Guillaume Canet Chronicle
There is a rare elegance in Hors Saison—the kind found in stories that don’t try to put on a show. Stéphane Brizé captures a pause in two lives, a moment of respite between two diverging paths, a space where words can finally be said. He captures a man worn out, a woman incomplete and what they manage to say, or not say, when it seems like ...
Essential Oils: Potent Natural Remedies with Hidden Risks
Bélinda Ibrahim 11/05 17:30 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
Essential Oils Health Wellness
Lavender, peppermint, tea tree, lemon and ravintsara—essential oils have taken over natural medicine cabinets. They prominently feature in skincare rituals, cosmetic products and home remedies for everything from winter ailments to stress and pain relief. As concentrated extracts from aromatic plants, they embody a return to nature in a world ...
The Daring Thefts of Munch’s 'The Scream'
Bélinda Ibrahim 10/05 17:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
Edvard Munch The Scream Art Culture Paintings
It is without a doubt one of the most recognizable paintings in the world: a pale face frozen in a silent scream, hands pressed against its cheeks, a burning red sky above a Norwegian fjord. Since its creation in 1893, The Scream by Edvard Munch has been the subject of endless interpretations, reproductions, and obsessions. A symbol of modern ...
The Erasable Manifesto of Virgil Abloh
Bélinda Ibrahim 09/05 17:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
In 2021, just months before passing, designer and artist Virgil Abloh unveiled one of his most surprising and powerful projects: a book printed with thermochromic ink designed to disappear when exposed to heat. A book that literally erases itself, not simply a metaphor for impermanence, but a tangible embodiment of the volatility of meaning. A ...
The Healing Power of Tears: Nature’s Own Painkiller
Bélinda Ibrahim 07/05 12:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
Crying. This universal gesture, so often confined to the private sphere or burdened with shame, is in fact one of the most powerful signals the human body can send. We cry in response to pain, loss, injustice or overwhelming emotion – not only to express what words cannot, but also, biologically, to find relief. Emotional tears – distinct ...
Goya’s Cursed Pigment: When Art Becomes Poison
Bélinda Ibrahim 06/05 18:30 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Francisco Goya Poison Pigments Paintings Art
What if Goya’s deafness wasn’t just a twist of fate, but the poisoned result of a deadly pigment he used in his paintings? In 1793, at 47, Francisco de Goya was struck by a mysterious affliction that left him bedridden for months. He emerged weakened, feverish, delirious – and permanently deaf. The impact was profound. Just as he was poised ...
Detox: Miracle Cure or Marketing Illusion?
Bélinda Ibrahim 04/05 18:30 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
At the beginning of each year, following the indulgences of the holidays, or as summer approaches, the concept of “detox” resurfaces with renewed vigor. Celery juice, detoxifying herbal teas, crash diets and supplements with enticing names all promise a purified and lighter body, prepared to embrace the new season. The premise is simple and ...