Calling Hedy Lamarr

Dir. George Misch / Austria / 2004 / 71 mins / Cert. TBC

A star of the silver screen during the Golden Age of Hollywood, Hedy Lamarr (pictured) was also co-discoverer of an early technique for spread spectrum communications, the basis of modern-day inventions such as GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Without Hedy Lamarr, we might not have these technologies.

A trailblazer to the screening of her 1944 Experiment Perilous in Liverpool Cathedral, this documentary is an intimate portrait of one of the most beautiful, glamorous and synthetic film stars of the 20th century.

Director Georg Misch dissects Lamarr through the perspective of people who knew her (including her son Anthony Loder), using the telephone as a device through which to open up the complex and contradictory life of someone who changed the way we communicate today.