1.
Bordeaux
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Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France. The municipality of Bordeaux proper has a population of 243,626, together with its suburbs and satellite towns, Bordeaux is the centre of the Bordeaux Métropole. With 749,595 inhabitants and 1,178,335 in the area, it is the fifth largest in France, after Paris, Lyon, Marseille and Lille. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture of the Gironde department and its inhabitants are called Bordelais or Bordelaises. The term Bordelais may also refer to the city and its surrounding region, Bordeaux is the worlds major wine industry capital. It is home to the main wine fair, Vinexpo. Bordeaux wine has been produced in the region since the 8th century, the historic part of the city is on the UNESCO World Heritage List as an outstanding urban and architectural ensemble of the 18th century. After Paris, Bordeaux has the highest number of preserved buildings of any city in France. In historical times, around 300 BC it was the settlement of a Celtic tribe, the Bituriges Vivisci, the name Bourde is still the name of a river south of the city. In 107 BC, the Battle of Burdigala was fought by the Romans who were defending the Allobroges, a Gallic tribe allied to Rome, the Romans were defeated and their commander, the consul Lucius Cassius Longinus, was killed in the action. The city fell under Roman rule around 60 BC, its importance lying in the commerce of tin, later it became capital of Roman Aquitaine, flourishing especially during the Severan dynasty. In 276 it was sacked by the Vandals, further ravage was brought by the same Vandals in 409, the Visigoths in 414 and the Franks in 498, beginning a period of obscurity for the city. In the late 6th century, the city re-emerged as the seat of a county and an archdiocese within the Merovingian kingdom of the Franks, the city started to play a regional role as a major urban center on the fringes of the newly founded Frankish Duchy of Vasconia. Around 585, a certain Gallactorius is cited as count of Bordeaux, the city was plundered by the troops of Abd er Rahman in 732 after storming the fortified city and overwhelming the Aquitanian garrison. After Duke Eudess defeat, the Aquitanian duke could still save part of its troops, the following year, the Frankish commander descended again over Aquitaine, but clashed in battle with the Aquitanians and left to take on hostile Burgundian authorities and magnates. In 745, Aquitaine faced yet another expedition by Charles sons Pepin and Carloman against Hunald, Hunald was defeated, and his son Waifer replaced him, who in turn confirmed Bordeaux as the capital city. During the last stage of the war against Aquitaine, it was one of Waifers last important strongholds to fall to King Pepin the Shorts troops. Next to Bordeaux, Charlemagne built the fortress of Fronsac on a hill across the border with the Basques, in 778, Seguin was appointed count of Bordeaux, probably undermining the power of the Duke Lupo, and possibly leading to the Battle of Roncevaux Pass that very year
2.
French Third Republic
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It came to an end on 10 July 1940. Harsh reparations exacted by the Prussians after the war resulted in the loss of the French regions of Alsace and Lorraine, social upheaval, and the establishment of the Paris Commune. The early governments of the Third Republic considered re-establishing the monarchy, but confusion as to the nature of that monarchy, thus, the Third Republic, which was originally intended as a provisional government, instead became the permanent government of France. The French Constitutional Laws of 1875 defined the composition of the Third Republic and it consisted of a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate to form the legislative branch of government and a president to serve as head of state. The period from the start of World War I to the late 1930s featured sharply polarized politics, Adolphe Thiers called republicanism in the 1870s the form of government that divides France least, however, politics under the Third Republic were sharply polarized. On the left stood Reformist France, heir to the French Revolution, on the right stood conservative France, rooted in the peasantry, the Roman Catholic Church and the army. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 resulted in the defeat of France, after Napoleons capture by the Prussians at the Battle of Sedan, Parisian deputies led by Léon Gambetta established the Government of National Defence as a provisional government on 4 September 1870. The deputies then selected General Louis-Jules Trochu to serve as its president and this first government of the Third Republic ruled during the Siege of Paris. After the French surrender in January 1871, the provisional Government of National Defence disbanded, French territories occupied by Prussia at this time did not participate. The resulting conservative National Assembly elected Adolphe Thiers as head of a provisional government, due to the revolutionary and left-wing political climate that prevailed in the Parisian population, the right-wing government chose the royal palace of Versailles as its headquarters. The new government negotiated a settlement with the newly proclaimed German Empire. To prompt the Prussians to leave France, the government passed a variety of laws, such as the controversial Law of Maturities. The following repression of the communards would have consequences for the labor movement. The Orléanists supported a descendant of King Louis Philippe I, the cousin of Charles X who replaced him as the French monarch in 1830, his grandson Louis-Philippe, Comte de Paris. The Bonapartists were marginalized due to the defeat of Napoléon III and were unable to advance the candidacy of any member of his family, the Bonaparte family. Legitimists and Orléanists came to a compromise, eventually, whereby the childless Comte de Chambord would be recognised as king, consequently, in 1871 the throne was offered to the Comte de Chambord. Chambord believed the monarchy had to eliminate all traces of the Revolution in order to restore the unity between the monarchy and the nation, which the revolution had sundered apart. Compromise on this was if the nation were to be made whole again
3.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
4.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
5.
Film director
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A film director is a person who directs the making of a film. Generally, a film director controls a films artistic and dramatic aspects, the director has a key role in choosing the cast members, production design, and the creative aspects of filmmaking. Under European Union law, the director is viewed as the author of the film, the film director gives direction to the cast and crew and creates an overall vision through which a film eventually becomes realized, or noticed. Directors need to be able to mediate differences in creative visions, there are many pathways to becoming a film director. Some film directors started as screenwriters, cinematographers, film editors or actors, other film directors have attended a film school. Some outline a general plotline and let the actors dialogue, while others control every aspect. Some directors also write their own screenplays or collaborate on screenplays with long-standing writing partners, some directors edit or appear in their films, or compose the music score for their films. Film directors create a vision through which a film eventually becomes realized/noticed. Realizing this vision includes overseeing the artistic and technical elements of production, as well as directing the shooting timetable. This entails organizing the crew in such a way as to achieve their vision of the film. This requires skills of leadership, as well as the ability to maintain a singular focus even in the stressful. Moreover, it is necessary to have an eye to frame shots and to give precise feedback to cast and crew, thus. Thus the director ensures that all involved in the film production are working towards an identical vision for the completed film. The set of varying challenges he or she has to tackle has been described as a jigsaw puzzle with egos. It adds to the pressure that the success of a film can influence when, omnipresent are the boundaries of the films budget. Additionally, the director may also have to ensure an intended age rating, thus, the position of film director is widely considered to be a highly stressful and demanding one. It has been said that 20-hour days are not unusual, under European Union law, the film director is considered the author or one of the authors of a film, largely as a result of the influence of auteur theory. Auteur theory is a film criticism concept that holds that a directors film reflects the directors personal creative vision
6.
Gironde
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Gironde is a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwest France. It is named for the Gironde estuary, a major waterway, the Bordeaux wine region is in the Gironde. Gironde is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790 and it was created from parts of the former provinces of Guyenne and Gascony. From 1793 to 1795, the name was changed to Bec-dAmbès to avoid the association with the revolutionary party. Gironde is part of the current region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine and is surrounded by the departments of Landes, Lot-et-Garonne, Dordogne and Charente-Maritime, with an area of 10,000 km², Gironde is the largest department in metropolitan France. If overseas departments are included, however, Girondes land area is dwarfed by the 83,846 km² of Guyane, Gironde is well known for the Côte dArgent beach which is Europes longest, attracting many surfers to Lacanau each year. It is also the birthplace of Jacques-Yves Cousteau who studied the sea, the Great Dune of Pyla in Arcachon Bay near Bordeaux is the tallest sand dune in Europe. The President of the General Council is Jean-Luc Gleyze of the Socialist Party
7.
Jacques Brel
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He was widely considered a master of the modern chanson. In French-speaking countries, Brel was also an actor, appearing in ten films. He also directed two films, one of which, Le Far West, was nominated for the Palme dOr at the Cannes Film Festival in 1973, having sold over 25 million records worldwide, Brel is the third best-selling Belgian recording artist of all time. Brel married Thérèse Miche Michielsen in 1950 and the couple had three children and he also had a romantic relationship with actress and dancer Maddly Bamy from 1972 until his death in 1978. Jacques Romain Georges Brel was born on 8 April 1929 in Schaerbeek, Brussels, to Élisabeth Lisette and he came from a family of Flemish descent, who had adopted the French language, part of his family originated in Zandvoorde, near Ypres. His father worked for Cominex, a firm, and later became co-director of a company that manufactured cardboard. Jacques and his older brother Pierre grew up in an austere household, in Brussels, the family lived at 138 Avenue du Diamant in Schaerbeek, then moved to 26 Boulevard Belgica–Belgicalaan in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, and finally settled at 7 Rue Jacques-Manne in Anderlecht. Jacques was close to his mother, fascinated by her generosity and sense of humour, in September 1941, his parents enrolled Jacques at the Institut Saint-Louis at rue du Marais near the Botanical Garden of Brussels. Although he did poorly in many subjects, he did well in history and French and he helped set up the schools drama club, taking on his first stage roles with great enthusiasm. He wrote short stories, poems, and essays, in 1944, at the age of 15, Jacques began playing the guitar. The following year he formed his own group with friends. In the spring of 1947, during his year at Saint-Louis. Published pseudonymously, the story is about a man on his death bed who encourages his grandson to run away while the rest of the family makes arrangements for his funeral. Despite his growing talent for writing, Jacques was never a good student, with an academic career not in his future, the 18-year-old Jacques went to work at his fathers cardboard factory in August 1947. His job at Vanneste and Brel was predictable and uninspiring—a routine that involved fixing prices, apart from joining the company football team, he showed little interest in the companys social activities and events. Perhaps to offset the boredom of his office routine, he joined a local Catholic youth organisation La Franche Cordée. Dedicated to philanthropic work, the group organised religious retreats, fundraising events, Jacques supported these activities with great enthusiasm and believed strongly in FCs mission. His parents were pleased with their sons dedication, and provided him with the company van and family car to support his FC activities
8.
Christopher Lee
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Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee CBE CStJ was an English character actor, singer, and author. With a career spanning nearly 70 years, Lee initially portrayed villains, Lee was knighted for services to drama and charity in 2009, received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2011, and received the BFI Fellowship in 2013. Lee considered his best performance to be that of Pakistans founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the biopic Jinnah and he frequently appeared opposite Peter Cushing in Hammer Horror films, and late in his career had roles in six Tim Burton films. The heavy metal follow-up Charlemagne, The Omens of Death was released on 27 May 2013 and he was honoured with the Spirit of Metal award at the 2010 Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards ceremony. Lee died from complications of respiratory problems and heart failure on the morning of 7 June 2015, Lee was born in Belgravia, London, the son of Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Trollope Lee of the 60th Kings Royal Rifle Corps, and his wife, Countess Estelle Marie. Lees maternal great-grandfather was an Italian political refugee, whose wife and he had one sister, Xandra Carandini Lee. Lees parents separated when he was four and divorced two years later, during this time, his mother took him and his sister to Wengen in Switzerland. After enrolling in Miss Fishers Academy in Territet, he played his first role and they then returned to London, where Lee attended Wagners private school in Queens Gate, and his mother married Harcourt George St-Croix Rose, a banker and uncle of Ian Fleming. Fleming, author of the James Bond novels, thus became Lees step-cousin, the family moved to Fulham, living next door to the actor Eric Maturin. One night, he was introduced to Prince Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, the assassins of Grigori Rasputin, when Lee was nine, he was sent to Summer Fields School, a preparatory school in Oxford whose pupils often later attended Eton. He continued acting in plays, though the laurels deservedly went to Patrick Macnee. Lee applied for a scholarship to Eton, where his interview was in the presence of the ghost story author M. R. James, sixty years later, Lee played the part of James for the BBC. His poor maths skills meant that he placed eleventh, and thus missed out on being a Kings Scholar by one place and his step-father was not prepared to pay the higher fees that being an Oppidan Scholar meant, and so he did not attend. Instead, Lee attended Wellington College, where he won scholarships in the classics, studying Ancient Greek, aside from a tiny part in a school play, he didnt act while at Wellington. He was a passable racquets player and fencer and a competent cricketer but did not do well at the sports played, hockey, football, rugby. He disliked the parades and weapons training and would always play dead as soon as possible during mock battles. Lee was frequently beaten at school, including once at Wellington for being beaten too often, though he accepted them as logical, at age 17, and with one year left at Wellington, the summer term of 1939 was his last. His step-father had gone bankrupt, owing £25,000 and his mother separated from Rose, and Lee had to get a job, his sister already working as a secretary for the Church of England Pensions Board
9.
Claude Jade
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Claude Marcelle Jorré, better known as Claude Jade, was a French actress. She is known for starring as Christine in François Truffauts three films Stolen Kisses, Bed and Board and Love on the Run, Jade acted in theatre, film and television. Her film work outside France included the Soviet Union, the United States, Italy, the daughter of university professors, Jade spent three years at Dijons Conservatory of Dramatic Art. In 1964 she played on stage 40 times the part of Agnès in Molières Lécole des femmes, in 1966 she won the Prix de Comédie for Jean Giraudouxs stage play Ondine, performed at the Comédie Boulogne. She moved to Paris and became a student of Jean-Laurent Cochet at the Edouard VII theater, while performing as Frida in Pirandellos Henri IV, in a production by Sacha Pitoëff at the Théâtre Moderne, Jade was discovered by New Wave film director François Truffaut. He was completely taken by her beauty, her manners, her kindness, and her joie de vivre, during the filming, Truffaut fell in love with her, and there was talk of marriage. American critic Pauline Kael wrote that Jade seems a less ethereal, playing the same character, Jade appeared in two more movies by Truffaut, Bed and Board, and Love on the Run. Some months after Truffauts Stolen Kisses Claude Jade starred in Alfred Hitchcocks Topaz, as Michèle Picard, recommended to Hitchcock by Truffaut, she was 19 years old when cast, with Dany Robin playing her mother. Hitchcock said he chose the two actresses to provide glamor, and later quipped, Claude Jade is a quiet young lady. Jade recounted that they talked in a Paris hotel about cooking, and I gave him my recipe for soufflé and told him I liked Strangers on a Train, Hitchcock said she resembled his former star Grace Kelly, and in France she was a younger Danielle Darrieux. Some of her scenes were deleted and restored for the cut of Topaz in 1999. Topaz was Jades only Hollywood film, universal Pictures offered her a seven-year contract, which she turned down reportedly because she preferred to work in French. Director Tony Richardsons film Nijinsky, based on a screenplay by Edward Albee, was canceled during pre-production by producer Harry Saltzman and it was to have starred Jade as Vaslav Nijinskys wife, alongside Rudolf Nureyev as Nijinsky and Paul Scofield as his lover Sergei Diaghilev. She had a role as Linda in Sous le signe de Monte-Cristo by André Hunebelle. Here the 19 years young actress starred alongside French cinemas veterans like Pierre Brasseur, Jade starred in Édouard Molinaros My Uncle Benjamin alongside Jacques Brel. As Manette she refuses Brels advances until he produces a marriage contract, at the End Manette realizes she prefers happiness to a marriage contract after all. Her career continued in Belgium, where she played a young English teacher who is intrigued by a murderer in the 1969 film The Witness. Her fiancé is this movie was played by Jean-Claude Dauphin, to whom she was engaged at this time, also in 1969 she starred as Helena in a film adaptation of Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream by Jean-Christophe Averty, Le Songe dune nuit dété
10.
La Cage aux Folles (film)
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La Cage aux Folles is a 1978 Franco-Italian comedy film and the first film adaptation of Jean Poirets 1973 play of the same name. It is co-written and directed by Édouard Molinaro and stars Ugo Tognazzi, foreign film released in the United States of America. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 100% rating based on 18 reviews, with an average rating of 7. 8/10. The film was followed by two sequels, La Cage aux Folles II, also directed by Molinaro, and La Cage aux folles 3 - Elles se marient, a 1983 Broadway musical of the same name based on the play and the film was also successful. In 1996, an American remake titled The Birdcage, directed by Mike Nichols and written by Elaine May, was released, relocated to South Beach, Miami, and stars Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. La Cage aux Folles caught the attention of television producer Danny Arnold and his planned title was Adam and Yves, a play on both Adam and Eve and a slogan used by some anti-gay groups. After months in development, Arnold realized that the concept was unsustainable as a weekly series, the Prime Time Closet, A History of Gays and Lesbians on TV. La Cage aux Folles at the Internet Movie Database La Cage aux Folles at Box Office Mojo La Cage aux Folles at Rotten Tomatoes
