Bernardo Bertolucci was an Italian director and screenwriter, whose films include The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, 1900, The Last Emperor, The Sheltering Sky, Little Buddha, Stealing Beauty and The Dreamers. In recognition of his work, he was presented with the inaugural Honorary Palme d'Or Award at the opening ceremony of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. From 1979 until his death in 2018, he was married to screenwriter Clare Peploe. Bertolucci was born in the region of Emilia-Romagna, he was the elder son of Ninetta, a teacher, Attilio Bertolucci, a poet, a reputed art historian and film critic. His mother was born to an Italian father and an Irish mother. Having been raised in an artistic environment, Bertolucci began writing at the age of fifteen, soon after received several prestigious literary prizes including the Premio Viareggio for his first book, his father's background helped his career: the elder Bertolucci had helped the Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini publish his first novel, Pasolini reciprocated by hiring Bertolucci as first assistant in Rome on Accattone.

Bertolucci had the theatre director and playwright Giuseppe. His cousin was the film producer Giovanni Bertolucci, with. Bertolucci wished to become a poet like his father. With this goal in mind, he attended the Faculty of Modern Literature of the University of Rome from 1958 to 1961, where his film career as an assistant director to Pasolini began. Shortly after, Bertolucci left the University without graduating. In 1962, at the age of 22, he directed his first feature film, produced by Tonino Cervi with a screenplay by Pasolini, called La commare secca; the film is a murder mystery, following a prostitute's homicide. Bertolucci uses flashbacks to piece together the person who committed it; the film which shortly followed was his acclaimed Before the Revolution. The boom of Italian cinema, which gave Bertolucci his start, slowed in the 1970s as directors were forced to co-produce their films with several of the American, Swedish and German companies and actors due to the effects of the global economic recession on the Italian film industry.

Bertolucci caused controversy in 1972 with the film Last Tango in Paris, starring Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider, Jean-Pierre Léaud and Massimo Girotti. The film presents Brando's character, Paul, as he copes with his wife's suicide by and physically dominating a young woman, Jeane; the depictions of Schneider 19 years old, were regarded as exploitative. In one scene, Paul anally rapes Jeane using butter as a lubricant; the use of butter was not in the script. She said in 2007 that she had cried "real tears" during the scene and had felt humiliated and "a little raped". In 2013 Bertolucci said that he had withheld the information from Schneider to generate a real "reaction of frustration and rage". Brando alleged that Bertolucci had wanted the characters to have real sex, but Brando and Schneider both said it was simulated. In 2016 Bertolucci released a statement where he clarified that Schneider had known of the violence to be depicted in the scene, but had not been told about the use of butter.

Following the scandal surrounding the film's release, Schneider became suicidal. She became a women's rights advocate, in particular fighting for more female film directors, more respect for female actors and better representation of women in film and media. Criminal proceedings were brought against Bertolucci in Italy for the rape scene. An Italian court revoked Bertolucci's civil rights for five years and gave him a four-month suspended prison sentence. In 1978 the Appeals Court of Bologna ordered three copies of the film to be preserved in the national film library with the stipulation that they could not be viewed, until Bertolucci was able to re-submit it for general distribution with no cuts. Bertolucci increased his fame with his next few films, from 1900, an epic depiction of the struggles of farmers in Emilia-Romagna from the beginning of the 20th century up to World War II with an international cast to La Luna, set in Rome and in Emilia-Romagna, in which Bertolucci deals with the thorny issue of drugs and incest, La tragedia di un uomo ridicolo, with Ugo Tognazzi.

He wrote two screenplays based on Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest. He hoped this would be his first film set in America. In 1987, Bertolucci directed the epic The Last Emperor, a biographical film telling the life story of Aisin-Gioro Puyi, the last Emperor of China; the film was independently produced by British producer Jeremy Thomas, with whom Bertolucci worked exclusively from on. The film was three years in the making. Bertolucci, who co-wrote the film with Mark Peploe, won the Academy Award for Best Director; the film uses Puyi's life as a mirror that reflects China's passage from feudalism through revolution to its current state. At the 60th Academy Awards, The Last Emperor won all nine Oscars for which it was nominated: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, Best Cinematography, Best Film

Libellula depressa, the broad-bodied chaser or broad-bodied darter, is one of the most common dragonflies in Europe and central Asia. It is distinctive with a broad flattened abdomen, four wing patches and, in the male, the abdomen becomes pruinose blue; the male and female have a broad, flattened abdomen, brown with yellow patches down the sides. In the male the abdomen develops a blue pruinosity. Both fore and hind wings have a dark patch at the base. Both the male and female have broad antehumeral stripes; the average wingspan is 70 mm. L. depressa is distinctive and should not be confused with any other dragonflies in the region. L. depressa is found in southern Europe, central Asia and the Middle East. It range extends northwards to southern Scotland, southern Sweden and southern Finland and it occurs on some Mediterranean islands including Corsica, Sardinia and Menorca, its range does not extend beyond southern Europe into Africa. L. depressa is seen near still-water ponds, feeding on many types of small insects.

They occur in both bare and sunny locations, where it is the first dragonfly to colonise new habitats such as newly created ponds, well vegetated ponds. L. depressa are seen away from water as the adults are mobile and undergo a period of maturation away from water after emergence. The adults are migratory; the flight period is from April to September but are seen in May and June. Their flight is fast as they dart and dive above the water, they are territorial and will fight with rival males and any other dragonflies they happen to encounter. They characteristically return in the sun; when a female enters a male's territory the male will grab the female. Mating occurs on the wing and the pair are in tandem for only a brief period less than a minute; the pair separate and the female will find a suitable location for ovipositing a stretch of open water with submerged vegetation. The female oviposits in flight, dipping the tip of her abdomen in; the eggs hatch in 4 or 5 weeks and the larvae take one to two years to develop.

The larvae live in the silt and detritus at the bottom of the pond, lying buried in mud with just the head and eyes showing. After emergence the adults move away from water and undergo a period of maturation which lasts 10 to 14 days; this species is placed in the genus Libellula but there is some evidence, based on RNA and DNA analysis, that this species should be placed within the genus Ladona. This change is not yet accepted and books and field guides list this species as Libellula Libellula Libellulidae List of British dragonflies "Broad-bodied Chaser". British Dragonfly Society. Thomas Artiss. "Molecular phylogenetic analysis of the dragonfly genera Libellula and Plathemis based on mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I and 16S rRNA sequence data". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 18: 348–361. Doi:10.1006/mpev.2000.0867. PMID 11277629. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Askew, R. R; the Dragonflies of Europe. Harley Books. ISBN 0-946589-75-5 Boudot J. P. et al. Atlas of the Odonata of the Mediterranean and North Africa.

Libellula Supplement 9:1–256. D'Aguilar, J. Dommanget, J. L. and Prechac, R. A field guide to the Dragonflies of Britain and North Africa. Collins. Pp336. ISBN 0-00-219436-8 Dijkstra, K.-D. B & Lewington, R. Field Guide to the Dragonflies of Britain and Europe. British Wildlife Publishing. ISBN 0-9531399-4-8

The British Rail Class 48 was a diesel locomotive class which consisted of five examples, built at Brush Falcon Works in Loughborough and delivered between September 1965 and July 1966. They were part of the British Rail Class 47 order, but differed from their classmates by being fitted with a Sulzer V12 12LVA24 power unit producing 2,650 bhp, as opposed to the standard 12LDA28C twin-bank twelve-cylinder unit of the remaining fleet; the locomotives, numbered in the D1702-D1706 series worked from Tinsley depot in Sheffield, on both passenger and freight work. In 1969, they moved to Norwich depot where they worked on express trains between there and London Liverpool Street; the 12LVA24 engine, was found to be unreliable, the locomotives spent more time out of service than their standard counterparts. Engine failures were common, repairs expensive After conversion to class 47 they moved to Stratford depot, in East London, until they were displaced by examples fitted with electric train heating equipment.

Subsequently, the batch went their separate ways, to several depots. It was decided not to continue with the 12LVA24 experiment, it was decided to remove the engines and fit the standard 12LDA28 engines to the locomotives. D1702 was the first to be so treated at Crewe Works, using parts from D1908, withdrawn after a serious accident, it emerged in December 1969. All five locomotives had been so converted by early 1971, became standard Class 47s; the power units were used in their Class A1AA1A 68000 locomotives. The locomotives continued in service for many years afterwards, were renumbered 47 114-47 118 to conform with British Rail's TOPS system in the early 1970s. Four of the locomotives were withdrawn from service between December 1990 and January 1991. However, there was to be a further lease of life for 47 117 when it was bought for preservation by rail enthusiast and pop music producer Pete Waterman, it works on the private Great Central Railway. There it has been restored to BR two tone green livery with its pre-TOPS number D1705, though of course it retains its Class 47 engine.

It has been named Sparrowhawk in the tradition of Brush Works policy of naming locomotives after birds of prey, though it never carried this name in service. The other four locomotives have since been scrapped. Toms, George. Brush Diesel Locomotives, 1940-78. Sheffield: Turntable Publications. ISBN 978-0902844483. OCLC 11213057. A photograph of D1705 as a Class 48 in 1969