1.
Robert Altman
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Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He is consistently ranked as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in American cinema and his style of filmmaking was unique among directors, in that his subjects covered most genres, but with a subversive twist that typically relies on satire and humor to express his personal vision. Altman developed a reputation for being anti-Hollywood and non-conformist in both his themes and directing style, however, actors especially enjoyed working under his direction because he encouraged them to improvise, thereby inspiring their own creativity. He preferred large ensemble casts for his films, and developed a recording technique which produced overlapping dialogue from multiple actors. This produced a natural, more dynamic, and more complex experience for the viewer. He also used highly mobile camera work and zoom lenses to enhance the activity taking place on the screen, critic Pauline Kael, writing about his directing style, said that Altman could make film fireworks out of next to nothing. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized Altmans body of work with an Academy Honorary Award and he never won a competitive Oscar despite five nominations. His films MASH, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and Nashville have been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Altman is one of the few filmmakers whose films have won the Golden Bear at Berlin, the Golden Lion at Venice, and the Golden Palm at Cannes. Altmans ancestry was German, English and Irish, his grandfather, Frank Altman. Altman had a Catholic upbringing, but he did not continue to follow or practice the religion as an adult, although he has referred to as a sort of Catholic. He was educated at Jesuit schools, including Rockhurst High School and he graduated from Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Missouri in 1943. In 1943 Altman joined the United States Army Air Forces at the age of 18, during World War II, Altman flew more than 50 bombing missions as a crewman on a B-24 Liberator with the 307th Bomb Group in Borneo and the Dutch East Indies. Upon his discharge in 1946, Altman moved to California and he worked in publicity for a company that had invented a tattooing machine to identify dogs. He entered filmmaking on a whim, selling a script to RKO for the 1948 picture Bodyguard, Altmans immediate success encouraged him to move to New York City, where he attempted to forge a career as a writer. Having enjoyed little success, in 1949 he returned to Kansas City, in February 2012, an early Calvin film directed by Altman, Modern Football, was found by filmmaker Gary Huggins. Altman directed some 65 industrial films and documentaries before being hired by a businessman in 1956 to write. The film, titled The Delinquents, made for $60,000, was purchased by United Artists for $150,000, while primitive, this teen exploitation film contained the foundations of Altmans later work in its use of casual, naturalistic dialogue
2.
Film noir
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Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly such that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywoods classical film noir period is regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression. Cinema historians and critics defined the category retrospectively, before the notion was widely adopted in the 1970s, many of the classic films noir were referred to as melodramas. Whether film noir qualifies as a genre is a matter of ongoing debate among scholars. Although film noir was originally associated with American productions, films now so described have been made around the world, many pictures released from the 1960s onward share attributes with film noir of the classical period, and often treat its conventions self-referentially. Some refer to such works as neo-noir. The clichés of film noir have inspired parody since the mid-1940s, the questions of what defines film noir, and what sort of category it is, provoke continuing debate. They emphasize that not every film noir embodies all five attributes in equal measure—one might be more dreamlike, another, while many critics refer to film noir as a genre itself, others argue that it can be no such thing. Because of the diversity of noir, certain scholars in the field, such as film historian Thomas Schatz, treat it as not a genre but a style. Other critics treat film noir as a mood, characterize it as a series, there is no consensus on the matter. By 1931, Curtiz had already been in Hollywood for half a decade, the Universal horror that comes closest to noir, in story and sensibility is The Invisible Man, directed by Englishman James Whale and photographed by American Arthur Edeson. Edeson later photographed The Maltese Falcon, widely regarded as the first major film noir of the classic era, josef von Sternberg was directing in Hollywood at the same time. Films of his such as Shanghai Express and The Devil Is a Woman, with their hothouse eroticism and baroque visual style, the commercial and critical success of Sternbergs silent Underworld was largely responsible for spurring a trend of Hollywood gangster films. Successful films in that such as Little Caesar, The Public Enemy. An important, possibly influential, cinematic antecedent to classic noir was 1930s French poetic realism, with its romantic, fatalistic attitude, the movements sensibility is mirrored in the Warner Bros. drama I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, a forerunner of noir. Among films not considered films noir, perhaps none had an effect on the development of the genre than Citizen Kane
3.
The Guardian
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The Guardian is a British daily newspaper, known from 1821 until 1959 as the Manchester Guardian. Along with its sister papers The Observer and The Guardian Weekly, The Guardian is part of the Guardian Media Group, the Scott Trust became a limited company in 2008, with a constitution to maintain the same protections for The Guardian. Profits are reinvested in journalism rather than to the benefit of an owner or shareholders, the Guardian is edited by Katharine Viner, who succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. In 2016, The Guardians print edition had a daily circulation of roughly 162,000 copies in the country, behind The Daily Telegraph. The newspaper has an online UK edition as well as two international websites, Guardian Australia and Guardian US, the newspapers online edition was the fifth most widely read in the world in October 2014, with over 42.6 million readers. Its combined print and online editions reach nearly 9 million British readers, notable scoops include the 2011 News International phone hacking scandal, in particular the hacking of murdered English teenager Milly Dowlers phone. The investigation led to the closure of the UKs biggest selling Sunday newspaper, and one of the highest circulation newspapers in the world, in 2016, it led the investigation into the Panama Papers, exposing the then British Prime Minister David Camerons links to offshore bank accounts. The Guardian has been named Newspaper of the Year four times at the annual British Press Awards, the paper is still occasionally referred to by its nickname of The Grauniad, given originally for the purported frequency of its typographical errors. The Manchester Guardian was founded in Manchester in 1821 by cotton merchant John Edward Taylor with backing from the Little Circle and they launched their paper after the police closure of the more radical Manchester Observer, a paper that had championed the cause of the Peterloo Massacre protesters. They do not toil, neither do they spin, but they better than those that do. When the government closed down the Manchester Observer, the champions had the upper hand. The influential journalist Jeremiah Garnett joined Taylor during the establishment of the paper, the prospectus announcing the new publication proclaimed that it would zealously enforce the principles of civil and religious Liberty. Warmly advocate the cause of Reform, endeavour to assist in the diffusion of just principles of Political Economy and. Support, without reference to the party from which they emanate, in 1825 the paper merged with the British Volunteer and was known as The Manchester Guardian and British Volunteer until 1828. The working-class Manchester and Salford Advertiser called the Manchester Guardian the foul prostitute, the Manchester Guardian was generally hostile to labours claims. The Manchester Guardian dismissed strikes as the work of outside agitators –, if an accommodation can be effected, the occupation of the agents of the Union is gone. CP Scott made the newspaper nationally recognised and he was editor for 57 years from 1872, and became its owner when he bought the paper from the estate of Taylors son in 1907. Under Scott, the moderate editorial line became more radical, supporting William Gladstone when the Liberals split in 1886
4.
YouTube
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YouTube is an American video-sharing website headquartered in San Bruno, California. The service was created by three former PayPal employees—Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim—in February 2005, Google bought the site in November 2006 for US$1.65 billion, YouTube now operates as one of Googles subsidiaries. Unregistered users can watch videos on the site, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos. Videos deemed potentially offensive are available only to registered users affirming themselves to be at least 18 years old, YouTube earns advertising revenue from Google AdSense, a program which targets ads according to site content and audience. YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, Hurley had studied design at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and Chen and Karim studied computer science together at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Karim could not easily find video clips of either event online, Hurley and Chen said that the original idea for YouTube was a video version of an online dating service, and had been influenced by the website Hot or Not. YouTube began as a venture capital-funded technology startup, primarily from an $11.5 million investment by Sequoia Capital between November 2005 and April 2006, YouTubes early headquarters were situated above a pizzeria and Japanese restaurant in San Mateo, California. The domain name www. youtube. com was activated on February 14,2005, the first YouTube video, titled Me at the zoo, shows co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo. The video was uploaded on April 23,2005, and can still be viewed on the site, YouTube offered the public a beta test of the site in May 2005. The first video to reach one million views was a Nike advertisement featuring Ronaldinho in November 2005. Following a $3.5 million investment from Sequoia Capital in November, the site grew rapidly, and in July 2006 the company announced that more than 65,000 new videos were being uploaded every day, and that the site was receiving 100 million video views per day. The site has 800 million unique users a month and it is estimated that in 2007 YouTube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet in 2000. The choice of the name www. youtube. com led to problems for a similarly named website, the sites owner, Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment, filed a lawsuit against YouTube in November 2006 after being regularly overloaded by people looking for YouTube. Universal Tube has since changed the name of its website to www. utubeonline. com, in October 2006, Google Inc. announced that it had acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in Google stock, and the deal was finalized on November 13,2006. In March 2010, YouTube began free streaming of certain content, according to YouTube, this was the first worldwide free online broadcast of a major sporting event. On March 31,2010, the YouTube website launched a new design, with the aim of simplifying the interface, Google product manager Shiva Rajaraman commented, We really felt like we needed to step back and remove the clutter. In May 2010, YouTube videos were watched more than two times per day. This increased to three billion in May 2011, and four billion in January 2012, in February 2017, one billion hours of YouTube was watched every day
5.
Tora! Tora! Tora!
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Tora. is a 1970 Japanese-American historical war film that dramatizes the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The title is the Japanese codeword used to indicate that complete surprise had been achieved, in August 1939, a trade embargo imposed by the United States is depriving a belligerent Japan of raw materials. Influential army figures and politicians push through an alliance with Germany and Italy in September 1940, the newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto reluctantly orders the planning of a preemptive strike on the U. S. Pacific Fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor, believing that Japans best hope of achieving control of the Pacific Ocean is to annihilate the fleet at the outset of hostilities. Air Staff Officer Minoru Genda is chosen to mastermind the operation while his old Naval Academy classmate Mitsuo Fuchida is selected to lead the attack, monitoring the transmissions are U. S. Army Col. Bratton and U. S. Navy Lt. Commander Kramer. Short recommends parking all aircraft at the base on the runways, several months pass with diplomatic tensions continuing to escalate between the U. S. and Japan. As the Japanese ambassador continues negotiations to stall for time, the Japanese fleet sorties into the Pacific, at dawn on December 7, the Japanese fleet launches its aircraft. As a result, the Japanese achieve complete surprise and a joyous commander Fuchida, riding in a Nakajima B5N Kate, sends the code to begin the attack, meeting no opposition, the Japanese planes savage Pearl Harbor with a series of attacks. The damage to the base is catastrophic with the Americans suffering severe casualties. Seven battleships are sunk or heavily damaged. Hours after the attack is over, General Short and Admiral Kimmel finally receive Marshalls telegram warning of impending danger, in Washington, the Secretary of State Cordell Hull is stunned on learning of the attack and urgently requests confirmation before receiving the Japanese ambassador. The message that was transmitted to the Japanese embassy in 14 parts – a declaration of war – was meant to be delivered to the Americans at 1,00 pm,30 minutes before the attack. However, it was not decoded and transcribed in time, with the result that the attack took place while the two nations were still at peace. The distraught Japanese ambassador, helpless to explain the late ultimatum, noting that nothing would infuriate the Americans more he concludes, I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve. The film was deliberately cast with actors who were not true box-office stars, the original cast list had included many Japanese amateurs. Despite a breakthrough in intelligence, they had received limited warning of the risk of aerial attack. Recognizing that a balanced and objective recounting was necessary, Zanuck developed an American-Japanese co-production and he was helped out by his son, Richard D. Zanuck, who was chief executive at Fox during this time. Tora. took three years to plan and prepare for the eight months of principal photography, the film was created in two separate productions, one based in the United States, directed by Richard Fleischer, and one based in Japan
6.
Crime
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In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term crime does not, in criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition. The most popular view is that crime is a created by law, in other words, something is a crime if declared as such by the relevant. One proposed definition is that a crime or offence is an act not only to some individual. Such acts are forbidden and punishable by law, the notion that acts such as murder, rape and theft are to be prohibited exists worldwide. What precisely is an offence is defined by criminal law of each country. While many have a catalogue of crimes called the criminal code, the state has the power to severely restrict ones liberty for committing a crime. In modern societies, there are procedures to which investigations and trials must adhere, usually, to be classified as a crime, the act of doing something criminal must – with certain exceptions – be accompanied by the intention to do something criminal. While every crime violates the law, not every violation of the law counts as a crime, breaches of private law are not automatically punished by the state, but can be enforced through civil procedure. With institutional and legal machinery at their disposal, agents of the State can compel populations to conform to codes, authorities employ various mechanisms to regulate certain behaviors in general. In addition, authorities provide remedies and sanctions, and collectively these constitute a criminal justice system, Legal sanctions vary widely in their severity, they may include incarceration of temporary character aimed at reforming the convict. Some jurisdictions have penal codes written to inflict permanent harsh punishments, legal mutilation, usually a natural person perpetrates a crime, but legal persons may also commit crimes. Conversely, at least under U. S. law, nonpersons such as animals cannot commit crimes, the sociologist Richard Quinney has written about the relationship between society and crime. When Quinney states crime is a phenomenon he envisages both how individuals conceive crime and how populations perceive it, based on societal norms. The word crime is derived from the Latin root cernō, meaning I decide, originally the Latin word crīmen meant charge or cry of distress. The Ancient Greek word krima, from which the Latin cognate derives, typically referred to a mistake or an offense against the community. In 13th century English crime meant sinfulness, according to etymonline. com and it was probably brought to England as Old French crimne, from Latin crimen. In Latin, crimen could have signified any one of the following, charge, indictment, accusation, crime, fault, the word may derive from the Latin cernere – to decide, to sift
7.
The Vikings (1958 film)
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The Vikings is a 1958 historical fiction swashbuckling film directed by Richard Fleischer and filmed in Technicolor. It was produced by and stars Kirk Douglas and it is based on the novel The Viking by Edison Marshall, which in turn is based on material from the sagas of Ragnar Lodbrok and his sons. Other starring roles were taken by Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, the film made notable use of natural locations in Norway. The King of Northumbria is killed during a Viking raid led by the fearsome Ragnar, because the king had died childless, his cousin Aella takes the throne. By a twist of fate, the ship is intercepted by the Vikings, who are unaware of the childs kinship, the boy grows into a young man named Erik. His parentage is finally discovered by Lord Egbert, a Northumbrian nobleman opposed to Aella, when Aella accuses him of treason, Egbert finds sanctuary with Ragnar in Norway. Egbert recognises the Northumbrian royal swords pommel stone on an amulet around Eriks neck, placed there by Eriks mother when he was a child, but tells no one. Erik incurs the wrath of his half-brother Einar, Ragnars legitimate son and heir, after the former orders his falcon to attack Einar, Erik is saved from immediate execution when the royal Court Völva Kitala warns that Odin will curse whoever kills him. Lord Egbert then claims him as his property to protect his rights, before Einar keenly aware of the weather shift can return. Egbert hopes to find an opportunity to take advantage of Eriks unknown claim to the Northumbrian kingdom. During a drunken feast in the hall, Einar confesses his feelings to Ragnar. Before things can go any further, Erik grabs Einar from behind and knocks him out easily as he was very drunk, Erik and Morgana flee to England, along with Sandpiper, Kitala and Morganas maid Bridget. Einar regains consciousness and gives the alarm, and several pursuing longships quickly gain on the fugitives. In thick fog, Ragnars longship hits a rock and sinks, while Eriks boat is guided safely by a primitive compass, Einar, in another longship, believes Ragnar to be dead and grudgingly abandons the chase. Ragnar, however, is rescued by Erik and taken prisoner to Aella, Erik and Morgana become lovers during the trip, and she agrees to seek release from her pledge to marry Aella. Aella orders the Viking leader bound and thrown into a pit filled with starved wolves, to give Ragnar a Vikings death, Erik, who is granted the honour of forcing him into the pit, cuts the prisoners bonds and gives him his sword. Laughing, Ragnar jumps to his death, in response to Eriks treason, Aella cuts off his left hand, puts him back on his ship and casts him adrift. Erik returns to Einars settlement, and tells his half-brother how his father died, with this revelation, and the promise that Erik will guide their ships through the fog, Einar is finally able to persuade the other Vikings to mount an invasion of Northumbria
8.
Turner Classic Movies
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Turner Classic Movies is an American movie-oriented basic cable and satellite television network owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner. TCM is headquartered at the Techwood Campus in Atlanta, Georgias Midtown business district, historically, the channels programming consisted mainly of featured classic theatrically released feature films from the Turner Entertainment film library – which comprises films from Warner Bros. However, TCM now has licensing deals with other Hollywood film studios as well as its Time Warner sister company, Warner Bros. and occasionally shows more recent films. The channel is available in United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Latin America, France, Spain, Nordic countries, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific. In 1986, eight years before the launch of Turner Classic Movies, concerns over Turner Entertainments corporate debt load resulted in Turner selling the studio that October back to Kirk Kerkorian, from whom Turner had purchased the studio less than a year before. As part of the deal, Turner Entertainment retained ownership of MGMs library of films released up to May 9,1986, Turner Broadcasting System was split into two companies, Turner Broadcasting System and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and reincorporated as MGM/UA Communications Co. The film library of Turner Entertainment would serve as the form of programming for TCM upon the networks launch. After the library was acquired, MGM/UA signed a deal with Turner to continue distributing the pre-May 1986 MGM and to begin distributing the pre-1950 Warner Bros. film libraries for video release. Turner Classic Movies debuted on April 14,1994, at 6,00 p. m. Eastern Time, the date and time were chosen for their historical significance as the exact centennial anniversary of the first public movie showing in New York City. The first movie broadcast on TCM was the 1939 film Gone with the Wind, at the time of its launch, TCM was available to approximately one million cable television subscribers. AMC had broadened its content to feature colorized and more recent films by 2002. In the early 90s AMC abandoned its format, leaving TCM as the only movie-oriented cable channel to devote its programming entirely to classic films without commercial interruption. In 1996, Turner Broadcasting System merged with Time Warner, which besides placing Turner Classic Movies, in March 1999, MGM paid Warner Bros. and gave up the home video rights to the MGM/UA films owned by Turner to Warner Home Video. In 2008, TCM won a Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting, in April 2010, Turner Classic Movies held the first TCM Classic Film Festival, an event – now held annually – at the Graumans Chinese Theater and the Graumans Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. In 2007, some of the films featured on TCM were made available for streaming on TCMs website. The networks programming season runs from February until the following March of each year when a retrospective of Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated movies is shown, called 31 Days of Oscar. Turner Classic Movies presents many of its features in their original aspect ratio whenever possible – widescreen films broadcast on TCM are letterboxed on the standard definition feed. TCM also regularly presents widescreen presentations of films not available in the format on any video release
9.
Lawrence Tierney
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Lawrence James Tierney was an American actor known for his many screen portrayals of mobsters and tough guys, roles that mirrored his own frequent brushes with the law. In 2005, New York Times critic David Kehr observed that the hulking Tierney was not so much an actor as a force of nature. Tierney was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Mary Alice and Lawrence Hugh Tierney and his father was an Irish American policeman. Tierney was an athlete at Boys High School, winning awards for track and field. He earned a scholarship to Manhattan College but quit after two years to work as a laborer on the New York Aqueduct. He bounced around the country from job to job, working for a time as a model for Sears Roebuck & Co. After an acting coach suggested he try the stage, Tierney joined the Black Friars theatre group and he was spotted there in 1943 by an RKO talent scout and given a film contract. Early in his career, Tierney appeared in supporting roles in B movies, including The Ghost Ship, The Falcon Out West, Youth Runs Wild and his breakthrough was starring as famous 1930s bank robber John Dillinger in 1945’s Dillinger. Advertised as a written in bullets, blood, and blondes, Dillinger was initially banned in Chicago. A low-budget film costing just $60,000 to make, Dillinger nevertheless proved popular, RKO assigned him other tough-guy roles, including Jesse James in Badmans Territory, a reformed prison inmate in San Quentin, and an ex-Marine falsely accused of murder in Step by Step. The New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther condemned Born to Kill as not only morally disgusting but an offense to a normal intellect. He decried Tierney as the bold, bad killer whose ambition is to ‘fix it so’s I can spit in anybodys eye, more recent critics and scholars have viewed the film as a significant film noir and excellent example of RKO’s approach to the genre. He received fourth billing in Joseph Pevney’s Shakedown, and had a supporting role reprising Jesse James in Best of the Badmen, a turn as the villain who caused a train wreck in Cecil B. As film offers dried up, Tierney returned to the stage, playing Duke Mantee in a version of The Petrified Forest alongside Franchot Tone. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he appeared in bit parts in movies as a result of fallout from continued brushes with the law. He continued to get arrested and land in jail for drunk and disorderly and/or assault. Among his film roles was a part in John Cassavetes A Child is Waiting. He made television appearances in shows as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
