1.
Dallas
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Dallas is a major city in the U. S. state of Texas. It is the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the citys population ranks ninth in the U. S. and third in Texas after Houston and San Antonio. The citys prominence arose from its importance as a center for the oil and cotton industries. The bulk of the city is in Dallas County, of which it is the county seat, however, sections of the city are located in Collin, Denton, Kaufman, and Rockwall counties. According to the 2010 United States Census, the city had a population of 1,197,816, the United States Census Bureaus estimate for the citys population increased to 1,300,092 as of July 1,2015. In 2016 DFW ascended to the one spot in the nation in year-over-year population growth. In 2014, the metropolitan economy surpassed Washington, D. C. to become the fifth largest in the U. S. with a 2014 real GDP over $504 billion, as such, the metropolitan areas economy is the 10th largest in the world. As of January 2017, the job count has increased to 3,558,200 jobs. The citys economy is based on banking, commerce, telecommunications, technology, energy, healthcare and medical research. The city is home to the third-largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the nation. Located in North Texas, Dallas is the core of the largest metropolitan area in the South. Dallas and nearby Fort Worth were developed due to the construction of railroad lines through the area allowing access to cotton, cattle. Later, France also claimed the area but never established much settlement, the area remained under Spanish rule until 1821, when Mexico declared independence from Spain, and the area was considered part of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas. In 1836, the Republic of Texas, with majority Anglo-American settlers, in 1839, Warren Angus Ferris surveyed the area around present-day Dallas. John Neely Bryan established a permanent settlement near the Trinity River named Dallas in 1841, the origin of the name is uncertain. The Republic of Texas was annexed by the United States in 1845, Dallas was formally incorporated as a city on February 2,1856. With construction of railroads, Dallas became a business and trading center and it became an industrial city, attracting workers from Texas, the South and the Midwest. The Praetorian Building of 15 stories, built in 1909, was the first skyscraper west of the Mississippi and it marked the prominence of Dallas as a city
2.
Texas
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Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Other major cities include Austin, the second most populous state capital in the U. S. Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State to signify its former status as an independent republic, and as a reminder of the states struggle for independence from Mexico. The Lone Star can be found on the Texan state flag, the origin of Texass name is from the word Tejas, which means friends in the Caddo language. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, although Texas is popularly associated with the U. S. southwestern deserts, less than 10 percent of Texas land area is desert. Most of the centers are located in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, the term six flags over Texas refers to several nations that have ruled over the territory. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas, Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the United States as the 28th state, the states annexation set off a chain of events that caused the Mexican–American War in 1846. A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U. S. in early 1861, after the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. One Texan industry that thrived after the Civil War was cattle, due to its long history as a center of the industry, Texas is associated with the image of the cowboy. The states economic fortunes changed in the early 20th century, when oil discoveries initiated a boom in the state. With strong investments in universities, Texas developed a diversified economy, as of 2010 it shares the top of the list of the most Fortune 500 companies with California at 57. With a growing base of industry, the leads in many industries, including agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, computers and electronics, aerospace. Texas has led the nation in export revenue since 2002 and has the second-highest gross state product. The name Texas, based on the Caddo word tejas meaning friends or allies, was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves, during Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas, La Provincia de Texas. Texas is the second largest U. S. state, behind Alaska, though 10 percent larger than France and almost twice as large as Germany or Japan, it ranks only 27th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size. If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 40th largest behind Chile, Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America. Three of its borders are defined by rivers, the Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south
3.
Birdman (film)
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Birdman or, commonly known simply as Birdman, is a 2014 American black comedy film directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. It was written by Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jr. the film stars Michael Keaton with a supporting cast of Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Emma Stone, and Naomi Watts. The story follows Riggan Thomson, a faded Hollywood actor best known for playing the superhero Birdman, as he struggles to mount a Broadway adaptation of a short story by Raymond Carver. The film covers the period of previews leading to the opening, and with a brief exception appears as if filmed in a single shot. The film was shot in New York City during the spring of 2013 with a budget of $16.5 million jointly financed by Fox Searchlight Pictures, New Regency Pictures and it premiered the following year in August where it opened the 71st Venice International Film Festival. Birdman had a theatrical release in the United States on October 17,2014, followed by a wide release on November 14. It also won Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture at the 21st Screen Actors Guild Awards, as well as Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for Keaton and Best Screenplay at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards. Riggan Thomson is a faded American actor who is famous for playing the superhero Birdman in a film trilogy 20 years ago and he is tormented by the mocking and critical internal voice of Birdman and is frequently shown performing feats of levitation and telekinesis. Riggan is trying to gain recognition as an actor for writing, directing. Jake, Riggans best friend and lawyer, is producing the play which co-stars Riggans girlfriend Laura, Riggans daughter Sam, a recovering drug addict whom he is trying to reconnect with, is working as his assistant. The day before the first preview, a light falls onto Riggans hopeless co-star Ralph. At Lesleys suggestion, Riggan replaces Ralph with her boyfriend, the brilliant, Riggan clashes continually with Mike and is incensed at influential theater critic Tabitha Dicksons praise for Mikes performance, but Jake persuades him to continue with the play. Riggan catches Sam using marijuana and berates her, she tells him he is expendable, during the final preview, Riggan goes for a cigarette and accidentally locks himself outside with his robe stuck in the fire escape door. He is forced to walk through Times Square in his underwear, a concerned Sam is waiting in his dressing room after the show. She thinks the performance was very weird but sort of cool and they talk about the show, him being a bad father and her rehab experience. She shows him that the Times Square footage is going viral, Riggan goes to a bar for a drink and approaches Tabitha, accusing her of not understanding theater and just being someone who crudely labels things. She tells him that she hates ignorant Hollywood celebrities who pretend to be serious actors, on the way back, Riggan buys a pint of whiskey, drinks it and passes out on a stoop. Riggan jumps off the roof and flies through the streets of Manhattan before arriving at the theater, on the opening night the play is going very well
4.
Michael Keaton
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Michael John Douglas, known professionally as Michael Keaton, is an American actor, producer, and director. In 2017, Keaton will play the role of Marvel Comics supervillian the Vulture in Spider-Man and he previously received a Golden Globe Award nomination for his performance in Live from Baghdad and a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for The Company. Keaton was awarded a Career Achievement Award from both the Hollywood Film Festival and Zurich Film Festivals, on January 18,2016, he was named Officer of Order of Arts and Letters in France. He is also a scholar at Carnegie Mellon University. Keaton, the youngest of seven children, was born in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania and his father, George A. Douglas, worked as a civil engineer and surveyor, and his mother, Leona Elizabeth, a homemaker, came from McKees Rocks. Keaton was raised in a Roman Catholic family and he is partly of Irish descent. He attended Montour High School in Pennsylvania, Keaton studied speech for two years at Kent State University, where he appeared in plays, before dropping out and returning to Pittsburgh. Keaton first appeared on TV in Pittsburgh public television programs, including Where the Heart Is and Mister Rogers Neighborhood and he also served as a full-time production assistant on the show. In 2004, following Fred Rogers death, Keaton hosted a PBS memorial tribute program, Fred Rogers, Keaton also worked as an actor in Pittsburgh theatre, he played the role of Rick in the Pittsburgh premiere of David Rabes Sticks and Bones with the Pittsburgh Poor Players. Keaton left Pittsburgh and moved to Los Angeles to begin auditioning for various TV parts and he popped up in various popular TV shows including Maude and The Mary Tyler Moore Hour. He decided to use a name to satisfy SAG rules, as there were already an actor. The claim that Keaton selected his new surname due to an attraction to actress Diane Keaton is incorrect and he chose Keaton because of an affinity for the physical comedy of Buster Keaton. Keatons film debut came in a small non-speaking role in Joan Rivers film Rabbit Test and his role as the fast-talking schemer Bill Blaze Blazejowski earned Keaton some critical acclaim, and he scored leads in the subsequent comedy hits Mr. Mom, Johnny Dangerously and Gung Ho. He played the character in Tim Burtons 1988 horror-comedy Beetlejuice, earned Keaton widespread acclaim. He originally turned down the role, then reconsidered like most of the cast and he now considers Beetlejuice his favorite of his own films. That same year, he gave an acclaimed dramatic performance as a drug-addicted businessman in Clean. Keatons career was another major boost when he was again cast by Tim Burton. Warner Bros. received thousands of letters of complaint by fans who believed Keaton was the choice to portray Batman
5.
Boyhood (film)
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Boyhood is a 2014 American coming-of-age drama film, written and directed by Richard Linklater, and starring Patricia Arquette, Ellar Coltrane, Lorelei Linklater, and Ethan Hawke. Filmed from 2002 to 2013, Boyhood depicts the childhood and adolescence of Mason Evans, Richard Linklaters daughter Lorelei plays Masons sister, Samantha. Production began in 2002 and finished in 2013, with Linklaters goal to make a film about growing up, the project began without a completed script, with only basic plot points and the ending written initially. Linklater developed the script throughout production, writing the next portion of the film after rewatching the previous years footage. Boyhood premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and was released theatrically on July 11,2014, the film also competed in the main competition section of the 64th Berlin International Film Festival, where Linklater won the Silver Bear for Best Director. The film was nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, winning Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director and it also was nominated for five BAFTA awards, winning for Best Director and Best Film. Additionally, it was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Hawke and Best Supporting Actress for Arquette, in 2002, six-year-old Mason Evans, Jr. and his older sister Samantha live with their single mother Olivia in Texas. Mason overhears Olivia arguing with her boyfriend, saying she has no time due to parenting. In 2003, Olivia moves the family to Houston, so she can attend the University of Houston, complete her degree, in 2004, Masons father, Mason Sr. visits Houston and takes the children bowling. He promises to spend time with them. When he drops the kids off at home, he argues with Olivia while Mason, Olivia takes Mason to one of her classes, introducing him to her professor, Bill Welbrock, Mason sees them flirt. By 2005, Olivia and Bill have married and blended their two families, including Bills children from a previous marriage and they share experiences such as playing video games and attending a midnight release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Mason and Samantha are enrolled in the school as their step-siblings, where Mason meets and befriends a girl named Nicole. In 2006, Mason and Samantha bond with their father Mason Sr. as he takes them out for a day in Houston, culminating in a Houston Astros game and a sleepover at his house with his roommate Jimmy. Olivia continues her education and is supportive of Bills strict parenting style, which includes many chores for the kids. In 2007, Bill becomes abusive as alcoholism takes over his life, after Bill assaults Olivia and endangers the kids, Olivia moves the family to a friends house and files for divorce. In 2008, Mason Sr. learns that Samantha has a boyfriend and talks to her and he and Mason go camping at Pedernales Falls State Park and bond over the music of Wilco, Star Wars, and Masons blossoming interest in girls. Mason and Samantha have grown into their new lives in San Marcos, in 2009, Mason is bullied by other students at school and teased on a camping trip but starts receiving attention from girls
6.
Patricia Arquette
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Patricia Arquette is an American actress. She made her debut in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3. Arquettes Academy Award acceptance speech, which she used to bring female wage inequality to attention, on television, she played the character Allison DuBois—based on the author and medium Allison DuBois, who claims to have psychic abilities—in the supernatural drama series Medium. She received three Golden Globe nominations and two Emmy Award nominations, winning the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama in 2005, Arquette also appeared in the CSI franchise as Avery Ryan, the Deputy Director of the FBI, starring in CSI, Cyber. Arquette was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1968, the daughter of Lewis Arquette, an actor, and Brenda Olivia Mardi, through her father, Patricia is distantly related to explorer Meriwether Lewis. Arquettes father had converted from Catholicism to Islam and her fathers familys surname was originally Arcouet, and his paternal line was of French-Canadian descent. Her paternal grandfather was comedian Cliff Arquette, patricias siblings also became actors, Rosanna, Alexis, Richmond, and David Arquette. When she was a child, her parents offered to get her braces for her teeth, for a time her family lived on a commune in rural Bentonville, Virginia. She has said they became poorer the longer lived there. Their father was an alcoholic, and their mother violently abusive, when Arquette was seven, the family relocated to Chicago. They later settled in Los Angeles, California and she has described her father as a working actor, describing the range of his experience–in industrial films, commercials, voiceovers, etc. He was best known for his role as J. D. Pickett in the TV series The Waltons, before pursuing a career in acting, Arquette had wanted to be a midwife. She put this career prospect aside briefly in an attempt to gain acting jobs and she was cast to appear in the sequel, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, The Dream Master, but she had to drop out due to pregnancy with her son Enzo. She also had to give up the role of Tralala in Last Exit to Brooklyn, in 1988, Arquette played the daughter of Tess Harper in Far North. In 1992, she won a CableACE Award for Best Lead Actress in a Mini-Series for her portrayal of a girl with epilepsy in Wildflower, directed by Diane Keaton. In her early career, Arquette received the most recognition for her role as Alabama Whitman, the film was a moderate success, although some critics were deterred by the graphic violence. In one scene, Arquette puts up a physical struggle in a fight which her character ultimately wins. Arquettes performance received unanimous praise from critics
7.
The Dallas Morning News
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The Dallas Morning News is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average of 271,900 daily subscribers. It was founded on October 1,1885, by Alfred Horatio Belo as a publication of the Galveston Daily News, of Galveston. Today it has one of the 20 largest paid circulations in the United States, the company has its headquarters in Downtown Dallas. The Dallas Morning News was founded in 1885 as a spin-off of the Galveston Daily News by Alfred Horatio Belo, in 1926, the Belo family sold a majority interest in the paper to its longtime publisher, George Dealey. In July 1986, the Times Herald was purchased by William Dean Singleton, after 18 months of efforts to turn the paper around, Singleton sold it to an associate. On 8 December 1991, Belo bought the Times Herald for $55 million, when Belos efforts to purchase the Herald failed, he sent George Bannerman Dealey to launch a new paper, the Morning News, which began publication on October 1,1885. From the outset the Morning News enjoyed the advantage of strong financial support and an accumulation of journalistic experience, and within a month. Historically, the Morning News has tilted conservative, mirroring Texas′ drift to the Republican Party, however, on September 7,2016 it endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, the first time it had endorsed a Democrat for president since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940. This came a day after it ran an editorial declaring Republican candidate Donald Trump not qualified to serve as president. It was the first time that the paper had refused to endorse a Republican since 1964, fresh Ink, Behind the Scenes of a Major Metropolitan Newspaper. Denton, Texas, University of North Texas Press, state of The American Newspaper, Giant. College Park, University of Maryland Foundation, official website Dallas Morning News from the Handbook of Texas Online Dallas Morning News Building Photos
8.
Reese Witherspoon
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Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon is an American actress, producer, and entrepreneur. Her leading role of Tracy Flick in Election was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, Witherspoons breakthrough role was playing Elle Woods in the 2001 film Legally Blonde, for which she received her second Golden Globe nomination. The following year, she starred in the romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama, which emerged as her biggest live-action commercial success. In 2005, she portrayed June Carter in Walk the Line, which earned her the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, BAFTA Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, and Critics Choice Award for Best Actress. Other notable films of hers include Legally Blonde 2, Red, White & Blonde, Monsters vs. Aliens, Water for Elephants, in 2017, she produced and starred in the HBO drama series Big Little Lies. Witherspoon owns a company, Pacific Standard, and she is actively involved in childrens and womens advocacy organizations. She serves on the board of the Childrens Defense Fund and was named Global Ambassador of Avon Products in 2007 and she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010. Witherspoon was born on March 22,1976 in Southern Baptist Hospital, New Orleans, Louisiana, while her father and her father was born in Georgia and served as a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army Reserve. He was in practice as an otolaryngologist until 2012. In 1988, her mother began nursing babies back to health in the intensive care unit of Vanderbilt University Hospital until she retired. Her parents are legally married, although they separated in 1996, due to her fathers alcoholism, infidelity, overspending. Because Witherspoons father worked for the U. S. military in Wiesbaden, Germany, after returning to the U. S. she spent her childhood in Nashville, Tennessee in the suburb of Belle Meade. She was raised as an Episcopalian and her older brother, John Jr. is a real estate agent. She received high grades in school, loved reading, and considered herself a big dork who read loads of books, on mentioning her love for books, she said, I get crazy in a bookstore. It makes my heart beat hard because I want to buy everything, Witherspoon attended middle school at Harding Academy and graduated from the all-girls Harpeth Hall School in Nashville, during which time she was a cheerleader. She attended Stanford University as an English literature major, after completing one year of studies, she left Stanford to pursue an acting career. Witherspoon is proud of the definitive Southern upbringing which she received, Witherspoon is described as a multi-achiever and was given the nickname Little Type A by her parents. On discussing her early achievements, she told Interview magazine, I just dont see any of it as that remarkable, maybe thats the attitude I choose to have to keep me sane and keep my feet on the ground
9.
Cheryl Strayed
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Cheryl Strayed is an American memoirist, novelist, and essayist. The author of four books, her writing has been published widely in national magazines and anthologies. Strayeds first book, the novel Torch, was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in February 2006 to positive critical reviews. Torch was a finalist for the Great Lakes Book Award and selected by The Oregonian as one of the top ten books of 2006 by writers living in the Pacific Northwest, in October 2012, Torch was re-issued by Vintage Books with a new introduction by Strayed. Strayeds second book, the memoir Wild, From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail was published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf on March 20,2012, and has been translated into 30 languages. The week of its publication, Wild debuted at number 7 on the New York Times Best Seller list in hardcover non-fiction, in June 2012, Oprah Winfrey announced that Wild was her first selection for her new Oprahs Book Club 2.0. The next month Wild reached number 1 on the New York Times Best Seller list, the paperback edition of Wild was published by Vintage Books in March 2013, where it has spent 126 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list. The book has also been a bestseller around the world—in the UK, Germany, Australia, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Wild won the Barnes & Noble Discover Award and the Oregon Book Award. In July 2012, Vintage Books published Strayeds third book, Tiny Beautiful Things, Advice on Love, the book debuted in the advice and self-help category on the New York Times Best Seller list at number 5 and it has also been published internationally. Tiny Beautiful Things is a selection of Strayeds popular Dear Sugar advice column, Strayeds fourth book, Brave Enough was published in the United States by Knopf on October 27,2015 and in the United Kingdom a week later by Atlantic Books. It debuted in the advice and self-help category on the New York Times Best Seller list at number 10, Strayed was born in Spangler, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Barbara Anne Bobbi and Ronald Nyland. At age six, she moved with her family to Chaska, the house did not have electricity or running water for the first few years. Indoor plumbing was installed after Strayed moved away for college and she later re-connected with her half-sister from a previous relationship of her father. In 1986, at the age of 17, Strayed graduated from McGregor High School in McGregor, Minnesota, where she was a track and cross country runner, cheerleader and she loosely based the fictional Coltrap County in her novel Torch on McGregor and Aitkin County. Strayed attended her freshman year of college at the University of St. Thomas in St, in March 1991, when Strayed was a senior in college, her mother, Bobbi Lambrecht, died suddenly of lung cancer at the age of 45. Strayed has described this loss as her genesis story and she has written about her mothers death and her grief in each of her books and several of her essays. In 2002, she earned a Master of Fine Arts in fiction writing from Syracuse University, where she was mentored by writers George Saunders, Arthur Flowers, Mary Gaitskill and her work has been selected three times for inclusion in The Best American Essays. Strayed was the guest editor of The Best American Essays 2013 and she won a Pushcart Prize for her essay, Munro Country, which was originally published in The Missouri Review
10.
Wild (2014 film)
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Wild is a 2014 American biographical survival drama film directed by Jean-Marc Vallée. The screenplay by Nick Hornby is based on Cheryl Strayeds 2012 memoir Wild, the film stars Reese Witherspoon as Strayed, alongside Laura Dern, with Thomas Sadoski, Michiel Huisman and Gaby Hoffmann among several others in supporting roles. The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on August 29,2014, Wild opened to positive critical reviews, with much praise going toward the performances of Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern. Both actresses received Academy Award nominations for their performances, in the categories of Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, during the hike, Strayed reflects in flashbacks on her childhood in Minnesota and memories of her mother, Bobbi Grey. Bobbis death from cancer sent Cheryl into a depression that she tried to numb with heroin and anonymous sex. After finding out she was pregnant, Strayed got an abortion, Strayed begins her trek in the Mojave Desert in Southern California. On the first night, she discovers she has brought the wrong type of gas for her stove and is unable to cook food. After a few days, Strayed meets Frank, a farmer and construction worker who takes her in for the night and with his wife offers her a home-cooked meal. Strayed meets a hiker named Greg who agrees to meet her at Kennedy Meadows, Strayed continues her hike into Northern California despite Gregs warnings of deep snowfall. After removing a boot to remove a loose toenail, the boot accidentally falls down an inaccessibly deep slope, Strayeds best friend Aimee sends her provisions to stops along the trail, including letters that congratulate her on her progress. Strayed also receives letters from her ex-husband Paul along the way, on the morning of Day 58, Strayed is out of water and desperately licks the dew off her tent. Dehydrated and near exhaustion, she siphons water from a muddy puddle, while she waits for her water to disinfect, two hunters approach, one making suggestive remarks that leave Strayed feeling threatened and vulnerable. This causes her to leave and run away. Strayed makes her way out of California and arrives in Ashland, Oregon, days later, Strayed arrives at Mount Hood National Forest and encounters a friendly group of young hikers who share their experiences. The hikers recognize her from the signatures shes been leaving in the record books along the PCT. Strayed frequently leaves quotes or poems that are meaningful to her along her journey, one rainy day, Strayed finds a llama that escaped from a young boy hiking with his grandmother. Strayed chats with the boy, who asks her about her parents, after she mentions her mothers death, the boy sings Red River Valley to Strayed, saying it is a song his mother used to sing to him. As the boy leaves, Strayed breaks down and cries, on September 15, after hiking for 94 days, Strayed reaches the Bridge of the Gods on the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington, ending her journey
11.
Force Majeure (film)
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Force Majeure is a 2014 Swedish drama film directed by Ruben Östlund. It follows the marital tension resulting from an avalanche during which the husband, the title used for the film in some English-speaking countries comes from force majeure, a contractual clause freeing both parties from liability in the event of unexpected disasters. Force Majeure was acclaimed upon release, with praising its script. It won the Best Film award at the 50th Guldbagge Awards, the film presents a week in the life of a Swedish family staying at a luxury resort in the French Alps, a businessman named Tomas, his wife Ebba, their young daughter Vera and preschooler Harry. The family is happy as they ski, ride the ski lift, brush their teeth, sleep, on their second day of skiing, a controlled avalanche goes awry and threatens them as they are having lunch outdoors on the deck of a restaurant. Tomas, who is filming the avalanche on his phone, panics and runs as the deck quickly empties of patrons, silence ensues, and the voice of a waiter says, Its over. Patrons return to their tables as the fog dissipates, Tomas returns to the table and acts as if nothing happened. No one is hurt, but Ebba and the children are subdued as they eat, after lunch, the cleaning man enters their lodge suite to clean just before they arrive. They insist the kids go inside first so they can talk in the corridor, the kids are upset there is a stranger inside, but the parents are angry with them and dont listen. They enter their lodge suite as the man exits. The children angrily tell them to leave, as play a video game. That evening they eat dinner with one of Ebbas friends, who has picked up an American man for the evening. Ebba tells the story of the avalanche in English for the benefit of the American, but Tomas insists he did not run away from the table and they argue in front of their embarrassed guests. They pick up their kids after the meal and argue again outside the room door, Ebba is angry that he wouldnt admit he ran away from the avalanche abandoning them. He says he remembers it differently, Ebba decides she would like a day of skiing by herself. She has coffee with her friend they had dinner with the night before, Ebba confronts her friend on her promiscuity, asking her if she loves her husband and children. Her friend says she is fine with having a relationship with her husband. Ebba becomes more insistent, and the friend advises they not argue, little Harry is upset as he and his sister and father enter the ski lift
12.
Citizenfour
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Citizenfour is a 2014 documentary film directed by Laura Poitras, concerning Edward Snowden and the NSA spying scandal. The film had its US premiere on October 10,2014, at the New York Film Festival and its UK premiere on October 17,2014, at the BFI London Film Festival. The film features Snowden and Glenn Greenwald, and was co-produced by Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, Citizenfour received critical acclaim upon release, and was the recipient of numerous accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2015 Oscars. In it, he offers her inside information about illegal wiretapping practices of the US National Security Agency, scenes of their meeting take place in Snowdens hotel room, where he maintains his privacy. Shots of Snowden in his bed, in front of his mirror, after four days of interviews, on June 9, Snowdens identity is made public at his request. As media outlets begin to discover his location at The Mira Hong Kong, facing potential extradition and prosecution in the United States, Snowden schedules a meeting with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and applies for refugee status. After Poitras believes she is being followed, she leaves Hong Kong for Berlin, on June 21, the US government requests the Hong Kong government extradite Snowden. Snowden manages to depart from Hong Kong, but his US passport is cancelled before he can connect to Havana, on August 1,2013, the Russian government grants Snowden temporary asylum for a period of one year. Meanwhile, Greenwald returns to his home in Rio de Janeiro, Greenwald and Poitras maintain a correspondence wherein they both express reluctance to return to the United States. The film closes with Greenwald, Snowden and Poitras meeting once again, Greenwald and Snowden discuss new emerging details on US intelligence programs, careful to only write down and not speak critical pieces of information. Greenwald tears these documents creating a pile of scraps, before removing them from the table. She was first contacted by Snowden in January 2013 after he was unable to establish encrypted communications with Greenwald and she flew to Hong Kong in late May 2013, where over the course of eight days she filmed Snowden in his hotel room at the Mira Hotel in Hong Kong. Later, she traveled to Moscow where she filmed an interview with Snowden conducted by Greenwald. Production company Praxis Films was involved in the production of the documentary, the film was distributed by RADIUS TWC in the US, BRITDOC Foundation and Artificial Eye in the UK and Piffl Media in Germany. The broadcast rights for television were obtained by Channel 4, HBO Documentary Films, the international film premiere took place on October 10,2014, in the United States at the New York Film Festival. In Europe, the documentary was shown for the first time on October 17 at the BFI London Film Festival, the first showing in Germany was on October 27 as part of the Leipzig Film Festival. The director Laura Poitras was present in Hamburg Abaton cinema for a preview on November 4–5 at the official Germany Premiere at Kino International, in German cinemas, the film has been running since November 6. Its widest release as of January 22,2015, was 105 theaters and it premiered on Home Box Office on February 23,2015, the day after the 87th Academy Awards and was subsequently released for streaming on HBO Go
13.
The Lego Movie
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Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Nick Offerman, Alison Brie, Charlie Day, Liam Neeson and Morgan Freeman provide their voices for the films main characters. The film was released theatrically on February 7,2014 through Warner Bros, Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures to near-unanimous acclaim, critics praised its visual style, humor, voice cast and heartwarming message. It earned more than $257 million in the U. S, a sequel to the film is scheduled for release on February 8,2019, as well as a third spin-off, The Billion Brick Race. In a Lego world populated by anthropomorphic minifigures, the evil Lord Business finds a weapon called the Kragle. The wizard Vitruvius attempts to him, but is blinded by Business robots, he prophesies that a person called the Special will find the Piece of Resistance. 8½ years later, construction worker Emmet Brickowski finds a woman named Wyldstyle searching for something at his construction site after hours, when he investigates, Emmet falls into a hole and finds the Piece of Resistance. Compelled to touch it, Emmet experiences vivid visions and passes out and he awakens with the Piece of Resistance attached to his back, in the custody of Bad Cop, Lord Businesss lieutenant. Wyldstyle rescues Emmett, believing him to be the Special, Emmet learns that Wyldstyle and Vitruvius are Master Builders—people capable of building anything from their imagination without the need of instructions—who oppose Business. Wyldstyle explains Business wants to use the Kragle, a tube of Krazy Glue with a weathered label, to freeze the world into perfection. Though disappointed to find Emmet is not a Master Builder, Wyldstyle, Emmet, Wyldstyle, and Vitruvius evade Bad Cops forces with the aid of Batman, Wyldstyles boyfriend. They go to the hidden Cloud Cuckooland where they attend a council of Master Builders, Bad Cops forces attack, having placed a tracking device on Emmett, and capture everyone except Emmet and a small team of Master Builders. Trying to retaliate, Vitruvius is decapitated by Business, who sets a self-destruct protocol, as he dies, Vitruvius reveals he made up the prophecy. He soon reappears to Emmet as a ghost and tells him that his belief makes him the Special, strapped to the self-destruct mechanisms battery, Emmet jumps into the abyss outside the tower and severs the connection, saving his friends. Inspired by Emmets sacrifice, Wyldstyle rallies the Lego people across the universe to use whatever creativity they have to build machines, Emmet finds himself in the human world as a Lego minifigure unable to move. The events of the story are being played out by a boy named Finn on his fathers expansive Lego set in their basement. Realizing the danger his friends are in, Emmet wills himself to move, Finn returns Emmet and the Piece of Resistance to the set, where Emmet now possesses the powers of a Master Builder and confronts Business. Meanwhile, Finns father looks at his sons creations and realizes that Finn had based the villainous Business on him, through a speech Emmet gives Business, Finn tells his father that he is special and has the power to change everything. Finn reconciles with his father, which plays out as Business having a change of heart, capping the Kragle, Emmet is hailed as a hero, and begins a relationship with Wyldstyle with Batmans blessing
14.
J. K. Simmons
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Jonathan Kimble J. K. Simmons is an American actor and voice actor. In television, he is known for playing Dr. Emil Skoda on the NBC series Law & Order, neo-Nazi Vernon Schillinger on the HBO prison-drama Oz and his film roles include J. Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimis Spider-Man trilogy and music instructor Terence Fletcher in 2014s Whiplash. He is also known for voicing Cave Johnson in the video game Portal 2, Tenzin in The Legend of Korra, Stanford Pines in Gravity Falls, Kai in Kung Fu Panda 3, and Mayor Lionheart in Zootopia. Simmons also reprised his role as J. Jonah Jameson in various Marvel animated series and he has also appeared in a series of television commercials for Farmers Insurance. Jonathan Kimble Simmons was born on January 9,1955 in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, the son of Patricia, an administrator, and Donald William Simmons, in 1965, when he was 10 years old, his family moved to Worthington, Ohio. In 1973, when he was 18, they moved to Missoula, Montana, the younger Simmons graduated from the University of Montana in 1978 with a music degree. During his tenure, he was part of the music-oriented fraternity Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. Later, Simmons moved to Seattle and became a member of the Seattle Repertory Theatre, on Broadway, Simmons played Benny Southstreet in the 1992 revival of Guys and Dolls. In 1994 he sang roles in the Wagner opera satire. He also played the role of Jigger in a revival of Carousel with the Houston Grand Opera and he also stars as Ralph Earnhardt, the father of race-car driver Dale Earnhardt, in 3, The Dale Earnhardt Story. He plays Will Pope, Assistant Chief of the LAPD, in the series The Closer. In an interesting precursor to his joining the Law & Order cast as Skoda, Simmons appeared in Homicide, Life on the Street, portraying a criminal in a Law & Order cross-over episode. Other roles include that of a general in the television sitcom Arrested Development. He played B. R. in the film Thank You for Smoking and has been praised for his performance in Juno as Mac McGuff, in all three of Sam Raimis Spider-Man films, Simmons played J. Jonah Jameson, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Daily Bugle. In 2008, he played a CIA superior in Burn After Reading and he also appeared in I Love You, Man. Simmons starred in films produced or directed by his friend Jason Reitman, including Thank You for Smoking, Juno, Up in the Air. In 2013, he had a role as Mr. Jervis in Reitmans film Labor Day. He voices Tenzin, an Airbending master and the son of Aang and Katara and he starred as blind lawyer Mel Fisher in Growing Up Fisher
15.
The Theory of Everything (2014 film)
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The film stars Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones with Charlie Cox, Emily Watson, Simon McBurney, Christian McKay, Harry Lloyd and David Thewlis featured in supporting roles. The film had its premiere at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival on 7 September 2014. The film received four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for Redmayne and Best Original Score for Jóhannsson. It received three Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations, winning one for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role for Redmayne. It received 10 British Academy Film Awards nominations and won Outstanding British Film, Best Leading Actor, in 1963, Cambridge University astrophysics student Stephen Hawking begins a relationship with literature student Jane Wilde. Although Stephen excels at mathematics and physics, his friends and professors are concerned over his lack of a thesis topic, while pursuing his research, Stephens muscles begin to fail, eventually causing him to fall and hit his head. He learns he has motor neurone disease, he will be unable to talk, swallow, breathe or move most of his body, Stephen asks what will happen to his brain. The doctor tells Stephen that the disease doesnt affect the brain, as Stephen becomes reclusive, focusing on his work, Jane confesses her love to him. She tells Stephens father she intends to stay with Stephen even as his condition worsens and they marry and have a son. Stephen presents his thesis to the board, arguing that a black hole created the universe in a Big Bang, that it will emit heat. While celebrating with Jane and his friends, Stephen realises he cannot walk, after having a second child, a daughter, Stephen develops a theory about the visibility of black holes and becomes a world-renowned physicist. While focusing on the children, Stephens health and his fame, Jane is unable to work on her own thesis and is frustrated. She joins the choir, where she meets widower Jonathan. She and Jonathan become close friends, and she employs him as a teacher for her son. Jonathan befriends the family, helping Stephen with his illness, supporting Jane. When Jane gives birth to son, Stephens mother asks Jane if the baby is Jonathans. Jane is appalled, seeing that Jonathan overheard the conversation, when they are alone they admit their feelings for one another, Jonathan stays away from the family, but Stephen visits him, saying that Jane needs him. While Jane and Jonathan take the children camping, Stephen is invited to attend a performance in Bordeaux
16.
The Grand Budapest Hotel
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The Grand Budapest Hotel is an 2014 comedy film written and directed by Wes Anderson, from a story by Anderson and Hugo Guinness, inspired by the writings of Stefan Zweig. Featuring an ensemble cast, it stars Ralph Fiennes as a concierge who teams up with one of his employees to prove his innocence after he is framed for murder, the film is an American-German-British co-production that was financed by German financial companies and film-funding organizations. The Grand Budapest Hotel was released to acclaim from film critics. The film led the BAFTA nominations, with its 11 nominations including Best Film and Best Director for Anderson, the film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and garnered three more Golden Globe Award nominations, including Best Director for Anderson. It also garnered nine Academy Award nominations, joining Birdman with the most for the ceremony, including Best Picture and it won the Academy Awards for Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Production Design and Best Original Score. The narrative takes the form of a story within a story within a story, the Author begins narrating the tale from his desk in 1985 to a TV film crew about a trip he made to the Grand Budapest Hotel in 1968. Many of its lustrous facilities are now in a state of repair. The Author encounters the hotels concierge, Monsieur Jean, and elderly owner, Zero Moustafa, one afternoon, and they agree to meet later that evening. Over dinner in the enormous dining room, Mr. Moustafa tells him the tale of how he took ownership of the hotel. Part 1 – M. Gustave The story begins in 1932 during the glory days when the young Zero was a lobby boy, freshly arrived in Zubrowka after his hometown was razed. Zero befriends and eventually proposes to Agatha, who is a pastry chef. Zubrowka being on the verge of war is of concern to Monsieur Gustave H. the Grand Budapests devoted concierge. The owner of the hotel is unknown and only relays important messages through the lawyer Deputy Kovacs. When he is not attending to the needs of the wealthy clientele or managing its staff. One of the ladies is Madame Céline Villeneuve Desgoffe und Taxis, one month later, Gustave is informed that Madame D has died. This enrages her family, all of whom hoped to inherit it and her son, Dmitri Desgoffe und Taxis, lashes out at Gustave. With the help of Zero, Gustave steals the painting and returns to the Grand Budapest, during the journey, Gustave makes a pact with Zero, in return for the latters help, he makes Zero his heir. Shortly thereafter, Gustave is arrested and imprisoned for the murder of Madame D after forced testimony by Serge X, Madame Ds butler, Gustave tells Zero he has an alibi for the night Madame D was killed but could never cite his aristocratic lady bedmistress in court
17.
Whiplash (2014 film)
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Whiplash is a 2014 American drama film written and directed by Damien Chazelle, depicting the relationship between an ambitious jazz student and an aggressive instructor. Paul Reiser co-stars as the students father, the film opened in limited release domestically in the US and Canada on October 10,2014, gradually expanding to over 500 screens and finally closing after 24 weeks on March 26,2015. Over this time the film grossed $49 million, against a budget of $3.3 million. Whiplash premiered in competition in the US Dramatic Category at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 16,2014, sony Pictures Worldwide acquired the international distribution rights. At the 87th Academy Awards, Whiplash won Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Supporting Actor for Simmons, Andrew Neiman is a first-year jazz student at the prestigious Shaffer Conservatory in New York. He has been playing drums from an age and aspires to become like Buddy Rich. Famed conductor Terence Fletcher discovers Andrew practicing in the room late one night. At a jazz competition, Andrew misplaces Carls sheet music, since Carl cannot play without it, Andrew steps in, telling Fletcher that he can perform Whiplash from memory. After a successful performance, Fletcher promotes him to core drummer, soon after, Fletcher recruits Ryan Connolly, the core drummer from Andrews former lower-level class. Andrew believes Connolly is the talented and experienced drummer, and is infuriated when Fletcher promotes him to core. Determined to impress Fletcher, Andrew practices until his hands bleed and breaks up with his new girlfriend Nicole, believing she will hold him back. He endures a grueling 2 A. M. tryout session with Fletcher, on the way to another competition, Andrews bus breaks down. He rents a car but arrives late, and realizes he left his drumsticks at the rental office, after a dressing-down from Fletcher, Andrew races back to the rental office to retrieve the drumsticks, but his car is broadsided by a semi-trailer. He crawls from the wreckage, runs back to the theater and arrives on stage bloody, when he struggles to play Caravan due to his injuries, Fletcher halts the performance to tell Andrew he is done. Enraged, Andrew attacks Fletcher in front of the audience and is dismissed from Shaffer Conservatory, at his fathers request, Andrew meets with a lawyer representing the parents of Sean Casey, a former student of Fletchers. Seans parents want to prevent Fletcher from teaching again, Andrew agrees to testify on the condition of anonymity, and Fletcher is fired from Shaffer Conservatory. Months later, Andrew has abandoned drumming and is working in a restaurant while applying to different colleges, one evening he discovers Fletcher performing at a jazz club. After the performance, Fletcher invites Andrew to drink him, seeming more hospitable
18.
Gone Girl (film)
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Gone Girl is a 2014 American psychological thriller film directed by David Fincher and written by Gillian Flynn, based on her 2012 novel of the same name. The film stars Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, set in Southeast Missouri, the story begins as a mystery that follows the events surrounding Nick Dunne, who becomes the primary suspect in the sudden disappearance of his wife, Amy. The film had its premiere on opening night of the 52nd New York Film Festival on September 26,2014. It was received critically and was a commercial success, grossing $369 million. Rosamund Pikes performance was praised, and she received nominations for an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award. The day of his wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne returns home to find that his wife Amy is missing. Her disappearance receives heavy press coverage, as Amy was the inspiration for her parents popular Amazing Amy childrens books, detective Rhonda Boney does a walkthrough of their house and finds poorly concealed evidence of a struggle. The police conduct an analysis and uncover the remnants of cleaned blood stains. Suspicions arise that Nick is responsible, and his behavior is interpreted by the media as characteristic of a sociopath. Flashbacks reveal that Nick and Amys marriage had disintegrated, both lost their jobs in the recession and moved from New York City to Nicks hometown of North Carthage, Nick has become lazy, distant, uninterested and unfaithful. Boney unearths evidence of financial troubles and domestic disputes, and a states that Amy wanted to purchase a gun. Amy is revealed to be alive and well, having changed her appearance and she despises Nick for the erosion of their marital bliss, her isolation after they moved to be closer to Nicks family, and his infidelity. She anticipates Nick will be convicted and executed for her murder, Nick hires Tanner Bolt, a lawyer who specializes in defending men accused of killing their wives. Nick meets Amys ex-boyfriend Tommy OHara, who says Amy framed him for rape and he also approaches another ex-boyfriend, the wealthy Desi Collings, against whom Amy previously filed a restraining order, but Desi refuses to share any details. When Amys neighbors at the campground rob her of her money, she calls Desi. He agrees to hide her in his house, which is equipped with surveillance cameras. Nick convinces his sister, Margo, of his innocence and his performance rekindles Amys feelings for him, even as Boney arrests him for Amys murder. Amy inflicts injuries on herself and uses Desis surveillance cameras to her advantage and she seduces Desi and kills him during sex by slitting his throat
19.
Selma (film)
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Selma is a 2014 British-American historical drama film directed by Ava DuVernay and written by Paul Webb. It is based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches led by James Bevel, Hosea Williams, Martin Luther King, Jr. the film stars actors David Oyelowo as King, Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon B. Johnson, Tim Roth as George Wallace, Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King, the film got a re-release on March 20,2015 in honor of the 50th anniversary of the historical march. Selma had four Golden Globe Award nominations, including Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director and Best Actor and it was also nominated for Best Picture and won Best Original Song at the 87th Academy Awards. In 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference accepts his Nobel Peace Prize, four black girls walking down stairs in the Birmingham, Alabama 16th Street Baptist Church are killed by a bomb set by the Ku Klux Klan. Annie Lee Cooper attempts to register to vote in Selma, Alabama but is prevented by the white registrar. King meets with Lyndon B. Johnson and asks for federal legislation to allow citizens to register to vote unencumbered. King travels to Selma with Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young, James Orange, James Bevel greets them, and other SCLC activists appear. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover tells Johnson that King is a problem, Coretta Scott King has concerns about her husbands upcoming work in Selma. King calls singer Mahalia Jackson to inspire him with a song, King, other SCLC leaders, and black Selma residents march to the registration office to register. After a confrontation in front of the courthouse, a match occurs as the police go into the crowd. Cooper fights back, knocking Sheriff Jim Clark to the ground, leading to the arrest of Cooper, King, Alabama Governor George Wallace speaks out against the movement. Coretta meets with Malcolm X, who says he will drive whites to ally with King by advocating an extreme position. Wallace and Al Lingo decide to use force at a night march in Marion, Alabama. A group of protesters runs into a restaurant to hide, but troopers rush in, beat, King and Bevel meet with Cager Lee, Jacksons grandfather, at the morgue. King speaks to ask people to continue to fight for their rights, King receives harassing phone calls with a recording of sexual activity implied to be him and another woman leading to an argument with Coretta. King is criticized by members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, as the Selma to Montgomery march is about to begin, King talks to Young about canceling it, but Young convinces King to persevere. The marchers, including John Lewis of SNCC, Hosea Williams of SCLC, the troopers order the marchers to turn back, and when they hold their ground the troopers attack with clubs, horses, tear gas, and other weapons
20.
Nightcrawler (film)
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Nightcrawler is a 2014 American thriller film written and directed by Dan Gilroy. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Lou Bloom, a stringer who records violent events late at night in Los Angeles, rene Russo, Riz Ahmed and Bill Paxton also star. A common theme in the film is the relationship between unethical journalism and consumer demand. Gilroy originally wanted to make a film about the life of Weegee and he wrote Bloom as an antihero, based on the ideas of unemployment and capitalism. Gyllenhaal played a role in the films production, from choosing members of the crew to watching audition tapes. Filming took place over the course of four weeks, and was a process that included over eighty locations. Nightcrawler premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, and grossed $50.3 million on a budget of $8.5 million. The film was met with praise, with critics highlighting Gilroys screenplay. Several critics listed Nightcrawler as one of the best films of 2014 and it received various accolades, petty thief Louis Lou Bloom is caught stealing from a Los Angeles construction site by a security guard. He attacks the guard, steals his watch and leaves with the stolen material, after selling the material at a scrap yard, Lou asks for a job, but the foreman says he does not hire thieves. While driving home, Lou sees a car crash and pulls over, stringers—freelance photojournalists—arrive and record two police officers pulling a woman from the wreck. One of the stringers, Joe Loder, tells Lou that they sell their footage to local news stations, inspired, Lou steals a bicycle and trades it for a camcorder and a police radio scanner. After two unsuccessful attempts at recording incidents, Lou records the aftermath of a fatal carjacking and sells the footage to KWLA6, the morning news director Nina Romina tells him the station is especially interested in footage of violent incidents in affluent areas. Lou hires an assistant, Rick, a man desperate for money. To give his footage more impact, Lou begins tampering with crime scenes, as Lous work gains traction, he buys better equipment and a faster car. Lou coerces Nina into a date and threatens to end his business with her unless she has sex with him, knowing her job depends on his footage, she reluctantly agrees. The next day he turns down an offer from Loder. Nina berates Lou to get better footage and keep his end of their bargain, Lou sabotages Joes van, when it crashes, Joe is severely injured and Lou records the aftermath
21.
Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
22.
Ida (film)
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Ida is a 2013 Polish drama film directed by Paweł Pawlikowski and written by Pawlikowski and Rebecca Lenkiewicz. Set in Poland in 1962, it is about a woman on the verge of taking vows as a Catholic nun. Orphaned as an infant during the German occupation of World War II, the former Communist state prosecutor and only surviving relative tells her that her parents were Jewish. The two women embark on a trip into the Polish countryside to learn the fate of their family. Ida won the 2015 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and it had earlier been selected as Best Film of 2014 by the European Film Academy and as Best Film Not in the English Language of 2014 by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In the 1960s Polish Peoples Republic, Anna, a novice nun, is told by her prioress that before she takes her vows she must visit her aunt, Wanda Gruz. Anna travels to visit her aunt Wanda, a chain-smoking, hard-drinking, Idas parents had been Jews who were murdered late in the German occupation of Poland during World War II. Ida was then an infant, and as an orphan she had raised by the convent. Wanda, who had been a Communist resistance fighter against the German occupation, had become the state prosecutor Red Wanda who sent men to their deaths. Wandas role alludes to the show trials of the early 1950s. Wanda tells Ida that she should try some worldly sins and pleasures before she decides to take her vows. On their way to their hotel for the night, Wanda picks up a hitchhiker, Lis, Lis is indeed drawn to Ida and talks with her before she leaves for the night to rejoin her aunt who is passed out in their room. Ida wants to find the graves of her parents, Wanda asks her what would happen if she goes to where their bodies are buried and discovers that God is not there. Wanda takes her to the house they were born in and used to own, Wanda had left her young son with Idas family during the war, the Skibas had taken over the home and land, and hidden the Lebensteins from the German authorities. Wanda, a prosecutor, demands that Feliks and his father tell her what happened to the Lebensteins. Finally, Feliks agrees to tell them—if Ida promises that they leave the Skibas alone. Feliks takes the women to the place in the woods. He admits to Ida that he took the three into the woods and killed them, Feliks says that because Ida was very small and able to pass for a Christian, he was able to give her to a convent
23.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
24.
Denmark
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The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union was ratified, legal matters in The Danish Realm are subject to the Danish Constitution. Beginning in 1953, state law issues within The Danish Realm has been governed by The Unity of the Realm, a less formal name for The Unity of the Realm is the Commonwealth of the Realm. In 1978, The Unity of The Realm was for the first time referred to as rigsfællesskabet. The name caught on and since the 1990s, both The Unity of The Realm and The Danish Realm itself has increasingly been referred to as simply rigsfællesskabet in daily parlance. The Danish Constitution stipulates that the foreign and security interests for all parts of the Danish Realm are the responsibility of the Danish government, the Faroes received home rule in 1948 and Greenland did so in 1979. In 2005, the Faroes received a self-government arrangement, and in 2009 Greenland received self rule, the Danish Realms unique state of internal affairs is acted out in the principle of The Unity of the Realm. This principle is derived from Article 1 of the Danish Constitution which specifies that constitutional law applies equally to all areas of the Danish Realm, the Constitutional Act specifies that sovereignty is to continue to be exclusively with the authorities of the Realm. The language of Denmark is Danish, and the Danish state authorities are based in Denmark, the Kingdom of Denmarks parliament, with its 179 members, is located in the capital, Copenhagen. Two of the members are elected in each of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Government ministries are located in Copenhagen, as is the highest court, in principle, the Danish Realm constitutes a unified sovereign state, with equal status between its constituent parts. Devolution differs from federalism in that the powers of the subnational authority ultimately reside in central government. The Self-Government Arrangements devolves political competence and responsibility from the Danish political authorities to the Faroese, the Faroese and Greenlandic authorities administer the tasks taken over from the state, enact legislation in these specific fields and have the economic responsibility for solving these tasks. The Danish government provides a grant to the Faroese and the Greenlandic authorities to cover the costs of these devolved areas. The 1948 Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands sets out the terms of Faroese home rule, the Act states. the Faroe Islands shall constitute a self-governing community within the State of Denmark. It establishes the government of the Faroe Islands and the Faroese parliament. The Faroe Islands were previously administered as a Danish county, the Home Rule Act abolished the post of Amtmand and these powers were expanded in a 2005 Act, which named the Faroese home government as an equal partner with the Danish government
25.
Winter Sleep (film)
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Winter Sleep is a 2014 Turkish drama film directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, adapted from the short story, The Wife by Anton Chekhov and one subplot of The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The story is set in Anatolia and examines the significant divide between the rich and poor as well as the powerful and powerless in Turkey, at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, the film won the Palme dOr and the FIPRESCI Prize. The film was selected as the Turkish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, Aydın, a former actor, owns a mountaintop hotel in Cappadocia, as well as several properties which he rents out to local tenants. He leads an idyllic life than most people around him in the region. Educated and wealthy, he spends his time writing columns for a newspaper and researching the history of Turkish theater. One day, Aydın and his assistant Hidayet are driving down to the village when a stone shatters the window and it was thrown by İlyas, the son of İsmail, one of Aydıns tenants who is several months behind in the rent. The situation escalates until İsmail’s brother Hamdi intervenes, Hamdi, the eager-to-please local imam, brings the young İlyas to Aydın in an attempt to make amends for the glass-breaking incident. However, this serves to annoy Aydin, inspiring him to write a column on how an imam should really give a proper example to their community. At first, his sister Necla wonders why Aydın does not use his talent in a better place than the local newspaper. Later, she reverses her view and tells him that he is just superficially and sentimentally criticising other people from his comfortable armchair and this results in a long chain of snide remarks made back and forth at each other. Nihal is much younger than her husband Aydın and she tries to give meaning to her life by fundraising for developing schools, an activity for which Aydın has not shown much interest. This turns into an argument, where he tells her that she is free to divorce from him if she wishes so. Finally, Aydın states that he leave for Istanbul for several months to make arrangements for his book. He warns her that she should not trust Levent, one of the people involved in the fundraiser. Before he leaves, Aydın makes an anonymous donation in cash. The next day, Hidayet takes Aydın to the train station, due to heavy snow fall, the train is severely delayed, and Aydın decides that they will visit Aydıns friend Suavi in a nearby village. Suavi welcomes Aydıns visit, but Levent also shows up, as Levent and they spend the evening drinking and talking. There is some tension between Aydın and Levent, as Levent makes insinuations that Aydın did not do enough to help in the aftermath of an earthquake, in the meantime, Nihal visits the house of Hamdi, İsmail, İlyas, and the sick grandmother
26.
Turkey
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Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, parliamentary republic with a cultural heritage. The country is encircled by seas on three sides, the Aegean Sea is to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, Ankara is the capital while Istanbul is the countrys largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Approximately 70-80% of the countrys citizens identify themselves as ethnic Turks, other ethnic groups include legally recognised and unrecognised minorities. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority group, making up approximately 20% of the population, the area of Turkey has been inhabited since the Paleolithic by various ancient Anatolian civilisations, as well as Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians and Armenians. After Alexander the Greats conquest, the area was Hellenized, a process continued under the Roman Empire. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, the empire reached the peak of its power in the 16th century, especially during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Assyrian, following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states. Turkey is a member of the UN, an early member of NATO. Turkeys growing economy and diplomatic initiatives have led to its recognition as a regional power while her location has given it geopolitical, the name of Turkey is based on the ethnonym Türk. The first recorded use of the term Türk or Türük as an autonym is contained in the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Göktürks of Central Asia, the English name Turkey first appeared in the late 14th century and is derived from Medieval Latin Turchia. Similarly, the medieval Khazar Empire, a Turkic state on the shores of the Black. The medieval Arabs referred to the Mamluk Sultanate as al-Dawla al-Turkiyya, the Ottoman Empire was sometimes referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its European contemporaries. The Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest permanently settled regions in the world, various ancient Anatolian populations have lived in Anatolia, from at least the Neolithic period until the Hellenistic period. Many of these peoples spoke the Anatolian languages, a branch of the larger Indo-European language family, in fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical centre from which the Indo-European languages radiated. The European part of Turkey, called Eastern Thrace, has also been inhabited since at least forty years ago. It is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date, the settlement of Troy started in the Neolithic Age and continued into the Iron Age
27.
Leviathan (2014 film)
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Leviathan is a 2014 Russian drama film directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev, co-written by Zvyagintsev and Oleg Negin, and starring Aleksei Serebryakov, Elena Lyadova, and Vladimir Vdovichenkov. The character development of the protagonist parallels another biblical figure, Job, critics noted the film as being formidable, dealing with quirks of fate, power and money. The film was selected to compete for the Palme dOr in the competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. Zvyagintsev and Negin won the award for Best Screenplay, the film was adjudged as the best film of the year at the 2014 London Film Festival and the 45th International Film Festival of India. It won the Best Foreign Language Film award at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards and it was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards. Set in fictional town of Pribrezhny, Russia, the plot follows the series of events that affect Kolya. The towns crooked Mayor Vadim has undertaken a legal plot to expropriate the land on which Kolyas house is built, Kolyas long-time friend Dima, a sharp and successful lawyer from Moscow, attempts to fight the expropriation through the local court system. During the course of the trial, Kolya is arrested for shouting at corrupt police officers in a police station. When the trial rules in favor of the mayor, Dima manages to get him to step back, however during Kolyas absence, Lilya engages in an impromptu sexual encounter with Dima. During an outing with Kolyas friend Ivan Stepanich, Roma witnesses Lilya and Dima having sex and Kolya finds out about the affair, assaulting the couple. Meanwhile, Mayor Vadim visits his friend, a local Orthodox Church bishop, for spiritual comfort, subsequently, Vadim and his thugs abduct Dima and carry out a mock execution, and urge him to return to Moscow. Afterwards Vadim continues his drive at expropriating Kolyas house, the last appearance of Dima shows him looking out the window of a train, ostensibly en route back to Moscow. Lilya returns home to Kolya, but she is depressed by the revelation of her affair. While the family is packing to move out, Kolya corners Lilya in the basement, Roma witnesses the event and flees the house, collapsing in tears by a whale skeleton on the shore. He returns home late at night, and explicitly blames Lilya for everything that is going wrong in their lives and that night, Lilya is unable to sleep and leaves the house in the early morning. The next morning she does not turn up at work and her phone is switched off and her body is discovered a few days later. A mournful Kolya revs up his drinking habits even more and encounters a priest and he asks him why God is doing this to him. The Orthodox priest, who is a man, quotes from the Biblical book of Job, and counsels Kolya that
28.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
29.
Wild Tales (film)
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Wild Tales is a 2014 Argentine black comedy anthology film composed of six standalone shorts, all written and directed by Damián Szifron, united by a common theme of violence and vengeance. The films musical score was composed by Gustavo Santaolalla, the film is composed of six short segments, Pasternak, Las Ratas, El más fuerte, Bombita, La Propuesta, and Hasta que la muerte nos separe. In the American localisation, the third and the fifth had their names changed to Road to Hell, two airplane passengers discover that they know a man named Pasternak, the woman is his former girlfriend, and the man is a music critic who savagely reviewed his work. They discover that everybody on the flight is connected to Pasternak, a flight attendant reveals that Pasternak is the planes cabin chief and has locked himself into the cockpit. Pasternak crashes the plane into his parents house, a loan shark stops at a small restaurant by a highway and is the lone patron. The waitress recognizes him as the man who ruined her family, the man treats the waitress very poorly when he arrives and when he orders his food. The cook, who reveals she has been in prison, offers to mix rat poison into the mans food, the waitress refuses the cooks offer but the cook adds the poison anyway, unknown to the waitress. When the waitress finds out she does not take the food from the man, the mans teenage son arrives and eats the same food and feeling guilty that the boy might eat it, the waitress tries to take the poisoned food away. The man attacks her after she throws food in his face, the last scene depicts the son getting medical treatment from a responding ambulance while the waitress sits next to him. The cook is arrested and driven away in a police car, Diego is driving through the desert and tries to overtake a slower, older car, but it blocks him. As he finally passes, Diego insults the other driver, Mario, further up the road, Diego gets a flat tire and Mario catches up. Mario parks his car in front of Diegos, blocking him, he smashes his windshield, Diego pushes Mario and his car into the river and drives off. Mario survives but thinking he will be arrested, Diego returns to run him down, loses control, Mario enters Diegos car through the trunk and they fight. After grappling and expelling the fire extinguisher, Mario leaves Diego strangling by a seatbelt, Mario lights fire to a part of his ripped shirt and places it in the gas tank. Diego grabs Mario and prevents him escaping, a tow truck driver arrives as the car explodes. The police discover the two charred bodies holding onto each other and mistake them for lovers who died in a tragic accident, simón Fischer, a demolitions expert, picks up a cake for his daughters birthday party and discovers his car has been towed away. He goes to the lot and argues, insisting there were no yellow lines indicating no parking. He grudgingly pays the fee and misses his daughters party
30.
Argentina
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Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a federal republic in the southern half of South America. With a mainland area of 2,780,400 km2, Argentina is the eighth-largest country in the world, the second largest in Latin America, and the largest Spanish-speaking one. The country is subdivided into provinces and one autonomous city, Buenos Aires. The provinces and the capital have their own constitutions, but exist under a federal system, Argentina claims sovereignty over part of Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The earliest recorded presence in the area of modern-day Argentina dates back to the Paleolithic period. The country has its roots in Spanish colonization of the region during the 16th century, Argentina rose as the successor state of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, a Spanish overseas viceroyalty founded in 1776. The country thereafter enjoyed relative peace and stability, with waves of European immigration radically reshaping its cultural. The almost-unparalleled increase in prosperity led to Argentina becoming the seventh wealthiest developed nation in the world by the early 20th century, Argentina retains its historic status as a middle power in international affairs, and is a prominent regional power in the Southern Cone and Latin America. Argentina has the second largest economy in South America, the third-largest in Latin America and is a member of the G-15 and it is the country with the second highest Human Development Index in Latin America with a rating of very high. Because of its stability, market size and growing high-tech sector, the description of the country by the word Argentina has to be found on a Venice map in 1536. In English the name Argentina probably comes from the Spanish language, however the naming itself is not Spanish, Argentina means in Italian of silver, silver coloured, probably borrowed from the Old French adjective argentine of silver > silver coloured already mentioned in the 12th century. The French word argentine is the form of argentin and derives of argent silver with the suffix -in. The Italian naming Argentina for the country implies Argentina Terra land of silver or Argentina costa coast of silver, in Italian, the adjective or the proper noun is often used in an autonomous way as a substantive and replaces it and it is said lArgentina. The name Argentina was probably first given by the Venitian and Genoese navigators, in Spanish and Portuguese, the words for silver are respectively plata and prata and of silver is said plateado and prateado. Argentina was first associated with the silver mountains legend, widespread among the first European explorers of the La Plata Basin. The first written use of the name in Spanish can be traced to La Argentina, a 1602 poem by Martín del Barco Centenera describing the region, the 1826 constitution included the first use of the name Argentine Republic in legal documents. The name Argentine Confederation was also used and was formalized in the Argentine Constitution of 1853. In 1860 a presidential decree settled the name as Argentine Republic
31.
Eddie Redmayne
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Edward John David Redmayne, OBE is an English actor of stage and screen. Born and raised in Westminster, he studied history of art at Trinity College, Cambridge, Redmayne began his professional acting career as a youth in West End theatre before making his screen debut in 1998 with guest appearances on television. Redmayne also starred in the productions of Red and Richard II. The former won him the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play and his film breakthrough came with the roles of Colin Clark in the biographical drama My Week with Marilyn and Marius Pontmercy in Tom Hoopers musical Les Misérables. In 2014, Redmayne portrayed English physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, winning an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, in 2016, he starred as Newt Scamander in the fantasy film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Redmayne was born on 6 January 1982 in Westminster, London and his mother, Patricia, runs a relocation business, and his father, Richard Redmayne, is a businessman in corporate finance. His paternal great-grandfather was Sir Richard Redmayne, a civil and mining engineer and he has an older brother, a younger brother and an older half-brother and half-sister. He attended Eaton House, Colet Court and then Eton College and he went on to read History of Art at Trinity College, Cambridge, from where he graduated with 2,1 Honours in 2003. Despite being colourblind, Redmayne wrote his dissertation on Yves Kleins signature colour, prior to becoming a full-time actor, Redmayne modelled for Burberry in 2008 with Alex Pettyfer, and in 2012 with Cara Delevingne. In the September 2012 issue of Vanity Fair, he was featured on its annual International Best Dressed List, in 2015, he was named number one in GQs 50 best dressed British men. Redmayne made his stage debut as Viola in Twelfth Night. Later stage credits include Now or Later by Christopher Shinn at the Royal Court Theatre, the show ran from 3 September to 1 November 2008. In 2009, Redmayne appeared in John Logans new play Red at the Donmar Warehouse in London, for which he won the 2010 Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He reprised his role in Red at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway, in a 15-week run from 11 March to 27 June 2010 and he portrayed King Richard II in Richard II directed by Michael Grandage, at the Donmar Warehouse from 6 December 2011 to 4 February 2012. Redmayne was cast in his first feature film Like Minds after being spotted by casting director Lucy Bevan performing in a play called Goats. Redmayne has appeared in such as The Good Shepherd, Savage Grace, Powder Blue, The Other Boleyn Girl, Glorious 39. He starred as Osmund in Christopher Smiths supernatural gothic chiller film Black Death and his 2008 Sundance drama film The Yellow Handkerchief was released on 26 February 2010 by Samuel Goldwyn Films. He starred as filmmaker Colin Clark in the drama film My Week with Marilyn and he took on the role of Marius Pontmercy for the 2012 musical film Les Misérables
32.
Stephen Hawking
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Hawking was the first to set forth a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. He is a supporter of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. In 2002, Hawking was ranked number 25 in the BBCs poll of the 100 Greatest Britons, Hawking has a rare early-onset, slow-progressing form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis that has gradually paralysed him over the decades. He now communicates using a single cheek muscle attached to a speech-generating device, Hawking was born on 8 January 1942 in Oxford, England to Frank and Isobel Hawking. Despite their families financial constraints, both attended the University of Oxford, where Frank read medicine and Isobel read Philosophy. The two met shortly after the beginning of the Second World War at a research institute where Isobel was working as a secretary. They lived in Highgate, but, as London was being bombed in those years, Hawking has two younger sisters, Philippa and Mary, and an adopted brother, Edward. In 1950, when Hawkings father became head of the division of parasitology at the National Institute for Medical Research, Hawking and his moved to St Albans. In St Albans, the family were considered intelligent and somewhat eccentric. They lived an existence in a large, cluttered, and poorly maintained house. During one of Hawkings fathers frequent absences working in Africa, the rest of the family spent four months in Majorca visiting his mothers friend Beryl and her husband, Hawking began his schooling at the Byron House School in Highgate, London. He later blamed its progressive methods for his failure to learn to read while at the school, in St Albans, the eight-year-old Hawking attended St Albans High School for Girls for a few months. At that time, younger boys could attend one of the houses, the family placed a high value on education. Hawkings father wanted his son to attend the well-regarded Westminster School and his family could not afford the school fees without the financial aid of a scholarship, so Hawking remained at St Albans. From 1958 on, with the help of the mathematics teacher Dikran Tahta, they built a computer from clock parts, although at school Hawking was known as Einstein, Hawking was not initially successful academically. With time, he began to show aptitude for scientific subjects and, inspired by Tahta. Hawkings father advised him to medicine, concerned that there were few jobs for mathematics graduates. He wanted Hawking to attend University College, Oxford, his own alma mater, as it was not possible to read mathematics there at the time, Hawking decided to study physics and chemistry
33.
Benedict Cumberbatch
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Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch CBE is an English actor who has performed in film, television, theatre and radio. He is the son of actors Timothy Carlton and Wanda Ventham, Cumberbatch graduated from the University of Manchester and continued his training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, obtaining a Master of Arts in Classical Acting. He first performed at the Open Air Theatre, Regents Park in Shakespearean productions, since then he has starred in the Royal National Theatre productions After the Dance and Frankenstein. In 2015, he played William Shakespeares Hamlet at the Barbican Theatre, Cumberbatchs television work includes appearances in Silent Witness and Fortysomething before playing Stephen Hawking in the television film Hawking in 2004. He has starred as Sherlock Holmes in the series Sherlock since 2010 and he has also headlined Tom Stoppards adaptation of Parades End and The Hollow Crown, The Wars of the Roses. From 2012 to 2014, through voice and motion capture, he played the characters of Smaug, Cumberbatch portrays the Marvel Comics character Dr. Stephen Strange in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, first appearing in the film Doctor Strange. Cumberbatch has received awards and nominations for acting including three Laurence Olivier Award nominations, winning Best Actor in a Play for Frankenstein. He has also received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations, winning Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for Sherlock and his performance in The Imitation Game earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In addition, he has received six BAFTA nominations, five Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, in 2014, Time magazine included him in its annual Time 100 as one of the Most Influential People in the World. He was appointed a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II in June 2015 for his services to the performing arts, Cumberbatch was born at Queen Charlottes and Chelsea Hospital in the White City district of West Londons Hammersmith and Fulham borough, to actors Timothy Carlton and Wanda Ventham. He grew up in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and he has a half-sister, Tracy Peacock, from his mothers first marriage. His grandfather, Henry Carlton Cumberbatch, was an officer of both World Wars, and a prominent figure of London high society. His great-grandfather, Henry Arnold Cumberbatch, was Queen Victorias consul general in Turkey, Cumberbatch attended boarding schools from the age of 8, he was educated at Brambletye School in West Sussex and was an arts scholar at Harrow School. He was a member of The Rattigan Society, Harrows principal club for the dramatic arts and he was involved in numerous Shakespearean works at school and made his acting debut as Titania, Queen of the Fairies, in A Midsummer Nights Dream when he was 12. Cumberbatchs drama teacher, Martin Tyrell, called him the best schoolboy actor he had worked with. After leaving Harrow, Cumberbatch took a gap year to volunteer as an English teacher at a Tibetan monastery in Darjeeling and he then attended the University of Manchester, where he studied Drama. He continued his training as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art graduating with an MA in Classical Acting. Since 2001, Cumberbatch has had roles in a dozen classic plays at the Regents Park Open Air, Almeida, Royal Court
34.
Alan Turing
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Alan Mathison Turing OBE FRS was an English computer scientist, mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst and theoretical biologist. Turing is widely considered to be the father of computer science. During the Second World War, Turing worked for the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, for a time he led Hut 8, the section responsible for German naval cryptanalysis. After the war, he worked at the National Physical Laboratory and he wrote a paper on the chemical basis of morphogenesis, and predicted oscillating chemical reactions such as the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction, first observed in the 1960s. Turing was prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts, when by the Labouchere Amendment and he accepted chemical castration treatment, with DES, as an alternative to prison. Turing died in 1954,16 days before his 42nd birthday, an inquest determined his death as suicide, but it has been noted that the known evidence is also consistent with accidental poisoning. In 2009, following an Internet campaign, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a public apology on behalf of the British government for the appalling way he was treated. Queen Elizabeth II granted him a pardon in 2013. The Alan Turing law is now a term for a 2017 law in the United Kingdom that retroactively pardons men cautioned or convicted under historical legislation that outlawed homosexual acts. Turings father was the son of a clergyman, the Rev. John Robert Turing, from a Scottish family of merchants that had based in the Netherlands. Turings mother, Julius wife, was Ethel Sara, daughter of Edward Waller Stoney, the Stoneys were a Protestant Anglo-Irish gentry family from both County Tipperary and County Longford, while Ethel herself had spent much of her childhood in County Clare. Julius work with the ICS brought the family to British India and he had an elder brother, John. At Hastings, Turing stayed at Baston Lodge, Upper Maze Hill, St Leonards-on-Sea, very early in life, Turing showed signs of the genius that he was later to display prominently. His parents purchased a house in Guildford in 1927, and Turing lived there during school holidays, the location is also marked with a blue plaque. Turings parents enrolled him at St Michaels, a day school at 20 Charles Road, St Leonards-on-Sea, the headmistress recognised his talent early on, as did many of his subsequent educators. From January 1922 to 1926, Turing was educated at Hazelhurst Preparatory School, in 1926, at the age of 13, he went on to Sherborne School, an independent school in the market town of Sherborne in Dorset. Turings natural inclination towards mathematics and science did not earn him respect from some of the teachers at Sherborne and his headmaster wrote to his parents, I hope he will not fall between two stools. If he is to stay at school, he must aim at becoming educated
35.
Jake Gyllenhaal
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Jacob Benjamin Jake Gyllenhaal is an American actor. He subsequently appeared in indie film, The Good Girl. In 2005, Gyllenhaal portrayed Anthony Swoff Swofford in Jarhead, Gwyneth Paltrows love interest in Proof, Gyllenhaal was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of film producer and screenwriter Naomi Foner and film director Stephen Gyllenhaal. Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, his sister, appeared with him in the film Donnie Darko. Gyllenhaals father, who was raised as a Swedenborgian, is of Swedish and English descent, jakes last ancestor to be born in Sweden was his great-great-grandfather, Anders Leonard Gyllenhaal. Jakes mother is Jewish, she was born in New York City, to a family from Russia, Gyllenhaal has said that he considers himself Jewish. His parents insisted that he have summer jobs to support himself and he worked as a lifeguard. Gyllenhaal said his parents encouraged artistic expression, I do have parents who supported me in certain ways. In other ways, they were lacking, definitely, its in expression and creativity where my family has always been best at. As a child, Gyllenhaal was regularly exposed to filmmaking due to his familys ties to the industry. He made his debut as Billy Crystals son in the 1991 comedy film City Slickers. His parents did not allow him to appear in the 1992 film The Mighty Ducks because it would have required his leaving home for two months, in subsequent years, his parents allowed him to audition for roles but regularly forbade him to take them if he were chosen. He was allowed to appear in his fathers films several times, Gyllenhaal appeared in the 1993 film A Dangerous Woman, in Bop Gun, a 1994 episode of Homicide, Life on the Street, and in the 1998 comedy Homegrown. Along with their mother, Jake and Maggie appeared in two episodes of Molto Mario, an Italian cooking show on the Food Network. Prior to his year in high school, the only other film not directed by his father, in which Gyllenhaal was allowed to perform, was the 1993 film Josh. Gyllenhaal dropped out two years to concentrate on acting but has expressed intentions to eventually finish his degree. The film earned $32 million and was described in the Sacramento News, Donnie Darko, Gyllenhaals second film, was not a box office success upon its initial 2001 release but eventually became a cult favorite. After the critical success of Donnie Darko, Gyllenhaals next role was as Pilot Kelston in 2002s Highway alongside Jared Leto and his performance was described by one critic as silly, cliched and straight to video
36.
Timothy Spall
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Timothy Leonard Spall, OBE is an English character actor and occasional presenter. He became a name in the UK after appearing in the 1983 ITV comedy-drama series Auf Wiedersehen. Spall received critical acclaim for his performance in Secrets & Lies, Spall has also starred in the television documentary Timothy Spall. at Sea. In 2014, he won the Best Actor award at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival for portraying J. M. W. Turner in Mike Leighs biographical film Mr. Turner, Spall, the third of four sons, was born in Battersea, London. His mother, Sylvia R. was a hairdresser, and his father and he trained at the National Youth Theatre and RADA, where he was awarded the Bancroft Gold Medal as the most promising actor in his year. He gained international recognition as Peter Pettigrew in the Harry Potter film series, in 1991 he guest starred in the series 5 Red Dwarf episode Back to Reality. In 1993, Spall was in Rab C, in the 2000 New Year Honours, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. Spall performed lead vocals on the song The Devil is an Englishman from the Ken Russell film Gothic, Spall played the starring role of Albert Pierrepoint in the 2005 film Pierrepoint, which was released as The Last Hangman in the United States. In the 2006 video game Grand Theft Auto, Vice City Stories, Spall voiced Phil Collins manager, in 2007, he starred as Nathaniel in Disneys Enchanted and Beadle Bamford in Tim Burtons production of Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. He also starred as Georgie Godwin in a one off television drama The Fattest Man in Britain on ITV1 which aired on 20 December 2009, the drama also featured Bobby Ball, Frances Barber, Aisling Loftus and Jeremy Kyle. Spall reprised the role at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony, in 2012, Spall filmed Wasteland, with actors Matthew Lewis and Vanessa Kirby. The Newport Beach Film Festival in Newport Beach, California, screened Wasteland in April 2013, also in 2012 Spall played Charlie Morgan in the edgy film Comes a Bright Day. In 2014, he won the Best Actor Award at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival for Mr. Turner, Timothy Spall plays various roles in Stanley A Man Of Variety, directed by Stephen Cookson and produced by Red Rock Entertainment. Timothy received the Edgeware Outstanding Achievement Award for his performance in Stanley A Man of Variety, Spall and his wife Shane have three children, Pascale, Rafe, who is also an actor and Mercedes. He lives in Forest Hill, south east London, in 1996, Spall was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia, but has since been in remission. He has said of his illness, I didnt know what made me ill but stress had something to do with it and it made me aware of things and become more selective. I am less worried about employment, I really do my homework so I am not getting stressed on the set because I dont know what Im doing. He is the owner of a Dutch barge that he and his wife have been sailing around the British Isles as part of a BBC Four TV series Timothy Spall, Back at Sea
37.
Mr. Turner
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Mr. Turner is a 2014 internationally co-produced biographical drama film on the last twenty-five years of the life and career of painter J. M. W. Turner. Written and directed by Mike Leigh, the film stars Timothy Spall in the role with Dorothy Atkinson, Paul Jesson, Marion Bailey, Lesley Manville. The film was acclaimed and received four nominations each at the 87th Academy Awards. A look at the last quarter century of the great British painter J. M. W. Turner, entertainment One released the film in the United Kingdom on 31 October 2014. Sony Pictures Classics handled the United States distribution, with a date of 19 December 2014. It was screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, along with it came Fury and three other at-the-time unreleased Sony Pictures films. Within three days of the leak, Mr. Turner had been downloaded by an estimated 63,379 unique IPs. Mr. Turner received wide praise from critics, the performance of Timothy Spall was lauded, along with Gary Yershons film score and Dick Popes cinematography. It has a Certified Fresh score of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 183 critic reviews, the Critics Consensus states, Led by a masterful performance from Timothy Spall and brilliantly directed by Mike Leigh, Mr. Turner is a superior Hollywood biopic. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 94 out of 100 based on 44 critics, critic Katie Kilkenny in The Atlantic called it a gorgeous, important film. Observer critic Mark Kermode described the film as a portrait of a man wrestling light with his hands as if it were an element, tangible, malleable. But they also convey the spirit of a man whose reputation as a curmudgeon is unwarranted, given his passionate interest in people and the world around him. There is a great humanitarian streak in Turner and Mike Leigh has found a way of capturing this on film, although Margate wasnt actually used to represent Turners Margate, the production visited Kent to shoot a couple of scenes. HMS Gannet in the Historic Dockyard Chatham was used in the scene where Turner has himself strapped to the mast of a ship during a storm. Stangate Creek doubled as the Thames when Turner and his friends are rowed along Thames and discuss the HMS Victory, they then toast the HMS Temeraire. Official Mr. Turner at the Internet Movie Database Mr. Turner at Box Office Mojo Mr. Turner at Rotten Tomatoes Mr. Turner at Metacritic Mr. Turner on Facebook
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J. M. W. Turner
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Joseph Mallord William Turner, RA was an English Romanticist landscape painter. Turner was considered a figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting. Although renowned for his oil paintings, Turner is also one of the greatest masters of British watercolour landscape painting and he is commonly known as the painter of light. Joseph Mallord William Turner was baptised on 14 May 1775, and it is generally believed he was born between late April and early May. Turner himself claimed he was born on 23 April, but there is no proof and he was born in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, in London, England. His father, William Turner, was a barber and wig maker and his mother, Mary Marshall, came from a family of butchers. A younger sister, Mary Ann, was born in September 1778, the earliest known artistic exercise by Turner is from this period—a series of simple colourings of engraved plates from Henry Boswells Picturesque View of the Antiquities of England and Wales. Around 1786, Turner was sent to Margate on the north-east Kent coast, here he produced a series of drawings of the town and surrounding area foreshadowing his later work. Turner returned to Margate many times in later life, by this time, Turners drawings were being exhibited in his fathers shop window and sold for a few shillings. His father boasted to the artist Thomas Stothard that, My son, in 1789, Turner again stayed with his uncle who had retired to Sunningwell in Berkshire. A whole sketchbook of work from time in Berkshire survives as well as a watercolour of Oxford. The use of sketches on location, as the foundation for later finished paintings. By the end of 1789, he had begun to study under the topographical draughtsman Thomas Malton. Turner learned from him the tricks of the trade, copying and colouring outline prints of British castles. He would later call Malton My real master, topography was a thriving industry by which a young artist could pay for his studies. In the same year of 1789 he entered the Royal Academy of Art schools, when he was 14 years old, Sir Joshua Reynolds, president of the Royal Academy, chaired the panel that admitted him. At first Turner showed a keen interest in architecture, but was advised by the architect Thomas Hardwick to continue painting and his first watercolour painting A View of the Archbishops Palace, Lambeth was accepted for the Royal Academy summer exhibition of 1790 when Turner was 15. As a probationer in the academy, he was drawing from plaster casts of antique sculptures
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Julianne Moore
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Julianne Moore is an American actress, prolific in films since the early 1990s. She is particularly known for her portrayals of emotionally troubled women in independent and Hollywood films, and has received many accolades, including the 2014 Academy Award for Best Actress. After studying theatre at Boston University, Moore began her career with a series of television roles, from 1985 to 1988, she was a regular in the soap opera As the World Turns, earning a Daytime Emmy for her performance. Her film debut was in Tales from the Darkside, The Movie, Moore first received critical attention with Robert Altmans Short Cuts, and successive performances in Vanya on 42nd Street and Safe continued this acclaim. Starring roles in the blockbusters Nine Months and The Lost World, Moore received considerable recognition in the late 1990s and early 2000s, earning Oscar nominations for Boogie Nights, The End of the Affair, Far from Heaven and The Hours. In the first of these she played a 1970s pornographic actress, in addition to acting, Moore has written a series of childrens books about a character named Freckleface Strawberry. She is married to director Bart Freundlich, with whom she has two children, Moore was born Julie Anne Smith on December 3,1960, at the Fort Bragg army installation in North Carolina. Her father, Peter Moore Smith, was a paratrooper in the United States Army during the Vietnam War and her mother, Anne, was a psychologist and social worker from Greenock, Scotland, who emigrated to the United States in 1951 with her family. Moore has a sister, Valerie, and a younger brother. She considers herself half Scottish and claimed British citizenship in 2011 to honor her deceased mother, Moore frequently moved around the United States as a child, due to her fathers occupation. She was close to her family as a result, but has said she never had the feeling of coming from one particular place. The family lived in locations, including Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Panama, Nebraska, Alaska, New York, and Virginia. The constant relocating made her a child, and she struggled to establish friendships. Despite these difficulties, Moore later remarked that an itinerant lifestyle was beneficial to her career, When you move around a lot. I would change, depending on where I was and it teaches you to watch, to reinvent, that character can change. When Moore was 16, the moved to Frankfurt, Germany. She was clever and studious, a good girl. She had never considered performing, or even attended the theatre and she appeared in several plays, including Tartuffe and Medea, and with the encouragement of her English teacher she chose to pursue a theatrical career
