1.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
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Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt is an American actor and filmmaker. As a child actor, he appeared in the films A River Runs Through It, Angels in the Outfield and 10 Things I Hate About You and he took a break from acting to study at Columbia University, but dropped out in 2004 to pursue acting again. He has since starred in 500 Days of Summer, Inception, Hesher, 50/50, Premium Rush, The Dark Knight Rises, Brick, Looper, The Lookout, Manic, Lincoln, Mysterious Skin and G. I. He starred as Philippe Petit in the Robert Zemeckis-directed film The Walk and he also founded the online production company hitRECord in 2004 and has hosted his own TV series, HitRecord on TV, since January 2014. In 2013, Gordon-Levitt made his film directing and screenwriting debut with Don Jon. He previously directed and edited two short films, both of which were released in 2010, Morgan M. Morgansens Date with Destiny and Morgan and Destinys Eleventeenth Date, Gordon-Levitt was born in Los Angeles, California, and was raised in its Sherman Oaks neighborhood. He is Jewish, from a family that is not strictly religious and his father, Dennis Levitt, was once the news director for the Pacifica Radio station, KPFK-FM. Gordon-Levitts maternal grandfather, Michael Gordon, was a Hollywood film director between the 1940s and 1970s, and directed the 1959 Doris Day/Rock Hudson film Pillow Talk, Gordon-Levitt attended Van Nuys High School and graduated in 1999. Gordon-Levitt joined a theater group at the age of four. Subsequently, he was approached by an agent and began appearing on television and in commercials for Sunny Jim peanut butter, Cocoa Puffs, Pop-Tarts, at age six, he starred in several made-for-television films. In 1991, he played both David Collins and Daniel Collins in the Dark Shadows television series, and appeared in the movie A River Runs Through It. During 1992–93, he played in The Powers That Be, a sitcom starring John Forsythe, also in 1992, he portrayed Gregory Kingsley in the made-for-TV film Switching Parents, based on Kingsleys real life case of divorcing his parents. In 1994, he starred in the Disney film Angels in the Outfield as an orphan who sees angels, in 1996, he began playing Tommy Solomon on the sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun. The series ran for six seasons, the San Francisco Chronicle noted that Gordon-Levitt was a Jewish kid playing an extraterrestrial pretending to be a Jewish kid. During the 1990s, he was featured in teenage magazines. In 2000, he began attending Columbia University School of General Studies and he studied history, literature, and French poetry. He became an avid Francophile and a French speaker and he said that moving to New York City from his hometown forced him to grow as a person. He dropped out in 2004 to concentrate on acting again, Gordon-Levitt has said that he made a conscious decision to be in good movies after returning to acting
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
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Gordon-Levitt at the
London Film Festival screening of
Don Jon, November 2013
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
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Gordon-Levitt at a promotional event for
(500) Days of Summer in March 2009
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
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Gordon-Levitt at
WonderCon in March 2012
2.
Scarlett Johansson
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Scarlett Johansson is an American actress, model and singer. She made her debut in the fantasy comedy North. Johansson subsequently starred in Manny & Lo, and garnered acclaim and prominence with roles in The Horse Whisperer. She shifted to roles with her performances in Girl with a Pearl Earring and Lost in Translation. Since 2010, Johansson has also portrayed the Marvel Comics character Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and she won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in the 2010 Broadway revival of A View from the Bridge. As a singer, Johansson has released two albums, Anywhere I Lay My Head and Break Up, Johansson is considered one of Hollywoods modern sex symbols, and has frequently appeared in published lists of the sexiest women in the world. As of February 2017, she is the actress of all time in North America. In 2016, she added another $1.2 billion to that box office record and her father, Karsten Johansson, is an architect originally from Copenhagen, Denmark, and her paternal grandfather, Ejner Johansson, was an art historian, screenwriter, and director. Her mother, Melanie Sloan, a producer, comes from an Ashkenazi Jewish family from the Bronx, Sloans ancestors were Jewish immigrants from Poland and Minsk in the Russian Empire. Scarlett Johansson has a sister, Vanessa, also an actress, an older brother, Adrian, a twin brother, Hunter. She holds both United States and Danish passports and citizenship, Johansson grew up in a household with little money, and with a mother who was a film buff. She and her brother attended PS41 elementary school in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. Johansson began her training by attending and graduating from Professional Childrens School in Manhattan in 2002. Johansson began acting during childhood, after her mother started taking her to auditions and she would audition for commercials but took rejection so hard her mother began limiting her to film tryouts. She made her debut at the age of 9, as John Ritters daughter in the fantasy comedy North. Following minor roles in the mystery thriller Just Cause, as the daughter of Sean Connery and Kate Capshaw, and If Lucy Fell, she played the role of Amanda in Manny & Lo. Her performance in Manny & Lo garnered a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female, after appearing in minor roles in Fall and Home Alone 3, Johansson garnered widely spread attention for her performance in the film The Horse Whisperer, directed by Robert Redford. She received a nomination for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress for the film, in 1999, she appeared in My Brother the Pig and in the neo-noir Coen brothers film The Man Who Wasnt There
Scarlett Johansson
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Johansson at the
San Diego Comic-Con in July 2013
Scarlett Johansson
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Johansson at the premiere of
Girl with a Pearl Earring at
Toronto International Film Festival in 2003
Scarlett Johansson
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Johansson at the
2013 Toronto International Film Festival
Scarlett Johansson
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Johansson with
Michael Caine at the
Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 2008
3.
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
Julianne Moore
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Moore at the
2014 Toronto International Film Festival
Julianne Moore
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The theatre of
Boston University, where Moore trained to be an actress
Julianne Moore
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Robert Altman, who gave Moore her breakthrough in
Short Cuts (1993)
Julianne Moore
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Moore played Maude Lebowski in the cult
Coen brothers film
The Big Lebowski (1998). She is seen here with co-star
Jeff Bridges at the 2011
Lebowski Fest.
4.
Brie Larson
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Brianne Sidonie Desaulniers, known professionally as Brie Larson, is an American actress, director, and singer. Born in Sacramento, California, Larson was home-schooled before she studied acting at the American Conservatory Theater and she began her acting career in television, appearing as a regular on the 2001 sitcom Raising Dad, for which she was nominated for a Young Artist Award. As a teenager, Larson had brief roles in the 2004 films 13 Going on 30 and Sleepover. Her performance in the comedy film Hoot was praised, and she played supporting roles in the films Greenberg, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,21 Jump Street. From 2009 to 2011, Larson featured as a teenager in the television series United States of Tara. Larsons breakthrough role came with the independent drama Short Term 12, further success came in 2015 when she starred in Room, an acclaimed drama based on Emma Donoghues novel of the same name. In 2017, she starred as a war photographer in the adventure film Kong, Skull Island, Larson was born in Sacramento, California, the first daughter of Heather and Sylvain Desaulniers. Her parents were chiropractors who ran a practice together and her parents divorced when she was a child, and she moved to Los Angeles with her mother and her sister. She studied acting at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and her paternal grandparents were French-Canadians from Manitoba. Her paternal grandmother, Gabrielle Desaulniers, died in December 2015, growing up, Larsons first language was French. Brie stated in an interview with Glamour that she chose Larson as her name from her Swedish great-grandmothers maiden name. She later stated on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that she took her stage name from Kirsten Larson. Larsons first job was performing in sketches on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, soon after, she was cast in the television series Schimmel, which never aired because its star, Robert Schimmel, was diagnosed with cancer shortly before filming was to begin. After it was on hold for ten months, Fox canceled the show, Larson later auditioned for a new show for The WB called In Your Dreams, and landed the role of Bob Sagets characters younger daughter, Emily. The show was selected for the 2001–02 fall season, and was renamed Raising Dad and it was then canceled after 22 episodes. Larson was also cast in the pilot for the ABC sitcom Hope & Faith, in 2003, she starred alongside Beverley Mitchell on the Disney Channel original movie Right on Track. In July 2004, she co-starred with a large cast of teen actors in the film Sleepover and she also had a small role in the movie 13 Going on 30. Larson appeared in the 2006 film Hoot, opposite actors Logan Lerman and her voice is also featured in the film Farce of the Penguins as a teenage penguin
Brie Larson
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Larson in 2011
5.
Tony Danza
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Tony Danza is an American actor and former professional boxer. He is best known for starring on the TV series Taxi and Whos the Boss. for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award and four Golden Globe Awards. In 1998, Danza won the Peoples Choice Award for Favorite Male Performer in a New Television Series for his work on the 1997 sitcom The Tony Danza Show. Danza was born in Brooklyn, New York, to parents Anne Cammisa and Matty Iadanza His mother was a bookkeeper, Danzas father was an American of Italian ancestry and Danzas mother was an immigrant from the town of Campobello di Mazara in the Sicilian province of Trapani. He has a brother, Matty Jr. a Los Angeles restaurant owner. When Danza was 14, he and his family relocated to Malverne, New York, Danza attended Malverne High School, graduating in 1969. In the first episode of his show Teach, Tony Danza, Danza describes himself as a bad student in high school and he earned a bachelors degree in history in 1972 from the University of Dubuque, which he attended on a wrestling scholarship. In 1975, as a joke, Danzas friends entered him in the New York City Golden Gloves, after knocking out his first six opponents all in the first round, Danza was knocked out in the finals. During his first year of college, he had the Robert Crumb Keep on Truckin character tattooed on his right arm. In a 1985 interview in Us Weekly magazine, Danza remarked, I was playing pool with a guy who had all these tattoos, Danza also sports a Keep Punching boxing gloves tattoo on his right shoulder as well as Tracy, his wifes name, on his chest. In college, Danza met and married his first wife, Danza was a professional boxer with a record of 9–3, with all but one of his fights, wins and losses, ending in a knockout. Shortly after his graduation, Danza was discovered by a producer at a boxing gymnasium in New York. He then earned a spot on the television show Taxi, for his contribution to the television industry, in 1988, Danza was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard. Danza also plays the role of a player in Angels in the Outfield. Danza also starred in the short-lived sitcoms Hudson Street and The Tony Danza Show, not to be confused with his 2004–2006 talk show and he had a role in the TV drama Family Law from 2000 until 2002. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for a guest-starring 1998 role in the TV series The Practice and his movie debut was in the comedy The Hollywood Knights, which was followed by Going Ape. He received critical acclaim for his performance in the 1999 Broadway revival of the Eugene ONeill play The Iceman Cometh, in 2002, Danza released his debut album The House I Live In as a 1950s-style crooner. Danza hosted his own TV talk show, The Tony Danza Show, on May 9,2005, during a go-kart race with NASCAR star Rusty Wallace, who was a guest on the show, Danzas kart flipped after Wallace accidentally bumped him
Tony Danza
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Tony Danza at the 2012 Texas Book Festival.
6.
HitRecord
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HitRecord is an online collaborative production company founded and owned by actor and director Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The company uses a variety of media to produce such projects as short films, books, HitRecord has produced such short films as Morgan M. Morgansens Date with Destiny and its sequel Morgan and Destinys Eleventeenth Date, The Zeppelin Zoo. In 2005, actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt started the site with his brother, Dan. It began as a way for them to solicit feedback for videos they posted, in January 2010 at the Sundance Film Festival, HitRecord launched its new website and introduced its new professional production methodology, allowing contributing artists to be paid for their work. That year, Joseph sent out $50,000 worth of checks to its contributors, the site now hosts nearly 80, 000+ members and pulls in about 1,000 videos, songs, text pieces and artworks daily. The companys logo is the symbol, which Gordon-Levitt can be seen wearing frequently in interviews, at events. The actor/founder says that round REC button became a symbol, a metaphor for taking things into my own hands, HitRecords work was also featured at 2010 SxSW and at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. It is hosted by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and the series will feature short films, live conversations, $50,000 is set aside from the budget of each episode to compensate contributing artists. The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories 2010 was self-published in 2010 by hitrecord. org, featuring 45 contributors from 2,312 contributions to the Tiny Stories collaboration. This edition of the Tiny Book of Tiny Stories 2010 was sold exclusively via HitRecords website, the Tiny Book of Tiny Stories, Volume 1 was released on December 6,2011. Gordon-Levitt, known within the HitRecord community as RegularJOE, directed thousands of collaborators to tell stories through words. With the help of the creative collective, Gordon-Levitt gathered, edited and curated over 8,500 contributions into this collection of original art from 67 contributors. Volume 1 saw its sequels when HitRecord released The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories, Volume 2 on November 13,2012 and The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories, Volume 2 featured 62 contributors from some 14,946 contributions. In May 2012, HitRecord published Little Red Riding Hood Redux, the adaptation of the fairy tale with art, essays. The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories, Volume 1 and the book of RECollection, RECollection, Volume 1 is a collection of a book, a DVD and a CD released on September 20,2011. It features contributions of 471 collaborators is what and is the very first anthology of HitRecords work, the book is 64 full-color pages of poetry, prose, paintings, photography, comical curiosities, non-sequiturs, and bed-time stories. While the DVD is a collection of 36 short films created under the direction of Gordon-Levitt and it features short films, animations, music videos, tiny stories and records from HitRecords various live events. The CD is a compilation of 17 collaboratively-made songs sung by artists on Gordon-Levitts pretend radio show
HitRecord
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HitRecord
HitRecord
–
Founder
Gordon-Levitt at the 2012
WonderCon, wearing the HitRecord logo button.
7.
Relativity Media
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Relativity Media LLC is an American media company headquartered in Beverly Hills, California, founded in 2004 by Lynwood Spinks and Ryan Kavanaugh. The studio was the third largest mini-major globally until bankruptcy on July 30,2015 and its full-scale film studio acquires, develops, produces and distributes films. The companys partners and financial institutions have invested $20 billion as of 2012 in entertainment investments with partners such as Citibank, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Relativity Media also works in fashion, sports, digital and music. On July 30,2015, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York after lawsuits, in March 2016, the company emerged from the bankruptcy. The studio was founded by Ryan Kavanaugh and Lynwood Spinks in 2004 as a middleman company arranging multi-film slate deals with studios then arranging financial support through banks, Relativity Media would receive film equity, producers credit and a fee. Initially, Stark Investments, a Wisconsin-based hedge fund, funded the companys single-picture business, by 2007, these investors stopped making movie-finance deals. Elliott Management, a $16 billion New York–based hedge fund run by Paul Singer, then took a minority share of the company access to around $1 billion in capital. On January 4,2009, the acquired the genre label Rogue from Universal. Relativity oversaw Rogues 2009 film offerings, which consisted of Last House On The Left, The Unborn, Come Out Fighting, the deal also included the Rogue film library, featuring such films as Assault On Precinct 13 and The Strangers. One of the first arrangements was that the movie 21 and Over was partially filmed in Dongshigu, on May 18,2012, it was reported that Relativity was in talks to buy German producer-distributor Senator Entertainment. On July 6,2010, Relativity and Netflix announced a five-year-plus Pay-TV deal, the first two films to stream on Netflix were The Fighter and Skyline. On July 23,2010, Relativity acquired the 45-person marketing and distribution staff of Starz Overture Films, the studio distributed its first film on December 3,2010. The Warriors Way was directed by Sngmoo Lee and starring Jang Dong-gun, Geoffrey Rush, on May 20,2012, it was reported that Relativity and EuropaCorp signed a co-production and co-financing deal on two movies and Relativity will distribute in U. S. Relativity also has deals with Atlas Entertainment and Virgin Produced. In September 2011, Robbie Brenner was promoted from Executive Vice President, Production to President, on November 27,2011 it was reported Ron Burkle loaned $200 million to Relativity for Immortals and Mirror Mirror. On January 23,2012, Burkle purchased an equity stake in Relativity Media from Elliot Capital Management for at least $800 million. On May 31,2012 Relativity and Ron Burkle announced they raised $350 million in funding for films, Ron Burkle will also join the board of Relativity, along with Jason Colodne and Jason Beckman who are partners at Colbeck Capital. In July 2012, Relativity merged its Rogue Sports, an agency with Maximum Sports Management, a football agency
Relativity Media
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Relativity Media LLC
8.
2013 Sundance Film Festival
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The 2013 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 17,2013 until January 27,2013 in Park City, Utah, United States, with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah, Ogden, Utah, and Sundance, Utah. A record 12,146 films were submitted,429 more films than the 2012 festival,4,044 feature films were submitted and 119 were selected. 8,102 short films were submitted and 65 were selected, the festival had films representing 32 countries, from 51 first-time filmmakers,27 of which had films in competition. For the first time in the history, half of the films featured were made by women. In the U. S. dramatic competition,8 directors were women and 8 were men, in the U. S. documentary competition,8 directors were women and 8 were men. In the dramatic category, however, only 3 of the 18 films were directed by women. Linsanity, a documentary about the rise of Asian American basketball player Jeremy Lin, the Los Angeles Times wrote that it received a rousing response, easily making it one of the most crowd-pleasing documentaries to play the festival this year. The awards ceremony was held on January 26,2013 a few north of Park City, Utah at Kimball Junction at the Basin Recreation Fieldhouse. Grand Jury Prize, Documentary - Blood Brother U. S, Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic - Fruitvale World Cinema Grand Jury Prize, Documentary - A River Changes Course World Cinema Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic - Jiseul Audience Award, U. S. Documentary - Blood Brother Audience Award, U. S. S, Documentary - Cutie and the Boxer Directing Award, U. S. S. Screenwriting Award, World Cinema Dramatic - Wajma Editing Award, U. S, Documentary - Gideons Army Editing Award, World Cinema Documentary - The Summit Cinematography Award, U. S. Documentary - Dirty Wars, The World Is a Battlefield Cinematography Award, Dramatic - Aint Them Bodies Saints and Mother of George Cinematography Award, World Cinema Documentary - Who is Dayani Cristal. Cinematography Award, World Cinema Dramatic - Lasting U. S, Documentary Special Jury Award for Achievement in Filmmaking - Inequality for All U. S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Achievement in Filmmaking - American Promise U. S, the Shorts Awards were presented January 22,2013 at the Jupiter Bowl at Redstone Square. Short Film Grand Jury Prize - The Whistle Short Film Jury Award, U. S. Johnston for Aint Them Bodies Saints For the first time since 2009, Dramatic Grand Jury Prize, and the U. S. Blood Brother also won top prizes in the U. S. Documentary competition, the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award, nineteen of the jury members, which award prizes to films, were announced on December 19,2012. The 5 members of the Alfred P. Sloan Jury, which also took part in the Science in Film Forum Panel, were announced on January 17,2013
2013 Sundance Film Festival
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Festival poster
9.
Romantic comedy film
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Romantic comedy films are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as that true love is able to surmount most obstacles. One dictionary definition is a movie, play, or television program about a love story that ends happily. Another definition states that its primary distinguishing feature is a plot in which two sympathetic and well-matched lovers are united or reconciled. Romantic comedy films are a genre of comedy films as well as of romance films. However a romantic comedy is classified as a film with two genres not a new genre. Some television series can also be classified as romantic comedies, a wedding-bells, fairy-tale-style happy ending is practically mandatory. The basic plot of a comedy is that two characters meet, part ways due to an argument or other obstacle, then ultimately reunite. Sometimes the two meet and become involved initially, then must confront challenges to their union. Sometimes they are hesitant to become involved because they believe that they do not like each other, because one of them already has a partner. However, the screenwriters leave clues that suggest that the characters are, in fact, attracted to each other, the protagonists often separate or seek time apart to sort out their feelings or deal with the external obstacles to their being together. While the two protagonists are separated, one or both of them realizes that they are ideal for each other, or that they are in love with each other. Then, after one of the two makes some effort to find the other person and declare their love, or through an astonishing coincidental encounter. Then, perhaps with some comic friction or awkwardness, they declare their love for each other, the couple does not, however, have to marry, or live together happily ever after. The ending of a comedy is meant to affirm the primary importance of the love relationship in its protagonists lives. There are many variations on this basic plotline, sometimes, instead of the two lead characters ending up in each others arms, another love match will be made between one of the principal characters and a secondary character. Alternatively, the film may be a rumination on the impossibility of love, the basic format of a romantic comedy film can be found in much earlier sources, such as Shakespeare plays like Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Nights Dream. Some comedy films, such as Knocked Up, combine themes of romantic comedies and stoner comedies, often known as bromance, such films usually use sexual elements which bring the two characters together. Films in this genre include American Pie 2 and even Wedding Crashers, romantic comedies have begun to spread out of their conventional and traditional structure into other territory
Romantic comedy film
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Marilyn Monroe and
Tom Ewell in
The Seven Year Itch trailer.
Romantic comedy film
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Kathryn Grayson in Seven Sweethearts (1942), a musical romantic comedy film
Romantic comedy film
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Mary Astor and
Joel McCrea in
The Palm Beach Story, a screwball romantic comedy
10.
Italian American
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Italian Americans are an ethnic group comprising Americans who have full or partial ancestry from Italy, especially those who identify with that ancestry, along with their cultural characteristics. Italian Americans are the fourth largest European ethnic group in the United States, about 5.5 million Italians immigrated to the United States from 1820 to 2004. Immigration began in earnest during the 1870s, when more than twice as many Italians immigrated than during the five previous decades altogether. The 1870s were followed by the greatest surge of immigration, which occurred in the period between 1880 and 1914 and brought more than 4 million Italians to America. This period of large scale immigration ended abruptly with the onset of the First World War in 1914 and, except for one year, further immigration would be greatly limited by a number of restrictive laws passed by Congress in the 1920s. Approximately 84% of the Italian immigrants came from Southern Italy and Sicily, after unification, the Italian government initially encouraged emigration to relieve economic pressures in the South. After the American Civil War, which resulted in over a million killed or wounded, immigrant workers were recruited from Italy. In the United States, most Italians began their new lives as manual laborers in Eastern cities, mining camps, Italian Americans gradually moved from the lower rungs of the economic scale in the first generation to a level comparable to the national average by 1970. By 1990, more than 65% of Italian Americans were managerial, professional, the Italian-American communities have often been characterized by strong ties with family, the Catholic Church, fraternal organizations and political parties. Today, over 17 million Americans claim Italian ancestry, third only to Brazil with 31 million, and Argentina, Italians and their descendants in America have helped to shape the country and, in turn, have adapted to it. They have gained prominence in politics, sports, the media, the arts, the culinary arts. Italian navigators and explorers played a key role in the discovery, exploration, christopher Columbus, the explorer who first reached the Americas in 1492–1504, was Italian. Another notable Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci, who explored the east coast of South America between 1499 and 1502, is the source of the name America. Englands claims in North America were based on the voyages of the Italian explorer John Cabot, in 1524 the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European to map the Atlantic coast of todays United States, and to enter New York Bay. In 1539, Marco da Nizza, explored the territory later became the states of Arizona. In the 17th century, Henri de Tonti, together with the French explorer LaSalle, De Tonti founded the first European settlement in Illinois in 1679, and in Arkansas in 1683. With LaSalle, he co-founded New Orleans, and was governor of the Louisiana Territory for the next 20 years and his brother Alphonse de Tonty, with French explorer Antoine Cadillac, was the co-founder of Detroit in 1701, and was its acting colonial governor for 12 years. Spain and France were Catholic countries and sent many missionaries to convert the native population, included among these missionaries were numerous Italians
Italian American
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Amadeo Giannini
Italian American
Italian American
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Fiorello LaGuardia
Italian American
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Vincent R. Capodanno
11.
Don Juan
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Don Juan, Don Giovanni is a legendary, fictional libertine. The first written version of the Don Juan legend was written by the Spanish dramatist Tirso de Molina and his play, El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra, was set in the fourteenth century and published in Spain around 1630. The name Don Juan is a metaphor for a womanizer. The original play was written in the Spanish Golden Age according to its beliefs and ideals, Tirso de Molina wrote El burlador de Sevilla in 1630 in order to demonstrate a life-changing lesson. However, through his play, he shows that even Don Juan, who is identified as the very devil, Tirso reminds us that we must pay for our actions, and that in the end, death makes us all equal. Although the various iterations of the Don Juan myth show some variation, starting with Tirsos work, Don Juan is portrayed as a wealthy libertine who devotes his life to seducing women, taking great pride in his ability to seduce women of all ages and stations in life. Tan largo me lo fiáis is the aphorism that Don Juan lives by and it is his way of indicating that he is young and death is still distant, trusting he has plenty of time to repent for his sins. His life is punctuated with violence and gambling, and in many interpretations, he kills Don Gonzalo. This leads to the famous last supper scene, whereby Don Juan invites the statue of the father to dinner, the ending depends on which version of the legend one is reading. Tirsos original play was meant as religious parable against Don Juans sinful ways, other authors and playwrights would interpret the ending in their own fashion. In Da Pontes libretto for Don Giovanni, he refuses to repent despite being given the opportunity by the statue. Esproncedas Don Felix walks into hell and to his death of his own volition, whereas Zorrillas Don Juan asks for, and receives, the figure of Don Juan has inspired many modern interpretations. In a famous passage, Kierkegaard discusses Mozarts version of the Don Juan story, Charles Rosen saw what he called the seductive physical power of Mozarts music as linked to 18th century libertinism, political fervor, and incipient Romanticism. In Spain, the first three decades of the century saw more cultural fervor surrounding the Don Juan figure than perhaps any other period. During the 1918 influenza epidemic in Spain, the figure of Don Juan served as a metaphor for the flu microbe, the Don Juan legend discusses the theological question of the Act of Contrition, through which those who regretted their sins before death, would automatically receive salvation. However, others believed that some sins were unforgivable and that a simple Act of Contrition would not save them from damnation for all the harm they had caused, Tirso de Molinas theological perspective is quite apparent through the message he conveys with the dreadful ending of his play. Specifically redefined as masculine honor and feminine integrity, under the importance of honor, men in this time period found feminine integrity to be a crucial element, to the point where women in the Italian version of Don Juan are devalued. These low views of the women society affect Don Juan’s opinions and are sources to his behavior and he begins to view women as a number he could add to his list and not see who they actually were
Don Juan
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Portrait of
Francisco D'Andrade as Don Juan in
Mozart 's
Don Giovanni by
Max Slevogt, 1912
12.
Jewish
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The Jews, also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Israelites, or Hebrews, of the Ancient Near East. Jews originated as a national and religious group in the Middle East during the second millennium BCE, the Merneptah Stele appears to confirm the existence of a people of Israel, associated with the god El, somewhere in Canaan as far back as the 13th century BCE. The Israelites, as an outgrowth of the Canaanite population, consolidated their hold with the emergence of the Kingdom of Israel, some consider that these Canaanite sedentary Israelites melded with incoming nomadic groups known as Hebrews. The worldwide Jewish population reached a peak of 16.7 million prior to World War II, but approximately 6 million Jews were systematically murdered during the Holocaust. Since then the population has risen again, and as of 2015 was estimated at 14.3 million by the Berman Jewish DataBank. According to the report, about 43% of all Jews reside in Israel and these numbers include all those who self-identified as Jews in a socio-demographic study or were identified as such by a respondent in the same household. The exact world Jewish population, however, is difficult to measure, Israel is the only country where Jews form a majority of the population. The modern State of Israel was established as a Jewish state and defines itself as such in its Declaration of Independence and its Law of Return grants the right of citizenship to any Jew who requests it. The English word Jew continues Middle English Gyw, Iewe, according to the Hebrew Bible, the name of both the tribe and kingdom derive from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. The Hebrew word for Jew, יְהוּדִי ISO 259-3 Yhudi, is pronounced, with the stress on the syllable, in Israeli Hebrew. The Ladino name is ג׳ודיו, Djudio, ג׳ודיוס, Djudios, Yiddish, ייִד Yid, ייִדן, Yidn. The etymological equivalent is in use in languages, e. g. but derivations of the word Hebrew are also in use to describe a Jew, e. g. in Italian. The German word Jude is pronounced, the corresponding adjective jüdisch is the origin of the word Yiddish, in such contexts Jewish is the only acceptable possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this construction that they have extended the stigma to any use of Jew as a noun, a factual reconstruction for the origin of the Jews is a difficult and complex endeavor. It requires examining at least 3,000 years of ancient human history using documents in vast quantities, as archaeological discovery relies upon researchers and scholars from diverse disciplines, the goal is to interpret all of the factual data, focusing on the most consistent theory. In this case, it is complicated by long standing politics and religious, Jacob and his family migrated to Ancient Egypt after being invited to live with Jacobs son Joseph by the Pharaoh himself. The patriarchs descendants were later enslaved until the Exodus led by Moses, traditionally dated to the 13th century BCE, Modern archaeology has largely discarded the historicity of the Patriarchs and of the Exodus story, with it being reframed as constituting the Israelites inspiring national myth narrative. The growth of Yahweh-centric belief, along with a number of practices, gradually gave rise to a distinct Israelite ethnic group
Jewish
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Baruch Spinoza
Jewish
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David Ben-Gurion
Jewish
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George Gershwin
Jewish
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Map of
Canaan
13.
Facebook
–
Facebook is an American for-profit corporation and an online social media and social networking service based in Menlo Park, California. Facebook gradually added support for students at other universities. Since 2006, anyone age 13 and older has been allowed to become a user of Facebook, though variations exist in the minimum age requirement. The Facebook name comes from the face book directories often given to United States university students, Facebook may be accessed by a large range of desktops, laptops, tablet computers, and smartphones over the Internet and mobile networks. After registering to use the site, users can create a user profile indicating their name, occupation, schools attended and so on. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups organized by workplace, school, hobbies or other topics, in groups, editors can pin posts to top. Additionally, users can complain about or block unpleasant people, because of the large volume of data that users submit to the service, Facebook has come under scrutiny for its privacy policies. Facebook makes most of its revenue from advertisements which appear onscreen, Facebook, Inc. held its initial public offering in February 2012, and began selling stock to the public three months later, reaching an original peak market capitalization of $104 billion. On July 13,2015, Facebook became the fastest company in the Standard & Poors 500 Index to reach a market cap of $250 billion, Facebook has more than 1.86 billion monthly active users as of December 31,2016. As of April 2016, Facebook was the most popular social networking site in the world, Facebook classifies users from the ages of 13 to 18 as minors and therefore sets their profiles to share content with friends only. Zuckerberg wrote a program called Facemash on October 28,2003 while attending Harvard University as a sophomore, to accomplish this, Zuckerberg hacked into protected areas of Harvards computer network and copied private dormitory ID images. Facemash attracted 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first four hours online, the site was quickly forwarded to several campus group list-servers, but was shut down a few days later by the Harvard administration. Zuckerberg faced expulsion and was charged by the administration with breach of security, violating copyrights, Zuckerberg expanded on this initial project that semester by creating a social study tool ahead of an art history final exam. He uploaded 500 Augustan images to a website, each of which was featured with a corresponding comments section and he shared the site with his classmates, and people started sharing notes. The following semester, Zuckerberg began writing code for a new website in January 2004 and he said that he was inspired by an editorial about the Facemash incident in The Harvard Crimson. On February 4,2004, Zuckerberg launched Thefacebook, originally located at thefacebook. com. com and they claimed that he was instead using their ideas to build a competing product. The three complained to The Harvard Crimson and the newspaper began an investigation and they later filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg, subsequently settling in 2008 for 1.2 million shares. Membership was initially restricted to students of Harvard College, within the first month, eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum, and Chris Hughes joined Zuckerberg to help promote the website
Facebook
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Facebook login/signup screen
Facebook
–
Mark Zuckerberg, co-creator of Facebook, in his
Harvard dorm room, 2005.
Facebook
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Facebook headquarters entrance sign at 1 Hacker Way,
Menlo Park, California
Facebook
–
Billboard on the
Thomson Reuters building welcomes Facebook to NASDAQ, 2012
14.
Anne Hathaway
–
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress and singer. Hathaway went on to become a widely praised role model for children for her roles in Nicholas Nickleby, Ella Enchanted, The Princess Diaries 2, Royal Engagement, and Hoodwinked. In 2011, Hathaway voiced Jewel in the animated film Rio and hosted the 83rd Academy Awards with James Franco, in 2012, she portrayed Catwoman in Christopher Nolans The Dark Knight Rises, for which she won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress. The same year, she starred as Fantine in Tom Hoopers Les Misérables, which earned her acclaim and she won the Academy, Golden Globe, BAFTA. Hathaway has since gone on to appear in Rio 2, Interstellar, The Intern, People magazine named Hathaway one of its breakthrough stars of 2001, and she appeared on its list of the worlds 50 Most Beautiful People in 2006. Following a four-year relationship with real estate developer Raffaello Follieri, Hathaway married Adam Shulman in 2012, with whom she has one son, Hathaway was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her father, Gerald Thomas Hathaway, is a lawyer, and her mother, Kathleen played Fantine in the first U. S. tour of Les Misérables. When Hathaway was six years old, her moved to Millburn, New Jersey. Hathaway is the middle of three children with her brother, Michael and younger brother, Thomas. Kathleen is of Irish descent, and Gerald is of Irish, French, English, at the age of fifteen, her relationship with the Catholic Church changed, after learning that Michael was gay. She said, I realized my older brother was gay, and I couldnt support a religion that didnt support my brother, now I call myself a non-denominational Christian, because I havent found the religion for me. In 2009, she stated that her religious beliefs are a work in progress, Hathaway attended Brooklyn Heights Montessori School and Wyoming Elementary School in Millburn. Later, she appeared in plays, including Jane Eyre and Gigi at New Jerseys Paper Mill Playhouse, Hathaway studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and was the first teenager admitted into The Barrow Group Theater Companys acting program. Between 1998 and 1999, she sang soprano with the All-Eastern U. S, high School Honors Chorus at Carnegie Hall and in plays at Seton Hall Preparatory School in West Orange, New Jersey. She is a stage actress and stated that she prefers performing from stage to film roles. Her acting style has been compared to those of Judy Garland and she cites Garland as one of her favorite actresses and Meryl Streep as her idol. At the age of sixteen, three days after her performance at Carnegie Hall, Hathaway was cast in the short-lived Fox television series Get Real. She made her film debut The Princess Diaries, which is based on Meg Cabots 2000 novel of the same name, Hathaway auditioned for the role of a princess-to-be during a flight layover on the way to New Zealand and was cast on the strength of this one audition
Anne Hathaway
–
Hathaway in 2014
Anne Hathaway
–
Hathaway at the
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in 2008
Anne Hathaway
–
Hathaway at the 2007
Deauville American Film Festival
Anne Hathaway
–
Hathaway on the red carpet in 2009 at the
81st Academy Awards
15.
Channing Tatum
–
Channing Matthew Tatum is an American actor, dancer, and former stripper. Tatum made his debut in the drama film Coach Carter. His breakthrough role was in the 2006 dance film Step Up and he is known for his portrayal of the character Duke in the 2009 action film G. I. Joe, The Rise of Cobra and its 2013 sequel G. I, Joe films received negative reviews from critics, they were commercially successful, grossing more than $300 million at the box office. Tatum is also known for his role in Magic Mike. He appeared in films as Dear John and The Vow and his other films include Shes the Man, The Dilemma, White House Down, the drama Foxcatcher, The Hateful Eight and Hail, Caesar. Tatum was born in Cullman, Alabama, the son of Kay, a worker, and Glenn Tatum. He has a sister named Paige and he is mostly of English ancestry. His family moved to the Pascagoula, Mississippi area when he was six and he grew up in the bayous near the Mississippi River, where he lived in a rural setting. Tatum has discussed having dealt with attention deficit disorder and dyslexia while growing up, athletic while growing up, he played football, soccer, track, baseball, and performing martial arts, he has said that girls were always biggest distraction in school. As a child, he practiced wuzuquan kung fu, Tatum spent most of his teenage years in the Tampa area, and initially attended Gaither High School. He later attended Glenville State College in Glenville, West Virginia on a football scholarship and he returned home and started working odd jobs. US Weekly reported that around this time Tatum left his job as a roofer and began working as a stripper at a local nightclub, in 2010, he told an Australian newspaper that he wanted to make a movie about his experiences as a stripper. That idea led to the movie Magic Mike, Tatum moved to Miami, where he was discovered by a model talent scout. In 2000, Tatum was first cast as a dancer in Ricky Martins She Bangs music video, after an audition in Orlando, Florida and his experience in the fashion industry began as a model working for noted clients such as Armani and Abercrombie & Fitch. He soon moved into television commercials, landing spots for Mountain Dew. He subsequently signed with Page 305, an agency in Miami. He was cast by Al David for Vogue magazine and soon appeared in campaigns for Abercrombie & Fitch, Nautica, Dolce & Gabbana, American Eagle Outfitters
Channing Tatum
–
Tatum at the premiere of
Magic Mike XXL in Sydney Australia, July 2015
Channing Tatum
–
Tatum at the
2011 Toronto International Film Festival
Channing Tatum
–
Tatum and his wife Jenna Dewan at the
71st Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon 2012
Channing Tatum
–
Channing Tatum, Deborah Scranton, Jenna Dewan Tatum and Reid Carolin at the 71st Annual Peabody Awards for 'Earth Made of Glass'
16.
Meagan Good
–
Meagan Monique Good is an American actress. Beginning her career in 1985 at the age of four, Good has appeared in television shows, films. In 2011, Good featured in an ensemble cast of the film version of Think Like a Man. She played Joanna Locasto, the character on the NBC drama series Deception. She also starred in the 2013 comedy Anchorman 2, The Legend Continues starring Will Ferrell, Good has also earned a reputation as a scream queen, having starred in the horror films Venom, One Missed Call, Saw V, and The Unborn. Good was born on August 8,1982, in Panorama City, Los Angeles and her mother, Tyra Wardlow-Doyle, worked as Goods manager into her teens, and her father, Leondis Leon Good, is an LAPD police officer. Good has said of her ancestry that her grandmother is Chinese and Jamaican. My mothers father was Cherokee and something else and my dads mothers Puerto Rican and black, and his father was from Barbados. Good was raised with her three siblings in Canyon Country, California and she began her acting career around the age of four. In the early stages of her career, Good worked as an extra on shows such as Doogie Howser, M. D. When she was 13, she was cast in her first film, according to Good, she grew up super nerdy, super skinny, buckteeth, big ole afro and yet I had a sense of confidence about myself, like, they just dont get it yet. She was a fan of Justin Timberlake and Usher in her teens, Good did not have any role models until early adulthood, when she began admiring actress Charlize Theron. After taking on small film and television roles for the few years. Good believes she was able to move into adult roles due to playing several years younger than her. From 1998 to 2001, she appeared as Nina on Nickelodeons hit show Cousin Skeeter, Good later took on small roles in the films 3 Strikes and House Party 4, Down to the Last Minute. In 2003, a year for Good, she landed roles in the action-drama Biker Boyz and the romantic-comedy Deliver Us from Eva. She also appeared as the character Vanessa for five episodes during the season of My Wife and Kids. In 2004, Good starred alongside Jordana Brewster, Sara Foster and she also had small roles in The Cookout, Lance Un Riveras directorial debut, and the teen dance film You Got Served
Meagan Good
–
Good in
Hollywood, California, August 13, 2012
17.
Cuba Gooding Jr.
–
Cuba Gooding Jr. is an American actor. For his portrayal of O. J. Simpson in the FX drama series The People v. O. J. Simpson, American Crime Story and he co-starred in the sixth season of the FX anthology series American Horror Story, subtitled Roanoke. His other films include As Good as It Gets, American Gangster, Lee Daniels The Butler, Gooding was born on January 2,1968 in The Bronx, New York City. His mother, Shirley, is a singer with the Sweethearts, Gooding has three siblings, April, Omar, and Tommy. His paternal grandfather, Dudley MacDonald Gooding, was a native of Barbados and his family moved to Los Angeles in 1972 after his fathers music group had their hit single Everybody Plays the Fool, two years later, the elder Gooding left the family. He served as president in three of them. He became a born-again Christian at age 13, in 1994, Gooding married his high school sweetheart, Sara Kapfer, with whom he has three children. In 2014, Kapfer filed for separation from Gooding. Gooding filed for divorce in January 2017, goodings first job as an entertainer was as a breakdancer performing with singer Lionel Richie at the closing ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. After high school, Gooding studied Japanese martial arts for three years, before turning his focus toward acting, early on, he landed guest starring roles on shows like Hill Street Blues, Amen and MacGyver and also had a tiny part in the popular comedy Coming to America. Goodings first major role was in John Singletons inner-city crime drama Boyz n the Hood, in which he played the lead, a box office surprise and critical hit, the film is now considered a modern classic. He followed this success with supporting roles in films such as A Few Good Men, Judgment Night, Lightning Jack. Most significantly, it earned Gooding an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and his exuberant Show me the money. Line in the film became a catch phrase. Additionally, his Oscar acceptance speech has often cited for its enthusiasm. Additionally, though not well received critically, the family comedy Snow Dogs was a commercial success, other roles of note during this time include Theo Caulder in the psychological thriller Instinct and the voice of Buck in the Disney animated film Home on the Range. On top of this, Gooding had allegedly turned down roles in films such as Amistad in the aftermath of his Oscar win. Ultimately, neither his earlier successes nor his leading roles in a couple of independent films
Cuba Gooding Jr.
–
Gooding in April 2012
18.
Rian Johnson
–
Rian Craig Johnson is an American writer, producer, director, and voice actor. He won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival with his feature film. Johnson directed The Brothers Bloom and Looper, as well as three episodes of the AMC series Breaking Bad, Johnson is the writer and director of Star Wars, The Last Jedi, the eighth film in the Star Wars saga and the second in the sequel trilogy. He has written the treatment for Star Wars, Episode IX. Johnson was born in Maryland. He was raised in San Clemente, California, and attended San Clemente High School and he then attended the University of Southern California and graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 1996. Johnsons first short film, Evil Demon Golfball from Hell, which is loosely based on Edgar Allan Poes The Tell-Tale Heart, was included as an easter egg on the Looper Blu-ray. Johnsons film career, as told to Robert K. Elder, author of The Film That Changed My Life, was inspired by Annie Hall. He stated, It moved me in a way very few other films have moved me. Thats something that, I pray to God, if I am able to keep making movies, I can only hope, twenty years down the line maybe and his debut film, made for just under $500,000, Brick is a crime drama. Johnson has often said that he looked to the novels of Dashiell Hammett as inspiration for the unique use of language. While the film is classified as a noir, Johnson claims that no references were made to film noir during production. Brick was released on DVD by Focus Features, Johnson directed the video for The Mountain Goats song Woke Up New in 2006. He is a fan of the band, and was asked to direct the video when bandleader John Darnielle noticed a reference to them in the credits for Brick. A song is credited to The Hospital Bombers Experience, which is a reference to the Mountain Goats song titled The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton, Johnson also directed a live performance film of the Mountain Goats 2009 album The Life of the World to Come. The film consists of a shot, depicting Darnielle performing the entire album on guitar. This film was screened in New York City, Chicago, Seattle, and Portland, Oregon upon its completion, Johnsons second film, The Brothers Bloom, is a con-man story released in theaters in May 2009, and later on DVD by Summit Entertainment. Johnsons third film, Looper, began shooting in Louisiana on January 24,2011 and was released on September 28,2012 by TriStar Pictures and FilmDistrict. Set in the future, it has been described as dark science fiction
Rian Johnson
–
Johnson in 2012
19.
Christopher Nolan
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Christopher Edward Nolan is an English-American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and editor. He is one of the directors in history, and among the most successful. The acclaim garnered by his independent films gave Nolan the opportunity to make the thriller film Insomnia. His nine films have grossed over US$4.2 billion worldwide and garnered a total of 26 Oscar nominations, Nolan has co-written several of his films with his younger brother, Jonathan, and runs the production company Syncopy Inc. with his wife, Emma Thomas. Nolans films are rooted in philosophical, sociological and ethical concepts, exploring human morality, the construction of time, and his English father, Brendan James Nolan, was an advertising executive, and his American mother, Christina, worked as a flight attendant and an English teacher. His childhood was split between London and Evanston, Illinois, and he has both British and American citizenship and he has an older brother, Matthew Francis Nolan, a convicted criminal, and a younger brother, Jonathan. He began making films at age seven, borrowing his fathers Super 8 camera, growing up, Nolan was particularly influenced by Star Wars, and around the age of eight he made a stop motion animation homage called Space Wars. His uncle who worked at NASA, building systems for the Apollo rockets. I re-filmed them off the screen and cut them in, thinking no-one would notice, from the age of 11, he aspired to be a professional filmmaker. When Nolans family relocated to Chicago during his years, he started making films with Adrien. He has continued his collaboration with the brothers, receiving a credit for his assistance on their Oscar-nominated documentary Genghis Blues. Nolan also worked alongside Roko on documenting a safari across four African countries, Nolan was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College, an independent school in Hertford Heath, Hertfordshire, and later read English literature at University College London. He chose UCL specifically for its facilities, which comprised a Steenbeck editing suite and 16 mm film cameras. Nolan was president of the Unions Film Society, and with Emma Thomas he screened 35 mm feature films during the school year, during his college years, Nolan made two short films. The first was the surreal 8 mm Tarantella, which was shown on Image Union, the second was Larceny, filmed over a weekend in black and white with a limited cast, crew, and equipment. Funded by Nolan and shot with the equipment, it appeared at the Cambridge Film Festival in 1996 and is considered one of UCLs best shorts. After graduation, Nolan worked as a reader, camera operator. He also made a short, Doodlebug, about a man chasing an insect around a flat with a shoe
Christopher Nolan
–
Nolan at the 2013 premiere of
Man of Steel in London
Christopher Nolan
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Nolan attended
University College London, and used its Flaxman Gallery for a scene in
Inception (2010).
Christopher Nolan
–
Nolan with the cast and crew of
The Dark Knight (2008) at the European premiere in London.
Christopher Nolan
–
Nolan accepting a "Certificate of Appreciation" from
Pittsburgh during a break from filming
The Dark Knight Rises in 2011.
20.
NC-17
–
The Motion Picture Association of America film rating system is used in the United States and its territories to rate a films suitability for certain audiences based on its content. The MPAA rating system is a scheme that is not enforced by law, films can be exhibited without a rating. Non-members of MPAA may also submit films for rating, other media, such as television programs and video games, is rated by other entities such as the ESRB and the TV Parental Guidelines. The MPAA rating system is one of various motion picture rating systems that are used to help decide what films are appropriate for their children. It is administered by the Classification & Ratings Administration, an independent division of the MPAA, if a film has not yet been assigned a final rating, the label This Film Is Not Yet Rated is used in trailers and television commercials. The MPAA also rates film trailers, print advertising, posters, green, yellow, or red title cards displayed before the start of a trailer indicate the trailers rating. Green, When the trailer accompanies another rated feature, the wording on the title card states The following preview has been approved to accompany this feature. For trailers hosted on the internet, the wording has been altered to The following preview has been approved for appropriate audiences. Yellow, A yellow title card exists solely for trailers hosted on the internet, the MPAA defines age-appropriate internet users as visitors to sites either frequented mainly by adults or accessible only between 9,00 p. m. and 4,00 a. m. The yellow card is reserved for trailers previewing films rated PG-13 or stronger, for trailers hosted on the internet, the wording is tweaked to The following restricted preview has been approved for appropriate audiences. The red title card is reserved for trailers previewing R and NC-17 rated films, in 1989, Tennessee enacted a law whereby patrons of an R-rated motion picture were not admitted unless they were at least 18 years old or accompanied by a parent or adult guardian. He revised the Code to include the SMA advisory as a stopgap measure, Rated X, Persons Under 16 Not Admitted This content classification system originally was to have three ratings, with the intention of allowing parents to take their children to any film they chose. However, the National Association of Theater Owners urged the creation of an adults-only category, the X rating was not an MPAA trademark and would not receive the MPAA seal, any producer not submitting a film for MPAA rating could self-apply the X rating. In 1970 the ages for R and X were raised from 16 to 17, in 1972, GP was revised to PG. In late 1989 and early 1990, two critically acclaimed art films featuring strong adult content, Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, were released. Neither film was approved for an MPAA rating, thus limiting their commercial distribution, in September 1990, the MPAA introduced the rating NC-17. Henry & June – previously to be assigned an X rating – was the first film to receive the NC-17 rating instead, in 1996, the minimum age for NC-17 films was raised to 18, by rewording it to No One 17 and Under Admitted. For example, some films explanations may read Strong Brutal Violence, Pervasive Language, Some Strong Sexual Content, around the late 1990s, the MPAA began applying rating explanations for PG, PG-13, and NC-17 films as well
NC-17
–
PG – Parental Guidance Suggested Some material may not be suitable for children. Parents urged to give "parental guidance". May contain some material parents might not like for their young children.
21.
Rotten Tomatoes
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Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by Senh Duong and since January 2010 has been owned by Flixster, in February 2016, Rotten Tomatoes and its parent site Flixster were sold to Comcasts Fandango. Warner Bros. retained a minority stake in the merged entities, since 2007, the websites editor-in-chief has been Matt Atchity. The name, Rotten Tomatoes, derives from the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes when disapproving of a stage performance. From early 2008 to September 2010, Current Television aired the weekly The Rotten Tomatoes Show, featuring hosts, a shorter segment was incorporated into the weekly show, InfoMania, which ended in 2011. In September 2013, the website introduced TV Zone, a section for reviewing scripted TV shows, Rotten Tomatoes was launched on August 12,1998, as a spare-time project by Senh Duong. His goal in creating Rotten Tomatoes was to create a site where people can get access to reviews from a variety of critics in the U. S. As a fan of Jackie Chans, Duong was inspired to create the website after collecting all the reviews of Chans movies as they were being published in the United States, the first movie whose reviews were featured on Rotten Tomatoes was Your Friends & Neighbors. The website was an success, receiving mentions by Netscape, Yahoo. and USA Today within the first week of its launch. They officially launched it on April 1,2000, in June 2004, IGN Entertainment acquired rottentomatoes. com for an undisclosed sum. In September 2005, IGN was bought by News Corps Fox Interactive Media, in January 2010, IGN sold the website to Flixster. The combined reach of both companies is 30 million unique visitors a month across all different platforms, according to the companies, in May 2011, Flixster was acquired by Warner Bros. In early 2009, Current Television launched the version of the web review site. It was hosted by Brett Erlich and Ellen Fox and written by Mark Ganek, the show aired every Thursday at 10,30 EST on the Current TV network. The last episode aired on September 16,2010 and it returned as a much shorter segment of InfoMania, a satirical news show that ended in 2011. By late 2009, the website was designed to enable Rotten Tomatoes users to create, one group, The Golden Oyster Awards, accepted votes of members for different awards, as if in parallel to the better-known Oscars or Golden Globes. When Flixster bought the company, they disbanded the groups, announcing, in the meantime, please use the Forums to continue your conversations about your favorite movie topics. As of February 2011, new community features have been added, for example, users can no longer sort films by fresh ratings from rotten ratings, and vice versa
Rotten Tomatoes
–
60–100%
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
–
≤0-59%
22.
Metacritic
–
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of media products, music albums, games, movies, TV shows, DVDs, and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged, Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc Doyle, and Julie Doyle Roberts. The site provides an excerpt from each review and hyperlinks to its source, a color of Green, Yellow or Red summarizes the critics recommendations and therefore the general appeal of the product to reviewers and, to a lesser extent, the public. It is regarded as the game industrys foremost review aggregator. Metacritics scoring converts each review into a percentage, either mathematically from the mark given, before being averaged, the scores are weighted according to the critics fame, stature, and volume of reviews. Metacritic was launched in July 1999 by Marc Doyle, his sister Julie Doyle Roberts, rotten Tomatoes was already compiling movie reviews, but Doyle, Roberts, and Dietz saw an opportunity to cover a broader range of media. They sold Metacritic to CNET in 2005, CNET and Metacritic are now owned by the CBS Corporation. Nick Wingfield of The Wall Street Journal wrote in September 2004, Mr. Doyle,36, is now a product manager at CNET. Speaking of video games, Doyle said, A site like ours helps people cut through. unobjective promotional language and he added that the review process was not taken as seriously when unconnected magazines and websites provided reviews in isolation. In August 2010, the appearance was revamped, reaction from users was overwhelmingly negative. Certain publications are given more significance because of their stature, games Editor Marc Doyle was interviewed by Keith Stuart of The Guardian to get a look behind the metascoring process. Stuart wrote, the phenomenon, namely Metacritic and GameRankings, have become an enormously important element of online games journalism over the past few years. The ranging of metascores is, Metacritic is regarded as the foremost online review site for the video game industry. Nick Wingfield of The Wall Street Journal has written that Metacritic influence the sales of games and he explains its influence as coming from the higher cost of buying video games than music or movie tickets. Many executives say that low scores can hurt the sales potential. He claimed that a number of businesses and financial analysts use Metacritic as an early indicator of a games potential sales and, by extension. In 2004, Jason Hall of Warner Bros. began including quality metrics in contracts with partners licensing its movies for games, if a product does not at least achieve a specific score, some deals require the publisher to pay higher royalties. In 2008, Microsoft began using Metacritic averages to de-list underperforming Xbox Live Arcade games and these are the top 10 individual games with the highest scores on the site as of 2 April 2017
Metacritic
–
Metacritic
23.
CinemaScore
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CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their experiences with letter grades, reports the results. A Yom Kippur donation card with tabs inspired the survey cards given to audience members, the company conducts surveys to audiences who have seen a film in theaters, asking them to rate the film and specifying what drew them to the film. Its results are published in Entertainment Weekly, CinemaScore pollster Dede Gilmore reported the trend in 1993, Most movies get easily a B-plus. I think people come wanting the entertainment, theyre more lenient with their grades. But as do it more and more, they get to be stronger critics, in 1993, films that were graded with an A included Scent of a Woman, A Few Good Men, and Falling Down. Films graded with a B included Sommersby and Untamed Heart, a C-grade film for the year was Body of Evidence. CinemaScore at first reported its findings to consumers, including a newspaper column, after 20th Century Fox approached the company in 1989, it began selling the data to studios instead. A website was launched by CinemaScore in 1999, after three years delay in which the president sought sponsorship from magazines and video companies, brad Peppard was president of CinemaScore Online from 1999 to 2002. The website included a database of nearly 2,000 feature films, prior to the launch, CinemaScore results had been published in Las Vegas Review-Journal and Reno Gazette-Journal. CinemaScores expansion to the Internet included a weekly email subscription for cinephiles to keep up with reports of audience reactions, in 1999, CinemaScore was rating approximately 140 films a year, including 98–99% of major studio releases. In the summer of 2002, CinemaScore reported that the season had the biggest collective grade since 1995, in the summer of 2000,25 out of 32 films received either an A or B grade. Twenty-six of the summer of 2001s 30 films got similar grades, while 32 of the summer of 2002s 34 films got similar grades, thirty-five to 45 teams of CinemaScore representatives are present in 25 large cities across North America. Each Friday, representatives in five randomly chosen cities give opening-day audiences a small survey card. The card asks for age, gender, a grade for the film between A+ and F, whether they would rent or buy the film on DVD or Blu-ray, and why they chose the film. CinemaScore typically receives about 400 cards per film, the company estimates a 65% response rate, the ratings are divided by gender and age groups, film studios and other subscribers receive the data at about 11 p. m. Pacific Time. Subsequent advertisements for highly ranked films often cite their CinemaScore grades, an A+ grade from CinemaScore for a film typically predicts a successful box office. From 1982 to August 2011, only 52 films received the top grade, A+ films include Titanic, Tangled, The Kings Speech, A Few Good Men, Driving Miss Daisy, and Toy Story 2
CinemaScore
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A CinemaScore survey card
24.
Sundance Film Festival
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The Sundance Film Festival, a program of the Sundance Institute, is an American film festival that takes place annually in Park City, Utah. With 46,660 attendees in 2016, it is the largest independent film festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the 2017 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 19 to January 29,2017. Sundance began in Salt Lake City in August 1978, as the Utah/US Film Festival in an effort to more filmmakers to Utah. It was founded by Sterling Van Wagenen, John Earle, the 1978 festival featured films such as Deliverance, A Streetcar Named Desire, Midnight Cowboy, Mean Streets, and The Sweet Smell of Success. The festival also highlighted the work of filmmakers who worked outside the Hollywood system. The jury of the 1978 festival was headed by Gary Allison, and included Verna Fields, Linwood G. Dunn, Katharine Ross, Charles E. Sellier Jr. Mark Rydell, and Anthea Sylbert. More than 60 films were screened at the festival that year, also that year, the first Frank Capra Award went to Jimmy Stewart. The festival also made a profit for the first time, in 1980, Catania left the festival to pursue a production career in Hollywood. Several factors helped propel the growth of Utah/US Film Festival, first was the involvement of actor and Utah resident Robert Redford, who became the festivals inaugural chairman. By having Redfords name associated with the festival, it received great attention, secondly, the country was hungry for more venues that would celebrate American-made films as the only other festival doing so at the time was the USA Film Festival in Dallas. Response in Hollywood was unprecedented as major studios did all they could to contribute their resources, in 1981, the festival moved to Park City, Utah, and changed the dates from September to January. It was called the US Film and Video Festival, in 1984, the now well-established Sundance Institute, headed by Sterling Van Wagenen, took over management of the US Film Festival. The branding and marketing transition from the US Film Festival to the Sundance Film Festival was managed under the direction of Colleen Allen, Allen Advertising Inc. by appointment of Robert Redford. In 1991 the festival was renamed the Sundance Film Festival, after Redfords character The Sundance Kid from the film Butch Cassidy. The majority of the screenings, including the festivals premieres. The 2013 Sundance London Festival was held April 25–28,2013, Sundance London 2014 took place on April 25–27,2014 at the O2 arena. The Sundance London 2015 Festival was cancelled in an announcement on January 16,2015, Sundance London will return to London in 2016 from June 10–12 at Picturehouse Cinema in Londons West End
Sundance Film Festival
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Sundance Film Festival
25.
Entertainment Weekly
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Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by Time Inc. that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books and popular culture. Different from celebrity-focused publications like Us Weekly, People, and In Touch Weekly, EW primarily concentrates on entertainment media news, however, unlike Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, which are aimed at industry insiders, EW targets a more general audience. The first issue was published on February 16,1990, the cover price was $1.95 The title word entertainment was not capitalized on the cover until mid-1992 and has remained so since. By 2003, the weekly circulation averaged 1.7 million copies per week. In March 2006, managing editor Rick Tetzeli oversaw an overhaul of EWs graphics, Entertainment Weekly follows a typical magazine format by featuring a letters to the editor and table of contents in the first few pages, while also featuring advertisements. While many advertisements are unrelated to the entertainment industry, the majority of ads are typically related to up-and-coming television and these beginning articles open the magazine and as a rule focus on current events in pop culture. First Look, subtitled An early peek at some of Hollywoods coolest projects, is a spread with behind-the-scenes or publicity stills of upcoming movies. The Hit List, written each week by critic Scott Brown, highlights ten major events, Typically, there will be some continuity to the commentaries. This column was written by Jim Mullen and featured twenty events each week. The Hollywood Insider is a section that reports breaking news in entertainment. It gives details, in the columns, on the most-current news in television, movie. The Style Report is a section devoted to celebrity style. Because its focus is on celebrity fashion or lifestyle, it is rich in nature. Recently, the converted to a new format, five pictures of celebrity fashions for the week. A spin-off section, Style Hunter, which finds reader-requested articles of clothing or accessories that have appeared in pop culture recently, appears frequently. The Monitor is a two-page spread devoted to events in celebrity lives with small paragraphs highlighting events such as weddings, illnesses, arrests, court appearances. Deaths of major celebrities are typically detailed in a one-half- or full-page obituary titled Legacy and this feature is nearly identical to sister publication Peoples Passages feature. Harris column focuses on analyzing current popular-culture events, and is generally the most serious of the columns, harris has written about the writers strike and the 2008 presidential election, among other topics
Entertainment Weekly
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Volume 1, Number 1 (February 16, 1990), cover featuring singer
k.d. lang
26.
Shame (2011 film)
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Shame is a 2011 British-American drama film directed and co-written by Steve McQueen, starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan as grown siblings. It was co-produced by Film4 and See-Saw Films, the films explicit scenes reflecting the protagonists sexual addiction resulted in a rating of NC-17 in the United States. Shame was released in the United Kingdom on 13 January 2012, Brandon, a New York City executive and long-term bachelor, frequently has sex with prostitutes and masturbates several times daily, sometimes viewing pornography on his work computers. One day Brandon makes eye contact with a wearing an engagement ring on the subway during his morning commute. She initially reciprocates, but becomes uncomfortable, when they exit, she disappears into the crowd. He masturbates in the bathroom afterwards at work, Brandon and his married boss, David, hit on women at a club, later, Brandon has sex on a quiet street with the woman David was pursuing. Brandon has been ignoring calls from his sister Sissy, a lounge singer and he arrives at his apartment to find her in his shower. Sissy has a few gigs in the city and asks to stay, after Brandons company computer system is infected with a virus, they find his hard drive was full of pornography. David assumes Brandons intern is responsible, Brandon rebukes Sissy for balancing precariously on the subway platform edge. Later, he and David watch her perform New York, New York in a bar, David flirts with her and notices the scars of self-inflicted wounds on her arms. Sissy has sex with David in her brothers bedroom while Brandon, disgusted, later that night, Sissy attempts to get in bed with Brandon, he orders her out of the room. That night, Sissy discovers Brandon masturbating in his bathroom and he attacks her and accuses her of spying on him. She finds his laptop open on a pornographic webcam site, Brandon slams the laptop shut and a disturbed Sissy leaves. Brandon disposes of his pornography, sex toys and laptop, at work, he kisses Marianne and the two get a hotel room, but Brandon cannot maintain an erection. Immediately after Marianne leaves, Brandon is seen having sex with a prostitute against the window of the same hotel room. Brandon tells Sissy that David has a family, and insists that she leave and she says that, as family, they are supposed to help each other, but Brandon accuses her of being irresponsible and a burden. Brandon goes to a bar and comes on to a woman and she is close to succumbing when her boyfriend intercedes. Brandon laughs in his face and tells him what he was saying, after he leaves the club unsatisfied, the boyfriend follows him out and brutally beats Brandon
Shame (2011 film)
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Shame
27.
The Village Voice
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The Village Voice is an American news and culture paper, known for being the countrys first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher and Norman Mailer, since its founding, The Village Voice has received three Pulitzer Prizes, the National Press Foundation Award and the George Polk Award. Among news sources, The Village Voice is known for its combination of news reporting and arts & culture coverage. The Village Voice has hosted a variety of writers and artists, including writer Ezra Pound, cartoonist Lynda Barry. In addition to daily coverage through its website and a print edition that circulates in New York City. In the 1960s the offices were located at Sheridan Square, then, from the 70s through 1980, at 11th Street and University Place, in 1991 they moved to Cooper Square in the East Village, and in 2013, to the Financial District. John Wilcock wrote a column every week for the papers first ten years, another regular from that period was the cartoonist Kin Platt, who did weekly theatrical caricatures. Other prominent regulars have included Peter Schjeldahl, Ellen Willis, Tom Carson, Wayne Barrett, the Voice has published investigations of New York City politics, as well as reporting on national politics, with arts, culture, music, dance, film, and theater reviews. Writers for the Voice have received three Pulitzer Prizes, in 1981,1986 and 2000, almost since its inception the paper has recognized alternative theater in New York through its Obie Awards. The papers Pazz & Jop music poll, started by Robert Christgau in the early 1970s, is released annually, in 1999, film critic J. Hoberman and film section editor Dennis Lim began a similar Village Voice Film Poll for the year in film. In 2001 the paper sponsored its first music festival, Siren Festival, in 2011, the event moved to the lower tip of Manhattan and re-christened the 4knots Music Festival, a reference to the speed of the East Rivers current. Today, the Voice is known for its support for the civil rights of gays. However, early in its history, the newspaper had a reputation as having an anti-homosexuality slant, while reporting on the Stonewall riots of 1969, the newspaper referred to the riots as The Great Faggot Rebellion. Two reporters, Smith and Truscott, both used the words faggot and dyke in their articles about the riots, the newspaper changed their policy after the GLF petitioned the newspaper to do so. Over time, the Voice has changed its stance, and in 1982, as a testament to the Voices popularity in New York City, the paper is mentioned in the musical Rent during the song La Vie Boheme. The line states To riding your bike midday past the three suits, to fruits, to no absolutes, to Absolut, to choice, to The Village Voice. Seventeen alternative weeklies around the United States are owned by the Voices parent company Village Voice Media, in 2005, the Phoenix alternative weekly chain New Times Media purchased the company and took the Village Voice Media name. After The Village Voice was acquired by New Times Media in 2005, the Voice was then managed by two journalists from Phoenix, Arizona
The Village Voice
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The Village Voice
The Village Voice
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The Cooper Square former head office of the paper
The Village Voice
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Village Voice columnist
Nat Hentoff; photo by Tom Pich
The Village Voice
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October 1955 cover
28.
Saturday Night Fever
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While in the disco, Tony is the champion dancer. The story is based upon a 1976 New York magazine article by British writer Nik Cohn, Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night, in the mid-1990s, Cohn acknowledged that he fabricated the article. In 2010, the film was deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. A huge commercial success, the film helped to popularize disco music around the world and made Travolta, already well known from his role on TVs Welcome Back, Kotter. The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, featuring songs by the Bee Gees, is one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time. The sequel Staying Alive also starred John Travolta and was directed by Sylvester Stallone, anthony Tony Manero is a 19-year-old Italian American man from the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City. Tony lives with his parents, and works at a job in a small hardware store. The stagnant monotony of his life is temporarily dispelled every Saturday night when Tony is king of the floor at 2001 Odyssey. Tony has four friends, Joey, Double J, Gus. A fringe member of his group of friends is Annette, a girl who longs for a more permanent physical relationship with Tony. Tony and his friends ritually stop on the Verrazano–Narrows Bridge to clown around, the bridge has special significance for Tony as a symbol of escape to a better life on the other side—in more suburban Staten Island. Although Stephanie coldly rejects Tonys advances, she agrees to be his partner in the dance competition. Tonys older brother, Frank Jr. who was the pride of the Manero family since he was ordained a Roman Catholic priest, Tony shares a warm relationship with Frank Jr. but feels vindicated that he is no longer the black sheep of the family. While on his way home from the store, Gus is attacked by a Hispanic gang. He tells Tony and his friends that his attackers were the Barracudas, meanwhile, Bobby C. has been trying to get out of his relationship with his devoutly Catholic girlfriend, Pauline, who is pregnant with his child. Facing pressure from his family and others to marry her, Bobby asks former priest Frank Jr. if the Pope would grant him dispensation for an abortion, when Frank tells him such a thing would be highly unlikely, Bobbys feelings of despair intensify. Bobby lets Tony borrow his 1964 Chevrolet Impala to help move Stephanie from Bay Ridge to Manhattan, eventually, the group gets their revenge on the Barracudas, and crash Bobby Cs car into their hangout. Tony, Double J, and Joey get out of the car to fight, when the guys visit Gus in the hospital, they are angry when he tells them that he may have targeted the wrong gang
Saturday Night Fever
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Theatrical release poster
Saturday Night Fever
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Movie poster of the PG version of Saturday Night Fever
