1.
Venice
–
Venice is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is situated across a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and these are located in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay that lies between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers. Parts of Venice are renowned for the beauty of their settings, their architecture, the lagoon and a part of the city are listed as a World Heritage Site. In 2014,264,579 people resided in Comune di Venezia, together with Padua and Treviso, the city is included in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, with a total population of 2.6 million. PATREVE is a metropolitan area without any degree of autonomy. The name is derived from the ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century BC, the city was historically the capital of the Republic of Venice. Venice has been known as the La Dominante, Serenissima, Queen of the Adriatic, City of Water, City of Masks, City of Bridges, The Floating City, and City of Canals. The City State of Venice is considered to have been the first real international financial center which gradually emerged from the 9th century to its peak in the 14th century and this made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history. It is also known for its several important artistic movements, especially the Renaissance period, Venice has played an important role in the history of symphonic and operatic music, and it is the birthplace of Antonio Vivaldi. Venice has been ranked the most beautiful city in the world as of 2016, the name Venetia, however, derives from the Roman name for the people known as the Veneti, and called by the Greeks Eneti. The meaning of the word is uncertain, although there are other Indo-European tribes with similar-sounding names, such as the Celtic Veneti, Baltic Veneti, and the Slavic Wends. Linguists suggest that the name is based on an Indo-European root *wen, so that *wenetoi would mean beloved, lovable, a connection with the Latin word venetus, meaning the color sea-blue, is also possible. The alternative obsolete form is Vinegia, some late Roman sources reveal the existence of fishermen on the islands in the original marshy lagoons. They were referred to as incolae lacunae, the traditional founding is identified with the dedication of the first church, that of San Giacomo on the islet of Rialto — said to have taken place at the stroke of noon on 25 March 421. Beginning as early as AD166 to 168, the Quadi and Marcomanni destroyed the center in the area. The Roman defences were again overthrown in the early 5th century by the Visigoths and, some 50 years later, New ports were built, including those at Malamocco and Torcello in the Venetian lagoon. The tribuni maiores, the earliest central standing governing committee of the islands in the Lagoon, the traditional first doge of Venice, Paolo Lucio Anafesto, was actually Exarch Paul, and his successor, Marcello Tegalliano, was Pauls magister militum. In 726 the soldiers and citizens of the Exarchate rose in a rebellion over the controversy at the urging of Pope Gregory II
2.
Italy
–
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
3.
Venice Film Festival
–
The film festival is part of the Venice Biennale, which was founded by the Venetian City Council in 1895. The film festival has taken place in late August or early September on the island of the Lido, Venice. Screenings take place in the historic Palazzo del Cinema on the Lungomare Marconi, since its inception the Venice Film Festival has grown into one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world. The 74th Venice International Film Festival is scheduled to be held from 30 August to 9 September 2017, the first edition of the Venice Film Festival was carried out from the 6 to the 21 of August in 1932. The festival began with an idea of the president of the Venice Biennale Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata and Luciano De Feo, with good reason, the festival was considered the first international event of its type, receiving strong support from authorities. This first edition was held on the terrace of the Hotel Excelsior on the Venice Lido, and at that stage it was not a competitive event. The very first film to be shown in the history of the Festival was Rouben Mamoulians Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the second edition was held two years later, from 1 to 20 of August in 1934. For the first time it included a competition, at least 19 countries took part with over 300 accredited journalists. The Mussolini Cup was introduced for best foreign film and best Italian film, other awards were the Great Gold Medals of the National Fascist Association for Entertainment to best actor and actress. The prize for best foreign film went to Robert J. Flahertys Man of Aran and was a confirmation of the taste of the time for auteur documentaries, starting in 1935, the Festival became a yearly event under the direction of Ottavio Croze. The actors award was renamed Volpi Cup, in 1936 an international jury was nominated for the first time and in 1937 the new Cinema Palace, designed by the architect Luigi Quagliata, was inaugurated. The 1940s represent one of the most difficult moments for the review, the conclusion of the Second World War divides the decade in two. Before 1938 political pressures distorted and ruined the festival, in addition, few countries participated and there was an absolute monopoly of institutions and directors that were members of the Rome-Berlin Axis. The festival resumed full speed in 1946, after the war, with the return of normalcy, Venice once again became a great icon of the film world. In 1947 the festival was held at the Doges Palace, a most magnificent backdrop for hosting a record 90 thousand participants, surely it can be considered one of the greatest editions in the history of the festival. For the next twenty years the festival continued its development and expansion in accordance with the plan set in motion after the war. In 1963 the winds of change blow strongly during Luigi Chiarini’s directorship of the festival, during the years of his presidency, Chiarini aspired to renew the spirit and the structures of the festival, pushing for a total reorganization of the entire system. The social and political unrest of 1968 had strong repercussions on the Venice Bienniale, from 1969 to 1979 no prizes were awarded and the festival returned to the non-competitiveness of the first edition
4.
Italian language
–
By most measures, Italian, together with Sardinian, is the closest to Latin of the Romance languages. Italian is a language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City. Italian is spoken by minorities in places such as France, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Crimea and Tunisia and by large expatriate communities in the Americas. Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardized Italian and other regional languages, Italian is the fourth most studied language in the world. Italian is a major European language, being one of the languages of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. It is the third most widely spoken first language in the European Union with 65 million native speakers, including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries and on other continents, the total number of speakers is around 85 million. Italian is the working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Italian is known as the language of music because of its use in musical terminology and its influence is also widespread in the arts and in the luxury goods market. Italian has been reported as the fourth or fifth most frequently taught foreign language in the world, Italian was adopted by the state after the Unification of Italy, having previously been a literary language based on Tuscan as spoken mostly by the upper class of Florentine society. Its development was influenced by other Italian languages and to some minor extent. Its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian, unlike most other Romance languages, Italian retains Latins contrast between short and long consonants. As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive, however, Italian as a language used in Italy and some surrounding regions has a longer history. What would come to be thought of as Italian was first formalized in the early 14th century through the works of Tuscan writer Dante Alighieri, written in his native Florentine. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language, and thus the dialect of Florence became the basis for what would become the language of Italy. Italian was also one of the recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Italy has always had a dialect for each city, because the cities. Those dialects now have considerable variety, as Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of Regional Italian. Even in the case of Northern Italian languages, however, scholars are not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages
5.
Lion of Saint Mark
–
It appears also in both merchant and military naval flags of the Italian Republic. The Lion of Saint Mark is also the symbol of the award of the Venice Film Festival, the Golden Lion, other elements often included in depictions of the lion include a halo over his head, a book, and a sword in its paws. Venetian tradition states that when St. Mark was traveling through Europe, he arrived at a lagoon in Venice, where an angel appeared to him and said Pax tibi Marce, evangelista meus. St Mark, represented as a lion, is a typical Christian iconography derived from the prophetic visions contained in the verse of the Apocalypse of St John 4,7. The lion is one of the four living creatures described in the book as a place around the throne of the Almighty and these beings were previously described by the prophet Ezekiel. Behold, I send my messenger ahead of you, he will prepare your way, the voice of the one who cries in the wilderness, Prepare Ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. The lion also symbolizes the power of the Evangelists word, the wings symbolize the spiritual elevation, however, the lion symbols express also the significance of majesty and power, while the book expresses the concepts of wisdom and peace and the halo gives an image of religious piety. However, these interpretations are not universally accepted as the Republic of Venice never codified its symbols, rare, but are presented, are also depictions of the lion without a book or a sword and sometimes without the halo. In some depictions the lion rests his front paws on the ground, often in cities with rivers or in close to water, indicating the Venetian balanced power on land. The Venetian lion appears in two distinct forms, one is as a winged animal resting on water, to symbolise dominance over the seas, holding St. Mark’s Gospel under a front paw and you can see these mighty animals all round the Mediterranean, usually on top of a classical stone column. The other form is known as the lion “in moleca”, in the form of a crab, here the lion is depicted full-faced with its wings circled around the head resembling the claws of a crustacean. Of Lions and Books, an article about iconography of Lion of St Mark, explaining different meanings of open
6.
Republic of Venice
–
It was based in the lagoon communities of the historically prosperous city of Venice. It was a leading European economic and trading power during the Middle Ages, the Venetian city state was founded as a safe haven for people escaping persecution in mainland Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. In its early years, it prospered on the salt trade, in subsequent centuries, the city state established a thalassocracy. It dominated trade on the Mediterranean Sea, including commerce between Asia, Europe and North Africa, the Venetian navy was used in the Crusades. Venice achieved territorial conquests along the Adriatic Sea, the city became home to an extremely wealthy merchant class, who patronized renowned art and architecture along the citys lagoons. Venetian merchants were influential financiers in Europe, the city was also the birthplace of great European explorers, including Marco Polo, as well as the classical music composer Vivaldi. The republic was ruled by the Doge, who was elected by members of the Great Council of Venice, the ruling class was an oligarchy of merchants and aristocrats. Venice and other Italian maritime republics played a key role in fostering capitalism, Venetian citizens generally supported the system of governance. The city-state enforced strict laws and employed ruthless tactics in its prisons, the opening of new trade routes to the Americas and the East Indies via the Atlantic Ocean marked the beginning of Venices decline as a maritime republic. The city state suffered defeats from the navy of the Ottoman Empire, in 1797, the country was colonized by Austria and France, following an invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte. Venice became a part of a unified Italy in the 19th century and it was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in reference to its title as one of the Most Serene Republics. He was the first historical Doge of Venice, whichever the case, the first doges had their power base in Heraclea. Ursuss successor, Deusdedit, moved his seat from Heraclea to Malamocco in the 740s and he was the son of Ursus and represented the attempt of his father to establish a dynasty. Such attempts were more commonplace among the doges of the first few centuries of Venetian history. They desired to remain well-connected to the Empire, another faction, republican in nature, believed in continuing along a course towards practical independence. The other main faction was pro-Frankish, supported mostly by clergy, they looked towards the new Carolingian king of the Franks, Pepin the Short, as the best provider of defence against the Lombards. A minor, pro-Lombard faction was opposed to close ties with any of these further-off powers, the successors of Obelerio inherited a united Venice. By the Pax Nicephori, the two emperors had recognised that Venice belonged to the Byzantine sphere of influence, many centuries later, the Venetians claimed that the treaty had recognised Venetian de facto independence, but the truth of this claim is doubted by modern scholars
7.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
8.
John Cassavetes
–
John Nicholas Cassavetes was a Greek-American actor, film director, and screenwriter. He also acted in many Hollywood films, notably Rosemarys Baby and he studied acting with Don Richardson, using an acting technique based on muscle memory. His income from acting made it possible for him to direct his own films independently and his children Nick Cassavetes, Zoe Cassavetes, and Xan Cassavetes are also filmmakers. His early years were spent with his family in Greece, when he returned at age seven and he was reared on Long Island, New York. He attended Port Washington High School from 1945 to 1947 and participated in Port Weekly, Red Domino, football, next to his photo on page 55 of his 1947 yearbook is written, Cassy is always ready with a wisecrack, but he does have a serious side. Cassavetes attended Blair Academy in New Jersey and spent a semester at Champlain College before being expelled due to his failing grades and he graduated in 1950 and met his future wife Gena Rowlands at her audition into the Academy in 1953 and they were married four months later in 1954. He continued acting in the theater, took parts in films and began working on television in anthology series. By 1956, Cassavetes had begun teaching an alternative to method acting in his own workshop in New York City, an improvisation exercise in his workshop inspired the idea for his writing and directorial debut, Shadows. Cassavetes raised the funds for the production from friends and family and his stated purpose was to make a film about little people, different from Hollywood studio productions. Cassavetes was unable to gain American distribution of Shadows, but it won the Critics Award at the Venice Film Festival, european distributors later released the movie in the United States as an import. Although the box-office of Shadows in the United States was slight, Cassavetes would repeat this performance in the 1956 film version. His first starring role in a film was Edge of the City. He was briefly under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and co-starred with Robert Taylor in the western Saddle the Wind, in the late 1950s, Cassavetes guest-starred in Beverly Garlands groundbreaking crime drama, Decoy, about a New York City woman police undercover detective. Thereafter, he played Johnny Staccato, the character in a television series about a jazz pianist who also worked as a private detective. In total he directed five episodes of the series, which features a guest appearance by his wife Gena Rowlands. It was broadcast on NBC between September 1959 and March 1960 when it was acquired by ABC and although critically acclaimed, Cassavetes would appear on the NBC interview program, Heres Hollywood. Cassavetes directed two movies for Hollywood in the early 1960s – Too Late Blues and A Child Is Waiting, a Child Is Waiting starred Burt Lancaster and Judy Garland. He also starred in the CBS western series Rawhide, in the episode, in the 1963–1964 season, Cassavetes appeared in Jason Everss ABC drama about college life, Channing
9.
Robert Altman
–
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He is consistently ranked as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in American cinema and his style of filmmaking was unique among directors, in that his subjects covered most genres, but with a subversive twist that typically relies on satire and humor to express his personal vision. Altman developed a reputation for being anti-Hollywood and non-conformist in both his themes and directing style, however, actors especially enjoyed working under his direction because he encouraged them to improvise, thereby inspiring their own creativity. He preferred large ensemble casts for his films, and developed a recording technique which produced overlapping dialogue from multiple actors. This produced a natural, more dynamic, and more complex experience for the viewer. He also used highly mobile camera work and zoom lenses to enhance the activity taking place on the screen, critic Pauline Kael, writing about his directing style, said that Altman could make film fireworks out of next to nothing. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized Altmans body of work with an Academy Honorary Award and he never won a competitive Oscar despite five nominations. His films MASH, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and Nashville have been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Altman is one of the few filmmakers whose films have won the Golden Bear at Berlin, the Golden Lion at Venice, and the Golden Palm at Cannes. Altmans ancestry was German, English and Irish, his grandfather, Frank Altman. Altman had a Catholic upbringing, but he did not continue to follow or practice the religion as an adult, although he has referred to as a sort of Catholic. He was educated at Jesuit schools, including Rockhurst High School and he graduated from Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Missouri in 1943. In 1943 Altman joined the United States Army Air Forces at the age of 18, during World War II, Altman flew more than 50 bombing missions as a crewman on a B-24 Liberator with the 307th Bomb Group in Borneo and the Dutch East Indies. Upon his discharge in 1946, Altman moved to California and he worked in publicity for a company that had invented a tattooing machine to identify dogs. He entered filmmaking on a whim, selling a script to RKO for the 1948 picture Bodyguard, Altmans immediate success encouraged him to move to New York City, where he attempted to forge a career as a writer. Having enjoyed little success, in 1949 he returned to Kansas City, in February 2012, an early Calvin film directed by Altman, Modern Football, was found by filmmaker Gary Huggins. Altman directed some 65 industrial films and documentaries before being hired by a businessman in 1956 to write. The film, titled The Delinquents, made for $60,000, was purchased by United Artists for $150,000, while primitive, this teen exploitation film contained the foundations of Altmans later work in its use of casual, naturalistic dialogue
10.
Ang Lee
–
Ang Lee OBS is a Taiwanese-born film director, screenwriter and producer. Lees earlier films, such as The Wedding Banquet, Pushing Hands, Lee also deals with repressed, hidden emotions in many of his films, including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Ice Storm, Hulk, and Brokeback Mountain. Lees work is known for its charge, which critics believe is responsible for his success in offsetting cultural barriers. Ang Lee was born in a Waishengren family, in a Military dependents village of the Republic of China Armed Forces located at Chaochou, Pingtung, both of Lees parents moved from Mainland China to Taiwan following the Chinese civil war in 1949. He grew up in a household that put emphasis on education. Lee studied in the Provincial Tainan First Senior High School where his father was the principal and he was expected to pass the annual Joint College/University Entrance Examination, the only route to a university education in Taiwan. But after failing the exam twice, to the disappointment of his father, he entered a college, the National Arts School. His father had wanted him to become a professor, but he had interested in drama. This early frustration set his career on the path of performance art, seeing Ingmar Bergmans film The Virgin Spring was a formative experience for him. Originally, Lee was interested in acting, but his challenges with speaking English made it difficult, at UIUC, Lee met his future wife Jane Lin, also a Taiwanese student, who pursued her Ph. D. degree. Thereupon, he enrolled at the Tisch School of the Arts of New York University and he was a classmate of Spike Lee and worked on the crew of his thesis film, Joes Bed-Stuy Barbershop, We Cut Heads. During graduate school, Lee finished a 16mm short film, Shades of the Lake and his own thesis work, a 43-minute drama, Fine Line, won NYUs Wasserman Award for Outstanding Direction and was later selected for the Public Broadcasting Service. Lees NYU thesis drew attention from the William Morris Agency, the famous talent, at first, though, WMA found Lee few opportunities, and Lee remained unemployed for six years. During this time, he was a full-time house-husband, while his wife Jane Lin and this arrangement put enormous pressure on the couple, but with Lins support and understanding, Lee did not abandon his career in film but continued to generate new ideas from movies and performances. He also wrote several screenplays during this time, in 1990, Lee submitted two screenplays, Pushing Hands and The Wedding Banquet, to a competition sponsored by Taiwans Government Information Office, and they came in first and second, respectively. The winning screenplays brought Lee to the attention of Li-Kong Hsu, Hsu, a first-time producer, invited Lee to direct Pushing Hands, a full-length feature that debuted in 1991. The Father Knows Best trilogy Pushing Hands was a success in Taiwan both among critics and at the box office and it received eight nominations in the Golden Horse Film Festival, Taiwans premier film festival. In all, this film collected eleven Taiwanese and international awards and these first two movies were based on stories of Chinese Americans, and both were filmed in the US
11.
Brokeback Mountain
–
Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 American neo-western romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee and produced by Diana Ossana and James Schamus. Adapted from the 1997 short story of the name by Annie Proulx. The film received acclaim and commercial success. In 1963, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist are hired by Joe Aguirre to herd his sheep through the summer in the Wyoming mountains, after a night of heavy drinking, Jack makes a pass at Ennis, who is initially hesitant but eventually responds to Jacks advances. Despite Ennis informing Jack that it was an incident, they develop a passionate sexual and emotional relationship. Shortly after discovering their summer together is being cut short, they briefly fight, after Jack and Ennis part ways, Ennis marries his longtime fiancé Alma Beers and has two daughters with her. Jack returns the next summer seeking work, but Aguirre, who observed Jack and Ennis on the mountain, Jack moves to Texas, where he meets, marries, and has a son with rodeo rider Lureen Newsome. After four years, Jack visits Ennis, upon meeting, the two kiss passionately, which Alma observes. Jack broaches the subject of creating a life together on a small ranch and he is also unwilling to abandon his family. Ennis and Jack continue to meet for infrequent fishing trips, the marriages of both men deteriorate. Lureen abandons the rodeo, going into business with her father, Alma and Ennis eventually divorce in 1975. Hearing about Ennis divorce, Jack drives to Wyoming and he suggests again that they should live together, but Ennis refuses to move away from his children. Jack finds solace with male prostitutes in Mexico, Ennis sees his family regularly until Alma finally confronts him about her knowing the true nature of his relationship with Jack. This results in a violent argument, causing Ennis to abandon his connections with Alma, Ennis meets and has a brief romantic relationship with Cassie Cartwright, a waitress. Jack and Lureen meet and befriend another couple, Randall and Lashawn Malone and it is implied that Jack begins an affair with Randall, although he later tells Ennis he had a relationship with a woman, who is assumed to be Lashawn. At the end of a fishing trip with Jack, Ennis tries to delay their next meeting. Jacks frustration erupts into argument, and Ennis blames Jack for being the cause of his own conflicted actions, Jack tries to hold him and there is a brief struggle, but they end up locked in an embrace. Jack watches as Ennis drives away, some time later, Ennis receives a postcard he had sent to Jack, stamped Deceased
12.
Darren Aronofsky
–
Darren Aronofsky is an American film director, screenwriter, film producer and environmentalist. He has received acclaim, and generated controversy for his often surreal, Aronofsky attended Harvard University, where he studied film and social anthropology, and the American Film Institute where he studied directing. He won several awards after completing his senior thesis film, Supermarket Sweep. Aronofskys feature debut, the surrealist psychological thriller Pi, was shot in November 1997, Aronofskys followup, the psychological drama Requiem for a Dream, was based on the novel of the same name by Hubert Selby, Jr. The film garnered strong reviews and received an Academy Award nomination for Ellen Burstyns performance, after writing the World War II horror film Below, Aronofsky began production on his third film, the romantic fantasy sci-fi drama The Fountain. The film received mixed reviews and performed poorly at the box-office and his fourth film, the sports drama The Wrestler, was released to critical acclaim and both of the films stars, Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei, received Academy Award nominations. Aronofsky received nominations for Best Director at the Golden Globes, Aronofskys sixth film, the biblically inspired epic Noah, was released in theaters on March 28,2014. Noah grossed over $43.7 million during its box office weekend, becoming Aronofskys highest opening weekend. The film was an hit, eventually grossing over $362,000,000 worldwide. Aronofsky was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1969 and he grew up in the boroughs Manhattan Beach neighborhood, where he was raised culturally Jewish, but there was very little spiritual attendance in temple. It was a cultural thing—celebrating the holidays, knowing where you came from, knowing your history and he graduated from Edward R. Murrow High School. He has one sister, Patti, who attended a ballet school through high school. His parents would take him to Broadway theater performances, which sparked his keen interest in show business. During his youth, he trained as a field biologist with The School for Field Studies in Kenya in 1985 and he attended school in Kenya to pursue an interest in learning about ungulates. He later said, he School for Field Studies changed the way I perceived the world, Aronofskys interest in the outdoors led him to backpack his way through Europe and the Middle East. In 1987, he entered Harvard University, where he majored in anthropology and studied filmmaking. He became seriously interested in film while attending Harvard after befriending Dan Schrecker, an animator, and Sean Gullette. His cinematic influences included Akira Kurosawa, Roman Polanski, Terry Gilliam, Shinya Tsukamoto, Hubert Selby, Aronofskys senior thesis film, Supermarket Sweep, was a finalist in the 1991 Student Academy Awards
13.
Sofia Coppola
–
Sofia Carmina Coppola is an American screenwriter, director, producer and actress. In 2003, she received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the comedy-drama Lost in Translation, in 2010, with the drama Somewhere, she became the first American woman to win the Golden Lion, the top prize at the Venice Film Festival. Her father is director, producer and screenwriter Francis Ford Coppola, sofia Coppola was born in New York City, New York, the youngest child and only daughter of set decorator/artist Eleanor Coppola and director Francis Ford Coppola. Her father is of Italian descent, at fifteen, she interned with Chanel. Coppola is a 1989 graduate of St. Helena High School and she later attended Mills College and the California Institute of the Arts. After dropping out of college, Coppola started a line called Milkfed. Coppolas acting career, marked by frequent criticisms of nepotism, began while she was an infant, the best known of these early roles is her appearance in The Godfather as the infant Michael Francis Rizzi in the baptism scene. Coppola responded to a question about her role in The Godfather Part III in a 2013 interview, I didnt really think about the public aspect of it. People felt very attached to the Godfather films, I grew up with them being no big deal. I mean, I understand theyre great films but and it makes sense that people would have an opinion about it but I got a lot of attention I wasnt expecting. I was going to art school anyway so I was able to get back to what I was doing and it was before the Internet so magazines would come out but then the next month they were gone. There wasnt even as much paparazzi around then and she has since been quoted as saying that she was not hurt by the criticism from her role in The Godfather Part III, because she never especially wanted an acting career. Coppolas first short film was Lick the Star and it played many times on the Independent Film Channel. She made her film directing debut with The Virgin Suicides. It received critical acclaim upon its premiere in North America at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival and was released later that year and her second feature was Lost in Translation. Coppola won the Academy Award for her screenplay and three Golden Globe Awards including Best Picture Musical or Comedy. Her win for best original screenplay in 2003 made her a third-generation Oscar winner, in 2004, Coppola was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her third film was the biopic Marie Antoinette, adapted from the biography by British historian Antonia Fraser, Kirsten Dunst plays the title character, who marries King Louis XVI, played by Jason Schwartzman, Coppolas cousin
14.
Zhang Yimou
–
Zhang Yimou is a Chinese film director, producer, writer and actor, and former cinematographer. He is counted amongst the Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers, having made his debut in 1987 with Red Sorghum. In 1993, he was a member of the jury at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival, Zhang directed the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games, which received considerable international acclaim. One of Zhangs recurrent themes is the resilience of Chinese people in the face of hardship and adversity, a theme which has been explored in such films as To Live and Not One Less. His films are noted for their rich use of colour, as can be seen in some of his early films, like Raise the Red Lantern. His highest budgeted film to date is the 2016 monster film titled The Great Wall, set in Imperial China, Zhang was born in Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province. As a result, Zhang faced difficulties in his early life, during this time he took up painting and amateur still photography. In 1978, he went to Beijing Film Academy and majored in photography and he has an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Boston University and also one from Harvard University. After a personal appeal to the Ministry of Culture, and showing a portfolio of his photographic works. Zhang graduated with the class of 1982, which also included Chen Kaige, Tian Zhuangzhuang, the class went on to form the core of the Fifth Generation, who were a part of an artistic reemergence in China after the end of the Cultural Revolution. Zhang and his co-graduates were assigned to regional studios. This led to the production of Zhang Junzhaos One and Eight, on which Zhang Yimou worked as director of photography, Yellow Earth is today widely considered the inaugural film of the Fifth Generation directors. In 1985, after moving back to his town of Xian, Zhang was engaged as cinematographer and lead actor for director Wu Tianmings upcoming film Old Well. The lead role won Zhang a Best Actor award at the Tokyo International Film Festival,1987 saw the release of Zhangs directorial debut, Red Sorghum, starring Chinese actress Gong Li in her first leading role. Codename Cougar, an experiment in the political thriller genre, was released in 1989, featuring Gong Li. However, it garnered less-than-positive reviews at home and Zhang himself later dismissed the film as his worst, in the same year, Zhang began work on his next project, the period drama Ju Dou. In 1989, he was a member of the jury at the 16th Moscow International Film Festival, after the success of Ju Dou, Zhang began work on Raise the Red Lantern. Based on Su Tongs novel Wives and Concubines, the film depicted the realities of life in a family compound during the 1920s
15.
Jia Zhangke
–
Jia Zhangke is a Chinese film director and screenwriter. He is generally regarded as a figure of the Sixth Generation movement of Chinese cinema. Jias early films, a trilogy based in his home province of Shanxi, were made outside of Chinas state-run film bureaucracy. Beginning in 2004, Jias status in his own country rose when he was allowed to direct his fourth film, The World. Jias films have received praise and have been recognized internationally, notably winning the Venice Film Festivals top award Golden Lion for Still Life. NPR critic John Powers described him as perhaps the most important filmmaker working in the world today, Jia was born in Fenyang, Shanxi, China. His interest in film began in the early 1990s, as an art student at the Shanxi University in Taiyuan, on a lark, Jia attended a screening of Chen Kaiges masterpiece, Yellow Earth. The film, according to Jia, was changing. Jia would eventually make it to Chinas prestigious Beijing Film Academy in 1993, as a film theory major, while a student at the Beijing Film Academy, Jia would make three short films to hone his skills. The first, a short documentary on tourists in Tiananmen Square entitled One Day in Beijing, was made in 1994 on self-raised funds. Though Jia has referred to his first directorial effort as inconsequential and naive, he described the short day. But it was Jias second directorial effort, the short film Xiao Shan Going Home and it was a film that helped establish Jias style and thematic interests and, in Jias words, was a film that truly marks the beginning of my career as a filmmaker. Xiao Shan would eventually screen abroad where it won a top prize at the 1997 Hong Kong Independent Short Film & Video Awards. creative team, with their support, Jia was able to begin work on Xiao Wu, which would become his first feature film. Before graduating, however, Jia would make one more film, Du Du. The film, little seen and rarely available, was for Jia an exercise of experimentation and technique, for Jia, the film was an important learning experience, even if he was not terribly proud of the end result. Upon graduation, Jia embarked on his first feature-length film, with producer Li Kit Ming, Xiao Wu, a film about a pickpocket in Jias native Fenyang, emerged from Jias desire to capture the massive changes that had happened to his home in the past few years. Additionally, the film was a rejection of what Jia felt was the fifth generations increasing tendency to move away from the reality of modern China and into the realm of historical legend. Shot on a mere 400,000 RMB budget, Xiao Wu would prove to be a success on the international film circuit
16.
Tsai Ming-liang
–
Tsai Ming-liang is a Malaysian Chinese filmmaker. He has written and directed 10 feature films and has directed many short films. Tsai is one of the most celebrated Second New Wave film directors of Taiwanese cinema and his films have been acclaimed worldwide and have won numerous film festival awards. Tsai was born in Malaysia of Chinese ethnic background and spent his first 20 years of his life in Kuching, Sarawak, after which he moved to Taipei and this, he said, had a huge impact on mind and psyche, perhaps later mirrored in his films. Even today, said Tsai, I feel I belong neither to Taiwan nor to Malaysia, in a sense, I can go anywhere I want and fit in, but I never feel that sense of belonging. Tsai graduated from the Drama and Cinema Department of the Chinese Culture University of Taiwan in 1982 and worked as a producer, screenwriter. From 1989 to 1991, he directed several telefilms, two of these, All the Corners of the World and Boys, starred his muse, Lee Kang-sheng. Tsais first feature film was Rebels of the Neon God, a film about troubled youth in Taipei, it starred Lee as the character Hsiao-Kang. Lee went on to appear in all of Tsais feature films through 2013, Tsais second feature, Vive LAmour, is about three people who unknowingly share an apartment. The film is slow-paced, has little dialogue, and is about alienation, Vive LAmour was critically acclaimed and won the Golden Horse Awards for best picture and best director. Tsais next film was The River, in which a family has to deal with the neck pain. The family is similar to the one appears in Rebels of the Neon God and is played by the same three actors. The Hole is about two neighbors in an apartment, in Tsais next film, What Time Is It There. A man and a meet in Taipei before the woman travels to Paris. This was Tsais first film to star Chen Shiang-chyi, who would star in his few films alongside Lee. Goodbye, Dragon Inn is about people inside an old cinema that is closing down, for this film, Tsai included even longer shots and fewer lines of dialogue than in previous films, a trend that continued in his later work. The Wayward Cloud is a sequel to What Time Is It There, in which Hsiao-Kang and Shiang-chyi meet again and start a relationship while Hsiao-Kang works as a pornographic film actor. This film, like The Hole, features musical numbers between Tsais typical slow pace
17.
Takeshi Kitano
–
Takeshi Kitano is a Japanese comedian, television personality, director, actor, author, and screenwriter. While he is primarily as a comedian and TV host in his native Japan. With the exception of his works as a director, he is known almost exclusively by the stage name Beat Takeshi. Kitano rose to prominence in the 1970s as one half of the comedy duo Two Beat, before going solo, after several small acting roles, he made his directorial debut with 1989s Violent Cop and garnered international acclaim for Sonatine. But he was not accepted as a director in Japan until Hana-bi won the Golden Lion in 1997, in December 2016, it was announced that Kitanos first crime trilogy for the Outrage series would be completed in 2017 with Outrage, Final Chapter in post-production as of April 2017. Many of Kitanos films are dramas about yakuza gangsters or the police, many of his films express a bleak or nihilistic philosophy, but they are also filled with humor and affection for their characters. Takeshi Kitano was born in Adachi, Tokyo with two brothers and an older sister. His father worked as a painter, with Kitano revealing that he was also possibly a yakuza, while his mother was a strict disciplinarian. In his working-class neighborhood, the children looked up to players and yakuza. Kitano entered Meiji University and studied engineering, before dropping out at age 19 and he went to the Asakusa district in 1972 to become a comedian. While working as an operator at the Asakusa France-za striptease, he became an apprentice of its comedian Senzaburo Fukami. In the 1970s, he formed a duo with his friend Nirō Kaneko. They took on the stage names Beat Takeshi and Beat Kiyoshi and this sort of duo comedy, known as manzai in Japan, usually features a great deal of high-speed back-and-forth banter between the two performers. Kiyoshi played the man against Takeshis funny man. In 1976, they performed on television for the first time and became a success, the reason for their popularity had much to do with Kitanos material, which was much more risqué than traditional manzai. The targets of his jokes were often the socially vulnerable, including the elderly, the handicapped, the poor, children, women, the ugly, complaints to the broadcaster led to censorship of some of Kitanos jokes and the editing of offensive dialogue. Kitano confirmed in a interview that he was forbidden to access the NHK studios for five years for having exposed his body during a show when it was totally forbidden. Although Two Beat was one of the most successful acts of its kind during the late 1970s and early 1980s, Kitano decided to go solo, together with Sanma Akashiya and Tamori, Kitano is said to be one of the Big Three television comedians of Japan
18.
Kim Ki-duk
–
Kim Ki-duk is a South Korean filmmaker noted for his idiosyncratic art-house cinematic works. His films have received distinctions in the festival circuit, making him one of the most important contemporary Asian film directors. Two of his films served as official submissions for Academy award for best foreign language film as South Korean entries and he has given scripts to several of his former assistant directors including Juhn Jai-hong and Jang Hoon. Kim Ki-duk was born on December 20,1960 in Bonghwa, North Gyeongsang Province and he studied fine arts in Paris from 1990 to 1993. After returning to South Korea, Kim began his career as a screenwriter, in the following year, Kim made his debut as a director with a low budget movie titled Crocodile. The film received reviews from movie critics in South Korea. Kim has said that his international breakthrouh occurred with The Isle at the Toronto International Film Festival and his 2000 film Real Fiction was entered into the 23rd Moscow International Film Festival. In 2004, he received Best Director awards at two different film festivals, for two different films, at the Berlin International Film Festival, he was awarded for Samaritan Girl, and at the Venice Film Festival he won for 3-Iron. In 2011, his documentary film Arirang received an award for best film in the Un Certain Regard category from the Cannes Film Festival. The British Board of Film Classification delayed the release of Kim Ki-duks The Isle in the United Kingdom because of instances of cruelty in the film. Concerning scenes in which a frog is skinned alive and fish are mutilated, ive done a lot of cruelty on animals in my films. And I will have a guilty conscience for the rest of my life, to a U. S. interviewer who suggested that scenes such as these are very disturbing and to place an obstacle to the films reception, or. Distribution, to countries, Kim said, Yes, I did worry about that fact. But the way I see it, the food that we eat today is no different, in America you eat beef, pork, and kill all these animals. And the people who eat these animals are not concerned with their slaughter, animals are part of this cycle of consumption. It looks more cruel onscreen, but I dont see the difference, an Interview with Korean Director Kim Ki-duk. Contemporary Korean cinema - production, tradition and… Kim Ki-Duk, papers from Korean Studies Conference, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Centre for Eastern Languages and Cultures, Sofia, Ex-M, p.129 –151 MARTONOVA, A. To feel HAN // Kino, No.3, Sofia, p. 49-47, ISSN 0861-4393 MARTONOVA, aesthetics and meaning in East Asia movies
19.
Jafar Panahi
–
Jafar Panahi is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and film editor, commonly identified with the Iranian New Wave film movement. The film won the Caméra dOr at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, Panahi was quickly recognized as one of the most influential film-makers in Iran. His films are known for their perspective on life in Iran, often focusing on the hardships of children, the impoverished. Hamid Dabashi has written, Panahi does not do as he is told — in fact he has made a career in not doing as he is told. While awaiting the result of an appeal he made This Is Not a Film and it was smuggled out of Iran in a flash drive hidden inside a cake and shown at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. In February 2013 the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival showed Closed Curtain by Panahi and Kambuzia Partovi in competition, Panahi won the Silver Bear for Best Script. Panahis new film Taxi premiered in competition at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2015 and won Golden Bear, Panahi was born in Mianeh, Iran. He has described his family as working class and grew up with four sisters and his father worked as a house painter. His family spoke Azeri at home, but Persian with other Iranians, when he was ten years old he wrote his first book about a young boy who successfully cheats at his school exams, but feels guilty and eventually admits his crime. It won first prize in a library competition and his love of films began at the age of nine when Panahis sisters would recruit him to go to see films at the local cinemas so that he could dramatically re-enact scenes and dialogue for them. His sisters were not allowed to leave their home and Panahi often had to hide from his father at the local movie theatres. Panahis father was also a lover, but disapproved of his son going to see films. Panahi has stated that his father told him These films are not good for you to see, but I wanted to see what wasnt good for me to see. One day Panahis father caught him in a theatre and punished him. Kanoon is where he first discovered the films of Abbas Kiarostami and he would also meet Kambuzia Partovi through Kanoon. One film that had an impression on Panahi was Vittorio De Sicas Bicycle Thieves. Panahi has said that when he first saw this film he thought to himself here is a film that does not lie to me, at the same time Panahi began experimenting with photography and making short films with an 8mm film camera. He also acted in one film and assisted Kanoons library director in running a program that taught children how to operate a film camera, starting at the age of twelve, Panahi would work after school in order to afford to go see films
20.
Mira Nair
–
Mira Nair is an Indian American filmmaker based in New York City. Her production company, Mirabai Films, specializes in films for international audiences on Indian society, whether in the economic, among her best known films are Mississippi Masala, The Namesake, the Golden Lion-winning Monsoon Wedding and Salaam Bombay. Which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Nair was born on 15 October 1957 in Rourkela, Odisha, and grew up with her two older brothers and parents in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha. Her father, Amrit Nair, is an Indian administrative officer, at the age of eleven, Nair and her family moved to Delhi due to her father transferring posts. By thirteen she left home to attend Loreto Convent Tara Hall, an Irish-Catholic missionary school located in Simla, following Tara Hall, Nair went on to study at Miranda House at Delhi University, where she majored in Sociology. Before she became a filmmaker, Nair was originally interested in acting, and at one point she performed plays written by Badal Sarkar, a Bengali performer. While she studied at Harvard University, Nair became involved in the theater program, at the start of her film-making career, Nair primarily made documentaries in which she explored Indian cultural tradition. For her film thesis at Harvard between 1978 and 1979, Nair produced a film entitled Jama Masjid Street Journal. In the eighteen-minute film, Nair explores the streets of Old Delhi and has conversations with Indian locals. This film was recognized as a Best Documentary winner at the American Film Festival, raising roughly $130,000 for the project, the fifty-nine-minute film was shot over a span of two months, and was subject to criticism from Nair’s loved ones. Released in 1987, Children of a Desired Sex exposed how female fetuses were aborted due to a society favoring male offspring, after departing the documentary film-making field, Nair teamed up with her old friend, Sooni Taraporevala, and together the two began writing Salaam Bombay. Five years before the film was released in 1988, Salaam Bombay. was also nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film in 1989. Following the success of Salaam Bombay, Nair, alongside Taraporevala, continued challenge audiences once more by telling the story of Ugandan-born Indians displaced in Mississippi in her 1991 film, Mississippi Masala. The film features actors like Denzel Washington, Roshan Seth, the film is centered on a carpet-cleaner business owner, played by Denzel Washington, who falls in love with the daughter of one of his Indian clients, played by Sarita Choudhury. The relationship in the film reveals the evident prejudice in African-American and Indian communities, the film was well received by critics and even earned a standing ovation at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992. The picture was also a recipient of three awards at the Venice Film Festival, Nair went on to direct four more films before she produced one of her most notable films, Monsoon Wedding. Released in 2001, the film told the story of a Punjabi Indian wedding, with only a small crew and some of Nair’s acquaintances and relatives as cast members, the film grossed over $30 million worldwide, which made it the most money ever made by an Indian film. The film was awarded the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival, Nair then directed the Golden Globe winning Hysterical Blindness
21.
Lav Diaz
–
Lavrente Indico Diaz is a Filipino independent filmmaker. He is known as one of the key members of the slow cinema movement and his films often tackle the issues regarding the current social and political state of the Philippines. His film Kagadanan sa Banwaan ning mga Engkanto, the Closing Film of the section of the Venice Film Festival 2007, was awarded with a Golden Lion Special Mention. Death in the Land of Encantos was also in competition at the Artistic Innovation Award of the Toronto International Film Festival 2007 and he received several awards at the Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. His film Melancholia won the Orizzonti Grand Prize at the 65th Venice International Film Festival in 2008, in January 2011 he joined the board of directors for Cine Foundation International. He went back in 2011 at the Venice International Film Festival for his film Siglo ng Pagluluwal, the following year, his film Florentina Hubaldo, CTE won Best Asian Film at the Jeonju International Film Festival and gained the On-Screen Award at the Images Festival. His 2013 film Norte, the End of History was screened in the Un Certain Regard section of 2013 Cannes Film Festival and he received the Golden Leopard at the 2014 Locarno International Film Festival for From What Is Before. At the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival, his film A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery was awarded the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize and he also received the Golden Lion at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival for The Woman Who Left. A Conversation with Lav Diaz La furia umana, n,9, Summer 201111 Hours in a Lifes Cause by Lim Li Min Militant elegy. A conversation with Lav Diaz La furia umana, n,17, Autumn 2013 The Burden of History. A conversation with Lav Diaz La furia umana, n,21, Autumn 2014 Philippines Year Zero
22.
Margarethe von Trotta
–
Margarethe von Trotta is a German film director who has been referred to as a leading force of the New German Cinema movement. Von Trotta boasts an impressive body of work that has won her awards all over the world in the last forty years and she was married to and collaborated with director Volker Schlöndorff. Although they made a team, von Trotta felt she was seen as secondary to Schlöndorff. Certain aspects of von Trotta’s work have compared to Ingmar Bergman’s features from the 1960s and 1970s. She says that it was thanks to Bergmans films that she ‘fell in love’ with the medium, Von Trotta has been called the world’s leading feminist filmmaker. The predominant aim of her films is to create new representations of women and her films are concerned with relationships between and among women, as well as with relationships between women and men, and involve political setting. Nevertheless, she rejects the suggestion that she makes women’s films, in her early career, von Trotta was an actress, appearing in notable films of directors Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Volker Schlöndorff. In one of interviews, von Trotta said, I came from Germany before the New Wave. Cinema for me was entertainment, but it was not art, when I came to Paris, I saw several films of Ingmar Bergman, and all of the sudden I understood what cinema could be. I saw the films of Alfred Hitchcock and the French Nouvelle Vague, I stood there and said, ‘that is what I’d like to do with my life. ’ But that was 1962, and you couldn’t think that a woman could be a director. In a way, as an act, I started acting. Through her acting career, von Trotta was able to create a name for herself before becoming a director. Her first input on a film, before making an out of it, was on Volker Schlöndorff’s The Sudden Wealth of the Poor People of Kombach. Within this first film of von Trotta’s, one can see the conflict between the personal and the public that resonates throughout her early film career. The female characters within the story must occupy suffocating spaces that von Trotta uses to represent the confinement that women are subjected to in a run by men. Von Trotta was in charge of supervising the performance aspect while Schlöndorff dealt with the film’s mechanics, as a director, he was not considered to be very audacious, while von Trotta’s strong suit was in how she directed the film’s actors through whom she creates her story. Therefore, the two were able to complement each other and their film was considered to be the most successful German film of the mid-1970s. The couple collaborated on one film, Coup de Grâce
23.
The Southerner (film)
–
The Southerner is a 1945 American film directed by Jean Renoir, based on the 1941 novel Hold Autumn in Your Hand by George Sessions Perry. The film received Oscar nominations for Best Director, Original Music Score, Renoir was named Best Director by the National Board of Review, which also named the film the third best of 1945. Future director Robert Aldrich was an assistant director on this film, filming location for flood is below the site where Millerton Lake is located today. The flood was created by releases from the recently completed Friant Dam. Sam Tucker is a cotton picker in Texas who decides to start his own farm and he and wife Nona, Granny and children Jot and Daisy set out with nothing but two mules and a bit of seed. The land they lease has no working well, so neighbor Henry Devers reluctantly lets the Tuckers share his water supply and they nearly starve and freeze during a hard winter. Come spring, the child Jot falls ill with Spring Sickness and desperately needs milk and vegetables to survive, Sams friend Tim offers to help find him a city job in a factory. Sam remains determined to make the work, and Harmie answers the familys prayers with the gift of a cow. Cotton blooms and a garden is planted. The bitter Devers and his nephew Finley conspire to ruin the Tuckers, though, after a fight, Devers comes armed with a gun, only to find Sam about to catch a catfish that Devers has been after for years. In return for the fish and bragging rights that he caught it, Harmie ends up marrying Sams mother and life seems fruitful at last, only to have a terrible thunderstorm ruin their crop and ravage the Tuckers home. They must start once more. The film is in the public domain, wins National Board of Review, NBR Award, Best Director, Jean Renoir, also Top Ten Film,1945
24.
Jean Renoir
–
Jean Renoir was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s. His films La Grande Illusion and The Rules of the Game are often cited by critics as among the greatest films ever made and he was ranked by the BFIs Sight & Sound poll of critics in 2002 as the fourth greatest director of all time. Among numerous honors accrued during his lifetime, he received a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award in 1975 for his contribution to the picture industry. Renoir was the son of the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Renoir was born in the Montmartre district of Paris, France. He was the son of Aline Renoir and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. His elder brother was Pierre Renoir, a French stage and film actor, Renoir was also the uncle of Claude Renoir, the son of Pierre, a cinematographer who worked with Jean Renoir on several of his films. Renoir was largely raised by Gabrielle Renard, his nanny and his mothers cousin, shortly before his birth, she had come to live with the Renoir family. She introduced the boy to the Guignol puppet shows in Montmartre. He wrote in his 1974 memoirs My Life and My Films, She taught me to see the face behind the mask and she taught me to detest the cliché. Gabrielle was also fascinated by the new invention, and when Renoir was only a few years old she took him to see his first film. As a child, Renoir moved to the south of France with his family and he and the rest of the Renoir family were the subjects of many of his fathers paintings. His fathers financial success ensured that the young Renoir was educated at boarding schools, from which, as he later wrote. At the outbreak of World War I, Renoir was serving in the French cavalry, later, after receiving a bullet in his leg, he served as a reconnaissance pilot. After the war, Renoir followed his fathers suggestion and tried his hand at making ceramics and he was particularly inspired by Erich von Stroheims work. In 1924, Renoir directed Une Vie Sans Joie or Catherine and she was also his fathers last model. At this stage, his films did not produce a return, Renoir gradually sold paintings inherited from his father to finance them. During the 1930s Renoir enjoyed great success as a filmmaker, in 1931 he directed his first sound films, On purge bébé and La Chienne
25.
Hamlet (1948 film)
–
Hamlet is a 1948 British film adaptation of William Shakespeares play Hamlet, adapted and directed by and starring Sir Laurence Olivier. Hamlet was Oliviers second film as director, and also the second of the three Shakespeare films that he directed, Hamlet was the first British film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. It is also the first sound film of the play in English, a 1935 sound film adaptation, Khoon Ka Khoon, had been made in India and filmed in the Urdu language. Oliviers Hamlet is the Shakespeare film that has received the most prestigious accolades, winning the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Actor and the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. However, it proved controversial among Shakespearean purists, who felt that Olivier had made too many alterations and excisions to the play by cutting nearly two hours worth of content. Milton Shulman wrote in The Evening Standard To some it will be one of the greatest films ever made, Laurence Olivier leaves no doubt that he is one of our greatest living actors. his liberties with the text, however, are sure to disturb many. The film follows the story of the play, but cuts nearly half the dialogue. Marcellus then arrives with the sceptical Horatio, Prince Hamlets friend, suddenly, all three see the Ghost, and Horatio demands that the ghost speak. The ghost vanishes then, without a word, Prince Hamlet sits alone, refusing to join in the celebration, despite the protests of the new King. When the court has left the Great Hall, Hamlet fumes over the hasty marriage, muttering to himself the words and yet, soon, Horatio and the sentries enter telling Hamlet of the ghostly apparition of his father. Hamlet proceeds to investigate, and upon arriving on the battlements, noting that the ghost beckons him forward, Hamlet follows it up onto a tower, wherein it reveals its identity as the Ghost of Hamlets father. He tells Hamlet that he was murdered, who did it, the audience then sees the murder re-enacted in a flashback as the ghost describes the deed – Claudius is seen pouring poison into the late King Hamlets ear, thereby killing him. Hamlet does not at first accept this as the truth, and then prepares to feign madness, so as to test Claudius conscience and this feigned insanity attracts the attention of Polonius who is completely convinced that Hamlet has gone mad. Polonius pushes this point with the King, claiming that it is derived from Hamlets love for Ophelia, Claudius, however, is not fully convinced, and has Polonius set up a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia. Hamlets madness is constant even in exchange, and Claudius is convinced. Hamlet then hires a group of wandering stage performers, requesting that they enact the play The Murder of Gonzago for the king, however, Hamlet makes a few alterations to the play, so as to make it mirror the circumstances of the late Kings murder. Claudius, unable to endure the play, calls out for light, Hamlet is now convinced of Claudius treachery. He finds Claudius alone, and has ample opportunity to kill the villain, however, at this time, Claudius is praying, and Hamlet does not seek to send him to heaven, so, he waits, and bides his time
26.
Laurence Olivier
–
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM, was an English actor who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He also worked in films throughout his career, playing more than fifty cinema roles, late in his career, he had considerable success in television roles. His family had no connections, but Oliviers father, a clergyman. After attending a school in London, Olivier learned his craft in a succession of acting jobs during the late 1920s. In 1930 he had his first important West End success in Noël Cowards Private Lives, in 1935 he played in a celebrated production of Romeo and Juliet alongside Gielgud and Peggy Ashcroft, and by the end of the decade he was an established star. In the 1940s, together with Richardson and John Burrell, Olivier was the co-director of the Old Vic, there his most celebrated roles included Shakespeares Richard III and Sophocless Oedipus. From 1963 to 1973 he was the director of Britains National Theatre. His own parts there included the role in Othello and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. Among Oliviers films are Wuthering Heights, Rebecca, and a trilogy of Shakespeare films as actor-director, Henry V, Hamlet and his later films included Sleuth, Marathon Man, and The Boys from Brazil. His television appearances included an adaptation of The Moon and Sixpence, Long Days Journey into Night, Love Among the Ruins, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Brideshead Revisited, Oliviers honours included a knighthood, a life peerage and the Order of Merit. For his on-screen work he received four Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, five Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. The National Theatres largest auditorium is named in his honour, and he is commemorated in the Laurence Olivier Awards, given annually by the Society of London Theatre. He was married three times, to the actresses Jill Esmond from 1930 to 1940, Vivien Leigh from 1940 to 1960, Olivier was born in Dorking, Surrey, the youngest of the three children of the Revd Gerard Kerr Olivier and his wife Agnes Louise, née Crookenden. Their elder children were Sybille and Gerard Dacres Dickie and his great-great-grandfather was of French Huguenot descent, and Olivier came from a long line of Protestant clergymen. Gerard Olivier had begun a career as a schoolmaster, but in his thirties he discovered a strong religious vocation and was ordained as a priest of the Church of England and he practised extremely high church, ritualist Anglicanism and liked to be addressed as Father Olivier. This made him unacceptable to most Anglican congregations, and the church posts he was offered were temporary. This meant a nomadic existence, and for Laurences first few years, in 1912, when Olivier was five, his father secured a permanent appointment as assistant priest at St Saviours, Pimlico. He held the post for six years, and a family life was at last possible
27.
Manon (film)
–
Manon is a 1949 French film directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot. It is a adaptation of the 1731 novel Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prévost. The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, lieutenant Besnard / Bandit Chief Henri Vilbert. Le commandant du navire / Ships Captain Héléna Manson, la vendeuse à la toilette Gabrielle Dorziat. Mme Agnès Wanda Ottoni Rosy Varte, petit rôle Clouzot updates the setting to World War II, making the story about a French Resistance fighter who rescues a woman from villagers convinced she is a Nazi collaborator. Manon at the Internet Movie Database Manon at AllMovie
28.
Henri-Georges Clouzot
–
Henri-Georges Clouzot was a French film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best remembered for his work in the film genre, having directed The Wages of Fear and Les Diaboliques. Clouzot also directed films, including The Mystery of Picasso. Clouzot was an fan of the cinema and, desiring a career as a writer. He was later hired by producer Adolphe Osso to work in Berlin, after being fired from German studios due to his friendship with Jewish producers, Clouzot returned to France, where he spent years bedridden after contracting tuberculosis. Upon recovering, Clouzot found work in Nazi occupied France as a screenwriter for the German-owned company Continental Films, at Continental, Clouzot wrote and directed films that were very popular in France. His second film Le Corbeau drew controversy over its harsh look at provincial France, as a result of his association with Continental, Clouzot was barred by the French government from filmmaking until 1947. After the ban was lifted, Clouzot reestablished his reputation and popularity in France during the late 1940s with successful films including Quai des Orfèvres. After the release of his comedy film Miquette et sa mère, Clouzot married Véra Gibson-Amado, in the early and mid-1950s, Clouzot drew acclaim from international critics and audiences for The Wages of Fear and Les Diaboliques. Both films would serve as material for remakes decades later. After the release of La Vérité, Clouzots wife Véra died of an attack and Clouzots career suffered due to depression, illness. Clouzots career became less active in years, limited to a few television documentaries. Clouzot wrote several unused scripts in the 1970s and died in Paris in 1977, Henri-Georges Clouzot was born in Niort, France, to mother Suzanne Clouzot and father Georges Clouzout, a book store owner. He was the first of three children in a middle-class family, Clouzot showed talent by writing plays and playing piano recitals. In 1922, Clouzots fathers bookstore went bankrupt and his moved to Brest, France. In Brest, Henri-Georges Clouzot went to Naval School, but was unable to become a Naval Cadet due to his myopia, at the age of 18, Clouzot left for Paris to study political science. While living in Paris, he became friends with several magazine editors and his writing talents led him to theater and cinema as a playwright, lyricist and adaptor-screenwriter. The quality of his work led producer Adolphe Osso to hire him and send him to Germany to work in Studio Babelsberg in Berlin, throughout the 1930s, Clouzot worked by writing and translating scripts, dialogue and occasionally lyrics for over twenty films
29.
Justice Is Done
–
Justice Is Done is a 1950 French drama film directed by André Cayatte. It tackles the subject of euthanasia by depicting a court case in which a woman is tried for killing her terminally ill husband at his request and it won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Elsa Lundenstein is accused of having murdered her lover, the jury discusses the case vividly. All members are somehow prejudiced because of life experience and subsequently each member reads something different into the presented facts
30.
Rashomon
–
Rashomon is a 1950 Japanese jidaigeki film directed by Akira Kurosawa, working in close collaboration with cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa. It stars Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori, while the film borrows the title and setting from Ryūnosuke Akutagawas short story Rashōmon, it is actually based on Akutagawas short story In a Grove, which provides the characters and plot. The film is known for a device that involves various characters providing alternative, self-serving. The film opens on a woodcutter and a priest sitting beneath the Rajōmon city gate to stay dry in a downpour, a commoner joins them and they tell him that they have witnessed a disturbing story, which they then begin recounting to him. The priest says that he saw the samurai with his wife traveling the same day the murder happened, both men were then summoned to testify in court, where they met the captured bandit Tajōmaru, who claimed responsibility for killing the samurai and raping his wife. Tajōmaru, a brigand, claims that he tricked the samurai to step off the mountain trail with him. In the grove he tied the samurai to a tree, then brought the samurais wife there and she initially tried to defend herself with a dagger, but was eventually seduced by the bandit. The woman, filled with shame, then begged him to duel to the death with her husband, to save her from the guilt, Tajōmaru honorably set the samurai free and dueled with him. In Tajōmarus recollection they fought skillfully and fiercely, but in the end Tajōmaru was the victor, the samurais wife tells a different story to the court. She says that Tajōmaru left after raping her and she begged her husband to forgive her, but he simply looked at her coldly. She then freed him and begged him to kill her so that she would be at peace and he continued to stare at her with a look of loathing. His expression disturbed her so much that she fainted with dagger in hand and she awoke to find her husband dead with the dagger in his chest. She attempted to kill herself, but failed in all her efforts, the court then hears the story of the deceased samurai, told through a medium. The samurai claims that Tajōmaru, after raping his wife, asked her to travel with him and she accepted and asked Tajōmaru to kill her husband so that she would not feel the guilt of belonging to two men. Tajōmaru, shocked by this request, grabbed her, and gave the samurai a choice of letting the woman go or killing her, for these words alone, the dead samurai recounted, I was ready to pardon his crime. The woman fled, and Tajōmaru, after attempting to recapture her, gave up, the samurai then killed himself with his wifes dagger. Later, somebody removed the dagger from his chest, back at Rashōmon gate, the woodcutter explains to the commoner that all three stories were falsehoods. The woodcutter had actually witnessed the rape and murder, he says, according to the woodcutters new story, Tajōmaru begged the samurais wife to marry him, but the woman instead freed her husband
31.
Akira Kurosawa
–
Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa entered the Japanese film industry in 1936, following a brief stint as a painter. After years of working on films as an assistant director and scriptwriter, he made his debut as a director in 1943, during World War II. The two men would go on to collaborate on another 15 films, Kurosawas wife, Yōko Yaguchi, was also an actress in one of his films. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Kurosawa directed approximately a film a year, including a number of highly regarded films such as Ikiru, Seven Samurai, in 1990, he accepted the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement. Kurosawa was born on March 23,1910 in Ōimachi in the district of Tokyo. In addition to promoting physical exercise, Isamu Kurosawa was open to western traditions and considered theater and he encouraged his children to watch films, young Akira viewed his first movies at the age of six. During this time, the boy also studied calligraphy and Kendo swordsmanship, another major childhood influence was Heigo Kurosawa, Akiras older brother by four years. In the aftermath of the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923, which devastated Tokyo, some commentators have suggested that this incident would influence Kurosawas later artistic career, as the director was seldom hesitant to confront unpleasant truths in his work. In the late 1920s, Heigo became a benshi for Tokyo theaters showing foreign films, Akira, who at this point planned to become a painter, moved in with him, and the two brothers became inseparable. Through Heigo, Akira devoured not only films but also theater and circus performances, while exhibiting his paintings, with the increasing production of talking pictures in the early 1930s, film narrators like Heigo began to lose work, and Akira moved back in with his parents. In July 1933, Heigo committed suicide, only four months later, Kurosawas eldest brother also died, leaving Akira, at age 23, the only one of the Kurosawa brothers still living, together with his three surviving sisters. In 1935, the new film studio Photo Chemical Laboratories, known as P. C. L and his half-mocking view was that if the deficiencies were fundamental, there was no way to correct them. Kurosawas essay earned him a call to take the exams, and director Kajirō Yamamoto. The 25-year-old Kurosawa joined P. C. L. in February 1936, during his five years as an assistant director, Kurosawa worked under numerous directors, but by far the most important figure in his development was Kajiro Yamamoto. Of his 24 films as A. D. he worked on 17 under Yamamoto, many of them featuring the popular actor Kenichi Enomoto. Yamamoto nurtured Kurosawas talent, promoting him directly from third assistant director to assistant director after a year. In the last of Kurosawas films as an assistant director, Horse, Kurosawa took over most of the production, One important piece of advice Yamamoto gave Kurosawa was that a good director needed to master screenwriting
32.
Forbidden Games
–
Forbidden Games, is a 1952 French war drama film directed by René Clément and based on François Boyers novel Jeux Interdits. While not initially successful in France, the film was a hit elsewhere and it won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, a Special Award as Best Foreign Language Film in the United States, and a Best Film from any Source at the British Academy Film Awards. It is June 1940, during the Battle of France and she quickly becomes attached to Michel. Michels father first suspects that Michels brothers cross was stolen from the graveyard by his neighbour, eventually, the father finds out that Michel has stolen the cross. Meanwhile, the French gendarmes come to the Dollé household in order to take Paulette, Michel cannot bear the thought of her leaving and tells his father that he would tell him where the stolen crosses are, but in return he should not give Paulette to the gendarmes. Upon its release, it was lambasted by some, who said it was a vicious and unfair picture of the peasantry of France, at the 25th Academy Awards, Forbidden Games won an out-of-competition Special Award as Best Foreign Language Film. In December 1952, at the 24th National Board of Review Awards it was chosen as one of years five top foreign films. At the 1952 New York Film Critics Circle Awards, it won for Best Foreign Language Film, decades after its release, David Ehrenstein called it deeply touching and wrote, Fosseys is quite simply one of the most uncanny pieces of acting ever attempted by a youngster. Clément’s sensitivity doubtless accounts for much of what we see here, the main thee of the soundtrack is an arrangement of the tune Romance. Forbidden Games was released on Laserdisc by Criterion Collection, who also released it on DVD. Forbidden Games at the Internet Movie Database Forbidden Games at AllMovie Forbidden Games at Rotten Tomatoes Criterion Collection essay by Peter Matthews
33.
Romeo and Juliet (1954 film)
–
Romeo and Juliet is a 1954 film adaptation of William Shakespeares play of the same name. The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and was named the best foreign film by the National Board of Review, joan Collins was originally announced to play Juliet. Renato Castellani won the Grand Prix at the Venice Film Festival for his 1954 film of Romeo and his film contains interpolated scenes intended to establish the class system and Catholicism of Renaissance Verona, and the nature of the feud. Castellani uses competing visual images in relation to the central characters, the fatal encounter between Romeo and Tybalt is here not an actual fight, the enraged Romeo simply rushes up to Tybalt and stabs him, taking him by surprise. A well-known stage Romeo, John Gielgud, played Castellanis chorus, laurence Harvey, as Romeo, was already an experienced screen actor, who would shortly take over roles intended for the late James Dean in Walk on the Wild Side and Summer and Smoke. By contrast, Susan Shentall, as Juliet, was a student who was discovered by the director in a London pub. She surpassed the demands of the role, but married shortly after the shoot, other parts were played by inexperienced actors, also, Mercutio was played by an architect, Montague by a gondolier from Venice, and the Prince by a novelist. Critics responded to the film as a piece of cinema but not as a performance of Shakespeares play, perhaps we should not complain that we were shown a sumptuous travelogue, and Time′s reviewer added that Castellanis Romeo and Juliet is a fine film poem. Unfortunately it is not Shakespeares poem, commercially response to the film was underwhelming. One journalist described it as the unchallenged flop of the year, Shakespeare in the Movies, From the Silent Era to Today. The Tragedy of Love on Film, the Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film. Romeo and Juliet at the Internet Movie Database
34.
Ordet
–
Ordet is a 1955 Danish drama film, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer. It is based on a play by Kaj Munk, a Danish Lutheran priest, first performed in 1932, the film won the Golden Lion at the 16th Venice International Film Festival, and was the only film by Dreyer to be both a critical and financial success. The film is now regarded by critics as a masterpiece. The film centers around the Borgen family in rural Denmark, the devout widower Morten, patriarch of the family, prominent member of the community, and patron of the local parish church, has three sons. Mikkel, the eldest, has no faith, but is married to the pious Inger. The youngest son, Anders, is lovesick for the daughter of the leader of a local Christian religious sect, Anders confesses to Mikkel and Inger that he loves Anne Petersen, the daughter of Peter the Tailor. They agree to convince Morten to assent to the match, later, Inger attempts to convince Morten to allow Anders to marry Anne. Morten angrily refuses, but changes his mind when he finds out Peter has refused Anders proposal, Morten and Anders go to meet Peter, in order to negotiate the betrothal. Morten tries to convince Peter to permit the marriage, but he continues to refuse unless Morten, as the discussion collapses into sectarian bickering, Morten receives a call announcing that Inger has gone into a difficult labor. Peter says that Ingers difficulties are punishment from God for Morten not joining his sect, furious at Peters comments, Morten attacks Peter and storms out with Anders, the two of them rushing home. While the doctor is forced to abort the baby, he is able to save Ingers life, after the doctor and pastor leave, Johannes angers his father by telling him that death is nearby and will take Inger, unless Morten has faith in him. Morten refuses to listen and, as prophesied, Inger dies suddenly, while preparing to go to Ingers funeral, Peter realizes that he has wronged Morten terribly, and reconciles with him over Ingers open coffin, agreeing to permit Anne and Anders to marry. Johannes suddenly interrupts the wake, approaches Ingers coffin, and proclaims that she can be raised from the dead if the family will only have faith, Ingers daughter takes Johannes hand and impatiently asks him to raise her mother from the dead. Johannes praises her childlike faith and asks God to raise Inger, seeing what seems to be the miracle of resurrection, both Morten and Peter rejoice, forgetting their religious differences. As Inger sits up, Mikkel embraces her and proclaims that he has finally found faith, after several years of financial problems having stalled his film career, in 1952 Dreyer was awarded a lifelong lease to the Dagmar Bio, an art-house movie theater in Copenhagen. The Danish government had given such awards to older artists. Around that time Palladium president Tage Nielsen received a suggestion for Dreyers next film from the government run Dansk Kulturfilm, Kaj Munks play I Begyndelsen var Ordet was written in 1925 and premiered in Copenhagen in 1932. Dreyer had attended the premiere in 1932 and had been writing notes for a film adaptation since 1933
35.
Carl Theodor Dreyer
–
Carl Theodor Dreyer, commonly known as Carl Th. Dreyer, was a Danish film director and he is regarded by many critics and filmmakers as one of the greatest directors in cinema. His best known films include The Passion of Joan of Arc, Vampyr, Day of Wrath, Ordet, Dreyer was born illegitimate in Copenhagen, Denmark. He spent the first two years of his life in orphanages until his adoption by a typographer named Carl Theodor Dreyer, and his wife, Inger Marie. He was named after his father, but in accordance with Danish practice. His adoptive parents were distant and his childhood was largely unhappy. But he was a highly intelligent school student, who left home and he dissociated himself from his adoptive family, but their teachings were to influence the themes of many of his films. They have, as a rule, the quality of pulling development back. I believe more in evolution, in the small advances, Dreyer died of pneumonia in Copenhagen at age 79. Dreyer, My Metier contains reminiscences from those who knew him, as a young man, Dreyer worked as a journalist, but he eventually joined the film industry as a writer of title cards for silent films and subsequently of screenplays. He was initially hired by Nordisk Film in 1913 and his first attempts at film direction had limited success, and he left Denmark to work in the French film industry. While living in France he met Jean Cocteau, Jean Hugo and other members of the French artistic scene and in 1928 he made his first classic film, working from the transcripts of Joans trial, he created a masterpiece of emotion that drew equally on realism and expressionism. Dreyer used private finance from Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg to make his film as the Danish film industry was in financial ruin. Vampyr is a meditation on fear. Logic gave way to mood and atmosphere in this story of a man protecting two sisters from a vampire, the film was shot mostly silent but with sparse, cryptic dialogue in three separate versions – English, French and German. Both films were box office failures, and Dreyer did not make another movie until 1943, Denmark was by now under Nazi occupation, and his Day of Wrath had as its theme the paranoia surrounding witch hunts in the seventeenth century in a strongly theocratic culture. With this work, Dreyer established the style that would mark his sound films, careful compositions, stark monochrome cinematography, in the more than a decade before his next full-length feature film, Dreyer made two documentaries. In 1955, he made Ordet based on the play of the name by Kaj Munk
36.
Aparajito
–
Aparajito is a 1956 Indian Bengali drama film directed by Satyajit Ray, and is the second part of The Apu Trilogy. It is adapted from the last one-fifth of Bibhutibhushan Bannerjees novel Pather Panchali, when Ray started making Pather Panchali, he had no plans of following it up with a sequel. The critical and commercial success of the film prompted him to start making Aparajito, critical reception outside of India, however, was overwhelmingly positive. It won 11 international awards, including the Golden Lion and Critics Award at the Venice Film Festival, veteran film-maker Mrinal Sen said he considers it to be one of the best Indian movies he had ever seen. Never before had one man had such an impact on the films of his culture. In 1920, Apu and his parents, who have left their home in rural Bengal, have settled into an apartment in Varanasi where his father Harihar works as a priest. Harihar is making headway in his new pursuits, praying, singing, Harihar catches a fever and soon dies, however, and his wife Sarbajaya is forced to begin work as a maid. With the assistance of a great-uncle, Apu and his return to Bengal. There Apu apprentices as a priest, but pines to attend the school which his mother is persuaded to allow. He excels at his studies, impressing a visiting dignitary, within a few years, the teenaged Apu has done well enough to receive a scholarship to go to Calcutta for further studies. Sarbajaya feels abandoned and frightened by this, but gives in, Apu travels by train to the city and starts working at a printing press, after school hours, to subsist. He becomes more accustomed to the city life and feels out of place in the village, Sarbajaya expects visits from him, but he visits only a few times. Her loneliness and yearning for her son continue to grow and she becomes seriously ill, but does not disclose her illness to Apu, lest his studies get disturbed. When Apu finally comes to know about her health, he returns to the village to find that she has died. Bhabataran, Apus great uncle, requests that he stay there, Apu rejects the idea and returns to Calcutta. The novel Pather Panchali is a bildungsroman in the canon of Bengali literature. It first appeared as a serial in a Calcutta periodical in 1928 and was published as a book the next year, according to Rays biographer, Robinson, among the three films of the Apu trilogy, Aparajito bears the closest resemblance with its literary source. Banerjees depiction of the mother-son relation fascinated Ray, Robinson writes, Their relationship had some echoes on a purely psychological plane for him
37.
Satyajit Ray
–
Satyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker, widely regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century. Ray was born in the city of Calcutta into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts, Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. He was also a writer, publisher, illustrator, calligrapher, music composer, graphic designer. He authored several short stories and novels, primarily aimed at children, Feluda, the sleuth, and Professor Shonku, the scientist in his science fiction stories, are popular fictional characters created by him. He was awarded a degree by Oxford University. Rays first film, Pather Panchali, won international prizes. This film, along with Aparajito, and Apur Sansar form The Apu Trilogy, Ray did the scripting, casting, scoring, and editing, and designed his own credit titles and publicity material. The Government of India honored him with the Bharat Ratna, its highest civilian award, Satyajit Rays ancestry can be traced back for at least ten generations. He also set up a press by the name of U. Ray and Sons, which formed a backdrop to Satyajits life. Sukumar Ray, Upendrakishores son and father of Satyajit, was a pioneering Bengali writer of nonsense rhyme and childrens literature, an illustrator, Ray was born to Sukumar and Suprabha Ray in Calcutta. Sukumar Ray died when Satyajit was barely three, and the family survived on Suprabha Rays meager income, in 1940, his mother insisted that he study at the Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan, founded by Rabindranath Tagore. Ray was reluctant due to his love of Calcutta, and the low opinion of the life at Santiniketan His mothers persuasion. In Santiniketan, Ray came to appreciate Oriental art and he later admitted that he learned much from the famous painters Nandalal Bose and Benode Behari Mukherjee. Later he produced a film, The Inner Eye, about Mukherjee. His visits to Ajanta, Ellora and Elephanta stimulated his admiration for Indian art, in 1943, Ray started work at D. J. Keymer, a British-run advertising agency, as a junior visualiser, although he liked visual design and he was mostly treated well, there was tension between the British and Indian employees of the firm. The British were better paid, and Ray felt that the clients were generally stupid, later, Ray also worked for Signet Press, a new publishing house started by D. K. Gupta
