1.
Monsieur Hulot
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Monsieur Hulot is a character created and played by French comic Jacques Tati for a series of films in the 1950s and 60s, namely Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot, Mon Oncle, Playtime and Trafic. The character of Hulot also appears briefly in François Truffauts Bed & Board and he is recognized by his overcoat, pipe and hat, and his distinctive lurching walk. He is clumsy and somewhat naive of the world around him, but still has a friendly, well-meaning. His escapades usually involved clashes with technology and the problems of living in an increasingly impersonal and gadgetized world. In Trafic, Hulot, the designer of a new camper-car, “struggles valiantly… against the perpetual roadblocks of cars, policemen, bureaucrats and just people. ”The name of Monsieur Hulot is believed to echo Charlot, the French name for Charlie Chaplin’s character The Tramp. However, Hulot is more distracted than the Tramp, he cannot disentangle himself from situations as effortlessly, and he is not as central a character, he is not ‘the reason for the film. Hulot, by contrast, has the stature of a steady or stand-up guy, he behaves exactly like any man from Paris or even from the provinces. ”Film critic Michel Chion has written that, Hulot is the guy you recognize because he was in the same barracks as you. He gives you the illusion of familiarity, which really doesn’t exist and he develops into a real person only when you bump into him by accident one night. By creating Hulot, Tati aims to re-establish a distance, from the start, Hulot is someone who exists only in the eyes and mouths of the beholder. He is someone who awakens suspicion or amused attention, Hulot is a blurred man, a passer-by, a Hulotus errans. This view is shared by Roger Ebert, who, in his review of Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot, states that Hulot “is friendly to a fault, but he is the man nobody quite sees. The holidaymakers are distracted by their own worlds, companions, and plans, and notice Hulot only when something goes wrong, as it often does. ”Rowan Atkinson has cited Hulot as an influence for his character Mr. Bean
2.
Le Pecq
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Le Pecq is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the suburbs of Paris,18.4 km from the center of Paris. The commune of Le Pecq is located in a loop of the Seine river,19 km west of Paris, Le Pecqs territory is astride the two banks of the Seine and includes a small island, Corbière. It is highly urbanized except for Corbière island, which is protected as a nesting zone for migratory birds. Until after the Second World War, there were swimming baths on the island, Le Pecq was famous for two other establishments related to water, a spa exploiting springs on St-Germain hill and a natural water swimming pool which was 100 metres long with sand beaches. The first mention of Le Pecq came in 704, in that year, the Merovingian king Childebert III granted a charter to Fontenelle Abbey which included territory in Aupec - the modern Le Pecq. On 31 May 1875, a part of Le Pecq was detached and merged with parts of Chatou and Croissy-sur-Seine to create the commune of Le Vésinet. Regional center of the Lyonnaise des Eaux, water company which produces approximately 90 million cubic meters of drinking water per year, serving approximately 500000 consumers in the west of Paris. Home of the Yacht Club of Le Pecq Saint-Wandrille church, the current church, saint-Thibault church, built of concrete and wooden in 1964 by the architects Perrouin, Lunel and Jung, surmounted by an arrow in wood veil 30 height meters. Railway viaduct, work dating from the end of the 19th century, comprising a score of stone arches and surmounted by an iron bridge over the Seine. It is connected to two tunnels to reach its terminus at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, jacques Tati, born in Le Pecq on October 9,1908, mime artist, cinema director and actor. The town in Le Pecq is notable for being the town of residence of Alain Gournac and this bridge was built in 1963. It has of flattened steel arches resting on two concrete piers. Le Pecq is not served by the Paris Métro, RER, the closest station to Le Pecq is Le Vésinet – Le Pecq station on Paris RER line A. This station is located in the commune of Le Vésinet,1.2 km from the town center of Le Pecq. Communes of the Yvelines department INSEE Lhistoire du Pecq, Henri Giaberi, édition 2006 Le Pecq official site Le Pecq Yacht club Local news of Le Pecq
3.
Seine-et-Oise
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Seine-et-Oise was a département of France encompassing the western, northern, and southern parts of the metropolitan area of Paris. Its préfecture was Versailles and its number was 78. Seine-et-Oise was abolished in 1968 as part of the reorganization of the départements of the Paris metropolitan area, Seine-et-Oise was created on 4 March 1790. Its name comes from the two rivers flowing through it. It had an area of 5,658 km², the division of Seine-et-Oise into arrondissements changed many times. At its disappearance it had ten arrondissements, Argenteuil, Étampes, Mantes, Montmorency, Palaiseau, Pontoise, Le Raincy, Rambouillet, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, at the first French census in 1801, Seine-et-Oise had 421,535 inhabitants. With the growth of the Paris suburbs, the population of Seine-et-Oise increased markedly and it was judged that Seine-et-Oise, along with several other departments in the Paris conurbation, was now too large and ungovernable. On 1 January 1968 it was split into three smaller départements, Yvelines, Val-dOise, and Essonne, a small part of Seine-et-Oise was also merged with parts of the Seine département to create the three new départements of Hauts-de-Seine, Val-de-Marne, and Seine-Saint-Denis. The official number 78, which was used for Seine-et-Oise, was given to the new Yvelines département, which is the largest amount of the former Seine-et-Oise. There were 185 communes in the north of Seine-et-Oise that became part of the Val-dOise département, and the official number 95 was assigned to this département, thus, Yvelines, Val-dOise, and Essonne are altogether smaller than the former Seine-et-Oise département. The three départements of Yvelines, Essonne, and Val-dOise, plus the Seine-et-Marne département, are known in France as the grande couronne. Of the new départements created in 1968 out of Seine-et-Oise, Yvelines was the most populous in 1999 with 1,354,304 residents, Seine-Saint-Denis and Hauts-de-Seine are more populous than Yvelines, but only a small part of their territory is made up of the former Seine-et-Oise
4.
Yvelines
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Yvelines is a French department in the region of Île-de-France. It inherited Seine-et-Oises official number of 78 and it gained the communes of Châteaufort and Toussus-le-Noble from the adjacent department of Essonne in 1969. Yvelines is bordered by the departments of Val-dOise on the north, Hauts-de-Seine on the east, Essonne on the southeast, Eure-et-Loir on the southwest, and Eure on the west. Two regional parks can be found in Yvelines, the parc of the Haute Vallée de Chevreuse, Yvelines is home to one of Frances best known golf courses, La Tuilerie-Bignon, in the village of Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche. In French, a man from the Yvelines is called Yvelinois, a woman is Yvelinoise
5.
Entertainment Weekly
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Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by Time Inc. that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books and popular culture. Different from celebrity-focused publications like Us Weekly, People, and In Touch Weekly, EW primarily concentrates on entertainment media news, however, unlike Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, which are aimed at industry insiders, EW targets a more general audience. The first issue was published on February 16,1990, the cover price was $1.95 The title word entertainment was not capitalized on the cover until mid-1992 and has remained so since. By 2003, the weekly circulation averaged 1.7 million copies per week. In March 2006, managing editor Rick Tetzeli oversaw an overhaul of EWs graphics, Entertainment Weekly follows a typical magazine format by featuring a letters to the editor and table of contents in the first few pages, while also featuring advertisements. While many advertisements are unrelated to the entertainment industry, the majority of ads are typically related to up-and-coming television and these beginning articles open the magazine and as a rule focus on current events in pop culture. First Look, subtitled An early peek at some of Hollywoods coolest projects, is a spread with behind-the-scenes or publicity stills of upcoming movies. The Hit List, written each week by critic Scott Brown, highlights ten major events, Typically, there will be some continuity to the commentaries. This column was written by Jim Mullen and featured twenty events each week. The Hollywood Insider is a section that reports breaking news in entertainment. It gives details, in the columns, on the most-current news in television, movie. The Style Report is a section devoted to celebrity style. Because its focus is on celebrity fashion or lifestyle, it is rich in nature. Recently, the converted to a new format, five pictures of celebrity fashions for the week. A spin-off section, Style Hunter, which finds reader-requested articles of clothing or accessories that have appeared in pop culture recently, appears frequently. The Monitor is a two-page spread devoted to events in celebrity lives with small paragraphs highlighting events such as weddings, illnesses, arrests, court appearances. Deaths of major celebrities are typically detailed in a one-half- or full-page obituary titled Legacy and this feature is nearly identical to sister publication Peoples Passages feature. Harris column focuses on analyzing current popular-culture events, and is generally the most serious of the columns, harris has written about the writers strike and the 2008 presidential election, among other topics
6.
Playtime
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Playtime is a 1967 French comedy film directed by Jacques Tati. In Playtime, Tati again plays Monsieur Hulot, a character who had appeared in his earlier films Mon Oncle, as mentioned on the production documentary that accompanies the Criterion Collections DVD of the film, by 1964 Tati had grown ambivalent towards playing Hulot as a recurring central role. Unable to dispense with the character altogether, Hulot appears intermittently in Playtime. Playtime was made from 1964 through 1967, Playtime is considered Tatis masterpiece, as well as his most daring work. The sequences are as follows, The Airport, the American tour group arrives at the ultra-modern, the Apartments, as night falls, M. Hulot meets an old friend who invites him to his sparsely furnished, ultra-modern and glass-fronted flat. This sequence is filmed entirely from the street, observing Hulot, the Royal Garden, This sequence takes up almost the entire second half of the film. The Carousel of Cars, Hulot buys Barbara two small gifts as mementos of Paris before her departure, in the midst of a complex ballet of cars in a traffic circle, the tourists bus returns to the airport. He wanted people whose inner essence matched their characters and who could move in the way he wanted. The film is famous for its enormous, specially constructed set and background stage, known as Tativille, the set required a hundred construction workers to construct along with its own power plant. Budget crises and other disasters stretched the shooting schedule to three years, including 1.4 million francs in repairs after the set was damaged by storms. Tati observed, perhaps correctly, that the cost of building the set was no greater than what it would have cost to have hired Elizabeth Taylor or Sophia Loren for the leading role. Budget overruns forced Tati to take out loans and personal overdrafts to cover ever-increasing production costs. As Playtime depended greatly on visual comedy and sound effects, Tati chose to shoot the film on the high-resolution 70 mm film format, to save money, some of the building facades and the interior of the Orly set were actually giant photographs. The Paris landmarks Barbara sees reflected in the door are also photographs. Tati also used life-sized cutout photographs of people to save money on extras and these cutouts are noticeable in some of the cubicles when Hulot overlooks the maze of offices, and in the deep background in some of the shots at ground level from one office building to another. In this environment, only the irrepressible nonconformity of human nature, modern industrial technologies, accepted as necessary by society, are represented by Tati as obstructions to daily life and an interference to natural human interaction. Tati wanted the film to be in color but look like it was filmed in black, predominant colors are in shades of grey, blue, black, and greyish white. Green and red are used as accent colors, for example
7.
Imperial Russian Army
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The Imperial Russian Army was the land armed force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian army consisted of more than 900,000 regular soldiers, the last living veteran of the Russian Imperial Army was the Ukrainian supercentenarian Mikhail Krichevsky, who died in 2008. Russian tsars before Peter maintained professional hereditary musketeer corps, known as streltsy and these were originally raised by Tsar Ivan IV, originally an effective force, they had become highly unreliable and undisciplined. In times of war the forces were augmented by peasants. There were different kinds of regiments, such as regulars, dragoons, in 1631, the Russians created two regular regiments in Moscow. During the Russo-Polish War of 1632–1634, six regular regiments, one reiter regiment. Initially, they recruited children of the boyars and streltsy, volunteers, Cossacks. After the war with Poland, all of the regiments were disbanded, during another Russo-Polish War, they were created again and became a principal force of the Russian army. Often, regular and dragoon regiments were manned with datochniye lyudi for lifelong military service, reiters were manned with small or landless gentry and boyars children and were paid with money for their service. More than a half of the officers were representatives from the gentry. In times of peace, some of the regiments were usually disbanded, in 1681, there were 33 regular regiments and 25 dragoon and reiter regiments. In the late 17th century, regiments of the new type represented more than a half of the Russian Army, Conscription in Russia was introduced by Peter I of Russia in December 1699, though reports say Peters father also used it. Conscription of peasants and townspeople was based on system, per settlement. Initially it was based on the number of households, later it was based on the population numbers, the term of service in the 18th century was for life. In 1793 it was reduced to 25 years, in 1834, it was reduced to 20 years plus five years in the reserve, and in 1855 to 12 years plus three years in the reserve. The history of the Russian army in this era was linked to the name of Russian General Alexander Suvorov, considered one of a few great generals in history who never lost a battle. From 1777 to 1783 Suvorov served in the Crimea and in the Caucasus, becoming a lieutenant-general in 1780, from 1787 to 1791 he again fought the Turks during the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792 and won many victories. Suvorovs leadership also played a key role in a Russian victory over the Poles during the Kościuszko Uprising, furthermore, many lower-level officers were poorly trained and had difficulty getting their men to perform the sometimes complex manoeuvres required in a battle
8.
Rurikid
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The Rurik dynasty or Rurikids was a dynasty founded by the Varangian prince Rurik, who established himself in Novgorod around the year AD862. They ruled until 1610 and the Time of Troubles, following which they were succeeded by the Romanovs and they are one of Europes oldest royal houses, with numerous existing cadet branches. The Rurikid dynasty was founded in 862 by Rurik, a Varangian prince, come and reign as princes and have authority over us. Three brothers came with their kin and all the Rus in response to this invitation, Rurik set up rule in Novgorod, giving more provincial towns to his brothers. The Rurikid Dynasty DNA Project of FamilyTreeDNA commercial genetic genealogy company reports that Y-DNA testing of the descendants of Rurikids suggests their non-Slavic origin, Rurik and his brothers founded a state that later historians called Kievan Rus′. By the middle of the century, Kievan Rus′ had dissolved into independent principalities. The dynasty followed agnatic seniority and the izgoi principle, in addition, a line of Polotsk princes assimilated themselves with the princes of Lithuania. In the 10th century the Council of Liubech made some amendments to a succession rule, vsevolods line eventually became better known as the Monomakhovychi and was the predominant one. The line of Svyatoslav later became known as Olegovychi and often claim to the lands of Chernihiv. The Izyaslavychi who ruled Turov and Volhynia were eventually replaced by a Monomakhovychi branch, the Rurikid dynasty… attempted to impose on their highly diverse polity the integrative concept of russkaia zemlia and the unifying notion of a Rus′ people. But Kievan Rus′ was never really a unified polity and it was a loosely bound, ill-defined, and heterogeneous conglomeration of lands and cities inhabited by tribes and populous groups whose loyalties were primarily territorial. This caused the Rurik dynasty to effectively dissolve into several sub-dynasties ruling smaller states in the 10th and 11th centuries and these were the Olgoviches of Severia who ruled in Chernigov, Yuryeviches who controlled Vladimir-Suzdal, and Romanoviches in Galicia-Volhynia. The Olgoviches descended from Oleg I of Chernigov, a son of Sviatoslav II of Kiev and they continued to rule until the early 14th century when they were torn apart by the emerging Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Grand Duchy of Moscow. Vsevolod I of Kiev was the father of Vladimir II Monomakh, two of Vladimir IIs sons were Mstislav I of Kiev and Yuri Dolgorukiy. The Romanoviches were the line of Roman the Great, descended from Mstislav I of Kiev through his son Iziaslav II of Kiev and his grandson Mstislav II of Kiev, father of Roman the Great. The older Monomakhovychi line that ruled Principality of Volhynia, they were crowned kings of Galicia and Volhynia. Romanovychi displaced the line of Izyaslavychi from Turov and Volhynia as well as Rostyslavychi from Galicia. The last were two brothers of Romanovychi, Andrew and Lev II, who ruled jointly and were trying to repel Mongol incursions
9.
Saint-Germain-en-Laye
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Saint-Germain-en-Laye is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the suburbs of Paris,19.1 km from the centre of Paris. Inhabitants are called Saint-Germanois or Saint-Germinois, with its elegant tree-lined streets it is one of the more affluent suburbs of Paris, combining both high-end leisure spots and exclusive residential neighborhoods. Saint-Germain-en-Laye is a sub-prefecture of the department, because it includes the National Forest of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, it covers approximately 48 km2, making it the largest commune in the Yvelines. It occupies a large loop of the Seine, Saint-Germain-en-Laye lies at one of the western termini of Line A of the RER. Saint-Germain-en-Laye was founded in 1020 when King Robert the Pious founded a convent on the site of the present Church of Saint-Germain, in 1688, James II, King of England, exiled himself to the city due to religious conflicts in his own country. He spent the remainder of his days there, and died on 16 September 1701, prior to the French Revolution in 1789, it had been a royal town and the Château de Saint-Germain the residence of numerous French monarchs. The old château was constructed in 1348 by King Charles V on the foundations of an old castle dating from 1238 in the time of Saint Louis, francis I was responsible for its subsequent restoration. In 1862, Napoleon III set up the Musée des Antiquités Nationales in the erstwhile royal château and this museum has exhibits ranging from Paleolithic to Celtic times. The Dame de Brassempouy sculpted on a mammoths ivory tusk around 23,000 years ago is the most famous exhibit in the museum, kings Henry IV and Louis XIII left their mark on the town. Louis XIV was born in the château, and established Saint-Germain-en-Laye as his residence from 1661 to 1681. Louis XIV turned over the château to James VII & II of Scotland and England after his exile from Britain after the Glorious Revolution in 1688, James lived in the Château for 13 years, and his daughter Louisa Maria Stuart was born in exile here in 1692. James II is buried in the Church of Saint-Germain, Saint-Germain-en-Laye is famous for its 2. 4-kilometre long stone terrace built by André Le Nôtre from 1669 to 1673. The terrace provides a view over the valley of the Seine and, in the distance, during the French Revolution, the name was changed along with many other places whose names held connotations of religion or royalty. During his reign, Napoleon I established his cavalry officers training school in the Château-Vieux, the Treaty of Saint-Germain was signed in 1919 and was applied on July 16,1920. The treaty officially registered the breakup of the Habsburg empire, which recognized the independence of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, during the occupation from 1940 to 1944, the town was the headquarters of the German Army. Saint-Germain-en-Laye is served by Saint-Germain-en-Laye station on Paris RER line A and it is also served by two stations on the Transilien Paris – Saint-Lazare suburban rail line, Saint-Germain – Bel-Air – Fourqueux and Saint-Germain – Grande Ceinture. Saint-Germain-en-Laye is also served by Achères – Grand Cormier station on Paris RER line A and this station is located in the middle of the Forest of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, far away from the urbanized part of the commune
10.
Van Gogh
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Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings and his suicide at 37 followed years of mental illness and poverty. Born into a family, Van Gogh drew as a child and was serious, quiet. As a young man he worked as an art dealer, often travelling and he turned to religion, and spent time as a Protestant missionary in southern Belgium. He drifted in ill health and solitude before taking up painting in 1881 and his younger brother Theo supported him financially, and the two kept up a long correspondence by letter. His early works, mostly still lifes and depictions of peasant labourers, in 1886 he moved to Paris, where he met members of the avant-garde, including Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, who were reacting against the Impressionist sensibility. As his work developed he created a new approach to still lifes and his paintings grew brighter in colour as he developed a style that became fully realised during his stay in Arles in the south of France in 1888. During this period he broadened his subject matter to include trees, cypresses, wheat fields. Van Gogh suffered from episodes and delusions and though he worried about his mental stability, he often neglected his physical health, did not eat properly. His friendship with Gauguin ended after a confrontation with a razor and he spent time in psychiatric hospitals, including a period at Saint-Rémy. After he discharged himself and moved to the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris and his depression continued and on 27 July 1890, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest with a revolver. He died from his injuries two days later, Van Gogh was unsuccessful during his lifetime, and was considered a madman and a failure. He became famous after his suicide, and exists in the imagination as the quintessential misunderstood genius. His reputation began to grow in the early 20th century as elements of his style came to be incorporated by the Fauves. The most comprehensive source on Van Gogh is the correspondence between him and his younger brother, Theo. Their lifelong friendship, and most of what is known of Vincents thoughts, Theo van Gogh was an art dealer and provided his brother with financial and emotional support, and access to influential people on the contemporary art scene. Theo kept all of Vincents letters to him, Vincent kept few of the letters he received, after both had died, Theos widow Johanna arranged for the publication of some of their letters. A few appeared in 1906 and 1913, the majority were published in 1914, Vincents letters are eloquent and expressive and have been described as having a diary-like intimacy, and read in parts like autobiography
11.
Toulouse-Lautrec
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Toulouse-Lautrec is among the best-known painters of the Post-Impressionist period, with Cézanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin. In a 2005 auction at Christies auction house, La Blanchisseuse, his painting of a young laundress, sold for US$22.4 million. The last part of his name means he was a member of an aristocratic family and his younger brother was born in 1867, but died the following year. After the death of his brother, Henris parents separated and a nanny ended up taking care of him, at the age of eight, Henri went to live with his mother in Paris where he drew sketches and caricatures in his exercise workbooks. The family quickly realised that Henris talents lay in drawing and painting, a friend of his father, René Princeteau, visited sometimes to give informal lessons. Some of Henris early paintings are of horses, a speciality of Princeteau, in 1875, Toulouse-Lautrec returned to Albi because his mother had concerns about his health. He took thermal baths at Amélie-les-Bains and his mother consulted doctors in the hope of finding a way to improve her sons growth, Toulouse-Lautrecs parents, the Comte and Comtesse, were first cousins, and he suffered from congenital health conditions sometimes attributed to a family history of inbreeding. At age 13, Toulouse-Lautrec fractured his right femur, at age 14, he fractured his left. The breaks did not heal properly, modern physicians attribute this to an unknown genetic disorder, possibly pycnodysostosis, or a variant disorder along the lines of osteopetrosis, achondroplasia, or osteogenesis imperfecta. Rickets aggravated by praecox virilism has also been suggested, afterwards, his legs ceased to grow, so that as an adult he was extremely short. He developed an adult-sized torso, while retaining his child-sized legs, additionally, he is reported to have had hypertrophied genitals. Physically unable to participate in many activities enjoyed by males his age and he became an important Post-Impressionist painter, art nouveau illustrator, and lithographer, and, through his works, recorded many details of the late-19th-century bohemian lifestyle in Paris. Toulouse-Lautrec contributed a number of illustrations to the magazine Le Rire during the mid-1890s, after initially failing college entrance exams, he passed his second attempt and completed his studies. Toulouse-Lautrecs mother had high ambitions and, with the aim of her son becoming a fashionable and respected painter and he was drawn to Montmartre, the area of Paris famous for its bohemian lifestyle and the haunt of artists, writers, and philosophers. Studying with Bonnat placed Toulouse-Lautrec in the heart of Montmartre, an area he rarely left over the next 20 years. After Bonnat took a new job, Toulouse-Lautrec moved to the studio of Fernand Cormon in 1882 and studied for a five years. At this time he met Émile Bernard and Vincent van Gogh, Cormon, whose instruction was more relaxed than Bonnats, allowed his pupils to roam Paris, looking for subjects to paint. During this period, Toulouse-Lautrec had his first encounter with a prostitute, which led him to paint his first painting of a prostitute in Montmartre, a woman rumoured to be Marie-Charlet
12.
Rugby football
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Rugby is a type of football developed at Rugby School in Rugby, Warwickshire, one of many versions of football played at English public schools in the 19th century. The two main types of rugby are rugby league and rugby union, although rugby league initially used rugby union rules, they are now wholly separate sports. Following the 1895 split in rugby football, the two rugby league and rugby union differed in administration only. Soon the rules of rugby league were modified, resulting in two different forms of rugby. After 100 years, in 1995 rugby union joined rugby league, the Greeks and Romans are known to have played many ball games, some of which involved the use of the feet. These games appear to have resembled rugby football, the Roman politician Cicero describes the case of a man who was killed whilst having a shave when a ball was kicked into a barbers shop. Roman ball games already knew the air-filled ball, the follis, episkyros is recognised as an early form of football by FIFA. In 1871, English clubs met to form the Rugby Football Union, in 1892, after charges of professionalism were made against some clubs for paying players for missing work, the Northern Rugby Football Union, usually called the Northern Union, was formed. The existing rugby union authorities responded by issuing sanctions against the clubs, players, after the schism, the separate clubs were named rugby league and rugby union. Rugby union is both a professional and amateur game, and is dominated by the first tier unions, Argentina, Australia, England, France, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa and Wales. Rugby Union is administered by World Rugby, whose headquarters are located in Dublin and it is the national sport in New Zealand, Wales, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Madagascar, and is the most popular form of rugby globally. The Olympic Games have admitted the seven-a-side version of the game, known as Rugby sevens, there was a possibility sevens would be a demonstration sport at the 2012 London Olympics but many sports including sevens were dropped. In Canada and the United States, rugby union evolved into gridiron football, during the late 1800s, the two forms of the game were very similar, but numerous rule changes have differentiated the gridiron-based game from its rugby counterpart. Rugby league is also both a professional and amateur game, administered on a level by the Rugby League International Federation. International Rugby League is dominated by Australia, England and New Zealand, in Papua New Guinea it is the national sport. Other nations from the South Pacific and Europe also play in the Pacific Cup, distinctive features common to both rugby codes include the oval ball and throwing the ball forward is not allowed, so that players can gain ground only by running with the ball or by kicking it. As the sport of rugby league moved further away from its counterpart, rule changes were implemented with the aim of making a faster-paced. League players may not contest possession after making a tackle, play is continued with a play-the-ball, in league, if the team in possession fails to score before a set of six tackles, it surrenders possession
13.
Alfred Sauvy
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Alfred Sauvy was a demographer, anthropologist and historian of the French economy. Sauvy coined the term Third World in reference to countries that were unaligned with either the Communist Soviet bloc or the Capitalist NATO bloc during the Cold War, in using the expression Third World here he was paraphrasing Sieyèss famous sentence about the Third Estate during the French Revolution. Sauvy was born in Villeneuve-de-la-Raho in 1898, and educated at the École Polytechnique, after graduating, he worked at the Statistique Générale de France until 1937. He took part in the X-Crise Group, in 1938, Paul Reynaud called him to deal with economic issues until the war arrived in 1939. During the Nazi occupation Sauvy helped in the publication of the Bulletin Rouge-Brique, after the war, Charles de Gaulle wanted to appoint him the General Secretary for Family and Population, but Sauvy decided to devote himself to demographics. He became director of the INED and simultaneously represented France at the commission of Statistics and he wrote for Le Monde until his death in October 1990. Writing in 1949, Sauvy described potential overpopulation as a false problem and he suggested examining countries on a case-by-case basis to see whether they lack the raw materials and natural resources that can support a larger population. Otherwise, he thought that we run the risk of underpopulating a country that could support a larger population
14.
Tristan Bernard
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Tristan Bernard was a French playwright, novelist, journalist and lawyer. Born Paul Bernard into a Jewish family in Besançon, Doubs, Franche-Comté, France and he left Besançon at the age of 14 years, relocating with his father to Paris, where he studied at the Lycée Condorcet, which was noted for its numerous literary alumni. In 1888 was born his son Jean-Jacques Bernard, also a dramatist and he studied law, but after his military service he started his career as the manager of an aluminium smelter. He reputedly introduced the bell to signify the last lap of a race, after his first publication in La Revue Blanche in 1891, he became increasingly a writer and adopted the pseudonym Tristan. His first play, Les Pieds Nickelés, was a success and was representative of the style of his later work. He became known especially for his writing for vaudeville-type performances, which were popular in France during that time. He also wrote novels and some poetry. Bernard is remembered mainly for witticisms, particularly from his play Les Jumeaux de Brighton, in 1932, he was a candidate for the Académie Française, but was not elected, receiving only 2 votes of a total of 39. He was interned during World War II at the Drancy deportation camp, when Gestapo agents were at his door he turned to his wife, who was crying, and said Don´t cry, we were living in fear, but from now on we will live in hope. Public protest of his imprisonment caused his release in 1943 and he died in Paris four years later, allegedly of the results of his internment, and was buried in Passy cemetery. A theater in Paris that he ran briefly as the Théâtre Tristan-Bernard in 1931 was later given the name permanently to honor him and his descendants have achieved some fame. His son Raymond Bernard became an influential French filmmaker while his son Jean-Jacques Bernard published a memoir of his father in 1955 titled Mon père Tristan Bernard, Tristan Bernards grandson Christian Bernard is the current Imperator of the Rosicrucian organization AMORC. One of his grand-nephews is Francis Veber, a screenwriter, director and playwright whose films have been frequently remade or adapted in Hollywood
15.
Normandy
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Normandy is one of the regions of France, roughly corresponding to the historical Duchy of Normandy. Administratively, Normandy is divided into five departments, Calvados, Eure, Manche, Orne and it covers 30,627 km², forming roughly 5% of the territory of France. Its population of 3.37 million accounts for around 5% of the population of France, Normans is the name given to the inhabitants of Normandy, and the region is the homeland of the Norman language. The historical region of Normandy comprised the region of Normandy, as well as small areas now part of the départements, or departments of Mayenne. For a century and a following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, Normandy and England were linked by Norman. Archaeological finds, such as paintings, prove that humans were present in the region in prehistoric times. Celts invaded Normandy in successive waves from the 4th to the 3rd century BC, when Julius Caesar invaded Gaul, there were nine different Celtic tribes living in Normandy. The Romanisation of Normandy was achieved by the methods, Roman roads. Classicists have knowledge of many Gallo-Roman villas in Normandy, in the late 3rd century, barbarian raids devastated Normandy. Coastal settlements were raided by Saxon pirates, Christianity also began to enter the area during this period. In 406, Germanic tribes began invading from the east, while the Saxons subjugated the Norman coast, the Roman Emperor withdrew from most of Normandy. As early as 487, the area between the River Somme and the River Loire came under the control of the Frankish lord Clovis, the Vikings started to raid the Seine Valley during the middle of the 9th century. As early as 841, a Viking fleet appeared at the mouth of the Seine, after attacking and destroying monasteries, including one at Jumièges, they took advantage of the power vacuum created by the disintegration of Charlemagnes empire to take northern France. The fiefdom of Normandy was created for the Norwegian Viking leader Hrólfr Ragnvaldsson, Rollo had besieged Paris but in 911 entered vassalage to the king of the West Franks, Charles the Simple, through the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. In exchange for his homage and fealty, Rollo legally gained the territory which he, the name Normandy reflects Rollos Viking origins. The descendants of Rollo and his followers adopted the local Gallo-Romance language and they became the Normans – a Norman-speaking mixture of Saxons and indigenous Franks and Celts. Besides the Norman conquest of England and the subsequent conquests of Wales and Ireland, Norman families, such as that of Tancred of Hauteville, Rainulf Drengot and Guimond de Moulins played important parts in the Norman conquest of southern Italy and Crusades. They also carved out a place for themselves and their descendants in the Crusader states of Asia Minor, the 14th century Norman explorer Jean de Béthencourt established a kingdom in the Canary Islands
16.
Colette
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Colette was a French novelist nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948. Her best known work, the novella Gigi, was the basis for the film and Lerner and she was also a mime, an actress and a journalist. They chart the coming of age of their heroine, Claudine, the story they tell is semi-autobiographical, but not entirely—most strikingly, Claudine, unlike Colette, is motherless. It was he who chose the titillating subject-matter of the Claudine novels, Colette later said that she would never have become a writer if not for Willy. Colette and Willy separated in 1906, although it was not until 1910 that the divorce became final and this period of her life is recalled in La Vagabonde, which deals with womens independence in a male society, a theme to which she would regularly return in future works. During these years she embarked on a series of relationships with women, notably with Mathilde de Morny, Marquise de Belbeuf. In 1912 she married Henry de Jouvenel, the editor of Le Matin, a daughter, Colette de Jouvenel, nicknamed Bel-Gazou, was born in 1913. During the war she devoted herself to journalism, but marriage allowed her to devote her time to writing, in 1920 Colette published Chéri, portraying love between an older woman and a much younger man. The marriage to Jouvenel ended in divorce in 1924, partly due to Jouvenels infidelities and partly to Colettes own affair with her sixteen-year-old stepson, in 1925 she met Maurice Goudeket, who became her final husband. Already an established writer, the decades of the 1920s and 1930s were Colettes most productive and innovative period, set mostly in Burgundy or Paris during the Belle Époque, her work treated married life, sexuality, and the problems of a womans struggle for independence. La Naissance du Jour is her explicit criticism of the lives of women, expressed in a meditation on age. By this period Colette was frequently acclaimed as Frances greatest woman writer and it. has no plot, and yet tells of three lives all that should be known, wrote Janet Flanner of Sido. Once again, and at greater length than usual, she has been hailed for her genius, humanities, lifted nothing at all in her direction except the finger of scorn. Colette was 67 years old at the fall of France, and remained in Paris, during the Occupation she produced two volumes of memoirs, Journal à rebours and De ma fenêtre. In 1944 she published what became perhaps her most famous work, Gigi, born into a family of demimondaines, Gigi is being trained as a courtesan to captivate a wealthy lover, but breaks with tradition by marrying him instead. In the postwar years, she became a public figure, crippled by arthritis and cared for by Goudeket who supervised the preparation of her collected works. She continued to write during these years, bringing out LEtoile vesper and Le fanal bleu, Colette was elected to the Belgian Royal Academy, the Académie Goncourt, and a Chevalier and Grand Officer of the Légion dhonneur. Initially considered a limited if talented novelist, she has been recognised as an important voice in womens writing
17.
Battle of Sedan (1940)
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The Battle of Sedan or Second Battle of Sedan was a Second World War battle fought during the French Campaign. Sedan was situated on the east bank of the Meuse River and its capture would give the Germans a base from which to capture the Meuse bridges and cross the river. Should this occur, the German divisions could then advance across the open and undefended French countryside, beyond Sedan, on 12 May, Sedan was captured without resistance. In the following days, the Germans defeated the French defences surrounding Sedan on the west bank of the Meuse and this was largely achieved by the Luftwaffe. As a result of German bombing and low morale, the French defenders were unable to mount a coherent defence, the Germans captured the Meuse bridges at Sedan allowing them to pour forces including armour across the river. On 14 May, the Allied air forces, the Royal Air Force and Armée de lAir tried to destroy the bridges, the Luftwaffe prevented them from doing so. In large air battles, the Allies suffered high losses which depleted Allied bomber strength in the campaign. The crossing of the Meuse enabled the Germans to break into the depths, or undefended rear, of the Allied front. The French attempted to launch counter-attacks against the German-held bridgeheads, from 15–17 May, five days after consolidating their bridgeheads at Sedan, on 20 May, the German Army reached the Channel. The victory at Sedan achieved the goal of Fall Gelb and encircled the strongest Allied armies. The resulting battles destroyed the remaining French army as a fighting force. The battle at Sedan was instrumental in the fall of France, on 10 May 1940, the Wehrmacht invaded Luxembourg, Netherlands and Belgium. In the Netherlands the Germans made steady progress, by 12 May, parts of the German Army Group B was closing on Rotterdam and Amsterdam, while in central Belgium the Germans were close to reaching the Dyle river east of Brussels. However, the offensive by Army Group B was a diversion, the main thrust of Fall Gelb was to be conducted by Army Group A through the Ardennes in Luxembourg and southern Belgium. Once these lightly defended areas were negotiated, Army Group As XIX, panzerkorps, under the command of Heinz Guderian, was to strike into France at Sedan, located on the Meuse river. Its capture would enable a German advance into the depths of France and to the English Channel. The result would be a strategic-level encirclement, for the offensive, the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gave Army Group A the most powerful concentration of German armour and motorised forces. Although Army Group B was allocated 808 tanks, over 1⁄4 of the total German tanks, they were largely light tanks such as the Panzer I and Panzer II, as opposed to the Panzer III and Panzer IV
18.
Ardennes
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The Ardennes is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges formed by the geological features of the Ardennes mountain range and the Moselle and Meuse River basins. Geologically, the range is a extension of the Eifel. The eastern part of the Ardennes forms the northernmost third of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, also called Oesling, the greater region maintained an industrial eminence into the 20th century after coal replaced charcoal in metallurgy. The region is typified by steep-sided valleys carved by swift-flowing rivers and its most populous cities are Verviers in Belgium and Charleville-Mézières in France, both exceeding 50,000 inhabitants. The Ardennes is otherwise relatively sparsely populated, with few of the cities exceeding 10,000 inhabitants with a few exceptions like Eupen or Bastogne. The Eifel range in Germany adjoins the Ardennes and is part of the geological formation. N. B. the Belgian Province of Luxembourg in the above list is not to be confused with the known as the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The Ardennes is an old mountain formed during the Hercynian orogeny, in France similar formations are the Armorican Massif, the Massif Central, the low interior of such old mountains often contain coal, plus iron, zinc and other metals in the sub-soil. This geologic fact explains the greatest part of the geography of Wallonia, the region was uplifted by a mantle plume during the last few hundred thousand years, as measured from the present elevation of old river terraces. This geological region is important in the history of Wallonia because this old mountain is at the origin of the economy, the history, Wallonia presents a wide range of rocks of various ages. Some geological stages internationally recognized were defined from rock sites located in Wallonia, except for the Tournaisian, all these rocks are within the Ardennes geological area. Before the 19th century industrialization, the first furnaces in the four Walloon provinces and in the French Ardennes used charcoal for fuel and this industry was also in the extreme south of the present-day Belgian province of Luxembourg, in the region called Gaume. Wallonia became the industrial power area of the world in proportion to its territory. The rugged terrain of the Ardennes limits the scope for agriculture, arable, the region is rich in timber and minerals, and Liège and Namur are both major industrial centres. The extensive forests have an abundant population of wild game, the scenic beauty of the region and its wide variety of outdoor activities, including hunting, cycling, walking and canoeing, make it a popular tourist destination. The region took its name from the ancient Silva, a vast forest in Roman times called Arduenna Silva, the modern Ardennes covers a much smaller area. The Song of Roland describes Charlemagne as having a nightmare the night before the Battle of Roncevaux Pass of 778 and this nightmare took place in the Ardennes forest, where his most important battles occurred. Another song about Charlemagne, the Old French 12th-century chanson de geste Quatre Fils Aymon, mentions many of Wallonias rivers, villages and other places
19.
Meuse
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The Meuse or Maas is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea. It has a length of 925 km. Its lower Belgian portion, part of the sillon industriel, was the first fully industrialized area in continental Europe. The Meuse and its crossings were a key objective of the last major German WWII counter-offensive on the Western Front, the Meuse River is represented in the documentary The River People released in 2012 by Xavier Istasse. The name Meuse is derived from the French name of the river, the Dutch name Maas descends from Middle Dutch Mase, which comes from the presumed but unattested Old Dutch form *Masa, from Proto-Germanic *Masō. Only modern Dutch preserves this Germanic form, however, despite the similarity, the Germanic name is not derived from the Latin name, judging from the change from earlier o into a, which is characteristic of the Germanic languages. Therefore, both the Latin and Germanic names were derived from a Proto-Celtic source, which would have been *Mosā. The Meuse rises in Pouilly-en-Bassigny, commune of Le Châtelet-sur-Meuse on the Langres plateau in France from where it flows northwards past Sedan, at Namur it is joined by the River Sambre. Beyond Namur the Meuse winds eastwards, skirting the Ardennes, the river then forms part of the Belgian-Dutch border, except that at Maastricht the border lies further to the west. The river has been divided near Heusden into the Afgedamde Maas on the right, the Bergse Maas continues under the name of Amer, which is part of De Biesbosch. Near Lage Zwaluwe, the Nieuwe Merwede joins the Amer, forming the Hollands Diep, between Maastricht and Maasbracht, an unnavigable section of the Meuse is bypassed by the 36 km Juliana Canal. South of Namur, further upstream, the river can carry more modest vessels. From Givet, the river is canalized over a distance of 272 kilometres, the canalized Meuse used to be called the Canal de lEst — Branche Nord but was recently rebaptized into Canal de la Meuse. The waterway can be used by the smallest barges that are still in use commercially, just upstream of the town of Commercy, the Canal de la Meuse connects with the Marne–Rhine Canal by means of a short diversion canal. The Cretaceous sea reptile Mosasaur is named after the river Meuse, the first fossils of it were discovered outside Maastricht 1780. An international agreement was signed in 2002 in Ghent, Belgium about the management of the river amongst France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, also participating in the agreement were the Belgian regional governments of Flanders, Wallonia, and Brussels. Most of the area is in Wallonia, followed by France. An International Commission on the Meuse has the responsibility of the implementation of the treaty, the map of the basin area of Meuse was joined to the text of the treaty
20.
Dordogne
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Dordogne is a department in southwestern France, with its prefecture in Périgueux. The department is located in the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine between the Loire Valley and the Pyrenees, and is named after the great Dordogne river that runs through it and it roughly corresponds with the ancient county of Périgord. The county of Périgord dates back to when the area was inhabited by the Gauls and it was originally home to four tribes, the name for four tribes in the Gaulish language was Petrocore. The area eventually known as the county of Le Périgord. The Petrocores took part in the resistance against Rome, the earliest cluzeaux, artificial caves either above or below ground, can be found throughout the Dordogne. These subterranean refuges and lookout huts were large enough to shelter entire local populations, according to Julius Caesar the Gauls took refuge in these caves during the resistance. After Guienne province was transferred to the English Crown under the Plantagenets following the remarriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, the county had been torn apart and, as a consequence, that modeled its physiognomy. During the calmer periods of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the finest Gothic and Renaissance residences were built in Périgueux, Bergerac and Sarlat. In the countryside, the nobility had the majority of the more than 1200 chateaux, manors, at the time, Bergerac was one of the most powerful Huguenot strongholds, along with La Rochelle. and even Josephine Baker. A number of ruins have retained the memory of the tragedies took place within their walls. Several of the castles and châteaux are open to visitors and some of such as Bourdeilles and Mareuil. Saint-Léon-sur-Vézère, Connezac, Saint-Jean-de-Côle, La Roque-Gageac and many others are real jewels of architecture, as for the old quarters of Périgueux or Bergerac, restored and developed into pedestrian areas, they have regained their former charm. A number of towns, such as Brantôme, Issigeac, Eymet. A special mention should be made in respect to Sarlat. Dordogne is one of the original 83 departments created on 4 March 1790 during the French Revolution and it was included from the former province of Périgord, the county of Périgord. Its borders would continue to change over the subsequent decades, in 1793 the communes of Boisseuilh, Coubjours, Génis, Payzac, Saint-Cyr-les-Champagnes, Saint-Mesmin, Salagnac, Savignac, Saint-Trié and Teillots were transferred from Corrèze to Dordogne. In 1794 Dordogne ceded Cavarc to Lot-et-Garonne, later in 1794 Dordogne gained Parcoul from Charente-Inférieure. Following the restoration, in 1819, the commune of Bonrepos was suppressed and merged with the adjacent commune of Souillac in Lot, but at some stage the victim died, and following a trial four individuals identified as culpable were in turn condemned to die by guillotine
21.
Jean-Louis Barrault
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Jean-Louis Barrault studied with Charles Dullin in whose troupe he acted from 1933 to 1935. At 25 years of age, he met and studied with the mime Étienne Decroux, from 1940 to 1946 Barrault was a member of the Comédie-Française, where he directed productions of Paul Claudels Le Soulier de satin and Jean Racines Phèdre, two plays that made his reputation. Over his career, he acted in nearly 50 movies including Les beaux jours, Jenny, LOr dans la Montagne, in 1940, he married the actress Madeleine Renaud. They founded a number of theatres together and toured extensively, including in South America and he was the uncle of actress Marie-Christine Barrault and sometime sponsor of Peter Brook. He died from an attack in Paris at the age of 83. Jean-Louis Barrault is buried with his wife Madeleine Renaud in the Passy Cemetery in Paris, Jean-Louis Barrault, Reflections on the Theatre, In fact it is the simplest things that are the most tricky to do well. To be able to exactly what is written without omitting anything that is written. To be able to capture the exact context of the one is reading. Barrault from Melinda Camber Porters Through Parisian Eyes, Reflections on Contemporary French Arts and Culture, when I go to sleep, I feel I have experienced a small death, so that I can wake up in the morning renewed and reborn. Jean-Louis Barrault at the Internet Movie Database Jean-Louis Barrault at Find a Grave
22.
Les Enfants du Paradis
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Les Enfants du Paradis, released as Children of Paradise in North America, is a 1945 French film directed by Marcel Carné. It was made during the German occupation of France during World War II, a three-hour film in two parts, it was described in the original American trailer as the French answer to Gone With the Wind, an opinion shared by the critic David Shipman. The leading nouvelle vague director François Truffaut once said, I would give up all my films to have directed Children of Paradise, the film was voted Best Film Ever in a poll of 600 French critics and professionals in 1995. The actors played to these gods, hoping to win their favour. In British English, Les Enfants du Paradis translates better in context as The Children of the Gods than as The Children of Paradise, the film revolves around a beautiful and charismatic courtesan, Garance. Garance is briefly intrigued/involved with them all, but leaves them when they attempt to force her to love on their terms, the mime Baptiste is the one who suffers the most in pursuit of the unattainable Garance. The four men courting Garance are all based on real French personalities of the 1820s and 1830s, Baptiste Debureau was a famous mime and Frédérick Lemaître was an acclaimed actor on the Boulevard of Crime depicted in the film. Pierre Lacenaire was an infamous French criminal, and the character of the Comte Édouard de Montray was inspired by the Duc de Morny. Carné, who at the time was hesitant about which movie to direct next, according to Trauner Prévert then saw an opportunity to include the character of Lacenaire, the dandy du crime, who fascinated him. The Germans were then occupying the whole of France, and Prévert is rumoured to have said They will not let me do a movie about Lacenaire, Children of Paradise is divided into two epochs, Boulevard du Crime and LHomme Blanc. The first begins around 1827, the second seven years later. Part I, Boulevard of Crime A young actor and womanizer, Frédérick Lemaître and he meets and flirts with Garance, a beautiful woman who earns her living by exhibiting her physical charms in a carnival show. Garance staves off Frédéricks advances and goes to one of her acquaintances, Pierre-François Lacenaire. Lacenaire is a proud, dangerous individual who works as a scrivener to cover his organized criminal enterprises, shortly thereafter, Garance is accused of stealing a mans gold watch while she is watching a pantomime featuring Baptiste Deburau and a barker in front of the Funambules Theater. Lacenaire is in fact the guilty party, Baptiste, dressed up as the stock character Pierrot, saves her from the police by silently acting out the theft, which he has just witnessed. He reveals a talent, a veritable vocation for pantomime. Baptistes father is one of the stars at the Funambules, the daughter of the theater director, Nathalie, who is a mime also, is deeply in love with Baptiste. When a fight breaks out that evening between two clans of actors, Baptiste and Frédérick manage to calm the crowd down by improvising a mime act
23.
Nice
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Nice is the fifth most populous city in France and the capital of the Alpes-Maritimes département. The urban area of Nice extends beyond the city limits. Nice is about 13 kilometres from the principality of Monaco, the city is nicknamed Nice la Belle, which means Nice the Beautiful, which is also the title of the unofficial anthem of Nice, written by Menica Rondelly in 1912. The area of todays Nice contains Terra Amata, a site which displays evidence of a very early use of fire. Around 350 BC, Greeks of Marseille founded a permanent settlement and called it Nikaia, after Nike, through the ages, the town has changed hands many times. Its strategic location and port significantly contributed to its maritime strength, for centuries it was a dominion of Savoy, and was then part of France between 1792 and 1815, when it was returned to Piedmont-Sardinia until its re-annexation by France in 1860. The citys main seaside promenade, the Promenade des Anglais owes its name to visitors to the resort, for decades now, the picturesque Nicean surroundings have attracted not only those in search of relaxation, but also those seeking inspiration. The clear air and soft light have particularly appealed to some of Western cultures most outstanding painters, such as Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, Niki de Saint Phalle and Arman. Their work is commemorated in many of the museums, including Musée Marc Chagall, Musée Matisse. Nice has the second largest hotel capacity in the country and it is one of its most visited cities and it also has the third busiest airport in France, after the two main Parisian ones. It is the capital city of the County of Nice. Nice was probably founded around 350 BC by the Greeks of Massalia, the ruins of Cemenelum are in Cimiez, now a district of Nice. In the 7th century, Nice joined the Genoese League formed by the towns of Liguria. In 729 the city repulsed the Saracens, but in 859 and again in 880 the Saracens pillaged and burned it, during the Middle Ages, Nice participated in the wars and history of Italy. As an ally of Pisa it was the enemy of Genoa, during the 13th and 14th centuries the city fell more than once into the hands of the Counts of Provence, but it regained its independence even though related to Genoa. The medieval city walls surrounded the Old Town, the landward side was protected by the River Paillon, which was later covered over and is now the tram route towards the Acropolis. The east side of the town was protected by fortifications on Castle Hill, another river flowed into the port on the east side of Castle Hill. Engravings suggest that the area was also defended by walls
24.
Mon Oncle
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Mon Oncle is a 1958 comedy film by French filmmaker Jacques Tati. As with most Tati films, Mon Oncle is largely a comedy, color. The dialogue in Mon Oncle is barely audible, and largely subordinated to the role of a sound effect, the drifting noises of heated arguments and idle banter complement other sounds and the physical movements of the characters, intensifying comedic effect. The complex soundtrack also uses music to characterize environments, including a musical theme that represents Hulots world of comical inefficiency. The film was big success for Tati with a total of 4,576,928 admissions in France. M. Hulot is the dreamy, impractical, and adored uncle of nine-year-old Gérard Arpel, Arpel, in an ultra-modern geometric house and garden, Villa Arpel, in a new suburb of Paris, situated just beyond the crumbling stone buildings of the old neighborhoods of the city. Arpel activates only for important visitors, each element of Villa Arpel is stylistically- rather than functionally-designed, creating an environment completely indifferent to the comfort, or lack of comfort, of its occupants. In choosing modern architecture to punctuate his satire, Tati once stated, despite the superficial beauty of its modern design, the Arpels home is entirely impersonal, as are the Arpels themselves. Arpel have completely subordinated their individuality to maintain their social position, Tati emphasizes his themes surrounding the Arpel lifestyle with monochromatic shades and cloudy days. By contrast, Monsieur Hulot lives in an old and run-down city district and he is unemployed, and gets around town either on foot or on a VéloSoleX motorized bicycle. Gérard, utterly bored by the sterility and monotony of his life with his parents, exasperated at their relatives perceived immaturity, the Arpels soon scheme to saddle him with the twin yokes of family and business responsibilities. An English version of the film, nine minutes shorter than the original, there are slight differences in the staging of the scenes and in the performances. In the English-language release, French signs are replaced by ones in English, important dialogue is dubbed in English, after youve pushed one button and one modernistic face, youve pushed them all. Mr. Hulot is the focus of amusement, not electrical doors, crowther noted that its style of humor was done superbly more than twenty-five years ago by René Clair in À Nous la Liberté and afterward by Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times
25.
Play Time
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Playtime is a 1967 French comedy film directed by Jacques Tati. In Playtime, Tati again plays Monsieur Hulot, a character who had appeared in his earlier films Mon Oncle, as mentioned on the production documentary that accompanies the Criterion Collections DVD of the film, by 1964 Tati had grown ambivalent towards playing Hulot as a recurring central role. Unable to dispense with the character altogether, Hulot appears intermittently in Playtime. Playtime was made from 1964 through 1967, Playtime is considered Tatis masterpiece, as well as his most daring work. The sequences are as follows, The Airport, the American tour group arrives at the ultra-modern, the Apartments, as night falls, M. Hulot meets an old friend who invites him to his sparsely furnished, ultra-modern and glass-fronted flat. This sequence is filmed entirely from the street, observing Hulot, the Royal Garden, This sequence takes up almost the entire second half of the film. The Carousel of Cars, Hulot buys Barbara two small gifts as mementos of Paris before her departure, in the midst of a complex ballet of cars in a traffic circle, the tourists bus returns to the airport. He wanted people whose inner essence matched their characters and who could move in the way he wanted. The film is famous for its enormous, specially constructed set and background stage, known as Tativille, the set required a hundred construction workers to construct along with its own power plant. Budget crises and other disasters stretched the shooting schedule to three years, including 1.4 million francs in repairs after the set was damaged by storms. Tati observed, perhaps correctly, that the cost of building the set was no greater than what it would have cost to have hired Elizabeth Taylor or Sophia Loren for the leading role. Budget overruns forced Tati to take out loans and personal overdrafts to cover ever-increasing production costs. As Playtime depended greatly on visual comedy and sound effects, Tati chose to shoot the film on the high-resolution 70 mm film format, to save money, some of the building facades and the interior of the Orly set were actually giant photographs. The Paris landmarks Barbara sees reflected in the door are also photographs. Tati also used life-sized cutout photographs of people to save money on extras and these cutouts are noticeable in some of the cubicles when Hulot overlooks the maze of offices, and in the deep background in some of the shots at ground level from one office building to another. In this environment, only the irrepressible nonconformity of human nature, modern industrial technologies, accepted as necessary by society, are represented by Tati as obstructions to daily life and an interference to natural human interaction. Tati wanted the film to be in color but look like it was filmed in black, predominant colors are in shades of grey, blue, black, and greyish white. Green and red are used as accent colors, for example
26.
Trafic
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Trafic is a 1971 Italian-French comedy film directed by Jacques Tati. Trafic was the last film to feature Tatis famous character of Monsieur Hulot, the word Trafic was subsequently used for a light utility vehicle model manufactured by Renault starting in 1981. In Trafic, Hulot is an automobile designer who works for Altra. He, along with a driver and a publicity agent, Maria. On the way there, they encounter various obstacles on the road. Some of the obstacles that Hulot and his companions encounter are getting impounded by Dutch customs guards, a car accident, and an inefficient mechanic. ”Giddens disagrees with this assessment, and believes Trafic to have been “transcendent, ” as well as “misperceived” and “neglected. ”One review states that the film is “slow going. For the most part, the jokes in Trafic drum up a sense of languid, almost apathetic chaos, without always being conventional payoffs to give the comic business a sense of purpose. ”The film was released on DVD by The Criterion Collection on 15 July 2008, in a special edition double-disc set. Trafic at the Internet Movie Database
27.
Venice Film Festival
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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
28.
Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot
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Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot is a 1953 French comedy film starring and directed by Jacques Tati. It introduced the pipe-smoking, well-meaning but clumsy character of Monsieur Hulot, who appears in Tatis subsequent films, including Mon Oncle, Playtime, the film gained an international reputation for its creator when released in 1953. The film was successful as it had a total of 5,071,920 admissions in France. However, the film is by no means a silent comedy, as it uses natural and man-made sounds not only for comic effect, the film was made in both French and English language versions. While Tati had experimented with film in Jour de fête, Les Vacances is black. The jazz score, mostly variations on the theme Quel temps fait-il à Paris, was written by Alain Romans, Les Vacances was shot in the town of Saint-Marc-sur-Mer, which lies on the edge of the industrial port of Saint-Nazaire, in the Département of Loire-Atlantique. Tati had fallen in love with the coastline while staying in nearby Port Charlotte with his friends, M. and Mme Lemoine, before the war. Neither too big nor too small, - a sheltered inlet, with a curve of sand. Beach huts, windbreaks, fishing boats and outcrops of rock helped to complete a picture which was all the more idyllic for being so unspectacular, a bronze statue of Monsieur Hulot was later erected and overlooks the beach where the film was made. He said the film exploded with merriment and that Tati is a long-legged, slightly pop-eyed gent whose talent for caricaturing the manners of human beings is robust, there is really no story to the picture. Is at a minimum, and it is used just to satirize the silly, sounds of all sorts become firecrackers, tossed in for comical point. Tati biographer David Bellos has described the film as Sublime, and said that, I think that is true of a lot of people. Puncturing the veneer of the comfortably off at play is by no means the least of Tatis concerns, but, an elegiac quality, the sense that what Tati finds funny he also cherishes. The film was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival, Jacques Tati and Henri Marquet received an Academy Awards nomination for Writing for the 28th Academy Awards ceremony. Ranked #49 in Empire magazines The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema in 2010, Hulots Holiday In Search of Monsieur Hulots Holiday - article from The Guardian about staying in the Hotel de la Plage
29.
Saint-Marc-sur-Mer
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Saint-Marc-sur-Mer is a seaside resort in France, situated in the commune of Saint-Nazaire. It is located 6 kilometres to the west of the center of the town of Saint-Nazaire, originally named Crépelet, at the end of the 19th century the town was given the name of the saint to whom its chapel was dedicated. The towns beach is known for having been, from the summer to the autumn of 1951, Tati had been searching for a suitable location for weeks beforehand, and upon discovering Saint-Marc he wrote that it was the little corner I have been dreaming of. The Hôtel de la Plage, which appeared as the residence of the titular Monsieur Hulot, still exists. The beach is now known as la Plage de M Hulot, in 1999, at the request of Tatis daughter, a statue of Jacques Tati as Monsieur Hulot by sculptor Emmanuel Debarre was erected on the seafront. The statue originally held Hulots signature pipe, but it was snapped off by persons unknown not long after its unveiling, from the Pointe de lÈve to the Pointe de la Lande, the boundary between Saint-Nazaire and Pornichet, the coast measures a little more than 3 kilometres. The fort is also a centre régional opérationnel de surveillance et de sauvetage coastal monitoring station, stéphane Pajot, Les Vacances de Monsieur Tati, Hulot à Saint-Marc-sur-Mer. Éditions dOrbestier, Le Château dOlonne,2003
30.
Loire Atlantique
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Loire-Atlantique is a department on the west coast of France named after the Loire River and the Atlantic Ocean. Loire-Atlantique is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4,1790, originally, it was named Loire-Inférieure, but its name was changed in 1957 to Loire-Atlantique. The area is part of the historical Duchy of Brittany, and contains what many still consider to be Brittanys capital. However, when the system of French Regions was reviewed by the Vichy Government, whilst these administrative changes were reversed after the war, they were re-implemented in the 1955 boundary changes intended to optimise the management of the regions. There has since been a series of reflecting a strong local mood to have the department reintegrated with Brittany. Loire-Atlantique is part of the current region of Pays-de-la-Loire and is surrounded by the department of Morbihan, Ille-et-Vilaine, Maine-et-Loire, Upper Brittanys indigenous language is Gallo, a romance language related to French. The number of Gallo language speakers has been in decline since the early 20th century. The language is neither official nor taught in primary or secondary education, the Breton language, a Celtic language, native to Lower Brittany, was historically spoken in the western area of Loire-Atlantique, and up to 1920 in Batz-sur-Mer. This area has a rather Breton toponymy, for instance, Guérande originates from the Breton Gwenn Rann, the folklore and musical traditions of eastern or Lower Brittany are generally similar to those of western or Upper Brittany. The département operates the Lila network of buses, which link its villages, towns. The urban areas of Nantes and Saint-Nazaire operate their own urban transport networks, by rail, the regional trains and buses of the TER Pays de la Loire link major towns and cities of the Pays de la Loire and adjoining regions, including those of the département. Nantes is on the TGV network, with high speed trains running to Paris by the LGV Atlantique in just over 2 hours, Nantes Atlantique Airport, located 8 km to the southwest of the city of Nantes, serves the département and surrounding areas. It is the biggest airport in northwestern France, linking with several French, North African and European cities and it is currently planned that this airport will be replaced by a new Aéroport du Grand Ouest, situated 30 km to the north-west of Nantes in the commune of Notre-Dame-des-Landes. The €580 million project was approved in February 2008, with construction expected to start in 2012 and an opening date in 2015
31.
Academy Awards
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
32.
Rowan Atkinson
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Rowan Sebastian Atkinson, CBE is an English actor, comedian, and screenwriter best known for his work on the sitcoms Blackadder and Mr. Bean. His work in theatre includes the 2009 West End revival of the musical Oliver, Atkinson was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest actors in British comedy, and amongst the top 50 comedians ever, in a 2005 poll of fellow comedians. In addition to his 1981 BAFTA, he received an Olivier Award for his 1981 West End theatre performance in Rowan Atkinson in Revue. He has also had success with his performances in the Mr. Bean movie adaptations Bean and Mr. Beans Holiday. Atkinson, the youngest of four brothers, was born in Consett, County Durham, England and his parents were Eric Atkinson, a farmer and company director, and Ella May, who married on 29 June 1945. His three older brothers are Paul, who died as an infant, Rodney, a Eurosceptic economist who narrowly lost the United Kingdom Independence Party leadership election in 2000, and Rupert. Atkinson was brought up Anglican, and was educated at Durham Choristers School a preparatory school, St. Bees School, and Newcastle University, Atkinson starred in a series of comedy shows for BBC Radio 3 in 1978 called The Atkinson People. It consisted of a series of interviews with fictional great men. The series was written by Atkinson and Richard Curtis, and produced by Griff Rhys Jones, after university, Atkinson toured with Angus Deayton as his straight man in an act that was eventually filmed for a television show. After the success of the show, he did a pilot for London Weekend Television in 1979 called Canned Laughter. Atkinson then went on to do Not the Nine OClock News for the BBC and he featured in the show with Pamela Stephenson, Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith, and was one of the main sketch writers. The success of Not the Nine OClock News led to him taking the role in the medieval sitcom The Black Adder. After a three-year gap, in due to budgetary concerns, a second series was broadcast. Blackadder II followed the fortunes of one of the descendants of Atkinsons original character, the same pattern was repeated in the two more sequels Blackadder the Third, and Blackadder Goes Forth. The final scene of Blackadder Goes Forth has been described as bold, during the 2014 centennial of the start of World War I, Michael Gove and war historian Max Hastings complained about the so-called Blackadder version of history. Atkinsons other creation, the hapless Mr. Bean, first appeared on New Years Day in 1990 in a special for Thames Television. The character of Mr. Bean has been likened to a modern-day Buster Keaton, several sequels to Mr. Bean appeared on television until 1995, and the character later appeared in a feature film. Bean was directed by Mel Smith, Atkinsons colleague in Not the Nine OClock News, a second film, Mr. Beans Holiday, was released in 2007
33.
Mr. Bean's Holiday
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It is the second film based on the television series Mr. Bean, following the 1997 Bean. The film was released on 24 March 2007 by Universal Pictures. The film received mixed reviews from critics but earned $229.7 million on a $25 million budget, Mr. Beans Holiday was released on DVD and HD DVD on 27 November 2007. The film was released in the United Kingdom on March 30,2007, Mr. Bean drives to a church fete where he wins the first prize in a raffle – a holiday involving a train journey to Cannes, a video camera, and €200. However, a vending machine prevents him from boarding, and he misses his train, giving him an hour to sample French seafood cuisine at the restaurant Le Train Bleu. While there, he eats a whole without peeling it, and drops the oysters, which he took a dislike to, out of the shells and into his napkin. Back on the platform, Bean asks a man, who is a Russian movie director Emil Duchevsky, Bean makes a big fuss and keeps asking for retakes, so by the time they are done, the train is about to leave. Although Bean manages to get onto the train, the close before Emil can get on. Emils son, Stepan is therefore left on board without his father, Bean attempts without success to befriend the boy. At the next station, the leaves without him when he disembarks to get his camcorder back from the boy who has disembarked earlier. The train Emil has boarded does not stop at that station, so, Emil holds a sign showing a mobile number but the last two digits are covered by his fingers. Attempts at calling the number prove fruitless, Bean and Stepan board the next train but get kicked off because Bean left his wallet, and ticket on the telephone box. Attempts at begging and lip syncing to Puccinis O mio babbino caro prove successful, Bean manages to lose his, though, and attempts to hitchhike his way there. Bean soon falls asleep, exhausted from walking and wakes up on what appears to be a quaint French village but is actually a set for a yoghurt advert. Bean ends up as an extra in the advert, directed by Carson Clay, when Beans camera battery dies, he recharges it, but accidentally ends up destroying the set in an explosion. Bean then tries to again and a lime-green Mini identical to his picks him up, driven by actress Sabine. She is an actress on her way to the 59th Cannes Film Festival. When they stop at a station, Bean finds Stepan dancing in a cafe with a band
34.
Jury Prize (Cannes Festival)
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The Jury Prize is an award presented at the Cannes Film Festival, chosen by the Jury from the official section of movies at the festival. Initially the award signified the second best film in competition, though now it is now considered the third-most prestigious prize at the festival, after the Palme dOr. From 1951 until 1966 the name Special Jury Prize was used for the second-most important award of the festival, in 1967 the second place was renamed Grand Prize of the Jury, and the Special Jury Prize title was withdrawn. Then, in 1969, the Jury Prize was created separately from the Grand Prize, the Special Jury Prize reappeared twice in the 1990s, and one International Jury Prize was awarded in 1946. UK director Andrea Arnold and UK director Ken Loach are tied for the record for most Jury Prizes. As of 2016 Arnold was awarded the prize for her films Red Road, Fish Tank, and American Honey, while Loach was awarded the prize for his films Hidden Agenda, Raining Stones, and The Angels Share. Michelangelo Antonioni, René Clément, Masaki Kobayashi, and Samira Makhmalbaf have each won the award twice, Palme dOr Grand Prix Cannes Film Festival official website Cannes Film Festival at the Internet Movie Database
35.
Cannes Film Festival
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Founded in 1946, the invitation-only festival is held annually at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès. On 1 July 2014, co-founder and former head of French pay-TV operator Canal+ Pierre Lescure took over as President of the festival, the Board of Directors also appointed Gilles Jacob as Honorary President of the festival. The 2016 Cannes Film Festival took place between 11 and 22 May 2016, australian film director George Miller was the President of the Jury. I, Daniel Blake, directed by British director Ken Loach, in 2017, The Festival de Cannes will celebrate its 70th anniversary edition from May 17 to 28. In 1947, the festival was held as the Festival du film de Cannes, at that time the principle of equality was introduced, with a jury made up of only one representative per country. The festival is now held at the Palais des Festivals, expressly constructed for the occasion, although for its 1949 inaugural the roof was unfinished, the festival was not held in 1948 and 1950 on account of budgetary problems. Although its origins may be attributed in part to the French desire to compete with Autumns Venice Film Festival, in 1955, the Palme dOr was created, replacing the Grand Prix du Festival which had been given until that year. In 1957, Dolores del Rio was the first female member of the jury as a Sélection officielle – Member, in 1959, the Marché du Film was founded, giving the festival a commercial character and facilitating exchanges between sellers and buyers in the film industry. Today it has become the first international platform for film commerce, in 1962, the International Critics Week was born, created by the French Union of Film Critics as the first parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival. Its goal was to showcase first and second works by directors all over the world. In 1965, an hommage was paid to Jean Cocteau after his death, the next year, Olivia de Havilland was named the first female president of the festival. The 1968 festival was halted on 19 May, some directors, such as Carlos Saura and Miloš Forman, had withdrawn their films from the competition. The filmmakers achieved the reinstatement of the President, and they founded the Film Directors Society that same year, during the 1970s, important changes occurred in the Festival. In 1972, Robert Favre Le Bret was named the new President and he immediately introduced an important change in the selection of the participating films. Until that date, the different countries chose which films would represent them in the festival, Bessy created one committee to select French films, and another for foreign films. In 1978, Gilles Jacob assumed the President position, introducing the Caméra dOr award, in 1983, a new, much bigger Palais des Festivals et des Congrès was built to host the Festival. It was nicknamed The Bunker and provoked many reactions against it, in 1984, Pierre Viot replaced Robert Favre Le Bret as President of the Festival. It was not until 1995 that Gilles Jacob created the last section of the Official Selection and its aim was to support the creation of works of cinema in the world and to contribute to the entry of the new scenario writers in the circle of the celebrities
36.
Stan Laurel
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Stan Laurel was an English comic actor, writer, and film director, most famous for his role in the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. He appeared with his comedy partner Oliver Hardy in 107 short films, feature films, Laurel began his career in music hall, where he appropriated a number of his standard comic devices, the bowler hat, the deep comic gravity, and the nonsensical understatement. His performances polished his skills at pantomime and music hall sketches, Laurel was a member of Fred Karnos Army, where he was Charlie Chaplins understudy. With Chaplin, the two arrived in the US on the ship from Britain with the Karno troupe. Laurel began his career in films in 1917 and made his last appearance in 1951, from 1928 onwards, he appeared exclusively with Oliver Hardy. Laurel officially retired from the following his comedy partners death in 1957. In 1961, Laurel was given a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award for his work in comedy. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Blvd, Laurel and Hardy ranked top among best double acts and seventh overall in a 2005 UK poll to find the Comedians Comedian. In 2009, a statue of the duo was unveiled in Laurels home town of Ulverston. Arthur Stanley Jefferson was born in his grandparents house on 16 June 1890 at 3 Argyle Street, Ulverston, Lancashire and he had two brothers and a sister. His parents Margaret and Arthur Jefferson were both active in the theatre and always very busy, in his early years, the boy spent much time living with his grandmother Sarah Metcalfe. He attended school at King James I Grammar School, Bishop Auckland, County Durham and he moved with his parents to Glasgow, Scotland, where he completed his education at Rutherglen Academy. His father managed Glasgows Metropole Theatre, where Laurel began work and his boyhood hero was Dan Leno, one of the greatest English music hall comedians. It was the hall from where he drew his standard comic devices, including his bowler hat. He joined Fred Karnos troupe of actors in 1910 with the name of Stan Jefferson. The music hall nurtured him, and he acted as Chaplins understudy for some time, Chaplin and Laurel arrived in the United States on the same ship from Britain with the Karno troupe and toured the country. From 1916 to 1918, he teamed up with Alice Cooke and Baldwin Cooke, amongst other performers, Laurel worked briefly alongside Oliver Hardy in a silent film short The Lucky Dog. This was before the two were a team and it was around this time that Laurel met Mae Dahlberg
37.
Mack Sennett
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Mack Sennett was a Canadian-born American director and actor and was known as an innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the King of Comedy and his short Wrestling Swordfish was awarded the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 1932 and he earned an Academy Honorary Award in 1937. Born Michael Sinnott in Richmond Ste-Bibiane Parish, Quebec, Canada, he was the son of Irish Catholic John Sinnott and Catherine Foy, the newlyweds moved the same year to Richmond, where John Sinnott was hired as a laborer. By 1883, when Michaels brother George was born, John Sinnott was working in Richmond as an innkeeper, John Sinnott and Catherine Foy had all their children and raised their family in Richmond, then a small Eastern Townships village. At that time, Michaels grandparents were living in Danville, Québec, Michael Sinnott moved to Connecticut when he was 17 years old. He lived for a while in Northampton, Massachusetts, where, according to his autobiography and he claimed that the most respected lawyer in town, Northampton mayor Calvin Coolidge, as well as Sennetts own mother, tried to talk him out of his musical ambitions. In New York City, Sennett became an actor, singer, dancer, clown, set designer, a major distinction in his acting career, often overlooked, is the fact that Sennett played Sherlock Holmes eleven times, albeit as a parody, between 1911 and 1913. With financial backing from Adam Kessel and Charles O. Bauman of the New York Motion Picture Company, Michael Mack Sennett founded Keystone Studios in Edendale, the original main building which was the first totally enclosed film stage and studio ever constructed, is still there today. Mack Sennetts slapstick comedies were noted for their wild car chases, additionally, Sennetts first female comedian was Mabel Normand, who became a major star under his direction and with whom he embarked on a tumultuous romantic relationship. Sennett also developed the Kid Comedies, a forerunner of the Our Gang films, two of those often named as Bathing Beauties do not belong on the list, Mabel Normand and Gloria Swanson. Mabel Normand was a player, and her 1912 8-minute film The Water Nymph may have been the direct inspiration for the Bathing Beauties. Although Gloria Swanson worked for Sennett in 1916 and was photographed in a suit, she was also a star. Not individually featured or named, many of young women ascended to significant careers of their own. They included Juanita Hansen, Claire Anderson, Marie Prevost, Phyllis Haver, in the 1920s Sennetts Bathing Beauties remained popular enough to provoke imitators like the Christie Studios Bathing Beauties and Fox Film Corporations Sunshine Girls. The Sennett Bathing Beauties would continue to appear through 1928, in 1917, Sennett gave up the Keystone trademark and organized his own company, Mack Sennett Comedies Corporation. Sennett went on to more ambitious comedy short films and a few feature-length films. During the 1920s, his subjects were in much demand, featuring stars like Billy Bevan, Andy Clyde, Harry Gribbon, Vernon Dent, Alice Day, Ralph Graves, Charlie Murray. He produced several features with his brightest stars such as Ben Turpin, many of Sennetts films of the early 1920s were inherited by Warner Bros
