1.
Colonial Assam
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Colonial Assam refers to the period of History of Assam between the signing of the Treaty of Yandabo and Independence of India when Assam was under the British colonial rule. The political institutions and social relations that were established or severed during this period continue to have an effect on contemporary events. The legislature and political alignments that evolved by the end of the British rule continued in the post Independence period, the region that came to be known as undivided Goalpara district came under British rule after the transfer of the Deewani from the Mughal Emperor on August 12,1765. The Burmese occupiers retreated from the Ahom capital of Rangpur in January 1825, in the war against the Burmese the Ahoms did not help the British. In 1828, the Kachari kingdom was annexed under the Doctrine of Lapse after the king Govinda Chandra was killed, in 1832, the Khasi king surrendered and the British increased their influence over the Jaintia ruler. In 1833, upper Assam became a British protectorate under the ruler of the Ahom kingdom, Purandhar Singha. With the annexation of the Maran/Matak territory in the east in 1839, Assam was included as a part of the Bengal Presidency. The annexation of upper Assam is attributed to the manufacture of tea in 1837. Under the Wasteland Rules of 1838, it nearly impossible for natives to start plantations. After the liberalization of the rules in 1854, there was a land rush, from 1859 central Indian labour was imported for the tea plantations. This labour, based on a contract, led to a virtual slavery of this labour group. The conditions in which they were transported to Assam were so horrific that about 10% never survived the journey, the colonial government already had monopoly over the opium trade. There were immediate protests and revolts against the British occupation, in 1828, two years after the Treaty of Yandabo, Gomdhar Konwar rose in revolt against the British, but he was easily suppressed. In 1830 Dhananjoy Burhagohain, Piyali Phukan and Jiuram Medhi rose in revolt, in the Indian rebellion of 1857, the people of Assam offered resistance in the form of non-cooperation, and Maniram Dewan and Piyali Baruah were executed for their roles. In 1861 peasants of Nagaon gathered at Phulaguri for a raiz mel to protest against taxes on betel-nut, Lt. Singer, a British officer got into a fracas with the peasants and was killed, after which the protests were violently suppressed. Assamese, which had replaced by Bengali as the official language in 1837, was reinstated alongside Bengali. The people of Sylhet, Goalpara, Kamrup and the Hills protested the inclusion in Assam, in 1889, oil was discovered at Digboi giving rise to an oil industry. In this period Nagaon witnessed starvation deaths, and there was a decrease in the indigenous population, colonialism was well entrenched, and the tea, oil and coal-mining industries were putting increasing pressure on the agricultural sector which was lagging behind
Colonial Assam
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James Rennell 's 1776 map shows the eastern boundary of the British controlled regions before 1824
Colonial Assam
2.
British Raj
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The British Raj was the rule by the British Crown in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947. The rule is also called Crown rule in India, or direct rule in India, the resulting political union was also called the Indian Empire and after 1876 issued passports under that name. It lasted until 1947, when the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two sovereign states, the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. The British Raj extended over almost all present-day India, Pakistan and this area is very diverse, containing the Himalayan mountains, fertile floodplains, the Indo-Gangetic Plain, a long coastline, tropical dry forests, arid uplands, and the Thar desert. In addition, at times, it included Aden, Lower Burma, Upper Burma, British Somaliland. Burma was separated from India and directly administered by the British Crown from 1937 until its independence in 1948, among other countries in the region, Ceylon was ceded to Britain in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens. Ceylon was part of Madras Presidency between 1793 and 1798, the kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan, having fought wars with the British, subsequently signed treaties with them and were recognised by the British as independent states. The Kingdom of Sikkim was established as a state after the Anglo-Sikkimese Treaty of 1861, however. The Maldive Islands were a British protectorate from 1887 to 1965, India during the British Raj was made up of two types of territory, British India and the Native States. In general, the term British India had been used to also to the regions under the rule of the British East India Company in India from 1600 to 1858. The term has also used to refer to the British in India. The terms Indian Empire and Empire of India were not used in legislation, the monarch was known as Empress or Emperor of India and the term was often used in Queen Victorias Queens Speeches and Prorogation Speeches. The passports issued by the British Indian government had the words Indian Empire on the cover, in addition, an order of knighthood, the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, was set up in 1878. At the turn of the 20th century, British India consisted of eight provinces that were administered either by a Governor or a Lieutenant-Governor, during the partition of Bengal the new provinces of Assam and East Bengal were created as a Lieutenant-Governorship. In 1911, East Bengal was reunited with Bengal, and the new provinces in the east became, Assam, Bengal, Bihar, there were 565 princely states when India and Pakistan became independent from Britain in August 1947. The princely states did not form a part of British India, the larger ones had treaties with Britain that specified which rights the princes had, in the smaller ones the princes had few rights. Within the princely states external affairs, defence and most communications were under British control, the British also exercised a general influence over the states internal politics, in part through the granting or withholding of recognition of individual rulers. Although there were nearly 600 princely states, the majority were very small
British Raj
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An 1909 map of the British Indian Empire
British Raj
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Flag
British Raj
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British Raj coins during
Edward VII and
George V,
Indian Museum
British Raj
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Imperial entities of India
3.
Central School of Speech and Drama
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The Royal Central School of Speech & Drama was founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906 to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for young actors and other students. It became a constituent of the University of London in 2005 and its prominent alumni include Laurence Olivier, Vanessa Redgrave, Judi Dench, michael Grandage, a Central graduate and artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, has now been appointed President. Elsie Fogerty founded The Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art at the Royal Albert Hall in 1906, Fogerty was a specialist in speech training and held a firm belief in the social importance of education. She was committed to advancing the study of theatre as an academic discipline, in 1957 the school moved from the Royal Albert Hall, having acquired the lease of the Embassy Theatre at Swiss Cottage and its associated buildings. By 1961 three distinct departments had been established within Central, the stage department was running its three-year course for actors, with alumni including Laurence Olivier and Peggy Ashcroft already a part of its history, and a two-year course for stage managers. The teacher training department was preparing students for its own diploma, which was a teaching qualification. That diploma had been instituted in 1912 as a result of Fogertys campaign for the recognition of drama and drama teaching as subjects worthy of academic study. By this time, the school was as known for its speech therapy department as for its work in training actors, in 1972 Central became grant-aided by the Inner London Education Authority. In 1989 it was incorporated as an education college in its own right. Central had been offering degrees since 1986, firstly validated by the Council for National Academic Awards, in 2004 the Privy Council granted the Central the power to award its own taught degrees. In 2005 students from the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art transferred to Central after a 100-year history of significant contributions to stage, in the same year, the school was designated as the Higher Education Funding Council for Englands Centre for Excellence in Training for Theatre. With effect from September 2005 Central became a college of the University of London, apart from its notable alumni, who include Laurence Olivier, Vanessa Redgrave, Judi Dench, Cameron Mackintosh, Harold Pinter, Jason Isaacs and James Fox, the school has had some notable staff. It is entitled to use it in official documentation, although it continues to be referred to as Central. The schools Patron, HRH Princess Alexandra of Kent, played a role in recommending the institution for the adjective, the schools theatre is located inside the new building which was awarded a BREEAM rating of very good. Deputy Principal / Deputy CEO / Clerk to Governors, Deborah Scully, prior to joining Central, Deputy Principal and Professor of Theatre, Simon Shepherd, joined Central in 2001. Previously a Professor of Drama at Goldsmiths, University of London, and before that Professor of Drama at the University of Nottingham, which he left in 1996. Dean of Studies and Professor of Sound, Ross Brown, formerly a painter, then a composer, performer and sound designer in theatre. Director of Research, Robin Nelson, is a member of the IFTR’s Theatre
Central School of Speech and Drama
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Central School of Speech and Drama
Central School of Speech and Drama
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The Embassy Theatre.
Central School of Speech and Drama
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Colleges and
institutions
4.
Swinging London
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The term Swinging London refers to a youth-driven cultural revolution that took place in London during the mid-to-late 1960s. The Swinging London also reached British cinema, which saw a surge in formal experimentation, freedom of expression, colour, and comedy. During this period, creative types of all kinds gravitated to the capital, from artists and writers to publishers, photographers, advertisers, film-makers. During this era, London from a gloomy, grimy post-War capital into a bright, the phenomenon was caused by the large number of young people in the city and the postwar economic boom. The swinging scene also served as a consumerist counterpart to the countercultural British underground of the same period, Swinging London was a youth-oriented phenomenon that emphasized the new and modern. It was a period of optimism and hedonism, and a cultural revolution, one catalyst was the recovery of the British economy after post-World War II austerity which lasted through much of the 1950s. It swings, it is the scene, and celebrated in the name of the radio station, Swinging Radio England. However, swinging in the sense of hip or fashionable had been used since the early 1960s, in 1965, Diana Vreeland, editor of Vogue magazine, said London is the most swinging city in the world at the moment. Later that year, the American singer Roger Miller had a hit record with England Swings, psychedelic rock from artists such as Pink Floyd, Cream, Procol Harum, the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Traffic grew significantly in popularity. During the time of Swinging London, fashion and photography were featured in Queen magazine, mod-related fashions such as the miniskirt stimulated fashionable shopping areas such as Carnaby Street and Kings Road, Chelsea. The model Jean Shrimpton was another icon and one of the worlds first supermodels and she was the worlds highest paid and most photographed model during this time. Shrimpton was called The Face of the 60s, in which she has been considered by many as the symbol of Swinging London, other popular models of the era included Veruschka, Peggy Moffitt, and Penelope Tree. The model Twiggy has been called the face of 1966 and the Queen of Mod, the British flag, the Union Jack, became a symbol, assisted by events such as Englands home victory in the 1966 World Cup. The Mini-Cooper car was used by a fleet of mini-cab taxis highlighted by advertising that covered their paintwork, the Jaguar E-Type sports car was another British icon of the 1960s. The phenomenon was featured in films of the time, including Darling. The comedy films Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery and Austin Powers, The Spy Who Shagged Me resurrected the imagery, the ITV spy-fi series The Avengers, particularly after it began broadcasting in colour, reveled in its Swinging London setting. In the 1967 episode, Dead Mans Treasure, Emma Peel arrives in the archetypal English village of Swingingdale, in the episode Beauty is an Ugly Word of BBCs Adam Adamant Lives. Adamant, an Edwardian adventurer suspended in time since 1902, was told, jigsaw Man, a 1968 episode of the detective series Man in a Suitcase, opened with the announcement, This is London
Swinging London
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"Swinging London",
Carnaby Street, circa 1966
Swinging London
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Carnaby Street, circa 1968.
5.
Academy Award
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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
Academy Award
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Academy Awards
Academy Award
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31st Academy Awards Presentations,
Pantages Theatre, Hollywood, 1959
Academy Award
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81st Academy Awards Presentations,
Dolby Theatre, Hollywood, 2009
Academy Award
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Pantages Theatre, 2008
6.
Golden Globe
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Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign. The annual ceremony at which the awards are presented is a part of the film industrys awards season. The 74th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film, the 1st Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best achievements in 1943 filmmaking, was held in January 1944, at the 20th Century-Fox studios. Subsequent ceremonies were held at venues throughout the next decade, including the Beverly Hills Hotel. In 1950, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association made the decision to establish an honorary award to recognize outstanding contributions to the entertainment industry. Recognizing its subject as a figure within the entertainment industry. The official name of the award became the Cecil B. In 1963, the Miss Golden Globe concept was introduced, in its inaugural year, two Miss Golden Globes were named, one for film and one for television. The two Miss Golden Globes named that year were Eva Six and Donna Douglas, respectively, in 2009, the Golden Globe statuette was redesigned. It was unveiled at a conference at the Beverly Hilton prior to the show. The broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards, telecast to 167 countries worldwide, generally ranks as the third most-watched awards show each year, behind only the Oscars, gervais returned to host the 68th and 69th Golden Globe Awards the next two years. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosted the 70th, 71st and 72nd Golden Globe Awards in 2015, the Golden Globe Awards theme song, which debuted in 2012, was written by Japanese musician and songwriter Yoshiki Hayashi. On January 7,2008, it was announced due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. The ceremony was faced with a threat by striking writers to picket the event, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association was forced to adopt another approach for the broadcast. In acting categories, Meryl Streep holds the record for the most competitive Golden Globe wins with eight, however, including honorary awards, such as the Henrietta Award, World Film Favorite Actor/Actress Award, or Cecil B. DeMille Award, Barbra Streisand leads with nine, additionally, Streisand won for composing the song Evergreen, producing the Best Picture, and directing Yentl in 1984. Jack Nicholson, Angela Lansbury, Alan Alda and Shirley MacLaine have six awards each, behind them are Rosalind Russell and Jessica Lange with five wins. Meryl Streep also holds the record for most nominations with thirty, at the 46th Golden Globe Awards an anomaly occurred, a three way-tie for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama
Golden Globe
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The Golden Globe statuette
7.
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
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The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is an independent charity that supports, develops and promotes the art forms of the moving image – film, television and game in the United Kingdom. David Lean was the founding Chairman of the Academy, the first Film Awards ceremony took place in May 1949 and honouring the films The Best Years of Our Lives, Odd Man Out and The World Is Rich. In 2005, it placed a cap on worldwide voting membership which now stands at approximately 6,500. BAFTA has offices in Scotland and Wales in the UK, in Los Angeles and New York in the United States and runs events in Hong Kong, amanda Berry OBE has been chief executive of the organisation since December 2000. Many of these events are free to online at BAFTA Guru. BAFTA runs a number of programmes across the UK, US. Launched in 2012, the UK programme enables talented British citizens who are in need of support to take an industry-recognised course in film. Each BAFTA Scholar receives up to £12,000 towards their annual course fees, since 2013, three students every year have received one of the Prince William Scholarships in Film, Television and Games, supported by BAFTA and Warner Bros. These scholarships are awarded in the name of in his role as President of BAFTA, since 2015, BAFTA has been offering scholarships for British citizens to study in China, vice versa. BAFTA presents awards for film, television and games, including entertainment, at a number of annual ceremonies across the UK and in Los Angeles. The BAFTA award trophy is a mask, designed by American sculptor Mitzi Cunliffe. Todays BAFTA award – including the mask and marble base – weighs 3.7 kg and measures 27 cm x 14 cm x 8 cm. BAFTAs annual film awards ceremony is known as the British Academy Film Awards, or the BAFTAs, in 1949 the British Film Academy, as it was then known, presented the first awards for films made in 1947 and 1948. Since 2008 the ceremony has held at the Royal Opera House in Londons Covent Garden. It had been held in the Odeon cinema on Leicester Square since 2000, the ceremony had been performed during April or May of each year, but since 2002 it has been held in February to precede the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Academy Awards, or Oscars. They have been awarded annually since 1954, the first ever ceremony consisted of six categories. Until 1958, they were awarded by the Guild of Television Producers and Directors, from 1968 until 1997, BAFTAs Film and Television Awards were presented together, but from 1998 onwards they were presented at two separate ceremonies. The Television Craft Awards celebrate the talent behind the programmes, such as working in visual effects, production
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
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The BAFTA award, designed by Mitzi Cunliffe
8.
Screen Actors Guild Award
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The statuette given, a nude male figure holding both a mask of comedy and a mask of tragedy, is called The Actor. It is 16 inches tall, weighs over 12 pounds, is cast in solid bronze, SAG Awards have been one of the major awards events in Hollywood since 1995. It is considered an indicator of success at the Academy Awards, the awards have been telecast since 1998 on TNT, and since 2007 have been simulcast on TBS. The inaugural SAG Awards aired live on February 25,1995 from Universal Studios Stage 12, the second SAG awards aired live from the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, while subsequent awards have been held at the Shrine Exposition Center
Screen Actors Guild Award
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Trophy of the award
9.
Billy Liar (film)
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Billy Liar is a 1963 British black-and-white CinemaScope comedy-drama film based on the 1959 novel by Keith Waterhouse. Directed by John Schlesinger, it stars Tom Courtenay as Billy, mona Washbourne plays Mrs. Fisher, and Wilfred Pickles plays Mr. Fisher. Rodney Bewes, Finlay Currie and Leonard Rossiter also feature, the Cinemascope photography is by Denys Coop, and Richard Rodney Bennett supplied the score. The film belongs to the British New Wave movement, inspired by the earlier French New Wave, characteristic of the style is a documentary/cinéma vérité feel and the use of real locations. The film opened at the Warner Theatre in Londons West End on 15 August 1963, Billy Fisher lives in Yorkshire with his parents and grandmother, and works as an undertakers clerk overseen by the rigid Mr. Shadrack. Billy wishes to get away from his job and family life. To escape the boredom of his existence, he constantly daydreams and fantasises, often picturing himself as the ruler. He also makes up stories about himself and his family, causing him to be nicknamed Billy Liar, Billy has further complicated his life by proposing to two very different girls, the sheltered, virginal Barbara and the tough, brassy Rita. Billy also finds himself attracted to his former girlfriend Liz, who has just returned to town after extensive travels, Liz is a free spirit who, unlike anyone else in town, understands and accepts Billys imagination. However, she has more courage and confidence than Billy, as shown by her willingness to leave her town and enjoy new. At work, Billy is tasked with mailing out a large shipment of advertising calendars to potential customers and he is eventually found out by Shadrack, who refuses to let him resign from his position until he pays back the postage money. Billy aspires to get an interesting job as a scriptwriter for comic Danny Boon. Under pressure, Billy ends up making dates with both Barbara and Rita to meet one on the same night at the same local ballroom. There, the two discover the double engagement and begin fighting with each other. Meanwhile, Billy encounters Liz and shares a romantic interlude with her outside, during which he proposes to her and she accepts. She urges him to accompany her to London that evening, and he goes home to pack his bags, only to find that his grandmother has fallen ill, Billy joins his mother at the hospital just in time to learn that his grandmother has died. He then continues to the station to meet Liz, and the board the train. By the time he gets back to the train, it is pulling out, with a disappointed Liz at the window, alone, Billy walks the dark deserted road back to his home, imagining himself leading the marching army of Ambrosia
Billy Liar (film)
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original film poster
10.
Darling (1965 film)
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Darling is a 1965 British drama film written by Frederic Raphael, directed by John Schlesinger, and starring Julie Christie with Dirk Bogarde and Laurence Harvey. Darling was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Christie won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as Diana Scott. The film also won the Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay, Diana Scott is a beautiful, bored young model married to Tony Bridges. Diana is invited to watch the final edit in the TV studio, after liaisons in bleak hotel rooms they leave their spouses and move into an apartment. As a couple, they part of the fashionable London media/arts set. The bookish Robert prefers the quiet life, it is he who now becomes jealous, Diana attends a high-class charity draw for world hunger for which she is the face. Already showing signs of stress from constantly maintaining the carefree look demanded by the false, empty lifestyle to which she has become a prisoner, Diana becomes pregnant and she flies to Paris with Miles for more jet-set sophistication. On her return to London, Robert calls her a whore and leaves her, ironically, Miles casts her as The Happiness Girl in the Glass Corporations advertising campaign for a chocolate firm. On location at a palazzo near Rome, Diana smiles in her medieval/Renaissance costume and she is much taken with the beauty of the building and the landscape and gets on well with the Prince, Cesare, who owns the palazzo. With the gay photographer Malcolm who has created her now famous look and they stay in a simple house by a small harbour in Capri. They are visited by Cesare, who arrives in a launch, invites them on board. Cesare is widowed and has children, the oldest of whom is about the same age as Diana. Diana politely declines his proposal, but Cesare leaves the offer open, Diana returns to London, and still living in the flat she shared with Robert, has a party with Miles and other assorted media characters. Soon disillusioned with Miles and the vacuous London jet set, Diana flirts with the Catholic Church again, impulsively, she flies out to Italy and marries the Prince, which proves to be ill-considered. Though waited on hand and foot by servants, she is almost immediately abandoned in the vast palazzo by Cesare, Diana flees to London to Robert, who, taking advantage of her emotional vulnerability, charms her into bed and into what she thinks is a stable long-term relationship. In the morning, in self-disgust, he tells her hes leaving her. He reserves a flight to Rome, packs her into his car, at the airport, Diana is hounded by the press, who address her reverentially as Princess. She boards the plane to leave, shirley MacLaine was originally cast as Diana, but was replaced by Christie
Darling (1965 film)
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film poster
11.
Academy Award for Best Actress
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The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of an actress who has delivered a performance in a leading role while working within the film industry. The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929 with Janet Gaynor receiving the award for her roles in 7th Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise. Currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the branch of AMPAS. In the first three years of the awards, actresses were nominated as the best in their categories, at that time, all of their work during the qualifying period was listed after the award. The following year, this unwieldy and confusing system was replaced by the current system in which an actress is nominated for a performance in a single film. Starting with the 9th ceremony held in 1937, the category was officially limited to five nominations per year, one actress has been nominated posthumously, Jeanne Eagels. Only three film characters have been nominated more than once in this category, elizabeth I of England, Leslie Crosbie in The Letter, and Esther Blodgett in A Star is Born. Six women on the list have received an Honorary Academy Award for their acting, they are Greta Garbo, Barbara Stanwyck, Mary Pickford, Deborah Kerr, Gena Rowlands, since its inception, the award has been given to 74 actresses. Katharine Hepburn has won the most awards in this category, with four Oscars, meryl Streep, who has a total of 20 Oscar nominations, has been nominated in this category on 16 occasions, resulting in two awards. As of the 2017 ceremony, Emma Stone is the most recent winner in category for her role as Mia Dolan in La La Land. In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of release in Los Angeles County. For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months from August 1 to July 31, for the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1,1932 to December 31,1933
Academy Award for Best Actress
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Janet Gaynor was the first winner in this category for her roles in
7th Heaven (1927),
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), and
Street Angel (1928).
Academy Award for Best Actress
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Norma Shearer won in 1930 for her performance in
The Divorcee.
Academy Award for Best Actress
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Katharine Hepburn has the most wins in this category for her roles in
Morning Glory (1933),
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967),
The Lion in Winter (1968), and
On Golden Pond (1981).
Academy Award for Best Actress
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Bette Davis won two awards from ten nominations for her roles in
Dangerous (1935) and
Jezebel (1938).
12.
Doctor Zhivago (film)
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Doctor Zhivago is a 1965 British-Italian epic romantic drama film directed by David Lean. It is set in Russia between the prior to World War I and the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922, and is based on the Boris Pasternak novel of the same name. While immensely popular in the West, the book was banned in the Soviet Union for decades, for this reason, the film could not be made in the Soviet Union and was instead filmed mostly in Spain. The film stars Omar Sharif in the role as Yuri Zhivago. The supporting cast includes Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness, Tom Courtenay, Ralph Richardson, Siobhán McKenna, over time, however, the films reputation has improved greatly. It also won five awards at the 23rd Golden Globe Awards including Best Motion Picture - Drama, as of 2016, it is the eighth highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada, adjusted for ticket-price inflation. The film takes place mostly against a backdrop of the pre-World War I years, World War I itself, the Russian Revolution of 1917, Yevgraf believes a young woman, Tanya Komarova, may be his niece and tells her the story of her fathers life. When Yuri Zhivago is orphaned after his mothers death in rural Russia, he is taken in by his mothers friends, Alexander and Anna Gromeko, and grows up with their daughter Tonya in Moscow. In 1913, Zhivago, as a student in training. Lara, only 17, is involved in an affair with the older and well-connected Victor Ipolitovich Komarovsky, one night, the idealistic reformer Pavel Pavlovich Antipov drifts into left-wing extremism after being wounded by sabre-wielding Cossacks during a peaceful demonstration. Pasha runs to Lara, whom he wants to marry, to treat his wound and he asks her to hide a gun he picked up at the demonstration. Laras mother discovers her affair with Komarovsky and attempts suicide, Komarovsky summons help from his physician, Zhivagos former professor, whom he accompanies back to Laras home to treat her mother. When Komarovsky learns of Laras intentions to marry Pasha, he tries to dissuade Lara, in revenge, the humiliated Lara takes the pistol she has been hiding for Pasha and shoots Komarovsky at a Christmas Eve party, wounding him. Komarovsky insists no action be taken against Lara, who is escorted out by Pasha, although enraged and devastated by Laras affair with Komarovsky, Pasha marries Lara, and they have a daughter named Katya. During World War I, Yevgraf Zhivago is sent by the Bolsheviks to subvert the Imperial Russian Army, Pasha is reported missing in action following a daring charge attack on German forces. Lara enlists as a nurse to search for him, Yuri Zhivago is drafted and becomes a battlefield doctor. During the February Revolution in 1917, Zhivago enlists Laras help to tend to the wounded, together they run a field hospital for six months, during which time radical changes ensue throughout Russia as Vladimir Lenin arrives in Moscow. Before their departure, Yuri and Lara fall in love, but Yuri remains true to Tonya, after the war, Yuri returns to his wife Tonya, son Sasha, and Alexander, whose house in Moscow has been divided into tenements by the new Soviet government
Doctor Zhivago (film)
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Theatrical release poster design by
Tom Jung
Doctor Zhivago (film)
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The
Cossacks attack a peaceful demonstration.
Doctor Zhivago (film)
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The initial and final scenes were shot at the
Aldeadávila Dam between Spain and Portugal.
13.
Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)
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Fahrenheit 451 is a 1966 British Dystopian science fiction drama film directed by François Truffaut and starring Oskar Werner, Julie Christie, and Cyril Cusack. This was Truffauts first colour film as well as his only English-language film, at the 1966 Venice Film Festival, Fahrenheit 451 was nominated for the Golden Lion. In the future, a totalitarian government employs a force known as Firemen to seek out and destroy all literature, permitting them to anyone, anywhere. One of the Firemen, Guy Montag, meets one of his neighbors, Clarisse, the two have a discussion about his job, where she asks if he ever reads the books he burns. Curious, he begins to hide books in his house and read them and this leads to conflict with his wife, Linda, who is more concerned with being popular enough to be a member of The Family, an interactive television program that refers to its viewers as cousins. At the house of a collector, the captain talks with Montag at length about how books change people and make them want to be better than others. Disturbed over Montags behavior, Lindas friends try to leave but Montag stops them, by forcing them to sit and that night, Montag dreams of Clarisse as the book collector who killed herself. The same night, Clarisses house is raided but she escapes through a trapdoor in the roof, Montag breaks into the captains office looking for information about the missing Clarisse and is caught but not punished. Montag meets with Clarisse and helps her back into her house. She tells him of the people, a hidden sect of people who flout the law. Later, Montag tells the captain he is resigning but is convinced to go on one more call, Linda leaves the house, telling Montag that she couldnt live with his book obsession and leaves him to be punished by the Firemen. Angrily, he destroys the bedroom and television before setting fire to the books, the captain lectures him about the books and pulls a last book from Montags coat, for which Montag kills him. He escapes and finds the people, where he views his capture on television, staged to keep the masses entertained. Montag selects a book to memorize, Tales of Mystery & Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe, in this diary, he called Fahrenheit 451 his saddest and most difficult film making experience, mainly because of intense conflicts between Werner and himself. The film was Universal Pictures first European production, Julie Christie was originally cast as Linda Montag, not Linda and Clarisse. The part of Clarisse was offered to Jean Seberg and Jane Fonda, laurence Olivier, Michael Redgrave and Sterling Hayden were considered for the role of the Captain, before Cyril Cusack was cast. The film was shot at Pinewood Studios in England, with the exterior scene taken at the French SAFEGE test track, in Châteauneuf-sur-Loire near Orléans. The film featured the Alton housing estate in Roehampton, south London and also Edgcumbe Park in Crowthorne, the final scene of the Book People was filmed in a rare and unexpected snowstorm that occurred on Julie Christies birthday, April 14,1966
Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)
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Theatrical release poster
14.
Far from the Madding Crowd (1967 film)
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Far from the Madding Crowd is a 1967 British epic drama film adapted from Thomas Hardys book of the same name. The film, starring Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Terence Stamp and Peter Finch and it marked a stylistic shift away from his earlier works exploring contemporary urban mores. The cinematography was by Nicolas Roeg and the soundtrack was by Richard Rodney Bennett and he also used traditional folk songs in various scenes throughout the film. It was nominated for one Oscar for Best Original Music Score and this engenders some disapproval from the local farming community. She employs a former neighbour, Gabriel Oak, to be her shepherd, rejected by her as a suitor, ignoring Gabriels love, Bathsheba impulsively sends a valentine to William Boldwood, a nearby gentleman farmer. When he misinterprets her capriciousness and proposes to her, Bathsheba promises to consider his offer, but she becomes enamoured of Frank Troy, a dashing cavalry sergeant. Troy was supposed to marry young Fanny Robin, a maidservant pregnant with his child, Bathsheba marries him after his return. Troy gambles away most of Bathshebas money and creates disharmony among the farmhands and he learns that Fanny has died in childbirth and is filled with remorse. He swears that he never loved Bathsheba, walks out on her, Bathsheba promises to marry Boldwood after Troy is declared legally dead. The sergeant appears at their engagement party and threatens his wife, shortly after Boldwood has been sent to prison, Gabriel tells Bathsheba that he is planning to emigrate to America. Realising how much she has always needed his quiet strength and unselfish devotion, Bathsheba consents to be his wife and persuades Gabriel to remain in Weatherbury. Julie Christie as Bathsheba Everdene Terence Stamp as Frank Troy Peter Finch as William Boldwood Alan Bates as Gabriel Oak Fiona Walker as Liddy Prunella Ransome as Fanny Robin Alison Leggatt as Mrs, the budget was $3 million, 80% of which was provided by MGM, 20% by Anglo-Amalgamated. The film was largely on location in Dorset and Wiltshire. The film is memorable for the subtly erotic scene between Sgt, Troy and Bathsheba in which he flaunts his expert skills as a swordsman in a private fencing display in a prehistoric earthwork. An enthralled Bathsheba stands immobile before him, roger Ebert found the scenes of the rural area and rural life to be splendid. They were far from the crowd whether they liked it or not. Its not simply that Bathsheba was courted by the three men in her life, but that she was courted by ALL three men in her life, the film performed well at the box office in the UK but was a commercial failure in the US. Far from the Madding Crowd received mixed to positive reviews from critics, as the film holds a 72% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 25 reviews
Far from the Madding Crowd (1967 film)
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Original
film poster by
Howard Terpning
15.
Petulia
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Petulia is a 1968 American drama film directed by Richard Lester. The screenplay by Lawrence B. Marcus is based on the novel Me, the film has a non-linear construction with frequent flash-backs and flash-forwards The title character is a young San Francisco socialite married to a savagely abusive man. She finagles a meeting with physician Archie Bollen, whom she first saw and with whom she became smitten as he treated an injured Mexican boy. Bollen is in the process of divorcing his wife, is sifting through new relationships with his ex, the new man in her life, his sons, the two soon embark on a quirky relationship. Julie Christie as Petulia Danner George C, Petulia had been listed to compete at the 1968 Cannes Film Festival, but the festival was cancelled due to the events of May 1968 in France. Both Marcus and Turner were nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Drama. Grateful Dead members Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Ron Pigpen McKernan, Jerry Garcia also appears in duplicate on a large mural and in triplicate on a bus bench both times in stylized solid black and white. Petulia has influenced filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, the film was released on VHS. A US DVD was released in 2006, and now, following a deal Warner UK struck with former special interest label Digital Classics to release four titles from Warner Bros. Petulia was released on DVD in the UK in 2009, on the Digital Classics label, Petulia at the Internet Movie Database
Petulia
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Theatrical release poster
16.
Shampoo (film)
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Shampoo is a 1975 American satirical romantic comedy-drama film written by Robert Towne and Warren Beatty and directed by Hal Ashby. It stars Warren Beatty, Julie Christie and Goldie Hawn, with Lee Grant, Jack Warden, Tony Bill and in a film appearance. The film is set on Election Day 1968, the day Richard Nixon was first elected as President of the United States, and was released soon after the Watergate scandal had reached its conclusion. The political atmosphere provides a source of irony, since the audience. However, the theme of the film is not presidential politics but sexual politics. The lead character, George Roundy, is based on several actual hairdressers, including Jay Sebring and film producer Jon Peters. Sebring was brutally murdered by the Charles Manson family in 1969, according to the 2010 book Star, How Warren Beatty Seduced America by Peter Biskind, the screenwriter Towne based the character on Beverly Hills hairdresser Gene Shacove. Shampoo is set during a 24-hour period in 1968, on the eve of an election that would result in Richard Nixons election to the American presidency. He dreams of setting up his own business, but lacking the cash to do so, turns to wealthy lover Felicia. The principals adjourn to a posh counterculture party, and the night quickly descends into drugs, alcohol, in the films dramatic climax, Lester and Jill happen upon George and Jackie having vigorous sex on a kitchen floor. Just before their identities are revealed, an impressed Lester exclaims, am I right, or am I right. When Jill recognizes the writhing couple, she throws a chair at them, as George backpedals, trying to placate Jill, Jackie sees him for the cad he is, George realizes that Jackie is his true love and proposes to her. By then it is too late, Jackie announces that Lester is divorcing Felicia, with Felicia gone, Jill gone, and now Jackie gone, the film thus pairs sexual revelation with Georges deeper moral development, but ends bleakly for the protagonist, despite his epiphany. From reviews compiled retrospectively, review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 63% based on 30 reviews, commercially, Shampoo was a great success. Produced on a budget of $4 million, the film grossed $49,407,734 domestically and it was the fourth most successful film of 1975 by box office takings, beaten only by Jaws, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Shampoo (film)
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Theatrical release poster
17.
Heaven Can Wait (1978 film)
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Heaven Can Wait is a 1978 American fantasy-comedy film co-directed by Warren Beatty and Buck Henry. It was the film adaptation of Harry Segalls play of the same name. The film was nominated for nine Academy Awards, the cast reunites Beatty and Julie Christie, who also starred together in the 1971 McCabe & Mrs. Miller and the 1975 Shampoo. A third film adaptation of the play was done in 2001, Joe Pendleton, a backup quarterback for the American football team Los Angeles Rams, is looking forward to leading his team to the Super Bowl. While riding his bicycle through the older west side of one on Kanan-Dume road in Malibu. Once there, he refuses to believe that his time was up and, upon investigation, unfortunately, his body has already been cremated, so a new body must be found. After rejecting several possibilities of men who are about to die, Leo Farnsworth has just been drugged and drowned in his bathtub by his cheating gold digger wife Julia Farnsworth and her lover, Farnsworths personal secretary, Tony Abbott. Julia and Tony are naturally confused when Leo reappears, alive, Leo buys the Los Angeles Rams to lead them to the Super Bowl as their quarterback. To succeed, he must first convince, and then secure the aid of, long-time friend, at the same time, he falls in love with an environmental activist, Betty Logan, who disapproves of the original Farnsworths policies and actions. With the Rams about to play in the Super Bowl, the characters all face a crisis, Mr. Jordan informs Farnsworth that he must give up this body as well. Farnsworth resists, but hints to Betty that she might someday meet someone else, Julia and Abbott continue their murderous plans, and Abbott shoots Farnsworth dead. The Rams are forced to another quarterback, Tom Jarrett. A detective, Lt. Krim, interrogates the suspects while they watch the game on TV, with the help of Corkle, he gets Julia and Abbott to incriminate one another. After a brutal hit on the field, Jarrett is himself killed, with Mr. Jordans help, Joe then occupies his final body. He is shown snapping to life in Jarretts body, then leading the Rams to victory, during the teams post-game celebration, Mr. Jordan removes Joes memory of his past life and departs. Joe becomes Tom Jarrett and the balance is restored. The one left crestfallen is Corkle, who understands what really happened, Jarrett bumps into Betty while leaving the stadium. They strike up a conversation, and Betty suddenly experiences a realization who he really is, a number of former Los Angeles Rams players have cameo roles in the film, including Deacon Jones, Les Josephson, Jack Snow, Jim Boeke, and Charley Cowan
Heaven Can Wait (1978 film)
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Theatrical release poster
18.
Thetis
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Thetis, is encountered in Greek mythology mostly as a sea nymph or known as the goddess of water, one of the 50 Nereids, daughters of the ancient sea god Nereus. When described as a Nereid in Classical myths, Thetis was the daughter of Nereus and Doris, often she seems to lead the Nereids as they attend to her tasks. Sometimes she also is identified with Metis, some sources argue that she was one of the earliest of deities worshipped in Archaic Greece, the oral traditions and records of which are lost. Only one written record, a fragment, exists attesting to her worship, worship of Thetis as the goddess is documented to have persisted in some regions by historical writers such as Pausanias. In the Trojan War cycle of myth, the wedding of Thetis, the pre-modern etymology of her name, from tithemi, to set up, establish, suggests a perception among Classical Greeks of an early political role. Walter Burkert considers her name a transformed doublet of Tethys and you, goddess, went and saved him from that indignity. You quickly summoned to high Olympus the monster of the hundred arms whom the gods call Briareus, but mankind Aegaeon and he squatted by the Son of Cronos with such a show of force that the blessed gods slunk off in terror, leaving Zeus free —E. V. M. Willcock, have understood the episode as an ad hoc invention of Homers to support Achilles request that his mother intervene with Zeus, thus, she is revealed as a figure of cosmic capacity, quite capable of unsettling the divine order. These accounts associate Thetis with a divine past—uninvolved with human events—with a level of divine invulnerability extraordinary by Olympian standards. In order to ensure a mortal father for her offspring, Zeus and his brother Poseidon made arrangements for her to marry a human, Peleus, son of Aeacus. Proteus, an early sea-god, advised Peleus to find the sea nymph when she was asleep and she did shift shapes, becoming flame, water, a raging lioness, and a serpent. Subdued, she consented to marry him. Thetis is the mother of Achilles by Peleus, who became king of the Myrmidons, apollo played the lyre and the Muses sang, Pindar claimed. At the wedding Chiron gave Peleus an ashen spear that had been polished by Athene and had a blade forged by Hephaestus, Poseidon gave him the immortal horses, Balius and Xanthus. Eris, the goddess of discord, had not been invited and she threw, in spite, a golden apple into the midst of the goddesses that was to be awarded only to the fairest. In most interpretations, the award was made during the Judgement of Paris, in the later classical myths Thetis worked her magic on the baby Achilles by night, burning away his mortality in the hall fire and anointing the child with ambrosia during the day, Apollonius tells. When Peleus caught her searing the baby, he let out a cry, in a variant of the myth, Thetis tried to make Achilles invulnerable by dipping him in the waters of the Styx. However, the heel by which she held him was not touched by the Styxs waters, in the story of Achilles in the Trojan War in the Iliad, Homer does not mention this weakness of Achilles heel
Thetis
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Head of Thetis from an Attic red-figure pelike, c. 510–500 BC,
Louvre.
Thetis
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Immortal Thetis with the mortal
Peleus in the foreground,
Boeotian black-figure dish, c. 500–475 BC -
Louvre.
Thetis
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Thetis changing into a lioness as she is attacked by Peleus, Attic red-figured kylix by
Douris, c. 490 BC from Vulci, Etruria -
Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris.
Thetis
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Thetis and attendants bring armor she had prepared for him to
Achilles, an Attic black-figure hydria, c. 575–550 BC,
Louvre.
19.
Wolfgang Petersen
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Wolfgang Petersen is a German film director and screenwriter. He was nominated for two Academy Awards for the 1981 World War II submarine warfare film Das Boot and his other films include The NeverEnding Story, Enemy Mine, In the Line of Fire, Outbreak, Air Force One, The Perfect Storm, Troy, and Poseidon. Petersen was born on 14 March 1941 in Emden, Emden is a north German community in East Frisia near the Dutch border, where the Ems River flows into the North Sea. From 1953 to 1960, Petersen attended the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums in Hamburg, in the 1960s he was directing plays at Hamburgs Ernst Deutsch Theater. After studying theater in Berlin and Hamburg, Petersen attended the Film and he next directed the 1977 film Die Konsequenz, a b/w 16 mm adaptation of Alexander Zieglers autobiographical novel of homosexual love. In its time, the film was considered so radical that when first broadcast in Germany and his next feature was the World War II epic Das Boot, released in early 1982. The film chronicles the experiences of a German submarine crew engaged in the Battle of the Atlantic, the film starred Jürgen Prochnow as the U-boat Captain, who became a good example of Petersons action characters, a man at war and who dares danger and fate at sea. After The NeverEnding Story, Petersens first full-blown Hollywood effort, Enemy Mine, was not a critical and he finally hit his stride in 1993 with the assassination thriller In the Line of Fire. The 1997 Petersen blockbuster Air Force One did very well at the box office, for both Air Force One and Outbreak, Petersen teamed up with the German cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, who has also worked frequently with director Martin Scorsese. By 1998, Petersen was an established Hollywood director, with the power to both re-release his classic Das Boot in a new cut and to helm star-studded action-thrillers. As such, he was considered for the first movie in the Harry Potter film series, Harry Potter. Petersen pulled out of the running in March 2000, Petersens $160 million epic film Poseidon, a re-telling of the 1969 Paul Gallico novel The Poseidon Adventure, was released by Warner Bros. in May 2006. The film performed poorly in the US, barely cracking $60 million in box office receipts by early August. Although hired to direct the adaptation of Enders Game by Orson Scott Card that was scheduled for release in 2008. His potential projects include an adaptation of the 2006 anime film Paprika. After a ten-year-hiatus, Petersen returned in 2016 as director of the heist comedy Vier gegen die Bank, wolfgang Petersen at the Internet Movie Database
Wolfgang Petersen
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Petersen, during the filming of
Air Force One in 1996.
20.
Troy (film)
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Troy is a 2004 American action-war film written by David Benioff and directed by Wolfgang Petersen. The film features an ensemble cast led by Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Achilles leads his Myrmidons along with the rest of the Greek army invading the historical city of Troy, defended by Hectors Trojan army. The end of the film is not taken from the Iliad, Troy made more than 73% of its revenues outside the U. S. Eventually, Troy made over $497 million worldwide, temporarily placing it in the #60 spot of top box office hits of all time. It was the 8th highest-grossing film of 2004, meanwhile, Prince Hector of Troy and his younger brother Paris negotiate a peace treaty with Menelaus, King of Sparta. Paris, however, is having a love affair with Menelaus wife, Queen Helen. Upon learning of this, Menelaus meets with Agamemnon, his elder brother, Agamemnon, who has wanted to conquer Troy for a long time, agrees, since it will give him control of the Aegean Sea. On Nestor, King of Pylos advice, Agamemnon has Odysseus, King of Ithaca, Achilles, who strongly dislikes Agamemnon, initially refuses, but eventually decides to go after his mother, Thetis, tells him that though he will die, he will be forever remembered. The Trojan and Greek armies meet outside the walls of Troy, during a parley, Paris offers to duel Menelaus personally for Helens hand in exchange for the city being spared. Agamemnon, intending to take the city regardless of the outcome, Menelaus wounds Paris and almost kills him, but is himself killed by Hector. In the ensuing battle, most of Agamemnons forces fall to Troys archers, on Odysseus insistence, Agamemnon gives the order to fall back. In order to keep their spirits up, he gives Briseis to the Greek soldiers for their amusement, Briseis sneaks into Achilless quarters later that night intent on killing him. However, Briseis quickly falls for him, giving up her virginity as Achilles seduces, Achilles, realizing the war is a lost cause, resolves to leave Troy in the morning. Despite Hectors advice otherwise, Priam instructs him to retake the Trojan beach in the night, the attack brings the Greeks together and the Myrmidons enter the battle. Hector personally duels a man he believes to be Achilles and cuts his throat, devastated, the armies agree to stop fighting for the day. Achilles is informed of his cousins death and vows revenge, the next day, Achilles arrives outside Troy and demands Hector come out. The two fight evenly for a while until Achilles wears Hector down and kills him, dragging his corpse back to the Trojan beach, straining his relationship with Briseis. Priam, in disguise, sneaks into the camp and meets with Achilles, ashamed of his actions, Achilles agrees and allows Briseis to return to Troy with Priam, promising a truce of twelve days so that Hectors funeral rites may be held in peace. He also tells his men to return home without him, Agamemnon declares that he will take Troy no matter what
Troy (film)
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Theatrical release poster
21.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is a 2004 British-American fantasy film directed by Alfonso Cuarón and distributed by Warner Bros. It is based on the novel of the name by J. K. Rowling. The film, which is the third instalment in the Harry Potter film series, was written by Steve Kloves and produced by Chris Columbus, David Heyman, and Mark Radcliffe. The story follows Harry Potters third year at Hogwarts as he is informed that a prisoner named Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban intending to kill him. The film stars Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, alongside Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harrys best friends Ron Weasley and it also features well-known actors in supporting roles, including Gary Oldman, David Thewlis, Michael Gambon, Emma Thompson and Timothy Spall. It is the sequel to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and is followed by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The film was released on 31 May 2004 in the United Kingdom and on 4 June 2004 in North America, as the first Harry Potter film released into IMAX theatres and it is also the last Harry Potter film to be released on VHS. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, Best Original Music Score and Best Visual Effects at the 77th Academy Awards in 2005. It marked a change in the film series tone and direction and is widely considered to be the best Harry Potter film by many critics. Harry Potter, now aged 13, has been spending another dissatisfying summer at Privet Drive, when Uncle Vernons sister, Marge, insults Harrys parents, he becomes angry and accidentally causes her to inflate and float away. Harry flees with his luggage, fed up with his life with the Dursleys, the Knight Bus delivers Harry to the Leaky Cauldron, where he is forgiven by Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge for using magic outside of Hogwarts. The trio are returning to Hogwarts for the year on the Hogwarts Express when dementors suddenly board the train. One enters the compartment, causing Harry to pass out. New Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher Professor Lupin repels the dementor with a Patronus Charm, at Hogwarts, headmaster Albus Dumbledore announces that dementors will be guarding the school while Sirius is at large. Hogwarts groundskeeper Hagrid is announced as the new Care of Magical Creatures teacher, his first class goes awry when Draco Malfoy deliberately provokes a hippogriff, Buckbeak, dracos father Lucius Malfoy later has Buckbeak sentenced to death. The Fat Ladys portrait, which guards the Gryffindor quarters, is found ruined, terrified and hiding in another painting, the Fat Lady tells Dumbledore that Sirius Black has entered the castle. During a stormy Quidditch match, dementors attack Harry, causing him to fall off his broomstick, at Hogsmeade, Harry is shocked to learn that not only had Sirius Black been his parents best friend and betrayed them to Voldemort, but that Sirius is also his godfather. Lupin privately teaches Harry to defend himself against dementors, using the Patronus Charm, after Harry, Ron and Hermione witness Buckbeaks execution, Rons pet rat Scabbers bites him and escapes
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
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British release poster
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
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Loch Shiel, where scenes from Prisoner of Azkaban were filmed.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
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John Williams
22.
Afterglow (film)
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Afterglow is a 1997 feature film starring Nick Nolte, Julie Christie, Lara Flynn Boyle and Jonny Lee Miller. Alan Rudolph directed and wrote the script for the film and it was produced by Robert Altman and filmed in Montreal. Christies performance earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role The film is about two married couples who end up attracted to each others partners. The title, Afterglow, refers to a glow during pregnancy. The lives of two married couples intertwine in Montreal, Canada. The marriage between Lucky Mann, a contractor and his beautiful British wife, former actress Phyllis Hart, has been in a state for years. Their relationship fell apart when Phyllis revealed to Lucky that their daughter Cassie was not his biologically and she had her with an actor while he was in the Army. Cassie ran away to Montreal and they have not spoken in years, the Manns moved from California to Montreal to find her without success. Phyllis is depressed after learning that her daughters father, actor Jack Dana and she begins to question her own mortality and goes to see a doctor for a checkup, and spends her time watching her old films that she starred in with Dana. Phyllis knows Lucky cheats on her with his clients. Lucky is shown cheating on her with Gloria Marino, meanwhile, corporate executive Jeffrey Byron and his wife Marianne are also unhappily married. Marianne desires children and is starved for affection by Jeffrey, who seems only to be in love with himself, Jeffrey is depressed and contemplates his sexuality and suicide. One day after work Marianne tries to get Jeffrey to have sex with her because she is ovulating, but he denies her. She decides to start preparing a room for a baby in their condo anyway and hires a contractor referred to her by her friend Isabels mother Gloria and she is instantly attracted to him and they begin an affair. Jeffrey meets Phyllis in a bar where Phyllis had just witnessed Marianne, Jeffrey is instantly attracted to Phyllis, and seems to have a need to be with an older woman after showing being attracted to his older secretary, Helene. Marianne is attracted to the older and rugged Lucky, Jeffrey invites Phyllis away for a weekend at a resort, and she initially says no and goes home to Lucky. Phyllis tries to sleep with Lucky and he denies her, so she tells him that she knows about Marianne and she ends up meeting Jeffrey and going away with him. Once they are at the resort they meet up with Bernard Ornay, Ornay also becomes attracted to Phyllis which causes a rift with Jeffrey
Afterglow (film)
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Afterglow
23.
Away from Her
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Away from Her is a 2006 Canadian drama film written and directed by Sarah Polley and starring Gordon Pinsent, Julie Christie and Olympia Dukakis. Executive produced by Atom Egoyan and shot in Ontario, it debuted at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival, the cast also includes Michael Murphy, Wendy Crewson, Alberta Watson, Lili Francks and Kristen Thomson. It was nominated for two Academy Awards, Christie for Best Actress and Polley for Best Adapted Screenplay and it also won seven Genie Awards, including Best Motion Picture. Grant and Fiona are a married couple living in rural Brant County. Fiona begins to lose her memory, and it becomes apparent she suffers from Alzheimers disease, throughout the film, Grants reflections on his marriage are woven with his reflections on his own infidelities, and influence his eventual decisions regarding Fionas happiness. Wary of this policy, Grant agrees anyway, at the insistence of his wife whom he loves, during the drive to the home, Fiona acknowledges Grants past infidelity while he was a university professor. Despite the awkward situation, the couple makes love one last time before separating, a caregiver at the facility befriends Grant and gives him some advice and support. While seeing his wife grow closer to Aubrey, Grant becomes an unhappy voyeur when visiting his wife at the nursing home. As time goes by and Fiona still does not remember him, Grant even wonders whether Fionas dementia is an act, after some time, Aubreys wife Marian removes him from the home due to financial difficulties. This causes Fiona to sink into a depression, with her physical well-being also appearing to deteriorate. Grant is touched by this, and visits Marian in an effort to allow Fiona to see Aubrey again and he would rather see his wife happy with another man than miserable and alone. Marian initially refuses, but the leads to a tentative relationship between her and Grant. As time passes, Grant continues to visit both Fiona and Marian and he eventually succeeds in taking Aubrey back to visit his wife. But in his moment alone before he brings Aubrey into Fionas room, Fiona temporarily remembers him and the love she has for him. Sarah Polley was on a flight from working on Hal Hartleys No Such Thing in Iceland when she read the Alice Munro short story The Bear Came Over the Mountain in The New Yorker. Polley claimed that I found it so moving and poignant and it went so deep in me and she also envisioned her No Such Thing co-star Julie Christie as Fiona. At that point of Polleys career, she had acted and had directed numerous short films, although Polley said Christie liked the story, it was still challenging to persuade Christie to star given her desire to semi-retire, and she was secured after seven months of negotiation. Atom Egoyan, who directed Polley in films such as The Sweet Hereafter and he advised her on directing, telling her the actor is the only person who is doing something genuinely magical on set- and that has to be protected at all costs
Away from Her
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Away from Her
24.
Assam
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Assam (English pronunciation, /əˈsæm/ listen is a state in northeastern India. Located south of the eastern Himalayas, Assam comprises the Brahmaputra Valley, Assam, along with Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, and Meghalaya, is one of the Seven Sister States. Geographically, Assam and these states are connected to the rest of India via a 22 kilometres strip of land in West Bengal called the Siliguri Corridor or Chickens Neck. Assam shares a border with Bhutan and Bangladesh, and its culture, people. Assam is known for Assam tea and Assam silk, the first oil well in Asia was drilled here. The state has conserved the one-horned Indian rhinoceros from near extinction, along with the water buffalo, pygmy hog, tiger. It provides one of the last wild habitats for the Asian elephant, the Assamese economy is aided by wildlife tourism, centred around Kaziranga National Park and Manas National Park which are World Heritage Sites. Sal tree forests are found in the state which, as a result of abundant rainfall, Assam receives more rainfall compared to most parts of India. This rain feeds the Brahmaputra River, whose tributaries and oxbow lakes provide the region with a hydro-geomorphic and aesthetic environment, the precise etymology of Assam came from Ahom Dynasty. In the classical period and up to the 12th century the region east of the Karatoya river, largely congruent to present-day Assam, was called Kamarupa, in medieval times the Mughals used Asham and Kamrup, and during British colonialism, the English used Assam. Though many authors have associated the name with the 13th century Shan invaders the precise origin of the name is not clear. It was suggested by some that the Sanskrit word Asama was the root, which has been rejected by Kakati, among possible origins are Tai and Bodo. Assam and adjoining regions have evidences of settlements from all the periods of the Stone ages. The hills at the height of 1, 500–2,000 feet were popular habitats probably due to availability of exposed dolerite basalt, useful for tool-making. According to a text, Kalika Purana, the earliest ruler of Assam was Mahiranga Danav of the Danava dynasty. The last of these rulers, also Naraka, was slain by Krishna, narakas son Bhagadatta became the king, who fought for the Kauravas in the battle of Kurukshetra with an army of kiratas, chinas and dwellers of the eastern coast. Samudraguptas 4th century Allahabad pillar inscription mentions Kamarupa and Davaka as frontier kingdoms of the Gupta Empire, ruled by three dynasties Varmanas, Mlechchha dynasty and Kamarupa-Palas, from their capitals in present-day Guwahati, Tezpur and North Gauhati respectively. All three dynasties claimed their descent from Narakasura, an immigrant from Aryavarta, in the reign of the Varman king, Bhaskar Varman, the Chinese traveller Xuanzang visited the region and recorded his travels
Assam
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Montage of Assam Clockwise from top left: academic complex of
IIT Guwahati,
Ahom Raja's Palace (
Garhgaon),
Kamakhya temple (
Guwahati),
Rang Ghar pavilions (
Sivasagar),
Kolia Bhomora bridge over
Brahmaputra river (
Tezpur),
one horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) at
Kaziranga National Park, and
Sivadol (
Sivasagar).
Assam
–
The Kamrup Kingdom
Assam
–
Madan Kamdev ruins
Assam
–
Kareng ghar, the palace of the Ahom kings
25.
British India
–
Provinces of India, earlier Presidencies of British India and still earlier, Presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in the subcontinent. Collectively, they were called British India, in one form or other they existed between 1612 and 1947, conventionally divided into three historical periods. During 1612–1757, the East India Company set up factories in several locations, mostly in coastal India and its rivals were the merchant trading companies of Holland and France. By the mid-18th century, three Presidency towns, Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta had grown in size, during the period of Company rule in India, 1757–1858, the Company gradually acquired sovereignty over large parts of India, now called Presidencies. However, it increasingly came under British government oversight, in effect sharing sovereignty with the Crown. At the same time it gradually lost its mercantile privileges, following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Companys remaining powers were transferred to the Crown. In the new British Raj, sovereignty extended to a few new regions, increasingly, however, unwieldy presidencies were broken up into Provinces. In 1608, the English East India Company established a settlement at Surat, and it was followed in 1611 by a permanent factory at Machilipatnam on the Coromandel Coast, and in 1612 the company joined other already established European trading companies in Bengal. Company rule in Bengal, however, ended with the Government of India Act 1858 following the events of the Bengal Rebellion of 1857 and these rulers were allowed a measure of internal autonomy in exchange for British suzerainty. British India constituted a significant portion of India both in area and population, in 1910, for example, it covered approximately 54% of the area, in addition, there were Portuguese and French exclaves in India. Independence from British rule was achieved in 1947 with the formation of two nations, the Dominions of India and Pakistan, the latter also including East Bengal, present-day Bangladesh. The term British India also applied to Burma for a time period, starting in 1824, a small part of Burma. This arrangement lasted until 1937, when Burma commenced being administered as a separate British colony, British India did not apply to other countries in the region, such as Sri Lanka, which was a British Crown colony, or the Maldive Islands, which were a British protectorate. It also included the Colony of Aden in the Arabian Peninsula, the original seat of government was at Allahabad, then at Agra from 1834 to 1868. Bombay Presidency, East India Companys headquarters moved from Surat to Bombay in 1687, the East India Company, which was incorporated on 31 December 1600, established trade relations with Indian rulers in Masulipatam on the east coast in 1611 and Surat on the west coast in 1612. The company rented a trading outpost in Madras in 1639, meanwhile, in eastern India, after obtaining permission from the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan to trade with Bengal, the Company established its first factory at Hoogly in 1640. Almost a half-century later, after Emperor Aurengzeb forced the Company out of Hooghly, by the mid-18th century the three principal trading settlements, now called the Madras Presidency, the Bombay Presidency, and the Bengal Presidency were each administered by a Governor. After Robert Clives victory in the Battle of Plassey in 1757, in 1772, the Company also obtained the Nizāmat of Bengal and thereby full sovereignty of the expanded Bengal Presidency
British India
–
Imperial entities of India
British India
–
A
mezzotint engraving of Fort William,
Calcutta, the capital of the
Bengal Presidency in British India 1735
British India
–
India in 1700 showing the
Mughal Empire and the European trading settlements.
British India
–
The presidency town of Madras in a 1908 map. Madras was established as
Fort St. George in 1640.
26.
Church of England
–
The Church of England is the state church of England. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the most senior cleric, although the monarch is the supreme governor, the Church of England is also the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It dates its establishment as a church to the 6th-century Gregorian mission to Kent led by Augustine of Canterbury. The English church renounced papal authority when Henry VIII sought to secure an annulment from Catherine of Aragon in the 1530s, the English Reformation accelerated under Edward VIs regents before a brief restoration of papal authority under Queen Mary I and King Philip. This is expressed in its emphasis on the teachings of the early Church Fathers, as formalised in the Apostles, Nicene, in the earlier phase of the English Reformation there were both Catholic martyrs and radical Protestant martyrs. The later phases saw the Penal Laws punish Roman Catholic and nonconforming Protestants, in the 17th century, political and religious disputes raised the Puritan and Presbyterian faction to control of the church, but this ended with the Restoration. Papal recognition of George III in 1766 led to religious tolerance. Since the English Reformation, the Church of England has used a liturgy in English, the church contains several doctrinal strands, the main three known as Anglo-Catholic, Evangelical and Broad Church. Tensions between theological conservatives and progressives find expression in debates over the ordination of women and homosexuality, the church includes both liberal and conservative clergy and members. The governing structure of the church is based on dioceses, each presided over by a bishop, within each diocese are local parishes. The General Synod of the Church of England is the body for the church and comprises bishops, other clergy. Its measures must be approved by both Houses of Parliament, according to tradition, Christianity arrived in Britain in the 1st or 2nd century, during which time southern Britain became part of the Roman Empire. The earliest historical evidence of Christianity among the native Britons is found in the writings of such early Christian Fathers as Tertullian, three Romano-British bishops, including Restitutus, are known to have been present at the Council of Arles in 314. Others attended the Council of Sardica in 347 and that of Ariminum in 360, Britain was the home of Pelagius, who opposed Augustine of Hippos doctrine of original sin. Consequently, in 597, Pope Gregory I sent the prior of the Abbey of St Andrews from Rome to evangelise the Angles and this event is known as the Gregorian mission and is the date the Church of England generally marks as the beginning of its formal history. A later archbishop, the Greek Theodore of Tarsus, also contributed to the organisation of Christianity in England, the Church of England has been in continuous existence since the days of St Augustine, with the Archbishop of Canterbury as its episcopal head. Despite the various disruptions of the Reformation and the English Civil War, while some Celtic Christian practices were changed at the Synod of Whitby, the Christian Church in the British Isles was under papal authority from earliest times. The Synod of Whitby established the Roman date for Easter and the Roman style of monastic tonsure in Britain and this meeting of the ecclesiastics with Roman customs with local bishops was summoned in 664 at Saint Hildas double monastery of Streonshalh, later called Whitby Abbey
Church of England
–
Hereford is one of the church's 43 cathedrals; many have histories stretching back centuries
Church of England
Church of England
–
Stained glass window in
Rochester Cathedral, Kent
Church of England
–
Richard Hooker (1554–1600), one of the most influential figures in shaping Anglican theology and self-identity
27.
St. Leonards-on-Sea
–
St Leonards-on-Sea has been part of Hastings, East Sussex, England, since the late 19th century though it retains a sense of separate identity. It lies to the west of central Hastings, todays St Leonards has extended well beyond that original design, although the original town still exists within it. Eversfields served as sheriffs of Surrey and Sussex in the 16th and 17th centuries and were later baronets before the family became extinct, the land was part of Gensing Farm, and included a small wooded valley leading down to the sea. Work on the plan started in early 1826, in addition he persuaded the Turnpike Commissioners to have the road leading to St Leonards included in the scheme, and arranged for the road through Silverhill to be built so as to give access. Before he died in 1837 St Leonards Hotel, the South Colonnade, an archway marking the boundary with Hastings. His grave is marked by a pyramid in the churchyard above St Leonards Church, in 1850 his son Decimus started the second phase of building, by acquiring more land and extending the development westward. He lived in the town for the remainder of his life, Decimus Burton became a Commissioner of the new town in 1833. He leased a triangle of land bounded by Mercatoria, St Johns Church, Maze Hill, here he built The Cottage, Maze Hill House, The Mount, The Uplands, The Lawn, and six semi-detached houses which later became a school. Later, in Upper Maze Hill he built Baston Lodge, Tower House and he gave some land in Mercatoria for a National School, and completed his fathers seafront terrace by building 72 to 82 Marina. Modern photographs give a flavour of this development, the popularity of St Leonards, however, was not lost upon the town of Hastings. It had already begun to expand westwards, through Pelham Place and Wellington Square, as a result, the area between the two towns began to fill with properties. In 1875 the two merged into the County Borough of Hastings, and by then the total seafront had reached some three miles. Soon after that, the Warrior Square and Upper St Leonards areas were being developed, construction of the pier began in March 1888, and it was opened by Lord and Lady Brassey on 28 October 1891. There was also a tollhouse to the left of the entrance that was demolished by a storm on 12 February 1899, the far end of the pier had a building used for dancing, and later as a roller hockey rink. During the 1920s the pier was modernised and finally cut in half during the Second World War as protection against invasion, the remains were removed in 1951. Despite this claim to fame, entries to a competition to name the show that it was not universally popular. Now a listed building, it has recently bought by the residents after many years of neglect and is in the process of being fully restored. St Leonards Golf Club, Hastings, was founded in 1902/3, the latter part of the town – Bulverhythe – is thought to be the original site of the port of Hastings, since cut off by longshore drift of pebbles
St. Leonards-on-Sea
–
Warrior Square Station
St. Leonards-on-Sea
–
Marine Court on the sea front
St. Leonards-on-Sea
–
Horse and Groom - St Leonards oldest public house (1829)
28.
High Wycombe
–
High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, England. It is 29 miles west north west of Charing Cross in London and it is also 17 miles south of the county town of Aylesbury,27 miles southeast of Oxford,23 miles north east of Reading and 9 miles north of Maidenhead. According to the ONS official estimates for 2015, High Wycombe has a population of 124,475, High Wycombe Urban Area, the conurbation of which the town is the largest component, has a population of 133,204. High Wycombe is mostly an area in the Wycombe district. Wycombe is a combination of industrial and market town, with a emphasis on furniture production. There has been a market held in the High Street since at least the Middle Ages, Wycombe appears in the Domesday Book and was noted for having six mills. The town once featured a Roman villa which was excavated three times, most recently in 1954, mosaics and a bathhouse were unearthed at the site on what is now the Rye parkland. High Wycombe was the home of 19th century Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, the existence of a settlement at High Wycombe was first documented as Wicumun in 970. The parish church was consecrated by Wulfstan, the visiting Bishop of Worcester, the town received market borough status in 1222, and built its first moot hall in 1226, with a market hall being built later in 1476. High Wycombe remained a town through Medieval and Tudor times, manufacturing lace. It was also a point on the way from Oxford to London. The paper industry was notable in 17th and 18th century High Wycombe, the Wyes waters were rich in chalk, and therefore ideal for bleaching pulp. The paper industry was soon overtaken by the cloth industry, Wycombes most famous industry, furniture took hold in the 19th century, with furniture factories setting up all over the town. Many terraced workers houses were built to the east and west of town to accommodate those working in the furniture factories, in 1875, it was estimated that there were 4,700 chairs made per day in High Wycombe. Wycombe Museum includes many examples of locally made chairs and information on the local furniture, the towns population grew from 13,000 residents in 1881 to 29,000 in 1928. By the 1920s, many of the areas of Wycombe had decayed into slums. However, some such as St. Marys Street contained beautiful old buildings with fine examples of 18th and 19th century architecture. From 1940 to 1968 High Wycombe was the seat of the RAF Bomber Command
High Wycombe
–
High Wycombe Guildhall, located at the end of the High Street
High Wycombe
–
Crest of High Wycombe. Motto: "Industria ditat" "Industry enriches"
High Wycombe
–
A map of High Wycombe from 1945
High Wycombe
–
River Wye near
Wooburn Industrial Estate
29.
Wales
–
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, and it had a population in 2011 of 3,063,456 and has a total area of 20,779 km2. Wales has over 1,680 miles of coastline and is mountainous, with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon. The country lies within the temperate zone and has a changeable. Welsh national identity emerged among the Celtic Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, Llywelyn ap Gruffudds death in 1282 marked the completion of Edward I of Englands conquest of Wales, though Owain Glyndŵr briefly restored independence to Wales in the early 15th century. The whole of Wales was annexed by England and incorporated within the English legal system under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, distinctive Welsh politics developed in the 19th century. Welsh Liberalism, exemplified in the early 20th century by Lloyd George, was displaced by the growth of socialism, Welsh national feeling grew over the century, Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925 and the Welsh Language Society in 1962. Established under the Government of Wales Act 1998, the National Assembly for Wales holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, two-thirds of the population live in south Wales, mainly in and around Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, and in the nearby valleys. Now that the countrys traditional extractive and heavy industries have gone or are in decline, Wales economy depends on the sector, light and service industries. Wales 2010 gross value added was £45.5 billion, over 560,000 Welsh language speakers live in Wales, and the language is spoken by a majority of the population in parts of the north and west. From the late 19th century onwards, Wales acquired its popular image as the land of song, Rugby union is seen as a symbol of Welsh identity and an expression of national consciousness. The Old English-speaking Anglo-Saxons came to use the term Wælisc when referring to the Celtic Britons in particular, the modern names for some Continental European lands and peoples have a similar etymology. The modern Welsh name for themselves is Cymry, and Cymru is the Welsh name for Wales and these words are descended from the Brythonic word combrogi, meaning fellow-countrymen. The use of the word Cymry as a self-designation derives from the location in the post-Roman Era of the Welsh people in modern Wales as well as in northern England and southern Scotland. It emphasised that the Welsh in modern Wales and in the Hen Ogledd were one people, in particular, the term was not applied to the Cornish or the Breton peoples, who are of similar heritage, culture, and language to the Welsh. The word came into use as a self-description probably before the 7th century and it is attested in a praise poem to Cadwallon ap Cadfan c. 633. Thereafter Cymry prevailed as a reference to the Welsh, until c.1560 the word was spelt Kymry or Cymry, regardless of whether it referred to the people or their homeland. The Latinised forms of names, Cambrian, Cambric and Cambria, survive as lesser-used alternative names for Wales, Welsh
Wales
–
Bryn Celli Ddu, a late Neolithic chambered tomb on Anglesey
Wales
–
Flag
Wales
–
This article is about the country. For other uses, see
Wales (disambiguation).
Wales
–
Coin of
Magnus Maximus
30.
George Bernard Shaw
–
He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman, Pygmalion and Saint Joan. With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, born in Dublin, Shaw moved to London in 1873, where he established himself as a writer and novelist. By the mid-1880s he was a theatre and music critic. Following a political awakening, he joined the gradualist Fabian Society, Shaw had been writing plays for years before his first public success, 1894s Arms and the Man. Influenced by Henrik Ibsen, he sought to introduce a new realism into English-language drama, using his plays as vehicles to disseminate his political, social and religious ideas. By the early twentieth century his reputation as a dramatist was secured with a series of critical and popular successes that included Major Barbara, The Doctors Dilemma and Caesar, Shaws expressed views were often contentious, he promoted eugenics and alphabet reform while opposing vaccination and organised religion. He courted unpopularity by denouncing both sides in the First World War as equally culpable and he castigated British policy on Ireland in the postwar period, and became a citizen of the Irish Free State in 1934, maintaining dual citizenship. He was prolific, finishing during the years a series of often ambitious plays which achieved varying degrees of popular success. Since Shaws death, opinion has varied about his works and he has at times been rated as second only to William Shakespeare among English-language dramatists, analysts recognise his extensive influence on generations of playwrights. The word Shavian has entered the language as encapsulating Shaws ideas, Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin. He was the youngest child and only son of George Carr Shaw and his elder siblings were Lucinda Frances and Elinor Agnes. The Shaw family was of English descent and belonged to the dominant Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland, George Carr Shaw and his relatives secured him a sinecure in the civil service, from which he was pensioned off in the early 1850s, thereafter he worked irregularly as a corn merchant. In 1852 he married Bessie Gurly, in the view of Shaws biographer Michael Holroyd she married to escape a tyrannical great-aunt, if, as Holroyd and others surmise, Georges motives were mercenary, then he was disappointed, as Bessie brought him little of her familys money. She came to despise her ineffectual and often drunken husband, with whom she shared what their son later described as a life of shabby-genteel poverty. By the time of Shaws birth, his mother had become close to George John Lee, Shaw retained a lifelong obsession that Lee might have been his biological father, there is no consensus among Shavian scholars on the likelihood of this. The young Shaw suffered no harshness from his mother, but he recalled that her indifference. He found solace in the music that abounded in the house, Lee was a conductor and teacher of singing, Bessie had a fine mezzo-soprano voice and was much influenced by Lees unorthodox method of vocal production. The Shaws house was filled with music, with frequent gatherings of singers and players
George Bernard Shaw
–
Shaw in 1936
George Bernard Shaw
–
Shaw's birthplace,
Dublin
George Bernard Shaw
–
Shaw around 1900 (aged 44).
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