World War II
World War II known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries; the major participants threw their entire economic and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China, it included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, the only use of nuclear weapons in war. Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with China by 1937, though neither side had declared war on the other. World War II is said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom.
From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Finland and the Baltic states. Following the onset of campaigns in North Africa and East Africa, the fall of France in mid 1940, the war continued between the European Axis powers and the British Empire. War in the Balkans, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz, the long Battle of the Atlantic followed. On 22 June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war in history; this Eastern Front trapped most crucially the German Wehrmacht, into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States as well as European colonies in the Pacific. Following an immediate U. S. declaration of war against Japan, supported by one from Great Britain, the European Axis powers declared war on the U.
S. in solidarity with their Japanese ally. Rapid Japanese conquests over much of the Western Pacific ensued, perceived by many in Asia as liberation from Western dominance and resulting in the support of several armies from defeated territories; the Axis advance in the Pacific halted in 1942. Key setbacks in 1943, which included a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy, Allied victories in the Pacific, cost the Axis its initiative and forced it into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and turned toward Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in Central China, South China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific islands; the war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945.
Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August respectively. With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent, the possibility of additional atomic bombings, the Soviet entry into the war against Japan and its invasion of Manchuria, Japan announced its intention to surrender on 15 August 1945, cementing total victory in Asia for the Allies. Tribunals were set up by fiat by the Allies and war crimes trials were conducted in the wake of the war both against the Germans and the Japanese. World War II changed the political social structure of the globe; the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The Soviet Union and United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the nearly half-century long Cold War. In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia.
Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic expansion. Political integration in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities and create a common identity; the start of the war in Europe is held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred and the two wars merged in 1941; this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935; the British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the fo
Hampstead
Hampstead known as Hampstead Village, is an area of London, England, 4 miles northwest of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden, it is known for its intellectual, artistic and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland, it has some of the most expensive housing in the London area. The village of Hampstead has more millionaires within its boundaries than any other area of the United Kingdom; the name comes from the Anglo-Saxon words ham and stede, which means, is a cognate of, the Modern English "homestead". Early records of Hampstead can be found in a grant by King Ethelred the Unready to the monastery of St. Peter's at Westminster, it is referred to in the Domesday Book as being in the hundred of Ossulstone; the growth of Hampstead is traced back to the 17th century. Trustees of the Well started advertising the medicinal qualities of the chalybeate waters in 1700. Although Hampstead Wells was most successful and fashionable, its popularity declined in the 1800s due to competition with other fashionable London spas.
The spa was demolished in 1882. Hampstead started to expand following the opening of the North London Railway in the 1860s, expanded further after the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway opened in 1907 and provided fast travel to central London. Much luxurious housing was created during the 1870s and 1880s, in the area, now the political ward of Frognal & Fitzjohns. Much of this housing remains to this day. In the 20th century, a number of notable buildings were created including: Hampstead Underground station, the deepest station on the Underground network Isokon building Hillfield Court 2 Willow Road Swiss Cottage Central Library Royal Free Hospital Cultural attractions in the area include the Freud Museum, Keats House, Kenwood House, Fenton House, the Isokon building, Burgh House, the Camden Arts Centre; the large Victorian Hampstead Library and Town Hall was converted and extended as a creative industries centre. On 14 August 1975 Hampstead entered the UK Weather Records with the Highest 155-min total rainfall at 169 mm.
As of November 2008 this record remains. The average price of a property in Hampstead was £1.5 million in 2018. Hampstead became part of the County of London in 1889 and in 1899 the Metropolitan Borough of Hampstead was formed; the borough town hall on Haverstock Hill, the location of the Register Office, can be seen in newsreel footage of many celebrity civil marriages. In 1965 the metropolitan borough was abolished and its area merged with that of the Metropolitan Borough of Holborn and the Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras to form the modern-day London Borough of Camden. Hampstead is part of the Kilburn constituency, formed at the 2010 general election, it was part of the Hampstead and Highgate constituency. Since May 2015 the area has been represented on Camden Council by Conservative Party councillors Tom Currie, Oliver Cooper and Stephen Stark; the area has a significant tradition of educated liberal humanism referred to as "Hampstead Liberalism". In the 1960s, the figure of the Hampstead Liberal was notoriously satirised by Peter Simple of the Daily Telegraph in the character of Lady Dutt-Pauker, an immensely wealthy aristocratic socialist whose Hampstead mansion, Marxmount House, contained an original pair of Bukharin's false teeth on display alongside precious Ming vases, neo-constructivist art, the complete writings of Stalin.
Michael Idov of The New Yorker stated that the community "was the citadel of the moneyed liberal intelligentsia, posh but not stuffy." As applied to an individual, the term "Hampstead Liberal" is not synonymous with "champagne socialist" but carries some of the same connotations. The term is rather misleading; as of 2018, the component wards of Hampstead have mixed representation. Hampstead Town and Frognal and Fitzjohns wards elects 3 Conservative councillors, Swiss Cottage elects 3 Labour councillors, while Belsize is represented by 2 Liberal Democrat and 1 Conservative councillor. Swiss Cottage is a competitive Conservative and Labour marginal, Frognal and Fitzjohns is a safe Conservative ward. Hampstead Town has seen a number of tightly-fought Conservative and Liberal Democrat contests, the ward has had mixed representation in recent decades. In the most recent election, the highest scoring candidates for each of the three parties in Belsize were within 200 votes of each other. To the north and east of Hampstead, separating it from Highgate, is London's largest ancient parkland, Hampstead Heath, which includes the well-known and legally-protected view of the London skyline from Parliament Hill.
The Heath, a major place for Londoners to walk and "take the air", has three open-air public swimming ponds. The bridge pictured is known locally as'The Red Arches' or'The Viaduct', built in fruitless anticipation of residential building on the Heath in the 19th century. Local activities include major open-air concerts on summer Saturday evenings on the slopes below Kenwood House and poetry readings, fun fairs on the lower reaches of the Heath, period harpsichord recitals at Fenton House, Hampstead Scientific So
Cary Grant
Cary Grant was an English-born American actor, known as one of classic Hollywood's definitive leading men. He began a career in Hollywood in the early 1930s and became known for his transatlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, sense of comic timing, he became an American citizen in 1942. Grant was born in Bristol, he became attracted to theater at a young age and began performing with a troupe known as "The Penders" at age six. He attended Bishop Road Primary School and Fairfield Grammar School in Bristol toured the country as a stage performer, he established a name for himself in vaudeville in the 1920s and toured the United States before moving to Hollywood in the early 1930s. He appeared in crime films or dramas such as Blonde Venus and She Done Him Wrong, but gained renown for his appearances in romantic comedy and screwball comedy films such as The Awful Truth, Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, The Philadelphia Story; these films are cited among the greatest comedy films.
He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Penny Serenade and None but the Lonely Heart. In the 1940s and 1950s, Grant forged a working relationship with director Alfred Hitchcock, appearing in films such as Suspicion, Notorious, To Catch a Thief, North by Northwest. Hitchcock admired Grant and considered him the only actor that he had loved working with. Towards the end of his film career, Grant was praised by critics as a romantic leading man, he received five nominations for Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, including Indiscreet with Ingrid Bergman, That Touch of Mink with Doris Day, Charade with Audrey Hepburn, he is remembered by critics for his unusually broad appeal as a handsome, suave actor who did not take himself too able to play with his own dignity in comedies without sacrificing it entirely. Grant was married five times, three of them elopements with actresses Virginia Cherrill, Betsy Drake, Dyan Cannon, he retired from film acting in 1966 and pursued numerous business interests, representing cosmetics firm Fabergé and sitting on the board of MGM.
He was presented with an Honorary Oscar by his friend Frank Sinatra at the 42nd Academy Awards in 1970, he was accorded the Kennedy Center Honors in 1981. In 1999, the American Film Institute named him the second greatest male star of Golden Age Hollywood cinema. Grant was born Archibald Alec Leach on January 18, 1904 at 15 Hughenden Road in the northern Bristol suburb of Horfield, he was the second child of Elsie Maria Leach. His father worked as a tailor's presser at a clothes factory, while his mother worked as a seamstress, his older brother John died of tuberculous meningitis. Grant considered himself to be Jewish, he had an unhappy upbringing. Grant's mother taught him song and dance when he was four, she was keen on him having piano lessons, she would take him to the cinema where he enjoyed the performances of Charlie Chaplin, Chester Conklin, Fatty Arbuckle, Ford Sterling, Mack Swain, Broncho Billy Anderson. He was sent to the Bishop Road Primary School, Bristol when he was 4½. Grant's biographer Graham McCann claimed that his mother "did not know how to give affection and did not know how to receive it either."
Biographer Geoffrey Wansell notes that his mother blamed herself bitterly for the death of Grant's brother John, she never recovered from it. Grant acknowledged that his negative experiences with his mother affected his relationships with women in life, she frowned on alcohol and tobacco, would reduce pocket money for minor mishaps. Grant attributed her behavior towards him as her being overprotective, fearing that she would lose him as she did John; when Grant was nine years old, his father placed his mother in Glenside Hospital, a mental institution, told him that she had gone away on a "long holiday". Grant grew up resenting his mother after she left the family. After she was gone and his father moved into the home of his grandmother in Bristol; when Grant was 10, his father remarried and started a new family, Grant did not learn that his mother was still alive until he was 31. Grant made arrangements for his mother to leave the institution in June 1935, shortly after he learned of her whereabouts.
He visited her in October 1938. Grant enjoyed the theater pantomimes at Christmas which he would attend with his father, he befriended a troupe of acrobatic dancers known as "The Penders" or the "Bob Pender Stage Troupe". He began touring with them. Jesse Lasky was a Broadway producer at the time, he saw him performing at the Wintergarten theater in Berlin around 1914. In 1915, Grant won a scholarship to attend Fairfield Grammar School in Bristol, although his father could afford to pay for the uniform, he was quite capable in most academic subjects, but he excelled at sports fives, his good looks and acrobatic talents made him a popular figure among both girls and boys. He developed a reputation for mischief, refused to do his homework. A former classmate referred to him as a "scruffy little boy", while an old teacher remembered "the naughty little boy, always making a noise in the back
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of British Armed Forces. As of 2018, the British Army comprises just over 81,500 trained regular personnel and just over 27,000 trained reserve personnel; the modern British Army traces back to 1707, with an antecedent in the English Army, created during the Restoration in 1660. The term British Army was adopted in 1707 after the Acts of Union between Scotland. Although all members of the British Army are expected to swear allegiance to Elizabeth II as their commander-in-chief, the Bill of Rights of 1689 requires parliamentary consent for the Crown to maintain a peacetime standing army. Therefore, Parliament approves the army by passing an Armed Forces Act at least once every five years; the army is commanded by the Chief of the General Staff. The British Army has seen action in major wars between the world's great powers, including the Seven Years' War, the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War and the First and Second World Wars.
Britain's victories in these decisive wars allowed it to influence world events and establish itself as one of the world's leading military and economic powers. Since the end of the Cold War, the British Army has been deployed to a number of conflict zones as part of an expeditionary force, a coalition force or part of a United Nations peacekeeping operation; until the English Civil War, England never had a standing army with professional officers and careerist corporals and sergeants. It relied on militia organized by local officials, or private forces mobilized by the nobility, or on hired mercenaries from Europe. From the Middle Ages until the English Civil War, when a foreign expeditionary force was needed, such as the one that Henry V of England took to France and that fought at the Battle of Agincourt, the army, a professional one, was raised for the duration of the expedition. During the English Civil War, the members of the Long Parliament realised that the use of county militia organised into regional associations commanded by local members of parliament, while more than able to hold their own in the regions which Parliamentarians controlled, were unlikely to win the war.
So Parliament initiated two actions. The Self-denying Ordinance, with the notable exception of Oliver Cromwell, forbade members of parliament from serving as officers in the Parliamentary armies; this created a distinction between the civilians in Parliament, who tended to be Presbyterian and conciliatory to the Royalists in nature, a corps of professional officers, who tended to Independent politics, to whom they reported. The second action was legislation for the creation of a Parliamentary-funded army, commanded by Lord General Thomas Fairfax, which became known as the New Model Army. While this proved to be a war winning formula, the New Model Army, being organized and politically active, went on to dominate the politics of the Interregnum and by 1660 was disliked; the New Model Army was paid off and disbanded at the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660. For many decades the excesses of the New Model Army under the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell was a horror story and the Whig element recoiled from allowing a standing army.
The militia acts of 1661 and 1662 prevented local authorities from calling up militia and oppressing their own local opponents. Calling up the militia was possible only if the king and local elites agreed to do so. Charles II and his Cavalier supporters favoured a new army under royal control; the first English Army regiments, including elements of the disbanded New Model Army, were formed between November 1660 and January 1661 and became a standing military force for Britain. The Royal Scots and Irish Armies were financed by the parliaments of Ireland. Parliamentary control was established by the Bill of Rights 1689 and Claim of Right Act 1689, although the monarch continued to influence aspects of army administration until at least the end of the nineteenth century. After the Restoration Charles II pulled together four regiments of infantry and cavalry, calling them his guards, at a cost of £122,000 from his general budget; this became the foundation of the permanent English Army. By 1685 it had grown to 7,500 soldiers in marching regiments, 1,400 men permanently stationed in garrisons.
A rebellion in 1685 allowed James II to raise the forces to 20,000 men. There were 37,000 in 1678. After William and Mary's accession to the throne England involved itself in the War of the Grand Alliance to prevent a French invasion restoring James II. In 1689, William III expanded the army to 74,000, to 94,000 in 1694. Parliament was nervous, reduced the cadre to 7000 in 1697. Scotland and Ireland had theoretically separate military establishments, but they were unofficially merged with the English force. By the time of the 1707 Acts of Union, many regiments of the English and Scottish armies were combined under one operational command and stationed in the Netherlands for the War of the Spanish Succession. Although all the regiments were now part of the new British military establishment, they remained under the old operational-command structure and retained much of the institutional ethos and traditions of the standing armies created shortly after the restoration of the monarchy 47 years earlier.
The order of seniority of the most-senior British Army line regiments is based on that of the English army
Dutch people
Dutch people or the Dutch are a Germanic ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Aruba, Guyana, Curaçao, Brazil, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, the United States; the Low Countries were situated around the border of France and the Holy Roman Empire, forming a part of their respective peripheries, the various territories of which they consisted had become autonomous by the 13th century. Under the Habsburgs, the Netherlands were organised into a single administrative unit, in the 16th and 17th centuries the Northern Netherlands gained independence from Spain as the Dutch Republic; the high degree of urbanization characteristic of Dutch society was attained at a early date. During the Republic the first series of large-scale Dutch migrations outside of Europe took place; the Dutch have left behind a substantial legacy despite the limited size of their country. The Dutch people are seen as the pioneers of capitalism, their emphasis on a modern economy, a free market had a huge influence on the great powers of the West the British Empire, its Thirteen Colonies, the United States.
The traditional arts and culture of the Dutch encompasses various forms of traditional music, architectural styles and clothing, some of which are globally recognizable. Internationally, Dutch painters such as Rembrandt and Van Gogh are held in high regard; the dominant religion of the Dutch was Christianity, although in modern times the majority are no longer religious. Significant percentages of the Dutch are adherents of humanism, atheism or individual spirituality; as with all ethnic groups, the ethnogenesis of the Dutch has been a complex process. Though the majority of the defining characteristics of the Dutch ethnic group have accumulated over the ages, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact emergence of the Dutch people; the text below hence focuses on the history of the Dutch ethnic group. For Dutch colonial history, see the article on the Dutch Empire. In the first centuries CE, the Germanic tribes formed tribal societies with no apparent form of autocracy, beliefs based Germanic paganism and speaking a dialect still resembling Common Germanic.
Following the end of the migration period in the West around 500, with large federations settling the decaying Roman Empire, a series of monumental changes took place within these Germanic societies. Among the most important of these are their conversion from Germanic paganism to Christianity, the emergence of a new political system, centered on kings, a continuing process of emerging mutual unintelligibility of their various dialects; the general situation described above is applicable to most if not all modern European ethnic groups with origins among the Germanic tribes, such as the Frisians, Germans and the North-Germanic peoples. In the Low Countries, this phase began when the Franks, themselves a union of multiple smaller tribes, began to incur the northwestern provinces of the Roman Empire. In 358, the Salian Franks, one of the three main subdivisions among the Frankish alliance settled the area's Southern lands as foederati. Linguistically Old Frankish or Low Franconian evolved into Old Dutch, first attested in the 6th century, whereas religiously the Franks converted to Christianity from around 500 to 700.
On a political level, the Frankish warlords abandoned tribalism and founded a number of kingdoms culminating in the Frankish Empire of Charlemagne. However, the population make-up of the Frankish Empire, or early Frankish kingdoms such as Neustria and Austrasia, was not dominated by Franks. Though the Frankish leaders controlled most of Western Europe, the Franks themselves were confined to the Northwestern part of the Empire; the Franks in Northern France were assimilated by the general Gallo-Roman population, took over their dialects, whereas the Franks in the Low Countries retained their language, which would evolve into Dutch. The current Dutch-French language border has remained identical since, could be seen as marking the furthest pale of gallicization among the Franks; the medieval cities of the Low Countries, which experienced major growth during the 11th and 12th century, were instrumental in breaking down the relatively loose local form of feudalism. As they became powerful, they used their economical strength to influence the politics of their nobility.
During the early 14th century, beginning in and inspired by the County of Flanders, the cities in the Low Countries gained huge autonomy and dominated or influenced the various political affairs of the fief, including marriage succession. While the cities were of great political importance, they formed catalys
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Festival, until 2002 called the International Film Festival and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, which previews new films of all genres, including documentaries from all around the world. Founded in 1946, the invitation-only festival is held annually at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, it is one of the "Big Three" alongside the Venice Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival. On 1 July 2014, co-founder and former head of French pay-TV operator Canal+, Pierre Lescure, took over as President of the Festival, while Thierry Fremaux became the General Delegate; the board of directors appointed Gilles Jacob as Honorary President of the Festival. The 2018 Cannes Film Festival took place between 8 and 19 May 2018; the jury president was Australian actress Cate Blanchett, Shoplifters, directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, won the Palme d'Or. The Cannes Film Festival has its origins in 1932 when Jean Zay, the French Minister of National Education, on the proposal of historian Philippe Erlanger and with the support of the British and Americans, set up an international cinematographic festival.
Its origins may be attributed in part to the French desire to compete with the Venice Film Festival, which at the time was shocking the democratic world by its fascist bias. The first festival was planned for 1939, Cannes was selected as the location for it, but the funding and organization were too slow and the beginning of World War II put an end to this plan. On 20 September 1946, twenty-one countries presented their films at the First Cannes International Film Festival, which took place at the former Casino of Cannes. In 1947, amid serious problems of efficiency, the festival was held as the "Festival du film de Cannes", where films from sixteen countries were presented; the festival was not held in 1950 on account of budgetary problems. In 1949, the Palais des Festivals was expressly constructed for the occasion on the seafront promenade of La Croisette, although its inaugural roof, while still unfinished, blew off during a storm. In 1951, the festival was moved to spring to avoid a direct competition with the Venice Festival, held in autumn.
During the early 1950s, the festival attracted a lot of tourism and press attention, with showbiz scandals and high-profile personalities' love affairs. At the same time, the artistic aspect of the festival started developing; because of controversies over the selection of films, the Critics' Prize was created for the recognition of original films and daring filmmakers. In 1954, the Special Jury Prize was awarded for the first time. In 1955, the Palme d'Or was created, replacing the Grand Prix du Festival, given until that year. In 1957, Dolores del Río was the first female member of the jury for the official selection. In 1959, the Marché du Film was founded, giving the festival a commercial character and facilitating exchanges between sellers and buyers in the film industry. Today it has become the first international platform for film commerce. Still, in the 1950s, some outstanding films, like Night and Fog in 1956 and Hiroshima, My Love in 1959 were excluded from the competition for diplomatic concerns.
Jean Cocteau, three times president of the jury in those years, is quoted to have said: "The Cannes Festival should be a no man's land in which politics has no place. It should be a simple meeting between friends."In 1962, the International Critics' Week was born, created by the French Union of Film Critics as the first parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival. Its goal was to showcase first and second works by directors from all over the world, not succumbing to commercial tendencies. In 1965 Olivia de Havilland was named the first female president of the jury, while the next year Sofia Loren became president; the 1968 festival was halted on 19 May. Some directors, such as Carlos Saura and Miloš Forman, had withdrawn their films from the competition. On 18 May filmmaker Louis Malle along with a group of directors took over the large room of the Palais and interrupted the projections in solidarity with students and labour on strike throughout France, in protest to the eviction of the President of the Cinémathèque Française.
The filmmakers achieved the reinstatement of the President, they founded the Film Directors' Society that same year. In 1969 the SRF, led by Pierre-Henri Deleau created the Directors' Fortnight, a new non-competitive section that programs a selection of films from around the world, distinguished by the independent judgment displayed in the choice of films. During the 1970s, important changes occurred in the Festival. In 1972, Robert Favre Le Bret was named the new President, Maurice Bessy the General Delegate, he introduced important changes in the selection of the participating films, welcoming new techniques, relieving the selection from diplomatic pressures, with films like MASH, Chronicle of the Years of Fire marking this turn. In some cases, these changes helped directors like Tarkovski overcome problems of censorship in their own country; until that time, the different countries chose the films that would represent them in the festival. Yet, in 1972, Bessy created a committee to select French films, another for foreign films.
In 1978, Gilles Jacob assumed the position of General Delegate, introducing the Caméra d'Or award, for the best first film of any of the main events, the Un Certain Regard section, for the non-competitive categories. Other changes were the decrease of length of the festival down to thirteen days, thus reducing the number of selected films.
Fantasy Island
Fantasy Island is an American television series that aired on the ABC network from 1977 to 1984. It starred Ricardo Montalbán as the mysterious Mr. Roarke, who grants the fantasies of visitors to the island for a price; the series was created by Gene Levitt. A revival of the series aired on the same network 14 years during the 1998–1999 season. Before it became a television series, Fantasy Island was introduced to viewers in 1977 and 1978 through two made-for-television films. Airing from 1978 to 1984, the original series starred Ricardo Montalbán as Mr. Roarke, the enigmatic overseer of a mysterious island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, where people from all walks of life could come and live out their fantasies, albeit for a price. Roarke was known for his white suit and cultured demeanor, was accompanied by an energetic sidekick, Tattoo. Tattoo would run up the main bell tower to ring the bell and shout "Ze plane! Ze plane!" to announce the arrival of a new set of guests at the beginning of each episode.
This line, shown at the beginning of the series' credits, became an unlikely catchphrase because of Villechaize's spirited delivery and French accent. In seasons, he would arrive in his personal go-kart, sized for him, recklessly drive to join Roarke for the visitor reception while the staff scrambled to get out of his way. From 1981 to 1982, Wendy Schaal joined the cast as a beautiful brown-eyed blonde assistant named Julie; the producers dismissed Villechaize from the series before the 1983–1984 season, which ended up being its last, Tattoo was replaced by a more sedate butler type named Lawrence, who pressed an electronic button to ring the bell rather than climb the tower himself. A Grumman Widgeon aircraft was used for the series. Just prior to the guests debarking from the plane, Mr. Roarke would address his assembling employees with the phrase "Smiles, everyone! Smiles!". As each visitor exited the plane, Roarke would describe to Tattoo the nature of their fantasy with a cryptic comment suggesting the person's fantasy will not turn out as they expected.
Roarke would welcome his guests by lifting his glass and saying: "My dear guests, I am Mr. Roarke, your host. Welcome to Fantasy Island." This toast was followed with a warm smile but sometimes his eyes would show concern or worry for a guest's safety. Little is known about the man known only as Mr. Roarke. Many people close to him, including past lovers, have referred to him only as "Roarke", he is the sole proprietor of Fantasy Island. Roarke's actual age is a complete mystery. In the pilot film, he comments how the guests who come to his island are "so mortal" and there are hints throughout the series that suggest Roarke may be immortal. In "Elizabeth", a woman from Roarke's past appears, but it is revealed that she died over 300 years ago. Other episodes suggests that he was friends with Helen of Cleopatra; however old he is, Roarke has come to know many seemingly-immortal beings over his time on Earth, including ghosts, a genie, the mermaid Princess Nyah, the goddess Aphrodite, Uriel the Angel of Death.
In "The Devil and Mandy Breem" and "The Devil and Mr. Roarke", Roarke faces the Devil who has come to the island to challenge him for either a guest's immortal soul or his, it is mentioned this is not the first time they have confronted each other and Mr. Roarke has always been the winner. In the second story, the Devil was one of the island's guests, claiming he was only there to relax and had no interest in Roarke's soul at the time. However, this turned out to be yet another ruse. Roarke had a strong moral code, he tried to teach his guests important life lessons through the medium of their fantasies in a manner that exposes the errors of their ways, on occasions when the island hosted terminally ill guests he would allow them to live out one last wish. Roarke's fantasies were not without peril, but the greatest danger came from the guests themselves. In some cases, people were killed due to their own aggression or arrogance; when necessary, Roarke would directly intervene when the fantasy became dangerous to the guest: For instance in one episode when Tattoo was given his own fantasy as a birthday gift, which ended up with him being chased by hostile natives in canoes, Mr. Roarke appeared in a motorboat, snared Tattoo's canoe with a grappling hook and towed it away at high speed to help him escape.
Another instance was in "The Victim" where a female guest seeking to fall in love with her dream man ends up as one of his sex slaves. When she and her fellow slaves managed to get free, they are saved by Mr. Roarke and Tattoo who have arrived with the police who arrest the two men responsible. Another instance was in the 1980 episode "With Affection, Jack the Ripper" when a female guest intent on researching Jack the Ripper's crimes was sent back in time to that of 1888 London and would have become one of the Ripper's victims had not Mr. Roarke physically intervened. With only a few exceptions, Roarke always made it quite clear that he was powerless to stop a fantasy once it had begun and that guests must play them out to their conclusion. In seasons, there were supernatural overtones. Roarke seemed to have his own supernatural powers of some sort, although it was never explained how this came to be. In the episodes "Reprisal" and "The Power" he temporarily gave th
