Killing Me Softly (film)

Killing Me Softly is a 2002 erotic thriller film directed by Chen Kaige and starring Heather Graham and Joseph Fiennes. Based on the 1999 novel of the same name by Nicci French, it introduces several substantial changes to the story and focuses heavily on the intense sexual relationship between the two lead characters. It is Chen's first and only English-language film .
Plot.
Alice is a young American woman living in London who believes she is happy in a secure job and a relationship with her boyfriend. After a chance encounter with a mysterious stranger, she seeks him out, taking a taxi with him to his house and having passionate sex. She returns home to her boyfriend and unsuccessfully attempts to bring out the same feelings between them that she had with the strange man.
The following day she seeks the stranger out again, discovering his name is Adam - a mountain climber who is considered a hero after saving six people in a tragic event that killed several others, including the woman he loved. Alice leaves her boyfriend and begins a relationship with Adam, although her friend shows reservations about Alice being in such a sudden relationship. When Alice is mugged on the street, Adam beats the thief terribly, and then asks Alice to marry him, a proposal she happily accepts. For their honeymoon, he takes her to a secluded cabin.
The newlyweds settle into their new life, but Alice is troubled by a series of mysterious letters and phone calls, and begins to wonder about her husband's mysterious past. A reporter who did a story on Adam sends her a copy of a letter from a woman claiming Adam raped her. Alice interviews her, posing as a journalist. Disturbed by the fact that she barely knows her new husband, she begins to go through their apartment, becoming even more alarmed when she searches a locked wardrobe and finds a box of old letters from an ex-lover, Adele, who insists she and Adam end their affair. Adam begins to question Alice more about her activities, including where she got a necklace that she received from his sister, Deborah.
Soon after, Alice receives yet another warning. Following the trail, she discovers that Adele has been missing for eight months. She also finds a picture of Adele at the same cabin where she and Adam honeymooned. She realizes she doesn't feel safe with him and runs to the police. She tells her story, insisting they reopen Adele's missing persons case, but they can't do anything without any evidence, telling her they can only keep him for a few hours. Alice seeks help from Deborah, telling her she believes Adam killed Adele for leaving him and buried her at the cabin. On the way to the cabin, Deborah admits that she was the one who sent the messages to Alice, because she wanted to save her from Adam's violent rages. When Adam returns home from the police station, he finds that Alice was there and left the two pictures, and realizes she must have gone to the cemetery.
At the cemetery, Alice discovers a body buried in the dirt, wearing the same necklace that Deborah gave her. Deborah tells her that Adele didn't have to die, if she'd only gone back to her husband. It is apparent that Deborah has incestuous feelings for Adam, resulting in her subsequent possessiveness and need to rid his life of any other woman. She tries to kill Alice, but Adam appears in time and saves her. Furious, Deborah tries to kill him but is stopped short by Alice, who shoots her with a flare pistol.
Adam tells Alice that he and his sister used to come to the cabin together, but that he thought that if Alice just trusted him, then everything would be alright. Adam is led away by police that morning.
Two years later, Alice and Adam see one another again on either side of an escalator - she's going down and he's riding up. They both watch each other as they pass without saying anything. Adam stops at the top and turns to stare back at Alice before walking away. The film ends with Alice's voiceover recalling the events in posterity and wondering what might have happened had fate not led her to Adam one morning. She wonders if the passion between them could ever have lasted, and if a "flatlander" like her could ever have stayed at such a high altitude. At least that's what she tells herself anyway.
Production.
Filming commenced on October 29, 2000, and was mostly based in or around London and Cumbria, England. Filming also took place in Matterdale, near Penrith.
Release.
"Killing Me Softly" was released on June 21, 2002, in the UK. MGM initially planned a 2002 wide release in the US, but this was cancelled in favor of a direct-to-DVD launch on March 25, 2003. "Variety" later characterized the film's international release as "a painful failure". On August 13, 2013, Shout! Factory released "Killing Me Softly" on Blu-ray along with "The Hot Spot" as part of a double feature.
Reception.
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 0% based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 3.39/10. The site's consensus is: "Respected director Chen Kaige's first English-language film is a spectacularly misguided erotic thriller, with ludicrous plot twists and cringe-worthy dialogue". In 2009, the site also rated it #12 on the countdown of the worst films over the last 10 years.
David Rooney of Variety called it "A turgid erotic thriller that plays like Zalman King-meets-vintage Brian De Palma without the latter's wit or style." Empire magazine called it "the funniest movie of the year so far".


Ugly (film)

Ugly is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language thriller film written, co-produced and directed by Anurag Kashyap. Jointly produced by Phantom Films and DAR Motion Pictures, the film stars Rahul Bhat, Ronit Roy, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Vineet Kumar Singh, Girish Kulkarni, Surveen Chawla and Anshika Shrivastava in the lead roles. It also features TV actor Abir Goswami in his last film appearance before his death in 2013. Told in the course of a week, "Ugly" follows the story of a struggling actor Rahul Varshney (Bhat), whose daughter Kali (Shrivastava) disappears, and the events that follow.
The film's background score and music were composed by Brian McOmber and G. V. Prakash Kumar respectively, while Gaurav Solanki wrote the lyrics. Nikos Andritsakis served as the film's cinematographer and Aarti Bajaj was its editor. Kashyap had the idea for the film since 2006 and started writing the script after talking to one of his friends, who was in the Special Task Force, Lucknow, about kidnapping cases. He chose actors who could connect with the characters in the film.
"Ugly" premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. It was also screened at the 2014 New York Indian Film Festival, the third Ladakh International Film Festival and the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. The digital poster of the film was released on 8 May 2013. The circumstances that led to the birth of Kali were separately made as short film, titled "Kali Katha", and was released in YouTube on 23 December 2014. The film was theatrically released on 26 December 2014 after a two-year delay due to Kashyap's refusal to carry static anti-smoking warnings in the film. He had filed a case in court, but ultimately lost it. Upon release, the film received critical acclaim and was a commercial success, grossing over worldwide.
Plot.
Shalini is a depressed housewife who attempts suicide, but is interrupted by her ten-year-old daughter from her first marriage, Kali. Shalini calls her husband, Police Chief Shoumik Bose, asking for money but he refuses. Her brother Siddhant tries to convince Bose to smuggle iPhones. Rahul, Shalini's first husband and Kali's biological father, takes Kali to a work assignment, where she chooses to stay in the car. While Rahul is waiting for his casting director, a mask seller tries to catch Kali's attention with children's masks. Chaitanya soon arrives and gives Rahul a film script and informs him that Kali was not in his car. The duo rush back and find her missing. Chaitanya asks the mask-seller about Kali and notices that he has her phone. The man tries to get away but is eventually killed by a car while being chased by the two. They later go to the police station to report Kali's disappearance. The local police inspector Jadhav asks Rahul why he was travelling with his daughter. Rahul says that since his divorce, he can only meet Kali on Saturdays. Two officers find the mask seller's house and ask his aunt about Kali, but she claims to know nothing.
Bose taps Shalini's phone and listens to her conversation with Rakhee, a B-grade film actress. After being informed of his step daughter's kidnapping, he arrives at the station and beats Chaitanya. Bose accuses Rahul of the kidnapping and shows him the recording of Rahul and Shalini's conversation where she did not want Kali to meet him. Bose later reminds him of their college days when he used to bully him. Disguising his voice, Chaitanya calls Rahul and demands ransom. The call is received by Bose instead. Chaitanya also informs his agent to conduct an audition of ten-year-old girls to re-create dialogues for a ransom call. Next day, Jadhav follows Chaitanya into his office, where the police tap his phone and find out that he is in debt. He is arrested on suspicion of kidnapping Kali. Rahul escapes from the police captivity after a doctor arrives for his check-up. Later, Bose overhears one of Shalini's conversations, in which she explains how Rahul used to beat her after marriage and how she met Bose after filing a complaint. Jadhav interrogates Chaitanya who says that he had called for ransom because Bose was more interested in his personal grudge with Rahul than the kidnapping. Rahul tells Bose that Chaitanya could have not kidnapped Kali since he is aware of Rahul's lack of funds. The police expand their search operation.
Chaitanya uses a girl's audition to demand ransom from Rahul. Rahul, who is at Rakhee's place, tells Chaitanya about the call, which is tapped by the police. Chaitanya tells him to talk to Bose, who can arrange the money. Later, Rakhee urges Shalini to pay the ransom. Chaitanya is subsequently arrested by the police, and Rahul, who escapes, is later arrested after he robs a jewelry store. Rakhee calls Rahul, and using the same recorded voice, demands ransom. Siddhant also makes a ransom call of to Shalini, who asks her father for . She hides and delivers the rest. Rakhee eventually flees, stealing the money. Bose asks her about the money, but she does not answer and shoots him in the shoulder. Siddhant is then arrested with the money. Jadhav tells Rahul to deliver the money to the kidnapper but Chaitanya evades police interception and throws away his phone. Rahul, Chaitanya and Rakhee now have the money and Rahul calls Bose to taunt him. Realizing that Bose is unaware of Kali's whereabouts, Rahul murders Chaitanya, whilst Rakhee quietly leaves with the money. The police revisit the marketplace and talk to a woman who knew the mask seller, and find out that they have a history of abducting children. The woman finally leads the police to Kali inside the sidecar of a bike, where she is found dead. The police discover that she had been kidnapped by the mask-seller, who had previously died in the chase.
Production.
Development.
Director Anurag Kashyap said in an interview that the genesis of "Ugly" started from his own broken marriage and the relationship with his daughter. He mentioned that his guilt of not spending enough time with her when he was an alcoholic also shaped the film. He stated that the first ten minutes of the film stems from his personal experiences. He had been working on its script since 2006. Later, Kashyap met his friend Amit Pathak, who was the head of Special Task Force in Lucknow and talked to him about real life kidnapping cases and how they were tackled. He also explained the whole "logic" of such kidnapping cases and how they function. The shocking thing for Kashyap to know from him was that in eighty five percent cases of kidnapping, there are no ransom calls, and are vendetta based abductions. He later included several real-life incidents in the script like a case of an Indian Administrative Service officer whose wife filed a case of brutality against him.
After the research, Kashyap finished the script and gave it to some people to read who felt that "it was a very dark and intense film". He said: "I knew that I could make it only after I had made a successful film. So "Gangs of Wasseypur" allowed me the freedom to make this film without sharing the script with anyone. I just told people I wanted to make a kidnapping drama and to trust me." The film's story is told over the course of a week. Kashyap announced "Ugly" in May 2012.
Casting.
For casting, Kashyap chose actors who could connect with the characters in the film. He found a lot of parallels between Rahul Bhat's real life and his character in the film and hence gave him the role of a failed actor. The two had previously discussed the project in 2012. To prepare for his role, Bhat started consuming alcohol heavily and deprived himself of sleep to create dark circles around his character's face. Tejaswini Kolhapure, per Kashyap knew "what happens when you make bad choices in life", as her first film choice, "Paanch", was never released. She plays the role of an alcoholic mother, for which she actually consumed alcohol while shooting. Ronit Roy was cast in the role of a police inspector.
Vineet Kumar Singh was cast in the role of a casting director. Kashyap had seen Girish Kulkarni in films such as "Vihir" (2010) and "Deool" (2011) and wanted to work with him. He met their director Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni in Denmark, who told him that Kulkarni would love to work with him. Afterwards Kashyap came back and called him for "Ugly". Surveen Chawla plays the role of a C-grade film actress, who she described as "crass, downmarket C-grade item girl who is ugly on the inside". The film has television actor Abir Goswami's last appearance before his death in 2013. Siddhanth Kapoor was cast in "Ugly" before his debut film "Shootout at Wadala" (2013), since he wanted to work with Kashyap. Alia Bhatt makes a brief appearance in the film.
Filming.
Kashyap shot the whole film without giving its lead actors any script as he felt the film "required" that. During shoot, he would brief the actors about the scene and let them emote to do their own bit, while the camera was kept rolling. The actors got to know about the film, when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Kashyap had told Bhat and other cast that he wanted to make this film in 2012. They spent the next two years, talking to each other and getting to know each other. The little girl in the film is named Kali (Hindi for bud), who, according to author Vaiju Naravane, represents "untouched innocence". Anshika Shrivastava, who played the character, was unaware of the story, and Kashyap requested her parents not to show her the film as he felt she was too young for the subject matter. On the day of shooting, Kashyap gave Roy the scene for the day which he refused to read and said: "I told Anurag that now that there was no script, I'll leave the shooting entirely on him." For a sequence, where Bhat had to cry, Kashyap kept talking to him for three hours and he eventually broke down and wept. The camera kept rolling during that period. The film was extensively shot in real locations. While shooting a scene where his character is taken in remand by the police, Singh was slapped over fifty times in real. His hands were cuffed and tied to the roof to represent the actual third degree torture. It was because Kashyap wanted to depict a realistic reconstruction of police methods in India. A scene where both Singh and Bhat talk to the inspector in the police station was improvised, because, Kashyap wanted to show the real "police apathy and the power trip."
Kashyap shot the whole film in the suburbs of Mumbai to create the feeling of constriction. He worked with a new cinematographer, Nikos Andritsakis, who works with Dibakar Banerjee, as he wanted to shoot in the "constricted spaces" of the city. They shot most of the scenes in one or two angles. The suburbs were difficult locations to shoot because of the constant crowd hence the team then decided to use hidden cameras to capture most of the original scenes, especially the ones that were shot at Bandra and Lonavala railway station. As a result, the actors did not have the liberty to give as many retakes as they can on a set. Kashyap called it his most "brutally honest" film. "Ugly" was shot for fourteen hours a day to meet the schedule and was completed in forty days. Kashyap wanted the scene where Siddhant gets the money to be hyper-stylised, and he treated the scene "like an orgasm". He drew similarity of the scene with a man's eagerness to have sex, which is sudden and intense. He recalled the whole shooting an "emotionally exhausting" experience.
Post-production.
"Ugly" was edited by Aarti Bajaj and the sound mixing was done by the Mumbai-based audio engineer Mandar Kulkarni with assistance from Alok De. Such scenes as a road accident in the film were shot on different places and later merged using visual effects provided by Balakrishna P. Subbiah Nadar. The film is jointly produced by Phantom Films and DAR Motion Pictures.
Soundtrack.
The film's album soundtrack is composed by Tamil film composer G. V. Prakash Kumar. This is his third Hindi film he composed after "Joker" and "Gangs of Wasseypur", in which he composed the background score for the two-part series. All songs were written by Gaurav Solanki, except one track "Ugly" was written by Vineet Kumar Singh. Artists like G.V Prakash Kumar, Shilpa Rao, Vineet Kumar Singh, Ishq Bector, Christopher Stanley, Barkha Swaroop Saxena and Shree D provided vocals. Brian McOmber provided the background score. The album rights are acquired by Zee Music Company and consists of five songs. It was released on 24 November 2014. According to a critic from Sify, the song "Nichod De" mocked the item numbers and their corny music and lyrics.
Marketing and release.
"Ugly" premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival where it received standing ovation. It was also screened at the third Ladakh International Film Festival, the 2014 New York Indian Film Festival and the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. Kashyap had initially intended for the film to release in 2013 but it was delayed as he had filed a petition challenging Cigarettes and Tobacco Products Act, which makes it compulsory for filmmakers to crop or mask any scenes depicting the use of any tobacco, in India. However, Bombay High Court refused to give any concessions. The Central Board of Film Certification required a "Smoking is Injurious to Health" static warning to be posted in the lower right corner of the frame whenever a character in the film is shown smoking. Kashyap fought this regulation stating, "it's the Health Ministry that should take the responsibility of curbing use of tobacco and work towards measures to control it and films should not be a medium to advertise non-smoking." Kashyap initially stated that he was not going to release the film until the Board decides to abolish the rule, but after several months of negotiations, he chose to release it with the warning.
The circumstances that led to the birth of the little girl Kali were separately made as a short film titled "Kali Katha". It was released in YouTube on 23 December 2014. A digital poster of the film was released on 15 May 2013, which was followed by the first theatrical trailer on 12 September 2013. The release date was pushed to next year when he second trailer was launched on 15 December 2014. Kashyap had also changed his Twitter handle to "UGLYAnurag", as part of the promotional strategy. A special screening of the film was held in Mumbai on 23 December 2014, which was attended by several actors including Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt. Kashyap said that he saw people reaching out to their children after watching the film which he felt was his purpose behind making the film.
"Ugly" was released in India on 26 December 2014 in 300–400 screens, majorly in the metro cities. Several trade analysts had predicted that the film would only cater to a niche audience. The film was also theatrically released in France and Belgium. It was released on DVD on 1 March 2015 and is also available on Amazon Prime Video.
Reception.
Critical reception.
Upon release, "Ugly" received widespread critical acclaim. Film critic Raja Sen called it Kashyap's "finest film", writing: ""Ugly" is a tale of torment, masterfully woven around the universally urgent trigger of a disappearing minor." Shweta Kaushal, giving the film a positive review, called it "dark, gripping" and a "must watch". Kaushani Banerjee of "Deccan Chronicle" wrote: "Every frame has a dark undertone and "Ugly" does not conclude until every possible avenue of audience empathy is explored." Mihir Fadnavis of "Firstpost" called "Ugly", Kashyap's "best film since "Black Friday"". A review carried by "India Today" called the film an "eye opener" and "one of the best films of the year". Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV, called it "indescribably better than all the muck that mainstream Bollywood passed off for entertainment this year." Meena Iyer of "The Times of India" gave a four-out-of-five star rating and said: "It's not for the faint-hearted, but for those who are willing to let the morally decrepit live." Subhash K. Jha in his review mentioned, "You know these characters are played by actors. And that there is a camera recording their activities. But you let yourself believe this is not make-believe." Suprateek Chatterjee from "HuffPost" gave a positive review to the film and called Kashyap the "antithesis of Sooraj Barjatya". Arunava Chatterjee called "Ugly" a "pathbreaking crime fiction" and "one of Kashyap's best so far." Sonia Chopra of Sify gave a positive response and wrote: "Kashyap gives us a film that represents a disturbing reflection of life."
Contrary to the positive responses, a review from Bollywood Hungama wrote, "Watch it if you are an Anurag Kashyap fan, else avoid!". Shubhra Gupta of "The Indian Express" giving the film a two-star-out-of five rating, wrote: "In all the to-ing and fro-ing, it starts feeling too long, and too much, without the requisite emotional pay-off." Deepanjana Pal wrote in her review, ""Ugly" is a disappointment, not just because it's a whodunit that sinks like a badly-made souffle but also because we expect better and more of Kashyap."
Among overseas reviewers, Lee Marshall of "Screen International" called the film a "lazy kidnap caper" and felt the story was "too flabby". Deborah Young of "The Hollywood Reporter" mentioned in her review that "Ugly" is "taut, angry genre film" but felt the film was comparatively weaker than Kashyap's earlier film, "Gangs of Wasseypur" (2012). Maggie Lee from "Variety" gave a positive response and wrote :"[..] the grittily stylized film boasts a scattershot narrative that frustrates as much as it illuminates."
Box-office.
"Ugly" was the last release of 2014 in India. It received a low occupancy and earned on its opening day, which was mainly attributed to the limited release and small scale promotion. The film was expected to be pulled off from screens but positive critical reception helped in the increase of numbers at the box-office. It collected over the weekend. It also benefited from the limited print release which meant that there won't be much reduction in print count in the next weeks. The film was also released in France and Belgium, where it grossed 80,000 euros in its first week.
After the end of the first week of its theatrical release, "Ugly" collected at the box office. According to Rentrak, a global media measurement company, the film collected a total of after the end of its theatrical run. It proved to be a box office success, after earning more than its production cost of .


Anna Vittoria Dolara

Suor or Sister Anna Vittoria Dolara (1754–1827) was an Italian Dominican nun in Rome; she is known for her piety, poetry, and painting.
Biography.
She was a nun in the monastery of Santa Maria Maddalena (later Santa Caterina a Magnanapoli in Quirinale during the Napoleonic occupation of Rome. When the French forces captured Pope Pius VI and closed the monasteries, Suor Anna continued her charity work, and wrote a poem in ottava rima, lamenting the situation in the city. The poem subsequently published in 1818 as "Il Pianto delle Sacre Vergini Romane nella funesta Democrazia di Roma, composizione di Suor Anna Vittoria Domenicana in Santa Maria Maddalena, fra gli Arcadi Florinda Carisia". It included stanzas loosely translated as:
We are oppressed, and we leave nearby,/ Between starvation and sorrow, the afflicted discards;/ The holy edifice collapses, and the ruins/ Hold vigil with our dear grief;/
From whose penury we see no end,/Nor from our crying expect any fulfillment;/ Unless you, appeased at last, God of living,/ Sweet mercy, our pain can feel.
Passes the dove, and there is secure,/ Moaning softly within her nest;/ Back to their pens, the flock returns from pasture/ Without fear of treacherous betrayals./ We also entering these elected walls/ Believe we grasp firmly security;/ But instead face ambush, oh heaven! from the alliance/ Of the rapacious vulture and greedy wolf.
She was given the name Florinda Carisia among painters, and called later to paint the portrait of Popes Pius VII, and Leo XII, a copy of Guido Reni's the portrait of Beatrice Cenci, portraits of fellow Dominican nuns; and a portrait of the Queen of Etruria.


George Wright (artist)

George Wright (30 June 186011 March 1944) was a painter in oils whose subjects were mainly drawn from hunting, with which he was familiar, being a fox-hunter himself, coaching and other equestrian topics. George Wright was one of the foremost equestrian artists of his time. He was one of a family of seven children, five of whom were professional artists, either principally as painters, or as illustrators.
Wright is sometimes confused with George Wright (18511 February 1916), a Scottish landscape painter who lived in Annan.
Biography.
Wright was born in Leeds on 30 June 1860. His father was George Edward Wright (24 February 183411 November 1916), an accountant and Elizabeth Scott (c. 184031 May 1916), the daughter or Thomas Scott (born c. 1804), variously a railway engineer and a commission agent. George Edward and Elizabeth were married on 22 August 1859 in St. Jude's Church at Hunslet, Leeds, Yorkshire, England.
The Wrights had seven children, five of whom were artists:
George married Rose Ellen Tribe (14 December 186413 November 1943) of Leeds, the daughter of Edward Tribe, (born c.1817) a publican and Kezia Tribe (born c. 1925), on 30 March 1885 at the parish church of Wrangthorn, Yorkshire. The couple had two daughters:
Wright moved to Rugby in 1901, and was living in Oxford by 1908 and had moved to Richmond by 1929. He was living at 5 King's Road, Richmond, Surrey in September 1939 along with his wife Rose Ellen and his sister Ethel. He moved to Seaford later on in the year. Wright was living at 3 Queens Park Gardens, Seaford, Sussex in 1943 when his wife died on 13 November. He survived her by only a few months, dying on 11 March 1944 at the same address. Both husband and wife choose his brother Gilbert Scott Wright as an executor.
Work.
The details of his early working life are not known. Like the rest of his family, he had no formal training in art, but had to learn as he progressed. However, as he left a large number of oil canvasses from his early period painted "en Grisaille" it is assumed that he was doing a lot of illustration work. Wright was known for painting strong and well-finished hunting and coaching scenes, and for his horse portraits.
From 1901, when he moved to Rugby, he began to paint polo matches as well. From 1925 he was under commission from both by 1925 was under commission to Ackermanns in the U.K. and Grand Central Galleries in New York. These were major publishers of prints. As well as commercial galleries, Wright exhibited six times at the Walker Gallery and 33 times at the Royal Academy. He often painted his pictures in pairs.
Wright collaborated with his brother Gilbert Scott Wright, who was twenty years his junior, in producing paintings of sporting and coaching scenes for calendars and other work. They collaborated until about 1925. Wright also produced postcards, designing the "Sporting Pictures" range for E. W. Savoury.
Assessment.
Bradshaw said that Wright was "chiefly known for his jolly sporting prints—pictures of Georgian huntsmen, "Gentlemen of the Road" and other "horsey" types who are always certain of popularity on the walls of the R.A. and in print-shop windows all over the World". Wood states that he painted "in a lively and realistic style." Victoria Fine art states that "He painted superb horse portraits and very good action pictures, particularly of hunting and coaching. His work is strong and well finished. He was one of the best sporting painters of his time."
Wright's work can command attractive prices at auction. Record auction prices include:


Hermann Baisch

Hermann Baisch (12 July 1846, Dresden - 18 June 1894, Karlsruhe) was a German painter and illustrator who specialized in landscapes and animals. He was one of the first artists in Germany to work in the French influenced "paysage intime" style.
Biography.
His father was the lithographer, . His older brother, , also became a lithographer and a writer. In 1852, his family moved to Stuttgart, where his father set up his own lithography business. After completing an apprenticeship in his father's shop, he studied painting at the State Academy of Fine Arts. When his father died in 1864, Otto took over the management of the family business.
In 1868, he went to Paris, where he copied the landscape and animal paintings of the Dutch Masters. He also became acquainted with Jules Dupré, who introduced him to the Barbizon School and the style known as "Paysage intime" (intimate landscape). After completing his studies there, he went to Munich and became a student at the private painting school operated by Adolf Lier. Although he graduated in 1873, he remained in Munich until 1880. In 1875, he married Julie Schönleber, the sister of Gustav Schönleber, who had become his friend at Lier's school.
He then relocated to Karlsruhe and, in 1881, became a Professor of animal painting at the Grand-Ducal Baden Art School. In order that his students could learn to paint from nature, he built an open-air studio; going so far as to buy a cow and some other small animals. He also took numerous trips to Holland and the Alps to paint landscapes. In the years 1884/85 and 1893/94, he served as Director of the school, which was renamed an "Academy" in 1892. He died in 1894, after a short illness.


Papi Gudia

Papi Gudia () is a 1996 Indian Hindi-language horror film directed by Lawrence D'Souza, starring Karisma Kapoor, Avinash Wadhavan, Tinnu Anand and Shakti Kapoor. The film is heavily inspired by the American film series "Child's Play" and is an unofficial remake of the first "Child's Play" film (1988). The film flopped heavily at the box office.


Le ruisseau noir

Le ruisseau noir (The Black Stream) (also known in En. as "Stream in a Ravine") is an oil-on-canvas landscape painted by French artist, Gustave Courbet, in 1865. It is currently held and exhibited at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
History.
This picture was included in the Exposition Universelle of 1867, and was bought from the artist in the same year by the Comte de Nieuwerkerque, Director of Museums, for Napoleon III, at the price of 2000 French francs. It was part of the Emperor's personal property, and was allotted to the Louvre by the Tribunal de la Seine, along with other paintings, on 12 February 1879. In 1881, it was exhibited in the Luxembourg, with the title "Le puits noir (The Black Ravine)", which is really the name of another work painted in 1869.
The landscape is currently housed and exhibited at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, and represents a gorge, a ravine through which runs a winding stream, its bed littered with rocks, between steep walls covered with wild vegetation. The stream depicted is the Loue, a capricious creek flowing through the village of Ornans, where Courbet was born. The artist seems to have returned to this spot several times: it can be recognised in a number of his paintings
Of this landscape, Courbet wrote:It is perhaps the best I have ever painted; it shows the Loue walled up between vast boulders of mossy rock, with thick sunlit foliage in the background.
Courbet loved to seek out some unspoilt corner in these lonely gorges, where the damp atmosphere conveys the impression of a strange world from which the primordial waters have only just receded. In this work, in which one senses the enthusiasm of the artist, Courbet's technique is at its peak of perfection. He has only used the brush in the background shadows; elsewhere the painting has been done with the palette knife. Courbet crushes his pigments and spreads them diagonally with his knife, thus letting underlying wads of paint show through: this creates the effect of transparency and depth as rich as those obtained by means of glazes in the work of earlier artists. His splendid greens evoke the luxuriance of a semi-aquatic world where vegetation runs riot.
References.
Monographs on the art and life of Courbet have been written by Estignard (Paris, 1874), D'Ideville, (Paris, 1878), Silvestre in "Les artistes français", (Paris, 1878), Isham in Van Dyke's "Modern French Masters" (New York, 1896), Meier-Graefe, "Corot and Courbet", (Leipzig, 1905), Cazier (Paris, 1906), Riat, (Paris, 1906), Muther, (Berlin, 1906), Robin, (Paris, 1909), Benedite, (Paris, 1911) and Lazár Béla (Paris, 1911) . Consult also Muther "History of Modern Painting", volume ii (London, 1896, 1907); Patoux, "Courbet" in "Les artistes célèbres" and "La vérité sur Courbet" (Paris, 1879) ; Le Men, "Courbet" (New York, 2008).


Hurricane (painting)

Hurricane is a 1944 oil painting by American artist John Marin, located in the Indianapolis Museum of Art, which is in Indianapolis, Indiana. He used quick brushstrokes and thickly daubed paint to depict a turbulent ocean such as he experienced near his summer home in Maine.
Description.
Although Marin is best known for his watercolors, beginning in the 1930s he developed an interest in the more expressive brushwork and rugged quality of oil paint. Marin was influenced by Cubism, with its flattened spaces and angularity. He honed a style of frenetic brushwork to create this dynamic image of water, wind, and clouds. He was so successful in his recreation of nature that a sailor purportedly declared it the first time he had "really seen a sea painted as the sea really is."
Historical information.
"Hurricane" was painted the same year the Great Atlantic hurricane smashed into Maine.
Location history.
"Hurricane" was first displayed in 1944 in the famous An American Place gallery. It was borrowed from the IMA to be part of a 1987 retrospective of Marin's work. In 2011, "Hurricane" was loaned out again for a traveling exhibit called "John Marin: Modernism at Midcentury," of which it was a highlight. This exhibition took it to the Portland Museum of Art in Portland, Maine; the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, Massachusetts.
Acquisition.
Caroline Marmon Fesler acquired "Hurricane" the same year it was painted, from Marin's long-time friend and art dealer, Alfred Stieglitz. He congratulated Fesler on her purchase, writing "The "Hurricane" is certainly a masterpiece, Every one agrees with every one else as to that." It was donated to the IMA as part of her estate in 1961, and was given the accession number 61.42.


Christ Crowned with Thorns (Bosch, El Escorial)

Christ Crowned with Thorns is an oil on panel painting made in the 1530s by a follower of Hieronymus Bosch. It is now in the Monasterio de San Lorenzo at El Escorial, near Madrid, in Spain.
The work is painted on a rectangular oak panel and measures . The main scene is set in a circular tondo with a gold background, surrounded by a grisaille painting of a battle between angels and demons.
It is an elaborated version of another Bosch's composition of the same subject, "Christ Crowned with Thorns", held by the National Gallery, London, combining two events from Biblical account of the Passion of Jesus: the Mocking of Jesus and the Crowning with Thorns. As with the London version, this composition is centred on a half-length Jesus with a calm expression, accompanied by several other men, in this case, five others. The man to the far left, with a sceptre depicting Moses, is often identified as the High Priest Caiaphas, with the four others around Jesus interpreted as men obeying his orders. The calm expression of Jesus contrasts with the caricatured faces of the other men.
The painting was in the collection of Philip II of Spain by 1593. It may have been owned by Fernando de Toledo, former Viceroy of Catalonia, who fought in the Spanish Netherlands under his father Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba.
It was formerly attributed to Bosch, but dendrochronological analysis of the panel in 2001 gave a date of the 1530s (or later), several years after Bosch's death in 1516, and it has been reattributed to a follower of Bosch, possibly Marinus van Reymerswaele. The version is London is securely attributed to Bosch.
The Prado holds a painting of the head of the man with a crossbow bolt through his hat.
The scene is similar to the central panel of the in the Museu de Belles Arts de Valencia, circa 1530-1540, another painting by a follower of Bosch. The in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp is also similar in composition but different in style. There are other examples by followers of Bosch in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Kunstmuseum Bern, which are probably based on a second painting of the subject by Bosch which is now lost.


Spring Scattering Stars

Spring Scattering Stars is a 1927 painting by American artist Edwin Blashfield. It is an allegory of spring in which a female nude representing spring stands on a wet moon, scattering stars throughout the sky. The painting is catalogued in the Robert Funk Inventory.
"Spring Scattering Stars" appeared on the Heritage Auctions after being acquired from the estate of Charles Martignette and is now in a private collection.
References.


Bugsy Malone

Bugsy Malone is a 1976 gangster musical comedy film written and directed by Alan Parker. The film was Parker's feature film directorial debut. A co-production of United States and United Kingdom, it features child actors playing adult roles, with Jodie Foster, Scott Baio, and John Cassisi in major roles. The film tells the story of the rise of "Bugsy Malone" and the battle for power between "Fat Sam" and "Dandy Dan".
Set in New York City, it is a gangster movie spoof, substituting machine guns that fire gobs of whipped cream instead of bullets. The film is based loosely on events in New York and Chicago during Prohibition era, specifically the exploits of real-life gangsters such as Al Capone and Bugs Moran. Parker lightened the subject matter considerably for the children's market, and the film received a G rating in the U.S.
"Bugsy Malone" premiered at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or. The film was released theatrically in the UK on 12 July 1976 by Fox-Rank Distributors, and in the U.S. by Paramount Pictures. The film was a commercial success in the UK but not in other territories. It received acclaim from critics for its screenplay, musical numbers, unique narrative and performances of the cast (particularly Foster's).
In 2003, was voted #19 on a list of the 100 greatest musicals, as chosen by viewers of Channel 4 in the UK. In 2008, "Empire" ranked it 353rd on their list of 500 greatest movies of all time.
The film received eight nominations at the 30th British Academy Film Awards, including Best Film and won three: Best Supporting Actress and Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles for Foster and Best Screenplay for Parker. The film also received three nominations at the 34th Golden Globe Awards including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.
Plot.
During the prohibition era, a mobster named Roxy Robinson is "splurged" by members of a gang, using rapid-fire cream-shooting "splurge guns". Once splurged, a kid is "all washed up... finished". Speakeasy boss Fat Sam introduces himself and Bugsy Malone, a boxing promoter with no money ("Bugsy Malone").
At Fat Sam's speakeasy, there is much dancing and singing ("Fat Sam's Grand Slam"). Fat Sam is worried that his rival Dandy Dan will try to take control of the speakeasy. Blousey Brown, an aspiring singer, has come for an audition, but Sam is too distracted to see her. Bugsy meets Blousey when he trips over her luggage. He is smitten and flirts with her. Fat Sam's is raided by Dandy Dan's men, who shoot up the place. Dandy Dan's men continue to attack Fat Sam's empire, eventually taking away rackets and splurging members of Fat Sam's gang. Fat Sam sends all his available men, except Knuckles, to see if they can track down the guns. They are ambushed at a laundry and splurged by Dandy Dan's gang.
Bugsy returns to Fat Sam's to arrange a new audition for Blousey. Fat Sam's girlfriend, the chanteuse Tallulah, makes a pass at him. Although Bugsy rejects her flirtation, Tallulah plants a big kiss on Bugsy's forehead when Blousey enters; Blousey is jealous. Fat Sam hires Blousey after her audition, but she refuses to speak to Bugsy ("I'm Feelin' Fine").
Fat Sam hires Bugsy to accompany him to a meeting with Dandy Dan. The meeting is a trap, but Bugsy helps Fat Sam escape. Gratefully, Fat Sam pays him $200. Bugsy and Blousey reconcile and have a romantic outing on a lake; Bugsy promises to take her to Hollywood. When he returns Sam's car to the garage, he is attacked and his money is stolen. Bugsy is saved by Leroy Smith, who assaults the attackers and drives them away. Bugsy realizes that Leroy has the potential to be a great boxer. Bugsy introduces Leroy to Cagey Joe and helps him train ("So You Wanna Be a Boxer?"). Fat Sam again seeks Bugsy's aid after Knuckles is accidentally killed by a malfunctioning splurge gun prototype. Bugsy resists, but Fat Sam offers $400, enough money to keep his promise to Blousey. Blousey is disappointed when she learns that Bugsy hasn't bought the tickets to California yet ("Ordinary Fool"). Bugsy and Leroy follow Dandy Dan's men to a warehouse, where the guns are being stashed. The two of them can't take the place alone, so Bugsy recruits a large group of down-and-out workers at a soup kitchen ("Down and Out").
They steal the crates of guns and take them to Fat Sam's, arriving just as Dandy Dan's gang arrives. Chaos ensues as a massive splurge gun fight erupts, covering everyone (except Bugsy and Blousey) with cream. Unarmed patrons throw cream pies. The piano player is hit from behind and falls onto the keys, striking a single bass note. The tone silences the room, and the cream-covered crowd performs in a final number ("You Give a Little Love"). They realize they can all be friends, and Bugsy and Blousey leave for Hollywood.
Production.
"Bugsy Malone" was Alan Parker's first feature film. Parker was trying to find a film project that was not "parochial" and decided upon an American gangster setting: "I had four young children and we used to go to a cottage in Derbyshire at weekends. On the long, boring car journey up there, I started telling them the story of a gangster called Bugsy Malone. They’d ask me questions and I’d make up answers, based on my memories of watching old movie reruns as a kid." His eldest son suggested children should be cast as the "heroes".
Casting.
The director chose to cast several unknown actors in the film. To find his Fat Sam, Parker visited a Brooklyn classroom, asking for "the naughtiest boy in class". The students were unanimous in selecting John Cassisi, and Parker gave him the role. Florrie Dugger (Blousey) originally was cast in a smaller role; when the actress cast as Blousey suddenly grew taller than Baio, Dugger was promoted. She had been "discovered" at RAF Chicksands, an air force base in Bedfordshire where her American father was stationed. At the time of filming, all of the cast were under 17 years old.
Parker cast Baio after he slammed down the script and stormed out of his audition. Baio later remembered:
Music.
Parker chose Paul Williams to score the film in order to get a more "palatable" modern sound, and simply because he liked him. Williams had scored Brian De Palma's commercial failure "Phantom of the Paradise", but had also written huge pop-radio hits (such as "We've Only Just Begun" (lyrics), and "(Just An) Old Fashioned Love Song"). In fact, Williams would soon win an Oscar for his song "Evergreen" from the film "A Star Is Born" (1976).
Williams felt that "... the challenge for me was to provide songs that reflected the period ... and yet maintained an energy that would hold the young audiences attention." According to Parker, Williams was writing while on tour, recording songs in different cities, and sending the completed tapes to Hollywood. Arriving during the first pre-shoot rehearsals, the songs had to be accepted and used as they were, with voices by Williams, Archie Hahn, and others.
Neither the director nor the songwriter were comfortable with the results. Williams later wrote "I'm really proud of the work and the only thing I've ever doubted is the choice of using adult voices. Perhaps, I should have given the kids a chance to sing the songs." Parker also commented: "Watching the film after all these years, this is one aspect that I find the most bizarre. Adult voices coming out of these kids' mouths? I had told Paul that I didn't want squeaky kids' voices and he interpreted this in his own way. Anyway, as the tapes arrived, scarcely weeks away from filming, we had no choice but to go along with it!"
Filming.
The film was rehearsed and shot in England, largely on Pinewood Studios' "H" stage, with locations in Black Park Country Park (Wexham, Buckinghamshire) and primarily the former Huntley & Palmers buildings in Reading, Berkshire.
The "splurge firearm" proved to be problematic. After initial experiments with cream-filled wax balls proved painful, Parker decided to abandon the idea of filming the firearms directly. Instead, the firearms fired ping-pong balls, and a fast cut to a victim being pelted with "splurge" was used to convey the impression of the rapid-firing firearms.
Baio later said making the film was "awesome":
Reception.
On Rotten Tomatoes, "Bugsy Malone" holds a score of 83% based on 23 reviews, with an average rating of 6.54/10. Metacritic gave the film a score of 71 based on seven reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and called it "a charming one" with "yet another special performance by Jodie Foster". Gene Siskel also gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and said that "what makes "Bugsy Malone" really worth watching—as opposed to being just a cute idea—are the fine performers, terrific choreography, catchy songs, and bright photography." "Variety" wrote that the film had "charm, neat acting by an all-youngster cast, a tongue-in-cheek script and dialog, lilting songs, and score", but that audiences may find it "a bit fragile over its hour-and-a-half duration, and its content and approach just that bit too clever." Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" wrote "The world that Alan Parker has created in 'Bugsy Malone' is very peculiar, but he is remarkably successful considering the terrible odds against such a stunt in the first place." Charles Champlin of the "Los Angeles Times" called it "a rare, original, tuneful, lighthearted, charming, and preposterously innocent family film". Gary Arnold of "The Washington Post" panned the film as "a freakish embarrassment" and an "icky misconception", though he singled out Jodie Foster for praise as an actress whose "precociousness is truly extraordinary". Pauline Kael of "The New Yorker" called the film "nothing but its godawful idea", writing "We're not watching actors in a story, we're watching kids doing a stunt, and so we're primed to ooh and aah, the way the audience does for a chimp on the Carson show."
"Bugsy Malone" was not a commercial success in the U.S., bringing in just over $2.7 million. Paramount gave it a limited release, usually in second-tier theaters in a double-bill with "The Bad News Bears", which had been out for six months and was no longer much of a draw. According to Parker, the film was "quite successful" in the United Kingdom. By 1985, it had earned an estimated profit of £1,854,000.
Accolades.
The film garnered 15 award nominations, including "Best Motion Picture (Musical/Comedy)", "Best Original Score" and "Best Original Song" (for the title track) from the Golden Globes, and an Oscar for "Best Original Song Score" (Paul Williams). The film was in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival. Jodie Foster received two BAFTAs, "Best Supporting Actress" and "Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles", however, both her nominations were for her previous year's work in "Taxi Driver", in addition to her work on "Bugsy Malone". Alan Parker received the BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay, and a nomination for Best Direction. Geoffrey Kirkland won the BAFTA Award for Best Production Design. Additionally, Paul Williams received a nomination for the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music, and Monica Howe a Best Costume Design nomination. The film received a Best Picture nomination.
Home media.
In the early 1980s, "Bugsy Malone" was released on VHS. On 16 April 1996, it was re-released by Paramount on VHS. A region 2 DVD has been available since 2003 and although the film has never been released on Region 1 DVD, it has been available through Internet sites as an Asian import supporting Region 1 (US). On 9 September 2008, Arista/SME released a Blu-ray version, encoded for "all regions", as a United Kingdom import. This edition includes a director's commentary as well as other special features.
Soundtrack.
The album was originally released as an LP in 1976. In March 1996, Polydor UK released the soundtrack on CD.
Performers include Paul Williams, Archie Hahn, Julie McWhirter, and Liberty Williams. The track listing is:
A cast recording of the National Youth Music Theatre stage version of "Bugsy Malone" was released in 1998. Like the stage show, this recording featured two songs originally written by Williams, but not used in the film: "That's Why They Call Him Dandy" and "Show Business". There is also some additional incidental orchestral score, such as an "Overture" and "Exit Music", with music arranged by John Pearson.
Legacy.
In 2003, "Bugsy Malone" was voted #19 on a list of the 100 greatest musicals, as chosen by viewers of Channel 4 in the UK, placing it higher than "The Phantom of the Opera", "Cats", and "The King and I". In 2005, "Bugsy Malone" was voted 39th on a list of the 100 greatest family films (also compiled by Channel 4) ahead of "Beetlejuice" and "The Princess Bride" and behind "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" and "It's a Wonderful Life". "Bugsy Malone" ranks 353rd on "Empire Magazine"'s 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.
"Bugsy Malone" has been adapted into a stage show in two forms. A 2003 television documentary called "Bugsy Malone: After They Were Famous" features a reunion and interviews with Jodie Foster, Scott Baio, John Cassisi, and Florrie Dugger. The British actors who played Fat Sam's gang are also reunited at Pinewood Studios. The documentary reported that Dugger, who (unlike her co-stars) had never acted again, had chosen to pursue a career in the United States Air Force Medical Service.
In 2010, UK band Silvery included a cover of "You Give a Little Love" on their second album "Railway Architecture", and Olly Murs, runner-up in the 2009 UK series of "The X Factor", sampled "So You Wanna Be a Boxer" in his song "Hold On" that can be found on his debut album.
In 2011, the film was the most screened film in secondary schools in the United Kingdom.
In 2017, the song "You Give A Little Love" was sung by a children's chorus at the end of a Netflix "Black Mirror" episode (Season 4 episode 3 "Crocodile").
Some time in the 2000s, Coca-Cola Ltd. (Canada) made an animated ad using 'You Give A Little Love' that was only screened in movie theaters before any trailers.
The song "Ordinary Fool" has been covered by numerous artists including Ella Fitzgerald and The Carpenters.
Stage adaptation.
Parker wrote the book for a stage adaptation of "Bugsy Malone", using Williams' music. This premiered in the West End in 1983 at Her Majesty's Theatre and ran for 300 performances. It was directed by Michael Dolenz and the cast featured Catherine Zeta-Jones as Tallulah. In 1997, the National Youth Music Theatre mounted an all-youth version. It was revived at the Queen's Theatre in 1997, starring Sheridan Smith and Jamie Bell. Another revival played in 2015 and again in 2016 at the Lyric Hammersmith theatre, where it was nominated for the Olivier Award for best musical revival.
Comic book adaptation.
Graham Thompson adapted the film into a 1976 comic book, which was only released in the United Kingdom.


Subconscious Password

Subconscious Password is a 2013 3-D animated film by Chris Landreth offering an imaginary, comedic look at the inner workings of Landreth's mind, as he tries to remember someone's name at a party.
The film was produced the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) with the participation of Copperheart Entertainment and the Seneca College Animation Arts Centre. The film is made with computer animation, as well as pixilation sequences at the beginning and end of the film, featuring animation director John R. Dilworth as the friend whose name Landreth cannot recall. "Subconscious Password" is Landreth's first 3-D film and third with the NFB, Copperheart Entertainment and Seneca College. The idea for the film came to Landreth after watching a rerun of "Password" in 2010.
Synopsis.
The film presents the mental process of remembering a friend's name as it were an episode of the old "Password" game show, with various celebrities attempting to assist Landreth.
Production.
More than fifteen Seneca College graduating students worked on "Subconscious Password", supported by five faculty members, as part of the Seneca Summer Animation Institute. After graduation, a number of these students were hired to work on the project until it was completed in February 2013. Most of the film was produced at Seneca's Animation Arts Centre in Toronto, with three Seneca students also working on the film at the NFB's Animation Studio in Montreal. "Subconscious Password" was the first stereoscopic 3D film for Seneca College.
The images of celebrities used in the film were developed from a variety of sources, with Sammy Davis, Jr. appearing via live-action footage available in the public domain and James Joyce derived from photos projected onto a pseudo-3D character. The computer animation was created with Autodesk Maya, with opening title sequences animated with SANDDE (Stereoscopic Animation Drawing Device), a digital animation technology created by IMAX that allows artists to create hand-drawn animation in 3D space, and which has been licensed to the NFB to develop creative applications.
Landreth has stated that the film begins "relatively flat", using more stereoscopic depth to immerse audiences as the film progresses.
Release.
"Subconscious Password" was named best short film at the 2013 Annecy International Animated Film Festival. The film had its Canadian premiere at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. In December 2013, the film was named to the Toronto International Film Festival's annual top ten list, in the short film category. On March 9, 2014, Subconscious Password was named best animated short at the Canadian Screen Awards.


Dance in the City

Dance in the City is a painting by French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The 1883 work is in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay. The dancers are model and artist Suzanne Valadon and Renoir's friend Paul Auguste Lhôte.
This work, along with companion pieces "Dance in the Country" and "Dance at Bougival", was produced to order for the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel. All three were painted in 1883 featuring two people dancing in different environments (although the woman in "Dance in the Country" was modelled by Aline Charigot, later Renoir's wife).


The Outer Harbor of Brest

The Outer Harbor of Brest is an 18th-century painting by Flemish artist Henri Joseph van Blarenberghe, a member of the influential Blarenberghe family of painters. Done in oil on canvas, the work depicts naval activity in the French port of Brest. The work is one of 6 paintings van Blarenberghe produced at the behest of the French government.
History.
In the 1750s, the French government commissioned Flemish painter Henri Joseph van Blarenberghe to produce a number of paintings concerning various ports in France. However, the project ended before the artist was able to produce a work concerning the port of Brest in Brittany. A decade later, van Blarenberghe and his son (Nicolas van Blarenberghe) were tasked by the French secretary of state for the navy to produce a set of works depicting Brest, which had recently been rebuilt; the secretary hoped that van Blarenberghe's works would show the French king the successful rebuilding of the French naval station in the port city. In total, six studies were produced by the van Blarneberghe's, one of which is "Outer Harbor".


Debbie Lee Carrington

Deborah Lee Carrington (December 14, 1959 March 23, 2018) was an American actress and stuntwoman. Her best known movie roles include playing a Martian rebel in "Total Recall", an Ewok in "Return of the Jedi" (and in subsequent TV movies) and an elf in "The Polar Express".
Carrington's film career began in college when she replied to an ad for extras in a newsletter published by Little People of America for "Under the Rainbow", a film about the Munchkins from "The Wizard of Oz".
Early life and career.
Carrington was born in San Jose, California. She had a brother, Robert, and sister, Kathy. In 1981 she answered a casting call for "Under The Rainbow" while attending college at University of California, Davis. She took a break from her studies after landing a role in the film, but later returned and earned a degree in early childhood development.
Carrington appeared in many films and TV shows, including "In Living Color", "The Drew Carey Show", "Howard the Duck", "Tracey Takes On...", "Men in Black", "Seinfeld", "Baywatch", "Married... with Children", "Boston Legal", "The Garbage Pail Kids Movie", "Dexter", and "Bones". In 2008, she filmed scenes for the action thriller "Bitch Slap". She also performed as a stunt double – often for child actors and dolls that had come to life – in films like Titanic (1997 film) and the "Child's Play" slasher film series.
Carrington was born with dwarfism and said she had experienced prejudicial attitudes as a dwarf in Hollywood. She supported other dwarf actors, insisting that they received credit for their work, since many costume-specific parts often went uncredited.
By the 1990s, Carrington began to push back against being typecast in costume-only roles. On television, she played character roles like Tiny Avenger on "In Living Color", Tammy in "Seinfeld", and Doreen in "The Drew Carey Show".
Death.
Carrington died on March 23, 2018, at age 58 on her parents' ranch in Pleasanton, California following a period of health complications.


John Pelling (artist)

John Pelling (born 1930) is a British artist and clergyman, and an Associate of the Royal College of Art, known for works on large canvases, abstract works, and paintings of religious imagery.
Personal life.
Pelling was born in Hove, East Sussex, in 1930, and educated at Brighton Grammar School. He went on to study at the Royal College of Art in London from 1951 to 1955, studying under John Minton and Francis Bacon amongst others.
He is married to the 1950s model Zoe Newton (now Zoe Pelling), who is also an artist, and was the most photographed and highly paid model in Britain of her time, appearing on the front of popular magazines such as "Picturegoer". She appeared on television and in the Dairy Council advertisements as the "drinka pinta milka day" girl. She was previously married to billionaire businessman David Barclay.
Pelling is one of the judges of the annual International Firework Competition in Monte Carlo.
He has worked from studios in Kensington (west London) and Monte Carlo. He currently has a studio in Chelsea.
Church career.
Ordained in 1959 in the Diocese of Chichester, Pelling served in churches in Kensington and Hammersmith, before moving in 1979 to the south of France. His final ecclesiastical appointment before retirement was as Chaplain to the Anglican Church in Nice, France, and he established a family home in Monte Carlo. Pelling has stated that his art is part of his ministry, and that he was encouraged by his ordaining Bishop to pursue his art as part of his religious vocation. Nonetheless, in 1982 he retired from active ministry to devote himself to full-time work as an artist. The Sunday Mirror newspaper reported that Pelling could raise the same money by selling one painting, as working for three months as a clergyman. He was received into the Catholic Church and the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in 2011.
Artistic career.
Pelling has become known for large scale works on massive canvases, many of his paintings being between 10 and 15 feet in length. His abstract style has left him open to broad interpretation, although religious imagery is always a strong element. For example, "Maternal Movement", which is displayed at the Chelsea Arts Club appears to show an embryo and an umbilical cord, and the angular designs below the central subject appear to represent the female reproductive organs (female genitalia feature in many of Pelling's works), but the non-abstract intrusion of a monstrance containing the sacramental host clearly points to the subject being the unborn Jesus Christ in his mother's womb.
In addition to these abstract styles, Pelling also paints vividly colourful religious arts, such as his 2002 series of fourteen stations of the cross for St Thomas the Apostle Church, Hanwell, whose colourful composition is typical. Pelling has stated that his use of strong primary colours is a reflection of his experience of "the contrasts of parish work [in the Church of England] and its intensity". On occasion Pelling has used just shades of a single colour, not only in abstract work, but also in character painting, such as the shades of blue/green in his work "The Annunciation" commissioned by, and displayed in, St Gabriel's Church, North Acton, in London.
Pelling has also undertaken portrait work. His portrait of Graham Greene was the final one commissioned and painted before Greene's death.
Today works by Pelling are included in the royal collections of Monaco and Kuwait; extensive collections of his work may be found in the National Gallery of Modern Art of Poland, at Gdańsk.
Artistic protest.
Art has been Pelling's primary means of protesting his strongly-held opposition to the ordination of women. It has been observed that this position is in stark contrast to Pelling's love of women generally, and of painting nude female forms in particular. In 1998 Pelling staged an exhibition at the Air Gallery, Dover Street, London, of paintings depicting his opposition to women priests and bishops. Images included naked women draped over church altars, large women with their breasts exposed fighting on the ground for a mitre, a coffin bearing the words 'Church of England', and diminutive male priests on their knees in solemn prayer. The exhibition attracted widespread journalistic attention and was reported in British newspapers ranging from the Daily Mirror, through The Independent, to The Daily Telegraph.


List of Littlest Pet Shop episodes

"Littlest Pet Shop" is a 2012 Canadian–American animated television series developed by Tim Cahill and Julie McNally-Cahill. The series is based on Hasbro's "Littlest Pet Shop" toy line, and features Blythe Baxter (voiced by Ashleigh Ball, with the character based on the doll of the same name) as the main protagonist, as well as other characters who reside in Downtown City, a city modeled after New York City. Along with Blythe is her father, Roger Baxter (voiced by Michael Kopsa), and her employer Mrs. Anna Twombly (voiced by Kathleen Barr) at the nearby pet store, Littlest Pet Shop. Away from home, she maintains several friends at her local high school. As well as the human cast are her seven animal companions, who reside within Littlest Pet Shop during the day, that Blythe unexpectedly gains the ability to communicate with.
The series is produced by Hasbro Studios in the United States and animated by DHX Media's animation studio in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The series is directed by Dallas Parker and Joel Dickie. The series was commissioned by Hasbro Studios in 2011. During production, "Blythe Loves the Littlest Pet Shop" was used as the working title of the series. The series premiere on Saturday, November 10, 2012 in the United States on Hub Network was reported to have been the highest watched of all original series premieres on the Hub Network.
On March 31, 2015, it was announced that the series had been renewed for a 26-episode fourth season, but on October 6, 2015, it was confirmed by story editor Roger Eschbacher that the fourth season was going to be the final season. The fourth season aired from November 7, 2015 to June 4, 2016.
Series overview.
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Episodes.
Season 2 (2013–14).
Animated shorts.
The day before the start of Season 3, a set consisting of 10 animated shorts started being released online by the Hasbro Studios Shorts YouTube channel. They were written by Julie McNally Cahill & Tim Cahill.
Season 3 (2014–15).
After "The Secret Recipe", which aired on August 23, 2014, Season 3 went into hiatus until December 13, 2014. During that period, the Hub Network has been rebranded as Discovery Family.
Season 4 (2015–16).
On March 31, 2015, Discovery Family announced via press release that the show was renewed for a fourth season. Story editor Roger Eschbacher said that the fourth season will have 26 episodes. On June 4, 2015, Hasbro announced that "" executive producer Meghan McCarthy will be a story consultant for "Littlest Pet Shop". On October 6, 2015, Eschbacher confirmed that the fourth season will be the final season of "Littlest Pet Shop". The season premiered with back-to-back episodes beginning on November 7, 2015.


Wish Upon

Wish Upon is a 2017 American supernatural horror film, directed by John R. Leonetti, written by Barbara Marshall, and starring Joey King, Ki Hong Lee, Sydney Park, Shannon Purser, Sherilyn Fenn, Elisabeth Rohm, and Ryan Phillippe. The film follows a teenage girl who is given a magic musicbox that grants seven wishes, but kills someone close to her each time it does.
The film was theatrically released on July 14, 2017, by Broad Green Pictures and Orion Pictures. It received negative reviews from critics and has grossed $23.5 million worldwide.
Plot.
Claire Shannon, a seventeen-year-old high school student who is not part of the popular crowd, is haunted by the memory of her mother's suicide by hanging, which she witnessed as a young child. Her father, Jonathan, a former musician and compulsive hoarder who dumpster dives as a hobby, finds a Chinese music box and gives it to her as an early birthday gift. Claire deciphers one of the numerous inscriptions on the box as "Seven Wishes," and absentmindedly wishes for Darcie, her tormentor and school bully, to "rot," at which point Darcie develops necrotizing fasciitis and is admitted into the ICU. That same day, Claire's dog Max dies in her house's crawlspace after seemingly being eaten alive by rats. Claire realizes that the box grants wishes, but does not understand that her wishes come with consequences.
Claire makes a second wish that a popular boy named Paul falls in love with her. As a result, her wealthy uncle dies. Upon hearing the news of his death, Claire then wishes she will be in the will. The relative leaves everything to Claire. Consequently Mrs. Deluca, a friendly neighbor, suffers a fatal accident. Claire enlists the help of her classmate Ryan Hui to decipher the symbols. Ryan's cousin Gina helps Claire decipher the meaning of the symbols saying that each of the seven wishes upon wished, comes with consequences and that the rules have to be followed. Claire's fourth wish is for her father to stop being a dumpster diver and he immediately has a personality shift. Soon after, Gina deciphers the meaning of the phrase which says "When the music ends, the blood price is paid." After she warns Ryan, she dies. Ryan finds Gina's body and confronts Claire about making wishes on the music box, which she denies.
Claire makes a fifth wish that she is popular, but Claire is soon unhappy with the consequent attention and that she loses her relationship with her friends. As a consequence of the wish, Meredith gets stuck in an elevator and, when the cable snaps, falls to her death.
Ryan reveals that after the seventh wish is granted, the music box will claim the soul of the owner. Attempts to destroy the box are unsuccessful. Furthermore, because June, a friend, has stolen the box, Claire loses her popularity and everything else she wished for. Claire recovers the box, but June is injured after falling down a staircase. Nevertheless, Claire's sixth wish is that her mother never committed suicide. Claire's mom knocks on her bedroom door along with two younger sisters. Claire later rummages through her mom's paintings and sees a picture of the music box. She concludes that her mom was one of the previous owners of the music box and that it must have led to her original suicide.
When Claire realizes her dad pays the price for the sixth wish, Claire's seventh wish is to go back to the day her father found the box, erasing all that has happened. This allows her to find the box before her dad does, she then asks Ryan to bury the box. Claire believes all is well, but she is killed when Darcie accidentally hits her with her car, in order to pay the final blood price. The music box can be heard after Claire's death, indicating that the seventh wish to reverse time would be balanced by her own death and that the music box had indeed claimed her soul in the end.
In a mid-credits scene, Ryan prepares to bury the music box, but becomes intrigued by the inscription about the seven wishes and decides against burying the box, hence starting the vicious death cycle that Claire went through again.
Themes.
Director John R. Leonetti summarized "Wish Upon" as different from similar "The Monkey's Paw"-esque stories for the depth of the character Clare, particularly her tough childhood and the inability to stop using the music box even as she realizes what it really does.
Production.
The film is loosely based on W. W. Jacobs' short story "The Monkey's Paw". The film's screenplay was voted to the 2015 Black List. Catherine Hardwicke was originally planned to direct the film, but she later was removed from the project. Afterward, producer Sherryl Clark sent a draft of the script to John R. Leonetti; he explained that while he did enjoy the script, "I didn't completely jump on at first because I had other things going on." However, another draft sent by Clark four months later caught his eyeballs, and he took on directing duties from there. While most of the contents of the original drafts were seen in the final cut, there were alterations. A sequence where Carl almost gets hit by a truck, which referenced Billy Hitchcock's death in "Final Destination" (2000), was removed as the filmmakers ultimately didn't want to make a "Final Destination"-esque product. During filming, the scene of Jonathan in his car with a flat tire was pulled "right out of our ass" to serve as a diversion to Meredith's elevator death.
On July 27, 2016, it was announced that "Wish Upon" would be directed by John R. Leonetti. The film is produced by Sherryl Clark from her production company, Busted Shark Productions, and written by Barbara Marshall. On August 2016, Joey King was cast in the film's lead role, and on November 9, 2016, Ki Hong Lee was announced to have also joined. King was Leonetti's first choice for Clare Shannon, as the two previously worked together on "The Conjuring" (2013); and the director wanted to feature Shannon Purser in the film after seeing her in "Stranger Things". The film began production in November 2016 in Toronto. Shot on an Arri Alexa at 3.4K resolution, "Wish Upon" was directed by Leonetti to look natural, departing from the stylized visual aesthetics of other horror films.
Release.
Theatrical.
The film's teaser trailer was released on February 9, 2017. The first trailer debuted on March 22, 2017, and the second trailer was released on May 22, 2017. "Wish Upon" was released in theaters on July 14, 2017 in the U.S., and July 22, 2017 in the U.K.
Home video.
"Wish Upon" was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States on October 7, 2017. The Blu-ray also includes the director’s Unrated Cut of the movie which is one minute longer and favoured by the director.
Marketing.
Broad Green Pictures granted seven fan wishes submitted via the film's official website.
Reception.
Box office.
"Wish Upon" grossed $14.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $9.2 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $23.5 million, against a production budget of $12 million.
In North America, "Wish Upon" was released alongside the opening of "War for the Planet of the Apes", as well as the wide expansion of "The Big Sick", and was projected to gross $8–10 million from 2,100 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $376,000 from Thursday night previews at 1,659 theaters and $2.3 million on its first day. It went on to debut to $5.5 million for its opening weekend, finishing seventh at the box office.
Critical response.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 19%, based on reviews from 94 critics, with an average rating of 4.01/10. The site's critical consensus reads, ""Wish Upon" is neither scary nor original, but its fundamental flaws as a horror movie may make it destination viewing for after-midnight camp genre enthusiasts." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 32 out of 100, based on reviews from 24 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale.
Andrew Barker of Variety wrote: "By any normal standards, teen horror flick Wish Upon is a pretty bad movie. But its badness is of such a distinct and kooky character that it can’t help but exert an inadvertent charm."


Die Watching

Die Watching is a 1993 American direct-to-video erotic thriller film starring former teen idol Christopher Atkins as a psychotic pornographic film director named Michael Terrence, who moonlights as a voyeuristic murderer. The story borrows heavily from Michael Powell's 1960 British film "Peeping Tom". It was originally released on VHS in the United States on August 25, 1993 and on DVD by Image Entertainment in 1999.
Plot.
Scarred by repressed memories of his late mother, Michael overcomes his inner pain through the merciless slaughter of various women. His killing spree is characterized by a very peculiar modus operandi: he films each murder with his video camera and forces each victim to watch the film as they die. However, his dark side is penetrated via the romantic attentions of pretty neighbor Nola Carlisle (Vali Ashton), who seems intent on learning all she can about her handsome new friend.


Ascent of the Blessed

Ascent of the Blessed is a Hieronymus Bosch painting made between 1505 and 1515.
It is in the Gallerie dell'Accademia, in Venice, Italy. This painting is part of a polyptych of four panels entitled "Visions of the Hereafter". The others are "Terrestrial Paradise", "Fall of the Damned into Hell" and "Hell".
Formal analysis.
The most intriguing element of this painting is the large tunnel at the top of the panel. It appears from the perspective of looking through a straw and into the heavenly beyond. As Stephen Hitchens writes, it could also be described as a “funnel of goodness and light [as] a source of variety and surprise capturing the visionary and ecstatic union with God.” The three dimensional tunnel gives the viewer a peek of the “white light” from Heaven with three figures waiting at the end for the blessed. The near side of the tunnel has one angel carrying a human soul towards the pearly gates. The viewer can differentiate the two figures because one has a white robe with wings and the other is naked, thus a soul and an angel. Both have their hands in prayer formation.
Right beneath the tunnel, there is an array of angels helping blessed human souls towards salvation. In the lower parts of the panel there are two angels per one soul, suggesting that some humans need more help than others. As it gets closer to the top of the panel, there is a one to one ratio of angel and soul. This might symbolize that the human souls that are pulled from Earth's gravity and towards the tunnel become lighter in weight. The angels have their hands either on the human body carrying it upwards or near the body simply guiding it where to go. All the figures in the painting are looking upwards towards the tunnel.
All the characters have similar facial features because the physical aspect of the humans and angels are more idealized and not individualized. The figures are not meant to look like specific individual people. The style of the hair is also quite idealized; the angels have long wavy hair and the souls have short hair. None of the human souls have organs to help differentiate whether they are male or female. This could be a form of symbolism which shows that there are no genders in Heaven. This could be implying that all human souls are no longer differentiated by sexual organs and everyone is the same. The angels have a multitude of different colored robes and wings, such as subtle reds, blues, and greens.
The painting as a whole is very dimly lit which contrasts with the white brightness at the end of the tunnel. The light at the end of the tunnel is not the light that lights up the bottom of the painting, which is most likely the earthly realm. The extreme darkness directly around the tunnel indicates that the heavenly light has nothing to do with the light coming from below. The areas outside the tunnel are dark and gray. The light actually becomes darker as it moves upwards then when it reaches the tunnel there is a sudden eruption of light. Coincidentally, this painting of the funnel has been known to look very similar to people who have had near-death experiences. During the fifteenth-century, the entrance to paradise was depicted as a funnel which appeared in many miniatures. The shape of the radiant funnel actually has some resemblance to contemporary zodiac diagrams but Bosch transforms it into a shining corridor through which the blessed approach God.
Historical context.
Bosch's paintings reflect the religious themes that dominated art and society in the Netherlands during the sixteenth century, especially the Catholic religion. Almost everyone's duty was to behave and act like a good Catholic so that they could ascend into heaven. The consequences of sin were made so awful to frighten the faithful obedience into people with the ultimate punishments of weakening in purgatory and being sent to Hell. According to Reuterswärd, the limited number of people being admitted into Heaven “illustrates the remarkable specification contained in a treatise entitled "Van der Vorsieningkeit Godes", which circulated in the Netherlands in Bosch’s time, that out of 30,000 souls only two were likely to reach Heaven.” Whether Bosch read this treatise will never be known for sure, however it is known that there was a high number of monks and nuns that lived in his home city. It was even called “a pious city” because of its high quantity of confraternities and religious houses.
Arrangement of polyptych.
Bosch scholars have other interpretations about the meaning behind these paintings, especially Ascent of the Blessed. The panels may come off straight forward and simple but there is a lot of dispute about the order of the panels and how they should be positioned in a museum. When hung in Venice in 2011, the order of the panels was "Fall of the Damned into Hell", "Hell", space, "Terrestrial Paradise", and "Ascent of the Blessed". The "Terrestrial Paradise" was placed on the left because it resembles other Eden panels by Bosch, especially with its landscape, fountain, and following biblical convention. There is also confusion on whether the "Terrestrial Paradise" is even “paradise” because it might also be Purgatory. Another possible arrangement is "Ascent", "Paradise", "Hell" and the "Fall" which takes inspiration from Matthew 25: 32–3 in the Bible. The idea is that traditionally; God directs the damned to Hell on his left side. The Bosch scholar, Ludwig von Baldass, does not mention any other possible arrangements and feels that “the wings are divided into two portions, one above the other, representing on the left the figures of the saved being escorted by angels into Paradise and on the right the fall of the damned into Hell. Some scholars believe that Visions of the Hereafter are the wings to a missing middle panel which would presumably be the Last Judgement.
Critics are not unanimous in attributing these panels to Bosch, however it would be difficult to ascribe their compositions to anyone else. There is also speculation about how these designs came to surface through Bosch, whether they are simply just from his mind or dreams. During the sixteenth-century many people would attempt to stimulate themselves into spiritual awakening to get as close to God as possible. Thus, these might have been some of the visions people saw when attempting to jump into the unconscious depth and mystery of the spiritual visions.


Portrait of a German Officer

Portrait of a German Officer is an early 20th century portrait by American modernist painter Marsden Hartley. Done in oil on canvas, the portrait depicts the abstract figure of an Imperial German officer as being composed entirely of military decorations and badges of rank. The painting is currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Description.
Background.
"Portrait of a German Officer" was painted by American painter Marsden Hartley in late 1914 while he was living in the German imperial capital of Berlin. While in Germany, Hartley was greatly affected by the pageantry and discipline of the German army, with this interest eventually manifesting itself in some of his works. "Portrait of a German Officer" was intended to honor Karl von Freyburg, a German lieutenant who had died during the first few months of the First World War. It has been posited that Hartley's correspondence with Freyburg indicates that the former was romantically interested in the German officer.
Painting.
Hartley's painting is highly sequential, symbolic, and heavily influenced by cubism and the school of German expressionism. The black, white, and red flag of the German Empire is placed in a prominent position in the bottom central portion of the image, while the Iron Cross (a decoration which Freyburg was awarded) is prominently featured in the top-center. The blue and white checkered flag of Freyburg's home state of Bavaria is also shown, as is an officer's white-striped epaulet. Hartly also included more personal details in the portrait; the number "24" represents Freyburg's age when he died, Freyburg's initials (K.v.F) are seen in gold-on-red, Freyburg's regimental number (4) can be seen in center of the portrait, and a spur (representing Freyburg's service as a cavalry officer) can be seen in the bottom right of the image. Hartfield also represented Germany's enemies during the war through his inclusion of the English Cross of St. George and the Belgian Tricolor, both seen at the bottom of the portrait.


Martin Klebba

Martin Klebba (born June 23, 1969) is an American character actor and stunt performer. Klebba has a form of dwarfism called acromicric dysplasia; he is tall. He is best known for his role as Marty in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise.
Personal life.
Klebba was born and grew up in Troy, Michigan, graduating from Athens High School.
, Martin was engaged to Michelle Dilgard, mentioning in an interview that in his free time, he likes to play video games with his son when he visits and spend time with his fiancée. Martin is the father of son Alec and daughter Makenzie.
Klebba runs a nonprofit foundation called Coalition for Dwarf Advocacy, which gives 100% of its donations to the cause of helping little people.
Career.
Early career.
Klebba was an occasional guest on The Howard Stern Show in the 1990s, and was given the nickname "Marty the Midget".
Film.
Klebba has acted in various productions, most notably the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, as Marty, one of Captain Jack Sparrow's Black Pearl crew, in films one through three, and five. In 2003, he played the ring announcer in the "Cradle 2 the Grave". In 2009, Klebba played the role of "Count Le Petite" in "All's Faire in Love", a romantic comedy set at a Renaissance fair. He has also been in low budget horror/comedy films ' & ' as "Thunder."
He has numerous stunt credits as well including "Hancock", "Zombieland", "Bedtime Stories", "Evan Almighty", "Meet the Spartans", "Epic Movie", and "Van Helsing". Wearing motion capture pajamas, "Marty" stood in for the Dimorphodon who grapples with Chris Pratt in "Jurassic World".
Television.
Klebba starred as "Friday", one of the seven dwarfs, in the 2001 made-for-TV film "". In 2003, Klebba starred as "Hank Dingo" in the Comedy Central made-for-TV movie "Knee High P.I.". He also made an appearance as a demon in the "Charmed", season 6 episode "Witch Wars" (2004). He has also appeared in "iCarly" and "Drake & Josh" as Nug Nug.
Klebba made many appearances as Randall Winston in the television series "Scrubs". He starred in the ' episode "The Chick Chop Flick Shop" (2007) as Dickie Jones, and in the ' episode "Uncertainty Rules" (2010) as Calvin Moore. Also in 2010, Klebba guest starred as Hibachi in "Pair of Kings," a Disney TV series. He played Todd Moore in the "Bones (TV series)" season 5 episode "Dwarf in the Dirt"' (2010).
Klebba has also been featured on the TLC reality show, "Little People, Big World", with his good friend Amy Roloff. He will be featured in one episode of VH-1's I'm Married to a... in which his average sized wife talks about being married to a little person.
In 2011, Klebba appeared on "The Cape" as a series regular named "Rollo". He also appeared once again in "Mirror Mirror" (2012), which starred Julia Roberts, Armie Hammer, and Lily Collins.


Moonlight, Wood Island Light

Moonlight, Wood Island Light is a late 19th-century oil painting by American artist Winslow Homer. The painting is currently in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Moonlight depicts a nighttime seascape outside of Homer's studio in Portland, Maine. The tiny spot of red pigment on the horizon denotes the lighthouse on Wood Island, to the south of Prouts Neck, Scarborough, Maine.
According to his biographer, William Howe Downes, Homer painted the work on an impulse in less than five hours by the light of the moon.


Rat (film)

Rat is a 2000 Irish-British-American comedy film directed by Steve Barron and starring Imelda Staunton and Pete Postlethwaite. The film focuses on the transformation of a working-class man into a rat and how his family copes with the startling change. The film's scenario is partly based on Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis".
Plot.
After his usual night of drinking at the local pub, Hubert Flynn (Pete Postlethwaite) returns home and transforms into a rat. Hubert's family each have different views on him now that he became a rodent. His wife Conchita (Imelda Staunton) thinks that this change is supposed to be a lesson to Hubert and that the reason he transformed is his own fault. Their son Pius (Andrew Lovern), destined for a religious life, feels that because his father is now an animal, his family should kill him. Their daughter Marietta (Kerry Condon) feels that the rat is still her father and that they should treat him with love and respect.
After hearing the news of a man changing into a rat on the local radio, ghostwriter Phelim Spratt (David Wilmot) convinces Conchita to write a book of the story. Because Phelim wants to write about Conchita's bravery and the family's loyalty to Hubert in the face of adversity, he suggests that they take Hubert out to the pub and bookie to see his friends and to show the public that they are proud of him.
Conchita sends for her brother, Matt (Frank Kelly), whom she describes as "a rock of sense". After telling the family all of the changes they will have to undergo, including Hubert's poor hygiene, unemployment, and unusual diet, Matt feels that Hubert would be more comfortable in a maggot factory with other rats. This decision is further solidified after Hubert bites Conchita on the finger.
After the family leaves him at the maggot factory, Hubert treks forty miles back to the house to be with his family on Christmas. With Hubert nearly dead from exhaustion, Conchita calls the doctor (Geoffrey Palmer) and sends Pius to get Father Geraldo (Niall Toibin) to perform the last rites and an exorcism. After the doctor tells Conchita to cool Hubert down because of his fever, they put him in the refrigerator. Father Geraldo then arrives and performs the exorcism and Hubert emerges from the refrigerator as a man.
Because Hubert turned back into a man, Phelim and Conchita are nervous that no one will believe their story. They decide to lock Hubert in his room and use a replacement rat for public appearances. However, Hubert's old flame and neighbour, Daisy (Veronica Duffy) becomes sceptical when she hears him yelling that he needs to use the bathroom and calls for the police to investigate. While Hubert is in the bathroom, he remembers that as a rat, he saw Phelim hide the manuscript of the book in a cupboard. He takes the manuscript and hides it in his shirt. When the family realise that Hubert should be away from prying eyes, Conchita goes to tell him that they are sending him to a mental hospital until the book comes out.
When the police arrive, Marietta finds a letter written by her father saying that he feels the same way that he did before he turned into a rat. A rat then runs out the door and the family chases it in the street. When they get the rat back, Phelim tries to put it in the oven and it bites him on the finger. Hubert then appears behind them as a man and explains that the rat Phelim is holding is Conchita. He says that when he bit her earlier, he felt something leave his body and enter hers. He then explains that instead of a book about the family's loyalty, Phelim has been writing about their thoughts of killing Hubert and plans to abandon him at the maggot factory. They throw Phelim out and tell him never to return.
Marietta is worried about her mother and Hubert says that she will turn back into a woman when she serves her time. The film ends with the family at the pub with Hubert and Conchita, now a woman again, singing karaoke. It also shows a rat in the pub that has an earring like the one that Phelim wears.


Clara von Wille

Clara von Wille, née Clara Maria Alexandra von Böttcher (1838, Düsseldorf - 15 March 1883, Düsseldorf) was a German animal painter; associated with the Düsseldorf School.
Life and work.
She was the youngest of four daughters born to the Royal Prussian Hussar, Major Carl Friedrich von Böttcher (1785–1857), and his wife Juliane Wilhelmine Charlotte von Buggenhagen (1797–1871). In 1859, she married the landscape and genre painter, August von Wille. Their son, Fritz, also became a well known landscape painter.
She was a private student of Karl Ferdinand Sohn and Ludwig Knaus. Later, she studied with the famous French animal painter, Rosa Bonheur.
Her first exhibited painting was "Resting Hunting Dogs", shown at the in 1857. Later, her works were regularly displayed at the and at . Several of her works were purchased for a lottery, conducted by the Zentral-Dombau-Verein zu Köln, to raise money for completing the construction of Cologne Cathedral. Many of her most popular paintings were reproduced in illustrated magazines and as wood engravings.


John Woodhouse Audubon

John Woodhouse Audubon (30 November 1812, Henderson, Kentucky – 21 February 1862, New York City) was the second son of the famed ornithologist and painter, John James Audubon. Like his father, he was primarily a painter of wildlife, but also did some portraits and genre scenes of the westward migration.
Biography.
He grew up in Kentucky, Ohio and Louisiana, where he attended a school taught by his mother, Lucy. At an early age, he joined his father in his scientific pursuits, becoming an active traveler and gatherer of specimens. In 1833, they traveled to Labrador, after which his father wrote that "John has drawn a few Birds, as good as any I ever made, and in a few months I hope to give this department of my duty up to him altogether".
The following year, the family was in London. Both John and his brother, Victor Gifford Audubon (1809-1860) studied painting and made copies of works. The year 1837 saw collecting expeditions in Florida and Texas; the latter conducted from a navy cutter that had been assigned to them by President Andrew Jackson. From 1839 to 1843, he was responsible for producing a second edition of "The Birds of America", overseeing the reduction of 500 plates.
Over the next few years, he created half the illustrations used for "The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America" and managed the printing process. A folio size edition of "The Birds of America" began production in 1860, but never came to full fruition because of the Civil War. After 1839, he lived in New York City, in a house next to his father's. Throughout the 1840s and 1850s, he exhibited animal paintings and portraits at the Apollo Association, the American Art Union and the National Academy of Design.
In 1849, he joined the California Company, financed by Ambrose Kingsland, among others, and led by Colonel Henry Livingston Webb (1795–1876), a veteran of the recent Mexican–American War. They got as far as the mouth of the Rio Grande (by ship), when they were hit by cholera and some of the company's money was stolen. At that point, Webb and a dozen others resigned and John took over command. He led them across northern Mexico and Arizona and they arrived in San Diego eight months later. His paints and canvases were abandoned in the desert and he had to use his sketches for gun wadding. He spent seven months in California, but most of his watercolors were lost in transit when he shipped them to New York. Thirty-four unfinished sketches have been preserved at the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles.
He had nine children; two by his first wife, Maria Rebecca Bachman (1816–1840), daughter of John Bachman, who had been a collaborator on "Quadrupeds", and seven by his second wife, Caroline Hall (1811–1899).


Simon McKeown

Simon Mckeown (born 1965) is a British artist, and lecturer at the University of Teesside. On 4 December 2010, he was named DaDaFest Artist of the Year for 2011. In 2012, he was part of the Paralympic Cultural Festival (or Unlimited Festival), as part of a focus on Disability Arts. His work was also shown at the 2013 Liberty Festival to help celebrate the anniversary of the London 2012 Paralympics.


Francesco Coghetti

Francesco Coghetti (12 July 1801 – 20 April 1875) was an Italian painter and art school administrator.
Biography.
He was born to a wealthy family which enabled him to be educated at prestigious private schools. After completing his primary studies, he enrolled at the Accademia Carrara, where he studied with Giuseppe Diotti. In 1818, he won the Accademia's drawing competition.
In 1820, he moved to Milan. The following year, he won an award for drawing and design from the Brera Academy. This encouraged him to move to Rome and, thanks to his father's financial support, he was able to study with Vincenzo Camuccini. He also enjoyed the patronage of Cardinal Angelo Mai, who was a fellow Bergamaschi. In 1825, he was married. The 1830s were a very successful time for him, during which he won several awards and received a continual flow of commissions from all over Europe.
In 1844, he was offered the position of Director at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City, but declined to accept. Fourteen years later, faced with declining commissions, he accepted a position as President of the Accademia di San Luca. In the late 1860s, he became involved in politics as well as art, when preparations were being made for the Papal States to be annexed to the Kingdom of Italy. The Accademia was considered to be part of the Pope's temporal domain and was transformed into the "Royal Academy".
It was a difficult process and, because he had already come under criticism for his performance in office, he was relieved of his teaching duties in 1873 and suspended as President. Two years later, he died of apoplexy.
Works.
Among his works are:
References.
Attribution: