title: Akhanda

text: The film marks the third collaboration between Balakrishna and Boyapati Srinu after "Simha" (2010) and Legend (2014). It was formally launched at a private event held at Hyderabad in December 2019. The film was tentatively titled as "BB3" and "NBK106". In April 2021, the film's official title was unveiled as "Akhanda".


title: Akhanda

text: Sayyeshaa was cast for the film for an undisclosed role in November 2020. Later, she left the project due to an unknown reason. It was also reported that Anjali will be part of the film. In March 2021, it was also reported that the action director duo Ram-Laxman has left the film after working for few action scenes. They were later replaced by Stun Shiva. Speaking to the media, in December 2021, Siva told that "I allocated 80 days for 'Akhanda'. Of them, up to 65 days went into mounting action sequences. The rest of the days went into discussing with the director how to elevate the scenes. Ever since the director narrated the story, I started thinking about how to make the fights novel". Initially Prayaga Martin was cast for the lead actress role. Few scenes were also shot featuring her, but was later replaced by Pragya Jaiswal. Pragya was cast in November 2020 after which she joined the production in December 2020. She was part of a 33-day first schedule shot at Hyderabad, Tamil Nadu and Goa. In an interview with "The Times of India", she said that "I had to join the film sets as soon as I was roped in, so my prep time was very little. It took me a while to transform myself into the character, and that happened on the sets of 'Akhanda'. I had taken a few references from the real-life lady cops and noted every detail related to their dressing, mannerisms, and small-big details". Stylist and costume designer Raamz has been roped for designing costumes in the film. Speaking to Neeshita Nyayapati about designing costumes for Balakrishna's dual characters, he told that "Given Balakrishna’s larger-than-life persona, I wanted to create looks that would remain memorable for years to come. Boyapati Srinu's (the film’s director) Akhanda Movie is a Devotional Action Movie which will impress the audience. We also designed his tattoos and the Shiva Lingam locket that he uses in fight scenes".


title: Akhanda

text: Principal photography of the film began in March 2020. After the filming was halted due to COVID-19 pandemic in India, final schedule of the film was resumed in July 2021 at Hyderabad. Few scenes of the film were shot at Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management, Hyderabad Campus. Filming of climax scenes of the film began in end-July 2021 at Tamil Nadu. Most of the action scenes were features Balakrishna and Srikanth. These action scenes were choreographed by Shiva. It was reported that the scenes were shot at Gingee Venkataramana Temple in Viluppuram district of Tamil Nadu. As part of the final schedule, the team next headed to Goa in September 2021 to shoot songs of the film. Filming was wrapped up in October 2021.


title: Akhanda

text: The film score and soundtrack album of the film is composed by Thaman S. The first single from the soundtrack, "Adigaa Adigaa" was released on 18 September 2021. The second single "Akhanda Title Song" was released on 8 November 2021. The last single of the album "Jai Balayya" was released on 27 November 2021, during the pre-release event of the film held at Hyderabad. The music rights were acquired by Lahari Music.


title: Akhanda

text: The film was initially planned to be released on 28 May 2021. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India, the film was delayed to 2 December 2021. The Tamil dubbed version of the film was released on 28 January 2022. The film was also dubbed in Hindi under the same title.


title: Akhanda

text: Digital distribution rights of the film were acquired by Disney+ Hotstar for ₹15 crore. Satellite rights of the film were purchased by Star Maa. The film was premiered on Hotstar on 21 January 2022 and became the most watched regional film on OTT platforms. The movie had its television premier on Star Maa on 10 April 2022.


title: Akhanda

text: A reviewer from "The Hans India" rated 3 out of 5 stars, and called it Balakrishna's "one man show," adding "Living up to the expectations, Akhanda also showers a mass treat on the fans. The film is impressive in the way it was made." However, the reviewer was critical of predictable plot and screenplay. "123telugu.com" rated the film 3.25 out of 5 stars and stated, ""Akhanda" is a feast for hardcore fans and Balayya gives them ample moments to cherish with his stunning act."


title: Akhanda

text: Writing for "The Times of India", Neeshita Nyayapati wrote, "While the basic premise of "Akhanda" is interesting, especially the way Boyapati sets it up by weaving a historical story with mass moments in a way only he can, he soon loses the plot (literally) and gets carried away with giving Akhanda and Murali mass moments that are sure to elicit whistles but don’t do anything for the story." In her review for "The Hindu", Sangeetha Devi Dundoo also echoes the same. "The film gets tiresome post intermission and the incessantly high voltage background score doesn’t help either," she added.


title: Akhanda

text: "The Indian Express" critic Manoj Kumar R said that the film was "an assault on the senses." Kumar was critical of Boyapati's usage of spirituality to provide a moral justification for the character to slaughter people with impunity while trying to appear as pro-progress and pro-rational. In an other negative review, Ram Venkat Srikar of "Cinema Express", wrote: ""Akhanda" is a quintessential Boyapati Sreenu outing where logic dies a brutal death even before the title appears and the audience die a slow death for the next 167 minutes."


title: Akhanda

text: "Akhanda" collected ₹23 crore in the Telugu states on its opening day. Whereas, it has collected a total of ₹29.60 crore worldwide on its opening day. The film collected ₹44 crore, by the second day of its release. At the United States box office, it collected of more than $500,000 within two days of its release. By the third day of the film's release, it had collected ₹56.90 crore worldwide. After four days, the film collected ₹74 crores.


title: Akhanda

text: By the end of first week, the film grossed ₹87.9 crore worldwide. The film crossed the 100 crore worldwide gross in 11 days. By the end of its run, the film grossed ₹120.8 crores earning a distributor share of ₹70 crores. In theatres, the film completed 50 days in 103 centres.


title: Hollow Man

text: Hollow Man is a 2000 science fiction horror film directed by Paul Verhoeven, written by Andrew W. Marlowe, and starring Elisabeth Shue, Kevin Bacon, Josh Brolin, Kim Dickens, Greg Grunberg, Joey Slotnick, Mary Randle, and William Devane. Inspired by H.G. Wells' 1897 novel "The Invisible Man" and its 1933 film adaptation, it tells the story of Sebastian Caine, a scientist who volunteers to be the first human test subject for a serum that renders the user invisible. When his fellow scientists are unable to restore him back to normal, he becomes violently insane and goes on a killing spree. The film received negative reviews but was a financial success, grossing $190 million worldwide. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 2001, losing to "Gladiator".


title: Hollow Man

text: A direct-to-video stand-alone sequel called "Hollow Man 2", starring Christian Slater and Peter Facinelli, was released in 2006.


title: Hollow Man

text: Arrogant scientist Sebastian Caine has developed a serum for the military that can make a subject invisible. His team includes ex-girlfriend Linda McKay, Matt Kensington, Sarah Kennedy, Janice Walton, Carter Abbey, and Frank Chase. The team succeeds in reversing the procedure, returning an invisible gorilla to visibility. Sebastian becomes infatuated with Linda again, but, unbeknownst to him, she has become involved with Matt.


title: Hollow Man

text: Instead of reporting his success to the military, Sebastian lies to an oversight committee, which includes his mentor Howard Kramer, telling them he is close but needs more time. He convinces part of the team to go into human testing without military authorization, keeping the rest in the dark. The procedure is successful, and Sebastian turns completely invisible. He enjoys sneaking around the lab in order to scare and play pranks on his fellow co-workers, one of which involves molesting Sarah. The team becomes concerned that Sebastian is taking it too far. The procedure to return him to visibility fails, and he is almost killed.


title: Hollow Man

text: Sebastian is quarantined in the laboratory due to his condition, and the other researchers construct a latex mask for him to wear around the lab. With the constant testing done to him and unable to cope with the isolation, he defies instructions and leaves the building. After he drives to his apartment to retrieve some items, he notices a female neighbor undressing and rapes her inside her apartment. Linda warns Sebastian that if he leaves again, she and Matt will tell the committee about the experiment. Ignoring their threat, Sebastian assembles a device that runs a video loop of his heat signature in his quarters. He leaves the lab again and spies on Linda and Matt, becoming enraged when he sees them about to have sex. Becoming increasingly unstable, Sebastian later kills a dog being used as a lab animal in a fit of rage.


title: Hollow Man

text: The team discovers they have been watching a recording, and Sebastian has been leaving the lab without their knowledge. Linda and Matt go to Kramer's house and confess their experiments. After they leave, Kramer attempts to alert the Army. Having followed Linda and Matt to the house, Sebastian cuts off Kramer's phone connection, then drowns him in his swimming pool. The next day, Sebastian waits until the whole team is inside the lab before he disables the phones and elevator codes except for his own. The rest of the team congregates and decides to hunt Sebastian down and subdue him. At the same time, he begins to murder the team members one by one, with Janice being his first victim after falling behind the others.


title: Hollow Man

text: Linda and the others hide in the lab, while Matt and Carter take tranquilizer guns to hunt for Sebastian using Thermography goggles. Sebastian mortally wounds Carter before getting into a fight with Matt. Linda saves Matt. Sebastian then kills Sarah and Frank, and locks an injured Matt and Linda in the freezer, leaving them to die. Linda constructs an electromagnet using a defibrillator to open the door, then gathers materials to assemble a flamethrower. Meanwhile, Sebastian builds a makeshift bomb that will destroy the facility after he leaves using explosive chemicals and a centrifuge; he destroys the keyboard so that nobody can stop the machine.


title: Hollow Man

text: Just as Sebastian enters the elevator, Linda fires the flamethrower at him. Sebastian escapes and the two fight. Before Sebastian can kill Linda, Matt strikes him with a crowbar. Sebastian recovers and approaches Matt and Linda from behind with the crowbar, but Matt deflects the blow, throwing Sebastian into a nearby circuit box, shocking him and rendering him partially visible. Linda and Matt find the bomb, but cannot stop it. They attempt to climb a ladder in the elevator shaft to escape as the bomb explodes. Despite his injuries, Sebastian grabs Linda's ankle. He pulls her off the ladder and onto the top of the elevator. Linda disconnects the elevator cables, causing the partially visible Sebastian to fall to his death down the shaft. Linda and Matt emerge from the burning lab and emergency personnel take them away in an ambulance.


title: Hollow Man

text: Following the multi-layered and controversial "Starship Troopers" (1997), Verhoeven wanted to tone down the levels of sex and violence in his next film, aiming to make a more "conventionally commercial blockbuster". Approximately $50 million of the film's $95 million budget was reserved for visual effects work, which was primarily worked on by Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI) and Tippett Studio. Of the 560 visual effects shots in the film, approximately two-thirds were worked on by SPI and the remaining third by Tippett Studio. Verhoeven also storyboarded most of the film, as he had done with all of his American films after experiencing trouble coordinating the action of "Flesh+Blood" (1985). He maintains that over 90% of the film is how he storyboarded it, as it was expensive (costing up to $300,000) if he decided to change a camera movement.


title: Hollow Man

text: The film was shot in chronological order, partially due to the fact that the laboratory set would be physically blown up near the end of the story, a sequence that was captured by 14 cameras at various angles. Principal photography began on April 16, 1999. Six weeks into filming, Elisabeth Shue tore her Achilles tendon, which shut down production on June 25 for over seven weeks. At one point, producers considered replacing her; however, shooting resumed on August 18, 1999, and ran until February 4, 2000.


title: Hollow Man

text: "Hollow Man" was one of very few films allowed to shoot directly in front of The Pentagon building, with Verhoeven expressing surprise that the script was approved, because of the themes of the United States Government commissioning scientific experiments into making living beings invisible. Many of the location scenes were shot in and around Washington, D.C., with a restaurant set also being constructed in a building overlooking the U.S. Capitol. The laboratory scenes were shot at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California; the elevator shaft used in the film's climax was built onto the side of the studio's parking garage.


title: Hollow Man

text: A thermal imaging camera was employed for scenes showing "invisible" animals (most notably Isabelle the gorilla) or Sebastian following his transformation and the unsuccessful attempt to restore him to visibility; the same technique was used for characters when they look through thermal goggles. As Isabelle was played in part by a man in a gorilla suit, crew members had to stand by and warm the suit with hair dryers in order for the thermal camera to accurately emulate an actual gorilla's warmth.


title: Hollow Man

text: Despite assumptions that Bacon would not be needed on set except when his character Sebastian is visible, Verhoeven and the crew realized after test footage was shot that he would need to be present to interact with the cast, as "the other actors were stranded in empty space, and the scenes looked stiff, inorganic and unconvincing" without him. Guy Pearce and Edward Norton were also considered for the role of Sebastian before Bacon was chosen, in part for his "ability to be both charming and diabolical". At the time of "Hollow Man"s release, Bacon recounted a "bad morning" on which, among other mishaps, he read a story in the press that suggested Robert Downey, Jr. had been offered the film's title role.


title: Hollow Man

text: To achieve the effects of Sebastian being invisible, Bacon was digitally removed from the footage and each scene was shot twice: once with the actors and once without, for the background to be able to be seen through Sebastian's body. The crew used a motion-control camera, to ensure the same movements were achieved and the shots were then composited in post-production. For scenes where Sebastian was outlined in smoke, water and blood, Bacon wore a latex body suit, face mask, contact lenses and a dental plate all of one color; green was used for blood, blue for smoke, and black for water. Visual effects supervisor Craig Hayes then replaced Bacon with a digital clone to form an outline of his performance. To make the clone appear more like Bacon, information about "every aspect" of his body was recorded and the entirety of his body, including his genitals, was scanned into a computer. This special-effect performance earned Hayes a nomination to an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, but he lost it to "Gladiator".


title: Hollow Man

text: Inspired after his daughter bought him books on the subject of écorchés at La Specola in Florence, Verhoeven enlisted special effects supervisor Scott Anderson to create a three-dimensional digital model of the inside of Bacon's body, to create the "transformation scene" where Sebastian becomes invisible. New volume-rendering software was required just to replicate the inside of Bacon's body. The scene depicts Sebastian disappearing in stages; first, his skin, followed by his muscles, organs (including his lungs and heart) and finally, his skeleton. Bacon detailed the complications of his role in a diary he kept while filming and believed the "sense of isolation, anger and suffering" that he felt while wearing the mask and body suit helped his performance.


title: Hollow Man

text: The scene of an invisible Sebastian raping a woman in a neighboring apartment was shot in two versions, with the second showing her screaming as she is raped. The first was used when preview audiences reacted with disdain, deeming it "painful" and feeling it alienated them from Sebastian too early. Although excising certain shots from the version he called "stronger[,] harsher and at the same time more relevant [for Sebastian Caine]", Verhoeven did not actually intend to show the rape, claiming "a woman being raped by an invisible man would look silly and that's the last thing we'd want to do. [...] It wouldn't express in any way the severity of the violence happening at that moment." Regardless, it was Verhoeven's first film he did not have to recut and resubmit to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) in order to achieve an R rating.


title: Hollow Man

text: Professor of film and literature at California Polytechnic State University Douglas Keesey wrote in his illustrated book on the life and films of Verhoeven that the camera often adopts Sebastian's point of view, "tempting us to become voyeurs along with him, to get off on our ability to see without being seen". Elisabeth Shue categorized the film as a "story of the dark, seductive nature of evil" and also pointed out its voyeuristic qualities. Verhoeven commented: ""Hollow Man" leads you by the hand and takes you with Sebastian into teasing behaviour, naughty behaviour and then really bad and ultimately evil behaviour. At what point do you abandon him? I'm thinking when he rapes the woman would probably be the moment that people decide, 'This is not exactly my type of hero', though I must say a lot of viewers follow him further than you would expect."


title: Hollow Man

text: The soundtrack for "Hollow Man" was composed by Jerry Goldsmith, his third collaboration with Verhoeven after "Total Recall" (1990) and "Basic Instinct" (1992). Varèse Sarabande released it on CD on July 25, 2000.


title: Hollow Man

text: Filmtracks.com found there to be two distinct motifs: the "transitional motif" of "bass thumping and [an] array of prickling electronic effects that slowly increase their pace and volume as the scenes [of invisibility] progress", heard in "Isabelle Comes Back" and "This Is Science"; and the "rambling piano and bass-element ostinato heard for the violent chasing" in both "The Elevator" and "The Big Climb". The site pointed out "the pulsating piano, woodwind, and electronic rhythm from ["Basic Instinct"] underneath a meandering, disembodied theme for high strings not much unlike ["The Haunting"]", and judged that the "action bursts, especially with the drum pad and synthesizer combos" were akin to Goldsmith's use of those elements in "Total Recall". Overall, the site felt the score was "over the top", calling it "pieced together from other Goldsmith scores" and derivative while citing the first and second tracks as highlights.


title: Hollow Man

text: Despite a negative response from critics, the film debuted at #1 with $26.4 million in its opening weekend. During this time, the film achieved the second-highest August opening weekend, behind "The Sixth Sense" (1999). It was the first film since "" to top the box office for multiple weeks. After fifteen weeks of release, "Hollow Man" had grossed in excess of $73.2 million in North America and just over $117 million elsewhere, making a total of $190.2 million worldwide, against its $95 million production budget. It was Verhoeven's biggest hit since "Basic Instinct" (1992).


title: Hollow Man

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 27% based on 118 reviews, with an average rating of 4.35/10. The site's critics consensus states: "Despite awesome special effects, "Hollow Man" falls short of other films directed by Paul Verhoeven. This flick over time degenerates into a typical horror film." At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 24 out of 100, based on from 35 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Hollow Man

text: While some critics criticized the plot and acting, with some claiming it contains hallmarks of slasher films and misogynistic undertones, most critics praised the visual effects employed in making Kevin Bacon appear to be invisible, which earned the film a nomination for Best Visual Effects at the 2001 Academy Awards.


title: Hollow Man

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film 2 stars out of 4, and complained that Verhoeven wasted potential by taking an invisible man and doing nothing more than having him go berserk. While ultimately feeling that the film is merely a slasher film with a science gimmick, Ebert praised the special effects, calling them "intriguing" and "astonishing", but felt the film lacked the "imagination and wit" of Verhoven's best films.


title: Hollow Man

text: The film received three nominations at the 2000 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards: Worst On-Screen Group (the scientists), Worst Screenplay for a Film That Grossed over $100 Million Using Hollywood Math, and Most Unintentionally Funny Movie, but lost to "Battlefield Earth" and "Gone in 60 Seconds", respectively. The film was also nominated for both Best Science Fiction Film and Best Music at the Saturn Awards and won Best Special Effects.


title: Hollow Man

text: A fake review attributed to David Manning was revealed in late 2001 as a hoax, created by Sony to fake publicity for the film.


title: Hollow Man

text: "Hollow Man" was released on DVD and VHS in North America by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment on January 2, 2001. It was released with its widescreen theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and included various special features, including two audio commentaries—one with Verhoeven, writer Andrew W. Marlowe and Kevin Bacon, and another with composer Jerry Goldsmith and the isolated score of the film; the HBO making-of featurette ""Hollow Man": Anatomy of a Thriller"; 15 mini-featurettes on the making of the film, several detailing storyboards of progress shots with commentary; three deleted scenes with commentary by Verhoeven; visual effects picture-in-picture comparisons of the raw footage with the final scene; cast and crew biographies; a teaser and a theatrical trailer. In the years that followed, both a deluxe Superbit edition was made, as well as a director's cut of the film, which restored nearly seven minutes of footage—primarily extended cuts of existing scenes including Linda and Matthew in bed, the rape scene, Sebastian killing the dog and the aftermath of Sarah being suspicious of Sebastian.


title: Hollow Man

text: The director's cut version of the film was released on Blu-ray October 16, 2007 with a 1080p resolution. Although lacking any commentaries, it restores most other special features. A two-disc double pack including the stand-alone sequel "Hollow Man 2" was released on DVD in 2006 while Mill Creek Entertainment released the Blu-ray version on March 26, 2013. Mill Creek also released the director's cut in their Dark Passengers 8 movie DVD collection on October 1, 2013, 24 Horror DVD collection on March 7, 2017, and The 6 Degrees Blu-ray collection on April 3, 2018. On July 8, 2019, both films were released on Blu-ray Collector's Edition by 88 Films, including the theatrical cut of the first film.


title: Off the Wall

text: Off the Wall is the fifth studio album by American singer Michael Jackson, released on August 10, 1979, by Epic Records. It was Jackson's first album released through Epic Records, the label he recorded under until his death in 2009, and the first produced by Quincy Jones, whom he met while working on the 1978 film "The Wiz". Several critics observed that "Off the Wall" was crafted from disco, pop, funk, R&B, soft rock and Broadway ballads. Its lyrical themes include escapism, liberation, loneliness, hedonism and romance. The album features songwriting contributions from Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Rod Temperton, Tom Bahler, and David Foster, alongside three tracks penned by Jackson himself.


title: Off the Wall

text: Between 1972 and 1975, Jackson released a total of four solo studio albums with Motown as part of The Jackson 5 franchise: "Got to Be There" (1972), "Ben" (1972), "Music & Me" (1973) and "Forever, Michael" (1975). Before recording his next album, which came to be "Off the Wall", Jackson desired to create a record not sounding like a Jacksons record, but rather showcasing creative freedom and individualism. "Off the Wall" peaked at number three on the "Billboard" Top LPs & Tapes chart and number one on the Top Black Albums chart, staying at number one on the latter for 16 weeks, and was an enormous critical success. Five singles were released from the album. Jackson wrote three songs, including the "Billboard" Hot 100 number-one single "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough", his first solo number-one single in the United States since "Ben" seven years prior. The second single, "Rock with You", also topped the chart. With following singles "Off the Wall" and "She's Out of My Life" also reaching the US top 10, Jackson became the first solo artist to have four singles from the same album reach the top 10 of the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Off the Wall

text: "Off the Wall" was a significant departure from Jackson's previous work for Motown and was hailed as a major breakthrough for him. In retrospect, writers have hailed it a landmark release of the and one of the greatest albums of all time. Critics often debate whether it or "Thriller" is Jackson's best album. "Off the Wall" has sold over 20 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. On February 2, 2021, it was certified 9× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in the US. At the 1980 Grammy Awards, it was nominated for two Grammy Awards, with Jackson winning Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough". In 2008, "Off the Wall" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.


title: Off the Wall

text: Between 1972 and 1975, Jackson released a total of four solo studio albums with Motown: "Got to Be There", "Ben", "Music & Me", and "Forever, Michael". These were released as part of The Jackson 5 franchise, and produced successful singles such as "Got to Be There", "Ben" and a remake of Bobby Day's "Rockin' Robin". The Jackson 5's sales, however, began declining in 1973, and the band members chafed under Motown's strict refusal to allow them creative control or input. Although the group scored several top 40 hits, including the top five disco single "Dancing Machine" and the top 20 hit "I Am Love", The Jackson 5 (minus Jermaine Jackson) left Motown in 1975. The Jackson 5 signed a new contract with CBS Records in June 1975, first joining the Philadelphia International Records division and then Epic Records. As a result of legal proceedings, the group was renamed The Jacksons. After the name change, the band continued to tour internationally, releasing five more studio albums between 1976 and 1984: their self-titled eleventh album, "Goin' Places", "Destiny", "Triumph", and "Victory", as well as a live concert album in 1981. During that period, Michael was not only the lead singer, but also the chief songwriter for the group, writing or co-writing such hits as "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)", "This Place Hotel" and "Can You Feel It".


title: Off the Wall

text: In 1978, Jackson starred as Scarecrow in the film musical "The Wiz". The musical scores were arranged by Quincy Jones, who formed a partnership with Jackson during the film's production and agreed to produce the singer's solo album "Off the Wall". Jackson was dedicated to the role, and watched videotapes of gazelles, cheetahs and panthers in order to learn graceful movements for his part in the movie. Jones recalled working with Jackson as one of his favorite experiences from "The Wiz", and spoke of Jackson's dedication to his role, comparing his acting style to Sammy Davis, Jr. Critics panned "The Wiz" upon its October 1978 release, but Jackson's performance as the Scarecrow was one of the only positively reviewed elements of the film, with critics noting that Jackson possessed "genuine acting talent" and "provided the only genuinely memorable moments." Of the results of the film, Jackson stated: "I don't think it could have been any better, I really don't". In 1980, Jackson stated that his time working on "The Wiz" was "my greatest experience so far...I'll never forget that".


title: Off the Wall

text: When Jackson began the "Off the Wall" project he was not sure what he wanted as the final result; however, he did not want another record that sounded like The Jacksons, but rather he wanted more creative freedom, something he had not been allowed on prior albums. Jackson's father Joseph also approved of the project and allowed him to record it on the condition that it did not interfere with group business. Despite his brothers' desire to work with him, Jackson wanted to make the album independently of his family. Nevertheless, his brother Randy still contributed percussion to "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough".


title: Off the Wall

text: Jones produced "Off the Wall", with co-production credit given to Jackson on the songs he wrote for the album. Songwriters included Jackson, Heatwave's Rod Temperton, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney. All sessions took place at Los Angeles County-based recording studios, with recording taking place between December 4, 1978 and June 3, 1979. Rhythm tracks and vocals were recorded at Allen Zentz Recording, the horn section's contributions took place at Westlake Audio, and string instrumentation was recorded at Cherokee Studios in West Hollywood. Following the initial sessions, audio mixing was handled by Grammy-winning engineer Bruce Swedien at Westlake Audio, after which the original tapes went to the A&M Recording Studio, also located in L.A., for mastering. Swedien would later mix the recording sessions for Jackson's next album and his most well-known work, 1982's "Thriller". Jones recalled that, at first, he found Jackson to be very introverted, shy and non-assertive.


title: Off the Wall

text: "She's Out of My Life" had been written for Jones by Tom Bahler three years earlier. Jackson heard and enjoyed it, and Jones allowed him to use it on the record. Jones called in Heatwave's keyboardist Rod Temperton to write three songs. The intention was for Jackson and Jones to select one of his songs, but Jackson, liking them all, included all of them in the final cut. Jackson stayed up all night to learn the lyrics to these songs instead of singing from a sheet. He finished the vocals to these three Temperton songs in two recording sessions. Temperton took a different approach to his songwriting after spending some time researching the background to Jackson's music style. Temperton mixed his traditional harmony segments with the idea of adding shorter note melodies to suit Jackson's aggressive style. Jackson wrote "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" after humming a melody in his kitchen. After listening to hundreds of songs, Jackson and Jones decided upon a batch to record. In hindsight, Jones believed they took a lot of risks in the production of "Off the Wall" and the final choice of album tracks. Attention was also paid to the album cover, which shows Jackson smiling, wearing a tuxedo and trademark socks. John Branca, Jackson's manager stated, "The tuxedo was the overall plan for the "Off the Wall" project and package. The tuxedo was our idea, the socks were Michael'".


title: Off the Wall

text: Music critics Stephen Thomas Erlewine and Stephen Holden of AllMusic observed that "Off the Wall" was crafted from funk, disco-pop, soul, soft rock, and pop ballads. Prominent examples include the ballad "She's Out of My Life", the funk tune "Workin' Day and Night", and the disco song "Get on the Floor". "I Can't Help It" is a jazz piece. Quincy Jones in his autobiography compares Jackson to other jazz singers, noting that Jackson "has some of the same qualities as the great jazz singers I'd worked with: Ella, Sinatra, Sassy, Aretha, Ray Charles, Dinah. Each of them had that purity, that strong signature sound and that open wound that pushed them to greatness." "She's Out of My Life" is a melodic pop ballad. The end of the former song showed an "emotional" Jackson crying as the track concluded. Of the song, rhythm and blues writer Nelson George proclaimed, "[It] became a Jackson signature similar to the way "My Way" served Frank Sinatra. The vulnerability, verging on fragility that would become embedded in Michael's persona found, perhaps, its richest expression in this wistful ballad". "Rock with You" is a romantic, mid-tempo song. The album's songs have a tempo ranging from 66 beats per minute on "She's Out of My Life", to 128 on "Workin' Day and Night".


title: Off the Wall

text: With the arrival of "Off the Wall" in the late 1970s, Jackson's abilities as a vocalist were well regarded; AllMusic writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine described him as a "blindingly gifted vocalist". At the time, "Rolling Stone" compared his vocals to the "breathless, dreamy stutter" of Stevie Wonder. Their analysis was also that "Jackson's feathery-timbered tenor is extraordinarily beautiful. It slides smoothly into a startling falsetto that's used very daringly". Writer, journalist and biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli expressed the opinion that Jackson sings with "sexy falsetto" vocals in "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough". Taraborrelli also stated, "Fans and industry peers alike were left with their mouths agape when "Off the Wall" was issued to the public. Fans proclaimed that they hadn't heard him sing with such joy and abandon since the early Jackson 5 days".


title: Off the Wall

text: "Off the Wall" was released on the 10th of August, 1979. It peaked at number three on the "Billboard" Top LPs & Tapes chart and number one on the "Billboard" R&B Albums chart, staying at number one on the latter chart for 16 weeks. An enormous commercial success, it was the third-best-selling album of 1980 in the United States, as well as the United Kingdom. "Off the Wall" was sold three million copies in the United States before the end of 1979, while the Jacksons were still on tour. "Off the Wall" is certified 9× Platinum in the US and has sold over 20 million copies worldwide. It has also gained Platinum certifications in eleven other countries. The album's success led to the start of a nine-year partnership between Jackson and Jones; their next collaboration would be "Thriller" (1982), which is the best-selling album of all time.


title: Off the Wall

text: On October 16, 2001, a special edition reissue of "Off the Wall" was released by Sony Records. It was re-released again on February 26, 2016. The material found strong praise from critics more than 20 years after the original release. On January 7, 2016, Sony Music and The Estate of Michael Jackson announced that "Off the Wall" would be reissued and packaged with a new documentary directed by Spike Lee entitled "Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall". The reissue and documentary were both released on February 26, 2016.


title: Off the Wall

text: "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" was released on July 10, 1979, under Epic Records which was Jackson's first solo single not released under Motown Records. The song topped the "Billboard" Hot 100 on October 10, making it Jackson's first solo number one single since "Ben", seven years prior.


title: Off the Wall

text: "Rock with You" also reached number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100, becoming Jackson's third number-one single of his career and it also reached the top spot on R&B charts. It spent four consecutive weeks at number one starting January 19, 1980 and was the fourth-biggest single of 1980.


title: Off the Wall

text: In February the album's title track was released as a single, and went to number 10 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart and became a top 10 hit in four countries. "She's Out of My Life" was released after that, also reaching number 10 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart in June. The song was also one of Jackson's slowest songs, with a tempo of 66 beats per minute. "Off the Wall" became the first album by a solo artist to generate four US top 10 hits.


title: Off the Wall

text: "Off the Wall" was hailed as a major breakthrough for Jackson, while receiving widespread critical recognition, along with praises, from major music publications. In a 1979 review of the album, "Rolling Stone" magazine contributor Stephen Holden praised Jackson's maturity and transition from his early Motown material, stating that the album "represents discofied post-Motown glamour at its classiest." Holden went on to compare Jackson to Stevie Wonder, another Motown performer who began recording at a young age and gained critical acclaim for his transition.


title: Off the Wall

text: In "The Village Voice", critic Robert Christgau credited Jackson and Quincy Jones with "fashion[ing] the dance groove of the year" and stated that "Michael's vocabulary of grunts, squeals, hiccups, moans, and asides is a vivid reminder that he's grown up." In a review for "Melody Maker" Phil McNeill expressed the opinion that in "Off the Wall" Jackson sounded comfortable, confident and in control. He believed "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" had a "classy" introduction and that it was the best song on the album. He also praised "Rock with You", describing it as "masterful". The reviewer concurred with a colleague that Jackson was "probably the best singer in the world right now in terms of style and technique". Giving the album a favorable review in "Smash Hits", David Hepworth said that Jackson "sings like an angel". "Sounds" shared the same point of view, qualifying Jackson's voice as "astonishingly agile".


title: Off the Wall

text: In 1980, Jackson won three awards at the American Music Awards for his solo efforts: Favorite Soul/R&B Album, Favorite Male Soul/R&B Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B Single. That year, he also won the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. Despite its commercial success, Jackson felt "Off the Wall" should have made a much bigger impact, and was determined to exceed expectations with his next release. In particular, Jackson was disappointed that he had only won a single Grammy Award at the 1980 Grammy Awards, the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. Jackson stated that "It was totally unfair that it didn't get Record of the Year and it can never happen again".


title: Off the Wall

text: "Off the Wall" is widely considered by critics and publications as one of the greatest albums of all time. Although it was not as commercially successful as "Bad", "Dangerous" and "", the album is often debated by critics between itself and "Thriller" as Jackson's best. According to some music journalists, it epitomized the , being part of a group of landmark disco albums including Donna Summer's "Bad Girls" (1979) and Bee Gees' "Saturday Night Fever" (1977).


title: Off the Wall

text: James Wilson-Taylor of "PopBuzz" believed that the album influenced artists including The Weeknd, Justin Bieber and Beyoncé. The Weeknd cited it as a major influence on his artistry, saying, "I found my falsetto, because of "Off The Wall" [and] "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough"...I always use Michael [Jackson] as, first and foremost, a vocal inspiration, and "Off the Wall" was definitely the one that made me feel like I could sing." Britni Danielle of "Ebony" highlighted Chris Brown's "Fine China" for being a "surprisingly lush and infectious tune reminiscent of Jackson's "Off the Wall" ['vibe']". Regarding the comparison to Jackson's "Off the Wall" 'vibe', Brown himself stated "I really wanted to kind of bring that essence of music back with that single." Writing for "Pitchfork", Ryan Dombal said that the influence of "I Can't Help It" on Pharrell's "off-kilter funk cannot be overstated". During Sean Combs' acceptance speech for the Recording Academy's Salute to Industry Icon award at the Clive Davis' Pre-Grammy Gala, where he expressed his disappointment towards the Grammy Award's due to the lack of big award wins for Black artists, Combs' spoke on "Thriller" being Jackson's "revenge" for "not being nominated [enough] for "Off the Wall"". Combs' also dedicated his award to "Off the Wall". A writer of PR Newswire credits the album for "smashing the ceiling on record sales for black artists [and] ushering in an exciting new era of R&B-to-pop crossover airplay, chart, marketing and sales trends not seen before in modern pop music."


title: Off the Wall

text: Recent reviews have continued to praise "Off the Wall" for its appeal in the 21st century. "Blender" gave the record a full five star review stating that it was, "A blockbuster party LP that looked beyond funk to the future of dance music, and beyond soul ballads to the future of heart-tuggers—in fact, beyond R&B to color-blind pop. Hence, the forgivable Wings cover". AllMusic gave the record a five star review, praising the record's disco-tinged funk and mainstream pop blend, along with Jackson's songwriting and Jones' crafty production. The publication believed, "["Off the Wall"] is an enormously fresh record, one that remains vibrant and giddily exciting years after its release".


title: Off the Wall

text: A writer for "Rolling Stone" wrote "the unstoppable dance tracks on "Off the Wall" – sculpted by Jackson and producer Quincy Jones – remain more or less perfect examples of why disco didn't suck. 'Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough', 'Rock With You' and 'Burn This Disco Out' still get the party started today." David O'Donnell, writing for the BBC, described "Off the Wall" as "one of the finest pop albums ever made" and showcasing Jackson as a "gifted and versatile vocalist, comfortable performing on ballads as well as upbeat disco tracks." Tom Ewing of "The Guardian" regarded "Off the Wall" as superior to "Thriller": "... we can say with more certainty that "Thriller" will keep its position as the highest-selling LP ever – but it's "Off the Wall" that critics routinely hail as Jackson's masterpiece." and also wrote "... with ["Off the Wall"] Jackson and his mentor Jones made pop's great coming-of-age album." In August 2018, on the occasion of what would have been Jackson's 60th birthday, "Entertainment Weekly" reevaluated the album, giving it a score of A−, saying that the album was Jackson's first musical statement as an adult, that it was "a featherweight rapture of disco-flecked R&B" containing dance-floor favorites and some lesser songs. Wilson-Taylor also claimed that "Off the Wall" is "arguably, the greatest pop album of all time" and credited it for being the pathway of Jackson becoming a "genuine musical phenomenon".


title: Off the Wall

text: Nelson George wrote of Jackson and his music, "the argument for his greatness in the recording studio begins with his arrangements of 'Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough'. The layers of percussion and the stacks of backing vocals, both artfully choreographed to create drama and ecstasy on the dance floor, still rock parties in the 21st century". A writer for "Rolling Stone" credited the album for "inventing modern pop as we know it". Ryan Burleson of "Consequence of Sound" wrote that the album "almost immediately affirmed" Jackson as the "preeminent pop talent of his day" and praised "Off the Wall" as an "instant classic that married the prevailing sounds of the funk, soul, and disco-inflected 70s with an innovative zeal" that has rarely been replicated since. Burleson also called it a "masterpiece" and a "groundbreaking pop record for the masses that continues to be transformative even today." "Blender" wrote "["Off the Wall"] was the first suggestion that disco need not be tacky" and that the album's "immaculately produced, pre-"Thriller" tracks are now too familiar to shock, but in 1979, they were revolutionary." With regards to the album, the magazine also wrote "perfection is timeless."


title: Off the Wall

text: In 2003, "Off the Wall" was ranked number 68 on "Rolling Stone"'s list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, maintaining the ranking in a 2012 revised list until the current revision of 2020 which has been ranked at number 36. In "Blender"'s 100 Greatest American Albums of All Time list, it was ranked number 13. The album was included in the "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". In Colin Larkin's third edition of the "All Time Top 1000 Albums" (2000), it was ranked at number 235. It was also ranked number 7 in the "Soul/R&B – All Time Top 50" albums. The National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM), in conjunction with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, ranked the album at number 80 of the Definitive 200 Albums of All Time. In 2008, "Off the Wall" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It was ranked number 56 in "The Guardian"'s list of the 100 Best Albums Ever. Additionally, "The Guardian"'s list of the 50 Key Events in the History of Pop Music ranked 'Michael Jackson starts work on "Off the Wall"' at number 23. The album was ranked at number 85 on "Consequence of Sound"'s list of The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2015, "Billboard" ranked "Off the Wall" at number 149 on its list of the Greatest of All Time "Billboard" 200 Albums. It was also ranked third in their list of the Greatest of All Time Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, out of 100 albums. "Uncut" ranked "Off the Wall" at number 46 on its list of the 200 Greatest Albums Of All Time. In 2019, "The Independent" included it in its list of The 40 Best Albums to Listen to Before You Die.


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: Matthias Schoenaerts (; ; born 8 December 1977) is a Belgian actor. He made his film debut at the age of 13 in "Daens" (1992), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He is best known for his roles as Filip in "Loft" (2008), Jacky Vanmarsenille in the Oscar-nominated "Bullhead" (2011), Ali in the BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominee "Rust and Bone" (2012), for which he won the César Award for Most Promising Actor, Eric Deeds in "The Drop" (2014), Bruno von Falk in "Suite Française" (2015), Gabriel Oak in "Far from the Madding Crowd" (2015), Hans Axgil in "The Danish Girl" (2015) and Uncle Vanya in "Red Sparrow" (2018). Schoenaerts also received critical acclaim for his portrayal of an ex-soldier suffering from PTSD in "Disorder" (2015), and for his performance as an inmate training a wild horse in "The Mustang" (2019).


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: Schoenaerts was born in Antwerp, Flanders, the Flemish speaking region of Belgium. He is the son of actor (1925–2006) and Dominique Wiche (1953–2016), a costume designer, translator and French teacher. He has an older half brother, Bruno Schoenaerts (born 1953), who is a lawyer. Schoenaerts is of Flemish descent through his father, although his maternal grandmother is from Liège, Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium, and for the first six years of his life he lived with his maternal grandparents in Brussels.


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: Schoenaerts grew up bilingual, speaking Dutch and French. He is also fluent in English, which he learned by watching American movies.


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: In 1987, at nine years old, he appeared in a stage production of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's "The Little Prince" opposite his father, who was also the director. His mother, Dominique, was the costume designer of the play.


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: He started producing graffiti as a teenager under the pseudonym "Zenith", even going to New York to collaborate with the Bronx group TATS CRU. It is possible to watch some videos of Schoenaerts doing graffiti in Belgium on YouTube.


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: Schoenaerts was close to becoming a professional soccer player and was on the books of Belgian team Beerschot AC, but gave up when he was 16 years old. In 2013, Schoenaerts stated that he was a fan of the Spanish football club FC Barcelona.


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: At the age of 13, Schoenaerts made his film debut with a small role in the 1992 Belgian film "Daens", which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His father also starred in the film but they did not share any scenes together.


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: After completing studies at The Academy of Dramatic Arts in Antwerp, he featured in several shorts and feature films. In 2002, he starred in Dorothée Van Den Berghe's "Meisje" ("Girl"); Tom Barman's "Any Way the Wind Blows" in 2003; Rudolf Mestdagh's "Ellektra" and Roel Mondelaers & Raf Reyntjens's sci-fi short film "A Message from Outer Space", which Schoenaerts also produced in 2004.


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: In 2006, Schoenaerts played Dennis in Hilde Van Mieghem's "Love Belongs to Everyone" ("Dennis van Rita"), and had a small role as a member of the Dutch resistance in Paul Verhoeven's "Black Book".


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: In 2007, he starred in Ben van Lieshout's film "De Muze", and in Erik Bruyn's "Nadine". In 2008, he played Bob in Pieter van Hees's horror film "Left Bank" ("Linkeroever"), and most notably played the role of Filip in Erik Van Looy's "Loft", which became the most successful Flemish film at the Belgian box-office, earning over $7,075,161. In the same year, Schoenaerts also starred in the mini-series "The Emperor of Taste" ("De smaak van De Keyser"), playing a Belgian soldier in World War II.


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: In 2009, he starred in Dorothée Van Den Berghe's "My Queen Karo", in which he played the hippie Raven in 1970's Amsterdam. In 2010, he played the lead role in Alex Stockman's Techno-thriller "Pulsar", and had a cameo in Franck Richard's "La Meute" ("The Pack").


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: In 2011, Schoenaerts starred in the Dutch films "The Gang of Oss" ("De Bende van Oss") and "The President" ("De President").


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: In 2011, Schoenaerts played Jacky Vanmarsenille, the lead role in "Bullhead", directed by Michaël R. Roskam, which was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. His performance in the film was well received and won him the FIPRESCI Award for best actor at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in January 2012. The jury praised the actor's "superb portrayal of an innocent and sensitive man trapped in a truculent body." He also won the Magritte Award for Best Actor.


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: In 2012, he starred in Jacques Audiard's "Rust and Bone" ("De rouille et d'os") alongside Marion Cotillard. The film premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and was a critical and box office hit in France. On 22 February 2013, Matthias won the César Award for Most Promising Actor for his role in "Rust and Bone".


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: Schoenaerts also produced and starred in the Belgian short film "Death of a Shadow" ("Dood van een Schaduw"), directed by Tom Van Avermaet. On 10 January 2013, the short film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: In 2014, Schoenaerts appeared alongside Clive Owen, Billy Crudup and again Marion Cotillard in the thriller "Blood Ties", in which he played Anthony Scarfo. The film premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: He also played Eric Deeds in "The Drop", his second film with Michael R. Roskam, starring opposite Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace and James Gandolfini.


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: In 2015, the actor appeared in 7 films: "The Loft", the American remake of the Belgian film "Loft", in which he played the same character and which was also his first English-language film; in Saul Dibb's "Suite Française", playing the German officer Bruno von Falk opposite Michelle Williams and Kristin Scott Thomas; in Thomas Vinterberg's "Far from the Madding Crowd" as Gabriel Oak, one of Carey Mulligan's three love interests; in Alan Rickman's period drama "A Little Chaos", as French landscape architect André Le Nôtre, opposite Kate Winslet. In the same year, Schoenaerts was announced as William Clark on HBO's miniseries "Lewis and Clark", co-starring Casey Affleck as Meriwether Lewis. The six-hour miniseries was executive produced by Tom Hanks, Edward Norton, and Brad Pitt. Production got shut down in August 2015 due to "internal and external, weather-related factors".


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: Schoenaerts also starred in Alice Winocour's French thriller "Disorder" ("Maryland"), as an ex-soldier suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, for which his performance was highly praised. He played Paul in Luca Guadagnino's erotic thriller "A Bigger Splash", starring opposite Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes and Dakota Johnson, and also played the art-dealer Hans Axgil in Tom Hooper's "The Danish Girl". "A Bigger Splash" and "The Danish Girl" made their world premieres at the 2015 Venice Film Festival, both were screened in the official competition.


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: In January 2016, it was announced that Schoenaerts would play a drummer who begins to lose his hearing in Darius Marder's "Sound of Metal". After a couple of years in development, Schoenaerts was replaced by Riz Ahmed.


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: In 2017, Schoenaerts reteamed with Michaël R. Roskam in the Belgian film "Racer and the Jailbird" ("Le Fidèle"), in the role of a gangster named Gigi. The film was Roskam and Schoenaerts' first film in Belgium since 2011's "Bullhead". In the same year, Schoenaerts played Gene, Jane Fonda's son on the Netflix film "Our Souls at Night", also starring Robert Redford and directed by Ritesh Batra.


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: He also worked again with director Thomas Vinterberg in 2018's "Kursk", a film about the Kursk submarine disaster of 2000 in which Schoenaerts played Russian Navy captain-lieutenant Mikhail Kalekov.


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: In 2018, Schoenaerts co-starred in Francis Lawrence's spy thriller "Red Sparrow" in the role of Uncle Vanya opposite Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton and Jeremy Irons. He also starred in the Belgian-French film "Close Enemies", directed by David Oelhoffen.


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: In 2019, Schoenaerts appeared as Captain Herder in Terrence Malick's "A Hidden Life", as Maywood in Steven Soderbergh's "The Laundromat", and as Roman Coleman, an inmate who participates in a rehabilitation program centered around training of wild horses in Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre's "The Mustang". In 2020, he appeared in Gina Prince-Bythewood's "The Old Guard" as Booker / Sébastien le Livre, once a French soldier who fought under Napoleon.


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: In 2021, Schoenaerts starred as Peter Flood in Jeremie Guez's "Brothers by Blood" and as Jurgen in the Flemish TV anthology "Lockdown" episode "Zuur" alongside Veerle Baetens. His upcoming works include Terrence Malick's "The Way of the Wind", Justin Kurzel's "Ruin" alongside Margot Robbie, and David O. Russell's "Amsterdam". He will star as the title character in the upcoming TV series "Django".


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: His directorial debut, "Franky", is a documentary about a one-legged childhood friend of his who became an MMA fighter, Franky van Hove. The documentary is currently in post-production.


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: On 24 August 2015, it was reported that Schoenaerts became the co-owner of the Belgian casting agency Hakuna Casting, which focuses on people of ethnic origin.


title: Matthias Schoenaerts

text: The agency has collaborated on the casting of films like "Black" by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, and "Belgica" by Felix Van Groeningen.


title: God is dead

text: "God is dead" (German: ; also known as the death of God) is a widely quoted statement made by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche used the phrase to express his idea that the Enlightenment had eliminated the possibility of the existence of God. Proponents of the strongest form of the Death of God theology have used the phrase in a literal sense, meaning that the Christian God, who had existed at one point, has ceased to exist.


title: God is dead

text: The phrase appeared in Nietzsche's 1882 collection "The Gay Science" (, also translated as "The Joyful Pursuit of Knowledge and Understanding"). It is more famously associated with his "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" (), which is most responsible for making the phrase popular. Other philosophers had previously discussed the concept,


title: God is dead

text: Before Nietzsche, the phrase 'Dieu est mort!' was written in Gérard de Nerval's 1854 poem "Le Christ aux oliviers" ("Christ at the olive trees"). The poem is an adaptation into a verse of a dream-vision that appears in Jean Paul's 1797 novel Siebenkäs under the chapter title of 'The Dead Christ Proclaims That There Is No God'. In an address he gave in 1987 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the literary scholar George Steiner claims that Nietzsche's formulation 'God is dead' is indebted to the aforementioned 'Dead Christ' dream-vision of Jean Paul, but he offers no concrete evidence that Nietzsche ever read Jean Paul.


title: God is dead

text: The phrase is also found in a passage expressed by a narrator in Victor Hugo's 1862 novel "Les Misérables":


title: God is dead

text: Buddhist philosopher K. Satchidananda Murty wrote in "The Realm of Between" published by the Indian Institute of Advanced Study in 1973, that, coming across in a hymn of Martin Luther what Hegel described as "the cruel words", "the harsh utterance", namely, "God is dead", developed the theme of God's death according to whom, to one form of experience, God is dead. Murty continued that commenting on Kant's first "Critique", Heinrich Heine who had purportedly influenced Nietzsche spoke of "a dying God". Since Heine and Nietzsche the phrase "Death of God" became popular.


title: God is dead

text: Discourses of a "death of God" in German culture appear as early as the 17th century and originally referred to Lutheran theories of atonement. The phrase "God is dead" appears in the hymn "Ein Trauriger Grabgesang" ("A mournful dirge") by Johann von Rist. Contemporary historians believe that 19th-century German idealist philosophers, especially those associated with Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, are responsible for removing the specifically Christian resonance of the phrase relating to the death of Jesus Christ and associating it with secular philosophical and sociological theories.


title: God is dead

text: Although the statement and its meaning are attributed to Nietzsche, Hegel had discussed the concept of the death of God in his "Phenomenology of Spirit", where he considers the death of God to "Not be seen as anything but an easily recognized part of the usual Christian cycle of redemption". Later on Hegel writes about the great pain of knowing that God is dead: "The pure concept, however, or infinity, as the abyss of nothingness in which all being sinks, must characterize the infinite pain, which previously was only in culture historically and as the feeling on which rests modern religion, the feeling that God Himself is dead, (the feeling which was uttered by Pascal, though only empirically, in his saying: Nature is such that it marks everywhere, both in and outside of man, a lost God), purely as a phase, but also as no more than just a phase, of the highest idea."


title: God is dead

text: Hegel's student Richard Rothe, in his 1837 theological text "Die Anfänge der christlichen Kirche und ihrer Verfassung", appears to be one of the first philosophers to associate the idea of a death of God with the sociological theory of secularization.


title: God is dead

text: German philosopher Max Stirner, whose influence on Nietzsche is debated, writes in his 1844 book "The Ego and its Own" that "the work of the Enlightenment, the vanquishing of God: they did not notice that man has killed God in order to become now - ‘sole God on high’".


title: God is dead

text: Before Nietzsche, the concept was popularized in philosophy by the German philosopher Philipp Mainländer.


title: God is dead

text: It was while reading Mainländer that Nietzsche explicitly writes to have parted ways with Schopenhauer. In Mainländer's more than 200 pages long criticism of Schopenhauer's metaphysics, he argues against one cosmic unity behind the world, and champions a real multiplicity of wills struggling with each other for existence. Yet, the interconnection and the unitary movement of the world, which are the reasons that lead philosophers to pantheism, are undeniable. They do indeed lead to a unity, but this may not be at the expense of a unity "in" the world that undermines the empirical reality of the world. It is therefore declared to be dead.


title: God is dead

text: Nietzsche used the phrase to sum up the effect and consequence that the Age of Enlightenment had on the centrality of the concept of God within Western European civilization, which had been essentially Christian in character since the later Roman Empire. The Enlightenment had brought about the triumph of scientific rationality over sacred revelation; the rise of philosophical materialism and naturalism that to all intents and purposes had appeared to dispense with the belief in or role of God in human affairs and the destiny of the world.


title: God is dead

text: But the best-known passage is at the end of part 2 of "Zarathustra's Prolog", where after beginning his allegorical journey Zarathustra encounters an aged ascetic who expresses misanthropy and love of God:


title: God is dead

text: Nietzsche recognized the crisis that this "Death of God" represented for existing moral assumptions in Europe as they existed within the context of traditional Christian belief. "When one gives up the Christian faith, one pulls the right to Christian morality out from under one's feet. This morality is by no means self-evident ... By breaking one main concept out of Christianity, the faith in God, one breaks the whole: nothing necessary remains in one's hands." This is why in "The Madman", a passage which primarily addresses nontheists (especially atheists), the problem is to retain any system of values in the absence of a divine order.


title: God is dead

text: The Enlightenment's conclusion of the "Death of God" gave rise to the proposition that humans – and Western civilization as a whole – could no longer believe in a divinely ordained moral order. This death of God will lead, Nietzsche said, not only to the rejection of a belief of cosmic or physical order but also to a rejection of absolute values themselves – to the rejection of belief in an objective and universal moral law, binding upon all individuals. In this manner, the loss of an absolute basis for morality leads to nihilism. This nihilism is that for which Nietzsche worked to find a solution by re-evaluating the foundations of human values.


title: God is dead

text: Nietzsche believed that the majority of people did not recognize this death out of the deepest-seated fear or angst. Therefore, when the death does begin to become widely acknowledged, people will despair and nihilism will become rampant.


title: God is dead

text: Although Nietzsche puts the statement "God is dead" into the mouth of a "madman" in "The Gay Science", he also uses the phrase in his own voice in sections 108 and 343 of the same book. In the madman passage, the man is described as running through a marketplace shouting, "I seek God! I seek God!" He arouses some amusement; no one takes him seriously. "Maybe he took an ocean voyage? Lost his way like a little child? Maybe he's afraid of us (non-believers) and is hiding?" – much laughter. Frustrated, the madman smashes his lantern on the ground, crying out that "God is dead, and we have killed him, you and I!" "But I have come too soon," he immediately realizes, as his detractors of a minute before stare in astonishment: people cannot yet see that they have killed God. He goes on to say:


title: God is dead

text: Earlier in the book (section 108), Nietzsche wrote: "God is dead, but given the way of men, there may still be caves for thousands of years in which his shadow will be shown. And we – we still have to vanquish his shadow, too." The protagonist in "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" also speaks the words, commenting to himself after visiting a hermit who, every day, sings songs and lives to glorify his god as noted above.


title: God is dead

text: What is more, Zarathustra later not only refers to the death of God but states: "Dead are all the Gods." It is not just one morality that has died, but all of them, to be replaced by the life of the , the superman:


title: God is dead

text: Nietzsche believed there could be positive new possibilities for humans without God. Relinquishing the belief in God opens the way, according to Nietzsche, for human creative abilities to fully develop. The Christian God, he wrote, would no longer stand in the way, so human beings might stop turning their eyes toward a supernatural realm and begin to acknowledge the value of this world.


title: God is dead

text: Nietzsche uses the metaphor of an open sea, which can be both exhilarating and terrifying. The people who eventually learn to create their lives anew will represent a new stage in human existence, the – i.e., the personal archetype who, through the conquest of their own nihilism, themselves become a sort of mythical hero. The "death of God" is the motivation for Nietzsche's last (uncompleted) philosophical project, the "revaluation of all values".


title: God is dead

text: Martin Heidegger understood this aspect of Nietzsche's philosophy by looking at it as the death of metaphysics. In his view, Nietzsche's words can only be understood as referring not to a particular theological or anthropological view but rather to the end of philosophy itself. Philosophy has, in Heidegger's words, reached its maximum potential as metaphysics and Nietzsche's words warn of its demise and the end of any metaphysical worldview. If metaphysics is dead, Heidegger warns, that is because from its inception that was its fate.


title: God is dead

text: Although theologians since Nietzsche had occasionally used the phrase "God is dead" to reflect increasing unbelief in God, the concept rose to prominence in the late 1950s and 1960s, subsiding in the early 1970s. The German-born theologian Paul Tillich, for instance, was influenced by the writings of Nietzsche, especially his phrase "God is dead."


title: God is dead

text: The October 22, 1965, issue of "Time" magazine contained an article in the "Religion" section, entitled "Theology: The God Is Dead Movement", that addressed a movement among American theologians who openly embraced the notion of the death of God. Then six months later the controversial Easter issue of "Time" appeared on April 8, 1966, shocking the public with the provocative question—in huge red type against a black background—"Is God Dead?" The main proponents of this theology in the mid-to-late 1960s included Christian theologians John Robinson, Thomas J. J. Altizer, William Hamilton, Gabriel Vahanian, Paul van Buren, and the Jewish theologian and rabbi Richard L. Rubenstein.


title: God is dead

text: William Hamilton wrote the following about American radical theologian Thomas J. J. Altizer's redeployment of Nietzsche's view:


title: Self-harm

text: Self-harm is intentional behavior that is considered harmful to oneself. This is most commonly regarded as direct injury of one's own skin tissues usually without a suicidal intention. Other terms such as cutting, self-injury and self-mutilation have been used for any self-harming behavior regardless of suicidal intent. It is not the same as masochism, as no sexual or nonsexual pleasure is obtained. The most common form of self-harm is using a sharp object to cut the skin. Other forms include scratching, hitting, or burning body parts. While earlier usage included interfering with wound healing, excessive skin-picking, hair-pulling, and the ingestion of toxins, current usage distinguishes these behaviors from self-harm. Likewise, tissue damage from drug abuse or eating disorders is not considered self-harm because it is ordinarily an unintended side-effect but context may be needed as intent for such acts varies.


title: Self-harm

text: Although self-harm is by definition non-suicidal, it may still be life-threatening. People who do self-harm are more likely to die by suicide, and self-harm is found in 40–60% of suicides. Still, only a minority of those who self-harm are suicidal.


title: Self-harm

text: The desire to self-harm is a common symptom of some personality disorders. People with other mental disorders may also self-harm, including those with depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, mood disorders, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, dissociative disorders and gender dysphoria. Studies also provide strong support for a self-punishment function, and modest evidence for anti-dissociation, interpersonal-influence, anti-suicide, sensation-seeking, and interpersonal boundaries functions. Self-harm can also occur in high-functioning individuals who have no underlying mental health diagnosis. The motivations for self-harm vary. Some use it as a coping mechanism to provide temporary relief of intense feelings such as anxiety, depression, stress, emotional numbness, or a sense of failure. Self-harm is often associated with a history of trauma, including emotional and sexual abuse. There are a number of different methods that can be used to treat self-harm, which concentrate on either treating the underlying causes or on treating the behavior itself. Other approaches involve avoidance techniques, which focus on keeping the individual occupied with other activities, or replacing the act of self-harm with safer methods that do not lead to permanent damage.


title: Self-harm

text: Self-harm is most common between the ages of 12 and 24. Self-harm in childhood is relatively rare, but the rate has been increasing since the 1980s. Self-harm can also occur in the elderly population. The risk of serious injury and suicide is higher in older people who self-harm. Captive animals, such as birds and monkeys, are also known to participate in self-harming behavior.


title: Self-harm

text: Self-harm (SH), also referred to as "self-injury" (SI), "self-inflicted violence" (SIV), "nonsuicidal self injury" (NSSI) or "self-injurious behavior" (SIB), are different terms to ascribe behaviors where demonstrable injury is self-inflicted. The behavior involves deliberate tissue damage that is usually performed without suicidal intent. The most common form of self-harm involves cutting of the skin using a sharp object, e. g. a knife or razor blade. The term "self-mutilation" is also sometimes used, although this phrase evokes connotations that some find worrisome, inaccurate, or offensive. "Self-inflicted wounds" is a specific term associated with soldiers to describe non-lethal injuries inflicted in order to obtain early dismissal from combat. This differs from the common definition of self-harm, as damage is inflicted for a specific secondary purpose. A broader definition of self-harm might also include those who inflict harm on their bodies by means of disordered eating.


title: Self-harm

text: The older literature has used several different terms. For this reason research in the past decades has inconsistently focused on self-harming behavior without and with suicidal intent (including suicide attempts) with varying definitions leading to inconsistent and unclear results.


title: Self-harm

text: Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) has been listed in section 2 of the DSM-5-TR under the category "other conditions that may be a focus of clinical attention". While NSSI is not a separate mental disorder, the DSM-5-TR adds a diagnostic code for the condition in-line with the ICD. The disorder is defined as intentional self-inflicted injury without the intent of dying by suicide. Criteria for NSSI include five or more days of self-inflicted harm over the course of one year without suicidal intent, and the individual must have been motivated by seeking relief from a negative state, resolving an interpersonal difficulty, or achieving a positive state.


title: Self-harm

text: A common belief regarding self-harm is that it is an attention-seeking behavior; however, in many cases, this is inaccurate. Many self-harmers are very self-conscious of their wounds and scars and feel guilty about their behavior, leading them to go to great lengths to conceal their behavior from others. They may offer alternative explanations for their injuries, or conceal their scars with clothing. Self-harm in such individuals may not be associated with suicidal or para-suicidal behavior. People who self-harm are not usually seeking to end their own life; it has been suggested instead that they are using self-harm as a coping mechanism to relieve emotional pain or discomfort or as an attempt to communicate distress.


title: Self-harm

text: Studies of individuals with developmental disabilities (such as intellectual disability) have shown self-harm being dependent on environmental factors such as obtaining attention or escape from demands. Some individuals may have dissociation harboring a desire to feel real or to fit into society's rules.


title: Self-harm

text: Eighty percent of self-harm involves stabbing or cutting the skin with a sharp object, sometimes breaking through the skin entirely. However, the number of self-harm methods are only limited by an individual's inventiveness and their determination to harm themselves; this includes burning, self-poisoning, alcohol abuse, self-embedding of objects, hair pulling, bruising/hitting one's self, scratching to hurt one's self, knowingly abusing over-the-counter or prescription drugs, and forms of self-harm related to anorexia and bulimia. The locations of self-harm are often areas of the body that are easily hidden and concealed from the detection of others. As well as defining self-harm in terms of the act of damaging the body, it may be more accurate to define self-harm in terms of the intent, and the emotional distress that the person is attempting to deal with. Neither the DSM-IV-TR nor the ICD-10 provide diagnostic criteria for self-harm. It is often seen as only a symptom of an underlying disorder, though many people who self-harm would like this to be addressed.


title: Self-harm

text: Common signs that a person may be engaging in self-harm include the following: they ensure that there are always harmful objects close by, they are experiencing difficulties in their personal relationships, their behavior becomes unpredictable, they question their worth and identity, they make statements that display helplessness and hopelessness.


title: Self-harm

text: Although some people who self-harm do not have any form of recognized mental disorder, many people experiencing various forms of mental illnesses do have a higher risk of self-harm. The key areas of disorder which exhibit an increased risk include autism spectrum disorders, borderline personality disorder, dissociative disorders, bipolar disorder, depression, phobias, and conduct disorders. As many as 70% of individuals with borderline personality disorder engage in self-harm. An estimated 30% of individuals with autism spectrum disorders engage in self-harm at some point, including eye-poking, skin-picking, hand-biting, and head-banging. Schizophrenia may also be a contributing factor for self-harm. Those diagnosed with schizophrenia have a high risk of suicide, which is particularly greater in younger patients as they may not have an insight into the serious effects that the disorder can have on their lives. There are parallels between self-harm and Münchausen syndrome, a psychiatric disorder in which individuals feign illness or trauma. There may be a common ground of inner distress culminating in self-directed harm in a Münchausen patient. However, a desire to deceive medical personnel in order to gain treatment and attention is more important in Münchausen's than in self-harm.


title: Self-harm

text: Self-harm is frequently described as an experience of depersonalization or a dissociative state. Abuse during childhood is accepted as a primary social factor increasing the incidence of self-harm, as is bereavement, and troubled parental or partner relationships. Factors such as war, poverty, unemployment, and substance abuse may also contribute. Other predictors of self-harm and suicidal behavior include feelings of entrapment, defeat, lack of belonging, and perceiving oneself as a burden along with having an impulsive personality and/or less effective social problem-solving skills. The onset of puberty, including the onset of sexual activity, often correlates with the onset of self-harm; this is because the pubertal period is associated with neurodevelopmental vulnerability and comes with an increased risk of emotional disorders and risk-taking behaviors. Transgender adolescents are significantly more likely to engage in self-harm than their cisgender peers. This can be attributed to distress caused by gender dysphoria as well as increased likelihoods of experiencing bullying, abuse, and mental illness.


title: Self-harm

text: The most distinctive characteristic of the rare genetic condition, Lesch–Nyhan syndrome, is self-harm and may include biting and head-banging. Genetics may contribute to the risk of developing other psychological conditions, such as anxiety or depression, which could in turn lead to self-harming behavior. However, the link between genetics and self-harm in otherwise healthy patients is largely inconclusive.


title: Self-harm

text: Substance misuse, dependence and withdrawal are associated with self-harm. Benzodiazepine dependence as well as benzodiazepine withdrawal is associated with self-harming behavior in young people. Alcohol is a major risk factor for self-harm. A study which analysed self-harm presentations to emergency rooms in Northern Ireland found that alcohol was a major contributing factor and involved in 63.8% of self-harm presentations. A recent study in the relation between cannabis use and deliberate self-harm (DSH) in Norway and England found that, in general, cannabis use may not be a specific risk factor for DSH in young adolescents. Smoking has also been associated with self-harm in adolescents; one study found that suicide attempts were four times higher for adolescents that smoke than for those that do not. A more recent meta-analysis on literature concerning the association between cannabis use and self-injurious behaviors has defined the extent of this association, which is significant both at the cross-sectional (odds ratio = 1.569, 95% confidence interval [1.167-2.108]) and longitudinal (odds ratio = 2.569, 95% confidence interval [2.207-3.256]) levels, and highlighting the role of the chronic use of the substance, and the presence of depressive symptoms or of mental disorders as factors that might increase the risk of self-injury among cannabis users.


title: Self-harm

text: Self-harm is not typically suicidal behavior, although there is the possibility that a self-inflicted injury may result in life-threatening damage. Although the person may not recognise the connection, self-harm often becomes a response to profound and overwhelming emotional pain that cannot be resolved in a more functional way.


title: Self-harm

text: The motivations for self-harm vary, as it may be used to fulfill a number of different functions. These functions include self-harm being used as a coping mechanism which provides temporary relief of intense feelings such as anxiety, depression, stress, emotional numbness and a sense of failure or self-loathing. There is also a positive statistical correlation between self-harm and emotional abuse. Self-harm may become a means of managing and controlling pain, in contrast to the pain experienced earlier in the person's life over which they had no control (e.g., through abuse).


title: Self-harm

text: Other motives for self-harm do not fit into medicalized models of behavior and may seem incomprehensible to others, as demonstrated by this quotation:


title: Self-harm

text: "My motivations for self-harming were diverse, but included examining the interior of my arms for hydraulic lines. This may sound strange."


title: Self-harm

text: Assessment of motives in a medical setting is usually based on precursors to the incident, circumstances, and information from the patient. However, limited studies show that professional assessments tend to suggest more manipulative or punitive motives than personal assessments.


title: Self-harm

text: A UK Office for National Statistics study reported only two motives: "to draw attention" and "because of anger". For some people, harming themselves can be a means of drawing attention to the need for help and to ask for assistance in an indirect way. It may also be an attempt to affect others and to manipulate them in some way emotionally. However, those with chronic, repetitive self-harm often do not want attention and hide their scars carefully.


title: Self-harm

text: Many people who self-harm state that it allows them to "go away" or dissociate, separating the mind from feelings that are causing anguish. This may be achieved by tricking the mind into believing that the present suffering being felt is caused by the self-harm instead of the issues they were facing previously: the physical pain therefore acts as a distraction from the original emotional pain. To complement this theory, one can consider the need to "stop" feeling emotional pain and mental agitation. "A person may be hyper-sensitive and overwhelmed; a great many thoughts may be revolving within their mind, and they may either become triggered or could make a decision to stop the overwhelming feelings."


title: Self-harm

text: Alternatively, self-harm may be a means of feeling "something", even if the sensation is unpleasant and painful. Those who self-harm sometimes describe feelings of emptiness or numbness (anhedonia), and physical pain may be a relief from these feelings. "A person may be detached from themselves, detached from life, numb and unfeeling. They may then recognise the need to function more, or have a desire to feel real again, and a decision is made to create sensation and 'wake up'."


title: Self-harm

text: Those who engage in self-harm face the contradictory reality of harming themselves while at the same time obtaining relief from this act. It may even be hard for some to actually initiate cutting, but they often do because they know the relief that will follow. For some self-harmers this relief is primarily psychological while for others this feeling of relief comes from the beta endorphins released in the brain. Endorphins are endogenous opioids that are released in response to physical injury, acting as natural painkillers and inducing pleasant feelings, and in response to self-harm would act to reduce tension and emotional distress. Many self-harmers report feeling very little to no pain while self-harming and, for some, deliberate self-harm may become a means of seeking pleasure.


title: Self-harm

text: As a coping mechanism, self-harm can become psychologically addictive because, to the self-harmer, it works; it enables them to deal with intense stress in the current moment. The patterns sometimes created by it, such as specific time intervals between acts of self-harm, can also create a behavioral pattern that can result in a wanting or craving to fulfill thoughts of self-harm.


title: Self-harm

text: Emotional pain activates the same regions of the brain as physical pain, so emotional stress can be a significantly intolerable state for some people. Some of this is environmental and some of this is due to physiological differences in responding. The autonomic nervous system is composed of two components: the sympathetic nervous system controls arousal and physical activation (e.g., the fight-or-flight response) and the parasympathetic nervous system controls physical processes that are automatic (e.g., saliva production). The sympathetic nervous system innervates (e.g., is physically connected to and regulates) many parts of the body involved in stress responses. Studies of adolescents have shown that adolescents who self-injure have greater physiological reactivity (e.g., skin conductance) to stress than adolescents who do not self-injure. This stress response persists over time, staying constant or even increasing in self-injuring adolescents, but gradually decreases in adolescents who do not self-injure.


title: Self-harm

text: Several forms of psychosocial treatments can be used in self-harm including dialectical behavior therapy. Psychiatric and personality disorders are common in individuals who self-harm and as a result self-harm may be an indicator of depression and/or other psychological problems. Many people who self-harm have moderate or severe depression and therefore treatment with antidepressant medications may often be used. There is tentative evidence for the medication flupentixol; however, greater study is required before it can be recommended.


title: Self-harm

text: Emergency departments are often the first point of contact with healthcare for people who self-harm. As such they are crucial in supporting them and can play a role in preventing suicide. At the same time, according to a study conducted in England, people who self-harm often experience that they don't receive meaningful care at the emergency department. Both people who self-harm and staff in the study highlighted the failure of the healthcare system to support, the lack of specialist care. People who self-harm in the study often felt shame or being judged due to their condition, and said that being listened to and validated gave them hope. At the same time staff experienced frustration from being powerless to help and were afraid of being blamed if someone commits suicide.


title: Self-harm

text: Dialectical behavior therapy for adolescents (DBT-A) is a well-established treatment for self-injurious behavior in youth and probably useful for decreasing the risk of non suicidal self injury. Several other treatments including integrated CBT (I-CBT), attachment-based family therapy (ABFT), resourceful adolescent parent program (RAP-P), intensive interpersonal psychotherapy for adolescents (IPT-A-IN), mentalization-based treatment for adolescents (MBT-A), and integrated family therapy are probably efficacious. Cognitive behavioral therapy may also be used to assist those with Axis I diagnoses, such as depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) can be successful for those individuals exhibiting a personality disorder, and could potentially be used for those with other mental disorders who exhibit self-harming behavior. Diagnosis and treatment of the causes of self-harm is thought by many to be the best approach to treating self-harm. But in some cases, particularly in people with a personality disorder, this is not very effective, so more clinicians are starting to take a DBT approach in order to reduce the behavior itself. People who rely on habitual self-harm are sometimes hospitalized, based on their stability, their ability and especially their willingness to get help. In adolescents multisystem therapy shows promise. Pharmacotherapy has not been tested as a treatment for adolescents who self-harmed. According to the classification of Walsh and Rosen trichotillomania and nail-biting represent class I and II self-mutilation behavior (see classification section in this article); for these conditions habit reversal training and decoupling have been found effective according to meta-analytic evidence.


title: Self-harm

text: A meta-analysis found that psychological therapy is effective in reducing self-harm. The proportion of the adolescents who self-harmed over the follow-up period was lower in the intervention groups (28%) than in controls (33%). Psychological therapies with the largest effect sizes were dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), and mentalization-based therapy (MBT).


title: Self-harm

text: In individuals with developmental disabilities, occurrence of self-harm is often demonstrated to be related to its effects on the environment, such as obtaining attention or desired materials or escaping demands. As developmentally disabled individuals often have communication or social deficits, self-harm may be their way of obtaining these things which they are otherwise unable to obtain in a socially appropriate way (such as by asking). One approach for treating self-harm thus is to teach an alternative, appropriate response which obtains the same result as the self-harm.


title: Self-harm

text: Generating alternative behaviors that the person can engage in instead of self-harm is one successful behavioral method that is employed to avoid self-harm. Techniques, aimed at keeping busy, may include journaling, taking a walk, participating in sports or exercise or being around friends when the person has the urge to harm themselves. The removal of objects used for self-harm from easy reach is also helpful for resisting self-harming urges. The provision of a card that allows the person to make emergency contact with counselling services should the urge to self-harm arise may also help prevent the act of self-harm. Alternative and safer methods of self-harm that do not lead to permanent damage, for example the snapping of a rubber band on the wrist, may also help calm the urge to self-harm. Using biofeedback may help raise self-awareness of certain pre-occupations or particular mental state or mood that precede bouts of self-harming behavior, and help identify techniques to avoid those pre-occupations before they lead to self-harm. Any avoidance or coping strategy must be appropriate to the individual's motivation and reason for harming.


title: Self-harm

text: It is difficult to gain an accurate picture of incidence and prevalence of self-harm. This is due in a part to a lack of sufficient numbers of dedicated research centres to provide a continuous monitoring system. However, even with sufficient resources, statistical estimates are crude since most incidences of self-harm are undisclosed to the medical profession as acts of self-harm are frequently carried out in secret, and wounds may be superficial and easily treated by the individual. Recorded figures can be based on three sources: psychiatric samples, hospital admissions and general population surveys.


title: Self-harm

text: The World Health Organization estimates that, as of 2010, 880,000 deaths occur as a result of self-harm. About 10% of admissions to medical wards in the UK are as a result of self-harm, the majority of which are drug overdoses. However, studies based only on hospital admissions may hide the larger group of self-harmers who do not need or seek hospital treatment for their injuries, instead treating themselves. Many adolescents who present to general hospitals with deliberate self-harm report previous episodes for which they did not receive medical attention. In the United States up to 4% of adults self-harm with approximately 1% of the population engaging in chronic or severe self-harm.


title: Self-harm

text: Current research suggests that the rates of self-harm are much higher among young people with the average age of onset between 14 and 24. The earliest reported incidents of self-harm are in children between 5 and 7 years old. In the UK in 2008 rates of self-harm in young people could be as high as 33%. In addition there appears to be an increased risk of self-harm in college students than among the general population. In a study of undergraduate students in the US, 9.8% of the students surveyed indicated that they had purposefully cut or burned themselves on at least one occasion in the past. When the definition of self-harm was expanded to include head-banging, scratching oneself, and hitting oneself along with cutting and burning, 32% of the sample said they had done this. In Ireland, a study found that instances of hospital-treated self-harm were much higher in city and urban districts, than in rural settings. The CASE (Child & Adolescent Self-harm in Europe) study suggests that the life-time risk of self-injury is ~1:7 for women and ~1:25 for men.


title: Self-harm

text: In general, the latest aggregated research has found no difference in the prevalence of self-harm between men and women. This is in contrast to past research which indicated that up to four times as many females as males have direct experience of self-harm. However, caution is needed in seeing self-harm as a greater problem for females, since males may engage in different forms of self-harm (e.g., hitting themselves) which could be easier to hide or explained as the result of different circumstances. Hence, there remain widely opposing views as to whether the gender paradox is a real phenomenon, or merely the artifact of bias in data collection.


title: Self-harm

text: The WHO/EURO Multicentre Study of Suicide, established in 1989, demonstrated that, for each age group, the female rate of self-harm exceeded that of the males, with the highest rate among females in the 13–24 age group and the highest rate among males in the 12–34 age group. However, this discrepancy has been known to vary significantly depending upon population and methodological criteria, consistent with wide-ranging uncertainties in gathering and interpreting data regarding rates of self-harm in general. Such problems have sometimes been the focus of criticism in the context of broader psychosocial interpretation. For example, feminist author Barbara Brickman has speculated that reported gender differences in rates of self-harm are due to deliberate socially biased methodological and sampling errors, directly blaming medical discourse for pathologising the female.


title: Self-harm

text: This gender discrepancy is often distorted in specific populations where rates of self-harm are inordinately high, which may have implications on the significance and interpretation of psychosocial factors other than gender. A study in 2003 found an extremely high prevalence of self-harm among 428 homeless and runaway youths (aged 16–19) with 72% of males and 66% of females reporting a history of self-harm. However, in 2008, a study of young people and self-harm saw the gender gap widen in the opposite direction, with 32% of young females, and 22% of young males admitting to self-harm. Studies also indicate that males who self-harm may also be at a greater risk of completing suicide.


title: Self-harm

text: There does not appear to be a difference in motivation for self-harm in adolescent males and females. Triggering factors such as low self-esteem and having friends and family members who self-harm are also common between both males and females. One limited study found that, among those young individuals who do self-harm, both genders are just as equally likely to use the method of skin-cutting. However, females who self-cut are more likely than males to explain their self-harm episode by saying that they had wanted to punish themselves. In New Zealand, more females are hospitalized for intentional self-harm than males. Females more commonly choose methods such as self-poisoning that generally are not fatal, but still serious enough to require hospitalization.


title: Self-harm

text: In a study of a district general hospital in the UK, 5.4% of all the hospital's self-harm cases were aged over 65. The male to female ratio was 2:3 although the self-harm rates for males and females over 65 in the local population were identical. Over 90% had depressive conditions, and 63% had significant physical illness. Under 10% of the patients gave a history of earlier self-harm, while both the repetition and suicide rates were very low, which could be explained by the absence of factors known to be associated with repetition, such as personality disorder and alcohol abuse. However, NICE Guidance on Self-harm in the UK suggests that older people who self-harm are at a greater risk of completing suicide, with 1 in 5 older people who self-harm going on to end their life. A study completed in Ireland showed that older Irish adults have high rates of deliberate self-harm, but comparatively low rates of suicide.


title: Self-harm

text: Only recently have attempts to improve health in the developing world concentrated on not only physical illness but also mental health. Deliberate self-harm is common in the developing world. Research into self-harm in the developing world is however still very limited although an important case study is that of Sri Lanka, which is a country exhibiting a high incidence of suicide and self-poisoning with agricultural pesticides or natural poisons. Many people admitted for deliberate self-poisoning during a study by Eddleston "et al." were young and few expressed a desire to die, but death was relatively common in the young in these cases. The improvement of medical management of acute poisoning in the developing world is poor and improvements are required in order to reduce mortality.


title: Self-harm

text: Some of the causes of deliberate self-poisoning in Sri Lankan adolescents included bereavement and harsh discipline by parents. The coping mechanisms are being spread in local communities as people are surrounded by others who have previously deliberately harmed themselves or attempted suicide. One way of reducing self-harm would be to limit access to poisons; however many cases involve pesticides or yellow oleander seeds, and the reduction of access to these agents would be difficult. Great potential for the reduction of self-harm lies in education and prevention, but limited resources in the developing world make these methods challenging.