title: Shrine

text: Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 852 AH) explicitly stated that travelling to visit the tomb of the Prophet was ""one of the best of actions and the noblest of pious deeds with which one draws near to God, and its legitimacy is a matter of consensus."" Similarly, Ibn Qudamah (d. 620 AH) considered "ziyāra" of the Prophet to be recommended and also seeking intercession directly from the Prophet at his grave.


title: Shrine

text: The tombs of other Muslim religious figures are also respected. The son of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, one of the primary jurists of Sunnism, reportedly stated that he would prefer to be buried near the mausoleum of a saintly person than his own father. While in some parts of the Muslim world the mausoleums of the tombs are seen as simply places of "ziyāra" of a religious figure's gravesite ("Mazār"/"Maqbara"), in others (such as the Indian subcontinent) they are treated as proper shrines ("Dargah").


title: Shrine

text: Many modern Islamic reformers oppose the building (and sometimes the visitation of) tomb shrines, viewing it as a deviation from true Islam. This mainly includes followers of the Wahhabi and Salafi movements, which believe that shrines over graves encourage idolatry/polytheism ("shirk") and that there is a risk of worshipping other than God (the dead).


title: Shrine

text: The founder of the Wahhabi movement, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab derived the prohibition to build mosques over graves from a "hadith" attributed to the Prophet Muhammad in which he said ""May God curse the Jews and Christians who make the graves of their prophets into places of worship; do not imitate them."" Additionally, he commanded leveling of the graves ("taswiyat al-qubur"), which the scholar Imam Al-Shafi'i supported.


title: Shrine

text: The Wahhabi movement was heavily influenced by the works of the medieval Hanbali theologian Ibn Taymiyyah who was considered by them to be the "ultimate authority on a great number of issues". One of these issues was the position on the visitation of the Prophet's tomb. According to Ibn Taymiyyah all the "ahadith" encouraging the visitation of the Prophet's tomb are fabricated ("mawdu‘"), are not contained in the six main collections of "hadith" or "Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal", and violate "tawhid al-uluhiya".


title: Shrine

text: This view of Ibn Taymiyyah was rejected by some mainstream Sunni scholars both during his life and after his death. The Shafi'i hadith master Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani stated that ""This is one of the ugliest positions that has been reported of Ibn Taymiyya"". The Hanafi hadith scholar Ali al-Qari stated that, ""Amongst the Hanbalis, Ibn Taymiyya has gone to an extreme by prohibiting travelling to visit the Prophet – may God bless him and grant him peace"" Qastallani stated that ""The Shaykh Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya has abominable and odd statements on this issue to the effect that travelling to visit the Prophet is prohibited and is not a pious deed.""


title: Shrine

text: Shias have several mazars dedicated to various religious figures important in their history, and several elaborate shrines ("Marqad"/"Maqam") are dedicated to Shia religious figures, most notably in Iraq (such as in the cities of Karbala, Najaf, Samarra) and in Iran (such as in the cities of Qom and Mashad).


title: Shrine

text: Specific examples of Shia shrines include the Al-Askari Shrine, and Imam Hussein Shrine. Other Shia shrines are located in the eponymous cities of "Mazar-e Sharif" ("The Noble Mausoleum") in Afghanistan, and "Mashhad" ("al-Rida") ("Martyrium [of Ali Rida ]") in Iran. The Mausoleum of Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran houses the tombs of Ruhollah Khomenei, the leader of Iran's 1978–79 revolution, his wife, and a few other related people.


title: Shrine

text: In popular Sufism, one common practice is to visit or make pilgrimages to the tombs of saints, renowned scholars, and righteous people. This is a particularly common practice in the Indian subcontinent, where famous tombs include of saints such as Sayyid Ali Hamadani in Kulob, Tajikistan; Afāq Khoja, near Kashgar, China; Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sindh; Ali Hujwiri in Lahore, Pakistan; Bahauddin Zakariya in Multan Pakistan; Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, India; Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi, India; and Shah Jalal in Sylhet, Bangladesh. Likewise, in Fez, Morocco, a popular destination for pious visitation is the Zaouia Moulay Idriss II. The area around Timbuktu in Mali also has many historic Sufi shrines which were destroyed by Islamist in recent years. Many of these have since been rebuilt. A saint's tomb is a site of great veneration where blessings or baraka continue to reach the deceased holy person and are deemed (by some) to benefit visiting devotees and pilgrims according to Sufi beliefs. In order to show reverence to Sufi saints, kings, and nobles provided large donations or waqf to preserve the tombs and renovate them architecturally. Over time, these donation, rituals, annual commemorations formed into an elaborate system of accepted norms. These forms of Sufi practise created an aura of spiritual and religious traditions around prescribed dates. Many orthodox or Islamic purists denounce these visiting grave rituals, especially the expectation of receiving blessings from the venerated saints.


title: Shrine

text: The two most well-known Baháʼí Faith shrines serve as the resting places for the respective remains of the two central figures of the Baháʼí Faith, the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh. They are the focal points of a Baháʼí pilgrimage:


title: Shrine

text: Other sites have been designated as Baháʼí Shrines, the most notable being the home of William Sutherland Maxwell and May Maxwell in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.


title: Shrine

text: In Buddhism, a shrine refers to a place where veneration is focused on Lord Buddha or one of the bodhisattvas or arahants. Monks, nuns and laity will pay homage to these revered images at these shrines or will also meditate in front of the shrines.


title: Shrine

text: Typically, Buddhist shrines contain a statue of either Gautama Buddha, or (in the Mahayana and Vajrayana forms of Buddhism), one of the various Buddhas or bodhisattvas. They also commonly contain candles, along with offerings such as flowers, purified water, food, and incense. Many shrines also contain sacred relics, such as the famous sacred tooth of Lord Buddha installed at a shrine in Sri Lanka.


title: Shrine

text: Site-specific shrines in Buddhism, particularly those that contain relics of past Buddhas and revered enlightened monks, are often designed in the traditional form known as the Stupa or Cetiya.


title: Shrine

text: Ancient Filipinos and Filipinos who continue to adhere to the indigenous Philippine folk religions generally do not have so-called "temples" of worship under the context known to foreign cultures. However, they do have sacred shrines, which are also called as spirit houses. They can range in size from small roofed platforms, to structures similar to a small house (but with no walls), to shrines that look similar to pagodas, especially in the south where early mosques were also modeled in the same way. These shrines were known in various indigenous terms, which depend on the ethnic group association. They can also be used as places to store "taotao" and caskets of ancestors. Among Bicolanos, "taotao" were also kept inside sacred caves called "moog".


title: Shrine

text: During certain ceremonies, "anito" are venerated through temporary altars near sacred places. These were called "latangan" or "lantayan" in Visayan and "dambana" or "lambana" in Tagalog. These bamboo or rattan altars are identical in basic construction throughout most of the Philippines. They were either small roof-less platforms or standing poles split at the tip (similar to a tiki torch). They held halved coconut shells, metal plates, or "martaban" jars as receptacles for offerings. "Taotao" may sometimes also be placed on these platforms.


title: Shrine

text: Other types of sacred places or objects of worship of "diwata" include the material manifestation of their realms. The most widely venerated were "balete" trees (also called "nonok", "nunuk", "nonoc", etc.) and anthills or termite mounds ("punso"). Other examples include mountains, waterfalls, tree groves, reefs, and caves.


title: Shrine

text: In Germanic paganism, types of shrines were employed, but terms for the shrines show some level of ambiguity:


title: Shrine

text: In Hinduism, a shrine is a place where gods or goddesses are worshipped. Shrines are typically located inside a Hindu temple of various forms. Most Hindu families have a household shrine as well. For example, according to memoirs of Stephen Huyler of his visits to some Hindu homes, a part of home was dedicated to the household shrine. Here, image of a deity was placed and offered prayers, instead of visits to a temple. Among Tamil Hindu homes, according to Pintchman, a shrine in Kitchen is more common. If the family is wealthy, it may locate the household shrine in a separate room.


title: Shrine

text: The line between a temple and a shrine in Taoism is not fully defined; shrines are usually smaller versions of larger Taoist temples or small places in a home where a yin-yang emblem is placed among peaceful settings to encourage meditation and study of Taoist texts and principles. Taoists place less emphasis on formalized attendance but include ritualized worship than other Asian religions; formal temples and structures of worship came about in Taoism with the influence from Buddhism.


title: Shrine

text: Frequent features of Taoist shrines include the same features as full temples, often including any or all of the following features: gardens, running water or fountains, small burning braziers or candles (with or without incense), and copies of Taoist texts such as the Tao Te Ching, Zhuangzi or other texts by Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu or other Taoist sages.


title: Shrine

text: A number of Confucian temples and shrines exist across the sinophone world, it is a temple for the veneration of Confucius, great sages, eminent philosophers of Confucianism and also the Disciples of Confucius. These temples are known as "Temples of Confucius" (孔廟) or "Temples of Literature" (文廟). Unlike Taoist temples, Confucian temples usually do not installed the images of Confucius but the tablets. It is argued that the temple was to honour Confucius's teachings, not Confucius himself. The temples consist of gardens and then a large pavilion where incense is burnt. The tablet or sometime an image of Confucius is usually placed in the main shrine.


title: Shrine

text: Confucian shrines exist outside of China too, mainly in Japan, Korea and Vietnam. There are also quite a number of Confucian shrines in Taiwan like Tainan Confucian Temple and Taipei Confucius Temple, they are well-maintained by the government. However, many Taoist temples dedicated a shrine for the worship of Confucius or Wen Chang Di Jun (God of Literature).


title: Shrine

text: In some countries around the world, landmarks may be called "historic shrines." Notable shrines of this type include:


title: Shrine

text: Halls of fame also serve as shrines into which single or multiple individuals are inducted on the basis of their influence upon regions, cultures or disciplines. Busts or full-body statues are often erected and placed alongside each other in commemoration. This includes Halls of Fame that honor sports athletes, where an athlete's entrance to the hall is commonly described as "enshrinement".


title: Shrine

text: By extension the term "shrine" has come to mean any place dedicated completely to a particular person or subject such as the Shrine of the Sun in Colorado Springs, Colorado.


title: Spin Master

text: Spin Master is a Canadian multinational toy and entertainment company that markets consumer products for children. Its brands include "Bakugan", Gund, Etch A Sketch, Meccano/ Erector, Air Hogs, "PAW Patrol", Aquadoodle, Tech Deck, Hatchimals, Rubik's Cube, and Zoomer. Spin Master employs over 1,600 people globally with offices in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam.


title: Spin Master

text: Since 2002, Spin Master has received 92 "Toy of The Year" (TOTY) nominations with 28 wins across a variety of product categories, including 13 TOTY nominations for "Innovative Toy of the Year", more than any other toy company. In 2022, Spin Master won The Golden Screen Award for Feature Film, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, for PAW Patrol: The Movie. The Golden Screen Award recognizes the Canadian film that grossed the highest domestic box office over the time period of Jan 1, 2021 to Feb 24, 2022. As of 2021, Chase the police pup and Marshall the firefighting pup, two characters from "PAW Patrol", are the company's mascots.


title: Spin Master

text: Three college friends from the Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario - Ronnen Harary, Anton Rabie and Ben Varadi - founded Spin Master with $10,000 in Toronto in 1994. The company's first product, "Earth Buddies", were small heads made out of Kmart pantyhose and grass seeds, which grew "hair" when watered. The Earth Buddy went on to sell over 26,000 units.


title: Spin Master

text: Spin Master's first major success came in 1998 with the launch of the Air Hogs brand and its first item, the "Sky Shark". Developed from the prototype provided by inventors John Dixon and Peter Manning, the Sky Shark was a foam plane that used compressed air to enable outdoor flight. Product development took over two years and more than $500,000, but ended up generating $103 million in revenue over the next few years. The Sky Shark put Spin Master on the map, becoming one of the most popular toys in the world and earning them a slot on daytime television Regis and Kathie Lee alongside other international press.


title: Spin Master

text: The company, which had grown to 28 employees by 1999, told the LA Times they were already “assessing 1,000 inventions a year.” They’d moved their manufacturing supply chain to Hong Kong in 1998 and were ready to rise as a new name in the toy industry.


title: Spin Master

text: The company scored another success in 1999, with Flix Trix Finger Bikes, a string of 1/2 inch replicas of BMX bikes. In 2003, the company made its first corporate acquisition buying Bounce ‘Round, a company that created scaled down versions of the inflatable bouncy castles. Over the next handful of years, Spin Master opened offices in the United States, Japan and Western Europe.


title: Spin Master

text: In 2008, Spin Master launched the Bakugan Battle Brawlers franchise, a card game developed in conjunction with Sega Toys, featured plastic balls which burst open to reveal anime-style characters. Bakugan reached almost $1 billion in yearly sales.


title: Spin Master

text: Under Harary's leadership, Spin Master Entertainment launched with Bakugan Battle Brawlers the animated action adventure television series under the direction of Mitsuo Hashimoto. To date, Spin Master Entertainment has developed six television series with over 400 cumulative episodes. In 2019, Abby Hatcher, an animated preschool series debuted on Nickelodeon on January 1, 2019, in the U.S. The show centers on Abby and her new friends the Fuzzlies, who are amazing and quirky creatures that live in her family's hotel. Together with her best Fuzzly friend Bozzly, Abby goes on wild adventures to fix Fuzzly mishaps and help them in any way she can. In 2020, Spin Master launched its first direct to Netflix series, Mighty Express. The show follows a team of trains and their kid best-buddies as they keep things moving and get the delivery through no matter what the trouble -one thrilling adventure after another.


title: Spin Master

text: In August 2013, Spin Master acquired the Erector Set by Meccano construction set line. In June 2015, Spin Master entered into an agreement to acquire Cardinal Industries, a 60-year-old game and puzzles company. The purchase made Spin Master the second largest games company in the United States. A month after announcing it was buying Cardinal, Spin Master made its initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange.


title: Spin Master

text: In January 2016 Spin Master purchased the library of board games owned by Editrice Giochi SRL, one of the oldest privately held toy game companies in Italy. In February 2016, Spin Master bought the Etch A Sketch and Doodle Sketch brands from The Ohio Art Company for an undisclosed price. In April 2016, Spin Master purchased digital toy makers Toca Boca and Sago Mini from the Bonnier Group of Sweden. In August 2016 Spin Master diversified into the water and outdoor sports category through the acquisition of Swimways corporation.


title: Spin Master

text: In 2017, Spin Master acquired Marbles, a firm known for creating games, gifts and gadgets and the maker of Otrio; Aerobie, a leading producer of outdoor flying disks and sports toys; and Perplexus, a 3D ball-in-a-maze Spin Master had been distributing since 2013.


title: Spin Master

text: In March 2018, Spin Master acquired the 120 year old stuffed toy brand Gund. Spin Master is now a $1.5 billion (sales) company, which employs over 1,600 people in 16 countries. At the end of 2019, Spin Master completed the acquisition of the award-winning Orbeez brand from Maya Toys, complementing its growing Activities segment. Also in 2019 Spin Master started a ten year toy licensing contract with Monster Jam ending a previous toy licensing deal between Monster Jam and Mattel who marketed it Monster Jam toys under the Hot Wheels line.


title: Spin Master

text: In February 2020, Spin Master announced the theatrical release of the PAW Patrol movie, a Spin Master Entertainment production in association with Nickelodeon Movies and distributed by Paramount Pictures. PAW Patrol: The Movie released in theatres on August 20, 2021, grossing $142 million worldwide. Following the success of its first theatrical film for the franchise, Spin Master announced that production had begun on a sequel, PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie slated to release on October 13, 2023. On 27 October 2020, Spin Master said it will pay $50 million for Rubik's Cube, the iconic game invented nearly 50 years ago. The acquisition was completed on 5 January 2021. At the end of 2020, Spin Master announced executive leadership changes appointing Max Rangel as Global President effective January 2021, assuming the position of Global President and CEO in April 2021.


title: Spin Master

text: In 2021, Spin Master launched the Future of Play Scholarship committing to invest $100,000 in financial aid annually to the education and mentorship of underrepresented individuals. On October 19, 2021, Spin Master established Spin Master Ventures, a $100 million venture fund to back up games, toys and entertainment startups with investments made in Nordlight, a game development company in Stockholm and Hoot Reading, an online tutoring service that provides reading lessons to children. By the end of 2021, Spin Master had grown to a global children's entertainment company, employing over 2,000 people in 28 offices around the world.


title: Spin Master

text: "Spin Master Games" is the board game division of the company. Spin Master also owns Cardinal Industries, Marbles and Editrice Giochi board and card game publishers. Spin Master Games publishes titles such as:


title: Spin Master

text: Alongside the company's toy and board game businesses, they are the company behind several successful kids' media franchises:


title: Spin Master

text: In 2012, Spin Master launched its first digital gaming app for Tech Deck. Other successful apps connected to the company's entertainment and toy Intellectual properties followed and, in 2016, Spin Master expanded its offering in the digital space with the acquisition of global mobile and digital app brands Toca Boca and Sago Mini. Spin Master Digital Games' most popular titles include:


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: The Passion of Joan of Arc () is a 1928 French silent historical film based on the actual record of the trial of Joan of Arc. The film was directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and stars Renée Jeanne Falconetti as Joan. It is widely regarded as a landmark of cinema, especially for its production, Dreyer's direction and Falconetti's performance, which is often listed as one of the finest in cinema history. The film summarizes the time that Joan of Arc was a captive of England, depicting her trial and execution.


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: Danish director Dreyer was invited to make a film in France by the Société Générale des Films and chose to make a film about Joan of Arc due to her renewed popularity in France. Dreyer spent over a year researching Joan of Arc and the transcripts of her trial before writing the script. Dreyer cast stage actress Falconetti as Joan in her only major film role. Falconetti's performance and devotion to the role during filming have become legendary among film scholars.


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: The film was shot on one huge concrete set modeled on medieval architecture in order to realistically portray the Rouen prison. The film is known for its cinematography and use of close-ups. Dreyer did not allow the actors to wear make-up and used lighting designs that made the actors look more grotesque. Prior to its release, the film was controversial due to French nationalists' skepticism about whether a Dane could direct a film about one of France's most revered historical icons. Dreyer's final version of the film was cut down due to pressure from the Archbishop of Paris and government censors. For several decades, it was released and viewed in various re-edited versions that attempted to restore Dreyer's final cut. In 1981, a print of Dreyer's final cut was discovered in Dikemark Hospital, a mental institution just outside Oslo, Norway, and re-released.


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: Despite the objections and cutting of the film by clerical and government authorities, it was a major critical success when first released and has consistently been considered one of the greatest films ever made since 1928. It has been praised and referenced by many film directors and musicians. In 1958, the film was voted number 4 on the prestigious Brussels 12 list at the 1958 World Expo.


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: After having led the French in numerous battles against the English during the Hundred Years' War, Joan of Arc is captured near Compiegne and eventually brought to Rouen to stand trial for heresy by French clergymen loyal to the English.


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: On 30 May 1431, Joan is interrogated by the French clerical court. Her judges, who are on the side of the Burgundian-English coalition and against the King of France, try to make her say something that will discredit her claim or shake her belief that she has been given a mission by God to drive the English from France, but she remains steadfast. One or two of them, believing that she is indeed a saint, support her. The authorities then resort to deception. A priest reads a false letter in the prison to the illiterate Joan, supposedly from King Charles VII of France, telling her to trust in the bearer. When that too fails, Joan is taken to view the torture chamber, but the sight, though it causes her to faint, does not intimidate her.


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: When she is threatened with burning at the stake, Joan finally breaks and allows a priest to guide her hand in signing a confession. However, the judge then condemns her to life imprisonment. After the jailer shaves her head, she realises that she has been unfaithful to God. She demands that the judges return and she recants her confession.


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: As more and more around her begin to recognise her true faith and calling, she is permitted a final communion mass. She is then dressed in sackcloth and taken to the place of execution. She helps the executioner tie her bonds. The crowds gather and the fire is lit. As the flames rise, the women weep and a man cries out, ""vous avez brûlé une sainte"" ("you have burned a saint"). The troops prepare for a riot. As the flames consume Joan, the troops and crowd clash and people are killed. A subtitle states that the flames protect her soul as it rises to Heaven.


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: After the success of "Master of the House" in Denmark, Dreyer was invited to make a film in France by the Société Gėnėrale des Films, and proposed a film about Marie Antoinette, Catherine de Medici or Joan of Arc. He claimed that the final decision on the film's subject was determined by drawing matches. Joan of Arc was in the news after World War I, having been canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church in 1920, and named one of the patron saints of France. Dreyer spent over a year and a half researching Joan, the script based on the original transcripts of her trial, condensing 29 interrogations over the course of 18 months into one day. The rights to Joseph Delteil's 1925 anti-conformist book on Joan were bought for the production. Nothing from Delteil's book was used in the film; however, he was credited as a source. In an essay for the Danish Film Institute, Dreyer stated what he sought to achieve: "I wanted to interpret a hymn to the triumph of the soul over life."


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: Joan of Arc was Renée Jeanne Falconetti's second and last film role. Although she always preferred the art of theater to cinema and said she never understood the positive reaction to the film's acting, Falconetti's performance achieved iconic status in film history almost immediately. Dreyer had gone to see Falconetti backstage at a performance of Victor Margueritte's "La Garçonne", a comedic play in which she was appearing. He was initially unimpressed, but upon seeing her a second time the day after, Dreyer said he "felt there was something in her which could be brought out; something she could give, something, therefore, I could take. For behind the make-up, behind the pose and that ravishing modern appearance, there was something. There was a soul behind that facade." Dreyer asked her to do some screen tests the next day, but without any make-up. During the tests, he "found in her face exactly what I wanted for Joan: a country girl, very sincere, but also a woman of suffering." Dreyer then told Falconetti about the film and her role in great detail. She agreed to star in the film, secretly hoping that she would not have to cut her hair or forgo make-up.


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: Jean Renoir praised her performance and said "That shaven head was and remains the abstraction of the whole epic of Joan of Arc." She was famously treated harshly by Dreyer, who had a reputation for being a tyrannical director. Dreyer would always clear the set whenever Falconetti needed to act in a particularly emotional or important scene, allowing her to focus without any distractions. Dreyer often had difficulties explaining himself to Falconetti and was known to turn bright red and begin stammering when passionately directing her. Dreyer had stated that a director "must be careful never to force his own interpretation on an actor, because an actor cannot create truth and pure emotions on command. One cannot push feelings out. They have to arise from themselves, and it is the director's and actor's work in unison to bring them to that point." Later in post-production, Falconetti was the only cast member to watch the rushes and the film's editing. According to critic Roger Ebert:


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: For Falconetti, the performance was an ordeal. Legends from the set tell of Dreyer forcing her to kneel painfully on stone and then wipe all expression from her face—so that the viewer would read suppressed or inner pain. He filmed the same shots again and again, hoping that in the editing room he could find exactly the right nuance in her facial expression.


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: Among the other cast members was French playwright Antonin Artaud as the monk Massieu. Artaud later stated that the film was meant to "reveal Joan as the victim of one of the most terrible of all perversions: the perversion of a divine principle in its passage through the minds of men, whether they be Church, Government or what you will."


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: The camerawork of "The Passion of Joan of Arc" was highly unconventional in its radical emphasis on the actors' facial features. Dreyer shot much of the film in close-up, stating, "There were questions, there were answers- very short, very crisp... Each question, each answer, quite naturally called for a close-up... In addition, the result of the close-ups was that the spectator was as shocked as Joan was, receiving the questions, tortured by them." Dreyer also did not allow his actors to wear makeup, the better to tell the story through their expressions—this choice was made possible through use of the recently developed panchromatic film, which recorded skin tones in a naturalistic manner.


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: Dreyer often shot the priests and Joan's other interrogators in high contrast lighting, but then shot Joan in soft, even lighting. Rudolph Maté's high-contrast cinematography also allowed unappealing details in people's faces, such as warts and lumps, to be fully visible. In addition, Dreyer employed many low-angle shots of Joan's persecutors so that they would appear more monstrous and intimidating; in the effort to do this, several holes were dug on the set for the camera to film from the appropriate angle, causing the crew to nickname him "Carl Gruyére". Dreyer also shot the film "from the first to the last scene ... in the right order."


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: The film had one of the most expensive sets ever built for a European film up to that time. Upon being given a budget of seven million francs, Dreyer constructed an enormous octagonal concrete set to depict Rouen Castle. Production designers Hermann Warm and Jean Hugo were inspired by medieval miniatures for their designs, adding unnatural angles and perspectives to add to Joan's emotional state of mind. They also relied on medieval manuscripts with accurate architectural drawings, such as John Mandeville's "Livre de Merveilles". The huge set was built as one complete, interconnecting structure instead of in separate locations. The castle had towers in all four corners with concrete walls running along the sides. Each wall was 10 centimeters thick so that they could support the weight of actors, technicians and equipment. A functional drawbridge was also built into one of the walls. Inside the walls were small houses, the courtyard where the burning took place and a cathedral. The entire set was painted pink so that it would appear grey in the black and white film and contrast against the white sky above it.


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: Regardless of the detail put into the set, only segments of it are ever visible in the film, which later angered the film's producers since so much money was spent on the set. Dreyer later expressed, however, that the scope of the set heightened the abilities of the actors and actresses to give convincing performances. Hermann Warm's original models for the film's set are currently stored at the Danish Film Institute Archives.


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: "The Passion of Joan of Arc" debuted on 21 April 1928 at the Palads Teatret cinema in Copenhagen. After a few private screenings, it finally premiered in Paris on 25 October 1928 at the Cinema Marivaux. The film's release was delayed due to the persistent efforts of many French nationalists – who objected to the fact that Dreyer was neither Catholic nor French, and to the then-rumored casting of Lillian Gish as Joan. As early as January 1927, Jean-Jose Frappa said that "whatever the talent of the director (and he has it)...he cannot give us a Joan of Arc in the true French tradition. And the American 'star'...cannot be our Joan, wholesome, lively, shining with purity, faith, courage and patriotism. To let this be made in France would be a scandalous abdication of responsibility." Before its French premiere, several cuts were made by order of the Archbishop of Paris and by government censors. Dreyer was angered by these cuts, as he had no control over them. Later that year on 6 December, a fire at UFA studios in Berlin destroyed the film's original negative; only a few copies of Dreyer's original cut of the film existed. Dreyer was able to patch together a new version of the original cut using alternate and initially unused takes. This version was also destroyed in a 1929 lab fire. Over the next four decades, it became difficult to find copies of Dreyer's second version, and copies of the original were thought to be even scarcer.


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: It was re-released in 1933 in a 61-minute cut which included a new narration by radio star David Ross, but no intertitles. In 1951, Joseph-Marie Lo Duca found a copy of the negative of Dreyer's second version in the Gaumont Studios vaults. Lo Duca then made several significant changes, including the addition of a Baroque score and the replacing of many intertitles with subtitles. For many years, Lo Duca's version was the only one available. Dreyer himself objected to this cut, however.


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: The next version of the film was produced by Arnie Krogh of the Danish Film Institute. Krogh cut together scenes and sequences from several different available prints to attempt to create a cut that was as true to Dreyer's original vision as possible.


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: The original version was lost for decades after a fire destroyed the master negative and only variations of Dreyer's second version were available. In 1981, an employee of the Dikemark Hospital mental institution in Asker found several film canisters in a janitor's closet that were labeled as being "The Passion of Joan of Arc". The canisters were sent to the Norwegian Film Institute where they were first stored for three years until finally being examined. It was then discovered that they were Dreyer's original cut prior to government or church censorship. There were never any records of the film being shipped to Asker, but film historians believe that the then director of the institution may have requested a special copy since he was a friend of Dreyer's and also a published historian, and an expert on stigmata. The Catholic Church had condemned Dreyer's depiction of Joan's stigmata.


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: On its initial release, the film was a critical success and immediately called a masterpiece. However, it was a huge financial flop and caused the Société Générale to cancel its contract with Dreyer after the failure of this film and of Abel Gance's "Napoléon". Dreyer angrily accused the Société Générale of mutilating the film so as to avoid offending Catholic viewers and sued them for breach of contract. The lawsuit went on until the fall of 1931, during which time Dreyer was unable to make another film. It was banned in Britain for its portrayal of crude English soldiers who mock and torment Joan in scenes that mirror biblical accounts of Christ's mocking at the hands of Roman soldiers. The Archbishop of Paris was also critical, demanding changes be made.


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: ... as a film work of art this takes precedence over anything that has so far been produced. It makes worthy pictures of the past look like tinsel shams. It fills one with such intense admiration that other pictures appear but trivial in comparison.


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: Of the star, he wrote, "... it is the gifted performance of Maria Falconetti as the Maid of Orleans that rises above everything in this artistic achievement."


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: However "Variety" gave the film a negative review on its initial release, calling it "a deadly tiresome picture." In 1929, The National Board of Review named the film one of the best foreign films of the year.


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: The film and Falconetti's performance have continued to be praised by critics. Pauline Kael wrote that Falconetti's portrayal "may be the finest performance ever recorded on film." Roger Ebert praised the film and said that "You cannot know the history of silent film unless you know the face of Renée Maria Falconetti." Jean Sémolué called it "a film of confrontation" and Paul Schrader has praised "the architecture of Joan's world, which literally conspires against her; like the faces of her inquisitors, the halls, doorways, furniture are on the offensive, striking, swooping at her with oblique angles, attacking her with hard-edged chunks of black and white." Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote that "Dreyer's radical approach to constructing space and the slow intensity of his mobile style make[s] this “difficult” in the sense that, like all the greatest films, it reinvents the world from the ground up."


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: Some critics have found faults in the film, and Paul Rotha called it "one of the most remarkable productions ever realized in the history and development of cinema, "but it was not a full exposition of real filmic properties"". Tom Milne stated that "somehow the style Dreyer found for the film seems irremediably false. Instead of flowing naturally from his chosen materials...it seems imposed upon them...Throughout the film there is a constant stylistic uncertainty, an impurity, which jars heavily today," but added that ""Jeanne d'Arc" has a majestic power which steamrollers its way through all its faults and excesses." On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a "Certified Fresh" rating of 98% based on 59 reviews, with an average rating of 9.10/10. The website's consensus reads, ""The Passion of Joan of Arc" is must-see cinema for Renée Maria Falconetti's incredible performance alone -- and an all-time classic for innumerable other reasons."


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: The "Village Voice" ranked it the eighth greatest film of the twentieth century in a 2000 poll of critics. In January 2002, the film was voted at No. 69 on the list of the "Top 100 Essential Films of All Time" by the National Society of Film Critics. The film was voted at No. 64 on the list of "100 Greatest Films" by the prominent French magazine "Cahiers du cinéma" in 2008. "The Passion of Joan of Arc" has appeared on "Sight & Sound" magazine's top ten films poll five times: as number seven in 1952 and 1972, as number ten (Critic's List) and six (Director's List) in 1992 and as number nine in 2012 (Critic's List). It ranked thirty-seventh on the Director's List in 2012 and was listed by such filmmakers as Manoel de Oliveira, Atom Egoyan, Tsai Ming-Liang, Walter Salles, Béla Tarr, Michael Mann, who called it "Human experience conveyed purely from the visualisation of the human face: no one else has composed and realised human beings quite like Dreyer in "The Passion of Joan of Arc"", and Kutlug Ataman, who said the film "taught me film could be just poetry and timeless." In 2010, "The Guardian" ranked the film 22nd in its list of 25 greatest arthouse films. In 2010, the Toronto International Film Festival released its "Essential 100" list of films, which merged one list of the 100 greatest films of all time as determined by an expert panel of TIFF curators with another list determined by TIFF stakeholders. "The Passion of Joan of Arc" was ranked as the most influential film of all time. Her performance was ranked 26th in "Premiere Magazine"'s "100 Greatest Performances of All Time", the highest of any silent performance on the list. In 2018 the film ranked 23rd on the BBC's list of the 100 greatest foreign-language films, as voted on by 209 film critics from 43 countries.


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: Scenes from the film appear in Jean-Luc Godard's "Vivre sa Vie" (1962), in which the protagonist Nana sees the film at a cinema and identifies with Joan. In "Henry & June", Henry Miller is shown watching the last scenes of the film and in voice-over narrates a letter to Anaïs Nin comparing her to Joan and himself to the "mad monk" character played by Antonin Artaud.


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: Different scores were used for the two premieres of the "Passion of Joan of Arc" in Copenhagen and Paris. The music of the Paris version, for orchestra and singers, has survived and has been revived. It was composed by Leo Pouget and Victor Alix, who as well as being film composers, both wrote operettas; Pouget was coming to the end of his career, whereas Alix was regarded by "Le Ménestrel" as becoming an established composer. Their score for the "Passion of Joan of Arc" has been seen in recent years as having some limitations, but seems to have been regarded as acceptable at the time.


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: In the 1920s, film music was normally played live in the theatre. However, some of the Pouget/Alix score was recorded. In 1929, selections were released in 78 format in a performance by "l'orchestre symphonique du Lutetia Wagram" (the "Lutetia Wagram" being a large Parisian cinema of the time, since demolished).


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: Dreyer also heard the soundtrack of Joseph-Marie Lo Duca's version of the film which came out in the 1950s. It featured Bach, Albinoni and Vivaldi: Dreyer disapproved; he appears not to have encountered a score which he considered definitive.


title: The Passion of Joan of Arc

text: Since Dreyer's death and the rediscovery of the original print, numerous composers have provided music for the film.


title: MacPherson strut

text: The MacPherson strut is a type of automotive suspension system that uses the top of a telescopic damper as the upper steering pivot. It is widely used in the front suspension of modern vehicles, and is named for American automotive engineer Earle S. MacPherson, who invented and developed the design.


title: MacPherson strut

text: Earle S. MacPherson was appointed the chief engineer of Chevrolet's Light Car project in 1945. He was tasked with developing a new, smaller car for the immediate post-war market, an effort that led to the Chevrolet Cadet.


title: MacPherson strut

text: The Cadet was poised to be a groundbreaking vehicle, and the three prototypes that had been built by 1946 displayed a wide range of innovations. One of these was a revolutionary new independent suspension system that featured what is now known as MacPherson strut. The Cadet was slated to be the first production vehicle with MacPherson struts, but the project was cancelled in 1947 and never saw commercial production. This was in large part due to GM's concerns about the Cadet's forecasted profit margins.


title: MacPherson strut

text: After the Cadet project was shelved, a disgruntled MacPherson left GM to join Ford. Patents were filed in 1947 ( for GM) and in 1949 ( for Ford), with the latter patent citing designs by Guido Fornaca of FIAT in the mid-1920s.


title: MacPherson strut

text: MacPherson's new strut design may have taken inspirations from other earlier designs as well. The strut suspension of the pre-war Stout Scarab could have been an influence, and long-travel struts in aircraft landing gear were well known by that time. The French Cottin-Desgouttes utilized a similar design, albeit with less sophisticated leaf springs, but the Cottin-Desgouttes front suspension was in turn inspired by a 1904 design by American engineer J. Walter Christie.


title: MacPherson strut

text: MacPherson designed the strut for all four wheels, but it is normally used for the front suspension only, where it provides a steering pivot as well as a suspension mounting for the wheel.


title: MacPherson strut

text: The first production car to use MacPherson struts is often cited incorrectly as the French 1949 Ford Vedette, but it was developed before MacPherson, with an independent front suspension based on wishbones and an upper coil spring. Only in 1954, after the Vedette factory had been purchased by Simca, did the revised Simca Vedette switch to using front struts.


title: MacPherson strut

text: Following MacPherson's arrival at Ford, the first production car to feature MacPherson struts was the British-built 1950 Ford Consul and the later Zephyr.


title: MacPherson strut

text: A MacPherson strut uses a wishbone, or a substantial compression link stabilized by a secondary link, which provides a mounting point for the hub carrier or axle of the wheel. The lower arm system provides both lateral and longitudinal location of the wheel. The upper part of the hub carrier is rigidly fixed to the bottom of the outer part of the strut proper. That slides up and down the inner part of it, which extends upwards directly to a mounting in the body shell of the vehicle. The line from the top mount of the strut to the bottom ball joint on the control arm gives the steering axis inclination. The axis of the strut may be angled inwards from the steering axis at the bottom, to clear the tyre, which makes the bottom follow an arc when steering.


title: MacPherson strut

text: The MacPherson strut benefited from introduction of unitary construction, because its design requires substantial vertical space and a strong top mount, which unibody construction can provide. Unibody construction also distributes suspension stresses. The strut will usually carry both the coil spring, on which the body is suspended, and the shock absorber, which is usually in the form of a cartridge mounted within the strut (see coilover). The strut can also have the steering arm built into the lower outer portion. The whole assembly is very simple and can be pre-assembled into a unit. As well, the elimination of the upper control arm allows for more width in the engine compartment, which is useful for smaller cars, particularly with transverse-mounted engines, such as most front wheel drive vehicles have. The assembly can be further simplified, if needed, by substituting an anti-roll bar (torsion bar) for the radius arm. For those reasons, it has become almost ubiquitous with low cost manufacturers. Furthermore, it offers an easy method to set suspension geometry.


title: MacPherson strut

text: Many modern versions replace the lower control arm with a wishbone. An anti-roll bar is optional and, if present, is attached by a ball-jointed rod to the spring-damper, or by a ball or elastomerically jointed rod to the wishbone.


title: MacPherson strut

text: Because MacPherson struts are packaged with a significant structure in the front crash structure of the car, it is easier to engineer cars that pass more stringent small overlap crashes with struts, as opposed to those with a double wishbone suspension. Notable examples include the Honda Accord and Civic, as well as the Mercedes E-Class, all of which adopted struts to improve crash performance. The overall simplicity of the design also means there are fewer joints in the suspension to wear, so there is less decline in handling and steering feel over time. Inverted monotube struts can also provide extra rigidity in the front suspension, as seen in the Porsche 911 GT3 and Cayman GT4, as well as the Subaru Impreza WRX STI. Finally, struts can package more efficiently than other types of front suspension, which allows for significant front cargo space in rear/mid-engined cars, such as the Porsche 911 and Boxster.


title: MacPherson strut

text: Geometric analysis shows the assembly cannot allow vertical movement of the wheel without some degree of either camber angle change, sideways movement, or both. It is not generally considered to give as good handling as a double wishbone or multi-link suspension, because it allows the engineers less freedom to choose camber change and roll center. Cars that have cockpit adjustable ride height generally cannot have MacPherson struts because of the camber changes that are an unavoidable part of the design. Ride suffers because the shock absorber has almost the same vertical motion as the wheel, so there is relatively little leverage to break the stiction in the seals. A standard single pivot MacPherson strut also tends to have positive scrub where the center of the steering axis is offset from the center of the front tires, which results in torque steer.


title: MacPherson strut

text: Despite the drawbacks, the MacPherson strut set-up is still used on some high performance cars, because they tend to have relatively small suspension travel, and so do not have the same kinematic problems.


title: MacPherson strut

text: Up until the 1989 model year (964), Porsche 911 used a similar strut design that did not have coil springs, using torsion bar suspension instead. Since then, all Porsche 911s have had front MacPherson struts, except the 992-based 911 GT3, which uses a double wishbone.


title: MacPherson strut

text: In recent years, General Motors and Ford have introduced a modified strut set-up, "Hi-Per Strut" and "Revoknuckle" respectively, that split the strut into two components that handle the up-and-down flexibility and steering dynamics separately. The benefits of this design are greater surface contact and reduction in torque steer. The drawbacks are the additional weight and cost, but it is less expensive than either a double wishbone or multi-link setup. Honda introduced another variation strut set-up, called "dual-axis", which is used in the suspension design of the Civic Type-R. Another variant of the MacPherson strut is the double pivot front suspension, which splits the lower wishbone into two while retaining the standard upright design of the MacPherson strut. That allows for better control of steering geometry and scrub radius, while allowing for a larger brake assembly.


title: Melvyn Bragg

text: Melvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg, (born 6 October 1939), is an English broadcaster, author and parliamentarian. He is best known for his work with ITV as editor and presenter of "The South Bank Show" (1978–2010), and for the BBC Radio 4 documentary series "In Our Time".


title: Melvyn Bragg

text: Earlier in his career, Bragg worked for the BBC in various roles including presenter, a connection that resumed in 1988 when he began to host "Start the Week" on Radio 4. After his ennoblement in 1998, he switched to presenting the new "In Our Time", an academic discussion radio programme, which has run to over 900 broadcast editions and is a popular podcast. He was Chancellor of the University of Leeds from 1999 until 2017.


title: Melvyn Bragg

text: Bragg was born on 6 October 1939 in Carlisle, the son of Stanley Bragg, a stock keeper turned mechanic, and Mary Ethel (née Park), a tailor; both the Braggs and Parks- both families of Cumberland- were agricultural labourers, also working at collieries and in domestic service. He was given the name Melvyn by his mother after she saw the actor Melvyn Douglas at a local cinema. He was raised in the small town of Wigton, where he attended the Wigton primary school and later The Nelson Thomlinson School, where he was Head Boy. He was an only child, born a year after his parents married. His father was away from home serving with the Royal Air Force for four years during the war. His upbringing and childhood experiences were typical of the working-class environment of that era.


title: Melvyn Bragg

text: When he was a child, he was led to believe that his mother's foster mother was his maternal grandmother. His grandmother had been forced to leave the town owing to the stigma of her daughter being born illegitimately. From the age of 8 until he left for university, his family home was above a pub in Wigton, the Black-A-Moor Hotel, of which his father had become the landlord. Into his teens he was a member of the Scouts and played rugby in his school's first team. Encouraged by a teacher who had recognised his work ethic, Bragg was one of an increasing number of working-class teenagers of the era being given a path to university through the grammar school system. He read Modern History at Oxford University, in the late 1950s and early 1960s.


title: Melvyn Bragg

text: Bragg began his career in 1961 as a general trainee at the BBC. He was the recipient of one of only three traineeships awarded that year. He spent his first two years in radio at the BBC World Service, then at the BBC Third Programme and BBC Home Service. He joined the production team of Huw Wheldon's "Monitor" arts series on BBC Television. He presented the BBC books programme "Read All About It" (and was also its editor, 1976–77) and "The Lively Arts", a BBC Two arts series. He then edited and presented the London Weekend Television (LWT) arts programme "The South Bank Show" from 1978 to 2010. His interview with playwright Dennis Potter shortly before his death is regularly cited as one of the most moving and memorable television moments ever. By being just as interested in popular as well as classical genres, he is credited with making the arts more accessible and less elitist.


title: Melvyn Bragg

text: He was Head of Arts at LWT from 1982 to 1990 and Controller of Arts at LWT from 1990. He is also known for his many programmes on BBC Radio 4, including "Start the Week" (1988 to 1998), "The Routes of English" (mapping the history of the English language), and "In Our Time" (1998 to present), which in March 2011 broadcast its 500th programme. Bragg's pending departure from the "South Bank Show" was portrayed by "The Guardian" as the last of the ITV grandees, speculating that the next generation of ITV broadcasters would not have the same longevity or influence as Bragg or his ITV contemporaries John Birt, Greg Dyke, Michael Grade and Christopher Bland.


title: Melvyn Bragg

text: In 2012 he brought "The South Bank Show" back to Sky Arts 1. In December 2012, he began "The Value of Culture", a five-part series on BBC Radio 4 examining the meaning of culture, expanding on Matthew Arnold's landmark (1869) collection of essays "Culture and Anarchy". In June 2013 Bragg wrote and presented "The Most Dangerous Man in Tudor England", broadcast by the BBC. This told the dramatic story of William Tyndale's mission to translate the Bible from the original languages to English. In February 2012, he began "Melvyn Bragg on Class and Culture", a three-part series on BBC2 examining popular media culture, with an analysis of the British social class system. Bragg appeared on the Front Row "Cultural Exchange" on May Day 2013. He nominated a self-portrait by Rembrandt as a piece of art which he had found especially interesting. In 2015, Bragg was appointed as a Vice President of the Royal Television Society.


title: Melvyn Bragg

text: Having produced unpublished short stories since the age of 19, Bragg had initially decided to become a writer after university. He recognised that writing would not, initially at least, earn him a living, and he took the opportunity at the BBC that arose after he had applied for posts in a variety of industries. While at the BBC, he continued writing. Publishing his first novel in 1965, he decided to leave the BBC to concentrate full-time on writing.


title: Melvyn Bragg

text: A novelist and writer of non-fiction, Bragg has also written a number of television and film screenplays. Some of his early television work was in collaboration with Ken Russell, for whom he wrote the biographical dramas "The Debussy Film" (1965) and "Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World" (1967), as well as Russell's film about Tchaikovsky, "The Music Lovers" (1970). Most of his novels are autobiographical fictions, set in and around the town of Wigton during his childhood. In 1972, he co-wrote the script for Norman Jewison's film "Jesus Christ Superstar" (1973).


title: Melvyn Bragg

text: Although he published several works, he was unable to make a living, forcing a return to television by the mid-1970s.


title: Melvyn Bragg

text: Bragg received a variety of reviews for his work, some critics declaring it outstanding and others suggesting it was lazy. Many suggested that splitting his time between writing and broadcasting was detrimental to the quality, and that his media profile and his known sensitivity to criticism made him an easy target for unjust reviews. "The Literary Review"'s prize mocking his writing of sex in fiction, according to "The Independent", was awarded not on readers' nominations, but simply because it would be good PR. From 1996 to 1998 he also wrote a column in "The Times" newspaper; he has also occasionally written for "The Sunday Times", "The Guardian" and "Observer".


title: Melvyn Bragg

text: Bragg's friends include the former Labour Party leaders Tony Blair, Neil Kinnock and Michael Foot, and former deputy leader Roy Hattersley. He was one of 100 donors who gave the Labour Party a sum in excess of £5,000 in 1997, the year the party came to power under Blair in the general election. The following year he was appointed by Blair to the House of Lords as the life peer Baron Bragg, "of Wigton in the County of Cumbria", one of a number of Labour donors given peerages. This led to accusations of cronyism from the defeated Conservative Party.


title: Melvyn Bragg

text: In the Lords he takes a keen interest in the arts and education. According to "The Guardian" in 2004, he voted 104 times out of a possible 226 in the 2002/3 session, only once against the government, on the Hunting Act. He campaigned against it on the grounds that it could affect the livelihoods of Cumbrian farmers. In August 2014, Bragg was one of 200 public figures who signed a letter to "The Guardian" opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.


title: Melvyn Bragg

text: Bragg has defended Christianity, particularly the King James Bible, although he does not claim to be a believer himself, seeing himself in Albert Einstein's term as a "believing unbeliever", adding that he is "unable to cross the River of Jordan which would lead me to the crucial belief in a godly eternity." In 2012, Bragg criticised what he claimed to be the "Animus and the ignorance" of the atheist debate.


title: Melvyn Bragg

text: In August 2016, Bragg publicly accused the National Trust of "bullying" in its "disgraceful purchase" of land in the Lake District, which could threaten the Herdwick rare breed of sheep as well as the Lake District's historic farming system, for which the region was nominated as a Unesco World Heritage site.


title: Melvyn Bragg

text: Bragg married his first wife, Marie-Elisabeth Roche, in 1961, and in 1965, they had a daughter, Marie-Elsa Bragg. Roche was a French viscountess studying painting at Oxford. In 1971, Roche died by suicide. In an interview with "The Guardian" in 1998, Bragg said, "I could have done things which helped and I did things which harmed. So yes, I feel guilt, I feel remorse."


title: Melvyn Bragg

text: Bragg's second wife, Cate Haste, whom he married in 1973, was also a television producer and writer, whose literary work includes editing the 2007 memoir of Clarissa Eden, widow of Anthony Eden, and collaborating with Cherie Booth, wife of Tony Blair, on a 2004 book about the wives of British prime ministers. They had a son and a daughter.


title: Melvyn Bragg

text: In June 2016 it was reported that Bragg and Haste had separated amicably, and that Bragg now shared a home with former film assistant Gabriel Clare-Hunt, with whom he had an affair in 1995. She is 16 years younger than him. The marriage between Haste and Bragg was dissolved in 2018. Haste died in April 2021.


title: Melvyn Bragg

text: In September 2019 he married Clare-Hunt at St Bega's Church in Bassenthwaite, part of the Lake District National Park. His eldest daughter, Marie-Elsa, a priest, conducted the service. His second daughter, Alice, read a lesson, whilst his son, Tom, was an usher. Guests included Cumbrian mountaineer Chris Bonington and the ceremony featured the premiere of music specially written by Bragg's friend composer Howard Goodall.


title: Melvyn Bragg

text: Bragg has publicly discussed two nervous breakdowns that he has suffered, one in his teens and another in his 30s. His first breakdown began at the age of 13. Inspired by a passage in Wordsworth's "The Prelude", he found ways to cope, including exploring the outdoors and the adoption of a strong work ethic, as well as meeting his first girlfriend. The second followed his first wife's suicide. He traces the origin of a lifelong nervousness of public speaking to the experience of giving a reading from the lectern as a choirboy at the age of six.


title: Melvyn Bragg

text: At the age of 75, he was profiled in the BBC Two television programme "Melvyn Bragg: Wigton to Westminster", first broadcast on 18 July 2015. He lives in Hampstead, London, but still owns a house near his home town of Wigton. He is a member of the Garrick and Chelsea Arts clubs.


title: Melvyn Bragg

text: He also takes an interest in football, supporting both Carlisle United and Arsenal. He is the vice president of the Carlisle United Supporters Club London Branch.


title: Melvyn Bragg

text: Bragg is a relative of Sir William Henry Bragg and his son Sir Lawrence Bragg, who were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1915 for their work in x-ray crystal structure analysis. He presented a Radio 4 programme on the subject in August 2013.


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (born 24 February 1942) is an Indian scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic. She is a University Professor at Columbia University and a founding member of the establishment's Institute for Comparative Literature and Society.


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: Considered one of the most influential postcolonial intellectuals, Spivak is best known for her essay "Can the Subaltern Speak?" and her translation of and introduction to Jacques Derrida's "De la grammatologie". She has also translated many works of Mahasweta Devi into English, with separate critical notes on Devi's life and writing style, notably "Imaginary Maps" and "Breast Stories."


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: Spivak was awarded the 2012 Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy for being "a critical theorist and educator speaking for the humanities against intellectual colonialism in relation to the globalized world." In 2013, she received the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award given by the Republic of India.


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: Although associated with postcolonialism, Spivak confirmed her separation from the discipline in her book "A Critique of Postcolonial Reason" (1999), a position she maintains in a 2021 essay titled "How the Heritage of Postcolonial Studies Thinks Colonialism Today", published by "Janus Unbound: Journal of Critical Studies".


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: Spivak was born Gayatri Chakravorty in Calcutta, India, to Pares Chandra and Sivani Chakravorty. After completing her secondary education at St. John's Diocesan Girls' Higher Secondary School, Spivak attended Presidency College, Kolkata under the University of Calcutta, from which she graduated in 1959.


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: Spivak has been married twice—first to Talbot Spivak, from 1964 to 1977, and then to Basudev Chatterji. She has no children.


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: In 1959, upon graduation, she secured employment as an English tutor for forty hours a week. Her MA thesis was on the representation of innocence in Wordsworth with M.H. Abrams. In 1961, Spivak joined the graduate program in English at Cornell University in the United States, traveling on money borrowed on a so-called "life mortgage". In 1962, unable to secure financial aid from the department of English, she transferred to a new program called Comparative Literature, although she had insufficient preparation in French and German. Her dissertation was under the guidance of the program's first director, Paul de Man, titled "Myself Must I Remake: The Life and Poetry of W.B. Yeats". In 1963–1964, she attended Girton College, Cambridge, as a research student under the supervision of Professor T.R. Henn, writing on the representation of the stages of development of the lyric subject in the poetry of Yeats. She presented a course in the summer of 1963 on "Yeats and the Theme of Death" at the Yeats Summer School in Sligo, Ireland. (She returned there in 1987 to present Yeats' position within post-coloniality.)


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: In the Fall of 1965, Spivak became an assistant professor in the English department of the University of Iowa. She received tenure in 1970. She did not publish her doctoral dissertation, but decided to write a critical book on Yeats that would be accessible to her undergraduate students without compromising her intellectual positions. The result was her first book, written for young adults, "Myself I Must Remake: The Life and Poetry of W.B. Yeats".


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: In 1967, on her regular attempts at self-improvement, Spivak purchased a book, by an author unknown to her, entitled "De la grammatologie". She decided to translate the book by an unknown author, and wrote a long translator's preface. This publication was immediately a success, and the Translator's Preface began to be used around the world as an introduction to the philosophy of deconstruction launched by the author, Jacques Derrida, whom Spivak met in 1971.


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: In 1974, at the University of Iowa, Spivak founded the MFA in Translation in the department of Comparative Literature. The following year, she became the Director of the Program in Comparative Literature and was promoted to a full professorship. In 1978, she was National Humanities Professor at the University of Chicago. She received many subsequent residential visiting professorships and fellowships. In 1978, she joined the University of Texas at Austin as professor of English and Comparative Literature.


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: In 1982, she was appointed as the Longstreet Professor in English and Comparative Literature at Emory University. In 1986, at the University of Pittsburgh, she became the first Mellon Professor of English. Here, she established the Cultural Studies program. From 1991, she was a member of faculty at Columbia University as Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities, where, in 2007, she was made University Professor in the Humanities.


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: Since 1986, Spivak has been engaged in teaching and training adults and children among the landless illiterates on the border of West Bengal and Bihar/Jharkhand. This sustained attempt to access the epistemologies damaged by the millennial oppression of the caste system has allowed her to understand the situation of globality as well as the limits of high theory more clearly. In 1997, her friend Lore Metzger, a survivor of the Third Reich, left her $10,000 in her will, to help with the work of rural education. With this, Spivak established the Pares Chandra and Sivani Chakravorty Memorial Foundation for Rural Education; to which she contributed the majority of her Kyoto Prize.


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: Spivak rose to prominence with her translation of Derrida's "De la grammatologie", which included a translator's introduction that has been described as "setting a new standard for self-reflexivity in prefaces". After this, as a member of the "Subaltern Studies Collective", she carried out a series of historical studies and literary critiques of imperialism and international feminism. She has often referred to herself as a "practical Marxist-feminist-deconstructionist". Her predominant ethico-political concern has been for the space occupied by the subaltern, especially subaltern women, both in discursive practices and in institutions of Western cultures. Edward Said wrote of Spivak's work, "She pioneered the study in literary theory of non-Western women and produced one of the earliest and most coherent accounts of that role available to us."


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: Her essay, "Can the Subaltern Speak?" (1988), established Spivak among the ranks of feminists who consider history, geography, and class when thinking about women. In "Can the Subaltern Speak?", Spivak discusses the lack of an account of the Sati practice, leading her to reflect on whether the subaltern can even speak. Spivak writes about the process, the focus on the Eurocentric Subject as they disavow the problem of representation; and by invoking the Subject of Europe, these intellectuals constitute the subaltern 'Other of Europe' as anonymous and mute. In all her work, Spivak's main effort has been to try to find ways of accessing the subjectivity of those who are being investigated. She is hailed as a critic who has feminized and globalized the philosophy of deconstruction, considering the position of the subaltern (a word used by Antonio Gramsci as describing ungeneralizable fringe groups of society who lack access to citizenship).


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: In the early 1980s, she was also hailed as a co-founder of postcolonial theory, which she refused to accept fully. Her "A Critique of Postcolonial Reason", published in 1999, explores how major works of European metaphysics (e.g., Kant, Hegel) not only tend to exclude the subaltern from their discussions, but actively prevent non-Europeans from occupying positions as fully human subjects. In this work, Spivak launched the concept of "sanctioned ignorance" for the "reproducing and foreclosing of colonialist structures". This concept denotes a purposeful silencing through the "dismissing of a particular context as being irrelevant"; an institutionalized and ideological way of presenting the world.


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: Spivak coined the term "strategic essentialism", which refers to a sort of temporary solidarity for the purpose of social action. For example, women's groups have many different agendas that potentially make it difficult for feminists to work together for common causes. "Strategic essentialism" allows for disparate groups to accept temporarily an "essentialist" position that enables them able to act cohesively and "can be powerfully displacing and disruptive."


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: However, while others have built upon the idea of "strategic essentialism", Spivak has been unhappy with the ways the concept has been taken up and used. In interviews, she has disavowed the term, although she has not completely deserted the concept itself.


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: In speeches given and published since 2002, Spivak has addressed the issue of terrorism and suicide bombings. With the aim of bringing an end to suicide bombings, she has explored and "tried to imagine what message [such acts] might contain", ruminating that "suicidal resistance is a message inscribed in the body when no other means will get through". One critic has suggested that this sort of stylised language may serve to blur important moral issues relating to terrorism. However, Spivak stated in the same speech that "single coerced yet willed suicidal 'terror' is in excess of the destruction of dynastic temples and the violation of women, tenacious and powerfully residual. It has not the banality of evil. It is informed by the stupidity of belief taken to extreme."


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: Apart from Derrida, Spivak has also translated the fiction of the Bengali author, Mahasweta Devi, the poetry of the 18-century Bengali poet Ramprasad Sen, and "A Season in the Congo" by Aimé Césaire, a poet, essayist, and statesman from Martinique. In 1997, she received a prize for translation into English from the Sahitya Akadami from the National Academy of Literature in India.


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: She has been a Guggenheim fellow, has received numerous academic honours including an honorary doctorate from Oberlin College, and has been on the editorial board of academic journals such as "Boundary 2". She was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2007. In March of that same year, Columbia University President Lee Bollinger appointed Spivak University Professor, the institution's highest faculty rank. In a letter to the faculty, he wrote:


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: Spivak has served on the advisory board of numerous academic journals, including "Janus Unbound: Journal of Critical Studies" published by Memorial University of Newfoundland, "differences", "Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society", "Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies" published by Routledge, and "Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies". Spivak has received 11 honorary doctorates from the University of Toronto, University of London, Oberlin College, Universitat Rovira Virgili, Rabindra Bharati University, Universidad Nacional de San Martín, University of St Andrews, Université de Vincennes à Saint-Denis, Presidency University, Yale University, and University of Ghana-Legon. In 2012, she became the only Indian recipient of the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy in the category of Arts and Philosophy, while in 2021 she was elected a corresponding fellow of the British Academy.


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: Spivak has advised many significant post-colonial scholars. Professors Jenny Sharpe and Mark Sanders are among her former students.


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: Writing for the "New Statesman", Stephen Howe complained that "Spivak is so bewilderingly eclectic, so prone to juxtapose diverse notions without synthesis, that ascribing a coherent position to her on any question is extremely difficult."


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: Judith Butler, in a response critical of Eagleton's position, cited Adorno's comment on the lesser value of the work of theorists who "recirculate received opinion", and opined that Spivak "gives us the political landscape of culture in its obscurity and proximity", and that Spivak's supposedly "complex" language has resonated with and profoundly changed the thinking of "tens of thousands of activists and scholars", and continues to do so.


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: In May 2018, Spivak signed a collective letter to New York University to defend Avital Ronell, a colleague of Spivak, against the charge of sexual abuse from NYU graduate student Nimrod Reitman. Spivak and the other signatories called the case a "legal nightmare" for Ronell and charged Reitman with conducting a "malicious campaign" against her. More specifically, the letter suggested that Ronell should be excused on the basis of the significance of her academic contributions. Many signatories were also concerned of the utilisation of feminist tools, like Title IX, to take down feminists. Judith Butler, the chief signatory, subsequently apologized for certain aspects of the letter. NYU ultimately found Ronell guilty of sexual harassment and suspended her for a year.


title: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

text: "Phire Esho, Chaka", a 1961 book of love poems by Binoy Majumdar, was addressed and dedicated to her.


title: Russ Abbot

text: Russ Abbot (born Russell Allan Roberts; 18 September 1947) is an English musician, comedian and actor. Born in Chester, he first came to public notice during the 1970s as the singer and drummer with British comedy showband the Black Abbots, later forging a prominent solo career as a television comedian with his own weekly show on British television.


title: Russ Abbot

text: Continuing his musical career as a solo artist, Abbot released several charting singles and albums. His career has continued with a shift into more mainstream serious acting in television shows, series, and stage productions.


title: Russ Abbot

text: As a drummer/backing singer, Abbot joined the Black Abbots (founded by Robert Turner) in Chester during the mid-1960s and they released several singles to modest chart success on minor labels in the early 1970s. The band only signed their first major recording contract in 1977, putting out a series of comedy singles and one live album (Abbot now taking lead vocals) before disbanding in 1980. Subsequently, he appeared as a comedian, winning the 'Funniest Man On Television' award five times. Abbot appeared on the television show "The Comedians" under his birth name (Russ Roberts). From 1980 onward, he released some albums as a solo artist and appeared in several TV series. The most successful of his music singles, "Atmosphere", did well in the UK top 10, peaking at No. 7 in 1985.


title: Russ Abbot

text: "Russ Abbot's Madhouse" and "The Russ Abbot Show" showcased his talents as an all-round entertainer, attracting millions of viewers. This show was top-rated among younger viewers, prompting two annuals to be published in 1982–83. These annuals featured comic strips based on popular characters, plus some publicity photos of Abbot in a variety of guises, including his well-known James Bond satire featuring characters named Basildon Bond and Miss Funnyfanny (based on the fictional MI6 spy duo James Bond and Miss Moneypenny).


title: Russ Abbot

text: In January 1993, Abbot hosted an Elvis special of "Stars in Their Eyes"; this was originally to be presented by Leslie Crowther, who had suffered serious injuries in a car crash in his Rolls-Royce in October 1992. Abbot was brought in as a temporary host, and this was the only episode he hosted. Crowther was unable to return, and died in 1996; he was replaced by Matthew Kelly, who then hosted the show until 2004.


title: Russ Abbot

text: From 2000, Abbot played the lead role in the British National Tour of "Doctor Dolittle". Taking a break over the Christmas period, Abbot stepped down for Phillip Schofield to take the part but returned to the tour subsequently. In 2003, his "See You, Jimmy" character (called C. U. Jimmy) came third in the "Glasgow Herald"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s poll to find the most Scottish person in the world, behind Iain and Jimmy Krankie.


title: Russ Abbot

text: Abbot's theatre roles include Alfred P. Doolittle in "My Fair Lady" (starring Amy Nuttall) at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and on tour; The Narrator in "The Rocky Horror Show"; Grandpa Potts in "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" at the London Palladium and Fagin in "Oliver!" both in 1998 and 2009.


title: Russ Abbot

text: From July 2007, he took over the role of Roger De Bris in the UK tour of "Mel Brooks' The Producers". In 2008, Abbot appeared as the Tin Man in the stage production of "The Wizard of Oz" at the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton.


title: Russ Abbot

text: In 2008, the BBC announced that Abbot would be joining the cast of "Last of the Summer Wine" for the show's 30th series. He played Luther 'Hobbo' Hobdyke, who was the leader of a group consisting also of Entwistle, played by Burt Kwouk and Alvin, played by Brian Murphy.


title: Russ Abbot

text: In 2008, he guest-starred in "The Sarah Jane Adventures" episode "Secrets of the Stars" as a character called Martin Trueman, an astrologer who was possessed by the Ancient Lights. On 8 August 2009, Abbot appeared in an episode of "Casualty" playing a pet shop owner. This marked Abbot's second "Casualty" role – he previously appeared as a different character in a 1999 episode. He appeared on "Harry Hill's TV Burp" parodying the character he played in "Casualty".


title: Russ Abbot

text: In 2009, when Rowan Atkinson fell ill during the original run of Cameron Mackintosh's West End revival of "Oliver!", Abbot stepped into the role of Fagin for the second time. He again took the role after Griff Rhys Jones left the show on 12 June 2010.


title: Russ Abbot

text: In December 2020, University Radio Nottingham presenters George Scotland and Damian Stephen decided to start an internet campaign to get "Atmosphere" to number one for Christmas. The campaign, in the style of previous internet campaigns for Rage Against The Machine and AC/DC (both of whom charted within the Top 5) was endorsed by Abbot as well as Paul Chuckle and Alistair Griffin, with "Atmosphere" highlighted as one of the contenders for Christmas Number One by the Official Charts Company.


title: Shoojit Sircar

text: Shoojit Sircar (born ) is an Indian filmmaker, director and producer known for his work in Hindi films. He has received several awards, including two National Film Awards and a Filmfare Award from five nominations.


title: Shoojit Sircar

text: Sircar made his directorial debut with the romantic war drama "Yahaan" (2005). He rose to prominence in Hindi cinema with the critically and commercially successful romantic comedy "Vicky Donor" (2012) for which he received the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. He followed it a year later by directing the political action thriller "Madras Cafe" (2013).


title: Shoojit Sircar

text: His next film, "Piku" (2015), received critical acclaim upon release and emerged as a box office success, earned him several Best Director Awards and Best Film Awards and winning him the Best Film (Critics) at the Filmfare Awards. His home production, the legal thriller "Pink", won the Best Film on Other Social Issues in 2016. Sircar subsequently directed and produced the coming-of-age drama "October" (2018) and the Amazon Prime Video's comedy "Gulabo Sitabo" (2020). The latter earned him another Filmfare Award for Best Director nomination. Sircar's prominence increased in 2021 with the biographical historical drama "Sardar Udham" which received widespread critical acclaim. He is also the co-founder of the film production company Rising Sun Films.


title: Shoojit Sircar

text: Sircar was born into a Bengali family in Barrackpore, Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal. He completed his schooling from Kendriya Vidyalaya Barrackpore Airforce in 1985 and graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce from Shaheed Bhagat Singh College at the University of Delhi. Sircar lost both his parents in 2004; his father passed away due to cancer and his mother from a brain stroke.


title: Shoojit Sircar

text: In his early years, he worked as an accountant at Le Meridien hotel in Delhi as well advertisement industry. He aspired for a career in films after attending the International Film Festival of India in Delhi. He credits the American documentary film "" and Satyajit Ray’s "Pather Panchali" as the two films that inspired him to start a career in cinema. In the early 1990s, Sircar formed a theatre group named "Act One", which had as troupe members Manoj Bajpayee, Piyush Mishra and Ashish Vidyarthi.


title: Shoojit Sircar

text: Sircar is married to Jhuma Sircar, and a parent to two daughters, Koyna and Anannya Sircar. He lives with his family in Kolkata. Sircar is also a football enthusiast and is part of the All Stars Football Club, a celebrity football club that raises money for charity.


title: Shoojit Sircar

text: Sircar made his directorial debut in 2005 with "Yahaan". The romantic war drama featured Jimmy Sheirgill, Minissha Lamba in a love story set in war-savaged Kashmir. It was met with mixed critical reception and poor box office revenues upon release. His second film, titled "Shoebite," starring Amitabh Bachchan remains unreleased as of 2018 due to a copyright legal battle between Percept Picture Company and UTV Motion Pictures. The debacle related to "Shoebite" led Sircar to establish his own film production company in 2007 with Ronnie Lahiri, naming it Rising Sun Films, under which all of his directorial films would be made. Sircar's first home production was the Bengali-language drama film "Aparajita Tumi" which was directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury.


title: Shoojit Sircar

text: Sircar rose to prominence in 2012 with the critically and commercially successful romantic comedy "Vicky Donor". It marked the Hindi film debut of Ayushmann Khurrana and Yami Gautam. The film which was set against the background of sperm donation and infertility within a Bengali-Punjabi household grossed 66.32 crore worldwide, against a budget of 15 crore. It won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment at the 60th National Film Awards. Sircar stated that he made the film because he wanted to explore "a light-hearted look at the taboo attached to infertility and artificial insemination." Before filming began, he researched the plot themes for over three years. The film was remade in Telugu as "Naruda Donoruda" (2016) and in Tamil as "Dharala Prabhu" (2020).


title: Shoojit Sircar

text: He followed it up a year later with the political action thriller "Madras Cafe" starring John Abraham and Nargis Fakhri with newcomer Raashi Khanna in lead roles. Set during the time of Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan civil war and assassination of Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, it received positive critical reception upon release. Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN noted that "Unlike, in the West, it's hard to make films on real-life historical events in India. Political pressures and sensitive groups invariably throw a spanner in the works. Which is why it's commendable what director Shoojit Sircar has undertaken with "Madras Café"."


title: Shoojit Sircar

text: In 2015, Sircar directed and produced "Piku". Starring Deepika Padukone as the titular protagonist, Amitabh Bachchan and Irrfan Khan, the film is loosely based on the 1980 Bengali-language short film "Pikoo" by Satyajit Ray. It garnered widespread critical acclaim upon release and emerged as a commercial success. The film was nominated for Best Film, Best Director and Best Film (Critics) at the 61st Filmfare Awards. The same year, Sircar produced the Bengali language film "Open Tee Bioscope". His next home production was "Pink" (2016), a Hindi-language legal thriller featuring an ensemble cast including Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari, Andrea Tariang and Amitabh Bachchan. Sircar also wrote the story of the film. It received widespread critical acclaim and emerged as a surprising commercial success. At 64th National Film Awards, "Pink" won the category of Best Film on Other Social Issues.


title: Shoojit Sircar

text: Sircar's next was the coming-of-age drama "October" (2018), which follows the life of a hotel-management intern (played by Varun Dhawan) who takes care of his comatose fellow intern (Banita Sandhu) in an unconditional and unconventional manner. Upon its release, the filmmakers were accused of plagiarising "Aarti – The Unknown Love Story", a Marathi film directed by Sarika Mene. Screenwriters Association reviewed the case and found some similarities between the two films. However, it was eventually cleared of all charges. "October" received positive reviews and was a modest commercial success. Sircar then reunited with Bachchan and Khurrana in the 2020 comedy-drama "Gulabo Sitabo". Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film was one of the first Bollywood films to be released directly on Amazon Prime Video worldwide. It received thirteen nominations at the 66th Filmfare Awards including Best Film, Best Film (Critics) and Best Director.


title: Shoojit Sircar

text: Sircar's prominence increased in 2021 with the biographical historical drama "Sardar Udham" starring Vicky Kaushal in the titular role. Based on the life of Udham Singh, a freedom fighter from Punjab who assassinated Michael O'Dwyer in London to avenge the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar, the film had a direct-to-digital premiere through Amazon Prime Video during the Dusshera weekend. Shoojit wanted to make a film of the life of Udham Singh during his college days, and planned to produce it in his mid-1990s, but the research work on the freedom fighter took him two long decades. "Sardar Udham" eventually received widespread critical acclaim. Saibal Chatterjee of "NDTV" stated "There is a phenomenal degree of craft in "Sardar Udham" but none of it is employed for mere effect. There is great deal of soul, too, in this magnificently crafted film." "Sardar Udham" was listed by several publications as the best Bollywood film of the year.


title: Arrakis

text: Arrakis ()—informally known as Dune and later called Rakis—is a fictional desert planet featured in the "Dune" series of novels by Frank Herbert. Herbert's first novel in the series, 1965's "Dune", is considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, and it is sometimes cited as the best-selling science fiction novel in history.


title: Arrakis

text: In "Dune", the planet is the home of the Fremen (Zensunni wanderers), and subsequently is the Imperial Capital of the Atreides Empire. Arrakis is the third planet orbiting the star Canopus, and it in turn is orbited by two moons, one of which has an albedo pattern resembling the desert kangaroo mouse, Muad'Dib, on it; the other moon has markings resembling a human hand.


title: Arrakis

text: A desert planet with no natural precipitation, in "Dune" it is established that Arrakis had been "His Imperial Majesty's Desert Botanical Testing Station" before the discovery of melange, for which it is the only natural source in the universe. Melange (or, "the spice") is the most essential and valuable commodity in the universe, as it extends life and makes safe interstellar travel possible (among other uses). The planet has no surface water bodies, but open canals called qanats are used "for carrying irrigation water under controlled conditions" through the desert. The Fremen collect water in underground reservoirs to fulfill their dream of someday terraforming the planet, and pay the Spacing Guild exorbitant fees in melange to keep the skies over Arrakis free of any satellites which might observe their efforts. As indicated by its large salt flats, Arrakis once had lakes and oceans; Lady Jessica also notes in "Dune" that wells drilled in the sinks and basins initially produce a "trickle" of water which soon stops, as if "something plugs it."


title: Arrakis

text: Paul Atreides recalls that the few plants and animals on the planet include "saguaro, burro bush, date palm, sand verbena, evening primrose, barrel cactus, incense bush, smoke tree, creosote bush ... kit fox, desert hawk, kangaroo mouse ... many to be found now nowhere else in the universe except here on Arrakis." The most notable life forms on the planet are the giant sandworms and their immature forms of sandtrout and sand plankton. Sandtrout encyst any water deposits; predator fish are placed in the qanats and other water storage areas to protect them from the sandtrout. It is suggested the sandworms are an introduced species that caused the desertification of Arrakis; In "Children of Dune" (1976), Leto II Atreides explains to his twin sister Ghanima:


title: Arrakis

text: The sandtrout [...] was introduced here from some other place. This was a wet planet then. They proliferated beyond the capability of existing ecosystems to deal with them. Sandtrout encysted the available free water, made this a desert planet [...] and they did it to survive. In a planet sufficiently dry, they could move to their sandworm phase.


title: Arrakis

text: The environment of the desert planet Arrakis was primarily inspired by the hydrocarbon wealthy Mexico and the Middle East. Similarly Arrakis as a bioregion is presented as a particular kind of political site. Herbert has made it resemble a generic desertified petrostate.


title: Arrakis

text: The non-canon "Dune Encyclopedia" (1984) theorizes that the depletion of the oceans (the primary result of which was desertification) was probably caused by the impact or near miss of a comet or other quasi-planetary body. This event caused the loss of much of the atmosphere of Arrakis, allowing most of the oxygen and water to escape into space. This is thought to have occurred approximately 50 million years before the Imperium's creation. This catastrophic loss of oxygen led to the extinction of nearly all native flora and then therefore the fauna.


title: Arrakis

text: The "Encyclopedia" also explains that one of the few forms to survive were tiny worms of the phylum Protochordata. One of these forms was "Shaihuludata", a genus of anaerobic burrowing worm that was the basal species from which the giant sandworms ("Geonemotodium arraknis" or "Shaihuludata gigantica") evolved. Rather than sandworm creating desert, it was desert that created sandworm. The mass extinction of all of its predators and competitors for food allowed the animal, in a manner somewhat analogous to the evolution of unique faunal forms on isolated Terran islands, to take the evolutionary path that would not only re-oxygenate the Arrakeen atmosphere, but also create the spice melange with all of its immense consequences for humanity.


title: Arrakis

text: Finally, the "Encyclopedia" notes that early in the history of Arrakis, the Imperium made several attempts to terraform the planet, which resulted in an abundance of Terran desert life on the planet (such as kangaroo mice and hawks), but failed to otherwise change the environment, as the local sandtrout "encyst" any open water on the planet.


title: Arrakis

text: The Zensunni wanderers, driven from planet to planet, eventually found their way to Arrakis, where they became the Fremen. They settled in artificial cave-like settlements known as sietches across the Arrakeen deserts. They also developed stillsuit technology, allowing them to survive in the open desert. By harvesting melange, they were able to bribe the Spacing Guild for privacy from observation and weather control in order to hide from the Imperium their true population and their plans to terraform Arrakis. Much of this ecological activity took place in the unexplored southern latitudes of the planet. The best-known of the sietches is Sietch Tabr, home of Stilgar and Muad'Dib's center of operations before victory in the Battle of Arrakeen put Muad'Dib on the Imperial throne.


title: Arrakis

text: According to the "Legends of Dune" prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, it was a group of Zensunni wanderers escaping slavery on the planet Poritrin who originally crashed on Dune in a prototype interstellar spacecraft several years prior to the creation of the Spacing Guild.


title: Arrakis

text: During the events of "Dune", the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV grants Duke Leto Atreides control of the lucrative spice harvesting operations of Arrakis, ousting the Atreides' longtime rivals, the Harkonnens. The Atreides rule is cut short by a murderous conspiracy crafted by the Harkonnens and the Emperor himself. Leto's son Paul Atreides (known by the Fremen as Muad'Dib) later leads a massive Fremen army to victory over the Emperor's Sardaukar soldier-fanatics, and by threatening the destruction of all spice production on Arrakis manages to depose Shaddam and ascend the throne in his place. With Emperor Paul worshipped as a god, Arrakis becomes the governmental and religious center of the Imperium.


title: Arrakis

text: Paul Muad'Dib continues the efforts to terraform Arrakis into a green world, a plan begun by the Fremen under the guidance of Imperial Planetologist Pardot Kynes and his son Liet-Kynes. The core of their plan is gradual water-collection from the Arrakeen atmosphere to form large reservoirs that would, eventually, become lakes and oceans. Much of this activity takes place in the unexplored southern latitudes of Arrakis.


title: Arrakis

text: By the time of "Children of Dune", Alia Atreides (and then Leto II and Ghanima) realize that the ecological transformation of Arrakis is altering the sandworm cycle, which would eventually result in the end of all spice production. This at first seems a future to be avoided, but Leto II later uses this eventuality as part of his Golden Path to ultimately save humanity. Once he himself begins the transformation into a human/sandworm hybrid, he eradicates all desert on Arrakis except for a small area he makes his base of operations, and destroys all of the sandworms save one—himself.


title: Arrakis

text: After his death some 3,500 years later in "God Emperor of Dune", Leto's worm-body is transformed back into sandtrout. Within only a few centuries, these sandtrout return Arrakis (thence called 'Rakis') to a desert.


title: Arrakis

text: In "Heretics of Dune", all life on Arrakis is destroyed (and the entire surface of the planet slagged into oblivion) by the Honored Matres in a failed attempt to eliminate the latest Duncan Idaho ghola. The Bene Gesserit escape with a single sandworm, and drown it to revert the worm back into sandtrout. In "" the Bene Gesserit use these sandtrout to begin a new sandworm cycle on their homeworld of Chapterhouse, which is terraformed into desert for this purpose.


title: Arrakis

text: Finally, in "Sandworms of Dune", some sandworms are revealed to be alive and well, having sensed the upper crust would be destroyed, and therefore burrowed even deeper, escaping the blast.


title: Arrakis

text: ARRAKEEN: first settlement on Arrakis; long-time seat of planetary government. — "Dune", "Terminology of the Imperium"


title: Arrakis

text: Arrakis' capital and largest city historically is Arrakeen (). Arrakeen housed an ostentatious palace, which had been "the government mansion in the days of the Old Empire"; prior to the arrival of the Atreides on Arrakis, the Emperor's right-hand man Count Fenring and his wife Margot had resided there. Leto I had chosen Arrakeen for his seat of government because it "was a smaller city, easier to sterilize and defend."


title: Arrakis

text: Jessica stood in the center of the hall [...] looking up and around at shadowed carvings, crannies and deeply recessed windows. This giant anachronism of a room reminded her of the Sisters' Hall at her Bene Gesserit school. But at the school the effect had been of warmth. Here, all was bleak stone. Some architect had reached far back into history for these buttressed walls and dark hangings, she thought. The arched ceiling stood two stories above her with great crossbeams she felt sure had been shipped here to Arrakis across space at monstrous cost. No planet of this system grew trees to make such beams—unless the beams were imitation wood. She thought not.


title: Arrakis

text: Arrakeen would go through multiple transformations over time; it first becomes an Imperial capital of staggering proportions under Paul Muad'Dib. It is later transformed into a festival city known as Onn, explicitly for the worship of the Tyrant Leto II. Finally, in the centuries after his death, it is known as Keen, a modern (though still impressive) city to house the Priesthood of Rakis.