Geography.

Under the Ancien Régime, the province was bordered in the North by the River Rhône which separated the Dauphiné from the Bresse ("Brêsse") and Bugey ("Bugê"). To the east it bordered the Savoy and Piedmont, and to the south the Comtat Venaissin and Provence. The western border was marked by the Rhône to the south of Lyon. The Dauphiné extended up to what is now the centre of Lyon. It was divided into the "High Dauphiné" and "Low Dauphiné". The first covered:  The second included:  The province also included the current Italian Dauphiné, which belonged to France and to Briançonnais until 1713. Vivaro-Alpine dialect was still spoken there until the 20th century:  The province offers a range of terrain, from the alpine summits of the High-Dauphiné (the Barre des Ecrins is 4,102 meters at its highest point), the Prealps (Vercors and Chartreuse), and the plains of the Drôme, which resemble the landscapes of Provence.

History.

Classical Antiquity and The Middle Ages.

Roman rule and the early Middle Ages.

The area of the future Dauphiné was inhabited by the Allobroges and other Gaulish tribes in ancient times. The region was conquered by the Romans before Gallia conquest by Julius Caesar. Vienne became a Roman colony and one of the most important cities of Gallia.  After the end of the Western Roman Empire, the region suffered from invasions of Visigoths and Alans tribes. The Burgundians settled in Vienne. After the Treaty of Verdun in 843, the region became part of the kingdom of Lotharingia. However, the King of France Charles the Bald soon claimed authority over this territory.  The governor of Vienne, Boson of Provence, proclaimed himself king of Burgundy and the region became part of the Kingdom of Arelat, which remained independent until 1032, when it became part of the Holy Roman Empire.  At that time, the development of feudal society and the weakness of the Emperor's rule allowed for the creation of several small ecclesiastic or secularist States (the region of Viennois, for example, was under the rule of the archbishop of Vienne). In the middle of that chaos, the Counts of Albon succeeded in uniting these different territories under their rule.

Imperial fief (1040–1349).

Amidst the chaos of feudal rule, the Counts of Albon began to rise above other feudal lords and acquire dominance over the region. Their story begins with Guigues I the Old (died 1070), Lord of Annonay and Champsaur. During his reign, he gained significant territories for his province: a part of the Viennois, the Grésivaudan and the Oisans. Moreover, the Emperor gave him the region of Briançon. The territories combined under his personal rule became a sovereign mountain principality within the Holy Roman Empire. The count made a significant decision when he chose the small city of Grenoble as capital of his state instead of the prestigious city of Vienne, which was the long-established seat of a powerful bishop. This choice allowed him to assert authority over all his territories.  In the 12th century, the local ruler Count Guigues IV of Albon (c.1095–1142) bore a dolphin on his coat of arms and was nicknamed "le Dauphin" (French for "dolphin"). His descendants changed their title from Count of Albon to Dauphin of Viennois. The state took the name of Dauphiné.  However, the Dauphiné did not, at this point, have its modern borders. The region of Vienne and Valence were independent and even in Grenoble, the capital, the authority was shared with the bishop. Furthermore, the cities of Voiron and la Côte-Saint-André were parts of the County of Savoy, while the Dauphins had the Faucigny and territories in Italy. This tangle between Dauphiné and Savoy resulted in several conflicts. The last Dauphin, Humbert II of Viennois, made peace with his neighbour. He also acquired the city of Romans. He finally created the Conseil Delphinal and the University of Grenoble and enacted the Delphinal Status, a kind of constitution that protected the rights of his people.

French rule.

The significant debts of Humbert II and the death of his son and heir led to the sale of his lordship to King Philip VI in 1349, by the terms of the treaty of Romans, negotiated by his protonotary, Amblard de Beaumont. A major condition was that the heir to the throne of France would be known as, which was the case from that time until the French Revolution; the first was Philippe's grandson, the future Charles V of France. The title also conferred an appanage on the region. Charles V spent nine months in his new territory.  Humbert's agreement further stipulated that Dauphiné would be exempted from many taxes (like the gabelle); this statute was the subject of much subsequent parliamentary debate at the regional level, as local leaders sought to defend this regional autonomy and privilege from the state's assaults.  The nobility of the Dauphiné took part in the battles of Poitiers (1356) and Agincourt (1415). The province was also the setting for military events during the war. The Duke of Savoy and the Prince of Orange, with the help of the English and Burgundian authorities, planned to invade the Dauphiné, but at the battle of Anthon in 1430, the army of the Principality of Orange was defeated by the troops of the Dauphiné, preventing the invasion.  Louis XI was the only Dauphin of France to administer his territory, from 1447 to 1456. It was during his reign as Dauphin that the Dauphiné became totally integrated into France. At that time, it was an anarchic state, with conflicts between nobles still common. Louis XI prohibited these conflicts and forced the nobles to recognize his authority. The became the third Parlement of France. Moreover, Louis XI politically united the Dauphiné. He forced the archbishop of Vienne, the bishop of Grenoble and the abbot of Romans all to pledge allegiance to him. He also acquired Montélimar and the Principality of Orange.  In addition, he developed the economy of the province, by constructing roads and authorizing markets. He finally created the University of Valence founded 26 July 1452, by letters patent. Nevertheless, he also tried to institute the without referring the issue to the estates of the province, resulting in discontent on the part of the nobility and the people of the province. Because of his opposition to his father, Charles VII, he was forced to leave the Dauphiné. The King took back the control of the province and forced the Estates to pledge allegiance in 1457.  Imperial suzerainty was not entirely forgotten in the 15th century. The Emperor Sigismund negotiated with King Henry V of England to give the Dauphiné to an English prince. The Dauphinois also did not forget their autonomy. The Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges (1438), which exposed Gallicanism, and the Concordat of Bologna (1516), which rectified France with the Papacy, were both promulgated for France and the Dauphiné distinctly. The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539), on the other hand, which made French the official language of France, since it was not issued by the king as dauphin was not recognised in the Dauphiné. A second ordinance was promulgated at Abbeville on 9 April 1540 by the king as dauphin and this the Dauphinois parliament accepted.

Early modern history.

Time of troubles.

During the Italian Wars (1494–1559), French troops were quartered in Dauphiné. Charles VIII, Louis XII and Francis I stayed often in Grenoble, but the people of the province suffered the exactions of the soldiers. Moreover, the nobility of the region took part in the different battles (Marignano, Pavia) and gained an immense prestige. The best-known of its members was Pierre Terrail de Bayard, "the knight without fear and beyond reproach".  The province suffered from the French Wars of Religion (1562–98) between Catholics and Protestants at the end of the 16th century. The Dauphiné was a center of Protestantism in France, in cities such as Gap, Die, and La Mure. François de Beaumont, the Huguenot leader, became famous for his cruelty and his destructions.  The cruel execution of Charles du Puy-Montbrun, leader of the Protestants, by the king of France, led to more violence and struggles between the two parties.  In 1575, Lesdiguières became the new leader of the Protestants and obtained several territories in the province. After the accession of Henry IV to the throne of France, Lesdiguières allied with the governor and the lieutenant general of Dauphiné. However, this alliance did not put an end to the conflicts. Indeed, a Catholic movement, "la Ligue", which took Grenoble in 1590, refused to make peace. After months of assaults, Lesdiguières defeated the Ligue and took back Grenoble. He became the leader of the entire province.

Administration of Lesdiguières (1591–1626).

The conflicts were over, but Dauphiné was destroyed and its people exhausted. The enactment of the Edict of Nantes (1598) restored some civil rights to the Huguenots and brought peace for a short time, but the wars resumed soon afterward.  Lesdiguières defeated the army of Savoy several times and helped the reconstruction of the region. His most famous construction is the Palace of Vizille, built for his personal use.  The last meeting of the Estates of Dauphiné took place in 1628. It symbolizes the end of the liberty of the province. From that time, the important decisions were taken by the representatives of the king. It shows the progress of Absolutism.

From Louis XIV to the French Revolution.

The revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685 caused the departure of 20,000 Protestants from Dauphiné, weakening the economy of the province. Some valleys lost half of their inhabitants.  In 1692, during the Nine Years' War, the Duke of Savoy invaded the Dauphiné. Gap and Embrun were badly damaged. But the Savoy armies were defeated by Philis de la Charce.  In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht changed the borders of Dauphiné. The province gained the town of Barcelonette but lost the major part of the Briançonnais.  The 18th century was a period of economic prosperity for the region, with the development of the industry (glove-making in Grenoble, silk mills in the Rhône valley). Important trade shows also occurred at Grenoble or Beaucroissant.  In 1787, the province was one of the first to demand the meeting of the Estates General of France. The turning point occurred in 1788 with the Day of the Tiles. The King ordered the expulsion of the parliamentarians from Grenoble. In part because the economy of the city was dependent on its Parliament, the local people attacked the royal troops by throwing tiles from roofs to prevent the expulsion of the magistrates. This event allowed the sitting of the Assembly of Vizille, which instigated the meeting of the old Estates General, thus beginning the Revolution.

Modern history.

Revolutionary period and Empire.

During the French Revolution, Dauphiné was highly represented in Paris by two illustrious notables from Grenoble, Jean Joseph Mounier and Antoine Barnave.  In 1790, Dauphiné was divided in three departments, the current Isère, Drôme, and Hautes-Alpes.  The approval of the establishment of the Empire was clear and overwhelming in the Dauphiné. In Isère, the results showed 82,084 yes and only 12 no.  In 1813, Dauphiné was under the threat of the Austrian army which had invaded Switzerland and Savoy. After having resisted at Fort Barraux, the French troops withdrew to Grenoble. The city, well-defended, contained the Austrian attacks, and the French army defeated the Austrians, forcing them to withdraw at Geneva. But the invasion of France in 1814 resulted in the capitulation of the troops in Dauphiné.  During his return from the island of Elba in 1815, the Emperor was welcomed by the people in the region. At Laffrey, he met the royalist 5th Infantry Regiment of Louis XVIII. Napoleon stepped towards the soldiers and said those famous words: "If there is among you a soldier who wants to kill his Emperor, here I am." The men all joined his cause. Napoleon was then acclaimed at Grenoble. After the defeat at Waterloo, the region suffered from a new invasion of Austrian and Sardinian troops.

19th century.

This century corresponds to a significant industrial development of Dauphiné, particularly in the region of Grenoble (glove-making reached its Golden Age at that time) and the Rhone Valley (silk mills). The shoemaking industry also developed in Romans.  During the Second Empire, the Dauphiné saw the construction of its railway network (the first trains arrived at Valence in 1854 and Grenoble in 1858). The driving of new roads in the Vercors and Chartreuse ranges allowed the beginning of tourism in the province. Moreover, several notable persons such as Queen Victoria came in the region with the success of thermal stations such as Uriage-les-Bains.  In 1869, Aristide Berges played a major role in industrializing hydroelectricity production. With the development of his paper mills, industrial development spread to the mountainous region of Dauphiné.

20th century.

During the Belle Époque, the region benefited from major transformations thanks to its economic growth. The Romanche Valley became one of the most important industrial valleys of the country. World War I accelerated that trend. Indeed, in order to sustain the war efforts, new hydroelectric industries settled next to different rivers of the region. Several other businesses moved into armament industries. Chemical companies also settled in the region of Grenoble and near Roussillon in the Rhone Valley.  The textile industry of Dauphiné also benefited from the war. The occupation of northern France resulted in the settlement of many textile enterprises in the region. Vienne for instance produced one fifth of the national production of sheets for the army in 1915.  Several Alpine troops, the Chasseurs Alpins, were killed at war. They were nicknamed the "Blue Devils" for their courage on the field.  The economic development of the region was highlighted by the organisation at Grenoble of the International Exposition of the "Houille Blanche" in 1925, visited by thousands of people.  The interwar period was also characterized by the beginning of the winter sports in Dauphiné. The ski resort of l'Alpe d'Huez was constructed in 1936, and Jean Pomagalski created there the first platter lift in the world. In World War II, during the Italian invasion of France, the Chasseurs Alpins contained the Italian troops, preventing an invasion of the region. But the German victories in northern France quickly threatened the troops in Dauphiné. The Nazis were stopped near Grenoble, at Voreppe. The French forces resisted until the armistice. The Dauphiné was then part of the French State, before being occupied by the Italians from 1942 to 1943, when the Germans occupied southern France.  Due to its mountainous character, Dauphiné was the seat of strong partisan activity. The best known was the "Maquis du Vercors". In 1944, its members suffered from German attacks. The martyr village of Vassieux as well as Grenoble were made Compagnon de la Libération by General Charles de Gaulle, to underline their actions against the Nazis.  In 1947, a bicycle race was created by a newspaper "Le Dauphiné libéré" to promote its circulation. After World War II, as cycling recovered from a universal five- or six-year hiatus, the Grenoble-based newspaper decided to create and organize a cycling stage race covering the Dauphiné region. This created the "Critérium du Dauphiné" before 2010 known as the "Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré", is an annual cycling road race in the Dauphiné region. The race is run over eight days during the first half of June. It is part of the UCI World Tour calendar and counts as one of the foremost races in the lead-up to the Tour de France in July, along with the Tour de Suisse in the latter half of June.  In 1968, Grenoble welcomed the Xth Olympic Winter Games, allowing a major transformation of the city, the development of infrastructure (airport, motorways, etc.) and new ski resorts (Chamrousse, Les Deux Alpes, Villard-de-Lans, etc.).

Demography.

The various territories of Dauphiné experienced diverging demographic evolutions. The plains of Low Dauphiné and the large cities saw their population strongly increase during the 20th century (thanks to the industrial development and immigrant workers' arrival), while the mountainous regions of High-Dauphiné suffered from a pronounced exodus.  These days, the entire territory is experiencing population growth because of economic development and tourism.  The population of the Dauphiné was relatively stable until the mid-20th century, when growth became more rapid. However it should be remembered that several cities of northern Dauphiné (Villeurbanne, Vénissieux, Bron and others) are included in the department of Rhône. In 1999, the population of these cities was over 460,000. Histogram of the evolution since 1801:  Dauphiné has a population density of 90.78/km2, with a very clear differentiation between Isère (159/km2) and Hautes-Alpes (23/km2).  Grenoble concentrates around a third of the population of Dauphiné, and Valence is now the second largest Dauphiné metropolis. Dauphiné also has a network of mid-sized cities covering all its territory (Vienne, Montélimar, Gap, etc.).  The aires urbaines of Dauphiné are:

Gastronomy.

Dauphiné is known for some culinary specialities:

Other meanings.

The Dauphiné, or the "Critérium du Dauphiné" (formerly the ["Critérium du"] "Dauphiné libéré", after the newspaper "Le Dauphiné libéré" that until 2010 had been sponsoring the event since its creation in 1947), is a multiple stage bicycle race. Amongst its winners one saw many of the most famous cyclists, e.g.: Louison Bobet, Henry Anglade, Jacques Anquetil, Raymond Poulidor, Luis Ocaña, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Thévenet, Bernard Hinault, Greg LeMond (by disqualification of the first arrived Pascal Simon), Phil Anderson, Luis Herrera, Charly Mottet, Miguel Indurain, Alexander Vinokourov, Tyler Hamilton, Alejandro Valverde, Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome. Annually during a week in June, cycling fans in most European countries watch the prestigious road race in and around the Dauphiné area on live television.

The Dauphiné (; ; or ; or ; former English name: Dauphiny) is a former province in southeastern France, whose area roughly corresponded to that of the present departments of Isère, Drôme, and Hautes-Alpes. The Dauphiné was originally the County of Albon.

多菲内(法语:,;普罗旺斯语:;法兰克-普罗旺斯语:;英语:Dauphiny)是法国东南部的一个行省,大致包括现在的伊泽尔省、德龙省、上阿尔卑斯省。


Conjoint design.

A product or service area is described in terms of a number of attributes. For example, a television may have attributes of screen size, screen format, brand, price and so on. Each attribute can then be broken down into a number of levels. For instance, levels for screen format may be LED, LCD, or Plasma.  Respondents would be shown a set of products, prototypes, mock-ups, or pictures created from a combination of levels from all or some of the constituent attributes and asked to choose from, rank or rate the products they are shown. Each example is similar enough that consumers will see them as close substitutes but dissimilar enough that respondents can clearly determine a preference. Each example is composed of a unique combination of product features. The data may consist of individual ratings, rank orders, or preferences among alternative combinations.  Conjoint design involves four different steps:

1. Determine the type of study.

There are different types of study that can be chosen:

2. Identify the relevant attributes.

Attributes in conjoint analysis should:

3. Specify the attributes’ levels.

Levels of attributes should be:

4. Design questionnaire.

As the number of combinations of attributes and levels increases the number of potential profiles increases exponentially. Consequently, fractional factorial design is commonly used to reduce the number of profiles that have to be evaluated, while ensuring enough data are available for statistical analysis, resulting in a carefully controlled set of "profiles" for the respondent to consider.

Types.

The earliest forms of conjoint analysis were what are known as Full Profile studies, in which a small set of attributes (typically 4 to 5) are used to create profiles that are shown to respondents, often on individual cards. Respondents then rank or rate these profiles. Using relatively simple dummy variable regression analysis the implicit utilities for the levels can be calculated. Two drawbacks were seen in these early designs.  Firstly, the number of attributes in use was heavily restricted. With large numbers of attributes, the consideration task for respondents becomes too large and even with fractional factorial designs the number of profiles for evaluation can increase rapidly. In order to use more attributes (up to 30), hybrid conjoint techniques were developed. The main alternative was to do some form of self-explication (rating of separate components) before the conjoint tasks and some form of adaptive computer-aided choice over the profiles to be shown.  The second drawback was that the task itself was unrealistic and did not link directly to behavioural theory. In real-life situations, the task would be some form of actual choice between alternatives rather than the more artificial ranking and rating originally used. Jordan Louviere pioneered an approach that used only a choice task which became the basis of choice-based conjoint analysis and discrete choice analysis. This stated preference research is linked to econometric modeling and can be linked to revealed preference where choice models are calibrated on the basis of real rather than survey data. Originally choice-based conjoint analysis was unable to provide individual level utilities as it aggregated choices across a market. This made it unsuitable for market segmentation studies. With newer hierarchical Bayesian analysis techniques, individual level utilities can be imputed back to provide individual level data.

Information collection.

Data for conjoint analysis are most commonly gathered through a market research survey, although conjoint analysis can also be applied to a carefully designed configurator or data from an appropriately designed test market experiment. Market research rules of thumb apply with regard to statistical sample size and accuracy when designing conjoint analysis interviews.  The length of the research questionnaire depends on the number of attributes to be assessed and the method of conjoint analysis in use. A typical adaptive conjoint questionnaire with 20-25 attributes may take more than 30 minutes to complete. Choice based conjoint, by using a smaller profile set distributed across the sample as a whole may be completed in less than 15 minutes. Choice exercises may be displayed as a store front type layout or in some other simulated shopping environment.

Analysis.

Depending on the type of model, different econometric and statistical methods can be used to estimate utility functions. These utility functions indicate the perceived value of the feature and how sensitive consumer perceptions and preferences are to changes in product features. The actual estimation procedure will depend on the design of the task and profiles for respondents, in the type of specification, and the scale of measure for preferences (it can be ratio, ranking, choice) which can have a limited range or not. For rated full profile tasks, linear regression may be appropriate, for choice based tasks, maximum likelihood estimation, usually with logistic regression are typically used. The original methods were monotonic analysis of variance or linear programming techniques, but contemporary marketing research practice has shifted towards choice-based models using multinomial logit, mixed versions of this model, and other refinements. Bayesian estimators are also very popular. Hierarchical Bayesian procedures are nowadays relatively popular as well.

Practical applications.

Market research.

One practical application of conjoint analysis in business analysis is given by the following example: A real estate developer is interested in building a high rise apartment complex near an urban Ivy League university. To ensure the success of the project, a market research firm is hired to conduct focus groups with current students. Students are segmented by academic year (freshman, upper classmen, graduate studies) and amount of financial aid received. Study participants are given a series of index cards. Each card has 6 attributes to describe the potential building project (proximity to campus, cost, telecommunication packages, laundry options, floor plans, and security features offered). The estimated cost to construct the building described on each card is equivalent. Participants are asked to order the cards from least to most appealing. This forced ranking exercise will indirectly reveal the participants' priorities and preferences. Multi-variate regression analysis may be used to determine the strength of preferences across target market segments.

Litigation.

Federal courts in the United States have allowed expert witnesses to use conjoint analysis to support their opinions on the damages that an infringer of a patent should pay to compensate the patent holder for violating its rights. Nonetheless, legal scholars have noted that the Federal Circuit's jurisprudence on the use of conjoint analysis in patent-damages calculations remains in a formative stage.  One example of this is how Apple used a conjoint analysis to prove the damages suffered by Samsung's copyright infringement, and increase their compensation in the case.

Conjoint analysis is a survey-based statistical technique used in market research that helps determine how people value different attributes (feature, function, benefits) that make up an individual product or service.

联合分析(Conjoint analysis,又作Conjoint measurement)是多重变量分析主要分析之一,在社会学、生物统计学、数量心理学、市场营销、产品管理、运筹学等领域的统计实证分析应用广泛。sss


Gameplay.

"American McGee's Alice" is a third-person action game in which the player controls the titular character Alice along a linear route. Alice can communicate with non-player characters, fight off enemies and bosses, and solve puzzles. Along with the basic actions of walking and jogging, Alice can jump, cling to ledges, climb and swing on ropes, swim in water, and glide over columns of steam by using her inflated dress as a makeshift parachute. The game can be played at four difficulty levels: "Easy", Medium", "Hard" and "Nightmare". The game's levels feature many platforms and other obstacles not based on artificial intelligence, as well as puzzles that require solving for further passage through the game.  Throughout the game, Alice can obtain up to ten different weapons, known as "toys", for use against enemies. Most toys have two modes of use, which differ in the method and strength of the attack. The first toy acquired by Alice is the Vorpal Blade, which, along with the Croquet Mallet, can be used for basic melee attacks. Toys with longer range include the Ice Wand and an explosive jack-in-the-box. One particular toy, the Jabberwock's Eye Staff, is essential to the narrative and is assembled from pieces scattered throughout the setting. The game's combat system implements automatic target designation: if an enemy character is nearby, the player's weapon sight is automatically fixed upon that enemy. Outside of combat, the sight plays the role of a jump indicator by taking on the shape of two footprints that appear on the surface of any place that Alice would land if she makes a jump.  Because the game takes place within Alice's imagination, the health mechanic is represented as "sanity", which is displayed as a red bar on the left-hand side of the screen. The sanity meter decreases when Alice sustains damage from enemy attacks or an environmental hazard. When the sanity meter is depleted, the game prematurely ends, after which it can be continued from where the game was last saved. A magic mechanic is represented as "willpower", and is displayed as a blue bar on the right-hand side of the screen. Willpower is consumed when almost any toy is used, and a toy will not serve its function when Alice's willpower is too low. Certain amounts of sanity or willpower can be restored by collecting crystals of "meta-essence", the life force of Wonderland. Crystals of "meta-substance", representing the power of imagination, restore sanity and willpower simultaneously. All crystal types can be found scattered across levels, and some respawn within certain places. Meta-substance can be obtained after defeating an enemy; the volume of the meta-substance is dependent on the strength of the defeated enemy.  Certain uncommon items can be found throughout the game that enhance Alice's abilities: "Ragebox Elixir" increases the damage dealt by Alice with the Vorpal Blade, the "Darkened Looking Glass" makes Alice invisible to enemies, and "Grasshopper Tea" augments Alice's speed and jumping height. These items change Alice's appearance and their effects are limited to a short period of time, after which Alice returns to her original state.

Plot.

In 1863, Alice is awoken from a dream of Wonderland by a house fire. Alice's parents are killed and she is able to save herself, but is left with serious burns and psychological damage. She is brought to Rutledge Asylum in a state of catatonia, where several years of treatment fail to rouse Alice from her coma. When Alice's toy rabbit seems to call to her for help, Alice mentally retreats to Wonderland, which appears to have been disfigured by her broken mind. Alice meets the Cheshire Cat, who invites Alice to follow the White Rabbit. Alice learns from nearby village inhabitants that the Queen of Hearts has put Wonderland in decline and despondency, and that the White Rabbit has promised a champion in Alice. Alice is directed to an old gnome who can aid Alice's pursuit of the White Rabbit by reducing her size. The gnome and Alice infiltrate the Fortress of Doors and enter the school inside, where they create an elixir that shrinks Alice and allows her passage to the Vale of Tears.  After aiding the Mock Turtle in retrieving his stolen shell from the Duchess, Alice catches up to the White Rabbit, who takes Alice in the direction of the Caterpillar before he is crushed by the normal-sized Hatter's foot. Alice meets with the Caterpillar, who explains to her that Wonderland's current form is the result of Alice's survivor guilt, and advises her to slay the Queen of Hearts to restore Wonderland's integrity. Alice returns to normal size after nibbling from a mushroom guarded by the Voracious Centipede. In the center of a plateau, Alice discovers a piece of the Jabberwock's Eye Staff. The voice of an unseen oracle tells Alice that before the Queen of Hearts can be slain, Alice must first eliminate the Queen's sentinel – the Jabberwock, who can only be killed with the completed Eye Staff. In her search for the remaining pieces of the Eye Staff, Alice defeats the Red King in the chess-themed Looking-Glass Land, as well as the Hatter's minions Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Alice later finds that the Hatter is conducting cruel experiments on the March Hare and Dormouse, and keeping the Gryphon captive. After killing the Hatter, Alice frees the Gryphon, who offers to rally forces against the Queen of Hearts and takes Alice to the Land of Fire and Brimstone, the abode of the Jabberwock. Within the remains of Alice's old home, the Jabberwock wracks Alice with guilt over her parents' deaths and overpowers her in a fight until the Gryphon returns and rescues Alice by depriving the Jabberwock of one of his eyes.  With the Jabberwock's Eye Staff fully assembled, the Gryphon directs Alice to Queensland and takes off with the intention of stopping the Jabberwock himself. On her way to the Queen of Hearts's castle, Alice sees the Gryphon and the Jabberwock engaged in an aerial battle, which ends with the Gryphon mortally wounded. Following Alice's victory against the Jabberwock, the dying Gryphon entrusts Alice with the final battle against the Queen of Hearts. At the entrance to the Queen's Hall, the Cheshire Cat attempts to confess to Alice about the nature of the Queen of Hearts, but he is suddenly executed as he states that "You are two parts of the same..." Alice engages in a fight with a figure puppeteered by the real Queen of Hearts, a giant fleshy tentacled creature who warns Alice that destroying her will destroy them both. Upon Alice's final victory over the Queen of Hearts, Wonderland is restored, and many of the characters who had died in the journey are revived. Her mind repaired, Alice leaves Rutledge Asylum.

Development.

After leaving id Software in 1997, creative director American McGee was inspired to design a game that did not involve space marines, guns, aliens and outer space, which were the common themes in the "Doom" and "Quake" series. McGee's gloomy image of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" was primarily inspired by the Crystal Method track "Trip Like I Do", in which he heard the word "wonder". In early experiments with transforming the material of the novel, McGee and his partner R.J. Berg turned to such areas as manga, futurism and hand-drawn animation, and also considered sexual interpretations. McGee sought to omit shortcomings in products that he had previously designed, such as recreating reality instead of creating a fantastic world, reusing traditional weapons, and unremarkable characters. Sketches of Alice, the Cheshire Cat and the Hatter by Terry Smith and Norm Felchle played a decisive role in establishing the game's visual style and served as a basis for subsequent concept art.  EA licensed Ritual Entertainment's "" engine, which is in turn a modified "Quake III Arena" engine. The most notable changes in the engine include the use of the Tiki model system, which enables the engine to use skeletal animation among other things, the Babble dialog system which enables lip synching of audio with character animations, dynamic music system, scriptable camera, particle system and extended shader support. The changes implemented to the engine for "Alice" remained minimal however. The game's.bsp files even retain "F.A.K.K.2"s headers, albeit sporting a different version number.  An early version of the game featured the ability to summon the Cheshire Cat to aid the player in battle. Though this feature was removed from the final product, beta screenshots of this version do exist online. In the final product, the player can press a button to summon the Cheshire Cat at any time, though he merely provides cryptic advice on the current situation, and does nothing to aid Alice if she is being attacked. An "Alice" port for the then-unreleased PlayStation 2 was also in development but was later cancelled, which caused Rogue Entertainment to shut down, another decision which angered American McGee and resulted him leaving EA in frustration. The game's retail release was also noticeably less gory than the demo that had been released earlier.  The game's box art was altered after release to show Alice holding the Ice Wand instead of the Vorpal Blade, and to reduce the skeletal character of the Cheshire Cat's anatomy. EA cited complaints from various consumer groups as its reason for altering the original art, though McGee stated the alteration was made due to internal concerns at EA. A third version of the box art has Alice holding the Cards in her hands instead of a knife or wand.  "Alice" was EA's first M-rated game, a rating which McGee fought to obtain, because he did not want an "Alice" product to be sold at Christmas time, since parents could be confused, thinking that the game was intended to be a gift for children. However, in a 2009 interview, McGee expressed regret for his decision, and said that the violence in the game did not warrant an M-rating and that consumers should buy products responsibly, after referring to the recommendations of the ESRB beforehand.  "Alice" has grown in value and become a collector's item since its release, with new copies selling for $100–200 on auction sites and used copies selling for close to $100. The earlier a particular copy of the game was published, the higher its market value. Demand is greatest for editions with the Vorpal Blade cover art; those with the Ice Wand follow closely; least sought-after is the comparatively-innocuous Hand of Cards version.  In 2010, a real-world replica of the fabled Vorpal Blade was released to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the game.

Music.

All of the music created for the official "American McGee's Alice" soundtrack was written and performed by Chris Vrenna with the help of guitarist Mark Blasquez and singer Jessicka. Most of the sounds he used were created using toy instruments and percussion, music boxes (in a short documentary about the making of the game that appeared on TechTV, the music box used appears to be an antique Fisher-Price music box pocket radio), clocks, doors, and sampled female voices were manipulated into nightmarish soundscapes, including instances of them laughing maniacally, screaming, crying, and singing in an eerie, childlike way.  The music lends an eerie and horrifying feeling to the world Alice is in. The Pale Realm theme, as well as the track "I'm Not Edible", features the melody of the chorus of a popular children's song, "My Grandfather's Clock". In addition, there are many instances of the ticking and chiming of clocks being used as a musical accompaniment.  Marilyn Manson was originally involved scoring the music for the game. His composition has been described by American McGee as "very cool" and having "a very beautiful Beatles-in-their-harpsichord-and-Hookah-pipe-days-sound to it." Manson's contributions persisted into the final product, notably the influence of alchemy and the character of the Mad Hatter whose adaptation was somewhat influenced by him; for a time Manson was considered for the voice of the Hatter. Manson has indicated that the same music may be used in his forthcoming film "".  American McGee's Alice Original Music Score was released on October 16, 2001 by Six Degrees Records. It features all twenty original compositions by former Nine Inch Nails live drummer and studio collaborator Chris Vrenna with vocals done by Jessicka Addams of Jack Off Jill and Scarling.. It includes a previously unreleased theme as well as a remix of "Flying on the Wings of Steam".

Related media.

Film adaptation.

In December 2000, director Wes Craven signed on to develop a film adaptation of the game, with screenwriter John August hired to adapt the game for the big screen. American McGee had begun negotiations with Dimension Films 10 months before, with the studio committing to the project before Craven's signing. In September 2001, August explained that he had turned in a script treatment for "Alice" and was not attached to develop fuller drafts for the film adaptation. In February 2002, Dimension Films signed brother screenwriters Jon and Erich Hoeber to write the screenplay for "Alice". In July 2003, the brothers announced that they had completed the script for the film adaptation.  In 2004, the project moved from Dimension Films to 20th Century Fox, but in 2005 Universal Pictures acquired the rights., producer Scott Faye indicated the film was in "turnaround" from Universal. He admitted that the script needed development, but would be used to attract the attention of a new studio. At one point the film rights were reported to have been owned by Sarah Michelle Gellar, a self-confessed fan of the game, who noted in 2008 that she's "not giving up" on the film, but a few months later she was reported to have left the project.  In 2013, with the success of earning the funds to produce "", McGee stated his desire to continue to work on the possibility of adapting the series into a feature film on Kickstarter. On February 17, 2014, McGee announced that he and his team have secured a British screenwriter to write the film's script. On April 16, 2014, he assured fans that the film is still in production and is currently working with a producer in Hollywood who they have licensed the rights from, but has run into a few difficulties along the way.  On July 10, 2014, McGee informed fans that the progress on the feature film has come to a temporary halt. McGee stated that he has secured the rights only to develop the feature film's story and production, and must acquire the film rights completely before proceeding further. He is currently speaking with potential investors and financiers to gather the required funding, $400,000. On January 8, 2015, McGee stated that negotiations for the feature film have gone on a hiatus, and will not resume until May.

Animated short films.

In June 2013, American McGee was given the opportunity to buy back the film rights which were originally sold several years prior. Through Kickstarter, McGee managed to fund the cost of the film rights ($100,000) and another $100,000 for the production of the shorts. In August, the project was successfully funded with an extra $50,000 (used to fund the voice acting of Susie Brann and Roger L. Jackson). The project has been titled "".

Reception.

In the United States, "American McGee's Alice" sold 360,000 units by August 2006. At the time, this led "Edge" to declare it the country's 47th-best-selling computer game released since January 2000.  The game was ultimately released on December 5, 2000, receiving praise for its visuals; the graphics were very elaborate for their time. Many levels depict a world of chaos and wonder, some reminiscent of the inside of an asylum or a madhouse, visually linking Wonderland to Alice's reality. The exterior views of Wonderland show the Queen of Hearts' tentacles dipping out of buildings and mountain sides, especially in Queensland. "Alice" received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. GameSpot said, "While you'll undoubtedly enjoy the imaginative artwork, you might end up disappointed with just how straightforward the underlying game really is."  In her article “Wonderland’s become quite strange: From Lewis Carroll’s "Alice" to "American McGee’s Alice",” literary critic Cathlena Martin argues that the game “provides a reinterpreted version of Alice and the whole of wonderland that may have some players questioning which aspects are from Carroll and which are from McGee, thus potentially leading to a rereading of Carroll through the darker lens of McGee’s Alice. This reinterpretation of Alice shows the versatility and mutability of the story across time and discourse.” Martin also notes that the game is successful largely in part to the narrative structure of Carroll's tales, which are built around games - cards and chess - themselves.  Blake Fischer reviewed the PC version of the game for "Next Generation", rating it four stars out of five, and stated that ""Alice" is an incredibly beautiful and well-designed shooter. If you're looking for more, you may pass, but otherwise it's a game you won't want to miss."

Sequel.

As the plans for the movie adaptation of "American McGee's Alice" started to take longer and longer, in 2007 interest at Electronic Arts rose in a remake of the game and work was started on a sequel. On 19 February 2009, EA CEO John Riccitiello announced at D.I.C.E. 2009 that a new installment to the series is in the works for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.  It was developed by Spicy Horse, who worked on "American McGee's Grimm". Two pieces of concept art were released, depicting Alice and large allied birds fighting an oversized, semi-mechanized snail and its children on top of a lighthouse, and Alice swimming in a pond, with the Cheshire Cat's face in the background.  In November 2009, a fan-made video based on the "Alice 2" announcement was mistaken by gaming websites as a teaser trailer for the game. In it, Alice is in therapy after a relapse nine months after the events of the first game, and appears to hallucinate an image of the Cheshire Cat in place of her doctor.  On 15 June 2010, EA filed a trademark on the name "", the suspected sequel to "American McGee's Alice". While the sequel was formally announced via press release on 19 February 2009, the sequel's title was confirmed during the EA Studio Showcase the following day.  The game was released on June 14, 2011, in North America, June 16, 2011, in Europe and June 17, 2011, in the United Kingdom under the title "" for PC, Mac, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions came with a redemption code that gave the player a free download of "American McGee's Alice".

American McGee's Alice is a 2000 third-person action-adventure video game developed by Rogue Entertainment under the direction of designer American McGee and published by Electronic Arts (EA). The game was originally released for personal computers running Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. Although a planned PlayStation 2 port was cancelled, the game was later released digitally for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

是心理恐怖元素的第三人称动作游戏,2000年12月6日在个人电脑平台发行。游戏由Rogue Entertainment开发,艺电发行,是路易斯·卡罗尔《爱丽丝》小说的非正式后传。游戏由亚美利坚·麦基设计,克里斯·维伦纳谱曲。


季米特里斯·米特罗普洛斯

Life and career.

Mitropoulos was born in Athens, the son of Yannis and Angelikē Mitropoulos. His father owned a leather goods shop in downtown Athens. He was musically precocious, demonstrating his abilities at an early age. From the ages of eleven to fourteen, when Mitropoulos was in secondary school, he would host and preside over informal musical gatherings at his house every Saturday afternoon. His earliest acknowledged composition – a sonata for violin and piano, now lost – dates from this period.  He studied music at the Athens Conservatoire as well as in Brussels and Berlin, with Ferruccio Busoni among his teachers. From 1921 to 1925 he assisted Erich Kleiber at the Berlin State Opera and then took a number of posts in Greece. At a 1930 concert with the Berlin Philharmonic, finding that his soloist was sick he played the solo part of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 and conducted the orchestra from the keyboard, becoming one of the first to do so.

United States.

Mitropoulos made his U.S. debut in 1936 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and he later settled in the country, becoming a citizen in 1946. From 1937 to 1949 he served as principal conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (forerunner of today's Minnesota Orchestra).  In 1949 Mitropoulos began his association with the New York Philharmonic, the peak of his orchestral career. He was initially co-conductor with Leopold Stokowski and became the sole music director in 1951. Mitropoulos recorded extensively with the Philharmonic for Columbia Records and sought to reach new audiences in the city through appearances on television and by conducting a week of performances at the Roxy Theatre, a popular movie theatre. Mitropoulos expanded the Philharmonic's repertoire, commissioning works by new composers and championing the symphonies of Gustav Mahler. In 1958, he was succeeded as the Philharmonic's conductor by a protégé, Leonard Bernstein. In January 1960, he guest conducted the Philharmonic in a performance of Mahler's Fifth Symphony, which was recorded.

Work in opera.

In addition to his orchestral career, Mitropoulos was an equally important force in the operatic repertoire. He conducted opera extensively in Italy, and from 1954 until his death in 1960 was the principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, although the Met never had an official 'principal conductor' title until the 1970s. His musically incisive and dramatically vivid performances of Puccini, Verdi, Richard Strauss and others remain models of the opera conductor's art. The Met's extensive archive of recorded broadcasts preserves many of these fine performances.  Mitropoulos's series of recordings for Columbia Records with the New York Philharmonic included a rare complete performance of Alban Berg's "Wozzeck". Many of these have been reissued by Sony Classics on CD, including most recently his stereo recordings of excerpts from Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet". He recorded with the Minneapolis Symphony for RCA Victor during the 78-rpm era. He was also represented on the Cetra Records label, most notably with an early recording of Richard Strauss's "Elektra".  Mitropoulos premiered many contemporary works. Examples include the American premieres of Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony (1954) and First Violin Concerto (1956) and the world premieres of Barber's "Vanessa" (1958), Ernst Krenek's Fourth Symphony (1947), and John J. Becker's "Short Symphony" (1950).

Personal life.

He was noted for having an Eidetic memory (which enabled him to conduct without a score, even during rehearsals) and for his monk-like life style due to his deeply religious, Greek Orthodox beliefs.  Mitropoulos never married. He was "quietly known to be homosexual" and "felt no need for a cosmetic marriage". Among his relationships reportedly was one with Leonard Bernstein.  He died in Milan, Italy at the age of 64 of heart failure, while rehearsing Gustav Mahler's 3rd Symphony. One of his very last recorded performances was Verdi's "La forza del destino" with Giuseppe Di Stefano, Antonietta Stella and Ettore Bastianini at Vienna on 23 September 1960. A recording exists of the performance of Mahler's 3rd Symphony given by Mitropoulos with the Cologne Radio Symphony on 31 October 1960, just two days before his death.

Impact on the music profession.

Mitropoulos was noted as a champion of modern music, such as that by the members of the Second Viennese School. He wrote a number of pieces for orchestra and solo works for piano, and also arranged some of Johann Sebastian Bach's organ works for orchestra. In addition he was very influential in encouraging Leonard Bernstein's interest in conducting performances of Mahler's symphonic works. He also premiered and recorded a piano concerto of Ernst Krenek as soloist (available on CD), and works by composers in the U.S. such as Roger Sessions, Elie Siegmeister and Peter Mennin. In 1952 he commissioned American composer Philip Bezanson to write a piano concerto, which he premiered the following year. His compositions include a piano sonata and the opera "Sœur Béatrice" (1918).

Dimitri Mitropoulos (; – 2 November 1960) was a Greek conductor, pianist, and composer. He received international fame both as a major conductor and composer of the 20th century.

季米特里斯·米特罗普洛斯(英语:Dimitris Mitropoulos,,1896年-3月1日-1960年-11月2日),生于雅典,在米兰去世,是一位美国籍希腊指挥家、作曲家和钢琴家。


Geography.

The main tributaries of the Paranaíba are the São Marcos, the Corumbá, the Meia Ponte, and the Bois. Major dams on its course are the Barragem de Emborcação, Barragem Itumbiara and Barragem de São Simão. Cachoeira Dourada near Itumbiara is one of the most important hydroelectric power stations in Brazil, providing energy to Goiânia and Brasília.  The Paranaíba is navigable only in the artificial lake of Ilha Solteira with an extension of 180 km as far as the dam of São Simão.  Because of the great pressure to use its resources it shows serious environmental problems.  In addition to the erosion of its banks caused by sand extraction and cutting down of the original forest growth, practically 100% of the towns that form its basin dump their sewage "in natura", including the capital of Goiânia, which dumps 95% of its sewage, untreated, directly into the Meia Ponte river, which then flows into the Paranaíba.  The Paranaíba river is the most important source of the Paraná river, her source lies in the serra (mountains) of Mata da Corda, municipality "Rio Paranaiba" (Mato Grosso) at a height of. On the other side of these serra is the source of the Abaete, a tributary of the São Francisco. The confluence of the Paranaíba with the Grande river is situated about from the source of the Paranaíba. At the unison there is a bridge that is also a border point between three states: São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Mato Grosso do Sul. The Paranaíba river is famous for the rich diamond deposits of her tributaries and her huge hydroelectric potential.  The Paranaíba may best be studied in three separate parts, the high-, the middle- and the lower Paranaiba.

The high Paranaíba.

NB: of each segment the start km-point (and counting down) beginning with 1,070, the length, the slope etc. will be mentioned. From its headwaters at 1,000 km, a length of 370 km, to km 700, runs with a northerly orientation through the whole extent of the region Minas Gerais at an average height of 760 m, with a slope of 25 cm/km, goes through the town Patos of Minas at a height of 770 m, obtains water from a number of small tributaries that descend from the Magalhães-peak and from the Serra of Barbaça, on the other side of the Serra da Mata da Corda.  At a height of km 729, at a bridge, she receives the water of a small river, the Verde river, close to the place Contendas (Goias) and bends under the bridge perpendicularly to the southeast and takes the border between Minas and Goias. Between km 700 and 800 the slope is 50 cm/km, running in a valley of average width, with broken strictures between km 730 and 732 and between km 783 and 790. The terrains along the river are rolling smoothly and are poorly cultivated.

Middle Paranaíba.

From km 700 to the reservoir of the Dourada (km 330, with a length of 370 km). Between km 575 and 700 the Paranaíba receives the following tributaries: At km 661, right bank the São Marcos, at km 633, left bank, the Perdizes river, at km 596, right bank, the Bagagem river. In this segment the river has a slope of 1.2 m/km in a region with generally narrow valleys, steeply sloping banks, rising up to 25 and 60 m. The tributaries of this segment cross diamond containing layers in the "zones of the triangle" Minas Gerais and Goias.  Between km 313 and 575 the Paranaíba receives the water of the following tributaries: On the right bank the Verissimo. And the Corumba river (km 436) and the Santa Maria river. And on the right side the Jordao river, the Araguari river (km 469) and the small river Piedade. This stretch has a slope of 50 cm/km and runs through the cities Itumbiara (km 392) and Anhanguera (km 535), both in the territory of Goias, and through the city of Araporã (km 392) in the mine region. In this segment the Itumbiara Dam, situated in the municipality of gemeente Araporã, belonging to the Furnas Centrais Elétricas, operating since 1981 with a power of 2.800MW, being the most power generating hydro-station of the Furnas complex, of the state Minas Gerais and of the Paranaiba river.  The river presents a relatively wide bed, cultivated for 20% to 50% of the area and at km 400 starts to run on the well known extensive basalt plate of the Paraná River.

The low Paranaíba.

From the reservoir of the waterfall Dourada up to the unison with the Grande river, with 330 km length. Between km 199 and 330 there is a slope of 33 cm/km. At the limit of this stretch, using the readily available energy, a hydroelectric power station "of the waterfall Dourado" was built. This station used to belong to Centrais Elétricas de Goias (CELG), was privatised and now belongs to "Empresa Endesa Cachoeira" with a generator of 658,000 kW and a waterfall of 19 m providing energy to CELG. Her reservoir takes up about 78 km of the middle Paranaíba. On the stretch from here to km 195 we find the so-called canal of São Simão (Simon), a narrow canal cut out of the basalt, 23 km long and 35 m deep situated on the border of Minas en Goias. In this stretch we find the São Simão Dam, operating with a power of 2.680MW At 3 km higher up from the bridge in Highway BR-31 the Paranaíba, now 3,500 m wide, rushes into a canal 300 m wide that further downstream is narrowed to scarcely 80 m, creating a high turbulence and speed. The river is navigable from the dam of the island Solteira over a length of 180 km up to the dam of São Simão. As with the Grande river, there are problems increasing the navigability, such as high falls, rapids etc. In any case it would be very interesting to have navigability into the central region of Brazil, including into the federal capital Brazilia.

History.

São Simão Channel.

One of the greatest ecological losses in Brazil was the disappearance of the Sâo Simão Channel (Canal de São Simão) located on the lower stretch of the river. It was a narrow gorge cut into the basalt, with 23 kilometers length and 35 meters depth, situated on the boundary of the states of Minas and Goiás. The waters of the river, after dividing into two parallel arms, returned to a common bed, forming a corridor of waterfalls. Today this spectacle no longer exists. The building of the São Simão Dam, with the need to increase the capacity of power of the hydroelectric power station, has created a huge lake whose waters have covered the channel.

The Paranaíba River is a Brazilian river whose source lies in the state of Minas Gerais in the Mata da Corda mountains, municipality of Rio Paranaíba, at an altitude of 1,148 meters; on the other face of this mountain chain are the sources of the Abaeté river, tributary of the São Francisco River. The length of the river is approximately up to the junction with the Grande River, both of which then form the Paraná River, at the point that marks the borders of the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Mato Grosso do Sul.

巴拉那伊巴河(Río Paranaíba)是一条巴西河流,其源头位于米纳斯吉拉斯州里奥帕拉纳伊巴的马塔达柯达山脉(Mata da Corda mountains),其海拔是1,148米;此山脉的另一面是圣弗朗西斯科河支流阿巴埃特河的源头。


Extent.

The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Laptev Sea as follows: On the West. The eastern limit of Kara Sea <nowiki>[</nowiki>Komsomolets Island from Cape Molotov to South Eastern Cape; thence to Cape Vorochilov, Oktiabrskaya Revolutziya Island to Cape Anuchin. Then to Cape Unslicht on Bolshevik Island. Bolshevik Island to Cape Yevgenov. Thence to Cape Pronchisthehev on the main land (see Russian chart No. 1484 of the year 1935)].  On the North. A line joining Cape Molotov to the Northern extremity of Kotelni Island ().  On the East. From the Northern extremity of Kotelni Island – through Kotelni Island to Cape Madvejyi. Then through Malyi Island <nowiki>[</nowiki>Little Lyakhovsky Island<nowiki>]</nowiki>, to Cape Vaguin on Great Liakhov Island. Thence to Cape Sviatoy Nos on the main land. Using current geographic names and transcription this definition corresponds to the area shown in the map.

Geography.

The Lena River, with its large delta, is the biggest river flowing into the Laptev Sea, and is the second largest river in the Russian Arctic after Yenisei. Other important rivers include the Khatanga, the Anabar, the Olenyok or Olenek, the Omoloy and the Yana.  The sea shores are winding and form gulfs and bays of various sizes. The coastal landscape is also diverse, with small mountains near the sea in places. The main gulfs of the Laptev Sea coast are the Khatanga Gulf, the Olenyok Gulf, the Buor-Khaya Gulf and the Yana Bay.  There are several dozens of islands with the total area of, mostly in the western part of the sea and in the river deltas. Storms and currents due to the ice thawing significantly erode the islands, so the Semenovsky and Vasilievsky islands (74°12"N, 133°E) which were discovered in 1815 have already disappeared. The most significant groups of islands are Severnaya Zemlya, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Vilkitsky and Faddey, and the largest individual islands are Bolshoy Begichev (1764 km), Belkovsky (500 km), Maly Taymyr (250 km), Stolbovoy (170 km), Starokadomsky (110 km), and Peschanyy (17 km). (see )  More than half of the sea (53%) rests on a continental shelf with the average depths below, and the areas south from 76°N are shallower than 25 m. In the northern part, the sea bottom sharply drops to the ocean floor with the depth of the order of (22% of the sea area). There it is covered with silt, which is mixed with ice in the shallow areas.  The Laptev Sea is bound to the south by the East Siberian Lowland, an alluvial plain mainly composed of sediments of marine origin dating back to the time when the whole area was occupied by the Verkhoyansk Sea, an ancient sea at the edge of the Siberian Craton in the Permian period. As centuries went by, gradually, most of the area limiting the sea to the south became filled with the alluvial deposits of modern rivers.

Climate.

The climate of the Laptev Sea is Arctic continental and, owing to the remoteness from both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, is one of the most severe among the Arctic seas. Polar night and midnight sun last about 3 months per year on the south and 5 months on the north. Air temperatures stay below 0 °С 11 months a year on the north and 9 months on the south. The average temperature in January (coldest month) varies across the sea between and and the minimum is. In July, the temperature rises to 0 °С (maximum 4 °С) in the north and to 5 °С (maximum 10 °С) in the south, however, it may reach 22–24 °С on the coast in August. The maximum of was recorded in Tiksi. Strong winds, blizzards and snow storms are common in winter. Snow falls even in summer and is alternating with fogs.  The winds blow from south and south-west in winter with the average speed of 8 m/s which subsides toward the spring. In summer, they change direction to the northerly, and their speed is 3–4 m/s. Relatively weak winds result in low convection in the surface waters, which occurs only to the depth of 5–10 meters.

Ice.

The Laptev Sea is a major source of arctic sea ice. With an average outflow of 483,000 km per year over the period 1979–1995, it contributes more sea ice than the Barents Sea, Kara Sea, East Siberian Sea and Chukchi Sea combined. Over this period, the annual outflow fluctuated between 251,000 km in 1984–85 and 732,000 km in 1988–89. The sea exports substantial amounts of sea ice in all months but July, August and September.  Ice formation starts in September on the north and October on the south. It results in a large continuous sheet of ice, with the thickness up to in the south-eastern part of the sea as well as near the coast. The coastal sheet ends at the water depth of 20–25 m which occurs at several hundred kilometers from the shore, thus this coastal ice covers some 30% of the sea area. Ice is drifting north to this coastal band, and several polynyas are formed by the warm south winds around there. They have various names, such as the Great Siberian Polynya, and can stretch over many hundreds kilometers. The ice sheet starts melting in late May-early June, creating fragmented ice agglomerates on the north-west and south-east and often revealing remains of the mammoths. The ice formation varies from year to year, with the sea either clear or completely covered with ice.

Hydrology.

The sea is characterized by the low water temperatures, which ranges from in the north to in the south-eastern parts. The medium water layer is warmer, up to 1.5 °С because it is fed by the warm Atlantic waters. It takes them 2.5–3 years to reach the Laptev Sea from their formation near Spitsbergen. The deeper layer is colder at about −0.8 °С. In summer, the surface layer in the ice-free zones warms up by the sun up to 8–10 °С in the bays and 2–3 °С in the open sea, and remains close to 0 °С under ice. The water salinity is significantly affected by the thawing of ice and river runoff. The latter amounts to about 730 km and would form a 135 cm freshwater layer over the entire sea; it is the second largest in the world after the Kara Sea. The salinity values vary in winter from 20–25‰ (parts per thousand) in the south-east to 34‰ in the northern parts of the sea; it decreases in summer to 5–10‰ and 30–32‰ respectively.  Most of the river runoff (about 70% or 515 km/year) is contributed by the Lena River. Other major contributions are from Khatanga (more than 100 km), Olenyok (35 km), Yana (greater than 30 km) and Anabar (20 km), with other rivers contributing about 20 km. Owing to the ice melting season, about 90% of the annual runoff occurs between June and September with 35–40% in August alone, whereas January contributes only 5%.  Sea currents form a cyclone consisting of the southward stream near Severnaya Zemlya which reaches the continental coast and flows along it from west to east. It is then amplified by the Lena River flow and diverts to the north and north-west toward the Arctic Ocean. A small part of the cyclone leaks through the Sannikov Strait to the East Siberian Sea. The cyclone has a speed of 2 cm/s which decreases toward the center. The center of the cyclone drifts with time that slightly alters the flow character.  The tides are mostly semi-diurnal (rise twice a day), with the average amplitude of. In the Khatanga Gulf it may reach 2 m because of the funnel-like shape of the gulf. This tidal wave is then noticeable up to the unusually long distance of 500 km up to the Khatanga River – the tidal wave is damped at much shorter distance in other rivers of the Laptev Sea.  The seasonal variations of the sea level are relatively small – the sea level rises up to in summer near the river deltas and lowers in winter. Wind-induced changes are observed all through the year, but are more frequent in autumn when the winds are strong and steady. In general, the sea level rises with northern and lowers with southern winds, but depending on the area, the maximum amplitude is observed for a specific wind direction (e.g. western and north-western in the south-eastern part of the sea). They average amplitudes are 1–2 m and may exceed near Tiksi.  Owing to the weak winds and shallow waters, the sea is relatively calm with the waves typically within. In July–August waves up to 4–5 m are observed near the sea center, and they may reach in autumn.

History and exploration.

The coast of the Laptev Sea was inhabited for ages by the native peoples of northern Siberia such as Yukaghirs and Chuvans (sub-tribe of Yukaghirs). Those tribes were engaged in fishing, hunting and reindeer husbandry, as reindeer sleds were essential for transportation and hunting. They were joined and absorbed by Evens and Evenks around the 2nd century and later, between 9th and 15th centuries, by much more numerous Yakuts. All those tribes moved north from the Baikal Lake area avoiding confrontations with Mongols. Whereas they all practiced shamanism, they spoke different languages.  Russians started exploring the Laptev Sea coast and the nearby islands some time in the 17th century, going through the rivers emptying into the sea. Many early explorations were likely unreported, as indicated by finding of graves on some islands by their official discoverers. In 1629, Siberian Cossacks went through the Lena River and reached its delta. They left a note that the river flows into a sea. In 1633, another group reached the delta of Olenyok.  By 1712, Yakov Permyakov and Merkury Vagin explored the eastern part of the Laptev Sea and discovered Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island. However, they were killed on the way back from their expedition by mutineering team members. In 1770, the merchant Ivan Lyakhov revisited the islands and then asked a government permission to commercially develop their ivory resources. Catherine II granted the permission and named the islands after Lyakhov. While exploring the area in the 1770s, Lyakhov described several other islands, including Kotelny, which he named so after a large kettle ( – kotel) left there by previous visitors. He also established first permanent settlements on those islands.  In 1735, Russian explorer of Siberia Vasili Pronchishchev sailed from Yakutsk down the Lena River on his sloop "Yakutsk". He explored the eastern coast of the Lena delta, and stopped for wintering at the mouth of the Olenyok River. Unfortunately many members of his crew fell ill and died, mainly owing to scurvy. Despite these difficulties, in 1736, he reached the eastern shore of the Taymyr Peninsula and went north surveying its coastline. Pronchishchev and his wife succumbed to scurvy and died on the way back. Maria Pronchishcheva Bay in the Laptev Sea is named after the wife of Pronchishchev.  During the 1739–1742 Great Northern Expedition, Russian Arctic explorer and Vice Admiral Dmitry Laptev described the sea coastline from the mouth of the Lena River, along the Buor-Khaya and Yana gulfs, to the strait that bears his name, Dmitry Laptev Strait. As part of the same expedition, Dmitry's cousin Khariton Laptev's led a party that surveyed the coast of the Taimyr Peninsula starting from the mouth of the Khatanga River. Detailed mapping of the coast of the Laptev Sea and New Siberian Islands was performed by Pyotr Anjou, who in 1821–1823 traveled some over the region on sledges and small boats, searching for the Sannikov Land and demonstrating that large-scale coastal observations can be performed without ships. Anzhu Islands (the northern part of New Siberian Islands) were named after him. In 1875, Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld was the first to travel across the whole sea on a steamship "Vega".  In 1892–1894, and again in 1900–1902, Baron Eduard von Toll explored the Laptev Sea in the course of two separate expeditions. On the ship "Zarya", Toll carried out geological and geographical surveys in the area on behalf of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences. In his last expedition Toll disappeared off the New Siberian Islands under mysterious circumstances. Toll noted sizable and economically significant accumulations of perfectly preserved fossil ivory in recent beaches, drainage areas, river terraces and river beds within the New Siberian Islands. The later scientific studies demonstrated that the ivory accumulated over a period of some 200,000 years.

Naming.

The Laptev Sea changed its name several times. It was apparently known as the Tartar Sea () in the 16th century, as the Lena Sea () in the 17th century, as the Siberian Sea () in the 18th century and as the Icy Sea () in the 19th century. It acquired its name as Nordenskjold Sea () in 1893. On 27 June 1935, the sea finally received its current name after the cousins Dmitry Laptev and Khariton Laptev who first mapped its shores in 1735–1740.

Flora and fauna.

Both flora and fauna are scarce owing to the harsh climate. Vegetation of the sea is mostly represented by diatoms, with more than 100 species. In comparison, the number of green algae, blue-green algae and flagellate species is about 10 each. The phytoplankton is characteristic of brackish waters and has a total concentration of about 0.2 mg/L. There are about 30 species of zooplankton with the concentration reaching 0.467 mg/L. The coastal flora mainly consists of mosses and lichens and a few flowering plants including Arctic poppy ("Papaver radicatum"), "Saxifraga", "Draba" and small populations of polar ("Salix polaris") and creeping ("Salicaceae") willows. Rare vascular plants include species of "Cerastium" and "Saxifraga". Non-vascular plants include the moss genera "Detrichum", "Dicranum", "Pogonatum", "Sanionia", "Bryum", "Orthothecium" and "Tortura", as well as the lichen genera "Cetraria", "Thamnolia", "Cornicularia", "Lecidea", "Ochrolechia" and "Parmelia".  Permanent mammal species include ringed seal ("Phoca hispida"), bearded seal ("Erignathus barbatus"), harp seal ("Pagophilus groenlandicus"), walrus ("Odobenus rosmarus"), collared lemming ("Dicrostonyx torquatus"), Arctic fox ("Alopex lagopus"), reindeer ("Rangifer tarandus") wolf ("Canis lupus"), ermine ("Mustela erminea"), Arctic hare ("Lepus timidus") and polar bear ("Ursus maritimus"), whereas beluga whales ("Delphinapterus leucas") visit the region seasonally. The walrus of the Laptev Sea is sometimes distinguished as a separate subspecies "Odobenus rosmarus laptevi", though this attribution is questioned. There are several dozens species of birds. Some belong to permanent (tundra) species, such as snow bunting ("Plectrophenax nivalis"), purple sandpiper ("Calidris maritima"), snowy owl ("Bubo scandiacus") and brent goose and other make large colonies on the islands and sea shores. The latter include little auk ("Alle alle"), black-legged kittiwake ("Rissa tridactyla"), black guillemot ("Cepphus grylle"), ivory gull ("Pagophila eburnea"), "uria", "charadriiformes" and glaucous gull ("Larus hyperboreus"). Among other bird species are skua, sterna, northern fulmar, ("Fulmarus glacialis"), ivory gull ("Pagophila eburnea"), glaucous gull ("Larus hyperboreus"), Ross's gull ("Rhodostethia rosea"), long-tailed duck ("Clangula hyemalis"), eider, loon and willow grouse ("Lagopus lagopus"). There are 39 fish species, mostly typical of braskish environment; the major ones are grayling and "Coregonus" (whitefishes), such as muksun ("Coregonus muksun"), broad whitefish ("Coregonus nasus") and omul ("Coregonus autumnalis"). Also common are sardine, Arctic cisco, Bering cisco, polar smelt, saffron cod, polar cod, flounder and Arctic char and inconnu.  In 1985, the Ust-Lena Nature Reserve was established in the delta (from – "ust", meaning "delta") of the Lena River with an area of 14,300 km. In 1986, New Siberian Islands were included into the reserve. The reserve hosts numerous plants (402 species), fishes (32 species), birds (109 species) and mammals (33 species).

Human activities.

The coast of the sea is shared by the Sakha Republic (Anabarsky, Bulunsky District and Ust-Yansky districts) on the east and Krasnoyarsk Krai (Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District) of Russia on the west. The coastal settlements are few and small, with the typical population of a few hundred or less. The only exception is Tiksi (population 5,873), which is the administrative center of the Bulunsky District.

Fishery and navigation.

Fishery and hunting have relatively small volume and are mostly concentrated in the river deltas. Data are available for the Khatanga Bay and deltas of the Lena and Yana rivers from 1981 to 1991 which translate into about 3,000 tonnes of fish annually. Extrapolated, they give the following annual estimates (in thousand tonnes) by species: sardine (1.2), Arctic cisco (2.0), Bering cisco (2.7), broad whitefish (2.6), Muksun (2.4) and others (3.6). Hunting sea mammals is only practiced by native people. In particular, walrus hunting is only allowed by scientific expeditions and local tribes for subsistence.  Despite freezing, navigation is a major human activity on the Laptev Sea with the major port in Tiksi. During Soviet times, the Laptev Sea coastal areas experienced a limited boom owing to the first icebreaker convoys plying the Northern Sea Route and the creation of the Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route. The route was difficult even for icebreakers – so "Lenin" (pictured) and her convoy of five ships were trapped in ice in the Laptev Sea around September 1937. They spent an enforced winter there and were rescued by another icebreaker "Krasin" in August 1938. The major transported goods were timber, fur and construction materials. Tiksi had an active airport, and Nordvik harbor further west was "a growing town," though it was closed in the mid-1940s.  After the break-up of the Soviet Union commercial navigation in the Siberian Arctic went into decline in the 1990s. More or less regular shipping is to be found only from Murmansk to Dudinka in the west and between Vladivostok and Pevek in the east. Ports between Dudinka and Pevek see next to no shipping at all. Logashkino was abandoned in 1998 and is now a ghost town.

Mining.

In the 1930, deposits of coal, oil and salt were discovered around the Nordvik Bay. In order to explore them in the extreme Arctic conditions, a Gulag penal labor camp was established in Nordvik. Drilling revealed only small, shallow oil pockets in connection with salt structures with little commercial significance. However the salt was extracted on a large scale by means of forced laborers in a penal colony. From the 1930s onwards Nordvik became an important source of salt supply for the northern fisheries. Although the original prospects for oil at Nordvik did not materialize, experience was gained in the exploration for hydrocarbons within the continuous permafrost zones. This experience proved invaluable in the later exploration and exploitation of the massive oil and gas fields of Western Siberia. The penal colony was closed and its traces erased in the mid-1940s right before Americans arrived in Nordvik as allies of the Soviet Union.  In 2017, Rosneft found oil in the Laptev Sea at its Tsentralno-Olginskaya-1 well.  In the Anabar District of Sakha, in the village of Mayat there is one of the northern-most diamond mines. There are also tin and gold mines in the Ust-Yansky District.

Research.

The meteorological station of Tiksi has been renovated in 2006 (for example, it has internet connection and security cameras with a wireless interface) and has become part of the Atmospheric Observatory program of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration agency. The program aims at long-term, systematic and thorough measurements of clouds, radiation, aerosols, surface energy fluxes and chemistry in the Arctic. It is based on at one of the world's northernmost settlements, namely Eureka and Alert in Canada (in particular, Alert is the northernmost permanently inhabited place on Earth, only from the North Pole), Tiksi in Russia, and Utqiagvik in Alaska.

Pollution.

The water pollution is relatively low and mostly originates from the numerous plants and mines standing on the Lena, Yana and Anabar rivers. Their waste is contaminated with phenols (0.002–0.007 mg/L), copper (0.001–0.012 mg/L) and zinc (0.01–0.03 mg/L) and is continuously washed down the rivers into the sea. Another regular polluter is the coastal Urban-type settlement of Tiksi. Occasional petrol spills occurred due to navigation and petrol mining. Another major contaminant is associated with floating and sunken wood in the sea, due to decades of rafting activities. As a result, the phenol concentration in the Laptev Sea is the highest over the Arctic waters.

The Laptev Sea (; ) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the northern coast of Siberia, the Taimyr Peninsula, Severnaya Zemlya and the New Siberian Islands. Its northern boundary passes from the Arctic Cape to a point with co-ordinates of 79°N and 139°E, and ends at the Anisiy Cape. The Kara Sea lies to the west, the East Siberian Sea to the east.

拉普捷夫海()是北冰洋的陆缘海之一。位于西伯利亚东海岸、泰梅尔半岛、北地群岛和新西伯利亚群岛之间。其北界由北极角(81°13' N, 95°15' E)开始,向东伸延至139°为止。面积约672,000平方公里。


Title.

As noted by one critic, "in French, 'paradis' is the colloquial name for the gallery or second balcony in a theater, where common people sat and viewed a play, responding to it honestly and boisterously. The actors played to these gallery gods, hoping to win their favour, the actor himself thus being elevated to an Olympian status." The film contains many shots of the audience hanging over the edge of these balconies (which are similarly known as "the gods" in the British theatre), and screenwriter Jacques Prévert stated that the title "refers to the actors [...] and the audiences too, the good-natured, working-class audience." In British English, "Les Enfants du Paradis" translates better in context as "The Children of the Gods" than as "The Children of Paradise".

Story.

Précis.

"Children of Paradise" is set in the theatrical world of Paris during the July Monarchy (1830–1848), centred on the area around the Funambules theatre, situated on the Boulevard du Temple – pejoratively referred to as the "Boulevard du Crime". The film revolves around a beautiful and charismatic courtesan, Garance (Arletty). Four men – the mime Baptiste Debureau (Jean-Louis Barrault), the actor Frédérick Lemaître (Pierre Brasseur), the thief Pierre François Lacenaire (Marcel Herrand), and the aristocrat Édouard de Montray (Louis Salou) – are in love with Garance, and their intrigues drive the story forward. Garance is briefly intrigued/involved with them all, but leaves them when they attempt to force her to love on their terms, rather than her own. The mime Baptiste is the one who suffers the most in pursuit of the unattainable Garance.

Story sources.

The four men courting Garance are all based on real French personalities of the 1820s and 1830s. Baptiste Debureau was a famous mime and Frédérick Lemaître was an acclaimed actor on the 'Boulevard of Crime' depicted in the film. Pierre Lacenaire was an infamous French criminal, and the fictional character of the Comte Édouard de Montray was inspired by the Duc de Morny.  The idea for making a movie based on these characters came from a chance meeting between Carné and Jean-Louis Barrault, in Nice, during which Barrault pitched the idea of making a movie based on Debureau and Lemaître. Carné, who at the time was hesitant about which movie to direct next, proposed this idea to his friend Jacques Prévert. Prévert was initially reluctant to write a movie about a mime, "Jacques hated pantomime" his brother once said, but Barrault assured Prévert, that he and his teacher Étienne Decroux, who plays Baptiste's father in the film, would take responsibility for developing the mime sequences. According to Trauner Prévert then saw an opportunity to include the character of Lacenaire, the ""dandy du crime"", who fascinated him. The Germans were then occupying the whole of France, and Prévert is rumoured to have said "They will not let me do a movie about Lacenaire, but I can put Lacenaire in a film about Debureau".

Plot summary.

"Children of Paradise" is divided into two epochs, "Boulevard du Crime" ("Boulevard of Crime") and "L'Homme Blanc" ("The Man in White"). The first begins around 1827, the second about seven years later. The action takes place mainly in the neighborhood of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris, nicknamed "Boulevard of Crime" because of all the melodramas and bloody scenarios offered to the largely plebeian public each evening. There are two principal theaters: the "Théâtre des Funambules" ("Theater of Tightrope Walkers") specializes in pantomime, since the authorities do not allow it to use spoken dialogue, which is reserved for the "official" venue, the Grand Theater.  Part I: Boulevard of Crime A young actor and womanizer, Frédérick Lemaître, dreams of becoming a star. He meets and flirts with Garance, a beautiful woman who earns her living by modestly exhibiting her physical charms in a carnival show. Garance staves off Frédérick's advances and goes to visit one of her acquaintances, Pierre-François Lacenaire, a rebel in revolt against society. Lacenaire is a proud, dangerous individual who works as a scrivener to cover his organized criminal enterprises. Shortly thereafter, Garance is accused of stealing a man's gold watch while she is watching a pantomime featuring Baptiste Deburau and a barker (Baptiste's father) in front of the Funambules Theater. Lacenaire is in fact the guilty party. Baptiste, dressed up as the stock character Pierrot, saves her from the police by silently acting out the theft, which he has just witnessed. He reveals a great talent, a veritable vocation for pantomime, but falls immediately and irremediably in love with Garance, saving a flower she thanked him with.  Baptiste's father is one of the stars at the Funambules. The daughter of the theater director, Nathalie, who is a mime also, is deeply in love with Baptiste. Before the performance that evening, a used-clothes peddler named Jéricho reads in her palm that she will marry the man she loves, as he knew her father was worried about her mood affecting her performances. When a fight breaks out that evening between two rival clans of actors, Baptiste and Frédérick manage to calm the crowd down by improvising a mime act, thus saving the day's receipts. The most enthusiastic of the spectators are those seated in "paradise" ("paradis"), a term denoting in French theatrical language the top floor of the balcony, where the cheapest seats are located.  Later that night, Baptiste catches sight of Garance with Lacenaire and his accomplices in a seedy restaurant/dancehall, "Le Rouge Gorge" (a pun: this means "The Robin" or "The Red Breast", but literally translates as "The Red Throat," a reference to the previous owner's throat having been slit). When he invites Garance to dance, he is thrown out of the restaurant by Avril, one of Lacenaire's thugs. He turns the situation around and leaves with Garance, for whom he finds a room at the same boarding house where he and Frédérick live. After declaring his love, Baptiste flees Garance's room when she says she doesn't feel the same way, despite her clear invitation to stay. When Frédérick hears Garance singing in her room, which is next to his, he quickly joins her.  Baptiste becomes the star of the Funambules; fueled by his passion, he writes several very popular pantomimes, performing with Garance and Frédérick, who have become lovers. Baptiste is tormented by their affair, while Nathalie, who is convinced that she and Baptiste are "made for each other," suffers from his lack of love for her.  Garance is visited in her dressing room by the Count Édouard de Montray, a wealthy and cynical dandy who offers her his fortune if she will agree to become his mistress. Garance is repelled by him and mockingly rejects his proposition. The count nonetheless offers her his protection if the need were to arise. She is later unjustly suspected of complicity in an abortive robbery and murder attempt by Lacenaire and Avril. To avoid arrest she is forced to appeal to Count Édouard for protection. The first part of the film comes to an end with this development.  Part II: The Man in White Several years later, Frédérick has become famous as the star of the Grand Theater. A man about town and a spendthrift, he is covered with debts – which doesn't prevent him from devastating the mediocre play in which he currently has the main role by exposing it to ridicule in rehearsal and then playing it for laughs, rather than straight melodrama, on opening night. Despite achieving a smashing success, the play's three fussy authors are still outraged and challenge him to a duel. He accepts and when he returns to his dressing room, Frédérick is confronted by Lacenaire, who apparently intends to rob and kill him. However, the criminal is an amateur playwright and strikes up a friendship with the actor instead. He and Avril serve as Frédérick's seconds the next morning, when the actor arrives at the duel dead drunk.  Baptiste is enjoying even greater success as a mime at the Funambules. When Frédérick goes to a performance the day after surviving the duel, he is surprised to find himself in the same box as Garance. His old flame has returned to Paris after having traveled throughout the world with the Count de Montray, who has kept her these several years. She has been attending the Funambules every night incognito to watch Baptiste perform. She knows she has always been genuinely in love with him. Frédérick suddenly finds himself jealous for the first time in his life. While the feeling is highly unpleasant, he remarks that his jealousy will help him as an actor. He will finally be able to play the role of Othello, having now experienced the emotions which motivate the character. Garance asks Frédérick to tell Baptiste of her presence, but Nathalie, now Baptiste's wife, is first informed by the spiteful rag-man Jéricho. She sends their small son to Garance's box to mortify her with their family's happiness. By the time Frédérick alerts Baptiste and he rushes to find her, the box is empty.  When Garance returns to the Count's luxurious mansion, she finds Lacenaire waiting for her. Lacenaire satisfies himself that Garance has no love for him and, on his way out, encounters the Count, who is irritated to see such an individual in his home. Lacenaire reacts to the Count's challenge with threats, revealing the knife at his belt. Later, Garance declares to the Count that she will never love him since she is already in love with another man, but declares she will continue to try to please him, and offers to spread the word on the streets that she is "mad" about him, if he would like.  Frédérick has finally achieved his dream of playing the role of Othello. The Count, who insists on attending the performance with Garance, is convinced that the actor is the man she loves. At a break in the play, the Count coolly mocks Frédérick, trying to provoke him into a duel. Elsewhere Baptiste, who is also in the audience, encounters Garance at last. When Lacenaire takes Frédérick's side in the verbal jousting, the Count attempts to humiliate him as well. Lacenaire takes revenge by calling him a cuckold and, dramatically pulling back a curtain, reveals Garance in Baptiste's embrace on the balcony. The two lovers slip away to spend the night together in Garance's former room at The Great Post House.  The next morning, at a Turkish bath, Lacenaire assassinates the count for having had him thrown out of the theater. He then calmly sits to wait for the police and meet his "destiny", which is to die on the scaffold. At the rooming house, Nathalie finds Baptiste with Garance. With Nathalie desperate and pleading her wifely rights, Garance declares that she has "been with" Baptiste for the past six years as much as Nathalie, his wife, has. She flees, pursued by the equally desperate Baptiste, who is soon lost in the frantic Carnival crowd amid a sea of bobbing masks and unheeding, white Pierrots. The film ends as Baptiste is swept away and as Garance makes her escape in her carriage, still unaware that her protector, the Count, is dead.

Production.

The film was made under extremely difficult conditions. External sets in Nice were badly damaged by natural causes, exacerbated and compounded by the theatrical constraints during the German occupation of France during World War II. The film was split into two parts because the Vichy administration had imposed a maximum time limit of 90 minutes for feature films. Barrault was committed to the premiere production of "The Satin Slipper" ("Le Soulier de satin"), which was a hit, and almost offered his role to a music hall entertainer, Jacques Tati, then little known, before a schedule was negotiated which allowed him to fulfil both roles.  Film critic Pauline Kael wrote that, allegedly, "the starving extras made away with some of the banquets before they could be photographed". Many of the 1,800 extras were Resistance agents using the film as daytime cover, who, until the Liberation, had to mingle with some collaborators or Vichy sympathisers who were imposed on the production by the authorities. Alexandre Trauner, who designed the sets, and Joseph Kosma, who composed the music, were Jewish and had to work in secrecy throughout the production. Music was provided by the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire under the direction of renowned conductor, Charles Münch, who personally contributed part of his income to the French Resistance. Trauner lived (under an assumed name) with Carné and Prévert during the six months it took them to prepare the script. Maurice Thiriet, Kosma's orchestrator, acted as his front.  The set builders were short of supplies and the camera crew's film stock was rationed. The financing, originally a French-Italian production, collapsed a few weeks after production began in Nice, due to the Allied conquest of Sicily in August 1943. Around this time, the Nazis forbade the producer, André Paulvé, from working on the film because of his remote Jewish ancestry, and the production had to be suspended for three months. The French film company Pathé took over production, whose cost was escalating wildly. The quarter-mile long main set, the "Boulevard du Temple", was severely damaged by a storm and had to be rebuilt. By the time shooting resumed in Paris in early spring of 1944, the Director of Photography, Roger Hubert, had been assigned to another production and Philippe Agostini, who replaced him, had to analyze all the reels in order to match the lighting of the non-sequential shot list; all the while, electricity in the Paris Studios was intermittent.  The movie also marks the first artistic collaboration between Carné and the French painter and costume designer Mayo, one that would continue over several films ("Les Portes de la Nuit" (1946), "La Fleur de l'Age" (1947), "Juliette ou la Clef des Songes", "Thérèse Raquin" (1953), "Les Tricheurs" (1958)). This friend of Prévert started his work on the project very early on in order to immerse himself fully in the script and the characters. The materials, provided by Jeanne Lanvin, allowed work on the costumes to be done in very favorable conditions given the difficult period of the French occupation. Production was delayed again after the Allies landed in Normandy, perhaps intentionally stalled so that it would only be completed after the French Liberation. When Paris was liberated in August 1944, the actor Robert Le Vigan, cast in the role of informer-thief Jéricho, was sentenced to death by the Resistance for collaborating with the Nazis, and had to flee, along with author Céline, to Sigmaringen. He was replaced at a moment's notice by Pierre Renoir, older brother of French filmmaker Jean Renoir and son of the famous painter, and most of the scenes had to be redone. Le Vigan was tried and convicted as a Nazi collaborator in 1946. One scene featuring Le Vigan survives in the middle of the second part, when Jericho snitches to Nathalie. Carné and Prévert had hidden some of the key reels of film from the occupying forces, hoping that the liberation of Paris would have occurred when the film was ready for release.

Reception.

The film was the third most popular film at the French box-office in 1945. Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 97% of 38 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; with an average rating of 9.2/10. The site's consensus reads: "Strong performances abound, and Carne's wit and grace are evident in this masterful (if long) French epic."  The film critic Roger Ebert added it to his "Great Movie" collection in 2002.  "Children of Paradise" was included "Time" magazine's 2005 list, All-"TIME" 100 list of the greatest films made since 1923.  Jacques Prévert's screenplay was nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay at the 19th Academy Awards. It isn't clear which version of the film was honored; the U.S. release of the film has been described as "a 144-min., inadequately-subtitled one released in New York in 1947."

Release versions.

The film had its premiere in Paris, at the Chaillot Palace on 9 March 1945, in its entirety. Carné then had to fight with the producers to have the film shown exclusively in two theatres (Madeleine and Colisée) instead of one and in its entirety and without an intermission. He also pioneered the idea of the public being able to reserve their seats in advance.  The producers accepted Carné's demands on the condition that they be able to charge double the price of admittance. "Children of Paradise" became an instant and monumental success, remaining on the screen of the Madeleine Theater for 54 weeks.  In March 2012, Pathé released a new restoration of the film. This involved scanning the badly damaged original camera negative, and other early sources, using a high-resolution 4K digital process to produce a new master print. This restoration was released on Blu-ray Disc in September 2012.

Les Enfants du Paradis, released as Children of Paradise in North America, is a 1945 French epic romantic drama film directed by Marcel Carné. It was made during the German occupation of France during World War II. Set against the Parisian theatre scene of the 1820s and 1830s, it tells the story of a beautiful courtesan, Garance, and the four men who love her in their own ways: a mime artist, an actor, a criminal and an aristocrat.

《天堂的孩子们》()是一部1945年出品的法国黑白电影,片长183分钟,导演马赛尔·卡尔内,编剧雅克·普莱卫,由阿尔莱蒂,让-路易·巴罗尔,玛丽娅·卡莎蕾,皮埃尔·伯拉塞尔主演,百代电影公司发行。