Biography.

Childhood.

Balavoine was born on 5 February 1952 in Alençon, France. He was the youngest in a family of six children. He had two sisters and three brothers. His father, Emile, was an urban engineer and worked for the Reconstruction Ministry. His mother was an antiques wholesaler. In 1959, his father relocated to Algeria, while Daniel moved to southern city of Pau and attended a boarding school, an experience he clearly didn't appreciate. When he was eleven, he heard "She Loves You" by The Beatles which sparked his taste in music. In 1968, while attending high school, he was one of the many youth who supported the nationwide strikes.

Band time.

Having fully decided to make a living in music, he began to perform as a ballroom singer in Pau, covering Bob Dylan songs. In 1971, he moved to Paris but was disappointed and returned to Pau. Soon afterwards, he answered an audition in Paris to join a hard rock band, Présence, whose singer had just left. Another future singer, Laurent Voulzy, was his main competition for that position. Ultimately, Balavoine was chosen and went into the studio. The band soon released an album which wasn't a big success. Despite that, they toured all over France. In 1972, the band signed a contract with Warner Music Group but Balavoine quit the group.

Hard times.

In 1973, while he was working as a record dealer, The Vogue studios, which produced Présence, contacted him and offered to support him in a solo career. His first Vogue record "Viens vite" was released, but suffered poor sales. Balavoine then became a background vocalist alongside his brother, Guy. Soon afterwards, they starred in a pop musical "La Révolution Française".  In 1974, Patrick Juvet, one of the biggest performers in France at the time, offered him the opportunity to be the opening act on his next tour. Balavoine wrote a song for him, "Couleurs d'Automne", which appeared on Juvet's following album.  While attending a show, Léo Missir, vice president of Barclay Records, was impressed by Balavoine's aura and signed him immediately to a 3-year deal which ended up lasting far longer. His first record, "De vous à elle en passant par moi", was released in 1975, but again resulted in disappointing sales.  While recording the album, he met Catherine Ferry, who was chosen as the French candidate for the next Eurovision Song Contest, to take place in the Netherlands. Ferry came in second place with Balavoine and his brother on back-up vocals. This success led to Balavoine and Ferry developing a strong friendship. Balavoine would go on to write most of her songs following her Eurovision success.  In 1977, Balavoine released a second record, "Les aventures de Simon et Gunther" but again it sold poorly and Eddie Barclay began getting impatient.

Success time.

"Starmania".

In 1978, Michel Berger, who had just finished writing Starmania, was still looking for the singer to portray the "Johnny Rockfort" character. While watching TV, he was impressed by Balavoine, who was singing the title song from his latest successful album. He immediately hired Balavoine and a strong brotherly relationship began between the two singers.  Released a few months later, Starmania was a phenomenal success and most of its songs hit the charts. Balavoine performed three of them: "Quand on arrive en ville", "Banlieue Nord" and, most notably, "S.O.S. d'un terrien en détresse", which was written specifically for Balavoine's voice. "SOS D'un terrien en detresse" became a huge hit nationwide and around the world. In 1992, Peter Kingsbery, the lead singer of the American band Cock Robin, adapted the song in English for Tycoon; the song, named "Only the Very Best," built on the same melody and similar arrangements, but with very different lyrics (by Tim Rice), was also a big hit in France.  Balavoine's solo career was soon very successful, as well, with the release of his third album "Le Chanteur". The title song, which spoke vividly of the unstoppable rise and fall of an aspiring singer, was a huge commercial success, with one million units sold. The album itself sold 800,000 copies.  At the same time, Balavoine continued touring with Starmania, becoming one of its most notable faces. Between April and May 1979, the musical was performed at the Palais des congrès in Paris, before 100,000 spectators, further increasing Balavoine's popularity.  In 1979, he released his fourth album, "Face amour / Face amère" (Love side/Bitter side). Though it enjoyed moderate success, its sold fewer copies than the previous album. "Me laisse pas m'en aller" and "Ces petit riens" were the biggest hits from the record. Even still, this last opus allowed him to put on a very successful solo tour throughout France for the first time, with the high point being a three-day stint at the Olympia.

"Un Autre Monde".

In 1980, Balavoine returned with his fifth studio album "Un autre monde". This record was particularly successful, with three songs hitting huge commercial success: "Mon fils, ma bataille" with 543,000 units sold (about a father's struggle to claim the custody of his son in the aftermath of a breakup, a similar theme to the 1979 movie "Kramer vs. Kramer"), "Je ne suis pas un héros", originally written for Johnny Hallyday (who later inserted it in his own set list in tribute), and "La vie ne m'apprend rien".  Balavoine went on tour again and came back to the Olympia for four sold-out shows, which gave birth to his first live album "Daniel Balavoine en concert" in November 1981.

"Vendeur de Larmes".

During the winter of 1981, Balavoine went to Ibiza, Spain to write his sixth album. Balavoine decided to radically change his musical style, making it more rock-oriented and using electronic effects. In April 1982, "Vendeur de larmes" (a pun between "tears" and "weapons") was released, containing hits, such as "Vivre ou Survivre", "Dieu que l'amour est triste" and "Soulève-moi".  The album hit a huge success becoming a Diamond album after a few months. The following tour was also very popular, challenging the best performances of the time. During four days, Balavoine performed in Palais des Sports. All his shows were sold out.

International time.

"Loin des yeux de l'Occident".

In 1983, Balavoine participated in his first Paris-Dakar Rally. Victim of a breakdown during the first run, he followed the rest of the race as a spectator and discovered Africa. What he saw shocked him: "When, arriving in a small village, we saw a kid looking for flies in order to eat them, there was nothing more to say." After that, he went to Scotland to write his seventh album. Very inspired by his African experience, he released "Loin des yeux de L'Occident" ("Far from the Eyes of the West"). According to music specialists, this last record is also his most politically committed. He talks about Third World women in "Pour la femme veuve qui s'éveille" ("For the widow who is waking up"), torture in "Frappe avec la tête" ("Strike with the head"), drugs in "Poisson dans la cage" ("Fish in the cage") and South American dictatorships in "Revolucion".  The melody, very close to one by Peter Gabriel, mixes electronic music (electrical guitar, keyboards etc.) with world music ambient with African drums.  During the same year, he also starred in the musical "Abbacadabra", alongside ABBA's Frida Lyngstad. They performed the song "Belle" together.  Following a terrorist bombing in Beirut, Balavoine, whose brother, Yves, was stationed, created a polemic by insulting the French veterans and the government that were pushing the war. Two weeks later, he made a public apology for the disorder he created.  In 1984, Balavoine returned on the road for a yearlong tour across France. For this new tour, Balavoine introduced new technologies like Vari-Lite lights and HF tech. Balavoine looked for the perfect sound and the perfect ambiance rather than the set, which was furnished sparsely. All his songs were rewritten with very pronounced rock arrangements.  In July, at age 31, Balavoine became a father for the first time. Touched and blessed by the event, he wrote a brand new song "Dieu que c'est beau!" ("God it's so beautiful!") and included it in his tour set list.  He also wrote a full album for his friend Catherine Ferry, using for the first time his Fairlight synthesizer.

"Sauver l'amour".

In 1985, many prominent music stars were involved in charities and humanitarian events. Balavoine was invited to the Live Aid but did not have the opportunity to perform.  French singers, including Balavoine, organised their own event, Singers Without Borders, which was not a big success mostly because of the expensive price of the tickets. Nevertheless, the concert album sold well.  During the Summer, Balavoine went back in Scotland for his eighth and last record: ""Sauver l'amour"". The French artist innovates again using his Fairlight and it is the first album released on CD. The Fairlight allows Balavoine to insert a lot of electronic effects and sound never heard before. "Sauvez l'amour" generally is considered as the best demonstration of Balavoine's talent.  Most songs of the album became hits: "L'Aziza", in honor of Corinne, his Jewish-Moroccan wife and mother of his son; "Sauver l'amour", the title song, an hymn to love; "Tous les cris les SOS", a song about despair, loneliness, and failure to communicate; "Petit homme mort au combat" about child soldiers; "Aimer est plus fort que d'être aimé", which was the last single released before Balavoine's death.  This album turned out to be his most successful: 1,240,000 records sold and 1,580,000 singles sold.  Daniel Balavoine received, as a posthumous title, the Victoire de la Musique Album of the Year Award in 1986 for "Sauver L'amour".

Death.

In 1986, Daniel Balavoine was chosen to lead a fund-raising effort aimed at building water wells in Africa. In order to supervise it, he was invited by Thierry Sabine, founder and director of the Paris-Dakar Rally raid.  On January 14, 1986, Balavoine, Sabine, François-Xavier Bagnoud (HSH Albert II, Prince of Monaco's cousin), a female reporter and her cameraman got aboard Sabine's Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil helicopter to attend a soccer match. At 7:00 p.m., the helicopter encountered a desert storm and landed. But some time later, the chopper took off, and after a few minutes, it crashed and disintegrated, killing all five passengers on board.  The news of Sabine's and Balavoine's deaths plunged the country in deep grief. Balavoine was buried in Biarritz.

Activism.

Beginning in 1968, Balavoine became interested in French political life. During the massive strikes and social turmoil in May of that year, he first thought about going into politics. But the end of the movement and General de Gaulle's comeback disappointed him, and he turned his mind to music. In 1980, he confronted François Mitterrand, who was at this time the National Secretary of the French Socialist Party and a French presidential candidate, during a France 2 evening news broadcast, leaving the entire room speechless. During a seven-minute spontaneous speech, an angry Balavoine expressed how he felt about the political situation of the youth in France, namely that the youth completely was ignored by the political world, only interested in their own stuff.  He supported his friend Coluche in his presidential bid. When Coluche finally abandoned, François Mitterrand, who was impressed by the young artist's aura, asked him to join his campaign team. Balavoine performed during the first meetings, but finally left, feeling he was being used for political purposes. He turned his mind toward humanitarian work, especially in Africa. A few months before his death, he had joined an NGO called Action Ecole, a French charity supported by Bob Geldof, which creates student communities to raise funds for Africa. He was in charge of managing the building of water wells in the Sahel. It is while supervising this project that he died in the crash of Sabine's Ecureuil in Mali.

Balavoine's legacy.

The French public look proudly upon songs like "Vivre ou survivre" (1982), "Dieu que c'est beau" (1984), "L'Aziza", "Sauver l'amour", "Aimer est plus fort que d'être aimé", and "Tous les cris, les SOS" (1985), comparing Balavoine favourably to English language groups like Eurythmics, Queen and Depeche Mode.  Balavoine’s songs have been interpreted by many artists, for example Catherine Ferry for whom he wrote nearly 20 songs, Jeanne Mas, Liane Foly, Frida Lyngstad, Lena Ka, Johnny Hallyday, Pascal Obispo, Patrick Fiori, Florent Pagny, Grégory Lemarchal, as well as Marie Denise Pelletier (from Quebec) who had an enormous success with her own rendition of the song "Tous les cris, les SOS" in 1987.  In 1986, Belgian francophone artist Lara Fabian released her first single, "L'Aziza est en pleurs" (composed by Marc Lercs) in honour of Balavoine. In 2006, to mark the 20th anniversary of the singer's death, Barclay Records released his complete recorded works as a boxed set titled "Balavoine sans frontières".

Daniel Balavoine (5 February 1952 – 14 January 1986) was a French singer and songwriter. He was hugely popular in the French-speaking world, and inspired many singers in the 1980s, such as Jean-Jacques Goldman, Michel Berger, his closest friend, or the Japanese pop-rock group Crystal King; he was also a part of the original cast of the rock opera "Starmania" in 1978, which was written by Berger. He took part in French political life and is known for a 1980 televised verbal confrontation with then presidential candidate François Mitterrand.

Daniel Balavoine (5. února 1952 – 14. ledna 1986) byl francouzský zpěvák a hudebník. Jeho popularita ve Francii a frankofonním světě vysoce převyšuje známost v jiných kulturních okruzích. Jeho tvorba bývá řazena k synthpopu a přirovnávána např. k anglofonním skupinám Eurythmics či Depeche Mode.


Atletika na Letních olympijských hrách 1904

Participating nations.

233 athletes from 10 nations competed. This figure includes the athletic triathlon event, which some sources exclude.

Marathon.

The marathon was the most bizarre event of the Games. It was run in brutally hot weather, over dusty roads, with horses and automobiles clearing the way and creating dust clouds.  The first to arrive at the finish line was Frederick Lorz, who actually rode the rest of the way in a car to retrieve his clothes, after dropping out after nine miles. The car broke down at the 19th mile, so he re-entered the race and jogged back to the finish line. When the officials thought he had won the race, Lorz played along with his practical joke until he was found out shortly after the medal ceremony and was banned for a year by the AAU for this stunt, later winning the 1905 Boston Marathon.  Thomas Hicks was the first to cross the finish-line legally, after having received from his trainers several doses of strychnine sulfate (a common rat poison, which stimulates the nervous system in small doses) mixed with brandy. He was supported by his trainers when he crossed the finish, but is still considered the winner. Hicks had to be carried off the track, and possibly would have died in the stadium had he not been treated by several doctors. He lost eight pounds during the course of the marathon. A Cuban postman named Felix Carvajal joined the marathon, arriving at the last minute. He had to run in street clothes that a fellow runner cut around the legs to make them look like shorts. He stopped off in an orchard en route to have a snack on some apples which turned out to be rotten. The rotten apples caused him to have to lie down and take a nap. Despite falling ill from the apples, he finished in fourth place.

At the 1904 Summer Olympics, twenty-five athletics events were contested. A total of 74 medals (25 gold, 25 silver, 24 bronze) were awarded.

Na letních olympijských hrách v roce 1904 bylo prezentováno dvacet pět atletických disciplín, a to všechno pouze pro muže. Celkem bylo uděleno 74 medailí (25 zlatých, 25 stříbrných, 24 bronzových).


Plot.

In 1881, Edgar Rice Burroughs attends the funeral of his uncle, John Carter, a former American Civil War Confederate Army captain who died suddenly. Per Carter's instructions, the body is put in a tomb that can be unlocked only from the inside. His attorney gives Carter's personal journal for Burroughs to read, in the hope of finding clues explaining Carter's cause of death.  In a flashback to 1868 in the Arizona Territory, Union Colonel Powell arrests Carter. Powell, knowing about Carter's military background, seeks his help in fighting the Apache. Carter escapes his holding cell, but fails to get far with U.S. cavalry soldiers in close pursuit. After a run-in with a band of Apaches, Carter and a wounded Powell are chased until they take to hiding in a cave that turns out to be the object of Carter's earlier searching, the 'Spider Cave of Gold'. A Thern appears in the cave at that moment and, surprised by the two men, attacks them with a knife; Carter kills him but accidentally activates the Thern's powerful medallion, and is unwittingly transported to a ruined and dying planet, Barsoom. Because of his different bone density and the planet's low gravity, Carter is able to jump high and perform feats of incredible strength. He is captured by the Green Martian Tharks and their Jeddak Tars Tarkas.  Elsewhere on Barsoom, the Red Martian cities of Helium and Zodanga have been at war for a thousand years. Sab Than, Jeddak of Zodanga, armed with a special weapon obtained from the Thern leader Matai Shang, proposes a cease-fire and an end to the war by marrying the Princess of Helium, Dejah Thoris. The Princess escapes and is rescued by Carter. Carter, Dejah, and Tarkas' daughter Sola, embark on a quest to get to the end of a sacred river to find a way for Carter to get back home. They obtain information about the "ninth ray", a means of using infinite energy and also the key to understanding how the medallion works. But they are later attacked by Shang's minions, the Green Martians of Warhoon. After the attack, Carter is captured and taken back with Dejah while Sola is able to escape. The demoralized Dejah grudgingly agrees to marry Sab Than, then gives Carter his medallion and tells him to go back to Earth. Carter decides to stay and is captured by Shang, who explains to him the purpose of Therns and how they manipulate the civilizations of different worlds to their doom, feeding off the planet's resources in the process. Carter is able to make an escape as he and Sola go back to the Tharks requesting their help. There they discover Tarkas has been overthrown by a ruthless brute, Tal Hajus. Tarkas, Carter and Sola are put on trial in a colosseum battle with two enormous vicious creatures, the four-armed Great White-Apes. After defeating them and killing Hajus, Carter becomes the leader of the Tharks.  The Thark army charges on Helium and defeats the Zodangan army by killing Sab Than, while Shang is forced to escape and leave Mars for good. Carter becomes prince of Helium by marrying Dejah. On their first night, Carter decides to stay forever on Mars and throws away his medallion. Seizing this opportunity, Shang briefly reappears and sends him back to Earth. Carter then embarks on a long quest, looking for clues of the Therns' presence on Earth and hoping to find one of their medallions; after several years he appears to die suddenly and asks for unusual funeral arrangements—consistent with his having found a medallion, since his return to Mars would leave his Earth body in a coma-like state. He makes Burroughs his protector, giving him clues about how to open the tomb.  Back in the present, Burroughs runs back to Carter's tomb and opens it, finding it empty. Shang, disguised as a man with a bowler hat who has been observing Carter, suddenly appears, having followed Burroughs. As Shang prepares to attack, Carter appears and kills Shang. Carter then tells Burroughs that he never found a medallion. Instead, he devised a scheme to lure a Thern into revealing himself. Carter takes Shang's medallion, whispers the code, and is then transported back to Barsoom.

Cast.

Tharks.

The Tharks are performed through a combination of voice-acting and motion-capture with stilts.

Development.

Origins.

The film is largely based on "A Princess of Mars" (1917), the first in a series of 11 novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs to feature the interplanetary hero John Carter (and in later volumes the adventures of his children with Dejah Thoris). The story was originally serialized in six monthly installments (from February through to July 1912) in the pulp magazine "The All-Story"; those chapters, originally titled "Under the Moons of Mars", were then collected as a novel and published in hardcover five years later from A. C. McClurg.

Bob Clampett involvement.

In 1931, "Looney Tunes" director Bob Clampett approached Edgar Rice Burroughs with the idea of adapting "A Princess of Mars" into a feature-length animated film. Burroughs responded enthusiastically, recognizing that a regular live-action feature would face various limitations to adapt accurately, so he advised Clampett to write an original animated adventure for John Carter. Working with Burroughs' son John Coleman Burroughs in 1935, Clampett used rotoscope and other hand-drawn techniques to capture the action, tracing the motions of an athlete who performed John Carter's powerful movements in the reduced Martian gravity, and designed the green-skinned, 4-armed Tharks to give them a believable appearance. He then produced footage of them riding their eight-legged Thoats at a gallop, which had all of their eight legs moving in coordinated motion; he also produced footage of a fleet of rocketships emerging from a Martian volcano. MGM was to release the cartoons, and the studio heads were enthusiastic about the series.  The test footage, produced by 1936, received negative reactions from film exhibitors across the U.S., especially in small towns; many gave their opinion that the concept of an Earthman on Mars was just too outlandish an idea for midwestern American audiences to accept. The series was not given the go-ahead, and Clampett was instead encouraged to produce an animated Tarzan series, an offer that he later declined. Clampett recognized the irony in MGM's decision, as the "Flash Gordon" movie serial, released in the same year by Universal Studios, was highly successful. He speculated that MGM believed that serials were played only to children during Saturday matinees, whereas the John Carter tales were intended to be seen by adults during the evening. The footage that Clampett produced was believed lost for many years, until Burroughs' grandson, Danton Burroughs, in the early 1970s found some of the film tests in the Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. archives. Had "A Princess of Mars" been released, it might have preceded Walt Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" to become the first American feature-length animated film.

Disney progression.

During the late 1950s, famous stop-motion animation effects director Ray Harryhausen expressed interest in filming the novels, but it was not until the 1980s that producers Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna bought the rights for Walt Disney Studios, with a view to creating a competitor to "Star Wars" and "Conan the Barbarian". Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio were hired to write, while John McTiernan and Tom Cruise were approached to direct and star. The project collapsed because McTiernan realized that visual effects were not yet advanced enough to recreate Burroughs' vision of Barsoom. The project remained at Disney, and Jeffrey Katzenberg was a strong proponent of filming the novels, but the rights eventually returned to the Burroughs estate.

Paramount effort.

Producer James Jacks read Harry Knowles' autobiography, which lavishly praised the "John Carter of Mars" series. Having read the Burroughs' novels as a child, Jacks was moved to convince Paramount Pictures to acquire the film rights; a bidding war with Columbia Pictures followed. After Paramount and Jacks won the rights, Jacks contacted Knowles to become an adviser on the project and hired Mark Protosevich to write the screenplay. Robert Rodriguez signed on in 2004 to direct the film after his friend Knowles showed him the script. Recognizing that Knowles had been an adviser to many other filmmakers, Rodriguez asked him to be credited as a producer.  Filming was set to begin in 2005, with Rodriguez planning to use the all-digital stages he was using for his production of "Sin City", a film based on the graphic novel series by Frank Miller. Rodriguez planned to hire Frank Frazetta, the popular Burroughs and fantasy illustrator, as a designer on the film. Rodriguez had previously stirred-up film industry controversy owing to his decision to credit "Sin City"s artist/creator Miller as co-director on the film adaptation; as a result, Rodriguez decided to resign from the Directors Guild of America. In 2004, unable to employ a non-DGA filmmaker, Paramount assigned Kerry Conran to direct and Ehren Kruger to rewrite the John Carter script. The Australian Outback was scouted as a shooting location. Conran left the film for unknown reasons and was replaced in October 2005 by Jon Favreau.  Favreau and screenwriter Mark Fergus wanted to make their script faithful to Burroughs' novels, retaining John Carter's links to the American Civil War and ensuring that the Barsoomian Tharks were 15 feet tall (previous scripts had made them human-sized). Favreau argued that a modern-day soldier would not know how to fence or ride a horse like Carter, who had been a Confederate officer. The first film he envisioned would have adapted the first three novels in the Barsoom series: "A Princess of Mars", "The Gods of Mars", and "The Warlord of Mars". Unlike Rodriguez and Conran, Favreau preferred using practical effects for his film and cited "Planet of the Apes" as his inspiration. He intended to use make-up, as well as CGI, to create the Tharks. In August 2006, Paramount chose not to renew the film rights, preferring instead to focus on its "Star Trek" franchise. Favreau and Fergus moved on to Marvel Studios' "Iron Man".

Return to Disney, Stanton involvement.

Andrew Stanton, director of the Pixar Animation Studios hits "Finding Nemo" (2003) and "WALL-E" (2008), lobbied the Walt Disney Studios to reacquire the rights from Burroughs' estate. "Since I'd read the books as a kid, I wanted to see somebody put it on the screen," he explained.  He then lobbied Disney heavily for the chance to direct the film, pitching it as "Indiana Jones on Mars". The studio was initially skeptical. Stanton had never directed a live-action film before, and wanted to make the film without any major stars whose names could guarantee an audience, at least on opening weekend. The screenplay was seen as confusing and difficult to follow. But since Stanton had overcome similar preproduction doubts to make "WALL-E" and "Finding Nemo" into hits, the studio approved him as director. Stanton noted he was effectively being "loaned" to Walt Disney Pictures because Pixar is an all-ages brand and "John Carter", in his words, was "not going to be an all-ages film". By 2008 they completed the first draft for Part One of a "John Carter" film trilogy; the first film is based only on the first novel. In April 2009 author Michael Chabon confirmed he had been hired to revise the script.  Following the completion of "WALL-E", Stanton visited the archives of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., in Tarzana, California, as part of his research. Jim Morris, general manager of Pixar, said the film would have a unique look that is distinct from Frank Frazetta's illustrations, which they both found dated. He also noted that although he had less time for pre-production than for any of his usual animated projects, the task was nevertheless relatively easy since he had read Burroughs' novels as a child and had already visualized many of their scenes.

Production.

Filming.

Principal photography commenced at Longcross Studios, London, in January 2010 and ended in Kanab, Utah in July 2010. Locations in Utah included Lake Powell and the counties of Grand, Wayne, and Kane. A month-long reshoot took place in Playa Vista, Los Angeles. The film was shot in the Panavision anamorphic format on Kodak 35mm film. Stanton denied assertions that he had gone over budget and stated that he had been allowed a longer reshoot because he had stayed on budget and on time. However, he did admit to reshooting much of the movie twice, far more than is usually common in live action filmmaking. He attributed that to his animation background. "The thing I had to explain to Disney was, 'You're asking a guy who's only known how to do it this way to suddenly do it with one reshoot.'" he explained later. "I said, 'I'm not gonna get it right the first time, I'll tell you that right now.'" Stanton often sought advice from people he had worked with at Pixar on animated films (known as the Braintrust) instead of those with live-action experience working with him. Stanton also was quoted as saying, "I said to my producers, 'Is it just me, or do we actually know how to do this better than live-action crews do?'" Rich Ross, Disney's chairman, successor to Dick Cook, who had originally approved the film for production, came from a television background and had no experience with feature films. The studio's new top marketing and production executives had little more.

Marketing.

The head of Walt Disney Studios Marketing during the production was M. T. Carney, an industry outsider who previously ran a marketing boutique in New York. Stanton often rejected marketing ideas from the studio, according to those who worked on the film. Stanton's ideas were used instead, and he ignored criticism that using Led Zeppelin's 1975 song "Kashmir" in the trailer would make it seem less current to the contemporary younger audiences the film sought. He also chose billboard imagery that failed to resonate with prospective audiences, and put together a preview reel that did not get a strong reception from a convention audience. Stanton said, "My joy when I saw the first trailer for "Star Wars" is I saw a little bit of almost everything in the movie, and I had no idea how it connected, and I had to go see the movie. So the last thing I'm going to do is ruin that little kid's experience." Following the death of Steve Jobs, Stanton dedicated the film in his memory.  Although being based on the first book of the series, "A Princess of Mars", the film was originally titled "John Carter of Mars", but Stanton removed "of Mars" to make it more appealing to a broader audience, stating that the film is an "origin story. It's about a guy "becoming" John Carter of Mars." Stanton planned to keep "Mars" in the title for future films in the series. Kitsch said the title was changed to reflect the character's journey, as John Carter would become "of Mars" only in the last few minutes of the picture. Former Disney marketing president Carney has also taken blame for suggesting the title change. Another reported explanation for the name change was that Disney had suffered a significant loss in March 2011 with "Mars Needs Moms"; the studio reportedly conducted a study which noted recent movies with the word "Mars" in the title had not been commercially successful. Earlier, two and a half years before the premiere of the film, on December 29, 2009, a low-budget film produced by the independent film company The Asylum, entitled "Princess of Mars", was released direct-to-DVD in the United States. Stanton has referred to the competing film as a "crappy knock-off".

Music and soundtrack.

In February 2010, Michael Giacchino revealed in an interview he would be scoring the film. Walt Disney Records released the soundtrack on March 6, 2012, three days before the film's release.

Release.

Theatrical run.

Although the original film release date was June 8, 2012, in January 2011 Disney moved the release date to March 9, 2012. A teaser trailer for the film premiered on July 14, 2011 and was shown in 3D and 2D with showings of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2"; the official trailer premiered on November 30, 2011. On February 5, 2012 an extended commercial promoting the movie aired during the Super Bowl, and before the day of the game, Andrew Stanton, a Massachusetts native, held a special screening of the film for both the team members and families of the New England Patriots and New York Giants.

Home media.

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released "John Carter" on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download on June 5, 2012. The home media release was made available in three different physical packages: a four-disc combo pack (1 disc Blu-ray 3D, 1-disc Blu-ray, 1 DVD, and 1-disc digital copy), a two-disc combo pack (1 disc Blu-ray, 1 disc DVD), and one-disc DVD. "John Carter" was also made available in 3D High Definition, High Definition, and Standard Definition Digital. Additionally, the home media edition was available in an On-Demand format. The Blu-ray bonus features include Disney Second Screen functionality, "360 Degrees of John Carter", deleted scenes, and "Barsoom Bloopers". The DVD bonus features included "100 Years in the Making", and audio commentary with filmmakers. The High Definition Digital and Standard Definition Digital versions both include Disney Second Screen, "Barsoom Bloopers", and deleted scenes. The Digital 3D High Definition Digital copy does not include bonus features. In mid-June, the movie topped sales on both the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert sales chart, which tracks overall disc sales, and Nielsen's dedicated Blu-ray Disc sales chart, with the DVD release selling 980,812 copies making $17,057,283 and Blu-ray and 3-D releases selling 965,275 copies making $19,295,847, with a combined total of $36,353,130 in its first week alone.

Reception.

Critical response.

One week before the film's release, Disney removed an embargo on reviews of the film. The film holds a 52% rating at the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 235 reviews, its consensus reads: "While "John Carter" looks terrific and delivers its share of pulpy thrills, it also suffers from uneven pacing and occasionally incomprehensible plotting and characterization". At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average out of 100 to critics' reviews, the film holds a score of 51 based on 43 reviews, signifying "Mixed or average reviews".  Todd McCarthy of "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote, "Derivative but charming and fun enough, Disney's mammoth scifier is both spectacular and a bit cheesy". Glenn Kenny of MSN Movies rated the film 4 out of 5 stars, saying, "By the end of the adventure, even the initially befuddling double-frame story pays off, in spades. For me, this is the first movie of its kind in a very long time that I'd willingly sit through a second or even third time". Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" rated the film 2.5 out of 4 stars, commenting that the movie "is intended to foster a franchise and will probably succeed. Does "John Carter" get the job done for the weekend action audience? Yes, I suppose it does". Dan Jolin of "Empire" gave the film 3 stars out of 5, noting, "Stanton has built a fantastic world, but the action is unmemorable. Still, just about every sci-fi/fantasy/superhero adventure you ever loved is in here somewhere". Joe Neumaier of the New York "Daily News" gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, calling the film "undeniably silly, sprawling and easy to make fun of, [but] also playful, genuinely epic and absolutely comfortable being what it is. In this genre, those are virtues as rare as a cave of gold".  Conversely, Peter Debruge of "Variety" gave a negative review, saying, "To watch "John Carter" is to wonder where in this jumbled space opera one might find the intuitive sense of wonderment and awe Stanton brought to "Finding Nemo" and "WALL-E"". Owen Glieberman of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a D rating, feeling, "Nothing in "John Carter" really works, since everything in the movie has been done so many times before, and so much better". Christy Lemire of "The Boston Globe" wrote that, "Except for a strong cast, a few striking visuals and some unexpected flashes of humor, "John Carter" is just a dreary, convoluted trudge – a soulless sprawl of computer-generated blippery converted to 3-D". Michael Philips of the "Chicago Tribune" rated the film 2 out of 4 stars, saying the film "isn't much – or rather, it's too much and not enough in weird, clumpy combinations – but it is a curious sort of blur". Andrew O'Herir of Salon.com called it "a profoundly flawed film, and arguably a terrible one on various levels. But if you're willing to suspend not just disbelief but also all considerations of logic and intelligence and narrative coherence, it's also a rip-roaring, fun adventure, fatefully balanced between high camp and boyish seriousness at almost every second". Mick LaSelle of "San Francisco Chronicle" rated the film 1 star out of 4, noting, ""John Carter" is a movie designed to be long, epic and in 3-D, but that's as far as the design goes. It's designed to be a product, and it's a flimsy one". A.O. Scott of "The New York Times" said, ""John Carter" tries to evoke, to reanimate, a fondly recalled universe of B-movies, pulp novels and boys' adventure magazines. But it pursues this modest goal according to blockbuster logic, which buries the easy, scrappy pleasures of the old stuff in expensive excess. A bad movie should not look this good".  In the UK, the film was savaged by Peter Bradshaw in "The Guardian", gaining only 1 star out of 5 and described as a "giant, suffocating doughy feast of boredom". The film garnered 2 out of 5 stars in "The Daily Telegraph", described as "a technical marvel, but is also armrest-clawingly hammy and painfully dated". BBC film critic Mark Kermode expressed his displeasure with the film commenting, "The story telling is incomprehensible, the characterisation is ludicrous, the story is two and a quarter hours long and it's a boring, boring, boring two and a quarter hours long".

Box office.

"John Carter" grossed $73.1 million in North America and $211.1 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $284.1 million. It had a worldwide opening of $100.8 million. In North America, it opened in first place on Friday, March 9, 2012 with $9.81 million. For three days, it had grossed $30.2 million, falling to second place for the weekend, behind "The Lorax". Outside North America, it topped the weekend chart, opening with $70.6 million. Its highest-grossing opening was in Russia and the CIS, where it broke the all-time opening-day record ($6.5 million) and earned $16.5 million during the weekend. The film also scored the second-best opening weekend for a Disney film in China ($14.0 million). It was in first place at the box office outside North America for two consecutive weekends. Its highest-grossing areas after North America are China ($41.5 million), Russia and the CIS ($33.4 million), and Mexico ($12.1 million).  Although the film grossed nearly $300 million worldwide, it lost a considerable amount of money due to its cost. At the time of its release Disney claimed the film's production budget was $250 million, although tax returns released in 2014 revealed its exact budget was $263.7 million after taking tax credits into account. Before the film opened analysts predicted the film would be a huge financial failure due to its exorbitant combined production and marketing costs of $350 million, with Paul Dergarabedian, president of Hollywood.com, noting ""John Carter"'s bloated budget would have required it to generate worldwide tickets sales of more than $600 million to break even... a height reached by only 63 films in the history of moviemaking". On May 8, 2012, the Walt Disney Company released a statement on its earnings which attributed the $161 million deterioration in the operating income of their Studio Entertainment division to a loss of $84 million in the quarter ending March 2012 "primarily" to the performance of "John Carter" and the associated cost write-down. The film resulted in a $200 million writedown for Disney, ranking it among the biggest box-office bombs of all time.  The film's failure led to the resignation of Rich Ross, the head of Walt Disney Studios, even though Ross had arrived there from his earlier success at the Disney Channel with "John Carter" already in development. Ross theoretically could have stopped production on "John Carter" as he did with a planned remake of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", or minimized the budget as he did to "The Lone Ranger" starring Johnny Depp. Instead, Stanton was given the production budget requested for "John Carter", backed with an estimated $100 million marketing campaign that is typical for a tentpole movie but without significant merchandising or other ancillary tie-ins. It was reported that Ross later sought to blame Pixar for "John Carter", which prompted key Pixar executives to turn against Ross who already had alienated many within the studio. The 2013 book "John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood" cites many factors in the film's commercial failure, but author Michael D. Sellers insists the film tested very well with audiences and failed more because of marketing problems (which included not mentioning "Mars", "Barsoom", or "Edgar Rice Burroughs" on promotional posters, which meant that many fans of the Burroughs books were completely unaware of the film and its subject matter until after it bombed) and changing management at the studio.  In September 2014, studio president Alan Bergman was asked at a conference if Disney had been able to partially recoup its losses on "The Lone Ranger" and "John Carter" through subsequent release windows or other monetization methods, and he responded: "I'm going to answer that question honestly and tell you no, it didn't get that much better. We did lose that much money on those movies."

Cancelled sequel.

Prior to the film's release, the filmmakers reported that "John Carter" was intended to be the first film of a trilogy. Producers Jim Morris and Lindsey Collins began work on a sequel based on Burroughs' second novel, "The Gods of Mars". However, the film's poor box office performance put plans for sequels into question.  In June 2012 co-writer Mark Andrews said in an interview that he, Stanton, and Chabon are still interested in doing sequels: "As soon as somebody from Disney says, 'We want "John Carter 2", we'd be right there." Despite criticism and Disney's financial disappointment with the film, lead actors Taylor Kitsch and Willem Dafoe all showed strong support, with Kitsch stating "I would do "John Carter" again tomorrow. I'm very proud of "John Carter"."  In September 2012, Stanton announced that his next directorial effort would be Pixar's "Finding Dory", and that the plan to film a "John Carter" sequel had been cancelled. Kitsch later stated he would not make another "John Carter" film unless Stanton returns as director. In a May 2014 interview, he added, "I still talk to Lynn Collins almost daily. Those relationships that were born won't be broken by people we never met. I miss the family. I miss Andrew Stanton. I know the second script was awesome. We had to plant a grounding, so we could really take off in the second one. The second one was even more emotionally taxing, which was awesome." Stanton tweeted both titles and logos for the sequels that would have been made with the titles being "Gods of Mars" and "Warlord of Mars".  On October 20, 2014, it was confirmed that Disney had allowed the film rights to the "Barsoom" novels to revert to the Edgar Rice Burroughs Estate. In November 2016, Stanton stated, "I will always mourn the fact that I didn't get to make the other two films I planned for that series."

John Carter is a 2012 American science fiction action film based on "A Princess of Mars" (1912), the first book in the "Barsoom" series of novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The film chronicles the first interplanetary adventure of John Carter and his attempts to mediate civil unrest amongst the warring kingdoms of Barsoom. It was directed by Andrew Stanton from a screenplay written by Stanton, Mark Andrews, and Michael Chabon. The film was produced by Jim Morris, Colin Wilson, and Lindsey Collins. "John Carter" stars Taylor Kitsch in the title role, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Mark Strong, Ciarán Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy and Willem Dafoe.

John Carter: Mezi dvěma světy je epický sci-fi a fantasy film uvedený roku 2012. Hlavním hrdinou je John Carter, kterého představuje americký herec Taylor Kitsh. Předlohou pro film byl pulpový román Edgara Rice Burroughse "Princezna z Marsu" z roku 1912.


Family connections and name.

The son of Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica, praetor about 95 BC, and Licinia, Scipio was the grandson of Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio, consul in 111, and Lucius Licinius Crassus, consul in 95. His great-grandfather was Scipio Nasica Serapio, the man who murdered Tiberius Gracchus in 133 BC. Through his mother Cornelia, Serapio was also the grandson of Scipio Africanus. Scipio's father died not long after his praetorship, and was survived by two sons and two daughters. The brother was adopted by their grandfather Crassus, but left little mark on history.  Publius Scipio, as he was referred to in contemporary sources early in his life, was adopted in adulthood through the testament of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, consul in 80 BC and "pontifex maximus". He retained his patrician status: "Scipio's ancestry," notes Syme, "was unmatched for splendour." As Jerzy Linderski has shown at length, this legal process constitutes adoption only in a loose sense; Scipio becomes a Caecilius Metellus in name while inheriting the estate of Metellus Pius, but was never his "son" while the "pontifex maximus" was alive. He was sometimes called "Metellus Scipio", or just "Scipio", after his adoption. The official form of his name as evidenced in a decree of the senate was "Q. Caecilius Q. f. Fab. Metellus Scipio."  Scipio married Aemilia Lepida, daughter of Mamercus Aemilius Lepidus Livianus, consul in 77 BC, but was not without rival in seeking to marry Aemilia Lepida. The virginal Cato had also wanted to marry Aemilia but lost out:  The couple had one son, a Metellus Scipio who seems to have died when he was only 18. Another son may have been born around 70, or a son may have been adopted. The couple's much more famous daughter was born around that time as well. Scipio first married off the celebrated Cornelia Metella to Publius Crassus, the son of Marcus Licinius Crassus. After Publius's death at Carrhae, Scipio decided to succeed Caesar as the father-in-law of Pompey, who was at least thirty years older than Cornelia. The marriage is one of the acts by which Pompey severed his alliance to Caesar and declared himself the champion of the optimates. He and Scipio were consuls together in 52.

Political career.

Cicero names "P. Scipio" among the young "nobiles" on his defence team when Sextus Roscius was prosecuted in 80 BC. He is placed in the company of Marcus Messalla and Metellus Celer, both future consuls.  Metellus Scipio was probably tribune of the plebs in 59 BC, but his patrician status argues against his holding the office. It is possible that Scipio's adoption into a plebeian gens may have qualified him for a tribunate on a technicality. He may have been curule aedile in 57 BC, when he presented funeral games in honour of his adopted father's death, six years earlier. He was praetor, most likely in 55 BC, during the second consulship of Pompeius and Marcus Crassus.  In 53 BC, Scipio was interrex with Marcus Valerius Messalla. He became consul with Pompeius in 52 BC, the year he arranged the marriage of his newly widowed daughter to him.  Indisputably aristocratic and conservative, Metellus Scipio had been at least a symbolic counterweight to the power of the so-called triumvirate before the death of Crassus in 53 BC. "Opportune deaths," notes Syme, "had enhanced his value, none remaining now of the Metellan consuls."  He is known to have been a member of the College of Pontiffs by 57 BC, and was probably nominated upon the death of his adoptive father in 63, and subsequently elected.

Role in civil war.

In January of 49 BC, Scipio persuaded the senate to issue the ultimatum to Caesar that made war inevitable. That same year, Scipio became proconsul of the province of Syria. In Syria and Asia, where he took up winter quarters, he used often oppressive means to gather ships, troops, and money:  Scipio put to death Alexander of Judaea, and was acclaimed "Imperator" for claimed victories in the Amanus Mountains — as noted disparagingly by Caesar.  In 48 BC, Scipio brought his forces from Asia to Greece, where he manoeuvred against Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus and Lucius Cassius until the arrival of Pompeius. At the Battle of Pharsalus, he commanded the centre. After the optimates' defeat by Caesar, Metellus fled to Africa. With the support of his former rival-in-romance Cato, he wrested the chief command of Pompeius' forces from the loyal Publius Attius Varus, probably in early 47. In 46, he held command at the Battle of Thapsus, "without skill or success," and was defeated along with Cato. After the defeat, he tried to escape to the Iberian Peninsula to continue the fight, but was cornered by the fleet of Publius Sittius. He committed suicide by stabbing himself, so he would not fall into the hands of his enemies.

Dignity in death.

Facing death, Metellus Scipio achieved an uncharacteristic dignity, famously departing from his soldiers with a nonchalant "Imperator se bene habet" ("Your general's just fine"). These last words elicited strong praise from the Stoic moral philosopher Seneca:

Assessment.

Classical scholar John H. Collins summed up the character and reputation of Metellus Scipio:

Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica (c. 100/98 BC – 46 BC), in modern scholarship often referred to as Metellus Scipio, was a Roman consul and military commander in the Late Republic. During the civil war between Julius Caesar and the senatorial faction led by Pompeius Magnus ("Pompey the Great"), he remained a staunch optimate. He led troops against Caesar's forces, mainly in the battles of Pharsalus and Thapsus, where he was defeated. He later committed suicide. Ronald Syme called him "the last Scipio of any consequence in Roman history."

Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica (asi 100/98 př. n. l. – 46 př. n. l.) byl římský konzul a vojenský velitel v období pozdní republiky.


Setting.

The world of "Outer Dark" is a brutally nihilistic one. It represents a gestalt of irrationality and incoherence, a world that is completely strange and unapproachable. McCarthy might have had in mind the 8th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew verses 11 to 12: "And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Plot.

Introduction.

The novel begins with the introduction of the siblings Culla and Rinthy Holme, and the result of their sexual relationship with Rinthy being only a few days from labor. Here, the Tinker is introduced as well, and from his interaction with Culla and Culla's unwillingness to call for help during the birth, we see his shame over the child. The child is soon born, and after Rinthy falls asleep, Culla leaves it out to die in the woods telling her that the child died.  The child is found by the tinker, who takes him to a wet nurse, without knowing who his parents are. Rinthy finds an empty grave and sets out to find the child.

Culla's journey.

After abandoning the child, Culla, trying to escape his sin, sets out across the country to find work.  His first job is with a local squire, who puts him to work chopping wood, for which he is paid half a dollar. After he leaves it is found out that a pair of expensive boots have been stolen. Immediately blaming him, the squire pursues him. The squire is set upon by a trio and soon killed.  Travelling to the town of Cheatham looking for work, it is found out that someone has desecrated three graves near the church. He is blamed and runs away from the town.  His next job is painting the roof of a barn a ways from Cheatham, but is found by law enforcement. Again forced to run away, he injures himself in flight. The trio going in wake of Culla finds the three men he assumes framed him for the desecration and kills them.  Further on his journey Culla finds an old man who gives him a drink of water and shows off his gun and hunting trophies. He invites Culla to stay and learn snake hunting from him. He refuses. The trio again shows up and kills the man.  His next stop is Preston Falls, where he finds employment digging graves. Returning to town for payment, he finds it abandoned of all life and quickly runs away from it. Culla tries to cross a river on a ferry with the ferryman and a man who came aboard on horseback. During their night crossing, the river surges too quickly and soon the ferryman, the man and the horse are killed. Near dawn, Culla is helped ashore by the trio that was following him, who suspect him of murdering the two men aboard the ferry. Culla is obliged to eat some of the strange, unknown meat from their fire and, threatening him, the men take his boots.  Culla afterwards stumbles upon an apparently abandoned, unlocked home and takes refuge in it. In the morning, he is welcomed by an armed man who takes him to the squire, again accused of a crime, this time of trespassing. He pleads guilty to this crime for a lighter sentence, and works off his fine.  The final episode of his journey of false accusations is being accused on inciting a herd of pigs off a cliff and the murder of a young hog-driver. This time, to evade being executed, Culla jumps off a cliff himself into a river, injuring his leg. Coming ashore, he again finds the trio, as well as his child (burned on one side of his body and missing an eye) and the body of the tinker. After accusing Culla of fathering and abandoning the child, the leader of the trio slays the baby, after which a companion appears to begin to eat it.

Rinthy's journey.

Careful to avoid her brother, Rinthy sets out to look for the child. After travelling a while, during the night she stumbles upon a house. Here she finds a family who take her in, feed her and offer her a place to sleep. The oldest boy of the family expresses interest in her, whom she rejects. Travelling to the town with them, she is unable to find the child and sets out again to try and find him.  Travelling further she stays briefly with two families, where she finds out she is still lactating and retains hope for child's well-being. She stays for some time with an old woman living in a forest with a dislike for snakes and dogs.  Next she meets a lawyer who treats her kindly and allows her to rest at his office while she waits for a doctor, who keeps business across from the lawyer. The doctor gives her hope her child is still alive, and gives her a salve for her breasts which are still lactating and have begun bleeding.  Rinthy finally catches up to the tinker, who takes her to his cabin with the suggestion of giving her her child. He does not in fact do so, but berates her for abandoning her child, and telling her he deserves the child far more than she. Beginning to surmise the truth, the tinker demands to know if Culla is the child's father. When Rinthy tells him he is, the tinker refuses to believe it, calling Rinthy a liar and storming from the cabin saying he will kill her if she follows him.

Ending.

Years later, Culla talks to a blind man who tells him of the blessings of being blind, and that he prays for what he needs. Culla later watches the blind man walking towards a swamp, which for him means certain death. The novel ends with Culla thinking "Someone should tell a blind man before setting him out that way".

Interpretations.

Recent essays have questioned the physical existence of the three bad men. Critics have posited that they could have been a projection of Culla, who, everywhere he went, was suspected of wrong-doing by the townspeople. It seems that he's wrongly persecuted at every step, but questions of whether the narration complies with his psychological denial abound. Or that the three bad men represented the evil in Culla, and consequently in man, and that he was actually responsible for all the killings in the countryside in addition to the death, or metaphysical death, of his baby. The fabulous tale has been open to myriad interpretations by its readers, and various theories abound regarding the ending: Culla meets Death on the road, and Death lets him by, denoting the idea that man is an extension of Death and does his work for him.

Biblical interpretation.

Rinthy's name may be a shortened version of Corinthians, referencing the First Epistle to the Corinthians.  Rinthy is described as simple-minded, but this could be a reference to : "let him become a fool that he may be wise". Likewise, 1 Corinthians 13 could reflect her own kindness which is met with reciprocal kindness, and her lack of shame for giving birth.  The three men who follow Culla and murder those he interacts with are figures that could be the agents of retribution mentioned in the First Epistle to the Corinthians. The deeds they commit are blamed on Culla, as if his own sin has called these figures forth, a sort of Curse and mark of Cain.  Book of Revelation 3:15-16 references people who have, according to Dante, committed themselves to neither God nor the Devil are put into a waste land. Dante's description of people who from cowardice failed to commit is applicable to Culla.  Rinthy's return to the glade her child was killed in may represent her salvation, whereas Culla's final arrival at a swamp could represent his refusal of salvation. In the world of "Outer Dark" sins must be confessed and owned up to in order to be forgiven, something Culla is incapable of and unaware of, underlined in the last words of the book.

Characters.

The Three Men.

The band of murderers who harry the community are likely representative of reapers who are born of Culla's sin of incest (and perhaps rape) and attempted infanticide.

Reception.

Thomas Lask gave the novel a good review, complimenting McCarthy's ability to combine the mythic and the actual in a perfect work of imagination.  Walter Sullivan, one of McCarthy's most demanding critics, noted the power, literary virtuosity and the universality of his characters. He further states ability to find devices and characters that grasp us in their strangeness and force us to grapple with the reality surrounding us.

Adaptations.

In 2009, a fifteen-minute film based on the book, directed by Stephen Imwalle and with Jamie Dunne and Azel James playing as Rinthy Holme and Culla Holme respectively, was released on the U.S. festival circuit.

Outer Dark is the second novel by American writer Cormac McCarthy, published in 1968. The time and setting are nebulous, but can be assumed to be somewhere in Appalachia, sometime around the turn of the twentieth century. The novel tells of a woman named Rinthy who bears her brother's baby. The brother, Culla, leaves the nameless infant in the woods to die, but tells his sister that the newborn died of natural causes and had to be buried. Rinthy discovers this lie and sets out to find the baby for herself.

Vnější temnota, známo i pod názvem Vnější tma (: ) je román Cormacka McCarthyo. Román vyšel v roce 1968 (v USA) v Česku v roce 2011 v překladu Michala Svěráka. Román je psán minimalisticky s odosobněným vypravěčem (v er-formě), román vykazuje znaky naturalismu a darwinismu.


Life.

Early years.

Joris Hoefnagel was the son of Jacob Hoefnagel, a dealer in diamonds and luxury goods such as tapestries, and his wife Elisabeth Vezelaer, daughter of the Antwerp mint master Joris Vezelaer. As his father likely wished him to enter the family business, he received a comprehensive humanistic education. He spoke, in addition to his native Dutch, several languages and was able to write poetry and play various musical instruments. In one of his works, Hoefnagel described himself as self-taught as an artist. However, according to the early Flemish biographer Karel van Mander he received his first art lessons from Hans Bol, probably in the period 1570-1576 before he permanently left Antwerp. This apprenticeship with Hans Bol is not documented. Hans Bol likely introduced Hoefnagel to miniature painting.

Travels.

He lived from 1560 to 1562 in France, where he attended the universities of Bourges and Orléans. Here he probably made his first landscape drawings. He was forced to leave France in 1563 due to religious unrest and he returned to Antwerp. He left soon thereafter for Spain, where he resided from 1563 to 1567 and was active on behalf of the family business. He made various sketches of places in Spain and was particularly fascinated with Seville, the primary colonial trading port of Spain, where he could see many exotic animals and plants. He returned to Antwerp in 1567 but may have visited his hometown in between on business. He travelled to England in 1568 and resided in London for a few months where he built friendships with other Flemish businessmen. After returning to Antwerp in 1569, Joris Hoefnagel married Suzanne van Onchem in 1571 and in 1573 the couple had a son called Jacob, who would also become an artist.

Exile.

After the Sack of Antwerp by Spanish troops during the Eighty Years War in 1576, in which much of the family fortune was lost to plunder, Joris Hoefnagel left his hometown. He traveled in 1577, accompanied by his friend the cartographer Abraham Ortelius, along the Rhine via Frankfurt, Augsburg and Munich to Venice and Rome. The pair also travelled southwards from Rome to Naples and visited various ancient sites. The art patron Hans Fugger and the physician Adolf Occo, whom he met in Augsburg, recommended him to the Duke of Bavaria, Albert V. The Duke was impressed by Hoefnagel’s miniatures and promised him a job as a court painter. In Rome he was introduced to the circle of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. Thanks to his special ability in miniature painting he was offered by the Cardinal in 1578 the position of the late miniaturist Giulio Clovio. He decided, however, to take on the position at the ducal court in Munich. He lived in Munich for about eight years and worked at the court of the Bavarian dukes Albert V and William V. Hoefnagel was granted the freedom to pursue his own interests and seems to have accepted the post at the ducal court mainly not to be hemmed in by the city and guild rules. He also took on commissions from Fugger and the Este family of Ferrara. In between he worked in Innsbruck at the court of Archduke Ferdinand II. He also continued with his collecting and trading in old master drawings.  As a Calvinist, he was forced to leave Munich in 1591 when a rule was imposed that all members of the court had to proclaim their adherence to the Catholic faith. Hoefnagel refused to do so. He then went to work for Emperor Rudolf II, first residing in the city of Frankfurt am Main, where he moved in a circle of Flemish humanists, merchants, artists and publishers. In particular his friendship with the Flemish botanist Carolus Clusius may have played an important role in his later botanical illustrations. In 1594, he was forced to leave Frankfurt because of the repression of the Calvinist faith. He worked in his final years in Vienna but made regular visits to Prague. His brother Daniel lived in Vienna, where he ran a business under court protection. At this time Joris Hoefnagel promoted his son Jacob at court. He regularly collaborated with his son on artistic projects. According to Karel van Mander he died in Vienna in 1600 but this is not certain as there continue to be references to him in documents referring to his brother Daniel and his son Jacob after that date.

Works.

Hoefnagel was a very versatile artist. Heis known for his landscapes, emblems, miniatures, grotesques, topographical drawings, genre scenes, and mythological and allegorical drawings and paintings. Part of Hoefnagel's artistic works was kept in the Dutch Republic by Constantijn Huygens when bequeathed to the Huygens family at Hoefnagel's death. These works were seen by Dutch artists and exercised an important influence on the development of Dutch still life and naturalist art.

Landscapes and topographical works.

During his trip to England, he made drawings of royal palaces such as Windsor Castle and Nonsuch Palace, which are regarded as some of the earliest realist landscape watercolours in England.  Hoefnagels made many landscape drawings during his travels in Europe. These later served as the models for engravings for Ortelius' "Theatrum orbis terrarum" (1570) and Braun's "Civitates orbis terrarum" (Cologne, 1572–1618). The Civitates orbis terrarum was with its six volumes the most extensive atlas of its time. Hoefnagel worked intermittently on the Civitates his whole life and may have acted as an agent for the project, by commissioning views from other artists. He also completed more than 60 illustrations himself, including various views in Bavaria, Italy and Bohemia. He enlivened the finished engravings with a Mannerist sense of fantasy and wit by using dramatic perspectives and ornamental cartouches. Due to the topographical accuracy he heralded the realist trend in 17th-century Netherlandish landscape art.  His son Jacob reworked in 1617 designs of his father for the sixth volume of the Civitates, which was published in Cologne in 1618. Volume 6 contains a homogeneous series of images of cities in Central Europe (in Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary and Transylvania), which are very consistent in their graphics. The views are in perspective, and only in a few cases, isometric and stand out through the accuracy of the information, the particular attention to the faithful representation of the territory, the landscape, the road conditions and the power of observation and refinement of interpretation.

Emblems.

In England, Hoefnagel also made a set of emblematic drawings entitled "Patientia" (full title: "Traité de la Patience, Par Emblêmes Inventées et desinées par George Hoefnagel à Londres, L’an 1569"), which focused on the themes of patience and suffering. The genre-like nature of the work anticipated later Netherlandish emblem books. "Patientia" also reflected the influence of Neo-stoic philosophy, which was popular in the circle around the Antwerp publisher Christopher Plantin. The book remained in manuscript form and is dated to 1569. The manuscript is kept in the Municipal Library of Rouen, France.  One of the emblems from the series is entitled "Patiente cornudo" (the "patient cuckold"). It depicts a scene of public punishment of an adulterous woman and her deceived husband, i.e. the 'patient cuckold'. The Catholic Church regarded both husband and wife guilty in the crime of adultery. The husband has his hands tied and he wears on his head two large branches with their offshoots which resemble large deer antlers. Between the tops of the branches hang bells on a rope. After the man rides a woman, her head covered with a veil and her face hidden behind her own hair. She whips her husband with a string of garlic. Behind them is a crier who heralds the crime of the couple. He has a trumpet and a stalk with which he punishes the couple. Hoefnagel reprised this scene in his "View of Seville" from 'Civitates orbis terrarium'. Added in the "View of Seville" is a woman on a donkey who is naked from the waist up. She is the procuress who is also punished. The scene further includes figures who ridicule the couple by holding up their fingers in a 'V' form, an allusion to the 'horned' (cuckolded) husband.

Manuscript illuminations.

Hoefnagel was an accomplished miniature painter and is famous for his miniature work on various manuscripts in the collection of the Habsburg dynasty.  "The Book of Hours of Philippe of Cleves"  His earliest known miniature contributions are found in "The Book of Hours of Philippe of Cleves" (Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels). In the late 1570s or early 1580s, Hoefnagel added in the margins of this 15th century devotional book various illuminations. Some of the themes he developed recur in his later book illuminations, such as the split sour orange or the bright orange Maltese cross. "Roman Missal"  Between 1581 and 1590, he illustrated the Tridentine version of the Roman missal (now in the National Library in Vienna), a commission for Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria. He added illuminations throughout the missal, which consists of 658 vellum folios. His decorations include nature imagery and grotesque borders. The calendar pages are illuminated with small gaming-boards, instruments and animals linked by strapwork. The images carry emblematic content, typically related to the particular religious text it accompanies or to the patron.  "Schriftmusterbuch"  At the request of Emperor Rudolf II Hoefnagel added in the period 1591-1594 miniatures to a manuscript, referred to as "Schriftmusterbuch" (now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). The Schriftmusterbuch had been created by court calligrapher Georg Bocskay in 1571-1573 for Emperor Maximilian II. The book consists of 127 pages (of which 119 with text) on parchment. Hoefnagel added miniature illuminations to the original text using watercolour and body color in silver with gold highlights, sometimes with traces of silverpoint for the preparatory drawing. Hoefnagel also added eight sheets, which are entirely by his hand. Hoefnagel used diverse imagery such as flora and fauna, mythology, portraits, city views and battle scenes. The aim was to glorify the Emperor as the supreme terrestrial power and the protector of the Catholic faith.  "Mira calligraphiae monumenta"  Hoefnagel was also commissioned by Emperor Rudolf II to illustrate the "Mira calligraphiae monumenta" (the Model Book of Calligraphy) (now in the Getty Museum). He began the work around 1590, more than 15 years after the death of the calligrapher, Georg Bocskay. Like the Musterbuch, this book was originally made by Bocskay to illustrate various calligraphic scripts and also included a constructed alphabet. When the book had come in the possession of Emperor Rudolf II, Hoefnagel added illuminations primarily of plants, fruit and flowers but also included small animals and insects and city views. His illustrations thus provided a survey of the natural world. He further illustrated the minuscule letters of the constructed alphabet with hybrid creatures and fanciful masks. Using his extensive resources of pictorial illusionism, Hoefnagel aimed to demonstrate with his illustrations the superior affective power of images over the written word. It thus argued the superiority of one art form over another. The book is one of the last important examples of European manuscript illumination, produced at a time when printed books had virtually replaced manuscripts.  Hoefnagel's miniature illuminations are regarded as situating themselves in the earlier Flemish miniature tradition and, in particular, the Ghent-Bruges manuscript illuminations of the 15th and 16th century. This is particularly reflected in his meticulous manner of drawing, the use of trompe l’oeil devices (such as cast shadows or stems slipped through fictitious slits in pages) and the naturalistic content. This tradition emphasized illusionism in painting through devices such as three-dimensional modeling of vegetative and other forms and the depiction of details in a precise and life-size manner. Hoefnagel strived to display his virtuosity in his attention for detail as well as his predilection for difficult subjects such as an apple cut in two, a bean pod that is split open or an insect or reptile with iridescent skin.

Natural history studies.

"The Four Elements"  Hoefnagel had chosen 'natura magistra' (nature his teacher) as his motto. It reflects his interest in the realistic depiction of nature. He made a start with his miniature drawings of animals before he left Antwerp. It is on the strength of these early miniatures that he was appointed by the Dukes in Munich. Gradually these natural history were organised into a four-volume manuscript (various folios dated from 1575 to 1582 in various museums including the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin, the Louvre, Paris and various private collections). The work was entitled "Animalia rationalia et insecta (ignis); Animalia quadrupedia et reptilia (terra) ; Animalia aquatilia et conchiliata (aqua); and Animalia volatilia et amphibia (aier)" and contains detailed depictions of thousands of animals divided according to the four elements. The book is therefore simply referred to as the "Four Elements"). The book is made up by about 300 miniatures accompanied by about a thousand inscriptions.  The work resembles an emblem book with its Latin mottoes, epigrams and Bible verses. Hoefnagel did not paint all the works but rather copied from other artists' works including a series of drawings by the Antwerp animal painter Hans Verhagen den Stommen and woodcuts from Konrad Gessner’s "Historia animalium". The book was an important monument of 16th-century science by providing a compendium of the entire known animal world.  "Archetypa studiaque patris Georgii Hoefnagelii"  His son Jacob published the "Archetypa studiaque patris Georgii Hoefnagelii" in 1592 in Frankfurt. The book is a collection of 48 engravings of plants, insects and small animals shown "ad vivum" made after studies by Joris Hoefnagel. It is divided in four parts of twelve plates (each with separate frontispiece) engraved by Jacob Hoefnagel after designs by his father Joris Hoefnagel. The Italian scholar Filippo Buonanni asserted in 1691 that these engravings are the first published instance of the use of the microscope. However, this assertion of Buonanni is still contested. As the quality of the engravings varies, it is assumed that some of the works were made by members of the family De Bry who resided in Frankfurt. The prints in the collection were intended not solely as representations of the real world. They also carried a religious meaning as they encouraged the contemplation of god's plan of creation. Like contemporary emblem books each print carried a motto typically referring to god's interference in the world. The prints of the book were used as models by other artists and the Hoefnagel motifs were copied until the 19th century.

Still lifes.

Hoefnagel played an important role in the development of still life, and in particular flower still life, painting as an independent genre. An undated flower piece executed by Hoefnagel in the form of a miniature is the first known independent still life. Hoefnagel enlivened his flower pieces with insects and attention to detail typical of his nature studies. This can be seen in his 1589 "Amoris Monumentum Matri Chariss(imae)" (ex-Nicolaas Teeuwisse 2008).  It has been argued that Hoefnagel’s manuscript illuminations, the prints from the "Archetypa studiaque" and some drawings on vellum independent from any text (such as the 1594 "Flower still life with insects", Ashmolean Museum) stood at the basis of still-life painting as an independent genre. This influence is assumed to have been important in particular on the development of the typical Dutch genre of still lifes with flowers, shells and insects. The manner in which Dutch authors and artists represented insects at the beginning of the 17th century was also influenced by Joris Hoefnagel through the intermediary of his sister’s marriage into the influential Dutch Huygens family. After his death, a part of his artistic heritage was bequeathed to the Huygens family, where it was seen by Flemish-born Dutch artist Jacob de Gheyn II who would become one of the earliest flower still life painters.

Joris Hoefnagel or Georg Hoefnagel (1542, in Antwerp – 24 July 1601, in Vienna) was a Flemish painter, printmaker, miniaturist, draftsman and merchant. He is noted for his illustrations of natural history subjects, topographical views, illuminations and mythological works. He was one of the last manuscript illuminators and made a major contribution to the development of topographical drawing.

Joris Hoefnagel (asi 1542 Antverpy – 1600 (9. září) nebo 1601 (24. červenec – Vídeň), zvaný též Georg či Jiří, se považoval za malíře autodidakta. Při cestách Evropou kreslil vše, co ho zaujalo, aby později své poznámky a skici použil jako předlohy pro rytiny evropských měst v monumentálním topografickém díle "Civitates Orbis Terrarum". Jeho kresby a miniatury, provázené humanistickou emblematikou, zaujaly císaře Rudolfa II., který ho jmenoval dvorním malířem (1590).


Geography.

Kirchdorf lies in the Leukental valley, near St. Johann in Tirol. The parish consists of several hamlets and scattered settlements. A large part of the Wilder Kaiser mountain ridge also falls within the parish boundary. Kirchdorf is the second largest parish in Kitzbühel district by area.

Subdivisions.

Bicheln, Einwall, Erpfendorf (village with its own church and school), Erpfendorf-Dorf, Erpfendorf-Wald, Fabrik, Furth, Gasteig (also with its own school), Griesenau, Habach, Haberberg, Hinterberg, Huberhöhe, Jageregg, Kaiserbachtal, Kirchdorf-Dorf, Moosen, Litzlfelden, Oberrain, Taxerau, Unteranger, Vorderhaberberg, Weng, Wohlmuting

Neighbouring parishes.

Ebbs, Ellmau, Going am Wilden Kaiser, Kössen, Kufstein, St. Johann in Tirol, Sankt Ulrich am Pillersee, Schwendt, Waidring, Walchsee

History.

Kirchdorf takes its name from its church which is the oldest in the district. As early as the late 2nd/early 3rd century A.D. a Roman villa stood on the site of the present church; it was later destroyed by unrest during the Migration Period. By the 8th century the first church in Kirchdorf had been built on the foundations of the old villa. The first official reference of the name ""Chirichdorf"" was made in a book of the Tegernsee Abbey in 1107/13–1121. Until 1805 the parish of Kirchdorf was also responsible for Reit im Winkl which led to close ties between the two communities. This link was however broken when they established their own church parish.

Industry.

The insulation company Steinbacher AG lies on the banks of the Ache in the village of Erpfendorf i. T.

Kirchdorf in Tirol is a municipality in the Kitzbühel district in the Austrian state of Tyrol located north of Kitzbühel as well as north of Sankt Johann in Tirol at the Kitzbühler Ache. The area is the second-largest in size in the district. The village has got its name from an old church which was built in the 8th century. Main source of income is agriculture and tourism.

Kirchdorf in Tirol je obec v Rakousku ve spolkové zemi Tyrolsko v okrese Kitzbühel. Žije zde 3 776 obyvatel (1. 1. 2011).