Tag Archives: UNITED KINGDOM

The King’s Speech

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The King’s Speech is a 2010 British historical drama film directed by Tom Hooper and written by David Seidler. Colin Firth plays the future King George VI who, to cope with a stammer, sees Lionel Logue, an Australian speech and language therapist played by Geoffrey Rush. The men become friends as they work together, and after his brother abdicates the throne, the new king relies on Logue to help him make his first wartime radio broadcast upon Britain’s declaration of war on Germany in 1939.

Seidler read about George VI’s life after learning to manage a stuttering condition he developed during his own youth. He started writing about the relationship between the therapist and his royal patient as early as the 1980s, but at the request of the King’s widow, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, postponed work until her death in 2002. He later rewrote his screenplay for the stage to focus on the essential relationship between the two protagonists. Nine weeks before filming began, Logue’s notebooks were discovered and quotations from them were incorporated into the script.

Principal photography took place in London and around Britain from November 2009 to January 2010. Hard light was used to give the story a greater resonance and wider-than-normal lenses were employed to recreate the Duke of York’s feelings of constriction. A third technique Hooper employed was the off-centre framing of characters.

The King’s Speech was a major box office and critical success. It was widely praised by film critics for its visual style, art direction, screenplay, directing, score, and acting. Other commentators discussed the film’s representation of historical detail, especially the reversal of Winston Churchill‘s opposition to abdication. The film received many awards and nominations, particularly for Colin Firth’s performance, which resulted in his first Oscar win for Best Actor. At the 83rd Academy Awards, The King’s Speech received 12 Oscar nominations, more than any other film in that year, and subsequently won four, including Best Picture. Censors initially gave it adult ratings due to profanity, though these were later revised downwards after criticism by the makers and distributors in the UK and some instances of swearing were muted in the US. On a budget of £8 million, it earned over £250 million internationally.

At the official closing of the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Stadium, Prince Albert, Duke of York, the second son of King George V, addresses the crowd with a strong stammer. His search for treatment has been discouraging, but his wife, Elizabeth, persuades him to see the Australian-born Lionel Logue, a non-medically trained Harley Street speech defects therapist. “Bertie”, as he is called by his family, believes the first session is not going well, but Lionel, who insists that all his patients address him as such, has his potential client recite Hamlet‘s “To be, or not to be” soliloquy while hearing classical music played on a pair of headphones. Bertie is frustrated at the experiment but Lionel gives him the acetate recording that he has made of the reading as a souvenir.

After Bertie’s father, King George V, broadcasts his 1934 Royal Christmas Message, he explains to Bertie that the wireless will play a significant part in the role of the royal family, allowing them to enter the homes of the people, and that Bertie’s brother’s neglect of his responsibilities make training in it necessary. The attempt at reading the message himself is a failure, but that night Bertie plays the recording Lionel gave him and is astonished at the lack of stutter there. He therefore returns for daily treatments to overcome the physical and psychological roots of his speaking difficulty.

George V dies in 1936, and his eldest son David ascends the throne as King Edward VIII. A constitutional crisis arises with the new king over a prospective marriage with the twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. Edward, as the supreme governor of the Church of England, cannot marry her, even if she receives her second divorce, since both her previous husbands are alive.

At an unscheduled session, Bertie expresses his frustration that, while his speech has improved when speaking to most people, he still stammers when talking to David, at the same time revealing the extent of Edward VIII’s folly with Simpson. When Lionel insists that Bertie himself could make a good king, Bertie accuses Lionel of speaking treason and quits Lionel in anger. Bertie must now face the Accession Council without any assistance.

Bertie and Lionel only come together again after King Edward decides to abdicate in order to marry. Bertie, urged ahead by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, ascends the throne as King George VI and visits Lionel’s home with his wife before their coronation, much to the surprise of Mrs. Logue when she comes upon Queen Elizabeth having tea at her dining room table. This is the first time that she learns who her husband’s patient has been.

Bertie and Lionel’s relationship is questioned by the King’s advisors during the preparations for his coronation in Westminster Abbey. The archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Gordon Lang, brings to light that George never asked for advice from his advisors about his treatment and that Lionel has never had formal training. Lionel explains to an outraged Bertie that at the time he started with speech defects there were no formal qualifications and that the only known help that was available for returning Great War shell-shocked Australian soldiers was from personal experience. Bertie remains unconvinced until provoked to protest at Lionel’s disrespect for King Edward’s Chair and the Stone of Scone. Only at this pivotal moment, after realising he has just expressed himself without impairment, is Bertie able to rehearse with Lionel and complete the ceremony.

The King’s Speech

As the new king, Bertie is in a crisis when he must broadcast to Britain and the Empire following the declaration of war on Nazi Germany in 1939. Lionel is summoned to Buckingham Palace to prepare the king for his speech. Knowing the challenge that lies before him, Lang, Winston Churchill, and Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain are present to offer support. The King and Logue are then left in the broadcasting room. He delivers his speech with Logue conducting him, but by the end he is speaking freely. Preparing to leave the room for the congratulations of those present, Logue mentions to the King that he still has difficulty enunciating w and the King jokes back, “I had to throw in a few so they’d know it was me.”

As the Royal Family step onto the palace balcony and are applauded by the crowd, a title card explains that Logue, who received the Royal Victorian Order for service to the Crown, was always present at King George VI’s speeches during the war and that they remained friends until the King’s death from lung cancer in 1952.

The King's Speech

CHARLIE CHAPLIN

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Charles Spencer Chaplin, dit Charlie Chaplin , né le 16 avril 1889 probablement à Londres (Royaume-Uni) et mort le 25 décembre 1977 à Corsier-sur-Vevey (Suisse), est un acteur, réalisateur, scénariste, producteur et compositeur britannique.

Devenu une idole du cinéma muet à partir du milieu des années 1910, et plus particulièrement du burlesque, grâce à son personnage de Charlot (désigné simplement comme « the tramp » — le vagabond — dans les versions originales), il acquiert ensuite une notoriété et une reconnaissance plus large pour ses performances d’acteur comme pour ses réalisations. Durant une carrière longue de 65 ans, il joue dans plus de 80 films. Sa vie publique et privée, ainsi que ses prises de position, font par ailleurs l’objet d’adulations comme de controverses.

Chaplin grandit dans la misère entre un père absent et une mère en grandes difficultés financières, tous deux artistes de music-hall, qui se séparent deux ans après sa naissance. Plus tard, sa mère est internée à l’hôpital psychiatrique alors que son fils a quatorze ans. À l’âge de cinq ans, il fait sa première apparition sur scène. Il commence très tôt à se produire dans des music-halls et devient rapidement acteur. À 19 ans, il est remarqué par l’imprésario Fred Karno et réalise une tournée aux États-Unis. Il joue au cinéma pour la première fois en 1914 dans le film Pour gagner sa vie et travaille avec les sociétés de production Essanay, Mutual et First National. En 1918, il est l’une des personnalités les plus connues au monde.

En 1919, Chaplin cofonde la société United Artists et obtient ainsi le contrôle total sur ses œuvres. Parmi ses premiers longs-métrages figurent Charlot soldat (1918), Le Kid (1921), L’Opinion publique (1923), La Ruée vers l’or (1925) et Le Cirque (1928). Il refuse de passer au cinéma sonore et continue de produire des films muets dans les années 1930, comme Les Lumières de la ville (1931) et Les Temps modernes (1936). Ses œuvres deviennent ensuite plus politiques, avec notamment Le Dictateur (1940), dans lequel il se moque d’Hitler et de Mussolini. Sa popularité décline dans les années 1940 en raison de controverses au sujet de ses liaisons avec des femmes bien plus jeunes que lui et d’un procès en reconnaissance de paternité. Chaplin est également accusé de sympathies communistes et les enquêtes du FBI et du Congrès lui font perdre son visa américain. Il choisit de s’établir en Suisse en 1952. Il abandonne son personnage de Charlot dans ses derniers films, dont Monsieur Verdoux (1947), Les Feux de la rampe (1952), Un roi à New York (1957) et La Comtesse de Hong-Kong (1967).

Chaplin écrit, réalise et produit la plupart de ses films, en plus d’y jouer et d’en composer la musique. Il est perfectionniste et son indépendance financière lui permet de consacrer plusieurs années au développement de chacune de ses œuvres. Bien qu’étant des comédies de type slapstick, ses films intègrent des éléments de pathos et sont marqués par des thèmes sociaux et politiques ainsi que par des éléments autobiographiques. En 1972, l’Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences lui a remis un Oscar d’honneur pour sa contribution inestimable à l’industrie cinématographique et plusieurs de ses œuvres sont aujourd’hui considérées comme faisant partie des plus grands films de tous les temps.

Même si Chaplin a encore des projets de film, sa santé devient très fragile dans le milieu des années 1970. Plusieurs affectent son élocution et il doit utiliser un fauteuil roulant.

Parmi ses dernières réalisations figurent la création d’une autobiographie en images, My Life in Pictures (1974) et la resonorisation de L’Opinion publique en 1976 Il apparaît également dans un documentaire sur sa vie, The Gentleman Tramp (1975), réalisé par Richard Patterson. En 1975, la reine Élisabeth II le fait chevalier.

En octobre 1977, la santé de Chaplin s’est détériorée au point qu’il demande une attention de tous les instants Il meurt d’un AVC dans son sommeil le matin du 25 décembre 1977, à l’âge de 88 ans. Selon ses dernières volontés, une petite cérémonie funéraire anglicane est organisée le 27 décembre et il est inhumé dans le cimetière de Corsier-sur-Vevey Parmi les hommages du monde du cinéma, le réalisateur René Clair écrit : « il était un monument du cinéma » ; l’acteur Bob Hope a quant à lui déclaré : « nous avons eu de la chance de vivre à son époque ».

Le 1er mars 1978, le cercueil de Chaplin est exhumé et volé par deux mécaniciens automobiles, un Polonais, Roman Wardas, et un Bulgare, Gantcho Ganev. Leur but est d’extorquer une rançon de cent mille francs suisses à Oona Chaplin afin de pouvoir ouvrir plus tard un garage automobile. Ils sont arrêtés lors d’une vaste opération de police le 17 mai 1978 et le cercueil est retrouvé enterré dans un champ de maïs près du village voisin de Noville. Il est réenterré dans le cimetière de Corsier-sur-Vevey et un caveau en béton armé est ajouté pour empêcher tout nouvel incident.

Sources Wikipedia / YouTube / Diverses

Brazil / Rio

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Brazil officially the Federative Republic of Brazil is the largest country in both South America and Latin America.

Brazil flag

At 8.5 million square kilometers and with over 211 million people, Brazil is the world’s fifth-largest country by area and the sixth most populous. Its capital is Brasília, and its most populous city is São Paulo.

The federation is composed of the union of the 26 states and the Federal District. It is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language and the only one in the Americas;

It is also one of the most multicultural and ethnically diverse nations, due to over a century of mass immigration from around the world.

Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of 7,491 kilometers.

It borders all other countries in South America except Ecuador and Chile and covers 47.3% of the continent’s land area.

Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to diverse wildlife, a variety of ecological systems, and extensive natural resources spanning numerous protected habitats.

brazil2

This unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries, and is the subject of significant global interest and debate regarding deforestation and environmental protection.

Brazil was inhabited by numerous tribal nations prior to the landing in 1500 of explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed the area for the Portuguese Empire.

Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808, when the capital of the empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro. In 1815, the colony was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.

Independence was achieved in 1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil, a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system. The ratification of the first constitution in 1824 led to the formation of a bicameral legislature, now called the National Congress.

The country became a presidential republic in 1889 following a military coup d’état. An authoritarian military junta came to power in 1964 and ruled until 1985, after which civilian governance resumed. Brazil’s current constitution, formulated in 1988, defines it as a democratic federal republic.

Due to its rich culture and history, the country ranks thirteenth in the world by number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Brazil is considered an advanced emerging economy. It has the ninth largest GDP in the world by nominal, and eight by PPP measures.

It is one of the world’s major breadbaskets, being the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years.

It is classified as an upper-middle income economy by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country, with the largest share of global wealth in Latin America. Brazil is a regional power and sometimes considered a great or a middle power in international affairs.

On account of its international recognition and influence, the country is subsequently classified as an emerging power and a potential superpower by several analysts. Brazil is a founding member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, Union of South American Nations, Mercosul, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries.

Sources Wikipedia  

Vidéos : Youtube

Some articles / blogs :

aluxurytravelblog.com/2019/12/19/8-places-to-visit-in-the-south-of-brazil-for-unique-experiences/

mybeautifuladventures.com/2010/04/13/brasil-day-10

https://radiosatellite.online/lire?id=56

PAUL FARRAR COMEDY SHOW

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The Paul Farrar Comedy Show is a unique comedy, guest and music radio show where guests are interrupted while talking by the host’s comic creations entering the studio and causing chaos.

Exploding studio equipment, hundreds of noisy cats and dogs entering the studio while a guest is being interviewed, inept builders undertaking extension work in the studio and totally destroying it in the process,

Batman trying to help out but making things considerably worse, and being transported to various locations across the world that are fraught with danger are some of the disastrous situations facing guests on this show. Let the mayhem commence…

 

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