title: Queens Park Rangers F.C.

text: Despite QPR's perilous financial condition in 2007–08, the combined personal wealth of the club's new owners – which included the then world's eighth richest man, Lakshmi Mittal – sparked speculation that QPR would receive significant further investment from their new benefactors, drawing parallels with their wealthy West London neighbours Chelsea and Fulham. However, no significant further funds were made available to the club other than those injected as part of the purchase of its share capital, and much of the subsequent player transfer activity involved loan acquisitions or free transfers. Indeed, it was reported in January 2008 that the investors had not discharged the £10 million loan from ABC Corporation – secured on the club's stadium – together with its £1 million annual interest burden—despite the club's prospective annual turnover of between £10 million and £15 million. Furthermore, around £2 million was still owed to former director and major shareholder, Antonio Caliendo, who waived £4.5 million of loans when Briatore and Ecclestone bought the club. It was expected that the ABC loan would be discharged in June 2008 on its maturity and that the debt owed to Caliendo would be paid off "in early 2008" in line with a funding strategy which Ecclestone publicly stated would not result in the wealthy owners simply bankrolling the club. In fact, the ABC loan was discharged on or around 31 July 2008.


title: Queens Park Rangers F.C.

text: Mittal's investment is thought to be primarily motivated by his son-in-law's interests and it was assumed that Mittal himself would remain a silent investor while Briatore, Ecclestone and Bhatia worked together to implement the strategy of slowly building the club up ahead of a push for promotion to the Premier League in 2009. The new owners also pledged to refurbish Loftus Road and use their experience in Formula One to increase sponsorship revenues. On 25 March 2008, QPR confirmed that, from the 2008–09 season and for five seasons, their kits would be supplied by Lotto Sport Italia as part of a number of new partnerships formed by Flavio Briatore. The investment potential of the club's new backers resulted in a number of wildly speculative storylines in the football press throughout the 2007–08 season, including rumoured signings of former World Player of the Year winners Luís Figo and Zinedine Zidane, the latter as a possible manager.


title: Queens Park Rangers F.C.

text: In May 2008, billionaire Vijay Mallya was linked with buying into the club, as part of the Ecclestone, Briatore and Mittal consortium. Following the termination of the club's sponsorship deals with Car Giant, Le Coq Sportif and Sellotape at the end of the 2007–08 season, in early July 2008 it was expected to be announced that Gulf Air would be the new shirt sponsors for three years. Further sponsorship packages were also announced, including Abbey Financial Services and Lotto Sport Italia. On 12 September 2011, Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia announced sponsorship of QPR's shirts for the two seasons, with the sponsorship costing some £6.2 million.


title: Queens Park Rangers F.C.

text: Flavio Briatore's future as QPR chairman came into question in September 2009 after he left the Renault F1 team in the midst of race fixing allegations. The Football League board discussed the matter on 8 October 2009 and declared that they would be awaiting a response from Briatore to various questions before commenting further. Meanwhile, the club continued to make losses (£18.8m in 2008–09 and £13.7m 2009–10). Briatore sold his 62% share to Ecclestone in December 2010, with the Italian possibly retaining a right of first refusal should Ecclestone sell, and initially stepped back from the day-to-day running of the business in favour of Amit Bhatia and Ishan Saksena, the company chairman and managing director respectively. However, his involvement gradually returned, and conflicts between Briatore on the one hand and Bhatia and Saksena on the other resulted in both Bhatia and Saksena leaving QPR in May 2011.


title: Queens Park Rangers F.C.

text: On 18 August 2011, Malaysian businessman Tony Fernandes was unveiled as the majority shareholder after having bought out Ecclestone's 66 percent stake in the club for a rumoured fee of around £35 million, while the Mittal Family retained their 33% stake. Amit Bhatia was restored to his position as vice-chairman. Phillip Beard was announced as the new chief executive of the club and Gianni Paladini removed as club chairman. Briatore and Ecclestone were no longer involved with the club, with no board representation or other financial ties. Bhatia also explained in the takeover announcement that the loan, representing the refinanced ABC Corporation debt secured using the stadium as collateral, had now been "bought off" by the new regime – that is, refinanced by new debt. It is thought that the current debt is represented by a shareholder loan to the club and is non-interest-bearing. Despite the club's fortunes in attracting investors, it continues to be mired in controversy from previous ownership regimes and has been subject to proceedings from former investors Carlos Dunga and Antonio Caliendo.


title: Queens Park Rangers F.C.

text: "Note: the leagues and divisions of English football have changed somewhat over time, so here they are grouped into their relative levels on the English football league system at the time they were won to allow easy comparison of the achievement"


title: Perseus

text: In Greek mythology, Perseus (; Greek: Περσεύς, translit. Perseús) is the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty. He was, alongside Cadmus and Bellerophon, the greatest Greek hero and slayer of monsters before the days of Heracles. He beheaded the Gorgon Medusa for Polydectes and saved Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus. He was the son of Zeus and the mortal Danaë, as well as the half-brother and great-grandfather of Heracles (as they were both children of Zeus, and Heracles' mother was descended from Perseus).


title: Perseus

text: Because of the obscurity of the name "Perseus" and the legendary character of its bearer, most etymologists presume that it might be pre-Greek; however, the name of Perseus's native city was Greek and so were the names of his wife and relatives. There is some idea that it descended into Greek from the Proto-Indo-European language. In that regard Robert Graves has proposed the only Greek derivation available. Perseus might be from the Greek verb πέρθειν ("pérthein", "to waste, ravage, sack, destroy") some form of which appears in Homeric epithets. According to Carl Darling Buck ("Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin"), the "–eus" suffix is typically used to form an agent noun, in this case from the aorist stem, "pers-". "Pers-eus" therefore is a "sacker of cities", that is, a soldier by occupation, a fitting name for the first Mycenaean warrior.


title: Perseus

text: The further origin of "perth-" is more obscure. J. B. Hofmann lists the possible root as "*bher-", from which Latin "ferio", "strike". This corresponds to Julius Pokorny’s "*bher-"(3), "scrape, cut." Ordinarily "*bh-" descends to Greek as "ph-". This difficulty can be overcome by presuming a dissimilation from the "–th–" in "pérthein", which the Greeks would have preferred from a putative "*phérthein". Graves carries the meaning still further, to the "perse-" in Persephone, goddess of death. John Chadwick in the second edition of "Documents in Mycenaean Greek" speculates about the Mycenaean goddess "pe-re-*82", attested on the PY Tn 316 tablet (Linear B: ) and tentatively reconstructed as "*Preswa".


title: Perseus

text: A Greek folk etymology connected "Perseus" to the name of the Persian people, whom they called the "Pérsai" (from Old Persian "Pārsa" "Persia, a Persian"). The native name of this people, however, has always had an "-a-" in Persian. Herodotus recounts this story, devising a foreign son, Perses, from whom the Persians took the name. Apparently also the Persians knew the story, as Xerxes tried to use it to bribe the Argives during his invasion of Greece, but ultimately failed to do this.


title: Perseus

text: Perseus was the son of Zeus and Danaë, the daughter of Acrisius, King of Argos. Disappointed by his lack of luck in having a son, Acrisius consulted the Oracle at Delphi, who warned him that he would one day be killed by his daughter's son. In order to keep Danaë childless, Acrisius imprisoned her in a bronze chamber, open to the sky, in the courtyard of his palace: This mytheme is also connected to Ares, Oenopion, Eurystheus, and others. Zeus came to her in the form of a shower of gold, and fathered her son Perseus. Soon after, their child was born; Perseus—"Perseus Eurymedon, for his mother gave him this name as well".


title: Perseus

text: Fearful for his future, but unwilling to provoke the wrath of the gods by killing the offspring of Zeus and his daughter, Acrisius cast the two into the sea in a wooden chest. Danaë's fearful prayer, made while afloat in the darkness, has been expressed by the poet Simonides of Ceos. Mother and child washed ashore on the island of Seriphos, where they were taken in by the fisherman Dictys ("fishing net"), who raised the boy to manhood. The brother of Dictys was Polydectes ("he who receives/welcomes many"), the king of the island.


title: Perseus

text: When Perseus was grown, Polydectes came to fall in love with the beautiful Danaë. Perseus believed Polydectes was less than honorable, and protected his mother from him; then Polydectes plotted to send Perseus away in disgrace. He held a large banquet where each guest was expected to bring a gift. Polydectes requested that the guests bring horses, under the pretense that he was collecting contributions for the hand of Hippodamia, daughter of Oinomaos. Perseus had no horse to give, so he asked Polydectes to name the gift; he would not refuse it. Polydectes held Perseus to his rash promise and demanded the head of the only mortal Gorgon, Medusa, whose gaze turned people to stone.


title: Perseus

text: Athena instructed Perseus to find the Hesperides, who were entrusted with weapons needed to defeat the Gorgon. Following Athena's guidance, Perseus sought the Graeae, sisters of the Gorgons, to demand the whereabouts of the Hesperides, the nymphs tending Hera's orchard. The Graeae were three perpetually old women, who shared a single eye and a single tooth. As the women passed the eye from one to another and refusing to give up the information, Perseus snatched it from them, holding it for ransom in return for the location of the nymphs. When the sisters led him to the Hesperides, he returned what he had taken.


title: Perseus

text: From the Hesperides he received a knapsack ("kibisis") to safely contain Medusa's head. Zeus gave him an adamantine sword (a Harpe) and Hades's helm of darkness to hide. Hermes lent Perseus winged sandals to fly, and Athena gave him a polished shield. Perseus then proceeded to the Gorgons' cave.


title: Perseus

text: In the cave he came upon the sleeping Medusa. By viewing Medusa's reflection in his polished shield, he safely approached and cut off her head. From her neck sprang Pegasus ("he who sprang") and Chrysaor ("sword of gold"), the result of Poseidon and Medusa's mating. The other two Gorgons pursued Perseus, but, wearing his helm of darkness, he escaped. From here he proceeded to visit King Atlas who had refused him hospitality; in revenge Perseus turned him to stone (by showing Atlas the severed head).


title: Perseus

text: On the way back to Seriphos, Perseus stopped in the kingdom of Aethiopia. This mythical Ethiopia was ruled by King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia, having boasted that her daughter Andromeda was equal in beauty to the Nereids, drew the vengeance of Poseidon, who sent an inundation on the land and a sea serpent, Cetus, which destroyed man and beast. The oracle of Ammon announced that no relief would be found until the king exposed his daughter Andromeda to the monster, and so she was fastened naked to a rock on the shore. Perseus slew the monster and, setting her free, claimed her in marriage.


title: Perseus

text: Perseus married Andromeda in spite of Phineus, to whom she had before been promised. At the wedding a quarrel took place between the rivals, and Phineus was turned to stone by the sight of Medusa's head that Perseus had kept. Andromeda ("queen of men") followed her husband to Tiryns in Argos, and became the ancestress of the family of the Perseidae who ruled at Tiryns through her son with Perseus, Perses. After her death she was placed by Athena among the constellations in the northern sky, near Perseus and Cassiopeia. Sophocles and Euripides (and in more modern times Pierre Corneille) made the episode of Perseus and Andromeda the subject of tragedies, and its incidents were represented in many ancient works of art.


title: Perseus

text: As Perseus was flying in his return above the sands of Libya, according to Apollonius of Rhodes, the falling drops of Medusa's blood created a race of toxic serpents, one of whom was to kill the Argonaut Mopsus. On returning to Seriphos and discovering that his mother had to take refuge from the violent advances of Polydectes, Perseus killed him with Medusa's head, and made his brother Dictys, consort of Danaë, king.


title: Perseus

text: Perseus then returned his magical loans and gave Medusa's head as a votive gift to Athena, who set it on Zeus' shield (which she carried), as the "Gorgoneion" (see also: Aegis). The fulfillment of the oracle was told several ways, each incorporating the mythic theme of exile. In Pausanias he did not return to Argos, but went instead to Larissa, where athletic games were being held. He had just invented the quoit and was making a public display of them when Acrisius, who happened to be visiting, stepped into the trajectory of the quoit and was killed: thus the oracle was fulfilled. This is an unusual variant on the story of such a prophecy, as Acrisius' actions did not, in this variant, cause his death.


title: Perseus

text: In the "Bibliotheca", the inevitable occurred by another route: Perseus did return to Argos, but when Acrisius learned of his grandson's approach, mindful of the oracle he went into voluntary exile in Pelasgiotis (Thessaly). There Teutamides, king of Larissa, was holding funeral games for his father. Competing in the discus throw, Perseus' throw veered—and struck Acrisius, killing him instantly. In a third tradition, Acrisius had been driven into exile by his brother Proetus. Perseus turned the brother into stone with the Gorgon's head and restored Acrisius to the throne. Then, accused by Acrisius of lying about having slain Medusa, Perseus proves himself by showing Acrisius the Gorgon's head, thus fulfilling the prophecy.


title: Perseus

text: Having killed Acrisius, Perseus, who was next in line for the throne, gave the kingdom to Megapenthes ("great mourning"), son of Proetus, and took over Megapenthes' kingdom of Tiryns. The story is related in Pausanias, who gives as motivation for the swap that Perseus was ashamed to have become king of Argos by inflicting death. In any case, early Greek literature reiterates that manslaughter, even involuntary, requires the exile of the slaughterer, expiation and ritual purification. The exchange might well have proved a creative solution to a difficult problem.


title: Perseus

text: The two main sources regarding the legendary life of Perseus—for the Greeks considered him an authentic historical figure—are Pausanias and the "Bibliotheca". Pausanias asserts that the Greeks believed Perseus founded Mycenae. He mentions the shrine to Perseus that stood on the left-hand side of the road from Mycenae to Argos, and also a sacred fountain at Mycenae called "Persea". Located outside the walls, this was perhaps the spring that filled the citadel's underground cistern. He states also that Atreus stored his treasures in an underground chamber there, which is why Heinrich Schliemann named the largest tholos tomb the Treasury of Atreus.


title: Perseus

text: Apart from these more historical references, the only accounts of him are from folk-etymology: Perseus dropped his cap or found a mushroom (both named "myces") at Mycenae, or perhaps the place was named after the lady Mycene, daughter of Inachus, mentioned in a now-fragmentary poem, the "Megalai Ehoiai". For whatever reasons, perhaps as outposts, Perseus "fortified" Mycenae according to Apollodorus along with Midea, an action that implies that they both previously existed. It is unlikely, however, that Apollodorus knew who walled in Mycenae; he was only conjecturing. Perseus took up official residence in Mycenae with Andromeda where he had a long, successful reign as king.


title: Perseus

text: According to the Suda, Perseus, after he married Andromeda, founded a city and called it Amandra (Ἄμανδραν). In the city there was a stele depicting the Gorgon. The city later changed the name to Ikonion because it had the depiction (ἀπεικόνισμα) of the Gorgon. Then he fought the Isaurians and the Cilicians and founded the city of Tarsus because an oracle told him to found a city in the place where after the victory, the flat (ταρσός) of his foot will touch the earth while he is dismounting from his horse. Then he conquered the Medes and changed the name of the country to Persia. At Persia, he taught the magi about the Gorgon and, when a fireball fell from the sky, he took the fire and gave it to the people to guard and revere it.


title: Perseus

text: Later, during a war, he tried to use Medusa's head again, but because he was old and could not see well, the head didn't work. Because he thought that it was useless, he turned it toward himself and he died. Later his son Merros (Μέρρος) burned the head.


title: Perseus

text: Perseus and Andromeda had seven sons: Perses, Alcaeus, Heleus, Mestor, Sthenelus, Electryon, and Cynurus, and two daughters, Gorgophone and Autochthe. Perses was left in Aethiopia and was believed to have been an ancestor of the Persians. The other descendants ruled Mycenae from Electryon to Eurystheus, after whom Atreus got the kingdom. However, the Perseids included the great hero, Heracles, stepson of Amphitryon, son of Alcaeus. The Heraclides, or descendants of Heracles, successfully contested the rule of the Atreids.


title: Perseus

text: A statement by the Athenian orator, Isocrates helps to date Perseus approximately. He said that Heracles was four generations later than Perseus, which corresponds to the legendary succession: Perseus, Electryon, Alcmena, and Heracles, who was a contemporary of Eurystheus. Atreus was one generation later, a total of five generations.


title: Perseus

text: The replacement of Bellerophon as the tamer and rider of Pegasus by the more familiar culture hero Perseus was not simply an error of painters and poets of the Renaissance. The transition was a development of Classical times which became the standard image during the Middle Ages and has been adopted by the European poets of the Renaissance and later: Giovanni Boccaccio's "Genealogia deorum gentilium libri" (10.27) identifies Pegasus as the steed of Perseus, and Pierre Corneille places Perseus upon Pegasus in "Andromède". Various modern representations of Pegasus depict the winged horse with Perseus, including the fantasy film "Clash of the Titans" and its 2010 remake.


title: Perseus

text: Perseus has a constellation named after him. The legend says that because he was so brave fighting Cetus for someone else he was given a place in the stars forever. It is located in the east in the winter at about the Latitude 10-N. It is not far from the stars Betelgeuse and Sirius; his wife's constellation Andromeda is also nearby. It is southward from Cassiopeia, and to the left of Taurus. His constellation contains the most famous variable star Algol and some deep sky objects such as Messier 34, the Double Cluster, the California Nebula, and the Little Dumbbell Nebula (Messier 76). There are eight named stars in the constellation Algol, Atik, Berehinya, Menkib, Miram, Mirfak, Misam, and Muspelheim. It was cataloged in the 2nd century by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy and is known for the famous Perseid Meteor Shower. There is in fact a whole family of constellations based on the myth of Perseus these include Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, and Cetus. There is also a molecular cloud in the constellation that is 600 light years from our solar system. There is also a cluster of galaxies called the Perseus cluster. There is one galaxy in the cluster named Caldwell 24 which is a powerful source for radio and X-ray waves. It has a visual magnitude of 12.6 and is 237 million light years away from the Milky Way galaxy.


title: Debra Winger

text: Debra Lynn Winger (born May 16, 1955) is an American actress. She starred in the films "An Officer and a Gentleman" (1982), "Terms of Endearment" (1983), and "Shadowlands" (1993), each of which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Winger won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for "Terms of Endearment", and the Tokyo International Film Festival Award for Best Actress for "A Dangerous Woman" (1993). Her other film roles include "Urban Cowboy" (1980), "Legal Eagles" (1986), "Black Widow" (1987), "Betrayed" (1988), "The Sheltering Sky" (1990), "Forget Paris" (1995), and "Rachel Getting Married" (2008). In 2012, she made her Broadway debut in the original production of David Mamet's play "The Anarchist". In 2014, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Transilvania International Film Festival.


title: Debra Winger

text: Winger starred as a series regular in the Netflix original television series "The Ranch" (2016–2020).


title: Debra Winger

text: Winger was born in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, into an Orthodox Jewish family, to Robert Winger, a meat packer, and Ruth (née Felder), an office manager. Over the years, she told many interviewers that she volunteered on an Israeli kibbutz, sometimes even saying she had trained with the Israel Defense Forces, but in a 2008 interview she said she was merely on a typical youth tour that visited the kibbutz. At age 18, after returning to the U.S., she was involved in a car accident and suffered a cerebral hemorrhage; as a result, she was left partially paralyzed and blind for 10 months, initially being told that she would never see again. With time on her hands to think about her life, she decided that, if she recovered, she would move to California and become an actress.


title: Debra Winger

text: Winger's first acting role was as "Debbie" in the 1976 sexploitation film "Slumber Party '57". Her next role was as Diana Prince's younger sister Drusilla (Wonder Girl) in three episodes of ABC's TV series "Wonder Woman". The producers wanted her to appear more often, but she refused, fearing that the role would hurt her fledgling career. This was followed by a guest role in Season 4 of the TV drama "Police Woman" in 1978. Winger played a supporting role in Willard Huyck's 1979 comic coming-of-age film "French Postcards".


title: Debra Winger

text: Winger's first major role was in "Thank God It's Friday," followed by "Urban Cowboy" in 1980, for which she received a BAFTA nomination and a pair of Golden Globe nominations (for Best Performance by an Actress and Best New Star). In 1982 she co-starred with Nick Nolte in "Cannery Row" and with Richard Gere in "An Officer and a Gentleman", for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress twice more: for "Terms of Endearment" in 1983 (which was awarded to her co-star, Shirley MacLaine, who played her mother in the film) and for "Shadowlands" in 1993, for which she also received her second BAFTA nomination. Her performance in "A Dangerous Woman" earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.


title: Debra Winger

text: Over the years Winger acquired a reputation for being outspoken and difficult to work with. She has expressed her dislike of "An Officer and a Gentleman", for which she refused to do any publicity, and several of her other films, and has been dismissive of some of her co-stars and directors. When Barbara Walters interviewed Bette Davis in 1986, Davis said, "I see a great deal of myself in Debra Winger."


title: Debra Winger

text: Winger was to play Peggy Sue in the film "Peggy Sue Got Married" but was forced to back out just before production began after injuring her back in a bicycle accident. The role went to Kathleen Turner. The injury affected Winger's ability to work for several months. She was cast in "A League of Their Own" but dropped out and was replaced by Geena Davis. It was later reported that Winger dropped out of the film because she refused to work with Madonna, whom Winger did not consider a serious actress. Other starring roles during this period included "Legal Eagles", "Made in Heaven", "Everybody Wins", "The Sheltering Sky", "Leap of Faith", "Black Widow", "Betrayed", "Wilder Napalm", and "A Dangerous Woman".


title: Debra Winger

text: In 1995 Winger decided to take a hiatus from acting. In 2002 she said, "I wanted out for years. I got sick of hearing myself say I wanted to quit. It's like opening an interview with 'I hate interviews!' Well, get out! I stopped reading scripts and stopped caring. People said, 'We miss you so much.' But in the last six years, tell me a film that I should have been in. The few I can think of, the actress was so perfect". After making "Forget Paris" in 1995, she was absent from the screen for six years before returning in 2001 with "Big Bad Love", written and directed by her husband, Arliss Howard. The film was also Winger's debut as a producer.


title: Debra Winger

text: During her film hiatus, Winger had the female lead in the American Repertory Theater's stage production of Anton Chekhov's play "Ivanov" from November 1999 to January 2000.


title: Debra Winger

text: Rosanna Arquette made a critically acclaimed documentary film, "Searching for Debra Winger", that was released in 2002 after Winger returned to film acting. Winger subsequently starred in the films "Radio", "Eulogy", and "Sometimes in April", and received positive reviews for portraying Anne Hathaway's estranged mother in "Rachel Getting Married".


title: Debra Winger

text: Winger earned an Emmy Award nomination for her title role as the mother of a Columbine shooting victim in the 2005 television film "Dawn Anna", directed by Arliss Howard. In 2010 she returned to television, making a guest appearance as a high school principal in an episode of "Law & Order". She also joined the cast of HBO's "In Treatment" as one of the three patients featured in the third season.


title: Debra Winger

text: In 2013 Winger starred in three episodes of "In the Woods", the first installment of Jennifer Elster's multimedia, experimental film series "The Being Experience", also including Terrence Howard, Dave Matthews, Rufus Wainwright, Karen Black, Will Shortz, Liya Kebede, Questlove, Famke Janssen, Moby, Gale Harold, Paz de la Huerta, Jorgen Leth, Rosie Perez, Aubrey de Grey, and Alan Cumming.


title: Debra Winger

text: From 2016 to 2020, Winger starred opposite Sam Elliott and Ashton Kutcher in the Netflix multi-cam comedy "The Ranch".


title: Debra Winger

text: In 2017, Winger had a cameo as Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan in the TV miniseries "When We Rise". The same year, she starred in her first romantic lead after many years in "The Lovers". She has continued to acquire roles in other feature films, such as "Tiger City", released in 2018.


title: Debra Winger

text: In 1995, Winger performed in "", a television musical performance of the popular 1939 MGM film at Lincoln Center to benefit the Children's Defense Fund. Her roles in that special were the "Cyclone" narrator and the Wicked Witch of the West. It was originally broadcast on both TBS and TNT.


title: Debra Winger

text: During her hiatus from the film industry, Winger spent a semester as a teaching fellow at Harvard University. In 2008, she wrote a book, "Undiscovered", based on her personal recollections. She has shown her support for reconciliation between Arabs and Jews in Israel by visiting the bilingual schools (Galilee Jewish-Arab School, Gesher al HaWadi School) where, in 2008, she said she would "dedicate the next bit of my life to these schools".


title: Debra Winger

text: As president of the 2009 Zurich Film Festival jury, Winger joined other members of the Hollywood film community to speak out against the arrest and prosecution of director Roman Polanski, who was convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl in the 1970s, criticizing Switzerland's government for "philistine collusion" in arresting him so many years later, as he was en route to attend the Zurich festival.


title: Debra Winger

text: In 2010, Winger was co-executive producer of the Academy Award-nominated documentary "Gasland". She was also the executive producer of the 2012 documentary "Bel Borba Aqui", about the life and works of Brazilian graphic artist Bel Borba.


title: Debra Winger

text: Winger's three-year relationship with actor Andrew Rubin ended in 1980. From 1983 to 1985 she dated Bob Kerrey, at the time the governor of Nebraska, whom she met while filming "Terms of Endearment" in Lincoln, Nebraska. Winger has also dated her "Cannery Row" and "Everybody Wins" co-star Nick Nolte.


title: Debra Winger

text: From 1986 to 1990, Winger was married to actor Timothy Hutton, with whom she had a son, Noah Hutton, a documentary filmmaker born in 1987. The marriage ended in divorce.


title: Debra Winger

text: In 1996, Winger married actor/director Arliss Howard, whom she met on the set of the film "Wilder Napalm". Their son, Gideon Babe Ruth Howard (known as Babe), was born in 1997. She is stepmother to Sam Howard, Arliss's son from his prior marriage.


title: Chanel

text: Chanel ( , ) is a French high-end luxury fashion house founded in 1910 by Coco Chanel in Paris. Chanel specializes in women's ready-to-wear, luxury goods, and accessories and licenses its name and branding to Luxottica for eyewear. Chanel is well known for its No. 5 perfume and "Chanel Suit". Chanel is credited for revolutionizing "haute couture" and ready-to-wear by replacing structured, corseted silhouettes with more functional garments that women still found flattering.


title: Chanel

text: The House of Chanel originated in 1909 when Gabrielle Chanel opened a millinery shop at 160 Boulevard Malesherbes, the ground floor of the Parisian flat of the socialite and textile businessman Étienne Balsan, of whom she was the mistress. Because the Balsan flat also was a salon for the French hunting and sporting élite, Chanel had the opportunity to meet their "demi-mondaine" mistresses who, as such, were women of fashion, upon whom the rich men displayed their wealth – as ornate clothes, jewellery, and hats.


title: Chanel

text: Coco Chanel thus could sell to them the hats she designed and made; she thus earned a living independent of Balsan. In the course of those salons, Coco Chanel befriended Arthur "Boy" Capel, an English socialite and polo player friend of Étienne Balsan; per the upper class social custom. Chanel also became mistress to Boy Capel. Despite that social circumstance, Boy Capel perceived the businesswoman innate to Coco Chanel. And in 1910, Boy Capel financed her first independent millinery shop, "Chanel Modes", at 21 rue Cambon in Paris. Because that locale already housed a dress shop, the business-lease limited Chanel to selling only millinery products, not "couture". Two years later 1913, the Deauville and Biarritz "couture" shops of Coco Chanel offered for sale "prêt-à-porter" sports clothes for women, the practical designs of which allowed the wearer to play sports.


title: Chanel

text: The First World War (1914–18) affected European fashion through scarcity of materials, and the mobilisation of women. By that time, Chanel had opened a large dress shop at 31 Rue Cambon, near the Hôtel Ritz, in Paris. Among the clothes for sale were flannel blazers, straight-line skirts of linen, sailor blouses, long sweaters made of jersey fabric, and skirt-and-jacket suits.


title: Chanel

text: Coco Chanel used jersey cloth because of its physical properties as a garment, such as its drape – how it falls upon and falls from the body of the woman – and how well it adapted to a simple garment-design. Sartorially, some of Chanel's designs derived from the military uniforms made prevalent by the War; and, by 1915, the designs and the clothes produced by the House of Chanel were known throughout France. In 1915, Chanel opened her very first Couture House in Biarritz, France. She had 300 employees and even designed her first line of Haute Couture.


title: Chanel

text: In 1915 and in 1917, "Harper's Bazaar" magazine reported that the garments of La Maison Chanel were "on the list of every buyer" for the clothing factories of Europe. The Chanel dress shop at 31 rue Cambon presented day-wear dress-and-coat ensembles of simple design, and black evening dresses trimmed with lace; and tulle-fabric dresses decorated with jet, a minor gemstone material.


title: Chanel

text: After the First World War, La Maison Chanel, following the fashion trends of the 1920s, produced beaded dresses made popular by Flapper women. The simple-line, 'flat-chested' fashions Chanel "couture" made popular were opposite of the hourglass figure fashions of the late 19th century – the Belle Époque of France (c. 1890–1914), and the British Edwardian era (c. 1901–1919). Chanel used colors traditionally associated with masculinity in Europe, such as grey and navy blue, to denote feminine boldness. Chanel clothing often featured quilted fabric and leather trimmings; the quilted construction reinforced the fabric, design, and finish, allowing the garment to maintain its form and function while worn. An example is the woolen Chanel suit – a knee-length skirt and a cardigan-style jacket, trimmed and decorated with black embroidery and gold-coloured buttons, often accessorized with two-tone pump shoes, a necklace of pearls, and a leather handbag.


title: Chanel

text: In 1921, to complement Chanel's clothing lines, Coco Chanel commissioned perfumer Ernest Beaux to create a perfume for La Maison Chanel. His perfumes included the perfume No.5, named after the number of the sample Chanel liked best. Originally, given as a gift to clients, No.5's popularity prompted La Maison Chanel to offer it for sale in 1922.


title: Chanel

text: In 1923, to explain the success of her clothes, Coco Chanel told "Harper's Bazaar" magazine that design "simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance."


title: Chanel

text: The success of the No. 5 encouraged Coco Chanel to expand perfume sales beyond France and Europe and to develop other perfumes – for which she required investment capital, business acumen, and access to the North American market. To that end, the businessman Théophile Bader (founder of Galeries Lafayette) introduced the venture capitalist Pierre Wertheimer to Coco Chanel. Their business deal established the Parfums Chanel company, a "parfumerie" of which Wertheimer owned 70 per cent, Bader owned 20 per cent, and Chanel owned 10 per cent; commercial success of the joint enterprise was assured by the Chanel name, and by the cachet of la "Maison Chanel", which remained the sole business province of Coco Chanel.


title: Chanel

text: Nonetheless, despite the success of the Chanel couture and "parfumerie", the personal relations between Coco and her capitalist partner deteriorated, because, Coco said that Pierre Wertheimer was exploiting her talents as a fashion designer and as a businesswoman. Wertheimer reminded Chanel that he had made her a very rich woman; and that his venture capital had funded Chanel's productive expansion of the "parfumerie" which created the wealth they enjoyed, all from the success of No. 5 de Chanel.


title: Chanel

text: Nevertheless, unsatisfied, the businesswoman Gabrielle Chanel hired the attorney René de Chambrun to renegotiate the 10-per-cent partnership she entered, in 1924, with the Parfums Chanel company; the lawyer-to-lawyer negotiations failed, and the partnership-percentages remained as established in the original business deal among Wertheimer, Badel, and Chanel.


title: Chanel

text: From the gamine fashions of the 1920s, Coco Chanel progressed to womanly fashions in the 1930s: evening-dress designs were characterised by an elongated feminine style, and summer dresses featured contrasts such as silver eyelets, and shoulder straps decorated with rhinestones – drawing from Renaissance-time fashion stylings. In 1932, Chanel presented an exhibition of jewellery dedicated to the diamond as a fashion accessory; it featured the "Comet" and "Fountain" necklaces of diamonds, which were of such original design, that Chanel S.A. re-presented them in 1993. Moreover, by 1937, the House of Chanel had expanded the range of its clothes to more women and presented "prêt-à-porter" clothes designed and cut for the petite woman. Among fashion designers, only the clothes created by Elsa Schiaparelli could compete with the clothes of Chanel.


title: Chanel

text: During the Second World War (1939–45), Coco Chanel closed shop at Maison Chanel – leaving only jewellery and "parfumerie" for sale – and moved to the Hôtel Ritz Paris, where she lived with her boyfriend, Hans Günther von Dincklage, a Nazi intelligence officer. Upon conquering France in June 1940, the Nazis established a Parisian occupation-headquarters in the Hôtel Meurice, on the rue de la Rivoli, opposite the Louvre Museum, and just around the corner from the fashionable Maison Chanel S.A., at 31 rue Cambon.


title: Chanel

text: Meanwhile, because of the Nazi occupation's official anti-Semitism, Pierre Wertheimer and family, had fled France to the U.S., in mid-1940. Later, in 1941, Coco Chanel attempted to assume business control of Parfums Chanel but was thwarted by an administrative delegation that disallowed her sole disposition of the "parfumerie". Having foreseen the Nazi occupation policy of the seizure-and-expropriation to Germany of Jewish business and assets in France, Pierre Wertheimer, the majority partner, had earlier, in May 1940, designated Felix Amiot, a Christian French industrialist, as the "Aryan" proxy whose legal control of the Parfums Chanel business proved politically acceptable to the Nazis, who then allowed the perfume company to continue as an operating business.


title: Chanel

text: Occupied France abounded with rumours that Coco Chanel was a Nazi collaborator; her clandestine identity was secret agent 7124 of the Abwehr, code-named "Westminster". As such, by order of General Walter Schellenberg, of the "Sicherheitsdienst", Chanel was despatched to London on a mission to communicate to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill the particulars of a "separate peace" plan proposed by "Reichsführer-SS" Heinrich Himmler, who sought to avoid surrendering to the Red Army of the Soviet Russians.


title: Chanel

text: At War's end, upon the Allied liberation of France, Chanel was arrested for having collaborated with the Nazis. In September 1944, the Free French Purge Committee, the "épuration", summoned Chanel for interrogation about her collaborationism, yet, without documentary evidence of or witnesses to her collaboration with the Nazis, and because of Churchill's secret intervention in her behalf, the "épuration" released Coco Chanel from arrest as a traitor to France. Despite having been freed by the political grace of Churchill, the strength of the rumours of Chanel's Nazi collaboration had made it not possible for her to remain in France; so Coco Chanel and her German lover, Hans Günther von Dincklage, went into an eight-year exile to Switzerland.


title: Chanel

text: In the post–war period, during Coco Chanel's Swiss exile from France, Pierre Wertheimer returned to Paris and regained formal administrative control of his family's business holdings – including control of Parfums Chanel, the "parfumerie" established with his venture capital, and successful because of the Chanel name.


title: Chanel

text: In Switzerland, the news revived Coco Chanel's resentment at having been exploited by her business partner, for only ten per cent of the money. So she established a rival Swiss "parfumerie" to create, produce, and sell "her" "Chanel perfumes". In turn, Wertheimer, the majority capital stock owner of Parfums Chanel, saw his business interests threatened, and his commercial rights infringed because he did not possess legally exclusive rights to the Chanel name. Nonetheless, Wertheimer avoided a trademark infringement lawsuit against Coco Chanel, lest it damage the commercial reputation and the artistic credibility of "his" Chanel-brand "parfumerie".


title: Chanel

text: Pierre Wertheimer settled his business- and commercial-rights quarrel with Chanel, and, in May 1947, they renegotiated the 1924 contract that had established Parfums Chanel – she was paid $400,000 in cash (wartime profits from the sales of perfume No. 5 de Chanel); assigned a 2.0 per cent running royalty from the sales of No. 5 "parfumerie"; assigned limited commercial rights to sell "her" "Chanel perfumes" in Switzerland; and granted a perpetual monthly stipend that paid all of her expenses. In exchange, Gabrielle Chanel closed her Swiss "parfumerie" enterprise, and sold to Parfums Chanel the full rights to the name "Coco Chanel".


title: Chanel

text: In 1953, upon returning to France from Switzerland, Coco Chanel found the fashion business enamoured of the "New Look" (1947), by Christian Dior; the signature shape featured a below-mid-calf-length, full-skirt, a narrow waist, and a large bust (stylistically absent since 1912). As a post–War fashion that used some 20 yards of fabric, the House of Dior couture renounced wartime rationing of fabric for clothes.


title: Chanel

text: In 1947 – after the six-year austerities of the Second World War (1939–45) – the New Look was welcomed by the fashion business of Western Europe because sales of the pretty clothes would revive business and the economy.


title: Chanel

text: To regain the business primacy of the House of Chanel, in the fashion fields of "haute couture", "prêt-à-porter", costume jewellery, and "parfumerie", would be expensive; so Chanel approached Pierre Wertheimer for business advice and capital. Having decided to do business with Coco Chanel, Wertheimer's negotiations to fund the resurgence of the House of Chanel, granted him commercial rights to all Chanel-brand products.


title: Chanel

text: In 1953, Chanel collaborated with jeweler Robert Goossens; he was to design jewelry (bijouterie and gemstone) to complement the fashions of the House of Chanel; notably, long-strand necklaces of black pearls and of white pearls, which high contrast softened the severe design of the knitted-wool Chanel Suit (skirt and cardigan jacket).


title: Chanel

text: The House of Chanel also presented leather handbags with either gold-colour chains or metal-and-leather chains, which allowed carrying the handbag from the shoulder or in hand. The quilted-leather handbag was presented to the public in February 1955. In-house, the numeric version of the launching date "2.55" for that line of handbags became the internal "appellation" for that model of the quilted-leather handbag.


title: Chanel

text: Throughout the 1950s, the sense of style of Chanel continued undeterred; the firm's initial venture into masculine "parfumerie", Pour Monsieur was a successful "eau de toilette" for men. Chanel and her spring collection received the Fashion Oscar at the 1957 Fashion Awards in Dallas. Pierre Wertheimer bought Bader's 20 per cent share of the Parfums Chanel, which increased the Wertheimer percentage to 90 per cent.


title: Chanel

text: Later, in 1965, Pierre's son, Jacques Wertheimer, assumed his father's management of the "parfumerie". About the past business relationship, between Pierre Wertheimer and Coco Chanel, the Chanel attorney, Chambrun said that it had been "one based on a businessman's passion, despite her misplaced feelings of exploitation . . . [thus] when Pierre returned to Paris, full of pride and excitement [after one of his horses won the 1956 English Derby]. He rushed to Coco, expecting congratulations and praise. But she refused to kiss him. She resented him, you see, all her life."


title: Chanel

text: Coco Chanel died on 10 January 1971, at the age of 87. She was still designing at the time of her death. For example, in the (1966–1969) period, she designed the air hostess uniforms for Olympic Airways, the designer who followed her was Pierre Cardin. In that time, Olympic Airways was a luxury airline, owned by the transport magnate Aristotle Onassis. After her death, the leadership of the company was handed down to Yvonne Dudel, Jean Cazaubon and Philippe Guibourgé. So far, the bags designed by Chanel are still very popular in the vintage market.


title: Chanel

text: After a period of time, Jacques Wertheimer bought the controlling interest of the House of Chanel. Critics stated that during his leadership, he never paid much attention to the company, as he was more interested in horse breeding. In 1974, the House of Chanel launched Cristalle eau de toilette, which was designed when Coco Chanel was alive. 1978 saw the launch of the first non-couture, prêt-à-porter line and worldwide distribution of accessories.


title: Chanel

text: Alain Wertheimer, son of Jacques Wertheimer, assumed control of Chanel S.A. in 1974. In the U.S., No. 5 de Chanel was not selling well. Alain revamped Chanel No.5 sales by reducing the number of outlets carrying the fragrance from 18,000 to 12,000. He removed the perfume from drugstore shelves and invested millions of dollars in advertisement for Chanel cosmetics. This ensured a greater sense of scarcity and exclusivity for No.5, and sales rocketed back up as demand for the fragrance increased. He used famous people to endorse the perfume – from Marilyn Monroe to Audrey Tautou. Looking for a designer who could bring the label to new heights, he persuaded Karl Lagerfeld to end his contract with fashion house Chloé.


title: Chanel

text: In 1981, Chanel launched Antaeus, an "eau de toilette" for men. In 1983 Karl Lagerfeld took over as chief designer for Chanel. Like Chanel, he looked into the past as inspiration for his designs. He incorporated the Chanel fabrics and detailing such as tweed, gold accents, and chains. Lagerfeld kept what was signature for Chanel but also helped bring the brand into today. In later collections Lagerfeld chose to break away from the ladylike look of Chanel and began to experiment with fabrics and styles. During the 1980s, more than 40 Chanel boutiques opened worldwide. By the end of the 1980s, the boutiques sold goods ranging from US$200-per-ounce perfume, US$225 ballerina slippers to US$11,000 dresses and US$2,000 leather handbags. Chanel cosmetics and fragrances were distributed only by Chanel outlets. Chanel marketer Jean Hoehn explained the firm's approach, saying, "We introduce a new fragrance every 10 years, not every three minutes like many competitors. We don't confuse the consumer. With Chanel, people know what to expect. And they keep coming back to us, at all ages, as they enter and leave the market." The 1984 launch of a new fragrance, in honor of the founder, "Coco", continued the label's success. In 1986, the House of Chanel struck a deal with watchmakers and in 1987, the first Chanel watch debuted. By the end of the decade, Alain moved the offices to New York City.


title: Chanel

text: Maison de Chanel increased the Wertheimer family fortune to US$5 billion. Sales were hurt by the recession of the early 1990s, but Chanel recovered by the mid-1990s with further boutique expansion.


title: Chanel

text: In 1994, Chanel had a net profit equivalent to €67 million on the sale of €570 million in ready-to-wear clothes and was the most profitable French fashion house.


title: Chanel

text: In 1996, Chanel bought gun-makers Holland & Holland, but failed in its attempt to revamp the firm. The swimwear label Eres was also purchased in 1996. Chanel launched the perfumes Allure in 1996 and Allure Homme in 1998. The House of Chanel launched its first skin care line, Précision, in 1999. That same year, Chanel launched a travel collection, and under a license contract with Luxottica, introduced a line of sunglasses and eyeglass frames.


title: Chanel

text: While Wertheimer remained chairman, Françoise Montenay became CEO and President. 2000 saw the launch of the first unisex watch by Chanel, the J12. In 2001, watchmaker Bell & Ross was acquired. The same year, Chanel boutiques offering only selections of accessories were opened in the United States. Chanel launched a small selection of menswear as a part of their runway shows.


title: Chanel

text: In 2002, Chanel launched the Chance perfume and Paraffection, a subsidiary company originally established in 1997 to support artisanal manufacturing, that gathered together Ateliers d'Art or workshops including Desrues for ornamentation and buttons, Lemarié for feathers, Lesage for embroidery, Massaro for shoemaking and Michel for millinery. A prêt-à-porter collection was designed by Karl Lagerfeld.


title: Chanel

text: In July 2002, a jewelry and watch outlet opened on Madison Avenue. Within months, a shoe/handbag boutique opened next door. Chanel continued to expand in the United States and by December 2002, operated 25 U.S. boutiques.


title: Chanel

text: Chanel introduced Coco Mademoiselle and an "In-Between Wear" in 2003, targeting younger women, opened a second shop on Rue Cambon, opened a boutique in Central, Hong Kong, and paid nearly US$50 million for a building in Ginza, Tokyo.


title: Chanel

text: In 2018, Chanel announced relocation of its global headquarters to London. In December of the same year, Chanel announced that it would ban fur and exotic skins from its collections.


title: Chanel

text: In February 2019, Lagerfeld died at age 85. Virginie Viard, who had worked with Lagerfeld at the fashion house for over 30 years, was named the new Creative Director.


title: Chanel

text: The Chanel logotype comprises two interlocked, opposed letters-C, one faced left, one faced right. The logotype was given to Chanel by the Château de Crémat, Nice, and was not registered as a trademark until the first Chanel shops were established.


title: Chanel

text: The logo is commonly known to stand for "Coco Chanel" and has become one of the most recognizable logos in the world. It has also become the symbol of prestige, luxury, and class.


title: Chanel

text: In 2022, Chanel donated €2 million towards Care and UNHCR, the money will go to Ukraine to help it during the Russian invasion.


title: Chanel

text: Worldwide, Chanel S.A. operates around 310 Chanel boutiques; 94 in Asia, 70 in Europe, 10 in the Middle East, 128 in North America, 1 in Central America, 2 in South America, and 6 in Oceania. The shops are located in wealthy communities, usually in department stores like Harrods and Selfridges, Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, high streets, shopping districts, and inside airports. In 2015, the company paid a record $152 million for 400 North Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. This is the most expensive amount paid for retail space in Los Angeles. In October 2020, the company bought its flagship Bond Street boutique in London for £310 million.


title: Chanel

text: One timeline measurement for Chanel presence in the United States is via trademarks registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). On Tuesday, 18 November 1924, Chanel, Inc. filed trademark applications for the typeset mark "Chanel" and for the interlocking "CC" design plus word mark. At that time, the trademarks were registered only for the perfume, toiletry, and cosmetic products in the primary class of common metals and their alloys. Chanel provided the description of "face powder, perfume, Eau de Cologne, toilet water, lip stick, and rouge," to the USPTO.


title: Chanel

text: The Chanel and double-C trademarks were awarded on the same date of 24 February 1925 with respective Serial Numbers of 71205468 and 71205469. The first trademark application for the No. 5 perfume was on Thursday, 1 April 1926, described as perfume and toilet water. First use and commercial use was stated as 1 January 1921. Registration was granted on 20 July 1926 with Serial Number 71229497.


title: Chanel

text: Along with other makers, Chanel is a target of counterfeiters. An authentic classic Chanel handbag retails from around US$4,150, while a counterfeit usually costs around US$200. Beginning in the 1990s, all authentic Chanel handbags were numbered.


title: Chanel

text: In 2018, Chanel filed suit in the Federal District Court of the Southern District of New York, alleging The RealReal was hosting counterfeit (fake) Chanel products on their website and implying to customers that an affiliation existed between the two.


title: Chanel

text: Due to the high volume of Chanel counterfeits, the legal department at Chanel has set up a website to educate consumers about "Spotting Fake vs Authentic CHANEL Products." Many fashion bloggers are spreading awareness about identifying fake luxury items such as Chanel's products.


title: Chanel

text: In 1924, Pierre Wertheimer founded Parfums Chanel, to produce and sell perfumes and cosmetics; the "parfumerie" proved to be the most profitable business division of the Chanel S.A. corporation. Since its establishment, "parfumerie" Chanel has employed four perfumers:


title: Chanel

text: Cosmetics are the most accessible Chanel product, with counters in department stores across the world, including Harrods, Galeries Lafayette, Bergdorf Goodman, Hudson's Bay, and David Jones, Wojooh, Selfridges & Co, John Lewis, Debenhams, Boots as well as its own beauty boutiques.


title: Chanel

text: Chanel 'High Jewellery' was founded in November 1932. Chanel debuted 'Bijoux de Diamants' at her Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris mansion. In 2012, the company created a special collection to celebrate Diamants' 80th anniversary. Current collections include High Jewelry, Camelia, Comete, Coco Crush, Baroque, 1932, Ultra, Bridal and Jewelry Watches.


title: Chanel

text: The Chanel wristwatch division was established in 1987. In 1995, division presented a second design, the "Matelassé". Although the "Première" and "Matelassé" wristwatches were successful products, the presentation, in 2000, of the "Chanel J12" line of unisex style wristwatches, made of ceramic materials, established Chanel wristwatches as a Chanel marque. The J12 line of wristwatches features models in four dial-face sizes: 33mm, 38mm, 41mm, and 42mm. In 2008, Chanel S.A. and Audemars Piguet developed the ceramic Chanel AP-3125 clockwork, exclusive to the House of Chanel.


title: Chanel

text: Chanel owns the wineries Château Rauzan-Ségla, Château Canon, St. Supéry Estate Vineyards & Winery, and Domaine de i'lle located on the island of Porquerolles in the Cotes de Provence AOP.


title: Highlander (film)

text: Highlander is a 1986 fantasy action-adventure film directed by Russell Mulcahy from a screenplay by Gregory Widen, Peter Bellwood and Larry Ferguson. It stars Christopher Lambert, Roxanne Hart, Clancy Brown, and Sean Connery. The film chronicles the climax of an age-old war between immortal warriors, depicted through interwoven past and present-day storylines. It is the first film in the "Highlander" franchise.


title: Highlander (film)

text: Connor MacLeod (Lambert) is born in the Scottish Highlands in the 16th century. After reviving from a fatal wound and being banished from his village, MacLeod is found by swordsman Ramírez (Connery), who explains they and others were born immortal, invincible unless beheaded. Immortals wage a secret war, fighting each other until the last few remaining will meet at the Gathering to fight for the Prize. In 1985, the Gathering is finally happening in New York City and MacLeod must make sure the Prize is not won by his oldest enemy, the murderous Kurgan (Brown).


title: Highlander (film)

text: "Highlander" enjoyed little success on its initial theatrical release, grossing over $12 million worldwide against a production budget of $19 million, and received mixed reviews. Nevertheless, it became a cult film and inspired several film sequels and . It is also known for songs recorded by the rock band Queen, with "Princes of the Universe" also used for the title sequence in the television series. The tagline, "There can be only one", has carried on into pop culture.


title: Highlander (film)

text: In 1985, Connor MacLeod encounters an old enemy, Iman Fasil, in the parking garage of Madison Square Garden. After a sword duel, MacLeod beheads Fasil and triggers a powerful energy release—known as a Quickening—that affects the immediate surroundings, destroying many cars. After Connor hides his sword in the garage's ceiling, NYPD officers detain him for murder but later release him due to lack of evidence.


title: Highlander (film)

text: Connor's history is revealed through a series of flashbacks. In the Scottish Highlands in 1536, Connor enters his first battle as the Fraser Clan is at war with the MacLeod Clan. The Frasers are aided by an outlander warrior, the Kurgan, in exchange for his right to slay Connor. In battle, the Kurgan fatally stabs Connor, but is driven off before he can finish him. Inexplicably, Connor makes a complete recovery, compelling his lover Kate and his cousin Dougal to accuse him of witchcraft. The clan wishes to kill him, but his other cousin, chieftain Angus, mercifully exiles him. Connor wanders the highlands, becomes a blacksmith and marries a woman named Heather MacDonald.


title: Highlander (film)

text: Juan Sánchez Villa-Lobos Ramírez, a swordsman from Spain, finds Connor after tracking the Kurgan to Scotland. He explains that he, Connor, the Kurgan and others like them were born immortals and are destined to battle each other, save on holy ground. Under the overriding belief of all immortals ("In the end, there can be only one"), the few who shall be left will be drawn to a faraway land for the Gathering, the final battle for the Prize, the power of all the immortals through time. Ramírez reveals that immortals cannot have children and believes they must ensure evil people like the Kurgan do not win the Prize, or else humanity will suffer an eternity of darkness.


title: Highlander (film)

text: Ramírez trains MacLeod, and the two become friends. One night, while Connor is away, the Kurgan finds his home and duels Ramírez. Kurgan decapitates Ramírez and leaves the area. Years later, Heather dies of old age, prompting Connor to wander the Earth, adopting Ramírez's katana as his own.


title: Highlander (film)

text: In 1985, the time of the Gathering approaches, and the Kurgan is compelled to come to New York City, where Connor now lives as an antique dealer under the alias "Russell Nash," working with his confidant and adopted daughter Rachel Ellenstein. Brenda Wyatt, a metallurgy expert working for the police as a forensic scientist, finds shards of Connor's sword at Fasil's murder scene and is puzzled they come from a Japanese sword dated around 600 B.C. but made with medieval-era methods. Brenda witnesses the Kurgan attack Connor before police arrive, forcing them to flee. She meets with Connor twice afterward, hoping to learn about the paradoxical sword. Connor likes her, but tells her to leave him alone.


title: Highlander (film)

text: Meanwhile, the Kurgan duels and beheads Sunda Kastagir, another Immortal. However, the Kurgan leaves a witness behind who describes him as the killer, concentrating the NYPD's search on him. Brenda investigates Connor and finds evidence that he has lived for centuries. On Heather's birthday, Connor lights a candle for her in a church, as he has done every year. The Kurgan arrives and confirms that he and Connor are now the last remaining Immortals, and also reveals he raped Heather. Disgusted, but prohibited from fighting on holy ground, Connor leaves.


title: Highlander (film)

text: Brenda confronts Connor, who explains his true identity. After spending the night together, they part company, but the Kurgan finds out about their newfound intimacy and kidnaps Brenda to draw Connor out. Connor decides to leave behind the Russell Nash identity, says goodbye to Rachel and confronts the Kurgan at Silvercup Studios in Queens, rescuing Brenda in the process. After a long duel, Connor outfights and decapitates the Kurgan, absorbing his massive power and winning the Prize. Connor returns to Scotland with Brenda and reveals that he is now a mortal man who can age and have children. He is also now able to read the thoughts and feelings of people all around the world, and remembering Ramirez's lessons, he hopes to encourage cooperation, understanding, and peace among humanity.


title: Highlander (film)

text: Other actors in the film include Edward Wiley as Garfield, a slightly unhinged NYPD officer; Corinne Russell as Candy, a prostitute hired by the Kurgan; Jimmy McKenna as Father Rainey, Alistair Findlay as NYPD Chief Murdoch, Ian Reddington as Bassett and Damien Leake as Tony.


title: Highlander (film)

text: Professional wrestlers Greg Gagne, Jim Brunzell, Sam Fatu, Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy, and Buddy Roberts appear as themselves in the film's opening sequence at a tag-team match. The event in the film is supposedly held at Madison Square Garden, but was actually shot at Brendan Byrne Arena in New Jersey.


title: Highlander (film)

text: Gregory Widen wrote the script for "Highlander", as a class assignment while he was an undergraduate in the screenwriting program at UCLA. Widen also used Ridley Scott's 1977 film "The Duellists" as inspiration for his story. After reading the script, Widen's instructor advised him to send it to an agent. Widen sold the script for US$200,000. It became the first draft of what would eventually be the screenplay for the film.


title: Highlander (film)

text: According to Widen, "The idea of the story was basically a combination of a riff on "The Duellists" – guy wants to finish a duel over years– and a visit I made both to Scotland and the Tower of London armour display, where I thought, 'What if you owned all this? What if you'd worn it all through history and were giving someone a tour of your life through it?' That scene is basically in the movie."


title: Highlander (film)

text: According to William Panzer, producer of "", "And that's where everything fell into place — the idea that there are Immortals and they were in conflict with each other, leading secret lives that the rest of us are unaware of."


title: Highlander (film)

text: In a 2006 interview with The Action Elite, Gregory Widen remarked, "I've always been amazed that a project I wrote as a UCLA student has had this kind of life. I think its appeal is the uniqueness of how the story was told and the fact it had a heart and a point of view about immortality."


title: Highlander (film)

text: Widen's original draft of the script differed significantly from the film. The initial story was darker and more violent. Connor is born in 1408 rather than 1518. He lives with his mother and father and a younger brother. Heather does not exist; Connor is promised to a girl named Mara, who rejects him when she learns that he is immortal. Connor willingly leaves his village after his clan's attitude towards him changes, instead of being banished. His alias is Richard Taupin and his weapon is a custom broadsword. Ramírez is a Spaniard born in 1100, instead of an ancient Egyptian born more than two thousand years earlier. The Kurgan is known as the Knight, using the alias Carl William Smith. He is not a savage, but a cold-blooded killer. Brenda is Brenna Cartwright, a historian at the Smithsonian who sometimes helps the police.


title: Highlander (film)

text: Other elements were changed during the rewrite. Initially, immortals could have children; in the draft Connor is said to have had 37. In a flashback in the first draft, Connor attends the funeral of one of his sons. His wife (in her 70s) and his two sons, who are in their mid 50s, see him revealed as an immortal. In the early draft, there is no release of energy when an immortal kills another nor is there any mention of the Prize. Immortals can still sense each other and when Connor finally kills the Knight, he feels a sharp burning pain. As he senses another immortal nearby, the ending implies this is simply one of many battles as the Game continues.


title: Highlander (film)

text: Director Russell Mulcahy was flipping through a magazine and saw a photograph of Christopher Lambert from his recent role as the title hero of "". At the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival in 2015, Mulcahy said he showed the photo to his production staff and "I said, 'who's this?' They had no idea. He couldn't speak English. But he had the perfect look. And he learned English very fast." Mulcahy originally considered Kurt Russell and Marc Singer for the role of Connor MacLeod.


title: Highlander (film)

text: Widen had originally envisioned Connor as a very serious, grim character following centuries of violence and loss. The film portrayed MacLeod as a person who has suffered loss and fears new attachment but doesn't deny the possibility of love, maintains a sense of humor about life, and tells his adopted daughter to have hope and remain optimistic. In a 2016 interview with HeyUGuys, Lambert said part of what he found appealing about Connor MacLeod was the man still having humor and hope despite his long life and many losses. "It's the only role that I have played that is touching on the subject of immortality, through a character carrying five hundred years of violence, pain, love, and suffering on his shoulders, who is still walking around and being positive. That is what amazed me about him the most...it's difficult living through one life but to see all the people around you dying over and over. How do you cope with that pain? How do you have the strength to keep on walking, to keep being positive and optimistic? To be capable of falling in love again when you know the pain it creates when you lose them."


title: Highlander (film)

text: Widen also had a different vision of the Kurgan originally. "Kurgan was the thing that was most different about my screenplay. He was much more tortured. The Kurgan in "Highlander" as it is pretty much like Freddy [Krueger] – he's just a cackling psychopath. I envisaged him as a guy who loses everything over time. The only thing he could hold onto, to give him a reason to get up in the morning, was to finish this thing – finish it with our guy [MacLeod]. It was more about that…it was just a reason to get up in the morning. Otherwise, what is the point? Everything is impermanent, everything is lost. That made him much more serious – in a weird way, a sympathetic bad guy." Widen commented that actor Clancy Brown had similar thoughts about the Kurgan, wishing to make him more complex and interesting by dressing the villain in a bowler hat and suit, disguising his villainy rather than wearing the biker outfit he had instead.


title: Highlander (film)

text: The budget was put up by Thorn EMI. When brought to Russell Mulcahy, the title was "The Dark Knight". Filming took place in Scotland, England, and New York City.


title: Highlander (film)

text: Director Russell Mulcahy filmed "Highlander" using music video techniques including fast cutting and pacy music.


title: Highlander (film)

text: In preparation, actor Christopher Lambert spent months working four hours each morning with a dialect coach and four hours in the afternoons sword training with Bob Anderson, who had been a Darth Vader stunt double in the "Star Wars" franchise.


title: Highlander (film)

text: On filming a scene underwater in a Scottish loch, Lambert said, "The first time it's a surprise. I thought the water would be cold, but not that cold. The second time you know it is going to be freezing. The third time you turn away and you say, 'That's the last take you're doing.'" Director of photography Arthur Smith actually filmed the scene in which fish fall out of MacLeod's kilt, but Lambert's kilt proved to be too short. Smith said, "I stuck part of a drain pipe above Chris's kilt out of camera range, and fed live trout down the tube."


title: Highlander (film)

text: Smith also had difficulties shooting MacLeod meeting the Kurgan. It was raining that day and the crew had to use umbrellas and hair dryers to prevent water from hitting the camera lenses and appearing on the film. Smith also remembered that Lambert, who was near-sighted, "kept forgetting to take off his glasses as he came over the hill on his horse."


title: Highlander (film)

text: The filming of the parking garage scene took place in two different places. According to New York location manager Brett Botula, "the garage exterior is Manhattan, across from Madison Square Garden, and the interior is 'somewhere in London.'" The pro-wrestling match in the opening scene featured The Fabulous Freebirds vs. Greg Gagne, Jim Brunzell and The Tonga Kid.


title: Highlander (film)

text: The scene where the MacLeod clan sets off to battle is supposed to take place "in the village of Glenfinnan, on the shore of Loch Shiel" in the Lochaber area, but was actually filmed at Eilean Donan Castle, which is in the same general area but is really on the shore of Loch Duich, a sea loch near Kyle of Lochalsh and the Isle of Skye.


title: Highlander (film)

text: According to the DVD commentary, the film's climax was originally intended to take place on top of the Statue of Liberty. Then it was changed to an amusement park and finally changed to the rooftop of the Silvercup Studios building. The opening sequence was originally intended to take place during a National Hockey League game, but the NHL refused because the film crew intended to emphasize the violence of the match.


title: Highlander (film)

text: The scene in the alley where the Kurgan beheads Kastagir and stabs the former marine, followed by an explosion, was filmed in an alley in England even though it was set in New York.


title: Highlander (film)

text: The opening voice-over by Connery has an echo effect because it was recorded in the bathroom of his Spanish villa, where he had been working on his Spanish accent for the film with a voice coach. It was played for the producers over the phone, and they approved of it because they could not discern the quality of the recording.


title: Highlander (film)

text: In a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" session in 2014, Clancy Brown said "It was a strange set. We were all trying to make a good movie, and the producers were trying to make money any way they could, so there were a lot of things we had to work around, do on the cheap because of those producers."


title: Highlander (film)

text: As an example of the lengths to which the producers were prepared to go to save production costs, they initially decided on the first day of filming that the extras would not receive breakfast. The crew threatened to leave, but only when one of the assistant directors threatened to bring in Connery to force the issue did the producers back down. The tension also led the largely Scottish extras to burn then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in effigy.


title: Highlander (film)

text: The "Highlander" original orchestral score was composed by Michael Kamen. The British rock band Marillion turned down the chance to record the soundtrack because they were on a world tour, a missed opportunity which guitarist Steve Rothery later said he regretted. The band's Scottish lead singer, Fish, had also accepted a part in the film but pulled out because of the scheduling conflict. David Bowie, Sting, and Duran Duran were considered to do the soundtrack for the film. The eventual soundtrack includes several songs by Queen, such as "A Kind of Magic" and "Princes of the Universe" (the latter also being used for the "Highlander" television series title sequence). Brian May was inspired to write "Who Wants to Live Forever" after watching the love scenes between Connor and his wife Heather, and the song ultimately accompanied the film.


title: Highlander (film)

text: Despite a mention in the end credits, to date a complete soundtrack album for "Highlander" has not been released. Queen's 1986 album "A Kind of Magic" features several songs from the film (although sometimes in different arrangements): "Princes of the Universe", "Gimme the Prize (Kurgan's Theme)" (the album version includes snippets of dialogue from the film), "One Year of Love", "Don't Lose Your Head", "Who Wants to Live Forever", and "A Kind of Magic". The album and single edits of "A Kind of Magic" feature a different mix from the one in the film; a 2011 re-release of the album includes the long-unreleased "Highlander" version of the song. The album does not include Queen's recording of "Theme from "New York, New York"", which features briefly in "Highlander". "Hammer to Fall", a Queen song heard playing from a car radio in one scene, was from an earlier album, "The Works".


title: Highlander (film)

text: The 1995 CD "Highlander: The Original Scores" includes five cues from Kamen's "Highlander" score (along with six cues from Stewart Copeland's "Highlander II" score, and four cues from J. Peter Robinson's "Highlander III" score). Furthermore, a rearrangement of an excerpt from Kamen's score (specifically, the beginning of the track "The Quickening") was eventually used as the logo music for New Line Cinema's ident between 1994 to 2011.


title: Highlander (film)

text: "Highlander" opened in Los Angeles on March 7, 1986. The film had a 116-minute running time in the United Kingdom and a 111-minute running time in the United States. Roughly eight minutes of footage was cut from the film for its U.S. theatrical release. Most of the cuts were sequences involving a specifically European brand of humor which the distributors thought American audiences would not find funny, such as Connor being repeatedly head-butted by one of his clansmen, the duelist shooting his assistant, and the Kurgan licking the priest's hand. The cut Mulcahy found most objectionable was the deletion of the scene showing how Connor met Rachel, because he could see no reason for its removal and believed that the relationship between Connor and Rachel was incomprehensible without it.


title: Highlander (film)

text: The film grossed $2.4 million on its opening weekend and ended with $5.9 million in the US. Internationally, the film grossed $12.9 million. Upon initial U.S. release, "Highlander" was not well-received, but it gained wide and persistent popularity in Europe and other markets, as well as on home video. It has since become a cult film in both domestic and non-domestic markets, leading to four sequels, , and various other spin-offs.


title: Highlander (film)

text: "Variety" stated that there were "entertaining moments" but the "total work is a mess". "People" described it as "a moody combination of "Blade Runner", "The Terminator" and your last really good nightmare". Alex Stewart reviewed "Highlander" for "White Dwarf" #79 and stated, "What the film does have going for it is stylish direction, a breathless pace and some exquisite camerawork. The performances aren't bad either, especially Brown and Connery, who are so far over the top they're practically in the next trench." Stewart reviewed the British release print of "Highlander" for "White Dwarf" #81, and stated that ""Highlander" is visually stunning, from the timeless grandeur of the Scottish landscape to the surrealist urban jungles of New York. And the swordfights are terrific."


title: Highlander (film)

text: The video was a hit in the United States. The theatrical release of "Highlander II: The Quickening" in 1991 significantly increased the rental activity on "Highlander" even though the sequel was not a box-office success. "Highlander" was first released to DVD in the United States in 1997, in a "10th Anniversary Edition" Director's Cut that contained the international uncut version of the film. A "15th Anniversary" edition was released in Australia in 2001, which also contained the International cut of the film.


title: Highlander (film)

text: "Highlander" was again released in 2002 in two editions: a special "Immortal Edition" with several extra features (including three Queen music videos and a bonus CD containing three Queen songs from the film) and a standard edition, both of which contain the International uncut version with remastered video and DTS ES sound. On the June 17, 2009 French distributor StudioCanal issued the film on Blu-ray with identical releases following in Germany, UK, Holland, Australia and Japan. The U.S. director's cut is available on DVD and Blu-ray in North America from Lionsgate under license from the film's current owner, StudioCanal, while television rights stand with The Walt Disney Company, parent company of theatrical distributor 20th Century Fox.


title: Highlander (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 70% based on 37 reviews, with an average rating of 6.30/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "People hate "Highlander" because it's cheesy, bombastic, and absurd. And people love it for the same reasons." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 24 out of 100 based on 7 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "C+" on scale of A to F.


title: Highlander (film)

text: In 1998, "Halliwell's Film Guide" described "Highlander" as a "muddled, violent and noisy fantasy" and stated that "the explanation doesn't come until most people will have given up." In 2000, Matt Ford of the BBC gave the film three stars out of five, writing, "From the moody, rain-soaked, noir-ish streets of late 20th century America to the wild open spaces of medieval Scotland, Mulcahy plunders movie history to set off his visceral fight scenes with suitably rugged locations. ... What the film loses through ham acting, weak narrative, and pompous macho posturing it more than compensates with in sheer fiery bravado, pace, and larger than life action." Also in 2000, "IGN", awarding it eight out of ten, wrote, "This 80s classic has a lot going for it. The hardcore MTV manner in which it was filmed is common these days, but was groundbreaking then. This movie features some of the best scene transitions committed to celluloid. ... To this is added some fun performances by Connery and especially Clancy Brown." In 2000, Christopher Null of FilmCritic.com gave the film four-and-a-half stars out of five, writing, ""Highlander" has no equal among sword-and-sorcery flicks." Null later called "Highlander" "the greatest action film ever made," saying that it features "awesome swordfights, an awesome score, and a time-bending plotline that only a philistine could dislike".


title: Highlander (film)

text: In 2002, giving the film three stars out of five, Adam Tyner of DVD Talk wrote, "The screenplay spots a number of intelligent, creative ideas, and I find the very concept of displacing the sword-and-sorcery genre to then-modern-day New York City to be fairly inventive. The dialogue and performances don't quite match many of the film's concepts, though. The tone seems somewhat uneven as if "Highlander" is unsure if it wants to be seen as a straight adventure epic or if it's a campy action flick." In his 2009 "Movie Guide", Leonard Maltin gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four, describing it as an "interesting notion made silly and boring", but acknowledged that "Connery, at least, shows some style." He added that "former rock video director Mulcahy's relentlessly showy camera moves may cause you to reach for the Dramamine." Tom Hutchinson of "Radio Times" awarded it three stars out of five, calling it "so confused as to be hilariously watchable". Hutchinson praised "some great sword-lunging duels — the best of which is set in a Madison Square Garden garage — but the story is never that engaging."


title: Highlander (film)

text: A novelization of the film was written by Garry Kilworth under the pen name "Garry Douglas." It expanded the events of the movie by revealing details such as Heather finding out about Connor's immortality from Ramírez, the Kurgan's First Death, and the villain's training with an Arabian immortal known as "The Bedouin" (whom he eventually kills). The novel depicts the Kurgan battling and defeating an immortal Mongol warrior soon before meeting MacLeod in 1536. Another scene reveals how he acquires his customised longsword.


title: Highlander (film)

text: The novel depicts Connor and Kastagir as having a more somber relationship, the two comfortable talking and confiding in each other about their fears. An alternate scene has them meet in the subway before going to the Bridge.


title: Highlander (film)

text: The book expands the ending following Connor's last battle with the Kurgan. He returns to his antique shop to say a final goodbye to Rachel before leaving for Scotland. Once there, he and Brenda tour the country for two months then open an antique shop in Camden Alley. On one occasion, Connor returns to the Scottish Uplands alone and stares at the remnants of his home with Heather. There is no croft there but he finds a few stones from the fallen tor and locates the burial place of Ramírez and Heather. Finding two timbers and fashioning a crude cross, Connor tells Heather that she would like Brenda because "she is much like you."


title: Highlander (film)

text: The film was followed by two direct sequels. "" was released in 1991 and met with an overall negative response, with some considering it among the worst films ever made. "" (also known as "Highlander: The Final Dimension") was released in 1994 and retroactively erased the canon of "Highlander II", acting as an alternate sequel to the first film. The movies "" (2000) and "" (2007) follow the continuity of the TV show "". Both movies received negative reviews from fans of both the original film and the TV show. The anime movie "" (2007), which existed in its own continuity with protagonist Colin MacLeod, received largely positive reviews.


title: Highlander (film)

text: In March 2008, Summit Entertainment announced that it had bought the film rights to "Highlander" and was remaking the original film. Chad Stahelski was announced as a new director of the reboot which has been described to be John Wick with swords with the reboot planned as a possible trilogy. As of May 2020, the filming for the remake had not yet begun.


title: Highlander (film)

text: In May 2021, Henry Cavill was confirmed to play the lead role in the film, although his exact character was unknown.


title: Highlander (film)

text: Christopher Lambert was offered a chance to return as Connor MacLeod in a TV series adaptation. Lambert turned down the role, so the series became a spin-off, introducing a new character Duncan MacLeod played by Adrian Paul. "" began airing on television in 1992, with Lambert appearing as Connor in the first episode. The series explains Duncan is a man born decades after Connor's banishment and adopted by the Clan MacLeod. After Duncan discovers he is immortal, Connor finds him and trains him before going his separate way. The season two premiere episode "The Watchers" confirms Connor's battle with the Kurgan still happened in 1985 in the canon of the show, but the Prize was not won because there were still several living immortals in this version of events, including Duncan. Lambert did not appear in any other episode, but he and Duncan meet again in the movie "Highlander: Endgame".


title: Highlander (film)

text: "" aired 1994 to 1996. A loose science fiction adaptation and sequel of the original film, the series imagines a meteorite causing an apocalypse on Earth. In the wake of this, Connor MacLeod is one of several immortals who decides to help preserve knowledge for humanity rather than continue their war for the Prize, though he is then killed by Kortan, the one remaining evil immortal. Taking place in the 27th century, the series features the young immortal hero Quentin MacLeod, last descendant of the MacLeod Clan. He is trained by another immortal named Don Vincente Marino Ramirez, an old friend of Connor's.


title: The Canterbury Tales

text: The Canterbury Tales () is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's "magnum opus". The tales (mostly written in verse, although some are in prose) are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest is a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return.


title: The Canterbury Tales

text: It has been suggested that the greatest contribution of "The Canterbury Tales" to English literature was the popularisation of the English vernacular in mainstream literature, as opposed to French, Italian or Latin. English had, however, been used as a literary language centuries before Chaucer's time, and several of Chaucer's contemporaries—John Gower, William Langland, the Pearl Poet, and Julian of Norwich—also wrote major literary works in English. It is unclear to what extent Chaucer was seminal in this evolution of literary preference.


title: The Canterbury Tales

text: "The Canterbury Tales" is generally thought to have been incomplete at the end of Chaucer's life. In the General Prologue, some 30 pilgrims are introduced. According to the Prologue, Chaucer's intention was to write four stories from the perspective of each pilgrim, two each on the way to and from their ultimate destination, St. Thomas Becket's shrine (making for a total of about 120 stories). Although perhaps incomplete, "The Canterbury Tales" is revered as one of the most important works in English literature.


title: The Canterbury Tales

text: The question of whether "The Canterbury Tales" is a finished work has not been answered to date. There are 84 manuscripts and four incunabula (printed before 1500) editions of the work, more than for any other vernacular English literary text with the exception of "The Prick of Conscience". This comparison should not be taken as evidence of the "Tales"' popularity in the century after Chaucer's death, because according to Derek Pearsal, it is unfair considering that "The Prick of Conscience" had all the benefit of the "preservation of a dogmatic religious subject-matter". Fifty-five of these manuscripts are thought to have been originally complete, while 28 are so fragmentary that it is difficult to ascertain whether they were copied individually or as part of a set. The "Tales" vary in both minor and major ways from manuscript to manuscript; many of the minor variations are due to copyists' errors, while it is suggested that in other cases Chaucer both added to his work and revised it as it was being copied and possibly as it was being distributed.


title: The Canterbury Tales

text: Even the oldest surviving manuscripts of the "Tales" are not Chaucer's originals. The very oldest is probably MS Peniarth 392 D (called "Hengwrt"), written by a scribe shortly after Chaucer's death. Another famous example is the Ellesmere Manuscript, a manuscript handwritten by one person with illustrations by several illustrators; the tales are put in an order that many later editors have followed for centuries. The first version of "The Canterbury Tales" to be published in print was William Caxton's 1476 edition. Only 10 copies of this edition are known to exist, including one held by the British Library and one held by the Folger Shakespeare Library.


title: The Canterbury Tales

text: In 2004, Linne Mooney claimed that she was able to identify the scrivener who worked for Chaucer as an Adam Pinkhurst. Mooney, then a professor at the University of Maine and a visiting fellow at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, said she could match Pinkhurst's oath in the Scriveners' Common Paper to the handwriting in the Hengwrt manuscript, which she theorized might have been transcribed from Chaucer's working copy. Although this identification has been generally accepted, some scholars have expressed doubts.


title: The Canterbury Tales

text: There is no consensus as to whether or not a complete version of the "Tales" exists, and also no consensus regarding Chaucer's intended order of the stories.


title: The Canterbury Tales

text: Textual and manuscript clues have been adduced to support the two most popular modern methods of ordering the tales. Some scholarly editions divide the "Tales" into ten "Fragments". The tales that make up a Fragment are closely related and contain internal indications of their order of presentation, usually with one character speaking to and then stepping aside for another character. However, between Fragments, the connection is less obvious. Consequently, there are several possible orders; the one most frequently seen in modern editions follows the numbering of the Fragments (ultimately based on the Ellesmere order). Victorians frequently used the nine "Groups", which was the order used by Walter William Skeat whose edition "Chaucer: Complete Works" was used by Oxford University Press for most of the twentieth century, but this order is currently seldom followed.


title: The Canterbury Tales

text: An alternative ordering (seen in the early 15th-century manuscript Harley MS. 7334) places Fragment VIII before VI. Fragments I and II almost always follow each other, just as VI and VII, IX and X do in the oldest manuscripts. Fragments IV and V, by contrast, vary in location from manuscript to manuscript.


title: The Canterbury Tales

text: Chaucer mainly wrote in a London dialect of late Middle English, which has clear differences from Modern English. From philological research, some facts are known about the pronunciation of English during the time of Chaucer. Chaucer pronounced "-e" at the end of many words, so that "care" (except when followed by a vowel sound) was , not as in Modern English. Other nowadays silent letters were also pronounced, so that the word "knight" was , with both the "k" and the "gh" pronounced, not . In some cases, vowel letters in Middle English were pronounced very differently from Modern English, because the Great Vowel Shift had not yet happened. For instance, the long "e" in "wepyng" "weeping" was pronounced as , as in modern German or Italian, not as . Below is an IPA transcription of the opening lines of "The Merchant's Prologue":


title: The Canterbury Tales

text: No manuscript exists in Chaucer's own hand; all extant copies were made by scribes. Because the final "-e" sound was lost soon after Chaucer's time, scribes did not accurately copy it, and this gave scholars the impression that Chaucer himself was inconsistent in using it. It has now been established, however, that "-e" was an important part of Chaucer's grammar, and helped to distinguish singular adjectives from plural and subjunctive verbs from indicative.


title: The Canterbury Tales

text: No other work prior to Chaucer's is known to have set a collection of tales within the framework of pilgrims on a pilgrimage. It is obvious, however, that Chaucer borrowed portions, sometimes very large portions, of his stories from earlier stories, and that his work was influenced by the general state of the literary world in which he lived. Storytelling was the main entertainment in England at the time, and storytelling contests had been around for hundreds of years. In 14th-century England, the English Pui was a group with an appointed leader who would judge the songs of the group. The winner received a crown and, as with the winner of "The Canterbury Tales", a free dinner. It was common for pilgrims on a pilgrimage to have a chosen "master of ceremonies" to guide them and organise the journey. Harold Bloom suggests that the structure is mostly original, but inspired by the "pilgrim" figures of Dante and Virgil in "The Divine Comedy". New research suggests that the General Prologue, in which the innkeeper and host Harry Bailey introduces each pilgrim, is a pastiche of the historical Harry Bailey's surviving 1381 poll-tax account of Southwark's inhabitants.


title: The Canterbury Tales

text: "The Canterbury Tales" contains more parallels to the "Decameron", by Giovanni Boccaccio, than any other work. Like the "Tales", the "Decameron" features a frame tale in which several different narrators tell a series of stories. In the "Decameron", the characters have fled to the countryside to escape the Black Death. It ends with an apology by Boccaccio, much like Chaucer's Retraction to the "Tales". A quarter of the tales in "The Canterbury Tales" parallel a tale in the "Decameron", although most of them have closer parallels in other stories. Some scholars thus find it unlikely that Chaucer had a copy of the work on hand, surmising instead that he may have merely read the "Decameron" at some point. Chaucer may have read the "Decameron" during his first diplomatic mission to Italy in 1372. Chaucer used a wide variety of sources, but some, in particular, were used frequently over several tales, among them the Bible, Classical poetry by Ovid, and the works of contemporary Italian writers Petrarch and Dante. Chaucer was the first author to use the work of these last two. Boethius' "Consolation of Philosophy" appears in several tales, as do the works of John Gower, a friend of Chaucer's. Chaucer also seems to have borrowed from numerous religious encyclopaedias and liturgical writings, such as John Bromyard's "Summa praedicantium", a preacher's handbook, and Jerome's "Adversus Jovinianum". Many scholars say there is a good possibility Chaucer met Petrarch or Boccaccio.


title: The Canterbury Tales

text: "The Canterbury Tales" is a collection of stories built around a frame tale, a common and already long established genre in this period. Chaucer's "Tales" differs from most other story "collections" in this genre chiefly in its intense variation. Most story collections focused on a theme, usually a religious one. Even in the "Decameron", storytellers are encouraged to stick to the theme decided on for the day. The idea of a pilgrimage to get such a diverse collection of people together for literary purposes was also unprecedented, though "the association of pilgrims and storytelling was a familiar one". Introducing a competition among the tales encourages the reader to compare the tales in all their variety, and allows Chaucer to showcase the breadth of his skill in different genres and literary forms.


title: The Canterbury Tales

text: While the structure of the "Tales" is largely linear, with one story following another, it is also much more than that. In the "General Prologue", Chaucer describes not the tales to be told, but the people who will tell them, making it clear that structure will depend on the characters rather than a general theme or moral. This idea is reinforced when the Miller interrupts to tell his tale after the Knight has finished his. Having the Knight go first gives one the idea that all will tell their stories by class, with the Monk following the Knight. However, the Miller's interruption makes it clear that this structure will be abandoned in favour of a free and open exchange of stories among all classes present. General themes and points of view arise as the characters tell their tales, which are responded to by other characters in their own tales, sometimes after a long lapse in which the theme has not been addressed.


title: The Canterbury Tales

text: Lastly, Chaucer does not pay much attention to the progress of the trip, to the time passing as the pilgrims travel, or to specific locations along the way to Canterbury. His writing of the story seems focused primarily on the stories being told, and not on the pilgrimage itself.


title: The Canterbury Tales

text: The variety of Chaucer's tales shows the breadth of his skill and his familiarity with many literary forms, linguistic styles, and rhetorical devices. Medieval schools of rhetoric at the time encouraged such diversity, dividing literature (as Virgil suggests) into high, middle, and low styles as measured by the density of rhetorical forms and vocabulary. Another popular method of division came from St. Augustine, who focused more on audience response and less on subject matter (a Virgilian concern). Augustine divided literature into "majestic persuades", "temperate pleases", and "subdued teaches". Writers were encouraged to write in a way that kept in mind the speaker, subject, audience, purpose, manner, and occasion. Chaucer moves freely between all of these styles, showing favouritism to none. He not only considers the readers of his work as an audience, but the other pilgrims within the story as well, creating a multi-layered rhetoric.


title: The Canterbury Tales

text: With this, Chaucer avoids targeting any specific audience or social class of readers, focusing instead on the characters of the story and writing their tales with a skill proportional to their social status and learning. However, even the lowest characters, such as the Miller, show surprising rhetorical ability, although their subject matter is more lowbrow. Vocabulary also plays an important part, as those of the higher classes refer to a woman as a "lady", while the lower classes use the word "wenche", with no exceptions. At times the same word will mean entirely different things between classes. The word "pitee", for example, is a noble concept to the upper classes, while in the "Merchant's Tale" it refers to sexual intercourse. Again, however, tales such as the "Nun's Priest's Tale" show surprising skill with words among the lower classes of the group, while the "Knight's Tale" is at times extremely simple.


title: The Canterbury Tales

text: Chaucer uses the same meter throughout almost all of his tales, with the exception of "Sir Thopas" and his prose tales. This is a line characterised by five stressed syllables, usually alternating with unstressed syllables to produce lines usually of ten syllables, but often eleven and occasionally nine; occasionally a caesura can be identified around the middle of a line. This metre was probably inspired by French and Italian forms. Chaucer's meter would later develop into the heroic meter of the 15th and 16th centuries sometimes known as riding rhyme, and is an ancestor of iambic pentameter. Chaucer's verse is usually also characterised by couplet rhyme, but he avoided allowing couplets to become too prominent in "The Canterbury Tales", and four of the tales (the Man of Law's, Clerk's, Prioress', and Second Nun's) use rhyme royal.