title: Alfonso Cuarón

text: In 1991, Cuarón directed "Sólo con tu pareja", a sex comedy about a womanizing businessman (played by Daniel Giménez Cacho) who, after having sex with an attractive nurse, is fooled into believing he's contracted AIDS. In addition to writing, producing and directing, Cuarón co-edited the film with Luis Patlán. The film, which also starred cabaret singer Astrid Hadad and model/actress Claudia Ramírez (with whom Cuarón was linked between 1989 and 1993) was a big hit in Mexico. After this success, director Sydney Pollack hired Cuarón to direct an episode of "Fallen Angels", a series of neo-noir stories produced for the Showtime premium cable network in 1993; other directors who worked on the series included Steven Soderbergh, Jonathan Kaplan, Peter Bogdanovich, and Tom Hanks.


title: Alfonso Cuarón

text: In 1995, Cuarón released his first feature film produced in the United States, "A Little Princess", an adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic novel. Cuarón's next feature was also a literary adaptation, a modernized version of Charles Dickens's "Great Expectations" starring Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Robert De Niro.


title: Alfonso Cuarón

text: In 2001, Cuarón found himself returning to Mexico with a Spanish-speaking cast to film "Y tu mamá también", starring Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna and Maribel Verdú. It was a provocative and controversial road comedy about two sexually obsessed teenagers who take an extended road trip with an attractive married woman who is much older than them. The film's open portrayal of sexuality and frequent rude humor, as well as the politically and socially relevant asides, made the film an international hit and a major success with critics. Cuarón shared an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay with co-writer and brother Carlos Cuarón.


title: Alfonso Cuarón

text: In 2004, Cuarón directed the third film in the successful "Harry Potter" series, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban". Cuarón faced criticism at the time from some "Harry Potter" fans for his approach to the film, notably its tendency to take more creative liberties with the source material than its predecessors. However, author J. K. Rowling, who had seen and loved Cuarón's film "Y tu mamá también", said that it was her personal favorite from the series so far. Critically, the film was also better received than the first two installments, with some critics remarking its new tone and for being the first "Harry Potter" film to truly capture the essence of the novels. It has been subsequently rated by audience polls and critics as the best of the movie franchise series.


title: Alfonso Cuarón

text: In 2006, Cuarón's feature "Children of Men", an adaptation of the P. D. James novel starring Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, and Michael Caine, received wide critical acclaim including three Academy Award nominations. Cuarón himself received two nominations for his work on the film, in Best Film Editing (with Alex Rodríguez) and Best Adapted Screenplay (with several collaborators).


title: Alfonso Cuarón

text: He created the production and distribution company Esperanto Filmoj ("Esperanto Films", named because of his support for the international language Esperanto), which has credits in the films "Duck Season", "Pan's Labyrinth", and "Gravity".


title: Alfonso Cuarón

text: Cuarón also directed the controversial public service announcement "I Am Autism" for Autism Speaks that was criticized by disability rights groups for its negative portrayal of autism.


title: Alfonso Cuarón

text: In 2010, Cuarón began to develop the film "Gravity", a drama set in space. He was joined by producer David Heyman, with whom Cuarón worked on "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban". Starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, the film opened the 70th Venice International Film Festival in August. The film was then released in America in October 2013. The film became a financial success, earning 723.2 million at the box office against a budget of 130 million. The film also received many awards nominations. For the film, he received the Golden Globe Award in the category of Best Director. The film received ten Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Cuarón won for Best Directing, becoming the first Latin American to win the award, while he and Mark Sanger received the award for Best Film Editing.


title: Alfonso Cuarón

text: In 2013, Cuarón created "Believe", a science fiction/fantasy/adventure series that was broadcast as part of the 2013–14 United States network television schedule on NBC as a mid-season entry. The series was created by Cuarón for Bad Robot Productions and Warner Bros. Television. In 2014, "Time" placed him in its list of "100 Most Influential People in the World" – Pioneers.


title: Alfonso Cuarón

text: In May 2015, Cuarón was announced as the president of the jury for the 72nd Venice International Film Festival.


title: Alfonso Cuarón

text: Production began in fall 2016 for Cuarón's eighth film, "Roma", a tale of a housekeeper for a middle class Mexican family in 1970s Mexico City, based on the life of his family's longtime maid, Liboria Rodríguez. The project was produced by Cuarón, Gabriela Rodríguez and Nicolás Celis and starred Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira both of whom received Oscar nominations. The film debuted at the 75th Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Golden Lion, and was distributed to select Mexican and American theaters before its online release on Netflix. "Roma" was highly acclaimed upon release; among its accolades are two Golden Globes (Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Director for Cuarón) and three Academy Awards (Best Director, Best Foreign Language Film, and Best Cinematography for Cuarón) out of a leading ten nominations. In 2019, Cuaron signed an overall TV deal at Apple. His first TV show under an overall deal with Apple was the show "Disclaimer", which was to star Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline.


title: Alfonso Cuarón

text: Cuarón's first marriage was to Mariana Elizondo with whom he has a son, Jonás Cuarón, born in 1981. Jonás is also a film director, known for "Year of the Nail" and "Desierto". Alfonso's second marriage, from 2001 to 2008 was to Italian actress and freelance journalist Annalisa Bugliani, with whom he has two children.


title: Alfonso Cuarón

text: He has publicly shown his fascination for the Esperanto language and his support for the Esperanto movement. He called his production company Esperanto Filmoj.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: Orion is a prominent constellation located on the celestial equator and visible throughout the world. It is one of the most conspicuous and recognizable constellations in the night sky. It is named after Orion, a hunter in Greek mythology. Its brightest stars are the blue-white Rigel (Beta Orionis) and the red Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis).


title: Orion (constellation)

text: Orion is bordered by Taurus to the northwest, Eridanus to the southwest, Lepus to the south, Monoceros to the east, and Gemini to the northeast. Covering 594 square degrees, Orion ranks twenty-sixth of the 88 constellations in size. The constellation boundaries, as set by Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte in 1930, are defined by a polygon of 26 sides. In the equatorial coordinate system, the right ascension coordinates of these borders lie between and , while the declination coordinates are between and . The constellation's three-letter abbreviation, as adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1922, is "Ori".


title: Orion (constellation)

text: Orion is most visible in the evening sky from January to April, winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and summer in the Southern Hemisphere. In the tropics (less than about 8° from the equator), the constellation transits at the zenith.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: In the period May–July (summer in the Northern Hemisphere, winter in the Southern Hemisphere), Orion is in the daytime sky and thus invisible at most latitudes. However, for much of Antarctica in the Southern Hemisphere's winter months, the Sun is below the horizon even at midday. Stars (and thus Orion, but only the brightest stars) are then visible at twilight for a few hours around local noon, just in the brightest section of the sky low in the North where the Sun is just below the horizon. At the same time of day at the South Pole itself (Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station), Rigel is only 8° above the horizon, and the Belt sweeps just along it. In the Southern Hemisphere's summer months, when Orion is normally visible in the night sky, the constellation is actually not visible in Antarctica because the sun does not set at that time of year south of the Antarctic Circle.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: In countries close to the equator (e.g., Kenya, Indonesia, Colombia, Ecuador), Orion appears overhead in December around midnight and in the February evening sky.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: Orion is very useful as an aid to locating other stars. By extending the line of the Belt southeastward, Sirius (α CMa) can be found; northwestward, Aldebaran (α Tau). A line eastward across the two shoulders indicates the direction of Procyon (α CMi). A line from Rigel through Betelgeuse points to Castor and Pollux (α Gem and β Gem). Additionally, Rigel is part of the Winter Circle asterism. Sirius and Procyon, which may be located from Orion by following imaginary lines (see map), also are points in both the Winter Triangle and the Circle.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: Orion's seven brightest stars form a distinctive hourglass-shaped asterism, or pattern, in the night sky. Four stars—Rigel, Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, and Saiph—form a large roughly rectangular shape, at the center of which lies the three stars of Orion's Belt—Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. Descending from the "belt" is a smaller line of three stars, Orion's Sword (the middle of which is in fact not a star but the Orion Nebula), also known as the hunter's sword.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: Many of the stars are luminous hot blue supergiants, with the stars of the belt and sword forming the Orion OB1 association. Standing out by its red hue, Betelgeuse may nevertheless be a runaway member of the same group.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: Orion's Belt or The Belt of Orion is an asterism within the constellation. It consists of the three bright stars Zeta (Alnitak), Epsilon (Alnilam), and Delta (Mintaka). Alnitak is around 800 light years away from earth and is 100,000 times more luminous than the Sun and shines with magnitude 1.8; much of its radiation is in the ultraviolet range, which the human eye cannot see. Alnilam is approximately 2,000 light years away from Earth, shines with magnitude 1.70, and with ultraviolet light is 375,000 times more luminous than the Sun. Mintaka is 915 light years away and shines with magnitude 2.21. It is 90,000 times more luminous than the Sun and is a double star: the two orbit each other every 5.73 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, Orion's Belt is best visible in the night sky during the month of January around 9:00 pm, when it is approximately around the local meridian.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: Just southwest of Alnitak lies Sigma Orionis, a multiple star system composed of five stars that have a combined apparent magnitude of 3.7 and lying 1150 light years distant. Southwest of Mintaka lies the quadruple star Eta Orionis.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: Orion's Sword contains the Orion Nebula, the Messier 43 nebula, the Running Man Nebula, and the stars Theta Orionis, Iota Orionis, and 42 Orionis.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: Three stars comprise a small triangle that marks the head. The apex is marked by Meissa (Lambda Orionis), a hot blue giant of spectral type O8 III and apparent magnitude 3.54, which lies some 1100 light years distant. Phi-1 and Phi-2 Orionis make up the base. Also nearby is the very young star FU Orionis.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: Stretching north from Betelgeuse are the stars that make up Orion's club. Mu Orionis marks the elbow, Nu and Xi mark the handle of the club, and Chi and Chi mark the end of the club. Just east of Chi is the Mira-type variable red giant U Orionis.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: West from Bellatrix lie six stars all designated Pi Orionis (π Ori, π Ori, π Ori, π Ori, π Ori and π Ori) which make up Orion's shield.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: Around 20 October each year the Orionid meteor shower (Orionids) reaches its peak. Coming from the border with the constellation Gemini as many as 20 meteors per hour can be seen. The shower's parent body is Halley's Comet.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: Hanging from Orion's belt is his sword, consisting of the multiple stars θ1 and θ2 Orionis, called the Trapezium and the Orion Nebula (M42). This is a spectacular object that can be clearly identified with the naked eye as something other than a star. Using binoculars, its clouds of nascent stars, luminous gas, and dust can be observed. The Trapezium cluster has many newborn stars, including several brown dwarfs, all of which are at an approximate distance of 1,500 light-years. Named for the four bright stars that form a trapezoid, it is largely illuminated by the brightest stars, which are only a few hundred thousand years old. Observations by the Chandra X-ray Observatory show both the extreme temperatures of the main stars—up to 60,000 kelvins—and the star forming regions still extant in the surrounding nebula.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: M78 (NGC 2068) is a nebula in Orion. With an overall magnitude of 8.0, it is significantly dimmer than the Great Orion Nebula that lies to its south; however, it is at approximately the same distance, at 1600 light-years from Earth. It can easily be mistaken for a comet in the eyepiece of a telescope. M78 is associated with the variable star V351 Orionis, whose magnitude changes are visible in very short periods of time. Another fairly bright nebula in Orion is NGC 1999, also close to the Great Orion Nebula. It has an integrated magnitude of 10.5 and is 1500 light-years from Earth. The variable star V380 Orionis is embedded in NGC 1999.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: Another famous nebula is IC 434, the Horsehead Nebula, near ζ Orionis. It contains a dark dust cloud whose shape gives the nebula its name.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: Besides these nebulae, surveying Orion with a small telescope will reveal a wealth of interesting deep-sky objects, including M43, M78, as well as multiple stars including Iota Orionis and Sigma Orionis. A larger telescope may reveal objects such as Barnard's Loop and the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024), as well as fainter and tighter multiple stars and nebulae.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: All of these nebulae are part of the larger Orion molecular cloud complex, which is located approximately 1,500 light-years away and is hundreds of light-years across. It is one of the most intense regions of stellar formation visible within our galaxy.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: The earliest known depiction linked to the constellation of Orion is a prehistoric (Aurignacian) mammoth ivory carving found in a cave in the Ach valley in West Germany in 1979. Archaeologists estimate that it is 32,000 to 38,000 years old. The distinctive pattern of Orion is recognized in numerous cultures around the world, and many myths are associated with it. Orion is used as a symbol in the modern world.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: The Babylonian star catalogues of the Late Bronze Age name Orion ', "The Heavenly Shepherd" or "True Shepherd of Anu" – Anu being the chief god of the heavenly realms. The Babylonian constellation is sacred to Papshukal and Ninshubur, both minor gods fulfilling the role of 'messenger to the gods'. Papshukal is closely associated with the figure of a walking bird on Babylonian boundary stones, and on the star map the figure of the Rooster is located below and behind the figure of the True Shepherd—both constellations represent the herald of the gods, in his bird and human forms respectively.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: In ancient Egypt, the stars of Orion were regarded as a god, called Sah. Because Orion rises before Sirius, the star whose heliacal rising was the basis for the Solar Egyptian calendar, Sah was closely linked with Sopdet, the goddess who personified Sirius. The god Sopdu is said to be the son of Sah and Sopdet. Sah is syncretized with Osiris, while Sopdet is syncretized with Osiris' mythological wife, Isis. In the Pyramid Texts, from the 24th and 23rd centuries BC, Sah is one of many gods whose form the dead pharaoh is said to take in the afterlife.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: The Armenians identified their legendary patriarch and founder Hayk with Orion. "Hayk" is also the name of the Orion constellation in the Armenian translation of the Bible.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: The Bible mentions Orion three times, naming it "Kesil" (כסיל, literally – fool). Though, this name perhaps is etymologically connected with "Kislev", the name for the ninth month of the Hebrew calendar (i.e. November–December), which, in turn, may derive from the Hebrew root K-S-L as in the words "kesel, kisla" (כֵּסֶל, כִּסְלָה, hope, positiveness), i.e. hope for winter rains.: Job 9:9 ("He is the maker of the Bear and Orion"), Job 38:31 ("Can you loosen Orion's belt?"), and Amos 5:8 ("He who made the Pleiades and Orion").


title: Orion (constellation)

text: In ancient Aram, the constellation was known as "Nphîlā′", the "Nephilim" are said to be Orion's descendants.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: In Greek mythology, Orion was a gigantic, supernaturally strong hunter, born to Euryale, a Gorgon, and Poseidon (Neptune), god of the sea. One myth recounts Gaia's rage at Orion, who dared to say that he would kill every animal on Earth. The angry goddess tried to dispatch Orion with a scorpion. This is given as the reason that the constellations of Scorpius and Orion are never in the sky at the same time. However, Ophiuchus, the Serpent Bearer, revived Orion with an antidote. This is said to be the reason that the constellation of Ophiuchus stands midway between the Scorpion and the Hunter in the sky.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: The constellation is mentioned in Horace's "Odes" (Ode 3.27.18), Homer's "Odyssey" (Book 5, line 283) and "Iliad", and Virgil's "Aeneid" (Book 1, line 535)


title: Orion (constellation)

text: In medieval Muslim astronomy, Orion was known as "al-jabbar", "the giant". Orion's sixth brightest star, Saiph, is named from the Arabic, "saif al-jabbar", meaning "sword of the giant".


title: Orion (constellation)

text: In China, Orion was one of the 28 lunar mansions "Sieu (Xiù)" (宿). It is known as "Shen" (參), literally meaning "three", for the stars of Orion's Belt. (See Chinese constellations)


title: Orion (constellation)

text: The Chinese character 參 (pinyin shēn) originally meant the constellation Orion (); its Shang dynasty version, over three millennia old, contains at the top a representation of the three stars of Orion's belt atop a man's head (the bottom portion representing the sound of the word was added later).


title: Orion (constellation)

text: Nataraja, 'the cosmic dancer', is often interpreted as the representation of Orion. Rudra, the Rigvedic form of Shiva, is the presiding deity of Ardra nakshatra (Betelgeuse) of Hindu astrology.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: In old Hungarian tradition, "Orion" is known as (magic) Archer ("Íjász"), or Reaper ("Kaszás"). In recently rediscovered myths, he is called Nimrod (Hungarian "Nimród"), the greatest hunter, father of the twins "Hunor" and "Magor". The "π" and "o" stars (on upper right) form together the reflex bow or the lifted scythe. In other Hungarian traditions, "Orion's belt" is known as "Judge's stick" ("Bírópálca").


title: Orion (constellation)

text: In Scandinavian tradition, "Orion's belt" was known as Frigg's Distaff ("friggerock") or Freyja's distaff.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: The Finns call Orion's belt and the stars below it "Väinämöisen viikate" (Väinämöinen's scythe). Another name for the asterism of Alnilam, Alnitak and Mintaka is "Väinämöisen vyö" (Väinämöinen's Belt) and the stars "hanging" from the belt as "Kalevanmiekka" (Kaleva's sword).


title: Orion (constellation)

text: In Siberia, the Chukchi people see Orion as a hunter; an arrow he has shot is represented by Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri), with the same figure as other Western depictions.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: The Seri people of northwestern Mexico call the three stars in the belt of Orion "Hapj" (a name denoting a hunter) which consists of three stars: "Hap" (mule deer), "Haamoja" (pronghorn), and "Mojet" (bighorn sheep). "Hap" is in the middle and has been shot by the hunter; its blood has dripped onto Tiburón Island.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: The same three stars are known in Spain and most of Latin America as "Las tres Marías" (Spanish for "The Three Marys").


title: Orion (constellation)

text: In Puerto Rico, the three stars are known as the "Los Tres Reyes Magos" (Spanish for The three Wise Men).


title: Orion (constellation)

text: The Ojibwa (Chippewa) Native Americans call this constellation Kabibona'kan, the Winter Maker, as its presence in the night sky heralds winter.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: To the Lakota Native Americans, Tayamnicankhu (Orion's Belt) is the spine of a bison. The great rectangle of Orion is the bison's ribs; the Pleiades star cluster in nearby Taurus is the bison's head; and Sirius in Canis Major, known as Tayamnisinte, is its tail. Another Lakota myth mentions that the bottom half of Orion, the Constellation of the Hand, represented the arm of a chief that was ripped off by the Thunder People as a punishment from the gods for his selfishness. His daughter offered to marry the person who can retrieve his arm from the sky, so the young warrior Fallen Star (whose father was a star and whose mother was human) returned his arm and married his daughter, symbolizing harmony between the gods and humanity with the help of the younger generation. The index finger is represented by Rigel; the Orion Nebula is the thumb; the Belt of Orion is the wrist; and the star Beta Eridani is the pinky finger.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: The seven primary stars of Orion make up the Polynesian constellation Heiheionakeiki which represents a child's string figure similar to a cat's cradle.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: Precolonial Visayans referred to it as "balatik" (ballista) as it resembles a trap of the same name which fires arrows by itself and is usually used for catching pigs from the bush.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: In Māori tradition, the star Rigel (known as "Puanga" or "Puaka") is closely connected with the celebration of Matariki. The rising of Matariki (the Pleiades) and Rigel before sunrise in midwinter marks the start of the Māori year.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: The imagery of the belt and sword has found its way into popular western culture, for example in the form of the shoulder insignia of the 27th Infantry Division of the United States Army during both World Wars, probably owing to a pun on the name of the division's first commander, Major General John F. "O'Ryan".


title: Orion (constellation)

text: In artistic renderings, the surrounding constellations are sometimes related to Orion: he is depicted standing next to the river Eridanus with his two hunting dogs Canis Major and Canis Minor, fighting Taurus. He is sometimes depicted hunting Lepus the hare. He sometimes is depicted to have a lion's hide in his hand.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: There are alternative ways to visualise Orion. From the Southern Hemisphere, Orion is oriented south-upward, and the belt and sword are sometimes called the saucepan or pot in Australia and New Zealand. Orion's Belt is called "Drie Konings" (Three Kings) or the "Drie Susters" (Three Sisters) by Afrikaans speakers in South Africa and are referred to as "les Trois Rois" (the Three Kings) in Daudet's "Lettres de Mon Moulin" (1866). The appellation "Driekoningen" (the Three Kings) is also often found in 17th- and 18th-century Dutch star charts and seaman's guides. The same three stars are known in Spain, Latin America, and the Philippines as "Las Tres Marías" (The Three Marys), and as "Los Tres Reyes Magos" (The three Wise Men) in Puerto Rico.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: Even traditional depictions of Orion have varied greatly. Cicero drew Orion in a similar fashion to the modern depiction. The Hunter held an unidentified animal skin aloft in his right hand; his hand was represented by Omicron Orionis and the skin was represented by the 5 stars designated Pi Orionis. Kappa and Beta Orionis represented his left and right knees, while Eta and Lambda Leporis were his left and right feet, respectively. As in the modern depiction, Delta, Epsilon, and Zeta represented his belt. His left shoulder was represented by Alpha Orionis, and Mu Orionis made up his left arm. Lambda Orionis was his head and Gamma, his right shoulder. The depiction of Hyginus was similar to that of Cicero, though the two differed in a few important areas. Cicero's animal skin became Hyginus's shield (Omicron and Pi Orionis), and instead of an arm marked out by Mu Orionis, he holds a club (Chi Orionis). His right leg is represented by Theta Orionis and his left leg is represented by Lambda, Mu, and Epsilon Leporis. Further Western European and Arabic depictions have followed these two models.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: Orion is located on the celestial equator, but it will not always be so located due to the effects of precession of the Earth's axis. Orion lies well south of the ecliptic, and it only happens to lie on the celestial equator because the point on the ecliptic that corresponds to the June solstice is close to the border of Gemini and Taurus, to the north of Orion. Precession will eventually carry Orion further south, and by AD 14000, Orion will be far enough south that it will no longer be visible from the latitude of Great Britain.


title: Orion (constellation)

text: Further in the future, Orion's stars will gradually move away from the constellation due to proper motion. However, Orion's brightest stars all lie at a large distance from the Earth on an astronomical scale—much farther away than Sirius, for example. Orion will still be recognizable long after most of the other constellations—composed of relatively nearby stars—have distorted into new configurations, with the exception of a few of its stars eventually exploding as supernovae, for example Betelgeuse, which is predicted to explode sometime in the next million years.


title: Arcade Fire

text: Arcade Fire is a Canadian indie rock band, consisting of husband and wife Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, alongside Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury and Jeremy Gara. The band's current touring line-up also includes former core member Sarah Neufeld and multi-instrumentalists Paul Beaubrun, Dan Boeckner and Eric Heigle. Each of the band's studio albums features contributions from composer and violinist Owen Pallett.


title: Arcade Fire

text: Founded in 2001 by friends and classmates Butler and Josh Deu, the band came to prominence in 2004 with the release of their critically acclaimed debut album "Funeral". Their second studio album, "Neon Bible", won them the 2008 Meteor Music Award for Best International Album and the 2008 Juno Award for Alternative Album of the Year. Their third studio album, "The Suburbs", was released in 2010 to critical acclaim and commercial success. It received many accolades, including the 2011 Grammy for Album of the Year, the 2011 Juno Award for Album of the Year and the 2011 Brit Award for Best International Album. In 2013, Arcade Fire released their fourth album, "Reflektor", and scored the feature film "Her", for which band members Will Butler and Owen Pallett were nominated in the Best Original Score category at the 86th Academy Awards. In 2017, the band released their fifth studio album "Everything Now", which was succeeded by their sixth studio album "We" in 2022.


title: Arcade Fire

text: All the band's studio albums have received nominations for Best Alternative Music Album at the Grammys. "Funeral" is widely considered by music critics to be one of the greatest albums of the 2000s. The band's work has also been named three times as a shortlist nominee for the Polaris Music Prize: in 2007 for "Neon Bible", in 2011 for "The Suburbs" and in 2014 for "Reflektor".


title: Arcade Fire

text: The band has been described as indie rock, art rock, dance-rock, and baroque pop. They play guitar, drums, bass guitar, piano, violin, viola, cello, double bass, xylophone, glockenspiel, keyboard, synthesizer, French horn, accordion, harp, mandolin and hurdy-gurdy, and take most of these instruments on tour; the multi-instrumentalist band members switch duties throughout shows.


title: Arcade Fire

text: Win Butler and Josh Deu founded Arcade Fire in Montreal around 2001, having first met at Phillips Exeter Academy as high school students. Butler and Deu's musical ideas began to develop and the first incarnation of the band was born while they were attending McGill University and Concordia University, respectively. The duo began rehearsing their material at McGill where they met Régine Chassagne, a music student whom they asked to join them. Deu recalls, "Win and I played guitar. Everyone played guitar. We had no music to show her, but she ended up saying yes to joining us, and I don't know why. Maybe there was a little spark with Win." Halfway through 2001, the band consisted of Butler, Chassagne, Deu, multi-instrumentalist Tim Kile (later of Wild Light), bassist Myles Broscoe (later of Les Angles Morts, Crystal Clyffs, and AIDS Wolf), guitarist/drummer Dane Mills (later of Crackpot) and multi-instrumentalist Brendan Reed (later of Les Angles Morts and founding member of Clues), who lived with Butler and Chassagne in Montreal's Mile End neighbourhood at the time and was a collaborator with them on song-writing and arrangement (2001–2003). During a party in 2001, the band recorded a live Christmas album, "A Very Arcade Xmas", which they are rumored to have hand-distributed to their friends as a Christmas gift.


title: Arcade Fire

text: The initial Montreal structure of the band began to dissolve in the summer of 2002, when they travelled to Butler's family farm on Mount Desert Island, Maine to record their self-titled EP. Tension between Butler and bassist Myles Broscoe led the latter to exit the band following the recording session. Richard Reed Parry, who had been enlisted to help the band record, began to collaborate with them during the sessions and would go on to join the band shortly afterwards. Around the same time, Joshua Deu left the band to resume his studies; he continued to collaborate on the visual aspects of the band. In the winter of 2003, the band celebrated the release of its EP with a show at Montreal's Casa del Popolo. Before a crowd packed beyond capacity, the band's set ended (in the middle of an encore) with an argument between Butler and Reed, who quit the band on-stage. Mills told gathered friends in the crowd immediately thereafter that he considered the band to have broken up, as such resigning from the band as well. Following the on-stage implosion, Butler's brother Will Butler (subject of the early Arcade Fire song "William Pierce Butler") and Tim Kingsbury were brought in to replace Reed and Mills so that the band could continue, and they set out to promote the self-titled EP. The eponymous release (often referred to by fans as the "Us Kids Know EP") was sold at early shows. After the band achieved fame, the EP was subsequently remastered and given a full release.


title: Arcade Fire

text: Howard Bilerman joined the band on drums in the summer of 2003, and they began to play shows together, and record the album that would end up becoming "Funeral". The promise shown by the new band in their early live shows allowed them to land a record contract with the independent record label, Merge Records, before the end of their first year together.


title: Arcade Fire

text: When asked about the rumour that the band's name refers to a fire in an arcade, Win Butler replied: "It's not a rumour, it's based on a story that someone told me. It's not an actual event, but one that I took to be real. I would say that it's probably something that the kid made up, but at the time I believed him."


title: Arcade Fire

text: "Funeral" was released in September 2004 in Canada and February 2005 in Great Britain. The title of the debut album referred to the deaths of several relatives of band members (prominently the Butlers' grandfather, composer/arranger Alvino Rey) during its recording. These events created a somber atmosphere that influenced songs such as "Une année sans lumière" ("A Year Without Light"), "In the Backseat", and "Haïti", Chassagne's elegy to her homeland.


title: Arcade Fire

text: It received widespread critical acclaim and topped many year-end and decade-end lists. According to the website Metacritic, the album had the second most appearances on end-of-decade Top 10 lists, only behind Radiohead's "Kid A". In the updated version of "Rolling Stone"'s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, it was ranked at #151.


title: Arcade Fire

text: The album was critically and commercially acclaimed. It appeared on many top ten album lists for 2004 and 2005 (due to delayed international releases), with Pitchfork, "Filter", No Ripcord, and The MTV2 2005 Review crowning it the album of the year. "NME" named "Funeral" second in their list of 2005's best albums. NME also named "Rebellion (Lies)" the second best track.


title: Arcade Fire

text: By November 2005, "Funeral" had gone gold in both Canada and the UK, and sold over half a million copies worldwide, a very large number for an independent release with minimal television or radio exposure. The album became Merge Records' first in the "Billboard" 200 chart and the label's biggest selling album to date, surpassing Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea".


title: Arcade Fire

text: The band booked small clubs for their 2004 tour, but growing interest forced many venue changes, far beyond the band's expectations, and the tour continued into mid-2005 throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, the SummerSonic Festival in Japan, and the Hillside Festival in Guelph. Taking much of the summer of 2005 off, the band made key festival appearances at the Halifax Pop Explosion, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the Sasquatch! Music Festival, Lollapalooza, Vegoose Festival, Reading and Leeds Festival in the UK, Electric Picnic in Ireland and the Lowlands Festival in the Netherlands.


title: Arcade Fire

text: Arcade Fire was featured on the April 4, 2005 cover of "Time"'s Canadian edition. On May 1, 2005, the band performed at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. In May 2005, the band signed a short-term publishing contract with EMI for "Funeral", and in June the band released a new single, "Cold Wind", on "". The BBC used the track "Wake Up" on an advertisement for their autumn 2005 season, and the tracks "Rebellion (Lies)" and "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" on adverts in January 2006. On September 9, 2005, the band appeared on the British/US television special "Fashion Rocks", on which David Bowie joined them for "Wake Up". This recording, as well as recordings of the band's collaboration on Bowie's "Life on Mars" and "Five Years", were made available on the iTunes Music Store in a virtual live EP. The same trip to New York City took them to the "Late Show with David Letterman" and a concert in Central Park. The Central Park show featured a surprise appearance by Bowie. On September 11, 2005, Arcade Fire appeared on the long-running BBC music series "Top of the Pops", performing "Rebellion (Lies)". The band also performed to a TV audience in Paris for Canal+, and the show was later screened on the British television's Channel 4. The band scored two number one songs on MTV2 (UK) "NME" Chart Show, with "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" and a three-week run with "Wake Up". This success followed Rough Trade Records's last-minute decision to release "Wake Up" only on 7"


title: Arcade Fire

text: "Wake Up" was played immediately before the Irish rock group U2 started their concerts on their 2005–06 Vertigo Tour; Arcade Fire subsequently opened three shows for that tour, and at the third in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, appeared on stage during U2's encore to join in a cover of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart". Additionally, "The Dan Patrick Show", a daily national sports talk show in the US, plays the song as a lead-out every Friday to signify the end of their show. The song was also heard numerous times during the Super Bowl telecast on February 5, 2010.


title: Arcade Fire

text: "Funeral" and the single "Cold Wind" were nominated for Grammys in the Best Alternative Rock Album and Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media categories ("Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends"), respectively. On April 2, 2006, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Arcade Fire received the Juno Award for Songwriters Of The Year for three songs from "Funeral": "Wake Up", "Rebellion (Lies)", and "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)". The band was nominated for three BRIT Awards: Best International Group, Best International Album, and Best International Breakthrough Act.


title: Arcade Fire

text: Arcade Fire made an appearance on the BBC show "Later with Jools Holland" on May 12, 2005, performing "Power Out" and "Rebellion (Lies)". On December 27, 2005, "Funeral" was ranked No.1 on MTV2's "50 Greatest Albums of the Year" in the United Kingdom. On October 22, 2007, "Funeral" was ranked No.8 in Bob Mersereau's book "The Top 100 Canadian Albums". In late 2009, Pitchfork ranked the album No.2 in their list of the top 200 albums of the 2000s, behind Radiohead's "Kid A".


title: Arcade Fire

text: During the downtime between "Funeral" and the beginning of recording sessions for "Neon Bible", the band purchased a defunct church in the small Quebec town of Farnham, approximately southeast of Montreal, and spent the early part of 2006 converting it into a recording studio.


title: Arcade Fire

text: The first track officially released from "Neon Bible" was "Intervention" in December 2006 on iTunes. Proceeds from this release were dedicated to Partners in Health. An error resulted in a second song, "Black Wave/Bad Vibrations", appearing on iTunes for a short time. The album was leaked to peer-to-peer networks on January 26, 2007, and was officially released March 5, 2007 in the UK and March 6 in North America. "Neon Bible" premiered at number 1 on the Canadian Albums Chart and the Irish Album Charts, and number 2 on the US "Billboard" Top 200 charts and the UK Top 40 Album Chart for the week of March 12, 2007. The album was also number 1 on the Rock and Indie album charts. The first proper single, "Black Mirror", reached the No. 1 spot on CBC Radio 3's "R3-30" chart for five consecutive weeks, from March 22 to April 19, 2007, and was the first single by any band ever to spend more than two weeks atop the chart. The album gained much critical acclaim (even being mooted as a strong contender for album of the year), and because of its success saw the band proclaimed the most exciting act on the earth by British music magazine "Q". "Paste" voted it one of the five best albums of 2007. "Trouser Press" writer Jason Reeher ranked "Neon Bible" "among the best indie rock recordings of all time".


title: Arcade Fire

text: Arcade Fire made their first appearance on "Saturday Night Live" on February 24, 2007 (Episode 618), performing "Intervention" and "Keep the Car Running". Owen Pallett was not present as he was recording for his solo project. During the performance, one of Win Butler's guitar strings broke, prompting him to rip the strings from his acoustic guitar and smash it on the floor until it shattered. On this guitar, "sak vide pa kanpe" was written in duct tape across the front. A Haitian proverb meaning "An empty sack cannot stand up" in Creole, this may have been a reference to the extreme poverty of Haiti, the country of origin of Régine Chassagne.


title: Arcade Fire

text: On July 10, 2007, "Neon Bible" was named to the shortlist for the 2007 Polaris Music Prize. Patrick Watson was announced as the winner at a gala ceremony on September 24, 2007. However, due to the band's preference not to participate in compilation albums, they were the only nominee not to have a track on the Polaris promotional compilation 2007 Polaris Music Prize. Some media initially reported that the Polaris committee had snubbed the band by excluding them, leading the band and the committee to issue a joint press release confirming that the band chose not to have a track included on the album.


title: Arcade Fire

text: The "Neon Bible" tour continued into September 2007 with 25+ dates scheduled in North America and Europe through mid-November. In Paris the band did a Take-Away Show video session shot by Vincent Moon. The band toured Australia and New Zealand for the first time in early 2008 as part of the 2008 Big Day Out festival. On October 14, 2007, Win Butler and Régine Chassagne made a surprise guest appearance at a Bruce Springsteen show in Ottawa, playing "State Trooper" and "Keep the Car Running". The band committed to give Partners in Health $1.00, £1.00, or €1.00 of every ticket sold on its 2008 European and North American tours.


title: Arcade Fire

text: Arcade Fire further helped PIH, when it recorded "Lenin" on Red Hot Organization's latest album, "Dark Was the Night". Sales from DWTN generated over $850,000 in money donated to AIDS related charities—$300,000 of which was given to PIH on Arcade Fire's behalf.


title: Arcade Fire

text: In February 2008, Win Butler announced on the band's journal that the "Neon Bible" tour had come to an end, after one year of touring and a total of 122 shows (including 33 festivals) in 75 cities and 19 countries.


title: Arcade Fire

text: Critics met the self-produced "Neon Bible" with acclaim. Publications like "NME" and "IGN" praised the album for its grandiose nature.


title: Arcade Fire

text: Win Butler has been a vocal supporter of Barack Obama since the end of the New Hampshire Primary. Arcade Fire performed two free concerts for Obama in Cleveland and Nelsonville, Ohio on March 2, 2008 and March 3, 2008 before the state's March 4 primary. The band, with Superchunk, performed another two free concerts for Obama on May 1 in Greensboro, North Carolina, and on May 2 in Carrboro, North Carolina before the state's May 6 primary. On January 21, 2009, Arcade Fire and Jay-Z were the musical guests at the Obama Campaign Staff Ball at the DC Armory, at Obama's request. Butler thanked President Obama for his stated intent to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, and repeatedly thanked the Obama staffers for their work during the election.


title: Arcade Fire

text: The band was rumoured to be working with producer Markus Dravs on the soundtrack for the Richard Kelly film "The Box". Win Butler denied the claims, but stated that he and Owen Pallett "may do an instrumental piece or two" for the film.


title: Arcade Fire

text: In December 2008, "Pitchfork" reported the band set up the website miroir-noir.com to foreshadow the release of a concert film with the same title, reporting, "Miroir Noir will feature live footage from the Neon Bible tour." The film was directed by Vincent Morisset. It was made available to pre-order on December 15, 2008 with the digital version available to download immediately, and the DVD shipping March 31, 2009.


title: Arcade Fire

text: A re-recorded version of the band's song "Wake Up" from their 2004 debut album, "Funeral", was used for the trailer of the Spike Jonze film "Where the Wild Things Are", which was released in October 2009. The song "Wake Up" has also become popular on sports radio talk shows in the US In 2009, two nationally syndicated shows—"The Dan Patrick Show" and "The Petros and Money Show"—frequently used the song as "bumper" music. The National Football League featured this recording in commercials throughout the broadcast of the 2010 Super Bowl. The band donated the proceeds from licensing the song to the NFL to the charity Partners In Health.


title: Arcade Fire

text: On May 27, 2010, it was announced that a new double-sided 12" single would be released the same day as the full album, called "The Suburbs", on August 2 in the UK and on August 3 in the US and Canada thanks to Merge Records. The album is produced by Markus Dravs, who had worked with the band on their previous album, 2007's "Neon Bible," and was engineered by Marcus Paquin, who has also previously worked with the band. A track-by-track review ahead of "The Suburbs" release by The Quietus website said, "The progression is similar to the one William Blake takes us through in "Songs of Innocence and of Experience" that suggests forward momentum and maturity." The album was released with eight different covers.


title: Arcade Fire

text: The first show announced was Oxegen 2010 which took place in Ireland in July. The band announced that they would play songs from the new album in their headline performance at the Reading and Leeds Festivals in August 2010, with Win Butler noting, "We're really looking forward to playing the new songs live... [it's] like an inventor emerging from his basement after a year's work."


title: Arcade Fire

text: In July 2010, Arcade Fire announced they would be broadcasting their August 5 concert at Madison Square Garden live via YouTube. They later announced the video would be directed by Terry Gilliam. "The Suburbs" was released worldwide at the start of August 2010 to extensive critical acclaim comparable to "Funeral" and "Neon Bible". During the 2010 tour, Arcade Fire gave a tribute to Jay Reatard performing the cover of "Oh, It's Such a Shame". Win Butler confessed to Zane Lowe that the band wanted Jay Reatard to support the band on this tour, but he had died. "The Suburbs" went on to debut at number one in the US (on the Billboard 200), selling 156,000 units in its first week. It was also number one in the UK and Canada.


title: Arcade Fire

text: In August 2010, Arcade Fire and Google released an interactive music video, written and directed by Chris Milk and produced by B-Reel, which allows the viewer to enter the address where they grew up and the video is then "geopersonalised". This video utilizes the band's song "We Used to Wait" from "The Suburbs", and showcases capabilities of HTML5 and Google's Chrome browser. On November 13, 2010, Arcade Fire made their second appearance on "Saturday Night Live", performing "We Used to Wait" and "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)".


title: Arcade Fire

text: The album debuted at No. 1 on the Irish Albums Chart, the UK Albums Chart, the US "Billboard" 200 chart, and the Canadian Albums Chart. It won Album of the Year at the 2011 Grammy Awards, Best International Album at the 2011 BRIT Awards, Album of the Year at the 2011 Juno Awards, and the 2011 Polaris Music Prize for best Canadian album. Two weeks after winning Grammy's Album of the Year, the album jumped from No. 52 to No. 12 on the "Billboard" 200, the album's highest ranking since August 2010.


title: Arcade Fire

text: In a nod to the Butlers' maternal grandfather, Alvino Rey, who was an amateur radio operator, the logo used by the band from this time was a variation of that used by the American Radio Relay League. Also, when playing the single "We Used to Wait" live, the background video screen features a radio exchange between Rey and a Canadian operator having Call Sign VE3YV. The video also features many other amateur radio artifacts.


title: Arcade Fire

text: Arcade Fire performed at the 53rd Grammy Awards in February 2011. The band was nominated for Grammy Awards in three categories: Album of the Year, Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, and Best Alternative Music Album (for" The Suburbs"). Out of the three nominations, they won the Grammy for Album of the Year, their second time to be nominated for the award.


title: Arcade Fire

text: At the 2011 BRIT Awards, "The Suburbs" won Best International Album, and Arcade Fire won the Award for Best International Group.


title: Arcade Fire

text: In March 2011, Arcade Fire was honoured at the Juno Awards of 2011. They won Group of the Year and Songwriter of the Year for "Ready to Start", "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)", and "We Used to Wait", all off "The Suburbs". "The Suburbs" also won Album of the Year and Alternative Album of the Year.


title: Arcade Fire

text: On April 19, 2011, it was announced that Arcade Fire would release a deluxe edition of their album "The Suburbs" featuring the short film "Scenes from the Suburbs", by director Spike Jonze, as well as two new tracks, "Culture War" and "Speaking in Tongues" featuring David Byrne. "Scenes from the Suburbs", which debuted at the Berlin International Film Festival 2011, has a running time of 30 minutes. The film screened at the SXSW Film Festival 2011 and saw its online premiere on MUBI on June 27, 2011. Writing for the Canadian Press, Nick Patch called the film "a sci-fi puzzler that seems to blend the paranoia of Terry Gilliam films with the nostalgia of classic Steven Spielberg flicks."


title: Arcade Fire

text: On June 16, the album was named as a longlisted nominee (one of 40) for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize. On July 6, the album was named as a shortlisted (one of 10) nominee for the 2011 award. On September 20, 2011, they were awarded the Polaris Prize.


title: Arcade Fire

text: On May 19, 2012, Arcade Fire (minus members Will and Tim) made their third appearance on "Saturday Night Live", playing as a backup band for musical guest and host Mick Jagger. The band performed "The Last Time" with Jagger, and participated in Kristen Wiig's farewell skit, playing "She's a Rainbow" into "Ruby Tuesday". The band wore "carrés rouges" (red squares) to show support for the 2012 Quebec student protests.


title: Arcade Fire

text: Arcade Fire recorded a song for "The Hunger Games" soundtrack (""), called "Abraham's Daughter". The song is featured in the movie's end credits. The soundtrack was released on March 20, 2012, debuting at number one on the "Billboard" 200. It sold more than 175,000 copies in its first week according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's the first theatrical film soundtrack to top the chart since Michael Jackson's "This Is It" debuted at No. 1 on the list. It is also only the 16th soundtrack to debut at No. 1 in the history of the Billboard 200 chart (those soundtracks include film, television, and straight-to-video efforts).


title: Arcade Fire

text: Arcade Fire also contributed to the movie's original score, "The Hunger Games: Original Motion Picture Score". The group composed the grand, fascistic-inspired, ominous Panem national anthem, entitled "Horn of Plenty", an important and signature leitmotif appearing throughout the film. "We were interested in making music that would be more integral in the movie, just as a mental exercise," Butler, who co-wrote the song with Chassagne, explained. "And there's an anthem that runs throughout the books, the national anthem of the fascist Capitol. So as a thought experiment, we tried to write what that might sound like. It's like the Capitol's idea of itself, basically." He further added that "it's not a pop song or anything. More of an anthem that could be playing at a big sporting event like the [Hunger] Games. So we did a structure for that, and then James Newton Howard made a movie-score version of it that happens in several places in the film." Arcade Fire's Panem national anthem has received strong reviews. According to "Spin Mobile", "'Horn of Plenty' sounds both exactly like Arcade Fire and exactly like a futuristic anthem."


title: Arcade Fire

text: Arcade Fire and Mercury Records confirmed that they would release a fourth album in late 2013. In December 2012, the band's manager Scott Rodger confirmed that Arcade Fire was in the studio working with regular producer of the band Markus Dravs and James Murphy, frontman of LCD Soundsystem. The official Arcade Fire pre-order website set the release date on October 28, 2013.


title: Arcade Fire

text: The band announced on January 18, 2013 that they were selling the church they had been using as a studio due to a collapsed roof. Throughout 2013, the band worked on the album in several different recording studios – including Murphy's DFA Records studio in New York City. On June 22, 2013, "Rolling Stone" reported that new material from the album would be released on September 9, 2013. On July 12, the band announced via a reply on Twitter that their new album would be released on October 29.


title: Arcade Fire

text: Arcade Fire members Will Butler and Owen Pallett received a nomination for Best Original Score at the 86th Academy Awards for their original score of Spike Jonze's 2013 science-fiction romance film "Her". Speculation emerged in August that the album would be named "Reflektor" after images began circulating of street art using the name. These images were collected on an Instagram account and later uploads noted the date of September 9 and time of 9 P.M. Arcade Fire confirmed their connection to the campaign with a billboard put up in New York City on August 26, 2013. A week later, the band released a 15-second music clip on Spotify titled "9pm 9/9" under the album name "Reflektor".


title: Arcade Fire

text: English rock musician David Bowie contributed to backing vocals on the title song, "Reflektor" after praising the song's quality in fall 2013. In September 2013, Arcade Fire released a version of the 1980 hit single "Games Without Frontiers" for the Peter Gabriel tribute album "And I'll Scratch Yours". Upon its release, "Reflektor" received positive reviews from music critics and had a successful commercial performance. The album was recognized as one of The 100 Best Albums of the Decade So Far, a list published by "Pitchfork" in August 2014.


title: Arcade Fire

text: Arcade Fire were the musical guest on the 39th-season premiere of "Saturday Night Live" on September 28, 2013. The episode drew six million viewers. They also appeared in a half hour special on NBC, "Arcade Fire in Here Comes the Night Time", that aired immediately after "SNL". The special featured cameo appearances by Ben Stiller, Bono, Bill Hader, Zach Galifianakis, Rainn Wilson, Aziz Ansari, Eric Wareheim, and Michael Cera. The concert footage was filmed at the band's surprise September 9 appearance at Montreal's Club Salsathèque. Arcade Fire performed live at the YouTube Music Awards on November 3, 2013. The performance featured an experimental "live video" directed by "Her" writer and director Spike Jonze, and actress Greta Gerwig. The band was nominated for a Satellite Award for Best Original Score for "Her". They were also nominated for a Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Music Score. The band headlined the 2014 Glastonbury Festival on June 27.


title: Arcade Fire

text: At the 2014 Juno Awards, "Reflektor" won Album of the Year and Alternative Album of the Year. The album was also a shortlisted nominee for the 2014 Polaris Music Prize. In 2015, Arcade Fire was the recipient of the International Achievement Award at the SOCAN Awards held in Montreal.


title: Arcade Fire

text: A documentary film about the making of the album, called "The Reflektor Tapes", was released on September 24, 2015 and was shown at the 2015 Toronto Film Festival. The following day, a deluxe edition of the album containing original recordings and five unreleased songs was released. The documentary was directed by Kahlil Joseph, winner of the 2013 Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Short Films.


title: Arcade Fire

text: On May 25, 2016, Win Butler and Régine Chassagne performed a surprise set outside the Louvre which included a new song. The pair were invited by the French street artist JR to DJ at the launch of his new exhibition titled "JR Au Louvre", but the two decided to set up drums and keyboards in the Tuileries gardens.


title: Arcade Fire

text: On June 17, Will Butler hosted a Reddit AMA, where he answered fan questions about the next Arcade Fire album. He stated that the new record might be released in spring 2017 and that the band had 'no definite schedule though. It'll be done when it's done.' On July 5, the band played their first complete full-band concert in two years in Barcelona, Spain as a warm up for their upcoming summer festival dates in Canada, Portugal, Spain and USA. On July 19, Tim Kingsbury told CBC that the band's upcoming fifth album would be out in 2017. On January 19, 2017, the band released a new single to coincide with Donald Trump's presidential inauguration entitled "I Give You Power". The song featured guest vocals from singer Mavis Staples. The proceeds were donated to the American Civil Liberties Union.


title: Arcade Fire

text: Arcade Fire signed a two album recording contract with Columbia Records in May 2017. On May 31, the band released a new single "Everything Now" on a limited edition 12" vinyl at the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona. Arcade Fire would also perform at the festival in early June 2017. A day later, Arcade Fire announced their fifth studio album "Everything Now", which was released on July 28, 2017, and released a music video for "Everything Now". In July 2017, "Everything Now" became Arcade Fire's first single to reach number one on a Billboard chart, reaching number one on the Adult Alternative Songs airplay chart. In October 2017, long-time manager Scott Rodger parted ways with the band.


title: Arcade Fire

text: After releasing two teasers on their social media pages a few days before, on March 12, 2018, the band announced a short film, directed by David Wilson called "Money + Love", containing two of their songs "Put Your Money On Me" and "We Don't Deserve Love", and being released on March 15. On March 17, Arcade Fire were featured as the musical guest on "Saturday Night Live" for a fifth time, performing "Creature Comfort" and "Put Your Money On Me". For the 2019 Disney film, "Dumbo", Arcade Fire performs an end-credits version of "Baby Mine", by Frank Churchill and Ned Washington, which was released as a single on March 11, 2019.


title: Arcade Fire

text: On October 21, 2020, Butler was interviewed for the Broken Record podcast, where he commented about Arcade Fire's sixth album. The band had been writing for a year before the COVID-19 lockdown. During lockdown, Butler kept working and wrote "two or three albums". In April 2020, Butler shared some snippets of new material in the social networks. On April 14, 2021, the band released a 45-minute instrumental piece, entitled “Memories of the Age of Anxiety” on the meditation application Headspace.


title: Arcade Fire

text: In March 2022, fans received postcards marked with the band's logo; the postcards included the note "We missed you", musical notations, as well as an image of an eye with the word "Unsubscribe" written below. Those same images began to appear in signage around London as well as on the band's social media pages, indicating the earliest signs of a new album. On March 14, the band announced a new song titled "The Lightning I, II" would be released on March 17. That same day, the band played a concert benefiting the Plus 1 Ukraine relief fund at the Toulouse Theatre in New Orleans, marking their first full-band performance in over two years. They also performed at Bowery Ballroom in New York City on March 18 and 19, benefitting the same organization. Tickets for all three shows were sold on a "pay what you can" basis.


title: Arcade Fire

text: On March 17, 2022, Arcade Fire announced that the album would be titled "We" and be released on May 6, 2022. Later that week, Will Butler announced he had amicably left the band in 2021 shortly after the completion of "We".


title: Arcade Fire

text: Following the release of "We" on May 6, 2022, Arcade Fire announced the group’s first world tour since 2018, starting in August 2022. They again appeared on "Saturday Night Live" on May 7, 2022, playing "Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)", "The Lightning I, II", and "End of The Empire II" over the closing credits. They ended the Mother's Day performance with Win Butler stating “A woman’s right to choose forever and ever and ever, amen.”


title: Arcade Fire

text: On August 27, 2022, Win Butler was accused by four people of several instances of sexual misconduct between 2016 and 2020, including sexual assault, unwanted explicit texts, and pursuing relationships with much younger fans. Butler and Chassagne denied the allegations and said all the encounters had been consensual. A few days later, Canadian artist Feist announced that she and her band would be dropping out as the opening act of Arcade Fire's European tour due to the allegations, having donated proceeds from the two shows she had already played to a local women's aid organization in Dublin.


title: Arcade Fire

text: Because Régine Chassagne is of Haitian descent, Arcade Fire continuously works to support Haitian people through raising awareness of the struggles this country currently faces, as well as the history, specifically the regime of François Duvalier in which 30,000 to 60,000 Haitians were murdered. This time in history is highlighted in Arcade Fire's song "Haiti".


title: Memory (2022 film)

text: Memory is a 2022 American action thriller film directed by Martin Campbell from a screenplay by Dario Scardapane. It is based on the novel "De Zaak Alzheimer" by Jef Geeraerts and is a remake of the novel's previous adaptation, the Belgian film "The Alzheimer Case". The film stars Liam Neeson as a brooding hitman with early dementia who must go on the run after declining a contract on a young girl; Guy Pearce, Monica Bellucci, Harold Torres, Taj Atwal and Ray Fearon also star.


title: Memory (2022 film)

text: "Memory" was theatrically released in the United States on April 29, 2022 by Open Road Films, and received mostly negative reviews from critics.


title: Memory (2022 film)

text: Alex Lewis is a contract killer living in Mexico who suffers from early onset Alzheimer's and works for Davana Sealman. He is assigned to kill a man in El Paso, Texas, where he grew up and where his brother lives in residence at a nursing home due to severe Alzheimer's disease. The target of the hit is Ellis Van Camp, a builder for the Texas Central Processing Facility. Meanwhile, Vincent Serra of the FBI's Child Exploitation Task Force is undercover in El Paso trying to arrest "Papa Leon," a sex trafficker. Vincent kills Papa Leon after the latter takes his daughter Beatriz hostage during the sting operation. Beatriz is taken to the Processing Facility, where she had been held previously, before ending up at a group home. Vincent is frustrated that his domestic investigations into trafficking are frequently foiled.


title: Memory (2022 film)

text: Alex kills Ellis and steals a flash drive from his safe. He finds out his second target is Beatriz, but after breaking into the group home, refuses to kill her as he believes children are "off limits." He threatens William Borden, Davana's lawyer, asking him to cancel the contract on Beatriz. Instead, she is killed by another hitman, Mauricio. The next morning Alex wakes in a hotel room after a one-night stand and sees news of Beatriz's murder. He realizes he is in danger and tells Maya, the woman he is with, to stay in the room before heading for the parking garage. He and Mauricio get into a shootout, during which Maya is killed as she had followed Alex to return his forgotten Alzheimer pills. Alex kills Mauricio and burns both bodies inside Mauricio's car.


title: Memory (2022 film)

text: Alex retreats to a former bakery once owned by his late father where he reviews the stolen flash drive and finds footage of Davana's son, Randy, sexually assaulting Beatriz. To avenge Beatriz, he kills Borden, which causes Randy to panic. Davana tells her son to escape, but he first throws a party on his yacht. Vincent and his team, Mexican police detective Hugo Marquez, and Special Agent Linda Amistead, are investigating the Van Camp murder and realize that the recent crimes are connected because Van Camp and Borden were shot with bullets from the same silenced pistol. They find out that Randy is the owner of the Processing facility, Van Camp was the builder, and Borden was Randy's lawyer, realizing that Randy is likely next.


title: Memory (2022 film)

text: The FBI arrive at the yacht party to save Randy, but Alex kills him first. Outside, he is cornered by Vincent and Marquez but escapes despite Marquez shooting him. Alex recovers inside the bakery but his Alzheimer symptoms are worsening. Narrowly avoiding an FBI raid, Alex infiltrates Davana's penthouse which is heavily guarded by corrupt El Paso police. He shoots his way past several police officers and reaches Davana but forgets that he had removed the firing pin from his pistol and is knocked out by Davana's henchman, Danny Mora. Mora brings him in alive to interrogate him about the flash drive but another officer tells Mora that Alex needs to be taken to the hospital.


title: Memory (2022 film)

text: Vincent, Hugo, and Linda receive a package mailed by Alex containing the flash drive. They find Alex under police custody in the hospital where he tells them that he has evidence of Davana threatening Van Camp but cannot remember where he placed the recording. Davana blackmails her personal doctor into killing Alex, but Alex apprehends him and takes him hostage. The police arrive on scene and mistakenly shoot the hostage, but Alex makes it inside Vincent's car, telling him Davana wishes to bury this (spelling "bury" as "b-e-r-y") before stepping out and being shot dead. Vincent later realizes "b-e-r-y" were the remaining four letters of the sign on the outside the bakery where Alex hid. He finds the recording of Davana threatening Ellis, but is told by the district attorney that the tape is not enough to prosecute. Vincent is told to take some time off. Soon after, Marquez kills Davana by slitting her throat; Vincent and Linda see the news report of her death at a bar. Vincent realizes that Linda took him out to give him an alibi.


title: Memory (2022 film)

text: In February 2020, it was announced that Liam Neeson will play an expert assassin with a reputation for discreet precision in "Memory", an action thriller film directed by Martin Campbell. In April 2021, principal photography commenced in Bulgaria with Guy Pearce, Monica Bellucci, Harold Torres, Taj Atwal, and Ray Fearon joining the cast. The project is a joint-venture production between Briarcliff Entertainment, Open Road Films, Black Bear Pictures, Welle Entertainment, Saville Productions, and Arthur Sarkissian Productions. Rupert Parkes, who previously worked with Campbell on "The Protege", composed the film's score.


title: Memory (2022 film)

text: "Memory" was released in the United States by Open Road Films and Briarcliff Entertainment on April 29, 2022.


title: Memory (2022 film)

text: "Memory" grossed $7.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $6.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $14 million.


title: Memory (2022 film)

text: In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross between $2–5 million from 2,555 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $1.1 million on its first day and went on to debut to $3.1 million, finishing eighth at the box office. Men made up 51% of the audience during its opening, with those above the age of 25 comprising 84% of ticket sales and those above 45 comprising 46%. The ethnic breakdown of the audience showed that 49% were Caucasian, 20% Hispanic and Latino Americans, 20% African American, and 11% Asian or other. The film earned $1.4 million in its second weekend before dropping out of the box office top ten in its third with $450,038.


title: Memory (2022 film)

text: Audiences polled by PostTrak gave it a 66% positive score, with 49% saying they would definitely recommend it.


title: Impractical Jokers

text: Impractical Jokers is an American hidden camera reality show with improvisational elements. Produced by NorthSouth Productions, "Impractical Jokers" premiered on truTV on December 15, 2011 starring the members of The Tenderloins: James "Murr" Murray, Brian "Q" Quinn, Sal Vulcano, and Joe Gatto (until his departure partway through season nine after 17 episodes into the season). It also occasionally airs on TBS.


title: Impractical Jokers

text: "Impractical Jokers" ninth season premiered on February 4, 2021. The series has been renewed for a 26-episode tenth season featuring a rotating group of guest comedians instead of Gatto. began production in April 2018 and was theatrically released on February 21, 2020.


title: Impractical Jokers

text: A typical episode is a series of competitive games of dares in which each cast member, or "joker", receives either a thumbs up or thumbs down for his performance. At the climax, the joker who tallied the most thumbs down is the loser and is thereby subjected to a "punishment". The games are contrived scenarios in which one joker is challenged to embarrass himself by engaging with unwitting members of the general public, receiving commands from the other jokers who are orchestrating and surveying the bizarre scenario from behind the scenes with covert surveillance equipment. The most common premise is that a joker will immediately lose a challenge if he refuses to follow any instructions given by the other three. Some games involve all four jokers competing at once to be the first to reach a stated goal.


title: Impractical Jokers

text: The intro describes the show as "scenes of graphic stupidity among (four) lifelong friends who compete to embarrass each other." The games are loosely structured, relying heavily upon improvisation. The show's comedic themes range from witty dialogue to slapstick routines, with the reactions of both the jokers and the members of the public serving as punchlines.


title: Impractical Jokers

text: Joe Gatto, James "Murr" Murray, Brian "Q" Quinn and Sal Vulcano are four friends and former classmates from Monsignor Farrell High School in Staten Island, New York. Gatto, Murray and Vulcano were original members of the live improv and sketch comedy troupe the Tenderloins in 1999. They transitioned to producing more comedy material on the internet, with Quinn replacing former Tenderloin Mike Boccio in 2006. In 2007, the Tenderloins won the $100,000 grand prize in NBC's "It's Your Show" competition.


title: Impractical Jokers

text: In 2008, they filmed a pilot episode for a scripted sitcom for Spike TV, but the show did not go to series. TruTV announced "Impractical Jokers", originally slated to be named "Mission: Uncomfortable", on April 12, 2011, eight months before the show's debut. Murray explained how the hidden camera format made sense based on the jokesters' skills. "We needed to find the right format... thing is, we've been doing this for years, but when it's on camera, the embarrassment is amplified." Vulcano said "We wanted to utilize our improv strengths … put ourselves into a situation where we know we can be funny and also ourselves. If we’re ourselves and also showcase our friendship, something might resonate there." The concept of feeding each other lines using an earpiece was inspired from talk show host David Letterman feeding neighboring storeowner Rupert Jee lines on "Late Show with David Letterman". Quinn and Vulcano have said when they gave their pilot episode to TruTV, it was recorded on their iPhones. At the time that they pitched the idea to TruTV, Murray was VP of Development for NorthSouth Productions, the company that has produced the series since its inception. Murray describes the show as an "upside-down hidden-camera show where the joke is on us, instead of the public. So it takes away the thing people hate about hidden-camera shows, which is, 'Oh, I feel bad for the people getting pranked.' We're messing with each other. The public is just there to witness our embarrassment."


title: Impractical Jokers

text: On December 31, 2021, Joe Gatto announced on his Instagram that he would be leaving "Impractical Jokers" after nine seasons. Shortly thereafter, Quinn, on behalf of Murray and Vulcano, sent well wishes for Gatto and announced that "Impractical Jokers" would continue working despite Gatto's absence in 2022. Subsequently, "Paste" reported that TruTV and HBO Max had removed "several episodes featuring Gatto in compromising situations" from their platforms. On February 14, 2022, the show announced that the season would proceed with a lineup of various celebrity guests.


title: Impractical Jokers

text: Prior to every challenge, the Jokers explain where they are, what the challenge is. Often (but not always) the cast member(s) performing the prank wears an earpiece, while the others have a mic in a covert location. Cameras are hidden near the area to capture the action. The challenge location is usually a public area in or around New York City such as a city park, or store. The criteria of each challenge are the same for each of the Jokers competing in the round. If the Joker cannot complete their task, they get a thumbs-down. At the end of the episode, the Joker(s) with the most thumbs down receives a punishment. The punishments cannot be refused, lest they be kicked off the show, and are usually more embarrassing, humiliating, disgusting, painful, scary, or dangerous than any of the other challenges.


title: Impractical Jokers

text: As of the 2017–18 television season, the series is syndicated to American broadcast stations by Trifecta Entertainment & Media, with a clearance rate of 85% of television homes.


title: Impractical Jokers

text: "Impractical Jokers" has been well received by most critics, with Linda Stasi of the "New York Post" calling it "possibly the funniest, most ridiculous show I've seen in years."


title: Impractical Jokers

text: While it has been compared to earlier hit prank shows such as "Candid Camera" and "Jackass", critics have offered praise for its unique twist on the genre, wherein the stars' reactions to the pranks are often equally as humorous as those of the innocent bystanders. Neil Genzlinger of "The New York Times" stated that "the gag pays off twice: once in the reaction of the unsuspecting passer-by, once in the discomfort of the fellow doing the asking." He later wrote that the cast-members' occasional integrity "[kept] these four clowns a little bit lovable." Dean Robbins of "The Daily Page" echoed this sentiment, stating that "the friends are jovial rather than Jackass-obnoxious, even rejecting some dares as too offensive."


title: Impractical Jokers

text: The series has been generally well received, garnering 1.5 million viewers during its December 15, 2011, premiere.


title: Impractical Jokers

text: The review of the show by "Variety"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Brian Lowry was less positive, ending with this statement: "Nobody will ever confuse "Impractical Jokers" with high art, certainly, but as low-brow, micro-cost comedy in the context of truTV's programming resources, it's actually quite practical—and occasionally funny."


title: Impractical Jokers

text: Jokers Wild was a spin-off of the original series in which the guys filmed a different style of skits that differ from ones that they normally film for the show. These skits are story type as opposed to live interaction with people. The first episode of "Jokers Wild" aired on September 25, 2014. Only four episodes of the six that were filmed for this series ever aired on truTV as the show did not do well in the ratings and was cancelled after the 4 episodes aired.


title: Impractical Jokers

text: Impractical Jokers: Inside Jokes is a spin-off of "Impractical Jokers" in which episodes that have already aired are shown again with pop-up facts throughout, including behind-the-scenes stories and facts directly from the Jokers. The first episode of "Impractical Jokers: Inside Jokes" aired on July 14, 2016, following the mid-season British special.


title: Impractical Jokers

text: Impractical Jokers: After Party is an aftershow hosted by Joey Fatone, in which the Jokers and surprise guests go through a deep dive of challenges, special play-by-play punishment analysis from the latest episode, and bonus content from the latest episode or the whole show. The first episode of the series aired on August 3, 2017, after the episode "The Q-Pay" had aired. "After Party" is filmed at The Flagship Brewing Company bar in Staten Island. When the series came back on August 2, 2018, the series moved to The Mailroom Bar in Lower Manhattan.


title: Impractical Jokers

text: Impractical Jokers: Dinner Party is a spin-off of "Impractical Jokers", in which the Jokers do a video group chat while eating dinner and having guests visit one or more participants. The spin-off was created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States that prevented "Impractical Jokers" episodes from being produced. The show's theme song is "Uzi (Pinky Ring)" by Wu-Tang Clan. The first episode of the series aired on May 21, 2020. On August 5, 2020, the series was ordered 10 additional episodes and began airing on October 15, 2020. The first season ended on January 14, 2021. At the end of the episode, "Don't Stop Believin' " by Journey plays to commence the return of regular episodes.


title: Impractical Jokers

text: On March 7, 2018, truTV announced that "Impractical Jokers" was renewed for an eighth season and a feature-length film to begin development in spring 2018, directed by Chris Henchy and produced by Funny or Die. Production on the film began at the end of April 2018. A trailer was released on December 17, 2019, and the movie was released on February 21, 2020.


title: Impractical Jokers

text: TruTV and Built Games developed a mobile game called "Impractical Jokers: Wheel of Doom", released in 2018. Wilder Games developed a party game series including "Impractical Jokers: Box of Challenges" and "Impractical Jokers: Ultimate Challenge Pack" that were released in 2020.


title: Impractical Jokers

text: "The Official Impractical Jokers Podcast" started in 2017, hosted by producers Casey Jost and James McCarthy. Episodes are usually released the day after new episodes have broadcast. Assistant director and producer Chá DeBerry joined the podcast as a host in 2021.


title: Kraków

text: Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 and has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, economic, cultural and artistic life. Cited as one of Europe's most beautiful cities, its Old Town with Wawel Royal Castle was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978, one of the first 12 sites granted the status.


title: Kraków

text: The city has grown from a Stone Age settlement to Poland's second-most-important city. It began as a hamlet on Wawel Hill and was reported by Ibrahim Ibn Yakoub, a merchant from Cordoba, as a busy trading centre of Central Europe in 985. With the establishment of new universities and cultural venues at the emergence of the Second Polish Republic in 1918 and throughout the 20th century, Kraków reaffirmed its role as a major national academic and artistic centre. As of 2022, the city has a population of 800,653, with approximately 8 million additional people living within a radius of its main square.


title: Kraków

text: After the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany at the start of World War II, the newly defined Distrikt Krakau (Kraków District) became the capital of Germany's General Government. The Jewish population of the city was forced into a walled zone known as the Kraków Ghetto, from where they were sent to Nazi extermination camps such as the nearby Auschwitz, and Nazi concentration camps like Płaszów. However, the city was spared from destruction and major bombing.


title: Kraków

text: In 1978, Karol Wojtyła, archbishop of Kraków, was elevated to the papacy as Pope John Paul II—the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. Also that year, UNESCO approved Kraków's entire Old Town and historic centre as its first World Heritage Site alongside Quito. Kraków is classified as a global city with the ranking of "high sufficiency" by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Its extensive cultural heritage across the epochs of Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture includes Wawel Cathedral and Wawel Royal Castle on the banks of the Vistula, St. Mary's Basilica, Saints Peter and Paul Church and the largest medieval market square in Europe, Rynek Główny. Kraków is home to Jagiellonian University, one of the oldest universities in the world and traditionally Poland's most reputable institution of higher learning. The city also hosts a number of institutions of national significance such as the National Museum,


title: Kraków

text: Kraków Opera, Juliusz Słowacki Theatre, National Stary Theatre and the Jagiellonian Library. The city is served by John Paul II International Airport, the country's second busiest airport and the most important international airport for the inhabitants of south-eastern Poland.


title: Kraków

text: In 2000, Kraków was named European Capital of Culture. In 2013, Kraków was officially approved as a UNESCO City of Literature. The city hosted World Youth Day in July 2016. In 2023, the third edition of the European Games will be held by Kraków and the Lesser Poland region.


title: Kraków

text: The name of Kraków is traditionally derived from Krakus (Krak, Grakch), the legendary founder of Kraków and a ruler of the tribe of Lechitians. In Polish, is an archaic possessive form of "Krak" and essentially means "Krak's (town)". The true origin of the name is highly disputed among historians, with many theories in existence and no unanimous consensus. The first recorded mention of Prince Krakus (then written as "Grakch") dates back to 1190, although the town existed as early as the seventh century, when it was inhabited by the tribe of Vistulans. It is possible that the name of the city is derived from the word "kruk", meaning crow or raven.


title: Kraków

text: The city's full official name is , which can be translated as "Royal Capital City of Kraków". In English, a person born or living in Kraków is a Cracovian ( or "krakus"). Up through the 1990s the English version of the name was often written as Cracow, but now the most widespread modern English version is Krakow.


title: Kraków

text: Kraków's early history begins with evidence of a Stone Age settlement on the present site of the Wawel Hill. A legend attributes Kraków's founding to the mythical ruler Krakus, who built it above a cave occupied by a dragon, Smok Wawelski. The first written record of the city's name dates back to 965, when Kraków was described as a notable commercial centre controlled first by Moravia (876–879), but captured by a Bohemian duke Boleslaus I in 955. The first acclaimed ruler of Poland, Mieszko I, took Kraków from the Bohemians and incorporated it into the holdings of the Piast dynasty towards the end of his reign.


title: Kraków

text: In 1038, Kraków became the seat of the Polish government. By the end of the tenth century, the city was a leading centre of trade. Brick buildings were constructed, including the Royal Wawel Castle with St. Felix and Adaukt Rotunda, Romanesque churches such as St. Andrew's Church, a cathedral, and a basilica. The city was sacked and burned during the Mongol invasion of 1241. It was rebuilt practically identical, based on new location act and incorporated in 1257 by the high duke Bolesław V the Chaste who following the example of Wrocław, introduced city rights modelled on the Magdeburg law allowing for tax benefits and new trade privileges for the citizens. In 1259, the city was again ravaged by the Mongols. A third attack in 1287 was repelled thanks in part to the newly built fortifications.


title: Kraków

text: In 1335, King Casimir III the Great (Kazimierz in Polish) declared the two western suburbs to be a new city named after him, Kazimierz ("Casimiria" in Latin). The defensive walls were erected around the central section of Kazimierz in 1362, and a plot was set aside for the Augustinian order next to Skałka. The city rose to prominence in 1364, when Casimir founded the University of Kraków, the second oldest university in central Europe after the Charles University in Prague. Casimir also began work on a campus for the academy in Kazimierz, but he died in 1370 and the campus was never completed.


title: Kraków

text: The city continued to grow under the joint Lithuanian-Polish Jagiellon dynasty. As the capital of the Kingdom of Poland and a member of the Hanseatic League, the city attracted many craftsmen from abroad, businesses, and guilds as science and the arts began to flourish. The royal chancery and the university ensured a first flourishing of Polish literary culture in the city.


title: Kraków

text: The 15th and 16th centuries were known as Poland's "Złoty Wiek" or Golden Age. Many works of Polish Renaissance art and architecture were created, including ancient synagogues in Kraków's Jewish quarter located in the north-eastern part of Kazimierz, such as the Old Synagogue. During the reign of Casimir IV, various artists came to work and live in Kraków, and Johann Haller established a printing press in the city after Kasper Straube had printed the Calendarium Cracoviense, the first work printed in Poland, in 1473.


title: Kraków

text: In 1520, the most famous church bell in Poland, named "Zygmunt" after Sigismund I of Poland, was cast by Hans Behem. At that time, Hans Dürer, a younger brother of artist and thinker Albrecht Dürer, was Sigismund's court painter. Hans von Kulmbach made altarpieces for several churches. In 1553, the Kazimierz district council gave the Jewish Qahal a licence for the right to build their own interior walls across the western section of the already existing defensive walls. The walls were expanded again in 1608 due to the growth of the community and influx of Jews from Bohemia. In 1572, King Sigismund II, the last of the Jagiellons, died childless. The Polish throne passed to Henry III of France and then to other foreign-based rulers in rapid succession, causing a decline in the city's importance that was worsened by pillaging during the Swedish invasion and by an outbreak of bubonic plague that left 20,000 of the city's residents dead. In 1596, Sigismund III of the House of Vasa moved the administrative capital of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from Kraków to Warsaw.


title: Kraków

text: Already weakened during the 18th century, by the mid-1790s the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth had twice been partitioned by its neighbors: Russia, the Habsburg empire and Prussia. In 1791, the Austrian and Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II changed the status of Kazimierz as a separate city and made it into a district of Kraków. The richer Jewish families began to move out. However, because of the injunction against travel on the Sabbath, most Jewish families stayed relatively close to the historic synagogues. In 1794, Tadeusz Kościuszko initiated an unsuccessful insurrection in the town's Main Square which, in spite of his victorious Battle of Racławice against a numerically superior Russian army, resulted in the third and final partition of Poland. In 1809, Napoleon Bonaparte captured former Polish territories from Austria and made the town part of the Duchy of Warsaw. Following Napoleon's defeat, the 1815 Congress of Vienna restored the pre-war boundaries but also created the partially independent Free City of Kraków. An insurrection in 1846 failed, resulting in the city being annexed by Austria under the name the Grand Duchy of Kraków (, ).


title: Kraków

text: In 1866, Austria granted a degree of autonomy to Galicia after its own defeat in the Austro-Prussian War. Politically freer Kraków became a Polish national symbol and a centre of culture and art, known frequently as the "Polish Athens" ('). Many leading Polish artists of the period resided in Kraków, among them the seminal painter Jan Matejko, laid to rest at Rakowicki Cemetery, and the founder of modern Polish drama, Stanisław Wyspiański. Fin de siècle Kraków evolved into a modern metropolis; running water and electric streetcars were introduced in 1901, and between 1910 and 1915, Kraków and its surrounding suburban communities were gradually combined into a single administrative unit called Greater Kraków (').


title: Kraków

text: At the outbreak of World War I on 3 August 1914, Józef Piłsudski formed a small cadre military unit, the First Cadre Company—the predecessor of the Polish Legions—which set out from Kraków to fight for the liberation of Poland. The city was briefly besieged by Russian troops in November 1914. Austrian rule in Kraków ended in 1918 when the Polish Liquidation Committee assumed power.


title: Kraków

text: Following the emergence of the Second Polish Republic in 1918, Kraków resumed its role as a major Polish academic and cultural centre, with the establishment of new universities such as the AGH University of Science and Technology and the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, including a number of new and essential vocational schools. The city became an important cultural centre for Polish Jews, including both Zionist and Bundist groups. Kraków was also an influential centre of Jewish spiritual life, with all its manifestations of religious observance - from Orthodox to Hasidic and Reform Judaism - flourishing side by side.


title: Kraków

text: Following the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany in September 1939, the city of Kraków became part of the General Government, a separate administrative region of the Third Reich. On 26 October 1939, the Nazi régime set up Distrikt Krakau, one of a total of four districts within the General Government. On the same day, the city of Kraków also became the capital of the administration. The General Government was ruled by Governor-General Hans Frank, who was based in the city's Wawel Castle. The Nazis envisioned turning Kraków into a completely Germanised city; after removal of all the Jews and Poles, renaming of locations and streets into the German language, and sponsorship of propaganda trying to portray it as a historically German city. On 28 November 1939 Hans Frank set up "Judenräte" (Jewish Councils) to be run by Jewish citizens for the purpose of carrying out orders for the Nazis. These orders included the registration of all Jewish people living in each area, the collection of taxes, and the formation of forced-labour groups. The Polish Home Army maintained a parallel underground administrative system.


title: Kraków

text: On the eve of World War II some 56,000 Jews resided in Krakow, almost one-quarter of a total population of about 250,000. By November 1939, the Jewish population of Krakow had grown to approximately 70,000. According to German statistics from 1940, over 200,000 Jews lived within the entire Kraków District, comprising more than 5 percent of the total population in the district. These statistics, however, probably underestimate the situation.


title: Kraków

text: In November 1939, during an operation known as "", the Germans arrested more than 180 university professors and academics and sent them to the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps, though the survivors were later released on the request of prominent Italians.


title: Kraków

text: Before the formation of ghettos, which began in the Distrikt in December 1939, Jews were encouraged to flee the city. For those who remained the German authorities decided in March 1941 to allocate a then suburban neighborhood, Podgórze District, to become Kraków's ghetto - there many Jews would die of illness or starvation. Initially, most ghettos were open and Jews were allowed to enter and exit freely. However, with time ghettos were generally closed and security became tighter. From autumn 1941, the SS developed the policy of Extermination through labour, which further worsened the already bleak conditions for Jews. The ghetto inhabitants were later murdered or sent to German Extermination camps, including Bełżec and Auschwitz, and to Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp. The largest deportations within the Distrikt occurred from June to September 1942. More specifically, the Kraków ghetto deportation occurred in the first week of June 1942, and in March 1943 the ghetto was definitely liquidated.


title: Kraków

text: Roman Polanski, the film director, survived the Kraków ghetto. Oskar Schindler selected employees from the ghetto to work in his enamelware factory ' (' for short), saving them from the camps. Similarly, many men capable of physical labor were saved from the deportations to extermination camps and instead sent to labor camps across the General Government.


title: Kraków

text: By September 1943, the last of the Jews from the Kraków ghetto had been deported. Although looted by occupational authorities, Kraków remained relatively undamaged at the end of World War II, with most of the city's historical and architectural legacy spared. Soviet forces under the command of Marshal Ivan Konev entered the city on 18 January 1945, and began arresting Poles loyal to the Polish government-in-exile or those who had served in the Home Army.


title: Kraków

text: After the war, under the Polish People's Republic (officially declared in 1952), the intellectual and academic community of Kraków came under complete political control. The universities were soon deprived of printing rights and autonomy. The Stalinist government of Poland ordered the construction of the country's largest steel mill in the newly created suburb of Nowa Huta. The creation of the giant Lenin Steelworks (now Sendzimir Steelworks owned by Mittal) sealed Kraków's transformation from a university city into an industrial centre. The new working-class population, drawn by the industrialization of Kraków, contributed to rapid growth.


title: Kraków

text: In an effort that spanned two decades, Karol Wojtyła, cardinal archbishop of Kraków from 1964 to 1978, successfully lobbied for permission to build the first churches in the newly-industrial suburbs. In 1978 the Catholic Church elevated Wojtyła to the papacy as John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. In the same year, UNESCO, following the application of local authorities, placed Kraków Old Town on the first-ever list of World Heritage Sites.


title: Kraków

text: Kraków lies in the southern part of Poland, on the Vistula River, in a valley at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains, above sea level; halfway between the Jurassic Rock Upland () to the north, and the Tatra Mountains to the south, constituting the natural border with Slovakia and the Czech Republic; west from the border with Ukraine.


title: Kraków

text: There are five nature reserves in Kraków, with a combined area of ca. . Due to their ecological value, these areas are legally protected. The western part of the city, along its northern and north-western side, borders an area of international significance known as the Jurassic Bielany-Tyniec refuge. The main motives for the protection of this area include plant and animal wildlife and the area's geomorphological features and landscape. Another part of the city is located within the ecological 'corridor' of the Vistula River valley. This corridor is also assessed as being of international significance as part of the Pan-European ecological network. The city centre is situated on the left (northern) bank of the river.


title: Kraków

text: Officially, Kraków has a temperate oceanic climate, denoted by Köppen classification as "Cfb", best defined as a semicontinental climate. In older reference periods it was classified as a warm summer continental climate ("Dfb"). By classification of Wincenty Okołowicz, it has a warm temperate climate in the centre of continental Europe with the "fusion" of different features.


title: Kraków

text: Due to its geographic location, the city may be under marine influence, sometimes Arctic influence, but without direct influence, giving the city variable meteorological conditions over short spaces of time.


title: Kraków

text: Being towards Eastern Europe and a relatively considerable distance from the sea, Krakow has significant temperature differences according to the progress of different air masses, having four defined seasons of the year. Average temperatures in summer range from and in winter from . The average annual temperature is . In summer temperatures often exceed , even reaching , while in winter temperatures drop to at night and about during the day. During very cold nights the temperature can drop to . The city lies near the Tatra Mountains, there are often occurrences of halny blowing (a foehn wind), causing temperatures to rise rapidly, and even in winter reach up to .


title: Kraków

text: In relation to Warsaw, temperatures are very similar for most of the year, except that in the colder months southern Poland has a larger daily temperature range, more moderate winds, generally more rainy days and with greater chances of clear skies on average, especially in winter. The higher sun angle also allows for a longer growing season. In addition, for older data there was less sun than the capital of the country, about 30 minutes daily per year, but both have small differences in relative humidity and the direction of the winds is northeast.


title: Kraków

text: The climate table below presents weather data from 2000 to 2012, although the official Köppen reference period was from 1981 to 2010 (therefore not being technically a climatological normal). According to ongoing measurements, the temperature has increased during these years as compared with the last series. This increase averages about over all months. Warming is most pronounced during the winter months, with an increase of more than in January.


title: Kraków

text: Developed over many centuries, Kraków provides a showcase setting for many historic styles of architecture. As the city expanded, so too did the architectural achievements of its builders. It is for this reason that the variations in style and urban planning are so easily recognisable.