title: Uday Hussein

text: According to a former employee, Uday would party five nights a week and fast for the remaining two days. The chief of the Baghdad Hunting Club claimed that after a wedding party in the late 1990s, the bride suddenly disappeared, Uday's bodyguards locked all the doors, and the groom committed suicide. Again, according to the allegations of Uday's servant, he witnessed forced custody of a crying bride at home in October 2002 and later said that the girl was killed and her body was destroyed after she was raped. When the city was about to fall to US-led forces, it was alleged that Uday ordered Fedayeen Saddam to burn his cars instead of letting others take their cars. Former business manager Adib Shabaan said that Uday burned the hips of many women with whom he had sex with a horseshoe, creating a U-shaped scar. Ala Bashir, the doctor of the Saddam family, claimed that he was treating women who were in the same condition and who had been burned with a lighted cigarette by Uday.


title: Uday Hussein

text: Adeeb al-Ani, who was Uday's secretary, said, Uday's assistant, Adib Shabaan, said: "In 1998, Uday saw an ex-governor's 14-year-old daughter at a party, had her kidnapped, sent her home after three days, and when the girl's father was informed about the rape and talked about what happened, Uday told the man, 'Your daughters will be my girlfriends, or I will erase you from the earth,' and ordered the man to bring his daughter and his other 12-year-old daughter to his next party." According to a former employee, "Five nights a week, two dozen girls, all brought to him by his friends, were taken to the luxurious Baghdad Boat Club on the Tigris coast to meet Uday; those who were chosen after drinks, music, and dance would spend the night with Uday". "He never slept with a girl more than three times," said an ex-butler. If a friend used the same brand of clothes, perfumes, or shoes as Uday, Uday would threaten his friend not to use the same thing again. A family friend said that the day Uday discovered the Internet was "a black day for the Iraqis", and he had employees whose job was to investigate new methods of torture and new car models on the Internet. In the Boat Club's kitchen there was a monkey named Louisa, and if one of Uday's friends fell asleep at parties because of alcohol, he would put them in the same cage with the drunk monkey.


title: Uday Hussein

text: One of Saddam Hussein's mistresses said that Uday had raped her 15-year-old daughter. When Saddam was informed of what happened, after several hours, Uday was put in prison but released after a short period. Because the woman had not kept silent about the rape, Uday's bodyguards tortured her with electric batons with Uday present. According to one of Uday's close circle, "If the girl he chose did not want Uday, if she found another boyfriend or was late or reluctant, she would have to dance after getting her feet whipped." Again, according to a friend's claim, Uday would make fun of the girls who lost their virginity because he knew that no one would touch them later and would say, "She will have to be a prostitute from now on." Again, one of his employees said, "He had a secretary hunting the girls – in universities, ministries. They even had a bedroom in the Olympic offices for women brought to him. They generally agreed to sleep with him. They had no other choice."


title: Uday Hussein

text: He had allegations against him as recently as early March 2003, shortly before the invasion, when a 13-year-old girl said she accompanied her older sister to Jadriea Equestrian Club, which he frequented. She alleged that she was taken by his bouncers to a back room and raped by him, in which she was given 250,000 dinars (about $200)


title: Uday Hussein

text: In his memoir, "I was Saddam's Son", Uday's alleged body double Latif Yahia said that he witnessed rapes, killings and torture by Uday Hussein. Yahia claimed that in 1987, he was forced to be Uday’s body double, even going through plastic surgery to resemble him more. According to Yahia, Uday raped a little Palestinian girl who was selling flowers in the Al-Rashid Hotel, and later raped and murdered a little deaf girl in Nineveh. Uday also ordered the kidnapping of Ilham Ali al-Aazami, Miss Iraq, after she had rejected him. Uday and his bodyguards subsequently held her captive and raped her for weeks, and started the rumor that she was a prostitute, causing her to be killed by her father. When the father confronted Uday the latter spoke disparagingly about the girl, causing the father to lose control to the point of first verbally accosting and ultimately physically assailing Uday. This prompted Uday to order Latif to shoot the rather than acquiesce, Latif instead refused and attempted to commit suicide. Ultimately the father was murdered by one of Uday's bodyguards. On another occasion, Uday attacked a newlywed couple and raped the bride in the al-Medina Hotel. She then committed suicide by throwing herself off the balcony. Her husband, a lieutenant, was later killed for "insulting the president".


title: Uday Hussein

text: "Irish Times" journalist Eoin Butler and "Sunday Times" journalist Ed Caesar have questioned Yahia's various claims, including that he was Uday Hussein's body double, and pointed out that many of Yahia's activities since leaving Iraq in 1992, including his education, have not been verified. Individuals close to Yahia and Hussein denied that the former was the latter's body-double, or denied that Hussein had even had a body double. Yahia disputes these claims, saying that his very existence was a state secret.


title: Uday Hussein

text: Uday was known for forcing guests to drink large quantities of alcohol at his parties. According to a friend, whoever earned Uday's friendship had to drink a cocktail named the "Uday Saddam Hussein", a mixture of whiskey, brandy, vodka, cognac, and beer. The cocktail was served in a large "cup of friendship", and the new friend had to drink it all. Uday had employees whose job was to make people and especially singers drink cocktails containing 90% alcohol, sometimes including drugs. The guard would line up all the entertainment against the wall and give them 10 minutes to drink. Those who did not drink despite the threats were punished in three ways; having their hair and eyebrows shaven off, being beaten enough to stand up without touching their faces, and being subjected to a foot whipping before being forced to walk. Often, the tortures were done in front of Uday's eyes. If the bodyguards did not do this, or when asked to answer correctly who was drinking and who did not, they would receive the same punishment. The bodyguards alleged that they tortured people in this way twice a week and at least 100 people a year. "When Uday wanted for a car, no one could stop him," one of his employees said. His employees claimed that they were also tortured by Uday or on Uday's orders. A source claimed that he killed his friend after forcing him to drink large quantities of alcohol, and this is not the first time that Uday has killed those close to him in this way.


title: Uday Hussein

text: Ismail Hussain, who worked as a singer at Uday's parties in the early 1990s, said "Uday did not need a reason to party. He would have food and drink tables while many people in Iraq were starving. He'd get drunk and dance—he was a good dancer too. Later, he'd bring out the machine guns and start shooting them off. He'd point the guns right over my head, and the bullets would spray all over the place. I would sing right through the flying bullets. I couldn't hear the music anymore. I'd just keep going, because I couldn't stop. It ended when Uday was ready for it to end. At the parties, there would be about five or six men and 40 or 50 women. He was moody. People were expendable." He said, "I would be performing, and Uday would climb up on the stage with a machine gun and start shooting it at the ceiling. Uday would insist that everyone get drunk with him. He would interrupt my performance, get up on stage with a big glass of cognac for himself and one for me. He would insist that I drink all of it with him. When he gets really drunk, out come the guns. His friends are all terrified of him, because he can have them imprisoned or killed. I saw him once get angry with one of his friends. He kicked the man in the ass so hard that his boot flew off. The man ran over and retrieved the boot and then tried to put it back on Uday's foot, with Uday cursing him all the while."


title: Uday Hussein

text: Singer Qasım Sultan was called to the Hunting Club in 1997 after singing at private parties in the United States and returning to Baghdad. Uday ordered him to sing until the sun rose. At 8:00a.m., Uday began shouting at Sultan, scolded him for returning to Baghdad without telling him and told his guards to beat him. When Sultan went to another midnight concert by Uday, Uday's bodyguards beat him for not arriving earlier. Before Sultan came on the stage, he was called by Uday to drink his "mysterious cocktail", a mixture of beer, gin and other hard liquors. Sultan was hospitalized twice because of the amount of alcohol he was forced to drink at these parties. He also claimed that in 1997, after the assassination attempt, in the garden of Uday's palace, he was forced to sing among the lions. He described the parties as "a place where armed cowboys can kill you at any time." After Al-Shabab was founded in 1993, Iraqi singers of the 70s and 80s, such as Fadel Awad, Saadoun Jaber and Riyadh Ahmed were banned by Uday, on the grounds that they were the singers of the previous generation. Uday said to them, "You are forbidden from singing and I do not want to hear that any of you sings at a party." The ban was issued, their songs were not shown on TV, they did not perform any concert, and did not record a song for TV. However, Singer Ali Al-Issawi said, "Uday was a fan of singing and a connoisseur and he listened to all the singers and enjoyed our songs. Uday did not punish anyone at that time, but he only held accountable the abusive artists. He used to meet with me two to three times during the same day and did not harm me or my group at all."


title: Uday Hussein

text: Uday founded his own sports club called Al-Rasheed and signed all the best players from the country to play for the club. They went on to dominate Iraqi football until the team was dissolved in 1990. He also became the editor of the "Babel" newspaper, the general secretary of the Iraqi Union of Students and the head of the Fedayeen Saddam, as well as the head of the Iraq Journalists Union. His newspaper, "Babel", was known for carrying Western reports on Iraq's conflict with the United States and was said to be the most influential newspaper in the country. Uday also had a television channel, Youth TV (Al-Shabab), which aired reports by other Arab channels not usually heard on Iraq's state-run media. Uday used his media empire to discredit people who got in his way. Iraq's most popular radio station was Voice of Youth, owned by Uday, the only radio station that played Western music. Uday seemed proud of his reputation and called himself "Abu Sarhan", an Arabic term for "wolf".


title: Uday Hussein

text: Uday also ran a food processing business called Super Chicken, which reportedly earned him millions of dollars, and an ice cream company called the Wave.


title: Uday Hussein

text: Uday was responsible for nearly 20 American prisoners of war captured during the 1991 Gulf War, including ex-Navy Commander Jeff Zaun, forced to appear on Iraqi state television and forced to condemn their country after being tortured.


title: Uday Hussein

text: Saad al-Bazzaz, who was the editor-in-chief of Uday's newspapers and state television, said, "In an editorial meeting, Uday got angry at an article in my newspaper and took out his gun. You could imagine our reaction when he started playing with the gold-plated Kalashnikov while yelling at us. After that, any kind of dialogue with him was impossible. When Uday took over most of the media, the situation in Iraq got worse. This man had nothing to do with journalism, but he saw that media is a powerful way to try to control the minds of the Iraqi people. He knew very well that many journalists did not support his father. Many people worked against the regime at night. Some were beaten and executed. Others were killed or fled the country, leaving their families vulnerable to Uday's bloody revenge retaliation."


title: Uday Hussein

text: Dhafer Muhammad Jaber Siddiq, one of Uday's closest aides, said about Uday: "He used to criticize his father's policies on many occasions, directly or indirectly, especially when discussing with Hussein Kamel... Uday was a young man like many young men trying to get close to beautiful women. He would send his phone number to every young woman he liked. There were a lot of women who were trying to get to know Uday, some of them changed their minds, and some of them strengthened their relationship with him...He was a person with many contradictions. For example, after the killing of his uncle, Minister of Defense Adnan Khairallah in 1989, he started to pray regularly and never cut it, and he fasted every Monday and Thursday, but he used to drink alcohol continuously. He was generous at times to the extreme, but at other times, he became unimaginably stingy. He had his independent empire. He used to say it himself, he used to say that he possessed the foundations of a state. He had press, television, sports, military and trade." Uday got a lawyer shot after he raised the case of a 17-year-old girl who was kidnapped and was rumored to be at Uday's Iraqi Olympic Committee compound. According to the lawyer's testimony, "Uday was looking at the papers I carried for him and then said: I will break both of your legs so that you cannot come back again, but I see your left leg was injured during the war with Iran, so I will break your right leg." One of Uday's men then shot the right leg of the lawyer, and had him thrown off near a hospital. As for the girl, she was finally sent to her home after being raped repeatedly and asked her family not to travel. However, she managed to escape to Poland, where some of her relatives lived. But after a few years, some of the killers working for Uday were able to track down the girl and they killed her along with her father, the lawyer said. Some of the waiters working in high-end clubs said that they would shrink with terror whenever Uday arrived, drunk and armed, looking for women to kidnap. A lawyer said that Uday had ordered the head of a beautiful TV presenter to be shaved so that he could keep her long strands and then kept her naked in the Olympic Committee building for a month because she opposed his request.


title: Uday Hussein

text: Muhammad Asim Shanshal, head of the private office of Uday, said, "Uday by providing all the possibilities and needs for poors, as he allocated about 40% of the Olympic Committee's revenues as the head of the Olympic Committee, as he was coordinating with the rest of the ministries to allocate 20% of each ministry to poor families... They were spreading these rape rumours to discredit him, so it was not because Uday forced any girl to engage in obscenity, but we must note that any young man in any country has certain relationships and whims. He was a young man who had connections, and he was loved by everyone, and everyone wished to accompany him, but he was a smart person, as he knew very well and with an understanding of how to identify friends. Uday used to provide everything necessary for the players from homes, cars and all means of rest and decent living. But everything that happened if any player made a mistake was reprimanded by Uday, so if the player kept repeating mistakes, he had to be punished. The penalty was to stop him from playing and not participate in the team, until he regained consciousness, and apologized, and if the player insisted on the mistake, his punishment was severe, refer to legal matter. Uday was bloody fierce in the moment only, and after he laughed and loved fun."


title: Uday Hussein

text: In the last years of the regime, the Fedayen Saddam troops led by Uday cut the heads of 30 prostitutes and threw them in front of their homes. A member of a guerrilla group whose duties were mainly special operations of Saddam's Fedayeen said that they assassinated figures opposed to the regime, shattering the appearance of those who were accused of hiding the truth from the government. He said, "If Uday said, cut his tongue, hands, fingers, or head, or anything, we do that. As for the penalties that do not amount to death, they were executed according to a specific system, those who steal cut their fingers and hands. Those who lie, throw heavy stones on their backs, while informants who transmit incorrect information, put hot irons in their mouths, and those who evade the army, cut their ears." When Uday wanted to kill someone, he sent a group equipped with ten photographs of the target. The process would be recorded with video or audio to demonstrate that it was carried out and Uday would maintain a set of these videotapes.


title: Uday Hussein

text: It has been claimed that Uday had taken advantage of the United Nations sanctions in Iraq and built an immense wealth and influence empire. He supplied oil, cigarettes and other prohibited materials through smuggling and sold them on the black market in Iraq. He also sold alcohol and racehorses to rich Gulf countries. He opened accounts with Yahoo! and MSN Messenger, which created controversy as this allegedly violated U.S. trade sanctions against Iraq. Uday also amassed a large video collection, found in his palace in 2003, much of which featured himself in both public and private situations. In Uday's palace, a zoo with wild animals, hundreds of luxury cars, guns made from many brands of gold, hundreds of luxury alcohol brands, and hundreds of cigars with the name on it were found. At the Presidential Palace, in Uday's dwellings, anti-depressants, an e-mail output that "a virgin girl agrees to come to him," and another order asking for the girls to be examined for diseases were found. One of Uday's private prisons was later disclosed, and it was stated that there were everyone who bothered Uday inside, the insiders were businessmen clashing with Uday, athletes who could not win, drivers who did not yield him the right of way, and some were thrown into the same cell with German shepherd dogs and left to die. Erotic pictures of women downloaded from the internet and pictures of American president Bush's twin daughters Jenna and Barbara were found on the walls in the gym of Uday. In another house owned by Uday, "pornographic pictures, heroin bags, expensive liqueurs, vintage cars and HIV testing" was found. He was feeding lions and the other wild animals in his palace and often fed them with his own hands.


title: Uday Hussein

text: Abbas Al Janabi said: "He has a large number of cars. He stole around 160 cars from Kuwait. You may not believe it when I tell you that 'Uday has 1,300 luxury cars, such as Rolls Royces, Porsches, Ferraris, Range Rovers, Lincolns and others. Uday has prisons everywhere you go. He has two prisons in the presidential palace, a prison in the armory, a prison in the Olympic Committee, and a prison at his farm in the Radhwaniya compound." About his business, he said: "He controls many facets of smuggling in Iraq—whisky, tobacco, fertilizers, petrol, and other goods. His business interests extend to Turkey, Iran, and Jordan. He has also gained control of all aid going to Iraq from the United Arab Emirates. He stores this aid in warehouses owned by the Olympic Committee and only distributes a small portion of it, always in front of the press. Uday then arranges for this aid to be sold in stores, and gets the proceeds. Uday is also one of the parties who controls the U.S. dollar/dinar exchange rate and the smuggling of dollars overseas. Because of the large number of U.S. dollars he has, he can affect the movement of the exchange rate at any given time to the benefit of his commercial operations."


title: Uday Hussein

text: Personal accounts state Uday grew up idolizing his father, Saddam Hussein, although their relationship later became strained due to his father's many mistresses. Uday maintained a close cordial relationship with his mother, Sajida Talfah. The otherwise apathetic Uday, at his uncle Adnan Khairallah's funeral in 1989, showed a rare moment of tenderness.


title: Uday Hussein

text: Uday married 3 times. In 1983, his father arranged for him to marry Nada, the daughter of Ali Hassan al-Majid. They had 2 sons but later divorced.While banished in Geneva, he married Saha, the daughter of his father’s half brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti in July 1993 in an arranged marriage set by his father. She was a teenager when she married him. The marriage was never consummated and she deserted him 3 months later after she accused him of beating her during their marriage. She wrote a letter to him in 1996 professing her love despite this. He later married Suja, the daughter of Izzat Ibrahim ad-Douri, who had a son with him, although she alleged that he treated her badly.


title: Uday Hussein

text: After being handicapped by the assassination attempt on him in 1996, he maintained distance from Qusay who was rising in ranks and thought to be Saddam's next legitimate successor. Uday was 6feet 6inches tall and athletically built, though after the assassination attempt, he was partially paralyzed and would eventually use a wheelchair in private and a cane in public.


title: Uday Hussein

text: His longtime secretary Abbas al Janabi said: About the relationship with his brothers Janabi said in 1999: "Saddam has one son, Ali, from Samira Shahbandar. He is thirteen years old. He is a member of the board of an athletic club. He is treated in a special manner by his father, with many servants and bodyguards. The press does not focus on Ali because Uday does not want him to have any public role. Even though he is a director of the largest athletic club in Baghdad, Uday refuses to have any publicity surrounding his role. Uday hates him. Uday cannot tolerate his [younger full] brother Qusay, let alone Ali." About his personality, he said: "Uday was a complex personality. It has to do with his upbringing. Saddam personally took charge of bringing up his younger brother Qusay. Although Saddam also participated in bringing up Uday, he did not devote so much attention to him. It was Uday's mother and her father [Khayrallah Tulfa, Saddam's maternal uncle] who had the most influence on him. This is why we see Khayrallah Tulfa's known traits in Uday, such as the love of money, the love for taking over other people's property, violence and extremism. Uday obviously has some of his father's traits as well, but it is his maternal grandfather that seems to have influenced him as well."


title: Uday Hussein

text: In a sign of loyalty to Saddam, the vice president of the Revolutionary Command Council Izzat al-Douri consented to marry his daughter Hawazin to Uday. However, al-Douri's influence with Saddam was so substantial that he was able to levy a condition: that the union would not be consummated. Because of Uday's violent and erratic behavior, al-Douri quickly petitioned that his daughter be permitted to divorce Uday. Uday reportedly had no children from his marriage. His second marriage was with Saja al-Tikriti, daughter of his step-uncle Barzan İbrahim al-Tikriti; that marriage soon ended as well, beginning with Saja's refusal to return to Iraq after going to Switzerland. Brother of Saja said about the reason of divorce, "Uday did not beat my sister black and blue but treated her like a princess. My sister was only 16, and had different ideas about marriage. That's why they separated soon after the wedding." Dr. Ala Bashir said:"Four days after the wedding, Uday was accompanied by a number of prostitutes in a suite at the Rasheed Hotel, which led to a new scandal in Baghdad. Saja went out to Sajida's house because her parents were in Geneva and tried unsuccessfully to persuade her uncle to agree to divorce her, but the president refused and asked her to talk to Uday about that. Uday refused to talk about the issue of divorce and told her: 'Our family does not know about divorce.'" It was alleged that Uday's third marriage was to the daughter of Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid. A Turkish woman named Sevim Torun claimed that she was married to Uday and had a son named Mesut Uday and published her memoir "Saddam's Bride".


title: Uday Hussein

text: Uday was reported to have converted to Shia Islam from Sunni Islam in 2001, but he denied these reports.


title: Uday Hussein

text: In November 1987, Latif said, "I saw many rapes. He raped and killed women, and then killed her parents if they complained. I witnessed many murders. Uday had raped one of the Baghdad Beauty Queens and her father complained to Saddam. He ordered me to kill him. I refused and instead cut my wrists."


title: Uday Hussein

text: A report released on 20 March 2003, one day after the American led invasion of Iraq, by ABC News detailed several allegations against Uday:


title: Uday Hussein

text: In July 2002, the Iraqi newspaper "Babel", owned by Uday Hussein, published an article by "Abu Hatim" (one of the aliases with which Uday signed his political analyses) which claimed that the American administration was planning to strike Iraq and exert political control in the Middle East. It stated the plans "will extend to include everything", "starting from making Jordan an alternative homeland for the Palestinians, "dividing Saudi Arabia into at least three parts and obliterating Bahrain's identity by returning it as part of Persia.


title: Uday Hussein

text: In September 2002, Uday threatened that "the heads of the Americans, the British and others will fly if they try to approach the borders of Iraq, with the aim of invading it." During his meeting with a number of delegations of Arab youth, he said that the Americans who are now allied with them are "Saddam Hussein and his family." He added, "This is the pride of the family. Uday and Qusay went, and that is God's will ... In any case, that is better than targeting the infrastructure and sabotaging the electricity, water, communications and other networks. Uday considered that the undeclared goal of the American war against Iraq is to control Iraq's oil and reserves, which he said is "number one in the world, and they do not say it until they do not say that the war is for oil." He added that the last barrel of oil "on the face of the Earth ... will be a barrel of Iraqi oil." "They (the Americans) separated the (Iraqi) north in this damned way, because the north has uranium, gold and other materials in it," he said. Uday responded to the accusations of British Prime Minister Tony Blair against Iraq, that the latter "if his hands and feet were wrapped and put on a bear, he would have nodded evil with his head, and even if he put his head between the jaws of iron and wood pincers and squeezed the head between the jaws of the pincers, his eyes would still move and gesture to evil." Uday stressed the "strength" of the home front, and that "the enemy will meet what it does, if he tries to harm Iraq."


title: Uday Hussein

text: Saddam Hussein's closest aide and personal secretary, Abid Hamid Mahmud, had been captured, and told his interrogators that he and Saddam's two sons had sought refuge in Syria but were turned back. According to the smuggler who took them across the border, they came again after less than 48 hours. They said to the smuggler: "A Syrian citizen will be waiting for a call from them and my mission is limited to bring them to the borders, not inside Syria." The smuggler said, "They sought refuge with some of their acquaintances near the Rabia border center, and they already reached the outskirts of the city of Aleppo, and there, after replacing the broken tires of their car, the Syrian authorities, who ordered their return to Iraq, stopped them. Abd Hammoud was not staying with them, but he visited them for four days and on the fourth day they left the house. Accompanying Abid Hamid towards Mosul, there Uday and Qusay took refuge in the house of Nawaf Al-Zaidan, joined by Mustafa Qusay, who was staying with his grandfather, Maher Abdul-Rashid. On 16 July 2003, he met with Qusay again, asked if he had an intention to get out of Iraq, to which Qusay replied, 'This is no longer possible. I will stay in Iraq awaiting the instructions of the father.' During their time at the villa, the sheikh reportedly left Uday and Qusay playing video games for weeks. Seven days later, Uday, Qusay, Qusay's 14-year-old son Mustafa, and their companion Abdul-Samad were killed." Abdul Halim Khaddam, the former vice president of Syria, revealed that his country handed over the half brother of Saddam Hussein to the American forces. They also deported the sons of the ousted president to Iraq and refused to receive the former foreign minister, Tariq Aziz.


title: Uday Hussein

text: On the night of Monday 21 July 2003, Nawaf al-Zaidan, who had been sheltering Uday, Qusay, Mustafa and their bodyguard Abdul-Samad in his mansion in the Falah neighbourhood of northeastern Mosul, left the villa after tipping the brothers off and went to a nearby 101st Airborne base to turn in the two sons due to the combined $30 million reward. "He was nervous, I could tell, more nervous than anybody else I've seen dealing with it. Yet he had confidence in what he said. More than most of the other people," the 23-year-old American military intelligence sergeant who interviewed al-Zaidan told "60 Minutes II". "He had exact locations. He also could tell very good descriptions on Qusay and Uday as well, their habits. He told me what exactly they looked like." Al-Zaidan then passed a lie detector test, which was interpreted as a definitive validation of his story.


title: Uday Hussein

text: On the morning of Tuesday 22 July 2003, JSOC Task Force 20, aided by troops of the United States Army 101st Airborne Division, surrounded Uday, Qusay, and Qusay's 14-year-old son Mustafa during a raid on a home in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Uday had been the Ace of Hearts on the most-wanted Iraqi playing cards (Qusay was the Ace of Clubs). Acting on a tip from al-Zaidan, soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division provided security while the Task Force 20 operators tried to capture the inhabitants of the house. As many as 200 American troops, later aided by OH-58 Kiowa helicopters, surrounded and fired upon the house, thus killing Uday, Qusay, and Qusay's son. After approximately four hours of battle, soldiers entered the house and found four bodies, including the Hussein brothers' bodyguard.


title: Uday Hussein

text: Soldiers, who tried to enter the house three times, encountered resistance with AK-47 and grenades in the first two attempts. Uday, Qusay and guard took up positions in a bathroom at the front of the building, where they had a line of fire on the streets and on steps leading up to the first floor; Qusay's son took cover in the bedroom in the back and defended themselves. The American forces then bombed the house many times and fired missiles. The three adults were thought to have died from a TOW missile fired into the front of the house. In the third attempt, the soldiers killed Mustafa after he fired. Mustafa had been the last one to die in the four-hour siege and kept shooting even after Qusay and Uday had been killed, US military officials said.


title: Uday Hussein

text: Brigade commander Colonel Joe Anderson said an Arabic announcement was made at 10:00a.m. on the day and called on people inside to come out peacefully. The answer he received was bullet bombardment. An experienced team of special forces tried to attack the building, but they had to retreat under fire. Four American soldiers were injured. Anderson then ordered his men to fire with 50-caliber heavy machine guns. Uday and Qusay refused to surrender even after a helicopter fired a rocket and the Strike Brigade fired 40 mm grenades at them. Anderson decided that more firepower was necessary to take down the brothers, leading to 12 TOW missiles being fired into the building.


title: Uday Hussein

text: Later, the American command said that dental records had conclusively identified two of the dead men as Saddam Hussein's sons. They also announced that the informant would receive the combined $30 million reward previously offered for their apprehension.


title: Uday Hussein

text: According to Saddam Hussein's memories, when he learned about the death of his sons and grandson, the first thing he said was, "Did they fight?" When he got the answer "Yes", then he said, "Good! Praise be to God, who honored me with their martyrdom and defense of their homeland."


title: Uday Hussein

text: After his sons' deaths, Saddam Hussein recorded a tape and said, During Saddam's interrogation, when George Piro started asking questions about Uday, Piro said, "I was surprised. He didn't show any remorse (about his son's death). He told me that he was, of course, proud of his sons. They died believing, or fighting, for what they believed. I pressed him until Saddam didn't want to hear anymore (the rumors about Uday). He tells me to stop. Basically stop asking these questions. You don't get to pick your kids. You're kind of stuck with what you get." During a different interrogation, when CIA analyst John Nixon confronted Saddam with the rumor that he and Samira had a son named Ali, Saddam painfully said, "If I told you yes, would you kill him like you killed Uday and Qusay?" Saddam also told Nixon he had learned of his sons' deaths through BBC radio.


title: Uday Hussein

text: "Newsweek" claimed that the contents of Uday Hussein's briefcase consisted of Viagra, numerous bottles of cologne, unopened packages of men's underwear, dress shirts, a silk tie and a single condom. The money found with the former Iraqi leader's sons was more than three times the $30 million bounty on their heads by the US Government. They had about $100 million in Iraqi dinars and US dollars. Some claimed Nawaf al-Zaidan, who owned the villa where the men were hiding, had tipped off the Americans to their presence after reportedly sheltering them for 23 days.


title: Uday Hussein

text: The others claimed that Uday and Qusay were tracked down after Uday made a telephone call to an associate that was tracked by the US Central Intelligence Agency. Then the brother of Nawaf, Salah al-Zidani, was shot dead by gunmen while Nawaf was thought to have fled Iraq. According to a former bodyguard for Uday Hussein, after the fall of Baghdad, they planned a guerrilla resistance and Saddam and his sons lived separately in Baghdad after the American occupation, changing houses every two or three days. But Uday continued to drive through the city in nondescript vehicles, and always with a machine pistol, according to the bodyguard. He said Saddam and his sons had been moving freely around Baghdad, often with astonishingly little effort to hide themselves during the war.


title: Uday Hussein

text: At one stage, Uday had driven past a convoy of US soldiers, looking at their faces and quietly insulting the men who now controlled his country. During the war, Uday forsook the alcohol and womanising and concentrated his energies on directing the Fedayeen Saddam.


title: Uday Hussein

text: The U.S. Administration released graphic pictures of the Hussein brothers' bodies. Both brothers had grown long beards to avoid detection, with Uday shaving his head. Afterwards, their bodies were reconstructed by morticians to assure the public that they were deceased. For example, Uday's beard was trimmed and an 8-inch metal bar in his leg from the 1996 assassination attempt was removed. When criticized, the U.S. military's response was to point out that these men were no ordinary combatants, and to express hope that confirmation of the deaths would bring closure to the Iraqi people. Uday was buried in a cemetery in his hometown of Al-Awja near Tikrit, alongside Qusay and Mustafa. In 2017, his son Massoud claimed that the Iranian government stole his body although this was unproven.


title: Uday Hussein

text: Philip Arditti portrayed Uday in the miniseries "House of Saddam". He and Latif were portrayed by Dominic Cooper in "The Devil's Double", based on Latif's memoirs, "I was Saddam's Son", but according to Latif had only been "20% of the truth". Hrach Titizian portrayed him in the play "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo." Sam Vincenti portrayed him in the "Locked Up Abroad" TV-series, in the 2013 episode "Son of Saddam".


title: Sanditon (TV series)

text: Sanditon is a British historical drama television series adapted by Andrew Davies from an unfinished manuscript by Jane Austen and starring Rose Williams, Theo James, and Ben Lloyd-Hughes. Set during the Regency era, the plot follows a young and naive heroine as she navigates the new seaside resort of Sanditon.


title: Sanditon (TV series)

text: Due to the unfinished nature of the novel (Austen completed only eleven chapters), the original work was used for the majority of the first episode, and then Davies used the developed characters to complete the story. The novel is set in a seaside town during a time of social change. At the time of her death in 1817, Austen had completed 24,000 words of the novel.


title: Sanditon (TV series)

text: The series first aired on ITV in the United Kingdom on 25 August 2019 in eight parts, and in the United States on 12 January 2020 on PBS, which supported the production as part of its "Masterpiece" anthology. A second and third series were commissioned in May 2021, as part of a collaboration between PBS and BritBox, with ITV acquiring the series for later linear broadcast.


title: Sanditon (TV series)

text: A chance accident brings Charlotte Heywood to Sanditon, a seaside resort on the cusp of dramatic change. Spirited and unconventional, Charlotte is initially keen to experience everything the town has to offer but is then shocked by its scheming and ambitious inhabitants and intrigued by the secrets they share. When Charlotte is tactlessly forthright about the family of enthusiastic entrepreneur Tom Parker, she immediately clashes with his handsome but wild younger brother Sidney. Amidst the rival suitors and unexpected danger, can Charlotte and Sidney see past each other's flaws and find love?


title: Sanditon (TV series)

text: Series (Season) 2 and 3 were commissioned by the U.S. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) for its "Masterpiece" anthology series. Season 2 premiered on 20 March 2022 in the US and Series 2 will air on 22 July 2022 in the UK.


title: Sanditon (TV series)

text: Many of the Sanditon scenes were filmed in Somerset, including the seaside towns of Clevedon, Brean and Weston-super-Mare. Dyrham Park near Bath, Somerset was the location for Sanditon House. The bridge at Iford Manor was used in the first episode. Most of the interior filming was on interior and exterior sets built at The Bottle Yard Studios in Bristol.


title: Sanditon (TV series)

text: Before the first series premiered in the United States, ITV cancelled it in December 2019. With the help of Masterpiece (PBS) and fans of the show, "Sanditon" was able to fundraise enough money to continue the series. Series two was announced to be released on 20 March 2022, followed by a third series. Three main actors from season one, Theo James, Mark Stanley, and Leo Suter had all moved on to new projects and did not return for season two.


title: Sanditon (TV series)

text: With Theo James’ (Sidney Parker) departure from the series, new cast members were announced, with Rose Williams reprising her role as Charlotte Heywood. Season 2 began filming in July 2021. Season 2 premiered on PBS on March 20, 2022 and Series 2 aired on ITV on 22 July 2022.


title: Sanditon (TV series)

text: Critical reception has been mixed. Some UK media outlets reported that viewers were shocked at the depictions of sex and nudity in the opening episode, considering it to be untrue to the works of Jane Austen. Many viewers critiqued the ending as unusual and very "un-Austen-like". Viewers claimed Austen would have liked a happy ending for all the characters, as she has happy endings in all of her stories; however, this could have been a set up for a second season.


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: James Bond is a fictional character created by the British journalist and novelist Ian Fleming in 1952. The literary character appeared in a series of twelve novels and two short story collections written by Fleming and a number of continuation novels and spin-off works after Fleming's death in 1964. There have been twenty-seven films in total, produced and released between 1962 and 2021.


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: Fleming portrayed Bond as a tall, athletic, handsome secret agent in his thirties or forties; he has several vices, including drinking, smoking, gambling, automobiles and womanising. He is an exceptional marksman, and he is skilled in unarmed combat, skiing, swimming and golf. While Bond kills without hesitation or regret, he usually kills only when carrying out orders, while acting in self-defence, and occasionally as revenge.


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: American actor Barry Nelson was the first to portray Bond, in a 1954 "Climax!" television adaptation, "Casino Royale" (in which Peter Lorre played the villain).


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: In 1961, Eon Productions began work on "Dr. No", an adaptation of the 1958 novel of the same name. The result was a film that spawned a series of twenty-five films produced by Eon Productions and two independent films. After considering "refined" English actors such as Cary Grant and David Niven, the producers cast Sean Connery as Bond in the film. Fleming was appalled at the selection of the uncouth 31-year-old Scottish actor, considering him the antithesis of his character. However, Connery's physical prowess and sexual magnetism became closely identified with the character, with Fleming ultimately changing his view on Connery and incorporating aspects of his portrayal into the books.


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: Seven actors in total have portrayed Bond in film. Following Connery's portrayal, David Niven, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig have assumed the role. These screen versions have retained many traits from Fleming's depiction, although some of Bond's less politically correct traits have been dropped, such as his treatment of women and smoking. These changes first took place in 1995's "GoldenEye". The addition of Judi Dench as Bond's superior "M" in a professional position of power and Bond no longer smoking showed Eon's attitudes changing with the times. Despite their depicting the same character, there have been notable differences among the portrayals. Daniel Craig has been the incumbent Bond in the Eon series for the longest time although not the most films. He portrayed the part for a fifth time in "No Time to Die", which was released in September 2021.


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: A Secret Service agent, James Bond was a composite based on a number of commandos that author Ian Fleming had known during his service in the Naval Intelligence Division during World War II, to whom he added his own style and a number of his own tastes. Fleming appropriated his character's name from the American ornithologist of the same name. Bond's code number 007 comes from one of British naval intelligence's key achievements of World War I: the breaking of the German diplomatic code. One of the German documents cracked and read by the British was the Zimmermann Telegram, which was coded 0075, and which was one of the factors that led to the US entering the war as an ally against the Central Powers. Subsequently, if material was graded 00 it meant it was highly classified. Fleming later told a journalist: "When I was at the Admiralty ... all the top-secret signals had the double-0 prefix ... and I decided to borrow it for Bond."


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: Although James Bond is in his mid-to-late thirties, he does not age in Fleming's stories. Fleming biographer Andrew Lycett noted that, "within the first few pages [of "Casino Royale"] Ian had introduced most of Bond's idiosyncrasies and trademarks", which included his looks, his Bentley and his smoking and drinking habits: Bond's penchant for alcohol runs throughout the series of books and he smokes up to 70 cigarettes a day.


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: Fleming decided to underplay Bond's character, observing: "Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral figure." On another occasion, he reinforced his point: "When I wrote the first one in 1953, I wanted Bond to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened; I wanted him to be a blunt instrument."


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: Sean Connery was the first actor to portray Bond in film in "Dr. No" (1962). A Scottish amateur bodybuilder, he had come to the attention of the Bond film producers after several appearances in British films from the late 1950s. At a muscular , Connery was initially met with disapproval from Fleming, who believed he was an overgrown stuntman lacking the finesse and elegance to play James Bond; he envisaged a suave actor, such as David Niven, playing the role. Producer Albert R. Broccoli—known to all as Cubby—disagreed with Fleming's view, later commenting that "I wanted a ballsy guy ... put a bit of veneer over that tough Scottish hide and you've got Fleming's Bond instead of all the mincing poofs we had applying for the job". Eon's choice of Connery was also based on his looks and sex appeal, an appeal that would later be echoed by Honor Blackman (who played Pussy Galore), who said, after appearing with Connery in "Goldfinger", "He was exceedingly handsome, virile and sexy and that really was the tenor of what the script was always trying to display". After Connery was chosen, director Terence Young took the actor to his tailor and hairdresser, and introduced him to the high life, restaurants, casinos and women of London. In the words of Bond writer Raymond Benson, Young educated the actor "in the ways of being dapper, witty, and above all, cool".


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: Connery's interpretation of the character differed considerably from Fleming's, being more promiscuous and cold-blooded than the literary version. Connery described Bond as "a complete sensualist—senses highly tuned, awake to everything, quite amoral. I particularly like him because he thrives on conflict". Academic James Chapman observed that, for "Dr. No", Connery's interpretation of the character, although not complete, showed the actor "should be credited with having established a new style of performance: a British screen hero in the manner of an American leading man". In his second film, "From Russia with Love", Connery looked less nervous and edgy; he gave "a relaxed, wry performance of subtle wit and style". Pfeiffer and Worrall noted that Connery "personified James Bond with such perfection that even Ian Fleming ... admitted that it was difficult imagining anyone else in the part"; academic Jeremy Black agreed, and declared that "Connery made the role his own and created the Bond audience for the cinema". Black also observed that Connery gave the character a "spare, pared-down character ... [with] inner bleakness along with the style". Connery played Bond with "the right mix of cool charisma, violence and arrogance ... against which all others are judged". Raymond Benson perceived that Connery "embodies a ruggedness and an intense screen presence this transcends any preconceived notions about the character". Benson also noted that Bond was witty, but contains "an assured toughness that epitomises the machismo male". Roger Moore agreed with Black and Benson, commenting that "Sean "was" Bond. He created Bond. He embodied Bond and because of Sean, Bond became an instantly recognisable character the world over—he was rough, tough, mean and witty ... he was a bloody good 007". However, despite his charm and virility, Connery was characteristically laconic in his delivery. Christopher Bray says of him that "in his single-minded, laconic, mocking, self-sufficient vanity, Connery's Bond was the epitome of sixties consumer culture".


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: Interviewed by Oriana Fallaci in 1965, Connery identified where he had altered the character for the films, saying "I said to the producers that the character had one defect, there was no humor about him; to get him accepted, they'd have to let me play him tongue-in-cheek, so people could laugh. They agreed, and there you are: today Bond is accepted to such an extent that even philosophers take the trouble to analyze him, even intellectuals enjoy defending him or attacking him. And even while they're laughing at him, people take him terribly seriously". Connery went on to add that "Bond is important: this invincible superman that every man would like to copy, that every woman would like to conquer, this dream we all have of survival. And then one can't help liking him". After the pressures of five films in six years, Connery left the role after the 1967 film "You Only Live Twice" saying, "It became a terrible pressure, like living in a goldfish bowl ... that was part of the reason I wanted to be finished with Bond. Also I had become completely identified with it, and it became very wearing and very boring".


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: After a hiatus of one film—"On Her Majesty's Secret Service", in which George Lazenby played Bond—Connery returned to the role for "Diamonds Are Forever" after David Picker, the head of United Artists, made it clear that Connery was to be enticed back to the role and that money was no object. When approached about resuming the role of Bond, Connery demanded—and received—a fee of £1.25 million (£ million in pounds), 12.5% of the gross profits and, as a further enticement, United Artists offered to back two films of his choice. His performance received mixed reviews, with Raymond Benson considering that Connery "looks weary and bored ... he is overweight, slow-moving, and doesn't seem to be trying to create a credible character". Despite that, Benson considers that Connery "still radiates more screen presence than Roger Moore or George Lazenby". On the other hand, Pauline Kael said "Connery's James Bond is less lecherous than before and less foppish—and he's better this way".


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: Producer Jack Schwartzman moved ahead with a non-Eon Bond film in the early 1980s, following the controversy over the 1961 novel "Thunderball" and the subsequent long legal battle; the result was "Never Say Never Again". Connery accepted an offer to play Bond once more, asking for (and receiving) a fee of $3 million ($ million in dollars), a percentage of the profits, as well as casting, director and script approval. The script has several references to Bond's advancing years, playing on Connery being 52 years of age at the time of filming. David Robinson, reviewing the film for "The Times", considered that "Connery ... is back, looking hardly a day older or thicker, and still outclassing every other exponent of the role, in the goodnatured throwaway with which he parries all the sex and violence on the way". In 2003, Bond, as portrayed by Connery, was selected as the third-greatest hero in cinema history by the American Film Institute.


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: When Sean Connery had been cast in November 1961, David Niven had been Fleming's choice for the role; the actor reflected the author's image of the character. In 1965 producer Charles Feldman signed Niven to play Sir James Bond for "Casino Royale", a film not made by Eon Productions. Connery and Peter Sellers had both turned down the role. Niven was 56 when he played Bond and his characterisation was that of an elderly man who had won the Victoria Cross at the siege of Mafeking, had a daughter by his lover, the spy Mata Hari, played Claude Debussy on the piano, ate royal jelly and cultivated black roses. The concept of Bond is that once Niven's Bond retired, his name and 007 designation was passed to another agent to keep the legend alive; James Chapman notes that the implication was that the "other Bond" was that played by Connery.


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: Chapman considered the concept of an elderly Bond interesting, with Bond referring to Connery's Bond as a "sexual acrobat who leaves a trail of beautiful dead women behind like blown roses". In line with the literary Bond, Niven's character drives a vintage Bentley, rather than the Aston Martin favoured by Connery. Bond scholar Steven Jay Rubin thought Niven perfectly cast as the retired Bond, and saw him as "a throw-back to the hell-for-leather adventure heroes" of the character, which paralleled Niven's own life and career. Barnes and Hearn describe this as a "perfectly fair interpretation", given the way Niven approached the role, while Raymond Benson thinks casting Niven was "intelligent". Jeremy Black questioned the use of Niven in the role, observing that he did not seem to be a killer, and did not have the "disconcerting edge" that Connery had.


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: With the departure of Connery after "You Only Live Twice" (1967), Broccoli and director Peter R. Hunt chose little-known Australian actor George Lazenby (born 1939), to be the third major actor (following Sean Connery and David Niven) to play the role of Bond. He first came to their attention in a Fry's Chocolate Cream advertisement. Lazenby dressed the part by sporting several sartorial Bond elements such as a Rolex Submariner wristwatch and a Savile Row suit (ordered, but uncollected, by Connery), and going to Connery's barber at the Dorchester Hotel in London. Lazenby consolidated his claim during a screen test, when he accidentally punched a professional wrestler, who was acting as stunt coordinator, in the face, impressing Broccoli with his ability to display aggression. Lazenby never signed a contract, with negotiations dragging on during production, and he was subsequently unfortunately convinced by his agent Ronan O'Rahilly that the secret agent character image would be archaic in the liberated 1970s; as a result he left the role of Agent 007 even before the release of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" in 1969. For his performance as Bond, Lazenby was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor at the following year's 27th Golden Globe Awards in February 1970.


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: Critical opinion was split about Lazenby; he has been considered to have been the worst Bond, and has variously been described as "laconic and humourless", "a little stiff" and "annoying and smug". Derek Malcolm of "The Guardian" was dismissive of Lazenby's performance, saying that he "is not a good actor and though I never thought Sean Connery was all that stylish either, there are moments when one yearns for a little of his louche panache". "The New York Times" critic AH Weiler also weighed in against Lazenby, saying that "Lazenby, if not a spurious Bond, is merely a casual, pleasant, satisfactory replacement". Pauline Kael called Lazenby "quite a dull fellow" in her otherwise positive review in "The New Yorker" magazine. However, Peter R. Hunt, director of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", stated that Lazenby should have undertaken more films in the role, saying "he would have made a very credible Bond and been very good indeed".


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: Smith and Lavington consider that Lazenby "had chosen to play Bond the same way as Sean Connery had, with perhaps more humility and humanity"; they went on to say that "Lazenby's inexperience rarely shows" in the film, and that "he invariably rises to the occasion". Alexander Walker in the "Evening Standard" of London, said that, "The truth is that George Lazenby is almost as good a James Bond as the man whom he humorously referred to in this film as 'this never happened to the other fellow'?!. Lazenby's voice is more suave than sexy-sinister and he could pass for the other fellow's twin on the shady side of the casino. Bond is now definitely all set for the Seventies". Judith Crist of "New York Magazine" commented that, "This time around there's less suavity and a no-nonsense muscularity and maleness to the role via the handsome Mr. Lazenby". Feminist film critic Molly Haskell wrote an approving review in the "Village Voice": "Lazenby ... seems more comfortable in a wet tuxedo than a dry martini, more at ease as a donnish genealogist than reading (or playing) "Playboy" magazine, and who actually dares to think that one woman who is his equal is better than a thousand part-time playmates".


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: James Chapman considers that Lazenby looks the part of Bond, identifying his athleticism and "arrogant swagger", which "convey the snobbery of the character". Chapman also distinguished a more vulnerable and human characterisation in Bond—feeling exhausted and falling in love—as opposed to the "heroic superman" of Connery. Brian Fairbanks noted that ""OHMSS" gives us a James Bond capable of vulnerability, a man who can show fear and is not immune to heartbreak. Lazenby is that man, and his performance is superb". Ben Macintyre also observed that of all the Bonds, Lazenby's characterisation was closest to that of Fleming's original literary character envisioned in the 1950s era of spy novels.


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: After "Diamonds Are Forever", Broccoli and Saltzman tried to convince Sean Connery to return as Bond, but he declined. After considering Jeremy Brett, Michael Billington and Julian Glover, the two producers finally turned to Roger Moore, whom they had previously discussed for "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", but who had been unavailable, and he was ultimately cast to play Bond in "Live and Let Die". At the time Moore was an established television actor, known for his performances as Simon Templar in "The Saint" and Lord Brett Sinclair in "The Persuaders!", in both of which he played a "charming, debonair, international playboy". When playing Bond, Moore tried not to imitate either Connery or his previous roles, and screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz fitted the screenplay around Moore's persona by giving more comedy scenes and a light-hearted feel to Bond, an approach that led Raymond Benson to describe Moore's Bond as "a rather smarmy, eyebrow-raising international playboy who never seemed to get hurt".


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: Film writer Andrew Spicer considered Roger Moore the most elegant and mannerly of the Bonds, with the voice and style of an English debonair country gentleman. Benson agreed, stating that Moore was, "too nice and well-mannered to be a James Bond of any real substance", while Doug Pratt said that "the writers worked out an amenable personality for Roger Moore and found a breezy balance between comedy and action". To make Moore's character appear tougher, a Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum — which at the time was associated with the macho image of the Clint Eastwood character, Dirty Harry — was chosen for Moore to use in "Live and Let Die" rather than Bond's usual choice of Walther PPK.


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: Spicer says "Roger Moore re-created Bond as an old-style debonair hero, more polished and sophisticated than Connery's incarnation, using the mocking insouciance he had perfected in his role as Simon Templar ... Moore's humour was a throwaway, and certainly in the later films, verged on self-parody. It was an essential strand in the increasingly tongue-in-cheek direction of the series which became more light-hearted, knowing and playfully intertextual". Chapman noted that Moore was the most comedic of the Bonds, with a more light-hearted approach to playing the character with a mocking wit and innuendo. Additionally, Moore's one-liners were delivered in a way to suggest that the violence inherent in the films was a joke, as opposed to Connery's, which was used to mitigate the violence. Moore explained his approach to the humour by saying "to me, the Bond situations are so ridiculous ... I mean, this man is supposed to be a spy, and yet everybody knows he's a spy ... it's outrageous. So you have to treat the humour outrageously as well".


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: Pauline Kael was a fairly vocal critic of Moore's, dismissing him as an "iceberg" in "The Man with the Golden Gun". In reviewing "For Your Eyes Only", she wrote "Roger Moore is Bond again, and his idea of Bond's imperturbable cool is the same as playing dead". Reviewing "Moonraker", she wrote "Roger Moore is dutiful and passive as Bond; his clothes are neatly pressed and he shows up for work, like an office manager who is turning into dead wood but hanging on to collect his pension". Only in "The Spy Who Loved Me", one of Kael's favourite Bond films, did she praise him describing him as self-effacing: "Moore gets the chance to look scaredan emotion that suits him and makes him more likable".


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: A number of Moore's personal preferences were transferred into his characterisation of Bond: his taste for Cuban cigars and his wearing of safari suits were assigned to the character. Moore's use of cigars in his early films put him in contrast to the cigarette-smoking Connery, Lazenby and Dalton. By the time of Moore's fifth film, "For Your Eyes Only", released in 1981, his characterisation had come to represent an old-fashioned character, in contrast to the fashionability Connery had brought to the role in the 1960s.


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: In 1985 Moore appeared in his seventh and final film, "A View to a Kill"; he was 57 (he appeared alongside co-star Tanya Roberts, who was 30). Critics focused on Moore's age: "The Washington Post" said "Moore isn't just long in the tooth – he's got tusks, and what looks like an eye job has given him the pie-eyed blankness of a zombie. He's not believable anymore in the action sequences, even less so in the romantic scenes". When he was cast for the film, Moore recalled that he felt "a bit long in the tooth", and in December 2007 admitted that he "was only about four hundred years too old for the part". Like Connery, Moore appeared as Bond in seven films; by the time he retired in 1985, he was the oldest actor to play 007 in the Eon series, and his Bond films had earned over at the box office.


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: With the retirement of Roger Moore in 1985, a search for a new actor to play Bond took place that saw a number of actors, including Sam Neill, Pierce Brosnan and Timothy Dalton, audition for the role in 1986. Bond co-producer Michael G. Wilson, director John Glen, Dana and Barbara Broccoli "were impressed with Sam Neill and very much wanted to use him", although Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli was not sold on the actor. Dalton and Brosnan were both considered by Eon, but after Brosnan was eventually ruled out by his Remington Steele contract, Dalton was appointed in August 1986 on a salary of $5.2 million. When he was either 24 or 25 years old Dalton had discussed playing Bond with Broccoli, but decided he was too young to accept the role, thinking Bond should be portrayed as being between 35 and 40 years old. In preparing for the role, Dalton, a green-eyed, dark haired, slender, classically trained Shakespearean actor, was keen to portray the character as accurately as possible, reading up extensively on the books before his role in "The Living Daylights" (1987).


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: Dalton's Bond was a serious one: dark, cold, stern, ruthless, showing little humour, and focused as a killer with little time for fun and indulgence. Dalton's interpretation of the character came from his "desire to see a darker Bond", one that was "less of a womaniser, tougher and closer to the darker character Ian Fleming wrote about". James Chapman also considered Dalton closer to Fleming's Bond than the previous actors, writing that Dalton was "clearly less comfortable ... with the witty asides and one-liners ... so he becomes something closer to the Bond of the books, who rarely develops a sense of humour". When reviewing "Licence to Kill", Iain Johnstone of "The Sunday Times" disagreed, declaring that "any vestiges of the gentleman spy ... by Ian Fleming" have now gone; he went on to say that "this character is remarkably close both in deed and action to the eponymous hero of the new "Batman" film".


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: Not all viewers were taken with Dalton. Jay Scott of "The Globe and Mail" was entirely dismissive. "The new Bond has been widely described in feature stories as a throwback to the Ian Fleming original (studying the Fleming novels, Dalton was pleased to discover that Bond was a human being, he says), and that may be true, if the Fleming original lacked charm, sex appeal and wit. Timothy Dalton's Bond is a serious bloke who swallows his words and approaches his job with responsibility and humanity, and eschews promiscuity – Dirtless Harry. You get the feeling that on his off nights, he might curl up with the "Reader's Digest" and catch an episode of "Moonlighting" – he'd try to memorize the jokes – before nodding off under the influence of Ovaltine. The British reviews of "The Living Daylights" have been laudatory, perhaps because this Bond is the most British of all, if British is to be understood as a synonym for reserved".


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: Raymond Benson noted that Dalton "purposely played Bond as a ruthless and serious man with very little of the wit displayed by Connery, Lazenby or Moore", and considered him "the most accurate and literal interpretation of the role ... ever seen on screen". His character also reflected a degree of moral ambiguity; in "Licence to Kill", for instance, he becomes a rogue agent, while Dalton himself saw the character as a "man, not a superhuman; a man who is beset with moral confusions and apathies and uncertainties, and who is often very frightened and nervous and tense". Smith and Lavington observed that during Dalton's portrayal in "Licence to Kill", Bond appeared "self-absorbed ... reckless, brutal, prone to nervous laughter and ... probably insane, or at least seriously disturbed. In the light of "Licence to Kill", one academic, Martin Willis, referred to Dalton's Bond as a "muscular vigilante". Steven Jay Rubin noted that Dalton's films had "a hard-edged reality and some unflinching violent episodes that were better suited to Dalton's more realistic approach to the character". Rubin considered Dalton's portrayal "Fleming's Bond ... the suffering Bond". In contrast to the previous incarnations of the character, Smith and Lavington identified Dalton's humour as "brooding rather than flippant"; combined with his heavy smoking, they considered him "an effective leading man". Although Bond screenwriter Richard Maibaum called Sean Connery the best Bond, he considered Dalton the best actor of the four he worked with. Screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz agreed with this view, praising Dalton's "androgynous... and evil" screen persona. Director John Glen also felt that Dalton was the best actor who portrayed Bond, and that he was ahead of his time, noting the comparisons between Daniel Craig's incarnation to that of Dalton's. Dalton was voted the second-best Bond, behind Connery, in a publicly conducted poll by "Radio Times" in anticipation to the 25th Bond film, "No Time to Die". Dalton's films did not perform as well at the box office as most of the previous films. Commentators such as "Screen International" considered the Bond series had run its course in the age of series such as Indiana Jones and "Lethal Weapon". Edward P. Comentale observed that "Dalton, for all his occasional flat northern vowels, was probably too much the stage actor to be convincing as an action hero in the age of Willis, Schwarzenegger and Stallone". After just two films—"The Living Daylights" and "Licence to Kill"—litigation ensued over the licensing of the Bond catalogue, delaying what would have been Dalton's third film by several years. His six-year contract expired in 1993 and he left the series in 1994.


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: After Timothy Dalton retired from the Bond role in 1994, Eon turned to the actor they had considered after "A View to a Kill": Pierce Brosnan. He was offered a three-film contract, with an option on a fourth; his salary for his first film, "GoldenEye", was $4 million, which rose to $16.5 million for his fourth and final outing, "Die Another Day". Brosnan had first met Broccoli on the set of "For Your Eyes Only", when Brosnan's wife, Cassandra Harris, was appearing in the film as Countess Lisl von Schlaf, and the couple lunched with Broccoli during filming. Brosnan went on to play a criminal-turned-private investigator in "Remington Steele" in the 1980s, where he captured some of the traits of previous Bonds in playing the role: like Moore, he exemplified a high degree of suavity, elegance, charm and wit, but displayed a masculinity and grittiness on occasion reminiscent of Connery's Bond, both successfully "combine the character's Englishness with a classless internationalism that is highly knowing". Andrew Spicer says that "Brosnan's frame carries the 'Armani look' with its refined understated Englishness, to perfection. His lithe, sinuous athleticism is well suited to the fast-paced action and state-of-the-art gadgetry that retains the series' core appeal". James Chapman also considered Brosnan's appearance striking, saying the actor had "old-fashioned, darkly handsome matinee idol looks".


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: With Brosnan, the Bond writers knew that because of the changes in public attitudes, he could not be as overtly sexual and dominant over women as Connery's Bond, and was denounced by M in "GoldenEye" as a "sexist, misogynist dinosaur, a relic of the Cold War". Brosnan was seen by many as the quintessential James Bond in appearance and manner; displaying an air of coolness, elegance and a grace which made him believable as an international playboy, if not purely as an assassin. John G. Stackhouse, for instance, argues that it is preposterous that any man as strikingly handsome as Brosnan, or Connery, could be a secret agent, saying, "When Sean Connery or Pierce Brosnan enters a room, everyone notices. Thus it is ridiculous to suppose that James Bond, looking like that, could be a secret agent for longer than about two seconds".


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: Brosnan's Bond was introduced in "GoldenEye"; James Chapman argues that the film works his portrayal of Bond into the history of the others in the series through the post-credits sequence use of the , previously seen in "Goldfinger" and "Thunderball", "thus immediately evoking the memory of [Sean] Connery". Brosnan's characterisation of Bond was seen by Jeremy Black as being "closer to the Fleming novels than Moore ... yet he is also lighter and less intense than Dalton". Black also commented that the shift in character in the first three films reflected changing social opinions, with Bond not smoking. Brosnan was clear he wanted to change Bond's smoking habit, saying "I don't give a damn about everyone's perception of the character: I think smoking causes cancer therefore he doesn't smoke", although he did smoke a Cuban cigar in "Die Another Day". Brosnan continued with the use of humour prevalent with other portrayals, and provided a "mix of action and danger threaded through with the right amount of wit and humour"; Smith and Lavington saw the humour largely as puns that were "flippant, but not crass".


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: After four films in the role, Brosnan stated he wished to do one final Bond film. Although plans were made for a film to be released in 2004, negotiations stalled and Brosnan announced his intention to leave the franchise in July 2004.


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: On 14 October 2005, Eon Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Sony Pictures Entertainment introduced at a press conference in London Daniel Craig as the sixth actor to portray Bond in the Eon series. A tuxedo- and lifejacket-clad Craig arrived via a Royal Navy speedboat. Craig accepted the role based on the strength of the script for "Casino Royale"; he later recalled that "once I sat down and read the story, I just thought that I wanted to tell [it] ... I'm a big Bond fan, and I love what he represents". Significant controversy followed the decision, with some critics and fans expressing doubt the producers had made the right choice. Throughout the entire production period, Internet campaigns such as danielcraigisnotbond.com expressed their dissatisfaction and threatened to boycott the film in protest. Craig, unlike previous actors, was not considered by the protesters to fit the tall, dark, handsome and charismatic image of Bond to which viewers had been accustomed. Many disparagingly called him "James Blonde", believing the blond-haired, blue-eyed Craig far from the traditional tall, dark and suave actors who had earlier portrayed him. The "Daily Mirror" ran a front-page news story critical of Craig, with the headline, "The Name's Bland – James Bland".


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: Craig first played Bond in the 2006 film "Casino Royale", an adaptation of Fleming's novel of the same name and a reboot of the Eon series, which saw Bond earn his 00 status. Despite the negative press on his appointment, Craig was widely praised by critics and former Bonds after the release of the film, many of whom believed he was the first actor to truly nail the character as portrayed by Fleming. Todd McCarthy, reviewing the film for "Variety", considered that "Craig comes closer to the author's original conception of this exceptionally long-lived male fantasy figure than anyone since early Sean Connery", and he went on to say that "Craig once and for all claims the character as his own". Steven Spielberg, who had directed Craig in the 2005 film "Munich", called him "the perfect 21st-century Bond".


title: Portrayal of James Bond in film

text: Paul Arendt, writing for the BBC, agreed, observing that "Daniel Craig is not a good Bond. He's a "great" Bond. Specifically, he is 007 as conceived by Ian Fleming—a professional killing machine, a charming, cold-hearted patriot with a taste for luxury. Craig is the first actor to really nail 007's defining characteristic: he's an absolute swine". James Chapman commented on the realism and violence in the film, noting that Bond is seen to seriously bleed for the first time in the series; Chapman also identified a number of violent scenes which make "Casino Royale" notable in the series. In 2012 "Skyfall" was released; it was Craig's third outing as 007. Reviewing the film, Philip French, writing in "The Observer", considered that Craig managed to "get out of the shadow of Connery", while the "New Statesman" thought that he had "relaxed into Bond without losing any steeliness".


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: Thomas P. Wiseau ( or ) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for writing, producing, directing, and starring in the 2003 film "The Room", which has been described by many critics as one of the worst films ever made and has gained cult status. He also co-directed the 2004 documentary "Homeless in America" and created the 2015 sitcom "The Neighbors".


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: Many details about Wiseau's personal life (including his age, source of wealth, and background) remain unverified, and as such have been the subject of intense fan speculation and various conflicting reports. The 2013 non-fiction book "The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made" by Greg Sestero, as well as its 2017 film adaptation, chronicle the making of "The Room" and Wiseau's life behind the scenes.


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: Wiseau is very secretive about his early life. In various interviews, he has claimed to have lived in France "a long time ago"; claimed he grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana; and described having "an entire family" in Chalmette, Louisiana. In a 2010 interview with Crikey, Wiseau gave an age which would indicate he was born in 1968 or 1969, but friend Greg Sestero claims in his 2013 memoir "The Disaster Artist" that his brother's girlfriend obtained copies of Wiseau's U.S. immigration papers and found that Wiseau was born "much earlier" than he claimed, in an Eastern Bloc country in the mid- to late-1950s.


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: In his 2016 documentary "Room Full of Spoons", longtime associate of Wiseau Rick Harper claims to have researched Wiseau's background and concluded that he is Polish and originally from the city of Poznań, and that he was born in 1955. Wiseau confirmed publicly for the first time in November 2017 that he is originally from Europe: "Long story short, I grew up in Europe a long time ago, but I'm American and very proud of it."


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: In "The Disaster Artist", Sestero asserts that Wiseau revealed to him—through "fantastical, sad, self-contradictory stories"—that as a young adult he moved to Strasbourg, where he adopted the name "Pierre" and worked as a restaurant dishwasher. According to Sestero, Wiseau described being wrongfully arrested following a drug raid at a hostel and being traumatised by his mistreatment by the French police, which led him to immigrate to the U.S. to purportedly live with an aunt and uncle in Chalmette. These claims have not been verified.


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: Sestero (the only source Wiseau is alleged to have told this to) asserts that after Wiseau had lived in Louisiana for some amount of time, he subsequently moved to San Francisco, California, where he worked as a street vendor selling toys to tourists near Fisherman's Wharf. Wiseau supposedly gained the nickname "The Birdman" for his bird toys, which were only popular in Europe at the time; this led him to legally change his name when he became a U.S. citizen to Thomas Pierre Wiseau, taking the French word for "bird" ("oiseau") and replacing the O with the W of his birth name.


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: Around this time, Wiseau also claims to have obtained a degree in psychology from Laney Community College in Oakland, asserting that he had graduated on the honor roll.


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: According to Sestero, Wiseau claims to have worked a variety of jobs in the San Francisco Bay Area, including restaurant busboy and hospital worker, and ran a business called Street Fashions USA that sold irregular blue jeans at discounted prices. He then claims to have eventually purchased and rented out large retail spaces in and around San Francisco and Los Angeles, making him independently wealthy. Sestero states that the idea of Wiseau becoming wealthy so quickly via the jobs he claims to have had is so unlikely that he himself finds it impossible to believe. Sestero suggests on several occasions that many people involved with the creation of "The Room" believed the film to be part of some money laundering scheme for organized crime, but Sestero himself considers this unlikely.


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: Wiseau claims to have been involved in a near-fatal car crash in California after another driver ran a red light and struck Wiseau's vehicle; as a result, Wiseau was hospitalized for several weeks. Sestero suggests that this incident was the turning point in Wiseau's life that led him to pursue his dreams of becoming an actor and director, ambitions that he had long neglected while pursuing financial security.


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: Wiseau has stated that he has been influenced by the films "The Guns of Navarone" and "Citizen Kane", and specifically the actors James Dean and Marlon Brando. According to Sestero, Wiseau's obsession with James Dean was so intense that he often visited a Los Angeles restaurant owned by a former acquaintance of Dean, and that several lines of dialogue in "The Room" (including the infamous cry "You are tearing me apart, Lisa!") were based on lines from "Rebel Without a Cause". Wiseau also cites his cinematic influences as including Tennessee Williams, Orson Welles, Elizabeth Taylor, and Alfred Hitchcock.


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: Sestero notes that the actor had been "trying to bust in" to Hollywood since the late 1980s, and recounts being shown an undated VHS tape of Wiseau in Vincent Chase's acting class (with whom Wiseau had a contentious relationship). He was apparently enrolled in Chase's program around 1994. Wiseau also allegedly attended film classes at Los Angeles Community College.


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: During this time, Wiseau directed a student film, "Robbery Doesn't Pay", shot with a super 8 camera in the Westwood section of Los Angeles. The film, which does not star Wiseau, has been described by Sestero as "just a dude walking around looking at cars to the 'Blue Monday' by Orgy [cover]"


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: Wiseau's film "The Room" was released in 2003. Its budget was $6 million, the financing of which has remained a source of intrigue. The film was based on an unpublished 540-page novel written by Wiseau himself. The movie was immediately lambasted by critics, but ultimately became a "cult classic" with late-night showings at theaters around the world.


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: Audience members typically arrive dressed up to look like their favorite characters, interact with the dialogue on screen, and throw plastic cutlery and footballs around the theater in reference to on-screen events. This attention grew into what was dubbed "The Room"s 2010–2011 "Love is Blind" International Tour, with the movie being screened in the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Australia and India, among other locations. Wiseau appeared at many of these events, posing for photographs with fans and often addressing the audience before screenings.


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: In the 2017 film adaptation of Greg Sestero's autobiography "The Disaster Artist", James Franco portrays Wiseau, for which he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Wiseau approved of the choice, as well as that of Dave Franco as Sestero. Wiseau makes a cameo appearance in a post-credits scene as Henry.


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: In 2004, Wiseau produced and appeared in a short documentary, "Homeless in America". In 2010 he starred in a 15-minute parody horror film entitled "The House That Drips Blood on Alex".


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: In September 2015, Wiseau expressed enthusiasm in directing a sequel to "Fantastic Four" (2015), having personal admiration for the film.


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: He was featured as the villain Linton Kitano in "", the sequel to the cult classic "Samurai Cop". In October 2016, it was announced that Wiseau and Sestero would star in a movie called "Best F(r)iends". The movie was written by Sestero and was shot in secret in Los Angeles. The film premiered September 4, 2017 at the Prince Charles Cinema. The first volume of the film was released on March 30, 2017, and volume two was released on June 1 of that same year.


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: In early February 2019, before a screening of "The Room" at the Prince Charles Cinema, Wiseau revealed a teaser trailer for his second directorial effort, "Big Shark". The trailer features Wiseau, Sestero, Isaiah LaBorde, and a big shark. In a Q&A session afterwards, Sestero said the film was intended to premiere in September 2019, but could not be finished on time. Wiseau will also star alongside Greg Sestero in an upcoming UFO film.


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: In 2008, Wiseau produced and appeared in the pilot episode of a television series called "The Neighbors". A trailer for "The Neighbors" showed a series of clips set in an office. The show's website, accompanied by trailers and announcements at "The Room" showings in 2015, stated that the show was coming to various media distribution outlets in March 2015. The first four episodes were released on Hulu on March 14, 2015. Two additional episodes were released two months later, on May 26.


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: In 2009, Wiseau guest-starred in an episode of "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!" titled "Tommy", wherein Wiseau guest-directed a segment titled "Pigman". After Wiseau expressed a desire to work with the duo again, Tim and Eric announced in 2009 that they were developing two series for him.


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: In 2010, Wiseau appeared in Marc Wootton's 2010 comedy TV series "La La Land". In a mockumentary format, Wootton's character, Gary Garner, accepted a role in Wiseau's present production at the time. Wiseau kicked Wootton off the set after Wootton jokingly alluded to using production funds to buy instant lotto tickets.


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: In 2011, Wiseau starred in a YouTube web series, "Tommy Explains it All", in which he explained his views on various topics ranging from "Citizen Kane" to the art of kissing. Also in 2011, Wiseau starred in segments on Machinima.com called "The Tommy Wi-Show". The segments show Wiseau playing various video games, such as "Mortal Kombat" and "", and offering commentary. In 2019, Wiseau starred in the pilot for an animated webseries titled "SpaceWorld."


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: Wiseau remains private about the details of his personal and family life. In 2017, he told "Entertainment Weekly", "I think private life should be private life, the professional life should be the professional life, and that's where I stand, and I have right ["sic"] to do that." During a 2016 interview with James Franco, Wiseau referred to Greg Sestero as his "best friend". In a December 2017 interview with Howard Stern, he claimed to speak fluent French and said he is a Catholic.


title: Tommy Wiseau

text: In early 2020, Wiseau was ordered by a Canadian judge to pay $550,000 in lost revenue and $200,000 in punitive damages to the makers of the documentary "Room Full of Spoons", after Wiseau tried to block the film's release, feeling it depicted him in a negative way.


title: Suspiria (2018 film)

text: Suspiria is a 2018 supernatural horror film directed by Luca Guadagnino with a screenplay by David Kajganich, inspired by Dario Argento's 1977 Italian film of the same name. It stars Dakota Johnson as an American woman who enrolls at a prestigious dance academy in Berlin run by a coven of witches. Tilda Swinton co-stars in three roles, as the company's lead choreographer, as a male psychotherapist involved in the academy, and as the leader of the coven of witches. Mia Goth, Elena Fokina and Chloë Grace Moretz appear in supporting roles as students, while Angela Winkler, Ingrid Caven, Sylvie Testud, Renée Soutendijk and Christine LeBoutte portray some of the academy's matrons. Jessica Harper, star of the original film, has a cameo appearance.


title: Suspiria (2018 film)

text: A remake of "Suspiria" was first announced in 2008 after Guadagnino had acquired the rights from the original film's writers, Argento and Daria Nicolodi. Guadagnino offered the film to David Gordon Green, but that project was eventually canceled due to financing conflicts. In September 2015, Guadagnino confirmed his plans to direct, describing his version as an "homage" to the original rather than a straightforward remake. A new screenplay was drafted by Kajganich, who had written Guadagnino's "A Bigger Splash" the year before. Kajganich set the film during the so-called "German Autumn" of 1977 in order to explore themes of generational guilt in that country during the Cold War. The film's other themes include motherhood, evil and the dynamics of matriarchies.


title: Suspiria (2018 film)

text: Unlike the original film, which used exaggerated colors, Guadagnino conceived the visuals in "Suspiria" as "winterish" and bleak, absent of primary colors. The film incorporates stylized dance sequences choreographed by Damien Jalet, which form part of its representation of witchcraft. Principal photography took place in late 2016 and early 2017 in Varese, Italy, and in Berlin. The musical score was composed by Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, who took inspiration from krautrock. The film is dedicated to the memories of "Vogue Italia" editor-in-chief Franca Sozzani, film director Jonathan Demme and Deborah Falzone.


title: Suspiria (2018 film)

text: "Suspiria" premiered at the 75th Venice International Film Festival on September 1, 2018. It was given a limited release by Amazon Studios in Los Angeles and New York on October 26, 2018, where it grossed over $180,000 in its opening weekend, marking the highest screen-average box-office launch of the year. It was screened on October 31 in some U.S. cities before opening in wide release on November 2, 2018. It was released in Italy on January 1, 2019 by Videa. A box office failure, critical response was polarized; some praised it for its visual elements and acting, while others criticized its historical-political setting as unnecessary or arbitrary in relation to its other themes.


title: Suspiria (2018 film)

text: In 1977, Susie Bannion leaves her Mennonite family in Ohio and arrives in West Berlin during the height of the German Autumn to audition for the Markos Dance Company. Her arrival coincides with the sudden disappearance of another dancer, Patricia Hingle, who vanished after revealing to her psychotherapist, Dr. Josef Klemperer, that the school's matrons are a coven of witches who worship the Three Mothers—a trio of witches who once roamed Earth, known as Mother Tenebrarum, Mother Lachrymarum, and Mother Suspiriorum. Susie befriends a wealthy classmate, Sara Simms, while her dancing attracts the attention of artistic director and choreographer, Madame Blanc.


title: Suspiria (2018 film)

text: During a rehearsal, Patricia's friend, Olga Ivanova, accuses the matrons of being responsible for Patricia's disappearance, as well as practicing witchcraft. She attempts to flee the school, only to become trapped in a room; meanwhile, Susie performs a dance for Madame Blanc, with Susie's movements remotely inflicting lethal damage on Olga's body. The matrons find Olga and drag her away with large hooks. They informally elect Mother Helena Markos, an aging witch who has long ruled the coven, over Blanc as their leader and conspire to use Susie as a host body for Markos. Miss Griffith, a sheepish matron, commits suicide afterward.


title: Suspiria (2018 film)

text: Susie becomes Blanc's protégée, earning her the lead role in the dance performance "Volk". Meanwhile, Klemperer becomes suspicious of the matrons and seeks Sara's cooperation to look at Patricia's journals. Sara discovers a concealed corridor leading to the , an inner sanctum where the coven holds their rituals. She takes one of the large hooks and brings it to Klemperer as they look into Patricia's disappearance. On the opening night of "Volk", Sara returns to the sanctum and finds Patricia, her body decayed and withered. She is discovered by the matrons before the performance, and holes manifest on the floor, causing Sara to break her leg. Sara emerges midway through the performance, dancing her part in a hypnotic trance, but collapses in pain before the dance ends.


title: Suspiria (2018 film)

text: While dining out with the matrons to celebrate, all the dancers are put into a trance except Susie. Klemperer disposes of the hook and Patricia's belongings and returns to his dacha in East Germany, where he encounters Anke, his wife who went missing during the war. Anke reveals that she fled to Bristol after having escaped the Nazis. The couple walk together, eventually passing through the border back into West Berlin. Anke disappears, and Klemperer discovers he has been led to the company's building for an impending witches' sabbath, and is ambushed by the matrons. Susie is led to the , where she discovers the matrons, an incapacitated Klemperer, and the entranced dancers. Sara, Patricia and Olga, all "alive," are disemboweled to begin the sabbath, but Blanc attempts to intervene in the ritual. Enraged, Markos attacks Blanc, nearly decapitating her. Susie seemingly accepts her fate as Markos' new vessel, only to reveal herself as Mother Suspiriorum, there to cleanse the company of the corrupt Markos and her supporters. She summons an incarnation of Death, killing Markos and her faithful followers.


title: Suspiria (2018 film)

text: Olga, Patricia and Sara die peacefully at Susie's hand as the remaining matrons and students dance. Klemperer is released in a confused state; Miss Vendegast discovers Blanc alive as Miss Boutaher announces Blanc's departure to the students. Susie, now as Mother Suspiriorum, visits Klemperer to apologize for her actions. She reveals to him that Anke died at Theresienstadt after being captured by the Nazis. Before leaving, Mother Suspiriorum erases his memories, causing him to have a seizure. In the present day, a carving of Klemperer and Anke's initials on the wall of their dacha goes unnoticed by its current occupants.


title: Suspiria (2018 film)

text: In a post-credits scene, Susie is in the streets of Berlin at night. She stares at something dispassionately before reaching out her hand, then smiles and walks away.


title: Suspiria (2018 film)

text: The theme of motherhood is explored frequently in the film, both within the coven and in Susie's early life and relationship to her own mother. Michael Leader of "Sight & Sound" considers the film "an extended exercise in metafictional annotation that insists on dragging the original's darkest metaphors into the light."


title: Suspiria (2018 film)

text: Michael O'Sullivan of "The Washington Post" links the film's theme of motherhood (characterized alongside its "discontents" as being "chewed on like a vulture tearing at a carrion") with ethnic nationalism, though he states that "neither subtext goes much of anywhere". Julie Bloom echoed similar sentiments in "The New York Times", writing that while the film "revels in gore and gruesome displays of horror...  it also delves into the dynamics of a wholly female community, touching on issues of power, manipulation, motherhood and the horrible things some women can do to other women and themselves."


title: Suspiria (2018 film)

text: Matt Goldberg of "Collider" interprets a perfidious form of motherhood as a core theme of the film, as he notes the matrons merely pretend "to be motherly towards the students, [but] they're actually just using them for their power." Madame Blanc's near-decapitation at the hands of Mother Markos when she is resistant to beginning the sabbath demonstrates that Blanc and Markos "do not share the same values," and that Blanc has formed a genuine kinship with Susie. Hannah Ewens of "Vice" notes: "With coven power transferred to Susie, it's impossible to say where her talent ends and the influence of the mothers begins. Mothers aren't supposed to have favorites, but deep down they often do—and Madame Blanc's is Susie from the moment of her audition."


title: Suspiria (2018 film)

text: For the majority of the film, Susie appears to be an otherwise normal woman who finds her natural talents rewarded and prized by the coven. As the film progresses into its final act, however, it is revealed that Susie is in fact Mother Suspiriorum, one of the Three Mothers whom the coven exalts. Film Crit Hulk, a pseudonymous writer for "The New York Observer", interprets Susie's character arc as the discovery of her shadow self: "Initially she seems just a fresh-faced girl from Ohio, eager to make strides into this esteemed dance company. But her shadow self is soon awoken, which we are meant to fear. Susie unleashes her libido as the rapturous demon below claws at the floor. She turns deeply sexual, almost becoming carnal as she writhes to the ground." Similarly to Goldberg, they interpret Susie's unveiling of herself as Mother Suspiriorium to be messianic in nature, as she eradicates the corrupted Mother Markos and the loyal followers who idolize her. Goldberg reads Susie's destruction of Markos and her followers as retribution for their abuse of power:


title: Suspiria (2018 film)

text: While Susie/Mother Suspiriorum shows no mercy for Markos and her followers, Goldberg asserts that she is capable of compassion, citing the fact that she grants the physically devastated Sara, Olga, and Patricia "the sweet release of a gentle death rather than obliterating them." Goldberg extends this interpretation to Susie/Mother Suspiriorum's visit to Klemperer in the epilogue, during which she relates his lost wife's death in a concentration camp, information he had not previously known. Goldberg reads the sequence as an emphasis that "women bonding together have the power to remove the fear of death, and that while the worldespecially the powerfulneed "guilt" and "shame," Klemperer should not feel those things because he has not abused his power. He's the "witness" and from the perspective of witnessing an authoritarian rise to powerin his case, Nazi Germanyhe is responsible for watching and doing nothing. However, it's people in power who need guilt and shame."


title: Suspiria (2018 film)

text: Some critics have alternately interpreted the representation of the coven's power as inspiring fear of women's autonomy and linking it solely with violence. Sonia Rao of "The Washington Post" notes that while "Guadagnino grants these women power", their power "knows no bounds. Madam Blanc...  can turn Susie's dreams into bloodcurdling nightmares. She and the other matrons can inflict injuries on dancers whenever and wherever they want. The witches frequently inflict or inspire violencetheir actions, after all, are what make this a horror movie. But some critics say this makes it seem like a woman with a great amount of power is someone who should be feared." The "Chicago Reader"s Andrea Thompson echoes this sentiment, writing that the film adopts a vision where "when women are united, it is always to achieve an evil outcome." Andrew Whalen of "Newsweek" conversely suggests that the film "decimat[es] typical narrative conventions of good and bad...  Evil is disturbingly natural in "Suspiria", where sometimes only further violence can make room for good to exist at all." Whalen characterizes the coven as "a working alternative to the patriarchy falling apart outside [the] doors—financially autonomous, beyond the reach of the police...  and deeply, powerfully collectivist, both materially and spiritually."