title: Women in ancient Rome

text: Based on Roman art and literature, small breasts and wide hips were the ideal body type for women considered alluring by Roman men. Roman art from the Augustan period shows idealized women as substantial and fleshy, with a full abdomen and breasts that are rounded, not pendulous. Prostitutes depicted in Roman erotic art have fleshy bodies and wide hips, and often have their breasts covered by a "strophium" (a sort of strapless bra) even when otherwise nude and performing sex acts. Large breasts were mocked as humorous or a sign of old age. Young girls wore a "strophium" secured tightly in the belief that it would inhibit the growth of breasts, and a regimen of massaging the breasts with hemlock, begun while a woman was still a virgin, was thought to prevent sagging. Breasts receive relatively minimal attention in erotic art and literature as a sexual focus; the breast was associated primarily with nursing infants and a woman's role as a mother. In times of extreme emotional duress, such as mourning or captivity in wartime, women might bare their breasts as an apotropaic gesture.


title: Women in ancient Rome

text: During the late Republic penalties for sexuality were barely enforced if at all, and a new erotic ideal of romantic relationship emerges. Subverting the tradition of male dominance, the love poets of the late Republic and Augustan era declared their eagerness to submit to "love slavery" ("servitium amoris"). Catullus addresses a number of poems to "Lesbia," a married woman with whom he has an affair, usually identified as a fictionalized Clodia, sister of the prominent popularist politician Clodius Pulcher. The affair ends badly, and Catullus's declarations of love turn to attacks on her sexual appetites — rhetoric that accords with the other hostile source on Clodia's behavior, Cicero's "Pro Caelio".


title: Women in ancient Rome

text: In "The Art of Love", Ovid goes a step further, adopting the genre of didactic poetry for offering instruction in how to pursue, keep, and get over a lover. Satirists such as Juvenal complain about the dissolute behavior of women.


title: Women in ancient Rome

text: The practices and views in the "Hippocratic Corpus" regarding women's bodies and their perceived weaknesses were inadequate for addressing the needs of women in the Hellenistic and Roman eras, when women led active lives and more often engaged in family planning. The physiology of women began to be seen as less alien to that of men. In the older tradition, intercourse, pregnancy, and childbirth were not only central to women's health, but the "raison d'être" for female physiology; men, by contrast, were advised to exercise moderation in their sexual behavior, since hypersexuality would cause disease and fatigue.


title: Women in ancient Rome

text: The Hippocratic view that amenorrhea was fatal became by Roman times a specific issue of infertility, and was recognized by most Roman medical writers as a likely result when women engage in intensive physical regimens for extended periods of time. Balancing food, exercise, and sexual activity came to be regarded as a choice that women might make. The observation that intensive training was likely to result in amenorrhea implies that there were women who engaged in such regimens.


title: Women in ancient Rome

text: In the Roman era, medical writers saw a place for exercise in the lives of women in sickness and health. Soranus recommends playing ball, swimming, walking, reading aloud, riding in vehicles, and travel as recreation, which would promote overall good health. In examining the causes of undesired childlessness, these later gynecological writers include information about sterility in men, rather than assuming some defect in the woman only.


title: Women in ancient Rome

text: Hypersexuality was to be avoided by women as well as men. An enlarged clitoris, like an oversized phallus, was considered a symptom of excessive sexuality. Although Hellenistic and Roman medical and other writers refer to clitoridectomy as primarily an "Egyptian" custom, gynecological manuals under the Christian Empire in late antiquity propose that hypersexuality could be treated by surgery or repeated childbirth.


title: Women in ancient Rome

text: Freedwomen were manumitted slaves. A freed slave owed a period of service, the terms of which might be agreed upon as a precondition of freedom, to her former owner, who became her patron. The patron had obligations in return, such as paying for said services and helping in legal matters. The patron-client relationship was one of the fundamental social structures of ancient Rome, and failure to fulfill one's obligations brought disapproval and censure.


title: Women in ancient Rome

text: In most ways, freedwomen had the same legal status as freeborn women. But because under Roman law a slave had no father, freed slaves had no inheritance rights unless they were named in a will.


title: Women in ancient Rome

text: The relationship of a former slave to her patron could be complicated. In one legal case, a woman named Petronia Iusta attempted to show — without a birth declaration to prove it — that she had been free-born. Her mother, she acknowledged, had been a slave in the household of Petronius Stephanus and Calatoria Themis, but Iusta maintained that she had been born after her mother's manumission. Calatoria, by now a widow, in turn argued that Iusta was born before her mother was free and that she had been manumitted, therefore owing her former owner the service due a patron. Calatoria could produce no documentation of this supposed manumission, and the case came down to the testimony of witnesses.


title: Women in ancient Rome

text: The status of freedwomen, like freedmen, varied widely. Caenis was a freedwoman and secretary to the Emperor Vespasian; she was also his concubine. He is said to have lived with her faithfully, but she was not considered a wife.


title: Women in ancient Rome

text: Women could turn to prostitution to support themselves, but not all prostitutes had freedom to decide. There is some evidence that even slave prostitutes could benefit from their labor. Although rape was a crime, the law only punished the rape of a slave if it "damaged the goods," because a slave had no legal standing. The penalty was aimed at providing her owner compensation for the "damage" of his property. Because a slave woman was considered property under Roman law, forcing her to be a prostitute was not considered a crime. Prior to Septimius Severus, women who engaged in acts that brought "infamia" to them as slaves also suffered "infamia" when freed. Sometimes sellers of female slaves attached a "ne serva" clause to the slave to prevent her from being prostituted. The Ne Serva clause meant that if the new owner or any owner after him or her used the slave as a prostitute she would be free. Later on the "ne serva" agreements became enforceable by law. Prostitution was not limited to slaves or poor citizens; according to Suetonius, Caligula when converting his palace into a brothel employed upper class "matrons and youths" as prostitutes. Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, Life of Caligula, Tacitus records that during one of Nero's feasts the prefect Tigellinus had brothels filled with upper class women. Prostitution could also be a punishment instead of an occupation; a law of Augustus allowed that women guilty of adultery could be sentenced to work in brothels as prostitutes. The law was abolished in 389.


title: E-reader

text: An e-reader, also called an e-book reader or e-book device, is a mobile electronic device that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading digital e-books and periodicals.


title: E-reader

text: Any device that can display text on a screen may act as an e-reader; however, specialized e-reader devices may optimize portability, readability, and battery life for this purpose. Their main advantage over printed books is portability. This is because an e-reader is capable of holding thousands of books while weighing less than one book, and the convenience provided due to add-on features.


title: E-reader

text: An e-reader is a device designed as a convenient way to read e-books. It is similar in form factor to a tablet computer, but often features electronic paper rather than an LCD screen. This yields much longer battery life — the battery can last for several weeks — and better readability, similar to that of paper even in sunlight. Drawbacks of this kind of display include a slow refresh rate and (usually) a grayscale-only display, which makes it unsuitable for sophisticated interactive applications as those found on tablets. The absence of such apps may be perceived as an advantage, as the user may more easily focus on reading. The Sony Librie, released in 2004 and the precursor to the Sony Reader, was the first e-reader to use electronic paper.


title: E-reader

text: Many e-readers can use the internet through Wi-Fi and the built-in software can provide a link to a digital Open Publication Distribution System (OPDS) library or an e-book retailer, allowing the user to buy, borrow, and receive digital e-books. An e-reader may also download e-books from a computer or read them from a memory card. However, the use of memory cards is decreasing as most of the 2010s era e-readers lack a card slot.


title: E-reader

text: An idea similar to that of an e-reader is described in a 1930 manifesto written by Bob Brown titled "The Readies", which describes "a simple reading machine which I can carry or move around, attach to any old electric light plug and read hundred-thousand-word novels in 10 minutes". His hypothetical machine would use a microfilm-style ribbon of miniaturized text which could be scrolled past a magnifying glass, and would allow the reader to adjust the type size. He envisioned that eventually words could be "recorded directly on the palpitating ether".


title: E-reader

text: The establishment of the E Ink Corporation in 1997 led to the development of electronic paper, a technology which allows a display screen to reflect light like ordinary paper without the need for a backlight. Among the first commercial e-readers were Sony's Data Discman (which was using Mini CDs with special caddies) and the Rocket eBook. Several others were introduced around 1998, but did not gain widespread acceptance. Electronic paper was incorporated first into the Sony Librie that was released in 2004 and Sony Reader in 2006, followed by the Amazon Kindle, a device which, upon its release in 2007, sold out within five and a half hours. The Kindle includes access to the Kindle Store for e-book sales and delivery.


title: E-reader

text: , new marketing models for e-books were being developed and a new generation of reading hardware was produced. E-books (as opposed to e-readers) had yet to achieve global distribution. In the United States, as of September 2009, the Amazon Kindle model and Sony's PRS-500 were the dominant e-reading devices. By March 2010, some reported that the Barnes & Noble Nook may have been selling more units than the Kindle in the US. The Ectaco jetBook Color was the first color e-reader on the market, but its muted colors were criticized. As of 2021, a few color E-ink readers have been introduced into the market.


title: E-reader

text: Research released in March 2011 indicated that e-books and e-readers were more popular with the older generation than the younger generation in the UK. The survey, carried out by Silver Poll, found that around 6% of people over 55 owned an e-reader, compared with just 5% of 18- to 24-year-olds. According to an IDC study from March 2011, sales for all e-readers worldwide rose to 12.8 million in 2010; 48% of them were Amazon Kindles, followed by Barnes & Noble Nooks, Pandigital, and Sony Readers (about 800,000 units for 2010).


title: E-reader

text: On January 27, 2010 Apple Inc. launched a multi-function tablet computer called the iPad and announced agreements with five of the six largest publishers that would allow Apple to distribute e-books. The iPad includes a built-in app for e-book reading called iBooks and had the iBookstore for content sales and delivery. The iPad, the first commercially profitable tablet, was followed in 2011 by the release of the first Android-based tablets as well as LCD tablet versions of the Nook and Kindle. Unlike previous dedicated e-readers, tablet computers are multi-functional, utilize LCD touchscreen displays, and are more agnostic to e-book vendor apps, allowing for the installation of multiple e-book reading apps. Many Android tablets accept external media and allow uploading files directly onto the tablet's file system without resorting to online stores or cloud services. Many tablet-based and smartphone-based readers are capable of displaying PDF and DJVU files, which few of the dedicated e-book readers can handle. This opens a possibility to read publications originally published on paper and later scanned into a digital format. While these files may not be considered e-books in their strict sense, they preserve the original look of printed editions. The growth in general-purpose tablet use allowed for further growth in the popularity of e-books in the 2010s.


title: E-reader

text: In 2012, there was a 26% decline in sales worldwide from a maximum of 23.2 million in 2011. The reason was given for this "alarmingly precipitous decline" was the rise of more general-purpose tablets that provided e-book reading apps along with many other abilities in a similar form factor. In 2013, ABI Research claimed that the decline in the e-reader market was due to the aging of the customer base. In 2014, the industry reported e-reader sales worldwide to be around 12 million, with only Amazon.com and Kobo Inc. distributing e-readers globally and various regional distribution by Barnes & Noble (US/UK), Tolino (Germany), Icarus (Netherlands), PocketBook International (Eastern Europe and Russia) and Onyx Boox (China and Vietnam). At the end of 2015, eMarketer estimated that there were 83.4 million e-reader users in the US, with the number predicted to grow by 3.5% in 2016. In late 2014, PricewaterhouseCoopers predicted that by 2018 e-books would make up over 50% of total consumer publishing revenue in the U.S. and UK, while at that time, e-books were over 30% of the share of the revenue.


title: E-reader

text: Until late 2013, the use of an e-reader was not allowed on airplanes during takeoff and landing. In November 2013, the FAA allowed use of e-readers on airplanes at all times if set to Airplane Mode, which turns all radios off. European authorities followed this guidance the following month.


title: E-reader

text: Many of the major book retailers and third-party developers offer e-reader applications for desktops, tablets, and mobile devices, to allow the reading of e-books and other documents independent of dedicated e-book devices. E-reader applications are available for Mac, Linux, and PC computers as well as for Android, iOS and Windows Phone devices.


title: E-reader

text: The introduction of e-readers brought substantial changes to the publishing industry, also awakening fears and predictions about the possible disappearance of books and print periodicals.


title: E-reader

text: The graphical design of ebooks underlies the format and technical limits of e-readers because most E-ink readers do not support color displays and they have a limited resolution and size. The reading experience (readability) on E-ink displays (that are not back-illuminated) depends on the lighting condition.


title: E-reader

text: E-readers are usually designed to only offer access to the online shop of one provider. This structure is referred to as (digital) ecosystem and helps smaller companies (e.g. Kibano Digireader) to compete against multinational companies (like Amazon, Apple, etc.). On the other hand, customers only have the possibility of purchasing books from a limited selection of ebooks in the online shop (accessible via the e-reader) and therefore do not have the possibility of purchasing e-books from the open market. Because of the use of ecosystems, companies are not forced to compete against each other and therefore the cost of e-books do not decrease. With only the option of using an online shop, the social interaction of buying or borrowing a book disappears.


title: E-reader

text: In the EU, media products, including paper books, often have a tax reduction. Therefore, the VAT for conventional books was often lower than that of e-books. In legal terms, e-books were considered a service since it was regarded as a temporary lease of the product. Therefore, ebook prices were often similar to paper book prices, even if the production of ebooks has a lower cost. In October 2018, the EU allowed its member countries to charge the same VAT for ebooks as for paper books.


title: E-reader

text: Richard Stallman has expressed concern about the perceived loss of freedom or privacy that comes with e-readers, namely the inability to read whatever a reader prefers without the possibility of being tracked.


title: E-reader

text: E-readers can hold thousands of books limited only by their memory and use the same physical space as a conventional book. Most E-ink displays are not back-illuminated and therefore seem to cause no more eye strain than a traditional book and less eye strain than LCD screens, with a longer battery life. Features such as the ability to adjust font size and spacing can help people who have difficulty reading or dyslexia. Some e-readers link to definitions or translations of key words. Amazon notes that 85% of its e-reader users look up a word while reading.


title: E-reader

text: E-readers can instantly download content from supported public libraries by using apps like OverDrive and Hoopla.


title: Leslie Crowther

text: Leslie Douglas Sargent Crowther, CBE (6 February 1933 – 29 September 1996) was an English comedian, actor, TV presenter, and game show host.


title: Leslie Crowther

text: Crowther was born on Monday 6 February 1933 in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, son of Leslie Frederick Crowther (died 1955), of Twickenham, Middlesex, and Ethel Maraquita (died 1951), née Goulder.


title: Leslie Crowther

text: At the end of 1944, he moved to London with his parents, but was evacuated for a few months to the Isle of Bute until just after the Second World War ended.


title: Leslie Crowther

text: Crowther's stage experience began in the mid-1940s. As a youngster he showed promise as a pianist, and in 1944 won a junior scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. He attended the respected Cone-Ripman Drama School in London, where he met his future wife, and whilst there competed (in 1947) at the Star Junior Ballroom Championships partnering Pamela Cochran, and then at 16, he appeared as a member of the Ovaltineys Concert Party of the Air on Radio Luxembourg. He also attended Nottingham High School and then Thames Valley Grammar School.


title: Leslie Crowther

text: In November 1951 his mother died of a massive stroke aged 56. His father was also an actor. Leslie senior was an alcoholic, and died in early January 1955 at the age of 67, ten days after being hit by a car. Leslie junior had a half-brother, Frank Ronald, from his father's first marriage.


title: Leslie Crowther

text: During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Crowther worked on the stage and on radio. His radio work included Ovaltine programmes, "Variety Playhouse" and "Crowther's Crowd".


title: Leslie Crowther

text: Crowther made a name for himself in television in the 1950s, with appearances as presenter of such programmes as the "Billy Cotton Band Show" and "The Black and White Minstrel Show", and later the long-running children's tv show "Crackerjack" for the BBC, from 1960 to 1968. In September 1967, Crowther was the presenter chosen to host the first series of the revamped children's favourites show, "Junior Choice", on the newly opened Radio One station. The next year, 1968, he recorded the LP 'Songs for Swinging Children', released on Pye's blue Label.


title: Leslie Crowther

text: From 1964 to 1967, Crowther presented "Meet the Kids", an annual trip to a children's hospital ward that was screened by the BBC on Christmas Morning. He would walk around the ward meeting the patients, and the show would feature a surprise celebrity, and a present hidden under each bed. Typical locations were Great Ormond Street and Hackney Hospitals. In 1969, Crowther switched to ITV, and "A Merry Morning" was screened annually, following the same format, usually from the Seacroft Hospital in Leeds.


title: Leslie Crowther

text: From the 1970s, Crowther was the face of Stork SB Margarine, for which he appeared in a number of television commercials. In 1971, he made "The Leslie Crowther Show", a comedy sketch show, with three older comics, Arthur English, Chic Murray and Albert Modley ("Eee it's grand to be daft!") as the internal "rep" company. In 1972 and 1973, he appeared in a television sitcom called "My Good Woman", alongside Richard Wilson, Sylvia Syms and Keith Barron. He also narrated two storytelling LPs for children, "Tallulah Supercat" and "Tallulah and the Cat-Burglars". Crowther also appeared as Chesney Allen with Bernie Winters as Allen's partner Bud Flanagan in performances on television and on stage.


title: Leslie Crowther

text: In the middle of 1977, Crowther made an effort to break into radio with the pilot of a comedy show, "It's Leslie, by Crowther", recorded in the Regent Sound Stage (now the Vue Cinema in Lower Regent Street) and produced by John Browell. This however did not come to anything and he returned to TV.


title: Leslie Crowther

text: Crowther was one of the many hosts of the ITV panel/game show "Whose Baby?" which he presented in the mid-1980s. He also presented the fifth series of Southern Television's children's game show "Runaround" in 1977, standing in for Mike Reid. He was also host of the first British version of the game show "The Price is Right", from 1984 to 1988, during which time his "Come on down!" catchphrase became familiar. In 1994, Crowther said that when "The Price is Right" was axed in May 1988, the producers never bothered to contact him directly. Instead, he learned the news from the press who called at his house and asked him how he felt.


title: Leslie Crowther

text: In February 1990, he was chosen to be host of the TV show "Stars in Their Eyes". The first episode was transmitted on 21 July 1990. Crowther hosted the first three series, and a Christmas special in 1991. At the time of his car crash in October 1992 he was booked to record an Elvis Presley special, which was then hosted by Russ Abbot, and a fourth series, eventually hosted by Matthew Kelly (who would later host the show for 11 years).


title: Leslie Crowther

text: The show business career of Leslie Crowther came to a sudden end on the afternoon of Saturday, 3 October 1992 on the M5 near Cheltenham, when he sustained serious head injuries in a car crash. The precise cause of the crash to this day remains unknown. It was speculated that he fell asleep at the wheel and, as a result, his Rolls-Royce car skidded into the central reservation barrier and overturned several times. In the months before the crash, Crowther was extremely busy with Lord's Taverners events and functions and on the previous day, 2 October, had been to a dinner in Swansea. That night, he stayed at a hotel in Birmingham and then opened some Allied Carpets stores in Birmingham on the morning of 3 October. Crowther was returning home when the crash occurred.


title: Leslie Crowther

text: The car ended up on its roof on the hard shoulder of the motorway, and was a write-off. At first, Crowther did not appear to be seriously injured, apart from being shaken up. He was able to tell the police his personal details, including his home telephone number and what tablets he was taking for his heart condition and a faulty heart valve; he had been diagnosed with heart trouble three years earlier when he complained of feeling breathless.


title: Leslie Crowther

text: However, after being taken to Cheltenham General Hospital, his condition suddenly deteriorated and he lapsed into unconsciousness. A brain scan revealed a blood clot had formed on the left-hand side of his brain. Crowther was taken to Bristol's Frenchay Hospital for brain surgery to remove the blood clot that evening.


title: Leslie Crowther

text: On 5 October, after a nurse was unhappy with his condition, a further scan revealed that another blood clot, the size of a small apple, had formed on the same side of his brain. Crowther then underwent a second brain operation that lasted two hours and a tracheotomy to help him breathe. Crowther remained in a coma for 17 days. Although he was allowed to spend Christmas 1992 at home, he was a patient in Frenchay Hospital until 12 February 1993 when he was discharged. After his release, he underwent months of occupational therapy and physiotherapy.


title: Leslie Crowther

text: Crowther was appointed a CBE in the 1993 New Year Honours list in recognition of his years of charity work and in July 1993 he went to Buckingham Palace to receive it. On 20 November 1993, he made his first TV appearance since his crash in the "Royal Variety Performance", appearing alongside Cilla Black. On stage, he announced that he had just started to write an autobiography. Entitled "The Bonus of Laughter," it was published in the autumn of 1994.


title: Leslie Crowther

text: Crowther retired from show business on 4 November 1994, accepting that "I wouldn't be able to do things I've done the way I would want to, and the way my fans would expect". He also said that he was considering starting a new career as a writer. As he later put it, his mind was still sharp but his body had slowed down. Five days after retiring, he appeared as the subject on "This Is Your Life" for the second time, when he was surprised by Michael Aspel during a book-signing session in Selfridges on London's Oxford Street. He had previously been honoured by "This Is Your Life" in March 1973 when Eamonn Andrews surprised him at an antiques fair at Earls Court in London. Crowther's final television appearance was in March 1995, as a guest on June Whitfield's "This Is Your Life" episode.


title: Leslie Crowther

text: Like his father, Crowther was an alcoholic and this problem continued throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. On 14 November 1983, Crowther was arrested for drink-driving. Two weeks later, he was fined, and banned from driving for nine months. In October 1988, Crowther arrived drunk at a gala in Glastonbury. This made him realise that he had a serious problem and needed help. Unlike five years earlier, his alcohol addiction received much publicity. From January to 17 March 1989, Crowther was a resident in Clouds House, a drug and alcohol treatment centre near Shaftesbury. He never drank alcohol again.


title: Leslie Crowther

text: Crowther married Jean Elizabeth Stone (12 May 1931 – 10 December 2017) on 27 March 1954. They had five children, including twins born on 9 December 1954; one of the twins, his daughter, Liz, is an actress. His other daughter, Caroline, was married to the musician Phil Lynott. Crowther's youngest child, his son Nick, works in radio, presenting traffic and travel bulletins for AA Roadwatch based in Stanmore.


title: Leslie Crowther

text: Leslie Crowther died from heart failure at 5am on 29 September 1996 in the Royal United Hospital in Bath, at the age of 63, with his wife Jean and family at his side. He had lived near Bath since 1978, and had a flat in London overlooking Lord's Cricket Ground.


title: Leslie Crowther

text: The 30 September 1996 episode of "Bruce's Price Is Right", the Bruce Forsyth version of "The Price is Right", was dedicated to Crowther at the request of Forsyth himself, according to the ITV continuity announcement. Forsyth told the "Daily Mirror" the previous day that Crowther had written to congratulate him on obtaining the job of presenting "The Price is Right" when it was relaunched on 4 September 1995.


title: Leslie Crowther

text: Crowther was cremated a week later, on 7 October. His ashes were later scattered at Lord's and a memorial service was held for him in London on 27 November. Also in October, at that year's National Television Awards, Matthew Kelly dedicated an award he won for "Stars In Their Eyes" to Crowther.


title: Collins glass

text: A collins glass is a glass tumbler which typically will contain . It is commonly used to serve sparkling cocktails, especially long drinks like the Tom Collins or John Collins. Its cylindrical shape, narrower and taller than a highball glass, keep the drink carbonated longer by reducing the surface area of the drink.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: The Greater Swiss Mountain Dog ( or ) is a dog breed which was developed in the Swiss Alps. The name "Sennenhund" refers to people called "Senn" or "Senner", dairymen and herders in the Swiss Alps. Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs are almost certainly the result of indigenous dogs mating with large mastiff-type dogs brought to Switzerland by foreign settlers. At one time, the breed was believed to have been among the most popular in Switzerland. It was assumed to have almost died out by the late 19th century, since its work was being done by other breeds or machines, but was rediscovered in the early 1900s.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: The breed is large and heavy-boned with great physical strength, but is still agile enough to perform the all-purpose farm duties it was originally used for. Its breed standard calls for a black, white, and rust colored coat.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: The Greater Swiss Mountain Dog is sociable, active, calm, and dignified, and loves being part of the family. It is relatively healthy for its size and tends to have far fewer problems than more popular breeds in its size range. Among the four Sennenhunde, or Swiss mountain dogs, this breed is considered the oldest, and is also the largest.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: The origin of the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog is not known. Beginning in 1515, the remote valleys of Switzerland were more or less isolated from world history for three centuries. Specific dog breeds were created by inbreeding, and puppies were given to neighbors and family members.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: There are several theories regarding the origin of the four Sennenhund breeds. The most popular theory states the dogs are descended from the Molossus, a large mastiff-type dog, which accompanied the Roman Legions on their invasion of the Alps more than 2,000 years ago.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: A second theory is that in 1100 BC, the brought a large dog breed with them to settlements in Spain. These dogs later migrated eastward and influenced the development of the Spanish Mastiff, Great Pyrenees, Dogue de Bordeaux, and Sennenhund breeds.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: A third possibility is that a large dog breed was indigenous to central Europe during the Neolithic Period, when humans grew wild and domestic crops and used domesticated animals. Whether or not a domesticated large breed existed in the Alpine area when the Romans invaded, Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs are almost certainly the result of the mating of native farm dogs with large Mastiff-type dogs brought to Switzerland by foreign settlers. The early ancestors of the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog were used by farmers, herdsmen and merchants in central Europe. The breed was bred as a draught dog to pull heavy carts, to guard and move dairy cattle, and as a watchdog and family companion.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: Selective breeding was based on a dog's ability to perform a particular function, such as pulling loads or guarding. The Swiss farmer needed a strong, multi-purpose dog capable of contributing to daily life on the farm. Large, sturdy and confident, the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog is a draft and drover breed that is robust and agile enough to perform farm work in very mountainous regions. The breed was also used as a butcher's dog, having been "popular with butchers, cattle dealers, manual workers and farmers, who used them as guard dogs, droving or draught dogs and bred them as such." Its popularity as a draft dog led to the nickname "the poor man's horse". By the 19th century, the ancestors of the modern Greater Swiss Mountain Dog were widely used in central Europe by farmers and tradesmen.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: At one time, the breed's ancestors were believed to have been among the most popular dogs in Switzerland. It was assumed that the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog had almost died out by the late 19th century, because their work was being done by other breeds or machines, but they were rediscovered in the early 1900s.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: In 1908, on the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Swiss Kennel Club (Schweizerische Kynologische Gesellschaft or SKG), two short-haired Bernese Mountain Dogs were shown by Franz Schertenlieb to an advocate of the Swiss mountain dogs, geology professor Albert Heim (April 12, 1849 – August 31, 1937). Heim recognized them as representatives of the old, vanishing, large mountain dog, whose ancestors had been widely spread across Europe, and bred as guard dogs, draft dogs, and droving-cattle dogs.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: Heim was a Sennenhund expert, and started to encourage breeders to take an interest in them. These efforts resulted in the re-establishment of the breed. In 1909, the dogs were recognized as a separate breed by the Swiss Kennel Club and entered as "Grosser Schweizer Sennenhund" in Volume 12 of the Swiss stud book. The first breed club was formed in 1912 to promote the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog. The Bernese Mountain Dog and the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog are two of four distinctive farm-type dogs of Swiss origin who were saved from extinction and revitalized by Schertenlieb in the late 1800s.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: There is little information about the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog written before 1907. Until 1913, it was only mentioned in reports by exhibition judges, such as Dr. Albert Heim, who is credited with introducing them into official dog breeding. Heim was sure that the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog was the most widely kept dog in the mountain areas of Switzerland between 1860 and 1870, but the prevailing theory asserts that within 30 years, it had nearly disappeared. Dr. Hans Raber commented on this discrepancy in his book, "Die Schweizer Hunderassen":


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: This theory asserts that systematic breeding did not occur. Farmers did not typically take their in-season females to selected males, so breeding was left to chance. From the litter, puppies who were likable and looked suitable were chosen. Because of this strict selection, and because puppies were often kept in their original neighborhood, the appearance and character of the dogs remained stable. Practical matters were important when selecting the dog and dictated appearance. It isn't known how much attention was given to colors, but it is possible that irregularly or asymmetrically marked dogs were considered less desirable.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: Although Heim has said that the big butcher dogs, Metzgerhund, became extinct after foreign imports became more popular, there is speculation over whether farmers would get an expensive foreign dog. In 1889 an International Dog Show was held in Winterthur, northern Switzerland; various Sennenhunde were exhibited. Raber is sure the dogs were present in 1900 as draft dogs for peddlers and people going to market, watch dogs for farmers and drover's dog for butchers; they were rarely tri-colored. Everywhere the dogs had short, rough coats; nearly all were brown, yellow or black with white and brown markings. Lons' description of the northern and central German butcher dog also fits the Sennenhunde at the beginning of pure breeding; this applies to the Austrian butcher dog of Linz, and the French and Belgian Matin. It is to their credit that Heim and Schertenleib selected one variation of the butcher dog – possible the most beautiful – and started it on the road to a pure breed.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: In 1908 the Swiss mountain dog appeared for the first time in public. At a show in Langenthal, Switzerland, Franz Schertenleib – a breeder of the Berner – showed an extraordinarily strong, short-haired Berner Sennenhund. He had seen this dog and bought him as an oddity. He was eager to hear what the Langenthal judge, Professor Heim, would say about this short-haired Berner. Bello vom Schlossgut was beautifully marked, high, sturdy, and with attractive colors. Heim's first look saw the possibility of a new breed of Sennenhunde. He remembered having seen similar dogs in the 1860s in various parts of Switzerland. He said to Schertenleib, "The dog belongs in a different category; he is too gorgeous and thoroughbred to push him aside as a poor example of a Berner. He is an example of the old-time, almost extinct, butcher dog." Heim wrote in his judge's notes: "Bello is a marvelous, old Sennen (Butcher) hund of the large, almost extinct breed. Had he been entered under "other breeds" I would have recognized him as grossen Sennenhund and awarded him first prize with pleasure. Since he was entered among the Durrbachs, I cannot give this interesting dog more than second prize. This dog is out of place here."


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: Heim gave Bello the name Grosser Schweizer Sennenhund and dismissed the first representative of a newly named breed from the ring. Heim wrote the first standard based on Bello, and Schertenleib started to search for other members of the new breed. He found two short-haired bitches and breeding began. The first Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs were stockier and rougher than the modern dogs; the skulls were wider than desirable today and showed a marked stop. Judging from old pictures, the coloring was bad; the black coat was mixed with yellow wool at the neck, flanks and rear.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: Throughout the early 20th century, the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog population in Europe grew slowly, and it remains a rare breed both in its native Switzerland and the U.S. During World War II the breed was used by the Swiss Army as a draft dog. In 1945 over 100 puppies were registered, indicating the existence of about 350–400 dogs of the breed at that time.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: The breed was first recognised internationally in 1939, when the Swiss Standard was first published by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale. In 1968 the breed was imported into the U.S. In 1983 The Greater Swiss Mountain Dog Club of America registry contained 257 dogs. In 1985, the breed was granted entrance to the American Kennel Club (AKC) Miscellaneous Group and in July 1995, the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog was officially granted full recognition in the AKC Working Group.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: There are a number of Greater Swiss that have been noted in the media. Network, owned by Sun Microsystems CEO, Scott McNealy, served as their mascot. Mouse, a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog living in Austin, TX served as the mascot of Keep Austin Dog Friendly. Oscar the Grouch, a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, was featured in the front page of "The Wall Street Journal" as he prepared to compete at the Westminster Dog Show. According to the AKC, Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs are 88th in popularity as a breed.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: The Greater Swiss Mountain Dog is a draft and drover breed; it is a large, heavy-boned dog with incredible physical strength. Despite being heavy-boned and well-muscled, the dog is agile enough to perform the all-purpose farm duties of the mountainous regions of its origin.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: There is black on top of the dog's back, ears, tail and the majority of the legs. There should be rust on the cheeks, a thumb print above the eyes, and also rust should appear on the legs between the white and black. There should be white on the muzzle, the feet, the tip of the tail, on the chest, and up from the muzzle to pass between the eyes. Symmetry in markings and coloring are not a priority in the American Kennel Club standard for the breed. Function and temperament are prioritized as the dog must work. It is common to hear the phrase "the head doesn't pull the cart" or "markings don't pull the cart" to mean that cosmetic features are not highly valued.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: The double coat has a dense outer coat of about long. Textures of the topcoat can range from short, straight and fine to longer, wavier and coarser. The under coat is thick and ranges from the preferred dark gray to light gray to tawny, and must be on the neck, but can be all over the body – with such a thick coat, Sennenhunde shed throughout the year and they have a major shedding once or twice a year.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: While the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog Standard calls for a black, white and rust dog; they do come in other colors which include blue, white and tan tri-color; and rust and white bi-color. On the blue tri-color dogs, blue replaces where black would be and tan replaces where the rust would normally be. On the rust bi-color dogs, the dog is solid rust and white markings with a total absence of black coloring.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: Males range between at the shoulder and females range between at the shoulder. There is no standard for weight in the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog; males tend to range between and females range between . Body length to height is approximately a 10 to 9 proportion; they are slightly longer than tall.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs have an animated and gentle expression. Their eyes are almond-shaped, vary in color from hazel to chestnut – dark brown is preferred – medium-sized, and neither deep-set nor protruding. Eyelids are close fitting and eyerims are black.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: The medium-sized ears are set high, triangular in shape, gently rounded at the tip and hang close to the head when relaxed. When alert, the ears are brought forward and raised at the base. The top of the ear is level with the top of the skull.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: The skull is flat and broad with a slight stop. The backskull and muzzle are approximately equal in length; the backskull is approximately twice the width of the muzzle. The muzzle is large, blunt and straight, and most often has a slight rise before the end. In adult dogs the nose leather is always black.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: The lips are clean and as a dry-mouthed breed, flews are only slightly developed. They should not drool. The teeth meet in a scissors bite.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: The neck is of moderate length, strong, muscular and clean. The topline is level from the withers to the croup – the croup is the fused sacral vertebrae that form the roof of the pelvis and the first few vertebrae of the tail. The croup is long, broad and smoothly rounded to the tail insertion. The tail is thicker at the base, tapering to a point as it reaches the hocks; it is carried down in repose. When alert and in movement, the tail may be carried higher and curved slightly upward; it should not curl over the back. The bones of the tail should be straight.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: The chest is deep and broad with a slightly protruding breastbone, with well-sprung ribs. The depth of the chest is approximately one-half the height of the dog at the withers, and the deepest point of the chest should lie between the elbows, not above them.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: The shoulders of a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog are long, sloping, strong, moderately laid back, flat and well-muscled. Their forelegs are straight and strong.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: A dog walks on its toes like a horse does; a dog's pastern and paws are analogous to the back of a human's hand and fingers, respectively. The pasterns slope very slightly, but are not weak. Feet are round and compact with well-arched toes; the feet turn neither in nor out.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: The thighs are broad, strong and muscular; broad, strong and muscular hindquarters, and proper angles between the stifles and hocks are essential for a draft dog to provide powerful rear-drive during movement. The breed standard 'bend of stifle' refers to where the upper and the lower thighs meet. The stifles are moderately bent and taper smoothly into the hocks. The hocks are well let down and straight when viewed from the rear. The hock joint corresponds to the human ankle and first short bones in the foot; the dog does not walk on the heel as people do. Feet are round and compact with well-arched toes; they turn neither in nor out. Dewclaws should be removed.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: The gait of the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog should have movement with a level back. Their gait should have good reach in front with a powerful drive in the rear. Soundness, balance and efficiency which accompany correct structure and good condition are crucial factors in their movement, not speed. Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs were bred to work all day on a farm and need stamina. They are a large breed; because of their history as farm dogs in mountainous terrain, they are extremely agile and this is apparent in their gait.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: The Greater Swiss Mountain Dog is happy with an enthusiastic nature and strong affinity to people and children. This breed is sociable, active, calm and dignified. While the breed does need exercise, they do not need a vast space. The breed often stands close to their owners, rarely straying far away without checking in. They will not be happy confined to kennel life; they want to enjoy their family. They crave attention and physical contact. Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs are bold, faithful and willing workers and are eager to please. The Greater Swiss Mountain Dog is confident in nature; the breed is gentle with children. They can be stubborn and determined. The Greater Swiss Mountain Dog is an intelligent breed and is a quick learner. They can be difficult to housebreak, taking up to 6 months or more.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: The activity level in the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog is variable. They are capable of being athletic, but usually that activity is in bursts; they are active for short periods of time followed by napping. They want to be with their owners and to participate; their activity level most often matches the activity level of the family. As a working dog, they like having a job to do and enjoy participating in hiking, carting, obedience trials, herding, weight pulling and backpacking with their owners.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: Being alert and vigilant, the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog is a good watchdog. They tend to notice everything in their surroundings and are quick to sound alarm. Faced with a threat, they will stand their ground and put on a show that will intimidate those unfamiliar with the dog. Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs are accepting of a non-threatening stranger. They are confident and comfortable in unfamiliar locations, and are stable around strange noises and unfamiliar people. They are accepting of other dogs and species, and are reluctant to bite.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: This giant breed matures slowly in both mind and body, taking anywhere from 2 to 3 years. The objective in training this dog is for the owner to build trust through humane methods. As youngsters, they can be quite boisterous and they do require steady and reliable training to develop manners and physical self-control. As with all large, active working dogs, this breed should be well socialized early in life with other dogs and people, and be provided with regular activity and training.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: For the most part, this breed is relatively healthy for their size; Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs have far fewer problems than more populous breeds in the similar size range.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: Urinary incontinence (UI) is defined as involuntary urination, and most often occurs in Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs as leaking of urine while sleeping; it is a non-life-threatening condition. It seems that more than 20% of the females are affected, usually after being spayed. Incontinence is occasionally found in males as well. Incontinence can occur for many reasons, such as a weak bladder sphincter – generally the most common cause in Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs – urinary tract infection, excessive water consumption, congenital structural defects and spinal cord disease.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: The two most common eye issues that Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs face are distichiasis and entropion, with distichiasis being the most common issue. Distichiasis is the presence of extra eyelashes along the eyelid. Distichiasis has been reported in 19%, of the breed and in the vast majority of cases it is non-symptomatic and does not cause an issue for the dog. Extra eyelashes can be seen along the eyelid; sometimes extra eyelashes grow so that they irritate the eye. Treatment varies from vet to vet, some choosing to freeze the affected hair follicles and others choosing to use electrocautery. Most cases do not require any treatment.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: Entropion, found in about 3% of the breed, is the rolling in of the eyelids, which causes the eyelashes to irritate the eye. Entropion is a condition that often requires surgery to fix, but once corrected causes no future issues for the dog.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: Lick fit is the frantic licking in which Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs can be prone. This has been reported in 17% of the breed. When in the middle of a lick fit, the dog will lick anything they can — carpet, floors, walls — and will eat anything they can find, including grass, leaves, dirt, carpet, and will gulp air and swallow constantly. Their actions make it obvious they are in severe gastrointestinal discomfort. Many owners are able to prevent lick fits by ensuring the dog never has an empty stomach by frequent, smaller meals and large dog biscuits as between meal snacks.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: Idiopathic Epilepsy (IE) is the condition of frequent seizures with no identifiable cause. Seizures occur when nerve cells in the brain become hyperexcited and send rapid-fire messages to the body. Treatment of IE depends on the severity of the case and may involve daily administration of anticonvulsant drugs. IE is present in all Greater Swiss Mountain Dog lines; it typically surfaces between the ages of 1 to 3 years, but it can become evident as early as 12 months and as late as 5 years.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: Gastric dilatation volvulus (GDV), also known as bloat, is the greatest killer of the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog. GDV occurs in deep-chested breeds and requires immediate veterinary care. It can be caused by wolfing down too much water, too much food too fast, exercise after eating, stress or unknown conditions. Symptoms are distended abdomen, excessive salivating, depression and lethargy. When GDV occurs it cuts off the esophagus, and blood supply to the heart is lessened causing low blood pressure as well as other cardiac problems; the dog can go into shock. Organ damage can occur as well and the stomach may rupture causing peritonitis to set in. If not treated, the dog may die.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: The spleen is located in the left cranial abdomen and is held loosely in place by ligaments. Primary diseases of the spleen are splenic torsion and splenic tumors. Splenic torsion occurs when the spleen twists along the axis of the blood supply. Symptoms of splenic torsion include lethargy, abdominal distension and pale mucous membranes. One theory for the development of splenic torsion is that for dogs with chronic intermittent gastric dilatation, the dilation causes the spleen's ligaments to stretch and increases the spleen's mobility within the abdomen. The spleen becomes torsed because it is no longer anchored in its correct location. In a normal Greater Swiss Mountain Dog the spleen is smooth and uncreased; it is about by , and less than thick. Most of the spleens removed from Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs are by and very thick. This size spleen is not an abnormal finding in this breed. It seems apparent that many dogs of the breed suffer enlarged spleens for no obvious reason other than the spleen may have been constantly twisting, folding and unfolding.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: Canine hip dysplasia (CHD) is the irregular formation of the joint that joins the femur – the longest bone in the body – to the hip socket. The hip is a ball-and-socket joint and the femoral head must fit well into the socket for the joint to function properly. Early signs of CHD include a reluctance to go up and down stairs or to jump; difficulty rising or lying down; and bunny hopping when running – both hind limbs move together. CHD is among the principal orthopedic diseases in the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog; it is rarely severe and crippling. Unless x-rays are taken many owners are not aware that they have a dysplastic dog. A goal for raising a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog from puppyhood is to feed them so they mature more slowly than smaller breeds to help avoid hip and other orthopedic problems in adulthood.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: The form of Canine Elbow Dysplasia most often diagnosed in Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs appears to be a degenerative joint disease – a slowly progressive form of cartilage degeneration usually caused by trauma or abnormal wear on the joint. Evidence suggests that most dogs of this breed diagnosed with degenerative joint disease by x-rays of the elbows have the mildest form Grade I. They do not display clinical signs such as pain, stiffness, decreased range of motion or lameness.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: Osteochondrosis is a disturbance in the normal development of cartilage; cartilage becomes abnormally thickened, and small fissures and cracks may develop. Dissecans is when cartilage becomes dissected resulting in cartilage flaps, which may remain attached or become loose and fall into the joint space. In Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs most of these cases occur in the shoulder joints and occasionally in elbows and hocks. Except for very mild cases without flap development, the clinical signs are persistent or intermittent lameness. The dog may be stiff after resting and the lameness is usually aggravated by exercise. It is diagnosed by x-rays, and treatment depends on the severity of the case. Mild cases without cartilage flaps may be treated and heal with several weeks of rest and treatment with medication and supplements. Many cases require surgery to remove the flaps and loose fragments, and scraping and smoothing of the defective surface. Surgical repair of the shoulder usually has excellent results, surgical results involving other sites are not as predictable.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: Heavier dogs such as the Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs tend to have shorter lifespans than medium- and small-sized dogs; longevity is inversely related to breed size. Two websites list the life expectancy for Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs at 10 to 11 years; another lists it as 8–10 years. A survey by the US breed club shows a median lifespan of 6.75 years. Dog lifespans may vary in different countries, even in the same breed.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: The Greater Swiss Mountain Dog is considered the oldest of the Swiss breeds. It is the largest of the four Sennenhund breeds; all four have the same colors and markings, but are different sizes.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: Evolutionary hierarchy suggests breeds should genetically cluster into groups sharing recent common ancestry. A genetic clustering algorithm could not easily distinguish between the obviously related pairs of Greater Swiss Mountain Dog and the Bernese Mountain Dog.


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: The four breeds of Sennenhund, with the original breed name followed by the most popular English version of the breed name:


title: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

text: In addition to the three breeds mentioned in the previous section, Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs are related to other mountain dogs: Boxers, Bullmastiffs, Doberman Pinschers, Great Danes, Great Pyrenees, Komondors, Kuvaszes and mastiffs. The breed probably contributed to the development of the St. Bernard and the Rottweiler.


title: Action Française

text: Action Française (, AF; ) is a French far-right monarchist political movement. The name was also given to a journal associated with the movement.


title: Action Française

text: The movement and the journal were founded by Maurice Pujo and Henri Vaugeois in 1899, as a nationalist reaction against the intervention of left-wing intellectuals on behalf of Alfred Dreyfus. Charles Maurras quickly joined "Action française" and became its principal ideologist. Under the influence of Maurras, "Action française" became royalist, counter-revolutionary (objecting to the legacy of the French Revolution), anti-parliamentary and pro-decentralization, espousing corporatism, integralism and Catholicism.


title: Action Française

text: Shortly after it was created, "Action française" tried to influence public opinion by turning its journal into a daily newspaper and by setting up other organizations. It was at its most prominent during the 1899–1914 period. In the inter-war period, the movement still enjoyed some prestige from support among conservative elites, but its popularity gradually declined as a result of the rise of fascism and of a rupture in its relations with the Catholic Church. During the Second World War, "Action française" supported the Vichy Regime and Marshal Philippe Pétain. After the fall of Vichy, its newspaper was banned and Maurras was sentenced to life imprisonment. The movement nevertheless continued in new publications and political associations, although with fading relevance as monarchism lost popularity, and French far-right movements shifted toward an emphasis on Catholic values and defense of classical French culture. It is seen by some as one progenitor of the current National Rally political party.


title: Action Française

text: The ideology of "Action française" was dominated by the precepts of Charles Maurras, following his adherence and his conversion of the movement's founders to royalism. The movement supported a restoration of the House of Bourbon and, after the 1905 law on the separation of Church and State, the restoration of Roman Catholicism as the state religion, all as rallying points in distinction to the Third Republic of France which was considered corrupt and atheistic by many of its opponents.


title: Action Française

text: The movement advocated decentralization (a "federal monarchy"), with the restoration of pre-Revolutionary liberties to the ancient provinces of France (replaced during the Revolution by the departmental system). It aimed to achieve a restoration by means of a "coup d'état", probably involving a transitional authoritarian government.


title: Action Française

text: "Action française" was not focused on denouncing one social or political group as the conspiratorial source of ills befalling France. Different groups of the French far-right had animuses against Jews, Huguenots (French Calvinists), and Freemasons. To these, Maurras added unspecific foreigners residing in France, who had been outside French law under the "Ancien Régime", and to whom he invented a slur name derived from ancient Greek history: "métèques". These four groups of "internal foreigners" Maurras called "les quatre états confédérés" and were all considered to be part of "Anti-France". He also opposed Marxism and the October Revolution, but antagonism against them did not have to be manufactured.


title: Action Française

text: In 1899, Maurice Pujo and Henri Vaugeois left the nationalist mouvement "Ligue de la Patrie française" and established a new movement, called "Action française", and a new journal, "Revue de l'Action française". This was their nationalist reaction against the intervention of left-wing intellectuals on the behalf of Alfred Dreyfus.


title: Action Française

text: Charles Maurras quickly joined "Action française" and became its principal ideologist. Under the influence of Maurras, "Action française" became monarchist, counter-revolutionary (objecting to the legacy of the French Revolution) and anti-democratic, and supported integralism and Catholicism. The Dreyfus affair gave some Catholics the impression that Catholicism is not compatible with democracy. Therefore, they regarded "Action française" as rampart of religion and the most fitting expression of the church doctrine regarding society.


title: Action Française

text: In its early years, "Action française" tried to influence public opinion and to spread its ideas. For example, it created related organizations, such as student groups. The political organization of the movement, the Ligue d'Action Française, was launched in the spring of 1905, as was the Action Française Federation of Students, directed by Lucien Moreau.


title: Action Française

text: "L'Institut d'Action française" was created in 1906 as an alternative institute for higher education. In 1908 the movement's periodical was turned to a daily newspaper, called simply "Action française". Camelots du Roi, the movement's youth wing, was created in the same year to sell the newspaper in the streets. Its members also served as a paramilitary wing, providing security for meetings and engaging in street violence with political opponents. The newspaper's literary quality and polemical vigor attracted readers and made Maurras and the movement significant figures in French politics. By 1914, "Action française" was the best structured and the most vital nationalist movement in France.


title: Action Française

text: During the First World War, "Action française" supported the prime minister Georges Clemenceau and the will to defeat the Germans. France's victory in the war, and the movement's anti-German intransigence on the peace terms resulted in a peak of success, prestige and influence in the inter-war period. For example, in 1917 it moved into new spacious offices on the rue Caumartin, near St. Lazare train station. However, in the French legislative elections of 16 November 1919 Bernard de Vésins, president of the Ligue d'Action française, was defeated in the first district of Paris.


title: Action Française

text: "Action française" exploited the disquiet aroused on the right by the victory of the left-wing coalition in 1924 (Cartel des gauches) and the horror of communism, sending about thirty candidates to the French parliament. Well-known writers endorsed the movement, which advertised itself as the thinking man's party. Literary reviews, especially "Revue universelle", spread the message of "Action française". The polemics of the review, its personal attacks on leaders, and its systematic exploitation of scandals and crises helped detach some of the intellectuals from their allegiance to the republic and democracy. This agitation culminated in the 6 February 1934 crisis.


title: Action Française

text: The successes shaped the ideology of "Action française". It became more integrated into mainstream conservatism, stressing patriotism and Catholicism as opposed to monarchism.


title: Action Française

text: In spite of the movement's support for Roman Catholicism as a state religion and the fact that the vast majority of its members were practising Catholics (indeed, they included significant numbers of clergy), some Catholics regarded it with distrust.


title: Action Française

text: Much of this was due to the influence of Maurras, an agnostic who advocated Catholicism as a factor of social cohesion and stability and a vital element of French tradition. This rather utilitarian view of religion disturbed many who otherwise agreed with him. Its influence on young Catholics was also considered unwholesome. Thus, on 29 December 1926, Pope Pius XI condemned "Action française".


title: Action Française

text: Several of Maurras's writings were placed on the "Index Librorum Prohibitorum" at the same time, on 9 January 1927, with "Action française" being the first newspaper ever placed on the Roman Catholic Church's list of banned books. This was a devastating blow to the movement. On 8 March 1927, AF members were prohibited from receiving the sacraments. Many of its members left (two Catholics who were forced to look for a different path in politics and life were writers François Mauriac and Georges Bernanos); and it entered a period of decline.


title: Action Française

text: In 1939, following the Spanish Civil War and a revival of anti-communism in the Catholic Church, Pope Pius XII decided to end the condemnation. Thereafter, "Action française" claimed that the condemnation had been declared for political purposes.


title: Action Française

text: Despite the 1926 Papal condemnation, "Action française" remained popular during the interwar period, being one of the most important far-right leagues, along with the "Croix-de-Feu" and others. As increasing numbers of people in France (as in Europe as a whole) turned to authoritarian political movements, many turned to "Action française". It thus continued to recruit members from the new generations, such as Robert Brasillach (who would become a collaborationist), the novelist and former deputy and ambassador Pierre Benoist, Thierry Maulnier, and Lucien Rebatet. It was marginally represented for a time in the Chamber of Deputies, particularly by Léon Daudet, elected in the right-wing "Chambre bleue horizon" (1919–1924).


title: Action Française

text: However, with the rise of fascism and the creation of seemingly fascist leagues, added to the 1926 Papal condemnation, the royalist movement was weakened by various dissidents: Georges Valois would create the fascist "Faisceau", Louis Dimier would break away, while other members (Eugène Deloncle, Gabriel Jeantet, etc.) created the terrorist "La Cagoule" group.


title: Action Française

text: The retired Admiral Antoine Schwerer became president of the league in 1930, succeeding Bernard de Vésins in difficult circumstances.


title: Action Française

text: At the December 1931 congress, "greeted by loud acclamation", he gave himself to a full presentation of "the general situation of France", external, financial, economic, interior and religious. He concluded with a passionate statement,


title: Action Française

text: John Gunther wrote that of the more than 100 daily newspapers in Paris, only "L'Humanité" and "Action Française" were honest. The group participated in the 6 February 1934 crisis, which led to the fall of the second "Cartel des gauches" and to the replacement of the centre-left Radical-Socialist Édouard Daladier by the centre-right Radical Gaston Doumergue. In foreign policy, Maurras and Bainville supported Pierre Laval's double alliance with Benito Mussolini's Fascist Italy and with the United Kingdom in the Stresa Front (1935) on one side, and with the Soviet Union on the other side, against the common enemy Nazi Germany. The "Action française" greeted Franco's appearance with delight, and supported the self-proclaimed "Caudillo" during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). But the extra-parliamentary agitation brought by the far-right leagues, including the AF, led Pierre Laval's government to outlaw militias and paramilitary leagues, leading to the dissolution of the AF on 13 February 1936 – the other leagues were dissolved only in June 1936 by the Popular Front.


title: Action Française

text: Marshal Philippe Pétain's proclamation of the Vichy regime and of the "Révolution nationale" after the failure of the Battle of France was acclaimed by Maurras as a "divine surprise", and he rallied the collaborationist regime. Royalist members hoped that Pétain would restore the monarchy, and the headquarters of the movement were moved from Paris to Vichy. However, the AF members were split between supporting the counter-revolutionary regime and their nationalism: after 1942, and in particular in 1943, some members, such as Henri d'Astier de la Vigerie, Pierre Guillain de Bénouville or Honoré d'Estienne d'Orves joined the Resistance or escaped to join the Free French Forces. Others actively collaborated, while Maurras supported the Vichy government, but theoretically opposed Pétain's collaboration with the Germans. After the Liberation, he was condemned to life imprisonment in 1944, though he was reprieved in 1952. "Action française" was dissolved in 1944.


title: Action Française

text: "Action française" reformed itself in 1947, under the influence of Maurice Pujo, who created the newspaper ' (AF) and the counter-revolutionary movement, "" ("National Restoration"). After the death of Maurras in 1952, two rival newspapers, ' and Pierre Boutang's ' revived the Maurrassian legacy, until the demise of ' in 1967.


title: Action Française

text: In 1971, a breakaway movement, the "" was formed by Bertrand Renouvin, Georges-Paul Wagner and others. It subsequently became the "Nouvelle Action Royaliste" (NAR), which supported the Orleanist heir (although in his 1968 reprinting of his study on the three French right-wing families, René Rémond still classified it in the legitimist movement because of its counter-revolutionary ideology). The movement called for the support of François Mitterrand in the 1981 presidential election, instead of supporting Jacques Chirac's "neo-Gaullism" movement (the Gaullists are classed by René Rémond as Bonapartists) or Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's "Orleanist" movement (because of his support of economic liberalism).


title: Action Française

text: In the beginning of the 1980s, various AF figures, such as Georges-Paul Wagner or joined the ranks of Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front (FN). Until the 1999 breakaway of the National Republican Movement (MNR) led by Bruno Mégret, Jean-Marie Le Pen's success was partly explained by his unification of the various far right families (such as traditionalist Catholics, royalists, neofascists, etc.) which share few ideals apart from a distrust of liberal democracy and a staunch anti-communism.


title: Action Française

text: In the 1990s, the leader of the movement was Pierre Pujo (Maurice Pujo's son), who died in Paris on 10 November 2007. The student movement, called ', has approximately 15 local delegations (in places such as Paris, Normandy, Rennes, Bordeaux, and Forez) and a newspaper, '. Its president is Oliver Perceval.


title: Action Française

text: "Action française" has 3,000 adherents in 2018, grew from 18% in 2017 and 53% between 2013 and 2018. The movement stands for a traditional, hereditary, anti-parliamentary and decentralized monarchy and is strongly anti-European Union. The organization sees itself as a thinktank and not a political party. The movement presents ideas to answer to all issues regarding national interest such as sovereignty, ecology, and globalization.


title: Action Française

text: Politically, Action Française remains a royalist, nationalist, and counter-revolutionary movement. Its objective is to restore "a sovereign state fully exercising its regalian functions" in France through the establishment of a decentralized and representative monarchy that guarantees the "just exercise of lasting power". Politically, the movement advocates the establishment of a monarchy "adapted to our times that is not a return to an ancient order but a serious response to current issues" with the Orleans family at its head. The movement also supports the idea of a "royalist compromise around the monarchy".


title: Action Française

text: The official entity of the organisation is called "", even if the forbidden name is used in the communication of the movement. It publishes a magazine called "Le bien commun".


title: Action Française

text: The "AF" is organized in region federations, in which stand local school, student, and workers sections. Those sections circulate their ideas and debate in circles. The most known is the Parisian literary circle, "Cercle de Flore", which invites French conservatory and right wing authors intelligentsia. Most of the circles are internal and are designed to train young members to the ideas of the movement. This is the case of the Parisian Charles Maurras circle which gathers the Parisian students.


title: Action Française

text: Following its tradition, the movement edits a newspaper which is sold by its supporters in the street. This allows the young adherents to learn how to debate and publicly defend their ideas. Each year, on the second Sunday of May, a traditional cortege in honour of Joan of Arc is organized.


title: Action Française

text: During and after the manifestations "la manif pour tous" (2013–2014) opposing the Same-sex marriage in France, Action Française created "le printemps français", an activist submovement, and grew a lot recruiting a young generation.


title: Action Française

text: The students of the movement have organized a summer university called "camp Maxime-Real del Sarte" since 1953, gathering approximately 200 activists.


title: Action Française

text: "Action française" is active on the Internet and is followed by 11,000 accounts on Twitter and 24,000 people on Facebook. The movement uses YouTube videos and memes to spread its ideas.


title: Action Française

text: In 1965, the German historian Ernst Nolte claimed that "Action française" was fascist. He considered "Action française" to be the first fascist party.


title: Action Française

text: Certain present-day scholars disagree with Nolte's view. For example, in 1999, the British historian Richard Thurlow claimed that "his [Nolte's] linking of "Action française" to the fascist tradition was misleading". Later, René Rémond and Stanley G. Payne described the differences between "Action française" and Italian fascism.


title: Action Française

text: In the books "Neither Right nor Left" and "The Birth of Fascist Ideology", Zeev Sternhell claimed that "Action française" influenced national syndicalism and, consequently, fascism.


title: Action Française

text: According to Sternhell, national syndicalism was formed by the combination between the integral nationalism of "Action française" and the revolutionary syndicalism of Georges Sorel. National syndicalism spread to Italy, and was later a part of the doctrine of Italian fascist movement.


title: Action Française

text: In France, national syndicalism influenced the non-conformists of the 1930s. Based on the views of the non-conformists themselves, Sternhell argued that the non-conformists were actually a French form of fascism.


title: Action Française

text: Although it supported the Orléanist branch, according to historian René Rémond's categorization of French right-wing families, it would be closer to the legitimist branch, characterized by a complete rejection of all changes to France since the 1789 French Revolution. According to Rémond, supporters of the Orléanist branch tended to favour economic liberalism.


title: The Woman in Black

text: The Woman in Black is a 1983 gothic horror novel by English writer Susan Hill. The plot concerns a mysterious spectre that haunts a small English town. A television film based on the story, also called "The Woman in Black", was produced in 1989, with a screenplay by Nigel Kneale. In 2012, another film adaption was released, starring Daniel Radcliffe.


title: The Woman in Black

text: The book has also been adapted into a stage play by Stephen Mallatratt. It is the second longest-running play in the history of the West End, after "The Mousetrap".


title: The Woman in Black

text: The novel is narrated by Arthur Kipps, the young lawyer who formerly worked for Mr. Bentley. One Christmas Eve he is at home with his second wife Esmé and four stepchildren, who are sharing ghost stories. When he is asked to tell a story, he becomes irritated and leaves the room, and decides to write his horrific experiences several years in the past in the hopes that doing so will exorcise them from his memory.


title: The Woman in Black

text: Many years earlier, whilst still a junior solicitor for Bentley, Kipps is summoned to Crythin Gifford, a small market town on the north east coast of England, to attend the funeral of Mrs. Alice Drablow and settle her estate. Kipps is reluctant to leave his fiancée, Stella, but eager to get away from the dreary London fog. The late Mrs. Drablow was an elderly and reclusive widow who lived alone in the desolate and secluded Eel Marsh House. On his train ride there, he met a fairly wealthy landowner, Samuel Daily.


title: The Woman in Black

text: The house is situated on Nine Lives Causeway. At high tide, it is completely cut off from the mainland, surrounded only by marshes and sea frets. Kipps soon realised that there was more to the late Alice Drablow than he originally thought. At the funeral, he sees a woman dressed in black and with a pale face and dark eyes, whom a group of children are silently watching. While sorting through Mrs. Drablow's papers at Eel Marsh House over the course of several days, he endures an increasingly terrifying sequence of unexplained noises, chilling events and appearances by the Woman in Black. In one of these instances, he hears the sound of a horse and carriage in distress, closely followed by the screams of a young child and his maid, coming from the direction of the marshes.


title: The Woman in Black

text: Most of the people in Crythin Gifford are reluctant to reveal information about Mrs. Drablow and the mysterious woman in black. Any attempt by Kipps to find out the truth causes pained and fearful reactions. From various sources, he learns that Mrs. Drablow's sister, Jennet Humfrye, gave birth to a child, Nathaniel. Because she was unmarried, she was forced to give the child to her sister. Mrs. Drablow and her husband adopted the boy, and insisted that he should never know that Jennet was his mother. The child's screams that Kipps heard were those of Nathaniel's ghost.


title: The Woman in Black

text: Jennet went away for a year. When realising she could not be parted for long from her son, she made an agreement to stay at Eel Marsh House with him as long as she never revealed her true identity to him. She secretly planned to abscond from the house with her son. One day, a pony and trap carrying the boy across the causeway became lost and sank into the marshes, killing all aboard, while Jennet looked on helplessly from the window.


title: The Woman in Black

text: After Jennet died, she returned to haunt Eel Marsh House and the town of Crythin Gifford, as the malevolent Woman in Black. According to local tales, a sighting of the Woman in Black presaged the death of a child.


title: The Woman in Black

text: After some time (but still years before the beginning of the story), Kipps returns to London, marries Stella, has a child of his own, and tries to put the events at Crythin Gifford behind him. At a fair, while his wife and child are enjoying a pony and trap ride, Kipps sees the Woman in Black. She steps out in front of the horse and startles it, causing it to bolt and wreck the carriage against a tree, killing the child instantly and critically injuring Stella, who dies ten months later.


title: The Woman in Black

text: Kipps finishes his reminiscence with the words, "They have asked for my story. I have told it. Enough."


title: The Woman in Black

text: The play of "The Woman in Black" was adapted by Stephen Mallatratt in December 1987 and started off as a low budget production for the new Christmas play in Scarborough. It turned out to be so successful that it arrived in London's West End two years later in January 1989, taking up residence at the London Fortune Theatre on 7 June that same year and is currently the second longest-running play in the West End. For the 30th Anniversary year the West End cast from May 2018-March 2019 was Richard Hope as Arthur Kipps and Mark Hawkins as the Actor, then from 19 March 2019 Stuart Fox with Matthew Spencer. As of November 2022, Julian Forsyth now plays Arthur Kipps with Matthew Spencer still playing the Actor.


title: The Woman in Black

text: Mallatratt's version sees Arthur rehearsing with an actor in an attempt to perform the story to family and friends, which allows him to relive the haunting of Eel Marsh House as a play within a play.


title: The Woman in Black

text: A sequel of the book named "" was first published in the United Kingdom on 24 October 2013 and was published in the United States on 12 February 2014, written by Martyn Waites. It is a novelisation of the 2015 film "".


title: Sexy son hypothesis

text: The sexy son hypothesis in evolutionary biology and sexual selection, proposed by Patrick J. Weatherhead and Raleigh J. Robertson of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario in 1979, states that a female's ideal mate choice among potential mates is one whose genes will produce males with the best chance of reproductive success. This implies that other benefits the father can offer the mother or offspring are less relevant than they may appear, including his capacity as a parental caregiver, territory and any nuptial gifts. Fisher's principle means that the sex ratio (except in certain eusocial insects) is always near 1:1 between males and females, yet what matters most are her "sexy sons'" future breeding successes, more likely if they have a promiscuous father, in creating large numbers of offspring carrying copies of her genes. This sexual selection hypothesis has been researched in species such as the European pied flycatcher.


title: Sexy son hypothesis

text: Female mating preferences are widely recognized as being responsible for the rapid and divergent evolution of male secondary sex characteristics. In 1915, Ronald Fisher wrote:


title: Sexy son hypothesis

text: Granted that while this taste and preference prevails among the females of the species, the males will grow more and more elaborate and beautiful tail feathers, the question must be answered "Why have the females this taste? Of what use is it to the species that they should select this seemingly useless ornament?"


title: Sexy son hypothesis

text: The first step to a solution lies in the fact that the success of an animal in the struggle for existence is not measured only by the number of offspring which it produces and rears, but also by the probable success of these offspring. So that in selecting a mate from a number of different competitors, it is important to select that one which is most likely to produce successful children.


title: Sexy son hypothesis

text: In 1976, prior to Weatherhead and Robertson's paper, Richard Dawkins had written in his book "The Selfish Gene":


title: Sexy son hypothesis

text: Ronald Fisher's principle, as published in his book "The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection", is one of several possible explanations for the highly diverse and often astonishing ornaments of animals. If females choose physically attractive males, they will tend to get physically attractive sons, and, thus more grandchildren, because other choosy females will prefer their attractive, sexy sons. The theory will function regardless of the physical or behavioral trait a female chooses, as long as it is heritable (that is, the trait varies between individuals of the population), because it is possessing the trait that makes males attractive, and not the qualities of the trait in itself.


title: Sexy son hypothesis

text: Once a preference becomes established, females choosing males with elaborate secondary sexual traits will produce sons that carry alleles for the trait and produce daughters that carry alleles for the preference, generating genetic coupling that will drive self-reinforcing coevolution of both trait and preference, due to the mating advantage of males with the trait, creating a Fisherian runaway sexy sons process. Similar models have been proposed for postcopulatory female preferences, such as the time at which females removed the male's sperm ampulla after mating. Sexual selection by direct and/or indirect benefits as well as sexual conflict determine the evolution of animal mating systems.


title: Sexy son hypothesis

text: In its original context, the "narrow-sense sexy son hypothesis" of Weatherhead and Robertson refers to mating systems with care from both parents. In these mating systems, females that mate with a polygynous male normally receive less assistance than females mated with a monogamous male, and thus suffer from direct fitness consequences that have to be (at least) compensated for by the breeding successes of their sexy sons. On the other hand, a "broad-sense sexy son hypothesis" encompasses both polygyny and promiscuous mating systems, with and without care from both parents. Alatalo (1998) argues that the costs of any additional choice may be so minor that female choice for honestly signaling males, that is good genes, may evolve even if the indirect benefits on offspring quality are small. A similar argument can be made for the sexy son hypothesis if mates of attractive males do not suffer any direct fitness consequences.


title: Sexy son hypothesis

text: Sexual conflict refers to the conflicting goals of breeding males and females. It describes the diverging interests of males and females in optimizing their fitness. From the viewpoint of any one partner, the best outcome would be for the partner's mate to care for the young, thus freeing up his or her own resources (e.g., time and energy) that s/he—but typically he—can invest in further sex that may create additional offspring. In polygynous mating systems, sexual conflict means the optimization of male reproductive success by having mated with multiple females, even though the reproductive success of a polygynously mated female is thereby reduced. Such can be the case for the Guianan cock-of-the-rocks, whose male members spend a majority of their time and energy maintaining their plumage and attempting to seek the most matings. Females, on the other hand, spend their time building and maintaining their nest where they will lay their eggs and raise the young.


title: Sexy son hypothesis

text: "Good genes" theory proposes that females select males seen to have genetic advantages that increase offspring quality. Increased viability of offspring provides compensation for any lower reproductive success that results from their being "picky". The good-gene hypothesis for polyandry proposes that when females encounter better males than their previous mates, they re-mate in order to fertilize their eggs with the better male's sperm.


title: Sexy son hypothesis

text: Dung beetles who have selected mates with better genetics tend to have offspring that survive longer and are more able to reproduce than those that do not pick mates with genetic quality. This suggests that carefully choosing a mate is beneficial.


title: Sexy son hypothesis

text: Another study notes that pronghorn females engage in an obvious and energetically expensive mate sampling process to identify vigorous males. Though each female selects independently, the outcome is that a small proportion of the herd's males sire most young. Offspring of attractive males were more likely to survive to weaning and to age classes as late as 5 years, apparently due to faster growth rates. Because pronghorn males do not have costly ornaments, the authors conclude that female choice for good genes can exist in the absence of obvious sexual selection cues such as elaborate antlers.


title: Sexy son hypothesis

text: The sexy son hypothesis is closely related to the good genes assumption and the Fisherian runaway selection process. Like good genes, the sexy son hypothesis assumes the existence of indirect genetic benefits that are able to compensate for any inferior direct reproductive success (i.e., fewer offspring). The main difference between good genes and the sexy son hypothesis is that the latter assumes an indirect effect due to the attractiveness of the sons, whereas good genes focus on the viability of both sons and daughters. However, "attractiveness" is not narrowly defined, and can refer to every trait that increases a male's probability to become polygynous.


title: Sexy son hypothesis

text: Good-sperm models predict positive genetic associations between a male's sperm competitiveness and the general viability of his offspring, whereas sexy-sperm models predict that multiple-mating females produce more grandchildren. As with precopulatory processes, postcopulatory models predict that the trait in males that determines fertilization success will become genetically coupled with the mechanism by which females choose the sperm of preferred males.


title: Anita (2021 film)

text: Anita () is a 2021 Hong Kong biographical musical drama film about Cantopop star Anita Mui directed by Longman Leung, with a script written by Leung and Jack Ng. Louise Wong, in her screen role debut, stars as the titular singer, depicting her life from childhood until her last moments before her death of cervical cancer in 2003. The film features an ensemble cast, including Fish Liew, Gordon Lam and Louis Koo in supporting roles.


title: Anita (2021 film)

text: Production of the biopic began in the 2010s when Bill Kong, president of Edko Films, initiated the project to commemorate Mui's legacy. Leung signed on the project and took over a year to write the script with Ng, as well as finalize the cast. Principal photography took place in 2018.


title: Anita (2021 film)

text: Although its initial 2020 release date was delayed due to COVID-19 pandemic, "Anita" was released in Hong Kong on 12 November 2021, followed by some Southeast Asia countries in the same month. The film received mixed to positive reviews, and made its HK$12M box-office debut with previous preview screenings.


title: Anita (2021 film)

text: An extended director's cut, featuring 1 hour of extra footage, was released digitally as five-episode miniseries on Disney+ through Star starting from 2 February 2022.


title: Anita (2021 film)

text: The film follows the life of Hong Kong Cantopop singer and actress Anita Mui. The film begins from her life as a child performer with her sister Ann Mui in the now-demolished Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park, and follows her relationship with her fashion designer Eddie Lau, fellow singer Leslie Cheung, ex-boyfriends Goto Yuki and Ben Lam, her career and up till Mui's death in 2003.


title: Anita (2021 film)

text: Hong Kong film producer Bill Kong had pushed for the making of a biographical film of his friend, whom he had struck a friendship with during the 1980s. He attributes his devotion as the film's producer and biggest investor to be a returned favor for when Mui helped his then-fledgling film company, Edko, promote "The Adventures of Milo and Otis" in Hong Kong. Years later, Mui had asked Kong to help her get an impactful, memorable movie role in return, and he had her lined up to star in "House of Flying Daggers" before her death. Regretful that the singer died before the film's production, Kong thought about producing a biopic about Mui's life for over a decade. However, he had difficulties finding an appropriate script for the project, and could not find a suitable actress to play Mui.


title: Anita (2021 film)

text: Determined to bring the project to life, Kong decided to approach Longman Leung in 2015 about the biopic project. Kong initially wanted to work with screenwriter Lilian Lee, who had written the screenplay for "Rouge", which Mui starred in. However, Lee turned the offer down. Leung wrote an initial synopsis, conducted a year of interviews with Mui's inner circle, and developed a script with co-writer Jack Ng.


title: Anita (2021 film)

text: For "Anita", Leung took notes on how historical drama "The Crown" portrayed its subject matter. He was inspired by the television series' focus on casting actors for their ability to evoke a historical figure's personality. Casting calls for the film began in late 2016, with Kong and Leung spending a year deliberating on who should play Mui. According to Leung, the production team auditioned over 3000 actors during the process. After multiple rounds of auditions, the team eventually decided to cast model Louise Wong in her first film role. In her auditions, Wong performed a Cantonese nanyin song, a wenxi Chinese opera performance, the theme from "Rouge", and Anita Mui’s song “Life Written in Water” (似水流年). According to Kong, the production team were moved to tears by Wong's performance during her final audition, where she sang Mui's "Sunset Melodies" (夕陽之歌) in a full dress rehearsal of the film's final scene. Wong was initially stunned by her casting, as she had never considered becoming an actress. After coming to terms with the magnitude of the role, she began training in acting and performance for six months.


title: Anita (2021 film)

text: In addition to Wong, the production team cast Louis Koo to play fashion designer Eddie Lau, and Gordon Lam as pianist-friend So Hau Leung. For the role of Leslie Cheung, the production team went with Terrance Lau, who was positively received for his work in the 2019 romantic drama "Beyond the Dream". While he eventually accepted the part, Lau nearly turned the opportunity down due to the pressure he felt of portraying Cheung.


title: Anita (2021 film)

text: "Anita" entered production in 2018, with principal photography lasting 80 days. As the movie depicted scenes mostly in 1980s Hong Kong, the production crew secured permissions to film in Hong Kong landmarks, such as the Hong Kong Coliseum before its renovation and Hong Kong Stadium. Leung, who had previously directed effects-heavy action films, used his post-production experience to leverage computer-generated Imagery to produce settings of the past. The Hong Kong visual effects company, Free-D workshop, was tasked with recreating various Hong Kong landmarks from the 80s and 90s. The visual effects team worked with the art team to reconstruct demolished buildings like the Lee Theatre, or places where the scenery had changed a lot, such as the East Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront.


title: Anita (2021 film)

text: Filming in Thailand took place ostensibly in a secluded villa called Lanna Hill House, in the Mae-On district of Chiang Mai.


title: Anita (2021 film)

text: Although Leung had members of his crew dedicated to obtaining the rights to Mui's music from the company that held them, he still found difficulty finding existing masters of her recordings and was only able to locate four originals. Taking inspiration from the recording process of the biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody", Leung's audio team blended vocal tracks of Mui, Wong, and a session singer in order to recreate Mui's singing style.


title: Anita (2021 film)

text: After getting feedback from friends in the industry, the cast and crew did an additional 10-day shoot in 2019. The film was in post-production during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong.


title: Anita (2021 film)

text: The first trailer and poster for "Anita" was released in May 2021. However, Wong's involvement with the project was kept a mystery until 8 July 2021, when she was officially announced as the actor to be portraying Mui.


title: Anita (2021 film)

text: Following the film's release, Edko Films would continue to promote "Anita" by offering free tram rides in Hong Kong on the 18th anniversary of Mui's death on 30 December.


title: Anita (2021 film)

text: "Anita" had its world premiere as the last film shown at the 2021 Busan International Film Festival. The film was released on 12 November 2021 in Hong Kong and mainland China. Sony Pictures Releasing and Buena Vista International will distribute the film in five Asian countries, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam by the end of 2021. The film topped the box office in Hong Kong upon release, and debuted second at the Chinese box office with $6.3 million in ticket sales and earning more than 10 million yuan on its opening day.


title: Anita (2021 film)

text: On 5 January 2022, Disney announced that an episodic adaptation of "Anita" would be available on Disney+ Star content starting on 2 February of that year. The series, titled "Anita (Director's Cut)", is composed of five 45-minute long episodes. It rearranges existing scenes and contains over an hour of unreleased footage.


title: Anita (2021 film)

text: Richard Kulpers of "Variety" wrote, "Longman Leung’s nostalgic drama has a soft center but should still please the late star’s worldwide legion of fans. Edmund Lee of "South China Morning Post" wrote, "There are notable – and understandable – omissions. While the film elaborates on Mui’s ultimately futile romantic relationships and highlights her charitable endeavors, it shies away from mentioning her fabled political activism in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. Mui’s bloodsucking mother and brothers – a key part of her tragic backstory – are also conspicuously absent."


title: Clarice Cliff

text: Clarice Cliff (20 January 1899 – 23 October 1972) was an English ceramic artist and designer. Active from 1922 to 1963, Cliff became the head of the factory creative department.


title: Clarice Cliff

text: Cliff's ancestors moved from the Eccleshall area to Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, around 1725. Cliff was born on the terrace of a modest house in Meir Street. Her father, Harry Thomas Cliff, worked at an iron foundry in Tunstall. Her mother Ann (née Machin) took in washing to supplement the family income. They had seven children.


title: Clarice Cliff

text: Cliff was sent to a different school from the one the other siblings went to. After school, Cliff would visit her aunt, who was a hand painter. She made papier-mâché models at school for a local pottery company.


title: Clarice Cliff

text: At the age of 13, Cliff started working in the pottery industry as a gilder. She added gold lines on ware of traditional design. Later, she learned freehand painting at another pot bank. She also studied art and sculpture at the Burslem School of Art.