Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist science-fiction film directed by Fritz Lang. The film was written by Lang and his wife Thea Von Harbou, and starred Brigitte Helm, Gustav Fröhlich, Alfred Abel and Rudolf Klein-Rogge. A silent film, it was produced in the Babelsberg Studios by UFA.

Made in Germany during the Weimar Period, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia, and follows the attempts of Freder, the son of a wealthy intellectual, and Maria, whose background is not fully explained in the film, to overcome the vast gulf separating the classist nature of their city. Metropolis was filmed in 1925, at a cost of approximately four million ℛℳ.^[2] The film was met with a mixed response upon its initial release, with many critics praising its technical achievements while deriding its simplistic and naïve storyline. Due both to its long running-time and footage censors found questionable, Metropolis was cut substantially after its German premiere; large portions of the film were lost over the subsequent decades.

Numerous attempts have been made to restore the film since the 1970s-80s, and music producer Giorgio Moroder released a version with a soundtrack by pop artists such as Freddie Mercury and Adam Ant in 1984. A new reconstruction of Metropolis was shown at the Berlin Film Festival in 2001, and the film was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in the same year.^[3] In 2008, a print of Lang’s original cut of the film was found in a museum in Argentina. After a long restoration process, the restored film was shown on large screens in Berlin and Frankfurt simultaneously on 12 February 2010.

Plot[link]

Metropolis takes place in a dystopian society where wealthy intellectuals rule from vast tower complexes, oppressing the workers who live in the depths below them. The film follows Freder (Gustav Fröhlich), the son of the master of the city, Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel). While idling away his leisure time in a pleasure garden, Freder encounters a young woman named Maria (Brigitte Helm) who has brought a group of worker’s children to see the privileged lifestyle led by the rich. Maria and the children are quickly ushered away, but Freder is fascinated by Maria and descends to the worker’s city in an attempt to find her.

Freder finds the worker’s city and watches a huge machine explode in horror, injuring many. Appalled by what he has witnessed, Freder runs to tell his father. Joh is angered that he learned of the explosion from Freder rather than his assistant Josaphat (Theodor Loos), and fires Josaphat as a result. Josaphat attempts to commit suicide over his dismissal, but is stopped by Freder. Freder tells Josaphat to return to his apartment and wait for him there, leaving to return to the worker’s city. Concerned by his son’s behaviour, Joh sends The Thin Man (Fritz Rasp) to keep track of his movements.

In the worker’s city, Freder sees a worker named Georgy (Erwin Biswanger) close to collapsing at his post. Freder relieves him, swapping clothes with Georgy and telling him to go to Josaphat’s apartment and wait for him there. Georgy is driven away by Freder’s chauffeur, but on his way to Josaphat’s apartment he is distracted by the bright-lights of the licentious night-club Yoshiwara. Back in the worker’s city, Freder finds a plan folded tightly in his pocket and is told of an approaching meeting by a passerby.

Meanwhile, Joh has learned of mysterious plans being shared amongst the workers. He takes the plans to Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), a scientist and old collaborator who informs him the plans show the underground tunnels that lie beneath the worker’s city. Rotwang was in love with Joh’s deceased wife Hel, and – to Joh’s horror - reveals that he has been building a robot in order to ‘resurrect’ her. Rotwang and Joh leave to enter the catacombs. Freder, after suffering hallucinations brought on by exhaustion, follows the workers down into the catacombs, where Maria is waiting to speak to them.

In the catacombs, Maria prophesies the arrival of a mediator between the workers and the intellectuals. Freder watches her transfixed, and once she has finished speaking approaches her and declares his love. They arrange to meet later in a cathedral, and part. Joh and Rotwang watch the entire scene unfold, and plot to kidnap Maria, give the robot her appearance and use it to discredit her. Joh is pleased with the plan, unaware that Rotwang intends to use the false Maria to destroy his son. Rotwang follows Maria through the catacombs, and kidnaps her.

After leaving Yoshiwara the next morning, Georgy finds The Thin Man waiting for him in his car. The Thin Man orders Georgy to return to his post and forget everything that occurred, taking Josaphat’s address from him. Meanwhile Freder goes to Josaphat’s apartment, and asks for Georgy. Josaphat tells Freder that Georgy has not arrived. Freder tells Josaphat of his experiences in the worker’s city, before departing to meet Maria. The Thin Man arrives at Josaphat’s apartment just after Freder’s departure, and attempts to intimidate him into leaving Metropolis. The two fight, and Josaphat manages to escape and hide in the worker’s city.

When Maria does not arrive at the cathedral, Freder goes in search of her. He hears her cries as he approaches Rotwang’s house, and makes futile attempts to reach her. In his laboratory Rotwang successfully transforms the robot into Maria’s double, and sends it to greet Joh. Freder returns to his father, and sees him and the false Maria embracing. He faints, and experiences a series of nightmarish visions. The false Maria begins to unleash chaos throughout Metropolis, driving men to murder out of lust for her in Yoshiwara and stirring dissent amongst the workers. Meanwhile, the real Maria manages to flee from Rotwang’s house as Rotwang and Fredersen duel after Fredersen becomes aware of Rotwang's treachery.

When Freder recovers ten days later, he finds out from Josaphat that the Robot, whom they believe is Maria, is raising havoc. the pair venture down to Maria's altar, where the robot is urging the workers to rise up and revolt. Freder calls the robot out, knowing that Maria would never preach war, but is recognized as Joh Frderson's son and is attacked by the mob. In the chaos, Georgy is stabbed trying to protect Freder. Joh has ordered that the workers are allowed to rampage, in order to justify the use of heavy force against them at a later stage. Maria leads the workers from the city, who unknowingly leave their children behind, and they surge into the machine halls, abandoning their posts and destroying the Heart Machine, the central power Station of the city, which causes all the city's systems to fail. With with no power for the pumps, the subterranean workers city begins to flood. Maria finds the children trying to escape the flood and attempts to save as many as she can from the water, sounding the city's alarm to gather them in one spot. She is soon joined by Freder and Josaphat, who help her rescue the children and escape to the upper levels of the city via an escape ladder. they manage to evacuate the children just as the workers city begins to collapse.

As the workers revel in the Machine halls, Grot, foreman of the Heart Machine, manages to suppress the out of control crowd, and berates them for their behavior and actions. Realizing their children have been left behind in the flooded workers city, the workers are driven mad by grief. Considering Maria the cause of their misery, they launch a witch hunt, capture the false Maria, who had been reveling with the city's rich, and tie her to a stake. Having been separated from the real Maria, Freder watches as the false Maria is set afire and gradually transforms back into her robot form.

A delusional Rotwang finds the real Maria hiding from the mob in the cathedral, and, mistaking her for Hel, gives chase. Rotwang and Maria end up on the roof of the cathedral, and are seen by Freder from the ground. Freder climbs up to the roof of the cathedral and confronts Rotwang; the two fight, and Rotwang eventually loses his balance and falls to his death. The film ends with Freder declaring a truce between the workers and the thinkers, and linking the hands of his father and Grot (Heinrich George), becoming the Mediator between head and hands.

Cast[link]

• Gustav Fröhlich as Freder, the hero of the film.
• Brigitte Helm as both the virginal Maria and her robot double.
• Alfred Abel as Joh Fredersen, the master of Metropolis.
• Rudolf Klein-Rogge as Rotwang, a mad scientist.
• Heinrich George as Grot, the Foreman of the Heart Machine.
• Fritz Rasp as The Thin Man, Joh's spy.
• Theodor Loos as Josaphat, Joh's assistant.
• Erwin Biswanger as Georgy (or 11811), a downtrodden worker.

Influences[link]

Above, the Tower of Babel, modelled after Brueghel's 1563 painting,[4] below.

Above, the Tower of Babel, modelled after Brueghel's 1563 painting,^[4] below.

Metropolis features a range of elaborate special effects and set designs, ranging from a huge gothic cathedral to a futuristic cityscape.

In an interview, Fritz Lang reported that "the film was born from my first sight of the skyscrapers in New York in October 1924". Describing his first impressions of the city, Lang said that "the buildings seemed to be a vertical sail, scintillating and very light, a luxurious backdrop, suspended in the dark sky to dazzle, distract and hypnotize".^[5]

The appearance of the city in Metropolis is strongly informed by the Art Deco movement; however it also incorporates elements from other traditions. Ingeborg Hoesterey described the architecture featured in Metropolis as eclectic, writing how its locales represent both “functionalist modernism [and] art deco” whilst also featuring “the scientist’s archaic little house with its high-powered laboratory, the catacombs [and] the Gothic cathedral”.^[6] The film’s use of art deco architecture was highly influential, and has been reported to have contributed to the style’s subsequent popularity in Europe and America.^[7]

The film drew heavily on Biblical sources for several of its key set-pieces. During her first talk to the workers, Maria uses the story of the Tower of Babel to highlight the discord between the intellectuals and the workers. Additionally, a delusional Freder imagines the false-Maria as the Whore of Babylon, riding on the back of a many-headed dragon.

Production[link]

Pre-Production[link]

The screenplay of Metropolis was written by Fritz Lang and his wife, Thea Von Harbou, a popular writer in Weimar Germany. The film's plot originated from a novel written by Harbou for the sole purpose of being made into a film. The novel featured strongly in the film's marketing campaign, and was serialized in the journal Illustriertes Blatt in the run up to its release. Harbou and Lang collaborated on the screenplay derived from the novel, and several plot points and thematic elements - including most of the references to magic and occultism present in the novel - were dropped. The screenplay itself went through many re-writes, and at one point featured an ending where Freder would have flown to the stars; this plot element later became the basis for Lang's Woman in the Moon.^[8]

Filming[link]

Metropolis began filming on 22 May 1925. The cast of the film was mostly composed of unknowns; this was particularly true of nineteen year old Brigitte Helm who had no previous film experience.^[8]

Shooting of the film was a draining experience for the actors involved, due to the demands made of them by director Fritz Lang. For the scene where the worker's city was flooded, Helm and five hundred children from the poorest districts of Berlin had to work for fourteen days in a pool of water that Lang intentionally kept at a low temperature.^[8] Lang would frequently demand numerous re-takes, and took three days to shoot a simple scene where Freder collapses at Maria's feet; by the time Lang was satisfied with the footage he had shot, actor Gustav Fröhlich found he could barely stand. Other anecdotes involve Lang's insistence on using real fire for the climatic scene where the false Maria is burnt at the stake (which resulted in Helm's dress catching fire), and his ordering extras to throw themselves towards powerful jets of water when filming the flooding of the worker's city.^[9]

Helm recalled her experiences of shooting the film in a contemporary interview, saying that "the night shots lasted three weeks, and even if they did lead to the greatest dramatic moments–even if we did follow Fritz Lang’s directions as though in a trance, enthusiastic and enraptured at the same time – I can’t forget the incredible strain that they put us under. The work wasn’t easy, and the authenticity in the portrayal ended up testing our nerves now and then. For instance, it wasn’t fun at all when Grot drags me by the hair, to have me burned at the stake. Once I even fainted: during the transformation scene, Maria, as the android, is clamped in a kind of wooden armament, and because the shot took so long, I didn’t get enough air."^[10]

Shooting on Metropolis lasted over a year, and was finally completed on 30 October 1926.^[9]

Special Effects[link]

The effects expert, Eugen Schüfftan, created pioneering visual effects for Metropolis. Among the effects used are miniatures of the city, a camera on a swing, and most notably, the Schüfftan process,^[11] in which mirrors are used to create the illusion that actors are occupying miniature sets. This new technique was seen again just two years later in Alfred Hitchcock's film Blackmail (1929).^[12]

The Maschinenmensch - the robot built by Rotwang to resurrect his lost love Hel - was created by sculptor Walter Schulze-Mittendorff. A whole-body plaster cast was taken of actress Brigitte Helm, and the costume was then constructed around it. A chance discovery of a sample of "plastic wood" (a pliable substance designed as wood-filler) allowed Schulze-Mittendorff to build a costume that would both appear metallic and allow a small amount of free movement.^[13] Helm sustained cuts and bruises while in character as the robot, as the costume was rigid and uncomfortable.^[14]

Release[link]

Early release history[link]

Metropolis had its premiere at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo movie theater in Berlin on 10 January 1927, where the audience reacted to several of the film's most spectacular scenes with "spontaneous applause". At the time of its German premiere, Metropolis had a length of 4189 meters (approximately 153 mins at 24 fps).^[9][15][16] Metropolis had been funded in part by Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and UFA had formed a distribution deal with the two companies whereby they were "entitled to make any change [to films produced by UFA] they found appropriate to ensure profitability". The distribution of Metropolis was handled by Paraufamet, a multinational company that incorporated all three film studios. Considering Metropolis too long and unwieldy, Paraufamet commissioned American playwright Channing Pollock to write a simpler version of the film that could be assembled using the existing material. Pollock shortened the film dramatically, altered its inter-titles and removed all references to the character of Hel (as the name sounded too similar to the English word Hell), thereby removing Rotwang's original motivation for creating his robot. In Pollock's cut, the film ran for 3170 meters, or approximately 115 minutes. This version of Metropolis premiered in the U.S in March 1927, and was released in the U.K around the same time with different title cards.^[15]

Alfred Hugenberg, a nationalist businessman, cancelled UFA's debt to Paramount and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer after taking charge of the company in April 1927, and chose to halt distribution in German cinemas of Metropolis in its original form. Hugenberg had the film cut down to a length of 3241 meters, removing the film's perceived "inappropriate" communist subtext and religious imagery. Hugenberg's cut of the film was released in German cinemas in August 1927. UFA distributed a still shorter version of the film (2530 meters, 91 minutes) in 1936, and an English version of this cut was archived in the MOMA film library.^[15]

Reception[link]

Despite the film's later reputation, some contemporary critics panned it. The New York Times critic Mordaunt Hall called it a "technical marvel with feet of clay". The Times went on the next month to publish a lengthy review by H. G. Wells who accused it of "foolishness, cliché, platitude, and muddlement about mechanical progress and progress in general." He faulted Metropolis for its premise that automation created drudgery rather than relieving it, wondered who was buying the machines' output if not the workers, and found parts of the story derivative of Shelley's Frankenstein, Karel Čapek's robot stories, and his own The Sleeper Awakes.^[17]

Joseph Goebbels was impressed however, and took the film's message to heart. In a 1928 speech he declared that "the political bourgeoisie is about to leave the stage of history. In its place advance the oppressed producers of the head and hand, the forces of Labor, to begin their historical mission".^[18]

Fritz Lang later expressed dissatisfaction with the film. In an interview with Peter Bogdanovich (available in Who The Devil Made It...), he expressed his reservations.

The main thesis was Mrs. Von Harbou's, but I am at least 50 percent responsible because I did it. I was not so politically minded in those days as I am now. You cannot make a social-conscious picture in which you say that the intermediary between the hand and the brain is the heart. I mean, that's a fairy tale – definitely. But I was very interested in machines. Anyway, I didn't like the picture – thought it was silly and stupid – then, when I saw the astronauts: what else are they but part of a machine? It's very hard to talk about pictures—should I say now that I like Metropolis because something I have seen in my imagination comes true, when I detested it after it was finished?

In his profile for Lang featured in the same book, which prefaces the interview, Bogdanovich suggested that Lang's distaste for his own film also stemmed from the Nazi Party's fascination with the film. Von Harbou became a passionate member of the Nazi Party in 1933. They divorced the following year.

Roger Ebert noted that "Metropolis is one of the great achievements of the silent era, a work so audacious in its vision and so angry in its message that it is, if anything, more powerful today than when it was made."^[19]

Restorations[link]

As a result of the edited versions, the original premiere cut eventually disappeared and a quarter of the original film was long believed to be lost forever.^[20]

In 1984, a new restoration and edit of the film was made by Giorgio Moroder. Moroder's version of the film was tinted throughout, featured additional special effects, subtitles instead of intertitles and a pop soundtrack instead of a traditional score.

The moderate commercial success of the Moroder version of the film inspired Enno Patalas to make an exhaustive attempt to restore the movie in 1986. This version was the most accurate reconstruction until that time, being based on the film’s script and musical score. The basis of Patalas' work was a copy in the Museum of Modern Art's collection.^{[citation needed]}

In conjunction with Kino International Metropolis’s current copyright holder, the F.W. Murnau Foundation released a digitally restored version of the film in 2002. This edition included the film’s original music score and title cards that described the events featured in missing sequences. Previously unknown sections of the film were discovered in film museums and archives around the world, and the footage was digitally cleaned and repaired to remove defects.

On 1 July 2008, film experts in Berlin announced that a 16 mm reduction negative of the original cut of the film had been discovered in the archives of the Museo del Cine^[21] in Buenos Aires, Argentina.^[22][23] The print had been in circulation since 1928, starting off with a film distributor and subsequently being passed to a private collector, an art foundation and finally the Museo del Cine. The print was investigated by the museum’s curator after he heard an anecdote from a cinema club manager expressing surprise at the length of a print of Metropolis he had viewed.^[24] The print was in poor condition and required considerable restoration before it was re-premiered in February 2010. Two short sequences from the film, depicting a monk preaching in the cathedral and a fight between Rotwang and Fredersen, were in extremely poor condition and could not be salvaged.^{[citation needed]}

In 2005, Wollongong-based historian and politician Michael Organ examined a print of the film in the National Film Archive of New Zealand. Organ discovered that the print contained scenes missing from other copies of the film. After hearing of the discovery of the Argentine print of the film and the restoration project currently under way, Organ contacted the German restorers about his find. The New Zealand print contained eleven missing scenes and featured some brief pieces of footage that were used to restore damaged sections of the Argentine print. It is believed that the Australian, New Zealand and Argentine prints were all scored from the same master. The newly discovered footage was used in the restoration project.^[25]

Copyright issues[link]

The American copyright had lapsed in 1953, which eventually led to a proliferation of versions being released on video. Along with other foreign-made works, the film's U.S. copyright was restored in 1998,^[26] but the constitutionality of this copyright extension was challenged in Golan v. Gonzales and as Golan v. Holder it was ruled that "In the United States, that body of law includes the bedrock principle that works in the public domain remain in the public domain. Removing works from the public domain violated Plaintiffs' vested First Amendment interests."^[27] This only applied to the rights of so-called reliance parties, i.e. parties who had previously relied on the public domain status of restored works. The case was overturned on appeal to the Tenth Circuit^[28] and that decision was upheld by the US Supreme Court on January 18, 2012. This had the effect of restoring the copyright in the work as of January 1, 1996. Under current US copyright law, it remains copyrighted until January 1, 2023.

Music[link]

Original score[link]

The film score of the original release of Metropolis was composed by Gottfried Huppertz and it was meant to be performed by large orchestras to accompany the film during production. Huppertz took inspiration from Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss, plus some mild modernism for the city of the workers and the use of the popular Dies Irae for some apocalyptic imagery. Huppertz borrowed and altered the "Dies Irae" theme from Berlioz's Symphony Fantastique as well as the French National Anthem. His music played a prominent role during the shooting of the film, since during principal photography many scenes were accompanied by him playing the piano to get a certain effect from the actors.

The score was rerecorded for the 2001 DVD release of the film with Berndt Heller conducting the Rundfunksinfonieorchester Saarbrücken. It was the first release of the reasonably reconstructed movie accompanied by the music that was originally intended for it. In 2007, the original film score was also played live by the VCS Radio Symphony which accompanied the restored version of the film at Brenden Theatres in Vacaville, California on 1 and 2 August.^[29] The score was also produced in a salon orchestration which was performed for the first time in the United States in August 2007 by The Bijou Orchestra under the direction of Leo Najar as part of a German Expressionist film festival in Bay City, Michigan.^[30] The same forces also performed the work at the Traverse City Film Festival in Traverse City, Michigan in August 2009.^[31]

For the 2010 almost complete reconstruction, the score was performed and recorded for the DVD release by the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Frank Strobel,^[32] who also conducted the premiere of the reconstructed version at Berlin Friedrichstadtpalast.

Other soundtracks[link]

There have been many other soundtracks created for Metropolis by different artists, including, but not limited to:

• 1975 – The BBC version of Metropolis features an electronic score composed by William Fitzwater and Hugh Davies.^[33]
• 1984 – Giorgio Moroder restored and produced the 80-minute 1984 re-release, which had a pop soundtrack written by Moroder and performed by Moroder, Pat Benatar, Bonnie Tyler, Jon Anderson, Adam Ant, Cycle V, Loverboy, Billy Squier, and Freddie Mercury.
• 2000 – Jeff Mills created a techno score for Metropolis which was released as an album. He also performed the score live at public screenings of the film.
• 2004 – Abel Korzeniowski created a score for Metropolis played live by a 90-piece orchestra and a choir of 60 voices and two soloists. The first performance took place at the Era Nowe Horyzonty Film Festival in Poland.
• 2004 – Ronnie Cramer produced a score and effects soundtrack for Metropolis that won two Aurora awards.^[34]
• 2005/2011 – The New Pollutants (Mister Speed and DJ Tr!p) performed Metropolis Rescore live for festivals since 2005^[35] and are rescoring to the 2010 version of the film for premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival 2011.^[36]
• 2010 - The Alloy Orchestra has scored four different versions of the film, most recently for the American premiere of the 2010 restoration.

Adaptations[link]

Several adaptations have been made of the original Metropolis, including at least two^{[citation needed]} musical theatre adaptations (see Metropolis).

The 2001 animated film Metropolis, is based on an original manga by Osamu Tezuka, which is loosely based on the film, though Tezuka claims he had not seen the film at the time.(see Metropolis).

In December 2007, producer Thomas Schühly (Alexander, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen) gained the remake rights to Metropolis.^[37]

Some scenes from the film were featured in the music video for Queen's "Radio Ga Ga".

Whitney Houston's music video "Queen Of The Night" includes clips from the film as well as Houston wearing a shiney metallic ensemble resembling Maschinenmensch.

Madonna's music video for "Express Yourself" pays homage to the film.

Janelle Monae based both her concept albums on the original film including her EP, Metropolis: Suite I (The Chase)released mid-2007 and The ArchAndroid released in 2009. The albums follow the adventures of Monae's alter-ego and robot, Cindi Mayweather, as an messianic figure to the android community of Metropolis.

Australian pop star Kylie Minogue has also paid homage to the film in two of her concert tours, KylieFever2002 and KylieX2008.

[edit] Awards and accolades

• Ranked No. 12 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.^[38] It was ranked number 2 in a list of the 100 greatest films of the Silent Era.^[39]

The 2002 version awarded the "New York Film Critics Circle Awards" "Special Award" to Kino International for the restoration.^[40]

See also[link]

• List of dystopian films
• List of films in the public domain in the United States
• List of German films 1919–1933
• List of most expensive non-English language films

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Minden, Michael; Bachmann, Holger (2002). Fritz Lang's Metropolis: Cinematic Visions of Technology and Fear. New York: Camden House. ISBN 978-1-57113-146-1. 
• Hoesterey, Ingeborg (2001). Pastiche: cultural memory in art, film, literature. Indiana: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-21445-4. 
• Russell, Tim (2007). Fill 'er Up!: The Great American Gas Station. Minneapolis: Voyageur Press. ISBN 978-0-7603-2871-2. 
• Lang, Fritz; Grant, Barry Keith (2003). Fritz Lang: interviews. Mississippi: Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-57806-577-6. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Metropolis (film)

• The official Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung site for the complete restoration
• The official Eureka/Masters of Cinema (UK) site for the complete restoration
• The official Kino (US) site for the complete restoration
• Metropolis at the Internet Movie Database
• Metropolis at MetaCritic
• Metropolis at Rotten Tomatoes
• Michael Organ, The Metropolis Archive 2011
• Movie stills and literature on Metropolis

New York City, as well as being the largest metropolis in the United States, is one of the most influential cities in the world

A metropolis is a very large city or urban area which is a significant economic, political and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections and communications. The term is Greek and means the "mother city" of a colony (in the ancient sense), that is, the city which sent out settlers. This was later generalized to a city regarded as a center of a specified activity, or any large, important city in a nation.

New York City is often cited as the quintessential metropolis, exerting a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and entertainment and being widely regarded as one of the economic and cultural capitals of the world.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Urban areas of less than one million people are rarely considered metropolises in contemporary contexts.^{[citation needed]} Big cities belonging to a larger urban agglomeration, but which are not the core of that agglomeration, are not generally considered a metropolis but a part of it. The plural of the word is most commonly metropolises.^[6]

Antiquity[link]

In the past, metropolis was the designation for a city or state of origin of a colony. Many large cities founded by ancient civilizations have been considered important world metropolises of their times due to their large populations and importance. Some of these ancient metropolises survived until the modern days and are among the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities.

Etymology and modern usage[link]

The word comes from the Greek μήτηρ, mētēr meaning "mother" and πόλις, pólis meaning "city"/"town", which is how the Greek colonies of antiquity referred to their original cities, with whom they retained cultic and political-cultural connections. The word was used in post-classical Latin for the chief city of a province, the seat of the government and, in particular, ecclesiastically for the seat or see of a metropolitan bishop to whom suffragan bishops were responsible. This usage equates the province with the diocese or episcopal see.

In modern usage the word has come to refer to a metropolitan area, a set of adjacent and interconnected cities clustered around a major urban center. In this sense metropolitan usually means "spanning the whole metropolis" (as in "metropolitan administration"); or "proper of a metropolis" (as in "metropolitan life", and opposed to "provincial" or "rural").

Global cities[link]

The concept of a Global city (or a World city) means a city that has a direct and tangible effect on global affairs through socioeconomic means. The term has become increasingly familiar, because of the rise of globalization (i.e., global finance, communications, and travel). An attempt to define and categorize world cities by financial criteria was made by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network (GaWC), based primarily at Loughborough University in England. The study ranked cities based on their provision of "advanced producer services" such as accountancy, advertising, finance and law. The Inventory identifies three levels of world cities and several sub-ranks (see World cities ranking).

A metropolis is not necessarily a global city—or, being one, it might not be among the top-ranking—due to its standards of living, development, and infrastructures.

Local definitions by country[link]

Australia[link]

The metropolitan areas in Australia are Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and the capital city, Canberra.

Bangladesh[link]

In the People's Republic of Bangladesh, there are seven metropolitan areas Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet, Barisal and Rangpur. Lands are highly priced and residents are considered to have a better urban lifestyle. Special police departments are allotted for the metropolitan cities, and there are city corporations for which mayors are elected for five year regimes. Most of these cities have population density of 35,000/square mile or more. Dhaka is considered a mega city because its population surpasses 10 million.^[7]

Brazil[link]

In Brazil, São Paulo is the principal metropolis. This metropolis have over 15 million inhabitants. In this city this is a steady growth of the favelas, as a result of vast numbers of people migrating from rural areas to the city in order to find work. The term used in Brazilian Portuguese for a metropolitan area is Região Metropolitana. Others metropolises with over one million of inhabitants in Brazil are Fortaleza (over 3 million) , Manaus, Goiania, Joao Pessoa, Florianopolis, etc.

Canada[link]

Toronto is Canada's largest city and metropolis

Statistics Canada defines a census metropolitan area as one or more adjacent municipalities situated around a major urban core where the urban core has a population of at least 100,000.^[8] Canada's largest metropolis' are Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Ottawa-Gatineau.

Germany[link]

Berlin is Germany's largest city

In Germany a metropolis is a big and important city. The importance of a city is measured with three groups of indicators, also called metropolitan functions: The decision making and control function, the innovation and competition function and the gateway function. These functions are seen as key domains for metropolitan regions in preserving and developing their performance.

In spatial planning a metropolis is usually observed within its regional context, thus the focus is mainly set on the metropolitan regions. These regions can be mono central or multi central. Eleven metropolitan regions have been defined due to these indicators: Berlin-Brandenburg, Bremen-Oldenburg, Frankfurt-Rhein-Main, Hamburg, Hannover-Braunschweig-Göttingen-Wolfsburg, Mitteldeutschland (Dresden, Halle, Leipzig), München, Nürnberg, Rhein-Ruhr, Stuttgart and Rhein-Neckar. ^[9]

India[link]

In the Republic of India, declared metropolitan cities are Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad. Residents of these cities are also entitled to a higher house-rent allowance. The Census Commission defines the qualification for metropolitan city as population more than four million.

Israel[link]

In Israel there are four main metropolitan areas: Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Beer Sheva. "Israel Central Bureau of Statistics" has defined the boundaries of metropolitan areas of Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beer Sheva, and divided the metropolitan area concentric rings that define the intensity of the main city links.

Italy[link]

With the 2001 reform of the Title V of the Constitution of Italy, the Italian republic has provided for the institution of Aree Metropolitane. Aree Metropolitane will be instituted at least for the major conurbations of Rome, Milan, Turin and Naples, but, as of January 2009^[update], it is yet unclear whether the Aree Metropolitane will replace Provinces, or just be added to the older administrative subdivisions.

Turkey[link]

In Turkey the metropolitan cities are described as "buyuksehir belediyesi". There are 17 metropolitan municipalities in Turkey now.

Japan[link]

Skyline of Tokyo, with Mount Fuji in the background

The Japanese legal term to (都) is commonly translated as "metropolis".^[10] Structured like a prefecture instead of a normal city, there is only one to in Japan, namely Tokyo. As of 2008^[update], Japan has 11 other cities with populations greater than one million.

Mexico[link]

In Mexico, the term metropolis is used to refer to an urban area of great importance, already be economic, political or cultural - omitting the social factor, this the territorial extension of the country is represented in everything - in Mexico three metropolises exist, Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. In the first one three factors are represented, since undoubtedly it is the city most important of Mexico, where the executive power reside, the major producer of the economy of the country and with a cultural particular spot. It is the heart and brain of the republic. Political, cultural and economic excellent Center of Mexico. Guadalajara, the second most populous city, with economic and cultural, recognized relevancy worldwide. Monterrey, of major importance that Guadalajara, but less recognized, appears as an important economic and industrial center. Lately one has seen brought down by the organized delinquency, losing gradually his national relevancy.

Pakistan[link]

In Pakistan declared metropolitan cities are Karachi and Lahore, while the twin city of Rawalpindi/Islamabad and the industrial hub of Punjab, Faisalabad, are also considered as metropolitan cities.File:Karachi at night-640x480.jpg

Philippines[link]

Metro Manila, the most populous metropolitan area in the Philippines

Metropolitan Manila, or simply Metro Manila, is the metropolitan region encompassing the City of Manila and its surrounding areas in the Philippines. It is composed of 17 cities namely City of Manila, Caloocan, Las Piñas, Makati, Malabon, Mandaluyong, Marikina, Muntinlupa, Navotas, Pasay, Pasig, Parañaque, Quezon City, San Juan, Taguig, Valenzuela and the Municipality of Pateros. The region is the political, economic, social, cultural, and educational center of the Philippines. As proclaimed by Presidential Decree No. 940, Metro Manila as a whole is the Philippines' seat of government but the City of Manila is the capital. The largest city in the metropolis is Quezon City, while the largest business district is the Makati Central Business District. Metro Manila's gross regional product is estimated as of July 2009 to be ₱468.4 billion (at constant 1985 prices) and accounts for 33% of the nation's GDP.[6] In 2008, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, it ranked as the 40th wealthiest urban agglomeration in the world and the 2nd in Southeast Asia.

Including Metro Manila, the Philippines has twelve metropolitan areas as defined by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA). Metro Angeles, Metro Bacolod, Metro Baguio, Metro Batangas, Metro Cagayan de Oro, Metro Cebu, Metro Dagupan, Metro Davao, Metro Iloilo-Guimaras, Metro Naga, Metro Olongapo.

Poland[link]

The Union of Polish Metropolises (Polish: Unia Metropolii Polskich), established in 1990, is an organization uniting the largest cities in country. Presently twelve cities are members of the organization, of which 11 have more than a quarter million inhabitants. The largest metropolis in Poland, if ranked solely by the number of inhabitants, is Upper Silesian Metropolis with 2 million inhabitants (5 million inhabitants in the Silesian metropolitan area), followed by Warsaw, with 1.7 million inhabitants in city proper, and 2.7 million in Warsaw metropolitan area. Upper Silesian Metropolis is an initiative of recent years, attempt to unite large conurbation/urban area into one official urban unit.

South Africa[link]

In South Africa, a metropolitan municipality or "Category A municipality" is a municipality which executes all the functions of local government for a conurbation. This is by contrast to areas which are primarily rural, where the local government is divided into district municipalities (comparable to a "county" in the US) and local municipalities. There are eight metropolitan municipalities in South Africa.

United Kingdom[link]

London is one of the world's largest financial centers

Historically the term the Metropolis was used to refer to London, or the London conurbation. The term is retained by the London police force, the Metropolitan Police Service (the "Met"). The chief officer of the Met is formally known as the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis.

Since 1974 six conurbations (outside London) have been known as metropolitan counties, each divided into metropolitan districts. Other conurbations in the United Kingdom are also sometimes considered to be metropolitan areas.

Panama[link]

Since the 21st century, Panama city has kept a continuous economic growth. Today the authorities of the city and country have decided to call the city a Metropolis because of the growth of population along with the huge investment in transport system, improvement of roads and highways. The city is considered the most important financial center of Central America and one of the most important in Latin America. With 1.2 million inhabitants in its metropolitan area is the first metropolis of Central America.

United States[link]

In the United States an incorporated area or group of areas having a population more than 50,000 is required to have a metropolitan planning organization in order to facilitate major infrastructure projects and to ensure financial solvency. Thus, a population of 50,000 or greater has been used as a de facto standard in the United States to define a metropolis. A similar definition is used by the United States Census Bureau. They define a metropolitan statistical area as at least one urbanized area of 50,000 or more inhabitants. The five largest metropolitan cities in the US are New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Philadelphia.

Metropolis as a mainland area[link]

In France, Portugal and Spain, metropolis (métropole (Fr.) / metrópole (Port.) / metrópoli (Spa.)) designates the mainland part of a country near or on the European continent; in the case of France, this would mean France without its overseas departments; for Portugal and Spain during the Spanish Empire and Portuguese Empire period, it used to be common to designate Portugal or Spain except its colonies (the Ultramar). In France metropolis is also used to refer to large agglomerations.

See also[link]

• Metropolitan area

Other city types

• Global city
• Megacity
• Megalopolis

Lists

• List of metropolitan areas by population

Planning theories

• New Urbanism
• Smart growth
• Transit-oriented development

Other

• Ekistics
• Large Cities Climate Leadership Group
• Sustainable city
• World's largest cities

References[link]

Further reading[link]

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article metropolis.

• Census.gov, U.S. Census Bureau, About Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistics
• MetroForum.com, forum dedicated to discussions on metropolis
• Blog.ar2com.de, a podcast with a worldwide analysis of megacities (focus Latin America)
• E-geopolis.eu: research group, university of Paris-Diderot, France
• See Ronald Daus´s bibliography, researcher at the Free University of Berlin

Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang (December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976) was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor.^[3] One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute.^[4] His most famous films are the groundbreaking Metropolis (the world's most expensive silent film at the time of its release) and M, made before he moved to the United States, his iconic precursor to the film noir genre.

Life and career[link]

Early life[link]

Lang was born in Vienna as the second son of Anton Lang (1860–1940),^[5] an architect and construction company manager, and his wife Pauline "Paula" Lang née Schlesinger (1864–1920). Fritz Lang himself was baptized on 28 December 1890 at the Schottenkirche in Vienna.^[6]

Lang's parents were of Moravian^{[citation needed]} descent and practicing Roman Catholics. His mother was born Jewish, but had converted to Catholicism when Fritz was ten. His mother took this conversion seriously and was dedicated to raising Fritz as a Catholic. Lang never had an interest in his Jewish heritage and identified himself as Catholic. Although he was not a particularly devout Catholic, he "regularly used Catholic images and themes [in] his films".^[7]

After finishing school, Lang briefly attended the Technical University of Vienna, where he studied civil engineering and eventually switched to art. In 1910 he left Vienna to see the world, traveling throughout Europe and Africa and later Asia and the Pacific area. In 1913, he studied painting in Paris, France.

At the outbreak of World War I, Lang returned to Vienna and volunteered for military service in the Austrian army and fought in Russia and Romania, where he was wounded three times. While recovering from his injuries and shell shock in 1916, he wrote some scenarios and ideas for films. He was discharged from the army with the rank of lieutenant in 1918 and did some acting in the Viennese theater circuit for a short time before being hired as a writer at Decla, Erich Pommer's Berlin-based production company.

Expressionist films: the Weimar years (1918-1933)[link]

His writing stint was brief, as Lang soon started to work as a director at the German film studio Ufa, and later Nero-Film, just as the Expressionist movement was building. In this first phase of his career, Lang alternated between art films such as Der Müde Tod ("The Weary Death") and popular thrillers such as Die Spinnen ("The Spiders"), combining popular genres with Expressionist techniques to create an unprecedented synthesis of popular entertainment with art cinema. In 1920, he met his future wife, the writer and actress Thea von Harbou. She and Lang co-wrote all of his movies from 1921 through 1933, including 1922's Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler (Dr. Mabuse the Gambler), which ran for over four hours in two parts in the original version and was the first in the Dr. Mabuse trilogy, 1924's five-hour Die Nibelungen, the famous 1927 film Metropolis, and the 1931 classic, M, his first "talking" picture.

Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou in their Berlin flat, 1923 or 1924

Although some^[who?] consider Lang's work to be simple melodrama, he produced a coherent oeuvre that helped to establish the characteristics of film noir, with its recurring themes of psychological conflict, paranoia, fate and moral ambiguity.^{[citation needed]} His work influenced filmmakers as disparate as Jacques Rivette and William Friedkin.

In 1931, after Woman in the Moon, Lang directed what many film scholars consider to be his masterpiece: M, a disturbing story of a child murderer (Peter Lorre in his first starring role) who is hunted down and brought to rough justice by Berlin's criminal underworld. M remains a powerful work; it was remade in 1951 by Joseph Losey, but this version had little impact on audiences, and has become harder to see than the original film. Lang epitomized the stereotype of the tyrannical German film director such as Erich von Stroheim and Otto Preminger; he was known for being hard to work with. During the climactic final scene in M, he allegedly threw Peter Lorre down a flight of stairs in order to give more authenticity to Lorre's battered look. His wearing a monocle added to the stereotype.

At the end of 1932, Lang started filming The Testament of Dr. Mabuse. Adolf Hitler came to power in January 1933, and by March 30, the new regime banned it as an incitement to public disorder. Testament is sometimes deemed an anti-Nazi film as Lang had put phrases used by the Nazis into the mouth of the title character.

Whereas Lang was worried about the advent of the Nazi regime, partly because of his Jewish heritage,^[7] his wife and screen writer Thea von Harbou had started to sympathize with the Nazis in the early 1930s and joined the NSDAP in 1932. They soon divorced. Lang's fears would be realized following his departure from Austria, as under Nazi eugenics laws he would be identified as a Jew even though his mother was a converted Roman Catholic, and he was raised as such.

Emigration[link]

On the set of The Woman in the Moon, 1929.

Shortly afterwards, Lang left Germany. According to Lang, propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels called Lang to his offices to inform him that The Testament of Dr Mabuse was being banned but that he was nevertheless so impressed by Lang's abilities as a filmmaker (especially Metropolis), he was offering Lang a position as the head of German film studio UFA. Lang had stated that it was during this meeting that he had decided to leave for Paris - but that the banks had closed by the time the meeting was over. Lang has stated that he fled that very evening. ^[8][9]

Lang left Germany in 1934 and moved to Paris^[10] after his marriage to Thea von Harbou, who stayed behind, ended in 1933.^{[citation needed]}

In Paris, Lang filmed a version of Ferenc Molnár's Liliom, starring Charles Boyer. This was Lang's only film in French (not counting the French version of Testament). He then went to the United States.^[10]

Hollywood career (1936-1957)[link]

Upon his arrival in Hollywood, Lang joined the MGM studio and directed the crime drama Fury, starring Spencer Tracy as a man wrongly lynched for a crime he didn't commit. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1939. Lang made twenty-one features in the next twenty-one years, working in a variety of genres at every major studio in Hollywood, occasionally producing his films as an independent. These films, often compared unfavorably by contemporary critics to Lang's earlier works, have since been reevaluated as being integral to the emergence and evolution of American genre cinema, film noir in particular.

One of his most famous films noir is the police drama The Big Heat (1953), noted for its uncompromising brutality, especially for a scene in which Lee Marvin throws scalding coffee on Gloria Grahame's face. During this period, his visual style simplified (owing in part to the constraints of the Hollywood studio system) and his worldview became increasingly pessimistic, culminating in the cold, geometric style of his last American films, While the City Sleeps (1956) and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956).

Lang found it harder to find congenial production conditions in Hollywood and his advancing age left him less inclined to grapple with American backers. The German producer Artur Brauner expressed interest in remaking The Indian Tomb (a story that Lang had developed in the twenties that was ultimately taken from him by studio heads and directed instead by Joe May),^[11] so Lang abandoned his plans for retirement and returned to Germany in order to make his "Indian Epic". Following the production, Brauner was ready to proceed with his remake of Das Testament des Doctor Mabuse when Lang approached him with the idea of adding another original film to the series. The result was The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960), made in a hurry and with a relatively small budget. It can be viewed as the marriage between the director's early experiences with expressionist techniques in Germany as well as the spartan style already visible in his late American work. Lang was approaching blindness during the production, making it his final project.

Death and legacy[link]

While his career had ended without fanfare, his American and later German works were championed by the critics of the Cahiers du cinéma. Lang died in 1976 and was interred in the Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.^[12]

Filmography[link]

Pop culture[link]

• Lang appears as himself in Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film Le Mepris. During the film, his reputation is discussed, and he somewhat lampoons his own reputation for being a temperamental director.

• An old German director with the demeanor of Lang appears during the filming of a bank robbery in Woody Allen's 1969 comedy Take the Money and Run.

• In David Foster Wallace's novel Infinite Jest, Lang is mentioned in tandem with James Cameron on page 48.

• A fictional Lang appears as a main character in the Fullmetal Alchemist movie Conqueror of Shambala.

• In Episode 11 of Season 1 of City Hunter, the antagonist's name is Fritz Lang.

• Madonna portrayed Lang for a sequence in her 1989 music video for "Express Yourself", complete with Lang's signature suit and monocle. The video itself is a tribute to Metropolis (film).

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Michaux, Agnès. 'Je les chasserai jusqu'au bout du monde jusqu'à ce qu'ils en crèvent; Paris: Editions 1, 1997; ISBN 2-86391-933-4
• Friedrich, Otto. City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s; New York: Harper & Row, 1986; ISBN 0-06-015626-0 (See e.g. pp. 45–46 for anecdotes revealing Lang's arrogance.)
• McGilligan, Patrick. Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast; New York: St. Martins Press, 1997; ISBN 0-312-13247-6
• Schnauber, Cornelius. Fritz Lang in Hollywood; Wien: Europaverlag, c1986; ISBN 3-203-50953-9 (in German)
• Youngkin, Stephen (2005). The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-2360-7.  - Contains interviews with Lang and a discussion of the making of the film M

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Fritz Lang at the Internet Movie Database
• Fritz Lang Bibliography (via UC Berkeley Media Resources Center)
• Senses of Cinema - Biographie
• Fritz Lang at filmportal.de
• Interview with Fritz Lang from 1967
• Bibliography
• Fritz Lang at Find a Grave
• (French) "Symptôme, exhibition, angoisse. Représentation de la terreur dans l’œuvre allemande de Fritz Lang (1919-1933/1959-1960)", un article de Nicole Brenez extrait de De la Figure en général et du Corps en particulier (1998).

Christopher "Chris" Burden (born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1946) is an American artist working in performance, sculpture, and installation art.

Life and career[link]

Education[link]

Burden studied for his B.A. in visual arts, physics and architecture at Pomona College and received his MFA at the University of California, Irvine from 1969 to 1971.^[1]

Early performance art[link]

Burden began to work in performance art in the early 1970s, he made a series of controversial performances in which the idea of personal danger as artistic expression was central. His most well-known act from that time is perhaps the 1971 performance piece Shoot, in which he was shot in his left arm by an assistant from a distance of about five meters.^[1][2] Other performances from the 1970s were Five Day Locker Piece (1971), Match Piece (1972),^[3] Deadman (1972), B.C. Mexico (1973), Fire Roll (1973), TV Hijack (1972),^[4] Doomed (1975) and Honest Labor (1979).

One of Burden’s most reproduced and cited pieces, Trans-Fixed took place on April 23, 1974 at Speedway Avenue in Venice, California.^[5] For this performance, Burden lay face up on a Volkswagen Beetle and had nails hammered into both of his hands, as if he were being crucified on the car.The car was pushed out of the garage and the engine revved for two minutes before being pushed back into the garage.^[6]

Later that year, Burden performed his piece White Light/White Heat at the Ronald Feldman Gallery in New York. For this work of experiment performance and self-inflicting danger, Burden spent twenty-two days lying on a triangular platform in the corner of the gallery. He was out of sight from all viewers and he could not see them either. According to Burden, he did not eat, talk, or come down the entire time.^[7]

Several of Burden's other performance pieces were considered somewhat controversial at the time: another "danger piece" was Doomed (1975), in which Burden lay motionless in a gallery at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago under a 5' x 8' slanted sheet of glass near a running wall clock.^[8] Burden planned to remain in that position until someone interfered in some way with the piece. Forty-five hours and ten minutes later, museum employee Dennis O'Shea placed a pitcher of water within Burden's reach and Burden rose, smashed the glass, and took a hammer to the clock, thus ending the piece.^[9]

In 1975, he created the fully operational B-Car, a lightweight four-wheeled vehicle that he described as being "able to travel 100 miles per hour and achieve 100 miles per gallon".^[10] Some of his other works from that period are DIECIMILA (1977), a facsimile of an Italian 10,000 Lira note, possibly the first fine art print that (like paper money) is printed on both sides of the paper; The Speed of Light Machine (1983), in which he reconstructed a scientific experiment with which to "see" the speed of light; and the installation C.B.T.V. (1977), a reconstruction of the first ever made Mechanical television.

In 1978, he became a professor at University of California, Los Angeles, a position from which he resigned in 2005 due to a controversy over the university's alleged mishandling of a student's classroom performance piece that echoed one of Burden's own performance pieces.^[2] Burden cited the performance in his letter of resignation, saying that the student should have been suspended during the investigation into whether school safety rules had been violated. The performance allegedly involved a loaded gun, but authorities were unable to substantiate this.^[11]

In 1978, Burden first exhibited his notable Big Wheel exhibition at Rosamund Felsen Gallery.^[12] It was later exhibited in 2009 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.^[13]

Later Work[link]

In 1992, Burden exhibited his Fist of Light during the Whitney Biennial exhibition in New York. It consisted of a sealed kitchen-sized metal box with hundreds of metal halide lamps burning inside. It required an industrial air conditioner to cool the room.

In 1999, Burden's sculpture When Robots Rule: The Two Minute Airplane Factory was shown at the Tate Gallery in London. It was a "factory-like assembly line which manufactures rubber-band-powered model aeroplanes from tissue paper, plastic and balsa wood". Each plane had a propellor powered by a rubber band, and when each was completed, at a rate of one every 2 minutes,^[14] the machine launched it to fly up and circle around the gallery.^[15] Unfortunately, the machine was non-functional for at least two months of the installation, leading World Sculpture News to question the intent of the piece and remark that "the work illustrated that robots, in fact, don’t rule everything, and for the time being, are still subjected to individual and groups shortcomings."

In 2005, Burden released Ghost Ship, his crewless, self-navigating yacht which docked at Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 28 July after a 330-mile 5-day trip from Fair Isle, near Shetland. The project was commissioned by Locus+ at a cost of £150,000, and was funded with a significant grant from Arts Council England,^[16] being designed and constructed with the help of the Marine Engineering Department of the University of Southampton.^[17] It is said to be controlled via onboard computers and a GPS system; however, in case of emergency the ship is 'shadowed' by an accompanying support boat.

In 2008, Burden created Urban Light, a sculptural work consisting of 202 found antique street lights that had once stood around Los Angeles.^[18] The work is on view outside of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the solar-powered lights are illuminated at dusk.^[18]

In the Summer of 2011, Burden finished his kinetic sculpture, Metropolis II, which took four years to build. It is scheduled to be installed at LACMA in Fall 2011.^[19][20]

Personal life[link]

Chris Burden is married to multi-media artist Nancy Rubins.^[2] He currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California. His studio is located in Topanga Canyon.^[19]

Burden was referenced in David Bowie's 1977 song "Joe the Lion", Laurie Anderson's 1977 song "It's Not the Bullet that Kills You - It's the Hole (for Chris Burden)" on the double LP "Airwaves", and in the diary of Nathan Adler from the David Bowie album "1. OUTSIDE". He was also mentioned in the Jeff Lindsay book "Dexter by Design", and in Norman Mailer's book "The Faith of Graffiti". The poem "Doomed (1975)" by David Hernandez in his 2011 collection Hoodwinked^[21] describes the Burden installation of the same name in Chicago.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Chris Burden by Robert Horvitz - detailed overview and analysis of Burden's early work, published in the May 1976 issue of Artforum magazine
• 1996 review of Burden's MAK retrospective
• Ghost Ship
• UbuWeb Film & Video: Chris Burden
• A feature article on Burden in June 2008 issue of Men's Vogue
• "Poetic, Model: A New Criticism Of Chris Burden via Evil Monito Magazine"
• Chris Burden in the Mediateca Media Art Space
• Photos of Chris Burden's Urban Light near the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2011)

Pat Benatar
Pat Benatar, 2007
Background information
Birth name	Patricia Mae Andrzejewski
Born	(1953-01-10) January 10, 1953 (age 59)
Origin	Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Genres	Rock, hard rock, pop rock
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, Musician
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1972–present
Labels	Chrysalis Records, CMC International, Bel Chiasso Records
Website	http://www.benatargiraldo.com

Pat Benatar (born Patricia Mae Andrzejewski; January 10, 1953) is an American singer and four-time Grammy winner. She had considerable commercial success, particularly in the United States. During the 1980s, Benatar had two RIAA-certified Multi-Platinum albums, five RIAA-certified Platinum albums, three RIAA-certified Gold albums and 19 Top 40 singles, including "Love Is a Battlefield", "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", and "We Belong".^[1] Benatar was one of the most heavily played artists in the early days of MTV.^[2]

Life and career[link]

Patricia Mae Andrzejewski was born in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York City. Her Polish father, Andrew, was a sheet-metal worker, and her Irish mother, Mildred, a beautician.^[3] Her family later moved to North Hamilton Avenue in Lindenhurst, New York, a village within the Long Island town of Babylon.^[4]

Patti (as she was known)^{[citation needed]} became interested in theater and began voice lessons, singing her first solo at age eight, at Daniel Street Elementary School, a song called "It Must Be Spring".^{[citation needed]} At Lindenhurst Senior High School (1967–71),^{[citation needed]} Benatar participated in musical theater, playing Queen Guinevere in the school production of Camelot, marching in the homecoming parade, singing at the annual Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony, and performing a solo of "The Christmas Song" on a holiday recording of the Lindenhurst High School Choir her senior year.^{[citation needed]}

Pat Benatar performing live in Sydney. 22 Oct 2010.

Benatar was cut off from the rock scene in nearby Manhattan. Her musical training was strictly classical and theatrical.^{[citation needed]}

Training as a coloratura with plans to attend the Juilliard School, Benatar surprised family, friends and teachers by deciding a classical career was not for her and pursued health education at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. At 19, after one year at Stony Brook, she dropped out to marry her high school sweetheart Dennis Benatar, an army draftee who trained at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and then served with the Army Security Agency at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, before being stationed at Fort Lee, Virginia. Specialist (E-4) Dennis Benatar was stationed there for three years, and Pat worked as a bank teller outside Richmond, Virginia.^{[citation needed]}

In 1973, Benatar quit her job as a bank teller to pursue a singing career after being inspired by a Liza Minnelli concert she saw in Richmond. She got a job as a singing waitress at a flapper-esque nightclub named The Roaring Twenties and got a gig singing in lounge band Coxon's Army, a regular at Sam Miller's basement club. The band garnered enough attention to be the subject of a never-aired PBS special, and the band's bassist Roger Capps also would go on to be the original bass player for the Pat Benatar Band. The period also yielded Benatar's first and only single until her eventual 1979 debut on Chrysalis Records: "Day Gig" (1974), Trace Records, written and produced by Coxon's Army band leader Phil Coxon and locally released in Richmond. Her big break came in 1975 at an amateur night at the comedy club Catch a Rising Star in New York. Her rousing rendition of Judy Garland's "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody" earned her a call back by club owner Rick Newman, who would become her manager.^{[citation needed]}

The couple headed back to New York following Dennis' discharge from the army, and Benatar went on to be a regular member at Catch A Rising Star for close to three years, until signing a record contract. She would eventually divorce Dennis Benatar in 1979. Catch A Rising Star was not the only break Benatar got in 1975. She landed the part of Zephyr in Harry Chapin's futuristic rock musical, The Zinger.^[5] The production, which debuted on March 19, 1976, at the Performing Arts Foundation's (PAF) Playhouse in Huntington Station, Long Island, ran for a month and also featured Beverly D'Angelo and Christine Lahti. Benatar noted: "I was 22 by the time I started to sing rock, so at first I was very conscious of technique and I was overly technical. That proved to be inhibiting so it was a disadvantage until I began to sing intuitively. That’s the only way to sing rock – from your gut level feelings. It's the instinct that the best singers have."^[6]

Halloween 1977 proved a pivotal night in Benatar's early, spandexed stage persona. Rather than change out of the costume she wore to a Halloween contest at the Cafe Figaro in Greenwich Village that evening, she went onstage at Catch a Rising Star in costume. Benatar said: "I was dressed as a character from this ridiculous B movie called Cat-Women of the Moon."^[7] Despite performing her usual array of songs, she received a standing ovation.^{[citation needed]}

Between appearances at Catch a Rising Star and recording commercial jingles for Pepsi Cola and a number of regional concerns, she headlined New York City’s Tramps nightclub from March 29 - April 1, 1978, where her performance impressed representatives from several record companies. She was signed to Chrysalis Records by co-founder Terry Ellis the following week.^[8] Benatar recorded her first album, In the Heat of the Night, in June and July 1979.^{[citation needed]}

She won an unprecedented four consecutive Grammy Awards for Best Female Rock Performance from 1980 to 1983 for her second LP, Crimes of Passion, and the songs "Fire and Ice", "Shadows of the Night", and "Love Is a Battlefield".^{[citation needed]} Of the ten Grammy Award ceremonies in the 1980s, Benatar was nominated for Best Female Rock Performance eight times, including for "Invincible" in 1985, "Sex as a Weapon" in 1986, "All Fired Up" in 1988 and in 1989 for "Let's Stay Together".^{[citation needed]}

Benatar also earned Grammy Award nominations in 1985 for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female with "We Belong" and in 1986 for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Duo or Group as a member of Artists United Against Apartheid for their single, "Sun City". Benatar is also the winner of three American Music Awards: Favorite Female Pop/Rock Vocalist of 1981 and 1983, and Favorite Female Pop/Rock Video Artist of 1985.^{[citation needed]}

Pat Benatar was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame at the Second Induction Award Ceremony and Fundraising Gala held October 30, 2008.^{[citation needed]}

Discography[link]

[edit] In the Heat of the Night

"I Need a Lover" was the first single to be released on August 27, 1979. However, both it and the next single, "If You Think You Know How to Love Me" (October 1979), were unsuccessful. Benatar's third single "Heartbreaker" was released in early December 1979 and became an immediate hit, climbing to #23 in the US. A fourth single "We Live for Love," which was written by her future husband Neil Giraldo, was released in February 1980, and reached US #27.^[9]

Benatar's debut album In the Heat of the Night was released in October 1979, and reached #12 in the US. It established Benatar as a new force in rock. Producer Mike Chapman, who had worked with Blondie and The Knack, broke his vow not to take on any new artists when he heard Benatar's demo tape. Chapman personally produced three tracks on the album, while his long-time engineer and now independent producer, Peter Coleman (who also supervised Nick Gilder) oversaw the rest. In addition, Chapman and his song-writing partner, Nicky Chinn, wrote three songs that appear on the LP, "In the Heat of the Night" and "If You Think You Know How to Love Me" which were previously recorded by Smokie, as well as a rearranged version of a song they wrote for Sweet, "No You Don't". The album also featured two songs written by Roger Capps and Benatar as well as "I Need a Lover" written by John Mellencamp and "Don't Let It Show" written by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson. The album would be Benatar's first RIAA certified platinum album.^[10]

[edit] Crimes of Passion

In August 1980, Benatar released her LP, Crimes of Passion, featuring her signature song "Hit Me with Your Best Shot" along with the controversial song "Hell is for Children", which was inspired by reading a series of articles in the New York Times about child abuse in America. "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" (US #9) was her first single to break the US Top 10 and eventually sold more than one million copies (at that time, gold status) in the United States alone. The album peaked for five consecutive weeks at US #2 in January 1981 (behind Yoko Ono's and John Lennon's Double Fantasy) and eventually sold over five million copies, and a month later, Benatar won her first Grammy Award for "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance" of 1980.^[11] Other singles released from Crimes of Passion were "Treat Me Right" (US #18) and the Rascals' cover, "You Better Run" (US #42), which gained some later fame when it was the second music video ever played on MTV, after the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star".^[8][12][13] The album also featured a changed-tempo cover of Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights". Nominally produced by Keith Olsen, Crimes of Passion remained on the US album charts for 93 weeks and in the top 10 for more than six months, eventually becoming her second consecutive platinum certification by the RIAA. In October 1980, Benatar (along with future husband Neil Giraldo) graced the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.

[edit] Precious Time

In July 1981, she released her third LP, Precious Time. A month later the album hit #1 on the Billboard US Top 200 LP chart. It was also her first to chart in the UK, reaching #30. The album's lead single, "Fire and Ice", was another big hit (US #17, AUS #30) and would win Benatar her second Grammy Award, this time for "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance" of 1981 and her third consecutive RIAA certified platinum album. "Promises in the Dark" (US #38) was also released.

In August 1981, Benatar's video for "You Better Run" was the second video aired by MTV.^[12]

[edit] Get Nervous

A hit single, "Shadows of the Night", (US #13, AUS #19) heralded a new LP, Get Nervous, released in late 1982. The album was another smash, reaching US #4, her fourth consecutive RIAA platinum certification, and the single would garner Benatar yet another Grammy, again for "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance" of 1982. The follow-up singles, "Little Too Late" and "Looking for a Stranger", were also successful, hitting US #20 and #39 respectively. The WWII-themed music video for "Shadows of the Night" featured then-unknown actors Judge Reinhold and Bill Paxton as an American fighter copilot and a German radio operator, respectively.

[edit] Live from Earth

By 1983, Benatar had established a reputation for singing about "tough" subject matters, best exemplified by one of the biggest hits of her career, "Love Is a Battlefield" (penned by noted hit songwriter Holly Knight with Mike Chapman), released in December 1983. By then, her sound had mellowed from hard rock to more atmospheric pop and the story-based video clip for "Love Is a Battlefield" was aimed squarely at MTV, even featuring Benatar in a Michael Jackson-inspired group dance number. This new pop/rock direction was a huge commercial success, with the million- selling Gold single peaking at #5 in the United States, and #1 in Australia for seven consecutive weeks. The song gained interest in the UK where it peaked at #49. The song would also net Benatar her fourth consecutive Grammy Award for "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance" of 1983. A live album, Live from Earth, which was recorded during Benatar's sold-out Get Nervous world tour of America and Europe in 1982 and 1983, contained two studio tracks, "Love Is a Battlefield" and "Lipstick Lies." The album peaked at US #13 and became her fifth consecutive RIAA platinum winner.^[10]

[edit] Tropico

In October 1984, the single "We Belong" became another Top 5 smash in the US, and reached #7 in Australia. It was also Benatar's first ever UK top 40 hit, where it peaked at #22. In November, Benatar released her sixth album, Tropico (US #14, AUS #9, UK #31). A second single release, "Ooh Ooh Song," reached US #36. It is also said by Benatar and Giraldo that this album is the first where they moved away from Benatar's famed "hard rock" sound and start experimenting with new, sometimes "gentler," styles and sounds. Despite not quite making the US Top 10, it immediately earned her a sixth consecutive RIAA platinum-certified album. This album is now out-of-print, but is currently available in a 2 for 1 package, combined with "Seven the Hard Way" (import cd).

After the chart success of "We Belong" in the UK, "Love is a Battlefield" was re-released in early 1985 and became her highest chart hit there, reaching #17.

[edit] Seven the Hard Way

Benatar would hit the US Top 10 with the #10 single "Invincible" (the theme from the movie, The Legend of Billie Jean) in 1985. "Sex As a Weapon" would climb as high as #28 in January 1986, and "Le Bel Age" (#54) in February. The album Seven the Hard Way peaked at #26, earning an RIAA Gold certificatio(import cd).

[edit] Wide Awake in Dreamland

In July 1988, Benatar released her eighth album, Wide Awake in Dreamland (US #28, UK #11). A single lifted from the album, "All Fired Up" (written by Kerryn Tolhurst, ex-The Dingoes) reached #19 in both the US and the UK, and was a #2 smash in Australia, becoming one of the biggest hits of 1988 in that country. Other singles released from the LP are "Don't Walk Away" (UK #42), "Let's Stay Together", and "One Love" (UK #59). The album also earned an RIAA gold certification. This album is now out-of-print, but is currently available in a 2 for 1 package, combined with "Live From Earth" (import cd).

[edit] True Love

True Love was a jump blues record, released in late April 1991, and featured the blues band Roomful of Blues, backing up Pat Benatar, Neil Giraldo and Myron Grombacher. The album sold over 339,000^[14] copies without significant radio airplay and limited exposure on VH-1. "Payin' the Cost to Be the Boss," "So Long," and the title cut were released as singles. The album reached #40 in the UK and #37 in the US.

[edit] Gravity's Rainbow

Gravity's Rainbow (US #85) was released in 1993 and was a return to the AOR genre. "Everybody Lay Down" was picked up by Album Rock radio and went all the way to #3. The single was never released to Top 40/Contemporary Hit Radio and a music video was never produced. "Somebody's Baby" was instead released as the single to Top 40 radio and a music video produced.

A third track was scheduled and a video shot for "Everytime I Fall Back", but the single was never released and the music video was lost when Chrysalis was sold to EMI records. Benatar had become pregnant again and this may have had an effect on her label's support of the album. This was Benatar's last album recorded for Chrysalis records. With very little promotion from Chrysalis, Gravity's Rainbow failed to have the same commercial success as Benatar's previous works. According to SoundScan, the album sold approximately 160,000 copies in the United States. It is currently available in a 2 for 1 release with "True Love" (import).

[edit] Innamorata

Innamorata (US #171) was released in 1997 on the CMC International record label. A single video was produced for "Strawberry Wine (Life is Sweet)". According to SoundScan, the album has now sold close to 65,000 copies in the 14 years since its release.

[edit] Go

Benatar has released only one album of new material since 1997's Innamorata, which is 2003's Go (US #187). The album included the 9/11 charity single, "Christmas in America" as a bonus track. A compilation video was produced for the single "Have It All", but was never released; the only video from this album is for the bonus track. According to SoundScan, the album has now sold nearly 34,000 copies.

Greatest hits collections[link]

Best Shots (US #67) was first released in the UK in 1987, where it became Benatar's biggest selling album in the UK, it reached #6 and achieved Gold sales status.^{[citation needed]} The album was also a top 20 hit in Australia.^{[citation needed]} In the US, it was released in November 1989. The US version consisted of 15 tracks on a single CD, including a live version of "Hell is for Children" with Suffer the Little Children intro, "Painted Desert" (from Tropico) and a remixed version of "Outlaw Blues" (also from Tropico). It would be another certified RIAA gold (later platinum) album.^{[citation needed]} Best Shots was the only official greatest hits compilation until 1994^{[citation needed]} when All Fired Up: The Very Best of Pat Benatar was released (2 CD). The box set Synchronistic Wanderings (3 CD) was released in 1999.^{[citation needed]}

Classic Masters was released in October 2002, and Pat Benatar Greatest Hits was released in June 2005. The most recent collection, Ultimate Collection (2 CD set) was released in June 2008 under the Capitol Records label with forty 24 bit-digitally remastered tracks. Ultimate Collection included the version of "Everytime I Fall Back" from her appearance on The Young and the Restless.

21st century[link]

1996 Can't Stop Rockin Tour with Fleetwood Mac and REO Speedwagon

1997 toured with The Steve Miller Band

1998 toured in support of Innamorata

1999 Synchronistic Wanderings 20th Anniversary Tour

2000 PB2000 Tour

2001 Summer Vacation Tour

2002 Summer Vacation Tour

2003 I Won't Go Tour

2004 Let's Go Tour

2005 Almost II Tour

2006 Polyamnesia Off the Rock Tour

2007 Summerized Tour

2008 Fired Up! Tour

2009 Call Me Invincible Tour with Blondie, also features The Donnas.^[15]

2010 Love On The Run Tour with REO Speedwagon,^[16] which included her original drummer, Myron Grombacher. Subsequently, in October 2010, she toured Australia and played various dates with the 1980s girl pop group, The Bangles.^{[citation needed]}

2011 The Elements of Five Tour

2012 touring with Loverboy and Journey

Memoir[link]

In June 2010, Benatar's memoir, Between a Heart and a Rock Place was released. The book was published by HarperCollins and was acquired by Lisa Sharkey. Benatar's memoir touches on her battles with her record company Chrysalis, and the difficulties her career caused in her personal life. Initially reluctant to undertake the project, she found the actual writing process so enjoyable that it inspired her with plans to write a novel.^[16] In summer 2011 Benatar announced she was working on a Christmas album and a novel about the second coming of Christ.^[17]

Band[link]

Neil Giraldo, lead guitarist for Pat Benatar performing live in Sydney. 22 Oct 2010.

Although billed as a solo artist, Benatar recorded and toured with a consistent set of band members over most of her career, who contributed greatly to the writing and producing of songs and are recognizable characters on album photos and in many of her music videos.

• Neil "Spyder" Giraldo (incorrectly spelled as "Geraldo" in early liner notes/credits) is the distinctive lead guitarist of the band and has performed on all of Benatar's albums. Born in Cleveland on December 29, 1955, Giraldo began playing the guitar at the age of six and learned to play the piano at age 12. Giraldo performed in Rick Derringer's touring band before working with Benatar, appearing in a possible bootleg entitled Derringer Live At The Paradise Theater Boston, Massachusetts, July 7, 1978 (UPC 672627400428). Giraldo's appearance on the video for Benatar's "You Better Run" distinguished him and Scott Sheets as the first guitarists on MTV. The video, the second ever aired on MTV, followed The Buggles, who had no guitar player. In addition to playing lead guitar, Giraldo is credited with composing and producing much of Benatar's work. Giraldo's first outside production credit was on John Waite's debut album Ignition. He has also given a helping musical hand to artists such as The Del-Lords, Rick Springfield, The Cruzados, and Kenny Loggins. In addition, Giraldo was the musical composer for the 2005 movie Smile starring Beau Bridges, Linda Hamilton, Sean Astin and directed by Jeffrey Kramer. The soundtrack features an original song by Giraldo and Scott Kempner of The Del-Lords, appearing as The Paradise Brothers, titled "Beautiful Something." Proceeds from the movie go to Operation Smile. The Paradise Brothers also contributed a cover of "Light Of Day" for a Bruce Springsteen Tribute album.
• Myron Grombacher, who played with Neil in Rick Derringer's touring band, is drummer on nine of Benatar's original albums and has numerous writing credits. Myron is easily recognizable in the music videos, particularly as the mad dentist in Get Nervous.
• Charlie Giordano performed keyboard duties on five albums, and is identifiable by his glasses and distinctive array of berets, blazers and 80s-style ties. In 2007, he replaced the late Danny Federici in the E Street Band.
• Mick Mahan is the band's bassist and has performed with Benatar since 1995. The original bassist, Roger Capps, was replaced by Donnie Nossov on Tropico, and then later by Frank Linx.
• Scott St. Clair Sheets is credited on rhythm guitar on the first three albums.
• Glen Alexander Hamilton played drums on the first album.

Other achievements[link]

Pat Benatar performing with her husband and lead guitarist, Neil Giraldo. Live in Sydney, 22 Oct 2010.

Stage and screen soundtracks[link]

• In 1981, "Hell Is For Children" appeared on the soundtrack of the Ralph Bakshi animated film American Pop.
• The soundtrack to Giorgio Moroder's 1984 restoration of Fritz Lang's 1926 classic Metropolis features Benatar performing two versions of the movie's love song "Here's My Heart"
• In 1985, 'Invincible" was featured as the main theme song for the film "The legend of Billy Jean" (Which was also Christian Slater's 1st mainstream film appearance)
• Benatar played the character Zephyr in Harry Chapin's futuristic rock musical The Zinger. Benatar performed the solo "Shooting Star" in honor of Chapin for the Harry Chapin Tribute, Carnegie Hall, December 7, 1987.
• "Run Between the Raindrops" was featured on the soundtrack for The Stepfather (1987 film)
• "Sometimes the Good Guys Finish First" was on the Soundtrack for The Secret of My Success in 1987.
• Benatar appears on "Yakety Yak - Take It Back", a Public Service Announcement produced by the Take It Back Foundation in 1991. It was later shown occasionally on Sesame Street during the 1990s, though it does not feature any Sesame Street characters.
• "Love Is a Battlefield" was featured twice on South Park
• In 2003, "Love Is a Battlefield" was featured in the movie 13 Going on 30.
• In 2003, Konami released a singing video game called "Karaoke Revolution" that featured the cover version of Benatar's song "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" as a part of the song list line-ups.
• Benatar has made numerous TV appearances, mostly as herself. She appeared with her husband in the Charmed episode "Lucky Charmed" on which "Heartbreaker" was used and in an episode of Dharma & Greg as herself singing "We've Only Just Begun" at an impromptu wedding in an airport. In 2001, she also appeared as fictional rock star Anna Raines in the CBS TV drama Family Law with Dixie Carter and Christopher McDonald.
• In 2006, "We Belong" was featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories.
• In 2006, Benatar and her music were featured on "CMT Crossroads."
• In 2007-2008 Benatar's single "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" was put into the songlist for Guitar Hero 3 in the first tier of songs, also in Guitar Hero On Tour, and is available as a downloadable song in the video game Rock Band. Her song "Heartbreaker" is a playable song in the 2008 video game followup Guitar Hero: World Tour as well as also being downloadable content on Rock Band. In 2011, "Fire and Ice", "Love is a Battlefield," "Shadows of the Night," "We Belong," "Invincible," and "Promises in the Dark" were added as downloadable content for the music game, Rock Band 3.

Advertising[link]

In 2006, the song "We Belong" was part of a $20 million ad campaign for Sheraton hotels,^[18] although the version used in the commercial was not Benatar's. Her version of the song is featured in the 2006 comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, starring Will Ferrell and directed by Adam McKay.

Though she had earlier expressed dismay for rock stars endorsing products (including onetime cohort Debbie Harry, who had developed her modeling career simultaneously to her rock career), Benatar herself became a commercial spokeswoman for the Energizer company, and has been featured in an ad for Candies Vintage shoes for Kohl's department store.^{[citation needed]} In 2007, her song "Passion" could be downloaded free from the official Jell-O web site.^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Fissinger,Laura Rock'n PopStars Pat Benatar. Creative Education 1983 ISBN 0-89813-101-4
• Magee, Doug Pat Benatar. Proteus 1985 ISBN 978-0-86276-251-3
• Benatar, Pat and Cox, Patsi Between a Heart and a Rock Place. Harper Collins 2010 ISBN 978-0-06-195377-4

External links[link]

	Book: Pat Benatar
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pat Benatar

• Official website
• Fan Club website
• EMI Artist Page
• Sanctuary Records Artist Page
• Chrysalis Music Group USA
• Pat Benatar at the Internet Movie Database
• Neil Giraldo Fan Site
• Neil Giraldo IMDB