Marie (also known as Marie: A True Story) is a 1985 film starring Sissy Spacek as the real-life Marie Ragghianti, former head of the Tennessee Board of Pardons and Paroles, who was removed from office in 1977 after refusing to release prisoners who (it was discovered) had bribed aides to then-Governor Ray Blanton. Ragghianti, a single mother and political appointee, was hounded for failure to cooperate with the culture of corruption with which she found herself confronted (many of Blanton's aides faced prosecution for their roles in the scandal). The film was based on the book Marie: A True Story by Peter Maas.

It was directed by Roger Donaldson, with a screenplay by John Briley (best known as the screenwriter of Gandhi); and also starred Jeff Daniels, Keith Szarabajka, Morgan Freeman, Fred Thompson, Lisa Banes, John Cullum, Graham Beckel, and Macon McCalman. It was rated PG-13.

Critical reception[link]

Most reviewers praised Spacek's performance. Gene Siskel found Sissy's performance as a typical noble woman to be nothing special; thus, giving the movie a thumbs down while Roger Ebert gave it a thumbs up.^{[citation needed]} Several reviewers praised the acting performance of Fred Thompson, who, until then, was known primarily as a peripheral figure in the Senate probe of the Watergate scandal. Thompson, was Ragghianti's attorney during the actual trial, and played himself. This was his first film role.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Marie at the Internet Movie Database
• Marie at Box Office Mojo
• Review by Roger Ebert
• Review in The New York Times

This article about a biographical film is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

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Marie may refer to:

• Marie (given name)

It may also refer to:

Fiction[link]

• Marie, novel by H. Rider Haggard featuring Allan Quatermain
• Atelier Marie, the first game in Atelier (series)

Film and television[link]

• Marie (film), a 1985 American film about the parole board scandals in Tennessee under Ray Blanton, directed by Roger Donaldson
• Marie, TV series featuring Marie Osmond
• Character Marie Barone on popular TV Show, Everybody Loves Raymond

Music[link]

• "Marie", a song written by Irving Berlin, that was a hit for Tommy Dorsey (#1), Rudy Vallée (#2), Nat Shilkret (#9), Franklyn Bauer (#15), The Four Tunes and The Bachelors
• "Marie" (song), a hit for Johnny Hallyday
• Marie, song by Solveig Sandnes
• Marie-Jeanne, song by Joe Dassin from the album Les deux modes de Joe Dassin
• Marie Laveu, song by Canned Heat from the album Boogie with Canned Heat
• Marie, EP by the band Romance of Young Tigers

Ships[link]

• USS Marie, the name of more than one United States Navy ship
• SS Marie, a number of steamships with this name

Other[link]

• Mars Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE), spacecraft instrument
• Marie, Alpes-Maritimes, commune of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France
• Marie biscuit, type of sweet biscuit similar to a Rich Tea biscuit

See also[link]

• Marié, a Japanese feminine given name

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in the French Wikipedia. (January 2012) Don't speak French? Click here to read a machine-translated version of the French article. Click [show] on the right to review important translation instructions before translating. Google's machine translation is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. After translating, {{Translated|fr|Cinéma}} must be added to the talk page to ensure copyright compliance. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

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This 16 mm spring-wound Bolex "H16" Reflex camera is a popular entry level camera used in film schools.

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects. The process of filmmaking has developed into an art form and industry.

Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment and a powerful method for educating – or indoctrinating – citizens. The visual elements of cinema give motion pictures a universal power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using dubbing or subtitles that translate the dialogue into the language of the viewer.

Films are made up of a series of individual images called frames. When these images are shown rapidly in succession, a viewer has the illusion that motion is occurring. The viewer cannot see the flickering between frames due to an effect known as persistence of vision, whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Viewers perceive motion due to a psychological effect called beta movement.

The origin of the name "film" comes from the fact that photographic film (also called film stock) has historically been the primary medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for an individual motion picture, including picture, picture show, moving picture, photo-play and flick. A common name for film in the United States is movie, while in Europe the term film is preferred. Additional terms for the field in general include the big screen, the silver screen, the cinema and the movies.

History[link]

A clip from the Charlie Chaplin silent film The Bond (1918)

Preceding film in origin by thousands of years, early plays and dances had elements common to film: scripts, sets, costumes, production, direction, actors, audiences, storyboards, and scores. Much terminology later used in film theory and criticism apply, such as mise en scene (roughly, the entire visual picture at any one time). Owing to an absence of technology for doing so, moving visual and aural images were not recorded for replaying as in film.

In the 1860s, mechanisms for producing two-dimensional drawings in motion were demonstrated with devices such as the zoetrope, mutoscope and praxinoscope. These machines were outgrowths of simple optical devices (such as magic lanterns) and would display sequences of still pictures at sufficient speed for the images on the pictures to appear to be moving, a phenomenon called persistence of vision. Naturally the images needed to be carefully designed to achieve the desired effect, and the underlying principle became the basis for the development of film animation.

With the development of celluloid film for still photography, it became possible to directly capture objects in motion in real time. An 1878 experiment by English photographer Eadweard Muybridge in the United States using 24 cameras produced a series of stereoscopic images of a galloping horse, is arguably the first "motion picture", though it was not called by this name.^[1] This technology required a person to look into a viewing machine to see the pictures which were separate paper prints attached to a drum turned by a handcrank. The pictures were shown at a variable speed of about 5 to 10 pictures per second, depending on how rapidly the crank was turned. Commercial versions of these machines were coin operated.

A frame from Roundhay Garden Scene, the world's earliest film produced using a motion picture camera, by Louis Le Prince, 1888

By the 1880s the development of the motion picture camera allowed the individual component images to be captured and stored on a single reel, and led quickly to the development of a motion picture projector to shine light through the processed and printed film and magnify these "moving picture shows" onto a screen for an entire audience. These reels, so exhibited, came to be known as "motion pictures". Early motion pictures were static shots that showed an event or action with no editing or other cinematic techniques. The first public exhibition of projected motion pictures in America was shown at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in New York City on the 23rd of April 1896.

Ignoring W. K. L. Dickson's early sound experiments (1894), commercial motion pictures were purely visual art through the late 19th century, but these innovative silent films had gained a hold on the public imagination. Around the turn of the 20th century, films began developing a narrative structure by stringing scenes together to tell a story. The scenes were later broken up into multiple shots of varying sizes and angles. Other techniques such as camera movement were realized as effective ways to portray a story on film. Rather than leave the audience with noise of early cinema projectors, theater owners would hire a pianist or organist or a full orchestra to play music that would cover noises of projector. Eventually, musicians would start to fit the mood of the film at any given moment. By the early 1920s, most films came with a prepared list of sheet music for this purpose, with complete film scores being composed for major productions.

A shot from Georges Méliès Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon) (1902), an early narrative film.

The rise of European cinema was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I when the film industry in United States flourished with the rise of Hollywood, typified most prominently by the great innovative work of D. W. Griffith in The Birth of a Nation (1914) and Intolerance (1916). However in the 1920s, European filmmakers such as Sergei Eisenstein, F. W. Murnau, and Fritz Lang, in many ways inspired by the meteoric war-time progress of film through Griffith, along with the contributions of Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton and others, quickly caught up with American film-making and continued to further advance the medium. In the 1920s, new technology allowed filmmakers to attach to each film a soundtrack of speech, music and sound effects synchronized with the action on the screen. These sound films were initially distinguished by calling them "talking pictures", or talkies.

The next major step in the development of cinema was the introduction of so-called "natural color", which meant color that was photographically recorded from nature rather than being added to black-and-white prints by hand-coloring, stencil-coloring or other arbitrary procedures, although the earliest processes typically yielded colors which were far from "natural" in appearance. While the addition of sound quickly eclipsed silent film and theater musicians, color replaced black-and-white much more gradually. The pivotal innovation was the introduction of the three-strip version of the Technicolor process, which was first used for short subjects and for isolated sequences in a few feature films released in 1934, then for an entire feature film, Becky Sharp, in 1935. The expense of the process was daunting, but continued favorable public response and enhanced box-office receipts increasingly justified the added cost. The number of films made in color slowly increased year after year.

In the early 1950s, as the proliferation of black-and-white television started seriously depressing theater attendance in the US, the use of color was seen as one way of winning back audiences. It soon became the rule rather than the exception. Some important mainstream Hollywood films were still being made in black-and-white as late as the mid-1960s, but they marked the end of an era. Color television receivers had been available in the US since the mid-1950s, but at first they were very expensive and few broadcasts were in color. During the 1960s, prices gradually came down, color broadcasts became common, and the sale of color television sets boomed. The strong preference of the general public for color was obvious. After the final flurry of black-and-white film releases in mid-decade, all major Hollywood studio film production was exclusively in color, with rare exceptions reluctantly made only at the insistence of "star" directors such as Peter Bogdanovich and Martin Scorsese.

Since the decline of the studio system in the 1960s, the succeeding decades saw changes in the production and style of film. Various New Wave movements (including the French New Wave, Indian New Wave, Japanese New Wave and New Hollywood) and the rise of film school educated independent filmmakers were all part of the changes the medium experienced in the latter half of the 20th century. Digital technology has been the driving force in change throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s. 3D technology increased in usage and has become more popular since the early 2010s.

Theory[link]

Film theory seeks to develop concise and systematic concepts that apply to the study of film as art. It was started by Ricciotto Canudo's The Birth of the Sixth Art. Formalist film theory, led by Rudolf Arnheim, Béla Balázs, and Siegfried Kracauer, emphasized how film differed from reality, and thus could be considered a valid fine art. André Bazin reacted against this theory by arguing that film's artistic essence lay in its ability to mechanically reproduce reality not in its differences from reality, and this gave rise to realist theory. More recent analysis spurred by Jacques Lacan's psychoanalysis and Ferdinand de Saussure's semiotics among other things has given rise to psychoanalytical film theory, structuralist film theory, feminist film theory and others. On the other hand, critics from the analytical philosophy tradition, influenced by Wittgenstein, try to clarify misconceptions used in theoretical studies and produce analysis of a film's vocabulary and its link to a form of life.

Language[link]

Film is considered to have its own language. James Monaco wrote a classic text on film theory titled "How to Read a Film". Director Ingmar Bergman famously said, "[Andrei] Tarkovsky for me is the greatest [director], the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream." Examples of the language are a sequence of back and forth images of one actor's left profile speaking, followed by another actor's right profile speaking, then a repetition of this, which is a language understood by the audience to indicate a conversation. Another example is zooming in on the forehead of an actor with an expression of silent reflection, then changing to a scene of a younger actor who vaguely resembles the first actor, indicating the first actor is having a memory of their own past.

Montage[link]

Parallels to musical counterpoint have been developed into a theory of montage, extended from the complex superimposition of images in early silent film^{[citation needed]} to even more complex incorporation of musical counterpoint together with visual counterpoint through mise en scene and editing, as in a ballet or opera; e.g., as illustrated in the gang fight scene of director Francis Ford Coppola’s film, Rumble Fish.

Criticism[link]

Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films. In general, these works can be divided into two categories: academic criticism by film scholars and journalistic film criticism that appears regularly in newspapers and other media.

Film critics working for newspapers, magazines, and broadcast media mainly review new releases. Normally they only see any given film once and have only a day or two to formulate opinions. Despite this, critics have an important impact on films, especially those of certain genres. Mass marketed action, horror, and comedy films tend not to be greatly affected by a critic's overall judgment of a film. The plot summary and description of a film that makes up the majority of any film review can still have an important impact on whether people decide to see a film. For prestige films such as most dramas, the influence of reviews is extremely important. Poor reviews will often doom a film to obscurity and financial loss.

The impact of a reviewer on a given film's box office performance is a matter of debate. Some claim that movie marketing is now so intense and well financed that reviewers cannot make an impact against it. However, the cataclysmic failure of some heavily promoted movies which were harshly reviewed, as well as the unexpected success of critically praised independent movies indicates that extreme critical reactions can have considerable influence. Others note that positive film reviews have been shown to spark interest in little-known films. Conversely, there have been several films in which film companies have so little confidence that they refuse to give reviewers an advanced viewing to avoid widespread panning of the film. However, this usually backfires as reviewers are wise to the tactic and warn the public that the film may not be worth seeing and the films often do poorly as a result.

It is argued that journalist film critics should only be known as film reviewers, and true film critics are those who take a more academic approach to films. This line of work is more often known as film theory or film studies. These film critics attempt to come to understand how film and filming techniques work, and what effect they have on people. Rather than having their works published in newspapers or appear on television, their articles are published in scholarly journals, or sometimes in up-market magazines. They also tend to be affiliated with colleges or universities.

Industry[link]

Cate Blanchett at the Berlin International Film Festival. Around 20,000 professionals from over 130 countries attend the event in Berlin.

The making and showing of motion pictures became a source of profit almost as soon as the process was invented. Upon seeing how successful their new invention, and its product, was in their native France, the Lumières quickly set about touring the Continent to exhibit the first films privately to royalty and publicly to the masses. In each country, they would normally add new, local scenes to their catalogue and, quickly enough, found local entrepreneurs in the various countries of Europe to buy their equipment and photograph, export, import and screen additional product commercially. The Oberammergau Passion Play of 1898^{[citation needed]} was the first commercial motion picture ever produced. Other pictures soon followed, and motion pictures became a separate industry that overshadowed the vaudeville world. Dedicated theaters and companies formed specifically to produce and distribute films, while motion picture actors became major celebrities and commanded huge fees for their performances. By 1917 Charlie Chaplin had a contract that called for an annual salary of one million dollars.

From 1931 to 1956, film was also the only image storage and playback system for television programming until the introduction of videotape recorders.

In the United States today, much of the film industry is centered around Hollywood. Other regional centers exist in many parts of the world, such as Mumbai-centered Bollywood, the Indian film industry's Hindi cinema which produces the largest number of films in the world.^[2] Whether the ten thousand-plus feature length films a year produced by the Valley pornographic film industry should qualify for this title is the source of some debate.^{[citation needed]} Though the expense involved in making movies has led cinema production to concentrate under the auspices of movie studios, recent advances in affordable film making equipment have allowed independent film productions to flourish.

Profit is a key force in the industry, due to the costly and risky nature of filmmaking; many films have large cost overruns, a notorious example being Kevin Costner's Waterworld. Yet many filmmakers strive to create works of lasting social significance. The Academy Awards (also known as "the Oscars") are the most prominent film awards in the United States, providing recognition each year to films, ostensibly based on their artistic merits.

There is also a large industry for educational and instructional films made in lieu of or in addition to lectures and texts.

Associated fields[link]

Derivative academic Fields of study may both interact with and develop independently of filmmaking, as in film theory and analysis. Fields of academic study have been created that are derivative or dependent on the existence of film, such as film criticism, film history, divisions of film propaganda in authoritarian governments, or psychological on subliminal effects of a flashing soda can during a screening. These fields may further create derivative fields, such as a movie review section in a newspaper or a television guide. Sub-industries can spin off from film, such as popcorn makers, and toys. Sub- industries of pre-existing industries may deal specifically with film, such as product placement in advertising.

Terminology used[link]

Although the words "film" and "movie" are sometimes used interchangeably, "film" is more often used when considering artistic, theoretical, or technical aspects, as studies in a university class and "movies" more often refers to entertainment or commercial aspects, as where to go for fun on a date. For example, a book titled "How to Read a Film" would be about the aesthetics or theory of film, while "Lets Go to the Movies" would be about the history of entertaining movies. "Motion pictures" or "Moving pictures" are films and movies. A "DVD" is a digital format which may be used to reproduce an analog film, while "videotape" ("video") was for many decades a solely analog medium onto which moving images could be recorded and electronically (rather than optically) reproduced. Strictly speaking, "Film" refers to the media onto which a visual image is shot, and to this end it may seem improper for work in other "moving image" media to be referred to as a "film" and the action of shooting as "filming", though these terms are still in general use. "Silent films" need not be silent, but are films and movies without an audible dialogue, though they may have a musical soundtrack. "Talkies" refers to early movies or films having audible dialogue or analog sound, not just a musical accompaniment. "Cinema" either broadly encompasses both films and movies, or is roughly synonymous with "Film", both capitalized when referring to a category of art. The "silver screen" refers to classic black-and-white films before color, not to contemporary films without color.

The expression "Sight and Sound", as in the film journal of the same name, means "film". The following icons mean film: a "candle and bell", as in the films Tarkovsky, of a segment of film stock, or a two faced Janus image, and an image of a movie camera in profile.

"Widescreen" and "Cinemascope" refers to a larger width to height in the frame, compared to an earlier historic aspect ratios.^[3] A "feature length film", or "feature film", is of a conventional full length, usually 60 minutes or more, and can commercially stand by itself without other films in a ticketed screening.^[4] A "short" is a film that is not as long as a feature length film, usually screened with other shorts, or preceding a feature length film. An "independent" is a film made outside of the conventional film industry.

A "screening" or "projection" is the projection of a film or video on a screen at a public or private theater, usually but not always of a film, but of a video or DVD when of sufficient projection quality. A "double feature" is a screening of two independent, stand-alone, feature films. A "viewing" is a watching of a film. A "showing" is a screening or viewing on an electronic monitor. "Sales" refers to tickets sold at a theater, or more currently, rights sold for individual showings. A "release" is the distribution and often simultaneous screening of a film. A "preview" is a screening in advance of the main release.

"Hollywood" may be used either as a pejorative adjective, shorthand for asserting an overly commercial rather than artistic intent or outcome, as in "too Hollywood", or as a descriptive adjective to refer to a film originating with people who ordinarily work near Los Angeles.

Expressions for Genres of film are sometimes used interchangeably for "film" in a specific context, such as a "porn" for a film with explicit sexual content, or "cheese" for films that are light, entertaining and not highbrow.

Any film may also have a "sequel", which portrays events following those in the film. Bride of Frankenstein is an early example. When there are a number of films with the same characters, we have a "series", such as the James Bond series. A film which portrays events that occur earlier than those in another film, but is released after that film, is sometimes called a "prequel", an example being Butch and Sundance: The Early Days.

Credits is a list of the people involved in making the film. Before the 1970s, credits were usually at the beginning of a film. Since then, the credits roll at the end of most films.

A Post-credits scene is a scene shown after the end of the credits. Ferris Bueller's Day Off has a post-credit scene in which Ferris tells the audience that the movie is over and they should go home.

Preview[link]

A preview performance refers to a showing of a movie to a select audience, usually for the purposes of corporate promotions, before the public film premiere itself. Previews are sometimes used to judge audience reaction, which if unexpectedly negative, may result in recutting or even refilming certain sections (Audience response).

Trailer[link]

Trailers or previews are film advertisements for films that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema, on whose screen they are shown. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a film programme. That practice did not last long, because patrons tended to leave the theater after the films ended, but the name has stuck. Trailers are now shown before the film (or the A movie in a double feature program) begins.

Film, or other art form?[link]

Film may be combined with performance art and still be considered or referred to as a "film", for instance, when there is a live musical accompaniment to a silent film. Another example is audience participation films, as at a midnight movies screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, where the audience dresses up in costume from the film and loudly does a karaoke-like reenactment along with the film. Performance art where film is incorporated as a component is usually not called film, but a film, which could stand-alone but is accompanied by a performance may still be referred to as a film.

The act of making a film can, in and of itself, be considered a work of art, on a different level from the film itself, as in the films of Werner Herzog.

Similarly, the playing of a film can be considered to fall within the realm of political protest art, as in the subtleties within the films of Tarkovsky. A "road movie" can refer to a film put together from footage from a long road trip or vacation.

Education and propaganda[link]

Film is used for education and propaganda. When the purpose is primarily educational, a film is called an "educational film". Examples are recordings of lectures and experiments, or more marginally, a film based on a classic novel.

Film may be propaganda, in whole or in part, such as the films made by Leni Riefenstahl in Nazi Germany, US war film trailers during World War II, or artistic films made under Stalin by Eisenstein. They may also be works of political protest, as in the films of Wajda, or more subtly, the films of Andrei Tarkovsky.

The same film may be considered educational by some, and propaganda by others, such as some of the films of Michael Moore.

Production[link]

At its core, the means to produce a film depend on the content the filmmaker wishes to show, and the apparatus for displaying it: the zoetrope merely requires a series of images on a strip of paper. Film production can therefore take as little as one person with a camera (or without it, such as Stan Brakhage's 1963 film Mothlight), or thousands of actors, extras and crewmembers for a live-action, feature-length epic.

The necessary steps for almost any film can be boiled down to conception, planning, execution, revision, and distribution. The more involved the production, the more significant each of the steps becomes. In a typical production cycle of a Hollywood-style film, these main stages are defined as:

1. Development
2. Pre-production
3. Production
4. Post-production
5. Distribution

This production cycle usually takes three years. The first year is taken up with development. The second year comprises preproduction and production. The third year, post-production and distribution.

The bigger the production, the more resources it takes, and the more important financing becomes; most feature films are not only artistic works, but for-profit business entities.

Crew[link]

A film crew is a group of people hired by a film company, employed during the "production" or "photography" phase, for the purpose of producing a film or motion picture. Crew are distinguished from cast, the actors who appear in front of the camera or provide voices for characters in the film. The crew interacts with but is also distinct from the production staff, consisting of producers, managers, company representatives, their assistants, and those whose primary responsibility falls in pre-production or post-production phases, such as writers and editors. Communication between production and crew generally passes through the director and his/her staff of assistants. Medium-to-large crews are generally divided into departments with well defined hierarchies and standards for interaction and cooperation between the departments. Other than acting, the crew handles everything in the photography phase: props and costumes, shooting, sound, electrics (i.e., lights), sets, and production special effects. Caterers (known in the film industry as "craft services") are usually not considered part of the crew.

Technology[link]

Film stock consists of transparent celluloid, acetate, or polyester base coated with an emulsion containing light-sensitive chemicals. Cellulose nitrate was the first type of film base used to record motion pictures, but due to its flammability was eventually replaced by safer materials. Stock widths and the film format for images on the reel have had a rich history, though most large commercial films are still shot on (and distributed to theaters) as 35 mm prints.

Originally moving picture film was shot and projected at various speeds using hand-cranked cameras and projectors; though 1000 frames per minute (16⅔ frame/s) is generally cited as a standard silent speed, research indicates most films were shot between 16 frame/s and 23 frame/s and projected from 18 frame/s on up (often reels included instructions on how fast each scene should be shown).^[5] When sound film was introduced in the late 1920s, a constant speed was required for the sound head. 24 frames per second was chosen because it was the slowest (and thus cheapest) speed which allowed for sufficient sound quality. Improvements since the late 19th century include the mechanization of cameras – allowing them to record at a consistent speed, quiet camera design – allowing sound recorded on-set to be usable without requiring large "blimps" to encase the camera, the invention of more sophisticated filmstocks and lenses, allowing directors to film in increasingly dim conditions, and the development of synchronized sound, allowing sound to be recorded at exactly the same speed as its corresponding action. The soundtrack can be recorded separately from shooting the film, but for live-action pictures many parts of the soundtrack are usually recorded simultaneously.

As a medium, film is not limited to motion pictures, since the technology developed as the basis for photography. It can be used to present a progressive sequence of still images in the form of a slideshow. Film has also been incorporated into multimedia presentations, and often has importance as primary historical documentation. However, historic films have problems in terms of preservation and storage, and the motion picture industry is exploring many alternatives. Most movies on cellulose nitrate base have been copied onto modern safety films. Some studios save color films through the use of separation masters: three B&W negatives each exposed through red, green, or blue filters (essentially a reverse of the Technicolor process). Digital methods have also been used to restore films, although their continued obsolescence cycle makes them (as of 2006) a poor choice for long-term preservation. Film preservation of decaying film stock is a matter of concern to both film historians and archivists, and to companies interested in preserving their existing products in order to make them available to future generations (and thereby increase revenue). Preservation is generally a higher concern for nitrate and single-strip color films, due to their high decay rates; black-and-white films on safety bases and color films preserved on Technicolor imbibition prints tend to keep up much better, assuming proper handling and storage.

Some films in recent decades have been recorded using analog video technology similar to that used in television production. Modern digital video cameras and digital projectors are gaining ground as well. These approaches are preferred by some moviemakers, especially because footage shot with digital cinema can be evaluated and edited with non-linear editing systems (NLE) without waiting for the film stock to be processed. Yet the migration is gradual, and as of 2005 most major motion pictures are still shot on film.

Independent[link]

Independent filmmaking often takes place outside of Hollywood, or other major studio systems. An independent film (or indie film) is a film initially produced without financing or distribution from a major movie studio. Creative, business, and technological reasons have all contributed to the growth of the indie film scene in the late 20th and early 21st century.

The Lumière Brothers

On the business side, the costs of big-budget studio films also leads to conservative choices in cast and crew. There is a trend in Hollywood towards co-financing (over two-thirds of the films put out by Warner Bros. in 2000 were joint ventures, up from 10% in 1987).^[6] A hopeful director is almost never given the opportunity to get a job on a big-budget studio film unless he or she has significant industry experience in film or television. Also, the studios rarely produce films with unknown actors, particularly in lead roles.

Before the advent of digital alternatives, the cost of professional film equipment and stock was also a hurdle to being able to produce, direct, or star in a traditional studio film.

But the advent of consumer camcorders in 1985, and more importantly, the arrival of high-resolution digital video in the early 1990s, have lowered the technology barrier to movie production significantly. Both production and post-production costs have been significantly lowered; today, the hardware and software for post-production can be installed in a commodity-based personal computer. Technologies such as DVDs, FireWire connections and non-linear editing system pro-level software like Adobe Premiere Pro, Sony Vegas and Apple's Final Cut Pro, and consumer level software such as Apple's Final Cut Express and iMovie, and Microsoft's Windows Movie Maker make movie-making relatively inexpensive.

Since the introduction of DV technology, the means of production have become more democratized. Filmmakers can conceivably shoot and edit a movie, create and edit the sound and music, and mix the final cut on a home computer. However, while the means of production may be democratized, financing, distribution, and marketing remain difficult to accomplish outside the traditional system. Most independent filmmakers rely on film festivals to get their films noticed and sold for distribution. The arrival of internet-based video outlets such as YouTube and Veoh has further changed the film making landscape in ways that are still to be determined.

Open content film[link]

An open content film is much like an independent film, but it is produced through open collaborations; its source material is available under a license which is permissive enough to allow other parties to create fan fiction or derivative works, than a traditional copyright. Like independent filmmaking, open source filmmaking takes place outside of Hollywood, or other major studio systems.

Fan film[link]

A fan film is a film or video inspired by a film, television program, comic book or a similar source, created by fans rather than by the source's copyright holders or creators. Fan filmmakers have traditionally been amateurs, but some of the more notable films have actually been produced by professional filmmakers as film school class projects or as demonstration reels. Fan films vary tremendously in length, from short faux-teaser trailers for non-existent motion pictures to rarer full-length motion pictures.

Distribution[link]

When it is initially produced, a feature film is often shown to audiences in a movie theater or cinema. The identity of the first theater designed specifically for cinema is a matter of debate; candidates include Tally's Electric Theatre, established 1902 in Los Angeles,^[7] and Pittsburgh's Nickelodeon, established 1905.^[8] Thousands of such theaters were built or converted from existing facilities within a few years.^[9] In the United States, these theaters came to be known as nickelodeons, because admission typically cost a nickel (five cents).

Typically, one film is the featured presentation (or feature film). Before the 1970s, there were "double features"; typically, a high quality "A picture" rented by an independent theater for a lump sum, and a "B picture" of lower quality rented for a percentage of the gross receipts. Today, the bulk of the material shown before the feature film consists of previews for upcoming movies and paid advertisements (also known as trailers or "The Twenty").

Historically, all mass marketed feature films were made to be shown in movie theaters. The development of television has allowed films to be broadcast to larger audiences, usually after the film is no longer being shown in theaters.^{[citation needed]} In 1967, videocassettes of movies became available to consumers to watch in their own homes.^[10] Recording technology has since enabled consumers to rent or buy copies of films on VHS or DVD (and the older formats of laserdisc, VCD and SelectaVision – see also videodisc), and Internet downloads may be available and have started to become revenue sources for the film companies. Some films are now made specifically for these other venues, being released as a television movie or direct-to-video movies. The production values on these films are often considered to be of inferior quality compared to theatrical releases in similar genres, and indeed, some films that are rejected by their own movie studios upon completion are distributed through these markets.

The movie theater pays an average of about 50-55% of its ticket sales to the movie studio, as film rental fees.^[11] The actual percentage starts with a number higher than that, and decreases as the duration of a film's showing continues, as an incentive to theaters to keep movies in the theater longer. However, today's barrage of highly marketed movies ensures that most movies are shown in first-run theaters for less than 8 weeks. There are a few movies every year that defy this rule, often limited-release movies that start in only a few theaters and actually grow their theater count through good word-of-mouth and reviews. According to a 2000 study by ABN AMRO, about 26% of Hollywood movie studios' worldwide income came from box office ticket sales; 46% came from VHS and DVD sales to consumers; and 28% came from television (broadcast, cable, and pay-per-view).^[11]

This section requires expansion with: optical disc distribution.

Animation[link]

Animation is the technique in which each frame of a film is produced individually, whether generated as a computer graphic, or by photographing a drawn image, or by repeatedly making small changes to a model unit (see claymation and stop motion), and then photographing the result with a special animation camera. When the frames are strung together and the resulting film is viewed at a speed of 16 or more frames per second, there is an illusion of continuous movement (due to the persistence of vision). Generating such a film is very labor intensive and tedious, though the development of computer animation has greatly sped up the process.

Because animation is very time-consuming and often very expensive to produce, the majority of animation for TV and movies comes from professional animation studios. However, the field of independent animation has existed at least since the 1950s, with animation being produced by independent studios (and sometimes by a single person). Several independent animation producers have gone on to enter the professional animation industry.

Limited animation is a way of increasing production and decreasing costs of animation by using "short cuts" in the animation process. This method was pioneered by UPA and popularized by Hanna-Barbera, and adapted by other studios as cartoons moved from movie theaters to television.^[12]

Although most animation studios are now using digital technologies in their productions, there is a specific style of animation that depends on film. Cameraless animation, made famous by moviemakers like Norman McLaren, Len Lye and Stan Brakhage, is painted and drawn directly onto pieces of film, and then run through a projector.

Future state[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

While motion picture films have been around for more than a century, film is still a relative newcomer in the pantheon^{[clarification needed]} of fine arts. In the 1950s, when television became widely available, industry analysts^[who?] predicted the demise of local movie theaters.^{[citation needed]} Despite competition from television's increasing technological sophistication over the 1960s and 1970s^{[citation needed]} such as the development of color television and large screens, motion picture cinemas continued. In fact with the rise of television's predominance, film began to become more respected as an artistic medium by contrast due the low general opinion of the quality of average television content.^{[citation needed]} In the 1980s, when the widespread availability of inexpensive videocassette recorders enabled people to select films for home viewing, industry analysts again wrongly predicted the death of the local cinemas.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1990s and 2000s, the development of DVD players, home theater amplification systems with surround sound and subwoofers, and large LCD or plasma screens enabled people to select and view films at home with greatly improved audio and visual reproduction.^{[citation needed]} These new technologies provided audio and visual that in the past only local cinemas had been able to provide: a large, clear widescreen presentation of a film with a full-range, high-quality multi-speaker sound system. Once again industry analysts predicted the demise of the local cinema. Local cinemas will be changing in the 21st century and moving towards digital screens, a new approach which will allow for easier and quicker distribution of films (via satellite or hard disks), a development which may give local theaters a reprieve from their predicted demise.^{[citation needed]} The cinema now faces a new challenge from home video by the likes of a new high definition (HD) format, Blu-ray, which can provide full HD 1080p video playback at near cinema quality.^{[citation needed]} Video formats are gradually catching up with the resolutions and quality that film offers; 1080p in Blu-ray offers a pixel resolution of 1920×1080, a leap from the DVD offering of 720×480 and the 330×480 offered by the first home video standard, VHS.^{[citation needed]} Ultra HD, a future digital video format, will offer a resolution of 7680×4320. However, the nature and structure of film prevents an apples-to-apples comparison with regard to resolution.^[13] The resolving power of film, and its ability to capture an image which can later be scanned to a digital format, will ensure that film remains a viable medium for some time to come.^{[citation needed]} Currently the super-16 format is seeing use as a capture medium, with digital scanning and post-production providing good results.^[14][15] Despite advances in digital capture, film still offers unsurpassed ability to capture fine detail beyond what is possible with digital image sensors. A 35 mm film frame, with proper exposure and processing, still offers an equivalent resolution in the range of 500 mega pixels.^[13]

Despite the rise of all-new technologies, the development of the home video market and a surge of online copyright infringement, 2007 was a record year in film that showed the highest ever box-office grosses. Many^[who?] expected film to suffer as a result of the effects listed above but it has flourished, strengthening film studio expectations for the future.^{[citation needed]}

See also[link]

• Genre
• Fiction film basic genre
• Documentary basic genre
• Docufiction hybrid genre

• Lists

Film portal

• List of film awards
• List of film festivals
• List of film journals and magazines
• List of film topics
• List of video-related topics
• List of years in film
• Lists of films

Related topics

• Cinematic techniques
• Digital cinema
• Lost film
• Web film

Notes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

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	Images and media from Commons
	Learning resources from Wikiversity
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	Source texts from Wikisource
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This article may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may only interest a specific audience. Please help relocate any relevant information, and remove excessive detail that may be against Wikipedia inclusion policy. (January 2012)

Varg Vikernes
Background information
Birth name	Kristian Vikernes
Also known as	Count Grishnackh, Greven
Born	(1973-02-11) 11 February 1973 (age 39) near Bergen, Norway
Genres	Black metal, death metal, thrash metal, dark ambient, medieval music
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, writer
Instruments	Guitar, bass, drums, synthesizer, keyboards, vocals
Years active	1987–1999, 2009–present
Associated acts	Burzum, Mayhem, Old Funeral, Darkthrone, Uruk-Hai, Satanel, Kalashnikov
Website	www.burzum.org

Varg Vikernes (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈʋɑrɡ ˈʋiːkəɳeːs]; born 11 February 1973) is a Norwegian black metal musician, writer, murderer and arsonist. In Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, director Sam Dunn described Vikernes as "the most notorious black metal musician of all time".^[1]

Vikernes was born near Bergen, Norway. In 1991, he founded the one-man music project Burzum, which quickly became popular within the early Norwegian black metal scene. In 1992, he joined the band Mayhem and adopted the stage name Count Grishnackh. Around this time he became affiliated with the Heathen Front and had several writings on Germanic neopaganism published.^[2]

In 1994, Vikernes was convicted of the murder of his Mayhem bandmate Øystein Aarseth, known by his stage name Euronymous. Vikernes was further convicted of four counts of arson involving the burnings of historic churches, and was sentenced to 21 years in prison. Having served almost 16 years of his sentence, Vikernes was released on parole in early 2009.^[3][4]

Biography[link]

Vikernes was sentenced to 21 years in prison for the August 1993 murder of Øystein Aarseth (aka 'Euronymous') of Mayhem and for the burning of three Christian churches in Norway (he was also suspected of burning a fourth). He was eligible for parole in spring 2008, after serving 15 years in prison, but his application was denied.^[5] A June 2008 newspaper article mentions that Vikernes is married and has a daughter, born in 1993, and a son, born 2007.^[6] In a 2004 interview, Vikernes said that he has a daughter (whom he has seen twice since 1993) and that he had "never been married".^[7] In a 2008 interview, he referred to his two children, as well as an expected third child.^[8] In connection with his parole in March 2009, Vikernes stated in an interview that he would be settling on a small farm in Telemark with his family.^[9]

Background, childhood and adolescence[link]

Vikernes does not have a published biography (authorized or unauthorized), but some information can be gathered from interviews he has given and from articles on the web page www.burzum.org. Michael Moynihan, one of the authors of Lords of Chaos, has been described as "quite active in the propaganda support network for Vikernes."^[10]

In the interviews printed in Lords of Chaos, Vikernes discusses his background and childhood. Lords of Chaos also includes an interview with his mother, Lene Bore. In the 2004 interview, Vikernes mentions that "she is working in a large oil company".^[7] He also claims his father is an "electronics engineer",^[7] whereas his brother, who (according to the Lords of Chaos interview) is "one and a half years older",^[11] is a "graduate civil engineer".^[7]

In the Lords of Chaos interview, Vikernes recalls an incident from his childhood: When he was about 6 years old, the family moved for about a year to Baghdad, Iraq, because Vikernes' "father was working for Saddam Hussein",^[12] developing a computer program. Since there were no places available in the English school in Baghdad, the young Vikernes went to an Iraqi elementary school during this time. According to his interview, Vikernes here became "aware of racial matters".^[11] Corporal punishment was not uncommon in the school, and on one occasion Vikernes had a "quarrel" with a teacher and called him "a monkey". But as Vikernes perceived it the teachers "didn't dare to hit me because I was white".^[11] Vikernes' mother also recalls how they "spent a year in Iraq", and that "the other children in his class would get slapped by their teachers; he would not."^[13] She mentions that this created problems, but generally she "has no good explanation" of how Varg developed his views.^[14] Vikernes reveals slightly more in his interview. When asked about his father, he says that he "had a swastika flag at home"^[12] and that his father was hysterical about it. However, Vikernes feels that his father was a hypocrite, because he was worried about Vikernes "being a Nazi", whereas he too was "pissed about all the colored people he saw in town".^[12] About his mother, Vikernes says that she was "very race conscious", in the sense that she was afraid that Vikernes "was going to come home with a black girl!"^[15] At the time of the interview (1995), Vikernes still had a positive relationship with his mother, but "very little contact" with his father.^[12] His parents are divorced. Vikernes' father is said to have "left about 10 years ago",^[12] which would have been 1985, when Vikernes was 12.

There is some evidence that Vikernes was involved with the skinhead scene in Bergen before he became a part of the black metal scene. Goodrick-Clarke introduces Burzum as the "musical vehicle" of the "ex-skinhead" Vikernes.^[2] According to the Encyclopedia of White Power, "Vikernes first became involved with the extreme right as a National Socialist skinhead while he was an adolescent."^[16] When he is asked in the interview in Lords of Chaos whether he hung out with skinheads in Bergen, Vikernes boldly replies: "There were no skinheads in Bergen."^[17] He mentions, though, that he had short hair at that time and that he was into weapons, that he liked the Germans and hated the British and Americans.^[17]

Early musical career[link]

Vikernes had been learning the guitar since he was 14.^[17] When he was about seventeen, Vikernes came into contact with the members of the Bergen death metal band Old Funeral. He played guitar with them during 1990–1991 and performed on their Devoured Carcass EP.

In 1991, Vikernes began a solo musical project named Burzum, and quickly became involved with the early Norwegian black metal scene. During 1992–1993, he recorded four albums as Burzum.

Vikernes has stated that for the recording of these early albums he used an old Westone guitar, bought in 1987 from an acquaintance.^[18] He used the cheapest bass guitar there was in the shop and he borrowed drumsets from Old Funeral, Immortal and "another musician living nearby".^[18] On Hvis lyset tar oss, he borrowed Hellhammer's drumset, the same one Hellhammer used to record De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas by Mayhem.^[19] He used a Marshall amplifier, but for the recording of Filosofem he used the amplifier on his brother's stereo and some old fuzz pedals.^[18] For vocals, he would use whatever microphone the sound tech handed him, but during the recording of Filosofem he intentionally used the worst mic they had, a headset mic.^[18] On the track "Dungeons of Darkness" he used the large gong at Grieghallen for background noise (Euronymous assisted him by beating his fists on it).^[18]

In 1992, Vikernes and Dimitrios Faust joined the black metal band Mayhem.

Arson of churches[link]

On 6 June 1992, the Fantoft stave church, dating from the 12th century and considered architecturally significant, was burned to the ground in an arson. By January 1993, arson attacks had occurred on at least seven other major stave churches, including one on Christmas Eve of 1992.^[2] Vikernes was found guilty of several of these cases: the arson and attempted arson of Åsane Church and Storetveit Church, respectively, in Bergen, the arson of Skjold Church in Vindafjord, and the arson of Holmenkollen Chapel in Oslo. He was also charged with the arson of Fantoft stave church, although the jurors voted not guilty. The judges called this an error but did not overthrow the whole case.^[20]

Vikernes was rumored to have been motivated both by paganism and theistic Satanism, but has denied he was ever a Satanist.^[21]

In an interview with Michael Moynihan, Vikernes made a statement about the church burnings that hints at a heathen rather than a Satanist motivation:

I am not going to say that I burnt any churches. But let me put it this way: There was one person who started it. I was not found guilty of burning the Fantoft stave church, but anyway, that was what triggered the whole thing. That was the 6th of June and everyone linked it to Satanism ... What everyone overlooked was that on the 6th June, 793, in Lindesfarne in Britain was the site of the first known Viking raid in history, with Vikings from Hordaland, which is my county ... They [the Christians] desecrated our graves, our burial mounds, so it's revenge.^[22]

Echoing this sentiment, he writes in Vargsmål: "For each devastated graveyard, one heathen grave is avenged, for each ten churches burnt to ashes, one heathen hof is avenged, for each ten priests or freemasons assassinated, one heathen is avenged."^[23]

When asked whether the church burnings were linked to Odinism or Ásatrú he replied: "The point is that all these churches [i.e. church burnings] are linked to one person ... who was not Øystein obviously. All the church burnings, with the exception of Stavanger, because that was another group (who, by the way, have also turned into nationalistic pagans)."^[24]

Murder of Øystein Aarseth[link]

In late January 1993, Vikernes was interviewed by a journalist from Bergens Tidende. Vikernes had requested the interview in order to gain publicity for the black metal scene and for Aarseth's record store Helvete. However, the interview led to a police investigation and Vikernes was put under arrest for a week. Aarseth decided to close his record store due to this negative attention.

On August 10, 1993, Vikernes and Snorre Ruch traveled from Bergen to Aarseth's apartment in Oslo. Upon their arrival a confrontation began, which ended when Vikernes fatally stabbed Aarseth. His body was found outside the apartment with twenty-three cut wounds – two to the head, five to the neck, and sixteen to the back.^[25]

The entry on Varg Vikernes in the specialized Encyclopedia of White Power mentions that the murder has been "variously described as a power struggle between rival leaders of a satanic circle, a conflict over a girl's affection, or a dispute over a record contract".^[16] Vikernes himself contends "that Aarseth planned to kill him and that he was striking first in self-defense".^[16] On his website, Vikernes elaborates that Aarseth had plotted to torture him to death and videotape the event – using a meeting about an unsigned contract as a pretext.^[20] On the night of the murder, Vikernes claims he intended to hand Aarseth the signed contract and "tell him to fuck off", but that Aarseth attacked him first.^[20] Additionally, Vikernes contends that most of Aarseth's cut wounds were caused by broken glass he had fallen on during the struggle.^[20] After the slaying, Vikernes drove to a nearby lake to dispose of his bloodied clothes before he returned to Bergen.^[26]

At the arrest of Vikernes, the police found 150 kg of explosives and 3,000 rounds of ammunition in Vikernes' home.^[27] According to Encyclopedia of White Power, Vikernes has stated that these explosives were "intended to blow up Blitz House, the radical leftist and anarchist enclave in Oslo",^[16] a plan which "was reportedly on the verge of execution"^[16] and only prevented by Vikernes' arrest. In an article originally published in 1999, Kevin Coogan points to Vikernes' planned attack in the Blitz House as a possible motive for the murder of Aarseth. Referring to the passages of Lords of Chaos quoted above, Coogan writes: "LOC offers strong evidence that Vikernes, who came from a divorced family and was raised by his mother Lene Bore, was a fascist well before he became a metalhead." Then he, too, mentions Vikernes' intent to "destroy an Oslo-based punk anti-fascist squat called Blitz House",^[10] and concludes: "Vikernes may have felt that he had no choice but to kill Euronymous before bombing Blitz House because 'the Communist' would almost certainly have opposed such an act".^[10] Though on Vikernes' website, he refers to the creators of "Lords of Chaos" as being unreliable sources.

The media speculated that Euronymous and Vikernes had conspired to blow up Nidaros Cathedral, which appears on the cover of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. Vikernes denied this allegation in a 2009 interview, stating "I was getting [the explosives and ammunition] in order to defend Norway if we were attacked any time. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union could have decided to attack us. We have no reason to trust neither the government, the royal family or the military because of what happened last time we were attacked. We are left to ourselves".^[27]

Trial[link]

Vikernes' trial began on May 2, 1994. During the court case, the 22-year-old Snorre Ruch, who drove Vikernes to and from Øystein's apartment and stood outside during the incident, was put on trial together with Vikernes and sentenced to 8 years imprisonment. Vikernes was sentenced to 21 years imprisonment, the maximum sentence in Norway. He was found guilty of murdering Øystein Aarseth and the arson of four churches, one of which involved Jørn Tunsberg of black metal band Hades Almighty. In a controversial display, Vikernes smiled at the moment his verdict was read, an image that was widely reprinted in the news media.^[20]

Time in prison[link]

During his time in prison, Vikernes recorded two albums (Dauði Baldrs and Hliðskjálf), which are composed of dark ambient songs.^[28] Vikernes was denied access to an electric guitar, bass guitar or drums, and instead used a synthesizer. In 2000, Vikernes terminated his musical project because of what he perceived to be negative notoriety. He believed that his philosophy was constantly misinterpreted by an ignorant fan base that was too closely related to black metal and Satanism.^[29] Through his website, he indicated that he intended to continue Burzum after his release from prison, stating: "I will publish a few books, possibly using a pseudonym in order to stay anonymous, and perhaps a Burzum album or two, but that's it".^[30] Regarding the style of his next album, Vikernes stated on his website: "[A future album] will, as far as I can tell, sound much like the old albums, whether I like it or not, because I'm incapable of making music that doesn't sound rather 'Burzumic'."^[31]

In October 2003, Vikernes failed to return to his low-security prison in Tønsberg, Norway after having been granted a short leave. He was found riding in a stolen Volvo car, which, according to the media, contained an unloaded AG3 automatic rifle, a handgun, numerous large knives, a gas mask, camouflage clothing, a laptop, a compass, a GPS device, various maps and a fake passport (it is thought that Vikernes came to be in possession of this equipment by means of a military barracks). For this thirteen months were added to his sentence, and he was then moved to a maximum-security prison in Trondheim. He was subsequently moved again, this time to Tromsø Prison.^[32][33]

When Vikernes was convicted, it was possible to be released on parole after serving 12 years of a 21-year sentence, but in 2002, before he became eligible, the Norwegian Parliament extended this to 14 years. In June 2006, after serving 12 years, Vikernes was denied parole by the Department of Criminal Justice for this reason.^[8] His lawyer, John Christian Elden, has complained that the policy change is a form of retroactive legislation. Article 97 of the Norwegian constitution prohibits any law being given retroactive force.

Varg Vikernes was denied parole again in June 2008, although he was allowed to leave Tromsø Prison for short periods to visit his family. His full sentence would run for another seven years.^[5][8][34] In March 2009, however, Vikernes' parole was announced. He had then served 15 years of his 21-year sentence.^[9]

On May 24, 2009, Vikernes was released from prison on probation.

Beliefs[link]

According to Goodrick-Clarke, "while in jail, Vikernes began to formulate his nationalist heathen ideology using material from Norse mythology combined with racism and occult National Socialism."^[2] Goodrick-Clarke bases this account of Vikernes' beliefs on some articles that Vikernes had written for the short-lived "neo-Nazi magazine" Filosofem, published by Vidar von Herske. Goodrick-Clarke also uses the book Lords of Chaos, and a manifesto called Vargsmål ('Speech of the Wolf'), which Vikernes began to write after his imprisonment. According to Lords of Chaos, Vargsmål became available on the internet for some time in 1996, but not in a printed form.^[35] In 1997, a Norwegian publisher released a paperback edition of the book; its publication was financed by Vikernes' mother, Lene Bore.^[36] Vikernes has denounced the English translation of his book in an article on his website. He has also stated on the website that "Vargsmål was written in anger, while I was young and in isolation, and the book is marked by this".^[37]

Political affiliation[link]

After his conviction, Vikernes began identifying himself as a neo-Nazi.^[10] The Encyclopedia of White Power describes him as "busy promoting his Odinist and National Socialist philosophy from behind bars."^[16]

In a July 2005 statement on his website entitled "The Nazi Ghost",^[38] Vikernes states that although he "occasionally used the term 'nazism' to describe [his] ideological foundation", he no longer describes himself as a 'Nazi'.

The reason I have been drawn to and occasionally have expressed support for 'nazism' is mainly because many of the Norwegian (and German) 'Nazis' embraced our Pagan religion as our blood-religion and they rejected Judeo-Christianity as Jewish heresy^[38]

Vikernes expresses a desire to not be associated with anti-Slavic sentiments. He identifies three things which distinguish him from the "Nazis": "unlike them I am not socialistic (not even on a national level), I am not materialistic and I believe in (the ancient Scandinavian) democracy."

In the late 90s, "to avoid confusion" and "to find a term more suitable and accurate", Vikernes coined the term "odalism" based on the Odal rune. "[F]rom Norse óðal (homeland, allodium, allodial law, nobility, noble, inherited goods, fatherland, land property, distinguished family, distinguished, splendid, kin and the nation)." ^[39] He explains, "In it lies Paganism, traditional nationalism, racialism and environmentalism." Vikernes contrasts it with "modern 'civilization'" which he equates with "capitalism, materialism, Judeo-Christianity, pollution, urbanization, race-mixing, Americanization, socialism, globalization, et cetera". He places importance on the fact that odalism "is not a term tainted by history"; in contrast with nazism:

The 'nazi ghost' has scared millions of Europeans from caring about their blood and homeland for sixty years now, and it is about time we banish this ghost and again start to think and care about the things that (whether we like it or not) are important to us.^[38]

In other texts on his website, he embraces Nordicism, racism^[40] and eugenics ("race hygiene").^[41] However, he makes the point that following one's own culture is an equally valid and beneficial choice for all peoples.^[42] Vikernes states that although he is a racist, he hates no one and that "hatred is irrational".^[27]

In a response to a question from a fan, Vikernes expressed his contempt for the European Union, describing it as being "thoroughly corrupt, extremely bureaucratic, predominately catholic and utterly chaotic".^[43]

Involvement in the Heathen Front[link]

According to several sources^[who?], during his time in prison, Vikernes became a central figure in the Neo-völkisch Heathen Front. The Heathen Front started as a group in Norway, Norsk Hedensk Front (Norwegian Heathen Front) or NHF, and grew into the international Allgermanische Heidnische Front (Pan-Germanic Heathen Front) or AHF. At the time of their publication, the article on Vikernes in the Encyclopedia of White Power^[44] and Gods of the Blood by the Swedish scholar Matthias Gardell^[45] considered Vikernes to be the leader (and the founder) of the Norwegian Heathen Front. Goodrick-Clarke mentions that Vikernes underlined "his role as chieftain of his Norwegian Heathen Front" with the writing of Vargsmål.^[46]

In a 2009 interview with Vikernes, the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet pointed out that he has been linked to neo-Nazi and racist groups during his time in prison.^[27] Vikernes replied: "I have never formed or been a member of such organizations. The only organization I am a member of is Riksmålsforbundet" (The Society for the Preservation of Traditional Standard Norwegian).^[27]

When he was asked about his involvement in the AHF in a 2004 interview published on burzum.org, Vikernes pointed out that it was Antifa groups who "repeatedly wrote" that the NHF was a Neo-Nazi group and that he was their leader, claims which he describes as "persecution".^[7] He also said that "the [Norwegian] secret police claimed adamantly" that he was the leader of the Heathen Front.^[7] Vikernes then continued by stating that, as a result of these claims, he left the Heathen Front, to see what "the Antifa/Monitor morons and the secret police would do". In practice, Vikernes stated, he never was a member of the group, since, being in prison, he could not participate in their activities and he had not ever "met half of them".^[7] If he would want to write articles for their magazine, he could do that, regardless of whether he was a member or not.^[7]

Religion[link]

In a 2010 interview with "Vampiria" Magazine Spain (18-03-2010) Vikerness was asked about Odinism playing a major role in his life, to which he responded:

"Well, I am not religious in any way, but I have a Pagan ideology and Pagan values. I believe in blood, soil and honour; family, homeland and hamingja; strength, traditions and courage. And I believe in a Europe waking up." ^[47]

Vikernes has written lyrics for several songs by Darkthrone that make use of themes from old Germanic folklore. In these, Satan is referenced as an aspect of the Germanic god Odin in the context of an 'eye' that is a source of light (i.e. the sun), there are also mentions of a 'spear' and a 'hall of battle', which are also masked references to Odin. This was done with the double meaning of Odin as the 'adversary' of Jewish and Christian tradition. Many have thus inferred that Vikernes is or was a Satanist, though he has stated many times that he is opposed to Satanism as he considers it to be a reactionary form of Christianity.

According to Vikernes:

Christianity was created by some decadent and degenerated Romans as a tool of oppression, in the late Roman era, and it should be treated accordingly. It is like handcuffs to the mind and spirit and is nothing but destructive to mankind. In fact, I don't really see Christianity as a religion. It is more like a spiritual plague, a mass psychosis, and it should first and foremost be treated as a problem to be solved by the medical science. Christianity is a diagnosis. It's like Islam and the other Asian religions, a HIV/AIDS of the spirit and mind.^[48]

Vikernes now embraces a "modern scientific worldview resting on a foundation made up of the Pagan values and ideals: loyalty, wisdom, courage, love, discipline, honesty, intelligence, beauty, responsibility, health and strength."^[49] He draws a direct connection between both race and intelligence and intelligence and religion, denouncing theism as "mental enslavement" fit only for "inferior races".^[49] Vikernes goes on to say "If it is supposed to serve a purpose Paganism needs to be an ideology, not a religion".^[49] Despite accusing mainstream theists of holding onto "Stone Age misconceptions", Vikernes still holds that religious myths should be turned to in areas where science has not yet achieved a complete understanding of the natural world—such as the origin of life and where we go after death, if anywhere at all.^[49]

In addition to Vargsmål, works by Vikernes on his personal world view include Irminsûl and Germansk Mytologi og Verdensanskuelse ('Germanic Mythology and Worldview').^{[citation needed]}

Influence of Vidkun Quisling[link]

Vidkun Quisling, Nazi collaborator minister-president of occupied Norway between 1942 and 1945 and involuntary originator of the term quisling-regime, had developed an extremely obscure esoteric doctrine labeled 'Universism'. An online article^[50] about him mentions that the only "modest intellectual influence" he ever had with this doctrine was "on certain extreme strains of Norwegian black metal music". This impression is indeed given in Lords of Chaos. In the interview there, Varg Vikernes is faced with the question whether Quisling's religion was pagan or Christian.^[51] Moynihan & Søderlind write: "Vikernes has discovered his predecessor in Vidkun Quisling."^[52] At one point, he temporarily took the artist name 'Kvisling',^[53] but he explained this choice in Vargsmål:

One of my foremothers was called Susanne Malene Qisling. She was born 06-02-1811 and dies [sic] 10-05-1891. Qisling means "that which stems from a division of kingly descendants" [...]

Vikernes stated in an interview, "They [the Norwegian government at the beginning of World War II] ran like chickens, leaving Norway, with absolutely NO authorities, and when Vidkun Quisling tried to bring order back, he was thanked with a bullet in his heart after the war."^[54] This is the only known instance of Vikernes mentioning Vidkun Quisling, besides Lords of Chaos; on www.burzum.org Vikernes does not mention Vidkun Quisling at all.^[55]

[edit] The Lord of the Rings

From an early age, Vikernes was fascinated with the fictional realm of Middle-earth created by J. R. R. Tolkien. His stage name Grishnackh is taken from that of an orc in The Two Towers. The name Burzum, meaning darkness, was taken from the Black Speech inscribed on the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings. The inscription read "Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul" or in English "One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them." Additionally, before settling for Burzum, the band was initially named Uruk-Hai, a breed of orcs within the fiction.

Vikernes interpreted The Lord of the Rings on his website, pointing out the connections to paganism in the books, but also recognizing the Judeo-Christian context of Tolkien's Catholic beliefs.^[56]

Publicity[link]

[edit] Lords of Chaos

American journalist Michael Moynihan wrote a book entitled Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground with co-author Didrik Søderlind that is concerned with the events of the early black metal scene in Norway, a book many of the participants of the Norwegian black metal scene^{[who?][citation needed]} have accused of misquotation and distortion of facts. One extensive review has been written by Kevin Coogan, author of a biography of the neo-fascist writer and activist Francis Parker Yockey. In Lords of Chaos, as Coogan writes, "Moynihan suggests that Vikernes is an avatar of a long-repressed Odinist archetype analogous to what Jung claimed for Nazi Germany in his famous 1936 essay on Wotan."^[10] The book's thesis about black metal as a "rise" of this Odinist archetype is factually problematic: "LOC's musings about fascism and black metal largely hang on a thin evidential thread, Varg Vikemes."^[10]

There is also a review of this book available on Burzum's official website, www.burzum.org, that is allegedly written by Varg Vikernes:

I dare say the vast majority of all the statements made in this book are either misinterpretations; taken out of context; misunderstandings; malicious lies made by enemies; a result of ignorance; extreme exaggerations; and/or third-hand information at best. This includes the statements attributed to me!... [The authors] have no insight into or even good knowledge about the subjects discussed and ... don't understand one bit what black metal was about in 1991 and 1992... [They] have managed to fill the heads of a generation of metal fans with lies.^[57]

[edit] Satan rir media

Torstein Grude created a Norwegian documentary entitled Satan rir media (Satan Rides the Media), to which Vikernes has given a more positive review. As its title implies, the movie focuses on the often hysterical media coverage of the church-burning cases and the black metal scene in general. In the film, Vikernes accuses a journalist who writes for Bergens Tidende of deliberately informing the police about his identity after he had completed an anonymous interview. Vikernes was arrested only hours after the interview, one day before it was published, and was released after a week in prison due to lack of proof. In the film, the head of criminal investigations, Bergen Police District evades the question whether the journalist preserved Vikernes' anonymity by stating "It was all OK and legal".

According to Satan rir media, it was also the BT who gave Vikernes the name "Greven" (The Count). However, Vikernes has said in Vargsmål that "the reason I chose this name was not to have a tough name. The word 'count (greven)' comes from the Latin word 'comites', that means partner or companion. I am the true Germanic folk's 'partner' and 'companion' and with that I chose this title".

Satan rir media claims that by emphasizing the Satanist angle, the Norwegian news media unwittingly created a mass following for Burzum and Vikernes, both in Norway and internationally.

[edit] Until the Light Takes Us

Vikernes is one of the central figures in the 2009 documentary film Until The Light Takes Us. Interviewed in prison by American directors Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell, Vikernes explains, in great detail, the circumstances surrounding both the creation of black metal and the murder of Euronymous.

Influence on other church arsons[link]

Vikernes's actions allegedly inspired Kalle Holm to burn Porvoo Cathedral in Finland.

• Novak Majstorovic, then 19-year-old guitarist of the metal band Schwarzreich, was charged with arson and burglary in relation to the burning of a 100+-year-old Uniting Church in Ascot Vale, Australia in August 2004. He was convicted and sentenced to three years in Youth Detention. In all media depictions of the event, he is said to have been heavily influenced by Burzum. However, he has stated on several message boards across the internet that the influence does not stretch beyond the superficial, and that the media has overblown his statements to the police to suit their own ends. He claims that the arson had very little in common with Vikernes' attacks. Majstorovic was released in August 2006. His current whereabouts are unknown.^[58]
• Kalle Holm, an 18-year-old Finn known to have played drums in several Finnish metal bands, has stated on his website that he was influenced by Burzum. He set fire to the Porvoo Cathedral in Finland in May 2006: the roof of the church burned, but the ceiling, vaults and interiors survived undamaged. The attorney's claims that the motives behind the arson were related to a "hatred towards Christianity" were overruled in court. He was sentenced to three years and two months of imprisonment without parole.^[59] The sentence was later doubled to six years and six months by the Court of Appeal.^[60]
• The Winnipeg Sun reported that three people were convicted on June 27, 2006 of arson in a fire that destroyed the Minnedosa United Church in Minnedosa, Manitoba, Canada on February 12, 2006. One was sentenced to three years in prison, the second to two years and the third to two years less a day. All three were ordered to pay CAD $1.2 million in restitution. Justice officials said the church was set on fire on February 11, Vikernes' birthday.^[61]

Works[link]

Discography[link]

As Burzum:

• 1992 – Burzum (recorded January 1992)
• 1993 – Det som engang var (recorded April 1992)
• 1993 – Aske (recorded August 1992)
• 1994 – Hvis lyset tar oss (recorded September 1992)
• 1996 – Filosofem (recorded March 1993)
• 1997 – Dauði Baldrs (recorded in prison 1994–1995)
• 1999 – Hliðskjálf (recorded in prison 1998)
• 2010 – Belus (recorded in 2009)
• 2011 – Fallen (recorded in 2010)
• 2012 – Umskiptar (recorded in 2011)

Other appearances:

• 1991 – Old Funeral – Devoured Carcass (performed electric guitar)
• 1994 – Darkthrone – Transilvanian Hunger (wrote lyrics for four songs)
• 1995 – Darkthrone – Panzerfaust (wrote lyrics for one song)
• 1994 – Mayhem – De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (performed bass guitar)

Bibliography[link]

• 1997 – Vargsmål
• 2000 – Germansk Mytologi og Verdensanskuelse
• 2001 – Guide to the Norse Gods and Their Names
• 2002 – Irminsûl
• 2011 – Sorcery And Religion In Ancient Scandinavia

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Right wing extremism in Norway - 2001, page 8, paragraph title Norsk Hedensk Front, published by Antirasistisk senter and Monitor (Norwegian)
• The extreme right 1999, a report from Antirasistisk senter (Norwegian)
• The Count caught with an AG-3 automatic rifle, news coverage in Aftenposten (Norwegian)
• Police nab The Count after he fled jail, news coverage in Aftenposten
• Arrested Count was heavily armed, news coverage in Aftenposten
• Interview on a metal site (old photo before new political affiliations)
• Editorial in The Age on Novak and his actions
• The nun-murders inspired by The count, news coverage in Dagbladet (Norwegian)
• The Count could have inspired the nun-killing, news coverage in Verdens Gang (Norwegian)