Claudius (Latin: Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was Roman Emperor from 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, he was the son of Drusus and Antonia Minor. He was born at Lugdunum in Gaul and was the first Roman Emperor to be born outside Italy. Because he was afflicted with a limp and slight deafness due to sickness at a young age, his family ostracized him and excluded him from public office until his consulship, shared with his nephew Caligula in 37. Claudius' infirmity probably saved him from the fate of many other nobles during the purges of Tiberius and Caligula's reigns; potential enemies did not see him as a serious threat. His survival led to his being declared Emperor by the Praetorian Guard after Caligula's assassination, at which point he was the last adult male of his family.
Despite his lack of experience, Claudius proved to be an able and efficient administrator. He was also an ambitious builder, constructing many new roads, aqueducts, and canals across the Empire. During his reign the Empire conquered Thrace, Noricum, Pamphylia, Lycia and Judaea, and began the conquest of Britain. Having a personal interest in law, he presided at public trials, and issued up to twenty edicts a day. However, he was seen as vulnerable throughout his reign, particularly by the nobility. Claudius was constantly forced to shore up his position; this resulted in the deaths of many senators. These events damaged his reputation among the ancient writers, though more recent historians have revised this opinion. After his death in 54, his grand-nephew and adopted son Nero succeeded him as Emperor.
Charles Laughton (1 July 1899 – 15 December 1962) was an English-born American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.
Laughton was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, the son of Robert Laughton and his wife Elizabeth (née Conlon), Yorkshire hotel keepers. His mother was a devout Roman Catholic of Irish descent. He attended Stonyhurst College, a Jesuit school, in Lancashire. He served during World War I (in which he was gassed) first with the 2/1st Battalion of the Huntingdonshire Cyclist Regiment and later with the 7th Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment.
Sir Dirk Bogarde (28 March 1921 – 8 May 1999) was an English actor and novelist. Initially a matinée idol in such films as Doctor in the House (1954) and other Rank Organisation pictures, Bogarde later acted in art-house films such as Death in Venice (1971). He also wrote several volumes of autobiography.
Bogarde was born Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde in a nursing home at 12 Hemstal Road,West Hampstead, London, of mixed Flemish, Dutch and Scottish ancestry, and baptised on 30 October at St. Mary's Church, Kilburn. His father, Ulric van den Bogaerde (born in Perry Barr, Birmingham; 1892–1972), was the art editor of The Times and his mother, Margaret Niven (1898–1980), was a former actress; his grand niece is the singer Birdy. He attended University College School, the former Allan Glen's School in Glasgow (a time he described in his autobiography as unhappy, although others have disputed his account) and later studied at the Chelsea College of Art and Design.
The Reign of Terror (5 September 1793 – 28 July 1794) (the latter is date 10 Thermidor, year II of the French Revolutionary Calendar), also known simply as The Terror (French: la Terreur), was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of the revolution." The death toll ranged in the tens of thousands, with 16,594 executed by guillotine (2,639 in Paris), and another 25,000 in summary executions across France.
The guillotine (called the "National Razor") became the symbol of the revolutionary cause, strengthened by a string of executions: Marie Antoinette, King Louis XVI, the Girondins, Philippe Égalité (Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans) and Madame Roland, as well as many others, such as pioneering chemist Antoine Lavoisier, lost their lives under its blade. During 1794, revolutionary France was beset with conspiracies by internal and foreign enemies. Within France, the revolution was opposed by the French nobility, which had lost its inherited privileges. The Roman Catholic Church was generally against the Revolution, which had turned the clergy into employees of the state and required they take an oath of loyalty to the nation (through the Civil Constitution of the Clergy). In addition, the First French Republic was engaged in a series of wars with neighboring powers intent on crushing the revolution to prevent its spread.
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye (he added the 'e' as a young man), was an acclaimed American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range, who achieved major success in the 1960s and 1970s as an artist for the Motown Records label. He was shot dead by his father on April 1, 1984.
Starting his career as a member of the doo-wop group The Moonglows in the late 1950s, he ventured into a solo career after the group disbanded in 1960, signing with Motown Records subsidiary, Tamla. He started off as a session drummer, but later ranked as the label's top-selling solo artist during the 1960s. He was crowned "The Prince of Motown" and "The Prince of Soul". because of solo hits such as "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)", "Ain't That Peculiar", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," and his duet singles with singers such as Mary Wells and Tammi Terrell.
His work in the early- and mid-1970s included the albums, What's Going On, Let's Get It On, and I Want You, which helped influence the quiet storm, urban adult contemporary, and slow jam genres. After a self-imposed European exile in the early 1980s, Gaye returned on the 1982 Grammy-Award winning hit, "Sexual Healing" and the Midnight Love album before his death.
Plot
Byron lives with his ex-wife, her kids, and her boyfriend, and when he's not pursuing his primary passion, women, he spends his time smoking weed and loafing around. But he's grown restless in his middle-age, and he feels the need to escape. He just doesn't know where to go. Filled with a cast of eccentric characters, each pursuing dreams and missions of their own making, LORD BYRON paints a kaleidoscopic portrait of the bizarre and lonely world of its title character, a middle-aged, late-20th century romantic who's confused and torn about his own ambitions and desires. Made on a micro-budget with a cast of non-professional actors from South Louisiana, LORD BYRON combines tragedy with bizarre comedy, naturalistic performances with outright madness.
can't spend what you ain't got
Plot
Outside the forgotten desert mining town of Darwin, getaway driver Chooch O'Grady is stranded with a busted car and a bag of stolen cash. He's picked up by J.T., a predatory psychopath who murders Chooch and abruptly disposes of the body, leaving signs on the trail. J.T. and his meth-addicted boss, Archie, butt heads over the incident, but the real tension lies with Archie's girlfriend, Rebecca O'Grady. Her affair with J.T. contains false hope that he would be her ticket to freedom. Chooch's murder is all but forgotten until a quiet Stranger shows up looking for the money. Before he can leave behind the isolation that is Darwin, the Stranger must navigate the bizarre ghost town and bring its outlaw inhabitants to justice.
[first lines]::Rebecca: Hey baby. I got away for a little while. Are you happy to see me? You're not staying with me much longer are you? You're going back to the city, huh? You're gonna take me with you...
J.T.: So, what are you late for, Chooch?::Chooch: Uh, just meeting up with a friend of mine. You know, I don't want to stand him up, he's kind of an asshole.
Archie: So Bear, I see there's a new man in town.::Bear: You see right.::Archie: Is he a friend of yours?::Bear: Do I look like I have friends?
Archie: Good afternoon, gentlemen. I see you got yourself a brand new vehicle. Very nice.::Claudius: That piece of shit? We only got for when we have to come out here.
Claudius: As a token. [presents a jar]::J.T.: A bug in a jar?::Claudius: You see J.T., you are the bug, and I am the jar. Get It?
J.T.: I want to go back to the city.::Cornelius: And I want you back. Your special brand of cruelty will always have a place in our organization.
Bear: Not the first time a gun's been pointed at me.::The Stranger: But it's gonna be the last.
J.T.: I don't like to keep time.::The Stranger: I don't like watches myself. It's one of things that can sneak up on ya.::J.T.: Watches?::The Stranger: Time.
[last lines]::Crackhead Joe: I came to warn you.::The Stranger: You came to warn me...::Crackhead Joe: Sure. See?::The Stranger: With a gun?::Crackhead Joe: Oh, I brought this for you. Take it.
Plot
Hamlet returns to Denmark when his father, the King, dies. His mother Gertrude has already married Hamlet's uncle Claudius, the new King. They urge Hamlet to marry his beloved Ophelia. But soon the ghost of Hamlet's father appears and tells Hamlet that he was murdered by Claudius and Gertrude. Hamlet must choose between passive acquiescence and the need for a vengeance which might lead to tragedy.
Keywords: adultery, anger, assassination-plot, barefoot, based-on-book, based-on-novel, based-on-play, brother-sister-relationship, burial, castle
The extraordinary adaptation of Shakespeare's classic tale of vengeance and tragedy.
Hamlet: To be, or not to be, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing, end them.
Hamlet: The play's the thing, wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.
Hamlet: [to Ophelia] Get thee to a nunnery!
Hamlet: Frailty, thy name is woman.
Hamlet: O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
Hamlet: Alas, poor Yorrick, I knew him.
[last lines]::Hamlet: The rest is silence.::Horatio: Good night, sweet prince. And flights of angles sing thee to thy rest.
[first lines]::Claudius: Hamlet! Think of us as of a father. For let the world take note: you are the most immediate to our throne. And with no less nobility of love than that which dearest father bears his son do I impart toward you.
Polonius: This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.
Hamlet: There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Plot
The rise and fall of the notorious Roman Emperor Caligula, showing the violent methods that he employs to gain the throne, and the subsequent insanity of his reign - he gives his horse political office and humiliates and executes anyone who even slightly displeases him. He also sleeps with his sister, organises elaborate orgies and embarks on a fruitless invasion of England before meeting an appropriate end. There are various versions of the film, ranging from the heavily- truncated 90-minute version to the legendary 160-minute hardcore version which leaves nothing to the imagination (though the hardcore scenes were inserted later and do not involve the main cast members).
Keywords: actual-animal-killed, affection, alternate-version, ambush, anal-fisting, ancient-rome, ancient-world, animal-love, animal-lover, animal-sex
What would you have done if you had been given absolute power of life and death over everybody else in the whole world?
The most controversial film of the 20th century is now the most controversial film of the 21st century.
Caligula: Let them hate me, so long as they fear me.
Caligula: I have existed from the morning of the world and I shall exist until the last star falls from the night. Although I have taken the form of Gaius Caligula, I am all men as I am no man and therefore I am a God.
[at an orgy]::Caligula: Longinus, you're not having any fun! Enjoy yourself! What is your preference?::Longinus: Everything and nothing Caesar.
Caligula: I hear you have a taste for little boys. Is that not so?::Chaerea: No Caesar, big boys.
Chaerea: Give him enough rope...::Longinus: ...and perhaps, he'll hang us all.
Tiberius: Do you prefer nymphs to satyrs?::Caligula: I like both, Lord.::Tiberius: One needs both, yes, to keep healthy.
Tiberius: Do you think this boy has been drinking?::Caligula: I think he has, Caesar.::Tiberius: So do I. Macro? Bring him more wine!
Caligula: Caesar begged you.
[after a man is decapitated]::Caligula: If only all of Rome had just one neck.
Tiberius: Serve the state, Caligula, though the people in it are wicked beasts.::Caligula: But they love you, lord.::Tiberius: Oh, no... they FEAR me... and that is much better.
Plot
Hamlet returns to his remarkably minimalistic palace in Denmark and finds out his father is dead and his uncle Claudius has married his mother Gertrude. His father's ghost appears, and tells Hamlet to avenge him forthwith. Hamlet stages a play to confirm Claudius' guilt and his mother's compliance, but then inadvertently kills his girlfriend Ophelia's father, Polonius. This drives her insane, while her brother Laertes sets out to avenge his father's death. In a climactic swordfight, Claudius tries to poison Hamlet with Laertes' sword and a poisoned cup. Gertrude takes the poison cup out of guilt, while Hamlet realizes Laertes' sword is poisoned...
Keywords: based-on-play, brother-sister-relationship, castle, character-name-in-title, clown, cross, dancing, death, denmark, duel