Rain is liquid precipitation, as opposed to non-liquid kinds of precipitation such as snow, hail and sleet. Rain requires the presence of a thick layer of the atmosphere to have temperatures above the melting point of water near and above the Earth's surface. On Earth, it is the condensation of atmospheric water vapor into drops of water heavy enough to fall, often making it to the surface. Two processes, possibly acting together, can lead to air becoming saturated leading to rainfall: cooling the air or adding water vapor to the air. Virga is precipitation that begins falling to the earth but evaporates before reaching the surface; it is one of the ways air can become saturated. Precipitation forms via collision with other rain drops or ice crystals within a cloud. Rain drops range in size from oblate, pancake-like shapes for larger drops, to small spheres for smaller drops.

Moisture moving along three-dimensional zones of temperature and moisture contrasts known as weather fronts is the major method of rain production. If enough moisture and upward motion is present, precipitation falls from convective clouds (those with strong upward vertical motion) such as cumulonimbus (thunderstorms) which can organize into narrow rainbands. In mountainous areas, heavy precipitation is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at elevation which forces moist air to condense and fall out as rainfall along the sides of mountains. On the leeward side of mountains, desert climates can exist due to the dry air caused by downslope flow which causes heating and drying of the air mass. The movement of the monsoon trough, or intertropical convergence zone, brings rainy seasons to savannah climes. Rain is the primary source of freshwater for most areas of the world, providing suitable conditions for diverse ecosystems, as well as water for hydroelectric power plants and crop irrigation. Rainfall is measured through the use of rain gauges. Rainfall amounts are estimated actively by weather radar and passively by weather satellites.

The urban heat island effect leads to increased rainfall, both in amounts and intensity, downwind of cities. Global warming is also causing changes in the precipitation pattern globally, including wetter conditions across eastern North America and drier conditions in the tropics. Precipitation is a major component of the water cycle, and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the planet. The globally averaged annual precipitation is . Climate classification systems such as the Köppen climate classification system use average annual rainfall to help differentiate between differing climate regimes. Antarctica is the Earth's driest continent. Rain is also known or suspected on other worlds, composed of methane, iron, neon, and sulfuric acid rather than water.

Formation

Water-saturated air

Air contains water vapor and the amount of water in a given mass of dry air, known as the Mixing Ratio, is measured in grams of water per kilogram of dry air (g/kg). The amount of moisture in air is also commonly reported as relative humidity; which is the percentage of the total water vapor air can hold at a particular air temperature. How much water vapor a parcel of air can contain before it becomes saturated (100% relative humidity) and forms into a cloud (a group of visible and tiny water and ice particles suspended above the Earth's surface) depends on its temperature. Warmer air can contain more water vapor than cooler air before becoming saturated. Therefore, one way to saturate a parcel of air is to cool it. The dew point is the temperature to which a parcel must be cooled in order to become saturated.

There are four main mechanisms for cooling the air to its dew point: adiabatic cooling, conductive cooling, radiational cooling, and evaporative cooling. Adiabatic cooling occurs when air rises and expands. The air can rise due to convection, large-scale atmospheric motions, or a physical barrier such as a mountain (orographic lift). Conductive cooling occurs when the air comes into contact with a colder surface, usually by being blown from one surface to another, for example from a liquid water surface to colder land. Radiational cooling occurs due to the emission of infrared radiation, either by the air or by the surface underneath. Evaporative cooling occurs when moisture is added to the air through evaporation, which forces the air temperature to cool to its wet-bulb temperature, or until it reaches saturation.

The main ways water vapor is added to the air are: wind convergence into areas of upward motion, precipitation or virga falling from above, daytime heating evaporating water from the surface of oceans, water bodies or wet land, transpiration from plants, cool or dry air moving over warmer water, and lifting air over mountains. Water vapor normally begins to condense on condensation nuclei such as dust, ice, and salt in order to form clouds. Elevated portions of weather fronts (which are three-dimensional in nature) force broad areas of upward motion within the Earth's atmosphere which form clouds decks such as altostratus or cirrostratus. Stratus is a stable cloud deck which tends to form when a cool, stable air mass is trapped underneath a warm air mass. It can also form due to the lifting of advection fog during breezy conditions.

Coalescence

Coalescence occurs when water droplets fuse to create larger water droplets, or when water droplets freeze onto an ice crystal, which is known as the Bergeron process. Air resistance typically causes the water droplets in a cloud to remain stationary. When air turbulence occurs, water droplets collide, producing larger droplets. As these larger water droplets descend, coalescence continues, so that drops become heavy enough to overcome air resistance and fall as rain. Coalescence generally happens most often in clouds above freezing, and is also known as the warm rain process. In clouds below freezing, when ice crystals gain enough mass they begin to fall. This generally requires more mass than coalescence when occurring between the crystal and neighboring water droplets. This process is temperature dependent, as supercooled water droplets only exist in a cloud that is below freezing. In addition, because of the great temperature difference between cloud and ground level, these ice crystals may melt as they fall and become rain.

Raindrops have sizes ranging from to mean diameter, above which they tend to break up. Smaller drops are called cloud droplets, and their shape is spherical. As a raindrop increases in size, its shape becomes more oblate, with its largest cross-section facing the oncoming airflow. Large rain drops become increasingly flattened on the bottom, like hamburger buns; very large ones are shaped like parachutes. Contrary to popular belief, their shape does not resemble a teardrop. The biggest raindrops on Earth were recorded over Brazil and the Marshall Islands in 2004 — some of them were as large as . The large size is explained by condensation on large smoke particles or by collisions between drops in small regions with particularly high content of liquid water.

Intensity and duration of rainfall are usually inversely related, i.e., high intensity storms are likely to be of short duration and low intensity storms can have a long duration. Rain drops associated with melting hail tend to be larger than other rain drops. Raindrops impact at their terminal velocity, which is greater for larger drops due to their larger mass to drag ratio. At sea level and without wind, drizzle impacts at , while large drops impact at around . The sound of raindrops hitting water is caused by bubbles of air oscillating underwater. The METAR code for rain is RA, while the coding for rain showers is SHRA.

Causes

Frontal activity

Stratiform (a broad shield of precipitation with a relatively similar intensity) and dynamic precipitation (convective precipitation which is showery in nature with large changes in intensity over short distances) occur as a consequence of slow ascent of air in synoptic systems (on the order of cm/s), such as in the vicinity of cold fronts and near and poleward of surface warm fronts. Similar ascent is seen around tropical cyclones outside of the eyewall, and in comma-head precipitation patterns around mid-latitude cyclones. A wide variety of weather can be found along an occluded front, with thunderstorms possible, but usually their passage is associated with a drying of the air mass. Occluded fronts usually form around mature low-pressure areas. What separates rainfall from other precipitation types, such as ice pellets and snow, is the presence of a thick layer of air aloft which is above the melting point of water, which melts the frozen precipitation well before it reaches the ground. If there is a shallow near surface layer that is below freezing, freezing rain (rain which freezes on contact with surfaces in subfreezing environments) will result. Hail becomes an increasingly infrequent occurrence when the freezing level within the atmosphere exceeds above ground level.

Convection

Convective rain, or showery precipitation, occurs from convective clouds, e.g., cumulonimbus or cumulus congestus. It falls as showers with rapidly changing intensity. Convective precipitation falls over a certain area for a relatively short time, as convective clouds have limited horizontal extent. Most precipitation in the tropics appears to be convective; however, it has been suggested that stratiform precipitation also occurs. Graupel and hail indicate convection. In mid-latitudes, convective precipitation is intermittent and often associated with baroclinic boundaries such as cold fronts, squall lines, and warm fronts.

Orographic effects

Orographic precipitation occurs on the windward side of mountains and is caused by the rising air motion of a large-scale flow of moist air across the mountain ridge, resulting in adiabatic cooling and condensation. In mountainous parts of the world subjected to relatively consistent winds (for example, the trade winds), a more moist climate usually prevails on the windward side of a mountain than on the leeward or downwind side. Moisture is removed by orographic lift, leaving drier air (see katabatic wind) on the descending and generally warming, leeward side where a rain shadow is observed.

In Hawaii, Mount Waiʻaleʻale, on the island of Kauai, is notable for its extreme rainfall, as it has the second highest average annual rainfall on Earth, with . Systems known as Kona storms affect the state with heavy rains between October and April. Local climates vary considerably on each island due to their topography, divisible into windward (''Koolau'') and leeward (''Kona'') regions based upon location relative to the higher mountains. Windward sides face the east to northeast trade winds and receive much more rainfall; leeward sides are drier and sunnier, with less rain and less cloud cover.

In South America, the Andes mountain range blocks Pacific moisture that arrives in that continent, resulting in a desertlike climate just downwind across western Argentina. The Sierra Nevada range creates the same effect in North America forming the Great Basin and Mojave Deserts.

Within the tropics

The wet, or rainy, season is the time of year, covering one or more months, when most of the average annual rainfall in a region falls. The term ''green season'' is also sometimes used as a euphemism by tourist authorities. Areas with wet seasons are dispersed across portions of the tropics and subtropics. Savanna climates and areas with monsoon regimes have wet summers and dry winters. Tropical rainforests technically do not have dry or wet seasons, since their rainfall is equally distributed through the year. Some areas with pronounced rainy seasons will see a break in rainfall mid-season when the intertropical convergence zone or monsoon trough move poleward of their location during the middle of the warm season. When the wet season occurs during the warm season, or summer, rain falls mainly during the late afternoon and early evening hours. The wet season is a time when air quality improves, freshwater quality improves, and vegetation grows significantly.

Tropical cyclones, a source of very heavy rainfall, consist of large air masses several hundred miles across with low pressure at the centre and with winds blowing inward towards the centre in either a clockwise direction (southern hemisphere) or counter clockwise (northern hemisphere). Although cyclones can take an enormous toll in lives and personal property, they may be important factors in the precipitation regimes of places they impact, as they may bring much-needed precipitation to otherwise dry regions. Areas in their path can receive a year's worth of rainfall from a tropical cyclone passage.

Human influence

The fine particulate matter produced by car exhaust and other human sources of pollution forms cloud condensation nuclei, leads to the production of clouds and increases the likelihood of rain. As commuters and commercial traffic cause pollution to build up over the course of the week, the likelihood of rain increases: it peaks by Saturday, after five days of weekday pollution has been built up. In heavily populated areas that are near the coast, such as the United States' Eastern Seaboard, the effect can be dramatic: there is a 22% higher chance of rain on Saturdays than on Mondays. The urban heat island effect warms cities to above surrounding suburbs and rural areas. This extra heat leads to greater upward motion, which can induce additional shower and thunderstorm activity. Rainfall rates downwind of cities are increased between 48% and 116%. Partly as a result of this warming, monthly rainfall is about 28% greater between to downwind of cities, compared with upwind. Some cities induce a total precipitation increase of 51%.

Increasing temperatures tend to increase evaporation which can lead to more precipitation. Precipitation generally increased over land north of 30°N from 1900 through 2005 but has declined over the tropics since the 1970s. Globally there has been no statistically significant overall trend in precipitation over the past century, although trends have varied widely by region and over time. Eastern portions of North and South America, northern Europe, and northern and central Asia have become wetter. The Sahel, the Mediterranean, southern Africa and parts of southern Asia have become drier. There has been an increase in the number of heavy precipitation events over many areas during the past century, as well as an increase since the 1970s in the prevalence of droughts—especially in the tropics and subtropics. Changes in precipitation and evaporation over the oceans are suggested by the decreased salinity of mid- and high-latitude waters (implying more precipitation), along with increased salinity in lower latitudes (implying less precipitation and/or more evaporation). Over the contiguous United States, total annual precipitation increased at an average rate of 6.1 percent since 1900, with the greatest increases within the East North Central climate region (11.6 percent per century) and the South (11.1 percent). Hawaii was the only region to show a decrease (-9.25 percent).

The most successful attempts at influencing weather involve cloud seeding which include techniques used to increase winter precipitation over mountains and suppress hail.

Characteristics

Patterns

Rainbands are cloud and precipitation areas which are significantly elongated. Rainbands can be stratiform or convective, and are generated by differences in temperature. When noted on weather radar imagery, this precipitation elongation is referred to as banded structure. Rainbands in advance of warm occluded fronts and warm fronts are associated with weak upward motion, and tend to be wide and stratiform in nature.

Rainbands spawned near and ahead of cold fronts can be squall lines which are able to produce tornadoes. Rainbands associated with cold fronts can be warped by mountain barriers perpendicular to the front's orientation due to the formation of a low-level barrier jet. Bands of thunderstorms can form with sea breeze and land breeze boundaries, if enough moisture is present. If sea breeze rainbands become active enough just ahead of a cold front, they can mask the location of the cold front itself.

Once a cyclone occludes, a trough of warm air aloft, or "trowal" for short, will be caused by strong southerly winds on its eastern periphery rotating aloft around its northeast, and ultimately northwestern, periphery (also known as the warm conveyor belt), forcing a surface trough to continue into the cold sector on a similar curve to the occluded front. The trowal creates the portion of an occluded cyclone known as its comma head, due to the comma-like shape of the mid-tropospheric cloudiness that accompanies the feature. It can also be the focus of locally heavy precipitation, with thunderstorms possible if the atmosphere along the trowal is unstable enough for convection. Banding within the comma head precipitation pattern of an extratropical cyclone can yield significant amounts of rain. Behind extratropical cyclones during fall and winter, rainbands can form downwind of relative warm bodies of water such as the Great Lakes. Downwind of islands, bands of showers and thunderstorms can develop due to low level wind convergence downwind of the island edges. Offshore California, this has been noted in the wake of cold fronts.

Rainbands within tropical cyclones are curved in orientation. Tropical cyclone rainbands contain showers and thunderstorms that, together with the eyewall and the eye, constitute a hurricane or tropical storm. The extent of rainbands around a tropical cyclone can help determine the cyclone's intensity.

Acidity

The pH of rain varies, especially due to its origin. On Americas East Coast, rain that is derived from the Atlantic Ocean typically has a pH of 5.0-5.6; rain that comes across the continental from the west has a pH of 3.8-4.8; and local thunderstorms can have a pH as low as 2.0. Rain becomes acidic primarily due to the presence of two strong acids, sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄) and nitric acid (HNO₃). Sulfuric acid is derived from natural sources such as volcanoes, and wetlands (sulfate reducing bacteria); and anthropogenic sources such as the combustion of fossil fuels, and mining where H₂S is present. Nitric acid is produced by natural sources such as lightning, soil bacteria, and natural fires; while also produced anthropogenically by the combustion of fossil fuels and from power plants. In the past 20 years the concentrations of nitric and sulfuric acid has decreased in presence of rainwater, which may be due to the significant increase in ammonium (most likely as ammonia from livestock production), which acts as a buffer in acid rain and raising the pH.

Köppen climate classification

[[Image:World Koppen Map.png|thumb|right|400px|Updated Köppen-Geiger climate map {| |- valign=top | | | width=5 | | | width=5 | | | width=5 | | | width=5 | | | width=5 | | | width=5 | | | width=5 | | | width=5 | | |} ]]

The Köppen classification depends on average monthly values of temperature and precipitation. The most commonly used form of the Köppen classification has five primary types labeled A through E. Specifically, the primary types are A, tropical; B, dry; C, mild mid-latitude; D, cold mid-latitude; and E, polar. The five primary classifications can be further divided into secondary classifications such as rain forest, monsoon, tropical savanna, humid subtropical, humid continental, oceanic climate, Mediterranean climate, steppe, subarctic climate, tundra, polar ice cap, and desert.

Rain forests are characterized by high rainfall, with definitions setting minimum normal annual rainfall between and . A tropical savanna is a grasslandbiome located in semi-arid to semi-humid climate regions of subtropical and tropical latitudes, with rainfall between and a year. They are widespread on Africa, and are also found in India, the northern parts of South America, Malaysia, and Australia. The humid subtropical climate zone where winter rainfall is associated with large storms that the westerlies steer from west to east. Most summer rainfall occurs during thunderstorms and from occasional tropical cyclones. Humid subtropical climates lie on the east side continents, roughly between latitudes 20° and 40° degrees away from the equator.

An oceanic (or maritime) climate is typically found along the west coasts at the middle latitudes of all the world's continents, bordering cool oceans, as well as southeastern Australia, and is accompanied by plentiful precipitation year round. The Mediterranean climate regime resembles the climate of the lands in the Mediterranean Basin, parts of western North America, parts of Western and South Australia, in southwestern South Africa and in parts of central Chile. The climate is characterized by hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters. A steppe is a dry grassland. Subarctic climates are cold with continuous permafrost and little precipitation.

Measurement

Gauges

The standard way of measuring rainfall or snowfall is the standard rain gauge, which can be found in 100-mm (4-in) plastic and 200-mm (8-in) metal varieties. The inner cylinder is filled by of rain, with overflow flowing into the outer cylinder. Plastic gauges have markings on the inner cylinder down to resolution, while metal gauges require use of a stick designed with the appropriate markings. After the inner cylinder is filled, the amount inside it is discarded, then filled with the remaining rainfall in the outer cylinder until all the fluid in the outer cylinder is gone, adding to the overall total until the outer cylinder is empty. Other types of gauges include the popular wedge gauge (the cheapest rain gauge and most fragile), the tipping bucket rain gauge, and the weighing rain gauge. For those looking to measure rainfall the most inexpensively, a can that is cylindrical with straight sides will act as a rain gauge if left out in the open, but its accuracy will depend on what ruler you use to measure the rain with. Any of the above rain gauges can be made at home, with enough know-how.

When a precipitation measurement is made, various networks exist across the United States and elsewhere where rainfall measurements can be submitted through the Internet, such as CoCoRAHS or GLOBE. If a network is not available in the area where one lives, the nearest local weather or met office will likely be interested in the measurement.

One millimeter of rainfall is the equivalent of one liter of water per square meter. This makes computing the water requirements of crops simple.

Remote sensing

One of the main uses of weather radar is to be able to assess the amount of precipitations fallen over large basins for hydrological purposes. For instance, river flood control, sewer management and dam construction are all areas where planners use rainfall accumulation data. Radar-derived rainfall estimates compliment surface station data which can be used for calibration. To produce radar accumulations, rain rates over a point are estimated by using the value of reflectivity data at individual grid points. A radar equation is then used, which is, :$Z\; =\; A\; R^b$,

where Z represents the radar reflectivity, R represents the rainfall rate, and A and b are constants. Satellite derived rainfall estimates use passive microwave instruments aboard polar orbiting as well as geostationary weather satellites to indirectly measure rainfall rates. If one wants an accumulated rainfall over a time period, one has to add up all the accumulations from each grid box within the images during that time.

Intensity

Rainfall intensity is classified according to the rate of precipitation:

Light rain — when the precipitation rate is < per hour Moderate rain — when the precipitation rate is between - or per hour Heavy rain — when the precipitation rate is > per hour, or between and per hour Violent rain — when the precipitation rate is > per hour

Return period

The likelihood or probability of an event with a specified intensity and duration, is called the return period or frequency. The intensity of a storm can be predicted for any return period and storm duration, from charts based on historic data for the location. The term ''1 in 10 year storm'' describes a rainfall event which is rare and is only likely to occur once every 10 years, so it has a 10 percent likelihood any given year. The rainfall will be greater and the flooding will be worse than the worst storm expected in any single year. The term ''1 in 100 year storm'' describes a rainfall event which is extremely rare and which will occur with a likelihood of only once in a century, so has a 1 percent likelihood in any given year. The rainfall will be extreme and flooding to be worse than a 1 in 10 year event. As with all probability events, it is possible, though improbable, to have multiple "1 in 100 Year Storms" in a single year.

Forecasting

The Quantitative Precipitation Forecast (abbreviated QPF) is the expected amount of liquid precipitation accumulated over a specified time period over a specified area. A QPF will be specified when a measurable precipitation type reaching a minimum threshold is forecast for any hour during a QPF valid period. Precipitation forecasts tend to be bound by synoptic hours such as 0000, 0600, 1200 and 1800 GMT. Terrain is considered in QPFs by use of topography or based upon climatological precipitation patterns from observations with fine detail. Starting in the mid to late 1990s, QPFs were used within hydrologic forecast models to simulate impact to rivers throughout the United States. Forecast models show significant sensitivity to humidity levels within the planetary boundary layer, or in the lowest levels of the atmosphere, which decreases with height. QPF can be generated on a quantitative, forecasting amounts, or a qualitative, forecasting the probability of a specific amount, basis. Radar imagery forecasting techniques show higher skill than model forecasts within 6 to 7 hours of the time of the radar image. The forecasts can be verified through use of rain gauge measurements, weather radar estimates, or a combination of both. Various skill scores can be determined to measure the value of the rainfall forecast.

Impact

Effect on agriculture

Precipitation, especially rain, has a dramatic effect on agriculture. All plants need at least some water to survive, therefore rain (being the most effective means of watering) is important to agriculture. While a regular rain pattern is usually vital to healthy plants, too much or too little rainfall can be harmful, even devastating to crops. Drought can kill crops and increase erosion, while overly wet weather can cause harmful fungus growth. Plants need varying amounts of rainfall to survive. For example, certain cacti require small amounts of water, while tropical plants may need up to hundreds of inches of rain per year to survive.

In areas with wet and dry seasons, soil nutrients diminish and erosion increases during the wet season. Animals have adaptation and survival strategies for the wetter regime. The previous dry season leads to food shortages into the wet season, as the crops have yet to mature. Developing countries have noted that their populations show seasonal weight fluctuations due to food shortages seen before the first harvest, which occurs late in the wet season. Rain may be harvested through the use of rainwater tanks; treated to potable use or for non-potable use indoors or for irrigation,. Excessive rain during short periods of time can cause flash floods.

In culture

Cultural attitudes towards rain differ across the world. In temperate climates, people tend to be more stressed when the weather is unstable or cloudy, with its impact greater on men than women. Rain can also bring joy, as some consider it to be soothing or enjoy the aesthetic appeal of it. In dry places, such as India, or during periods of drought, rain lifts people's moods. In Botswana, the Setswana word for rain, "pula", is used as the name of the national currency, in recognition of the economic importance of rain in this desert country. Several cultures have developed means of dealing with rain and have developed numerous protection devices such as umbrellas and raincoats, and diversion devices such as gutters and storm drains that lead rains to sewers. Many people find the scent during and immediately after rain pleasant or distinctive. The source of this scent is petrichor, an oil produced by plants, then absorbed by rocks and soil, and later released into the air during rainfall.

Global climatology

Approximately of water falls as precipitation each year across the globe with of it over the oceans. Given the Earth's surface area, that means the globally averaged annual precipitation is . Deserts are defined as areas with an average annual precipitation of less than per year, or as areas where more water is lost by evapotranspiration than falls as precipitation.

Deserts

The northern half of Africa is primarily desert or arid, containing the Sahara. Across Asia, a large annual rainfall minimum, composed primarily of deserts, stretches from the Gobi desert in Mongolia west-southwest through western Pakistan (Balochistan) and Iran into the Arabian desert in Saudi Arabia. Most of Australia is semi-arid or desert, making it the world's driest inhabited continent. In South America, the Andes mountain range blocks Pacific moisture that arrives in that continent, resulting in a desertlike climate just downwind across western Argentina. The drier areas of the United States are regions where the Sonoran desert overspreads the Desert Southwest, the Great Basin and central Wyoming.

Polar Desert

Since rain only falls as liquid, in frozen temperatures, rain can not fall. As a result, very cold climates see very little rainfall and are often known as polar deserts. A common biome in this area is the tundra which has a short summer thaw and a long frozen winter. Ice caps see no rain at all, making Antarctica the world's driest continent.

Rainforests

Rainforests are areas of the world with very high rainfall. Both tropical and temperate rainforests exist. Tropical rainforests occupy a large band of the planet mostly along the equator. Most temperate rainforests are located on mountainous west coasts between 45 and 55 degrees latitude, but they are often found in other areas.

Around 40-75% of all biotic life is found in rainforests. Rainforests are also responsible for 28% of the world's oxygen turnover.

Monsoons

The equatorial region near the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), or monsoon trough, is the wettest portion of the world's continents. Annually, the rain belt within the tropics marches northward by August, then moves back southward into the Southern Hemisphere by February and March. Within Asia, rainfall is favored across its southern portion from India east and northeast across the Philippines and southern China into Japan due to the monsoon advecting moisture primarily from the Indian Ocean into the region. The monsoon trough can reach as far north as the 40th parallel in East Asia during August before moving southward thereafter. Its poleward progression is accelerated by the onset of the summer monsoon which is characterized by the development of lower air pressure (a thermal low) over the warmest part of Asia. Similar, but weaker, monsoon circulations are present over North America and Australia. During the summer, the Southwest monsoon combined with Gulf of California and Gulf of Mexico moisture moving around the subtropical ridge in the Atlantic ocean bring the promise of afternoon and evening thunderstorms to the southern tier of the United States as well as the Great Plains. The eastern half of the contiguous United States east of the 98th meridian, the mountains of the Pacific Northwest, and the Sierra Nevada range are the wetter portions of the nation, with average rainfall exceeding per year. Tropical cyclones enhance precipitation across southern sections of the United States, as well as Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and American Samoa.

Impact of the Westerlies

Westerly flow from the mild north Atlantic leads to wetness across western Europe, in particular the United Kingdom, where the western coasts can receive between , at sea-level) and , on the mountains) of rain per year. In Bergen, Norway is one of the more famous European rain-cities with its yearly precipitation of on average. During the fall, winter, and spring, Pacific storm systems bring most of Hawaii and the western United States much of their precipitation. Over the top of the ridge, the jet stream brings a summer precipitation maximum to the Great Lakes. Large thunderstorm areas known as mesoscale convective complexes move through the Plains, Midwest, and Great Lakes during the warm season, contributing up to 10% of the annual precipitation to the region.

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation affects the precipitation distribution, by altering rainfall patterns across the western United States, Midwest, the Southeast, and throughout the tropics. There is also evidence that global warming is leading to increased precipitation to the eastern portions of North America, while droughts are becoming more frequent in the tropics and subtropics.

Wettest known locations

Cherrapunji, situated on the southern slopes of the Eastern Himalaya in Shillong, India is one of the wettest places on Earth, with an average annual rainfall of . The highest recorded rainfall in a single year was in 1861. The 38-year average at nearby Mawsynram, Meghalaya, India is . The wettest spot in Australia is Mount Bellenden Ker in the north-east of the country records an average of per year, with over of rain recorded during 2000. Mount Waialeale on the island of Kauaʻi in the Hawaiian Islands averages more than of rain over the last 32 years, with a record in 1982. Its summit is considered one of the rainiest spots on earth. It has been promoted in tourist literature for many years as the wettest spot in the world. Lloró, a town situated in Chocó, Colombia, is probably the place with the largest measured rainfall in the world, averaging per year. The Department of Chocó is extraordinarily humid. Tutunendo, a small town situated in the same department, is one of the wettest estimated places on Earth, averaging per year; in 1974 the town received , the largest annual rainfall measured in Colombia. Unlike Cherrapunji, which receives most of its rainfall between April and September, Tutunendo receives rain almost uniformly distributed throughout the year. Quibdó, the capital of Chocó, receives the most rain in the world among cities with over 100,000 inhabitants: per year. Storms in Chocó can drop of rainfall in a day. This amount is more than falls in many cities in a year's time.

 Lloró, Colombia                      

Continent !!  Highest average (inches/mm)  !! Place !!  Elevation (feet/m)  !!  Years of Record
South America		|		29
Asia	|	Mawsynram, India		39
Oceania	|  Mount Waiʻaleʻale, Kauai, Hawaii (USA)  ||		30
Africa	|	Debundscha, Cameroon		32
South America	|	Quibdo, Colombia		16
Australia	|	Mount Bellenden Ker, Queensland		9
North America	|	Henderson Lake, British Columbia		14
Europe	|	Crkvice, Montenegro		22

!! Continent !! Place !! Highest rainfall !!  References
! Highest average annual rainfall	Asia	Mawsynram, India
Highest in one year	Asia	Cherrapunji, India
Highest in one Calendar month	Asia	Cherrapunji, India
Highest in 24 hours	Indian Ocean	Fac Fac, La Reunion Island
Highest in 12 hours	Indian Ocean	Belouve, La Reunion Island
Highest in one minute	North America	Guadeloupe, Caribbean Islands

Outside of Earth

On Titan, Saturn's largest moon, infrequent methane rain is thought to carve the moon's numerous surface channels. On Venus, sulfuric acid virga evaporates from the surface. There is likely to be rain of various compositions in the upper atmospheres of the gas giants, as well as precipitation of liquid neon in the deep atmospheres. Extrasolar planet OGLE-TR-56b in the constellation Sagittarius is reported to have iron rain.

See also

Johad

Rain dancing

Rain sensor

Rainbow

Raining animals

Rain dust

Red rain in Kerala

Sanitary sewer overflow

Sediment precipitation

Water resources

Weather

Notes

The value given is continent's highest and possibly the world's depending on measurement practices, procedures and period of record variations. The official greatest average annual precipitation for South America is 354 inches at Quibdo, Colombia. The 523.6 inches average at Lloro, Colombia [14 miles SE and at a higher elevation than Quibdo] is an estimated amount. Approximate elevation. Recognized as "The Wettest place on Earth" by the ''Guinness Book of World Records''.

References

External links

What are clouds, and why does it rain?

BBC article on the weekend rain effect

BBC article on rain-making

BBC article on the mathematics of running in the rain

Category:Precipitation

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Coordinates	6°7′55″N1°13′22″N
name	Martin Lewis
birth date	July 24, 1952
birth place	Ashtead, Surrey, England
occupation	Humorist, Writer, Producer, Radio & Television personality, Marketing strategist
website	MartinLewis.com
footnotes	}}

Martin Neil Lewis (born 24 July 1952 in Ashtead, Surrey, England) is a US-based English humorist, writer, radio/TV host, producer and marketing strategist. He is known for his participation in a variety of projects in the arts and entertainment worlds including his work as the co-creator and co-producer of the ''Secret Policeman's Ball'' benefit shows for Amnesty International (a series he created with Monty Python alumnus John Cleese and Amnesty fund-raising officer Peter Walker) and as a comedic performer and writer on American TV. He hosts his own daily radio show - heard nationally in America on Sirius Satellite Radio and worldwide on Sirius Internet Radio. He is a prolific columnist for The Huffington Post website.

Career overview

Described by ''L.A. Weekly'' as “a true Renaissance Man”, Lewis’ career has encompassed work in music, comedy, TV, radio, film, theatre, books and politics. Lewis' official website credits the diversity in his professional life to his having been inspired by individuals he worked with early in his career who were noted polymaths (people who excel in multiple fields) - including Sir Peter Ustinov, Peter Cook and Monty Python alumni Michael Palin and Terry Jones.

Producer

Lewis has worked since 1974 as a producer of comedy and music recordings, stage shows, films, music videos, TV shows, DVDs and radio programs.

Arguably his most notable work has been co-creating and producing the ''Secret Policeman's Ball'' series of benefits for Amnesty International (initially held 1976-1981) that brought together comedic talents (including Monty Python, Beyond The Fringe, Rowan Atkinson and Billy Connolly) and rock musicians (including Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend, Sting, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Phil Collins, Tom Robinson, Donovan and Bob Geldof.) In addition to producing the original stage shows, Lewis produced albums, TV specials and movies that documented the shows. The film of the fourth show of the series, ''The Secret Policeman's Other Ball'', was a box office success in the UK and US in 1982 and also inspired a book co-edited by Lewis. The series continued through the 1980s and 1990s (though the ''Secret Policeman's Ball'' name was not used after the 1989 show). In 2006, Amnesty revived the ''Secret Policeman's Ball'' title for its fundraising shows and this prompted multiple press articles in Britain reflecting on the impact of the original shows - including the attribution by Bob Geldof that ''Live Aid'' had been inspired in part by the shows.

A series of live, acoustic performances by rock musicians Pete Townshend, Sting, Phil Collins, Tom Robinson, Donovan and Bob Geldof that Lewis conceived and produced for the 1979 and 1981 Secret Policeman's shows are widely regarded as being one of the inspirations for the "Unplugged" format that was introduced by MTV in 1989.

His work as a comedy producer includes recordings with Sir Peter Ustinov, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and the first audio recordings of new-wave British comedians such as Jennifer Saunders (of ''Absolutely Fabulous''), Alexei Sayle, Rik Mayall and other performers in Britain's The Young Ones/Comic Strip comedy troupe. Many of these recordings were released on Lewis’ own Springtime! Records label.

As a film producer, Lewis gained a reputation in the 1980s for engaging respected, veteran film directors such as Sam Peckinpah and Lindsay Anderson to work on film projects centered on contemporary music. Lewis produced Peckinpah's last works - a series of music videos featuring Julian Lennon. Anderson was hired by Lewis to direct ''Foreign Skies: Wham! In China'' - a film that documented the 1985 tour of China by the George Michael-led pop group Wham! which was the first visit to China by Western pop artists.

In 1995, Lewis produced a reunion of the Rutles, the comedic ensemble created by Monty Python alumni Eric Idle and Neil Innes in 1977 to lampoon the Beatles. Lewis executive-produced the band's ''Archaeology'' album, a pastiche of the Beatles' ''Anthology'' project.

In 1999, Lewis produced a special American tribute for ''It's... the Monty Python Story'' - the BBC’s four-hour TV special on Monty Python’s 30th anniversary. For this, Lewis conceived an animated sequence featuring the characters from ''South Park'' and he produced this tribute with series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

Lewis’ work in the DVD field includes producing the DVD edition of the Beatles' first film, ''A Hard Day's Night''. He was Associate Producer of the DVD editions of the 1979 Who documentary ''The Kids Are Alright'' and the DVD release of all four full-length shows featuring live appearances by the Beatles on ''The Ed Sullivan Show''.

Lewis has also been a producer of TV specials for NBC, VH1 and E! Entertainment TV.

Television personality

Lewis has appeared on American TV since 1990 as a satirist, commentator, comedic performer and special correspondent. He has been co-host of US TV specials celebrating award shows (The Academy Awards, The Golden Globes, The British Academy Awards, The BRIT Awards (the British Grammys). He frequently appears as a commentator discussing politics and pop culture on a broad array of major US TV networks. He has appeared as a satirist or comedic performer on shows such ''Politically Incorrect'' HBO's ''Night Rap'', VH1’s ''My Generation'', and ''The Tom Arnold Show''. He has also appeared on British TV, serving as US correspondent for BBC shows such as ''The Terry Wogan Show'' and ''Good Morning''.

Radio host and correspondent

Lewis has hosted and produced his own daily radio show heard nationally on Steven Van Zandt's ''Underground Garage'' channel on Sirius Satellite Radio since 2005. Prior to that, Lewis hosted his own weekly radio show in Los Angeles on KGIL-AM and wrote, hosted and produced a series of radio specials for L.A. radio station KLSX-FM.

From 1998 to 2004 Lewis was a regular commentator on the British radio program ''Up All Night'' on BBC Radio Five Live (heard in the UK and worldwide on the internet) offering perspectives on American politics and pop culture. He was a Special Correspondent for the show during the political conventions in the 2000 and 2004 US presidential elections and also reported for the show from Washington DC during the 2001 inauguration of George W. Bush.

Comedic performer

Lewis has written two autobiographical one-man stage-shows - ''Great Exploitations!'' and ''Murder, He Wrote!'' ''Great Exploitations!'' was selected for inclusion in the 9th Annual Toyota Comedy Festival (June 2001) in New York and was the debut production at the Steven Spielberg Theatre in Los Angeles in July 1999.

Lewis has been a Master of Ceremonies for multiple awards shows and benefits, including the Hollywood Reporter Key Art Awards (2000), the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' annual Interactive Achievement Awards (2001) and the American Cinematheque’s Moving Picture Ball honoring Michael Douglas (1993).

Lewis also wrote and performed additional comedic material incorporated on the 1994 CD-ROM ''Monty Python's Complete Waste Of Time'' (7th Level)

Writer

Lewis started his career in 1970 as a freelance journalist writing for British music weeklies such as the ''New Musical Express'', ''Record Mirror'' and ''Disc''. He has written speeches, commercials and material for many entertainers including members of Monty Python as well as Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Jennifer Aniston, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Elliott Gould, Teri Hatcher, Anjelica Huston, Quincy Jones, Patrick Macnee, Roger Moore, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sally Jessy Raphael and Susan Sarandon.

He was the sole writer of the 1998 VH1 Honors Awards – Divas Live - which launched the VH1’s Divas franchise and featured Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Gloria Estefan and Aretha Franklin. He has also written for the annual British Academy Awards, collaborating with Oscar show writer Bruce Vilanch.

Lewis wrote the extensive ‘companion narrative’ for the 1998 re-publication of Beatles manager Brian Epstein’s 1964 autobiography ''A Cellarful Of Noise'' (Pocket Books, 1998).

Lewis re-commenced his journalistic career in 2000 when he was invited to become a Special Correspondent for TIME.com, for which he covered the 2000 United States presidential election and various cultural events in 2001. Lewis writes columns for various online publications including Salon.com, the Huffington Post (for which he is a regular contributor) and his own Agent Provocateur literary website.

Publicity and marketing strategist

Lewis also works as a publicity and marketing consultant through his company Springtime! which he founded in 1977.

Bob and Harvey Weinstein - founders of Miramax Films and the Weinstein Company have credited Lewis with providing the inspiration and prototype for their own expertise in movie marketing. A story about Lewis in the ''Hollywood Reporter'' in June 2001 included a joint statement by the Weinstein Brothers: ''"Back in 1982 when we were starting Miramax Films, Martin Lewis was the producer of what became our first hit movie - ''The Secret Policeman's Other Ball'' starring the Monty Pythons. Martin had a background in publicity and marketing and came up with a great campaign for the movie, creating a huge buzz and getting us free publicity, which was crucial to the film's success. We learned a lot about publicity and marketing from our experience with Martin Lewis."''

Early in his career, Lewis had been a protégé of former Beatles publicist Derek Taylor- then working for the UK division of Warner/Elektra/Atlantic Records. Lewis subsequently worked at British independent record company Transatlantic Records as Director Of Publicity & Marketing - where he worked on campaigns for musicians and comedic artists such as Gerry Rafferty, Billy Connolly, Ralph McTell, Gryphon, the Sadista Sisters, Mike Harding, the Pasadena Roof Orchestra, and the Portsmouth Sinfonia.{

In 1994-1996 he reunited with Derek Taylor when he was engaged by Capitol Records as US marketing strategist for the Beatles' ''Anthology'' and ''Live at the BBC'' projects.

Other notable projects in recent years include the worldwide launch of Sir Paul McCartney's ''Music & Animation Collection'' DVD of animated musical films for children (2004), the 50th anniversary of the movie ''Blackboard Jungle'' and the 50th anniversary of the song ''Rock Around the Clock'' (2005),.

His work as a marketing and publicity strategist includes two successful Oscar campaigns for movies that won the Academy Award for Best Picture: the 2005 Best Picture winner ''Crash'' and the 2011 Best Picture winner ''The King's Speech''

The promotional website Lewis created and wrote for the 2000 theatrical reissue of ''A Hard Day's Night'' won the ''Gold Pencil Award'' - the advertising industry's equivalent of the Oscar - for the Best Promotional Website of 2000 – awarded annually by The One Club.

Film festival producer

Lewis is a long-term member of the Board of Trustees of The American Cinematheque . He has produced and hosted multiple film festivals in Los Angeles since 1993 including the Mods & Rockers Film Festival celebrating 1960s and rock-related movies (presented annually since 1999)- and Lust For Glory! the official 25th Anniversary celebrations of the Monty Python troupe (1994). Other film festivals produced and hosted by Lewis in Hollywood have saluted Peter Sellers, Richard Pryor, Peter Cook, Graham Chapman, Ken Russell, Nicolas Roeg, and the feature film output of Britain's Channel Four. He also organized the official celebrations marking the 90th birthday of actor Glenn Ford in 2006.

Lewis has served as Chairman of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Los Angeles), sitting on its Board of Directors for six years. He produced and hosted multiple film events for BAFTA/LA including co-presentations with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and The Directors Guild of America.

In 2009, Lewis instigated, produced and hosted ''The Secret Policeman's Film Festival'' an in-depth retrospective of 25 films and TV specials produced as fund-raisers for Amnesty International over the preceding three decades. The festival was presented over five weeks in the summer of 2009 in New York at Lincoln Center and the Paley Center For Media, Manhattan and in Los Angeles at the American Cinematheque's Grauman's Egyptian Theatre and the Paley Center For Media, Beverly Hills. The festival was subsequently presented in Washington DC in December 2009 at the American Film Institute coinciding with International Human Rights Day.

Beatles scholar

Lewis is considered a leading Beatles historian and is frequently interviewed or asked to write on Beatles-related topics. His association with the Beatles dates back to 1967, when, as a teenage fan, he was engaged to compile the discography for Hunter Davies' official biography of the group. Years later, he wrote, hosted and produced the only TV documentary made about the Beatles' ''Anthology'' project' - ''Re-Meet The Beatles!'' (E! - 1995)

He was a consultant for Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 2000 VH1 television film, ''Two of Us'', a fictionalized account of the last-ever encounter between John Lennon and Paul McCartney (in New York in 1976). Lewis advised on the music for the film (which included a 1997 recording of The Quarrymen made by Lewis) and worked with actors Jared Harris (Lennon) and Aidan Quinn (McCartney) on their characterizations.

In 2004, Lewis produced and hosted The Fab 40!, a celebration marking the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' first US visit. Lewis has hosted Beatles fan conventions in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Orlando, and Las Vegas since 1992. He created the Official Brian Epstein Website and spearheads the campaign to have Epstein inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

On 4 February 2008, Lewis, in conjunction with NASA, arranged for the recording of the Beatles' song "Across the Universe" to be transmitted towards the North Star, Polaris, via the Deep Space Network antenna. The transmission was timed to coincide with celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of NASA, the 50th anniversary of the launch of America's first satellite, ''Explorer 1'' and the 40th anniversary of the Beatles recording John Lennon's composition ''Across The Universe''.

Bill Maher referred to Lewis' reputation as a Beatles scholar on his HBO show ''Real Time With Bill Maher'' in March 2010 - jokingly referring to Lewis as ''the fifth Beatle''.

Artist management

Lewis is credited with discovering British comedian Alexei Sayle at the 1980 Edinburgh Festival and orchestrating Sayle’s breakthrough success in 1980-1984. Other artists who have engaged Lewis' services include Eric Burdon, Donovan and The Comets. He has been the manager of the infamous Portsmouth Sinfonia – the self-described World’s Worst Orchestra whose alumni include ambient pioneer Brian Eno, film composer Michael Nyman, avant-garde composer Gavin Bryars and rock producer Clive Langer - since 1973.

Social activism

Lewis’ work with Amnesty International has been credited by politically-conscious and active artists such as Bono, Sting and Peter Gabriel as having been a major factor in the growing social activism of rock musicians since the early 1980s. In a 1986 interview in ''Rolling Stone magazine'', Bono said: "I saw ''The Secret Policeman's Ball'' and it became a part of me. It sowed a seed..." Live Aid and Live 8 organizer Bob Geldof's first-ever participation in a benefit show was at 1981's The Secret Policeman's Other Ball - the event where he first worked with Midge Ure who later collaborated on Geldof’s worldwide fund-raisers.

Amnesty also credits Lewis with conceiving its 1988 Human Rights Now! world tour of all five continents that featured Bruce Springsteen, Sting and Peter Gabriel.

In December 2009, Lewis instigated and co-hosted a major event saluting Amnesty International in Washington DC. The event was attended by Robert DeNiro, Meryl Streep, Martin Short, Mel Brooks, Matthew Broderick, Carol Burnett, Jon Stewart, Jack Black, Edward Norton, Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa, Sting, Trudie Styler, Eddie Vedder, Ben Harper, Laura Dern, Dave Brubeck, Herbie Hancock, Bob Balaban, Joe Mantegna, Bill Irwin, Richard Kind, Florence Henderson, Roger Bart, Gary Beach, Shuler Hensley, Cory English, Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland and opera singer Grace Bumbry.The event was co-hosted by Larry Cox, Executive Director of Amnesty International, USA. .

Personal life

Lewis was born in the Ashtead in the county of Surrey in southern England. He was born into an orthodox Jewish family. He was raised in Hampstead, a bohemian enclave in north-west London. He was educated at a private school - University College School in Hampstead - but was expelled at the age of 14. He had no formal education after his expulsion. He lived and worked in London until he moved to America in 1982. Between 1982-1988 he lived and worked in New York. He moved to Los Angeles in 1988 and has lived and worked there since. Lewis is single.

References

External links

"Rita Cosby Live & Direct" (featuring an interview with Martin Lewis) by Rita Cosby, MSNBC TV, 31 October 2005

"The Apollonian spirit of the Beatles" by Martin Lewis, Variety (Centennial Issue), 16 October 2005

"Box Set Sparks War Among Beatles Fans" (Interview with Martin Lewis) by Edna Gunderson, USA Today, 25 November 2004

"Interview with Martin Lewis" by Frank Buckley, CNN Sunday Morning, 8 February 2004

"America Gets Ready To Celebrate 40 Years of Beatlemania" (interview with Martin Lewis), by Fredericka Whitfield, CNN Live Saturday, 31 January 2004

"Is An Australian Farmer Really the King of England?" (interview with Martin Lewis), The O'Reilly Factor, Fox News, 2 January 2004

"British Humor: Martin Lewis" (Online chat with Martin Lewis), USA Today.com, 18 July 2003

"Conflict with Iraq: Tony Blair, England, and the U.S." (Online chat with Martin Lewis), USA Today.com, 21 March 2003

"Election 2002: BBC Political Commentator Martin Lewis" (Online chat with Martin Lewis), Usa Today.com, 31 October 2002

"'A Hard Day's Night': Martin Lewis" (Online chat with Martin Lewis), USA Today.com, 27 September 2002

"Beatles Biographer Speaks on George Harrison's Life and Music" by Paula Zahn, host of 'Mornings with Paula Zahn,' CNN, 30 November 2001

"The Art of Lying", by Martin Lewis, Salon.com, 3 August 2001

"Rock became art when Martin met the Beatles" (featuring an interview with Martin Lewis), by Edna Gundersen, USA Today, 18 July 2001

"Meet the Beatles expert who started a 30-year hoax", by Edna Gunderson, USA Today, 5 June 2001

Jim Henke, ''Human Rights Now!'' (Bloomsbury 1988) ISBN 0-7475-0318-4

Martin Lewis, Peter Walker, editors, ''The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball'' (London: Methuen, 1981)

Mark Wilkerson, "Amazing Journey: The Life of Pete Townshend" (Lulu 2006) ISBN 1411677005 ISBN 978-1411677005

Brian Epstein, Martin Lewis "A Cellarful of Noise" Reprint edition (Byron Preiss 1998) ISBN 0671011960. ISBN 978-0671011963

Chrissie MacDonald, "That's Anarchy: The Story of a Revolution in the World of TV Comedy" (Sid Harta 2005) ISBN 1877059242. ISBN 978-1877059247

Dan Cairns "The Real Godfathers Of Punk" The Sunday Times (UK) 30 May 2004.

Official website

Columns on Huffington Post

Articles for TIME.com

Agent Provocateur literary website

Category:1952 births Category:Living people Category:People from Ashtead Category:English Jews Category:English record producers Category:English film producers Category:English journalists Category:English essayists Category:English writers Category:English humorists Category:English satirists

Category:English expatriates in the United States Category:American radio personalities Category:English human rights activists Category:Old Gowers

it:Martin Lewis

Coordinates	6°7′55″N1°13′22″N
name	Angeline Ball
birth place	Dublin, Ireland
occupation	Actress
spouse	Patrice Gueroult(Designer)
website	}}

Angeline Ball (born 1969) is an award-winning Irish actress who currently resides in London, England. She is a trained dancer in ballet, tap and modern dance. Her breakthrough role came in 1991 when she starred alongside Maria Doyle Kennedy and Bronagh Gallagher as back-up singer Imelda Quirke in Alan Parker's ''The Commitments''. From there her acting career blossomed and she has appeared in movies both in Ireland and in America. Most notably she played Vada's mom in My Girl 2 for which she sang a beautiful rendition of Charlie Chaplin's 'Smile'. She worked with Alan Parker again when she sang backing vocals on his "Evita" album. Ian Le Frenais and Dick Clement wrote the TV series "Over The Rainbow" for her; incidentally, Angeline wrote all the music for the show.

In 2003 Angeline swept the board at the IFTA (Irish Film And Television Awards), winning Best Actress in a TV Program for her portrayal of Nora in the TV series "Anytime Now" and Best Actress in A Film for her marvelous portrayal of "Molly" in "Bloom" an adaptation of James Joyce's "Ulysses". In March 2011 she will reunite with her fellow Commitments to play a number of gigs culminating with a live concert at the 02 Dublin. She is currently working on an album and independent projects with her production company.

Works

She has appeared since in many Irish films including ''Trojan Eddie'' as Stephen Rea's estranged wife, ''The General'' (which also starred her ''The Commitments'' co-background singer Maria Doyle Kennedy as her sister) and ''The Tiger's Tale'', both of which starred Brendan Gleeson and were directed by John Boorman. She was widely acclaimed for her performance as Molly Bloom in Sean Walsh's 2003 version of ''Ulysses'' entitled ''Bloom''. Her co-star was again Stephen Rea as Leopold Bloom, who also directed her as Mrs. Gogan in a modern-day interpretation of Seán O'Casey's classic play ''The Plough and the Stars'' on the Dublin stage. Joycean scholar David Norris said that her Molly Bloom was the best that he had ever seen and she won the 2003 Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actress for her role in the film.

The many television dramas she featured in have included ''Brothers in Trouble'', ''Our Friends in the North'', ''Doc Martin'', ''Any Time Now'', ''Bait'' and ''What We Did On Our Holiday''. She most recently played alcoholic country and western enthusiast Annie Little in the 2007 Irish television series ''Trouble in Paradise''. As Ball is also an accomplished singer, she provided the vocals for the series' theme song.

More recently she has done voices for the Irish children's program ''Jakers! The Adventures Of Piggly Winks''. She is currently appearing as Widow Quin in a modern-day interpretation of ''The Playboy of the Western World'' in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin.

She also had a part in the movie ''My Girl 2'', where she sang an a cappella solo of the Chaplin song "Smile".

On May 26, 2008 Ball made her debut as Maggie Townsend, Bradley Branning's boss in ''EastEnders''.

Angeline Ball also played the part of Bella the girlfriend of Eddie Scrooge (played by Ross Kemp) in a modern day adaptation of A Christmas Carol set on a rundown housing estate. TV Appearance "Doc Martin" Always on My Mind (2005) Angeline Ball plays Julie Mitchell

See also

List of people on stamps of Ireland

References

External links

Category:1969 births Category:Living people Category:Irish film actors Category:Irish television actors

de:Angeline Ball fi:Angeline Ball

Coordinates	6°7′55″N1°13′22″N
name	Terry Gilliam
birth date	November 22, 1940
birth place	Medicine Lake, Minnesota, United States
birth name	Terrence Vance Gilliam
years active	1967–present
spouse	Maggie Weston (1973–present)
occupation	Actor, animator, director, producer, screenwriter, comedian }}

Terrence Vance "Terry" Gilliam (; born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British screenwriter, film director, animator, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam is also known for directing several films, including ''Time Bandits'' (1981), ''Brazil'' (1985), ''The Adventures of Baron Munchausen'' (1988), ''The Fisher King'' (1991), ''12 Monkeys'' (1995), ''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'' (1998) and ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'' (2009). The only "Python" not born in Britain, he took British citizenship in 1968.

Early life

Gilliam was born in Medicine Lake, Minnesota, the son of Beatrice (née Vance) and James Hall Gilliam, who was a traveling salesman for Folgers before becoming a carpenter.

The family moved to Panorama City, California, in 1952. Gilliam attended Birmingham High School where he was class president and senior prom King, was voted "Most Likely to Succeed", and achieved straight A's. During high school, he discovered ''Mad'' magazine, which was then edited by Harvey Kurtzman; this later influenced his work.

Gilliam later spoke to Salman Rushdie about defining experiences in the 1960s that would set the foundations for his views on the world, later influencing his art and career:

Career

Animations

Terry Gilliam started his career as an animator and strip cartoonist. One of his early photographic strips for ''Help!'' featured future Python cast-member John Cleese. When ''Help!'' folded, Gilliam went to Europe, jokingly announcing in the very last issue that he was "being transferred to the European branch" of the magazine, which of course did not exist. Moving to England, he animated sequences for the children's series ''Do Not Adjust Your Set'', which also featured Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin.

Monty Python

Gilliam was a part of ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' from its outset, at first credited as an animator (his name was listed separately after the other five in the closing credits), later as a full member. His cartoons were used as transitions linking the show's sketches together, and eventually came to define the group's visual language in other media (such as LP and book covers, and the title sequences of their films). Gilliam's surreal animations mix his own art, characterized by soft gradients and odd, bulbous shapes, with backgrounds and moving cutouts from antique photographs, mostly of British aristocracy from the Victorian era.

Besides doing the animations, he also appeared in several sketches, though he rarely had any main roles and did considerably less acting in the sketches. He did however have some notable sketch roles such as Cardinal Fang of the Spanish Inquisition, "I Want More Beans!" (from "Most Awful Family in Britain 1974", Episode 45) and the Screaming Queen in a cape and mask singing "Ding dong merrily on high."

More frequently, he played parts that no one else wanted to play (generally because they required a lot of make-up or uncomfortable costumes, such as a recurring knight in armour who would end sketches by walking on and hitting one of the other characters over the head with a plucked chicken) and took a number of small roles in the films, including Patsy in ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' (which he co-directed with Terry Jones, where Gilliam was responsible for photography, while Jones would guide the actors' performances) and the jailer in ''Monty Python's Life of Brian''.

Directing

With the gradual break-up of the Python troupe between ''Life of Brian'' in 1979 and ''The Meaning of Life'' in 1983, Gilliam became a screenwriter and director, building upon the experience he had acquired during the making of ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail''.

Gilliam says he used to think of his films in terms of trilogies, starting with ''Time Bandits'' in 1981. The 1980s saw Gilliam's self-written ''Trilogy of Imagination'' about "the ages of man" in ''Time Bandits'' (1981), ''Brazil'' (1985), and ''The Adventures of Baron Munchausen'' (1988). All are about the "craziness of our awkwardly ordered society and the desire to escape it through whatever means possible." All three movies focus on these struggles and attempts to escape them through imagination; ''Time Bandits'', through the eyes of a child, ''Brazil'', through the eyes of a thirty-something year old, and ''Munchausen'', through the eyes of an elderly man.

Throughout the 1990s, Gilliam directed his ''Trilogy of Americana'', ''The Fisher King'' (1991), ''12 Monkeys'' (1995), and ''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'' (1998), which were based on scripts by other people, played on North American soil, and while still being surreal, had less fantastical plots than his previous trilogy.

Themes and philosophy

As for his philosophical background in screenwriting and directing, Gilliam said on the TV show ''First Hand'' on RoundhouseTV: "There's so many film schools, so many media courses which I actually am opposed to. Because I think it's more important to be educated, to read, to learn things, because if you're gonna be in the media and if you'll have to say things, you have to ''know'' things. If you only know about cameras and 'the media', what're you gonna be talking about except cameras and the media? So it's better learning about philosophy and art and architecture ''[and]'' literature, these are the things to be concentrating on it seems to me. Then, you can ''fly...!''"

His films are usually highly imaginative fantasies. His long-time co-writer Charles McKeown comments about Gilliam's recurring interests, "the theme of imagination, and the importance of imagination, to how you live and how you think and so on ''[...]'' that's very much a Terry theme." Most of Gilliam's movies include plot-lines that seem to occur partly or completely in the characters' imaginations, raising questions about the definition of identity and sanity. He often shows his opposition to bureaucracy and authoritarian regimes. He also distinguishes "higher" and "lower" layers of society, with a disturbing and ironic style. His movies usually feature a fight or struggle against a great power which may be an emotional situation, a human-made idol, or even the person himself, and the situations do not always end happily. There is often a dark, paranoid atmosphere and unusual characters who formerly were normal members of society. His scripts feature black comedy and often end with a dark tragicomic twist.

As Gilliam is fascinated with the Baroque due to the historical age's pronounced struggle between spirituality and logical rationality, there is often a rich baroqueness and dichotomous eclecticity about his movies, with, for instance, high-tech computer monitors equipped with low-tech magnifying lenses in ''Brazil'', and in ''The Fisher King'' a red knight covered with flapping bits of cloth. He also is given to incongruous juxtapositions of beauty and ugliness, or antique and modern. Regarding Gilliam's theme of modernity's struggle between spirituality and rationality whereas the individual may become dominated by a tyrannical, soulless machinery of disenchanted society, film critic James Keith Hamel observed a specific affinity of Gilliam's movies with the writings of economic historian Arnold Toynbee and sociologist Max Weber, specifically the latter's concept of the ''Iron cage'' of modern rationality.

Look and style

Gilliam's films have a distinctive look not only in ''mise-en-scene'' but even more so in photography, often recognizable from just a short clip; in order to create a surreal atmosphere of psychological unrest and a world out-of-balance, Gilliam makes frequent use of unusual camera angles, particularly low-angle shots, high-angle shots, and Dutch angles. Roger Ebert has said "his world is always hallucinatory in its richness of detail." Most of his movies are shot almost entirely with rectilinear ultra wide angle lenses of 28 mm focal length or less in order to achieve a distinctive signature style defined by extreme perspective distortion and extremely deep focus. Gilliam's long-time director of photography Nicola Pecorini has said, "with Terry and me, a long lens means something between a 40mm and a 65mm." This attitude markedly differs from the common definition in photography which qualifies 40mm to 65mm as the focal length of a normal lens instead due to resembling natural human field of view, unlike Gilliam's signature style defined by extreme perspective distortion due to his usual choice of focal length. In fact, over the years, the 14mm lens has become informally known as "The Gilliam" among film-makers due to the director's frequent use of it since at least ''Brazil''.

In another interview, Gilliam also mentioned, in relation to the 9.8mm Kinoptic lens he had first used on ''Brazil'', that wide-angle lenses make small film sets "look big". The widest lens he has used so far is an 8mm Zeiss lens employed on ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus''.

Production problems

thumb|left|Terry Gilliam at IFC Center. 4 October 2006.Gilliam has made a few extremely expensive movies beset with production problems. After the lengthy quarreling with Universal Studios over ''Brazil'', Gilliam's next picture, ''The Adventures of Baron Munchausen'', cost around US$46 million, and then earned only about US$8 million in US ticket sales. The film saw no wide domestic release from Columbia Pictures, which was in the process of being sold at the time.

In the mid-1990s, Gilliam and Charles McKeown developed a script for ''Time Bandits 2'', a project that never came to be. Several of the original actors had died. Gilliam also attempted to direct a version of Charles Dickens's ''A Tale of Two Cities'', which collapsed due to disagreements over its budget and choice of lead actor.

In 1999, Gilliam attempted to film ''The Man Who Killed Don Quixote'', budgeted at US$32.1 million, among the highest-budgeted films to use only European financing; but in the first week of shooting, the actor playing Don Quixote (Jean Rochefort) suffered a herniated disc, and a flood severely damaged the set. The film was cancelled, resulting in an insurance claim of US$15 million. Despite the cancellation, the aborted project did yield the documentary ''Lost in La Mancha'', produced from film from a second crew that had been hired by Gilliam to document the making of ''Quixote''. After the cancellation, both Gilliam and the film's co-lead, Johnny Depp, wanted to revive the project. The insurance company involved in the failed first attempt withheld the rights to the screenplay for several years but the production was finally restarted in 2008.

Gilliam has attempted twice to adapt Alan Moore's ''Watchmen'' comics into a film. Both attempts (in 1989 and 1996) were unsuccessful. Most recently, unforeseeable problems again befell a Gilliam project when actor Heath Ledger died in New York City during the filming of ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus''.

On the other hand, Gilliam's first successful feature, ''Time Bandits'' (1981), earned more than eight times its original budget in the United States alone; ''The Adventures of Baron Munchausen'' (1988) was nominated for four Academy Awards (and won, among other European prizes, three BAFTA Awards); ''The Fisher King'' (1991) (his first film not to feature a member from Python) was nominated for five (and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress); and ''12 Monkeys'' went on to take over US$168 million worldwide; whilst ''The Brothers Grimm'', despite a mixed critical reception, grossed over US$105 million worldwide. According to Box Office Mojo, his films have grossed an average of $26,009,723.

Recurring collaborators

Ever since his first Python-independent feature ''Jabberwocky'', Gilliam has shown a propensity to work with particular actors in numerous productions. Up until the 1990s, each of Gilliam's non-Python films was to feature at least one of his fellow Monty Python alumni (particularly Palin, Cleese, and Idle), and for his finished projects Gilliam has worked with the following actors more than once (in order of first film appearance):

Derrick O'Connor (''Jabberwocky'', ''Time Bandits'', ''Brazil'')

Ian Holm (''Time Bandits'', ''Brazil'')

Peter Vaughan (''Time Bandits'', ''Brazil'')

Jack Purvis (''Time Bandits'', ''Brazil'', ''The Adventures of Baron Munchausen'')

Jim Broadbent (''Time Bandits'', ''Brazil'')

Charles McKeown (''Time Bandits'', ''Brazil'', ''The Adventures of Baron Munchausen'', ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'')

Katherine Helmond (''Time Bandits'', ''Brazil'', ''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'')

Jonathan Pryce (''Brazil'', ''The Adventures of Baron Munchausen'', ''The Brothers Grimm'')

Simon Jones (''Brazil'', ''12 Monkeys'')

Robin Williams (''The Adventures of Baron Munchausen'', ''The Fisher King''; also was to play Cavaldi in ''The Brothers Grimm'' until objections by producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein)

Jeff Bridges (''The Fisher King'', ''Tideland'')

Michael Jeter (''The Fisher King'', ''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'')

Tom Waits (''The Fisher King'', ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'')

Christopher Plummer (''12 Monkeys'', ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'')

Christopher Meloni (''12 Monkeys'', ''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'')

Johnny Depp (''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'', ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus''; held the title role in Gilliam's first attempt at directing ''The Man Who Killed Don Quixote'' in 2000)

Verne Troyer (''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'', ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'')

Heath Ledger (''The Brothers Grimm'', ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'')

Peter Stormare (''The Brothers Grimm'', ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'')

Other recurring collaborators include Gilliam's cinematographers Roger Pratt (''Brazil'', ''The Fisher King'', ''12 Monkeys'') and Nicola Pecorini (''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'', ''The Brothers Grimm'', ''Tideland'', ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus''), and his co-writer McKeown (''Brazil'', ''The Adventures of Baron Munchausen'', ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'').

Gilliam and ''Harry Potter''

J. K. Rowling, author of the ''Harry Potter'' series, is a fan of Gilliam's work. Consequently, he was Rowling's first choice to direct ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'' in 2000, but Warner Bros. ultimately chose Chris Columbus for the job. In response to this decision, Gilliam expressed that "I was the perfect guy to do ''Harry Potter''. I remember leaving the meeting, getting in my car, and driving for about two hours along Mulholland Drive just so angry. I mean, Chris Columbus' versions are terrible. Just dull. Pedestrian." Gilliam has since stated that he wouldn't have liked to direct any ''Potter'' film. In a 2005 interview with Total Film Magazine, he said that he would not enjoy working on such an expensive project due to interference from studio executives.

In ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1'', director David Yates paid homage to Gilliam's 1985 film ''Brazil''.

Secret Tournament

In 2002, Gilliam directed a series of television advertisements called ''Secret Tournament''. The advertisements were part of Nike's Football World Cup campaign, and featured a secret three-on-three tournament between the world's best football players inside a huge tanker ship, with the Elvis Presley song "A Little Less Conversation" playing during the advertisements.

Slava's Diabolo

In 1996, Gilliam directed the stage show ''Slava's Diabolo'' created and staged by Russian clown artist Slava Polunin. The show combines Polunin's clown style, characterized by deep non-verbal expression and interaction with the audience, with Gilliam's rich visuals and surrealistic imagery. The show premiered at the Noga hall of the Gesher theater in Jaffa, Israel.

''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus''

''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'', directed and co-written by Gilliam, was released in 2009. In January 2007, Gilliam announced that he had been working on a new project with writing partner Charles McKeown. One day later, the fansite Dreams reported that the new project was titled ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus''. In October 2007, Dreams confirmed that this would be Gilliam's next project and was slated to star Christopher Plummer and Tom Waits. Production began in December 2007 in London.

On 22 January 2008, production of the film was disrupted following the death of Heath Ledger in New York City. ''Variety'' reports that Ledger's involvement had been a "key factor" in the film's financing. Production was suspended indefinitely by 24 January, but in February actors Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell reportedly signed on to continue Ledger's role, transforming into multiple incarnations of his character in the "magical" world of the film. Thanks to this arrangement principal photography was completed 15 April 2008 on schedule. Editing was completed November 2008. According to the official ''ParnassusFilm'' Twitter channel launched on 30 March 2009, the film's post-production FX work finished on 31 March.

During the filming, Gilliam was accidentally hit by a bus and broke his back.

The UK release for the film was scheduled for 6 June 2009 but was pushed back to 16 October 2009. The USA release was on 25 December 2009. The film has had successful screenings including a premiere at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival. The director stated his intent to dedicate the film to Ledger. Depp, Farrell, and Law donated their proceeds from the film to Ledger's daughter.

The Damnation of Faust

Gilliam made his opera debut at London's English National Opera in May 2011, directing ''The Damnation of Faust'' by Hector Berlioz. The production received positive reviews in the British press

Projects in development or shelved

Gilliam has several projects in various states of development, including an adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's comic fantasy novel ''Good Omens''. Other projects Gilliam has been trying to get off the ground since the 1990s are an adaptation of Charles Dickens' ''A Tale of Two Cities'' (starring Mel Gibson), an adaptation of ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'' by Mark Twain (which has been adapted into movies several times before), and a script titled ''The Defective Detective'' that Gilliam has co-authored with Richard LaGravenese (who wrote Gilliam's ''The Fisher King'' before).

It was rumoured that Gilliam may direct – or be involved in the production of – the animated band Gorillaz' movie. In a September 2006 interview with ''Uncut'' magazine, Damon Albarn was reported saying "... we're making a film. We've got Terry Gilliam involved." However, in a more recent interview with Gorillaz-Unofficial, Jamie Hewlett, the co-creator of the band, stated that since the time of the previous interview, Damon's and his own fixation on the film had lessened. In an August 2008 ''Observer'' interview, Gorillaz band members Albarn and Hewlett revealed the nature and title of the project, ''Journey to the West'', a movie adaptation of the opera of the same name based on a 16th-century Chinese adventure story also known as ''Monkey''. In January 2008, while on set of ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'', Gilliam stated that he was looking forward to the project, "But I'm still waiting to see a script!" Participating were producer Richard D. Zanuck and screenwriter Pat Rushin. When little was revealed about the nature of the film writer Pat Rushin suggested that his short story "Vow: A Prolix Parable" was an example of the screenplay's sensibility. An article at film website ''Tout Le Cine'' stated the film was to be about a reclusive and tortured data processing genius working on a mysterious project. Production was said to start May 2009. However, in June 2009 Gilliam stated that he had dropped the film having to invest more time than expected in the promotion of the 2009 film ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'' as well as in preparation for his film of ''Don Quixote''.

Future projects

After regaining the rights to the screenplay of ''The Man Who Killed Don Quixote'', Gilliam restarted pre-production in 2008, with Johnny Depp still attached to the project. The film will be reshot completely, and Rochefort's role will be recast. Michael Palin reportedly entered talks with Gilliam to step in for Rochefort and play Don Quixote. However, Gilliam revealed on Canadian talk show ''The Hour'' on 17 December 2009, that Robert Duvall had been cast to play Quixote.

On 16 December 2010, ''Variety'' reported that Gilliam is to "godfather" a film called ''1884'' which is described as an animated steampunk parody of George Orwell's ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'', with several former Pythons lending their voice talents to the project whereas Gilliam will be credited as "creative adviser".

Personal life

Gilliam has been married to the British make-up and costume designer Maggie Weston since 1973. She worked on ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'', many of the Python movies, and Gilliam's movies up to ''The Adventures of Baron Munchausen''. They have three children, Amy (b. 1978), Holly (b. 1980), and Harry (b. 1988), who have also appeared in several of Gilliam's films.

In 1968, Gilliam obtained British citizenship, then held dual American and British citizenship for the next 38 years. In January 2006 he renounced his American citizenship. In an interview with ''Der Tagesspiegel'', he described the action as a protest against then President George W. Bush, and in an earlier interview with The Onion AV Club, he also indicated that it was related to concerns about future tax liability for his wife and children. As a result of renouncing his citizenship, Gilliam is only permitted to spend 30 days per year in the United States, fewer than ordinary British citizens. Gilliam also maintains a residence in Italy near the Umbria-Tuscany border. He has been instrumental in establishing the annual Umbria Film Festival, held in the nearby hill town of Montone.

Filmography

Feature

''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' (1975) (co-directed with Terry Jones)

''Jabberwocky'' (1977)

''Time Bandits'' (1981)

''Brazil'' (1985)

''The Adventures of Baron Munchausen'' (1988)

''The Fisher King'' (1991)

''12 Monkeys'' (1995)

''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'' (1998)

''The Brothers Grimm'' (2005)

''Tideland'' (2005)

''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'' (2009)

Upcoming films:

''The Man Who Killed Don Quixote'' (in pre-production)

Shorts

''Storytime'' (1968) (animated short)

''The Miracle of Flight'' (1974) (animated short)

''The Crimson Permanent Assurance'' (1983) (a short supporting feature that accompanied ''Monty Python's The Meaning of Life'')

''The Legend of Hallowdega'' (2010)

''The Wholly Family'' (2011)

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''Secret Tournament'' (2002)

''The Rematch'' (2002)

Awards, nominations and honours

''Brazil'' (1985)

*Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best film, director, and screenplay

*1 Academy Awards nominations Best Original Screenplay

''The Adventures of Baron Munchausen'' (1988)

*3 BAFTA Awards Best Costume Design, Best Make Up Artist, Best Production Design

*3 Silver Ribbons awarded by the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design

*4 Academy Awards nominations Best Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best Visual Effects, Best Makeup

*4 Saturn Awards nominations Best Costumes, Best Fantasy Film, Best Make-Up, Best Special Effects

*Hugo Award nomination for Best Dramatic Presentation

''The Fisher King'' (1991)

*Academy Award Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Mercedes Ruehl)

*4 Academy Awards nominations Best Actor in a Leading Role (Robin Williams), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Music, Original Score, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

*Venice Film Festival Silver Lion Winner

*Toronto Film Festival People's Choice Award Winner

''Twelve Monkeys'' (1995)

*2 Academy Awards nominations Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Brad Pitt), Best Costume Design

*Berlin Film Festival Reader Jury of the "Berliner Morgenpost" – 3rd Place

''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'' (1998)

Cannes Film Festival Official Selection

''The Brothers Grimm'' (2005)

*Venice Film Festival Official Selection

''Tideland'' (2005)

San Sebastian Festival Winner of the FIPRESCI Prize

''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'' (2009)

*2 Academy Awards nominations Best Costume Design, Best Art Direction

*2 BAFTA Awards nominations Best Production Design, Best Make Up & Hair

*Best Fantasy Film nomination by the Costume Designers Guild of America

*British Independent Film Awards nomination for Best Achievement in Production

*International Press Academy Satellite Award Best Costume Design, 3 more nominations for Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction & Production Design, Best Original Song

*Voted Best Fantasy Film of the Year by readers of the Total Sci-Fi Online magazine.

An asteroid, 9619 Terrygilliam, is named in his honor.

Gilliam was given the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award in 2009 for his contribution to motion picture arts. Terry Gilliam awarded the Fellowship of the Kermodes, by film critic Mark Kermode. Gilliam was honored with the ''Director with Unique Visual Sensitivity Award'' at the Camerimage film festival in Łódź, Poland in 2009.

Further reading

References

External links

Dreams – exclusive interviews with Gilliam and coverage of his films

Senses of Cinema: Terry Gilliam

The Terry Gilliam Files – Interviews and behind-the-scenes production stories

Extensive Terry Gilliam Filmography and Biography

Terry Gilliam's Cinématon. A 4 minutes portrait by Gérard Courant

Terry Gilliam: BAFTA A Life in pictures

Terry Gilliam Interviewed by Jonathan Derbyshire “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" on New Statesman

Category:1940 births Category:American animators Category:American expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:American film directors Category:American emigrants to the United Kingdom Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:British animators Category:British film directors Category:Copywriters Category:Living people Category:Monty Python members Category:Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Category:British people of American descent Category:Occidental College alumni Category:People from Hennepin County, Minnesota Category:People from the San Fernando Valley

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Coordinates	6°7′55″N1°13′22″N
name	Don Quixote
title orig
author	Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
country	Spain
language	Spanish
genre	Picaresco, satire, parody, farce
publisher	Juan de la Cuesta
pub date	1605 (Part One)1615 (Part Two)
english pub date	1612 (Part One)1620 (Part Two)
media type	Print
dewey	863
congress	PQ
length	381,214 words (original Spanish version) }}

(, ), fully titled ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' (), is a novel written by Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes. Published in two volumes a decade apart (in 1605 and 1615), ''Don Quixote'' is considered the most influential work of literature from the Spanish Golden Age in the Spanish literary canon. As a founding work of modern Western literature, and one of the earliest canonical novels, it regularly appears high on lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published. In one such list, ''Don Quixote'' was cited as the "best literary work ever written".

Spelling and pronunciation

''Quixote'' (pronounced "kihoteh") is the original spelling in Old Castilian, and is used in English. However, modern Spanish has since gone through spelling reforms and phonetic changes which have turned the ''x'' into ''j''. The ''x'' was pronounced like an English ''sh'' sound (voiceless postalveolar fricative) in medieval times——and this is reflected in the Galician and Astur-Leonese name ''Don Quixote'', the Catalan ''Don Quixot'' , the Portuguese ''Dom Quixote'' , in the French name ''Don Quichotte'' , the Dutch ''Don Quichot'' (or ''Don Quichote''), as well as in the Italian name ''Don Chisciotte''. However, in Spanish such words (now virtually all spelled with a ''j'') are now pronounced with a voiceless velar fricative sound like the Scottish or German ''ch'' . English speakers generally attempt something close to the modern Spanish pronunciation when saying ''Quixote'' (''Quijote''), as , although the traditional English pronunciation or is still sometimes used.

The traditional English rendering is preserved in the pronunciation of the adjectival form ''quixotic'', i.e., or , the foolishly impractical pursuit of ideals, typically marked with rash and lofty romantic ideals.

Plot summary

The protagonist of the book is Alonso Quixano (or Quijano), a retired country gentleman nearing 50 years of age, who lives in an unnamed section of La Mancha with his niece and a housekeeper. He has become obsessed with books of chivalry, and believes their every word to be true, despite the fact that many of the events in them are clearly impossible. Quixano eventually appears to other people to have lost his mind due to lack of sleep and food from dedicating all of his time to reading.

First quest

He decides to go out as a knight-errant in search of adventure. He dons an old suit of armor, renames himself "Don Quixote de la Mancha," and names his skinny horse "Rocinante". He designates a neighboring farm girl, Aldonza Lorenzo, as his lady love, renaming her Dulcinea del Toboso, while she knows nothing about this.

He sets out in the early morning and ends up at an inn, which he believes to be a castle. He asks the innkeeper, who he thinks to be the lord of the castle, to dub him a knight. He spends the night holding vigil over his armor, where he becomes involved in a fight with muleteers who try to remove his armor from the horse trough so that they can water their mules. The innkeeper then dubs him a knight, and sends him on his way. He frees a young boy who is tied to a tree by his master, because the boy had the audacity to ask his master for the wages the boy had earned but had not yet been paid (who is promptly beaten as soon as Quixote leaves). Don Quixote has a run-in with traders from Toledo, who "insult" the imaginary Dulcinea, one of whom severely beats Don Quixote and leaves him on the side of the road. Don Quixote is found and returned to his home by a neighboring peasant, Pedro Crespo.

Second quest

Don Quixote plots an escape. Meanwhile, his niece, the housekeeper, the parish curate, and the local barber secretly burn most of the books of chivalry, and seal up his library pretending that a magician has carried it off. Don Quixote approaches another neighbor, Sancho Panza, and asks him to be his squire, promising him governorship of an island. The uneducated Sancho agrees, and the pair sneak off in the early dawn. It is here that their series of famous adventures begin, starting with Don Quixote's attack on windmills that he believes to be ferocious giants. In the course of their travels, the protagonists meet innkeepers, prostitutes, goatherds, soldiers, priests, escaped convicts, and scorned lovers. These encounters are magnified by Don Quixote’s imagination into chivalrous quests. Don Quixote’s tendency to intervene violently in matters which do not concern him, and his habit of not paying his debts, result in many privations, injuries, and humiliations (with Sancho often getting the worst of it). Finally, Don Quixote is persuaded to return to his home village. The author hints that there was a third quest, but says that records of it have been lost.

Part Two

Although the two parts are now normally published as a single work, ''Don Quixote, Part Two'' was a sequel published ten years after the original novel. While Part One was mostly farcical, the second half is more serious and philosophical about the theme of deception.

As ''Part Two'' begins, it is assumed that the literate classes of Spain have all read the first part of the history of Don Quixote and his squire. When they encounter the duo in person, the young scholar Samson Carrasco, an unnamed "duke and duchess," and others, seize the opportunity to amuse themselves by playing on Don Quixote's imaginings. The result is a series of cruel practical jokes that put Don Quixote's sense of chivalry and his devotion to Dulcinea through many humiliating tests.

Even Sancho deceives him at one point. Pressured into finding Dulcinea, Sancho brings back three dirty and ragged peasant girls, and tells Don Quixote that they are Dulcinea and her ladies-in-waiting. When Don Quixote only sees the peasant girls, Sancho pretends that their derelict appearance results from an enchantment. Sancho later gets his comeuppance for this when, as part of one of the duke and duchess's pranks, the two are led to believe that the only method to release Dulcinea from her spell is for Sancho to give himself three thousand lashes. Sancho naturally resists this course of action, leading to serious friction with his master. Under the duke's patronage, Sancho eventually gets an imaginary governorship, and unexpectedly proves to be wise and practical; though this, too, ends in humiliation.

Near the end, defeated and trampled, Don Quixote reluctantly begins to move back toward sanity. An inn is now just an inn, not a castle.

Conclusion

Upon returning to his village, Don Quixote announces his plan to retire to the countryside and live the pastoral existence of shepherd, although his housekeeper, who has a more realistic view of the hard life of a shepherd, urges him to stay home and tend to his own affairs. Soon after, he retires to his bed with a deathly illness, possibly brought on by melancholy over his defeats and humiliations. One day, he awakes from a dream having fully recovered his sanity. Sancho tries to restore his faith, but Alonso Quixano can only renounce his previous existence and apologize for the harm he has caused. He dictates his will, which includes a provision that his niece will be disinherited if she marries a man who reads books of chivalry. After Alonso Quixano dies, the author emphasizes that there are no more adventures to relate, and that any further books about Don Quixote would be spurious.

Writing

Spurious Avellaneda ''Segunda Parte'' (part two)

It is not certain when Cervantes began writing ''Part Two'' of ''Don Quixote'', but he had probably not gotten much further than Chapter LIX by late July of 1614. About September, however, a spurious Part Two, entitled ''Second Volume of the Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha: by the Licenciado (doctorate) Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda, of Tordesillas'', was published in Tarragona by an unidentified Aragonese who was an admirer of Lope de Vega, rival of Cervantes. Avellaneda's identity has been the subject of many theories, but there is no consensus as to who he was. In its prologue, the author gratuitously insulted Cervantes, who not surprisingly took offense and responded; the last half of Chapter LIX and most of the following chapters of Cervantes' ''Segunda Parte'' lend some insight into the effects upon him; Cervantes manages to work in some subtle digs at Avellaneda's own work, and in his preface to Part II, comes very near to criticizing Avellaneda directly.

In his introduction to ''The Portable Cervantes'', Samuel Putnam, a noted translator of Cervantes' novel, calls Avellaneda's version "one of the most disgraceful performances in history".

The second part of Cervantes' ''Don Quixote'', finished as a direct result of the Avellaneda book, has come to be regarded by some literary critics as superior to the first part, because of its greater depth of characterization, its discussions, mostly between Quixote and Sancho, on diverse subjects, and its philosophical insights.

Other stories

''Don Quixote, Part One'' contains a number of stories which do not directly involve the two main characters, but which are narrated by some of the picaresque figures encountered by the Don and Sancho during their travels. The longest and best known of these is "El Curioso Impertinente" (the impertinently curious man), found in Part One, Book Four. This story, read to a group of travelers at an inn, tells of a Florentine nobleman, Anselmo, who becomes obsessed with testing his wife's fidelity, and talks his close friend Lothario into attempting to seduce her, with disastrous results for all. In ''Part Two'', the author acknowledges the criticism of his digressions in ''Part One'' and promises to concentrate the narrative on the central characters (although at one point he laments that his narrative muse has been constrained in this manner). Nevertheless, "Part Two" contains several back narratives related by peripheral characters.

Several abridged editions have been published which delete some or all of the extra tales in order to concentrate on the central narrative.

Sources

Sources for ''Don Quixote'' include the Valencian novel ''Tirant lo Blanch'', one of the first chivalric epics, which Cervantes describes in Chapter VI of ''Quixote'' as "the best book in the world." The scene of the book burning gives us an excellent list of Cervantes's likes and dislikes about literature.

Cervantes makes a number of references to the Italian poem ''Orlando furioso''. In chapter 10 of the first part of the novel, Don Quixote says he must take the magical helmet of Mambrino, an episode from Canto I of ''Orlando'', and itself a reference to Matteo Maria Boiardo's ''Orlando innamorato''. The interpolated story in chapter 33 of Part four of the First Part is a retelling of a tale from Canto 43 of ''Orlando'', regarding a man who tests the fidelity of his wife.

Cervantes's most important source, however, appears to have been Apuleius's ''The Golden Ass'', one of the earliest known novels, a picaresque from late classical antiquity. The wineskins episode near the end of the interpolated tale "The Curious Impertinent" in chapter 35 of the first part of ''Don Quixote'' is a clear reference to Apuleius, and recent scholarship suggests that the moral philosophy and the basic trajectory of Apuleius's novel are fundamental to Cervantes's program.

Setting

Cervantes' story takes place on the plains of La Mancha, specifically the ''comarca'' of Campo de Montiel.

The location of the village to which Cervantes alludes in the opening sentence of ''Don Quixote'' has been the subject of debate since its publication over four centuries ago. Indeed, Cervantes deliberately omits the name of the village, giving an explanation in the final chapter:

In 2004, a multidisciplinary team of academics from Complutense University, led by Francisco Parra Luna, Manuel Fernández Nieto and Santiago Petschen Verdaguer, deduced that the village was that of Villanueva de los Infantes. Their findings were published in a paper titled ''"'El Quijote' como un sistema de distancias/tiempos: hacia la localización del lugar de la Mancha"'', which was later published as a book: ''El enigma resuelto del Quijote''. The result was replicated in two subsequent investigations: ''"La determinación del lugar de la Mancha como problema estadístico"'' and "The Kinematics of the Quixote and the Identity of the 'Place in La Mancha'".

Publication

In July of 1604, Cervantes sold the rights of ''El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha'' (known as ''Don Quixote, Part I'') to the publisher-bookseller Francisco de Robles for an unknown sum. License to publish was granted in September, the printing was finished in December, and the book came out on January 16, 1605. The novel was an immediate success. The majority of the 400 copies of the first edition were sent to the New World, with the publisher hoping to get a better price in the Americas. Although most of them disappeared in a shipwreck near La Havana, approximately 70 copies reached Lima, from where they were sent to Cuzco in the heart of the defunct Inca Empire.

There is some evidence of its contents having been known before publication to, among others, Lope de Vega. There is also a tradition that Cervantes reread some portions of his work to a select audience at the court of the Duke of Bejar, which may have helped in making the book known. ''Don Quixote, Part One'' remained in Cervantes' hands for some time before he could find a willing publisher. The compositors at Juan de la Cuesta's press in Madrid are now known to have been responsible for errors in the text, many of which were attributed to the author.

No sooner was it in the hands of the public than preparations were made to issue derivative (pirated) editions. "Don Quixote" had been growing in favour, and its author's name was now known beyond the Pyrenees. By August 1605 there were two Madrid editions, two published in Lisbon, and one in Valencia. A second edition was produced with additional copyrights for Aragon and Portugal, which publisher Francisco de Robles secured. Sale of these publishing rights deprived Cervantes of further financial profit on ''Part One.'' In 1607, an edition was printed in Brussels. Robles, the Madrid publisher, found it necessary to meet demand with a third edition, a seventh publication in all, in 1608. Popularity of the book in Italy was such that a Milan bookseller issued an Italian edition in 1610. Yet another Brussels edition was called for in 1611.

In 1613, Cervantes published the ''Novelas Ejemplares'', dedicated to the Maecenas of the day, the Conde de Lemos. Eight and a half years after ''Part One'' had appeared, we get the first hint of a forthcoming ''Segunda Parte'' (Part Two). "You shall see shortly," Cervantes says, "the further exploits of Don Quixote and humours of Sancho Panza." ''Don Quixote, Part Two'', published by the same press as its predecessor, appeared late in 1615, and quickly reprinted in Brussels and Valencia (1616) and Lisbon (1617). Part two capitalizes on the potential of the first while developing and diversifying the material without sacrificing familiarity. Many people agree that it is richer and more profound. Parts One and Two were published as one edition in Barcelona in 1617. Historically, Cervantes's work has been said to have “smiled Spain’s chivalry away”, suggesting that Don Quixote as a chivalric satire contributed to the demise of Spanish Chivalry.

English editions in translation

There are many translations of the book, and it has been adapted many times in shortened versions. Many derivative editions were also being written at the time, as was the custom of envious or unscrupulous writers. Seven years after the ''Parte Primera'' appeared, ''Don Quixote'' had been translated into French, German, Italian, and English, with the first French translation of 'Part II' appearing in 1618, and the first English translation in 1620. One abridged adaptation is authored by Agustín Sánchez, which runs slightly over 150 pages, cutting away about 750 pages.

Thomas Shelton's English translation of the ''First Part'' appeared in 1612. Shelton is a somewhat elusive figure: some claim Shelton was actually a friend of Cervantes, although there is no credible evidence to support this claim. Although Shelton's version is cherished by some, according to John Ormsby and Samuel Putnam, it was far from satisfactory as a carrying over of Cervantes's text. Shelton's translation of the novel's ''Second Part'' appeared in 1620.

Near the end of the 17th century, John Phillips, a nephew of poet John Milton, published what is considered by Putnam the worst English translated version. The translation, as literary critics claim, was not based on Cervantes' text but mostly upon a French work by Filleau de Saint-Martin and upon notes which Thomas Shelton had written previously. Around 1700, a version by Pierre Antoine Motteux appeared. Ormsby considered this version "worse than worthless". What future translator Samuel Putnam called "the prevailing slapstick quality of this work, especially where Sancho Panza is involved, the obtrusion of the obscene where it is found in the original, and the slurring of difficulties through omissions or expanding upon the text" all made the Motteux version irresponsible. In 1742, the Charles Jervas translation appeared, posthumously. Through a printer's error, it came to be known, and is still known, as "the Jarvis translation". The most scholarly and accurate English translation of the novel up to that time, it has been criticized by some as being too stiff. Nevertheless, it became the most frequently reprinted translation of the novel until about 1885. Another 18th century translation into English was that of Tobias Smollett, himself a novelist. Like the ''Jarvis'' translation, it continues to be reprinted today.

Most modern translators take as their model the 1885 translation by John Ormsby. It is said that his translation was the most honest of all translations, without expansions upon the text or changing of the proverbs.

In 1922, Arvid Paulson and Clayton Edwards published a now-forgotten expurgated children's version printed under the title ''The Story of Don Quixote'' which has nevertheless recently been published on Project Gutenberg. It retains as much of the text as it could while leaving out the risque sections as well as those chapters that young readers might consider dull, and embellishes a great deal on Cervantes's original text (the title page actually gives credit to the two translators as if they were the authors, and leaves out any mention of Cervantes).

The most widely read English-language translations of the mid-20th century are by Samuel Putnam (1949), J. M. Cohen (1950; Penguin Classics), and Walter Starkie (1957). The last English translation of the novel in the 20th century was by Burton Raffel, published in 1996. The 21st century has already seen two new translations of the novel into English—by John D. Rutherford and by Edith Grossman. One ''New York Times'' reviewer called Grossman's translation a "major literary achievement" and another called it the "most transparent and least impeded among more than a dozen English translations going back to the 17th century."

In 2005, the year of the novel's 400th anniversary, Tom Lathrop published a new edition of the novel, based on a lifetime of specialized study of the novel and its history. Lathrop's edition includes a slightly modernized Spanish text of Cervantes' work with English annotations.

Themes

The novel's structure is in episodic form. It is written in the picaresco style of the late sixteenth century. The full title is indicative of the tale's object, as ''ingenioso'' (Spanish) means "to be quick with inventiveness". Although the novel is farcical on the surface, the second half is more serious and philosophical about the theme of deception. ''Quixote'' has served as an important thematic source not only in literature but in much of art and music, inspiring works by Pablo Picasso and Richard Strauss. The contrasts between the tall, thin, fancy-struck, and idealistic Quixote and the fat, squat, world-weary Panza is a motif echoed ever since the book’s publication, and Don Quixote's imaginings are the butt of outrageous and cruel practical jokes in the novel. Even faithful and simple Sancho is unintentionally forced to deceive him at certain points. The novel is considered a satire of orthodoxy, veracity, and even nationalism. In going beyond mere storytelling to exploring the individualism of his characters, Cervantes helped move beyond the narrow literary conventions of the chivalric romance literature that he spoofed, which consists of straightforward retelling of a series of acts that redound to the knightly virtues of the hero.

Farce makes use of punning and similar verbal playfulness. Character-naming in ''Don Quixote'' makes ample figural use of contradiction, inversion, and irony, such as the names ''Rocinante'' (a reversal) and ''Dulcinea'' (an allusion to illusion), and the word itself, possibly a pun on (jaw) but certainly (Catalan: thighs), a reference to a horse's rump. As a military term, the word ''quijote'' refers to ''cuisses'', part of a full suit of plate armour protecting the thighs. The Spanish suffix ''-ote'' denotes the augmentative—for example, ''grande'' means large, but ''grandote'' means extra large. Following this example, ''Quixote'' would suggest 'The Great Quijano', a play on words that makes much sense in light of the character's delusions of grandeur.

The world of ordinary people, from shepherds to tavern-owners and inn-keepers, which figures in ''Don Quixote'', was groundbreaking. The character of Don Quixote became so well known in its time that the word ''quixotic'' was quickly adopted by many languages. Characters such as Sancho Panza and Don Quixote’s steed, Rocinante, are emblems of Western literary culture. The phrase "tilting at windmills" to describe an act of attacking imaginary enemies derives from an iconic scene in the book.

Because of its widespread influence, ''Don Quixote'' also helped cement the modern Spanish language. The opening sentence of the book created a classic Spanish cliché with the phrase ("whose name I do not wish to recall"): ("In a village of La Mancha, whose name I do not wish to recall, there lived, not very long ago, one of those gentlemen with a lance in the lance-rack, an ancient shield, a skinny old horse, and a fast greyhound.")

It stands in a unique position between medieval chivalric romance and the modern novel. The former consist of disconnected stories with little exploration of the inner life of even the main character. The latter are usually focused on the psychological evolution of their characters. In Part I, Quixote imposes himself on his environment. By Part II, people know about him through "having read his adventures," and so, he needs to do less to maintain his image. By his deathbed, he has regained his sanity, and is once more "Alonso Quixano the Good".

When it was first published, ''Don Quixote'' was usually interpreted as a comic novel. After the French Revolution it was popular in part due to its central ethic that individuals can be right while society is quite wrong and seen as disenchanting—not comic at all. In the 19th century it was seen as a social commentary, but no one could easily tell "whose side Cervantes was on." By the 20th century it had come to occupy a canonical space as one of the foundations of modern literature.

See also

''Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda'' — sequel to ''Don Quixote''

''Amadis de Gaula'' — precursor to ''Don Quixote''

António José da Silva — writer of ''Vida do Grande Dom Quixote de la Mancha e do Gordo Sancho Pança'' (1733)

''Belianis'' — precursor to ''Don Quixote''

List of ''Don Quixote'' characters

List of works influenced by ''Don Quixote'' — including a gallery of paintings and illustrations

The 100 Best Books of All Time

''Tirant lo Blanc'' — precursor to ''Don Quixote''

References and sources

Further reading

Bloom, Harold (Ed.) (2000) ''Cervantes's Don Quixote (Modern Critical Interpretations)''. Chelsea House Publishers ISBN 0791059227

D' Haen, Theo (Ed.) (2009) ''International Don Quixote''. Editions Rodopi B.V. ISBN 9042025832

Echevarría, Roberto González (Ed.) (2005) ''Cervantes' Don Quixote: a casebook'' Oxford University Press USA ISBN 0195169387

Duran, Manuel and Rogg, Fay R. (2006) "Fighting Windmills: Encounters with Don Quixote". Yale University Press ISBN 9780300110227

Johnson, Carroll B (Ed.) (2006) ''Don Quijote Across Four Centuries: 1605–2005''. Juan de la Cuesta-Hispanic Monographs ISBN 1588710882

Graf, E. C. (2007) ''Cervantes and Modernity: Four Essays on Don Quijote''. Bucknell University Press ISBN 0-8387-5655-7

External links

Don Quixote, Volume 1 (volunteer-read audiobook) from LibriVox at Internet Archive.

"One Master, Many Cervantes", by Ilan Stavans. A history of English translations. ''Humanities'', September/October 2008. Volume 29, Number 5. Accessed 2010-08-04

The full text of Don Quijote in the original Spanish.

Background information about Don Quijote and Cervantes

Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1605 Category:1605 novels * Category:Fictional knights Category:Metafictional works Category:Literary archetypes by name Category:Novels by Miguel de Cervantes Category:Prison writings Category:Psychological novels Category:Satirical novels Category:Self-reflexive novels Category:Spanish literature Category:Spanish books Category:Spanish novels Category:Spain in fiction Category:Fictional Spanish people Category:Picaresque novels Category:Don Quixote characters Category:1600s fantasy novels

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