A “hijab” is a veil which covers the hair and neck. It is worn by Muslim women particularly in the presence of non-related adult males. According to Islamic scholarship, hijab is given the wider meaning of modesty, privacy, and morality. The Qur’an mentions the use of covering and veiling with the words khimār and jilbāb, not hijab. Still another definition is metaphysical, where al-hijab refers to “the veil which separates man or the world from God.”
What lies beyond these eyes? Enjoy.
One of my most unforgetable movie experiences in my childhood happened in 1978 when my mother took me to see “Superman”, directed by Richard Donner. Some years later she took me again to see the sequel “Superman 2”. It was 1980. One year later, on July, on board a plane going to New York, was shown a movie called “Somewhere in Time”. I was 11 year-old.
The movies are one of my greatest passions. Not only the movies, but the people who work hard to make dreams come true. Well, one of them was Christopher Reeve. He made me believe the man could fly. And all people in the world. Since October 2004, when Christopher left this world, he flies in the eternity. But eternity is not for everyone…
CHRISTOPHER REEVE
Christopher D’Olier Reeve (September 25, 1952 – October 10, 2004) was an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author and activist. He achieved stardom for his acting achievements, in particular his motion-picture portrayal of the fictional superhero Superman.
Through casting director Lynn Stalmaster’s persistent pleading, a meeting between director Richard Donner, producer Ilya Salkind and Christopher Reeve was set in January 1977 at the Sherry Netherland Hotel on Fifth Avenue. Reeve immediately flew to London for a screen test, and on the way was told that Marlon Brando was going to play Jor-El and Gene Hackman was going to play Lex Luthor. Reeve still did not think he had much of a chance. Though he was 6 feet, 4 inches tall, he was a self-described “skinny WASP”.
Christopher Reeve later said, “By the late 1970s the masculine image had changed… Now it was acceptable for a man to show gentleness and vulnerability. I felt that the new Superman ought to reflect that contemporary male image.” He based his portrayal of Clark Kent on Cary Grant in his role in “Bringing Up Baby”.
Reeve was a talented all-around athlete. Portraying the role of Superman would be a stretch for the young actor, but he was tall enough for the role and had the necessary blue eyes and handsome features. However, his physique was slim. He refused to wear fake muscles under the suit, and instead went through an intense two-month training regimen supervised by former British weightlifting champion David Prowse, the man under the Darth Vader suit in the “Star Wars” films.
Reeve’s first role after 1978’s Superman was as Richard Collier in the 1980 romantic fantasy “Somewhere in Time”. Jane Seymour played Elise McKenna, his love interest. The film not doing well at the box office was Reeve’s first public disappointment.
Almost 10 years after “Somewhere in Time” was released it became a cult film, thanks to screenings on cable networks and video rentals; its popularity began to grow, vindicating the belief of the creative team. Jane Seymour became a personal friend of Reeve and in 1996 named her twin son Kristopher in his honor.
Much of “Superman II” was filmed at the same time as the first film. After most of the footage had been shot, the producers had a disagreement with director Richard Donner over various matters, including money and special effects, and they mutually parted ways.
Richard Donner was replaced by director Richard Lester, who had the script changed and reshot some footage. The cast was unhappy, but Reeve later said that he liked Lester and considered “Superman II” to be his favorite of the series.
“Superman III”, released in 1983, was filmed entirely by Lester. Reeve believed that the producers ruined it by turning it into a Richard Pryor comedy.
Christopher Reeve missed Richard Donner and believed that “Superman III”‘s only saving grace was the junkyard scene in which evil Superman fights Clark Kent in an internal battle.
“Superman IV: The Quest for Peace” was released in 1987. After “Superman III”, Reeve vowed that he was done with Superman. However, he accepted the role on the condition that he would have partial creative control over the script. The nuclear disarmament plot was his idea.
The production rights were given to Cannon Films, which cut the budget in half to $17 million. The film was both a critical failure and a box office bomb, becoming the lowest-grossing Superman-film to date. Reeve later said, “the less said about Superman IV the better.”
On May 27, 1995, Reeve became a quadriplegic after being thrown from a horse during an equestrian competition in Virginia. He required a wheelchair and breathing apparatus for the rest of his life. He lobbied on behalf of people with spinal-cord injuries and for human embryonic stem cell research, founding the Christopher Reeve Foundation and co-founding the Reeve-Irvine Research Center.
In 1973, Christopher Reeve and Robin Williams were the only students selected for Juilliard’s Advanced Program. Williams and Reeve developed a close friendship. William Reeve, Dana Reeve, Christopher Reeve and Robin Williams at Tribeca Film Festival, 7, may 2004.
On October 10, 2004, Reeve died of cardiac arrest at the age of 52. His wife, Dana Reeve, headed the Christopher Reeve Foundation after his death. She was diagnosed with lung cancer on August 9, 2005, and died on March 6, 2006. They are survived by their son, William, and Reeve’s son Matthew and daughter Alexandra, both from his relationship with Gae Exton. Matthew and Alexandra now serve on the board of directors for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation.
There are many superheroes on screen now, but there will be only one Superman.
Read more on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Reeve
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Reeve_filmography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_and_Dana_Reeve_Foundation
FILMOGRAPHY:
1978 Gray Lady Down
1978 Superman
1980 Somewhere in Time
1980 Superman II
1982 Deathtrap
1982 Monsignor
1983 Superman III
1984 The Bostonians
1985 The Aviator
1985 Anna Karenina
1987 Street Smart
1987 Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
1988 Switching Channels
1988 The Great Escape 2:Untold Story
1990 The Rose and the Jackal
1991 Bump in the Night (TV)
1992 Noises Off
1992 Nightmare in the Daylight Sean
1993 The Remains of the Day
1993 Morning Glory (TV)
1993 Frasier Leonard (voice)
1994 Speechless
1995 Village of the Damned
1995 Above Suspicion (TV)
1996 Without Pity: A Film About Abilities Narrator
1996 A Step Toward Tomorrow
1998 Rear Window (TV)
2006 Everyone’s Hero (director) (executive producer)
2006 Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
2007 Christopher Reeve: Hope in Motion Himself
Some beautiful love stories from real life. Maybe you know some of them.
It’s hard to believe but actor Mickey Rourke is a sixty year-old man now.
Philip Andre “Mickey” Rourke, Jr. (born September 16, 1952) is an American actor, screenwriter and retired boxer, who has appeared primarily as a leading man in action, drama, and thriller films. During the 1980s, Rourke starred in “Diner”, “”Rumble Fish, and the erotic drama “9½ Weeks”, and received critical praise for his work in “Barfly” and “Angel Heart”. In 1991, Rourke, who had trained as a boxer in his early years, left acting and became a professional boxer for a period. In 2005, Rourke made his comeback in mainstream Hollywood circles with a lead role in “Sin City”, for which he won awards from the Chicago Film Critics Association, the Irish Film and Television Awards and the Online Film Critics Society. In the 2008 film “The Wrestler”, Rourke portrayed a past-his-prime wrestler, and received a 2009 Golden Globe award, a BAFTA award, and a nomination for an Academy Award.
In 2010, he appeared in “Iron Man 2” and “The Expendables”. Rourke is an excellent actor, by the way. And very handsome when young, but time and botched plastic surgeries do not forgive anyone…
Two of my favorites movies from the 80’s are “Angel Heart”, directed by Alan Parker, and “Rumble Fish”, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Both were starred by Mickey Rourke.
“Rumble Fish” is based on the novel “Rumble Fish” by S.E. Hinton, who also co-wrote the screenplay. The film centers on the relationship between Motorcycle Boy (Mickey Rourke), a revered former gang leader wishing to live a more peaceful life, and his younger brother, Rusty James (Matt Dillon), a teenaged hoodlum who aspires to become as feared as Motorcycle Boy. The film’s marketing tagline was, “Rusty James can’t live up to his brother’s reputation. His brother can’t live it down”.
Coppola wrote the screenplay for the film with Hinton on his days off from shooting “The Outsiders”. He made the films back-to-back, retaining much of the same cast and crew. The film is notable, for its avant-garde style, shot on stark high-contrast black-and-white film, using the spherical cinematographic process with allusions to French New Wave cinema and German Expressionism. Rumble Fish features an experimental score by Stewart Copeland, drummer of the musical group The Police who used a Musync, a new device at the time.
“Angel Heart” is a 1987 American mystery horror film written and directed by Alan Parker, and starring Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, and Lisa Bonet. The film is adapted from the novel “Falling Angel” by William Hjortsberg, and is generally faithful to the novel with the exceptions being the introduction of a child of Epiphany Proudfoot conceived at a voodoo ceremony by “a devil”, and that the novel never leaves New York City, whereas much of the action of the film occurs in New Orleans. A highly atmospheric film, Angel Heart combines elements of film noir, hard-boiled detective stories and horror.
The movie opens in New York City, in January 1955. Harry Angel (Rourke), a downtrodden but competent private investigator, is contacted by an attorney named Herman Winesap (Dann Florek) and instructed to meet a client named Louis Cyphre (Robert De Niro) in a Harlem church. Cyphre, an elegant, mysterious man, tells Angel about a once-popular big band crooner named Johnny Favorite who was drafted during World War II and suffered severe neurological trauma in action. Favorite’s incapacitation disrupted a contract with Cyphre regarding unknown collateral, and Cyphre believes that the hospital has falsified records, preventing the contract from being fulfilled. He hires Angel to discover the truth, and in the process, locate Favorite.
Happy B-Day, Mickey Rourke.
Source: Wikipedia.
ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION
From the Internet to the iPod, technologies are transforming our society and empowering us as speakers, citizens, creators, and consumers. When our freedoms in the networked world come under attack, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the first line of defense. EFF broke new ground when it was founded in 1990—well before the Internet was on most people’s radar—and continues to confront cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights today. From the beginning, EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights.
The EFF continues to fight for the right to free speech. Our latest campaign revolves around the legal rights of bloggers and citizen journalists. EFF is a donor-funded nonprofit group of passionate people—lawyers, technologists, volunteers, and visionaries – who depend on your support to continue successfully defending your digital rights. Litigation is particularly expensive; because two-thirds of our budget comes from individual donors, every contribution is critical to helping EFF fight —and win—more cases.
THE BLUE RIBBON CAMPAIGN
Display the Blue Ribbon to support the essential human right of free speech, a fundamental building block of free society, affirmed by the U.S. Bill of Rights in 1791 and by the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
Know Your Rights and Prepare to Defend Them:
1. You Have the Right to Blog Anonymously.
2. You Have the Right to Keep Sources Confidential.
3. You Have the Right to Make Fair Use of Intellectual Property.
4. You have the Right to Allow Reader’s Comments Without Fear.
5. You Have the Right to Protect Your Server from Government Seizure.
6. You Have the Right to Freely Blog about Elections.
7. You Have the Right to Blog about Your Workplace.
8. You Have the Right to Access as Media.
Know and read more: https://www.eff.org/
EFF ACTION CENTER:
Support Federal Protection for Blogger’s Rights
Join EFF and the Public Participation Project in calling on Congress to support the PETITION Act, strong federal anti-SLAPP legislation. The concept is simple: when a blogger faces a legal threat for legitimate online content, she can file a motion to get the case dismissed quickly. If the case is found to be frivolous in court, she won’t have to pay the legal fees.
Demand a Free and Open Internet
Sign the Declaration of Internet Freedom to join a growing movement fighting for rights in the digital world. Join EFF in calling on elected officials to safeguard free expression, privacy, and innovation online.
Defend Innovation: Speak Out Against Software Patents
The patent system is in crisis, and it endangers the future of software development in the United States. Let’s create a system that defends innovation, instead of hindering it.
Don’t Let Congress Use “Cybersecurity” Fears to Erode Digital Rights
Congress is considering legislation that would give companies a free pass to monitor and collect communications, including huge amounts of personal data like your text messages and emails, and share that data with the government and anyone else. All a company has to do is claim its privacy violations were for “cybersecurity purposes.” Tell Congress that they can’t use vaguely-defined “cybersecurity threats” as a shortcut to bypassing the law.
Lawmakers and Demand Transparency!
The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement is a trade agreement currently being negotiated by the United States and eight other countries. Like ACTA, the TPP is being negotiated in secret, and on a fast timetable. We don’t know what’s in the TPP IP chapter, and that’s what worries us. Entertainment industry executives who are members of the Industry Trade Advisory Committee will likely get to see the agreement drafts – again – but the rest of us will be kept in the dark unless we speak up now.
Tell ISPs: Don’t Cut Off Your Users
Five of the top American ISPs have been working with the major media industry groups on a new set of “graduated response” policies. Under the new agreement, unproven accusations of infringement could lead to escalating consequences from users, from “re-education” programs up to bandwidth throttling and account suspensions. Tell AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon to respect their users’ rights, and publicly commit today that they will never terminate a user account as part of a “graduated response” program.
Oppose Congress’ Criminal Streaming Bill
S. 978 is a reckless attempt to attack online streaming by focusing on the “unlawful public performance” area of copyright law. By increasing the criminal penalties for certain online public performances, the bill will impose a chilling effect around the posting and creation of online video. Moreover, it will hamper the pace of innovation as users, websites, and investors cope with the uncertainty of running afoul of one of the more vague sections of copyright law. Act now and tell your Senators to oppose this shortsighted bill!
Tell Cisco: Stop helping China abuse human rights!
Chinese dissident writer Du Daobin is facing the possibility of imprisonment and torture. Urge Cisco Systems to intervene on Mr. Du’s behalf and to stop helping China abuse human rights.
Don’t Let Privacy Law Get Stuck in 1986: Demand a Digital Upgrade to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act
If the government wants to track our cell phones, or see what web sites we’ve visited, or rummage through our Gmail, or read our private messages on Facebook, it should be required to go to a judge and get a search warrant based on probable cause.
Don’t Let Congress Order Internet Companies to Spy on You — Block the Data Retention Mandate
The U.S. House of Representatives is currently considering H.R. 1981, a bill that would order all of our online service providers to keep new logs about our online activities to help the government identify the web sites we visit and the content we post online. Tell your Representative to oppose this sweeping new “mandatory data retention” proposal, which treats every Internet user like a potential criminal.
Stop the Internet Blacklist Legislation
The Internet Blacklist Legislation– known as PROTECT IP Act in the Senate and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House – is a threatening sequel to last year’s COICA Internet censorship bill. Like its predecessor, this legislation invites Internet security risks, threatens online speech, and hampers Internet innovation. Urge your members of Congress to reject this Internet blacklist campaign in both its forms!
All That I Love 