film, series of still photographs on film, projected in rapid succession onto a screen by means of light. Because of the optical phenomenon known as persistence of vision, this gives the illusion of actual, smooth, and continuous movement. (Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film

electronics: Flat-panel displays: …a transparent yet electrically conducting film such as indium tin oxide. The film layer nearer the viewer is patterned, while the other layer is not. The space between the films is filled with a fluid with unusual electrical and optical properties, so that, if an electrical field is established between…

technology of photography: …scene being photographed onto a film coated with light-sensitive silver salts, such as silver bromide. A shutter built into the lens admits light reflected from the scene for a given time to produce an invisible but developable image in the sensitized layer, thus exposing the film.

Samuel Beckett: The humour and mastery: Finally, his film script Film (1967) creates an unforgettable sequence of images of the observed self trying to escape the eye of its own observer.

dosimeter: The film badge is the most popular and inexpensive. In it, photographic or dental X-ray film, wrapped in light-tight paper, is mounted in plastic. Badges are checked periodically, and the degree of exposure of the film indicates the cumulative amount of radiation to which the wearer…

Lina Wertmüller: …Film d’amore e d’anarchia… (1973; Love and Anarchy), about an anarchist torn between his plot to assassinate Benito Mussolini and his love for a prostitute who has given him shelter in a Rome brothel. Wertmüller’s two finest films are Travolti da un insolito destino nell’azzurro mare d’agosto (1974; Swept Away),…

history of film: Pre-World War I European cinema: …in prewar France was the film d’art movement. It began with L’Assassinat du duc de Guise (“The Assassination of the Duke of Guise,” 1908), directed by Charles Le Bargy and André Calmettes of the Comédie Française for the Société Film d’Art, which was formed for the express purpose of transferring…

advanced ceramics: Film deposition: Advanced ceramics intended for electromagnetic and mechanical applications are often produced as thin or thick films. Thick films are commonly produced by paper-casting methods, described above, or by spin-coating. In spin-coating a suspension of ceramic particles is deposited on a rapidly rotating substrate,…

motion-picture technology: Principal parts: …in the speed of the film drive became necessary. For this and other reasons, the film drive in modern cameras is provided by an accurately controlled electric motor, which maintains the standardized sound speed of 24 frames per second.

Edwin S. Porter: …whose innovative use of dramatic editing (piecing together scenes shot at different times and places) in such films as The Life of An American Fireman (1903) and The Great Train Robbery (1903) revolutionized filmmaking.

film festival, gathering, usually annual, for the purpose of evaluating new or outstanding motion pictures. Sponsored by national or local governments, industry, service organizations, experimental film groups, or individual promoters, the festivals provide an opportunity for filmmakers,

motion-picture technology: Film: The 65-mm format is used chiefly for special effects and for special systems such as IMAX and Showscan. It was formerly used for original photography in conjunction with 70-mm release prints; now 70-mm theatrical films are generally shot in 35-mm and blown up in printing. With some…

surface coating: Polymer film-forming processes: …undergo what is known as film formation. In most film-formation processes, a liquid coating of relatively low viscosity is applied to a solid substrate and is cured to a solid, high-molecular-weight, polymer-based adherent film possessing the properties desired by the user. For most common applications, this film has a thickness…

Film Preservation: A Dire Need: This led to the Film Foundation, which I formed in 1990 with Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola, Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas, Sydney Pollack, Robert Redford, and Steven Spielberg. Since then, we’ve made possible the restoration of more than 800 films from around the world. During the ’90s and

film: Framing: The process of framing is intended to eliminate what is unessential in the motion picture, to direct the spectator’s attention to what is important, and to give it special meaning and force. Each frame of film, which corresponds in shape to the image projected…

film noir: Defining the genre: …sometimes designated as “semi-noir,” or film gris (“gray film”), to indicate their hybrid status.

motion-picture camera: Within the camera, the unexposed film is housed in a totally dark chamber called the forward magazine. One or both edges of the film are lined with regularly spaced perforations, or sprocket holes. Sprocket-driven gears grip these perforations, feeding the film into an enclosed exposure chamber. A mechanical claw pulls…

theatre music: Music for motion pictures: …as a basic element in filmmaking has gained recognition only since midcentury as something more than a means to heighten local colour or intensify emotional expression. In the early silent films, all kinds of music were recorded, classified, and adapted to fit different moods (Beethoven overtures for cowboy-Indian chases, for…

film noir, style of filmmaking characterized by such elements as cynical heroes, stark lighting effects, frequent use of flashbacks, intricate plots, and an underlying existentialist philosophy. The genre was prevalent mostly in American crime dramas of the post-World War II era. Early examples of

film: Preservation of film: The permanence of the motion-picture medium—the fact that film can be stored and reproduced indefinitely—makes it not only an enduring theatrical art but also a vivid record of past life. Despite the fact that motion pictures can theoretically last forever, relatively few…

The term “film preservation” now has an official ring to it. In one sense, that’s progress—it means that people take it seriously, which was not always the case. On the other hand, the fact that it has become official means that it has also ceased to be urgent, that the problem has been solved, and

technology of photography: Black-and-white processing and printing: Amateurs usually process films in developing tanks. In this type of development roll or miniature film is wound around a reel with a spiral groove, which keeps adjacent turns separated and allows access by the processing solutions. Once the tank…

Jean-Luc Godard: Later work and awards of Jean-Luc Godard: …experimental collage Film socialisme (2010; Film Socialism); and Adieu au langage (2014; Goodbye to Language), a fragmented narrative about a man, a woman, and a dog, filmed in 3-D. Le Livre d’image (2018; The Image Book) is a cinematic essay, featuring a montage of film clips, photographs, and wartime footage,…

New York Film Festival: …at Lincoln Center (formerly the Film Society of Lincoln Center) hosts the festival, and a selection committee of five people chooses the films from more than 1,500 entrants. The committee often privileges films that it thinks will challenge the audience. Because the process itself is so selective, the organization offers…

film: Film societies, film festivals, and awards: The Film Society of London, for example, was founded in 1925 by H.G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Augustus John, John Maynard Keynes, and others who wanted to see French, German, and Soviet pictures that commercial exhibitors did not handle. The movement spread rapidly, and cinema…

speed: …(3) the sensitivity of the film to light.

Vanessa Redgrave: Movies from the 21st century: …misunderstanding (1953), and the movie Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool (2017), playing the mother of American actress Gloria Grahame. She then portrayed Juliana Bordereau, an elderly recluse living in a Venetian palazzo in The Aspern Papers (2018), a drama based on Henry James’s novelette (1888). Redgrave had previously portrayed…

motion-picture technology, the means for the production and showing of motion pictures. It includes not only the motion-picture camera and projector but also such technologies as those involved in recording sound, in editing both picture and sound, in creating special effects, and in producing

film theory, theory developed to explain the nature of motion pictures and how they produce emotional and mental effects on the audience. Film theory recognizes the cinema as a distinct art form. See also auteur theory. See also individual directors, such as François Truffaut and Sergey Eisenstein;

history of film, history of cinema, a popular form of mass media, from the 19th century to the present. (Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.) The illusion of films is based on the optical phenomena known as persistence of vision and the phi phenomenon. The first of these

technology of photography: The view, or technical, camera: …viewing and focusing) and sheet-film holders. The standards move independently on a rail or set of rails and are connected by bellows. Both standards can also be displaced laterally and vertically relative to each other’s centre and swung or tilted about horizontal and vertical axes. These features provide versatility…

stenciling: Another method, called the film-stencil method, employs stencils cut from a thin sheet of coloured lacquer laminated to a sheet of glassine paper. The design is cut only through the lacquer layer, and the finished stencil is fixed to the underside of the screen. The glassine paper is then…

motion-picture camera: …consists of a body, a film-transport system, lenses, shutter, and a viewing-focusing system. The motor-driven transport system is the chief element that differentiates motion-picture cameras from still cameras. Within the camera, the unexposed film is housed in a totally dark chamber called the forward magazine. One or both edges of…

Sir Robert Filmer was an English theorist who promoted an absolutist concept of kingship. Filmer was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and at Lincoln’s Inn. He was knighted by Charles I and had a brother and a son at court. During the English Civil Wars his house in East Sutton was sacked,

script, in motion pictures, the written text of a film. The nature of scripts varies from those that give only a brief outline of the action to detailed shooting scripts, in which every action, gesture, and implication is explicitly stated. Frequently, scripts are not in chronological order but in

photocomposition, method of assembling or setting type by photographing characters on film from which printing plates are made. The characters are developed as photographic positives on film or light-sensitive paper from a negative master containing all the characters; the film, carrying the

Hymenophyllaceae, the filmy fern family (order Hymenophyllales), containing 7 or more genera and some 600 species. The family is distributed in tropical regions around the world, with only a few species extending into the temperate zone. Members of Hymenophyllaceae are small delicate ferns and are

baklava: …Middle Eastern rich pastry of phyllo (filo) dough and nuts. Phyllo is a simple flour-and-water dough that is stretched to paper thinness and cut into sheets, a process so exacting that it is frequently left to commercial manufacturers. Baklava is among the most common sweets to serve for special occasions…

Yahoo!: …1994 by Jerry Yang and David Filo, graduate students at Stanford University in California. Yahoo! provides users with online utilities, information, and access to other websites.

fungus: Annotated classification: Order Filobasidiales Pathogenic in humans, causing cryptococcosis, parasitic on fungi, insects, and humans, saprotrophic in soil and dung; mitosporic; asexual reproduction as yeasts, which are encapsulated, with colonies ranging in colour from cream to pink, yellow, or brown; sexual reproduction as teleomorph; example genera include Filobasidiella…

Giovanni Boccaccio: Early works: …themes derived from medieval romances: Il filocolo (c. 1336; “The Love Afflicted”), a prose work in five books on the loves and adventures of Florio and Biancofiore (Floire and Blanchefleur); and Il filostrato (c. 1338; “The Love Struck”), a short poem in ottava rima (a stanza form composed of eight…

Russian literature: Works reflecting Muscovite power: Particularly important is the monk Philotheus’ (Filofei’s) epistle to Vasily III (written between 1514 and 1521), which proclaimed that, with the fall of Constantinople (the second Rome), Moscow became the third (and last) Rome. Along with the title tsar (caesar) and the claim that Orthodox Russia was the only remaining…

bird: Feathers: Filoplumes are hairlike feathers with a few soft barbs near the tip. They are associated with contour feathers and may be sensory or decorative in function. Bristlelike, vaneless feathers occur around the mouth, eyes, and nostrils of birds. They are especially conspicuous around the gape…

protist: Pseudopodia: …found among amoeboids include the filopodia and the reticulopodia. The filopodia are hyaline, slender, and often branching structures in which contraction of microfilaments moves the organism’s body along the substrate, even if it is bearing a relatively heavy test or shell. Reticulopodia are fine threads that may not only branch…

protist: Pseudopodia: …found among amoeboids include the filopodia and the reticulopodia. The filopodia are hyaline, slender, and often branching structures in which contraction of microfilaments moves the organism’s body along the substrate, even if it is bearing a relatively heavy test or shell. Reticulopodia are fine threads that may not only branch…

Giovanni Boccaccio: Early works: …Biancofiore (Floire and Blanchefleur); and Il filostrato (c. 1338; “The Love Struck”), a short poem in ottava rima (a stanza form composed of eight 11-syllable lines) telling the story of Troilus and the faithless Criseida. The Teseida (probably begun in Naples and finished in Florence, 1340–41) is an ambitious epic…

Bulgaria: World War II: …government under a notorious Germanophile, Bogdan Filov, and moved steadily closer to the German orbit. This was especially the case after Germany and the Soviet Union, then allied by the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, forced Romania to restore the southern Dobruja to Bulgaria in August 1940.

filovirus, any virus belonging to the family Filoviridae. Filoviruses have enveloped virions (virus particles) appearing as variably elongated filaments that are about 80 nm (1 nm = 10−9 metre) in diameter and generally between 650 and 1,400 nm in length. The virions are pleomorphic (varying in

filovirus, any virus belonging to the family Filoviridae. Filoviruses have enveloped virions (virus particles) appearing as variably elongated filaments that are about 80 nm (1 nm = 10−9 metre) in diameter and generally between 650 and 1,400 nm in length. The virions are pleomorphic (varying in

Marburgvirus, genus of viruses in family Filoviridae, known for causing severe disease in humans and other primates. One species has been described, Marburg marburgvirus (formerly Lake Victoria marburgvirus), which is represented by two viruses, Ravn virus (RAVV) and Marburg virus (MARV). In

Francis Bebey: …Le Fils d’Agatha Moudio (Agatha Moudio’s Son, 1971), was published in 1967. Critics found the work a carefully constructed masterpiece of burlesque, and it won the Grand Prix Littéraire de l’Afrique Noire. The following year Embarras et Cie: nouvelles et poèmes (nine short stories, each accompanied by a poem)…

Mouloud Feraoun: Le Fils du pauvre (1950; “The Poor Man’s Son”) is a semiautobiographical story of a Berber youth struggling against poverty and hardship to achieve an education and self-advancement. The portrayal of the simple life in the mountains is filled with nobility, human compassion, and a…

comédie larmoyante: , Dorval; or, The Test of Virtue). The comédie larmoyante also set the stage for the appearance of melodrama in the late 18th century.

George Balanchine: The European years: …and Le Fils prodigue (The Prodigal Son, 1929).

Dardenne brothers: …2002 by Le Fils (The Son). In 2005, with L’Enfant (The Child), the brothers for the second time in six years won the Palme d’Or. Only filmmakers Emir Kusturica and Imamura Shohei had previously won twice. L’Enfant explores life in a poverty-stricken, gritty, industrial region of French-speaking southern Belgium.…

Kentucky Derby: History: …far back as 1784, when John Filson published The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucke. Although horses did not figure prominently in his book, Filson described in glowing terms the landscape, climate, and natural resources of what are now the eastern and central parts of the state.

absorption: …band of wavelengths are called filters.

filter, in photography, device used to selectively modify the component wavelengths of mixed (e.g., white) light before it strikes the film. Filters may be made of coloured glass, plastic, gelatin, or sometimes a coloured liquid in a glass cell. They are most often placed over the camera lens but

filter: …increase is known as the filter factor. Modern cameras with built-in meters measure the light after the filtration and thus take the decrease in intensity into account.

filter feeding, in zoology, a form of food procurement in which food particles or small organisms are randomly strained from water. Filter feeding is found primarily among the small- to medium-sized invertebrates but occurs in a few large vertebrates (e.g., flamingos, baleen whales). In bivalves

filtration: Filter types: …cloth is known as the filter press. This is a batch-operated filter that is used when the filter capacities involved do not warrant investment in more expensive continuous pressure or vacuum filters. The plate-and-frame filter press requires the least floor space per unit of filtering area and usually involves the…

attention: Selective attention: Is an individual able to attend to more than one thing at a time? There is little dispute that human beings and other animals selectively attend to some of the information available to them at the expense of the remainder. One reason advanced…

filter-pressing, process that occurs during the crystallization of intrusive igneous bodies in which the interstitial liquid is separated from the crystals by pressure. As crystals grow and accumulate in a magmatic body, a crystal mesh may be formed, with the remaining liquid distributed in the

Jim Broadbent: …devious bipolar police officer in Filth (2013) and a police detective in the television miniseries The Great Train Robbery (2013), about the famous British heist that occurred in 1963.

the Sex Pistols: Another documentary film—The Filth and the Fury, told from the point of view of the artists—was released in 2000. In 2006 the Sex Pistols were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, though they scornfully declined to attend the ceremony.

Madonna: Film career and projects of the 21st century: She cowrote and directed Filth and Wisdom (2008), a comedy about a trio of mismatched flatmates in London, as well as the drama W.E. (2011), which juxtaposed the historical romance between Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII with the fictional story of a woman in the 1990s researching Simpson’s…

sound: Acoustic filtration: Filtration of sound plays an important part in the design of air-handling systems. In order to attenuate the level of sound from blower motors and other sources of vibration, regions of larger or smaller cross-sectional area are inserted into air ducts, as illustrated in…

filtration, the process in which solid particles in a liquid or gaseous fluid are removed by the use of a filter medium that permits the fluid to pass through but retains the solid particles. Either the clarified fluid or the solid particles removed from the fluid may be the desired product. In

renal system: Quantitative tests: This is called the filtration fraction and on average in healthy individuals is 125/600, or about 20 percent. Thus about one-fifth of plasma entering the glomeruli leaves as filtrate, the remaining four-fifths continuing into the efferent glomerular arterioles. This fraction changes in a number of clinical disorders, notably hypertension.

sacrum: …vertebra, but its continuation, the filum terminale, can be traced through the sacrum to the first coccygeal vertebra. See also vertebral column.

motorcycle racing: …Internationale du Motocyclisme (renamed the Fédération Internationale Motocycliste [FIM] in 1949) created the international cup, uniting five nations: Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, and Britain. The first international cup race took place in 1905 at Dourdan, France. The race for the Tourist Trophy (TT) became the most famous of all European…

bacteria: Flagella, fimbriae, and pili: Many bacteria are motile, able to swim through a liquid medium or glide or swarm across a solid surface. Swimming and swarming bacteria possess flagella, which are the extracellular appendages needed for motility. Flagella are long, helical filaments made of a single type of…

fallopian tube: …in many fingerlike branches (fimbriae) near the ovaries, forming a funnel-shaped depository called the infundibulum. The infundibulum catches and channels the released eggs; it is the wide distal (outermost) portion of each fallopian tube. The endings of the fimbriae extend over the ovary; they contract close to the ovary’s…

Mithradates VI Eupator: Life: …generals, Sulla in Greece and Fimbria in Asia, defeated his forces in several battles during 86 and 85. In 88 he had arranged a general massacre of the Roman and Italian residents in Asia (80,000 are said to have perished), in order that the Greek cities, as his accessories in…

International Federation of Sports Medicine (FIMS), confederation primarily comprising national sports medicine associations from across the globe. The organization also includes continental associations, regional associations, and various individual members. It is the oldest and largest such

clupeiform: Distinguishing characteristics: …and sizes of the various fins. If a herring (Clupetta), a pilchard (Sardinops), and a sprat (Sprattus) are held by the leading edge of their dorsal fins, the herring’s body orientation is approximately horizontal, because the fin is located at the centre of the back. In contrast, the pilchard hangs…

gasoline engine: Cooling system: …accomplished by forming thin metal fins on the exterior surfaces of the cylinders to increase the rate of heat transfer by exposing more metal surface to the cooling air. Air is forced to flow rapidly through the spaces between the fins by ducting air toward the engine.

Endgame, play in one act by Samuel Beckett, written in French as Fin de partie and produced and published in 1957. It was translated into English by the author. Endgame has four characters: Hamm, the master, who is blind, wheelchair-bound, and demanding; Clov, his resentful servant, physically

Victor Hugo: Exile (1851–70) of Victor Hugo: …epic or metaphysical poems, La Fin de Satan (“The End of Satan”) and Dieu (“God”), both of them confrontations of the problem of evil. Written between 1854 and 1860, they were not published until after his death because his publisher preferred the little epics based on history and legend contained…

fin de siècle, of, relating to, characteristic of, or resembling the late 19th-century literary and artistic climate of sophistication, escapism, extreme aestheticism, world-weariness, and fashionable despair. When used in reference to literature, the term essentially describes the movement

keel: A “fin keel” is a narrow plate (of wood, metal, or other material) fixed midships to the keel of a shallow boat (such as a racing yacht) and projecting downward to provide lateral resistance. It is intended both to steady the boat and to make it…

fin stabilizer, fin or small wing mounted on a ship or aircraft in such a way as to oppose unwanted rolling motions of the vehicle and thus contribute to its stability. The term also refers to the tail protuberances on bombs, artillery shells, and rockets to maintain the stability of these devices

fin whale, (Balaenoptera physalus), a slender baleen whale, second in size to the blue whale and distinguishable by its asymmetrical coloration. The fin whale is generally gray with a white underside, but the right side of the head has a light gray area, a white lower jaw, and white baleen at the

skeleton: General features: According to the widely accepted fin-fold theory, the paired limbs are derived from the local persistence of parts of a continuous fold that in ancestral vertebrates passed along each side of the trunk and fused behind the anus into a single fin. The primitive paired fins were attached to the…

Television in the United States: The Prime Time Access Rule and fin-syn: The Financial Interest and Syndication Rules (popularly known as “fin-syn”) were created at the same time as the Prime Time Access Rule. These forbade networks to retain any financial interest, including that derived from syndication rights, in any programs that they did not own entirely, which…

diving: …a table published by the Fédération Internationale de Natation Amateur (International Amateur Swimming Federation; founded 1908 and from 2023 called World Aquatics), the world governing body of amateur aquatic sports. Contestants are required to do certain of the listed dives, as well as several of their own choice. At least…

church mode: …furnishes the first step, or finalis, for each of the four modal pairs, authentic and plagal. Whereas authentic modes begin and end with the finalis, their plagal partners range from the fourth below to the fifth above the finalis. Each mode, however, is characterized not only by its finalis but…

Congress of Vienna: Decisions of the congress: The Final Act of the Congress of Vienna comprised all the agreements in one great instrument. It was signed on June 9, 1815, by the “eight” (except Spain, which refused as a protest against the Italian settlement). All the other powers subsequently acceded to it. As…

anthropic principle: Forms of the anthropic principle: …Frank Tipler have proposed a final anthropic principle: the universe is structured so that an infinite number of bits of information can be processed by computers to the future of any time. That is, complexity at a level required to constitute life can continue to exist forever.

aerospace industry: Final assembly: The final assembly of complete aircraft usually requires a facility furnished with a network of overhead rails on which ride heavy-lift cranes capable of moving large portions of vehicles. Facility size is governed by vehicle dimensions; for example, Boeing’s plant in Everett, Washington,…

ancient Italic people: Origins: …Bronze,” and, most frequently, “Proto-Villanovan,” the social and economic changes are clear. There was an increase in population and in overall wealth, a tendency to have larger, permanent settlements, an expansion of metallurgical knowledge, and a strengthening of agricultural technology. Diagnostic archaeological criteria include the use of cremation (with…

Nation of Islam: …Muhammad’s books, started a periodical, The Final Call, and eventually purchased Elijah Muhammad’s former mosque in Chicago and refurbished it as the new headquarters of the Nation of Islam. He also expanded the movement internationally, opening centres in England and Ghana. He gained notice outside the African American community in…

philosophy of biology: Teleology from Aristotle to Kant: …identification of the notion of final causality, or causality with reference to some purpose, function, or goal (see teleology). Although it is not clear whether Aristotle thought of final causality as pertaining only to the domain of the living, it is certainly true that he considered it essential for understanding…

Mira Sorvino: … (2001), Between Strangers (2002), and The Final Cut (2004). She starred with Donald Sutherland in the TV miniseries Human Trafficking (2005) and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her performance. Her later movies included Union Square (2011), Space Warriors (2013), Quitters (2015), and The Red Maple Leaf

Roger Waters: Pink Floyd years: The Final Cut is considered by many to be a solo album by Waters, since he wrote all the songs and lyrics. A lawsuit followed, in which Gilmour and Mason won the rights to the name Pink Floyd; Waters, however, retained rights to the album…

Geneva Accords: …6 unilateral declarations, and a Final Declaration of the Geneva Conference (July 21, 1954).

Julio Cortázar: Another collection of short stories, Final del juego (1956; “End of the Game”), was followed by Las armas secretas (1958; “The Secret Weapons”). Some of those stories were translated into English as End of the Game, and Other Stories (1967). The main character of “El perseguidor” (“The Pursuer”), one of…

Final Fantasy, video game created in January 1987 by Japanese game manufacturer SquareSoft (now Square Enix, Inc.). The first installment of the long-running role-playing game (RPG) series was playable on the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game spawned numerous sequels on a variety of

electronic strategy game: Turn-based games: …for tactical play is SquareSoft’s Final Fantasy Tactics (1997), for the PlayStation, which combined elements from Final Fantasy (1987– ), an electronic role playing game series, with turn-based unit tactics.

role-playing video game: Multiplayer RPGs: …game server for Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XI (2002– ), also known as Final Fantasy XI Online, for the PlayStation 2, Windows OS, and Microsoft’s Xbox 360; its large user base is concentrated in Japan, where it is highly popular.