Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2014 February 25

Welcome to the Wikipedia Entertainment Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

February 25

What's the most popular movie being downloaded?

My friend gave me his old wireless video glasses. They're not so much glasses, but more like a pair of mini video screens in the form of a pair of glasses. Think TV that you wear on your face. These video glasses come with an SD card which I can insert in a slot in the glasses. The purpose of the SD card is to transfer movies from possibly a computer to the video glasses in order to be able to watch movies. I have not used the glasses yet. This will be my first time using them. So now I just need to download a movie and save it onto the SD card. So my question is, what's the most popular movie people are downloading? Ac05number1 (talk) 02:01, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

If the question is about illegal downloads, the most pirated movie of 2013 was The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, followed by Django Unchained and Fast & Furious 6.[1] decltype (talk) 13:03, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

So, wait, you're just looking for a movie recommendation based on what's available to pirate? Hm. Well, regardless, Torrentfreak keeps a regular list: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of the Week 2014-02-24. --— Rhododendrites ^talk |  15:46, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

OP never specified piracy. These sites both claim to offer free, legal downloads, mostly of public domain movies [2] [3]. Neither has a "most popular" search, but the first one has a "top movie picks" section. SemanticMantis (talk) 23:57, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

Trying to track a film down

I've been racking my brain for ages to try to remember the title of a particular film, without success. It was the first 18-rated movie i ever saw and it creeped the hell out of me, but thinking back to it, i imagine it would be worth revisiting as an adult (though it may turn out to be a terrible film, i don't remember it well enough to know). I was maybe 13 or so when i saw it, so i'd be surprised if it was more recent than ten years old.

I want to emphasise before i describe the film that I only really remember the bits i found shocking as a kid - the gory, sexy stuff - but that's not why i want to revisit it: i also remember it as my first encounter with a high level psychological film. I remember it being about a relationship between some serial killer woman who'd just been let out of a facility, and her psychologist. there was definitely a murder or two in it - i think i vaguely remember someone drowning in a bath - and the film took great pains to present the psychologist guy as a control freak, and in some scenes that was (how can I put this delicately?)... demonstrated sexually. I only very vaguely remember what the characters looked like, and i may be wrong, but i think the guy wore glasses and the woman was blonde. i also seem to remember it being a sequel, or at least being one of those films which begins as though already in the middle of a story.

...now that i actually describe it, it sounds like a really really bad film not at all worth rewatching, but it's been bothering me so i'll ask anyway. does that sound like anything any of yous have heard of?

Thanks much, friendly internet people! Dan Hartas (talk) 03:47, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

Do you know when this would've been released? Hot Stop 03:52, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

I think it was fairly recent when i saw it, but old enough to be on Sky Movies. I'd say the earliest it could be would be 1995, and it was probably after 2000. And certainly no later than 2005. Dan Hartas (talk) 04:00, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

Of the top of my head, it could be Monster (2003 film). Hot Stop 04:11, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

I'm almost certain it wasn't that. The psychologist was a prominent part of the film, he might have even been the lead character. Dan Hartas (talk) 04:22, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

Hmmm. These are 2 that I can think of but don't quite fit your description. Basic_Instinct and 9½_Weeks 196.214.78.114 (talk) 06:58, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

The best one I can think of that matches the description is What Lies Beneath. --Jayron32 15:05, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

How about Basic Instinct 2. --— Rhododendrites ^talk |  15:49, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

Aha! It absolutely was Basic Instinct 2, yeah. I must have been 14 or 15, it turns out :S. Goes to show how bad teenagers are at judging what a good film is... Thanks very much! Dan Hartas (talk) 15:54, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

Formatted list of most listened to/popular songs.

Hi,

I need a formatted list of the most popular music of the 20th and 21st century for a project analysing the relevancy of the music collection in a large music catalogue.

The list should include international music, of all genres, and across all years, and would ideally be at least 300,000 songs long.

I have taken relevance to be established by 'popularity', with popularity defined in terms of how many songs the song has been downloaded, bought in stores (using sales charts), or played according to 'play counts' in content providers/catalogues such as Spotify, Grooveshark, Last Fm, MusicBrainz, etc. If based on digital downloads, ideally a list would have some kind of weighting according to the release year of the song, to compensate for bias towards more recently released music (more likely to be digitally downloaded than older music), though I could provide weighting myself if the list were long enough and contained information on year of release.

The list needs to be of a consistent format, so that is it parseable / readable by a computer.

The MusicBrainz catalogue was the first thing I checked, but unfortunately it keeps no counts for queries to its song database (song fingerprint requests for individual songs etc).

Thanks for any suggestions for other sources / harvesting methods.

Dale. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.61.173.184 (talk) 11:33, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

I'm not sure where a composite, worldwide list is or may exist, but there are individual national lists that are roughly compiled according to your criteria. List of record charts would give you a start. --Jayron32 15:04, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

Ok. Thanks.

For consistency and avoid building lists I wanted a composite international list.

I dont mind paying something for this. Any idea if there is a company that could provide a industry research in this area? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.61.173.184 (talk) 22:20, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

Billboard (magazine) or Nielsen SoundScan maybe. --Jayron32 15:17, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Are there any records of real sword fights?

Dear Gentlemen.

I have a question: does film material exist, that shows actual bladed duels? I am asking, because I am very interested in historical martial arts. It would be enlightening to see a real combat scenario instead of modern days simplified combat sports. I have heard of duels from Escrima fighters from the Philippines, who have been caught on film in the early 20th century.

Thank you for your help.

All the best.--92.105.189.138 (talk) 17:33, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

There were apparently duels in France until the 60s and some duels in the German Mensur still take place (at least according to the Swiss I have talked to). I have searched for video material, but failed.--92.105.189.138 (talk) 08:15, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

You could take a look at List of duels and take your research from there. For example, it includes this gem: "1921: Benito Mussolini seriously wounded Francisco Ciccotti, at the time an editor in Rome, in a duel with swords." It shouldn't be too hard to find a reasonbly detailed account. Astronaut (talk) 10:09, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

Thank you for your response. I have heard of that duel, but I do not think that there were film cameras present at the time. Many duels were fought in privacy, without outsiders.--92.105.189.138 (talk) 19:12, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

Not swords or formal "duels", but I just searched google and youtube for /real knife fight/ -- and found a few. SemanticMantis (talk) 23:52, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

Very interesting, thank you for the tip. I have found movie material from the real duel between Serge Lifar and Marquis de Cuevas (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL9BWkN-Wcg). It is too bad that most people spend so much time looking at unaccurate fight scenes in movies. Most viewers are entirely misinformed when it comes to realistic combat scenarios.--92.105.189.138 (talk) 19:13, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Why? What gives you the impression that a real fight, with the attendant risks to the participants, is in any way better entertainment than a well-choreographed stage fight with dramatic pacing? AlexTiefling (talk) 00:57, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

This has nothing to do with entertainment but with a realistic portrayal of reality (most movies claim to be accurate on the matter but fail terribly). My problem is that people are misinformed and take their lack of knowledge into real combat as well. Do you know how few people realize that the rapier was a thrusting weapon and it is nearly impossible to use it as a cutting weapon (aside from the German "Raufdegen")? Some people also consider the wrong image of their martial arts heritage to be very offensive (look at the simplistic and ridiculous techniques and the bad footwork they use for long swords in movies, these pseudo-fight styles have nothing in common with the highly advanced medieval fighting systems of the actual period). Look at all the myths that these movies created: medieval plate armor was heavy, sword combat was slow and not accurate, small swords can cut etc. The amount of misinformation that has no foundation in reality is really very upsetting and it is even worse how successfully it spreads. I wish that more stage fencers would start to use real techniques and basic principles from the existing traditions, that is all.--92.105.189.138 (talk) 08:59, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

To quote the Encyclopædia Britannica: "movie fencing remains a poor representation of actual fencing technique". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.105.189.138 (talk) 09:44, 2 March 2014 (UTC)