The movies are truly an art of our time. It is the greatest aesthetic and educational force in the world today. The invention of the photography in 1828 played a very important role in the development of the cinema. 1895 became the year when the cinema was born. After the brothers Lumier had invented the cinematography, the cinema widely spread all over the world. The first movie theatres appeared in 1904. And in 1907 the literature works started to be widely used for the movie scripts. Now different movie versions of novels and stories of famous writers are still very popular. The movies are a powerful force in contemporary life. Cinema is also used for educational purposes. Video classes are useful when studying geography, foreign languages and many other subjects. They are also the means of getting acquainted with the world. With the help of documentary and science films one can get much information about the world around. The news on TV helps to know what happens in the world each day. It also helps to attract the attention of people to different important problems, such as hunger, earthquakes, water pollution and so on. The cinema is also the means of entertainment. After a working day one can relax watching some good movie. Nowadays people can’t just imagine their life without the art of cinema.
What types of films do you know?
The main types are action, comedy, drama, romantic comedy, horror, science fiction, suspense (thriller), western, documentary (non-fiction). All these types can cross and create a movie that is more than one genre. For example, a movie could be a romance and a horror movie at the same time. The type assigned to a movie is based on the content within the film. For example, Titanic is an epic romantic disaster film, whilst Pacific Rim is an action, adventure and Sci-Fi film.
What films appeal to you most? Why?
Disaster movies, even more than horror films, speak – if not shout, happily – to the child within us. There’s a charmed, wide-eyed, and almost comically irreverent innocence to the way that they can turn an entire audience of sober, responsible, thinking adults into overgrown kids, sitting down to watch civilization get destroyed in much the same way that a 6-year-old lines up his toys to eagerly smash them. On some primal level, this kind of destruction simply has to be staged, so that we can all get a gander of what it might look like. What really gives a disaster movie its flavor, though, is how well it connects with its time. They presents the destruction of our stability as a dread-ridden, calamitous, and visually exciting thing, yet in this movie it is also a necessary thing: a way, in pitiless economic times, to clear the world, in one fell swoop, of the mess it’s become. So that it can become something better.
If the task of a film is to reproduce real life, should everything we see be reproduced? Should films about social evils and human vices be made?
Yes and yes. First of all most people learn from Mass Media. Indeed the power of the film-maker to shape our notions about intense experience, to provide a series of fictional experiences through which we funnel ”realife”, is unrivaled in all of mass communication. Somehow, the mediated reality we see “up there” takes on an inexplicable significance. This can be used to form the right notions about different things. Social evils, human vices, sufferings of reality all of that reproduced in a film helps people to understand what they have not experienced themselves. It helps people to be cautious and take life more seriously.
What is a film star?
A movie star (also known as a film star and cinema star) is a celebrity who is well-known, or famous, for his or her starring, or leading, roles in motion pictures. The term may also apply to an actor or actress who is recognized as a marketable commodity and whose name is used to promote a movie in trailers and posters. The most widely known, prominent or successful actors are sometimes called “superstars” by writers and journalists.
What does the success of a film depend on?
The success of the film depends on the cast, the director, the screenplay and, of course, on the budget of the film.
Give a review for a film you have seen. Consider the genre, direction, cast, screenplay, setting, acting, photography, special effects, sound effects, general impression.
The Matrix is a 1999 American-Australian science fiction action film written and directed by The Wachowskis, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantoliano. It depicts a dystopian future in which reality as perceived by most humans is actually a simulated reality called "the Matrix", created by sentient machines to subdue the human population, while their bodies' heat and electrical activity are used as an energy source. Computer programmer "Neo" learns this truth and is drawn into a rebellion against the machines, which involves other people who have been freed from the "dream world". The Matrix is known for popularizing a visual effect known as "bullet time", in which the heightened perception of certain characters is represented by allowing the action within a shot to progress in slow-motion while the camera's viewpoint appears to move through the scene at normal speed. Dane A. Davis was responsible for creating the sound effects for the film. The fight scenes sound effects, such as the whipping sounds of punches were created using thin metal rods and recording them, then editing the sounds. The sound of the pod containing a human baby closing required almost fifty sounds put together. The film is an example of the cyberpunk science fiction genre. It contains numerous references to philosophical and religious ideas. The Wachowskis' approach to action scenes drew upon their admiration for Japanese animation and martial arts films, and the film's use of fight choreographers and wire futechniques from Hong Kong action cinema was influential upon subsequent Hollywood action film productions. Reviewers praised The Matrix for its innovative visual effects, cinematography and its entertainment. Screenplay: 1. INCITING INCIDENT In the interrogation room, Agent Smith reminds Neo that he will be found "guilty of virtually every computer crime we have a law for" if Neo doesn't help them capture Morpheus. Neo refuses, demanding his phone call, only to find his lips fused together as the Agents implant a shrimp-like robot probe – a bug – in his stomach. 2. LOCK IN (End of Act One) Trinity brings Neo to Morpheus, who explains the Matrix as a false reality that was constructed to hide the truth: that Neo is a slave, like everyone else, born into bondage. Morpheus holds out two pills. If Neo takes the blue pill, he'll wake up in his bed and elieve whatever he wants, but if he takes the red pill, he'll stay in Wonderland, and Morpheus will show him "how deep the rabbit hole goes." Neo takes the red pill. 3. FIRST CULMINATION (Midpoint) Neo meets the Oracle. She asks him if he thinks he's the 'One', and Neo answers, "I'm not the one." The Oracle concurs and explains that Morpheus is going to sacrifice his life to save Neo's, and that "One of you is going to die. Which one, will be up to you." 4. MAIN CULMINATION (End of Act Two) Morpheus is captured, Cypher is dead, and the rest of the team unplugged, with Tank, Trinity, and Neo the only survivors. Tank explains that the Agents are trying to break Morpheus' mind to get the codes to the mainframes of Zion's computers. Because a breach of Zion's defenses would mean the last human city would be wiped out, Tank says their only choice is to unplug Morpheus, which would kill him. But Neo and Trinity decide to go into the Matrix and bring Morpheus back. 5. THIRD ACT TWIST The Sentinels breach the hull of the Nebuchadnezzar as Neo – back in the Matrix – runs for his life until Agent Smith empties his magazine into Neo's chest. Neo slumps to the floor, dead. All is lost, yet Trinity whispers into Neo's ear, "The Oracle, she told me that I'd fall in love and that man, the man I loved would be the One." She kisses him, and Neo suddenly breathes. And in the Matrix, he opens his eyes.
Science and Technology.