Cinema and Theatre. Матеріали до уроків

Cinema and Theatre

1. Read the magazine article and mark the statements below T (true) or F (false).

My Favourite Film

Would you like to go from zero to hero?

Then watch “The Mask”! It is a fantastic comedy, romance and action film, all in one. It is an excellent film because it has got everything!

Stanley Ipkiss is a shy bank clerk in Edge city, USA. He is a nice person but he can’t do anything right. One day he finds an ancient mask. He puts it on his face and his whole life changes. He can move like Superman and dance like Fred Astaire. He manages to stop a bank robbery, but he gets the money! The police arrest him and puts him to prison, but Milo, the dog helps the man to get out. He goes to a night club to save Tina, the girl he likes a lot, from the robbers. The police arrest the robbers and Stanley becomes a hero.

All in all, I think “The Mask” is a great film with fantastic special effects. It’s my favourite film because it’s funny and exciting.

1. The “Mask” is a thriller.
2. Stanley works in one of the American banks.
3. He always does wrong things.
4. Once Stanley found an ancient coin.
5. His life changed because of a magic mask.

  II. Write the article about your favourite film for a school magazine, using the plan below.

Introduction: title, type of film, opinion.

Main body: main characters, plot.

Conclusion: expression opinion and reason.

III. Read the answers and construct the questions.

1. _____________________________________ ?

Charlie Chaplin was one of the funniest actors ever.

2. _____________________________________ ?

He was born in East Street, Walworth,  London.

3. _____________________________________ ?

On the 16^th of  April, 1889.

4. _____________________________________ ?

He was the son of a musical hall singer and his wife, Hannah.

5. _____________________________________ ?

People all over the world know this talented actor.

IV. Complete the sentences with the derivatives of the words in brackets.

1. A. How was the play last night?

     B. Oh, it was so _____ that I almost fell asleep. (bore)

     2) A.  Are you _____ about going to the ballet? “The Swan Lake”?  (excite)

         B. Of course, I am! I can’t wait!

     3) A. Last night thriller was so _____ I couldn’t sleep after I watched it (frighten)

         B. Come on, it wasn’t that scary. I slept fine!

     4) A. Anything _____ on TV tonight?  (interest)

         B. Not much. There is a documentary about UFOs on at 9 p.m.

     5) A. Were you _____ with the play of the actors in Yesterday performance? (please)

          B. Yes, I was amazed with it.

V.  Listen the information about Audrey Hepburn and complete the following chart.

A Film Legend

She was born                                              in Brussels,   _____ on the 4^th May _____

Her father was                                            a wealthy   _____

Her mother was                                          a   _____ baroness

She won an Oskar                                      in   _____ for the film “Roman   _____”.

She began to work for the United Nations   _____

She died                                                     in   _____

Audrey Hepburn – A Film Legend

 Audrey Hepburn was a beautiful, stylish Hollywood star. In 1966, the British magazine “Harper and Queen”, named her “The most Fascinating Woman of our time”.

 Audrey was born in Brussels, Belgium, on 4^th May, 1929. Her father was a wealthy English banker and her mother was a Dutch baroness. After difficult times in Holland during War II, Audrey went to a ballet school in London and later became a model. A film producer noticed her and she began to act in films.

 Audrey became famous in the USA when she won an Oscar for her role in the film “Roman holiday” in 1953. She gave other brilliant performances in “Sabrina” (1954), “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961), and “My Fair Lady” (1964). In 1988, she began to work for the United Nation, helping children in Latin America and Africa until her death in 1993.

 In total, Audrey Hepburn made 31 movies. Everyone loved her and she is an inspiration to us all. Hollywood will remember her for many years to come!

VI. Read the text and do the tasks

One of the wonders of this modern world is the art of making moving pictures. The 19th century was a time of great discoveries and inventions. In 1895 the Lumiere brothers gave the world’s first real cinematograph show in Paris to an audience of 33 people.

In 1894, two French brothers, Auguste and Louis Lumiere, heard about the kinescope, a machine that Thomas Edison had invented in the USA in 1889. It was a box which contained a strip of filmed photographs. The photos were moved past a light in the box, so when you looked into the box, the image scanned to move. It took more than fifteen meters of film to make a “movie” of twenty seconds. The Lumiere brothers developed this idea and built a similar machine which projected the pictures onto a screen. They called it the Cinematograph and in 1895 they showed ten films. The “moving pictures” as entertainment was born. The first film the Lumiere brothers showed was “The Arrival of a Train at a Station”. So exciting was the experience that some members of the audience half expected the train to rush out at them from the screen.

In 1895 they showed nine films more. The first film theatre was opened in 1905, in Pittsburgh, USA. The first films were silent, but in 1920s, sound was developed. In 1927, cinema-goers were able to hear, for the first time, dialogue and music in The Jazz Singer. Technicolor appeared in 1932. Before then, each picture in a film had been painted by hand.

In 1950s there were a lot of developments based on new technology, for example, wide-screen processes and stereophonic sound. You sat in the cinema in front of an enormous screen and you could hear the sounds of voices or horses or cars moving from one side of the screen to the other. You felt as if you were actually in the picture. By the end of 20th century, cinema audiences had got used to even more special effects, using computer graphics and other new techniques to produce spectacular films. Who knows what new developments may happen in the years ahead?

1. Choose the best title. Give reasons.

1) Technological developments.

2) Moving pictures.

3) History of cinema.

2. Complete the time chart showing some of the developments in the history of cinema.

1889 __ __ .

1895 __ __ .

1905 __ __ .

1920s __ __ .

1927 __ __ .

1932 __ __ .

1950s  __ __.

1990s __ __ .

3. Answer the questions.

1) What machine had already been invented which helped the Lumiere brothers to make their Cinematograph?

2) Why was The Jazz Singer a very important film?

3) How did film-making in 1950s make audience fell they were actually in the film?

4) What was the main new technological development in the 1990s?

VII. Listen to my story and answer the questions.

       Theatre, cinema and TV films have become an important part of our life.

       Theatre is a wonderful combination of arts. Cinema is a marvelous invention of the 20th century. At theatres people can see dramas, tragedies, comedies, operas, ballets, puppet-shows and other performances.

       The cinema (or movies as Americans call it) is the most popular form of entertainment.

        In the cinema you can see all kinds of films from the earliest Charlie Chaplin comedies to popular science films, including love stories, musicals, comedies, detective films, and, of course, feature films.

         Not so long ago people went to the cinema and theatre frequently, but now they prefer to stay at home and watch video and films on TV.

Answer the questions:

1. What is the most popular form of entertainment in the USA and in the other countries?

2. What can you see at theatres?  

3. What films can you see in the cinema?

4. Do people prefer to stay at home now or to go to the cinema?

VIII. ‘Cinema” quiz

1. Who invented the first film projector and motion picture camera?

1. The Warner Brothers; b) The Grimm Brothers; c) The Lumiere Brothers

2. How long did the first film last?

a) three minutes; b) five minutes; c) ten minutes

3. What was the title of the first film?

a) Arrival of the Train b) Arrival of the Plane c) Arrival of the Car

4. Where did the first sound films appear?

a) the USSR, USA, Great Britain b) the USSR, USA, France c) the USSR, USA, Germany

5. When did the first studio in Hollywood appear?

a) 1942 b) 1911 1935

6. What were the first genres of American films?

a) historical films and melodrama b) adventure films c) melodrama, western, comedy

7. Who does the dangerous things on the screen instead of actors?

a) scriptwriter b) make-up artist c) stuntman

8. Who chooses the bits of the shooting film, cuts film and puts the pieces together?

a) director b) editor c) soundmixer

9. Who can make a new face for the actors?

a) costume designer b) sound mixer c) make-up artist