aisle npoxoд между рядами кресел box-office кacca film фильм, кино

aisle npoxoд между рядами кресел
box-office кacca
Syn. booking-office
advance box-office касса предварительной продажи билетов
cinema 1) кинотеатр; 2) кино
Are you fond of the cinema? Вы любите кино?
Syn. pictures, movies (A. E.)
hall (зрительный) зал
Don’t enter the hall during the show. He входите в зал во время сеанса.
lobby фойе
We have ten minutes left before starting time. Let’s wait in the lobby. Еще
десять минут до начала. Подождем в фойе.
Syn. foyer
poster афиша, плакат
Syn. bill
row ряд
Not further back than the ninth or tenth row, please. Прошу не дальше
9-10 ряда.
Our seats are in the tenth row. Наши места в 10-м ряду.
front rows передние ряды
back rows задние ряды
screen экран
I don’t like to sit too near the screen. Я не люблю сидеть слишком близко к
экрану.
screen version экранизированный вариант
seat место (в зрительном зале)
Where are our seats? Где наши места?
show сеанс
Let’s buy tickets for the 4.20 show. Давайте возьмем билеты на 4.20.
evening show вечерний сеанс
matinee show утренний, дневной сеанс
Syn. performance
ticket билет
extra ticket лишний билет
Have you an extra ticket? Нет ли у вас лишнего билета?
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part 1) серия
Have you seen the third part? Вы уже видели третью серию?
2) роль
Who plays the main parts in the film? Kто играет главные роли в фильме?
TOPICAL VOCABULARY
1
film фильм, кино
What’s the film about? О чем этот фильм?
Is it worth seeing this film? Стоит посмотреть этот фильм?
Syn. picture, movie (A. E. coll.) кинофильм, кинокартина
adventure film приключенческий фильм
action film боевик
black-and-white film черно-белый фильм
cartoon (film) мультипликационный фильм
colour film цветной фильм
Syn. technicolour film
documentary (film) документальный фильм
dubbed-in film дублированный фильм
feature film xyдожественный фильм
horror film фильм ужасов
mystery film детективный фильм
popular science film научно-популярный фильм
short film короткометражный фильм
silent film немой фильм
three-dimensions film стереофильм
wide-screen film широкоэкранный фильм
Syn. cinema-scope film
news-reel киножурнал, кинохроника, хроникальный фильм
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cameraman кинооператор
cast состав исполнителей
cinema-goer (кино) зритель, частый посетитель кино, любитель кино
This film is very popular with the cinema-goers. Этот фильм пользуется
большой популярностью у зрителей.
Syn. film-goer, picture-goer, moviegoer (A. E.)
director peжиссер
film actor киноактер
film actress киноактриса
Which of the British film actresses are your favourites? Кто из британских
киноактрис вам больше нравится?
Syn. film star кинозвезда
producer npoдюсер
scriptwriter сценарист, кинодраматург
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3
They say the last part is still being shot. Говорят, последняя серия еще снимается.
to show показывать, демонстрировать
Where is this film showing? Где идет этот фильм?
to star (in a film) сниматься в ведущих ролях
to held in suspension держать в напряжении
Syn. role
leading role ведущая роль
title role заглавная роль
plot сюжет
amusing plot занимательный сюжет
boring plot скучный сюжет
script сценарий
Who wrote the script? Кто автор сценария?
subtitle субтитр, надпись на кинокадре
We’re sitting too far; it’s difficult to read the subtitles. Мы слишком далеко
сидим; трудно читать надписи.
Syn. caption
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amusing развлекательный
boring скучный, нагоняющий скуку
charming очаровательный
exciting волнующий
funny смешной
splendid великолепный
superb прекрасный, великолепный; величественный
thrilling волнующий, захватывающий
thriller сенсационный фильм (особенно детектив), боевик
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acting игра (актеров)
How did you like the acting? Как вам понравилась игра актеров?
His acting is splendid. Он играет превосходно.
camera work работа кинооператора
direction постановка фильма, режиссура
photography (кино) съемка
trick photography комбинированные съемки
production производство
The film is a Mosfilm production, and it speaks for itself. Этот фильм
производства "Мосфильм", а это уже говорит само за себя.
In what situation might you say the following? Match each question
with one of the situations on the right.
1. What’s on?
2. Who’s in it?
3. What’s it about?
4. Where’s it on?
5. What time does it start?
6. Where shall we sit?
a) You want to know whether the actors are any good.
b) You can’t see a free seat anywhere.
c) You need to know what time to get to the cinema.
d) You’re thirsty.
e) You’re leaving the cinema with a friend.
f) There are three cinemas in town and you don’t know
which is showing the film you want to see.
7. Where’s the bar?
g) You haven’t a clue what to go and see.
8. What did you think of it?
h) It might be a horror film and you wouldn’t enjoy that.
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to be on идти (о фильме)
What’s on at this cinema? Что идет в этом кинотеатре?
Where is this film on? Где идет этот фильм?
to depict описывать, отображать
to dub дублировать
to play играть
He plays the part of Hamlet. Он играет роль Гамлета.
Syn. perform
to produce производить; ставить (фильм)
The film produces a powerful impression. Фильм производит сильное
впечатление.
Spielberg is producing a new film. Спилберг ставит новый фильм.
to release выпускать (на экран)
to shoot (shot, shot) снимать
 Make sure you can explain the meaning of the following words:
Producer, composer, assistant director, screenplay, script, movie-goer, scene designer, screen version; review, critic, subtitles, to be dubbed, supporting actress, top star,
sound track, close-up, cast, to dub, billboard, to releаse a film, designer.
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esting idea – it was a successful new industry. And by 1915 it was an industry with a capital – Hollywood, USA.
Read the text about the history of cinema.
WHERE DID CINEMA COME FROM
AND WHO INVENTED IT?
Our journey begins in the Far East.
Moving images have always been popular. In China, for example, there were
‘shadow plays’ 5.000 years ago. These used firelight to project images of puppets onto
screens. So projection is a very old idea. But cinema only became possible when this old
Asian idea met a new European one – photography.
The two came together in the middle of the 19th century. That’s when photos
were first used in ‘magic lanterns’. Before that these early projectors had used glass
slides. The pictures on these slides were painted by hand and very expensive. In comparison, photos were cheap and easy to produce.
So – by 1850 projection and photography had come together. But the result still
wasn't ‘cinema’. How could it be when the pictures didn’t move? The solution to that
problem came in several stages.
The first, in 1877, came via English inventor Eadweard Muybridge. He discovered a way to take photos very quickly, one after the other.
Eleven years later, an Ametican called George Eastman produced the first celluloid film on a roll.
By 1890, it was possible to take up to 40 photos per second. Next, in 1893, came
another invention – Thomas Edison’s ‘Kinetoscope’.
The kinetoscope projected moving pictures, but it had three problems: (a) It was
noisy, (b) the pictures it produced were very low-quality, (c) only one person could watch
a kinetoscope at a time.
Before cinema could be born, one last invention was necessary – a quiet machine able to project high-quality pictures onto a large screen. And the men who produced
that were two French brothers from the city of Lyons.
The Silent Era
Hollywood was established in 1912. That’s when a group of New York film
producers decided to open a new studio in California. Why California? Because the climate was good, labour was cheap and there were lots of beautiful locations nearby.
As a result of their decision, Hollywood soon attracted film actors and echnicians from all over the country. While World War One was fought in Europe, and for
several years after, these cinema pioneers made thousands of black and white films –
comedies, tragedies, fantasies, romances and historical dramas. This was ‘the silent era’ –
the era of Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino, Clara Bow, Douglas Fairbanks and Buster
Keaton. It was called ‘silent’ because there was no recorded sound. Instead, the actors’
dialogue appeared on cards shown every 15 or 20 seconds. At the time it seemed perfectly normal. That’s simply how films were.In fact, even as late as 1924, director D. W. Griflith declared ‘There will never be speaking pictures’. But Griffith like Auguste Lumiere
29 years before, was wrong. A revolution was coming and its name was...
The Talkies
Recorded sound ended the silent era in 1921. That’s when Al Jolson both spoke
and sang in "The Jazz Singer". (His first words were ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute folks.
You ain’t heard nothing yet!’) The impact on cinema-goers was enormous. They loved
‘The Jazz Singer’ and demanded more and more talking pictures. The studios quickly
obliged and by 1930 audiences were up from 57 million a week (1926) to 110 million a
week. Only 31 years after the Lumieres’ first film-show, modern movies had arrived.
A Golden Age
In 1932 Technicolor arrived. Coming only five years after the sound revolution
it made cinema more popular than ever. So popular, in fact, that the next 20 years are
often called Hollywood’s golden age. In the ’30s and ’40s millions queued every week to
see films produced by the top studios. These included Paramount, RKO, Warner Brothers
and – most successful of all – Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
Run by Louis B. Mayer, MGM’s motto was ‘more stars than there are in heaven’. This referred to the ‘family’ of film stars who had contracts with the studio. (In those
days actors only worked for one company.) During the ’30s and ’40s MGM’s family included The Marx Brothers, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford,
Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly.
It was an impressive list but only one of several. All the other ‘dream factories’
had stables of top box-office names, too. In fact, competition was an important part of
Hollywood’s success. The reason was simple. Each studio wanted to make bigger, better
Louis and Auguste Lumiere
‘The Lumiere Cinematograph’ allowed large audiences to watch ‘moving pictures’. Its debut took place on 28 December 1895 in a Paris cafe. That day the Lumieres
showed several short films. They were all documentaries and one of them was called ‘Arrival of Train at Station’. Afterwards, Auguste Lumiere talked to reporters about his invention. ‘It can be exploited for a certain time,’ be said, ‘but apart from that it has no
commercial value at all."
Well, he was completely wrong. In less than a year, cinemas had started to open
in Europe and America. The public’s appetite for films was instant and enormous – which
meant that more and more had to be made. By 1905 movie-making wasn’t just an inter-
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change. And it’s a change that’s continued ever since. Today 75% of all box-office tickets
are sold to people between the ages of 15 and 25.
films than its rivals. After 1948, though, movie tycoons like Louis B. Mayer began to
face another kind of competition. And this time it wasn’t from inside the cinema industry
– it was from outside.
The Modern Movie Industry
These days cinema and television live side-by-side. The movie industry didn’t
collapse (as some people predicted) in the ’50s and ’60s. But cinema audience-figures are
still low compared to 50 years ago. In Britain, for example, most people only see one or
two films per year. In Europe it’s three or four and in America six or seven, Because of
this, modern movie-making has become very different from how it was in Louis B. Mayer’s time. For example:
– Hollywood has more competition from international film-makers now than ever
before;
– enormous ‘picture palaces’ with one screen are being replaced by ‘multi-screen’
cinemas;
– there are still large studios, but the old ‘studio system’ (with troups of stars working for one company) has disappeared;
– modern flms have three lives instead of one. First, they appear in the cinema,
then on video and finally they’re shown on TV.
Television
America's TV revolution began in the years following World War Two. At first
Hollywood didn’t worry. After all – what was there to worry about? John Logie Baird’s
invention only produced small, black and white pictures. It was a gimmick. It wouldn’t
last. But as more and more people bought TV-sets, cinema queues began to get shorter.
And not just 5% or 10% shorter. By the early ’5Os weekly audiences had been cut in half
to 50 million. Clearly the movie industry had a serious problem on its hands.
Hollywood Fights Back
Studio bosses tried to solve the problem in several different ways. These included:
 CINEMASCOPE – This technique made it possible to show films on a wider screen
than ever before. Several action-packed CinemaScope films were made. The first, Biblical epic, was called “The Robe”.
 3D – To watch 3D or “three-dimensional” films, audiences had to wear special glasses.
These gave images on the screen extra height, width and depth. The idea was used in several ’5Os horror films, but never really caught on.
 CINERAMA – Three projectors were needed to show Cinerama films. Each one filled
a third of a huge curved screen. Again the idea didn’t catch on – this time because it was
too expensive.
 SMELL-O-VISION – Another Hollywood scheme for winning back TV audiences
was Smell-O-Vision. This was an electronic system which sent the smell of roses, gunsmoke, coffee, etc., (whatever was showing on the screen) over movie-goers during a
film.
 70MM FILM – Before the ’5Os movie cameras and projectors used film which was
35mm wide. The arrival of 70mm film produced a much bigger, clearer image. 70mm is
still used for some films today.
Basically, then the Hollywood studios competed with television by making movies bigger, better and more realistic. Some of their ideas succeeded, others failed. But
what really saved the cinema industry wasn’t a technical development at all – it was another ’50s invention ... teenagers.
Movies and youth culture discovered each other in the mid-’50s with two key
films – ‘Rebel Without A Cause’ (l955), starring James Dean, and ‘Rock Around The
Clock’ (1956), starring early pop idol Bill Haley. For Hollywood it was a turning point.
Before then, the average cinema-goer had been over 30. Suddenly, all that began to
 Speak about the main stages in the development of cinema in the world.
 What facts from the history of Russian, Belarussian cinema are known
to you? Do a research into the problem if necessary.
Read the text about cinema in America and then check your comprehension.
AMERICAN CINEMA
The world of American cinema is so far-reaching a topic that it deserves, and often receives, volumes of its own. Hollywood (in Los Angeles, California), of course, immediately comes to mind, as do the many great directors, actors and actresses. It continues to attract and produce. But then, one also thinks of the many independent studios
throughout the country, the educational and documentary series and films, the sociallyrelevant tradition in cinema, and the film departments of universities, such as the University of Southern California (USC), of the University of California at Los Angeles
(UCLA) or New York University.
For over 50 years, American films have continued to grow in popularity
throughout the world. Television has only increased this popularity.
The great blockbusters of film entertainment that stretch from “Gone with the
Wind” to “Star Wars” receive the most attention. A look at the prizes awarded at the lead-
6
ing international film festivals will also demonstrate that as an art form, the American
film continues to enjoy considerable prestige. Even when the theme is serious or, as they
say, “meaningful”, American films remain “popular”. In the past decade, films which
treated the danger of nuclear power and weapons, alcoholism, divorce, inner-city blight,
the effects of slavery, the plight of Native Americans, poverty and immigration have all
received awards and international recognition. And, at the same time, they have done well
at the box-office.
Movies (films), including those on video-cassettes, remain the most popular art form
in the USA. A book with 20,000 readers is considered to be a best-seller. A hit play may be
seen by a few thousand theatergoers. By contrast, about a billion movie tickets are sold at
movie houses across the USA every year.
There are three main varieties of movie theaters in the USA:
1) the “first-run” movie houses, which show new films;
2) “art theaters”, which specialize in showing foreign films and revivals;
3) “neighborhood theaters”, which run films – sometimes two at a time – after
the “first-run” houses.
New York is a movie theater capital of the country. Many of the city’s famous
large movie theaters, once giving Times Square so much of its glitter, have been torn
down or converted (in some cases into smaller theaters), and a new generation of modern
theaters has appeared to the north and east of the area. Most of them offer continuous
performances from around noon till midnight. Less crowded and less expensive are the
so-called “neighborhood theaters”, which show films several weeks or months after the
“first-run” theaters. There are several theaters that specialize in revivals of famous old
films and others that show only modernist, avant-garde films. Still others, especially
those along 42nd Street, between the Avenue of Americas and Eighth Avenue, run movies about sex and violence. Foreign films, especially those of British, French, Italian and
Swedish origin, are often seen in New York, and several movie theaters specialize in the
showing of foreign-language films for the various ethnic groups in the city.
The major film genres developed in the United States are the following:
Comedy. Charles Spencer Chaplin became the most widely recognized comedy
figure in the world. He emphasized the development of character and plot structure, in
contrast to the simple reliance on gags and gimmicks that characterized the work of other
comedy producers of the day.
Westerns. The Western (a film about life in the American West in the past) was
the first American genre to be developed and has remained a staple of the American motion-picture art and industry. It has been estimated that one quarter of US films have been
Westerns. However, today most American Westerns are made in Italy and are called
“spaghetti Westerns”.
Musicals. The musicals of the late 1920s and the early 1930s consisted of a series of “numbers” by established stars of Broadway, vaudeville and radio. Later manifes-
tations of the form were the biographical musicals, often highly fictionalized, about great
composers, musicians, singers, providing an opportunity to string together some of their
most popular hits. The transferring of musicals intact from the Broadway stage became
almost automatic beginning in the 1950s.
Gangster films. While the Western deals with a mythical American past and the
musical with a fantasy lаnd, the gangster film is closely tied to a real facet of American
life. In earlier films, the gangster had risen to the top to enjoy wealth, power, beautiful
women, expensive homes and large cars, but before the end of the film he was bound to
be caught by law-enforcement officers, overthrown by fellow gang members or killed.
Such punishment was considered obligatory. By 1971, however, “The Godfather” showed
how far the genre has evolved: Marlon Brando, in the title role, dies of old age. The gangster was another businessman.
War films. They have evolved into a major American genre, since wars have occupied so much of contemporary American history. The Second World War has been the
subject of the greatest number of American films in this genre.
Horror films (thrillers). In the 1920s the creation of a monster who gets out of
control or is coming to life from nonhuman beings, who survives by killing the living
provided the basic story lines of countless horror films. These films also have dealt with
supernatural forces that manifest themselves as an unseen power rather than in individual
form. A third major kind of horror films deals with people who are insane or in the grip of
psychological powers beyond their control.
Horror films as a genre is associated with the name of Alfred Hitchcock. Like
Walt Disney with animated cartoons, Alfred Hitchcock was thought not just to have invented a film genre but to have patented it (hence “Hitch”, another name for a horror
film).
Detective and spy films. These include first of all the James Bond series. Hitchcock’s films of this genre feature ordinary people who accidentally become involved with
spies or other evil doers.
Science fiction. After the Second World War science-fiction films increasingly
suggested that the dangers of the future stemmed from what human beings were doing in
the present.
 Comprehension Check.
1. What is a movie capital of the USA?
2. What serious themes are treated in films?
3. Which figures characterise a successful book? play? film?
4. What types of cinemas can be found in the USA?
5. What kind of films do the "neighbourhood theatres" show?
6. What made Chaplin one of the most famous world comedy figures?
7. What is the western?
8. What are musicals based on?
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c) Another favourite figure in Western stories is the buffalo hunter. He is shown
thundering over the plains, shooting down one buffalo after another. Suddenly dozens of
Indians attack him, but he fights for his life and puts them to flight. When in the second
half of the 19th century railroads were built across the American plains, food was needed
for the armies of workers. So the railroad companies employed hunters to shoot buffalo
for meat. Buffalo Bill was the most famous of them. They often killed more buffalo than
were needed. By 1875 hardly any of the 4,5 milion buffalo were left, so the Indians no
longer had enough meat, or skins for clothes and tents. The white man had taken away
their land and now their buffalo. So they went on the warpath.
Complete the following sentences from the text.
1. Even when the theme is serious American films …
2. Most of them offer continious performances from …
3. By 1971 The Godfather …
4. The World War the second has been the subject of …
5. Detectives and spy films include …
 The truth about the Wild West. What is right?
1. Sheriffs in the Wild West usually
a) killed a lot of bad men.
b) did not do much shooting.
c) knocked men over the head with their guns.
What do you know about westerns as a genre of films? What makes them
popular with the viewers?
Read the following text, check your comprehension and comment on the
technology of making a western.
A NEW LOOK AT THE OLD WESTERN
Films and facts
a) You have watched this scene in many films: two man face each other in a
small-town street. One wears white; he has a sheriff’s badge pinned above his heart. The
other is dressed all in black. Suddenly their hands move like a flash of lightning. Guns
roar, smoke fills the air. For a moment the men stand as still as statues. Then, slowly, the
one dressed in black falls in the dust. The sheriff blows on his gun and puts it back in its
holster.
There is a little truth in the idea of the Wild West Sheriff as a gunfighter. For example, Wyatt Earp, one of the most famous sheriffs of all, killed only one man during his
years as marshal of Dodge City. His own favourite way of fighting was knocking a man
over the head with a gun. He even managed to ban guns and pistols. If he heard of anyone
wearing or using a gun, he had him arrested and made him pay $2.50, which was a lot of
money in the 19th century.
b) Another very popular figure in Westerns is the good-for-noting cowboy who
plays cards and gambles in saloons all night, drinks a lot of whisky and is always ready to
join in a fight and use his guns.
In fact, this is only one side of the picture. Cowboys loved fun and were always
ready to spend their money, but often they had to work 18 hours a day in a saddle. They
had to care for the cattle and drive them to market, often covering 1,000 miles in three
long months. It was a difficult job keeping a herd together on an open prairie during a
thunderstorm, or getting it across a river. They were happy if 90% of the animals reached
the market.
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2.
a)
b)
c)
Wyatt Earp
was the best-known sheriff in history.
made a lot of money by arresting people.
did not allow people to wear guns.
3.
a)
b)
c)
Nineteenth century cowboys
never drank much or gambled in saloons.
often didn’t have much time for sitting about and drinking.
didn’t enjoy spending their money.
4.
a)
b)
c)
Cowboys in those days
often had to drive herds of animals to market.
usually had no difficulty in getting their herds across the rivers.
were always able to keep the herds together.
5.
a)
b)
c)
Indians attacked buffalo hunters because
they believed the buffalo ought not to be killed.
they hated all white men.
they needed the buffalo themselves for food.
6.
a)
b)
c)
Buffalo hunters were employed
to help the Army build the railroads.
in order to fight the Indians.
because the railroad workers needed a lot of meat.
“If I made Cinderella, the audience would
immediately be looking for a dead body in
the coach.” Alfred Hitchcock
times a large, perfectly symmetrical black smudge is rubbed on the center of her forehead
for the sake of realism.
 Comment on the author’s point of view. What’s your attitude to horror films?
THE SCREAMY WEAMIES
When the first horror films were made at the bottom of the depression, the producers were horrified at what they’d done.
For many years now Universal Pictures has been ministering to the American
public’s apparently insatiable appetite for ghouls, werewolves, zombies, vampires and
mad scientists.
“Dracula” opened in Cleveland,” said Universal’s Mr. X. “We sold that picture
with all the horror we could put on it. We had an ambulance in front of the theater. We
had the house full of girls in hospital uniforms, and signs saying: “See the Doctor – Nurses in Attendance”. In the papers we ran ads made to look like tombstones, daring people
to see the picture and warning people with weak hearts to see their doctors first. We hired
women to faint. The funny thing was, we got as many real ones as plants. People lined up
in the lobby could see the limp bodies of the patrons being carried out. Pretty soon they
were fainting themselves.
“But,” Mr. X. continued proudly, “Frankenstein” was where we really turned on
the horror. Fortified with our “Dracula” experience, we gave it everything we had. We sat
down and mapped out a strictly horror campaign: leather badges to the customers for
courage, faint routine, gravestone motifs in the advertising. We got thirteen real faints in
one afternoon.
Universal Pictures may be looked upon as the First Family of Virginia of the
horror industry. Not only did Universal make the first real horror films; they have maintained almost a monopoly on frenzied scientists, phantoms with operatic ambitions, mad
ghouls and Frankenstein monsters of both sexes. All this has put a pretty penny in the
studio’s poke.
The highly conventionalised techniques of horror films have been developed
over a number of years. Perhaps the first of the prototypes were old silent serials like
“The Iron Claw”, cliff-hangers that featured masked villains, opiumden conspirators, and
hands that groped out of the wall.
The writing of horror scripts has come to be as peculiar an art as publicising
them. In writing for a mummy, for instance, it’s scarcely necessary to tailor the part to the
actor when he’s a foot deep in old bandages. One must, on the other hand, include several
conventional but absolutely necessary scenes. Most important of these is the beauty-andthe beast combination, usually a head-on shot of the monster lurching through a miasmal
swamp, carrying the unconscious heroine in his arms. The heroine must be dressed in a
diaphanous nightshirt, and is allowed to have no more than one hair out of place. Some-
Read the following article and summarize it in English.
Почему мы смотрим "cтрашилки"
Человеку необходимо чувствовать себя героем?
Природа не терпит дисбаланса. Все должно присутствовать в нашей жизни в строго
определенном количестве. В прошлые века войны, моры и эпидемии буквально выкашивали
города. Сейчас лекарства помогают бороться с болезнями и эпидемиями, инстинкт
самосохранения не позволяет развязать очередную мировую войну.
Но по Закону Природы человеку нужна определенная "доза страха". Необходима
настолько, что, когда ее не хватает, человек "вкалывает" ее себе сам, перенося огромное
количество убийств и крови на экран.
Дефицит страха
В древние времена человек постоянно тренировался в преодолении страхов – Природа
их поставляла в изобилии. Нынешняя цивилизация – цивилизация больших городов –
слишком комфортна. Мы тревожимся, что можем потерять работу, попасть под машину, что
нас могут ограбить. Мы переживаем, но эти опасения привычные и “скучноватые”.
Настоящего страха современному человеку не хватает. И вместо реальных опасностей
приходиться пользоваться суррогатами, которые поставляет индустрия кино и
компьютерных игр.
Острыми “псевдоэмоциями” развеиваем притаившуюся где-то в углу тоску,
“перебиваем” накопившиеся за день стрессы. И в конечном итоге – засыпаем, бывает,
гораздо спокойнее.
Во все времена в искусстве высоким жанром считалась именно трагедия. И это не
случайно. Лишь трагедия позволяла и позволяет зрителю пережить катарсис – очищение при
помощи страха и сострадания. Режиссер Альфред Хичкок называл кино
“доброкачественным шоком”. Надо дать “зрителю шенкеля”, заставить его испугаться,
заплакать.
– Интересно снимать такие шокирующие вещи, – говорит режиссер Андрей
Кончаловский, – потому что боишься, что без этого “не сдвинешь” зрителя. У меня в
“Первом учителе” тоже черт-те что творилось – и кишки были, и избиения. Мне очень
нравится такая энергия.
Человеку необходимо хотя бы иногда почувствовать себя героем, это дарит массу
эмоций – радость, счастье, гордость, уверенность в себе. Герой тот, кто свой собственный
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страх преодолел прежде, чем одолел врага. Даже если враг этот – вымышленный и
сражаешься с ним не ты, а киноперсонаж.
THE SPECIAL EFFECTS PEOPLE
Bryan Schulz and some of his friends are visiting a famous special effects studio
just north of San Francisco. Ken Smith, who works there, is showing them around.
Ken: In the model shop here, we build exact models of things like cars or spaceships. And
in the monster shop over there, we make all kinds of monsters and.strange animals. Look,
at this one here!
Bryan: Wow! How does it move?
Ken: We use two different methods. With the older method we photograph the monster,
then move it a little, then photograph it again and so on. Then, when we run the film at
the usual speed, the monster seems to move. With the more modern method we use computer-controlled models. We get a more realistic effect with them.
Jolene: What about the fantastic backgrounds for some movies? How do you make them?
Ken: Sometimes we paint the background and sometimes we make models. And then we
use the blue screen method to put the pictures together.
Grog: That’s easy.
Ken: Perhaps. But you’d be surprised how much work we put into all this. Sometimes we
spend six to eight months on a three or four minute scene.
Bryan: Six to eight months! That sure is a long time!
Воспитание "чернухой"?
Многие режиссеры в последнее время забили тревогу – оттого, что производство
фильмов ужасов, всевозможной "чернухи" поставили на поток.
– Знаете, как в кондитерской промышленности: если вас однажды подловили на том,
что вы любите сладкое, все эти "марсы" и "сникерсы" начнут выпускать тоннами, да еще в
такой хитрой упаковочке! Это же произошло и с производством "чернухи" – она тут же
превратилась в бизнес, вокруг закрутились большие деньги. Режиссер, который талантливо
снимает "чернуху", – просто преступник. Потому что нельзя просчитать тот урон, который
наносит подобное сильно сделанное произведение, – считает режиссер Иван Дыховичный.
У психологов на этот счет иное мнение: если речь идет о взрослых – все не так
страшно. Нормальный человек в состоянии различать реальную кровь и клюквенный сок,
истинные страдания и великолепную игру актера. От того, что за неделю мы посмотрим дватри боевика или "ужастика", жестокими и равнодушными мы не станем.
– Некоторым людям даже полезно научиться "правильно" смотреть такие фильмы,
считают врачи психотерапевты. Психологи называют этот прием дистанцированием,
умением посмотреть на ситуацию со стороны. От того, что ты понимаешь: все происходящее
– лишь вымысел (с тобой самим все в порядке!), эмоции не притупляются, а вот
травмирующее их действие нейтрализуется. Тогда и в любой стрессовой ситуации человек
не будет переживать понапрасну. Во всяком случае, меньше риск получить инфаркт или
язву
желудка
из-за
неприятностей
на
работе
или
семейной ссоры.
За рубежом существует даже способ профессиональной тренировки для тех, кому
предстоит работать в экстремальной ситуации, например для сотрудников службы спасения.
Им показывают специальные фильмы, моделирующие тяжелые для психики ситуации, с
которыми, возможно, придется столкнуться на работе.
Когда речь идет о детях, все гораздо серьезнее. Они, во-первых, все происходящее в
кино воспринимают как реальность. Поэтому страдают неврозами, энурезом, просыпаются и
плачут ночью после “страшного кино”. Ребенок может посмотреть такое кино, но крайне
редко и только “под боком” у мамы и папы.
Во-вторых, дети воспринимают действия взрослых (в том числе и в кино) как модель
собственного поведения в жизни, копируют поведение мамы или папы дома, “впитывают”
манеры и слова, так же, вполне вероятно, воспримут и “мочиловку” из боевика. Потом
поздно будет переживать, что мальчик все свои проблемы пытается решить кулаками.
“Откуда в нем это? Мы его этому не учили!” Зато он смотрел кино…
(from «Аргументы и факты»)
Read the text about Charlie Chaplin and do the tasks that follow.
CHARLIE CHAPLIN MYSTERY
On Christmas Day 1977, filmlovers everywhere were shocked by the death of Charlie Chaplin, film director and comic genius. Three months later, however, the world was
shocked for a different reason: who had stolen Chaplin’s body?
Sir Charles Chaplin died on 25 December, 1977, and was buried in a small cemetery
near Lake Geneva in Switzerland, where he had made his home. TV and newspaper reports around the world announced the death of the world’s most famous comic actor.
On 2 March, 1978, press reports from Lausanne had a different story. Chaplin’s
body had vanished from the cemetery at Corsier-sur-Vevey. “The grave is empty. The
coffin has gone,” reporters were told. The Swiss authorities started their inquiries and
Interpol was called in.
The police had one piece of definite information; a local man had heard a noise that
night, which sounded like a pickaxe being used in the cemetery. Otherwise, they just had
theories. The strongest possibility was that the robbery had been done for money. How-
Learn how some tricks are made in films.
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 In pairs decide which theory you think is right.
ever, no ransom note had been received by the family, and nobody had attempted to contact them.
There were several other theories. The body could have been stolen by a group of
admirers who were keeping it as a kind of souvenir. It might have been taken to be buried
in England. The comedian had once said that he wished to be buried where he was born.
A number of English people had protested about the burial in Switzerland.
The thieves might have believed that there were old copies of Chaplin films in the
grave. Some of his earlier work had never been shown and could have been worth a lot of
money.
One person even suggested that the body had been dug up by animals (though the
police must have ignored this suggestion, as animals don’t normally use pickaxes).
A newspaper in Hollywood thought that the body could have moved itself, because
Chaplin had been interested in the idea of life after death and he might have known how
to come back to life after he died!
The mystery continued for ten weeks before being solved. The solution, however,
was not as bizarre as some of the theories that were put forward.
THE FILM OR THE BOOK?
1. Have you ever seen a film of a book after you have read the book itself? What did
you think of it?
2. Have you ever read a book after you have seen the film? If so, what did you think
of it?
3. If you have written a novel and it was being made into a film, what would your
attitude be?
FILM ADAPTATIONS ARE NEVER AS GOOD AS THE BOOKS THEY ARE
BASED ON
By Carlo Pontillo
I believe that the argument about books versus films very much depends on the
quality of the book. A film adaptation of a bad book might improve on the printed version, but, in my opinion, a good book is always better than ‘the film of the book’. Many
people who have enjoyed a book are tempted to go to the cinema to see the film adaptation or watch it on video, but I’m sure most of them are disappointed by the experience.
I think that there are three good reasons why films of good books are generally
disappointing. Firstly, a film is comparatively short (perhaps just ninety minutes long),
whereas the book, it is based on, may be several hundred pages long and take many hours
to read. This means that when you go and see the film, you often find that some of your
favourite characters or scenes are not included because the screen writer has had to simplify and cut the story. Secondly, books can give you important information that is difficult to present in a film. For example, a novelist can tell us what a character is thinking as
well as what he or she says, whi1e in a film we usually only hear what the character says.
But the third and most important reason is that when we read a book, we imagine, for
example, what a character is like and our mental picture of that person is very different to
how he or she is represented on the screen. When we watch the film, we find ourselves
thinking things such as ‘that actor is much too small’ or ‘that actress should be younger’
and that stops us enjoying the film.
For these reasons, my opinion is that while it might not be such a bad idea to
read a book after you have seen the film adaptation, it is never good to see a film adaptation after you have read and enjoyed a book.
 Find words or phrases in the text that match these dictionary deflnitions:
1 put a dead person in the ground
2 the box in which this is done
3 a tool for digging holes in the ground
4 a demand for money to return a missing person
5 tried to
6 ideas which might be the answer to a mystery
7 the answer to a mystery
 Match each word in column A with an appropriate word in column B.
A
B
strong
actor
newspaper
note
wild
possibility
ransom
idea
comic
report
 In pairs, make two lists about the Chaplin mystery.
Known information
1.Someone heard a pickaxe.
Theories
1. The body could have been stolen by…
 Do you agree or disagree with the author? Express your opinion on the problem.
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(Jim Horner tells his friend his impressions of the new film he has just seen.)
Have you seen My Fair Lady? That’s what I call a great film. It’s a delightful musical
comedy based on George Bernard Shaw’s immortal Pygmalion. The film presents a story about
Professor Henry Higgins who makes a bet with a friend that he can make a “lady” out of a poor
Cockney girl. He finds a young flower-seller named Eliza Doolittle, who has no education and
whose language is awful. He takes her into his home where the “polishing” begins. During this
process many amusing incidents occur. When the dirt is removed from her face and body she shows
up as a beautiful girl. She takes the teaching easily and develops grace and manners. At the end of
the film Eliza and Henry falI in love and get married.
The film is made with great skill and the team of actors is brilliant beyond all doubts. But
I think that Rex Harrison who acts the Professor, and Audrey Hepburn who plays Eliza are the best.
The music of the film is really wonderful and many lovely songs will live for a long time.
I must admit that though I’ve seen the play by Bernard Shaw on the stage, the picture
held my interest from beginning to end and I enjoyed every bit of it.
Give a review of a film you have recently seen and liked (disliked). Make use of the
following outline. Remember: a mere telling of the story is not a review.
OUTLINE FOR MOTION PICTURE REVIEW
1. Type of film: feature film, comedy, black-and-white, short, etc.
2. Production: What studio released the film? Was it co-production? Was the film
dubbed?
3. Story (plot): Is it by a well-known author? Is the story original? True to life? What is
the climax of the story? Is the ending logical?
4. Direction: Who directed the film? Was the introduction of characters and scenes skillful? Are useless scenes included?
5. Photography: Is it artistically done? Are there good shots? Are close-ups used effectively?
6. Acting: Name the leading characters. Are there any stars? Any outstanding performances of minor roles? True-to-life interpretation of characters?
7. Sound effects: Does speaking or acting predominate? Does the dialogue seem real? Do
actors speak effectively? Are characteristic noises employed? Is the music suitable?
8. Critics: What do critics say about the picture? Are their opinions sound? Do you share
their points of view?
9. General impression and conclusion: The impression the film made on you. How was
the effect achieved? Do you think this film is worth seeing?
STORY 2
I’ve just seen War and Peace on the screen, the first two parts of it. What a wonderful
and profound film it is! It really produces a powerful impression. Though I’ve read the book, the
picture held my interest from beginning to end and I enjoyed it immensely.
It
was
photographed with great skill and the cast is splendid beyond all doubts. But I think Savelyeva is the best.
She doesn’t simply act, she lives her role. I also like Bondarchuk as Pierre Bezukhov and Tikhonov
as Andrei Bolkonsky. After the end of the show I heard some spectators saying: “The picture is
good but a bit dragged-out, especially the war scenes.” It may be so, but nevertheless it is splendid
and in my opinion worth seeing by all means. I hope all film-goers will enjoy it greatly.
 Have you seen the films mentioned in the dialogue and the stories? What are your impressions about them?
 What makes modern and old films different? Present your arguments for and against
watching old films.
.
What is your attitude to old films? Should young people watch them? Why/why not?
 Practise the following dialogue.
D: Do you like seeing old-films?
V: No. Well, I like Charlie Chaplin.
D: Mm. I saw a terrific Russian one the other day about a battle-ship. It was a silent film, before the
“talkies” came in. You see the words on the screen before each scene.
V: Heavens! I haven’t seen one so old. I saw an old Audrey Hepburn film two weeks ago. That was
“Roman Holiday”. When she starred with Gregory Peck. I loved it.
D: I saw it, too. It was all right, but not marvellous. The documentary film with it about the Antarctic really was good. The penguins were so funny–exactly like old men in evening dress.
V: Ah, look. The queue’s beginning to move.
D: Good! I wonder what this film will be like. It got very good reviews in all the papers. I don’t
know much about Laurence Olivier, do you?
V: No, I don’t. We’ve got a book about him at home. I’ve never read it, but I’m looking forward to
the film.
An employment agency is advertising various jobs in film-making. Create adverts
describing the following jobs: a cameraman; a make-up girl, a costume designer; a sound
engineer; a stuntman/woman.
 Which silent Russian film is meant here?
 What do you know about L. Olivier? Which films made him famous?
STORY 1
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