Comment on some of the films you have been watching for the course. Are they good for learning English? Would you recommend them to other students on the course? Why? (ps Remember not to give away the plot ;-)).
What an amazing movie! Really one of my favourite films. You can find here 3-4 different genre of cinema: main references are oriental martial art films, Sergio Leone’s western movies, but also, for example, Japanese comics. Even if you don’t like these models, anyway you really can enjoy the film. Moreover, for instance, my girlfriend doesn’t like “Pulp fiction” (that I adore), still by Tarantino, while she absolutely loves “Kill Bill”. There are very good actors: from the main character Uma Thurman in her best interpretation, to a beautiful Lucy Liu, from a really perfidious Daryl Hannah, to a fascinating David Carradine, and so on. The music also is fantastic: beautiful old songs (e.g. by Johnny Cash and Ennio Morricone) mixed with original pieces really charged of tension, that leave you out of breath. Now, let’s talk about English. Maybe it’s not the best film you can see to learn English, for a series of reasons: first of all in vol.I for a long time characters speak Japanese (with english subtitles, of course), and moreover it is an action movie and so there are long scenes without speaking at all. So I can suggest you to see it in English only only in the case you haven’t seen it in Italian yet, and mainly because it’s a really good film. However I could understand almost everything characters said, especially Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu, which speak in a very clear way. It’s interesting, in one of the earliest scenes, to note the different accent between Thurman and the coloured actress Vivica A. Fox. Finally, if you are interested in learning curses and bad words, well, this is your film!
Hi matteo. I watched Kill Bill too. Very good, but let me suggest another movie. One of my preferred movie is "Twelve Monkeys" I saw it many times without getting the right final. The director is Gilliam, one of the Monthy Phyton. The plot is (deliberatly) cahotic.. but Willis and Pitt are wonderful. Riccardo Ps my nickname is ildiondodalle5dita.. I don't know why.. But I'm Riccardo D(olce)G(abbana) Bye
Narrated by Doctor Sheppard, who takes the place of Poirot's sidekick Hastings in assisting Poirot, the story begins with the death of a widow who is rumoured to have murdered her husband. Her death is followed next day by the death of Roger Ackroyd, a close friend of the widow. After this murder, the death of the widow, initially believed to be suicide, is now seen under a different light... The two murderers are a completely mistery to the local police... but, fortunately, the renowned Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, even though retired, agrees to come out of retirement one last time to solve the case.
This film (the one by David Suchet) is quite easy to understand. I think this is due to the dialogues that seem to be a bit slower compared to other films.
Well, I think this film is fantastic, and even if it was made about 10 years ago, it is also extremely relevant since it deals with several social issues, like the respect of human values and the impact of television and business in everyday life. Jim Carey is the main character, Truman Burbank. Since Truman was born, he was adopted by a TV network, who built a giant reality-show around him. Everyone in this show is an actor, except for Truman, who doesn't know anything about this terrible "joke". His mother, his father, his friends and even his wife are actors, and every minute of his life is watched on TV by million of people all over the world. However, owing to some particular events, Truman starts thinking that there's something "strange" in his life, and that he has to leave his small village where he stayed till he was born... Will he manage to escape? I think Jim Carey is a great actor, and he is easily understandable. The same is for the other actors involved. My recommendation? This film is a must.
That's surprise!!! I was not won over to watch this film...instead the plot is really intriguing and not so predictable! The film captures attention because it weaves between the narrative of the eyewitness and Jean's (one of the protagonist)private struggle with jealousies and suspiciousness on her husband. The plot is about murder, jealousy, different ways to love and secrets...Time jumps between past (1873) and present (2000) creating suspence... There are good actors: e.g. the famous Sean Penn and the beautiful Elizabeth Harley (a little unpleasant in her role!) but also a great Catherine Mc Cormack; I liked very much her interpretation! Finally, it's a pleasure for girls to see a right as rain Josh Lucas ;-)
What about the English? Well...I can't recommend this film to learn English because actors speak really quickly and, above all, Sean Penn is not easily understandable...However, subtitles help to follow the plot and so, at the end, I was able to appreciate the film.
LOST This is not a film but a tv serie. The plot of the serie is very simple: due to an air crash, several people are constrained to survive on a desert and secret island.
In my opinion it is a fantastic tv serie. The plot is very enigmatic and the story is recounted cleverly by the director. Every character has a past history that is very important in the context of the island. Every history and every secret is introduced in the right moment as a flashback. This narrative scheme creates a great suspense and the watcher is entirely captured.
The English is quite understandable because by catching the eye of actors one can achieve an help to understand the sentences. Even if it is not a tv serie like friends, that tells about every day-life, it is advisable to learn English.
Russian mafia a British midwife (Naomi Watts) and some gallons of blood are the main elements of this good film. The story begins with a cruel murder of a man while he is by the barber and a with a young and pregnant Russian girl who dies leaving her baby alive and alone. The first event will create as a chain reaction a series of other murders in the Russian mafia context, which main characters are very good interpreted by the actors (especially Vincent Cassel and Viggo Mortensen). On the other side, the midwife (who has a Ukrainian uncle living with her) takes care of the baby and finds a mysterious diary in the mother's clothes, which is, of course, written in Russian. She finds also a trademark of a Russian restaurant, where she will start looking for information about the died young girl, in order to find her family and give them the baby. The restaurant, as you can imagine, is something more than a typical Russian restaurant...
I found this film good, even not at the same level of "History of violence", an other Cronenberg's film I watched about two months ago. Anyway, I would suggest to watch this film, but mainly because of the film itself and not because of the English. Many characters are, in fact, Russians and speak a sort of Russian-English which is quite always very clear but very different from British or American-English. Moreover I found the midwife actress way of speaking very clear and easy to understand.
So, that's all: watch this film if you like Cronenberg, mafia stories, mystery, Russian people, and you don't cover your eyes when you see blood coming out from wounds in a really realistic way.
I suggest Matrix. Probably most of you have seen it at least once. For those that lived on Mars in the last years :D Matrix is a science fiction action film (according to Wikipedia). English used in it, is not difficult although some concepts are pretty complex. The story is about a war about Man and Machines were the main battlefield is a virtual world called Matrix.
As i told you wendnesday, i have been watching Jumper. It's an action film, not very psicologically intense or significative. It's the story of a young man, David, who discovers he has a supernatural power. He can jump instantaneously in any place in the world just using it's visual imagination. These power oblige him to abandon his family and conduct a lonely life. Jumpers tend not to become "ordinary" superheroes, instead they lead a quite "selfish" life, just robbing banks and enjoying living in strange and hidden places like caves near Giza's pyramids. A group of other men, called Paladins, figths against these Jumpers, stating that only God can have these powers. Paladins use electricity against jumpers, because electrick shocks to their nervous systems interfer with their powers. As the story develops, David gradually discovers who Paladins are and why are they going after him. Finally he succeeds (i cannot tell you how and in what :)), discovers all his mysteries, and, obviously, finds love. The plot is not very strong from a logical point of view, because its developing it's only a pretext for showing action scenes, shot all around the world. For example Jumpers hiding themselves running istantaneously from America to Italy, and so on. Some scenes are very pitoresque, others are a bit exaggerated. I've seen this film without subtitles, because it was very simple to watch to. Actors do not speak a lot and so it was not so useful for me as an english exercise. As an action movie, it also contains short sections of very fast (but not witty) speech, of which i missed the most.
As a conclusion, this film indirecty recalled me a strange idea. As it's partially shot in Italy, at Rome, during the film you can hear secondary actors talking in italian. I always wondered how is italian language and accent heard by foreigners. I mean, we have an idea of "russian", an idea of "american". But how sounds "italian" to russian people, or to american ones? Aswerless question, of course :)
The second part of the trilogy begins as Doc, Marty and Jennifer take the time-traveling DeLorean into the year 2015 to straighten out the future of the McFly family. But Biff Tannen steals the time machine and gives his younger self a book containing 50 years of sports statistics, which the young Biff uses to amass an enormous gambling fortune and transform Hill Valley into a living hell. To restore the present, Doc and Marty must return to the events of their previous adventure and retrieve the book.
I’ve watched Stardust…well, the film it’s quite easy, you can understand it even without subtitles. It’s a simple tale, an old story where you can find witches, pirates, fallen stars and so on. There’s a wonderful Michelle Pfeiffer, and she speaks very well, you can understand her without problems! There’s also Robert De Niro…. Well…. his character is quite amusing and, above all, quite different from his classic roles. You can find also Peter O’Toole, the old king, and Rupert Everet, one of the king’s son….. well, in my opinion, it's a film well done and with a really good cast! If you want to spend a relaxing evening and you like this kind of film (fantasy), Stardust is a good choice!
“Lemoni Snicket's: A series of unfortunate events” “Tristan and Isolde” “Aeon Flux”
I chose to watch different kinds of movie.....
The first movie is a “family movie” with Jim Carry. Lemoni Snicket is a writer and he is the movie voice-over ....he' s writing and narrating the story of three young odd orphans that unfortunately met the Count OLAF (Jim Carry), the bad-man. Strange things happened, and people died during the film...but in any case with an happy-end.. This movie, in my opinion, has well-groomed details....such as the setting, the costumes and the colors... and it could be a good choice to spend two hours in relax...in any case Jim Carry is fantastic as “transformer”.... About the language....I watched the movie without subtitles and I didn't find particular difficulties to understand the story...
The second movie is an “hystorical Movie”...it is the story of Tristan and Isolde (Isotta in Italian...) the unification of Ireland is background of this story... Isolde is Ireland and Tristan is English and the war is between their countries... Tristan is in love with Isolde and he tried to find a solution .... I won a joust where Isolde is the bonus..but unfortunately she was the bonus for the king and not for the winner....and the king is Tristan's Brother... Impossible loves, treasons and blinds are at the basis of this history where Tristan died but his honor is safe defending his country... I watched it without subtitles and, except for some words related to war dictionary, I didn't find difficulties in understanding...and I suggest it
The third movie is a “science fiction movie”...in fact I didn't understand so much the story..I watched it without subtitles...but the problem, I think is not the English, but the story itself...I think that this movie has been written for the actress and to underline her body.... I my opinion, as lady, it isn't a good and interesting movie to see...
“ The Gladiator” “The weather man” I have watched “The Gladiator” directed by Ridley Scott with Russel Crowe. It has been sent out in the Italian cinema in 2000 and it can be defined as an action movie but it is also a drama film. I have already seen this film in Italian twice and I like it very much although I cry every time. About English language I have watched it with subtitles so my opinion isn’t very helpful but it is quite easy to understand because the dialogues aren’t too quick. About plot I mention only the famous phrase “On my command - unleash hell”. I have watched also “The weather man”, a comedy-drama film about David Spritz (Nicholas cage), a successful weatherman but with a disastrous life. I don’like it maybe because comedy isn’t one of my favorite genre... There are also many dirty words and the language was very difficult to understand because it’s American rather than English. So I don’t recommend to see it neither for the plot nor for the language…
It's a 1974 comedy film,directed by Mel brooks, whit Gene Wilder.It is considered one of the greatest comedy films of all time,a very nice parody of the classical horror movie Frankestein (from the homonymous novel).I don't speak about the story....Frankestein is well-known everywhere isn't it? The film is a black and white movie in order to recreate the atmosphere of the older original horror movie. I already saw it before in Italian language and now that I saw it in English I found nice try to understand how the use of words sounded in the original language like "Werewolf? there wolfs, there castle".The dialog are not very hard so it is possible to enjoy the movie. PS greetings from Frau Blucher............
hihihihihihihihiiiiii ( It would sound like a whinny)
I watched this Film Title *The pursuit of Happiness*(star: Will Smith) The film begins in 1981 in San Francisco, California. Linda and Chris Gardner live in a small apartment with their son, Christopher. Chris has invested the family's life savings in license selling portable bone density scanners. These scanners provide slightly denser pictures than X-rays, but most of the doctors Chris visits find that they are too high-priced. Linda works in a dead-end job in a local hotel laundry. The tension between them increases as unpaid rent and bills continue to accumulate. Chris often parks his car in disallowed areas so he can make scheduled appointments on time, and after parking tickets remains unpaid, their car is seized/take away. After missing a shift at her job, Linda finally leaves without their son Christopher, returns briefly, and then departs for New York City, where a better job awaits her, leaving behind the boy at his father's request. Chris accepts an unpaid internship at a brokerage firm Dean Witter Reynolds that promises employment to only one trainee at its conclusion. His lack of salary, and his lack of scanners to try and sell, leaves him riddled with debt, he and his son eventually become homeless. After spending several nights riding buses and sleeping in subway restrooms, carrying their belongings, they begin lining up at the Memorial Church on a daily basis in an effort to secure accommodations for the night. Sometimes they succeed, other times they literally are left out in the cold. As he struggles to provide a appearance of a family life for his son under the most horrible of circumstances, Chris becomes more determined to complete the intern program and become the sole trainee the firm will hire. In the end, Chris gets the job and later starts his own brokerage firm in 1987. Then in 2006 sells a minority of it for a multi-million dollar deal.
The most famous dialog I liked in this movie *There is no Y in Happiness*
Hi everybody! This week I could at last seen “Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix”: there were not bad surprises with the language, but without subtitles it was an hard work, too. Please don't misunderstand me, the plot is easy, of course, and I could comprehend more then eighty percent of dialogues, as you can image. However it was the first time I watched an Harry Potter's film (I've never read any book of this series in English) so I spent all energies in recognizing all characters' name, their different spelling and meaning in comparison with the Italian version. Above all I would like to remember how in Italian the Headmaster of Hogwarts name is “Albus Silente” instead in English you call him “Albus Dumbledore”. I found in Wikipedia that the name "Dumbledore" is an old Devon (county in south-west England) word for "bumblebee" (a flying insect) and was picked by Rowling because she imagines him wandering around the castle humming to himself and it sounds quite different from the Italian meaning. Lots of details I found when I read the book are lost here, even if the film runs fast. It looks like a triller film, indeed, looking for suspense but it couldn't give the right time to everything. So I think if I hadn't read the book I shouldn't have comprehended all scenes. About spoken English, it was a good exercise but, of course, young actors don't speak in a clear way. They in fact loose emphasis and don't spell all words properly. By the way, I suggest you Harry Potter's film series if you like easy and relaxing films.
I'm Emanuele. I'm going to tell you something about the English films I've watched so far. Lately I don't use to watching many films beacuse I focus more on tv-series. At present I'm watching mainly two tv series, Alias and Lost, by the same executive producer, JJ Abrams, who is a very talented writer in my opinion. What I appreciate more in his tv-series is the enigmatic situations he creates in every episode.He maintains a great deal of suspence in tv-watchers and brings on a kind of addiction which always induces them to watch new episodes. As for films I recently watched two english films in original language: Good Luck Chuck with Dane Cook and Jessica Alba and Match Point with Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Scarlett Johansson. The first film is a comedy about a dentist who seems to have a spell on himself: he can't find the girl of his life because all the girls know that after dating him and breaking up with him they are magically meant to find the right man for them straight after him. When the dentist realizes this situation he takes advantage of it for a while, having fun with a lot of girls, but everything changes when he falls in love with a girl. He is afraid that breaking up with her could mean losing her forever. This is an American film and it is not difficult to understand. Match Point is another really nice film. It is the story of a Irish guy who moves to London. There he meets a family and starts dating the daughter, Chloe. But in the meanwhile he starts feeling a strong attraction for Nola, the girlfriend of her brother. After his marriage with Chloe he met Nola again and learns that she's not longer engaged so he becomes her lover, but the situation gets really hard when Nola gets pregnant by him ... I definitively like this film even if I'm not much familiar with Birtish English. Anyway the plot is really amazing and in the finale there is a twist. I advise you to watch it. Bye bye
I'm Emanuele. I'm going to tell you something about the English films I've watched so far. Lately I don't use to watching many films beacuse I focus more on tv-series. At present I'm watching mainly two tv series, Alias and Lost, by the same executive producer, JJ Abrams, who is a very talented writer in my opinion. What I appreciate more in his tv-series is the enigmatic situations he creates in every episode.He maintains a great deal of suspence in tv-watchers and brings on a kind of addiction which always induces them to watch new episodes. As for films I recently watched two english films in original language: Good Luck Chuck with Dane Cook and Jessica Alba and Match Point with Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Scarlett Johansson. The first film is a comedy about a dentist who seems to have a spell on himself: he can't find the girl of his life because all the girls know that after dating him and breaking up with him they are magically meant to find the right man for them straight after him. When the dentist realizes this situation he takes advantage of it for a while, having fun with a lot of girls, but everything changes when he falls in love with a girl. He is afraid that breaking up with her could mean losing her forever. This is an American film and it is not difficult to understand. Match Point is another really nice film. It is the story of a Irish guy who moves to London. There he meets a family and starts dating the daughter, Chloe. But in the meanwhile he starts feeling a strong attraction for Nola, the girlfriend of her brother. After his marriage with Chloe he met Nola again and learns that she's not longer engaged so he becomes her lover, but the situation gets really hard when Nola gets pregnant by him ... I definitively like this film even if I'm not much familiar with Birtish English. Anyway the plot is really amazing and in the finale there is a twist. I advise you to watch it. Bye bye
This film have appealed me because I have read the related book; being a lot of time that I present again myself to see the film, this time, considering that I have to see an English film, I have joined the necessary to the fun. The film is directed by Ron Howard, the protagonist is portrayed by Tom Hanks and the release date is May 2006. Drawed by the Dan Brown novel, “the Da Vinci code” speacks about a murder inside the Louvre that lead to the discovery of a religious mystery protected by a secret society. The background of the story describe real places and artworks, and the events of the story are nosey and adventurous. The language used by the actors isn’t very simple in some parts of the film when the scene is agitated; on the other side there are some scenes with calm and slow dialogues and with a good focus you can understand an high percentage of the words. I think it’s a beautiful and undemanding film. Bye Bye
The first one is Liar Liar, with Jim Carey. He plays the part of a very successful lawyer, and the reason of his success is that he always lies. In particular, he lies both at work and in his private life, promising things to his ex-wife and to his 4 years old son that he isn't able to mantain. So his son, during his 5th birthday party, blows out the candles and expresses a whish: "I whish my dad didn't tell a lie just for one day." And suddenly the whish comes true... with so funny consequences! As I have already said about The Truman Show, I think Jim Carey is a great actor, and he is easy to understand, even if he speaks quite fast. In particular, I found this film easyer than The Truman Show, since the words used are simpler and more common.
The other one is License to Wed, with Robin Williams. Robin Williams is a Protestant minister and he is famous for his wedding preparation courses. Indeed, statistics tell that about the 50% of marriages fail in about a year, since men and women get married without actually knowing each other... but couples who attend these "special" courses have always a successful marriage. So, the story begins when a girl and her boyfriend decide to start their preparation to wed, and discover the minister's method, which is extremely funny! I found this film quite difficult to understand, because actors speak very fast and with many colloquial expressions which sounded strange to me. Also, Robin Williams acts in a very expressive and dynamic way, which makes things even more difficult. However, I got it using subtitles sometimes.
I'm going to talk a little about a film I recently watched. It's "Gangs of New York" and I think many of you alredy know it, since it is a famous film. In fact, it features some famous actors, such as Leonardo di Caprio, Daniel Day Lewis and Cameron Diaz, and it was directed by Martin Scorsese in 2002.
The film (as the title suggests :) is set in New York, around the year 1850. At that time, a small quarter in the city, called Five Points, was the set of fights among the gangs that want to dominate it. Two of these gangs were the American Natives, formed by people born in America, and the Dead Rabbits, formed by Irish immigrants.
In a challenge between these two gangs, the chief of American Natives, Bill the Butcher, killed the priest, leader of the Dead Rabbits, and the American Natives started their dominance over Five Points. For the years to come, in Five Points, no one was even allowed to speak out the name of Dead Rabbits. Who was really devastated by this death was Amsterdam, the little son of the priest, that was kept away from that place for many years. But few years later, it managed to come back to Five Points, determined to take his revenge against killer of his father!
In the film there is a *lot* of violence, and I would suggest you to see it only if you don't mind all the violence and blood visible in the film! Anyway, I think is a good film!
Probably it's not the best film to see for learning, because the dialogues can be a little difficult to understand (as for all action films). But with subtitles it's much more simpler!
I'd also like to tell you about a little curious fact about the film! (at least for italians...) ...do you know that it was shot in Italy, at the Cinecittà studios?
MIB, who didn’t see this film?! I think it’s a mythic film from 90s: action, comedy and science-fiction mixed together with astonishing (at least ten years ago!) special effects. Moreover, one of the main characters of the film is a very young (and thin!) Willy Smith, training and becoming a MIB, who smartly try to keep the world safe from interstellar wars together with his “colleague”, the Agent K. I really loved this film: the right mix of fantasy and humour for a relaxing and enjoyable evening. However, from the English-learning point of view, maybe it’s not the best choice: it was not so easy to understand American pronunciation and there are lots of slang expressions. Anyway, if you watch even a small part of the film using subtitles, you can learn many strange and funny terms, “okey dokey” ?! Bye!
In this blog what we all are suppose to do is just tell about a movie we have watched. The movie I chose was “The Mummy”, this is a pretty old movie, I mean the first time I saw it was like 10 years ago…. However I got this opportunity to see it today in English without subtitles so I apologize with all of you if during my presentation I make some spelling mistakes (and probably I will), but I will try to avoid them… I am also going to try to summarize the story of the film, next paragraph, just to practice (sorry if it is boring). So the story started from ancient Egypt in the “city of the living”, there was a quick description of how the life was and about culture, in fact the story was focus on the breaking of a rule of that society, “no one was allowed to touch her, the favorite of the pharaoh, but she was in love with the “high priest” and he was in love with her as well”. Then they were caught by the pharaoh himself and they killed him, when the bodyguards of the pharaoh came, the high priest was able to run away, thanks to her who killed herself in front of the guardians to let him go……he was the only one who could resurrect her from death using the book of death….to do that, he had to steal the body of his lover and go to “Amunaptra, city of death” where all the treasures of the all the pharaohs were hidden, but he was stopped before the ritual was completed and captured by the bodyguard …his punishment was a curse, the most terrible and powerful one called “Homram”, which had never been used before. he will be a dead-man living for eternity….., and he has never to be woken up, or he will arise as a disease for the humanity with the power over the sand and the power of his invincibility….. so the movie got to early the 1900s and started with one of the protagonists, O’Connel, who was at Amunaptra with a legion (I guess his own legion). They were attacked from the descent of the pharaoh guardians, the city protector: the Mummy never has to be woken…..OConnel survived and went to prison because he had “fun” in a Egypt city (I don’t remember the name)…… in the mean time the other protagonist “Eve” found out that her brother had found the map to get to Amunaptra. She was a librarian and worked at the museum of that same city where OConnel was imprisoned (I guess), the first thing she did was to consult her boss (the boss was one of the descendent guardians of the pharaoh and no one was known that), he burn “accidently” the map so that it could not be used … So eve and her brother went to where he had got the map or rather where he stole the map from. They, of course, went to OConnel, they freed him.. so the newly formed company formed left the city to go to amunaptra where clearly woke the Mummy. Then start the part of the movie in which every one runs, fights and where the Mummy chased them….. in fact the Mummy chose eve as the victim for the resurrection ritual to make his lover come back among the living. She was kidnapped from the mummy and brought to amunaptra, where she was saved by OConnel after a long fight which was concluded thanks to eve and her brother since they found the book of the living which contained an incantation to deprive the mummy of its powers… so happy ending… for the protagonists at last…
I hope I did not bored you too much, however the film was funny to watch and reasonably easy to understand in English, so if you want to have an nice time watching TV and practicing your english, I say: you can watch the Mummy.
I have watched movie called “The Sixth Sense” written and directed by Famous Indian director Night Shyamalan. I believe he is one of the great creative directors. The film starts with Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) a prominent child psychologist, returns home one night with his wife from an event in which he was honored for his efforts with children. The two discover they are not alone – a silent appearance of nearly naked man named Vincent Grey appears in the doorway of their bathroom with a gun saying, "I don't want to be afraid anymore." Vincent is upset that Crowe did not help him, and Crowe recognizes Vincent as a former patient whom he once treated as a child for his hallucinations (illusion/fantasy). He condemns (criticize) Malcolm for his inability to help him and shoots him in the stomach, and seconds later turns the gun on himself. The scene fades away with Malcolm's wife by his side. The next fall Malcolm is shown working with another frightened (scared) boy, nine-year old Cole with a condition similar to Vincent's. Malcolm becomes dedicated to this patient, though he is haunted by doubts over his ability to help him after his failure with Vincent. Meanwhile, he apparently begins to neglect his wife, with whom his relationship is falling apart. Malcolm earns Cole's trust and Cole ultimately eventually confides (reveal) in him that he can "see dead people." Though Malcolm is skeptical(doubtful) at first, he eventually comes to believe that Cole is telling the truth and that Vincent may have had the same ability as Cole. He realizes this one night as he is listening to one of his old tapes, recorded while he was treating Vincent, and hears the pleading (insistent) voices of dead people in the background. He suggests to Cole that he try to find a purpose for his gift by communicating with the ghosts, perhaps to aid (help) them in their unfinished business on Earth. Cole at first does not want to heed (listen) this advice, as the ghosts terrify him, but he soon decides to try it. Cole finally talks to one of the ghosts, a girl who appears in his bedroom very sick. He finds out where the girl lived and goes to her house during her funeral reception. Girl ghost appears and gives Cole a box, which is opened to reveal a videotape. When Cole gives it to Girl father, the tape reveals that while Girl was bedridden (laid up) with illness, her mother was poisoning her food, and this in fact was what led to Girl*s death Now believing in his ability to use his gift(sixth sense) to positive effect, Cole confesses (disclose/acknowledge) his secret to his mother, Lynn Although his mother at first does not believe him, Cole soon tells Lynn that her own mother (Cole's grandmother) once went to see her perform in a dance recital (concert) one night when she was a child, and that Lynn was not aware of this because her mother stayed in the back of the audience where she could not be seen. He also tells her answer to a question she asked when alone at her mother's grave. Lynn tearfully accepts this as the truth. His faith in himself now restored as a result of his success with Cole, Malcolm returns to his home, where he finds his wife asleep on the sofa with the couple's wedding video on in the background, not for the first time. As she sleeps Anna's hand releases Malcolm's wedding ring, revealing the twist ending of the film: Malcolm himself is unwittingly (without knowing) one of Cole's ghosts, having been killed by his ex-patient in the opening scene. Due to Cole's efforts, Malcolm's unfinished business—rectifying (correct) his failure to understand Vincent—is finally complete. Recalling Cole's advice about talking to his wife while she's asleep so that she'll have to listen, Malcolm speaks to her and releases her to move on with her life, and frees himself to leave behind the world of the living.
Dragonheart is shot a few years ago. Even if it’s quite “old”, I really like it, and I’ve watched it both in Italian and in English. It tells the story of a knight, a “Knight of the Old Code”, as the dragon defines him, who is the king’s son mentor and who becomes a dragon-slayer …. And the story of a dragon, Draco, who “shared his life force with a dying boy”. Even if it’s a rather dated film, the animation of the dragon is really good, and the locations of the film are wonderful! The film was shot it in Slovacchia, to the Spissy Castle. The knight is performed by Dennis Quaid, he has got a really deep voice, quite different from the voice of his Italian dubber. In any case you can understand him quite well….. but the dragon is much better! The voice of the dragon belongs to Sean Connery, and even if he’s Scottish, he speaks very well!........While I found quite difficult to understand the king, performed by David Thewlis, even if he’s English. In the end I have also to mention the wonderful soundtrack of this film, that is composed by the famous Randy Edelman.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Is someone gone to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ? Do not do it! Sorry I’ve seen it at the Cinema and it was in Italian Language…..but I’ve seen trailers and video clip download from the official site in English and they were very simple. It’s not easy to spot a whole bunch of absurd scenes and funny dialogue. (very stupid!) Famed archaeologist/adventurer Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, no more young, is called back into action when he becomes entangled in a Soviet plot to uncover the secret behind mysterious artifacts known as the Crystal Skulls Since the beginning we can see the hero of the story faces toward big soviet army and to win even if his best friend betrays him selling himself to the adversaries. The Soviet are the bad who build fake city or destroy the existing one for making nuclear experiment ( ……America vs URSS…..as usual!) Dialogues? The Best: “What is it? Giant ants…disgusting, let’s go!”very deep! See the Film only for to see how a very handsome man like Harrison Ford is becoming old and not so very intriguing. Bye Lisab
Yesterday I watched a film in Blue Ray (the new High Definition standard for consumer home vision) called “Music and Lyric”. In this film Hugh Grant play the role of Alex Fletcher, an ex popstar of the 80s. He lived thanks to minor events where he performs his old songs. One day his agent tells him that the famous Pop star Cora Corman, a parody of our nowadays popstars, want to sing a song with him. Cora gives to him less than a week to write the song. I don’t want to say more about the plot as the films deserve to be watched. It is a very good film if you liked Hugh Grant film. Unfortunately, at least for me, the English comprehension is not easy. It is the first time that I watch an Hugh Grant film in English, but before “Music and Lyric” I thought that actor with a great mimicry were easier to understand. Obviously I was wrong as facial expression didn’t compensate the un-audibility of mute-syllable. On the other hand Brad Garret (Chris Riley in the film) was very easy to understand. A quick research on Google, reveals to me that he is also a voice actor. Know I think that actor who are also voice actor are easier to understand.... until the next film off course :D
Hi everybody, yesterday I have watched the film “Pride and Prejudice”. The story is about the Bennet family, that is composed by five sisters. Their mother had brought up them with the unique aim: to get married. Nevertheless, the second daughter Lizzie (interpreted by Keira Knightley) has no intention to wed. In the meantime, Ms Bennet (the mother) comes to know that a very rich bachelor is going to transfer in a estate in the proximities with his friends (also they have a well-to-do family). So Lizzie knows one of these persons, Mr Darcy (alias Matthew Macfadyen) but at first their relationship is not very good because of the coldness of him and, above all, because of a strong pride and many prejudices that the characters have. However, they succeed to go over all these difficulties and to get married. I have watched this film with the English subtitles, because in some moments I don’t understand what the characters said. But in general this is a good film to understand speech languages, though the typology of the dialogues belong to a background that is not the same of our society.
Hallo everybody…I have watched: “Dead Poets Society”…
It is a famous drama-movie with Robin Williams from the end of eighties that probably all of you know….for who doesn’t know it, I can say the Italian name, “L’attimo fuggente”…and probably everything will be more clear...
I watched it, the first time, when I was at Lyceum suggested me by my Italian’s teacher….
The protagonists are young boys and the setting is an austere male school … in this Academy, the Welton Academy, they met a particular teacher with a different approach to the life, (Prof. Keating played by R.Williams) .
In fact he tries to teach them the “nonconformity” … pushing them to be free-thinkers…for instance, telling about the “dead poets society” or teaching them the motto “seize the day”, that it means “cogli l’attimo”….
In any case I don’t want to describe here the story… I appreciated the movie…and in particular the effort done to show the difference between the old and the new way of life…where the freedom is one of the most important value…
What do I said in addition?…enjoy the movie!! See you on Friday..
I have watched the famous film “Bridget Jones's Diary”. This is a British film although the main character, Renee Zellweger, is American. This film is simple because in my opinion the storyteller helps to understand what happens. In fact I have also watched the TV series “Desperate housewives” where there is a storyteller that helps to understand. This is a romantic comedy film based on the novel also called “Bridget Jones's Diary”. The film talks about Bridget Jones, a thirty-something single woman living in London. She tries to make sense of life and love. She falls in love with her boss Daniel and later with Mark and….if someone needs to spend a funny relaxing evening I suggest this film.
to tell the truth i didn't watch any movies this week (not because I'm lazy as many friends of mine could say but last week-end I worked and during this week I Had no time). Anyway next week-end I decide to watch The Blues Brother. Since as I already watched it in Italian language(maybe 4 or 5 time) as exercise I could speak a little bit about that movie. It's a movie from the eighties whit John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as main characters but how forget James Brown, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and John Lee Hooker and last but not least Steven Spielberg. The film is a musical comedy fill of car chase scenes and good music(The BBC stated the soundtrack as the best one in the cinema's history).I think that this will not be an easy movie but I am really curious to discover all the bloopers and the differences from the original language movie, for example I read that there are some mistake in the dubbing,like false-friend Harp translated as harp but in American slang means glass harmonica,and some dialog changed like speaking about the blues-mobile ..anti-theft device, while in the original language they speak about catalyzer, since in the eighties in Italy catalyzer weren't known enough they decided to change it. I'll tell you my impression after I watch it in the meantime what's more......... ..........Everybody Needs Somebody To Love Bye Bye
I’ve watched Erin Brockovich. It’s a true story about a big case against an important company, the PG&E. The PG&E had polluted the water for over 15 years with hexavalent chromium, which is toxic, and had told to the persons living near the plant that they where using the chromium three, which is good for human health. PG&E had also paid for medical check-up for all the families living around the plant’s area, showing them that they were sane and so that the chromium three was good…. But the problem was that none of these families were sane! They had cancers, cysts, immune deficiencies, asthma and so on, and PG&E told them that all those ills had nothing to do with chromium in the water.
Erin is a young mother with three children and no husband, no money, who is looking for a job. She find a work in an lawyer’s office, Ed Masry, and she discovers everything about the PG&E’s fraud of the Hinkley’s plant. Erin and Ed gather informations and evidences about this fraud, drive all the plaintiffs in one of the most important case in US history (Hinkley vs. PG&E)… and they win it! During the film, during this two years case, you can see a big change in Erin, she gradually find a balance between her work and her family…. When the work is all right, when the persons begin to respect her and she begin to trust in herself, the relations with her children become more difficult, they missed her. And only in the end she find a real balance between this two part of her life…. But there is a constant feature in Erin: she is always so strong, so determined, it seems like nothing can stop her, that’s incredible! And for this character Julia Roberts is the right choice!
Concerning English….. well, the film isn’t so easy to understand, they speak quickly, and there are many colloquial expressions. I’ve watched it with subtitles, and it’s better!
In the end, if you want to watch the film…..just the last note: the waitress in the fast-food, at the very beginning of the film, is the real Erin Brockovich!
“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”
I watched the film “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” that is a 2003 adventure film. The main characters are the pirate Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp),the blacksmith Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), kidnapped by the cursed crew of the Black Pearl, captained by Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush). I like very much the Captain Jack Sparrow's character because he is very funny! In fact he weaves and while he is speaking (often slurring) he makes strange gestures with his hands. Moreover I think he is very handsome… I watched all the three episodes of this saga in Italian and my favourite film is the second one. I watched this film without subtitles and I have found it quite difficult because some dialogues are very quick; in some instances I remembered the cues (I have watched this film twice and there are very funny cues!) and so I could understand better the English language. I suggest to watch it!! Bye!!
Ocean’s thirteen (probably it is subsequent to Ocean’s Twelve which I have lost) is an action movie directed by Steven Soderbergh with George Clooney, Andy Garcia,Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Al Pacino. A Beautiful cast! But not so beautiful is the story… Danny Ocean’ s best friend, Reuben, is in hospital because of a heart attack caused by the betrayal of the loathsome Banks, who has built with him a hotel. Danny and his crew won’t stand for Banks and he’s done to a friend. Joining with Benedict (Andy Garcia), their old enemy, who want vendetta against Banks, they boycott the opening of the new Bank’s Casino. The crew is out to bankrupt one of the city's most despised businessmen. All is done not for money but for friendship. What can I say? Following this film even if there were subtitles for me is been difficult because the actor speak too fast even if they didn’t have a big vocabulary they use common words but they have drawl. Bye!!!
“Mrs. Winterbourne” (Italian title: “Scambio di identità”)
Mrs. Winterbourne is a romantic comedy/drama. This movie is based on the Cornell Woolrich novel I Married A Dead Man. The main character, Connie Doyle, is eighteen and gets pregnant by her boyfriend, who then leaves her. She accidentally ends up on a train where she meets Hugh Winterbourne and his wife Patricia who is pregnant. The train crashes and she wakes up in the hospital to find out that it's been assumed that she's Patricia. She comes to live with the rich family of her deceased "husband". When she thinks everything is going her way, her ex-boyfriend shows up. This is an “old” film (1996) but, in my opinion, this is a good film for learn English because I understood well what they say.
It's a comedy starring Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore. It's the story of a former band-group artist Alex Flethcer (Hugh Grant), who was very popular in 80s but who has today lost his popularity. In order to make him recover it and to referesh his image his manager suggests the possibility of writing a new song for a very famous popstar girl, who really likes him. He accepts but he's only a musician and does need a lyricist. So he finds out that Sophie (Drew Barrymore) , the girl who takes care of his house plants has a hidden talent as a lyricist. So they begin writing the song together and after a while they fall in love. The title "Music and Lyrics" seems to be a metaphore of their love beacuse Alex takes care of the music whereas Sophie takes care of the lyrics As for English the film is not very difficult to understand, for me Hugh Grant is perhaps a little bit harder to understand because he speaks with British accent and I am non very accustomed to it. Anyway the film is an American one, the story takes place in New York City. It's a nice film, nothing special but I advise you to watch it for a pleasant night.
Hi! As I saw this weekend I've see The blues brothers, the dialog are not fast even if there's to much slang for me! In my opinion Dan Aykroyd's language is more comprehensible than the one of John Belushi (maybe for the drug or the alcohol???).The US version of the movie contain scenes not included in the Italian version. My opinion about the language could be not an objective description because this is the first movie that i saw without subtitles, maybe my difficulties rises from that but I can assure you that it's hard to understand a cowboy like Bob the owners of the pub were the B.B. played their first concert after the reunion on the Band.
Hi, recently I have seen two movies: 'Young Frankestein' directed by Mel Brooks. and 'The War of the Worlds' by Steven Spielberg. I prefer the former because it's more useful for learning English. I suggest you to watch it without subtitles. The story is also very amusing. Instead the latter is very poor of dialogues and the English (American English) is not often easy to understand.
@Vanessa about “Bridget Jones's Diary” I watched that film although in Italian ;) So, I can only speak about the plot. I think that there are some commonplace in it but this isn't necessary a bad thing. As the film is about singles, commonplace let you feel very comfortable if you are one of them or if you find a partner recently. Anyway I really liked as it is a very funny film especially in the first hour of the plot. At the very beginning there is a scene about Christmas' gift. One of the male main characters received a very embarrassing green pullover with an reindeer drawn on it. As it is his mother gift he have to wear it at dinner feeling pretty stupid. I laughed a lot although embarrassing gift is a very common topic in films.
I'm also a fan of this great series. The first year of this series is incredible. It presents the characters and their life, so you can start to understand their behavior and also start to get on fire with someone. The plot is very enigmatic, as you say, but I think that the fantastic elements introduced by the authors (for example the black cloud) make the story in some moments unduly unbelievable. Have your ever seen this link? http://www.bastardidentro.it/node/view/23584 This is a parody, but at the bottom I think that it represents the thought of many people that watch periodically this series. I agree with you, when you say that the English is quite easy to understand. Probably this is due to the presence of some actors that don't come from England or USA, like Said for example. Anyway, I finds also the voice-over (this is probably an American person) very easy to understand. Just in these days the fourth series is been finished in USA. In the very beginning of the new year the new series will be out. I'm looking forward to see how the authors decide to resolve the enigmas!
I've watched "Pirates of the Caribbean: The course of the Black Pearl" too. I completely agree with you about the Captain Jack Sparrow's character! Johnny Deep is a genius! I read (but I don't remember where) that the director of the film had let Johnny Deep completely free to perform the Captain Jack Sparrol... so he was inspired by the guitarist of the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards..... a real stroke of genius!!! ...... he really seems like Keith! The way he "dresses up", the way he moves... that's incredible! Johnny brings a rock guitarist among pirates! ..... and in the third (and last) episode of the Pirates of Caribbean you can also see the real Keith Richards!!!! just a little "cameo": he is the father of Jack Sparrow..... they really seems like father and son! And you think "Oh! now we can understand why he's like this!" I watched all the three episodes too, but I prefear the first one.
I watched this film with subtitles: I'm agree with you, it's quite difficult, the dialogues are very quick, there are many "technical" words and so on... but it's really fun, there are many handsome guys.... these are the most important things ;-) !!!!!!
I watched this film a few days ago and I agree with Laguna when he said that it is a good film, parhaps because I like Hugh Grant and his films in general, I find him very funny. In particluar in this film where he play the role of a 80's years pop star. Then, as regards of the comprehension of english, the film is quite good even if in some part the dialogues are very fast and so quite difficult. I want to spend some word also for the femal character, that is Drew Barrymore. She was very nice and in this film she creates a veru good couple with Hugh Grant.
Hi everyone, I'm Federica and I want to say something about the last film I've seen in English "Gladiator". That's beautiful, I loved it.Maximus is one of the bravest general in the history of Roman empire and the emperor Marcus Aurelius wants him to be his heir.The emperor wants Rome to a republic once again. His son, Commodus, doesn't have the same dream: he wants to become emperor.He kills his father and Maximus family he also trys to kill Maximus that the general survives.After that begins the legend of Gladiator...I won't tell no more about the plot you have to watch it.I 've seen it with subtitles even if it's not so difficult to understand(lazy girl...I know). Russel Crowe is magnificent and his character is charming and poetic.What else...wonderful soundtrack and horrible latin pronunciation(I know wht the teacher thinks about it but there are only two ways to pronunce latin and they ivent the third horrible way: their own way). Women on the blog you have to see it!
I missed a little thing: the emperor wants Maximus to be his heir but also wants that the most part of the power goes back to senate and this way Rome will be a republic once again. Is it more clear now? i hope so
Hello everybody, Now I am going to talk about the first season of “Heroes”:
That is the story of some persons living in different parts of the world and gifted with exceptional skills markedly over the normal human abilities. In other words, they have super-powers. Slowly They are getting aware about them… we are talking about real powers the kind which make you different and possibly dangerous.
In the scientific fields, a professor, a geneticist was trying to prove his theory concerning the evolution of the humans species. He was researching human cases in which there was a DNA progression with the acquisition of particular abilities.
In a ill-omened day the son of the professor, another scientist, was informed about the death of his father by a killer and he remembered about the last time he had met him, when the professor had revealed to him that he had found the “zero patient” that is the first one in the world to have super-powers. Being certain that the “Zero patient” was the killer and motivated by revenge, he got to Unite States where his father lived determinate to finish the father’s work.
In the meantime we found out that the theory of the professor was just “reality” since some individuals showed incredible abilities. There were some of them who were trying to ignore these powers to have a normal life, other, instead, who wanted to change their own life using them. Everyone, however, were connected each other and destined to meet and to save the world!!!
It was really exciting and fun to watch, there were very different points of view changing continuously along the story so the watcher was stuck into the story and he could not get bored. It is a very good serial to watch.
My name is Monica, I was born in Perù but I live in Italy since 1998. I remember when I arrived I was younger and I thought that that experience was the best choose that I could do, I had thought to remain for one year instead of eleven years but actually I don’t know if one day I'll go back to Perù, now is so difficult to do it, in the meantime I got married and I get on well with my friends and relatives in law. I decided to study English because I wish to work in the branch of Import-Export I would like to take advantage of my mother tongue. I started to study English ten months ago more or less, I went to England in order to learn really English but it was only an illusion because I met many Italians and Spanish people, my big mistake was to live with them, I was studying English whereas I lived with the Italians so I couldn’t practice anything, so I come back after few months with the same level more and less (from beginner to Elementary but only grammar), my advice to everyone is if you want to learn another language you have to live with the local people and to be far away of the people that speak your same language. So, in few months my English hasn’t improve. I came back to London again but was different, and I looked a flat to share with someone from England, I met a house in zone four with an Irish gay, very funny and with him I could speak and practice English. Thanks for attention See you in class
I have been working in tertiary education and foreign language teaching for over 16 years. My professional areas of interest are Language Awareness, Tandem learning, Learner Counselling, Cross Cultural communication and language learning in multimedia environnments including Second Life.
49 comments:
Kill Bill vol.I and II by Quentin Tarantino
What an amazing movie! Really one of my favourite films. You can find here 3-4 different genre of cinema: main references are oriental martial art films, Sergio Leone’s western movies, but also, for example, Japanese comics. Even if you don’t like these models, anyway you really can enjoy the film. Moreover, for instance, my girlfriend doesn’t like “Pulp fiction” (that I adore), still by Tarantino, while she absolutely loves “Kill Bill”.
There are very good actors: from the main character Uma Thurman in her best interpretation, to a beautiful Lucy Liu, from a really perfidious Daryl Hannah, to a fascinating David Carradine, and so on.
The music also is fantastic: beautiful old songs (e.g. by Johnny Cash and Ennio Morricone) mixed with original pieces really charged of tension, that leave you out of breath.
Now, let’s talk about English. Maybe it’s not the best film you can see to learn English, for a series of reasons: first of all in vol.I for a long time characters speak Japanese (with english subtitles, of course), and moreover it is an action movie and so there are long scenes without speaking at all. So I can suggest you to see it in English only only in the case you haven’t seen it in Italian yet, and mainly because it’s a really good film.
However I could understand almost everything characters said, especially Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu, which speak in a very clear way. It’s interesting, in one of the earliest scenes, to note the different accent between Thurman and the coloured actress Vivica A. Fox.
Finally, if you are interested in learning curses and bad words, well, this is your film!
Hi matteo.
I watched Kill Bill too. Very good, but let me suggest another movie.
One of my preferred movie is "Twelve Monkeys" I saw it many times without getting the right final.
The director is Gilliam, one of the Monthy Phyton.
The plot is (deliberatly) cahotic.. but Willis and Pitt are wonderful.
Riccardo
Ps my nickname is ildiondodalle5dita.. I don't know why..
But I'm Riccardo D(olce)G(abbana)
Bye
The murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.
Narrated by Doctor Sheppard, who takes the place of Poirot's sidekick Hastings in assisting Poirot, the story begins with the death of a widow who is rumoured to have murdered her husband. Her death is followed next day by the death of Roger Ackroyd, a close friend of the widow. After this murder, the death of the widow, initially believed to be suicide, is now seen under a different light... The two murderers are a completely mistery to the local police... but, fortunately, the renowned Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, even though retired, agrees to come out of retirement one last time to solve the case.
This film (the one by David Suchet) is quite easy to understand. I think this is due to the dialogues that seem to be a bit slower compared to other films.
The Truman Show, with Jim Carey.
Well, I think this film is fantastic, and even if it was made about 10 years ago, it is also extremely relevant since it deals with several social issues, like the respect of human values and the impact of television and business in everyday life.
Jim Carey is the main character, Truman Burbank. Since Truman was born, he was adopted by a TV network, who built a giant reality-show around him. Everyone in this show is an actor, except for Truman, who doesn't know anything about this terrible "joke". His mother, his father, his friends and even his wife are actors, and every minute of his life is watched on TV by million of people all over the world. However, owing to some particular events, Truman starts thinking that there's something "strange" in his life, and that he has to leave his small village where he stayed till he was born... Will he manage to escape?
I think Jim Carey is a great actor, and he is easily understandable. The same is for the other actors involved. My recommendation? This film is a must.
Elisa.
The Weight of Water by K. Bigelow.
That's surprise!!! I was not won over to watch this film...instead the plot is really intriguing and not so predictable!
The film captures attention because it weaves between the narrative of the eyewitness and Jean's (one of the protagonist)private struggle with jealousies and suspiciousness on her husband.
The plot is about murder, jealousy, different ways to love and secrets...Time jumps between past (1873) and present (2000) creating suspence...
There are good actors: e.g. the famous Sean Penn and the beautiful Elizabeth Harley (a little unpleasant in her role!) but also a great Catherine Mc Cormack; I liked very much her interpretation!
Finally, it's a pleasure for girls to see a right as rain Josh Lucas ;-)
What about the English?
Well...I can't recommend this film to learn English because actors speak really quickly and, above all, Sean Penn is not easily understandable...However, subtitles help to follow the plot and so, at the end, I was able to appreciate the film.
LOST
This is not a film but a tv serie.
The plot of the serie is very simple: due to an air crash, several people are constrained to survive on a desert and secret island.
In my opinion it is a fantastic tv serie. The plot is very enigmatic and the story is recounted cleverly by the director. Every character has a past history that is very important in the context of the island. Every history and every secret is introduced in the right moment as a flashback. This narrative scheme creates a great suspense and the watcher is entirely captured.
The English is quite understandable because by catching the eye of actors one can achieve an help to understand the sentences.
Even if it is not a tv serie like friends, that tells about every day-life, it is advisable to learn English.
Filippo
Eastern Promises - David Cronenberg (2007)
Russian mafia a British midwife (Naomi Watts) and some gallons of blood are the main elements of this good film. The story begins with a cruel murder of a man while he is by the barber and a with a young and pregnant Russian girl who dies leaving her baby alive and alone. The first event will create as a chain reaction a series of other murders in the Russian mafia context, which main characters are very good interpreted by the actors (especially Vincent Cassel and Viggo Mortensen). On the other side, the midwife (who has a Ukrainian uncle living with her) takes care of the baby and finds a mysterious diary in the mother's clothes, which is, of course, written in Russian. She finds also a trademark of a Russian restaurant, where she will start looking for information about the died young girl, in order to find her family and give them the baby.
The restaurant, as you can imagine, is something more than a typical Russian restaurant...
I found this film good, even not at the same level of "History of violence", an other Cronenberg's film I watched about two months ago. Anyway, I would suggest to watch this film, but mainly because of the film itself and not because of the English. Many characters are, in fact, Russians and speak a sort of Russian-English which is quite always very clear but very different from British or American-English. Moreover I found the midwife actress way of speaking very clear and easy to understand.
So, that's all: watch this film if you like Cronenberg, mafia stories, mystery, Russian people, and you don't cover your eyes when you see blood coming out from wounds in a really realistic way.
I suggest Matrix. Probably most of you have seen it at least once.
For those that lived on Mars in the last years :D Matrix is a science fiction action film (according to Wikipedia). English used in it, is not difficult although some concepts are pretty complex. The story is about a war about Man and Machines were the main battlefield is a virtual world called Matrix.
"Jumper"
As i told you wendnesday, i have been watching Jumper. It's an action film, not very psicologically intense or significative. It's the story of a young man, David, who discovers he has a supernatural power. He can jump instantaneously in any place in the world just using it's visual imagination. These power oblige him to abandon his family and conduct a lonely life.
Jumpers tend not to become "ordinary" superheroes, instead they lead a quite "selfish" life, just robbing banks and enjoying living in strange and hidden places like caves near Giza's pyramids. A group of other men, called Paladins, figths against these Jumpers, stating that only God can have these powers. Paladins use electricity against jumpers, because electrick shocks to their nervous systems interfer with their powers. As the story develops, David gradually discovers who Paladins are and why are they going after him. Finally he succeeds (i cannot tell you how and in what :)), discovers all his mysteries, and, obviously, finds love.
The plot is not very strong from a logical point of view, because its developing it's only a pretext for showing action scenes, shot all around the world. For example Jumpers hiding themselves running istantaneously from America to Italy, and so on. Some scenes are very pitoresque, others are a bit exaggerated.
I've seen this film without subtitles, because it was very simple to watch to. Actors do not speak a lot and so it was not so useful for me as an english exercise. As an action movie, it also contains short sections of very fast (but not witty) speech, of which i missed the most.
As a conclusion, this film indirecty recalled me a strange idea. As it's partially shot in Italy, at Rome, during the film you can hear secondary actors talking in italian. I always wondered how is italian language and accent heard by foreigners. I mean, we have an idea of "russian", an idea of "american". But how sounds "italian" to russian people, or to american ones? Aswerless question, of course :)
Come back to the future part 2
The second part of the trilogy begins as Doc, Marty and Jennifer take the time-traveling DeLorean into the year 2015 to straighten out the future of the McFly family. But Biff Tannen steals the time machine and gives his younger self a book containing 50 years of sports statistics, which the young Biff uses to amass an enormous gambling fortune and transform Hill Valley into a living hell. To restore the present, Doc and Marty must return to the events of their previous adventure and retrieve the book.
Stardust
I’ve watched Stardust…well, the film it’s quite easy, you can understand it even without subtitles. It’s a simple tale, an old story where you can find witches, pirates, fallen stars and so on.
There’s a wonderful Michelle Pfeiffer, and she speaks very well, you can understand her without problems! There’s also Robert De Niro…. Well…. his character is quite amusing and, above all, quite different from his classic roles.
You can find also Peter O’Toole, the old king, and Rupert Everet, one of the king’s son….. well, in my opinion, it's a film well done and with a really good cast!
If you want to spend a relaxing evening and you like this kind of film (fantasy), Stardust is a good choice!
elisa
“Lemoni Snicket's: A series of unfortunate events”
“Tristan and Isolde”
“Aeon Flux”
I chose to watch different kinds of movie.....
The first movie is a “family movie” with Jim Carry. Lemoni Snicket is a writer and he is the movie voice-over ....he' s writing and narrating the story of three young odd orphans that unfortunately met the Count OLAF (Jim Carry), the bad-man.
Strange things happened, and people died during the film...but in any case with an happy-end..
This movie, in my opinion, has well-groomed details....such as the setting, the costumes and the colors... and it could be a good choice to spend two hours in relax...in any case Jim Carry is fantastic as “transformer”....
About the language....I watched the movie without subtitles and I didn't find particular difficulties to understand the story...
The second movie is an “hystorical Movie”...it is the story of Tristan and Isolde (Isotta in Italian...)
the unification of Ireland is background of this story...
Isolde is Ireland and Tristan is English and the war is between their countries...
Tristan is in love with Isolde and he tried to find a solution .... I won a joust where Isolde is the bonus..but unfortunately she was the bonus for the king and not for the winner....and the king is Tristan's Brother...
Impossible loves, treasons and blinds are at the basis of this history where Tristan died but his honor is safe defending his country...
I watched it without subtitles and, except for some words related to war dictionary, I didn't find difficulties in understanding...and I suggest it
The third movie is a “science fiction movie”...in fact I didn't understand so much the story..I watched it without subtitles...but the problem, I think is not the English, but the story itself...I think that this movie has been written for the actress and to underline her body.... I my opinion, as lady, it isn't a good and interesting movie to see...
“ The Gladiator”
“The weather man”
I have watched “The Gladiator” directed by Ridley Scott with Russel Crowe. It has been sent out in the Italian cinema in 2000 and it can be defined as an action movie but it is also a drama film. I have already seen this film in Italian twice and I like it very much although I cry every time. About English language I have watched it with subtitles so my opinion isn’t very helpful but it is quite easy to understand because the dialogues aren’t too quick. About plot I mention only the famous phrase “On my command - unleash hell”.
I have watched also “The weather man”, a comedy-drama film about David Spritz (Nicholas cage), a successful weatherman but with a disastrous life. I don’like it maybe because comedy isn’t one of my favorite genre... There are also many dirty words and the language was very difficult to understand because it’s American rather than English. So I don’t recommend to see it neither for the plot nor for the language…
"Young Frankenstein" (Frankestein junior)
It's a 1974 comedy film,directed by Mel brooks, whit Gene Wilder.It is considered one of the greatest comedy films of all time,a very nice parody of the classical horror movie Frankestein (from the homonymous novel).I don't speak about the story....Frankestein is well-known everywhere isn't it? The film is a black and white movie in order to recreate the atmosphere of the older original horror movie.
I already saw it before in Italian language and now that I saw it in English I found nice try to understand how the use of words sounded in the original language like "Werewolf? there wolfs, there castle".The dialog are not very hard so it is possible to enjoy the movie. PS greetings from Frau Blucher............
hihihihihihihihiiiiii ( It would sound like a whinny)
I watched this Film Title *The pursuit of Happiness*(star: Will Smith)
The film begins in 1981 in San Francisco, California. Linda and Chris Gardner live in a small apartment with their son, Christopher. Chris has invested the family's life savings in license selling portable bone density scanners. These scanners provide slightly denser pictures than X-rays, but most of the doctors Chris visits find that they are too high-priced. Linda works in a dead-end job in a local hotel laundry. The tension between them increases as unpaid rent and bills continue to accumulate. Chris often parks his car in disallowed areas so he can make scheduled appointments on time, and after parking tickets remains unpaid, their car is seized/take away. After missing a shift at her job, Linda finally leaves without their son Christopher, returns briefly, and then departs for New York City, where a better job awaits her, leaving behind the boy at his father's request.
Chris accepts an unpaid internship at a brokerage firm Dean Witter Reynolds that promises employment to only one trainee at its conclusion. His lack of salary, and his lack of scanners to try and sell, leaves him riddled with debt, he and his son eventually become homeless. After spending several nights riding buses and sleeping in subway restrooms, carrying their belongings, they begin lining up at the Memorial Church on a daily basis in an effort to secure accommodations for the night. Sometimes they succeed, other times they literally are left out in the cold. As he struggles to provide a appearance of a family life for his son under the most horrible of circumstances, Chris becomes more determined to complete the intern program and become the sole trainee the firm will hire.
In the end, Chris gets the job and later starts his own brokerage firm in 1987. Then in 2006 sells a minority of it for a multi-million dollar deal.
The most famous dialog I liked in this movie *There is no Y in Happiness*
Hi everybody!
This week I could at last seen “Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix”: there were not bad surprises with the language, but without subtitles it was an hard work, too.
Please don't misunderstand me, the plot is easy, of course, and I could comprehend more then eighty percent of dialogues, as you can image. However it was the first time I watched an Harry Potter's film (I've never read any book of this series in English) so I spent all energies in recognizing all characters' name, their different spelling and meaning in comparison with the Italian version.
Above all I would like to remember how in Italian the Headmaster of Hogwarts name is “Albus Silente” instead in English you call him “Albus Dumbledore”.
I found in Wikipedia that the name "Dumbledore" is an old Devon (county in south-west England) word for "bumblebee" (a flying insect) and was picked by Rowling because she imagines him wandering around the castle humming to himself and it sounds quite different from the Italian meaning.
Lots of details I found when I read the book are lost here, even if the film runs fast. It looks like a triller film, indeed, looking for suspense but it couldn't give the right time to everything. So I think if I hadn't read the book I shouldn't have comprehended all scenes.
About spoken English, it was a good exercise but, of course, young actors don't speak in a clear way. They in fact loose emphasis and don't spell all words properly.
By the way, I suggest you Harry Potter's film series if you like easy and relaxing films.
Barbara C.
Hi everyone,
I'm Emanuele. I'm going to tell you something about the English films I've watched so far.
Lately I don't use to watching many films beacuse I focus more on tv-series. At present I'm watching mainly two tv series, Alias and Lost, by the
same executive producer, JJ Abrams, who is a very talented writer in my opinion.
What I appreciate more in his tv-series is the enigmatic situations he creates in every episode.He maintains a great
deal of suspence in tv-watchers and brings on a kind of addiction which always induces them to watch new episodes.
As for films I recently watched two english films in original language:
Good Luck Chuck with Dane Cook and Jessica Alba and Match Point with Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Scarlett Johansson.
The first film is a comedy about a dentist who seems to have a spell on himself: he can't find the girl of his life because all the
girls know that after dating him and breaking up with him they are magically meant to find the right man for them straight after him. When the dentist realizes this
situation he takes advantage of it for a while, having fun with a lot of girls, but everything changes when he falls in love with a girl. He is afraid that breaking up with her
could mean losing her forever.
This is an American film and it is not difficult to understand.
Match Point is another really nice film. It is the story of a Irish guy who moves to London. There he meets a family and starts dating the daughter, Chloe. But in the meanwhile he starts feeling a strong
attraction for Nola, the girlfriend of her brother. After his marriage with Chloe he met Nola again and learns that she's not longer engaged so he becomes her lover, but the situation gets really hard
when Nola gets pregnant by him ... I definitively like this film even if I'm not much familiar with Birtish English. Anyway the plot is really amazing and in the finale there is a twist. I advise you to watch it.
Bye bye
Emanuele
Hi everyone,
I'm Emanuele. I'm going to tell you something about the English films I've watched so far.
Lately I don't use to watching many films beacuse I focus more on tv-series. At present I'm watching mainly two tv series, Alias and Lost, by the
same executive producer, JJ Abrams, who is a very talented writer in my opinion.
What I appreciate more in his tv-series is the enigmatic situations he creates in every episode.He maintains a great
deal of suspence in tv-watchers and brings on a kind of addiction which always induces them to watch new episodes.
As for films I recently watched two english films in original language:
Good Luck Chuck with Dane Cook and Jessica Alba and Match Point with Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Scarlett Johansson.
The first film is a comedy about a dentist who seems to have a spell on himself: he can't find the girl of his life because all the
girls know that after dating him and breaking up with him they are magically meant to find the right man for them straight after him. When the dentist realizes this
situation he takes advantage of it for a while, having fun with a lot of girls, but everything changes when he falls in love with a girl. He is afraid that breaking up with her
could mean losing her forever.
This is an American film and it is not difficult to understand.
Match Point is another really nice film. It is the story of a Irish guy who moves to London. There he meets a family and starts dating the daughter, Chloe. But in the meanwhile he starts feeling a strong
attraction for Nola, the girlfriend of her brother. After his marriage with Chloe he met Nola again and learns that she's not longer engaged so he becomes her lover, but the situation gets really hard
when Nola gets pregnant by him ... I definitively like this film even if I'm not much familiar with Birtish English. Anyway the plot is really amazing and in the finale there is a twist. I advise you to watch it.
Bye bye
Emanuele
The Da Vinci Code
Hello everybody!
This film have appealed me because I have read the related book; being a lot of time that I present again myself to see the film, this time, considering that I have to see an English film, I have joined the necessary to the fun.
The film is directed by Ron Howard, the protagonist is portrayed by Tom Hanks and the release date is May 2006.
Drawed by the Dan Brown novel, “the Da Vinci code” speacks about a murder inside the Louvre that lead to the discovery of a religious mystery protected by a secret society.
The background of the story describe real places and artworks, and the events of the story are nosey and adventurous.
The language used by the actors isn’t very simple in some parts of the film when the scene is agitated; on the other side there are some scenes with calm and slow dialogues and with a good focus you can understand an high percentage of the words.
I think it’s a beautiful and undemanding film.
Bye Bye
Recently, I've seen two very funny films.
The first one is Liar Liar, with Jim Carey.
He plays the part of a very successful lawyer, and the reason of his success is that he always lies. In particular, he lies both at work and in his private life, promising things to his ex-wife and to his 4 years old son that he isn't able to mantain. So his son, during his 5th birthday party, blows out the candles and expresses a whish: "I whish my dad didn't tell a lie just for one day." And suddenly the whish comes true... with so funny consequences!
As I have already said about The Truman Show, I think Jim Carey is a great actor, and he is easy to understand, even if he speaks quite fast. In particular, I found this film easyer than The Truman Show, since the words used are simpler and more common.
The other one is License to Wed, with Robin Williams.
Robin Williams is a Protestant minister and he is famous for his wedding preparation courses. Indeed, statistics tell that about the 50% of marriages fail in about a year, since men and women get married without actually knowing each other... but couples who attend these "special" courses have always a successful marriage. So, the story begins when a girl and her boyfriend decide to start their preparation to wed, and discover the minister's method, which is extremely funny!
I found this film quite difficult to understand, because actors speak very fast and with many colloquial expressions which sounded strange to me. Also, Robin Williams acts in a very expressive and dynamic way, which makes things even more difficult. However, I got it using subtitles sometimes.
Hi!
I'm going to talk a little about a film I recently watched. It's "Gangs of New York" and I think many of you alredy know it, since it is a famous film. In fact, it features some famous actors, such as Leonardo di Caprio, Daniel Day Lewis and Cameron Diaz, and it was directed by Martin Scorsese in 2002.
The film (as the title suggests :) is set in New York, around the year 1850. At that time, a small quarter in the city, called Five Points, was the set of fights among the gangs that want to dominate it. Two of these gangs were the American Natives, formed by people born in America, and the Dead Rabbits, formed by Irish immigrants.
In a challenge between these two gangs, the chief of American Natives, Bill the Butcher, killed the priest, leader of the Dead Rabbits, and the American Natives started their dominance over Five Points. For the years to come, in Five Points, no one was even allowed to speak out the name of Dead Rabbits. Who was really devastated by this death was Amsterdam, the little son of the priest, that was kept away from that place for many years. But few years later, it managed to come back to Five Points, determined to take his revenge against killer of his father!
In the film there is a *lot* of violence, and I would suggest you to see it only if you don't mind all the violence and blood visible in the film! Anyway, I think is a good film!
Probably it's not the best film to see for learning, because the dialogues can be a little difficult to understand (as for all action films). But with subtitles it's much more simpler!
I'd also like to tell you about a little curious fact about the film! (at least for italians...) ...do you know that it was shot in Italy, at the Cinecittà studios?
Bye bye!
Gio
Man In Black I (1997)
MIB, who didn’t see this film?! I think it’s a mythic film from 90s: action, comedy and science-fiction mixed together with astonishing (at least ten years ago!) special effects. Moreover, one of the main characters of the film is a very young (and thin!) Willy Smith, training and becoming a MIB, who smartly try to keep the world safe from interstellar wars together with his “colleague”, the Agent K.
I really loved this film: the right mix of fantasy and humour for a relaxing and enjoyable evening. However, from the English-learning point of view, maybe it’s not the best choice: it was not so easy to understand American pronunciation and there are lots of slang expressions. Anyway, if you watch even a small part of the film using subtitles, you can learn many strange and funny terms, “okey dokey” ?!
Bye!
Hello everybody!!!!!
In this blog what we all are suppose to do is just tell about a movie we have watched. The movie I chose was “The Mummy”, this is a pretty old movie, I mean the first time I saw it was like 10 years ago…. However I got this opportunity to see it today in English without subtitles so I apologize with all of you if during my presentation I make some spelling mistakes (and probably I will), but I will try to avoid them… I am also going to try to summarize the story of the film, next paragraph, just to practice (sorry if it is boring).
So the story started from ancient Egypt in the “city of the living”, there was a quick description of how the life was and about culture, in fact the story was focus on the breaking of a rule of that society, “no one was allowed to touch her, the favorite of the pharaoh, but she was in love with the “high priest” and he was in love with her as well”. Then they were caught by the pharaoh himself and they killed him, when the bodyguards of the pharaoh came, the high priest was able to run away, thanks to her who killed herself in front of the guardians to let him go……he was the only one who could resurrect her from death using the book of death….to do that, he had to steal the body of his lover and go to “Amunaptra, city of death” where all the treasures of the all the pharaohs were hidden, but he was stopped before the ritual was completed and captured by the bodyguard …his punishment was a curse, the most terrible and powerful one called “Homram”, which had never been used before. he will be a dead-man living for eternity….., and he has never to be woken up, or he will arise as a disease for the humanity with the power over the sand and the power of his invincibility….. so the movie got to early the 1900s and started with one of the protagonists, O’Connel, who was at Amunaptra with a legion (I guess his own legion). They were attacked from the descent of the pharaoh guardians, the city protector: the Mummy never has to be woken…..OConnel survived and went to prison because he had “fun” in a Egypt city (I don’t remember the name)…… in the mean time the other protagonist “Eve” found out that her brother had found the map to get to Amunaptra. She was a librarian and worked at the museum of that same city where OConnel was imprisoned (I guess), the first thing she did was to consult her boss (the boss was one of the descendent guardians of the pharaoh and no one was known that), he burn “accidently” the map so that it could not be used … So eve and her brother went to where he had got the map or rather where he stole the map from. They, of course, went to OConnel, they freed him.. so the newly formed company formed left the city to go to amunaptra where clearly woke the Mummy. Then start the part of the movie in which every one runs, fights and where the Mummy chased them….. in fact the Mummy chose eve as the victim for the resurrection ritual to make his lover come back among the living. She was kidnapped from the mummy and brought to amunaptra, where she was saved by OConnel after a long fight which was concluded thanks to eve and her brother since they found the book of the living which contained an incantation to deprive the mummy of its powers… so happy ending… for the protagonists at last…
I hope I did not bored you too much, however the film was funny to watch and reasonably easy to understand in English, so if you want to have an nice time watching TV and practicing your english, I say: you can watch the Mummy.
Bye bye.
Hello all,
I have watched movie called “The Sixth Sense” written and directed by Famous Indian director Night Shyamalan. I believe he is one of the great creative directors.
The film starts with Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) a prominent child psychologist, returns home one night with his wife from an event in which he was honored for his efforts with children. The two discover they are not alone – a silent appearance of nearly naked man named Vincent Grey appears in the doorway of their bathroom with a gun saying, "I don't want to be afraid anymore." Vincent is upset that Crowe did not help him, and Crowe recognizes Vincent as a former patient whom he once treated as a child for his hallucinations (illusion/fantasy). He condemns (criticize) Malcolm for his inability to help him and shoots him in the stomach, and seconds later turns the gun on himself. The scene fades away with Malcolm's wife by his side.
The next fall Malcolm is shown working with another frightened (scared) boy, nine-year old Cole with a condition similar to Vincent's. Malcolm becomes dedicated to this patient, though he is haunted by doubts over his ability to help him after his failure with Vincent. Meanwhile, he apparently begins to neglect his wife, with whom his relationship is falling apart.
Malcolm earns Cole's trust and Cole ultimately eventually confides (reveal) in him that he can "see dead people." Though Malcolm is skeptical(doubtful) at first, he eventually comes to believe that Cole is telling the truth and that Vincent may have had the same ability as Cole. He realizes this one night as he is listening to one of his old tapes, recorded while he was treating Vincent, and hears the pleading (insistent) voices of dead people in the background. He suggests to Cole that he try to find a purpose for his gift by communicating with the ghosts, perhaps to aid (help) them in their unfinished business on Earth. Cole at first does not want to heed (listen) this advice, as the ghosts terrify him, but he soon decides to try it.
Cole finally talks to one of the ghosts, a girl who appears in his bedroom very sick. He finds out where the girl lived and goes to her house during her funeral reception. Girl ghost appears and gives Cole a box, which is opened to reveal a videotape. When Cole gives it to Girl father, the tape reveals that while Girl was bedridden (laid up) with illness, her mother was poisoning her food, and this in fact was what led to Girl*s death Now believing in his ability to use his gift(sixth sense) to positive effect, Cole confesses (disclose/acknowledge) his secret to his mother, Lynn Although his mother at first does not believe him, Cole soon tells Lynn that her own mother (Cole's grandmother) once went to see her perform in a dance recital (concert) one night when she was a child, and that Lynn was not aware of this because her mother stayed in the back of the audience where she could not be seen. He also tells her answer to a question she asked when alone at her mother's grave. Lynn tearfully accepts this as the truth.
His faith in himself now restored as a result of his success with Cole, Malcolm returns to his home, where he finds his wife asleep on the sofa with the couple's wedding video on in the background, not for the first time. As she sleeps Anna's hand releases Malcolm's wedding ring, revealing the twist ending of the film: Malcolm himself is unwittingly (without knowing) one of Cole's ghosts, having been killed by his ex-patient in the opening scene. Due to Cole's efforts, Malcolm's unfinished business—rectifying (correct) his failure to understand Vincent—is finally complete. Recalling Cole's advice about talking to his wife while she's asleep so that she'll have to listen, Malcolm speaks to her and releases her to move on with her life, and frees himself to leave behind the world of the living.
Dragonheart
Dragonheart is shot a few years ago. Even if it’s quite “old”, I really like it, and I’ve watched it both in Italian and in English.
It tells the story of a knight, a “Knight of the Old Code”, as the dragon defines him, who is the king’s son mentor and who becomes a dragon-slayer …. And the story of a dragon, Draco, who “shared his life force with a dying boy”.
Even if it’s a rather dated film, the animation of the dragon is really good, and the locations of the film are wonderful! The film was shot it in Slovacchia, to the Spissy Castle.
The knight is performed by Dennis Quaid, he has got a really deep voice, quite different from the voice of his Italian dubber. In any case you can understand him quite well….. but the dragon is much better! The voice of the dragon belongs to Sean Connery, and even if he’s Scottish, he speaks very well!........While I found quite difficult to understand the king, performed by David Thewlis, even if he’s English.
In the end I have also to mention the wonderful soundtrack of this film, that is composed by the famous Randy Edelman.
Bye!
elisa
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Is someone gone to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ?
Do not do it!
Sorry I’ve seen it at the Cinema and it was in Italian Language…..but I’ve seen trailers and video clip download from the official site in English and they were very simple.
It’s not easy to spot a whole bunch of absurd scenes and funny dialogue. (very stupid!)
Famed archaeologist/adventurer Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, no more young, is called back into action when he becomes entangled in a Soviet plot to uncover the secret behind mysterious artifacts known as the Crystal Skulls
Since the beginning we can see the hero of the story faces toward big soviet army and to win even if his best friend betrays him selling himself to the adversaries.
The Soviet are the bad who build fake city or destroy the existing one for making nuclear experiment ( ……America vs URSS…..as usual!)
Dialogues? The Best: “What is it? Giant ants…disgusting, let’s go!”very deep!
See the Film only for to see how a very handsome man like Harrison Ford is becoming old and not so very intriguing.
Bye
Lisab
Yesterday I watched a film in Blue Ray (the new High Definition standard for consumer home vision) called “Music and Lyric”. In this film Hugh Grant play the role of Alex Fletcher, an ex popstar of the 80s. He lived thanks to minor events where he performs his old songs. One day his agent tells him that the famous Pop star Cora Corman, a parody of our nowadays popstars, want to sing a song with him. Cora gives to him less than a week to write the song. I don’t want to say more about the plot as the films deserve to be watched. It is a very good film if you liked Hugh Grant film. Unfortunately, at least for me, the English comprehension is not easy. It is the first time that I watch an Hugh Grant film in English, but before “Music and Lyric” I thought that actor with a great mimicry were easier to understand. Obviously I was wrong as facial expression didn’t compensate the un-audibility of mute-syllable. On the other hand Brad Garret (Chris Riley in the film) was very easy to understand. A quick research on Google, reveals to me that he is also a voice actor. Know I think that actor who are also voice actor are easier to understand.... until the next film off course :D
Hi everybody,
yesterday I have watched the film “Pride and Prejudice”. The story is about the Bennet family, that is composed by five sisters. Their mother had brought up them with the unique aim: to get married. Nevertheless, the second daughter Lizzie (interpreted by Keira Knightley) has no intention to wed. In the meantime, Ms Bennet (the mother) comes to know that a very rich bachelor is going to transfer in a estate in the proximities with his friends (also they have a well-to-do family). So Lizzie knows one of these persons, Mr Darcy (alias Matthew Macfadyen) but at first their relationship is not very good because of the coldness of him and, above all, because of a strong pride and many prejudices that the characters have. However, they succeed to go over all these difficulties and to get married.
I have watched this film with the English subtitles, because in some moments I don’t understand what the characters said. But in general this is a good film to understand speech languages, though the typology of the dialogues belong to a background that is not the same of our society.
Hallo everybody…I have watched: “Dead Poets Society”…
It is a famous drama-movie with Robin Williams from the end of eighties that probably all of you know….for who doesn’t know it, I can say the Italian name, “L’attimo fuggente”…and probably everything will be more clear...
I watched it, the first time, when I was at Lyceum suggested me by my Italian’s teacher….
The protagonists are young boys and the setting is an austere male school … in this Academy, the Welton Academy, they met a particular teacher with a different approach to the life, (Prof. Keating played by R.Williams) .
In fact he tries to teach them the “nonconformity” … pushing them to be free-thinkers…for instance, telling about the “dead poets society” or teaching them the motto “seize the day”, that it means “cogli l’attimo”….
In any case I don’t want to describe here the story…
I appreciated the movie…and in particular the effort done to show the difference between the old and the new way of life…where the freedom is one of the most important value…
What do I said in addition?…enjoy the movie!!
See you on Friday..
Barbara V.
“Bridget Jones's Diary”
I have watched the famous film “Bridget Jones's Diary”. This is a British film although the main character, Renee Zellweger, is American.
This film is simple because in my opinion the storyteller helps to understand what happens. In fact I have also watched the TV series “Desperate housewives” where there is a storyteller that helps to understand.
This is a romantic comedy film based on the novel also called “Bridget Jones's Diary”.
The film talks about Bridget Jones, a thirty-something single woman living in London. She tries to make sense of life and love.
She falls in love with her boss Daniel and later with Mark and….if someone needs to spend a funny relaxing evening I suggest this film.
the Blues brothers
to tell the truth i didn't watch any movies this week (not because I'm lazy as many friends of mine could say but last week-end I worked and during this week I Had no time). Anyway next week-end I decide to watch The Blues Brother.
Since as I already watched it in Italian language(maybe 4 or 5 time) as exercise I could speak a little bit about that movie.
It's a movie from the eighties whit
John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as main characters but how forget James Brown, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and John Lee Hooker and last but not least Steven Spielberg. The film is a musical comedy fill of car chase scenes and good music(The BBC stated the soundtrack as the best one in the cinema's history).I think that this will not be an easy movie but I am really curious to discover all the bloopers and the differences from the original language movie, for example I read that there are some mistake in the dubbing,like false-friend Harp translated as harp but in American slang means glass harmonica,and some dialog changed like speaking about the blues-mobile
..anti-theft device, while in the original language they speak about
catalyzer, since in the eighties in Italy catalyzer weren't known enough they decided to change it.
I'll tell you my impression after I watch it in the meantime what's more.........
..........Everybody Needs Somebody To Love
Bye Bye
Erin Brockovich
I’ve watched Erin Brockovich. It’s a true story about a big case against an important company, the PG&E.
The PG&E had polluted the water for over 15 years with hexavalent chromium, which is toxic, and had told to the persons living near the plant that they where using the chromium three, which is good for human health. PG&E had also paid for medical check-up for all the families living around the plant’s area, showing them that they were sane and so that the chromium three was good…. But the problem was that none of these families were sane! They had cancers, cysts, immune deficiencies, asthma and so on, and PG&E told them that all those ills had nothing to do with chromium in the water.
Erin is a young mother with three children and no husband, no money, who is looking for a job. She find a work in an lawyer’s office, Ed Masry, and she discovers everything about the PG&E’s fraud of the Hinkley’s plant. Erin and Ed gather informations and evidences about this fraud, drive all the plaintiffs in one of the most important case in US history (Hinkley vs. PG&E)… and they win it!
During the film, during this two years case, you can see a big change in Erin, she gradually find a balance between her work and her family…. When the work is all right, when the persons begin to respect her and she begin to trust in herself, the relations with her children become more difficult, they missed her. And only in the end she find a real balance between this two part of her life…. But there is a constant feature in Erin: she is always so strong, so determined, it seems like nothing can stop her, that’s incredible! And for this character Julia Roberts is the right choice!
Concerning English….. well, the film isn’t so easy to understand, they speak quickly, and there are many colloquial expressions. I’ve watched it with subtitles, and it’s better!
In the end, if you want to watch the film…..just the last note: the waitress in the fast-food, at the very beginning of the film, is the real Erin Brockovich!
Bye!
elisa
“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”
I watched the film “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” that is a 2003 adventure film. The main characters are the pirate Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp),the blacksmith Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), kidnapped by the cursed crew of the Black Pearl, captained by Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush). I like very much the Captain Jack Sparrow's character because he is very funny! In fact he weaves and while he is speaking (often slurring) he makes strange gestures with his hands. Moreover I think he is very handsome…
I watched all the three episodes of this saga in Italian and my favourite film is the second one. I watched this film without subtitles and I have found it quite difficult because some dialogues are very quick; in some instances I remembered the cues (I have watched this film twice and there are very funny cues!) and so I could understand better the English language.
I suggest to watch it!!
Bye!!
Hello everybody!
Ocean’s thirteen (probably it is subsequent to Ocean’s Twelve which I have lost) is an action movie directed by Steven Soderbergh with George Clooney, Andy Garcia,Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Al Pacino.
A Beautiful cast! But not so beautiful is the story…
Danny Ocean’ s best friend, Reuben, is in hospital because of a heart attack caused by the betrayal of the loathsome Banks, who has built with him a hotel.
Danny and his crew won’t stand for Banks and he’s done to a friend.
Joining with Benedict (Andy Garcia), their old enemy, who want vendetta against Banks, they boycott the opening of the new Bank’s Casino.
The crew is out to bankrupt one of the city's most despised businessmen.
All is done not for money but for friendship.
What can I say?
Following this film even if there were subtitles for me is been difficult because the actor speak too fast even if they didn’t have a big vocabulary they use common words but they have drawl.
Bye!!!
“Mrs. Winterbourne” (Italian title: “Scambio di identità”)
Mrs. Winterbourne is a romantic comedy/drama. This movie is based on the Cornell Woolrich novel I Married A Dead Man.
The main character, Connie Doyle, is eighteen and gets pregnant by her boyfriend, who then leaves her. She accidentally ends up on a train where she meets Hugh Winterbourne and his wife Patricia who is pregnant. The train crashes and she wakes up in the hospital to find out that it's been assumed that she's Patricia. She comes to live with the rich family of her deceased "husband". When she thinks everything is going her way, her ex-boyfriend shows up.
This is an “old” film (1996) but, in my opinion, this is a good film for learn English because I understood well what they say.
MUSIC AND LYRICS (2007)
It's a comedy starring Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore. It's the story of a former band-group artist Alex Flethcer (Hugh Grant), who was very popular in 80s but who has today lost his popularity. In order to make him recover it and to referesh his image his manager suggests the possibility of writing a new song for a very famous popstar girl, who really likes him. He accepts but he's only a musician and does need a lyricist. So he finds out that Sophie (Drew Barrymore) , the girl who takes care of his house plants has a hidden talent as a lyricist. So they begin writing the song together and after a while they fall in love. The title "Music and Lyrics" seems to be a metaphore of their love beacuse Alex takes care of the music whereas Sophie takes care of the lyrics
As for English the film is not very difficult to understand, for me Hugh Grant is perhaps a little bit harder to understand because he speaks with British accent and I am non very accustomed to it. Anyway the film is an American one, the story takes place in New York City.
It's a nice film, nothing special but I advise you to watch it for a pleasant night.
Hi!
As I saw this weekend I've see The blues brothers, the dialog are not fast even if there's to much slang for me! In my opinion Dan Aykroyd's language is more comprehensible than the one of John Belushi (maybe for the drug or the alcohol???).The US version of the movie contain scenes not included in the Italian version. My opinion about the language could be not an objective description because this is the first movie that i saw without subtitles, maybe my difficulties rises from that but I can assure you that it's hard to understand a cowboy like Bob the owners of the pub were the B.B. played their first concert after the reunion on the Band.
Hi,
recently I have seen two movies: 'Young Frankestein' directed by Mel Brooks. and 'The War of the Worlds' by Steven Spielberg.
I prefer the former because it's more useful for learning English. I suggest you to watch it without subtitles. The story is also very amusing.
Instead the latter is very poor of dialogues and the English (American English) is not often easy to understand.
@Vanessa
about “Bridget Jones's Diary”
I watched that film although in Italian ;)
So, I can only speak about the plot. I think that there are some commonplace in it but this isn't necessary a bad thing. As the film is about singles, commonplace let you feel very comfortable if you are one of them or if you find a partner recently. Anyway I really liked as it is a very funny film especially in the first hour of the plot. At the very beginning there is a scene about Christmas' gift. One of the male main characters received a very embarrassing green pullover with an reindeer drawn on it. As it is his mother gift he have to wear it at dinner feeling pretty stupid. I laughed a lot although embarrassing gift is a very common topic in films.
RE: LOST
I'm also a fan of this great series.
The first year of this series is incredible. It presents the characters and their life, so you can start to understand their behavior and also start to get on fire with someone.
The plot is very enigmatic, as you say, but I think that the fantastic elements introduced by the authors (for example the black cloud) make the story in some moments unduly unbelievable.
Have your ever seen this link?
http://www.bastardidentro.it/node/view/23584
This is a parody, but at the bottom I think that it represents the thought of many people that watch periodically this series.
I agree with you, when you say that the English is quite easy to understand. Probably this is due to the presence of some actors that don't come from England or USA, like Said for example.
Anyway, I finds also the voice-over (this is probably an American person) very easy to understand.
Just in these days the fourth series is been finished in USA. In the very beginning of the new year the new series will be out.
I'm looking forward to see how the authors decide to resolve the enigmas!
@ Manuela
Hi!
I've watched "Pirates of the Caribbean: The course of the Black Pearl" too.
I completely agree with you about the Captain Jack Sparrow's character! Johnny Deep is a genius!
I read (but I don't remember where) that the director of the film had let Johnny Deep completely free to perform the Captain Jack Sparrol... so he was inspired by the guitarist of the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards..... a real stroke of genius!!! ...... he really seems like Keith! The way he "dresses up", the way he moves... that's incredible! Johnny brings a rock guitarist among pirates!
..... and in the third (and last) episode of the Pirates of Caribbean you can also see the real Keith Richards!!!! just a little "cameo": he is the father of Jack Sparrow..... they really seems like father and son! And you think "Oh! now we can understand why he's like this!"
I watched all the three episodes too, but I prefear the first one.
I watched this film with subtitles: I'm agree with you, it's quite difficult, the dialogues are very quick, there are many "technical" words and so on... but it's really fun, there are many handsome guys.... these are the most important things ;-) !!!!!!
see you!
elisa
@Laguna "Music and Lyryics"
I watched this film a few days ago and I agree with Laguna when he said that it is a good film, parhaps because I like Hugh Grant and his films in general, I find him very funny. In particluar in this film where he play the role of a 80's years pop star. Then, as regards of the comprehension of english, the film is quite good even if in some part the dialogues are very fast and so quite difficult. I want to spend some word also for the femal character, that is Drew Barrymore. She was very nice and in this film she creates a veru good couple with Hugh Grant.
Bye!
Giulio.
Hi everyone, I'm Federica and I want to say something about the last film I've seen in English "Gladiator".
That's beautiful, I loved it.Maximus is one of the bravest general in the history of Roman empire and the emperor Marcus Aurelius wants him to be his heir.The emperor wants Rome to a republic once again. His son, Commodus, doesn't have the same dream: he wants to become emperor.He kills his father and Maximus family he also trys to kill Maximus that the general survives.After that begins the legend of Gladiator...I won't tell no more about the plot you have to watch it.I 've seen it with subtitles even if it's not so difficult to understand(lazy girl...I know). Russel Crowe is magnificent and his character is charming and poetic.What else...wonderful soundtrack and horrible latin pronunciation(I know wht the teacher thinks about it but there are only two ways to pronunce latin and they ivent the third horrible way: their own way). Women on the blog you have to see it!
I missed a little thing: the emperor wants Maximus to be his heir but also wants that the most part of the power goes back to senate and this way Rome will be a republic once again. Is it more clear now? i hope so
errata corrige line 7 to be a republic
line 11 but the general
line 18 what
line 20 invent
Hello everybody,
Now I am going to talk about the first season of “Heroes”:
That is the story of some persons living in different parts of the world and gifted with exceptional skills markedly over the normal human abilities. In other words, they have super-powers. Slowly They are getting aware about them… we are talking about real powers the kind which make you different and possibly dangerous.
In the scientific fields, a professor, a geneticist was trying to prove his theory concerning the evolution of the humans species. He was researching human cases in which there was a DNA progression with the acquisition of particular abilities.
In a ill-omened day the son of the professor, another scientist, was informed about the death of his father by a killer and he remembered about the last time he had met him, when the professor had revealed to him that he had found the “zero patient” that is the first one in the world to have super-powers.
Being certain that the “Zero patient” was the killer and motivated by revenge, he got to Unite States where his father lived determinate to finish the father’s work.
In the meantime we found out that the theory of the professor was just “reality” since some individuals showed incredible abilities. There were some of them who were trying to ignore these powers to have a normal life, other, instead, who wanted to change their own life using them. Everyone, however, were connected each other and destined to meet and to save the world!!!
It was really exciting and fun to watch, there were very different points of view changing continuously along the story so the watcher was stuck into the story and he could not get bored. It is a very good serial to watch.
Hi everyone
My name is Monica, I was born in Perù but I live in Italy since 1998. I remember when I arrived I was younger and I thought that that experience was the best choose that I could do, I had thought to remain for one year instead of eleven years but actually I don’t know if one day I'll go back to Perù, now is so difficult to do it, in the meantime I got married and I get on well with my friends and relatives in law. I decided to study English because I wish to work in the branch of Import-Export I would like to take advantage of my mother tongue.
I started to study English ten months ago more or less, I went to England in order to learn really English but it was only an illusion because I met many Italians and Spanish people, my big mistake was to live with them, I was studying English whereas I lived with the Italians so I couldn’t practice anything, so I come back after few months with the same level more and less (from beginner to Elementary but only grammar), my advice to everyone is if you want to learn another language you have to live with the local people and to be far away of the people that speak your same language.
So, in few months my English hasn’t improve. I came back to London again but was different, and I looked a flat to share with someone from England, I met a house in zone four with an Irish gay, very funny and with him I could speak and practice English.
Thanks for attention
See you in class
Post a Comment