Практикум по культуре речевого общения (английский язык как второй иностранный) Учебное пособие
Ex.6. Read the following text and answer the questions
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| Ex.6. Read the following text and answer the questions.
Cinema in the USA The USA was the first country to turn film into a popular form of entertainment and an important industry. The first full-length 'story' film (it was based on a Western American motif) was The Great Train Robbery produced by Edwin E. Porter in 1903. From 1911 the center of the US Film industry was HOLLYWOOD in California. Great developments in film technique were made by David W. Griffith (such as the close-up, the flash-back) His famous Birth of a Nation was the first major feature film made in the USA At the same time the art of film comedy was taking shape at Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios, where Charles Chaplin made his first short silent comedies. The Hollywood studio system was born with the commercial need for large quantities of entertaining, technically perfect films. In 1924 Marcus Loew assembled the Metro-Goldwyn studio with Louis B. Mayer as head of production. By 1925 the Warner Brothers Company, the Columbia Pictures Corporation, Universal Pictures, and the Fox Company had also been born. The 'star system' developed m Hollywood as well; among the first stars were Chaplin, the "world's sweetheart" Mary Pickford, the first film performer to be known by name, and her husband Douglas Fairbanks, who appeared in colorful adventures like The Three Musketeers, The Black Pirate (the tradition was later continued by Errol Ftynn - Captain Blood (1935), The Mark of Zorro). Others were the Western stars William S Hart, and Tom Mix, the 'Latin Lover' Rudolph Valentine, Greta Garbo, and the early 'sex symbols' Theda Bara and Clara Bow (their later successors included Hedy Lamar, Jean Harlow, Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe). The chief stars of silent comedy were Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, Harold Lloyd, Stanley Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Sound was introduced in 1928; it brought in new styles of film acting and new types of film. In particular it made possible the development of the Hollywood musical during the 1930s. Film makers Robert Mamouhan and Busby Berkeley, in the 1940s Vicente Minnelli Meet Me in St. Louis, and in the 1950s Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen Singin' in the Rain. Well-known performers have included the dance-team of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, the singing team of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, the actor-singers Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Bing Crosby (White Christmas, High Society), Dons Day and Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins, Sound of Music) Since the mid-'50s film musicals have tended to concentrate on size and spectacle and on making versions of Broadway successes My Fair Lady, West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof). The 1930s saw the rise of gangster and thriller films. Gangster films were given their characteristic style by the directors Mervin Leroy (Little Caesar, 1931) and Howard Hawks (Scarface. 1932). Actors closely associated with crime films were Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. Successful crime films of the 1940s and later have been The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, The French Connection and the Godfather (with Marion Brando). The best known director of suspense thrillers was Alfred Hitchcock, who had begun his career in Britain, and then moved to the USA. Another kind of film, which became popular, was that of fantasy and horror. The most famous actors of silent 'horror' parts were Lon Chaney, The Phantom of the Opera, Boris Karloff, Frankenstein. The best-known of all 'monster' films was King Kong, 1932. From the earliest days of Hollywood, western films have been one of the most popular and typical forms. The early westerns of William S. Hart, Tom Mix and others were simple dramas of good against bad. The director who has done most to create the modern western is John Ford; Ills masterpiece, which has had a great influence on later directors, is Stagecoach (1940). Other leading directors of westerns have been Howard Hawks {Red River, Rio Bravo), George Stevens (Sham), Carl Foreman (High Noon) and Sam Peckinpah (Major Dundee, the Wild Bunch), Actors who are closely associated with westerns are John Wayne, James Stewart, and Gary Cooper. With the coming of sound, new kinds of film comedy became possible. The 1930s brought film comedians who made use of words, such as the Marx Brothers (Duck Soup, A Night at the Opera, Animal Crackers), W. С Fields (David Copperfield, My Little Chicadee, with Mae West, The Bank Dick), and Mae West (She Done Him Wrong) A large proportion of Hollywood films have always been 'romances'. The leading romantic star of the silent films was Mary Pickford; in the 1930s and 1940s she was succeeded by Claudette Corbet Carole Lombard, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. The best known of all romantic films was Gone With the Wind, 1940, with Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh and Leslie Howard. Since about I960 the main traditions of the American film industry have been kept up by such films as Cleopatra, with Elizabeth Tailor; family musicals like The Sound of Music and very profitable James Bond spy-thrillers. But the increasing popularity of TV has meant that the cinema is no longer the most popular form of entertainment; at the same time the Hollywood studio-system has declined. But there have also been many more independent productions, which have looked for a new younger audience. Films of late 1960s, early 1970s that reflected new attitudes were The Graduate. Bonnie and Clyde, M.A.S.H., Easy Rider and the pop festival film Woodstock. Directors who have become known since about 1960 include Stanley Kubrick (Lolita, 2001, The Clockwork Orange), John Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy). The 1980s had more films of human concern. Psychological problems family relationships, and loves of many varieties dominated the screen. Some of these were An Officer and a Gentleman. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Mystic Pizza, Fatal Attraction, Ram Man, Out of Africa, Terms of Endearment, The large number of movies about teenagers and their problems did have very' good box office returns. The Breakfast Club, Valley Girl. Desperately Seeking Susan, Animal House. The US tried to forget its involvement in Vietnam but Hollywood would not let that happen, though with a decade delay, there appeared such films as Platoon, Rambo, Hanoi Hilton, Good Morning Vietnam, Born On the Fourth of July which brought the problem of American boys fighting halfway around me world for a cause they did not understand to the screen with blood and gore, and deep emotions. Stanley Kubrick, Oliver Stone, and Francis Coppola retained the social consciousness of the nation and put down permanent moving images. Action movies will always be popular and well made during any decade. The cinema is an art medium of action and it is much easier for directors to make top quality action films than it is for them to make "think" pieces. There is no problem in showing an actor galloping off on a horse, but there are lots of problems toying to show a character thinking great ideas while he sits in a chair: The Indiana Joneses, The Rockys, The Rambos, The Lethal Weapons. Special new visual effects, pyrotechnics, and futuristic equipment were the stars of many of the action/adventure thrillers - The Terminator, Empire of the Sun, The Abyss, The Aliens. Unlike most of the world's high tech cultural nations, the USA does not have a national school of cinema and is probably does not need one. Historically the training of film makers and film technicians was accomplished by me apprentice system at the studios in Hollywood and elsewhere. But since 1920s training in the arts and sciences of motion pictures has grown. In 1950s when the large film studios were disassembled, the colleges and universities expanded to accommodate the demand for more courses on film subjects and the new field of television. Bachelor's, Master's, and doctoral degrees now are offered throughout the USA. One of the greatest events in cultural life of the USA is the annual presentation of Oscar, the highest award of the American Cinema Academy. This organization was founded in 1927. Its aim was to further the development of cinematography. Every year in February the American press publishes the titles of films which have been chosen for the competition. On the presentation day there is a magnificent show m the Los Angeles Music Center. Awards are given to the best actor, to me best actress, for the best script, for music, etc. Foreign films also participate in the competition. Another tradition is the ceremony of leaving one’s footprints or handprints on me pavement in front of the Chinese Theater. жүктеу/скачать 0,99 Mb. 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