Vocabulary With Film Trailers

Hello again!

Watching a film trailer, if you do it attentively, with the eye of an active language learner, is what we could call a visually-aided vocabulary activity. And there are so many available to you every year!

Many film trailers feature superimposed short reviews to encourage the viewer. Expressions like "it will keep you glued to the screen" and such. If the expressions or vocabulary used in these captions are new to us, we will be using two (usually involuntary) strategies to understand them: one is connotation, since we know that these trailers are in fact a form of advertising so the language in it will be largely positive. The second one is their context, which includes visual cues, dialogue and voiceover.

Can you provide a definition, even if it's just approximate, of the expressions in the captions of these film trailers? Share the expressions and your definitions in the comments section! Some of you will want to focus on adjectives, while others may prefer idiomatic expressions (like the "glued to the screen" I mentioned earlier).

I hope you enjoy the trailers! I chose four documentary films: a different way of showing love to nature in A Will for the Woods, the talent hidden in the background of the stage in Twenty Feet from Stardom, the hardest exam in the world (no, not your certificate exam!) in Somm, and visual impact in Samsara.

Hope to see your comments soon!

A WILL FOR THE WOODS - Trailer from First Run Features on Vimeo.

New course! A video about films

Hi everyone! We're back with some more video goodness.

Have you ever thought "no one could be Corleone but Marlon Brando"? What about any other characters? Actors and their iconic characters remain together forever, but the process whereby a specific actor is chosen can be long and involve a huge number of other people and circumstances. If that other actor hadn't turned it down...

This video takes us through some of the best alternate castings. Here's some vocabulary that I'd recommend you check before jumping to the open questions:

turn down

aficionado

contender

to be halted

to buckle (figurative sense)

And here are the questions. Key coming shortly! Enjoy the comeback!

Why did Burt Reynolds turn down Bond's role?

What was the problem with Stallone's script for Beverly Hills Cop?

What actor was only rumoured to have turned down a role? In which film? In that case, who would be to blame for not accepting a successful role?

What difficulties did Harrison Ford find to obtain the role for Han Solo? How did he finally get it?

And what difficulties did Michael J. Fox have when shooting Back to the Future?

Why was Harrison Ford cast for Indiana Jones only three weeks before production?  

What unexpected even could have enabled Tom Selleck to accept the role?

The Artist

Hi again!

I promised a little activity with this short video on the film The Artist. The interviewees are French speakers so it helps to get a grasp of different non-native accents in English.

As an initial activity I asked you to pay attention to the actress' intonation patterns (she has a very native-like musicality to her speech); in this case I'm providing you with some gapped sentences for comprehension practice. Please note that there may be more than one word in each gap, and that the wording of the sentences will usually vary from that of the video. Please make your answers fit the gapped sentence regarding grammar, negative/positive statements, tenses, etc.

Enjoy the video, and the film if you're planning to watch it! I did, and I had a great time. If you want to forget about everything for some hour and a half, this is the film to watch, if you ask me!

Please comment to share your answers with the rest of us!

The male protagonist is described as a joker, a seducer and a man who is (1)___________________ .

The female protagonist falls in love with him and remains (2)_____________________ even when he’s no longer a movie star.

The director had wanted to film a silent movie for (3)_____________________ .

To him, the most amazing thing about the format is (4)_____________________ the audience. It allows them to (5)_____________________ so many things, from the (6)_____________________ of the voices to the sounds of the (7)_____________________ and (8)_____________________ .

Participating in the film OSS (where these actors had previously worked with the director Michel Hazanavicius) was helpful to Bérénice because she had (9)_____________________ before. Jean, however, did not prepare (10)_____________________ differently.