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.
So, a very simple activity for this one: preferably after listening to the review once (you can skip the sound clips from the film to make it shorter and avoid spoilers, although I think there aren't any), you are invited to write down any adjectives and/or (better still) adverb-adjective collocations.
If you've liked this review, feel free to browse Kermode's blog here.
