Parallel Reading with films scenes: Classics in class

Listening to and Pronouncing chunks (= Thought Groups)

Choose a one or two minute scene from your movie. Find it in the script. Listen to the scene and notice how the actors break their ideas into thought groups.
 Mark each thought group with slashes. 

find them in Database of Movie Dialogs

See these scenes:  Johnny Guitar's  "Lie to me" & 
                                 Casablanca's  "Misinformed"

                      1. Johnny Guitar

 "Lie to me" Scene (1:05-2:10)

VIENA: Having fun, Mr Logan?        
   
           LOGAN: I couldn't sleep. 

V: That stuff help any?    

            L: It makes the night go faster. 
            What's keeping you awake? 

V: Dreams.  .... Bad dreams. 

             L: Yeah, I get 'em sometimes, too.  .....
                 ..... Here, this'll chase 'em away. 

V: I tried that. Didn't seem to help me any. 

           L: How many men have you forgotten? 

V:  As many women as you've remembered. 

LOGAN: Don't go away. 

            VIENA:  I haven't moved. 

L: Tell me something nice. 

          V: Sure. What d'you want to hear? 

L: Lie to me. Tell me all these years you've waited. Tell me.

          V: All   these   years   I've waited. 

L: Tell me you'd have died if I hadn't come back. 

          V: I would  have died   if  you hadn't  come back. 

L: Tell me you still love me like I love you. 

          V: I  still  love  you   like  you   love me. 

L: Thanks. 
  - Thanks a lot. - (Glass smashes) 

          V: Stop feeling so sorry for yourself. (more lines here)



SCENE 2. 

Casablanca (1942) Misinformed 

Girl: Where wwere you last night?

Rick ; That's so long ago, l don't remember. 

-Will l see you tonight? 

Rick; I never make plans that far ahead. 

  (........ 00:59)

Capt. Renault; How extravagant you are, throwing away women. 
Capt.Re.; Someday they may be scarce. 
       I think now l shall pay a call on Yvonne. 
Maybe get her on the rebound. 

Rick; When it comes to women, you're a true democrat. 

Capt.Re. If he gets a word in, it'll be a major ltalian victory. 
     The plane to Lisbon. You would like to be on it? 

Rick> Why? What's in Lisbon? 

Capt.Re.> The clipper to America. 
      I've often speculated on why you don't return to America. 
      Did you abscond with the church funds? 
      Did you run off with a senator's wife? 
      I like to think you killed a man. It's the romantic in me. 

R> It's a combination of all three. 

Capt.Re; And what in heaven's name brought you to Casablanca? 

Rick :  My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters. 

Capt.Re.; The waters? What waters? We're in the desert. 

Rick; I was misinformed. (02:16)   

(all dialogue from film here)



Go  study Casablanca's quotes.  And  enjoy the search!



                   Some guidelines (from Heinle publishers)
Scripts
Some people find that reading a script while watching a movie is very helpful. Of course it can help you understand what you are hearing, but it can also help you to learn new vocabulary, grammar and idioms. It can also help you to listen for thought groups, reduced vowels and sentence stress. Scripts for many movies, old and new, are available at SimplyScripts. Find a script for a movie you can rent from the video store and then try one or more of these activities. These activities can be a lot of fun if you work with a friend or classmate. 


Listening to and Pronouncing Thought Groups 
Choose a one or two minute scene from your movie. Find it in the script. Listen to the scene and notice how the actors break their ideas into thought groups. Mark each thought group with slashes. You will probably need to listen more than once. Once you have marked the thought groups that you hear, compare your markings with a friend's or classmate's. If you are uncertain, ask your teacher for help.

Rewind your video and listen again. This time take the roles of the characters and practice speaking along with them. Then try reading your lines without the images. Perform your scene for your class. 


Listening to and Pronouncing difficult items 
Choose a couple of lines from your movie. Find them in the script. Read the lines and underline the elements (vowels/consonants/syllables, etc)  you may find difficult to pronounce (reduced items).

Listen to the lines. As you listen, circle each problematic item. Check your predictions to see if they were correct. Listen to the scene and notice how they were delivered (intonation, emphasis...). Then, rewind the video and repeat after the actors. Be sure to pronounce them correctly. 



Possible Websites

Canada
Tribute - movie and actor info; features show time listings all across Canada.

FilmCan - offers movie information, trailers, and show times for major Canadian cities.

Singapore
Movies Online - current listings, synopses, reviews, trailers, and discussion groups.

UK and Ireland
Yell.com - Here you'll find Film Finder, the ultimate film search giving you the latest in what's on where nationwide. Search by location, film or even genre, and Film Finder will tell you where and when it's showing.

Scoot Cinema Guide - guide to what's on where and when in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - updated every week.


United States
Hollywood.com - Reviews, clips, ratings and show times for Hollywood blockbusters and independent films. You can find out what is showing in your city or click on Int'l to find out what's showing in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, China and Japan.

The Internet Movie Database

Manhattan -Woody Allen -1979 (PR9)

     MANHATTAN  

There are few moviemakers as indigenous—or iconic—to New York City as Woody Allen, who has given moviegoers the world over a taste for the Big Apple. 

While his films offer seminal New York City moments—a stroll through Central Park, a sunrise over the Brooklyn Bridge—they are also imbued with the larger spirit of the city itself.
Woody is hardly alone in his love affair with America ’s most cinematic city. 

Here, the opening scene from a masterpiece which shows a writer struggling to compose his first line in his new novel in the city that never sleeps.

TASK 1. LISTEN TO THIS PASSAGE
Manhattan (Opening)

TASK2. State the time you need to read this five sentences at quick pace (prominent syllables + linking items). Mind you, they are the pieces of the text that the character is currently typing on a sheet.

Seconds needed?

§ He adored New York City. He idolized it all out of proportion

§ he romanticized it all out of proportion

§ He was too romantic about Manhattan, as he was about everything else

§ He adored New York City. To him, it was a metaphor
for the decay of contemporary culture

§ He was as tough and romantic as the city he loved

LANGUAGE PRACTICE

TASK3. In the first listening copy the five items in the order you hear them. The five statements below are comments of the writer about his work which show the process of writing the first lines of a theatre script. 

Ø Let me try and make it more profound
1 - …………………………….……………
Ø Yeah, let me start this over.
2 - …………………………….……………
Ø I love this
3 - …………………………….……………
Ø Let’s face it, I want to sell some books here.
4 - …………………………….……………
Ø No, make that….
5 - …………………………….……………

Transcript:

Chapter One: “He adored New York City. He idolized it all out of proportion.”
No, make that:
“He… he romanticized it all out of proportion.” Yeah. “To him, no matter what the season was, this was still a town that existed in black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin.”
Ah, let me start this over. 

Chapter One:
“He was too romantic about Manhattan, as he was about everything else. He thrived on the hustle-bustle of the crowds and the traffic. To him, New York meant beautiful women and street-smart guys who seemed to know all the angles.”
Nah, corny; too corny for my taste. Let me try & make it more profound.
Chapter one:“He adored New York City. To him, it was a metaphor for the decay of contemporary culture. The same lack of individual integrity to cause so many people to take the easy way out was rapidly turning the town of his dreams in…”
It’s gonna be too preachy. I mean, let’s face it, I want to sell some books here.

Chapter one:“He adored New York City. Although to him, it was a metaphor for the decay of contemporary culture. How hard it was to exist in a society desensitized by drugs, loud music, television, crime, garbage...”
Too angry. I don’t want to be angry.
Chapter One:
“He was as tough and romantic as the city he loved. Behind his black-rimmed glasses was the coiled sexual power of a jungle cat.” I love this. “New York was his town—and it always would be.”

Many lies lie between one truth, no Doubt -PLAY

Doubt is a drama written by John Patrick Shanley. 

Doubts, gossips , parable

The Setting of the Play: Bronx, New York - 1964. The play takes place, mostly, in the offices of a Catholic School.

the playwright argues in his preface, "deep down, under the chatter we have come to a place where we know that we don't know... anything. But nobody's willing to say that.

to read about the plot, here

Quotes: 

"Gossip kills three: the teller, the listener, and the subject."

 Having a sharp tongue may cut your own throat.





Click the link to enjoy The Sermons of Father Flynn (Doubt)
GOSSIPING



A woman was gossiping with a friend about a man she hardly knew— I know none of you have ever done this—that night she had a dream. A great hand appeared over her and pointed down at her. She was immediately seized with an overwhelming sense of guilt. The next day she went to confession.

She got the old parish priest, Father O’Rourke, and she told him the whole thing. “Is gossiping a sin?” she asked the old man. “Was that the hand of God Almighty pointing a finger at me? Should I be asking your absolution? Father, tell me, have I done something wrong?”

“Yes!” Father O’Rourke answered her. “Yes, you ignorant, badly brought-up female! You have borne false witness against your neighbor, you have played fast and loose with his reputation, and you should be heartily ashamed!”

So the woman said she was sorry and asked for forgiveness. “Not so fast!” says O’Rourke. “I want you to go home, take a pillow up on your roof, cut it open with a knife, and return here to me!”

So the woman went home, took a pillow off her bed, a knife from the drawer, went up the fire escape to the roof, and stabbed the pillow. Then she went back to the old parish priest as instructed. “Did you gut the pillow with the knife?” he says.”Yes, Father.” “And what was the result?” “Feathers,” she said. A world of feathers.

“Feathers?” he repeated. “Feathers everywhere, Father!”

“Now I want you to go back and gather up every last feather that flew out on the wind!”

“Well,” she said, “it can’t be done. I don’t know where they went. The wind took them all over.”

”And that,” said Father O’Rourke,“is gossip!”

What do you do when you’re not sure? That’s the topic of my sermon today.

Last year, when President Kennedy was assassinated, who among us did not experience the most profound disorientation? Despair? Which way? What now? What do I say to my kids? What do I tell myself? It was a time of people sitting together, bound together by a common feeling of hopelessness. But think of that! Your BOND with your fellow being was your Despair. It was a public experience. It was awful, but we were in it together. How much worse is it then for the lone man, the lone woman, stricken by a private calamity?

‘No one knows I’m sick.’

‘No one knows I’ve lost my last real friend.’

‘No one knows I’ve done something wrong.’

Imagine the isolation. Now you see the world as through a window. On one side of the glass: happy, untroubled people, and on the other side: you.

I want to tell you a story. A cargo ship sank one night. It caught fire and went down. And only this one sailor survived. He found a lifeboat, rigged a sail…and being of a nautical discipline…turned his eyes to the Heavens and read the stars. He set a course for his home, and exhausted, fell asleep. Clouds rolled in. And for the next twenty nights, he could no longer see the stars. He thought he was on course, but there was no way to be certain. And as the days rolled on, and the sailor wasted away, he began to have doubts. Had he set his course right? Was he still going on towards his home? Or was he horribly lost… and doomed to a terrible death? No way to know. The message of the constellations – had he imagined it because of his desperate circumstance? Or had he seen truth once… and now had to hold on to it without further reassurance? There are those of you in church today who know exactly the crisis of faith I describe. And I want to say to you: DOUBT can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty. When you are lost, you are not alone.

On the subject of doubt, Rabbi Sholom Ciment told this story:

The only survivor of a shipwreck washed up on a small uninhabited island.  He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.

Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements and to store his few possessions.  But then one day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, the smoke rolling up to the sky.

The worst had happened; everything was lost.  He was stung with grief and anger. "God, how could you do this to me?" he cried.  (He certainly had his doubts about God!)  Early the next day, however, he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was approaching the island.  It had come to rescue him.  "How did you know I was here?" the weary man asked his rescuers.  "We saw your smoke signal," they replied."

  (Source:  "Fire And Smoke," by  Rabbi Sholom Ciment, The Jewish TImes) 

4 films: Spring, summer, ... ans spring - Kim Ki-duk -2003

Hangul 봄, 여름, 가을, 겨울 그리고 봄
RR Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom
English Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
Directed by Kim Ki-duk

the film page from Sony

The film is divided into five segments (the five seasons of the title), each segment depicting a different stage in the life of a Buddhist monk (each segment is roughly ten to twenty years apart, and is physically in the middle of its titular season).

Spring We are introduced the of the very young Buddhist apprentice with his master on a small floating monastery, drifting on a lake in the serene forested mountains of Korea. The apprentice and his master live a basic life of prayer and meditation, using an old rowboat to reach the bank of the lake where they regularly go walking, for exercise and to collect herbs. One day...
...and Spring Finally, returning to "Spring", the cycle is completed: the new master lives in the monastery with the abandoned baby, now his apprentice. The boy is shown to torment a tortoise and, wandering into the rocky hills, echoes his predecessor, forcing stones into the mouths of a fish, frog and snake.
synopsis

4 films: 4 Minuten Kraus -2006

Four Minutes (German: Vier Minuten), is a 2006 drama film directed by Chris Kraus starring Monica Bleibtreu, Hannah Herzsprung, Sven Pippig, and Richy Müller.

Plot
Traude Krueger (Bleibtreu) is working as a piano teacher in a women's prison. While selecting new students, she meets Jenny Von Loeben (Herzsprung). When she tells her she can't follow any lessons because her hands are too rough, Jenny becomes enraged and almost beats the present prison guard, Mütze (Pippig), who is also one of Krueger's students, to death. After doing so, while the other guards are rushing in, she starts playing the piano. Krueger listens from the hallway and, impressed by her talent, later offers Jenny to give her lessons after all. She does however tell Jenny never to play 'that kind of negro-music' again.




Film Trailers by Filmtrailer.com

4 films: Baaria di G. Tornatore -2009

Baarìa è un film del 2009 scritto e diretto da Giuseppe Tornatore.
Interpretato da un cast corale, il film ha inaugurato la 66ª Mostra internazionale d'arte cinematografica di Venezia il 2 settembre ed è stato distribuito nelle sale cinematografiche italiane a partire dal 25 settembre 2009.[1] Il 26 settembre 2009 la pellicola è stata proiettata presso il Museo delle Tradizioni ed Arti Contadine di Picciano in presenza del regista Giuseppe Tornatore e del Maestro Ennio Morricone, autore della colonna sonora. In tale occasione l'amministrazione comunale di Picciano ha conferito la cittadinanza onoraria ai due maestri.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baarìa

4 films: un prophete - J. Audiard -2008

un prophete

Réalisé par Jacques Audiard
Avec Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup, Adel Bencherif

Film français. Genre : Drame
Durée : 2h 29min. Année de production : 2008

Condenado a seis años de prisión, Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim) no sabe leer ni escribir. Cuando llega a la cárcel completamente solo, parece más joven y frágil que los demás presos. Tiene 19 años. Arrinconado por el cabecilla de la banda de corsos que domina la prisión, le encomiendan una serie de “misiones” que debe cumplir para hacerse más fuerte y ganarse la confianza del líder. Pero Malik es valiente y aprende rápido, e incluso se atreve a hacer sus propios planes

Shawshank Redemption -1994

TOPIC. LAW and CRIME:

The Shawshank Redemption 

(Cadena perpertua) 1994

Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.

Andy Dufresne is a young and successful banker whose life changes drastically when he is convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife and her lover. Set in the 1940's, the film shows how Andy, with the help of his friend Red, the prison entrepreneur, turns out to be a most unconventional prisoner.

Listen to these videos and follow the worksheet. Enjoy the journey.
To read about activities, go to pen.io
video=. Trailer



video1. APPROVED stamp

to know about speeches and communications click here

i guess i just miss my friend


Shawshank Redemption - Hope is a good thing... (Letter)


Shawshank Redemption> click: The message ... (final words)