THE MEDIA: HISTORY and GENRES

SET A

1 What are your favourite cinema genres? Do you like cult movies? Have you ever watched a Charles Chaplin movie? What is special about his movies? Cinema is art, industry and mass media, all in one. As art, it is fiction. As industry and mass media, it is entertainment. The first genres, such as documentary, drama, comedy and western were born with the silent film. In no time, the big production companies appeared: Paramount, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Universal and Warner Bros. The arrival of the talkies in the 1920s was the beginning of Hollywoods Golden Age. New companies were created such as Fox, Columbia, United Artists and RKO. Chaplin became the paradigm of films full of funny situations. Westerns and romantic comedies gave origin to the star system, the heroes and divas that made history until the 60s and 70s. Science fiction films appeared during the 50s. They were based on previous horror, vanguardist and futurist films. An example of an influential vanguardist film is Fritz Langs Metropolis, shot in 1927. Under the influence of the first trips into space, Stanley Kubrick directed A 2001 Space Odyssey in 1968. The film used technical information given by NASA, and the reproduction of the interior of the spacecraft was very realistic. Kubrick thought that everything shown in the film had to be attractive and functional at the same time. Georges Lucas directed Star Wars in 1977. This film renewed the concept of science fiction and displayed outstanding visual effects. The story line in Star Wars is the battle between Good and Evil. Other famous science fiction films include The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Blade Runner (1982) and ET, the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Inception (2010) is currently number 1 on the top rated sci-fi titles at the Internet Movie Database. 2 Complete the sentences with words from the text. a A ______________ is a typical example or pattern to follow. b A _________________ movie is one that sets a trend. c A________________ is a vehicle in which you can leave the Earth. d Something _________________is extremely good or excellent. 3 Complete the following sentences using information in the text. a Documentary, drama, comedy and western are examples of __________________. b Paramount, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Universal and Warner Bros are the first _____________. c Chaplins silent films____________ . d The first science-fiction movies were influenced by___________________. e Technically speaking, A 2001 Space Odyssey ________________. 4 Guessing game: choose a movie you like and write a technical file with the information below. Dont show it to your partner. Then describe your movie and have him guess the title. Title: Director: Year of release: Actors / Characters: Genre: 5 Project work: think of films that correspond to these genres. Then choose one and write a brief summary of its plot in your notebook. Share it with your class. - Comedy: - Suspense: - Drama: - Action: - Romance: - Horror: - Science-fiction: - Catastrophe: