Everyone has at least heard of Bollywood but how many of us really know how huge and culturally-loaded this industry is? This is what this A2+-B1 article explores! You and your students will get to understand how powerful Bollywood is and how it hinges on both tradition and modernity to appeal to its audience. As … Continue reading “Celebrating Bollywood”
34 years after the beginning of the saga, British author Ken Follett returns to Kingsbridge, an imaginary town in the south of England, with a fifth installment, The Armour of Light. With this book, Follett completes a period of more than 800 years, from the end of the Dark Ages to the time of the … Continue reading “The Armour of Light: Ken Follett returns to Kingsbridge”
We are gradually publishing an 8-part analysis of the 1993 animated film The Nightmare Before Christmas. Here are parts 4 and 5. We’ll be publishing further parts during the autumn so you can study the film with A2-level pupils in class. The film, directed by Henry Selick and written by Tim Burton, focuses on the … Continue reading “Analysing Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas Parts 4 and 5”
Based on the best-selling book by David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon, directed by Martin Scorsese, delves into a dark chapter of American history. The story unfolds in 1920s Oklahoma, where a series of mysterious murders takes place in the Osage Nation’s reservation. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Lily Gladstone, the film … Continue reading “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Hollywood is often used as a synonym for the cinema industry but Bollywood in India actually releases more films. The Indian film industry makes 2000 films every year, about three times as many as Hollywood. Cinema came very early to India. The Lumière Brothers’ pioneering films were shown soon after their European release in 1896. … Continue reading “Bollywood Superstars”
Three weeks after Kevin McCarthy became the first ever Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives to be voted out of the Speaker’s chair, the House finally elected a new Speaker on 25 October, the fourth candidate to attempt election: Mike Johnson from Louisiana. Johnson was elected on his first try on Wednesday, with all … Continue reading “Found: Speaker”
At age 87, veteran British filmmaker Ken Loach says The Old Oak will be his last film and it closes the trilogy set in the north-east of England after I, Daniel Blake (Cannes Palme d’or 2016) and Sorry We Missed You (2019). It looks at the arrival of a group of Syrian refugees to be … Continue reading “Ken Loach Trying to See the Hope”
Long before it made it to the U.S. and Canada, Hallowe’en was an ancient Celtic festival, Samhain*. One of the four major Celtic festivals, it celebrated the dead. One of the major traditions at Samhain was rituals that predicted the future. This is a tasty Scottish way to do that. * /ˈsɑːwɪn/ This Hallowe’en cake … Continue reading “Halloween Cake to Tell the Future”
On 14 October, Australians voted 60-40% against a referendum proposal on a change to the Constitution that would have given Indigenous Australians a greater voice in the legislature. If approved, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice would have been a consultative body to advise lawmakers on issues affecting Indigenous Australians. Labor Prime Minister Anthony … Continue reading “Australia Says No in Indigenous Representation Referendum “
On 3 October, Kevin McCarthy became the first ever Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives to be voted out of his role. He had already made the news when had had to face 15 separate votes before being elected Speaker in January – most of the opposition coming from his own Republican Party. The … Continue reading “Wanted: Speaker”