Ready Player One is set in a universe many pupils recognise – that of video games and virtual reality. The trailer is relatively simple in terms of speech and very rich visually, so it’s a great classroom resource from A1+. If there are pupils in the class who have seen the film already, or read … Continue reading “Teaching with Trailers: Ready Player One”
Two months after his historical movie about the Pentagon Papers affair, starring Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep, Steven Spielberg returns to the science-fiction genre with Ready Player One. Steven Spielberg’s second movie release of 2018 is based on a book by Ernest Cline who also co-wrote the film. Published in 2011, the book became a … Continue reading “Are You Ready to Play?”
Despite the breath-taking effects, at its heart The Shape of Water is a good old-fashioned monster story. Two hundred years after the publication of Frankenstein, it’s the tale of shunned outsiders who show more humanity than the “normal” humans. Guillermo del Toro’s latest film is set in 1962 Cold War America. The military have captured … Continue reading “The Shape of Monsters”
The Steven Spielberg film The Post, starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, is an excellent resource for working on the press and the media as part of éducation aux médias. It would work very well with the theme for this year’s Semaine de la presse à l’école: Where does the news come from? The Semaine … Continue reading “Pentagon Papers Webpicks”
In this era of fake news, Stephen Spielberg’s latest film looks back at the true story of the Pentagon Papers. Publishing news of this leaked government report put investigative journalists and newspaper publishers at real risk of prosecution. And yet, against the odds, they went ahead and set the scene for the Watergate scandal. The … Continue reading “Publishing the Pentagon Papers”
The lead role in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri fits Frances McDormand like a glove. The story of a fierce, unconventional woman touched by tragedy in small town America, it’s honest and brave, like its star. McDormand has made a career on stage and on screen of inhabiting the kind of characters that stay with … Continue reading “Three Billboards and a Mother’s Fury”
Darkest Hour, a new award-winning film about Winston Churchill’s role as Britain’s WW2 Prime Minister, gives an excellent opportunity to work on this historical figure and historical period with pupils at B1 level. The resource and the film focus on some of Churchill’s most famous speeches and their morale-boosting effect. The theme can be related … Continue reading “Winston Churchill’s Darkest Hour”
The Last Jedi, episode VIII of the famous saga which began in 1977, is finally in cinemas. For fans, it’s not a minute too soon. It’s been 30 years since the emblematic hero last properly featured in a Star Wars film. And two years since episode VII, The Force Awakens, in which Luke Skywalker appeared … Continue reading “Star Wars Strikes Back”
Murder on the Orient Express is one of the most popular detective novels by the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie. A new film version with an all-star cast will allow your pupils to discover the story and explore the iconic detective Hercule Poirot with an article and worksheet at A2-A2+ level. They will practise expressing … Continue reading “Murder on the Orient Express”
As the latest film adaptation of the Agatha Christie classic Murder on the Orient Express hits our screens, Alison Bouhmid investigates women thriller-writers’ works, spanning a century of mystery writing. It is undeniable that British women writers have consistently been attracted to and excelled in detective fiction (though the genre was invented by a man, … Continue reading “Murder in the Bookshops”