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”
Detroit tells the true story of an incident during the “race riots” which swept U.S. cities in the summer of 1967. The film, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, has won praise for its portrayal of police corruption and racial tensions during that long hot summer. 1967 is remembered for the hippie Summer of Love, but July … Continue reading “Detroit: Modern History on Film”
The sixth edition of the This is England Festival will take place from 13-18 November. If you are in the Rouen area, sign your classes up now for screenings, and download the teaching packs for collège and lycée. Short films are a brilliant way to introduce British culture to language learners, as is an exhibition … Continue reading “This Is England Short Films Festival in Rouen”
This A2 article is based on The Emoji Movie released on 18 October. Gene is an emoji who lives in Textopolis, a digital city inside a smartphone. While all other emojis express only one emotion, he can make ‘the wrong face’ because he was born without a filter, and he is desperate to become ‘normal’. … Continue reading “Emoji Time”
Worldwide, we send 6 billion emojis a day to accompany or replace text in messages. So it was only a matter of time till someone made a film in which emojis come to life. The Emoji Movie is based on the idea that each emoji can only have one facial expression and one tone. Smiler’s … Continue reading “Emoji Speak”
Twenty years after Mrs Brown, Judi Dench returns to cinema screens as Queen Victoria, in another true story of the Queen’s friendship with one of her servants: Abdul Karim. The story of the widow Victoria’s relationship with John Brown was well documented. He was the gamekeeper on her beloved Scottish Highland estate where she spent … Continue reading “Victoria and Abdul”
The 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to British-Japanese novelist Kazuo Ishiguro whose work includes The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go. A more conventional choice than the 2016 winner, singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Ishiguro, 62, was born in Nagasaki, Japan, but arrived in Britain at the age of five. His … Continue reading “Nobel Prize for Novelist Kazuo Ishiguro”
From 27 September to 1 October, Dinard will celebrate the 27th edition of its British Film Festival. The winners’ statuettes for the festival are “Hitchcocks”, and the trailer for the festival sets a suitably eccentric British tone with an Alfred Hitchcock lookalike participating in a Busby Berkeley-style synchronised swimming routine. The films in this year’s … Continue reading “Hitchcock’s Home in Dinard”