English Conversation Questions

Movies

Questions

1. Tell us about your favorite movie.
2. What is the name of a famous movie from your country?
3. Does your country make many movies?
4. Why are American movies so popular?
5. Do you watch more American movies or movies from your country?
6. What is your favorite action comedy movie?
7. Do you prefer old movies or modern ones? Why?
8. Which actor would play you in a movie about your life?
9. If you could make a movie, what would it be about?

Videos

Before Edgar Wright and Wes Anderson, before Chuck Jones and Jackie Chan, there was Buster Keaton, one of the founding fathers of visual comedy. And nearly 100 years after he first appeared onscreen, we’re still

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learning from him. Today, I’d like to talk about the artistry (and the thinking) behind his gags.

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Category:  Art | Psychology
Keywords: Comedy | Laughter | Movies
Vox
Why Hollywood kept using Trajan.
For the past 25 years, one typeface has dominated Hollywood typography: Trajan. It’s everywhere, from

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Shakespearean epic classics like Titus to gory modern flicks like The Human Centipede. It was even the official typeface of the Academy Awards for a while. In movie poster design, if you want to make a film look official, you use Trajan. So how did that happen? Designer Yves Peters set out to answer that question.

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Category:  Art
Keywords: Literacy | Movies

Some filmmakers can do action. Others can do comedy. But for 40 years, the master of combining them has been Jackie Chan. Let’s see how he does it. (Note: to see the names of the films, press the CC button!)

Category:  Art
Keywords: Accidents | Comedy | Movies
Vox
Many people consider The Room to be the worst movie of all time. So why do thousands of people flock to midnight screenings of it every month?

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Tommy Wiseau’s film The Room (2003) is by many accounts the worst movie ever made. The plot barely makes sense, the set design is comically inept, and most of the dialogue sounds like it was fed through Google Translate multiple times. Yet, for 14 years, people have been congregating at midnight screenings all across the globe to watch what some people call “the Citizen Kane of bad movies.”

Despite the film’s incoherency, audiences ritualistically throw plastic spoons, shout call and response lines at the screen, and toss around footballs in the aisles at monthly screenings. Knowing all the inside jokes and participatory cues gives viewers what sociologist Pierre Bourdieu termed “cultural capital.” People who know when to shout specific lines or when to hurl spoons are deemed Room veterans.

Contrary to what you may think, researchers have found that an appreciation of this kind of “trash cinema” can actually indicate higher levels of intelligence. Trash films share more characteristics with avant-garde art films than they do with typical commercial Hollywood fare. Audiences are drawn to both “trash” and “art” films for many of the same reasons, like their transgressive nature and their rejection of mainstream aesthetic norms.

Watch the video to know more about The Room and be sure to pick up Bissell’s book (that he co-wrote with Greg Sestero) to read many more legendary stories about the production of the “best worst movie.”

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Category:  Art | Psychology
Keywords: Movies | Worst

Vocabulary:
cove
secluded
float
shore
anchor
lighthouse
greenhouse
handsaw
hammer
power tool
nail
board (noun)
ton
land sick
biomass
canoe
paddle
real estate
prosper
fulfilled

Expressions:
subsistence living
hon

Vocabulary:
word
word
word
word
word
word
word
word
word

Expressions:
expression
expression
expression
expression

Vocabulary:
prestigious
involuntary
swindler
fraudulence
unwarranted
concern
unfounded
impostor
syndrome
faculty
pervasive
prevalent
disproportionately
underrepresented
downplay
abnormality
self-esteem
spiral
accolade
threshold
susceptible
voice (verb)
peer
dismiss
excel
ease
mentor
competence
banish
frank

Expressions:
nagging doubt
shake a feeling
put something to rest
surefire way

Vocabulary:
filmmaker
principle
handcuff
clown
distill
underdog
aspect
familiar
unfamiliar
chopsticks
keyboard
organic
grounded
clarity
stuntman
steady
gag
perfectionist
rhythm
distinct
continuity
elbow
bunch
flail around
unlike
invincible
impressive
humanize
asset
payoff
relentlessness
finale

Expressions:
kick ass
going above and beyond
get smacked in the face
sell a joke

Vocabulary:
explosion
smoke (noun)
engine
unique
pilot
route
unemotional
terror
instant
reach out (to someone)
postpone
urgency
purpose
regret
humanity
ego
reflect
eliminate
frame (verb)
artistic
talent
bawl
miracle

Expressions:
bucket list
brace for impact
mend fences
make sense
connecting dots