A) Read the text for obtaining information

Room at the Top (1959) is commonly spoken of as a turning point поворотный пункт in British cinema and a forerunner предвестником of the new realism.

The first signs of change are already seen in the Free Cinema movement pioneered by Lindsay Anderson, Tony Richardson and Karel Reiz. They laid emphasis подчёркивают on the individual and his environment and dealt with the pressures давлением, corruptions развращённостью and frustrations чувством разочарования of every­day life.

Room at the Top, directed by Jay Clayton, still clung удерживаутся to some of the old box-office коммерческую values. It was based on a best seller, it relied зависело on stars (Laurence Harney and Simone Signoret). But at its core сущности was a con­cern with human values and an honesty in expressing them which sharply differentiated it from its contemporaries. The attention given to the film by the critics measured its importance. It was the big talking point тема для разговора. The clamour шум of mixed opinion led, in England at any rate во всяком случае, to a great box-office success коммерческому успеху.

The large social and economic changes that had shaken the 1950s echoed отдалось эхом into the 1960s. Pop art flourished. The Beatles sang and were compared with Beethoven. Affluence изобилие was everywhere, but so were poverty and crime.

For the cinema the permissive cult потворствующий pushed back the frontiers границы to territory ever more violent интенсивное and erotic and compelled подчинён a revision пересмотру of cinema censorship . The 1960s carried screen permissiveness вседозволенность about as far as it could go. The new films explored the hew mo­ralities and attitudes of the younger generations, and at the same time alienated охладило numbers of older people whose minds were rusted up заржавели in the past.

In 1967 the Federation of Films Unions produced a report отчёт in which they repeated the charge обвинение that British Production was dominated by the USA, and that 70 percent of screen time in 1967 was occupied by foreign films.

In 1970, because of trade коммерческой uncertainty and the smaller number of films being made, the most promising film projects went "automat­ically" to the major American companies.

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During the time of economic vacuum when so much of promise перспектив in film-making фильмопроизводства had been brought to nothing, British Lion национальная эмблема Великобритании passed into other hands.

(From: Belts E. The Film Business. L., 1973. Abridged.)

b)In this text the author singles out several periods in the development of Brit­ish cinema. What are they? What are the basic characteristics of each period?

c) Can the development of cinematography in this country illustrate the con­nection between film and society?

1. Are you familiar with the Soviet films of the 30s, 40s and 50s? What was characteristic of them?

2. Were all these films realistic or did some of them idealize, ro­manticize and glorify reality?

3. In what way can the films reflect the values of the society?

4. Do you think that most of the films carry an ideological mes­sage? Should they serve as an instrument of shaping public opinion?

5. What is characteristic of the latest Russian films? Don't you find them sometimes shocking in their portrayal изображение of reality?

II. 1. Read the following dialogue which presents an interview with a famous American character actor Tom Buchanan. Pay special attention to the phrases in bold type used for expressing opinion.

/.: How did you get into movies in the first place?

Buchanan: I first became interested in acting when I was in col­lege. I had a sister, and she told me about a class in play interpreta­tion. So the old instructor who also directed the little theater in col­lege, let me sit there and listen to him while they were reading Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona . I was particularly in­trigued with Shakespeare's fools. Two weeks later I was playing with the regular company on the stage. I was really stagestruck увлечённый театром. It took about ten years to realize that people were laughing with me and not at me. I thought I was God's gift to the world as a dramatic heavy роль злодея,¹ but the more sincere I'd play a heavy, the louder they'd laugh.

/.: And what kind of parts did you usually play?

В.: Heavies and old men. I was playing old men when I was in my twenties, when I started. My voice put me in the character class характерный тип; I've always had that voice. I had a seven-year contract in pictures because of my voice,

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/.: Did the director give you any special consideration соображения in your first picture?

В.: You're supposed to know what you're doing in this business. The second day we were shooting on this very first picture, the di­rector came to me and said "Would you like to see the rushes текущий съёмочный материал? "² and I said "What's that? " He said "That's the work we shot yesterday." I went in and saw it, and I saw myself... I saw what was wrong. I was playing for the back row играл в кино так, как актёр в театре,³ and I was mugging гримасничал.⁴

/.: Did you enjoy doing Penny Serenade (мелодрама 1941)?

В.: That was a big thrill глубокое волнение for me, a big thrill. I learned a lot on that picture. George Stevens, in my opinion, is the greatest director we've ever had. He's a wonderful director for an actor. Once I asked him: "George, what do you credit your success to чему вы приписываете свой успех? Is it your knowledge of the camera? I know you used to be a cameraman." He said "It's two things. The camera is one of them... I know what I can do with a cam­era. The other one is that I've always wanted to be an actor. I come from an acting family, but I never could make it. And I think I know what actors want." And he really does. You'll have a scene to do two weeks later, and he'll come and be talking to you about something, just get­ting you in the mood приводя тебя в нужное настроение, making you think correctly for that particular scene. A wonderful guy... he listens, doesn't do a lot of talking.

/.: Would you improvise different things in such a situation?

В.: Most directors will allow that... but don't tell them you've dis­covered something, or you should do this. Go ahead действуй and do it, let them see it, then they'll come and tell you to do it. Then they've thought of it.

/.: It's been said that the character actor актёр, играющий характерные роли doesn't get directed as much as the lead.

В.: Well, as a rule, he's had more experience than the lead and doesn't need the direction. They hesitate не решаются to tell him what to do; he's probably been on the stage, or on the screen for fifty years, and if he doesn't know it by now he'll never know it. But they can always sug­gest, believe me. I think the director should watch every actor. It was a great thrill working with young people. They all looked up to смотрели почтительно me, they didn't know it, but I was looking up to them, and learning a lot from these kids.

/.: Did you find yourself getting stale выдохнувшимся at all?

B.: Yes, you do. You have to watch it constantly. You become careless, your work becomes slovenly сделанной кое-как. Some days you don't feel up быть в состоянии to it. It's the same character year after year, day after day. It's not good, it's not healthy.

/.: What do you do to avoid it?

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В.: Just keep alert будь начеку, if you can. Be alert, and when you start out собираешься сделать to do a scene, be thinking about it. The minute you're not sincere you're licked разгромлен. And if you don't enjoy doing it, the audience won't enjoy watching it.

/.: Did you feel that you were typecast занят в однотипных ролях?⁵

B>: Yes, in a way в некоторой степени. I had a variety of roles, but they principally typed me as a "lovable rogue милый негодяй". He'd be a heavy, but everyone would be on his side.

I/ Then you got into TV in a big way с энтузиазмом?...Has the TV series done much to change your public status?

В.: Oh sure; I can go anywhere in the country — to foreign coun­tries, in fact — and the kids will holler "Hi, Uncle Joe!" More peo­ple can see you in one night than used to see you in a whole career . The only thing is просто надо, they may get tired of you, which I don't think is good. I think there are more bad things against TV than good, as far as the actor is concerned имеет отношение.

/.: Do you have a favorite film?

B.:Yes, Texas . Because I knew what I was doing. I'd only practised ten years for that part, as a dentist. I never realized before how im­portant your "business" is, until that picture. I bet I received about a hundred letters on that picture, some of them from dentists. You know, the greatest compliment you can get, when somebody sees you in a picture, is for somebody to say "Anybody could do." It's a great compliment when you're portraying изображаете a part so it looks natural. That means you're doing well.

(From: The Real Stars/Ed, by L. Maltin. N.Y., 1973.) Commentary

1. a heavy: theat. a villainous part or character

2. a rush: a print of a motion picture scene processed directly af­ter the shooting

3. to play for the back row here: to exaggerate; to act the way one acts on the stage

4. to mug: to make faces to attract the attention of an audience

5. to typecast: to cast an actor repeatedly in the same type of role calling for the same characteristics possessed by the actor

2. Here are some more phrases for expressing opinion and responding to it.

From my point of view... As I see it. Personally I think... As far as I'm concerned... It would seem to me that... As far as I'm able to

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judge... I am of the same opinion. That's it (right). That's just what I was going to say! Right you are! I disagree with you on that point! But... Do you mean to say... I'm afraid I don't follow...

3. Work in pairs. Discuss the problems given below using the phrases for ex­pressing opinions and responding to them. Use the material of the interview .

1. Character actor. Do you think it is always some peculiari­ties, like figure, features of the face, voice that put an actor into a character class? Is a character actor who is typecast as a villain or a fool confined for ever to these roles? If so, how to avoid get­ting stale?

2. Character actor — the lead. Can character actors display an acting which overshadows many a "star" and transforms a poor film into a work of art? Should they act at all, or should they merely be natural and "play themselves"?

3. Actor — professional training. Do you think that professional training, including such things as a voice production or bodily con­trol, is a must for an actor? Is it possible to come into this profession by some other way than drama school?

4. Acting — its popularity. What is it to your mind that makes this profession so popular? Is it viewed as the surest road to fame or is it that "everyone wants to be somebody else"?

5. Actor: stage — cinema — television. Is it true that nowadays no actor is confined to only one medium? Do you think that working for television is good for the actor?

6. Actor — director. What-makes a good director? Is it true that we live in an age of director's cinema and actors are merely puppets in his hands? Are there any ways to achieve a fruitful collaboration between the talents of writer, director and actor?

4. Role-playing. Get ready for an interview . One part of the group is asked to make an actor's character sketch for themselves in written form. The other part is getting ready with the questions putting the spotlight on the main events of the actor's career and his views on the problems of modern cinema. Act the interview in class. By the end of it the interviewer is supposed to make a character sketch of: the actor and compare it to the original one made by his partner.

III. Many famous directors expressed their ideas about the role of cinema and its task to reflect life as it is, to pose problems and discuss them. The question emerges: Should cinema preserve its function as an entertainment?

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