Okcp № 5

Специальность: МЕЖДУНАРОДНОЕ ПРАВО.

( 1 КУРС, 2 СЕМЕСТР)

TEMA: “Искусство. Кинематограф. Рецензия на фильм.”

Task 1. Read Jeff Giles’ review on ‘The First Knight’. The words below will help you to enjoy reading.

• to spike one’s wine - зд. Отравить вино

• ye olde sack – устар. Старая добрая кровать

• ostensibly - очевидно

• jettison – выбрасывать за борт, отвергать

• to start from scratch – начать с нуля

• beneficent - благодетельный

• to ambush – нападать из засады

• to save the day – исправить положение

• to fend - отгонять, парировать

• to cuckold - наставлять рога

• murky – мрачный, подавленный

• a letdown - разочарование

• an aside - слова, произносимые актером в сторону

• upbeat – зд. слабый

• nimbly - проворно

• nifty – стильный, щегольской

• hype - реклама, разрекламированность

• mead – мед (напиток)

According to the legend, Lancelot was born to love only Guinevere: Lady Elaine had to spike his wine just to get him into ye olde sack. Now Richard Gere is playing the knight in the shiniest armor, so needless to say he’s become a make-out artist who looks as if he’d lay the Lady of the lake. Jerry Zucker’s fun but perfunctory romance First Knight is ostensibly a King Arthur story. But Zucker and screenwriter William Nickolson have jettisoned so much of the epic – no Grail, no sword, no stone, no Merlin, no magic – it’s a wonder they didn’t just start from scratch. Zucker directed ‘Ghost’, and is once more on the trial of endless love, focusing on the triangle between a fearless knight, a conflicted queen (Julia Ormond) and a beneficent, unsuspecting king (Sean Connery).

Guinevere is on her way to marry Arthur when her convoy is ambushed in the forest. She does battle – and looks terrific slamming one guy’s head against a tree – until Lancelot charges up to save the day. Guinevere tells the wandering swardsman she’s set to marry the king. He puts the moves on her right there in the woods anyway, saying, ‘I always know when a woman wants me.’ Guinevere fends Lancelot off after one kiss. But he follows her to Camelot, where they exchange tortured glances as he becomes a knight and helps defend Arthur’s kingdom against the evil Malagant (Ben Cross). Guinevere and Lancelot manage to kiss twice, but they never get down to serious cuckolding.

‘First Knight’ disappoints in a lot of ways: it’s murky and sunless, its battle scenes are a letdown after ‘Braveheart.’ What’s worse, the movie simplifies the famous love triangle almost beyond recognition. Lancelot no longer loves his king as much as his queen, so there is no dark thread running through his passion for Guinevere. Lady Elaine no longer exists, so the queen can’t deliver the sort of bitchy asides she made in T. H. White’s ‘The Once and Future King’ (‘Am I to watch you flirting with that turnip?). Plus, there’s an upbeat ending. Camelot was a hell of a lot more dysfunctional when White, Malory and Tennyson were calling the shots. All that said, Gere fights nimbly. Connery says ‘Camelot’ in that nifty accent of his. And Ormond lives up to her considerable hype: Guinevere’s love for Arthur is the only truly complicated emotion in the movie, and not many young actresses would have had enough range and regal cool to put it off. ‘First Knight’ is a half a glass of mead. Whether it’s half empty or half full depends on how thirsty you are.

Task 2. Translate the underlined phrases into Russian in writing.

Task 3. Answer the following questions:

1. What do you thing is the general intonation of the review? (Sarcastic, negative, exalted, reserved, positive)

2. What words give short and exact esteem of the film?

3. Who, in the writer’s opinion, is a real star of the film? Why?

4. What do you think are the main points of criticism?

Task 4. Read the review on the film Independence Day.