Learn English with Songlines

Learn about English expressions while you listen to songlines by famous pop musicians.

Don't forget to vote for next week's songline!

Midweek Quiz

It's time for a midweek quiz. Listen carefully and answer correctly if you want to be taken on a tour of six locations in the British Isles. Where to Next?

A Genius at Work: Woody Allen in Manhattan

Enjoy Woody Allen's love letter to Manhattan with the stunning black and white cinematography of Gordon Willis and the music of George Gershwin.

This is the opening scene of Woody Allen's film Manhattan (1979), "both a seriocomic dissection of perpetually dissatisfied New Yorkers and an ode to the city itself". A must for all film-buffs. Really, one of my all-time favourites.

"Chapter one." "He adored New York City. He idolised it all out of proportion. "
Uh, no. Make that "He romanticised it all out of proportion. "
"To him, no matter what the season was, this was still a town that existed in black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin. "
Uh... no. Let me start this over.
"Chapter one." "He was too romantic about Manhattan, as he was about everything else. He thrived on the hustle, bustle of the crowds and the traffic."
"To him, New York meant beautiful women and street-smart guys who seemed to know all the angles. "
Ah, corny. Too corny for a man of my taste. Let me... try and make it more profound.
"Chapter one. He adored New York City. To him, it was a metaphor for the decay of contemporary culture. The same lack of individual integrity that cause so many people to take the easy way out was rapidly turning the town of his dreams..."
No, it's gonna be too preachy. I mean, y'know, let's face it, I wanna sell some books here.
"Chapter one. He adored New York City, although to him it was a metaphor for the decay of contemporary culture. How hard it was to exist in a society desensitised by drugs, loud music, television, crime, garbage..."
Too angry. I don't wanna be angry.
"Chapter one. " "He was as tough and romantic as the city he loved. Behind his black-rimmed glasses was the coiled sexual power of a jungle cat."
I love this.
"New York was his town and it always would be."

Learn English Pronunciation with Borat

Well, actually it's you who could help Borat get rid of his mock Russian (rather than Kazakhstani) accent.

Warning: Adult Language

Borat Soundboard 1

Borat Soundboard 2

To go directly to the soundboard, click on SKIP INTRO.
To stop the background music, click on STOP ALL SOUNDS.

Sky-Rocket Your Vocabulary

It's time to start working seriously on your vocabulary development.

1) First of all, test your vocabulary skills with the BBC Word Master. Remember to select the difficult level and try to beat the clock with your word knowledge!

The good news: you can repeat the test as many times as you like
The better news: you get clues when you're stuck
The best news: you get the right pronunciation for free!
The bestest news: there are thousands of words to practise!

2) Sweeten your coffee break with the BBC Countdown Quizzes. Six easy questions on words, idioms, collocations, stress-patterns... and 58 quizzes to choose among. So many chances to beat the clock!

Good luck this time!

Learn American English with Homer Simpson!

This time you'll get help from Homer Simpson to practise American English pronunciation. Just click on each box, listen and repeat. Good practice!

Homer Simpson Soundboard

What's on this week?

1) Da Ali G Show - Episode 02 "War"

TV3 - Tuesday, November 21, 2006, 11:09 p.m.

Synopsis
Ali G interviews former U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and tours the U.N. Ali G conducts a roundtable discussion of experts on religion. Borat gets a lesson in etiquette. Ali G talks to General Brent Scowcroft.

Ali G (Alistair Leslie Graham) is a satirical comic character invented and played by the English comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. Ali G, Bruno and Borat are Cohen's brilliant comic alter egos. Bruno is a gay Austrian fashion show presenter, who often lures his subjects into unwittingly making provocative statements and engaging in embarrassing behaviour, as well as leading them to contradict themselves, often in the same interview. What can we say about Borat? You all know him: "I hope you like, it is nice I like!"

Originally appearing on Channel 4's Eleven O'Clock show, Ali G is the title character of Channel 4's Da Ali G Show, which now appears on TV3.

____________________________________________________________________________________

2) From Here to Eternity
Canal 300 - Wednesday, November 22, 2006, 06:35 p.m.
Canal 300 - Thursday, November 23, 2006, 01:50 a.m.

Five-star masterpiece! Absolutely worth seeing.

The scene is Schofield Army Barracks in Honolulu, in the languid days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, where James Jones's acclaimed war novel From Here to Eternity brought the aspirations and frustrations of several people sharply into focus. Sergeant Milt Warden (Burt Lancaster) enters into an affair with Karen (Deborah Kerr), the wife of his commanding officer. Private Robert E. Lee "Prew" Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) is a loner who lives by his own code of ethics and communicates better with his bugle than he does with words. Prew's best friend is wisecracking Maggio (Frank Sinatra, in an Oscar-winning performance that revived his flagging career), who has been targeted for persecution by sadistic stockade sergeant Fatso Judson (Ernest Borgnine). Rounding out the principals is Alma Lorene (Donna Reed), a "hostess" at the euphemistically named whorehouse The New Congress Club. All these melodramatic joys and sufferings are swept away by the Japanese attack on the morning of December 7th. No words could do justice to the film's most famous scene: the nocturnal romantic rendezvous on the beach, with Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr's bodies intertwining as the waves crash over them.

Listening comprehension practice

Let's start the week with three listening comprehension quizzes.

The first two exercises require not only vocabulary and grammar skills but also cultural and analytical abilities.

The third exercise will help you recognize how words sound when they run together in informal speaking.

The exercises are based on American pronunciation, but that should be no problem for you. Good luck!

Quiz 1
Quiz 2
Quiz 3

First Spelling Quiz

Try this advanced Spelling Quiz and see what difficulties natives have with English spellings.

I bet you can do better!

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

The film is out! Borat leaves his home in Kazakhstan to go to the "U.S. and A." and record a documentary at the behest of the fictitious Kazakh Ministry of Information. While in New York, he sees an episode of Baywatch and immediately falls in love with Pamela Anderson. Much of the movie from this point on features unstaged vignettes of Borat interviewing and interacting with Americans who believe he is an actual foreign TV personality with no understanding of American customs.

Borat's film is highly controversial and has been banned in several countries, most notably in Russia.

In September 2006 the Kazakh President Nazarbayev visited US President George Bush for talks, with Kazakhstan's post-Borat international image among the items on the agenda. Kazakhstan also launched a multi-million dollar "Heart of Eurasia" campaign to counter the Borat effect, which Baron Cohen promptly took advantage of by denouncing the campaign at a press conference in front of the White House as the propaganda of the "evil nitwits" of Uzbekistan.

Kazakhstan has not, however, banned the film, having merely urged that it not be distributed. 20th Century Fox's distribution subsidiary in the region, Gemini Films, has agreed not to show it there.

Some review excerpts:

Don't see Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan if you're easily offended by . . . never mind.

Borat is so gut-bustingly funny it should carry a health warning.

Reviewer is disappointed!

Don't count out Borat to be above more straightforward practicality or participating in the most intestinal-dropping, gut-smashing bit of cough-inducing hilarity of male bonding ever committed to celluloid.

The people Borat talks to become the symbolic heart of America -- a place where intolerance is worn, increasingly, with pride.

...Sacha Baron Cohen clearly has the biggest comedic cojones in the industry today and his movie is brilliant.

Is Borat the funniest comedy of the year? Almost certainly -- but what's the competition?


Pssst... wanna watch the trailer?

Our recommendation: only to be watched in English

Motivating Grammar Quiz

How about some midweek motivation?

Here's an easy grammar quiz ... designed for natives.

Grammar Pop Quiz

Quiz yourself on science!

Due to popular demand, we're bringing a couple quizzes for the science buffs among us. Equal opportunity policy!

Have a look and take your pick:

1. It's Elementary: A Chemistry Quiz

2. What Do You Know About the Cosmos?

3. What's Your Internet IQ?

4. Medical History

5. Extreme Engineering

Good luck!

First Language Test!

It's time to start testing your English language skills in our blog. Why not take a short grammar quiz designed for native speakers and show them that you really are advanced students? Good grammar is free!

Good luck!

Are you grammatically incorrect?

Learn English Pronunciation with El Príncipe Gitano!

WARNING: NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PEOPLE WITH WEAK HEARTS OR WEAK SPHINCTERS

Learn English pronunciation with El Príncipe Gitano (at your own risk) with his karaoke version of Elvis Presley's In the Ghetto:

PS: He never came to our class...

Quiz Time!

You've had the chance to prove your geographical knowledge a couple times. Now it's time to change the subject. Are you keeping up with current events?

It's the end of another week... Just how much do you remember about the headlines from the past seven days?

Test your knowledge of world news events in this BBC News quiz.

What's on this weekend?

1) Lethal Weapon 4

TV 3 - Friday, November 10, 2006, 21:30 p.m.

Detectives Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) reteamed for their fourth foray together in this buddy-cop action-comedy series based on characters created by Shane Black. With the passage of years, Murtagh's daughter Rianne (Traci Wolfe) is now about to upgrade Murtagh to grandfather status, while Riggs' relationship with Internal Affairs officer Lorna Cole (Rene Russo) means he'll become a proud papa. Elsewhere on the family front, Chinese triad members in Los Angeles smuggle families from the mainland, but this is only one item on the criminal agenda of triad leader Wah Sing Ku (Jet Li), who executes balletic martial arts maneuvers with blinding speed. The film opens with fire (when Riggs and Murtaugh encounter a flame-thrower in a bulletproof suit) and travels an entertaining popcorn plot path to a frightening, watery climax (which we won't reveal here).

Probably the worst film of the lot, but still it's in English!
____________________________________________________________________________________

2) Angel on My Shoulder
Canal 300 - Saturday, November 11, 2006, 09:35 a.m.

In this comedy, Paul Muni plays a recently murdered gangster who finds himself roasting in Hell. Muni can't believe that he's in for All Eternity and keeps trying to "bust out," which brings him to the attention of the Head Man (Claude Rains), who calls himself Nick. Nick strikes a bargain with Muni: There's a troublesome honest judge on Earth who's been shipping too many souls to Hell; if Muni will take over the judge's body and begin performing bad deeds, Nick will set him free. Muni readily agrees, eager to settle the score with the ex-partner (Hardie Albright) who bumped him off. Once he "becomes" the judge, however, Muni discovers that he is utterly incapable of performing any misdeeds--and when he falls in love with the judge's fiancee (Anne Baxter), Muni becomes determined to wriggle out of his agreement.

Charming, heartwarming classic comedy!
____________________________________________________________________________________

3) The Game
TV3 - Saturday, November 11, 2006, 03:35 p.m.

Director David Fincher followed the success of his dark and atmospheric crime thriller Seven (1995) with another exercise in stylish film noir, this time lifting the pallid atmosphere a notch to indulge in a fast-paced trip through the cinematic funhouse. Michael Douglas plays Nicholas Van Orton, a Scrooge-like San Francisco investment banker following in his father's Scrooge-like footsteps. On Nicholas's 48th birthday (the age at which his father committed suicide), his younger, free-spirited brother Conrad (Sean Penn) blows into town and gives Nicholas a special gift for "the man who has everything" -- a ticket to CRS (Consumer Recreation Services), a company that constructs games custom-fit for each participant to provide, as CRS salesman Jim Feingold (James Rebhorn) cryptically puts it, "whatever is lacking." Nicholas's secure life begins a downhill slide as CRS masterminds a series of elaborate pranks, harmless at first, that quickly become malicious and life-threatening. Stripped of financial resources and convinced that he can trust no one, Nicholas begins to wonder if CRS is a front for a more covert operation, and if the game is in fact an attempt to steal his fortune and leave him for dead. Determined to fight back alone, Nicholas infiltrates CRS in order to "pull back the curtain and meet the wizard."

You'll be hanging on the solution to this suspenseful puzzle until the very end!
____________________________________________________________________________________

4) Black Hawk Down
TV3 - Sunday, November 12, 2006, 10:15 p.m.

A quickly forgotten chapter in United States military history is relived in this harrowing war drama from director Ridley Scott. On October 3rd, 1993, an elite team of more than 100 Delta Force soldiers and Army Rangers, part of a larger United Nations peacekeeping force, are dropped into civil war-torn Mogadishu, Somalia, in an effort to kidnap two of local crime lord Mohamed Farah Aidid's top lieutenants. Among the team: Staff Sgt. Matt Eversmann (Josh Hartnett), Ranger Lt. Col. Danny McKnight (Tom Sizemore), the resourceful Delta Sgt. First Class Jeff Sanderson (William Fichtner), and Ranger Spec. Grimes (Ewan McGregor), a desk-bound clerk getting his first taste of live combat. When two of the mission's Black Hawk helicopters are shot down by enemy forces, the Americans -- committed to recovering every man, dead or alive -- stay in the area too long and are quickly surrounded. The ensuing firefight is a merciless 15-hour ordeal and the longest ground battle involving American soldiers since the Vietnam War. In the end, 70 US soldiers are injured and 18 are dead, along with hundreds of Somalians.

A beautifully filmed, scrupulously authentic but strangely evasive exercise in combat ultra-realism.

Don't forget to switch your remote control to audio channel 2 (English)!

What's on tonight?

Catherine the Great, part 1 of 2

Canal 33 - Thursday, November 9, 2006, 22:15 p.m.

Canal 33 - Friday, November 10, 2006, 01:43 a.m.

The life of one of Russia's most brilliant rulers, Catherine The Great, is the subject of this thrilling two-part drama documentary, made by award-winning documentary producers, Brook Lapping.

This is the story of a 15-year-old girl from a small German backwater who was sent to marry the heir to the Russian throne. Locked in a grim and loveless marriage, Catherine became fluent in Russian, changed her religion and educated herself – whilst simultaneously learning to deal with the intrigue and treachery of the Russian court.

When her chance came, she seized power in a daring coup and became Empress, as her unpopular husband was secretly murdered. In a glorious reign spanning 34 years Catherine strove to modernise Russia with new ideas on health and education, but she also waged numerous wars in a ruthless quest for expansion. At her side, her lover, Prince Potemkin became co-ruler, during their obsessive and tempestuous affair.

Using Catherine's intimate memoirs and personal letters, actress Emily Bruni brings to life one of history's most powerful and passionate women.

Duration: 55 mins.
Released: 2006

Midweek quiz: Where in the world?

Test your knowledge of world geography in English once again with this Midweek quiz: Where in the world?

Meet Seinfeld! (and his friends)

Jerry Seinfeld stars in the hilarious sitcom Seinfeld as himself, a comedian. The premise of this series is Jerry and his friends going through everyday life (in New York), discussing various quirky situations that we can all relate to. The eccentric personalities of the offbeat characters who make up Jerry's social circle contribute to the fun. Being "a show about nothing" in its creator's words, Seinfeld has become deeply ingrained in modern American culture, and many of its characters' catchphrases have entered into the popular lexicon. The series aired from 1989 to 1998 on NBC.

Meet Jerry Seinfeld and his friends in this short video subtitled in Spanish; from left to right Elaine Benes, George Costanza, Cosmo Kramer and Jerry Seinfeld (in the blue shirt). We'll be seeing them in class too.

WARNING: ADULT CONTENT!!!

Cinema at the EOI Auditorium

Film: In Good Company

Year: 2004
Running Time: 109 minutes

English-subtitled original version

Available Dates and Times:
Wednesday 8 November 5 p.m.
Thursday 9 November 3 p.m.

Pssst... wanna watch the trailer?

Pronunciation exercise 1: Jehova

Here's the scene from Monty Python's Life of Brian where a man is stoned to death for saying Jehova . According to Jewish law, only men were allowed to take part in stonings. This stoning is attended by a crowd of women pretending to be men (and, since many of those "women" are actually men to start with, it's really men impersonating women impersonating men). You'll find the script below.


--------[As Brian and his mum come over the top of a hill, they see a large number of people stoning some unfortunate. She hurries Brian along to get to the next victim in time. When he is, we see that he crowd consists entirely of women wearing fake beards. An elder stands in front of the next prisoner holding a scroll as he waits for the crowd to settle down.]
Elder - Mathias, son of Deuteronomy of Gath.
Mathias [to a guard] - Do I say yes?
Guard - Yes.
Mathias [To the elder] - Yes.
Elder - You have been found guilty by the elders of the town of uttering the name of our lord, and so as a BLASPHEMER...
Crowd - Ooooh.
Elder - ...you are to be stoned to death.
--------[The crowd look anxious to kill Mathias]
Mathias - Look. I'd had a lovely supper, and all I said to my wife was 'That piece of hallibut was good enough for Jehovah'.
Crowd - Oooooooh!
Elder - BLASPHEMY!!!! He said it again
Crowd - Yes, yes.
Elder - Did you hear him?
Crowd - Yes, yes.
Woman1 - Really.
--------[There is a moment of silence as the elder thinks, after hearing the woman's voice.]
Elder - Are there any women here today?
Crowd [Guiltily]
Elder - Very well. By virtue of the authority vested in me...
--------[One of the more impatient women throws a stone and hits mathias on the head.]
Mathias - Oh lay off... we haven't started yet.
Elder - Come on. Who threw that? Who threw that stone? Come on.
Crowd - She did, she did, he, he, he, him, him, him, he did.
[Their voices drop as they realise their mistake.]
Woman1 - Sorry, I thought we'd started. {Said lovelyly.}
Elder - Go to the back. There's always one, isn't there. Now where were we?
Mathias - Look, I don't think it ought to be blasphemy, just saying Jehovah.
Crowd [Shocked] - He said it again!
Elder - You're only making it worse for yourself.
Mathias - Making it worse? How could it be worse? Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah.
Crowd - Ooooooh! Elder I'm warning you... If you say Jehovah once more...
[A stone flys by and hits the elder.]
Elder - Right. Who threw that? Come on. Who threw that?
Crowd - She did she did, he, him, him, him, him, him, him.
Elder - Was it you?
Woman2 - Yes.
Elder - Right...
Woman2 - Well you did say Jehovah.
[She gets stoned {the blasphemer}]
Elder - Stop, stop. Will you stop that... stop it. Now look. No one is to stone anyone until I blow this whistle. Do you understand? Even, and I want to make this absolutely clear; even if they do say Jehovah.
--------[The skocked women stone the elder to death, ending in the dropping of a huge boulder on his fallen body.]
Woman3 - Good shot.
--------[One of the two roman guards looks at the other, who shakes his head. They do nothing.]

Sunday Quiz

In Unit One of our book we've spoken about some of the world's landmarks. Why not test your knowledge of Geography with a little quiz? Just click on the link below!

Where in the World Are You?

Meet Borat!

Borat Sagdiyev is a fictional character of a Kazakh journalist invented and portrayed by the British comedian provocateur Sacha Baron Cohen. Borat has humorously been described on his official website as "Kazakhstan's sixth most famous man."

Borat was sent to various countries; England, Canada, the Netherlands and most recently United States, to make reports about different cultures. He was sent by the Kazakh government and television network. He has also said that if his movie about the United States isn't successful, that he "will be execute".

Borat has become a cult character in the English-speaking world and a serious thorn in the side for the authorities of the central Asian republic.

Meet Borat in a short interview with Late Show host David Letterman:

What's on this weekend?

1) The Adventures of Pluto Nash
TV 3 - Friday, November 3, 2006, 21:40 p.m.

Eddie Murphy gets way, way out in this futuristic sci-fi comedy. In the year 2087, the Earth's natural resources have been largely depleted, and an increasingly large number of people have taken up residence on the moon, where the pioneering attitude of the new residents has created a culture not unlike the old west. Pluto Nash (Eddie Murphy) is one such lunar exile who formerly made his living outside the law, but has since gone straight and now runs the hippest nightclub in the moon colony known as "Little America." Pluto is approached by Mogan (Joe Pantoliano), a gangster who wants to buy the nightclub; Pluto has no interest in selling, but it seems Mogan isn't about to take no for an answer. Pluto also discovers Mogan is in cahoots with Max Crater, a crime boss whose goal is to take over the entire moon.

For some critics, this is just another example of the continuing downward spiral of Eddie Murphy's once exciting career. But the film is in English, so it's good practice.


2) A Farewell to Arms
Canal 300 - Saturday, November 4, 2006, 09:40 a.m.

This first film version of Ernest Hemingway's novel A Farewell to Arms stars Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes. Cooper plays Lt. Frederick Henry, a World War I officer who falls in love with English Red Cross nurse Catherine Barkley (Hayes)-after first mistaking her for a woman of ill repute. Henry's friend, Major Rinaldi, is envious of the romance, and pulls strings to have Catherine transferred to Milan. When Henry is wounded in battle, he ends up in the very hospital where Catherine works. They resume the affair, which reaches an ecstatic peak just before Henry is returned to the front. The now-pregnant Catherine remains in Switzerland, sending letters by the bushelfull to Henry. But the jealous Rinaldi sees to it that Henry never receives those letters, leading Catherine to conclude sorrowfully that Henry has forgotten her. As the Armistice approaches, Henry makes his way to Switzerland, hoping to find Catherine.

Excellent movie, non-early birds use your videorecording abilities!

3) Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her
Canal 300 - Saturday, November 4, 2006, 10:00 p.m.

A man only sees what a woman wants him to know!

An anthology of five loosely connected stories. This film is a good example of the multiple story format, its focus is exclusively on female characters, and it's possible to view each story on its own. The film begins with a prologue: Police detectives are investigating the apparent suicide of a Hispanic woman (Elpidia Carillo). "This Is Dr. Keener" deals with Dr. Elaine Keener (Glenn Close), a single professional woman attempting to care for her aging and infirm mother and deal with her own loneliness. She invites Christine (Calista Flockhart), a tarot card reader, into her home to make some sense of her life. "Fantasies About Rebecca" profiles a successful bank manager (Holly Hunter) involved with a married man (Gregory Hines). When she learns that she is pregnant, he coldly advises her to take care of the "problem." Before she visits Dr. Keener to have an abortion, she impulsively has a fling with a colleague (Matt Craven). She is also confronted by a female street person in the bank's parking lot. "Someone for Rose" is about a single mother (Kathy Baker), a writer of children's books. She is attracted to a new neighbor, a dwarf (Danny Woodburn), and he catches her spying on him in his house. She's also amazed to find that her son is more sexually active than she knew -- and more than she is herself. "Good Night Lilly, Good Night Christine" details the relationship between the tarot card reader Christine and her lover, Lilly (Valeria Golino), who is critically ill with an unnamed disease. The final story, "Love Waits for Kathy," concerns two sisters, Carol (Cameron Diaz), a lovely blind woman with an active social life, and her police detective sibling, Kathy (Amy Brenneman), one of the detectives who appeared in the prologue. Kathy is attracted to the medical examiner in the suicide case, and her story ends with him taking her out on a date. In an epilogue, Dr. Keener drops in to a bar, where she meets a male character from one of the earlier stories. Debuting director Rodrigo Garcia, a noted cinematographer, is the son of writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez.


4) A Star Is Born
Canal 300 - Sunday, November 5, 2006, 09:25 a.m.

Why do they broadcast such good films at such weird hours?

A Star is Born came into being when producer David O. Selznick decided to tell a "true behind-the-scenes" story of Hollywood. The truth, of course, was filtered a bit for box-office purposes, although Selznick and an army of screenwriters based much of their script on actual people and events. Janet Gaynor stars as Esther Blodgett, the small-town girl who dreams of Hollywood stardom, a role later played by both Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand in the 1954 and 1976 remakes. Jeered at by most of her family, Esther finds an ally in her crusty old grandma (May Robson), who admires the girl's "pioneer spirit" and bankrolls Esther's trip to Tinseltown. On arrival, Esther heads straight to Central Casting, where a world-weary receptionist (Peggy Wood), trying to let the girl down gently, tells her that her chances for stardom are about one in a thousand. "Maybe I'll be that one!" replies Esther defiantly. Months pass: through the intervention of her best friend, assistant director Danny McGuire (Andy Devine), Esther gets a waitressing job at an upscale Hollywood party. Her efforts to "audition" for the guests are met with quizzical stares, but she manages to impress Norman Maine (Fredric March), the alcoholic matinee idol later played by James Mason and Kris Kristofferson. Esther gets her first big break in Norman's next picture and a marriage proposal from the smitten Mr. Maine. It's a hit, but as Esther (now named Vicki)'s star ascends, Norman's popularity plummets due to a string of lousy pictures and an ongoing alcohol problem. The film won Academy Awards for director William Wellman and Robert Carson in the "original story" category and for W. Howard Greene's glistening Technicolor cinematography.


5) Gangs of New York
TV3 - Sunday, November 5, 2006, 10:15 p.m.

Martin Scorsese at work!

The violent rise of gangland power in New York City at a time of massive political corruption and the city's evolution into a cultural melting pot set the stage for this lavish historical epic, which director Martin Scorsese finally brought to the screen almost 30 years after he first began to plan the project. In 1846, as waves of Irish immigrants poured into the New York neighborhood of Five Points, a number of citizens of British and Dutch heritage who were born in the United States began making an open display of their resentment toward the new arrivals. William Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis), better known as "Bill the Butcher" for his deadly skill with a knife, bands his fellow "Native Americans" into a gang to take on the Irish immigrants; the immigrants in turn form a gang of their own, "The Dead Rabbits," organized by Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson). After an especially bloody clash between the Natives and the Rabbits leaves Vallon dead, his son goes missing; the boy ends up in a brutal reform school before returning to the Five Points in 1862 as Amsterdam (Leonardo DiCaprio). Now a strapping adult who has learned how to fight, Amsterdam has come to seek vengeance against Bill the Butcher, whose underworld control of the Five Points through violence and intimidation dovetails with the open corruption of New York politician "Boss" Tweed (Jim Broadbent). Amsterdam gradually penetrates Bill the Butcher's inner circle, and he soon becomes his trusted assistant. Amsterdam also finds himself falling for Jenny Everdeane (Cameron Diaz), a beautiful but street-smart thief who was once involved with Bill. Amsterdam is learning a great deal from Bill, but before he can turn the tables on the man who killed his father, Amsterdam's true identity is exposed, even though he has concealed it from nearly everyone, including Jenny. Gangs Of New York was the first film in two years from actor Leonardo DiCaprio; ironically, it was at one time scheduled to open on the same day as Catch Me if You Can, the Steven Spielberg project that DiCaprio began filming immediately after Gangs wrapped.

"A potent and thoughtful cinematic experience despite its flaws"

Don't forget to switch your remote control to audio channel 2 (English)!

What's on Thursday night?

1) STORY OF 1

The story of the number one is the story of Western civilization. Terry Jones ("Monty Python's Flying Circus") goes on a humor-filled journey to recount the amazing tale behind the world's simplest number. Using computer graphics, "One" is brought to life, in all his various guises, in STORY OF 1, airing on Canal 33 Thursday, November 2, 2006, 11:09 p.m. One's story reveals how celebrated civilizations in history were achieved, where our modern numbers came from and how the invention of zero changed the world forever - and saved us from having to use Roman numerals today.

2) SHADRACH
Canal 300 - Friday, November 3, 2006, 01:41 p.m.

Susanna Styron made her feature directorial debut with this family drama, an adaptation of a 1978 short story by her father, novelist William Styron (Sophie's Choice). Paul Whitehurst (voice of Martin Sheen) recalls Depression-era events in Tidewater, Virginia, when he was ten years old. In the summer of 1935, lonely young Paul (Scott Terra), with his strict father (Darrell Larson) and fatally ill mother (Deborah Hedwall), is raised in a boring, middle-class way of life, so mundane it leads him into a friendship with the lower-class Dabneys, once aristocratic but now reduced to poverty on the former Dabney plantation. Bootlegger Vernon (Harvey Keitel) is married to earthy beer-drinking Trixie (Andie MacDowell), and Paul enjoys the fun-loving lifestyle of this couple and their seven children. Shadrach (John Franklin Sawyer), a 99-year-old former slave, turns up one day at the Dabney house after walking barefoot from Alabama to Virginia, where he was born into slavery. Since Shadrach's wish to be buried on the Dabney's land violates Virginia law, the request sets a variety of racist attitudes and conflicts into motion.


Don't forget to switch your remote control to audio channel 2 (English)!