Viewing Hayao Miyazaki s[1] Spirited Away, I was struck by a quality between generosity () and love. On earlier viewings I was caught up by the boundless imagination of the story. This time I began to focus on the elements in the picture that didnt need to be there. Animation is a painstaking process (), and there is a tendency to simplify its visual elements. Miyazaki, in contrast, offers complexity. His backgrounds are rich in detail, his canvas embraces space liberally, and it is all drawn with meticulous (, ) attention. We may not pay much conscious attention to the corners of the frame, but we know they are there, and they reinforce (, ) the remarkable precision of his fantasy worlds.
Spirited Away is surely one of the finest of all animated films, and it has its foundation in the traditional bedrock ( ) of animation, which is frame-by-frame drawing ( , ). Miyazaki began his career in that style, but he is a realist and has permitted the use of computers for some of the busywork. But he personally draws thousands of frames by hand. We take handmade cell animation ( ) and digitize it in order to enrich the visual look, he told me in 2002, but everything starts with the human hand drawing. Thats what I mean by generosity and love. Miyazaki and his colleagues care enough to lavish as much energy on the less significant parts of the frame.
The story of Spirited Away has been populated with limitless creativity. Has any film ever contained more different kinds of beings that we have never seen anywhere before? Miyazakis imagination never rests.
His story involves a 10-year-old girl named Chihiro [2], who isnt one of those cheerful little automatons that populate many animated films. She is described by many critics as sullen (, ). Yes, and impatient and impetuous (, ), as shes stuck in the back seat during a long drive to a house her parents want to examine. Her father loses the way in a dark forest, and the road seems to end at the entrance to a tunnel. Investigating it, they find it leads to an abandoned amusement park ( ). This is the beginning of an extraordinary adventure.
Miyazaki says he made the film specifically for 10-year-old girls. That is why it plays so powerfully for adult viewers. Movies made for everybody are actually made for nobody in particular. Movies about specific characters in a detailed world are spellbinding ()because they make no attempt to cater to us (); they are defiantly, triumphantly, themselves. As I watched the film again, I was spellbound as much as by any film I consider great. That helps explain why Spirited Away grossed ( ) more than Titanic in Japan.
I was so fortunate to meet Miyazaki at the 2002 Toronto film festival. I told him I love the grat u itous motion () in his films; instead of every movement being dictated by the story. We have a word for that in Japanese, he said. Its called ma [3] . Emptiness. Its there intentionally. He clapped his hands three or four times. The time in between my clapping is ma. If you just have non-stop action with no breathing space at all, its just busyness.
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I think that helps explain why Miyazakis films are more absorbing than the frantic action ( ) in a lot of American animation. The people who make the movies are scared of silence he said. What really matters is the underlying ( ) emotions.
(http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-spirited-away-2002)
7. Match the phrases from Text 3 (1-7) with their definitions (a-g); use them in your summary. Try to translate the phrases into Russian.
| 1.A painstaking process; 2.A bedrock of sth; 3.Frame-by-frame drawing; 4.Cell animation; 5.To cater to smb; 6.To gross; 7.Gratuitous. | a)creating each movement of the scene by hand; b)done without a reason; c)to please someone by giving something they want; d)an action employing great thoroughness; e)to earn a sum of money before taxes have been taken out; f)the basic principles of sth; g)a traditional form of animation implying the use of frames; |
D, 2 - f, 3 - g, 4 - a, 5 - c, 6 - e, 7 - b
8. Find the equivalents of the following expressions in Text 3, give the Russian translations. Use them in your summary.
| 1) scrupulous (meticulous) | 3) to make an effort (?) | 5) impulsive (impetuous) |
| 2) kindness and liberality (generosity and love) | 4) countless (boundless) | 6) gripping (spellbinding) |
9. Translate Paragraph 2 of Text 3 from English into Russian beginning with Spirited Away is surely one of the finest up to on the less significant parts of the frame.
TRANSLATION: , , . , , . , . , 2002 , . , . , .
TEXT 4. INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS [4]
Quentin Tarantino s Inglourious Basterds is a big, bold, audacious (, ) war movie that will annoy some, startle others and demonstrate once again that hes the real thing, a director of quixotic (, ) delights. For starters, he provides World War II with a much-needed alternative ending.
From the title, ripped off () from a 1978 B-movie, to the Western sound of the EnnioMorricone opening music, the film embeds (, ) Tarantinos love of the movies. The deep, rich colors of 35mm film provide t a ctile () pleasure. A character at the beginning and end, not seen in between, brings the story full circle. The basterds themselves, savage ( ) fighters dropped behind Nazi lines ( ), are an unmistakable nod to The Dirty Dozen (1967).
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And above all, there are three iconic characters, drawn broadly and with love: the Hero, the Nazi and the Girl. These three, played by Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz and Melanie Laurent, are seen with that Tarantinos knack of taking a character and making it The Character, definitive (), larger than life, approaching satire in its intensity. Lets say they feel bigger than most of the people we meet in movies.
The story begins in Nazi-occupied France, early in the war, when the Nazi arrives at an isolated dairy farm ( ) where he believes the farmer is hiding Jews (). Hes right, and a young woman named Shosanna the Girl flees into the woods. It is for this scene, and his performance () throughout the movie, that Christoph Waltz deserves an Oscar nomination. He creates a character unlike any Nazi indeed, anyone at all Ive seen in a movie: evil, sardonic (), ironic, mannered, absurd.
The Hero is Brad Pitt, starring as Lt. Aldo Raine. He is played by Pitt as a broad caricature of a hard-talking Southern boy who wants each of his men to bring him 100 Nazi scalps. For years, his band improbably survives in France and m a ssacres () Nazis. Pitts version of Italian is worthy of a Marx brother[5].
A Tarantino film resists categorization. InglouriousBasterds is no more about war than Pulp Fiction ( ) is about what the hell is it about? Of course nothing in the movie is possible, except that its so bloody entertaining.
After I saw Inglourious Basterds at Cannes (, ), although I was writing a daily blog, I resisted giving an immediate opinion about it. I knew Tarantino had made a considerable film ( ), but I wanted it to settle, and to see it again. Im glad I did. Like a lot of real movies, you relish (, ) it more the next time. Immediately after Pulp Fiction played at Cannes, Quentin asked me what I thought. Its either the best film of the year or the worst film, I said. I hardly knew what the hell had happened to me. The answer was: the best film. Tarantino films have a way of growing on you. Its not enough to see them once.
(http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/inglourious-basterds-2009)
10. Match the phrases from Text 4 (1-7) with their definitions (a-g); use them in your summary. Try to translate the phrases into Russian.
| 1)Audacious 2)To rip off 3)Savage 4)Performance 5)To massacre 6)A considerable film 7)To relish | a)to steal something; b)acting in a film or in a play; c)to kill a lot of people; d)cruel, extremely violent; e)a motion picture that is worth reading; f)to get great pleasure and satisfaction from something; g)done with extreme confidence, despite risks and difficulties. |
1 - g,2 - a,3 - d, 4 - b, 5 -f, 6 - e, 7 - f
11. Find the equivalents of the following expressions in Text 4, give the Russian translations. Use them in your summary.
| 1) idealistic (quixotic) | 3) to link sth () | 5) to kill (to massacre) |
| 2) a cheap film (a B-movie) | 4) an ability to do sth (a knack of sth) | 6) to begin being liked () |
12. Translate Paragraph 7 of Text 4 from English into Russian beginning with After I saw InglouriousBasterds at Cannes up to not enough to see them once.
TRANSLATION: , , , . , , , , . , . , . , , . , , . , . : . . .
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TEXT 5. STAR WARS
George Lucas space epic ( ) has colonized our imaginations, and it is hard to stand back and see it simply as a motion picture, because it has so completely become part of our memories. Its as goofy () as a childrens tale, as shallow as an old Saturday afternoon serial, as corny () as Kansas in Augustand a masterpiece. Those who analyze its philosophy do so, I imagine, with a smile in their minds. May the Force be with them.
Star Wars was a technical watershed ( ) that influenced many of the movies that came after. These films came along at a crucial moment in cinema history, when new methods were ripe for synthesis. They developed editing, married special effects, advanced sound, a new photographic style and a freedom from linear storytelling ( ). Star Wars effectively focused the industry on big-budget special-effects blockbusters, blasting off ( ) a trend we are still living through. But you cant blame it for what it did, you can only observe how well it did it.
Its possible, however, that as we grow older we retain within the tastes of our earlier selves. How else to explain how much fun Star Wars is, even for those who think they dont care for science fiction? Its a good-hearted film in every single frame.
By now the ritual of classic film revival is well established: an older classic is brought out from the studio vaults, restored frame by frame, re-released () in the best theaters, and then re-launched ( )on home video. With this special edition of the Star Wars trilogy, Lucas has gone one step beyond. His special effects were so advanced in 1977 that they spun off ( spin, ) an industry, including his own Industrial Light & Magic Co. (ILM), the computer wizards who do many of todays best special effects.
Now Lucas has put ILM to work touching up the effects, including some that his limited 1977 budget left him unsatisfied with. Most of the changes are subtle; youd need a side-by-side comparison ( ) to see that a new shot is a little better. The improvements are well done, but they point up how well the effects were done to begin with: If the changes are not obvious, thats because Star Wars got the look of the film so right in the first place. This was the first film to pan the camera ( ) across a star field: Space scenes had always been done with a fixed camera, and for a very good reason. It was more economical not to create a background of stars large enough to pan through.
Lucas fills his screen with loving touches. There are little alien rats hopping around the desert, and a chess game played with living creatures. And consider the details creating the presence, look and sound of Darth Vader, whose fanged face mask ( -), black cape and hollow breathing are the setting for James Earl Jones cold voice of doom ( , ).
Seeing the film the first time, I was swept away ( , ), and have remained swept ever since. The film philosophies that will live forever are the simplest-seeming ones. They may have profound depths, but their surfaces are as clear to an audience as a beloved old story. The way I know this is because the stories that seem immortal () The Odyssey, Don Quixote, Huckleberry Finn are all the same: a brave but flawed hero, a quest (, ), colorful people and places, sidekicks (, ), the discovery of lifes underlying truths.
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(http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-star-wars-episode-iv-a-new-hope-1977)
13. Match the phrases from Text 5 (1-7) with their definitions (a-g); use them in your summary. Try to translate the phrases into Russian.
| 1)Linear storytelling 2)To blast off 3)To re-launch 4)To spin off 5)A side-by-side comparison 6)To pan the camera 7)To be swept away | a)To shoot a panoramic view by moving the camera; b)to give rise to something; c)finding the similarities of two or more things by having them next to each other; d)to be involved in a story emotionally; e)to create something new based on something else that already exists; f)to sell a product again, maybe in a slightly different way from before; g)a narrative that is told from a beginning to an end chronologically. |
1 - g, 2 - b, 3 - e, 4 - f, 5 - c, 6 - a, 7 d
14. Find the equivalents of the following expressions in Text 5, give the Russian translations. Try to use them in your summary.
| 1) silly (goofy) | 3) a make or break moment () | 5) imperceptible (subtle) |
| 2) a turning point (a crucial moment) | 4) rebirth (to re-launch, to re-release) | 6) thorough (within) |
15. Translate Paragraph 2 of Text 5 from English into Russian beginning with Star Wars was a technical watershed that up to you can only observe how well it did it.
TRANSLATION: , , . , . , , , , . , . , , , , .
