FILMS/BOOKS/E/D

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SU LIBRI E FILM.

1st Proposal

I recommend in English:

Yesterday I saw the film SNOW  FALLING ON CEDARS and it was really great. The story

speaks about the tragic situation of the  Japanese people who had become Americans and fought for the USA in the second world war, suffered very much because of the hatred and prejudices American citizens had towards them, especially, after Pearl Harbour. We realize also very much the difference of cultures if we look at touching love story between Ishmael and Hatsue.

by David Guterson is well realized in this film; it was worthwhile watching it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/wbc/#playepisode3

2nd Proposal

Here is my short summary of the the very good thriller by Patricia Highsmith “THE TLENTED MR. RIPLEY”

Tom Ripley certainly doesn’t have a happy childhood. He grows up with his aunt who considers him a sissy like Tom’s father. He doesn’t develop any perseverance and also hates his aunt from whom he is, however, financially dependent , because it seems that he can’t live on his not very clean jobs.

When Mr. Greenleaf  approaches Tom because he thinks him to be a close friend of his son, in order to travel to Europe or more precisely  to Italy/Mongibello and convince Dickie to return to America and take over his father’s company, Tom finally sees an opportunity to change his dull life. I feel that Patricia Highsmith looks  with a very critical eye at those Americans who lived in Europe after the 2nd. World war.

Tom arrives in Mongibello and meets Dickie, who lives more or less together with Margie, a young lady who seems to be a writer, but not a very serious one. At the beginning Dickie is being amused by Tom, but loses these interests rather quickland prefers to spend his time with other friends. Tom is getting very jealous and is slowly developing to get rid of Dickie and take on himself  his identitiy. He carries out his plan and from that point on switches from one personality into the other, according  to the needs. Margie is despaired and feels that something is really wrong, but in the end Tom succeeds in getting away with the murder, despite the fact that the Italian police and a famous detective try to find out the truth.

Here a link to:

Chapter summaries, and beaufitul fotos of places  and more information about places Tom had been to.

http://thetalentedtomripley.blogspot.com/2007_09_24_archive.html

and a link to more information about Tom Ripley. http://www.enotes.com/talented-mr-qn

3rd proposal

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

Here a trailer of the film with Penelope Cruz and Nicolas Cage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRoRCptl8z0

Below you can read a short summary and fill the following words(prepositions and verbs) into the gaps:

by      in      by      in      of      of      of      on

PastCorelli’s Mandolin is a 1993 beautiful novel written b__________(1) Louis de Bernières, which takes place o__________(2) the island of Kefalonia during the Italian and German occupation o__________(3) World War II. The main characters are Antonio Corelli, an Italian captain, and Pelagia, the daughter o__________(4) the local physician, Dr. Iannis. An important event i__________(5) the novel is the massacre o__________(6) Italian troops b__________(7) the Germans i__________(8) September 1943.

viewed      carries      is      follow      tarnished      is      having      killing      portrays      committing      engages      takes
De Bernières __________(1) an ambiguous attitude toward heroism and villainy in the novel: many of the characters, despite __________(2) atrocities, are __________(3) as human victims of bad circumstances. For example, the character Günter Weber __________(4) a great degree of sympathy from the writer, even though he fully __________(5) with the Nazi ideology and __________(6) guilty of taking part in the __________(7) of an entire Italian regiment. Despite __________(8) become friends with many of the men, he must __________(9) orders. Similarly, Mandras __________(10) guilty of murder, torture and rape, yet the author __________(11) him sympathetically: “just another life __________(12)… by war.”

This story blends, comedy, action, tragedy, cheerfulness, romance, homosexuality, love and, for me, above all  language confusion.

The language is therefore a real challenge because throughout the story the characters seem to make a real potpourri of it. This is probably due to the fact that Kefalonia had been occupied for 600 years by the Italians, with a twenty-year Turkish interlude ,the Napoleonic presence and the heavy British influence certainly contributed to this and were also the reason why the people on the island saw each other as aliens.

4th proposal

THE ENGLISH PATIENT

Fotos F.Ramsauer

Fotos F.Ramsauer

A book by Michael Ondaatje, which I highly recommend.

Ondaatje tells us in this eponymous, poetic and romantic book, above all, the story of  four people who are, in every sense, badly hurt during the second world war.

The first of these is the English Patient. His skin is burnt black and he is beyond recognition because of a plane accident. He is now in a deserted villa in Tuscany, which had before been used as a military hospital. The English Patient is left behind and together with him remains Hana a Canadian nurse. Due to the fact that the territory is controlled by the English they would like to know who this patient is. They are afraid that he is a Nazi.

Hana has seen in her very young life tragedies (loss of her beloved father, her lover, her unborn child and many dying soldiers) almost impossible to imagine and she seems not to be sure of being still capable to feel anymore.

Then there is Caravaggio a former thief. His thumbs have been cut so he cannot steal anymore. That’s why is first trying to find Hana, the daughter of a friend of his.

The forth character is Kip, the Sikh sapper. His job is to disarm bombs but even he can’t disarm the last bomb. Kip lived his first part of life in India, whose culture influenced him but he then left his country for England, nation for which he is fighting the war. He does not really belong to any place.

These above mentioned people are in the mentioned villa, where they play out their interior darkness.

I especially love also the episodes, where Ondaatje describes the places/oases the English Patient loved in the Libyan desert, because in the past he was a mapmaker. Almasy was enthralled by the endless wasteland, the star-lit nights or the sandstroms or fata morganas.

Here some more fotos of that surrounding which I, too, found unspeakably beautiful.

Fotos F. Ramsauer

The film by the director Anthony Minghella features: Ralph Fiennes (Almasy), Karin Scott Thomas (Katharine Clfton), Juliette Binoche (Hana-nurse), Naveen Andrews (Kip-the sapper)

more about “English Patient“, posted with vodpod

5th proposal

MAN FROM THE SOUTH

From A2onward/English

As we’re reading in class Roald Dahl’s „COMPLETELY UNEXPECTED TALES“ and more precisely ” Man from the South“, a macabre kind of story, I was wondering whether somebody had made a film of it and to my surprise I saw that Alfred Hichcock did. (See below)

The story is about an addicted gambler, who is trying to convince a young man to make a bet with him. The man from the South promisses the boy to give him his Cadillac in case he loses. But what is at stake for he young man if he  loses, or more precisely, if he does not succeed in striking his lighter successfully ten times without missing.

Aren’t you courious to know the ending?

Man from the South/1

more about “Man from the South/1“, posted with vodpod

more about “Man from the South/3“, posted with vodpod

more about “Man from the South/3“, posted with vodpod

From B1/onward

6th proposal

A book I heartily recommend you to read during your Christmas holiday’s

Mr. Pip by Lloyd Jones

Mr. Pip is a wonderful, easy to read, funny  and most tragic book. It made me shed real tears but it also made me laugh quite often, when through the eyes of Mathilda, the  14-year-old girl, Lloyd Jones narrates, for example, about what is important to the white man and what for he black man.

The story is set on the Papua New Guinea island of Bouganiville (South Pacific) during a brutal civil war in the 1990s. All the white people, except Pop Eye, or Mr Watts have left the place and the blockade has begun, helicopters are circling and generators don’t work anymore.

There is no teacher left and that’s why Mr. Watts decides to help the children out, even though teaching is not his profession. Because of shortage of writing material and as he loves Dickens he starts to do GREAT EXPECTATIONS with them. This story and the way they work on it help the children to escape from their terrible situation. The book changes Mathilda, instilling a moral code, but the surrounding in which it is read also changes the book.

In order to avert disaster, Mr. Watts tells ” Pip’s story”, which in fact contains many stories, in nightly instalments, to the drunken rambo rebells.

Death is the threat that looms everywhere, and despite the fact that Mr. Watts my not have been  considered so heroic by everybody, he and Mathilda really tried to transform situations but the person who, in the end, succeeds in taking the most heroic action is Mathilda’s mother.

YOU CAN ALSO LISTEN TO THIS SUMMARY:Mr.Pip3

Short summary about Bougainville’s  recent history:

The first indipendent movements began to arise in the 1960s.  In 1964 the first attempts were made to explore the island’s resources, when a subsidiary of the Australian company RIO TINTO ZINC, began drilling in the Panguna area. (They have copper and gold.)

In 1972 Bougainville was granted some autonomy, but this did not stop the sessionist movement. Bougainville also failed in an attempt to be united with the Solomon island.

In 1976 the Bougainvillean Government had to accept Papua New Guinea’s sovereignity.

In 1990, Francis Ona declared unilaterally the island’s indipendence. The BRA (rebels)had never any real control over the other groups/clans which also belonged to the BRA. Ona declared himself King and refused to play a part in the peace process. In this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYsDWautKpc&NR=1&feature=fvwp we see the acutal King PEI II,(King of the rebels in the southern part of the island) who seems to be a big lier, promissing very high interests to those who invest in his newly created  and audicious banking system. He makes people believe that he was elected by Good and he pretends to train his „people“ in getting a better the knowledge of the bible. Usually no foreigners or government officials are admitted in his kingdom.

To sum up, it seems very difficult to find compromises between the Bougainville Revolutionary Army and its various clans on the one hand, and the other parties interested in this conflict on the other.

7th proposal

GREAT EXPECTATIONS BY CHARLES DICKENS- 1860-61

Due to the fact that we’ve read Mr. Pip (see summary) by Lloyd Jones, we also tackled Great Expectations, whose main character is Pip, an orphan, who lives

with his sister and Joe Gargery, the blacksmith. Whereas Joe is a very gentle man, who loves Pip as well as his work, his sister , wife of Joe, often is on a

rampage and smacks her brother. After her death Joe marries Biddy, who gives Pip some good advice.

At the beginning of the story Pip is at the dark churchyard where his parents are buried.

Suddenly a man appears and forces Pip to bring him a file  to open his chains and vittles (food). The boy succeeds in stealing the much

appreciated pork pie ,which his sister prepared for Christmas, and  gives it to the hungry man. Magwitch, the ex-prisoner, manages to escape

from the police and  to flee to Australia, where he is able to make a fortune.

Pip and his family celebrate Christmas when uncle Pumblechook says that the rich Mrs Havishan is looking for a boy to play with her adopted daughter Estella.

When Pip goes to the house he is terribly humiliated by Estella because of being just a common labour boy. Despite this he starts loving Estella. Mrs. Havisham

manipulates her into breaking men’s hearts because her heart was broken, when she was a young bride.

Soon after Mr Jagger, a lawyer from London arrives and tells Pip and his family that there is a benefactor who wants to pay so that Pip may become a gentleman.Pip goes to London and his life changes completely. He turnes into a real snob and is ashamed of Joe who has always helped him . Despite this, when Pip falls very badly ill Joe goes to London to take care of him.

Pip hasn’t given up hope that Estella will love him the way he loves her and it is a big shock, when she decides to marry Drummle, an idle, proud and suspicious man.

There is another shock for Pip when he realizes that his benefactor is not Mrs Havisham, as he thought, but the ex-prisoner, Magwitch, who has now come back to England and is persecuted by the second prisoner who  escaped with him and who is, as it turns out the famous ex-bridegroom of Mrs. Havisham.  Pip loses all the money and goes abroad with his friend Herbert and works very hard.

We also learn that Mr. Jaggers is not only cold-hearted but also has a soft core, otherwise he probably wouldn’t , for example, have helped Estella’s mother!

Charles Dickens changed his first unhappy ending in a happy one.

My question: In what sense did the book “Great Expectations” help the children on the island Bougainville in 1991?

The following link  leads you to short, but very interesting descriptions of the most important characters.There are also images relating to the story and even gives you the possibility to watch some imovies http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0214760/biddy.html produced by students.

8th proposal

The Go-Between by L.P.Hartley

The book is beautifully written, gives us an insight into the Edvardian period and shows very cleary how important it is to become aware of one’s feelings in order to come to grips with them and that knowledge alone is just not enough!

It can, of course, be read in simpliyfied versions, according to your level.

This is the link to mp3 version of the summary THEGOBETWEEN

Level from B2 onward English

Leo Colston who lives with his mother, a widow, is invited by his friend Marcus Maudsley to Brandham Hall for a summer holiday. At that time, in the hot summer of 1900, Leo is almost 13 years old.

At Branham estate he comes into contact with a completely new world ; there are many picnics  and guests come and go. Above all, there is, however, Marian, the beautiful daughter of the house, with whom Leo falls immediately in love in the adolescence and this awakens his sexuality. Marian takes care of him, buys new and more appropriate clothes for him and seems to like him very much.

There is  Ted Burgess, a good looking farmer . Marian and Ted start asking Leo to carry messages to  each other, for business reasons, as they say. Leo feels more and more uncomfortable in his situation.

Another very important character is Viscount Trimingham, whose face was badly injured in the krimean war between 1899-1902. He, the owner of Branham is a real gentleman and, in fact, very nice to Leo, and is also supposed to get married to Marian.

Leo  holds Trimingham in great esteem and would like Marian to marry him, but he would like Ted and his team to win the cricket match. These ambivalent feelings provoke conflicts in the boy, because of divided sense of loyality.

Leo feels less and less at ease with his situation and would like to return home, despite the fact that Marcus confides in him that Marian promised to give him a bicycle for his birthday. He understands only later that the bicycle was intended to make his letter deliveries quicker and not to give him something he really enjoyed. On the special day Marian doesn’t appear for tea and cake so her mother goes to look for her in the garden and takes Leo with her, because she is convinced that he knows where she is. By making Leo go with Mrs Maudsley she is also taking revenge on Leo for  his not having shown her a message intended for Marian.

They find Marian and Ted having sex together and this provokes a nervous breakdown in Marian’s mother. Leo doesn’t remember what happened for approximately 50 years until he finally finds some letters, which make him recall the past.

When Leo returns to Brandham for a visit he is a lonly person with a boring job. He finds out that Marian is still alive and that there is a grandson, who does not visit her  frequently and that Marian’s son is in fact Ted’s  son and that Marian is convinced that their experience was  so exceptional and positive also for him! Unfortunately she doesn’t realize the totally different experiences and memories she and Leo have of the same episode in the past.

The Trailer:

more about “The Go-Between“, posted with vodpod

9th proposal

ELISABETH I / QUEEN OF ENGLAND/FILM

As we’re going to see the film ELISABETH I starring Cate Blanchet, Geoffrey Rush and Clive Owen, I would like to write a short summary about this important Queen of England. Here is the link to the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meCoQ2u_oV0

Elisabeth I was born in 1533 and was the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife Anne Boleyn As Elisabeth’s mother was executed approximately two and a half year after her birth, Elisabeth was declared illegitimate.

Despite this she became queen after her halfsister Mary I  during whose reign she had been imprisoned, because of supporting protestant rebels.

Despite the fact that she hade many suitors, among them Henry II of Spain, she managed in remaining unmarried and was sometimes called the Virgin Queen.

Elisabeth feared that the French planned to invade England and put Mary, Queen of Scots, who many considered to be he heir to the English crown, on the throne. Mary many some mistakes. First she married Lord Darnley, who also claimed the English throne and who became unpopular in Scotland.  After Darnley’s murder Mary married Bothwell, who was one of the conspirators of Darnely’s murder. In this way she aroused suspicions of having been party to the murder of her late husband.

After Sir Francis Drake had destroyed the Spanish fleet of war ships in Cadiz Henry II decided to take war to England at last.

On 12 July 1588 the Spanish Armada, set sail fort he channel, planning to invade England.

A combination of errors, misfortune and an attack of English fire ships, dispersed the Spanish ships and defeated the Armada. The shattered remnants of the big fleet had to return home to Spain.

Here a link to an exercise about Elisabeth and her surrounding which you can correct online: ELISABETHI

These words are in connection with the above mentioned film.

English                                                                         Italian/German

to betray sb.	tradire qu. /jd. verraten
to plunge into sth.	tuffare /in etwas hineinstürzen
to whisper	bisbigliare/flüstern
to be ensalved	essere schiavo/ versklavt sein
the crowd is cheering	la folla applaudisce/die Menge jubelt
to take orders from sb.	prendere ordini da qu./Befehle entgegennehmen
to perceive a weakness	accorgersi di una debolezza/ eine Schwäche wahrnehmen
deeds	atti/Taten
to endeavour	sforzo/Bemühung
to slit the throat	tagliare la gola/Die Kehle durchschneiden
an issue	problema/Problem /Ergebnis
wise/wisdom	saggio/saggezza/weise/Weisheit
a whore	una putana/eine Hure
a traitor	traditore/Verräter
to say Grace	breve preghiera/Gebet vor dem Essen
to be overwhelmed	essere sopraffatto/überwältigt sein
to flatter he Queen	fare i complimenti alla regina/ der Königin schmeicheln
dull	noioso/langweilig
to be in the grip of fear	essere preso dalla paura
wrath	la rabbia/der Zorn

Auf Deutsch :

Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler von Fritz Lange. Dieser Film entstand auf der Grundlage eines Bestsellers von N. Jacques. Sein gleichnahmiger Roman formuliert eine Art Verschwörungstheorie. Für Verbrechen und Unheil unterschiedlicher Art, für Börsenkrach und Falschgeld, Morde und Selbstmorde, machte er eine einzige, mit übermenschlicher krimineller Energie und teuflischer Intelligenz ausgestattete Person verantwortlich. Fritz Lange vermittelt so viele Informationen über die  unterschwelligen Aengste und Konflikte einer aus den Fugen geratenen Gesellschaft nach dem 1. Weltkrieg, dass ihn der Regisseur im Rückblick sogar als “Dokumentarfilm” bezeichnet hat. Er passt gut in die heutige Zeit und ist auch für Anfänger geeignet, weil nicht gesprochen wird. (Ich habe diesen Film. Leider gibt es keine Yout Tube Videos.)

2. Vorschlag:

GUT GEGEN NORDWIND / Daniel Glattauer

Ich habe kürzlich einen MMF- Kurs mit dem Goethe Institut gemacht und es tauchten immer wieder Fragen und Feststellungen zu den Vor-und Nachteilen der  virtuellen Kommunikation

auf. Mir persönlich haben diese Kontakte rein menschlich sehr viel gegeben. Da mir nun zufällig

das oben erwähnte Buch empfohlen worden ist,

http://www.buch.ch/shop/home/artikeldetails/gut_gegen_nordwind/daniel_glattauer/ISBN3-552-06041-3/ID13577154.html

und ich dieses mit Begeisterung gelesen habe, möchte ich es den Menschen/Lernenden empfehlen, die sich mit diesem Thema beschäftigen möchten. Hat oder hätte so eine Beziehung Chancen sich konkret zu realisieren, oder schliesst das Konkrete das Virtuelle, oder umgekehrt,  immer gleich aus?

Kommentar erwünscht!

3. Vorschlag -Sommerliteratur 2009

Ruhm/ Daniel Kehlmann

Dieser Roman besteht aus neun spannenden Geschichten, die irgendwie doch zusammengehören.

Der Techniker Ebling legt sich ein neues Mobiltelefon zu und bekommt Anrufe von Leuten, die er nicht kennt mit denen er aber Kontakt aufnimmt und Geschäfte macht. Die Geschichte „Der Ausweg“ handelt von einem berühmten Schauspieler, Ralf Tanner, der sich selbst imitiert. Seine Anrufe beantwortet ein anderer, vielleicht Ebling?

Dann gibt es die Geschichte „in Gefahr“. Sie handelt von einem berühmten Schriftsteller, der

überaus ängstlich ist und einer Aerztin, die für Médecin sans frontiers oft unter sehr schwierigen Verhältnissen arbeitet. Sie möchte auf keinen Fall in Leo Richters Geschichten erscheinen, was aber genau  passiert in Geschichte neun.

Rosalie, z.B. geht in die Schweiz, weil sie sterben möchte. Die Fahrt allein ist schon ein Leidensweg. Am Schluss hofft sie dann, dass der Autor ihrer Geschichte sie leben lässt.

Schlussfolgerungen: Es geht um Veränderungen, Rollen oder Zwiespalt und es hat mir

Spass gemacht das Buch zu lesen. Ich kann es empfehlen.