GCE AS/A level 1182/01-A New AS FILM STUDIES FM2 British and American Film A.M. WEDNESDAY, 13 May 2009 2 1 2 hours Resource Material for use with Section A CJ*(S09-1182-01A)
2 Study the items in Part A, the resource material for use with Section A, Question 1. Item 1: A Radio/TV Film Critic Mark Kermode is the BBC s principal film reviewer, broadcasting on radio and televsion. His radio reviews are also available as podcasts. Do your reviews affect what happens at the box office? Kermode: I read some bad reviews of the new Indiana Jones movie but it had one of the biggest opening weekends of all time. So what s the point of film critics? Kermode: A critic can draw your attention to a movie you might not have seen. Half of a critic s job is praising movies. Critics getting behind obscure films can help them find a space in the market. from an interview given by Mark Kermode for The Metro, 10 June 2008 (www.metro.co.uk/fame/interviews/article) Item 2: Report from a US daily entertainment blog The following is from The Derrty Truth, a daily updated entertainment blog, in 2008. High School Musical 3: Senior Year has sung its way to the top of this weekend s box office with $42 million, which is the best opening weekend ever for a movie musical. High School Musical 3 also became the first global box office leader since The Dark Knight was released in July. Music travels, said Mark Zoradi, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Group. Sometimes American comedy is difficult to travel, but this is a relatively simple story and a good quality, fun movie. www.thederrtytruth.com
3 Item 3: Box office information for a US film Michael Clayton is a legal thriller set in the world of major business corporations. It was released in the USA in October, 2007. It received six Oscar nominations: Best Film Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Best Directing Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Best Music Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role The film won one Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Tilda Swinton). The following is a sample of weekend box office takings in the USA. Weekend of Number of screens showing Box office takings 14 October 2007 13 January 2008 27 January 2008 2 March 16 March 2511 31 Oscar Nominations: 22 January 2008 1102 February 24th Oscar Award Ceremony 200 43 $10,370,000 $45,100 $2,220,00 $193,800 $23,800 Turn over.
4 Study the items in Part B of the resource material for use with Section A, Question 2. Item 1: Two film promotion websites Revolutionary Road is a film set in the United States and is a co-production of BBC Films and a number of US companies, including Dreamworks. Among the key British talents involved are: Sam Mendes Director Kate Winslett Lead Actress www.revolutionaryroadmovie.com The Reader is a film set in Germany and is a US/German co-production. Among the key British talents involved are: Stephen Daldry Director David Hare Screenwriter Ralph Fiennes Lead Actor Kate Winslett Lead Actress www.thereader-movie.com
5 Item 2: From the UK Film Council Website www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/uktalent Item 3: Interview with the former Chair of the British Film Institute The following is an extract from an interview with Anthony Minghella, the director and producer, when he became Chair of the British Film Institute in 2003. Minghella takes positives in British film By Nick Higham Minghella is a man passionate about cinema especially world cinema. Of the 10 films that have most moved him in recent years, he told me, not one is in the English language. That passion is something he hopes to convey to others in his new role. Indeed at one point in an exclusive interview with the BBC, he suggested the British Film Institute might be better renamed the International Film Institute. But he is not one of those who believes the British film industry is finished. A spate of largely unsuccessful lottery-financed films and a slump in the number of films being made in Britain by American producers has rattled many in the business. Last year another leading British director Sir Alan Parker criticised what he called the little England approach of too many British film-makers, who were producing films that no-one wanted to watch with too little regard for the market. Minghella prefers to see a glass half full rather than a glass half empty. He points to the high regard in which British directors, actors and technicians are still held abroad - especially in Hollywood. www.news.bbc.co.uk (1182-01A