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Children of Men

Date: Aug 08 2007

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

Humans become more removed from nature all the time. What if at some point, women just became infertile and no one could figure out why? Doesn’t that sound terrifying? Well, it does to Marni, but to Mason it sounds cliché.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Mason

Marni

Mason: I finally got around to seeing Children of Men...

Marni: Me too!

Mason: So far behind the times...

Marni: I know. But what a fantastic film. Did you agree?

Mason: The story was kind of mediocre. Honestly, I could take it or leave it.

Marni: I loved the story! I loved the whole concept of civilization dying out because women are infertile.

Mason: Honestly, I read a lot of comics, I read a lot of stuff like that, and those story lines are kind of passé...

Marni: Played out.

Mason: It’s definitely happened before. But the way that the movie was actually shot…

Marni: Those long sequences! Mind blowing!

Mason: It was so engrossing. I felt like I was there.

Marni: I felt tense the entire time I was watching it.

Mason: What I don’t understand, because the guy who directed it…

Marni: Alfonso Cuarón.

Mason: Yeah, who did Y Tu Mamá También...didn’t he do one of the Harry Potters?

Marni: Yeah, he did the third one.

Mason: How did he do this? Where did it come from in his body of work?

Marni: On the DVD there’s all this extra footage of his motivation to do this and it’s a beautiful piece. I recommend everyone see it.

Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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Discussion

Even though Children of Men came out quite a while ago, Marni and Mason both just recently saw it. Since Mason reads comic books, the story line wasn’t all that impressive to him (he’s read a lot of similar stories). But both agree that the movie looks really cool.

It’s shot in extremely long sequences with no breaks. This technique made Mason feel like he was in the movie and it made Marni feel tense. The director of the film had done some cool movies before it, but nothing with such long sequences. Mason asks Marni how he decided to do that and why. She says that the director’s motivations are explained on the special features of the DVD.

When is the last time you felt like you were actually in a movie?

Comments

miffoo

Slovakia

I haven’t seen this movie…

angel he

Canada

it is good !

duke-nukem

Germany

it's a good movie. so much is clear!

shimanaz

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

i haven’t seen ‘children of men’ yet,but i’m going to.while i was watching ‘v for vendeeta’i really felt,i was a very part of it,and at the last scene i cried hard!

victor25

Moldova, Republic Of

I saw the movie and it’s a good one :)

Lana

China

...I don’t know this movie

farzane_skysgirl

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

lovely/of course i loved it

angel he

Canada

Good!

seval_7

Turkey

ı dont know

Johnny bai

China

i saw this film. i think it's a amazing film, especially when the baby was born, fire was stop, everybody were looking it, and you can feel that the world and human beings still have a hope.