CINEMA
Cinematograph is one of the wonders of the modern world. We can not imagine
our everyday life without TV. Every day, every single evening most of
people watching TV. You can watch whatever you’d like: news, show, films or
anything else. There are so many different channels: news, discovery,
sport, music, fashion and others. We know a lot of different films and
shows, but not everyone knows about history of cinematograph. So, I’d like
to tell you about it.
Los Angeles is the world capital of filmed entertainment. First it was a
little city with orange trees and great weather. One day in 1908 a group of
people from Chicago came to Los Angeles to make a film. Since that day a
lot o f actors, producers, directors and lots of other workers have been
coming here. In 1911 the first studio appeared in Hollywood. About 80% of
the world’s films were made in a Hollywood in the 1920s. There are many
corporations and film companies like:
 MGM-(Metro Goldwyn Mayer)-one of the most powerful Hollywood studious of
the 1930s-1950s, it produced such prestige films as David Copperfield and
The Wizard of Oz. Among its stars were Greta Garbo, James Stewart, and
Elizabeth Taylor.
Paramount is a film production and distribution company, founded in 1912. A
major studio from the silent days of the cinema.
 20th Century Fox a US film-production company, formed in 1935. It is steel
a major studio.
Columbia Pictures a US film production and distribution company founded in
1924. It grew out of a smaller company founded in 1920 by Harry Cohn;
Columbia became a major studio by the 1940s.
Warner Bros a US film production company, founded in 1923 by Harry, Albert,
Sam and Jack Warner.
Universal a US studio founded in 1915. In the 1970’s and 1980’s Universal
became one of the industry’s leaders with box-office hits from the producer
and director Steven Spielberg such as ET and Black to the Future.
The first genres of American films were melodrama; western and comedy,
later appeared adventure and historical films. At that time films were
silent and black-and-white. Later films became sound and colorful.
 Earlier in Paris in 1895 the Lumiere brothers gave the world's first real
cinema show to an audience of thirty-three spectators. The first film they
showed was «The Arrival of a train at a Station». Moving pictures seemed so
real that the audience was frightened to death by the train rushing at them
from the screen. The spreading in cinematography in Russia started with the
demonstration of the Lumiere brothers’ film in May 1896 in St. Petersburg
and Moscow and later in Nizhniy Novgorod. The first sound films
simultaneously appeared in three countries, the USSR, USA, and Germany at
the end of the 1920’s. In October 1929 the first sound cinema house started
its work.
As for me I like action films, comedies, and melodrama. I like comedies
best because it’s extremely funny and a good way to relax. I like to watch
melodrama because it’s realistic, truly to life. Action films are very
dynamic and exciting.
My favorite film actor is Gerard Depardieu one of the most popular actor.
He was born in 1948 in a poor family of a shoemaker in a little town. When
he was 16 he came to Paris without any education and without any money.
Together with his friend he began to attend the actor courses. He got
acquainted with a girl of a wealthy family and soon they got married. She
had a great influence upon him. He finished the actor courses. When he was
only 20 he played big roles in the theatres. His great success in films is
a consequence of his good theatrical school. But his success in the USA was
not long. In 1991 during his interview to the magazine «Time» he told that
he was a hooligan when he was a teenager. The American audience doesn't
excuse such fact in his biography. The works of Depardieu in cinema are
marked by many cinema rewards in France and in Italy. Everybody notes that
glory and money don't spoil him. They only made him independent. He played
in about 80 films.
Not long ago millions of people used to visit cinema each week. Cinema
houses were often packed full and one could see people queuing up in front
of the box offices. Now with the price of tickets far from reasonable the
growth of video production and the flood thrillers empty of serious content
the cinemas rapidly losing its popularity. Cinematograph is truly an art of
our time. It's as complicated and multi-facet as the twentieth century
itself. Everyone can find something to his liking in the broad variety of
its genres. Those who seek pure entertainment and rest to the mind prefer
musical comedies, detective films, thrillers, horror films and westerns.
Other people consider that movies should be rather a thought provoking and
earnest art than all fun. Personally I am for entertaining both the heart
and mind at the same time.
               Ekaterina Kraynyaya.