Another class I signed up this semester is an American and British Film Production. Every second tuesday we meet to watch a movie. It's always related to British or American culture. We watched Lonesome, Mr. Smith goes to Washington, Crash or Trainspotting and had to write a short comment about it. Here is an example what I wrote about Mr. Smith goes to Washington:
"I was touched, I laughed, I cried (just a little bit!), I smiled and I enjoyed every second of the movie.
If you have told me before that we were going to watch political comedy-drama film released in 1939, I would have probably said "No, thank you" but I have to say I liked it a lot. The simplest reason why I liked it so much was that the atmosphere of the movie was so enjoyable and the casting was believable and very likeable.
Although I enjoeyd the transformation of Mr. Smith from the naive boy to less naive and more confident man, my heart was the whole time fully with the secretary Clarissa Saunders. The change in her ideals made the film real.
Maybe because that's how it truly is. There will always be people like Mr. Smith who will be well remembered by the society. And in the backround of the story there will always be someone like her, who will make the story happen.
The second thing I really loved about the movie is the educational potential. In one film, you can see America in its 1940s, Washington monuments and memorials, US Senate and the reality of corrupted political system. Political system, which didn't change at all. Or maybe it did. Because nowadays there is no Mr. Smith.
P.S. It's ironic that we watched movie where a senator had the possibility to corrupt the whole press and just 9 days after that our Prime Minister bought Bauer Media, company which publishes in Czech Republic 30 titles of magazines. So not only he owns two big newspaper companies and two radio ones, he is also the new boss of people writing magazines like Žena a Život, Chvilka pro Tebe, Cosmopolitan, TV Max, Top Gear, Speed, Retro or Pravdivé příběhy (that's especially ironic). "
The reason why I am sharing it is because not only I listened to hours of English, I learned about the culture too.
It wasn't always easy for me, because I am a bit deaf, so the further improvement I could do is to loose the English subtitles (which I am using when I am not sure about the understanding). But I always searched the words I didn't know, so the next time I am going to be smarter.
