Crush
“While
there are men”
............................................................................................................................
Here's to men... of all shapes and sizes.
Charming comedy drama about three 40-women in a small English
town where they meet weekly for a ritual of gin, cigarettes,
and chocolate bars and after listening to their pathetic
love stories, they decide who ‘The Saddest Fucker
of the week’ is.
Kate (Andie MacDowell) is the headmistress at the local
school; her best friends are Janine, the town's police chief
(Imelda Staunton) and Molly a cheeky and much divorced doctor
(Anna Chancellor).
One day, Kate meets Jed (Kenny Doughty), her former student,
on a funeral of a friend, and they fall in love with each
other. He is more snobbish than her friends but is passionate
and sincere. At first she hides this love from the locals
and from her two friends. She knows they wouldn’t
accept him. They can't simply be happy for the couple's
unusual new romance. In jealousy, they quickly take it on
themselves to break up the pair, taking drastic measures.
There's a concrete scene where she sits at the organ with
Jed as he demonstrates how, with a simple change of key,
he "can make anyone cry." It's Doughty's soliloquy,
but as he plays, MacDowell simultaneously starts to cry:
Kate realizes that this young man means more to her than
a quick roll in the churchyard. He is the ardent love she
didn’t know she was missing.
The flashbacks work well as an important reminder to Kate
and Jed's relationship. Besides there are some intense moments
in the story that help prevent boredom to seep into the
plot.
There aren't many movies that deal with middle-aged women,
and this one manages to do so with a fair amount of wit
and heart. But maybe this movie will appeal mostly to women.
Andie MacDowell's performance is strikingly fabulous and
this makes Crush be a moving view on modern women. Anna
Chancellor, Imelda Staunton, Kenny Doughty and Bill Paterson
are well cast in their roles to support the events that
follow Kate.
If the goal of John McKay, the director of the film, is
to thrill the spectator, with no doubts, he achieves his
purpose. At least, this movie touched my heart and made
me burst into tears.
Definitely, this is the perfect film to spend a rainy evening
under a blanket with a big bowl of pop corns in your hands.
Mª Dolores Sánchez Martínez (5ºD)
A
TREASURE FILM: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN
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Gore Verbinski, well-known for his famous film “The
Ring”, presents us with his last movie “Pirates
of the Caribbean: The curse of the Black Pearl”.
Set in the 17th century, in the Caribbean Sea, the film
tells the story of Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Deep), an
eccentric rogue pirate, who gets involved in a series of
incidents that will take him to many exciting adventures.
When he arrives at Port Royal, he almost sinks his ship.
Shortly, he is in the market to acquire a new vessel, but
not sooner than being able to save Elisabeth Swann’s
life (Keira Knightley), the beautiful daughter of the governor.
This act of bravery sets into motion a tremendously exciting
adventure involving Elisabeth’s friend Will Turner
(Orlando Bloom), a mysterious medallion, and a legendary
pirate ship, the Black Pearl.
As far as the casting is concerned, we find an impressive
number of remarkable actors, outstanding the great performance
of Johnny Deep, who was nominated as the best actor in a
leading role by the Academy Awards. In addition, the film
was also nominated for the theme song, best make-up and
best visual effects. These effects may remind us of those
in “The Mummy”. They are especially brilliant
in the final sword fight between Sparrow and Barbossa (the
undead captain of the Black Pearl), where columns of light
are used ingeniously.
In spite of all the thrilling moments, Pirates may be criticised
for being quite long, but I personally found its 143 minutes
full of never-ending moments of amusement, thanks to the
highly original combination of very good actors, good action
and humour. It’s exciting to the point of being a
bit scary for the younger audience and that’s the
reason why it’s not recommended for children under
seven.
Another funny moment which deserves particular mention is
the surprise after the final credits. Don’t leave
your seat until the very end.
In a word, if you want to have a very good time, don’t
forget to go to your video shop and buy it straightaway.
The whole family will have plenty of entertainment!
Mª José García Manzanares (5ºC)
AT
LEAST YOU CAN READ WHAT I FEEL
-AFTER THAT, WE COULD SPEAK, PLEASE-Who am I?
...................................................................................
Where am I?
I’d say I’m an alien
Who is in a foreign planet:
The green Ireland.
And why am I writing poetry?
What has caused this poem?
Maybe the song of a bird?
Or maybe a very pretty girl?
I’d say the authors of this writing
Are both of them.
This morning I heard a bird singing;
I had fallen asleep and it got me up.
I thought: ‘what’s that?’,
And I suddenly saw
The most famous thing of Cork:
A ravenous black ugly crow.Why is she so beautiful?
Why is she so intelligent?
Why is she so nice?
Why doesn’t she mind
That I am so kind
When she is so closed to me?
My love life is like this morning:
Under great grey clouds
Only a ravenous ugly crow sounds.
Who is this ravenous black ugly crow?
Why doesn’t he stop doing so much noise?
If I were able to make a choice,
I’d choose not to listen his disturbing voice,
In order to see the harmony,
In order to let the clouds go away.
I’d find then a straight way
To the perfect day,
In which I’d tell the most incredible girl in the
world
That I’ve fallen in love with her;
Without disturbing crows,
Without great clouds over my head.
‘SEPTEMBER SPEAKING
EXAM’
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-PART I (WILL I PASS?):
I’m very nervous,
I do feel as if I were
An insignificant peace of paper
In the worst stormy night,
Completely afraid of the most little sign
Of a wind
Whose most tiny blow would make it fly away
All over the enormous universe with no way,
And nobody could find it
And it would get lost
At he most desperating and frustating feeling
Over sadness and loneliness
Without being able to manage its first and only wish:
Be completed by any kind of letter
Building any kind of words
Building any kind of lines...
In order to be enough
To pass this definitive and absolutely difficult and out
of place exam
(the speaking one).
Will this paper scape
From any blow of the wind?
I hope so, but anyway
It will be seen in a fifteen hours time.
-PART II (IS IT THE END?):
Finito! This is the end.
The paper hasn’t been against
The storm, the universe, the wind;
It just drives
All around the night.
No. It’s not the paper
What is driving,
But its ashes,
Because the paper
Got burnt
At the same time
It listened ‘failed’.
Its most enemy
Was not the wind,
It was the fire,
Which was hiden
Behind the tricky shadow.
The paper has desappeared,
All kind of hopes aren’t now here.
I can’t see the triumph,
I’ve failed, I’m finished,
But... why?
I did it the best I could,
I had no doubts,
I was cool,
I though it was more than enough,
But I was wrong.
‘The internet’ was my topic,
and I talked about all I knew about it;
I felt well,
I was doing it without stopping,
I hoped I was able to pass...
And then the fire came,
Without being wellcoming,
And, between words of ‘failed’,
It burnt all myself.
And it made me to repeat,
To go there one more year.
And this is really tiring,
I do feel very frustated...
I’m a paper which has just been burnt...
I’m finished.But I do now
That this year I’ll take the most
Of the English which will go into my brain,
I won’t let it run away,
I’ll retain it,
And in the end I’ll be able to write at last
That I’ve been able to pass.
And I’m very happy of that.
This paper will suffer
A metamorphosys
And it will be again
A full useful one.
Carlos Martínez
Hernández ( 5º B )
