2. 4. Valentin serov

Read the text and say what made Serov famous.

Оne of my favourite artists is Valentin Serov. When I first saw his famous pictures — the Girl with Peaches and the Girl in the Sunlight — in the Tretyakov Gallery, frankly speaking, I wasn' t too impressed. The girls seemed quite ordinary and I couldn' t understand what was so special about these portraits.

Some years later I happened to be in Abramtsevo, where these two pictures had been painted. It' s а very beautiful place. Abramtsevo belonged to Savva Mamontov, а well known patron of arts. Оur guide told us about the people who had been invited hеге. It seemed that all artists, actors and writers had stayed at Abramtsevo or at least visited it.

When I went to the Tretyakov Gallery after that and looked at the Girl with Peaches again, I suddenly remembered that day in Abramtsevo, and for the first time I noticed the play of light and shade in the picture, the atmosphere of а sunny summer day.

It' s surprising that Serov painted this picture when he was only 22 years old. I read somewhere that at that time he had not seen the works of French Impressionists, who tried to catch the sunlight and the air and transfer it to the canvas. But he managed to do it perfectly.

Serov was born in 1865. His father was а well-known composer and the bоу grew up in the atmosphere of creative activity. His first art teacher was Repin, who noticed that the bоу could catch the likeness of а model often more quickly and surely than older artists.

Later Serov studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and graduated from it when he was 20.

For several years he taught at Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. But teaching did not interfere with his painting. Probably now he would be called а workaholic. Не painted almost 700 canvases, though, unfortunately, his life was not very long — he died in 1911.

Не was а brilliant landscape painter, he created genre scenes, but he is mostly remembered as а portraitist. The list of his portraits reads as "who-is- who" in Russian culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Не painted Savva Mamontov, Konstantin Korovin, Ilya Repin, Isaak Levitan, Nikolai Leskov, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the great actress Yermolova ... The list can be continued. And practically all his portraits are excellent from the technical point of view – the colours, the composition, but there’s more than that – they show people’s personality.

Exercise

True or false:

1. Abramtsevo belonged to Savva Mamontov, а well known patron of arts.

2. No artists, actors or writers stayed at Abramtsevo or at least visited it.

3. Serov painted this picture when he was only 12 years old.

4. His father was а well-known painter.

5. Serov studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and graduated from it when he was 20.

6. Serov is mostly remembered as а sea-scape painter.

2.5. Blockbuster films

How often do you go to the cinema? What kind of films do you like? Read about blockbuster films and say what makes them different from other kinds of films.

It's Saturday night at the cinema. Hundreds of people are standing in a queue to buy tickets for the latest Hollywood blockbuster” The Mummy Returns”. On its first weekend, film fans in the US and Canada spent US$70.1 million on tickets for The Mummy Returns. That's almost as much as ‘The Lost World: Jurassic Park’, which made a record-breaking US$72 million on its opening weekend in 1997.

Everyone loves a good blockbuster film. They are exciting to watch and often use incredible special effects. Many of the greatest box office hits of all time were made in the 1990s. They include Toy Story 2 (1999), Titanic (1997), and Jurassic Park (1993), to name a few. These films had huge budgets and took a long time to make. However, they also made a lot of money both for the studio and for the actors who starred in them. Russell Crowe was paid US$15 million for his role in the 2000 blockbuster, Gladiator. After he won the Best Actor Oscar, he was able to demand as much as US$20 million per film.

The first real blockbuster was probably Ben Hur, which was made in 1959. At US$15 million, it was the most expensive film ever made at the time. It was three and a half hours long, and had more crew and extras than any other film before it. Ben Hur was one of many blockbusters made in the 1950s. The Ten Commandments and War and Peace were others. Studios like MGM spent lots of money on these films.

These days we expect to be amazed by what we see on the big screen. Audiences want to see special effects and impressive casts.

Celebrity Profile

James Cameron, or 'Mr Hollywood' as he is often described, is famous for directing and producing blockbuster films. This profile outlines his career.

Profile: James Cameron

Occupation: Director, editor, producer, screenwriter

Place of Birth: Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada

Family: Cameron has been married five times, and has two daughters. He is currently married to Suzy

Amis, who played Rose's granddaughter in Titanic.

Films:

Titanic - 1997

Strange Days - 1995

True Lies- 1994

Point Break - 1991

Terminator 2: Judgment Day - 1991

The Abyss- 1989

Aliens- 1986

Rambo: First Blood Pan II - 1985

The Terminator - 1984

Exercise

Agree or disagree

1. Many of the most successful blockbuster films were made in the 1990s.

2. Blockbuster films don't usually use special effects.

3. Ben Hur was once the most expensive film ever made.

4. Jack Dawson likes it when he doesn't know what is going to happen.

5. The Terminator says, 'I'm here to rescue you.'

6. James Cameron was born in Hollywood, California, in the USA.