Tim Burton

By Martina López

Timothy William Burton is one of the most imaginative of all film directors, and he always stands out on account of his amazing worlds, in which one can lose oneself for two hours. His characters tend to be misfits and strange people but by the end of the film audiences love them (especially if they are played by Johnny Depp).

He tends to use the same actors in many of his films: for example, Helena Bonham Carter, his partner; Johnny Depp; or even Christopher Lee.

I am not very interested in Burton’s life before his film career, so I shall start my story when he was 13 years old, because this is when he started to make some short films with his friends. Then, when he went to university he made a series called Stalk of the Celery Monster, which won him a contract to work with Disney. The company found Burton's style and designs impossible to understand, so he started making his first major short films, such as Vincent and Frankieweenie on his own initiative.

His first feature film was Pee Wee's Big Adventure, which was followed by works such as Beetlejuice with Wynona Rider and Michael Keaton (who would later play the title role in Batman, Burton's third feature). His version of Batman had some problems with the producers but Burton tried to reach all audiences, including those who do not normally like superhero movies. The result was the biggest box-office success in cinema up to that point.

Burton then made one of his most important films, Edward Scissorhands, with Johnny Depp as Edward. Of course, he also made other films, such as the second part of Batman and Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood (about the worst film director ever) and Mars Attacks!.

In my opinion, his best films are Beetlejuice and Ed Wood, and his worst is Planet of the Apes.

He is still working, obviously in his strange and funny way, with his dark atmospheres and gloomy scripts full of misfits. His latest work is Alice in Wonderland and anybody who thinks that is too childish for them should think again, because I have seen it and I can tell you that Burton's version is really interesting and very different from the original story.

Pulp fiction

By Martina López

I have chosen this film because it's one of my favourite movies and I think that it is really interesting. And I am not the only one who thinks that way, because this film, (winner of an Oscar and a Golden Palm) is considered a landmark in film noir.

It was written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who also played a supporting role! Do you understand now why I admire this man so much? He is a director, actor and scriptwriter! Of course, he didn't play a main character; he left this honour to big stars like John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis and other major actors who made the film even more interesting.

The film is split into three parts. The first story: a couple of thieves are robbing a bar, but they are going to have a few problems to get the money. The second: a professional criminal is taking care of his boss' wife, but something happens between them. And the third: a boxer who is a loser will have to fight against his own pride... and his boss.

The three stories are connected as time advances in the film, and not all of them finish happily at the end.

To sum up, I recommend this film because you will not get bored and you will see the work of one of the most important directors, directing one of the most important scripts, in one of the most important films!

I love this film because it contains nearly two hours filled with black humour, almost perfect performances, a dance with the legendary dancer Travolta and, of course, murders, robbers and lots of guns!

Hachiko: A dog’s story

By: Anastasia Macovei, Rosa Lina Aragón

This story is based on real events. There are two films about this dog, one made in 1987, the other in 2009.

The films tell the same story. In the first one Hachiko is the main character and tells us his story from his birth to his death, and he imagines that after his death he has a spiritual meeting with his owner. The film met with great success.

The second is a remake of the first film. It was made in August 2009. Richard Rege stars in the film, which has the title ‘’Hachiko: A dog’s story”. The other actors include Joan Allen and Jason Alexander. The film was shot in Rhode Island.

Hachiko was a dog lost at the train station. One day the teacher Parker saw him and he decided that he wanted this dog and took it with him. He saw that nobody was looking for him and decided that the dog would live with him and his wife, but she did not like animals. Finally, the wife came to like the dog and agreed that he could stay with them.

The years passed and Hachiko became a very big, playful and faithful dog. Hachiko loved his owner and every day he came to the train station to meet Parker. The dog met him at the same time every day, without fail. When it was very cold or it was snowing the dog came all the same, always in the same place.

One day, the teacher Parker had a heart attack and died while he was teaching. But the dog waited for him, although he never appeared and he never understood that he had died. Hachiko came every day and hoped that one day his owner would appear, and although he never came back, Hachiko never lost his hope and he waited for him until his death. People knew him and said that he should not wait any more, because the teacher would never appear, but he waited at the same place every day.

Ten years went by and Hachiko never failed. He was old but never forgot his owner, he never forgot the love that the teacher gave him. One day Parker’s wife saw that he was waiting for him and rejoiced when she saw that he was there, waiting for 10 years. Hachiko waited until the last minute of his life; he never forgot him.

Hachiko in real life

In real life, Hachiko was born on November 10th 1923 and died on March 8th 1935. In Japanese his name is chūken Hachikō; hachi means eight and it refers to the order of his birth number in the litter and 'kō' means prince.

Videogames

The game Square Enix 'Subarashiki Kono Sekai' (“It's a Wonderful World”, or ‘'The World Ends With You’’, as it is called in America) shows the statue of Hachiko in the train station: Shibuya. If a player chooses the character of Samurai, he or she has a dog with the name of Hachi.
Books

There is also a 2004 children’s book entitled: Hachikō: The True Story of a Loyal Dog. The book was written by Pamela S. Turner and illustrated by Yan Nascimbene.

And a novel: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, written by David Wroblewski. The story tells us about the friendship of the protagonist and his family with dogs.

The Social Network

By Leon Buengel

The movie ´The Social Network´ is an American movie that tells the story of the creator of Facebook.

In 2003, after being left by his girlfriend, because he was an asshole, the American student Mark Zuckerberg had the idea of a social network, which was called FaceMatch. The basic idea of this website was that the user could decide who was the prettiest out of various pairs of women from his college. This website was created with the help of his best friend, Eduardo Severin. To get the necessary information and the photos, Mark hacked into the computers of Harvard University. When he made this site, he wrote many insulting and negative posts about his former girlfriend on his wall. After these posts his website became more and more famous; one night there were more than 20,000 clicks on the site. Harvard University’s computers broke down and there was no connection to the Internet. After this accident Mark had to go to court: six months without causing any problems or he would go to prison. His ex-girlfriend did not want to talk to him, because she was sad and mad at him on account of all his posts.

The twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and their friend Divya Direnda were interested in Mark and his idea. They talked to Mark about their idea of an elite network just for the students of Harvard. They needed Mark´s help and he said he would cooperate. After this meeting there was no physical contact between Mark and them, only via the computer.

With the help of Mark’s two friends Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, the website thefacebook.com was created. The main idea was that the students would have the opportunity to write about their experiences in college. They would talk to their friends via Internet. But they did not expect thefacebook.com to be such a success. In a week the site was all over Harvard University, and people outside wanted it too. Sean Parker, the creator of a famous music-sharing service, was asked to help them make the page more well known, so Facebook would not be just a connection for students. Mark wanted to get a lot of money. They talked not about millions of dollars but about billions.

His friend Eduardo would not work with the company and went to court; he wanted his money. The twins went to court because they believed their idea had been stolen by Mark.

Eduardo received a lot money. The amount is unknown. The twins received 65 millions. Mark Zuckenberg is the youngest ever self-made billionaire. In 2010 the market value for Facebook was expected to reach 25 billion dollars.

Life is beautiful

By Andrea Bertrán & Irene Monferrer

“LA VITA È BELLA” (Life is beautiful) is an Italian film from 1998. The story takes place in 1939. It explains Guido Orefice life’s. He is a good man who lives in the pre-fascist Italy and dreams of owning his own bookstore. One day he meets Dora, a young teacher and he falls in love with her. When he gets his love, they get married, they have a son and they start up a bookstore. They have a happy life. This film also has an horrible part that comes when he is deported to a concentration camp with his son, his wife and his uncle. There they suffer, separately, the war.

There, his uncle died. And he invented a game to save the life of his child. This consisted that they were competitors of a game show, and if they won, the prize would be a “tank”. But this game isn’t easy!

His son, Joshua had to be hidden, so the Germans (the Nazis) couldn’t kill him and he hid until his father arrived. And he gave food to him.

Guido had to do hard labor and if he wasn’t in form, they would kill him.

Her wife was with the other ladies. They were responsible for taking away the clothes of the dead people.

The points were adding to get the thousand to get the tank.

And the war was finishing.

Finally the war was over, the Germans lost. Guido told his son that he didn’t go out of his hiding for nothing, until he arrived or until he didn’t hear any noise.

Guido died, for saving the life of his son, latter Josuah and Dora (his mother) met.

Joshua was the winner, he got the thousand points, and then the prize, the tank…

The story is told by Joshua when he is older.

ORIGINAL TITLE: La vita è bella
YEAR: 1998
DURATION: 117 min.
COUNTRY: Italy
DIRECTOR: Roberto Benigni
SCREENWRITER: Roberto Benigni & Vincenzo Cerami
MUSIC: Nicola Piovani
PHOTO: Tonino Delli Colli

AWARDS

This film was winner of over 40 international awards including 3 Oscars:

-Best Film Award of European cinema, London, 1998.
-Jury Prize at Cannes in 1998.
-Audience award at the International Film Festival in Athens in 1998.
-Audience award at the International Film Festival in Warsaw in 1998.
-Award for most popular film at the International Film Festival Vancouver in 1998.
-Prize of the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Best Actor, Best Director

-Original Story and Best Screenplay in 1998.César Award for Best Foreign Film in 1999.

-Goya Award for Best Foreign Film in 1999.
-German Film Award for best foreign film in 1999.
-Award of the Australian Film Institute Best Foreign Film in 1999.
-Oscar for best actor, best foreign film and best original music in 1998.

"Buried"

By Èlia Ramoneda

Buried is a Spanish movie directed by Rodrigo Cortés that was released on October 1st 2010.

Paul Conroy, an American truck driver who works in Iraq, wakes up to find that he has been buried alive. He only has a lighter, a knife, a Blackberry and a flashlight. He starts to call some American people, saying that he was on a mission in Iraq, his convoy was attacked and he was buried alive. Nobody believes him, but when he calls some Iraqi people, they do believe him and try to find out where he is. He makes his will; he leaves his wife 700 dollars and leaves his son his clothes. The people who kidnapped him demand five million dollars but nobody wants to pay them because they do not want to make any deal with kidnappers.

The movie had many good reviews and was evaluated with 8 out of 10.

James Cameron

By Denis Timotei Savu

James Cameron was born on 16th August 1954 in Canada. His father moved at Orange in California in 1971, where he studied at university. After finishing his studies he worked in different jobs. When he watched the film "Star wars" he decided to be filmaker. He is known as one of the best science fiction film directors.His first film was the "Battle of Beyond the stars" (1980). At that time he was married with Sharon Williams, his first wife. His second film was "Piranya 2" (1981). After that, in 1984 he made the film "Terminator", in 1986 "Aliens", in 1989 "Abyss", in 1991 "Terminator 2". His films "Titanic" (1997) and "Avatar" (2009) had the biggest box office success in the history of cinema.

LOST

By Ada Agustí

The television series which became a cultural phaenomenon ended with the broadcasting of a special chapter more than two hours long. This series had millions of people in front of the television and the Internet for six years. A spectacular series ended. Cuatro and Fox broadcast its last chapter almost simultaneously in television history.

Lost begins with the plane crash of Flight 815 Oceanic company. The survivors live in a nearly deserted island and they have to manage to survive. At first it seems to explain the life of the group of victims of the accident who try to avoid the dangers of the island inhabited by a monster, but then supernatural and mystical phenomena happen and they give the series a different air. Furthermore, other events as the appearance of the inhabitants of the island make it more interesting.

The end was very criticized. There were all kind of opinions because there were very few answers to all the questions we had. Furthermore, some people thought that it was an easy end. But after watching the other seasons, you see that this end was suitable and perhaps the best that they could do. Lost is over. It taught us a lot of things, it gave us a lot of hours of emotions, theories, tears, smiles, and a lot of answers.

Robin Hood
By Cristina Becerra & Paola Lozano

The action takes place in the 13th century. Robin and his mates fight against the corruption in a little city, and they have to face to the king. Robin Hood is an expert archer who only wants to protect his life and he will become a symbol for the people. When the king dies, he returns to Nottingham, where it is imposible to live. Robin falls in love with lady Marion and he decides to win her heart and to save the city.

Characters:
Russell Crowe-Robin Hood
Cate Blanchett-Lady Marian
Matthew Macfadyen-Sheriff

Director: Ridley Scott
134 min

Gossip girl
By Belén Galera and Anastasia Macovei

Gossip girl is an American series of television we watch on internet. It's a drama based on the lives of some teenagers. The series is based on a novel written by Cecily von Ziegesar. The premiere of this series was on September 19th 2007. It is narrated by an omniscient blogger, and the series is about the teenagers who live in Upper East Side, Manhattan.Main characters:Real Life SerieBlake Lievly --> Serena van der WoodsenLeighton Meester --> Blair WaldorfPenn Badgley--> Daniel HumphreyChace Crawford--> Nate ArchibaldTaylor Momsen--> Jenny HumphreyEd Westwick -->Chuck BassJessica Szohr--> Vanessa AbramsKelly Rutherford--> Lily van der WoodsenMatthew Settle -->Rufus Humphrey.

The first season
It had 18 episodes, and it began on September 19th 2007. It was stopped by the strike of the screenwriters. Finally, it came back with 5 episodes and it finished on May 19th 2008. The blogger gossip girl relates the lives of the teenagers who appear in the series. The story began when Serena and Dan had a relationship, and Blair, his best friend, found out that Nate, his boyfriend (of Blair) had an affair a year ago. Blair spent a night with Chuck, the best friend of Nate. Jenny wanted to be famous in the elite school and Vanessa broke up the relationship, and Rufus and Lily began a new relationship few years after.

The second season
It had 25 episodes, and the season began on 1st September 1st 2008, and finished on May 25th 2009. Serena and Dan began a friendship relation. Blair and Chuck tried to deny their love, Nate and Vanessa began a relationship, and Jenny began to work as a dressmaker. Rufus continued in love with Lily, and he discovered that in the past they had a son. Lily didn't want him so she gave him in adoption.

Third season

Nowadays this season is broadcast. It began on September 14th 2009. It has 22 episodes.Dan, Vanessa and Blair begin to study at the university, and there they meet a famous woman, Olivia Burke, and she begins a relationship with Dan.Nate confesses to Serena that he feels something for her. Serena refuses to study in Brown,and she begins to work as a public relations, she begins a relationship with Nate's cousin, Tripp. Blake and Chuck begin her relationship and Chuck works with different companies. Blair can't adapt to the people of that University. Jenny becomes the new Queen of the school. Rufus and Lily begin her marriage and begin to live as a family.

Ps: I love you
By Belén Galera & Anastasia Macovei

"Ps: I love you" is a romantic and comedy movie. It's about a woman whose husband dies. When he dies she feels very bad, she doesn't have anyother reason for living, but her mother and her friends want to help her. When she's 30 years old, she receives a letter from her husband, and at first she is very impressed. Her husband wrote her many letters and when she receives them, she is very happy and she wants to live, because she loved her husband very much. Every P.S: I LOVE YOU that she receives she wants to live her life even more, and to be happy. Her husband loved her very much, and the only thing that he wanted was that she was happy.

Direction: Richard LaGravenese
Country: USA
Year: 2007
Duration: 126 min.
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Cast: Hilaty Swank ( Holly Kennedy), Gerard Bulter ( Gerry Kennedy),
Lisa Kudrow (Denise) James Marsters (John McCarthy), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (William), Gina Gershon (Sharon McCarthy), Kathy Bates (Patricia), Dean Winters (Tom), Harry Connick Jr. (Daniel Connelly), Nellie McKay (Ciara).
Production: Wendy Finerman, Broderick Johnson, Andrew A. Kosove y Molly Smith.
Premiere in USA: 21, December 2007
Premiere in Spain: 11, July 2008

Stick it
By Laia Esquerrà

Hailey Graham is a young girl with many family problems. She was a great elite gymnast but she left the USA team in the lurch at the Worlds two years ago. Everybody started hating her and she left gymnastics. She started going out with two friends and breaking the law. After too many run-ins with the law the Judge makes her decide between going to the Texas Military Academy or the Vickerman Gymnastics Academy. She chooses the Military Academy so she is forced to go to the VGA which for her is worse than Juvy. She doesn't make things easy at the Academy but she sees that she isn't getting anything and that she has nowhere else to go. She finally starts training for her own in the old gym but things become difficult at the IG Classics with all the Hailey-haters. She gets over many obstacles and arrives to Worlds another time but she doesn't have enough so she tries to change the world of gymnastics.
Directed by: Jessica Bendinger
Starring: Missy Peregrym, Jeff Bridges, Vanessa Lengies, Nikki Soohoo, Maddy Curly, Kellan Lutz and John Patrick Amedori
Music by: Michael Simpson
Release date: 28 April 2006
Country: US
Language: English
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Sport

Secret

By Rong-Xiu Wu & Xiao Wei Chi

The film is about a high school student, Ye, who studies in the school where his father is the headmaster. He is very good at playing piano. On the first day of school he hears an unknown melody, played by Lu, which leds him to meet her. From this moment they are always together, however, Lu is a mysterious girl and when Ye tries to get to know her more, she doesn’t allow him to find out things about her.Later there is a misunderstanding between them and Lu disappears. Ye has his heart broken and tries to find her. But events show him that things are different from what they seem.
CastJay Chou as Ye Xianglun : The Music student who lives with his father.
Kwai Lun Mei as Lu Xiaoyu Rain: The Music student who lives with her mother.
Anthony Wang Chao Sang as Xianglun’s father : The teacher of Xianglun's school and his father.
Alice Tzen as Qing Yi Sky: The girl Ye Xianglun meets when he joins Dangjian. She admires Ye Xianglun.
Devon Song as Abao Bob: A bad behaved student and member of a rugby team.

We recommend this musical film because its plot is very romantic, the cast excellent and the script touching. Although we find it is rather short and has a tragic end. Don't miss it, it is well worth seeing.
DIRECTED BY: JAY CHOU
PRODUCED BY: WILLIAM KONG
WRITTEN BY: JAY CHOU, TO CHI-LONG
COUNTRY: CHINA (TAIWAN)
LANGUAGE: MANDARIN, ENGLISH

Schindler’s List
By Timotei Savu

Schindler was an important person for the Jews. He was a real person who lived in the time of the Nazis. The film is directed by Steven Spielberg in 1993 and it is based on the novel “Schindler’s Ark” by Thomas Keneally.

This film tells the story of a Dutch businessman who saved the life of a thousand Pollish jews during the Holocaust.
Liam Neeson plays Schindler; Ralf Fiennes is the officer Amond Leopold Goeth and Ben Kingley his secretary Itzhak Stern.
The film won seven Academy Awards, including the best picture, best director and best original score, as well as other awards. In 2007 The American Institute ranked the film 8th in its list of the best American films of all time. The film is very long and it is in black and white, but it has got very impresive images of the bad Nazis.

Edward Scissorhands
By Sonia Oller

It’s well known that “Edward Scissorhands” is one of the best films that Tim Burton has ever done. This film is about a doctor who has never had children, so he decides to make a robot, Edward, but he dies before he can give him hands.
Edward lives in a castle on a hill and one day a woman who sells make up products enters the castle and she decides to take him to her house. There, Edward meets her family and he falls in love with her daughter. Little by little, he starts to meet the neighbours and he is very happy with his new friends. But one day, Linda’s boyfriend starts to feel jealous about Edward and he forces him to break into a house. Then a lot of problems happen and the whole town becomes angry with Edward. Linda’s boyfriend wants to kill Edward, but when they are fighting Edward kills him with his scissors. After this accident Edward has to return to his castle and then Linda tells Edward that she loves him.

The most recognisable scenes of this film are when Edward is cutting the hair of the people and when Linda is dancing under the ice.

Emma Watson
By Irene Marin

Emma Watson was born in Paris on 15 1990. Her full name is Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson. Her parents are Jacqueline Luesby and Chris Watson. She lives with her mother and her brother, because her parents divorced. She took part in various school plays: “Arthur”, “The young years” and “The happy Prince”.

She was only 9 when she played her first film “Harry Potter” (2001). She plays the role of Hermione Granger, one of the best friends of Harry Potter.
After this she played “Harry Potter and Chamber of secrets” (2002),”Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban” (2004),”Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” (2005),”Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (2007),”Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” (2009), and she will appear in the new films “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1” (2010) and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” (2011).

Robert Pattinson
By Berta Ros

He was born in London on May 13 1986. He is an English model, singer and actor.He went to two diferents schools: Tower House school and Harrodian school.His mother Claire worked for a models agency, and his father, Richard, imported vintage cars from the U.S. He has two older sisters.

Pattinson began as a model when he was twelve years old, but he left only four years later. He appeared in the Hackett's autumm collection of 2007. His career as a model was unsuccessful, as he explained it in December 2008.
After some backstage experience in the Barness theatre company, he took on acting roles. He is best kown for his roles in the Twilight film saga, written by Stephanie Meyer, as Edward Cullen, but he also had more roles in other film series, and films, for example, “Little ashes” (film), “Ring of the Nibelungs” (tv series), “Harry Potter” (film) etc.

Pattinson was named one of the "Sexiest Men Alive" in 2008 and 2009 by People magazine.
Robert plays the piano and the guitar and composes his own music. His music appears in two songs of the film Twilight.

Brad Pitt
By Irene Monferrer

Brad Pitt is a famous actor. A lot of people like him because he is very handsome. He has done a lot of films and commercials.
He was born in Oklahoma on 18th December 1963. His real name is William Bradley Pitt. His mother's name is Jane Etta Hillhouse. His father, William worked in management at a trucking firm in Springfield. He has a younger brother, Douglas, and a younger sister, Julie.

He studied at university, but he wanted to be an actor, so he moved to California. He worked in different jobs, for example, cleaning the tables in a fast food restaurant before he began his career as an actor.
He’s stared a lot of films in Hollywood. He married the actress Jennifer Aniston, but they split up and now he is with Angeline Jolie.

He acted in a lot of films, the best for me are: “Mr. and Mrs Smith”, “Benjamin Button”, “Inglourious Bastards”, “Burn after reading”, “Full frontal”, “Ocean's eleven”, “Jesse James”, “Sinbad”, “Troy”. He is a very good actor!!!

Avatar
By Naia Jiménez

Avatar
By Naia Jiménez

Avatar is a film about the future. It is long, but very interesting.
The main character is Jake Sully, an “ex-marine” who is in a wheelchair. Despite his problem he travels to Pandora. A company extracts an odd mineral there, and they have problems with some animals called avatars, the inhabitants of Pandora. They want to kill avatars to have the mineral, but Jack doesn’t want to destroy the forest and decides to help the avatars.

Directed by: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver.
Music by: Leona Lewis
Country: EEUU
Genre: Adventure, action