The critics of my favourite film magazine, Sight & Sound (there are a few copies in the school library) have announced their films of the year, and I can't help agreeing with their runaway winner, Boyhood, a must-see movie, filmed over twelve years with wonderful actors! I know at least one person who'll be pleased with the result. The other three films I've seen in the top 20 were all great: The Grand Budapest Hotel, by Wes Anderson; Two Days, One Night by Belgium's finest filmmakers the Dardennes brothers; and the highly intriguing Under the Skin, which indeed got under my skin. Have you seen any of these films? What would you have chosen? Or indeed, what do you wish you'd seen?
Mr Leah http://www.bfi.org.uk/best-films-2014
Here's a relatively early two-part sketch (1987) of comedy partners Stephen "Oscar Wilde" Fry and Hugh "House" Laurie, with both parts connected to the World Wars. Some would say they're disrespectful. I would say they're completely absurd, and very funny!
Mr Leah
PS Apologies for one rude word at the end
I didn't have time to write on Halloween, so I'm making it up on Thanksgiving with some spooky pumpkin corn bread. They were frightfully delicious and easy to bake Care for the recipe?
1 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup yellow, white or blue cornmeal 2 to 4 tablespoons sugar 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 eggs 1 cup milk 1/4 cup cooking oil or shortening, melted In a mixing bowl stir together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt. In another bowl beat together eggs, milk and oil or melted shortening. Add to flour mixture and stir just till batter is smooth ( do not overbeat) Pour into a greased baking pan. Bake in 425 °F oven for 20 to 25 minutes or till golden brown. For Corny Corn bread, add a drained can of whole kernel corn.
Taken from Better Homes New Cookbook
I hope you enjoyed your holiday. I did.
Even if it is not a holiday here in France and I'll have to wait for the weekend to get together with family and friends and properly tuck in, it was nice to get into a Thanksgiving mood/mode, sharing cornbread, pumpkin pie and potato chips (our version of the traditional mashed potatoes) with the OIB students and colleagues.
Turkey proved to be too big a challenge for this year but who knows what we can achieve next year ?Finally, I'd like to thank Gaëtan for his lovely pumpkin pie (BTW, I'd love to get the recipe)
Yolo! When Gaëtan asked me if I knew Drake, I of course knew who he was talking about. I try to keep my finger on the pulse of 21st century music, and have been told that the Canadian rapper has brought out some good songs. However, my thoughts went immediately to one of my favourite singer-songwriters, Nick Drake, who died 40 years ago this week, at the tender age of 26, a tragic loss to the music world. A great guitarist, with a beautifully mellow and melancholic voice, and poetic lyrics, he was the complete artist, but his genius wasn't recognized during his lifetime (like so many of us). He left us with a mere three albums, Five Leaves Left, Bryter Layter (OK, he couldn't spell), and Pink Moon, and many "lost" recordings have surfaced since his death, including some made during a year he spent in Aix-en-Provence in the '60s, as a student. Give him a listen and imagine yourselves lying down in a field somewhere in the British countryside...
Dear Charlie
Last night, we went to the Institut de l'Image in Aix en Provence for their WW1 festival
http://www.institut-image.org/
We watched Johnny Got His Gun.
It is a great film I truly recommend it but if you decide to see it, brace yourself, watching this film is almost like getting punched in the stomach.
I'm looking forward to the students' feedback on it, it's an interesting take on WW1, there is definitely food for thought in relation to Regeneration.
Best,
Mrs. C.
On
Wednesday, we had the first session of the debate club, which is organised by
Mr Leveque. It was really entertaining and interesting. I believe we were about
ten persons, working by pairs and each group represented a country ; Alicia and
I were the US (YAAAAAYYYYY). The subject was : “ Should Scotland become
independent ?”, and we had to argue with each other about that. Some countries
didn’t agree at all, and it was really interesting to hear them debating.
Thanks to that, I learnt a lot about the countries that were represented.
I didn’t know there were so many rules and
specific vocabulary to know. I had to do a lot of research to participate a
little in this club, but it was worth it because I had a really good laugh, especially when
Céline was representing Switzerland !
At the end of the year, we are going to
have an official MUN ( Model United Nations ), which will take place at the
Lycée George Duby in Luynes. I’m looking forward to it. Creating this club was
an awesome idea and I can’t wait until the next session.
Tiphaine (my account wouldn’t work so my amazing friend Alicia sent it
for me and did it also for the comments)
Hi! Recently, I saw a german film that I found thoroughly interesting, in that it studies our prejudices about totalitarist regimes rising nowadays: Die Welle (The Wave). Rainer Wenger is a teacher in a german High school, who is, because of his rather unconventionnal teaching methods, forced to teach autocratique regimes to his pupils, much to his disapointment. So, on the first day of school, Wenger introduces the subject by asking the kids a simple question:Do you think another Third Reich alike regime could rise in Europe nowadays?. To which they categorically answer that it is impossible for that to happen, arguing that seeing how they have been told all their life how terrible it was, it wouldn't cross anyone's mind ever again to create such a thing. He then decides to create a real life role play in the class, little by little surreptitiously instauring rules in this mini-community: a salute, a name (The wave), a uniforme; all of these which were of course part of the nazi rules. This cummunity quickly spreads oustide the classroom, and the pupils start to promote it by tagging waves all around town and organizing meetings. Soon, whoever isn't a part of the Wave is persecuted: Wenger's project has got out of hand. I won't tell you the end, but I encourage you to watch this very sociologically interesting movie, in German of course!
Dear Charlie,
Here is a new ending of "Of Mice and Men" (by John STEINBECK) that I wrote:
" There were crashing footsteps in the brush now!
George turned and looked toward them.
"Go on, George. When we gonna do it?"
"Gonna do it soon"
"Me an' you".
"You... an' me. Ever'body gonna be nice to you.
Ain't gonna be no more trouble. Nobody gonna hurt nobody nor steal from 'em"
Lennie said. "I thought you was mad at me, George".
"No," said George. "No Lennie. I ain't mad. I never been mad, an' I ain't now."
The voices came close now. George raised the gun and listened to the voices.
Lennie begged, "Le's do it now. Le's get that place now."
"Sure, right now. I gotta. We gotta."
And George raised the gun and steadied it, he brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie's head. Suddenly, within a quick movement, George threw the gun in the water, took Lennie's hand and said "follow me Lennie, and I'll get you a mouse." Of course it was a trick that George used a lot to convince Lennie to be quicker. It worked!
Lennie stood up and followed his friend. George was greatly intelligent: he knew the ranch was in the north so he looked carefully on the trees for moss and he pursued it until they got back to the ranch. They had to hurry because the others were not far away. Finally, they arrived at the ranch. Knowing that there was no one left, they crossed the ranch and tried to find out where Candy was. Lennie found him in the barn.
"I found him! I found him!"
George came as quickly as possible.
"I know Lennie made a huge mistake but do you still want to come with us and make our dream come true?" he asked.
Candy looked straight in his eyes and smiled: "Of course I still want to come with you two! And Lennie, don't worry, it wasn't your fault, I forgive you"
Silence reigned in the barn. They could hear the screams of Curley and Carlson in the forest. Candy got up and took a pair of keys and asked: "George, can you drive a car? "
"Yes I can"
"And a tractor?"
"Yes, once..."
"Alright then, take these keys, the tractor is behind the barn. Take Lennie with you, he may be useful. I have to pack my bags..."
George took the keys, took Lennie's hand and got out of the barn. They found the tractor and tried to make it work. Five minutes later, Candy was next to them with a little bag. He seemed sad. Lennie asked him a question "Are you okay? Are you sad ?"
"No Lennie, I'm not sad, it's just...I've been here for such a long time..." he responded "I'm really happy to come with you!"
George interupted them "The tractor is working! Come on! Quick, I can see Curley coming! "
They got on the tractor and George kicked it off. As they crossed the ranch, they could see Curley and Carlson running after them. They drove over two days and they finally arrived in front of a little farm which seemed abandoned and on the other side of the road an other house which seemed quite recent. George got off and went to the recent house to ask the people living there if they could buy the little farm.
They finally came to an arrangement and George, Candy and Lennie moved to this little farm.
Dear Charlie, I
wanted to share something with you.
Some books are adapted
in films, you know that right ? Well, recently, I saw the film of the first
book of the Maze Runner series, and after watching it, I remembered that a
friend of mine, Sarah, talked to me about the books at the beginning of the
Seconde. I then asked her to lend me the books, which she sweetly did.
And, you
know, even if I already knew the ending of the story of that first part, I was
so thrilled while reading it and I finished it in less than 2 days. Actually, I
was that thrilled because lots of things that happened in the book were not in
the movie, or events were not the same; and it changed the plot completely!
For
example, I don’t know if you saw the film (Le Labyrinthe in french), but in the
movie, people get attacked by what they call “Grievers” in one night and a lot
of people get killed, whereas in the book, the Grievers only kill one person by
night in the book (sorry for spoiling). That’s just a small detail but it is
something really important for the rest of the story, which was different in
the film.
So, basically
what I want to say is, that I think it’s a shame books get adapted in films
when they’re not really “adapted”, they are kind of remade! I understand that
it would be too long to put every detail in the film but I mean at least the
director should try to follow the story. I’m not trying to criticize the film,
because I saw it and it was great but the book was AWESOME.
As some of my friends know, I AM CRAZY about Christmas. As soon as Halloween is over I already start to be way too excited about Christmas. I also start whistling Christmas music, having a magical time decorating the Christmas tree with garland, bauble, tinsel, bows, lights and the star at the top of the tree, of course watching Christmas movies and listening to Christmas songs!! Oh and when they light up the lights in the city, it is the most beautiful time of the year!
When December starts, I basically send Christmas cards to everyone I know to share them my love and wish them a merry Christmas, bake a ton of Christmas cookies and do the Christmas crib.
Every day until the24th I get the three kings closer and closer to Marie and Joseph. When it finally is the 24th and the bell ring midnight I place the baby Jesus in the crib. Yes I can get really excited about small things like that.
And there we are, my favorite day of the whole year. All my family sleeps over at my grandparents house, we always eat delicious meals and of course leave an empty seat for the poor (ok nobody has ever come knocking at our door for a meal at Christmas but I mean if someone tried he would be more than welcome). Then I spend the 25th with the rest of my family and basically open presents all day long.
I definitely think Santa is real.. Don't even try to tell me I'm wrong. And remember, it is NEVER too early to celebrate Christmas
True
Detective is a Tv serie about two detectives investigating on a serie of
murders. The story is very intriguing, thrilling. The suspensis heavy because the investigation is complex
and lasts the whole season. Unlike other crime tv series as NCIS or Who Are
You.
It is set
in Louisiana, creating an atmosphere really morbid and sometimes even kind of scary.
The music is great, it truly matches the whole mood of the serie and helps
creating this odd tone.
The relationship
between the two detectives is quite interesting: they have absolutely nothing in
common yet we see their friendship grow through the years.
It’s rather
short (only 8 episodes) therefore each episode is dense in story development. The
pace may be sometimes kind of slow but don’t worry it’s still extremely
addictive!
It’s
starring Mathew McConaughey whom I’m now a fan of. He also starred in Dallas Buyer’s
Club and Mud which I both deeply recommend; Interstellar which I really want to
see; and Magic Mike, I wouldn’t call it one of his best movie. What I like the
most about Mathew McConaughey is his deep voice and southern accent.
Both he and
woody Harrelson are great actors, they truly bring the characters to life.
What I
really liked was the two different timelines happening at the same time: one is
set in the 90s (we see the detectives investigating) and the other one around
2012 (the investigators after the case was closed).
I’m very
impatient for the second season to come out but I’m pretty sad the same actors won’t be starring in it .
Hey Charlie ! Ever wondered what a Film Noir from the 40s or 50s would look like as a videogame ? Neither have I. Yet, the result is pretty amazing.
L.A. Noire, the title speaks for itself, is set in L.A. during year 1947. We follow the story of Cole Phelps, former marine Lieutenant from the Okinawa campaign during WWII. Phelps becomes a detective, and goes through many diferent cases throughout the game.
The game is made of some investigation scenes, which can sometimes be rather tedious, and interogation scenes, with multiple answers possible every time, and where a keen eye will be needed to be able to see when the suspect is lying, or simply trying to tell only half the truth. There are also some action scenes, with gunfights, fistfights or car chase, but they are not omnipresent, and manage give the game some adrenaline.
What makes this games really good is the fact that the atmosphere is very well, if not perfectly transcribed, from the modelization of cars to the architecture of buildings, even the characters suits are perfectly integrated into this atmosphere. Another wonderful effort made by the developpers is the use of face scanning technology to make the character's dialogue very realistic, with every suspect interogated having its own twitches when lying.
The music is also a very good point of this game, with the radio playing music from the best artists from the time, such as Ela Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington or Louis Armstrong. This further reinforces the atmosphere, and is really pleasant to hear.
But this game also give us a good perspective on the evolution of america during these years. The image of "The Automobile" is very present in the game, including the introduction. The consequences of the war's atrocities on civils and veterans are also shown in this game, with a case being about a problem of illegal distribution of morphine to veterans. We also see the beggining of Urban Sprawl in th U.S., and the many other themes that the game presents are really interesting.
I think that this game can be regarded as a wonderful portray of L.A. during the Hollywood golden age, with its lot of corruption, maneuvering and insurance fraud, but also as a good descriptions of the consequences of war. It is a really good experience that I recommend for anybody who reads this (Even if you aren't into the videogaming thing, anybody can play it, given that you can pass the action scenes)
For those who are interested, here is the game's introduction.
I do not own any of these images, and are all the property of Take-Two interactive and Rockstar Games.
At the beginning of the month we finally took our IGCSE in English literature both the set text and the unseen text. We had been working on it since September 2013, studied fourteen poems, a play of Oscar Wilde and a novel of Anita Desai.
But as you lay know as members of the OIB section, we are working all the time. So as soon as the IGCSE exams were over we began a new programm and started by the world war one novel of Pat Barker Regeneration and the post colonial novel A Passage to India by E. M. Foster.
We are also preparing to take other international exams such as the SAT but also our French Baccalauréat.
As you can see we are very busy in the OIB section.
I spent the last weekend in my old village, Saint Cannat. I was at my best friend's place, lost in the middle of the woods, listening to music, drawing stuff and watching "Baman & Piderman" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7-TQdN40Dk) when suddenly, this conversation came up : How about, for our own pleasure of realisation and independence, creating an Internet website or blog and use it as a real project, in order to share our works with others? So my friend started his page facebook, joining the vast community of artists on facebook. And I have to admit that I was surprised ; I had no idea we had that on such a website, and what distrubs me the most is their popularity on it, certainly thanks to the mature and regular work they share. Also, I'm truly admirative of these young persons, as they are just slightly older but they "found" themselves in their production already.
So, that is why, today, I am going to give you a glimpse of what they are capable of and how creative they are, because they deserve it, and it is always interesting to be able to understand other's people mind, which I believe we have full access thanks to these works ;
1. CHARON
And I think she is only 17years old.
https://www.facebook.com/charonnesque
Dear Charlie, I've decided, without any hint of narcissism, to read a few books by writers called Richard, so feel free to give me some suggestions! I started with a book by the Australian, Richard Flanagan, inspired by his victory in the Booker Prize http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/14/richard-flanagan-wins-man-booker-prize-2014, Britain's most prestigious literary award. I read his earlier novel "Gould's Book of Fish", and it was well worth a read, even if it was definitely challenging (OK, difficult!). It's set in about 1820 in Tasmania, mainly in a penal colony, and the story is told by a very unreliable narrator of his life in the service of the colony's Commandant and his painting of various fish, among other things. The book is about the birth of a nation, imagination, art and many other themes, while also fitting into the topic of "post-colonialism"(!), and being quite funny. It's the sort of book that would probably also become much clearer on second reading. Maybe some day. The cover and artwork are definitely beautiful, but as I said, not an easy read, although I think his Booker winner is more straightforward. My next Richard is going to be one of my favourites, the American Richard Yates. He wrote the incredibly wonderful "Revolutionary Road", which was made into a film with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, but which I've never seen because I loved the book so much! I'll tell you all about "Cold Spring Harbour" when I've read it.
Mr Leah
Dear Charlie, A famous film and theatre director has just died (I'm a specialist in this kind of thing). Mike Nichols was most famous for "The Graduate", starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft, one of the iconic sixties movies, featuring great music by Simon & Garfunkel, but he did so much more besides. He started off as half of a comedy duo, moved on to Broadway, and then "graduated" (geddit?) to Hollywood. I wouldn't say many of his films were great, but they were often interesting. My personal favourite is "Working Girl", but I was in love with Melanie Griffith when I saw it. More recently, "Closer", with an all-star cast including Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts, Clive Owen and Jude Law wasn't too bad. But "The Graduate" is the one you should all see.
So here's to you, Mike Nichols!http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-30129848
Mr Leah
The democratic
countries are defending child's rights. The United Nations Convention
on the Rights of the Child is a human rights treaty which was signed
in 1989. Currently, 194 countries are party to it. Even though
nations that ratify this convention are bound to it by international
law there are some countries where those rights are not respected.
Today
we are in the 21st century and even if in our country children's rights are
respected, there are still a lot of countries where child labor
is not eradicated. The two continents where the situation is the most
serious are Africa and Asia.
Most of children's
mornings look the same. They wake up and get out of their bed. They
eat whatever they want for breakfast. After that they put there
clothes on and go to school. During that time thousands of children
are exploited in the world. They get up earlier. They eat just enough
to survive and go straight to work. They work all day but they will
never have the quality of life that those other children have got
without working.
Child labor
means not having family, friends, life and fun. It is harmful to
physical and mental development.
Some charities like
the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) created in 1946, aim at
eradicating child labor. You can get involved in that kind of
charity by becoming a donor, raising money or voluntering.
Education is also
one of the children's rights. But like the law against child labor,
it is not respected. In some poor countries where there are wars,
children don't have access to education and especially girls. However, according
to UNICEF, education is a tool that has proven that it is improving
living conditions. That's why there are people who are struggling for
girls' education like Malala Yousafzai.
Malala Yousafzai is
a seventeen years old Pakistani activist for right to education to
women. She wrote a blog for BBC about her life under the Taliban
occupation, her hope to keep going to school and her fears for the
future at the age of eleven. "For my brothers it was easy to
think about the future," "They can be anything they want.
But for me it was hard and for that reason I wanted to become
educated and empower myself with knowledge”.
In 2012, Talibans
attempted assassinating Malala by shooting on her when she was in her
school bus. She was transferred to an hospital in the UK.
On
her 16th
birthday, nine months after the shooting Malala stood up at the UN
headquarters in New York and addressed to a speciallyconvened
youth assembly. Her speech was broadcast around the world. In 2014,
she was nominated to the children's Nobel Prize. The Malala fund
raises money for girls education.
Here is a picture of the Color Run in Marseille : F U N
Hey everybody!
Today I am going to write about how it is to live in a city. Indeed, I have always lived in tiny villages until this year when I moved right in the middle of Marseille.
First of all, you have to know that I love it! Being able to go out when I need something and to be near eveything is just great. I didn't live in many places before then. When I was a child, I used to live in a village with only 253 inhabitants and then I moved to a 1500 one and now, living in one of the biggest city of France is a big change for me.
It has so many advantages. For example, there is public transportation so I can be independent. I used to be forced to ride my bike to the village next to mine in order to go to take a bus and be able to go to the city. I love taking the metro, the tramway or the bus because I see new people. Marseille is a great city to live in because there are MANY different cultures. People from all around the world are here and since I love learning about other cultures, it is very impressive for me. I love going in the little street and go in ethnic shops or try foreign foods. Everything is close and practical. Being able to wake up at 6.45 every morning is also great because I ony need 10 minutes to go to school. Before I woke up at 5.50 and my school was 40 minutes for away by bus. I also love the fact that I can stay outside after school with my friends or not be stressed about missing my bus to go home. I often go walking in the city center to shop or just look around after school. It is my only free time so I enjoy it a lot. Marseille is also great because, as you know, it is very sunny but it is also a city on the sea. The harbor is very pretty and jogging all along the Corniche is so beautiful.
Now that I live here, I can also go to many concerts and festivals without being afraid of how to go home because I just need to walk a bit and my home is there! I can also go to the movie theater or look at showings or attend conferences. There are many activities that are usually impossible in the small town. For instance, I now practice African Dance once a week and you cant guess that it would be impossible to practice such a special type of dance in regular towns.
To sum it up, I want to say that my life here is great, it's always fun! I love living in the city and I recommand it to all the students because there are many opportunities and even when one misses the countryside, one can go back home to see their parents who are always glad to see you again.
As every average teenagers, I am addicted to social networks, and I thought it would be great to talk about the biggest ones a bit !
First of all, there is the well-known Facebook, THE social network of internet's history. I personally call it Facespy, because you can learn so much about a person only by checking his or her facebook profil. Which can be both positive and negative: Girlfriends can spy on their boyfriends (positive) and boyfriends can't flirt on the net anymore (negative).
Then, there is Twitter, which used to be my favourite when I was still a fragile fangirl. What you need to know is that twitter is the land of fangirls, 99.0009% of the accounts are fan accounts run by hysterical groupies from different fandoms (mostly One Direction and Justin Bieber's fans). The fangirls like to fight each other creating ridiculous hashtags such as #DirectionersSlayBeliebers.
I feel sorry for twitter sometimes...
And last but not least, Tumblr, the social network that ruined my life. Do not register in this website, you will spend sleepless nights schrolling down through it, you'll read so much posts your eyes will turn red and small, you won't leave the computer and your friends will stop talking to you, basically, this website is so great you'll become a no-life (maybe we could be no life together). Sometimes you find unpredictable stuff as well...
Kids !! don't forget that social websites are not real life and that the real world is better (not better than Tumblr but still) and please stop checking you're classmates google+ account and making fun of the silly comments they put on youtube that would be great
Take care
-Anissa
(links to the websites: https://www.tumblr.com/ https://twitter.com/ https://www.facebook.com/ )
.jpg)
