the Passive Voice into Russian.

             DOES THE GUINNESS BOOK KNOW EVERYTHING?

The Guinness Book of World Records is an encyclopedia of various facts, names and events that have only one thing in common: each of them is a record. It can be a record of weight or height, speed or strength, the sum of money paid on the auction or stolen from a bank.

Cinema also has its own records fixed in The Guinness Book.

The longest film running 85 hours of screen time is “The Cure of Insomnia” (1987) directed by John Henry Timmis. The movie has no plot, instead consisting of artist L. D. Groban reading his lengthy poem of the same name over the course of three and a half days.

The animated comedy series “The Simpsons” is now the longest running sitcom in the world.

The film that became a screen-life-champion was “Emmanuelle”. It was screened since the 26th of June 1974 till the 26th of February 1985 in one cinema house in Paris.

The most popular human screen character is Sherlock Holmes. This part has been played by more than 75 actors in 254 films since 1890.

However, Sherlock is not the overall most portrayed literary character in film. That title belongs to the non-human character Dracula, who has been portrayed in 272 films.

The greatest number of costumes designed was for the film “Quo Vadis?” (1951). You just cannot imagine it! There were 32 thousand costumes used. For many years the record number of costumes changed in one film by one actress (65 ones) has belonged to Elizabeth Taylor in “Cleopatra” (1963). Today the record is held by Madonna for her 85 changes in “Evita”, 1996).

The most cruel film (23 murders and 245 acts of violence during 109 minutes of screen time) is “Rambo III”.

The person who has been awarded the greatest number of prizes (32 ones) given by the US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1929 is Walt Disney. Katherine Hapburn (1907-2003) was awarded 4 Oscars for playing the main parts in 4 films: “Morning Glory” shot in 1933; “Guess Who Is Coming to Dinner” shot in 1967; “The Lion in Winter” shot in 1968; “On Golden Pond” shot in 1981.

The youngest Oscar nominee was Shirley Temple born in 1929. She was awarded this prize in 1934 when she was a five-year-old girl.

The youngest director of a professionally made feature length film mentioned in The Guinness Book is Kishan Shrikanth born 1996, who directed his film, when he was 9 years old.

Three films were given 11 Oscars. The first to achieve the record was “Ben-Hur” shot in 1959. It was followed by “Titanic” shot in 1997 and “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” shot in 2003. All the tree films were made in the USA.

The multi-language independent feature film “The Owner” (2012) was directed by 25 directors from 13 countries. The film follows a backpack on its journey around the world, interweaving a variety of cultures, languages and film styles into one single narrative.

Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999) could be considered the world’s most demanding movie director ever. Universally regarded as one of the greatest movie directors who ever lived, he directed several all-time classics such as “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968), “A Clockwork Orange” (1971) and “The Shining” (1980). While making “The Shining” Kubrick asked the actress Shelley Duvall to do 127 takes in one scene.

By the way, do you know why the prize itself is called “Oscar”? The origin of this most prestigious prize is very curious. When the first statuettes given to the best film-makers were exhibited at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences the executive secretary of this institution exclaimed in great surprise: “Fantastic! It looks exactly like my uncle Oscar.” So the prize was given the name of Oscar Pierce from Texas.

But cinema is not only an art, it is also a kind of business. And taken as business it has its own records.

In monetary terms, the USA still has by far the world’s most profitable cinema industry, with over $11 billion in domestic box-office takings, Japan is currently second with $2.5 billion and India remains in third place, with $2.2 billion.

India is the world’s most prolific film-making nation, with approximately 800 to 1,000 feature films produced each year by the “Bollywood” film industry based in Mumbai. This is roughly double the number of films produced by Hollywood each year.

The most expensive movie made is “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” (2007), which had an estimated production budget of around $300 million.

The most successful movie in the history of world cinema is James Cameron’s “Avatar” shot in 2009. It holds the record of the biggest gross received from the distribution of a film. It achieved the box-office triple, topping first the foreign chart, then the world chart and finally the domestic one. It grossed a global total of $2,768,463,014 setting a record as the first movie to gross over $2 billion. One more record by “Avatar” is fixed in Guinness Book: the first 3D movie to win Best Cinematography Oscar.

Tom Cruise? Harrison Ford? Johnny Depp? You can be forgiven for thinking any one of these three would be Hollywood’s highest-grossing actor. But no, it turns out the crown belongs to somebody known for an altogether different kind of career. Samuel L. Jackson is the highest-grossing actor of all time, with an amazing $7.42billion to his name. The 62-year-old star has appeared in a string of films in a career spanning four decades in big-budget hits like “Jurassic Park” and “Star Wars: Attack of the Clones” and many others.

“Harry Potter” star Emma Watson has been named the highest grossing actress of the decade by the Guinness World Records for starring in six successful films. She was just 11 when the first film “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” came out and earned her millions. After five sequels, she has managed to gross an average of $753.7 million each, the highest average box-office gross for an actress.

“The Guinness Book of World Records” is planned to be adapted into an adventure narrative film by Warner Bros.

READING AND

LANGUAGE USE

Exercise 16. a) Skim through the article about The Moscow International Film Festival and

                     count the number of its sections and their titles.

b) Scan the article to find information on the following aspects:

o the head of the first Jury;

o the year the festival became a regular event;

o the aim of the festival;

o the regular deadline month for entries;

o the languages of the dialogue list.

c) Open the brackets and use Participles I, II and Passive structures.

Model:

I. The role ... (to play) by a very famous actor.

  The role is played by a very famous actor.

II. The actor ... (playing/played) this role is very famous.

  The actor playing this role is very famous.

                              The Moscow International Film Festival

History                                                                                           

The Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF) is one of the oldest in the world. For the first  time it (1) ___________ (to hold) in 1935 and the Jury (2)  ____________ (to head) by great Sergei Eisenstein himself. But the chronology of the festival began in 1959 when it became a regular event. Over the past decades the influence of the Moscow Festival on the world (3) _____________ (filmmaking / filmmade) process has grown significantly. Since 1963 prizes (4) _______ (to award)  to outstanding masters of world cinema – Akira Kurosawa and Stanley Kramer, Federico Fellini and Ettore Scola, Andrzej Wajda and Francesco Rosi, Krzysztof Zanussi and Damiano Damiani, Gleb Panfilov and Sergei Gerasimov, Bernard Blier and Alexander Rogozhkin.

The festival has always mirrored the socio-political changes (5) ________ (taking / taken) place in Russia, Russian modern history has always aroused the interest of numerous guests from all over the world. MIFF (6) ___________ (to intend) not merely for professionals and journalists, but also for the wide audience. Today (7) ____________ (leading / led) foreign film corporations aim at staging premier screenings of movies in Moscow, (8) ________ (admitting / admitted) that Russia offers one of the most (9) _________ (promising / promised) viewing potentials in the world. The film market, which (10) __________ (to organize) as part of the MIFF, strengthens its positions and attracts a lot of interest on the part of the distributors.

Rules and Regulations

MIFF (11) _________ (to hold) annually in June and (12) __________ (to support) by the Russian Ministry of Culture.

The aim of the festival is to promote cultural exchange and mutual understanding among nations and to develop further cooperation among filmmakers of the world. In 1973 the Moscow International Film Festival (13) ____________ (to recognize) by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF).

Main Competition, Documentary Competition, Short films Competition, Non-competitive screening, Retrospective screening, Programme of Russian films (14) _____________ (to include) in the official programme. The films for the Festival programme (15) ___________ (to select) by the Festival Selection Committee. Entry applications should (16) ______________ (to do) via on-line system Withoutabox (www.withoutabox.com). The regular deadline month for entries is April. Official notification date is the day of Official Press Conference of the Festival.

The Festival programme includes films which (17) _____________ (not to screen, publicly) on the territory of the Russian Federation, (18) _______________ (excluding / excluded) Retrospectives and the Programme of Russian films. The film screening schedule (19) __________ (to determine) by the General Management of the MIFF. Each film may (20) ______________ (not to show) more than five times during the Festival, (21) _____________ (including / included) press screenings.

Competition

Only full-length feature films, (22) ____________ (producing / produced) the year prior to the festival or the current year, (23) ____________ (to accept) for the Competition programmes, except Short Films Competition. Preference in the Competition programmes (24) ___________ (to give) to the World and International premieres. Not less than 12 films (25) _____________ (to accept) for the Main Competition of the MIFF. To participate in the Main Competition programme of the Festival films must (26) ______________ (to submit) in standard 35 mm or DCP.

Not less than 7 films (27) ____________ (to allow) to participate in the Documentary Competition. Documentary Competition Films should (28) _________ (to exhibit) in format DCP or HDCam.

Short films, (29) __________ (producing / produced) the year prior to the festival or the current year with the duration of not more than 35 minutes, may (30) ____________ (to accept) for the Short Films Competition. Films of Short Films Competition (31) ___________ (to exhibit) in format DCP or HDCam.

Screening prints of the films (32) __________ (accepting / accepted) for the Festival Competition programmes should be in their original language and (33) __________________ (providing / provided) with English subtitles, if the original language is not English.

All conditions and (34) ___________ (suggesting / suggested) dates are obligatory, otherwise the Management of the MIFF has the right to exclude the film from the Festival programme.

Documentation

Properly (35) ______________ (filling in / filled in) and (36) __________ (signing / signed) Entry-form for each film, (37) _____________ (confirming / confirmed) the participation in the MIFF, should arrive before Deadline.

Entry-form must (38) ___________ (to accompany) by the following documentation:

§ The dialogue list in the original language and in one of the (39) ________ (following / followed) languages: Russian, English;

§ The list of subtitles in English;

§ Synopsis, press and promotional materials;

§ Excerpts from the film and trailers on BETACAM SP or DVD;

§ Materials for the festival catalogue, (40) ___________ (including / included) a detailed biography and filmography of the director, the director’s photo as well as slides from the film.