ANNIE HALL & MANHATTAN, THE WOODY ALLEN'S WORKS

Today, The Newtons & The Grandma have visited Woody Allen, the American film director, writer, actor, and comedian, whose filmography is full of masterpieces like Annie Hall or Manhattan. They have spent a nice morning with the actor asking him lots of questions about his plans of future.

Before visiting Allen, The Newtons have studied English grammar. They have chosen Future Continuous.

More info: Future Continuous

 

Heywood Woody Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg, November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films.

He began his career writing material for television in the 1950s, mainly Your Show of Shows (1950-1954) working alongside Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Larry Gelbart, and Neil Simon. He also published several books featuring short stories and wrote humor pieces for The New Yorker.

In the early 1960s, he performed as a stand-up comedian in Greenwich Village alongside Lenny Bruce, Elaine May, Mike Nichols, and Joan Rivers. There he developed a monologue style (rather than traditional jokes) and the persona of an insecure, intellectual, fretful nebbish.

He released three comedy albums during the mid to late 1960s, earning a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album nomination for his 1964 comedy album entitled simply, Woody Allen.

In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Allen fourth on a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians, while a UK survey ranked Allen the third-greatest comedian.

More information: Woody Allen

By the mid-1960s, Allen was writing and directing films, first specializing in slapstick comedies such as Take the Money and Run (1969), Bananas (1971), Sleeper (1973), and Love and Death (1975), before moving into dramatic material influenced by European art cinema during the late 1970s with Interiors (1978), Manhattan (1979), and Stardust Memories (1980), and alternating between comedies and dramas to the present.

Allen is often identified as part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmakers of the mid-1960s to late 1970s such as Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, and Sidney Lumet.

He often stars in his films, typically in the persona he developed as a standup. His film Annie Hall (1977), a romantic comedy featuring Allen and his frequent collaborator Diane Keaton, won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Actress for Keaton.

Critics have called his work from the 1980s his most developed period. Those films include Zelig (1983), Broadway Danny Rose (1984), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Radio Days (1987), Another Woman (1988), and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989).

In the 21st century, many of Allen's films have been set and shot in Europe, including Match Point (2005), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), Midnight in Paris (2011), and To Rome with Love (2012). Allen returned to America gaining acclaim for Blue Jasmine (2013) and Cafe Society (2016).

More information: The Woody Allen Pages

In 1979, Allen began a professional and personal relationship with actress Mia Farrow, and over a decade-long period they collaborated on 13 films. They separated after Allen began a relationship with Mia's and Andre Previn's adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn.During the separation, Allen was publicly accused of sexually abusing his daughter, the seven-year-old Dylan. The allegation gained substantial media attention, but Allen was never charged or prosecuted, and he vehemently denied the allegation. Allen married Previn in 1997, and they adopted two children.

Allen has received many accolades and honors, including the most nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, with 16. He has won four Academy Awards, one for Best Director, and three for Best Original Screenplay. He also garnered nine British Academy Film Awards.

In 1997, Allen was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 2014, he received the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement and a Tony Award nomination for Best Book of a Musical for Bullets over Broadway.

In 2011, PBS televised the film biography Woody Allen: A Documentary on its series American Masters.

In 2015, the Writers Guild of America named his screenplay for Annie Hall first on its list of the 101 Funniest Screenplays.

More information: Variety

Woody Allen was the reason
I wanted to move to New York City
and one of the reasons I wanted to make films.
I felt that I understood his films, and I love them so much.
When you're starting out, certainly,
you have this sense of wanting to talk back to people
who have influenced you,
and I always wanted to talk back to Woody Allen.

Greta Gerwig

Annie Hall is a 1977 American satirical romantic comedy-drama film directed by Woody Allen from a screenplay he co-wrote with Marshall Brickman, and produced by Allen's manager, Charles H. Joffe. 

The film stars Allen as Alvy Singer, who tries to figure out the reasons for the failure of his relationship with the eponymous female lead, played by Diane Keaton in a role written specifically for her.

Principal photography for the film began on May 19, 1976, on the South Fork of Long Island, and continued periodically for the next ten months. Allen has described the result, which marked his first collaboration with cinematographer Gordon Willis, as a major turning point, in that unlike the farces and comedies that were his work to that point, it introduced a new level of seriousness. Academics have noted the contrast in the settings of New York City and Los Angeles, the stereotype of gender differences in sexuality, the presentation of Jewish identity, and the elements of psychoanalysis and modernism.

Annie Hall was screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival on March 27, 1977, before its official release in the United States on April 20, 1977. The film was highly praised, was nominated for the Big Five Academy Awards, winning four: the Academy Award for Best Picture, two for Allen (Best Director and, with Brickman, Best Original Screenplay), and Best Actress for Keaton.

The film additionally won four BAFTA awards and a Golden Globe, the latter being awarded to Keaton. The film's North American box office receipts of $38,251,425 are fourth-best of Allen's works when not adjusted for inflation.

Ranking among the best films ever made, it ranks 31st on AFI's List of the greatest films in American cinema, 4th on their list of greatest comedy films and 28th on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies. Film critic Roger Ebert called it just about everyone's favorite Woody Allen movie. The film's screenplay was also named the funniest ever written by the Writers Guild of America in its list of the 101 Funniest Screenplays.

In 1992, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

More information: Roger Ebert

 Woody Allen's movies are so much a part of me.
I grew up watching them over and over
and would read all his comic pieces for the New Yorker.
In some ways, his influence is so much there
that I can't even locate it any more.

Noah Baumbach

Manhattan is a 1979 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Woody Allen and produced by Charles H. Joffe. 

The screenplay was written by Allen and Marshall Brickman. Allen co-stars as a twice-divorced 42-year-old comedy writer who dates a 17-year-old girl (Mariel Hemingway) but falls in love with his best friend (Michael Murphy)'s mistress (Diane Keaton). Meryl Streep and Anne Byrne also star.

Manhattan was Allen's first movie filmed in black-and-white, and was shot in 2.35:1 widescreen. It features music by George Gershwin, including Rhapsody in Blue, which inspired the film. Allen described the film as a combination of Annie Hall and Interiors.

The film received critical acclaim and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Hemingway and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for Allen and Brickman. Its North American box-office receipts of $39.9 million made it Allen's second biggest box-office hit, adjusted for inflation. Often considered one of his best films, it ranks 46th on AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs list and number 63 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies.

In 2001, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

More information: Roger Ebert

 I don't want to achieve immortality through my work.
I want to achieve it through not dying.

Woody Allen

THE STONES ARE GOING TO MEET MAGNUM P.I. IN OAHU

Today, The Stones have received the wonderful visit of Thomas Sullivan Magnum III, a private investigator and old friend of The Grandma. They have been talking about common friends and he has offered himself to The Stones to be the guide during their staying in Hawaii. Before meeting Magnum, The Stones and The Grandma have studied some English grammar. They have worked Future Continuous and Plural of Nouns.

Magnum, P.I. is an American crime drama television series starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator (P.I.) living on Oahu, Hawaii.

The series ran from 1980 to 1988 during its first-run broadcast on the American television network CBS.

According to the Nielsen ratings, Magnum, P.I. consistently ranked in the top twenty U.S. television programs during the first five years of its original run in the United States.

A reboot series of the same name was ordered to series on May 11, 2018, and premiered on September 24, 2018 on CBS.

Thomas Sullivan Magnum III is a private investigator played by Tom Selleck. He resides in the guest house of 81 ha beachfront estate called Robin's Nest, in Hawaii, at the invitation of its owner, Robin Masters, the celebrated, but never-seen, author of several dozen lurid novels.

Ostensibly this is quid pro quo for Magnum's services based upon his expertise in security; the pilot and several early episodes suggest Magnum had done Masters a favor of some kind, possibly when Masters hired him for a case. The voice of Robin Masters, heard only in five episodes, was provided by Orson Welles, one last appearance was provided by a different actor, Red Crandell.

More information: Future Continuous & Plural of Nouns

Magnum lives a luxurious life on the estate and operates as a P.I. on cases that suit him.

The only thorn in the side of his near-perfect lifestyle is Jonathan Quayle Higgins III, played by John Hillerman. An ex-British Army Sergeant Major, he is on the surface a stern, by-the-book caretaker of Robin's Nest, whose strict ways often conflict with Magnum's more easy-going methods. He patrols Robin's Nest with his two highly trained lads, Doberman Pinschers named Zeus and Apollo. 

Magnum has free use of the guest house and the car, a Ferrari 308 GTS Quattrovalvole, but as a humorous aside in various episodes, often has to bargain with Higgins for use of estate amenities such as the tennis courts, wine cellar and expensive cameras.

The relationship between Magnum and Higgins is initially cool, but as the series progressed, an unspoken respect and fondness of sorts grew between the pair. 

Aside from Higgins, Magnum's two main companions on the islands are Theodore Calvin "T.C." (Roger E. Mosley), who runs a local helicopter charter service called Island Hoppers, and often finds himself persuaded by Magnum to fly him during various cases, and Orville Wilbur Richard "Rick" Wright (Larry Manetti), who refuses to use his given name Orville and who owns a local bar.

In the pilot episode, this was Rick's Cafe Americain in town, inspired by Casablanca, with Rick appearing in suitable 1930s attire. After completing the pilot, though, executives felt that audiences would be unable to fully connect with this element. Instead, Rick moved to running the plush, beachside King Kamehameha Club, which has exclusive membership and Higgins on the board of directors. Magnum often strolls around the club, using its facilities and running up an ever-unpaid tab, further fueling the Magnum-Higgins feud.

More information: Click Americana

T.C. and Rick are both former Marines from Marine Observation Squadron 2 (VMO-2) with whom Magnum, a former Navy SEAL and Naval Intelligence officer, served in the Vietnam War. The series was one of the first to deal with Vietnam veterans as human beings and not as shell-shocked killers, and was praised by many ex-servicemen groups for doing so.

Magnum often dupes or bribes T.C. and Rick into aiding him on his cases, much to their frustration, though the deep friendship within the group, including Higgins, proved to be one of the key elements of the program over its eight-season run.

Magnum comes and goes as he pleases, works only when he wants, and has the almost unlimited use of the Ferrari and many other luxuries of the estate. He keeps a mini-refrigerator with a seemingly endless supply of beer, Old Düsseldorf in a long neck, wears his father's treasured Rolex GMT Master wristwatch and is surrounded by countless beautiful women, who are often victims of crime, his clients, or are connected in various other ways to the cases he solves.

Other characteristics specific to Magnum are his thick moustache, baseball caps (usually a Detroit Tigers or VMO-2 cap), a rubber chicken, and a variety of colorful Aloha shirts. Nearly every episode is narrated, in voice-over, by Magnum at various points.

At the end of the seventh season, Magnum was to be killed off, to end the series. Following an outcry from fans who demanded a more satisfactory conclusion, an eighth season was produced to bring Magnum back to life and to round off the series.

More information: Mental Floss

Hawaii is one of those places that, keeps topping itself. 

Just when you think you'll never see another sunset as beautiful, 

there comes a sunrise that only Gauguin could imagine. 

It kind of makes unemployment easier to take.

Thomas Magnum

THE JONES AT CHAMPS-ÉLYSÉES: KEEP CALM AND GO ON

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Today, The Jones have revised some Social English and some grammar with the Future Continuous.

After remembering some past experiences in Hogwarts and in Urquhart Castle, the family has welcome Eli Jones again. Scottish Navy found her in the Loch Ness shore waiting for being rescued. It was a terrible experience that Eli wants to erase as soon as possible.

More information: Future Continuous

The family has started to read Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, a masterclass of the literature that talks about people who don't accept being old and try to avoid that is not possible to stop.

After reading the first chapter, The Jones have practised how to sum up all the chapter with only one sentence keeping the syntactic order. The Grandma has explained a long story that connects different European wars since the 18 century, different places but one thing in common: the resistance and resilience of the population and its effort to survive building refugees and opening new paths of exile. The Grandma has also talked about one of the most important and clever characters of the last century: Winston Churchill.

More information: Tricentenari BCN & MUHBA

Winston Churchill

It has been a sad story, full of dignity and courage but terror and death. Some people say that History repeats again and again but History is only the reflex of human behaviour and humans don't learn from the past and do the same mistakes again and again.

This afternoon, the family has decided to visit Champs Elysées, one of the most important and beautiful places in Paris and also, one of the most historical places witness of the parades that celebrated the Allied victory in the WWI in 1919, and the parades of Free French and American forces after the liberation of the city, respectively, the French 2nd Armoured Division on 26 August 1944, and the U.S. 28th Infantry Division on 29 August 1944 during the WWII.

The Avenue des Champs-Élysées is an avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, 1.9 kilometres long and 70 metreswide, running between the Place de la Concorde and the Place Charles de Gaulle, where the Arc de Triomphe is located. It is known for its theatres, cafés, and luxury shops, for the annual Bastille Day military parade, and as the finish of the Tour de France cycle race. The name is French for the Elysian Fields, the paradise for dead heroes in Greek mythology.

More information: BBC I & II

The lower part of the Champs-Élysées, from the Place de la Concorde to the Rond-Point, runs through the Jardin des Champs-Élysées, a park which contains the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais, the Théâtre Marigny, and several restaurants, gardens and monuments. 

The Jones at Le Jardin des Tuileries

The Élysée Palace, the official residence of the Presidents of France, borders the park, but is not on the Avenue itself. The Champs-Élysées ends at the Arc de Triomphe, built to honour the victories of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Until the reign of Louis XIV, the land where the Champs-Élysées runs today was largely occupied by fields and kitchen gardens. The Champs-Élysées and its gardens were originally laid out in 1667 by André Le Nôtre as an extension of the Tuileries Garden, the gardens of the Tuileries Palace, which had been built in 1564, and which Le Nôtre had rebuilt in his own formal style for Louis XIV in 1664.

More information: Winston Churchill

Le Nôtre planned a wide promenade between the palace and the modern Rond Point, lined with two rows of elm trees on either side, and flowerbeds in the symmetrical style of the French formal garden. The new boulevard was called the Grand Cours, or Grand Promenade. It did not take the name of Champs-Élysées until 1709.

More information: Times of Israel

Download Transport Vocabulary 

 The books that the world calls immoral

are books that show the world its own shame. 

Oscar Wilde

THE BEANS: EVERYBODY, EVERYWHERE, EVERTYTHING...

Nereyda Bean and occupational hazards

Today, The Beans have continued with their English classes. They have revised som aspects of grammar like Future Continuous (Be going to), Question Tags, Demonstratives, All-Both-Neither and Some & Any Compounds.

It has been an intensive morning and the family has been talking about the present problems of some great cities: the increasing price of homes and the way to regulate the massive tourism.

More information: Demonstratives & Some-Any Compounds

The Beans have written some messages of hope, love and friendship in their Venice banners and have congratulated Nereyda Bean who has passed another level of her favourite mobile app: How to survive at work without being damaged.

After the breakfast, the family has listened an interesting Anton Bean's story about The Coco Island and The Grandma has been talking about chemistry and how satellites are helping to find human remains witnesses of wars and genocides.

Finally, they have decided to buy The Coco Island and built a little resort for all the members of the family because Anton Bean is sure that the island still keeps three hidden treasures and The Beans want to find them.

This afternoon, The Beans have visited the Golden Gate Bridge, perhaps the most popular symbol of San Francisco.

More information: Universitat de Barcelona I & II

 

The Beans on the top of the Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the one-mile-wide 1.6 km strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the American city of San Francisco, California, the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, to Marin County, carrying both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1 across the strait. 

The bridge is one of the most internationally recognized symbols of San Francisco, California, and the United States.  

It has been declared one of the Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The Frommer's travel guide describes the Golden Gate Bridge as possibly the most beautiful, certainly the most photographed, bridge in the world. At the time of its opening in 1937, it was both the longest and the tallest suspension bridge in the world, with a main span of 1,280 m and a total height of 227 m. 

Today, the Golden Gate Bridge is neither the longest nor the tallest in the world, but remains the tallest bridge in the United States.

More information: Golden Gate

San Francisco has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate characteristic of California's coast, with moist mild winters and dry summers. San Francisco's weather is strongly influenced by the cool currents of the Pacific Ocean on the west side of the city, and the water of San Francisco Bay to the north and east. This moderates temperature swings and produces a remarkably mild year-round climate with little seasonal temperature variation.

Grandma's memories in the 30's

Among major U.S. cities, San Francisco has the coolest daily mean, maximum, and minimum temperatures for June, July, and August. 

During the summer, rising hot air in California's interior valleys creates a low pressure area that draws winds from the North Pacific High through the Golden Gate, which creates the city's characteristic cool winds and fog. 

The fog is less pronounced in eastern neighborhoods and during the late summer and early fall. As a result, the year's warmest month, on average, is September, and on average, October is warmer than July, especially in daytime.

More information: History.com

Because of its sharp topography and maritime influences, San Francisco exhibits a multitude of distinct microclimates. The high hills in the geographic center of the city are responsible for a 20% variance in annual rainfall between different parts of the city. 

They also protect neighborhoods directly to their east from the foggy and sometimes very cold and windy conditions experienced in the Sunset District; for those who live on the eastern side of the city, San Francisco is sunnier, with an average of 260 clear days, and only 105 cloudy days per year.

It’s an odd thing, but anyone who disappears 

is said to be seen in San Francisco.
 

Oscar Wilde

ELI & MANUELA BOND, MAY YOU STAY FOREVER YOUNG

January, 31st: Eli Bond's Birthday

Today, The Bonds are still in the capital of The USA. They're checking their passports to know if they can travel to New York City, first, and San Francisco, later or they must return to Sant Boi. You know, the new rules of the man with orange hair...

The family is celebrating Eli's birthday and they've received an unexpected visit: Manuela Bond, an Eli Bond's closer friend who has surprised all the family with a huge cake. Delicious!

Manuela is a shy person and she doesn't want to appear in our blog, for the moment, but the family is persistent and they're working to convince her to appear on it.

Before eating the cake, the family has worked Future Continuous, Prepositions of Place, some Social English and some Airplane and Business Vocabulary.

More information: Future Continuous

Finally, The Bonds have created some crosswords to prepare their closer travel to Kiev, after visiting San Francisco, a long trip which offers lots of leisure and they've talked about how to try to be brave in front of difficult situations, especially in interviews and embarrasing ones.

Imperfection is beauty, 

madness is genius 

and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous 

than absolutely boring. 

Marilyn Monroe

CHELLO CA NUN SE FA NUN SE SAPE

Keep Calm

Today, The Poppins have worked Social English, have revised Future Continuous and they’ve been talking about the differences between Present Continuous, Future Simple and Future Continuous.

More information: Future Continuous

After doing some exercises, M. José Poppins has explained some experiences in Naples and it has been a great linchpin to talk about uncertain future and how to live without fear next to one of the most powerful and dangerous volcanoes of the world: Mount Vesuvius.

More information: Comune di Napoli

Next, Lulú Poppins has explained another story about duplicity and what to do in this case. The world is changing every day and with the new technologies, we suffer new crimes like phishing, duplicity and change of identity. We must pay a lot of attention to our private life and it isn’t easy in a society plenty of social networks and open information.

The family, which is now in Scotland, has thought about these themes and about how your life can be determined by the actions of other people. The Grandma has talked about a very important person in her life, a person who dedicates her life to the Nicaraguan poorest people.

Finally, they’ve been creating a story trying to use connectors. They have a plan for this week: after visiting Scotland, they’re going to go to Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. They’ve only four days to prepare a successful hit but it’s enough time to reach it.

 Faciteme sta'quiet! / Live and let live

RESILIENCE VS. VIOLENCE: RESIST OR SERVE

Keep Calm

Today, The Holmes have reviewed Future Continuous, Prepositions of Place and Movement, Enough and Too. It has been an intensive day because they’ve started to create a commercial profile for their new characters.

It’s not easy to find adjectives that describe our skills and our character but they have been working hard and have got some of them.

Finally, we have remembered a horrible fact of our recent History. Today is the 70th anniversary of Auschwitz liberation and we have talked about the disasters of wars. It doesn’t matter when, where or why, a war is always the failure of dialogue, tolerance and respect. We’ve been talking about Winston Churchill and his influence over the British population during the difficult days of war.

For other hand, The Holmes have visited Pompeii and Ercolano and they have climbed Mount Vesuvius up. It has been a great experience. Tomorrow, they are sailing along the coast and they are visiting the Neapolitan islands.

Ruins are remindeds that while time will pass,
memories remind.

  

Anonymous