Cinema
Do you like going to the cinema? Did you usually go to the cinema when you were a child? When was the last time you went to the cinema? What kinds of films do you prefer?
Vocabulary
  • Сonvenient (adj.) - suitable for your purposes and needs and causing the least difficulty.
  • Blockbuster (noun) - a book or film that is very successful.
  • Miss out (phrasal verb) - to fail to use an opportunity to enjoy or get an advantage from something.
  • To imply (verb) - to communicate an idea or feeling without saying it directly.
  • Screen (noun) - a flat surface in a cinema, on a television, or as part of a computer, on which pictures or words are shown.
  • Vividly (adverb) - in a way that is very clear, powerful, and detailed in your mind.
  • Plot (noun) - the story of a book, film, play, etc.
  • Ridiculous (adj.) - stupid or unreasonable and deserving to be laughed at.
  • Inconsequential (adj.) - not important; able to be ignored.
  • Convention (noun) - a usual or accepted way of behaving, especially in social situations, often following an old way of thinking or a custom in one particular society.
  • To provoke (verb) - to cause a reaction, especially a negative one.
  • Mindless fun - fun and not needing much mental effort.
  • Insanity (noun) - an action that is stupid and likely to have extremely bad results.
  • Storyline (noun) - (in a book, film, play, etc.) the plot (= the series of events that happen in it).
  • Setting (noun) - the place where a film or play is recorded or performed, and the pictures, furniture, etc. that are used.
  • Collective (adj.) - of or shared by every member of a group of people.
  • Nostalgic (adj.) - feeling happy and also slightly sad when you think about things that happened in the past.
  • Found footage film (noun) - a movie that's filmed to give the impression you are watching an actual video recording made by the people within the movie itself.
  • Mockumentary (noun) - a film or television show made in the style of a documentary to make invented events seem real.
  • To engross (verb) - if something engrosses you, it is so interesting that you give it all your attention.
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Questions and answers
M: Rory, do you like going to the cinema?

R: I used to like it a lot, though, these days it's just more convenient for me to stream things online. You have to wait a bit for the latest blockbusters to come out though. So it's a bit of a wait. But it's not exactly the worst thing in the world, although you miss out on the popcorn, but at the same time, you don't have to wait in line for the tickets, for example.

M: How often do you go to the cinema?

R: Well, like I implied before, hardly ever these days. There's just too much to be getting on with. So spending time sitting in front of a giant screen isn't the best use of time, or at least I think so. If I had more time than I would.

M: When was the last time you went to the cinema?

R: I can remember it vividly, actually. I took my other half to see Godzilla vs. Kong at this huge mall where we used to live. The whole plot was ridiculous and the characters were inconsequential. But I did like the experience of eating popcorn and laughing at how silly everything was. And thankfully, the rows of seats were mostly empty. So it was okay to laugh out loud. Usually in the cinema, there's this sort of convention or unspoken rule that you don't make too much noise but we could, which was good.

M: Did you usually go to the cinema when you were a child?

R: Oh, I definitely used to go far more often when I was younger. There wasn't much of a choice, frankly, since my parents did all of the decision making in that regard. Based on what I can remember, though, I did enjoy myself. We used to watch the Disney classics, for example. So yeah, we went and we went fairly often.

M: Do you like to watch films alone or with your friends?

R: Oh, I think it depends on the movie, really. Well, I like watching my favorite movie, which is Contact, by myself. Because it's a film that's designed to provoke deep thinking, which I think is best done alone. On the other hand, there are some films which are just mindless fun like Starship Troopers, which you should definitely watch with friends just to enjoy the insanity of the storyline and the setting. However, if we think about the cinema, then that's something, that's almost always a collective experience, isn't it? You don't really go to the cinema by yourself.

M: What kinds of films do you prefer?
R: I think that depends entirely on how I'm feeling as it is for other people. If I feel nostalgic, then I'll watch an older film, even if I've seen it millions of times before, like what we talked about Disney classics, for example. Or if I'm feeling like something new, then I'll see what my friends are recommending. Most recently, I developed a taste for found footage films and mockumentaries, which are either quite mysterious or humorous. And that's quite good because they're, well, you get engrossed in the plot, and you can lose yourself that way.

M: Thank you, Rory! You are like a film star! You're the star of our podcast!

R: The star of vocabulary and grammar. Unless it's conditionals. My New Year's resolution was not to learn more about conditionals.
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