Shadowing-Übung: IELTS listening actual test Part 4: Ingmar Bergman: Film Director (answer+ transcript) - Englisch Sprechen Lernen mit Video

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Part 4 You will hear part of a lecture on the

Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman given to media study students by a film critic.

First you have some time to look at questions 31 to 40.

Thank you.

Now listen carefully and answer questions 31 to 40.

You can read a great novel, listen to a great symphony, or go to see a painting by a great artist, and you'll want to experience it again and again.

And every time you do, you'll learn something new from it.

Very few films achieve this.

Most of them are mere entertainment, and very few of them could be said to be works of art.

They simply don't have the depth that a work of art has, and this means that you may see them once, but you won't want to watch them again.

Why is it that so many commercial films today have such a limited shelf life?

One problem is that for many films, once you've seen them once and you know what happens, that's it.

They rely on the element of surprise to keep you interested, and once that's lost, that feeling of what's going to happen next, there's nothing left.

In addition, the commercial nature of filmmaking means that rather than focusing on the development of characters in the film,

many films are just becoming vehicles for actors, box office successes who essentially play the same part each time.

Then, as well as this, many critics would argue that the greatest black

and white films had their own special world with its own special atmosphere

and that nowadays it's harder to create this because the director is unable to play with light in the same way.

Another problem is that many directors lack the ability to focus the camera on the important points.

There may be impressive visual images, but they don't contribute to the meaning of the film.

Which brings me on to Ingmar Bergman, the great Swedish film director who died in 2007.

No other director has equaled Bergman in his ability to convey emotion.

His films have the dramatic force of a work by the world's greatest playwrights, such as Ibsen or Shakespeare.

Watching Bergman's films is an enriching experience.

Nothing is immediately obvious or predictable, but gradually it becomes clear where he is taking you.

If you study a film such as Wild Strawberries, you'll see that every little detail is significant.

Each image on the screen is there for a purpose and gradually builds up an understanding of the central meaning.

With Bergman, too, you know that a small gesture made by a character

or the expression on a character's face can tell you just as much as the words uttered.

In his film Persona, the central character says nothing, but meaning is conveyed by what we see on the screen.

But Bergman wasn't just a great cinematographer, he was also a great storyteller.

Each of his films follows a similar pattern in that the story is organized on two levels.

Firstly, on the level of a straightforward, dramatic narrative, but secondly, on the level of myth,

and the story works throughout the film on both these levels.

In Bergman's film Wild Strawberries, an old man travels back to the places he knew as a child and a young man.

In the film, we can identify themes that occur again and again in Bergman's work.

First of all, we have the idea of the journey.

Part of the journey is a real one, but linked with that is the theme of dreams—where they can take us and what we can learn from them.

Another theme, which was to be central to Bergman's work throughout his life, is that of relationships, and in particular,

the ties that join the members of a family together.

And finally, as the old man in Wild Strawberries struggles to make sense of his life, we have another theme which underlies all his work.

No matter how anxious or unhappy his characters may appear to be, and that is that we have to accept everything

that life can give it's not a fashionable philosophy

and it may be why bergman's films have fallen out of fashion

that is the end of part four you now have one minute to check your answers to part four

Thank you.

experience it again and again, and every time you do, you'll learn something new from it.

Very few films achieve this.

Most of them are mere entertainment, and very few of them could be said to be works of art.

They simply don't have the depth that a work of art has, and this means that you may see them once, but you won't want to watch them again.

Why is it that so many commercial films today have such a limited shelf life.