- Hello everyone and welcome back to English With Lucy.
Recently I made a video about the best
British TV series for learning English.
And today I'm going to do something similar,
However, I'm not going to talk about
that you might have already experienced in your own country.
I'm going to try and show you some lesser known films
that I think could really help you improve your English.
Most of these are my personal favourites.
Not all of them were necessarily massive when they came out,
But they're films I really, really enjoyed.
Films that show British culture,
many aspects of British culture.
So we'll start off with films or genres
that are suitable for a beginner level,
and then intermediate to advanced.
I do think that a lot of British films
show a very perfect view of Britain,
a view that isn't necessarily realistic.
So I've included some films that show
a more realistic view of Britain
and films that show a variety of accents as well.
It's one of my top tips for improving listening.
I've said it before many times.
If you want to be able to understand everyone,
then it's important that you listen to a variety of accents.
So when it comes to watching films
in order to improve your English,
it can be really hard to find the right one for you.
You've got to find something that you are interested in.
You've got to find something that's at your level.
And you've also got to find something
that will provide educational value.
A lot of you aren't based in the UK.
So how can you gain access to these British films,
especially some of the lesser known films
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that are more suitable for beginners.
But these films are enjoyable for everyone.
The first one, oh this film is so good.
It is "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit"
I wonder if you've heard of Wallace and Gromit before.
They were absolute favourites of mine.
But this film was particularly fantastic.
So I think the characters are made of Plasticine
and they take years and years to make each film.
The film itself is a work of art.
Wallace and Gromit are a man and his dog
and they live in a village where there is
an annual giant vegetable competition.
It's so British, I can't even tell you.
This does genuinely happen in our villages.
However, there is a giant rabbit eating the giant vegetables
and the villagers are not happy.
And Wallace and Gromit help them out.
Now, this film is fantastic because yes,
So the English is quite simple.
Not overly simple, but it's quite simple.
However, there are lots of hidden jokes in there.
So a lot of really good children's films
naughty jokes for the parents.
I remember watching this with my grandparents
and they were roaring with laughter.
It is one of my happiest memories with my grandad.
- Okay, let's move on to the next one.
I did say that I was going to recommend
And this one is great for anyone
who really enjoyed Mary Poppins.
I imagine you already know about Mary Poppins.
And that is a great one to watch in English
if you are at a beginner level.
However, there is another film
that is very, very similar to Mary Poppins
which is absolutely fantastic.
And it is called "Bedknobs and Broomsticks".
And this was another childhood favourite.
Now this is set during World War II
and some children, three children,
are evacuated to a lady's house.
And it turns out that she is training to become a witch.
the lady who plays Mary Poppins
was originally asked to play the role
But she actually turned it down
because she didn't want to be typecast.
it means they are repeatedly assigned the same role.
They're always playing the same character.
Julie Andrews later changed her mind.
But the leading lady, Angela Lansbury had already been cast
So some of the accents are a bit dated.
But you've got received pronunciation,
and Cockney amongst many others.
- Nonetheless, we must see the king
I've actually been doing a little bit of thinking
about "Bedknobs and Broomsticks"
and I don't think that this is a beginner film.
Some of the language is quite complex actually,
some of the dialects they use.
So by all means, watch this film and enjoy it
if you don't understand absolutely everything
or if you end up with quite a few questions
The last of the children's films I'm going to recommend,
'cause this was a big box office hit.
It is "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe".
And again, this is set in World War II.
And again, it's children who've been evacuated.
They're evacuated to the countryside into a big house
and they find a wardrobe which leads
to the mystical land of Narnia.
I find the speech in this film to be very, very clear.
The children speak with received pronunciation.
But there is a wide variety of accents throughout the film.
You couldn't give me 10 minutes warning?
- I would have given you a week
if I thought it would have helped.
- Now let's move on to pre-intermediate.
if you are struggling to understand a film,
if you're finding it very exhausting,
I would highly recommend the method
This is what I used to do when I was learning Spanish.
I used to watch a film the first time with subtitles,
and then the second time without subtitles.
It's tedious but I was really bored
of not understanding the whole story.
Pick up as much as you can the first time
And then the second time around,
it's almost a big confidence boost
And it shows you that you've really learned a lot
And you're learning even more by watching it again.
Now the first film I recommend
for pre-intermediate is romantic comedies.
well I guess it's a bit older now,
but one rom-com that I fell deeply in love with
when I was younger was "Bend It Like Beckham".
So this film is about football.
But I was never interested in football,
or anything like that when I was younger.
I think one of my mum's friends said,
So I watched it and it's so good.
It's about an 18 year old girl.
She's the daughter of British-Indian Sikhs.
And she makes friends with Keira Knightley.
It turns out that they're both really good at football.
finds it hard to prove to her very conservative parents
that actually this western sort of career path
There are a lot of gender stereotypes in this film,
But it's a really good watch and I would say very wholesome.
It also features a very prominent British accent,
which is the Indian British accent
as well as Cockney slash Estuary,
which is what Keira Knightley speaks with in the film.
- Gone and said she's wearin' baby pink now.
I had matching accessories and everything.
- Oh Mom, do I have to go shopping again?
- Now I said I was going to talk about lesser known films.
just grouping a load of fantastic rom-coms
the most incredible British rom-coms.
So I'm quickly going to recommend them to you
because I think you'll love them.
Most of them are based in London.
You've got "Notting Hill", "Love Actually",
the three Bridget Jones films.
A really good one which I can't watch again,
It's about a man with the ability to time travel.
But what he does in different times of his life
and I had to go to the toilet to cry.
But if you need a good sob, a good cry,
I mentioned the Bridget Jones films.
The woman who plays Bridget, Renee Zellweger,
But she does a pretty damn good RP accent.
And I would say my ultimate favourite Richard Curtis film
is "Four Weddings and a Funeral".
We watched that the other day.
which is called "Shakespeare in Love".
And it stars Gwyneth Paltrow and it's kind of
where Shakespeare falls in love
whilst writing Romeo and Juliet.
Another recommendation for sort of pre-intermediate level
A comedy, we don't call it com.
And we watched this the other day.
I'm going to recommend him again
as well as Simon with a London accent.
dealing with a series of murders.
Well it's a town, not a village.
kind of in the countryside not in London.
So many films are based in London
and it's really refreshing to have something based
- Where George Merchant secured permission
to build his dubious mansion on Norris Avenue.
- So, maybe they were all accidents.
- People have accidents every day.
- Now let's move on to historical or period dramas.
Now these are still in pre-intermediate,
although sometimes the vocabulary is quite niche.
But the actors tend to speak more slowly
One really great one is "Belle".
It's a very different take on your standard period drama.
The majority of the film is spoken with an RP accent.
a British naval officer has an illegitimate child
with an enslaved African woman.
He brings her back to England.
And it's actually inspired by the 1779
portrait of Dido Elizabeth Belle.
It's a really good film and it's heartbreaking
But I thought it was a really different take
on just your standard period drama.
- I remember my father's eyes.
- Another one which is also quite different
anyone who is lacking confidence while speaking,
as a future king who's struggling to cope with a stammer.
And he works with an Australian
speech and language therapist.
and it's perhaps something that you might be able
to relate with on some levels.
- Physical exercises and tricks are important.
But you're asking will only deal
with the surface of the problem.
- The last genre in pre-intermediate is horror.
And I would say that horror is normally pre-intermediate
because usually there is slightly less dialogue.
A fantastic one is "28 Days Later".
He also did "Slumdog Millionaire".
And this film shows the breakdown of society after a virus.
A highly contagious virus is accidentally released.
so it is hard to watch at times.
But I love an apocalyptic or dystopian film.
- Omelettes.
You've prepared a feast, Jones.
- Honour of our guests, sir. - Absolutely.
- Now we have a comedy horror next,
which is actually sort of taking the Mickey,
making a joke of the "28 Days Later" film,
It's another one by Simon Pegg who did Hot Fuzz.
It's called "Shaun of the Dead",
'cause it's actually mimicking "Dawn of the Dead",
which was very similar in some ways
in concept to "28 Days Later".
Again we have flesh-eating zombies.
- Told you that over the years,
Philip's been quite unkind to me.
- Well you weren't always the easiest person to live with.
- Mom, he chased me around the garden
- Well you did call him a you-know-what.
and I would actually say that this one
It's called "Attack the Block".
The reason I would consider this one
to be slightly more difficult or challenging
is because there's such a variety of accents.
The film shows a teenage street gang in South London
who have to defend themselves against alien invaders.
most of them speak Multicultural London English.
It's quite unique and it's quite new as well.
it's really interesting to see how it's developed.
- John Paul, everybody's fa-piece-of-a-coos-back.
- This is too much madness to explain in one day.
- Let's move on to intermediate and above.
And for this I have just dedicated drama.
And for this I have picked three
of my favourite British drama films.
One is Multicultural London English.
And the last one is actually Liverpudlian.
I would say this is one of my favourite films,
It's called "An Education" and it stars Carey Mulligan.
And it's about a very beautiful young girl
So she is seduced by an older gentleman.
She's lived a very privileged, very sheltered life.
Her parents are very overbearing, very strict.
But there is another side to it.
It never got as much critical acclaim
I also think it contains a really important lesson.
Let me know what you think about that if you watch it.
It's set in the '60s as well so it's really lovely to see
- Paris, you can't buy them here.
- You never bought 'em yourself.
- Oh shut up, you stuck-up cow.
my Multicultural London English recommendation.
Now this film astounded me when I was a teenager.
I watched it over and over again.
I'm sure you can imagine I lived
quite a sheltered, privileged life.
So this kind of opened my eyes.
It's called "Kidulthood".
It's a drama that follows the lives of several teenagers
And it was written by Noel Clarke
who is a big favourite of mine.
You follow the teenagers as they engage in crime
and just have a really difficult and challenging time.
It's really eye-opening and it shows
a realistic other side to London.
Britain and London isn't all beautiful countryside
There is a very real other side to it.
- Nisha, would you call the police please?
This young man has taken this hat
and is now causing a commotion.
- Is that all he's taken? - Yeah.
- The last one is a slightly older film.
It's one that my mom recommended to me.
And it is, I think it was released in 1983.
And it's called "Educating Rita".
And it stars one of my favourite actresses, Julie Walters.
She plays a working class hairdresser from Liverpool
who is bored of her everyday life.
She feels pressured to have a baby.
She doesn't see her career going anywhere.
So she decides to enrol in university,
is a distance learning university.
And her tutor is Michael Caine, none other.
He's just a bit bored with his own life as well.
So she studies English literature
and at first her technical ability for the subject
is limited by her lack of education.
But her enthusiasm helps her overcome this.
I'm not gonna tell you any more
'cause there's more to the story.
But I think it's a really, really good one.
- Come in.
It's that stupid bleedin' handle on the door.
- So that's it for my recommendations today.
I really, really hope you enjoy some of these films.
I didn't just want to recommend
all the films you already know about
like "Harry Potter" or whatever.
I wanted to give you a selection of different films
that will help you in different ways,
show you lots of different dialects and accents,
lots of different vocabulary as well.
I would love to hear other recommendations as well
and your reviews of any of these movies
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