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Hello and welcome to Learn English Vocabulary. My name is Jack and I’m making this podcast for you to learn or revise English vocabulary. You can find a transcript of this podcast on LearnEnglishVocabulary.co.uk. There’s a page for this podcast with the transcript, an activity and a task for you to do in the comments section.

This week, I have three podcasts about films. These podcasts cover some of the language from the English Focus Conversation course lesson on films. In each of these podcasts, I am going to describe a film and I want you to try to work out what film I’m describing. After that, I’ll talk about the vocabulary and then I’ll replay the film description so you can hear the language again.

Here is the first film description. What film am I describing?

The first film is … well, it’s a spy film. Sometimes these films are called spy thrillers, but this is more of an action film than a thriller. In a way, this film is its own genre as there have been over 20 films with this character and they feature their own motifs and style. They all have the same musical theme for the main character and though the soundtracks are all different, they have a similar style. 

The film is really stylish and has fantastic cinematography. There are lots of scenes at night with amazing silhouettes against colourful backgrounds.

The action is outstanding as well. There is a really exciting motorbike chase scene at the beginning of the film that sees the hero chasing after a baddie over the rooftops of the grand bazaar in Istanbul.

I really enjoyed the film. I grew up watching this character played by different actors and for a while, the films were just silly. The last few films have been much better and while the characters and some of the ideas are the same, they feel like more serious films and I think this was the best of the new films.

The main character is supposed to be a spy or an assassin. Everyone calls him a spy or a secret agent, but his adventures involve lots of gambling and fighting and car chases. And everyone knows who he is so he’s not a very secret agent.

The main villain is a former spy, someone who did the hero’s job in the past, but who has become disillusioned with the agency that the hero works for and has an elaborate scheme planned to take revenge on the agency. The villain is played by Javier Bardem and is one of the best movie villains in years.

These films always feature lots of attractive locations and this film is set in different locations in the UK, in London and Scotland and some locations in Turkey and China. 

It’s going to be quite difficult for you to work out exactly which film I’m talking about, but I’m pretty sure you’ll know the franchise. This was my favourite of the franchise, possibly my favourite of all the films about this character because of the direction and cinematography. 

Do you know what film I’m describing?

The answer is Skyfall. Skyfall was directed by Sam Mendes and the cinematography was Roger Deakins. James Bond was played by Daniel Craig and the theme song was by Adelle. 

Now it’s time for me to go through some vocabulary 

I said that Bond films have their own motifs and style. A motif is a distinctive theme or idea that repeats throughout the series. You could also call these cliches, only cliches are usually boring because they have been used too much. In James Bond films, the ideas that are repeated in the different films are things like the way Bond introduces himself or the way he orders a drink. In some of the films, they are cliches and then in some of the more recent films, the director has chosen to play with the idea slightly so I think you could describe them as motifs.

James Bond’s music is an important motif. There are three elements to the music. There’s the James Bond theme which is the famous music. I’m not going to sing it. It is played at some point to introduce Bond. Then there’s the film soundtrack or score which is the orchestral music that plays along with the action. Each film has its own score, but James Bond film scores sound similar. And then there’s the theme song. This is the music that plays over the opening credits and features the film title in the lyrics. Over the years, there have been some great songs from artists like Shirley Bassey and Tina Turner. 

I said that the film was stylish. The word stylish can mean that something appears to be of a high quality, but I think that doesn’t really capture what I mean. I think that if something is stylish, it looks cool. That is attractive and sophisticated. Some films are realistic and they try to show what people are really like. If a film is stylish, the film will show the world and the people in it in a way that makes them look better, more elegant and sophisticated, more refined and more intelligent than they really are. Most films are stylish as real life is generally not as interesting as films make out. 

Cinematography is like the art of photography but for film. Sometimes cinematographers are called the directors of photography. As well as composing shots, cinematographers design the lights for films to make sure the images suit the director’s ideas for the film.

The word character means a person who is featured in a film or a play or a book. When you’re talking about films, you can talk about your favourite characters or which characters you don’t like. It just means the people in the story.

The main characters in James Bond films, after the man himself, are usually the villains. The villains are the baddies. They are the criminals or enemies that Bond has to deal with. So Bond is the hero. If Bond were a woman, she’d be the heroine. If the main baddie is a woman, then you could call her a villain. In the past we used to use the word villainess, but I’m not sure that’s still a popular term and most of the articles I’ve found recently just use the term villain.

This isn’t film language, but disillusioned is a nice adjective. If you are disillusioned with something, you are disappointed and no longer happy with something that you used to be positive about. So if you work for a company and you are really proud of what you are doing and then you discover some corruption or that the company is not as good as you had thought then you might become disillusioned. 

I said that the villain in this film is played by Javier Bardem. So you can use the verb play to say that an actor has a role in a film or play. Javier Bardem plays the villain in Skyfall. You =should also notice that I originally used the passive voice because I was talking about the character. The villain is played by Javier Bardem. 

The last word from this  podcast is franchise. Normally a franchise is a business that has paid to use the name and often sell specific products from a parent company. So I believe McDonald’s restaurants are franchises. The restaurants aren’t all owned by a big company. They are owned by individuals who pay to sell their food. In movies, a franchise is a series of films that are based on the same story or are set in the same fictional universe. So all of the Avengers films are part of the same franchise. They are all part of the same longer story and that means that the stories have to make sense across the different films. 

OK. That’s a lot of vocabulary. Listen to the description again to hear the language in context.

The first film is … well, it’s a spy film. Sometimes these films are called spy thrillers, but this is more of an action film than a thriller. In a way, this film is its own genre as there have been over 20 films with this character and they feature their own motifs and style. They all have the same musical theme for the main character and though the soundtracks are all different, they have a similar style. 

The film is really stylish and has fantastic cinematography. There are lots of scenes at night with amazing silhouettes against colourful backgrounds.

The action is outstanding as well. There is a really exciting motorbike chase scene at the beginning of the film that sees the hero chasing after a baddie over the rooftops of the grand bazaar in Istanbul.

I really enjoyed the film. I grew up watching this character played by different actors and for a while, the films were just silly. The last few films have been much better and while the characters and some of the ideas are the same, they feel like more serious films and I think this was the best of the new films.

The main character is supposed to be a spy or an assassin. Everyone calls him a spy or a secret agent, but his adventures involve lots of gambling and fighting and car chases. And everyone knows who he is so he’s not a very secret agent.

The main villain is a former spy, someone who did the hero’s job in the past, but who has become disillusioned with the agency that the hero works for and has an elaborate scheme planned to take revenge on the agency. The villain is played by Javier Bardem and is one of the best movie villains in years.

These films always feature lots of attractive locations and this film is set in different locations in the UK, in London and Scotland and some locations in Turkey and China. 

It’s going to be quite difficult for you to work out exactly which film I’m talking about, but I’m pretty sure you’ll know the franchise. This was my favourite of the franchise, possibly my favourite of all the films about this character because of the direction and cinematography. 

I have two more film descriptions for you to try to work out later in the week.

If you have enjoyed this podcast, please leave me a comment or a review and don’t forget that you can read the transcript for this podcast and complete some language activities on LearnEnglishVocabulary.co.uk. 

Thanks for listening.