Halloween Special -- Fear

Idioms connected with fear:
1. Shaking like a leaf
2. Scared stiff
3. It sends shivers up and down my spine


Have you ever been so scared you were shaking like a leaf? Or perhaps you saw something which sent shivers up and down your spine.

Send me a sentence or two using these idioms .

Billy Elliot - Children of the Revolution (T-rex)

Bend it like Beckham

Synopsis

West London, the present day. Jesminda is an 18-year-old Asian girl with a talent for football. She is spotted by Julie, who plays for a local girls' team, and soon Jess joins the team. Subsequently, she must deal with her family's resistance to her passion as it doesn't conform to the career path her parents expect of her – to study law at university. Complicating matters further, Jess develops a relationship with Julie's boyfriend, Joe, who is the team coach.

Background

Bend It Like Beckham follows the success of East is East and preceded Channel 4's adaptation of Zadie Smith's White Teeth. Both of these projects explore what it means to be Asian in contemporary Britain, and as in these films, comedy informs the drama significantly. Gurinder Chadha, the director, has also directed Bhaji on the Beach (1993) and What's Cooking (2000), both films with ensemble female casts.

Commentary

Bend it Like Beckham reflects a British film and TV tradition of realism. For the scenes and sequences at Jess's home, the lighting has a flat, distant quality and the décor suggests a staid and traditional sense of Britishness. The camera tends to be locked off (stationary), denying the home any sense of energy. This contrasts with the use of a mobile camera during the football scenes, when the film has a richer (saturated) colour palette; sequences are cut quickly and are often supported by pop songs. This energy and intensity of action away from Jess's home makes visual the enriching experience that playing football is for her. Furthermore, this combination of image and music allows the film to speak directly to an audience the same age as the protagonists. For example, in the sequence where Jess and Julie go into central London to buy football boots there is no dialogue and no synchronous sound. Instead it is a montage of images cut to a song about ambition and moving forward. The sequence has the quality of a music video. Like other teen dramas, the film explores the relationship between parents and children, such as in the scene where Jess is at home with her parents after her mother has seen her in the park playing football. This domestic scene references key issues about what it is to be 'a proper woman' as defined by traditional Indian culture.

The film was part of an upsurge in the prominence of Asian culture in Britain in the late 1990s. It expresses the intersection of Asian and British culture across its narrative and the bonds and unities of the cultures most clearly and successfully through the use of inter-cutting between football training and preparations for an Indian wedding. Its closing image reinforces this sense of celebrating the fusion of cultures and traditions. Music also binds the disparate cultures together. We hear Indian music over football training montages and we hear British music (Texas's 'Inner Child') over the opening images of the wedding. There is an Indian cover version of a 1980s classic pop ballad, 'The Power of Love' by Jennifer Rush.

Answer these questions:

• Why do you think it is popular?
• How do you think this might link with the diversity of national, regional, religious and ethnic identities represented on screen?
• How does the film reflect changing attitudes to gender and ethnic identity in contemporary Britain?
• What are the problems Jess faces as a British Asian 18-year-old girl?
• How does Jess deal with explicit racism in the film?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of Julie's family background?
• Why is Jess's father's approach to tackling racial discrimination different from Jess's?
  
• How can football be used to both unite and divide people from different national, regional, religious and ethnic groups?