Talking About Films in English

Talking about films in English

Are you a film buff like me? – a person who is very interested in and knowledgeable about films.

When was the last time you went to the cinema? I went just the other day and saw Dunkirk. It was pretty good. I got to see my friend who was an extra – a person in the background – in the film. He actually auditioned for a part in the film, but wasn't cast. He has been in a few shorts before, but this was the biggest film he was involved in. I think it must be really interesting to work in the film industry. Did you know Guy Richie used to be a runner before he became a director?

Note: When Russian/Ukrainian speakers talk about films, a common mistake that they sometimes make is the use of the verb play. They might say a sentence like this “Brad Pitt played in Seven”. The verb play always follows the name of the role – the character – when we talk about films. The correct way of saying this would be: “Brad Pitt played a detective in Seven.”

Of course, we can say an actor or actress is in a film without saying who they played and when we do this we simply say: “Brad Pitt is in Seven.”

Can you think of any other actors or actresses and the roles they played in films? How about the film The Hangover – who’s in it?

Useful questions to talk about films

When we talk about films and TV, we usually ask certain questions to ask about them. Let's look at some of the most common questions.

• Have you (ever) seen...? – to ask if the person has watched a film or not
• Was/Is it any good? – to ask for a rating of the film
• What did you see? – to ask for the name of the film
• What's it about? (wotsit about?) – to ask for a brief description of the story
• Who's in it? – to ask about who the actors and actresses are in the film
• When did it come out? – to ask when the film was released

Was/Is it any good? is such an important question, especially for films and TV shows. We want to know: should we watch it? Not everything is GREAT! The great thing about this question is we can use it for anything we want a rating for – events, trips, places, food, films.

How to say if a film is good, OK, or bad

Good

• It’s impressive.
• It’s one of the best films…
• It’s a top film.
• It’s wicked.
• It’s worth watching.
• It’s mad!
• It blew me away – when after the film you think “wow!”
• It’s brilliant.
• It’s a must see.

OK

• It’s nothing special.
• It’s not bad.
• It’s alright.
• The book was better.
• It’s not the worst film in the world, but…
• If you don’t have any others…

Bad

• It’s rubbish.
• It’s awful.
• It’s shit.
• Don’t waste your time.
• It’s one of the worst films…
• It’s shocking.
• It’s pants.
• It’s boring.
• It was a let down.
• I expected more.

Mini dialogue practice

Let’s try and choose the right question. Which question from above fits below?

I went to the cinema last night.
….................?
Joo
….................?
Yeah, it was really good. Very funny.
….................?
A little green Alien called Joo who tries to find his spaceship.
….................?
Brad Pitt.
….................?
Last month I think.

Answers: 3, 2, 4, 5, 6 (from the question list above).

Film vocabulary: people, genres, and more

And, some words you might need to talk about films and filmmaking: