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Some Like It Hot

Date: Jun 27 2007

Themes: Fashion, Pop Culture

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Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

drag
idiot

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

There’s nothing better than a man pretending to be a woman to drive the plot of a play or movie. Shakespeare did it all the time and such disguises even turn up in Ancient Greek Drama. In fact, one of the greatest movies ever made features men in lipstick and dresses. Listen to Marni and Mason talk about the 1959 classic, Some Like It Hot.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Marni

Mason

Marni: So I was going through, thinking, “What do I wanna watch?” and I was just in the mood for a classic film, and you know what I picked?

Mason: What’d you pick?

Marni: Some Like It Hot.

Mason: Are you kidding? I just watched that.

Marni: Isn’t that a great film?

Mason: It is. It’s like…apparently AFI said it’s, like, the funniest film of all time.

Marni: Really?

Mason: In 2000 when they did their 100 greatest movies ever.

Marni: Yes. Funniest film? Not surprising. It’s a good one.

Mason: I’ve honestly…that’s the second Marilyn Monroe film I’ve ever seen.

Marni: Really? Yeah, I haven’t seen many myself, but that film makes me really appreciate her because it’s…goofy.

Mason: She acts like such an idiot but I think it truly is acting. It’s just she saw that that’s kind of what people expected from her and it sold and she became that.

Marni: And so that’s what she went with.

Mason: I did some research on the film and found a bunch of interesting trivia facts. You know she was pregnant during the filming of that?

Marni: I did not.

Mason: She looks, maybe a bit heftier than usual.

Marni: But that was what was glamorous back then.

Mason: She was no twig, but she was pregnant during the film.

Marni: Interesting.

Mason: And color film…You could have shot the film in color, and Marilyn Monroe was actually really, really particular about having her films shot in color, but the reason that the didn’t do that one was because when the guys were dressing in drag, they had to put such heavy makeup on them that it made their faces look green when they did the color process.

Marni: Interesting.

Mason: Yeah, isn’t that really cool?

Marni: So they had to go with the black and white. And I thought it was just an artistic choice.

Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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Discussion

Marni wanted to watch a classic movie the other day, so she chose Some Like It Hot. It turns out that Mason recently watched that film too, and he tells Marni that the American Film Institute named it the funniest movie of all time. She’s not surprised because it’s a really good movie.

For some reason, Mason has done some research on the movie and he happens to know a bunch of things about it. He tells Marni that Marilyn Monroe (who is singing in the video above) was pregnant when the film was shot. He also tells Marni that the film was shot in black and white because the makeup used for the drag costumes looked green on color film.

Have you ever dressed up like a member of the opposite sex? Has anyone ever fooled you with a disguise?

Comments

maged2006

Yemen

hhiiiiiiiiiiiii

mist64

Slovenia

I don't think it is important that this movie is pictured black-white…. The story is so funny, actors are amazing that you forget it's black and white. It is a pity they don't make movies like that, anymore.

victor25

Moldova, Republic Of

I can’t post messages in the forum below. It shows me an error “Such forum doesn’t exist”. Do something about it.

hady

Russian Federation

and good to remind that Monroe said the phrase of all time is the best friends of girls are diamonds*undoubtedly

Yomismo

Germany

the answer is black and white cos the film was shot in black and white, nothing to do with the preferences of marilin, the question is about the film, not about the preferences of marilin. see you soon.