TOP 5: SERIES

Another TOP 5 is here!! Today, we bring you the best series to watch. Let us know what you think! 

NUMBER 5: MY MAD FAT DIARY

Set in Stanford, Lincolnshire, in the mid-1990, it follows the story of a 16 year old – 105 kg. girl, Rae Earl, who has just left a psychiatric hospital where she has spent four months. She begins to reconnect with her old friend, Chloe, who is unaware of Rae’s mental health and body image problems, believing she was in France for the last four months. 

Genre: Comdey / Drama

Based on: My fat, mad teenage diary by Rae Earl

Starring: Sharon Rooney, Nico Mirallegro, Claire Rushbrook

Seasons: 3

Episodes: 16

NUMBER 4: THE ORIGINALS

This is a spin-off from The Vampire Diaries which focuses on the Mikaelson siblings, Klaus, Elijah and Rebekah. The first episode revealed that a werewolf, Hayley, is pregnant with Klaus’ child. Having originally built the city, they had been forced to flee from their vengeful father. In their absence, Marcel took charge of the city. Klaus resolves that they must take down Marcel and get back the city that once belonged to them. While doing that, they must also protect everything that they have built from the war between vampires, werewolves and witches. 

Genre: Horror / Fantasy

Created by: Julie Plec

Starring: Joseph Morgano, Daniel Gillies, Phoebe Tonkin, Claire Holf

Seasons: 2

Episodes: 44

NUMBER 3: PRISON BREAK

Lincoln Burrows has been accused of killing Terrence Steadman, who is the vice-president’s brother and he swears he didn’t do it. Sentenced to death for that crime, he is sent to the Fox River Penitentiary until the day of his execution. His brother, Michael Scofield, is sure of his innocence and, in order to save him, decides to commit a crime. From the outside, a lawyer called Veronica Donovan is helping them. The problem comes when a secret organization gets involved.

Genre: Serial Drama / Action / Crime / Thriller

Created by: Paul Schevring

Starring: Dominic Purcell, Wentworth Miller, Robin Tonney

Seasons: 4

Episodes: 81

NUMBER 2: BATES MOTEL

This is a contemporary prequel to the film ‘Psycho’. The show starts out with Norman Bates being portrayed as a regular young man. As the show goes on, Norma (his mother) and Norman’s relationship gives up insight on how he came to be the way he is. An intricate flashback to Norma’s life is revealed and Norman’s psyche slowly starts to unravel. 

Genre: Drama / Thriller / Suspense

Based on: characters from ‘Psycho’ by Robert Bloch

Starring: Freddie Highmore, Vera Farmiga, Max Thierict

Seasons: 3

Episodes: 30

NUMBER 1: UNDER THE DOME

It tells the story of the residents of the fictional small town of Chester’s Mill, Maine, where a massive, transparent, indestructible dome suddenly cuts them off from the rest of the world. With no internet access, no mobile signals and limited radio communication, the people trapped inside must find their own ways to survive. While military forces, the government and the media from outside attempt to break it down, a small group of people inside is trying to figure out what the dome is, where it came from and when and if it will ever go away. 

Genre: Science Fiction / Mystery / Serial Drama

Based on: Under The Dome by Stephen King

Starring: Mike Vogel, Rachelle Lefevre

Seasons: 3

Episodes: 39

Jazmín Mendoza, Tobías Zavalía and Santiago Vanella - 4th Year

TOP 5: NEW SINGERS

What do teenagers listen to these days? Here you are going to know new music and the answer to the question in a top 5 of singers/bands. Hope you enjoy it!

NUMBER 5:

Emblem3 is an American reggae-pop band from Washington, consisting of brothers Wesley and Keaton Stromberg. They signed with Simon Cowell's (like One Direction) record label Syco Records and Columbia Records after finishing 4th on the second season of The X Factor USA. They launched their debut album called "Nothing to lose" on 2013 with Drew Chadwick, who later left the band, leaving E3's future uncertain.

They did a little tour and also performed at multiple festivals. They have done shows with many other artists like Jack & Jack (from Magcon, friends of Shawn Mendes) and they have a song with them called "Cheat codes".

They have a studio album, two extended plays and two singles with videos.

On The X Factor they performed good old songs like "Hey Jude" by The Beatles, "No One" by Alicia Keys and "Forever Young" by Alphaville.

GO AND LISTEN TO:

- Chloe (You're the one that I want)

- XO

- Forever Together 

- Nothing to lose

NUMBER 4:

5 Seconds of Summer -abreviated as 5SOS- is an Australian pop-punk band formed in Sidney and consists of Luke Hemmings (lead vocals. guitar), Michael Clifford (guitar, vocals), Calum Hood (bass guitar, vocals) and Ashton Irwin (drums, vocals). They were youtube celebrities, posting videos of themselves covering songs. They toured with One Direction on the Take me Home Tour where they opened their shows.

They cite bands like McFly, Blink182, Green Day and Busted as their influencies.

5SOS became popular when a member of One Direction, Louis Tomlinson, posted the link to their youtube video of their song "Gotta get out" saying that he'd been a fan of 5SOS "for a while". The connection between 5sos and One Direction extends to both artists being managed by London based Modest management. This has led to 5sos being called a boy band in the media. Unlike many boys bands, they write their songs, play their own instruments and they are not a dance group.

They have one studio album, six extended plays, five singles and eight music videos. Also, on 15 December 2014, the band announced their first live slbum, LIVESOS. Now, they're doing new music and launched "She's kida hot", the first single of their second album.

GO AND LISTEN TO:

- She looks so perfect

- Amnesia

- Good girls

- Try hard

NUMBER 3:

Victorian Loren "Tori" Kelly (born December, 1992) is and American singer and songwritter who slowly gained recognition after starting to post videos on youtube at the age of 14. When she was 16, she auditioned for the singing competition tv series American Idol. After being eliminated if the show, Kelly began to work on her own music. In 2012, she launched her first EP that she produced, wrote and mixed herself, called "Handmade songs by Tori Kelly". Scooter Braun (manages a lot of singers like Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande) became her manager and introduced her to Capitol Records. Also, she can play the piano, drums and the guitar.

GO AND LISTEN TO: 

- Dear no one

- Paper hearts

- Stained

- Celestial

NUMBER 2:

Shawn Peter Raul Mendes (born August 8,1998) is a Canadian singer. He began posting song covers on the popular video sharing application Vine. He caught the attention of Andrew Gertler and Island Records A&R Ziggy Chareton which led to him signing a deal with the record label and he realised his first single "Life of the Party" there.

Mendes toured as a member of the MagCon Tour where other young artists like Nash Grier and Cameron Dallas became popular. He was also on a tour with Austin Mahone as an opening act and recorded his EP. Now he is touring with Taylor Swift with his album debut called "Handwritten".

He did a song as featured artist with the band The Vamps, called "Oh Cecilia (Breaking My Heart)" and he is a friend of Ed Sheeran too.

GO AND LISTEN TO:

- Life of the Party

- A little too much

- Believe

- Air

NUMBER 1:

Edward Christopher Sheeran (born 17 February 1991) is and English singer-songwritter and musician. In early 2011, Sheeran did an independent extended play, "No. 5 Collaborations project", which caught the attention of both Elton John and Jamie Foxx: then he signed with Asylum Records.

Sheeran popularity abroad began in 2012. He made a guest appereance on Taylor Swift's album and wrote songs for One Direction. On 2013 Grammy Awards, he performed "The A team" with Elton John. Also, he performed 3 sold out concerts at Madison Square Garden and Wembley Stadium.

He started touring with Taylor Swift, where he opened her shows. Then he did his own tours called "+ Tour" and "x Tour".

GO AND LISTEN TO:

- The A team

- Thinking out loud

- Don't

- Give me love

This is the end of our TOP 5: SINGERS. Stay tuned for the next TOP 5: SERIES!

Santiago Vanella, Jazmín Mendoza and Iván Menoni - 4th Year

A HISTORY OF COMEDY FILMS

Along with the documentary, comic film is the oldest genre in the entire history of cinematography. As cinema emerged in the late nineteenth century, its first intention was to surprise the public with a playful, festive and attractive offer. 

The most convincing model to achieve that goal was the music hall, and therefore screen cinema got the same stereotypes that had already worked on stage. In any case, dynamic situations, runaways, where there is no shortage of misunderstandings and violence is sublimated to lose every threatening shade.

It is here where it’s clear the subtle and shaky difference between comic film and cinema of comedy, later intermixed with no apparent contradiction. Comic film promotes hilarious situations through stunts and visual conventions, and comedy gets it through linguistic effects. In both cases, cinema practices the humor, causing that bankruptcy on the expectations that according to the psychoanalysts produce our laughter. 

In other words, what makes us laugh is to verify that a character, in which a particular action is expected, makes another quite different, sometimes crazy. In the case of comic cinema, that action would have visual character, and will be led by a dynamic line. However, comedy film inherits from its theatrical antecedents the pun, the replicas and contra replicas that cause laughter through dialogues and situations.

The Biter Bit, 1899, is often cited as the first antecedent of this genre that in our days is still practiced by actors like British Rowan Atkinson whose character Mr. Bean has obtained a deserved popularity.

Despite its continuity, it’s inevitable to identify comic cinema and silent movies, because it was in the period before the onset of sound when the genre reached its moments of glory.

Among the stars that triumphed over this period include Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Max Linder, Harry Langdon, Charles Chaplin 'The Tramp' and Laurel & Hardy.

Comic cinema held some force with the arrival of sound. In fact much of the interpretative effectiveness of comedians like Danny Kaye, Jacques Tati and Jerry Lewis comes from their visual gags, developed without explanatory dialogues.

Being a theatrical genre with a long traditional, comedy quickly adapted to the range of preferences of moviegoers. Comedy credited in film a satire, teasing, mocking quality with more or less propensity towards the grotesque of social customs. Comedy achieved humor through a disruption of the established order, putting the rules inside out and disintegrating the urbanity criteria to, at the end of the show, restores the order altered before. 

Comedy films choose, from the beginning, the snappy dialogue and the play of misunderstandings. In the thirties, Mae West in I’m no angel, 1933 and W.C. Fields personified the mischievous comedy both on stage and in front of the camera. The surreal absurdity was embodied by the Marx Brothers in movies like A Night at the Opera, 1935, while Cary Grant in His Girl Friday, 1940, was presented as the wealthy ladies man from films imbued with a certain romance in their plots. 

The Marx’s wild and verbal comedy was even intellectualized by comedians like Woody Allen in plays like Sleeper, 1973, and Annie Hall, 1977. And the romantic and festive comedy directed by filmmakers like Howard Hawks (Bringing Up Baby, 1938) remains today, albeit with a lower dose of talent in the dialogues. 

Diane Keaton and Woody Allen - Annie Hall

In the development of comedy film played a prominent role German Ernst Lubitsch especially with The Merry Widow, 1934, and To Be or not To Be, 1942, and Austrian Billy Wilder with Sabrina, 1954, Some Like it Hot, 1959, and The Apartment, 1960, that led American cinema to the Central European rhythm.

Cinema of comedy from recent decades has gathered its main inspiration from the small screen. For example, eighties’ films are characterized by the presence of comedians from television, like Steve Martin, Richard Pryor, Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, John Belushi, John Candy and Bill Murray. 

As it happens with other films genres, comedy is interspersed with other thematic trends and today is linked to productions of adventurous genre where there is no shortage of comic situations.

Finally, here are some examples of different comedy subgenres:

Romantic comedy

It (1927), City Lights (1931), It's a Wonderful World (1939), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), Sabrina (1954 and the 1995 version), Annie Hall (1977), When Harry Met Sally... (1989), Pretty Woman (1990), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)

Parody

Get Smart, Casino Royale, Young Frankenstein, Airplane! Top Secret, Hairspray (1988, then the 2007 version), Hot Shots, Scary Movie, Tropic Thunder, Austin Powers, High Anxiety.

Musical

Sweeney Todd, Grease, Singin’ in the Rain, Mamma Mia! West Side Story, Chicago, My Fair Lady, Rent, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Step up, Annie.

Fantasy comedy

Being John Malkovich, Ernest Saves Christmas, Ernest Scared Stupid, Night at the Museum, Groundhog Day, Click and Shrek.

Sci-fi comedy

Back to the Future, Spaceballs, Ghostbusters, Evolution, Innerspace, Galaxy Quest, Mars Attacks! Men in Black and The World's End.

Military comedy

Shoulder Arms,  Buck Privates, Carry On Sergeant, Catch-22, Delta Farce, the Flagg and Quirt series,  the Francis (1950 film) series,  Good Morning, Vietnam,  How I Won the War,  I Was a Male War Bride,  M*A*S*H,  Military Intelligence and You, Mister Roberts,  No Time for Sergeants, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., Operation Petticoat,  Major Payne, Private Benjamin,  The Private War of Major Benson,  The Secret War of Harry Frigg,  See Here, Private Hargrove, Stripes,  Teahouse of the August Moon,  Up the Academy,  McHale's Navy,  What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?, Forrest Gump, Enlisted.

Horror comedy

Little Shop of Horrors, Haunted Mansion, An American Werewolf In London, Dead Alive (1992), Evil Dead (1981), The Toxic Avenger (1984), and Club Dread.

Action comedy

Midnight Run, Rush Hour, 21 Jump Street, Bad Boys, Starsky and Hutch and Hot Fuzz, The Incredibles, Hancock, Kick-Ass and Mystery Men, The Hard Way.

Black comedy

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), Monsieur Verdoux (1947), Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), The Ladykillers (1955), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), The Loved One (1965), MASH (1970), Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983), Brazil (1985), The War of the Roses (1989), Heathers (1989), Your Friends & Neighbors (1998), Keeping Mum (2005), and Burn After Reading (2008).

Top 5 Recommended movies

1. Mamma Mia!
2. Bringing Up Baby
3. Mr. Bean
4. Horrible Bosses
5. The Hangover trilogy 

Magalí Nenezian, Federico Vargas and Kevin Vera - 3rd Year