festivals and traditions

Websites

1. Christmas and boxing day

http://hoover.archives.gov/exhibits/christmasworld/intro.html

http://www.soon.org.uk/christmas.htm

http://wilstar.com/xmas/xmassymb.htm

2. Thanksgiving

http://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving

http://wilstar.com/holidays/thankstr.htm

http://www.mahalo.com/thanksgiving

3. Easter

http://wilstar.com/holidays/easter.htm

http://festivals.iloveindia.com/easter/traditions/easter-in-usa.html

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/19213/easter_customs_in_america_australia.html

4. Halloween

http://www.halloween-online.com/

http://www.jeremiahproject.com/culture/halloween.html

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Halloween.html

5. Independence Day

http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Independence_Day.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_(United_States)

http://www.history.com/topics/july-4th

Where does "Fish Tank" take place?

You may have wondered where Fish Tank takes place.

Read about the setting of Fish Tank and how Andrea Arnold rescues the reputation of Essex

Oddly seductive … Fish Tank

What do you call an Essex girl with half a brain? Answer: Gifted! Witticisms of this kind are all that many know of England's eighth largest county. Some are aware it's the preferred retirement destination for East End gangsters. The refined classes shudder at accounts of its unlovely new towns, hacienda-style residences, carriage lamps, white strappy sandals and orange tans. Perhaps the majority would share Spitting Image's view of the county as "a boil on the bum of the nation"

Meet Andrea Arnold

Real life in the Fish Tank

With Red Road, and her acclaimed new film, Fish Tank, the Oscar and Cannes winner is fast becoming one of Britain's most respected directors. She talks to Amy Raphael about her time as a Top of the Pops dancer, the lack of female film-makers, and why her latest film, though brutally unsentimental, made her cry

• Amy Raphael
• The Observer, Sunday 23 August 2009
• Article history

Andrea Arnold photographed in London, August 2009. Photograph: Suki Dhanda

Andrea Arnold makes extraordinary films about ordinary people. Her new film, Fish Tank, a modern love story set on a housing estate in Essex, is quite simply spellbinding. At 48, Arnold finds herself at the vanguard of a new generation of British filmmakers poised to take over from the likes of Ken Loach and Mike Leigh. Up there near Arnold is Hunger directorSteve McQueen; on the way up are uncompromising, idiosyncratic directors such as Joanna Hogg (Unrelated), Duane Hopkins (Better Things), Thomas Clay (Soi Cowboy), Gideon Koppel (Sleep Furiously), Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor (Helen).

1. Fish Tank
2. Production year: 2009
3. Country: UK
4. Cert (UK): 15
5. Runtime: 124 mins
6. Directors: Andrea Arnold, Andrea Arnold
7. Cast: Harry Treadaway, Jason Maza, Katie Jarvis, Kierston Wareing, Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Griffiths
8. More on this film

Yet even McQueen, for all that Hunger was feted, can't really touch Arnold's international success. In 2005 she won an Oscar for her outstanding short film Wasp. Charting a day in the life of a single mum who meets up with an old lover and leaves her four kids to fend for themselves in the pub carpark, it is disturbing in its honesty. Both her feature films – Red Road, an unsettling urban thriller and Fish Tank – won the Jury Prize at Cannes, in 2006 and 2009 respectively.

Most directors would be thrilled by such recognition but Arnold isn't a natural show-off. And, she says, awards ceremonies just don't get any easier. "I still find them terrifying. I don't like going up in front of all those people. Obviously I'm delighted that the films are recognised but I don't want to think awards matter. I read a great quote in a philosophy book recently: 'Don't worship the bitch goddesses of success and applause'."

More ....

Trailer Fish Tank

"Powerful and poignant, the best British film of the year"

http://www.fishtankmovie.com/

A moving and brilliant insight into British environment and culture at its best

Plan d'étude, Maturité