There are a lot of different kinds of films: theatrical films, horror films, thriller films, popular science films, mystery films, documentaries, and animated cartoons. Besides films may be color or black-and-white, full-length or short, sound or silent, dubbed in mother tongue, three-dimension or wide screen.

We can see films either in the cinema or on TV. As I am often short of time, I have practically no time for going to the cinema. For this reason I watch films on TV more frequently. But sometimes I manage to go to the cinema. I prefer feature films and amusing comedies. I want to relax a little bit, sometimes to have a good laugh. But at the same time I am fond of true-to-life films describing the life of ordinary people, their feelings and problems. Such films move me deeply, they arose the feelings or sympathy or hatred for the heroes. As a rule such films have a deep and lasting impression upon me.

Besides, a modern cinema programme contains advertisements, which are usually shown before the film and are often worth seeing.

In Great Britain and the USA the cinemas/movies sell more than one billion tickets a year.

Movies are shown on TV and can be rented or purchased as a videotape recording. Nowadays people are equipped with video recorders in their majority.

Modern cinema halls are comfortable. There are many rows with convenient seats in the hall. It’s possible for everyone to see the screen vividly. The quality of the sound has changed a lot. At the present time we can meet the highest quality Dolby digital surround. Most cinemas have a refreshment rooms where cinemagoer can get a snack or a drink. American culture brought to Russia popcorn and we can’t but eat it while watching the movie.

Cinematograph is one of the wonders of the modern world. We can’t imagine our everyday life without TV. Every day, every single evening most of people are watching TV. You can watch whatever you like: news, show, films or anything else. There are so many different channels: news, discovery, sport, music, fashion and others. We know a lot of different films and shows, but not everyone knows about history of cinematograph. So, I’d like to tell you about it.
Los Angeles is the world capital of filmed entertainment. First it was a little city with orange trees and great weather. One day in 1908 a group of people from Chicago came to Los Angeles to make a film. Since that day a lot of actors, producers, directors and lots of other workers have been coming here. In 1911 the first studio appeared in Hollywood. About 80% of the world’s films were made in Hollywood in the 1920s. There are many corporations and film companies like:
MGM (Metro Goldwyn Mayer) – one of the most powerful Hollywood studious of the 1930s-1950s, it produced such prestige films as "David Copperfield” and "The Wizard of Oz”. Among its stars were Greta Garbo, James Stewart and Elizabeth Taylor.
Paramount is a film production and distribution company, founded in 1912. A major studio from the silent days of the cinema.
20th Century Fox is a US film-production company, formed in 1935. It is steel a major studio.
Columbia Pictures is a US film production and distribution company founded in 1924. It grew out of a smaller company founded in 1920 by Harry Cohn; Columbia became a major studio by the 1940s.
Warner Brothers is a US film production company, founded in 1923 by Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack Warner.
Universal - a US studio founded in 1915. In the 1970’s and 1980’s Universal became one of the industry’s leaders with box-office hits from the producer and director Steven Spielberg such as "ET” and "Back to the Future”.
The first genres of American films were melodrama; western and comedy, later appeared adventure and historical films. At that time films were silent and black-and-white. Later films became sound and colorful.
Earlier in Paris in 1895 the Lumiere brothers gave the world's first real cinema show to an audience of thirty-three spectators. The first film they showed was "The Arrival of a train at a Station". Moving pictures seemed so real that the audience was frightened to death by the train rushing at them from the screen. The spreading in cinematography in Russia started with the demonstration of the Lumiere brothers’ film in May 1896 in St. Petersburg and Moscow and later in Nizhniy Novgorod. The first sound films simultaneously appeared in three countries, the USSR, the USA and Germany at the end of the 1920’s. In October 1929 the first sound cinema house started its work.

As for me I like action films, comedies, and melodrama. I like comedies best because it’s extremely funny and a good way to relax. I like to watch melodrama because it’s realistic, truly to life. Action films are very dynamic and exciting.
My favorite film actor is Gerard Depardieu one of the most popular actor. He was born in 1948 in a poor family of a shoemaker in a little town. When he was 16 he came to Paris without any education and without any money. Together with his friend he began to attend the actor courses. He got acquainted with a girl of a wealthy family and soon they got married. She had a great influence upon him. He finished the actor courses. When he was only 20 he played big roles in the theatres. His great success in films is a consequence of his good theatrical school. But his success in the USA was not long. In 1991 during his interview to the magazine "Time" he told that he was a hooligan when he was a teenager. The American audience doesn't excuse such a fact in his biography. The works of Depardieu in cinema are marked by many cinema rewards in France and in Italy. Everybody notes that glory and money don't spoil him. They only made him independent. He played in about 80 films.
Not long ago millions of people used to visit cinema each week. Cinema houses were often packed full and one could see people queuing up in front of the box offices. Now with the price of tickets far from reasonable the growth of video production and the flood thrillers empty of serious content the cinemas rapidly losing its popularity. Cinematograph is truly an art of our time. It's as complicated and multi-facet as the twentieth century itself. Everyone can find something to his liking in the broad variety of its genres. Those who seek pure entertainment and rest to the mind prefer musical comedies, detective films, thrillers, horror films and westerns. Other people consider that movies should be rather a thought provoking and earnest art than all fun. Personally I am for entertaining both the heart and mind at the same time.