Just in case you didn't know it - the Titanic Film Festival is here again. It's a great opportunity to see recent arthouse movies from all around the world. There's nearly always something to interest all film tastes. Check it out here and let us know if you find something good.

Hello again,

I'm writing because I've found another way to insert IPA symbols in your texts.
As some of you have noted, "akkphon" might not be found in every version of MS Word, but there's still another font called "Lucida Sans Unicode" which has -- it seems -- all the necessary symbols. So, if you go to "Insert" and then "Symbol," you'll have to select this font type on the drop-down menu and then look for the things you need. It should work now, really.

Hi there,

Last time I promised to help in finding out how phonetic symbols can be inserted in texts using MS Word. These are the methods I've found so far:

1) Click on "Insert" and then on "Symbol." Select "akkphon" on the drop-down menu (this is the name of a font package that has every necessary phonetic symbols in it). This font is a so-called TrueType font and is among the ones that are normally built in MS Word. But if you really don't have it, then

2) here is this link directing you toward further help. It provides some downloads to get fonts that support IPA symbols. I hope it proves useful.

Note: if the first way works, you should render combos (combinations of keyboard buttons) to the most frequently used symbols to avoid the uncomfortable having-to-insert-it-again problem. (E.g., Ctrl+e could be rendered to the symbol of the schwa.)

vocab list

Dear Frank,
You wrote in your letter, that you have not seen my Vocab list, but I feel that there is a misunderstanding because I left it in your box last Monday and you have already corrected it, and I saw it also this Thursday. Could you please help me? Maybe it was me, who misunderstood something.
Thank you,
Andi

Hello everyone,

Last time Dani and I presented on a rerview written by an author about whom we sincerely didn't know anything. Now I've discovered that he's in fact a highly accomplished American online film critic. Here's a link to a Wikipedia article on James Berardinelli. He has written two books as well that have probably apperared in print: the 2003 and 2005 ReelViews : The Ultimate Guide to the Best 1,000 Modern Movies on DVD and Video. His site can be found here. There are plenty of reviews there to be checked out --- even for class.

Don't know if you're into comic book adaptations but there's an adult (18 certificate) one coming our way soon which looks quite interesting. Here's an article about it: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2009/feb/25/watchmen-dark-knight-green-hornet

and here's a review: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/mar/08/watchmen-review-philip-french and here's a profile of Alan Moore who wrote the original graphic novel (i.e. a comic book:) http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/mar/01/alan-moore-profile-watchmen

For those of you who couldn't care less about super heroes, here's an article about the celebrated but controversial female director, Mary Harron: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/06/mary-harron-film

and, finally, this piece is about a film starring Daniel Craig which has upset a lot of people in Poland recently (and no, it's not A Quantum of Solace): http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/mar/05/defiance-film-poland

Happy reading, and please leave a comment if you have any thoughts about any of these topics (or anything else in the movie world).

Bye now,

Frank