In contrast, the cinema in Britain is often regarded as not quite part of 'the arts' at all – it is simply entertainment. Partly for this reason, Britain is unique among the large European countries in giving almost no financial help to its film industry. Therefore, although cinema-going is a regular habit for a much larger number of people than is theatre-going, British film directors often have to go to Hollywood because the resources they need are not available in Britain. As a result, comparatively few films of quality are made in the country. This is not because expertise in film making does not exist. It does. American productions often use studios and technical facilities in Britain. Moreover, some of the films which Britain does manage to make become highly respected around the world. But even these films often make a financial loss.

There are many cinemas and cinema clubs in London. Some cinemas show lots of comedies and long epic films. Other cinemas show a large number of continental films or films for young people.

If you want to know which films are on, there are many publications to help you. Any daily newspaper will have a short list of films and shows. One of the newspapers which is on sale in the middle of the day, gives you the best list of films and the time they begin.

Some cinemas show films in the afternoon, early evening and late evening. Others have continuous programmes from about two o'clock in the afternoon.

Music

Classical music in Britain is a minority interest. Few classical musicians, whether British or foreign, become well known to the general public. When they do, it is usually because of circumstances which have nothing to do with their music. For example, the Italian tenor Pavarotti became famous in the country when an aria sung by him was used by the BBC to introduce its 1990 football World Cup coverage. Despite this low profile, thousands of British people are dedicated musicians and many public libraries have a well-stocked music section. Several British orchestras, soloists, singers, choirs, opera companies and ballet companies, and also certain annual musical events, have international reputations.

In the 1960's, British artists had a great influence on the development of music in the modern, or 'pop' idiom. The Beatles and other British groups were responsible for several innovations which were then adopted by popular musicians in the USA and the rest of the world. These included the writing of words and music by the performers themselves, and more active audience participation. The words of their songs also helped to liberate the pop idiom from its former limitation to the topics of love and teenage affection. Other British artists in groups such as Pink Floyd and Cream played a major part in making the musical structure of pop music similarly more sophisticated.

Since the 1960's, popular music in Britain has been an enormous and profitable industry. The Beatles were awarded the honour of MBE for their services to British exports. Within Britain the total sales of the various kinds of musical recording are more than 200 million every year – and the vast majority of them are of popular music. Many worldwide trends have come out of Britain and British 'pop' artists have been active in attempting to cross the boundaries between popular music, folk music and classical music.

And some more about music. London is a very musical capital. Every evening you can see or hear opera, or classical music, ballet or rock music. The Royal Opera House is famous all over the world for its productions and singers, but seat prices are very high. There are three concert halls near the National Theatre. In the summer, there are sometimes one or two free open-air rock concerts in Hyde Park. An audience of a quarter of a million people is a usual thing. Every summer, from July to September, concerts are held in the Royal Albert Hall, and you can buy tickets at all prices. Serious music-lovers stand in the arena or in the top gallery, but you do not to stand because there are plenty of seats.

The largest provincial centres also have orchestras which give regular concerts. All these orchestras sometimes visit other places to give concerts.

Literature

Although the British are comparatively uninterested in formal education, and although they watch a lot of television, they are nonetheless enthusiastic readers.

Many people in the literary world say that British literature at the end of the twentieth century has lost its way. The last British author to win the Nobel Prize for literature was William Golding, in 1983. Many others disagree with this opinion. But what is not in doubt is that a lot of the exciting new literature written in English and published in Britain in recent years has been written by people from outside Britain. The Booker Prize is the most important prize in Britain for a work of fiction. Starting with Salman Rushdie in 1981, nine of its next fourteen winners were writers from former British colonies such as Canada, India, Ireland and Nigeria.

Although many of the best 'serious' British writers manage to be popular as well as profound, the vast majority of the books that are read in Britain could not be classified as 'serious' literature. Britain is the home of what might be called 'middlebrow' literature. For example, the distinctly British genre of detective fiction is regarded as entertainment rather than literature – but it is entertainment for intelligent readers. There are many British authors, mostly female, who write novels which are sometimes classified as 'romances' but which are actually deeper and more serious than that term often implies. They are neither popular 'blockbusters' nor the sort of books which are reviewed in the serious literary press. And yet they continue to be read, year after year after year, by hundreds of thousands of people.

In 1993 more than half of the hundred most-borrowed books from Britain's public libraries were romantic novels. Many were of the middlebrow type. The rest were more simplistic stories about romance. The British publisher which sells more books than any other is Mills & Boon, whose books are exclusively of this type.

It is more than 200 years since poetry stopped being the normal mode of literary self-expression. And yet, poetry at the end of the twentieth century is surprisingly, and increasingly, popular in Britain. Books of poetry sell in comparatively large numbers. Their sales are not nearly as large as sales of novels, but they are large enough for a few small publishers to survive entirely on publishing poetry. Many poets are asked to do readings of their work on radio and at arts festivals. Many of these poets are not academics and their writing is accessible to non-specialists. Perhaps the 'pop' idiom and the easy availability of sound recording have made more people comfortable with spoken verse then they were fifty years ago.

The fine arts

If you are fond of painting you can visit either the National Gallery or the Tate Gallery.

The National Gallery is remarkable because all the great schools of painting represent here: Italian, Dutch, Spanish, French etc. The Gallery was founded in 1824 and many famous pictures of old masters were brought to London for everybody to see and for the painters to get their inspiration from. The truly British art of painting flourished. It contains the greatest collection of pictures in Britain by brilliant British painters such as Hogarth, Constable, Turner, Gainsborough, Reynolds and others.

The Tate Gallery has a rich collection of British painting of all periods too. It was set up by Henry Tate, a sugar manufacturer in 1897. Henry Tate was a very rich man and collected paintings. Today one can also see pictures of foreign painters of the 19^th and 20^th centuries impressionists and post-impressionists in particular. There are About three hundred oils and nineteen thousand water colours and drawings. There are a lot of paintings by the 16^th century English artists there. You can also see many works by the English painter William Turner. Most of his paintings are connected with the sea theme.

In the Tate Gallery one can see works by modern painters, Pablo Picasso among them. There are many interesting sculptures there. The collection is rather big. Henry Moore’s works can be seen in this gallery. He was a famous British sculpture. The paintings of this gallery impress everyone who visits it.

Painting and sculpture are not as widely popular as music is in Britain. There is a general feeling that you have to be a specialist to appreciate them, especially if they are contemporary. Small private art galleries, where people might look at paintings with a view to buying them, are rare. Nevertheless, London is one of the main centres of the international collector's world. The two major auction houses of Sotheby's and Christie's are 'world-famous.

Until the i 98os, the country's major museums and galleries charged nothing for admission. Most of them now do so, although sometimes payment is voluntary. This has caused a lot of complaint that a great tradition of free education has been lost.

Museums of London

Madame Tissue's is a museum of wax figures. Outstanding politicians, sportsmen, actors, military men are represented there. There is the so-called Chamber of horrors in the museum. Criminals and scenes of murders are exhibited there. They produce a frightening impression. The museum attracts hundreds of visitors daily.

At the Science Museum one can see the first locomotive, rocket, the latest models of aeroplanes and what not.

The Museum of British transport will tell you the story of public transport in Britain.

If you have keen on sculpture, architecture and ancient things, you can visit one of the most interesting and largest museums of London and the whole world. It is the British museum. To begin with, it is famous for its library. It has a copy of every book than is printed in the English language. Therefore there are more than eight million books there. The British museum library has a big collection of old and new manuscripts which they keep in glass cases. You can also find the first English books printed by Caxton. Caxton was the first English printer. He printed his first book in 1477. In the reading hall of the British museum library many famous people read and worked. V. Lenin and K. Marx included the latter studied most of the material for his book «The Capital» their.

The British museum is famous not only for its library. It has also a priceless collection of sculptures ceramics, coins engraving and oriental art. It houses unit collection of Italian drawings. The British museum is the most important place of archaeological study in the World with unique prehistoric collections. It takes one a day or so to do the whole museum. One can’t help admiring the British museum collections. They are worth seeing.

Parks of London

London has many parks and gardens. The best known are Hyde Park, Regent's Park and St. James's Park. They are all within easy reach of the centre of London.

Hyde Park is a royal park since 1536. It was once part of the forest where Henry VIII hunted wild animals. Hyde Park now has 146 hectares of parkland, and people are allowed to walk or sit and lie on the grass. The Serpentine is a lake in the middle of the park. In summer you can swim in the Serpentine or go out in a boat. It is a custom for some people to swim in it on Christmas Day. Hyde Park is famous for its Speaker's Corner, where people go when they want to tell other people about their political opinions.

Regent's Park is in the north-west of London. It is the home of the London Zoo. There are more than six thousand animals and birds in the Zoo. One can reach the Zoo by boat that goes along the Regent's canal. In summer one can visit an open-air theatre and enjoy a play by Shakespeare. There are also children's playgrounds and tennis courts.

St. James's Park is the oldest and the smallest of the royal parks. It is near Buckingham Palace. There is a lake in St. James's Park which is famous for its water-birds. The pelicans were originally given to Charles n by a Russian ambassador. Hundreds of people who work in the offices nearby come to this park to rest and eat their lunch.

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