Notting Hill (1999)directed byRoger Michell

British romantic comedy film set in Notting Hill, London

Contents

Basic information Plot summary Key vocabulary Oral practice exercises

Basic Information

Anna Scott

Julia Julia Roberts Roberts

William Thacker

Hugh Hugh Grant Grant

A internationally renown Hollywood film star. She meets Will when she comes into his book shop whilst shopping in Notting Hill.

A recently divorced owner of a small travel book shop in Notting Hill. He meets Anna Scott when she comes in to look for a book.

Basic Information

Spike Rhys Ifans

Honey Thacker

Emma Chambers

Will's Welsh "out there" flatmate, who dreams of being an succesful artist. In the film he is described by Will as "the stupidest person in the world".

Will's ditzy younger sister, she is a huge fan of Anna Scott.

Plot Summary William Thacker (Hugh Grant) owns a travel bookstore.

His business is stagnant, he has the roommate from hell and since his divorce, his love life is completely non-existent. For both, something or someone seems to be missing. And when Anna and William’s paths unexpectedly cross in the neighborhood of Notting Hill, romance is the last thing on their minds.

The couple comes to face the ultimate question: Can two people fall in love with the whole world watching?

The charming romantic comedy which proves that love can spring from even the most unlikely circumstances.

Key vocabulary

Vocabulary Handout

Oral exercises1. How do you like the story? Do you believe in “love at first sight”?2. Why do you think Anna the big star could fall in love with a commoner William?3. Do you think that in a more realistic sense, William and Anne can “live happily ever after”?4. Do you want to be famous? Why or why not? What are the best things and the worst things about being famous?5. What do you think is （ are ） the theme(s) of Notting Hill?

Theme 1 ： love The main theme of Notting Hill, of course, is romantic

love – and particularly the power of love to unite people with different lifestyles and from opposite sides of the world.

Besides the blossoming romance between Anna and William, other characters in the story are used to explore the theme of love: Max and Bella’s love for each other enables them to retain a strong and loving marriage despite Bella’s disability and their inability to have children.

And Honey’s decision to get married to Spike shows us that even less attractive and even strange people can find love which is as wonderful and important as anyone’s.

Theme 2 ： Friendship Friendship is another important theme in this story. William’s group of interesting and amusing friends

support him through his difficult relationship with Anna, and it is his friends who finally persuade him to ask Anna for another chance.

The final scene, where the friends pull their resources together and frantically drive William through London in order to meet Anna before she disappears to America for ever, is a typical instance of friendship.

Theme 3 ： Fame Through the character of Anna Scott, the director

explores both the positive and negative aspects of fame. When Anna is competing for the last slice of cake at

Honey’s birthday party, the group of friends (and so the reader) gets a rare glimpse of the loneliness and difficulty of stardom. Anna can only ever experience short moments of privacy, and she has to prevent herself from opening up and talking honestly with most people.

Theme 4 ： Humor Some of the humor is achieved through the amusing

characters, such as Spike and Honey. William, too, has an amusing charm about him which

Anna finds attractive. But the most successful humor in the story comes from

the writer placing his characters in awkward and inappropriate situations and then inventing amusing ways for them to escape. William’s attempts at impersonating a Horse and Hound reporter and a hotel worker are good examples.