The movies might have faded away altogether had it not been for the release of Cinderella in 1900. Directed by a French magician, Georges Méliès, Cinderella was one of the first motion pictures to tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end. The
fairy tale was divided into twenty tableaux, or scenes; the action of each tableau kept the plot moving forward. As obvious as
this approach may sound, it nevertheless revolutionized the industry. More than a decade after the invention of the celluloid strip,
film narrative had at last been discovered. The film Cinderella was

Read the excerpt from "mother tongue." lately, i’ve been giving more thought to the kind of english my mother speaks. like others, i have described it to people as “broken” or “fractured” english. but i wince when i say that. it has always bothered me that i can think of no other way to describe it other than “broken,” as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness. what best supports the inference that tan believes nonstandard english is no less valid than standard english? tan spends a lot of time thinking about her mother’s “fractured” english. tan has trouble thinking of descriptive words when she is writing. tan’s american education makes it difficult for her to understand her mother. tan winces when she describes her mother’s english as “broken.”