For me, it's just a fantastic opportunity to fuse some of the things that I love most -- watching movies, talking about them, and teaching. The fact that I'm getting paid too is just gravy.
So a few people have asked what films we're watching, what concepts I'm covering, etc. so I thought I'd just post some of my materials here. Anyone who wants to follow along for the next six weeks is more than welcome.
So here's our schedule:
Genre/Western
July 1 Stagecoach (Ford 1939)
July 3 Lone Star (Sayles 1996) Quiz #1 - Genre
Mis En Scene/Film Noir
July 8 Kiss Me Deadly (Aldrich 1955) Quiz #2 – Mis En Scene
July 10 Brick (Johnson 2005) Film Analysis # 1 due - Western
Cinematography/MelodramaJuly 15 Magnificent Obsession (Sirk 1954) Quiz #3 - Cinematography
July 17 Far From Heaven (Haynes 2002) Film Analysis #2 due – Film Noir
Editing/Musical
July 22 Singin’ In The Rain (Kelly, Donen 1952) Quiz #4 - Editing
July 24 Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog (Whedon 2008), Moulin Rouge! (Luhrman 2001)
Film Analysis #3 due - Melodrama
Screenwriting/Comedy
July 29 His Girl Friday (Hawks 1940) Quiz #5 - Screenwriting
July 31 Intolerable Cruelty (Coen 2003) Film Analysis #4 due - Musical
Acting/Horror
Aug. 5 Dracula (Browning 1931) Quiz #6 – Acting, Final Paper Proposal due
Aug. 7 The Blair Witch Project (Myrick, Sanchez 1999) Film Analysis #5 due - Comedy
Ideology/Sci Fi
Aug. 12 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Siegel 1956) Quiz #7 - Ideology
Aug. 14 District 9 (Blomkamp 2009) Longer Film Analysis due – genre of your choice,
Final Exam?
The idea is that we watch a traditional/classic example of a given genre or subgenre on Tuesdays and then a more contemporary alternate or revisionist example of Thursdays. We talk about how they're the same, how they're different, how they fit within the confines of the genre, how they don't, etc.
Each week, the students also have to watch an additional movie on their own outside of class. I give them a list of twenty or so for each category from which they can choose. They have to write 500-1000 word analysis of each film demonstrating that they understand both the conventions of the genre and film concept of the week.
So last week, we covered westerns and talked about how they are sort of the creation myths of American culture. They are the stories we tell ourselves about where we think we've come from. They primarily focus on the weird collision between how we value ourselves as rugged individuals and how we need civilization and community. Tough loners tame the west usually in the name of law and order but then rarely stick around to enjoy the peace and community that come from it. They always have to move on because they're too tough, too crabby, too untamable to be plain ol' town folk. So what westerns seem to suggest is that, as Americans, we see ourselves as both communal and individual.
We watched John Ford's Stagecoach, one of the urtexts of American westerns and American film. Apparently, when Orson Welles was making Citizen Kane, he watched Stagecoach forty times because he considered it essentially a perfect film and wanted it to inspire his own work. To modern eyes, it's a little draggy in places and the musical interlude seems a little inexplicable, but all the western conventions are firmly in place, the sweeping shots of Monument Valley are appropriately breathtaking, and the stunts during the chase scene toward the end are really impressive. It may seem old fashioned in some ways, but that's mainly because the film has been aped, stolen from, and imitated ad infinitum, Westerns being made today are still trying to be Stagecoach. (There are several segments of last year's pretty terrible The Lone Ranger that I could point to as blatant Stagecoach rip offs.)
We actually didn't end up watching Lone Star because of a scheduling error I made, but it remains one of my favorite revisionist westerns. It takes place in modern day Texas in a small border town where the reserved, somewhat hesitant Sam Deeds (Chris Cooper) is the sheriff of a the same town where his tough, rugged father Buddy Deeds (young Matthew McConaughey) was sheriff years before. The film asks questions about western identity; about borders between countries, cultures, people; and about links between parents and children. The film shifts back and forth in time between the late 1950s and the early 1990s, and the ways director John Sayles manages the flashbacks/flashforwards is nothing less than masterful. Every time there is a shift in time, the way the film pulls it off gives me that little shiver of "that's so cool!" that I go to the movies for. And, may I point out, the transitions are accomplished in a way that could really only be done on film. I highly recommend it.
Anyway, I'll post the additional film list for both westerns and film noirs in another entry. If there's anything on them that piques your interest, look around on your favorite streaming service or online and give it a try.
Coming up this week is film noir, my favorite film subgenre of all time. Cool, tough, with a dark heart that's equal parts gun metal and bumper chrome, it is the epitome of post war disaffection. It is the dark shadow of the cheerful, sunlit 1950s. I'm excited. Can you tell?
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