Film

Description

In our class so far, we have attempted to create a vocabulary for understand how movies work. We’ve talked about the basics of narrative, the role of mise-en-scéne, the choices in cinematography, and the uses of editing. In your first paper, you will have a chance to demonstrate all these elements working together to show how movies do more than tell a story, but create ideas in the world. We’ve seen the ridiculousness of journalism done at any cost in His Girl Friday, the importance of shaping others not in your own image in Clueless, how circumstances define our lives in Moonlight, and the role of communities in shaping lives on the margins in 35 Shots of Rum. Working from a pre-selected list of films, you will analyze one film and break down how the components of film techniques—mise-en-scéne, cinematography, and editing—help the film create ideas and themes. This paper will ask you to use a film’s elements to emphasize how the film reveals its themes. Your goal is not to describe the story of the film in your paper and you should assume your reader has seen it. Instead, you should focus on describing the visual qualities of the film and connecting those to your understanding of the film’s implicit meanings. The films from the list are not just standard Hollywood affairs—they come from different countries and points of views. The filmmakers want you to think more than “that was a fun movie.” (many of them, however, are extremely fun, and I recommend watching a trailer on YouTube before you make your choice). The films construct ideas about race, gender, fate, poverty, culture, history, family, fate, and more. Moreover, these films construct those ideas not just through narrative elements, but those elements of film we have discussed throughout the semester. Before you begin writing, you will want to decide: what is this film about? Not just on a story level, but why should someone go see this film, and what will they learn? This is not a review and you should keep plot discussion to a minimum. This is a paper about form and style. If the film wants to communicate an idea, why does its method of formal presentation allow that idea to register more clearly with audiences than if it had been presented some other way? Your paper can use evidence from throughout the film, but at some point within your body paragraphs, you should perform a close analysis of one particular sequence in the film. A sequence should be no more than five to ten minutes long (such as “the diner scene” in Moonlight or “Cher’s driving test” in Clueless). You should carefully demonstrate how evidence from that scene builds toward your idea of the film. At the end of your paper on Page #5. You will also submit a full shot list of the scene that you already performed a close analysis of, where you will define the following: the distance of the shot, the elements of framing, a description of camera movement, a general description of the lighting, and any changes within the mise en scene that occur within the shot (such as a change in lighting or staging). All these should use the language in the class  In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-Wai, Hong Kong, 2000) Two neighbors in a crowded Hong Kong apartment in 1962 create a scheme to get back at their cheating spouses by platonically romancing each other without intimacy. Daisies (Věra Chytilová, Czechoslovakia, 1967) Two female friends scheme and troll against the patriarchy in this experimental comedy. Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1957) This adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth transports the story to Feudal Japan, where a man who dreams of becoming king feels the ghosts of fate entrap him. Meek’s Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, USA, 2010) Lost settlers in the Pacific Northwest turn increasingly desperate to find their way back to civilization in this methodical and tense Western. Lady Vengeance (Park Chan-Wook, South Korea, 2006) In this stylish and bizarro thriller, a woman plans a slow and methodical revenge on the man who put her in prison, while beginning to grapple with the ramifications of her decisions. Wanda (Barbara Loden, USA, 1970) A wanderer suddenly finds herself wrapped up in a heist planned by her new lover. Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie, France, 2014) A queer cruising beach becomes a place of both romantic intrigue and murder. An Autumn Afternoon (Ozu Yasujirō, Japan, 1962) A man schemes with his friends to arrange for his daughter to marry while grappling with modern society; remade at 35 Shots of Rum. Tokyo Drifter (Suzuki Seijun, Japan, 1966) A former hit man becomes a wanderer who must avoid execution among Tokyo’s numerous yakuza gangs in this action-packed, violent, and color filled thriller. Daughters of the Dust (Julie Dash, USA, 1991) Set among the Gullah people of the American South, a poetic look at the rituals and emotions within the final days of a culture in its ancestral place in 1902 as its members prepare to migrate. Bacauru (Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil, 2019) A small town made up of forgotten people in the outskirts of Northern Brazil mourns for the loss of a matriarch, but soon more sinister forces— including UFOs—threaten its existence. Eraserhead (David Lynch, USA 1977) In this surrealist and grotesque comedy, sinister sounds and strange premonitions terrorize a man to raise a baby who may not be his…or even our own species. Hyenas (Djibril Diop Mambéty, Senegal, 1992) A rich woman returns to the small village that shunned her, promising riches greater than the World Bank if they murder the man who abandoned her in her youth. She’s Gotta Have It (Spike Lee, USA, 1986) – Netflix A Brooklyn art designer entertainers three suitors, struggling against those who dare question black female independence. Le Bonheur (Agnès Varda, France, 1965) Described as “a horror movie wrapped up in sunflowers,” a man entertains an extramarital affair with a younger woman, until circumstances clear his path. The Love Witch (Anna Biller, USA, 2017) Riffing on horror films from the 1960s and 1970s with a feminist slant, a modern day witch uses potions to make men fall in love with her….and other potions for more gruesome results. The Silences of the Palace (Moufida Tlatli, Tunisia, 1994) – YouTube In the first major film directed by an Arab woman to find recognition, two generations of women fight against gender and class in a king’s elaborate palace during the during the French Protectorate.