SEPTEMBER 11, 2013

Films:

In a Lonely Place (Ray 1950)

The "Po River Valley" sequence from Paisan (Rossellini 1946).

Both films are available on DVD in the Film Services Library on my reserve shelf: DVD 752 (In a Lonely Place) and DVD 3701 (Paisan). The relevant sequence in Paisan begins at Chapter 21 and is twenty minutes long; it ends at the conclusion of the entire film.

Reading (to be done by September 17):

Andre Bazin, "The Evolution of the Language of Cinema," in course reader. (Please note that previous editions of the course reader include a very bad translation of this piece, which is one of the fundamental essays for the class. Be sure to read the version included in the new reader. There is a copy of the reader on reserve in the library.)

Paper topic (paper due September 18, via email to elkrugamigos@earthlink.net - two pages, double spaced, sent as an attached .doc, .docx or .rtf file...please, no google docs or especially .pdfs!):

In both of tonight's films, a central issue that I want you to consider is identification. I would argue that the art of narrative filmmaking is the art of positioning the audience to the story, leading us, through the use of various formal devices – editing structures, composition, the use of appealing stars – to experience the story viscerally, to identify so completely with the characters that we are swept away into the world of the story. Ray’s work uses these devices to extraordinary effect, sometimes, as in In a Lonely Place, to make these processes of identification and perspective deeply unsettling. Paisan, on the other hand, avoids many of these devices, preferring a documentary-like observation of characters. That’s not to say that it aims to be uninvolving – it is a deeply moving film. But it does encourage a very different relationship to the people we watch onscreen.

Your assignment for the week is to watch both films carefully and to think about your relationship to the characters, how involved you become as you watch the films. Focus your discussion on a single scene in each film in order to talk in greater depth about how these scenes make you respond to one of the characters. If you find yourself tempted to dismiss Paisan because it’s not as fun or as slick as In a Lonely Place, I want you to think hard about that response – are you troubled by a film not doing something that it is explicitly not setting out to do?