SEPTEMBER 24
BEGINNING THIS WEEK, UNDERGRADUATES ARE TO EMAIL THEIR ESSAYS DIRECTLY TO T.A. MATTHEW LAX AT LAXCO@OUTLOOK.COM
GRADUATE STUDENTS SEND THEIR PAPERS TO GARY AT GMAIRS@CALARTS.EDU
Films:
Musketeers of Pig Alley (Griffith 1912) DVD 536
Broken Blossoms (Griffith 1919) DVD 244
Reading (to be done by September 30):
Tom Gunning, “Weaving a Narrative: Style and Economic Background in Griffithʼs Biograph Films,” in course reader.
Paper topic (paper due October 1. Graduate students send papers via email to gmairs@calarts.edu; undergraduates send papers to TA Matthew Lax at laxco@outlook.com):
Write again about the scene you explored last week, this time focusing on the editing. Instead of describing the content of each shot, talk about how the shots work together. The crucial questions are: how long is each shot, and why? And why do you think the filmmakers change from one camera position to the next in the course of the scene – what does the audience get from these shifts in perspective? Finally, how noticeable are these cuts as you watch the film?
SEPTEMBER 17
Films:
Workers Leaving the Factory; Train Arriving at a Station; The Sprinkler Sprinkled; Snowball Fight (Lumières 1895-1897) DVD 467
Four Troublesome Heads; The Astronomer's Dream; The Skipping Cheese; Eclipse: or, the Courtship of the Sun and Moon (Méliès 1898, 1898, 1907, 1907) DVD 3303, disks 1 and 4
Automatic Hat and
Sausage Machine; How Monsieur Takes His Bath; Alice Guy Films
a “Phonoscène” in the Studio at Buttes-Chaumont, Paris; Indiscreet Questions (Guy 1900, 1903,
1907, 1906) DVD 4408
The Dancing Pig (Pathé company 1907) DVD 2743
The Golden Beetle (Zecca 1907) DVD 467
The Great Train Robbery (Porter 1903) DVD 467
Making an American Citizen (Guy 1912) DVD 467
A Corner in Wheat (Griffith 1909) DVD 1180
Heart of the World (Maddin 2000) DVD 2025
Premonition Following an Evil Deed aka Lumière (Lynch 2000) DVD 810
Fire and Rain (Benning 2009):
Reading (to be done by September 23):
Roberta Pearson, "Early Cinema," in course reader.
Paper topic (paper due September 24. Send all papers via email to gmairs@calarts.edu):
Discuss the use of composition in a single scene from one of your favorite movies, focusing in particular on whether the framing is open or closed (most films use a combination of both styles), what these choices say about the world surrounding the story, and why the scene is composed in such a way. Keep it very simple: no more than two or three consecutive shots. Begin with description and please follow the guidelines laid out in "Writing Film Essays" in the reader.
SEPTEMBER 10
Films:
Pickup On South Street (Samuel Fuller 1953) DVD 1007
"The Po River Valley" from Paisan (Rossellini 1946) DVD 3701 (1:42:31 to end)
Reading (to be done by September 16):
Manny Farber. "White Elephant Art vs. Termite Art." (in course reader)
André Bazin. "The Evolution of the Language of Cinema." (in course reader)
No paper this week.
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MAY 7
Films:
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And that is all...see you in the Bijou next week
MAY 7
Films:
Borom Sarret (Ousmane Sembène 1963) DVD 2150
Mooladé (Ousmane Sembène 2004) DVD 2009
THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR HARD WORK AND COMMITMENT TO THE CLASS THIS SEMESTER!
APRIL 30
Films:
Poto and Cabengo (Jean-Pierre Gorin 1980) DVD 4520
La Libertad (Lisandro Alonso 2001) DVD 4571
Reading (to be done by May 6):
Robert Koehler. “Agrarian Utopias/Dystopias: The New Nonfiction.”
Paper topic (Paper due May 7 via email
to elkrugamigos@earthlink.net, attached as a .doc, .docx, .rtf or .odt file):
The final long paper is due before
the last class session on May 7.
"The irony,"
Robert Koehler concludes,
"is that there's nothing absolutely Argentine about La libertad.
Its freedom is a freedom from nationality, time-space, narrative laws, camera
laws and the expectations that audiences instinctively impose on themselves.
But pay attention to the actual translation of the Spanish title: 'Liberty'--a
harder, more profound word than 'freedom,' a word pointing to a greater leap, a
commitment to an ideal, an identifier for an equation that even describes its
opposition--oppression. Liberty is harder-won. Liberty is that thing that the
films that really matter aspire to. This one just has the balls to take it as
its own name."
APRIL 23
Films:
The Apple (Samira Makhmalbaf 1998) DVD 2189
The House is Black (Farrokhzad 1962) DVD 5056
Reading (to be done by April 29):
Adrian Danks. “The House That Mohsen Built: the Films of
Jonathan Rosenbaum. “Radical Humanism and the Coexistence of
Paper topic (Paper due April 30 - undergraduates print copy and bring to class, graduates send via email to elkrugamigos@earthlink.net, attached as a .doc, .docx, .rtf or .odt file):
All short papers due. Please check your email; I will contact people who still owe papers.
The final long paper is due before the last class session on May 7.
APRIL 16
Film:
Young Soul Rebels (Julien 1991) DVD 5339
Excerpts:
The Filth and the Fury (Temple 2000) DVD 891 (00:00:24 - 00:04:59; 00:56:48 - 01:00:49)
Sylvester. "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)."
Reading (to be done by April 22):
Paper topic (Paper due April 30 - undergraduates print copy and bring to class, graduates send via email to elkrugamigos@earthlink.net, attached as a .doc, .docx, .rtf or .odt file):
Two more pages of progress on your final paper. This week, I care about what you turn in – I would like two pages of solid analysis of whatever film you’re discussing, working from a scene within the film. Since I’ve asked all of you to dedicate at least some of your paper to working with the films themselves, breaking down and discussing scenes in cinematic terms, THAT is what I expect in this week’s paper. Consider it another two pages out of the way to finishing your finals.
It is due the Wednesday after next, on April 30, along with ALL short papers. If you are behind, you
need to catch up and have two weeks to do it.
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