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Procedure
The
overall
purpose of this assignment is to give you an opportunity to
view and analyze a film or group of films from the perspectives
introduced in the topics below. The paper should be 6-7 pages, typed and double-spaced.
The due date is Friday, March 11).
You
should email the document
to me on the 11th. Make
sure
you check your inbox over the weekend and early the next week in
case I have trouble opening the file. The paper should have an
evocative and informative title, a thesis (not a general topic, but a
specific position that must be argued and supported), and the necessary
evidence to back up that thesis. Film studies is a field with a number
of different methodologies and approaches to its subject matter, so
that evidence can take many forms, ranging from statistical information
about box office receipts to biographical information about the people
involved in the making of a film, from responses by film critics to the
theoretical concepts introduced in the reading. But most of all the
evidence will be drawn from the film itself. Although this assignment
does not call for a sequence analysis or shot-by-shot breakdown, you
may want to identify a crucial segment from the film and discuss it in
depth. This process will ensure that your analysis remains rooted in
the specifics of what you see and hear on screen.
Paper
Topics
1) Violence: The representation of
violence—especially the graphic or aestheticized representation of
violence—has been a subject of significant controversy in American film
throughout the century of cinema, but especially since the 1960s. Each
of the films screened in the section on the new Hollywood cinema
contains at least one significant act of violence, and several conclude
in a hail of gunfire. Using at least one of the films screened for this
course after the sixth week, examine both the manner in which violence
is represented and the function this violence serves within the film
itself. This essay can focus on one particular film or sequence, or it
can be comparative and cumulative and therefore make claims about a
group of films or a historical period more generally. Whatever its
precise subject matter, the paper should consider both the formal
aspects of the film—how it represents violence, which details the
camera and soundtrack foreground, whether the film departs from or
attempts to imitate a documentary-like recording of events, etc.—and
the significance of these particular scenes in the film as a whole and
the cultural context in which the film was produced and received.
Variation:
At
least two landmark films from the 1970s contain scenes that are
explicitly concerned with the effects of violent or otherwise
provocative images on the mind of a viewer subjected to
quasi-scientific tests or experiments. In The Parallax View (Alan J. Pakula,
1974), a corporation hiring assassins uses a graphic slide show as part
of a psychological evaluation of its potential “employees.” In A Clockwork Orange (Stanley
Kubrick, 1971) violent images become a means of psychological
retraining and aversion therapy, among other things. In this variation
on the first assignment, you can compare and contrast the
representation and function of these two sequences in The Parallax View and A Clockwork Orange, with the same
level of attention to the way these images are constructed and their
significance within the film as a whole. You can also compare and
contrast one or both of these sequences with one of the other films
screened for the class.
2) Space: Nearly every film screened
this quarter takes great pains to explore the environment where the
story takes place, from the vast landscapes of Badlands and Red Sorghum to the small towns of Bonnie and Clyde to the plastic
suburbs of The Graduate to
the apocalyptic wasteland of Weekend
to the "spacescapes" of 2001
the cityscapes of Breathless,
The 400 Blows, Cléo from 5 to 7, Memories of Underdevelopment, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, Taxi Driver, and Raging Bull. In most cases these
locations are not merely the backdrop for the narrative; they become
significant objects of attention and inquiry for the filmmaker. Using
at least one of the films screened for this course, examine both the
manner in which the environment is represented and the function this
setting serves within the film itself. This essay can focus on one
particular film or sequence, or it can be comparative and cumulative
and therefore make claims about a group of films or a historical period
more generally. Whatever its precise subject matter, the paper should
consider both the formal aspects of the film—how it represents these
spaces, which details the camera and soundtrack foreground, etc.—and
the significance of these particular spaces in the film as a whole and
the cultural context in which the film was produced and received.
Resources
for
Writing about Film
Barsam,
Richard.
Looking at Movies: An
Introduction to Film. New York: Norton, 2004.
Bordwell, David and Thompson, Kristin. Film Art: An Introduction. Seventh
edition, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003.
Corrigan, Timothy. A Short Guide to
Writing about Film. Fourth Edition. New York: Longman, 2000.
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/student/humanities/film.shtml
http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/
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