From Hildy to Mrs. Miller

Mrs. Miller is a tough businesswoman who takes McCabe fledgling businessand makes it prosper. Yet, at the same time she is whore and an opium addict who runs a brothel in which she sells other women's sexual pleasures. Is she the model for the "liberated" woman of the "70"s? How does she compare with previous images of femininity such as Hildy Johnson? How much has changed for woman (in the movies at least) from the '40's to the '70's?

End of the American Dream?

At the end of McCabe & Mrs. Miller, McCabe may have defeated the bounty hunters sent to kill him, but he can only stumble through the snow, slowly bleeding to death. What does this film say about the small-time entrepreneur and the Goliath corporation? What does this movie tell us about heroes and the ideal of the rugged individual? Is the American Dream dead? Or is this film more about the era of Vietnam and Watergate?

How the West Looked and Sounded

Robert Altman utilized distinctive techniques of cinematography and sound in McCabe & Mrs. Miller. He used natural light during the day and subdued lighting to capture the look of gaslight during the night. He used sound that often captured all the noise in the room without differentiated individual voices. Thus much of the film looks dark and dingy and sounds noisy and unfocused. Does the lighting and sound add to the experience of watching the film -- or does it detract? Does it provide a sense of life in the West at the turn of the twentieth century? Or does it distract from the story?

Please Do Eat the Daisies

The two main characters in Daisies are constantly eating or at least playing with food. They have lavish dinners at restaurants, bathe in milk and playfully slice bananas and sausage. This trend culminates in the scene in which they sneak into a feast, indulge their palettes, and engage in a food fight. What is the point of all this food, glorious food? Can you make sense of the use of food in at least some of these scenes?

Love in the Time of Beatles

One interpretation of Breathless is that it is a film about love in the modern world, where lovers know little about each others' past, follow their impulsive longings, only to end up betrayed at the end. Is there more to this take on modern romance? Is there something deeper in Michel and Patricia's relationship? Or is there something less? Is love even possible in the shadow of the atomic bomb and the Cold War? (Don't forget that Michel has other girlfriends and Patricia spent the evening -- and might have slept with -- her editor).

The Post-War World

Two films we have screened, Bicycle Thieves and Tokyo Story, are set in the years immediately after World War II, in countries defeated by the United States and its allies. What can we learn about the nature of the war from its aftermath? What do these films tell us about the costs of the war? Do we have any clues about the ascent of America and its culture in the post-war world?

All in the Family

Tokyo Story shows the relationship between two aged parents and their grown children. On a visit to Tokyo to visit their children, who turn out to be more busy and less successful than they supposed, they are unceremoniously shuffled from child to child and eventually to a resort. By the end of their trip, the mother relies on the kindness of her son's widow and the father becomes drunk and is escorted by the police to his daughter's home. Returning home the mother becomes sick and dies. The children return for the funeral and leave their father alone. How accurate is this portrayal of family life? Is this a "slice of life" (and part of the reason it feels as if "nothing happens")? Does this remind you of your family? Is this how families work? Focus on one scene or character and discuss what it tells us about the dynamics of family life.

Mono No Aware

Mono no aware is the Japanese idea of the awareness of the transience of beauty and the ultimate sadness of life. After watching Tokyo Story can you better understand this concept? What were your emotional feelings at the end of the film? What were you thinking when you saw the final image: the old man alone in the house fanning himself? Are there other moments when you felt the sadness and the beauty of life?

Keep Your Eyes on the Eyes

Bicycle Thieves is not only a movie about looking for a bicycle -- it's also a movie about looking at other people. Many of the most memorable moments of Bicycle Thieves are scenes in which the main characters look at each other: Bruno looking at his father on their way to work, Bruno looking in shock as his father slaps him, Antonio looking in relief as he finds his son. In the final scene of Bicycle Thieves Antonio looked at his son Bruno before his desperate act, and most dramatically Bruno watched Antonio steal a bicycle, get caught and suffer public humiliation. What do these scenes tell us about relationships in the film? About community? About emotions? What about scenes in which a character fails to look at another (as when Bruno falls and Antonio does see it)? What is the significance of the look?

Fides

When Antonio's bicycle is stolen, he loses more than a bike. The brand name of the bicycle "Fides" (Faith in Latin) suggest it has symbolic value. What is the significance of that symbol? What does Antonio lose? Are there other symbols in this film?

Rosebud

Rosebud is perhaps the most famous symbol in movie history. What is the significance of the name "rosebud?" What is the significance of the sled? Is it the key to understanding Kane's life or just one missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle that does not explain much at all? A meaningful symbol or a MacGuffin?

Jay Gatsby v. Charles Foster Kane

Most of us read The Great Gatsby in our junior English class. Both Gatsby and Citizen Kane, produced about twenty years apart, focus on a man who some might say is the epitome of success. What similarities and differences do you see? Are these works celebrations or critiques of these men, or somewhere in between? Or something else?

Celluloid Newspapers

We have seen two films, His Girl Friday and Citizen Kane, in which the protagonists work in the newspapers business (Walter Burns is an editor, Hildy Johnson a reporter, Charles Foster Kane a publisher). What do these films tell us about the job of a reporter or publisher in the 1940's? What is the role or status of the newspaper at that time? How have things changed since that time?

Is Friday Feminist or Feeble-Minded?

Hildy Johnson is a confident career woman who can compete with men (and defeat them) in the dog-eat-dog world of journalism. She is even willing to divorce her man if he doesn't treat he right. Yet, at the same time, she seeks the domestic joys of children and caring for her man -- and in the end returns to the rascal whom she left in the first place. What is the role of women in this film? Does is tell us anything about "modern" women in 1940's America?

Marriage -- and Divorce -- His Girl Friday Style

His Girl Friday charts the marriage and divorce and remarriage of Walter and Hildy and the engagement -- and near marriage -- of Hildy and Bruce. What is this film saying about that state of marriage in the modern world?

On Track

The Last Laugh and The Rules of the Game come from different traditions and styles. One is a classic of German Expressionism, the other of Poetic Realism. The first is silent (with only ONE intertitle!), the other makes use of sound. Yet both utilize virtuoso camera movement. The Last Laugh, for example, follows the doorman on his walk of shame as he passes the laughing faces of his neighbors. The Rules of the Game uses a tracking shot in which the camera moves across the back of a room as we see various characters flirt, escape and wallow in despair and eventually search for a private room. Is there any common theme or purpose to the use of tracking shots in these films? Or is there meaning in part defined by the movie and style? What can we learn about the use and function of camera movement from these films?

What Rules? What Game?

What is the meaning of the title of The Rules of the Game? What is the "game"? What are the "rules"? Who are the participants? How does one "win" the game? What are the penalties for breaking the rules?

The Hunt

Perhaps the most famous scene from The Rules of the Game involves the scene in which the Marquis' guests shoot rabbit and pheasant beaten from the forest by the gamekeeper. What is so distinctive and striking about the scene? Why does it pack such an emotional punch? What is the deeper significance or symbolism of this scene?

Shiny, Happy People

The concluding scene of The Last Laugh depicts the incredible gluttony and generosity of the unnamed, demoted doorman after he miraculously inherits a fortune from a dying American millionaire. He feasts on mounds of food, eating caviar as if it were candy and drinking champagne as if it were water. A tracking shot of the "spread" emphasizes the opulence and indulgence of our hero. What is the point of this ending? Is is a happy ending or a parody of a happy ending? Is this supposed to be objective reality or a fantasy? Is this a cynical commercial ploy or is there deeper significance to the ending?

Tragedy of the Common Man?

When the unnamed doorman in The Last Laugh is demoted to bathroom attendant, his world collapses. At the end of the film he is estranged from his family, fellow workers and neighbors and only the night watchman gives him succor. Is this film a tragedy in the Aristotelian sense (that is, does he fall because of some tragic character flaw?)? Is it an indictment of the society of the time? A study of the inevitable effects of aging? Or, to put the point another way, whose fault is the doorman's downfall?

Heroes Anyone?

In the movie The General Johnnie Gray, a simple engineer,tries to win the heart of his girlfriend by enlisting in the army. Although he is refused, he eventually takes on a group of Northern soldiers who hijack his train. Not only does he rescue his beloved Anabelle (and General), but he also helps defeat a Northern army in battle. Yet, his methods are hardly standard derring-do. Is Johnnie just lucky or a true hero? What does this movie tell us about heroism?

The Politics of Soviet Montage

Eisenstein believed that by juxtaposing disparate images in his editing process he could awake the masses from their ideological slumber and engage them to work for a progressive society. Recall the Odessa Steps sequence. The various jump cuts of horror and outrage are supposed to mobilize us to work to prevent such abuses in the future. How realistic is this theory? Does the technique of montage engage us emotionally? Does it mobilize us to action? Or perhaps could it lead to other reactions? Consider, for example, the montage a viewer may assemble by clicking various channels on one's television. Or consider a similar editing for an action or war movie. Or consider an even more radical application of this process (with images without any logical relation). Is montage always connected to radical politics or can it be used for other purposes?

Birth of a Controversy

D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation is considered a landmark American film that ushered in many of the hallmarks of classic Hollywood cinema. It is preserved in the National Film Registry and is listed in the top 100 films of all time by AMC cable channel and the AFI (American Film Institute). Yet it is also a film which advocates white supremacy and lionizes the Klu Klux Klan. Can such a film truly be great? Why or why not? What about other films such the Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will a film that trumpets Nazi ideology and celebrates Adolph Hitler? Do political and moral statements matter in an artwork? Or is it enough to be technically and artistically brilliant? Can an artwork's message trump its style?

Continuity Editing: Now You Don't See It, Now You Do

Continuity editing, which utilizes a variety of match cuts to create an illusion of reality, is one of the conventions of classic film. Indeed Hollywood movies today, as well as television programs, continue to make use of this convention. Before taking this course, however, such cuts were invisible to most of you. After discussing this technique, have you begun to notice the editing? If so, describe a scene of a recent movie or television show that used a (series of) match cut(s) and explain how the illusion of eavesdropping on someone's life was preserved. Alternatively, did you see a movie that did not use match cuts? Did it create an effect of confusion or disorientation? Explain.