Jumping Jack Flash

Both Breathless and Daisies gleefully subvert one of the most important conventions of classical cinema: continuity editing.  In the same way that cubism ignored perspective in painting, or atonality rejected the tonal system in music, these films take a hammer to the way we traditionally understand a film.  But does the extensive use of jump cuts create meaning in these films?  Do they create a new language?  Or do are they merely idiosyncratic irritants that get in the way of understanding the film?  Focus on a particular example of a jump cut from one of these films and make a case for its meaning or lack of meaning (or is the lack of a meaning part of its broader meaning)?

A Feminist Farce?

Daisies is the first film we have screened by a female director that focuses on women protagonists. Yet this film is far from an easy film to interpret. Do you see a feminist "message" in the film? Or is this film lampooning such a message? Is this film highlighting and ridiculing sexist views of women? What about the fact that the women protagonists are hardly the paragons of virtue (They have, after all, "gone bad.")? Please enlighten us.

Food, Glorious Food

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?

Crime Never Pays?

Michel Poiccard is petty criminal who steals cars like some people speed on the highway.  He lies and cheats people close to him, including a girlfriend.  He is dangerous when cornered and has murdered a police officer.  Yet, at the same time, he is young and glamorous, faithful in his way to Patricia, and in the end willing to pay for his crimes. The film follows some of the rules of a film noir or gangster film.  Yet, the film also plays around with those conventions: the police, for example, are incompetent and there is not much tension or excitement in the chase scenes.  So what is going on?   Is this film saying anything about crime and punishment?  Or is it just messing with us?

What's New About the New Wave?

French New wave auteurs like Godard envisioned their films as a radical re-visoning of the static filmmaking of the French studio system. What experimental ideas or techniques did you notice in Breathless (could you explain in some detail)? How do these experiments change the way we enjoy a film? Are they engaging or annoying? Do they bring meaning to the film? Do they make fun of the whole idea of bringing meaning to film?

Love in the Time of the 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, have trouble communicating, 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).

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 Early Summer can you better understand this concept? Where there scenes that evoked both feelings of joy and sadness, moment of beauty and tears?  What were your emotionas at the end of the film?  What did you think about some of the images we discussed in class: the waves, the caged bird, the child's balloon?  Are there moments when you felt the sadness and the beauty of life?

Sushi and Baseball

Early Summer depicts a Japan in transition.  Defeated and occupied by the Americans, the Japanese both cling to their traditional ways and embrace new ideas from their occupiers.  How does the movie show this transition?  Does this movie make a judgment about the new American influence?  Is there a political slant, however subtle, in this film?  What does this movie think about baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie?

All in the Family

Early Summer shows the relationship between two aged parents, their grown children and their grandchildren. The young children are rebellious and demanding.  The grandparents try to buy their grandchildren's affection.  The parents and brother try to manage the younger sister's life.  Choices about everything from buying an expensive cake to choosing to marry (and to whom one marries) have implications for everyone.  Eventually the family so painstakingly captured in a photograph breaks up, as Noriko marries and moves to the provinces and her parents move near the great uncle.  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.

The Children Are Watching Us

As Don Pietro is executed for his participation in the Resistance, his only witnesses are a group of children who whistle him a tune.  Afterward these same children march back into Rome as the movie ends.  What do your make of this ending?  Other examples of children acting and watching in the movie include Romoletto blowing up a truck and Marcello helping Don Pietro rescue Romoletto and watching his mother's murder.   What is the role of children -- and children watching adults -- in this film?

Christ or Marx?

Rome Open City portrays (even celebrates) the alliance during the Resistance between the Catholics (exemplified by Don Pietro) and the Marxists (exemplified by Manfredi) to combat the Nazis.  Both groups set aside their ideological differences and suffer together in the process.  But what is the ideology behind this movie?  What is the meaning of this suffering?  Is it the Christian idea of redemptive suffering in which an omnibenevolent God turns suffering into joy?  Or is it the Marxist idea that suffering is part of the dialectic of history leading to the inevitable Marxist state?  There are several examples of Christian iconography in this film: images of a pieta (Mary holding her dead son), crucifixion, and sacrificial lambs.  Do these images indicate a Christian interpretation of the film -- or can they be interpreted in a more secular way?  Is this a Christian or Marxist film -- or are these categories too simplistic?

How Real is Rome?

Rome, Open City is generally viewed as the first (or the first celebrated) example of Italian neo-realism, a movement know for an almost documentary-like style that included shooting on location, utilizing non-professional actors, and telling ordinary stories about ordinary, working class people.  Yet, Rome sometimes violates these rules.  Many of the most important scenes are filmed in a studio that devised an intricate set for the Gestapo office, torture room, and officer's club.  Some of the most important actors -- Aldo Fabrizi (Don Pietro) and Anna Magnani (Pina)-- are established actors (although in comic roles).  Furthermore there are elements of melodrama in the characters and plot, such as the portrayal of the Gestapo officers are cruel and sexually perverted.  Is this truly an example of "realism"?  Or is it something else?

Jigsaw Narrative

Multiple narrators tell he story of Charles Foster Kane's life.  We see his life in a newsreel format, in Thatcher's memoirs, and as told by Bernstein, Leland, Susan Alexander, and even Raymond, the butler.  What is the point of telling the story in this way?  Does each narrator give a specific "spin" or have a particular bias?  Does each see a distinctive aspect of Kane's personality?  Is each section told in a different way, utilizing different techniques of filming (such as camera angles, deep focus, lighting, or even choice of music)?  What" bang for our buck" do we get from this jigsaw narration?  Is equal to or greater than the sum of its parts?

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? Are there other symbols in the film that are more meaningful or complement you reading of the sled (such as statues, jigsaw puzzles, Xanadu, etc)?

Jay Gatsby v. Charles FosterKane

Most of us read The Great Gatsby in one of our English classes. 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 Feebleminded?

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 her 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 it tell us anything about "modern" women in 1940's America?

Marriage -- and Divorce -- His Girl 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. Hildy says she wants domestic bliss in suburban Albany but she chucks it to remarry Walter and relaunch her career. Can someone balance career and marriage? Who is the best kind of spouse?  Is happiness possible in marriage?   What is this film saying about that state of marriage in the modern world?

The Marquis' Mechanical Men

The one consistent passion of  Robert, the Marquis, throughout the film is his collection of mechanical figures, often with music.  From the mechanical "Negresse" and warbler he fiddles with in Paris, to the gigantic music box with figurines that he unveils in his county estate -- which he proclaims is "the culmination of my career as a collector" -- he is constantly playing or fixing or displaying these devices.  What is the symbolic significance of these music boxes and mechanical men?  Why is he constantly fiddling and fixing them?  Is there any special significance to the gigantic music box that plays a central role in the entertainment at La Coliniere? What about the fact that  the music grounds to a thudding sound as Shumacher chases Marceau through the chateau?  What is the point of the Marquis' mechanical men?

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?

Mirror, Mirror

Watching Last Laugh this time around, I was struck by some imaginative uses of mirrors.  Let me describe two.  The first is about twelve minutes into the film during the morning of the doorman's niece's wedding.  He is brushing his hair, looking at himself in the mirror and in the background (in the mirror) we see his niece preparing the cake.  The second is the scene in the bathroom the morning after the wedding. He is cleaning the sinks and he looks into his image reflected on the gargantuan mirror which lines the bathroom wall.  Is there any symbolic meaning to the use of these mirrors in these scenes or other scenes in the movie?  How do they help tell the doorman's story?  Do they have a similar purpose in scenes in The Rules of the Game?

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?

Damsel in Distress?

Some may argue that the movie The General conforms to traditional patriarchal gender roles.  Annabelle Lee, the heroine, is kidnapped (albeit inadvertently) by hostile soldiers and needs the heroic exploits of her lover to rescue her.  She is portrayed as submissive to her father and brother, ineffectual in plotting own escape (such as throwing a stick of wood into the train furnace or failing to stop the engine so her lover can board it), and often exhibiting domestic inclinations ( as when she sweeps the engine with a broom).

Do you agree with this picture of Annabelle Lee -- or is it more complicated?  Is Annabelle a stereotypical damsel in distress or is she a more progressive figure?  Is there something about her a feminist could admire?  What is this film saying about gender roles?

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?  Does this film endorse standard ideas of military heroism or make fun of them?  Or does this movie redefine a hero?What does this movie tell us about heroism?

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?

Birth of Science Fiction?

Some commentators have dubbed Méliès's film A Trip to the Moon the first science fiction movie.  Not all critics, however, agree.  Tom Gunning, the author of our essay on that film, argues for the contrary view.  He states, " 'Science' fiction implies a certain sobriety and serious concern with scientific and technological possibilities. . . .  But Méliès cannot take his scientists seriously at all, introducing them first as wizards with pointy hats, figures out of fairy pantomime . . . (70).  What do you think?  While you may not be able to judge whether this is the first of its kind, you can make a judgment about whether or not it qualifies as science fiction.  Compare this film with other science fiction movies you have seen.  How is it the same?  How is it different?  Can we call it a science fiction film, a precursor of such films, or something entirely different?