The Crying Game; Neil Jordan (1992)

 

Monday 1 Dec.  week 15.

Intro. to Irish cinema. Reading and topic: Wood, “Theme park Europe?” and “Case Study: Ireland,” chapt. 8 + 9. + conclusion. SC. The Crying Game. Neil Jordan. (1992, 112‘).

 Wed. 3. Dec. Discussion of film and reading (combined)

 

Additional Links:

 

• Roger Ebert reviews \”The Crying Game\”
• Short Review of \”The Crying Game\” on Allmovie
• Script of Crying Game

Additional Articles:

• It’s Only a Piece of Meat”: Gender Ambiguity, Sexuality, and Politics in “The Crying Game” and “M. Butterfly (on jstor.org)
• ‘Women Are Trouble, Did You Know That Fergus?’: Neil Jordan’s “The Crying Game” (on jstor.org)
• Sexing “The Crying Game”: Difference, Identity, Ethics (on jstor.org)
• Transcultural Cinema: Reading Race and Ethnicity in Neil Jordan’s “The Crying Game” (on jstor.org)

 

Viagem ao Princípio do Mundo, 1998; Manoel de Oliveira

Class Assignments: 

• Intro. to Portuguese cinema. Reading: Questions of Identity, “A question of identity” chapt. 2

Additional Links: 

• An Interesting Portal for Portuguese cinema and culture
• Brief blub in TIME on “Voyage”

Additional Articles: 

• Portuguese cinema in the doldrums of neglect: (European Journal of Communication, Vol. 9, No. 3, 291-309 (1994) 
• Maria de Medeiros: Article en français sur cette actrice du monde 

 

 

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988); Pedro Almodovar

Class Assignments:

Monday 3 November. Week 11.

Reading: Wood. Chapt. 2. “Art Cinema, a cinema of auteurs?” & Chapt. 3, “The Evolution of the ‘quality’ film.” Intro to Almodovar.

SC. Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios. Pedro Almodovar (1988, 90‘).

Additional Websites:

• Viva Pedro Official website of the Viva Pedro series, featuring the theatrical re-release of 8 of the celebrated auteur’s films.
• Pedro Almodóvar at the Internet Movie Database
• Pedro Almodóvar at SensesOfCinema.com
• Official website includes comments on many of his movies and a diary on the making of his new one, Volver
• Almodóvar Bibliography (via UC Berkeley)
• Biography of Pedro Almodóvar MundoCine (in Spanish)
• Pedro Almodóvar’s Complete Filmography, Reviewed
• Pedro Almodóvar & Volver Full production notes, images and many more on Volver.
• All about Almodóvar’s women (and men) An article from Turkish Daily News

Additional Readings:

• Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown: Sexism or Emancipation
• Terroism in Barcelona and Its Impact on Spanish Politics 1904-1909
• Reinventing the Motherland: Almodavar’s Brain Dead Trilogy

Festen. Celebration (1998); Thomas Vinterberg

Monday 27 Oct.  week 10.

MIDTERM

Reading. M. Wood. Introduction + “European cinema at the barricades” (chap. Topic: Scandinavian cinema, and the case of Danish cinema.  Excerpts of earlier films.SC. Festen. Celebration. Thomas Vinterberg, (1998, 105’)Wed. 29 Oct.

Discussion of film. Reading: Ezra: Chapt. 7. “Postwar Scandinavian Cinema” Quiz.

 

 

Additional Links:

·      CNN interview with Thomas Vinterberg

·       http://www.indiewire.com/people/int_Vinterberg_Thms_981014.html (Interview on Indiewire)

 

Paris, Texas (1984); Wim Wenders

 

 

 

Class Assignments:

Monday 20 Oct. week 9.

German cinema and New German cinema. Intro. Reading: Ezra, chapt. 10. French articles: D. Vernet, “A Berlin, on n’échappe pas à l’histoire.” Le Monde article, library west reserve.(1/4 page): https://ares.uflib.ufl.edu/ares.dll?action=10&form=50&value=35230.

R. Bassan “L’art comme representation du monde. Wim Wenders: Paris, Texas,”  Europe. 5 pp. Library West reserve. (FRT section only): https://ares.uflib.ufl.edu/ares.dll?action=10&form=50&value=35232.; article analysis #2 due today for French majors/minors only.

Questions of Identity, chapt. 14. “Europe of the Mind.” * article analysis #2 due today for all other students. Group work.

SC. Paris, Texas, Wim Wenders. (1984, 147‘)

 Wed. 22 Oct.

Discussion of film and reading applied. Paper #3 on Paris, Texas due today.*

 Additional Websites:

• Script for Paris, Texas
• Wim Wenders Photography
• Interview with Wim Wenders/ Senses of Cinema

 Additional articles:

• Experience and Memory in the Films of Wim Wenders *
• How American Is It: The U. S. as Image and Imaginary in German Film*
• Wim Wenders: An Interview*

Link leads to JSTOR website. Type in the title of the article to find it.

 

 

 

 

 

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988); Philip Kaufman

Class Reading:

Monday 13 Oct. week 8.

Topic: Eastern European Cinema. The Sixties. reading: Questions of Identity, chapt. 17: “My Ten Most European Experiences.” + “Prague Spring: An Exercise in Democracy” : NPR (audio-file)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93720234&sc=emaf

SC. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Philip Kaufman. (1988, 171‘) [prepare for an almost 3-hour long film and bring popcorn]

Questions for Reading from Dr. Blum:

Questions to class:  The Unbearable Lightness of Being. 
Pre & post-screening questions for in-class discussion: 

1. How does the narrative entitled “The Unbearable Lightness of Being- A lovers’ story” weave in the more political agenda of the film? List  all  the instances where politics intervene in the film. 
2. Are people essentially preoccupied-or interested with politics in the narrative? Or how does politics enter their lives? 
3. Establish the structure of the film: how many parts? What happens in these? Is there a turning point? When? How? Is there a progression? 
4. What is the importance of art (work)? 
5. In one part of the film, the main protagonist decides to write and publish an essay that will cost him. What is the article about and why is it so damaging? 
6. Comment on each protagonist’s job(s) and personality? 
7. What are the possible escapes from an oppressive regime, as established in the narrative? and in general? 
8. How do Russians appear- how are they shot? 
9. Can we connect the story with Closely Watched trains? How? 
10. Analyze the sequence where the Soviet tanks arrive in Prague. 
11. What are the different geographical locations of the film? 
12. How would you characterize the regime once they return to Prague? 
13.Attempt a possible interpretation of the title. 
14. Research oriented: check out the cast/their origins etc… 
15. Analyze one sequence and the use of a specific film technique 

Here are some resources to help you digest the film:

Additional Websites:

• Movie Stills from Virtual History
• Criterion Collection essay 
• Preview of “Unbearable” on Youtube
• On the Prague Spring

 

 

Closely Watched Trains (1966); Ostre Sledované Vlaky. Jirí Menzel

Class Assignments

 

Monday 6 Oct.  week 7.Eastern European cinema, introduction. Intro to Czechoslovakia- Reading: Questions of identity, chapt. 9.

SC. Closely Watched Trains. Ostre Sledované Vlaky.  Jirí Menzel (1966, 93‘)

              

Additional Links:

·         Criterion Collection essay by Richard Schickel

·         Laughter is the best way to get to know the world – interview with Jiří Menzel 

·         Another Interview with Jiri Menzel

 

 http://art-bin.com/art/ahrabaleng.html

 

Additional Readings:

 

·         Jiri Menzel and the Second Prague Spring (type in title on JSTOR page)

·         The Bing Bang Hypothesis: Blowing Up the Image (type in title on JSTOR page)

·         Art and Relevance: The Small Theatres of Prague, 1958-1970 (type in title on JSTOR page)

* Please make sure to be logged on to a UF server (or Remote Access) in order to view articles.

Slideshow:

 

 

 

 

 

              

 

 

 

 

 

The Secret of Ana (1976); Carlos Saura

Class Assignments

 

Monday 22 Sept.  week 5.

Spanish Cinema. The Franco Years. Excerpts of films.

SC. Cría Cuervos. The Secret of Anna. Carlos Saura (1976, 107’, Library west, dvd only)

 

Wed. 24 Sept.

Film discussion. Paper #1 on Cria Cuervos due today*

Reading: Insdorf,  “Sonar con tus Ojos: Carlos Sauras’ Melodic Cinema.” Quarterly Review of Film Studies VIII/2, spring 83, pp.49-55. (ARES reserve, call # https://ares.uflib.ufl.edu/ares.dll?action=10&form=50&value=35967.

Additional Links:

Carlos Saura biography and flamenco-related films

Interview: Camera is My Memory: Carlos Saura

Criterion Collection essay by Paul Julian Smith

Film Reference

 

Additional Articles

 ”Carlos Saura: The Political Development of Individual Consciousness; Film Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Spring, 1979), pp. 14-25  on JSTOR

Voyage to Italy (1954, 97′); Roberto Rossellini

Class Assignments

 

Monday 15 Sept. week 4.

Italian Cinema. Intro. to Rossellini.- Discussion of Neo-Realism. Ezra, chapt. 6.

SC: Viaggio in Italia. Voyage to Italy. Roberto Rossellini (1954, 97‘)

 

Additional Links:

NY Times: The Elusive Realism of Rossellini

Website on Italian Neo-Realism

 

Additional Articles:

Rossellini: Woman as Sympton of Man (JSTOR)

Fascism, Writing, and Memory: The Realist Aesthetic in Italy, 1930-1950 (JSTOR)

Las Hurdes (Land without Bread), L’Age d’Or (Golden Age) (1933, 1930); SC. Buñuel

 Class Reading

 

Monday 8 Sept. 

Intro. Dada and Surrealism in film. Spanish cinema. Ezra, chapt. 4 + 5. Questions of Identity, Intro. pp. ix-xviii.

Wed. 10 Sept.

Discussion of films. Questions of Identity, chap. 1.pp. 1-5.+  Ezra: Chapt 4

 

Additional Websites

• Review of Las Hurdes (Land without Bread)
• Senses of Cinema Review of Golden Age
• Film Reference Review of Golden Age
• Explore the works of Dali

Additional Readings

•  Ruoff, Jeffrey. An Ethnographic Surrealist Film: Luis Buñuel’s Land Without Bread. Visual Anthropology Review 14, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 1998), 45-57
• JSTOR article database search for :  Buñel’s l’Age d’Or , Author(s): Mary Corliss , Source: MoMA, No. 3 (Spring, 1975), pp. 2 , Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4380619
• JSTOR article database search for: “Luis Buñuel: Spaniard and Surrealist”,  Author(s): Peter Harcourt,  Source: Film Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Spring, 1967), pp. 2-19,  Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1210106
• JSTOR article database search for:  “Visit to a Familiar Planet: Buñuel among the Hurdanos”,  Author(s): E. Rubinstein , Source: Cinema Journal, Vol. 22, No. 4 (Summer, 1983), pp. 3-17 , Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1224951