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 palattes, 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?

What is your favorite Soundtrack from a film?and why

Style Over Substance?

Some critics argue that the plot and characters of Breathless are beside the point. They are nothing but convenient vehicles for the real point of the film: the joy of making a movie. According to this argument, the stylistic innovations and virtuoso techniques are not related to any deeper meaning, either to character or thematic development. Is this idea correct? Describe one of the films stylistic devices such as the use of jump cuts or the use of long, acrobatic takes. Does that device give us any clue to the characters or to deeper theme in the film? Does it provide an image or symbol that helps to explain the movie? Or is it just an experiment in changing the language of film?

Lovers 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, 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).

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 suppossed, 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?

Fathers and Sons

In the final scene of Bicycle Thieves we observed an intricate layering of point of view. Antonio looked at his son Bruno and vice versa. We saw Antonio steal a bycicle, but also we saw Bruno watching Antonio steal a bicylce. In what way is this scene about the relationship between father and son? How does that act of watching fit into this relationship? Are there other scenes that support your ideas?

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?

Faulkner, Eliot and Joyce -- Oh My!

Citizen Kane has a distinctive narrative technique in which Welles tells Kane's story from multiple perspectives and uses flashbacks rather than a chronological order. Do you see any connection between Welles' storytelling and modernist fiction? Why do you think he tells his story using these innovative techniques rather that just a straightforward narrative?

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?

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. Indeed our reaction in class was fraught with emotion, from disgust to awkward laughter. 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?

Style in Service of Substance

F. W. Murnau, the director of The Last Laugh, used a wide palette of virtuoso film techniques to express the feelings of his everyman doorman: pride, terror, drunkenness, and despair. Focus on a single scene or technique and describe how the technique expressed an emotion, a state of mind or otherwise served to make a point.

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? Is it an indictment of the society of the time? Or, to put the point another way, whose fault is the doorman's downfall?

Do you agree with the Oscar nominations? Why or why not

http://oscar.go.com/nominations

Has "Jersey Shore" gone too far?

It was recently decided that the next season of "Jersey Shore" is to be filmed in Italy. Italians are supposedly outraged, and it has also been said that the show will reflect very poorly on not only Italian Americans, but the American people as a whole. Yet, the recent phenomenon is a ridiculous, humorous reality show, and many also believe it is harmless. What is your take on the controversy? Do you believe this show should be taken lightly, or do you believe Italians have the right to be offended? Do you believe the fact it is reality TV makes it less or more offensive?

Oscar Predictions

The Academy Awards are coming up in about a month. Any predictions? The list of nominees can be seen here: http://oscar.go.com/nominations

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 deerring-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 justaposing 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: Can Movies with Heinous Political Views Be Great?

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.