21L.011  The Film Experience

December 8, 2015

1. The early exam will be given on Tuesday, December 15, from 1:30-4:30 pm.  Room to be announced.  Any student wishing to take this exam must email me before noon on Friday, December 11.

2.  The exam will consist of an identification segment and an essay segment like those you've seen before.  A third element will require you to identify and discuss several short sequences from films on our syllabus.  The lecture outlines should be helpful study guides; so should the clips shown during lecture; these are available for review on our Plex site.

3.  Finally, may I urge all of you to make time to fill out a course evaluation.  You can do so at http://web.mit.edu/subjectevaluation/

Good luck on the exam and in your future adventures in film and other stories.

 

19 November

The hour test will be given in our lecture room Tuesday, Nov. 24, at 4 pm.   No lecture or screening that evening.

The exam will cover material discussed in lectures and in the required reading and of course will assume familiarity with the films on our syllabus.  Identification items like those on the quiz will comprise 30 percent of the exam.  The remaining 70 percent will be an essay question requiring you to speak about several of our films.

Suggested topics for the fourth paper have been posted.

Correction to required reading (as announced in lecture): add two pages to the required reading for Kurosawa, Cook, pp. 735-47.  This correction has been made in the on-line syllabus.

Finally, I'm sorry to report that TechTV has suffered a catastrophic failure that apparently erased many videos, including two of our required video-lectures as well as the entire recommended sequence.  I cannot arrange for the sequence to be replaced. But the required videos, devoted to the American musical, are now available on our Plex site in the clips folder.   The three other required lectures-on-video remain accessible on the OCW site.

Good luck on the hour test.  Have a fine Thanksgiving!

 

30 October 2015

The "materials" module on this site has been revised for clarity and ease of use.   Let me know if you have ideas for further improvements.

As I mentioned in lecture, the syllabus has been revised as follows:  Truffaut has been deleted, the other films moved up a week, so our final week has no required screening.   And the deadline for the third paper has been reset to November 12.   Due date for the final paper must officially remain December 3, but we will be flexible and helpful about this date if necessary. 

Suggested topics for the third essay have been now been posted.

I know the academic pressure is building for many of you.  Don't get too stressed.  Most of all, don't sacrifice your valuable movie time for lesser pursuits relating to your majors and career paths.

[Monday  19 October]  This is the last week in which you are expected to watch two films.  As with our previous double features, both films are landmarks of movie history and great entertainment as well as complex works of art.   To ease the viewing burden a bit,  I'm cancelling the Tuesday evening lecture.  Screening will start at 7 pm in our usual space, 3-270.  The 4 pm lecture will cover both films.  May I also remind you of the required video lecture, OCW Lecture 15, which discusses the emergence of subversive or revisionist genre films like Chinatown in the 1970s and includes clips -- one starring a young Jack Nicholson -- from two other defining films of the era.

Far more than The Maltese Falcon, Chinatown needs the large screen and communal space of its original release, so we'll screen the films in reverse chronological order.  I hope many of you will find time for the public screening of both, but if you must choose, Falcon suffers less damage in the reduced visual field of TV or the computer screen.

Syllabus.  I've shaved a few more pages off the required reading and deleted a required video lecture.  The revised syllabus is posted under "Materials" on this web site.  Also, there will be no evening lecture on Tuesday, October 27; the screening of Citizen Kane will begin at 7 pm.

This week's musicals and canned lectures.  Because of the Columbus Day holiday, there will be no screening this week.  You must watch our required films on the Plex system.   The required video lectures (TechTV lectures 11-12) discuss both movies and include significant clips from other musicals that will help contextualize our films.  

One key point: both this week and next juxtapose defining genre films from Hollywood's golden age with counterparts from the post-studio era, when TV had supplanted the movies as the U.S.'s medium of consensus narrative.  As you watch these films attend both to their centrally shared elements and to their crucial differences.  What are the implicit "politics" in these films? Their assumptions about power, authority, personal relations? 

I know we're asking for significant -- but doable and hopefully enjoyable -- viewing hours this week.  Don't cut corners.  Give yourself enough time to watch carefully and savor these memorable films.  Though other matters will be relevant, Thursday's sections will center on Singin' in the Rain.