From the official syllabus: “A survey of cinematic techniques (cinematography, editing, composition, screenwriting), interpretations (realism, cognitive, semiotic, narrative), and theories (genre, auteur) related to criticism and understanding of film.”
Viewing assignments:
[Wes Anderson]
Bottle Rocket
Rushmore
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
The Darjeeling Limited
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Moonrise Kingdom
[Charlie Kaufman]
Being John Malkovich
Adaptation
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Synecdoche, New York
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…is what this blog used to be for. This and the 100 Movie Musicals Marathon. (Admittedly, it didn’t last for long.) But the blog did serve its purpose (see What used to be the… Statement of Intent), because both the class ‘Drama, Film and Society’ and the blog helped me to keep busy during the nerve-wracking final months of senior year. (Good riddance, senioritis!) It also helped me to change the way I look at films, and by the end of the course, much to my delighted surprise, I found myself interacting with films differently from before. I still cry every time E.T. waddles back onto the spaceship, but films like G.I. Joe or the recent Wizard of Oz remake, films that I would have easily been enthralled by before, no longer capture me like they used to. Instead, I find myself analyzing the film, and in some instances, questioning the reasoning behind a certain camera angle or movement. In other words, I’m becoming a cranky, picky, and sometimes snobbish audience member. I can’t quite say film nerd yet, because I’ve yet to watch and digest the ‘film nerd classics’ …and also because I’ve so much yet to learn. As it was before, the blog is my learning companion, a place to keep a record of my cinematic (and theater!) experiences that I can hopefully look back on in the future. Sort of a personal time capsule, if you will.
So, not much has changed. I started the blog 143 days before graduation; now, it has been 55 days since the D-day. (The ceremony itself was strangely anticlimactic) Next milestone: starting college in the fall. Exact dates to be determined.
And now…lights, camera, action!
Act 2 of Drama, Film and Society!
(I had to go there. I just had to get the cheesy ending out of my system.)
drama, film, and society 