For this assignment you will view a film, on videotape or DVD, chosen from the list of directors and films I have included at the end of this page. You should choose a film that you haven't seen before, or at least one that you haven't seen for quite a long time and don't remember well. (With a film that you're familiar with, your pre-existing ideas about the film can interfere with your efforts to analyze it according to the techniques discussed here.) Some of these films are available in the school's LRC (library), and some are available at area video rental stores.

I recommend watching the film completely through twice: once to get a sense of the film as a whole, and once to take detailed notes. You should take notes on both the content of the film and the manner or style in which the film is composed. From these notes, you will write an essay that describes the basic outline of the film and its important characters, carefully notes relevant stylistic techniques, and interprets the film based on your description and upon any symbolic or stylistic details that you think are significant to understanding the film. DO NOT spend too much space in your essay summarizing the plot of the film's story. Summary of plot should take not more than 150 to 200 words. (This means you will have to be concise and to the point with your summary.)

In the process of writing this essay, you can use the following questions to help you analyze and interpret the film:

What are the basic stylistic and technical characteristics of this film? What do they suggest to you about the thematic content of the film? How are they used in the service of the filmmaker's goals? (See Notes on Compositional Techniques and Styles, below.)

Does the filmmaker seem to be making a general statement about the human condition? If so, what is your response to that statement? Do any of your own beliefs get called into question by the film? Are you sympathetic to the filmmaker's position? Why or why not?

If not a general statement, does the filmmaker seem to be portraying a particular moment in the history of a social or cultural group other than your own? If so, how does what you learn about this social or cultural group differ from your own social and cultural experience? What points of commonality do you see?

Is the filmmaker instead showing us a story about a particular aspect or element of your own society or culture? If so, how does the story that the film shows differ from your previous understanding of that aspect or element of our society? What do you think is gained by seeing this story from the perspective that the filmmaker presents?

How do the characters in the film express or represent the symbolic forces at work in the story? Are there any characters that you find yourself identifying with? Why?

Don't forget to mention, at the beginning of your paper, the title of the film and the name of the filmmaker. This essay must consist of your own thoughts and analyses, based upon the information provided here. You should not need to read what others might have written about the film you are viewing, and use of such outside information will result in a score of 0 on the assignment. Your essay should be approximately 1500 to 2000 words in length. It should be submitted as an e-mail attachment following the guidelines provided on the Syllabus page and the Orientation page. (Please review the Essay instructions on the Syllabus and Orientation pages. Failure to follow those guidelines will result in point deductions from your score.)

Notes on Compositional Techniques and Styles

A filmmaker will almost always construct his or her film around a thematic core of some kind as a way of giving the film a coherent unity. There are several possibilities for this thematic core. The film can be built upon the plot (the story line), a central character, an emotional mood, an idea (moral, social, or philosophical), or a cinematic style. All or most of these elements of film will usually be present, but one is usually predominant, with the others working in support of the predominant thematic element. It's a good idea to determine for yourself which of these elements forms the dominant theme of the film, and use that thematic core as the organizational core of your essay. Your analysis of the other elements should focus on how they support the dominant theme.

One of the most useful characteristics to note about a film is whether the style of its filming is realistic or expressionistic. If the camera angle is consistently eye-level at a medium distance from the actors, and the colors and light levels in which the film is shot are consistent and realistic, then the style is probably realistic. If the colors seem to vary from reality -- either too drab and washed out, or too bright and saturated, or too high or low in contrast to be natural; or if the light levels seem to be intentionally used to create a particular mood -- for instance, all action takes place at night, or everything seems dark even in the day time; or if the camera angle is unusual or the film uses frequent tight, close-up shots; then the style is probably expressionistic. (Keep in mind that most movies before the 1950's are in black and white for technical or economic reasons; filmmakers must use light levels and camera angle to control atmosphere. After the 1950's, the use of black and white is usually an artistic choice and implies some kind of expressionistic intent by the filmmaker.) Another clue to style can sometimes be found in the perspective from which the film is made. If the story is told through the eyes of a single character (or perhaps a two or three), then check for expressionistic techniques. If the story is told from an objective point of view, in which you see all the action taking place from an external perspective, then watch for realistic techniques.

The style can often tell you a lot about the thematic choices of the filmmaker. For instance, a film made in a realistic style will often be built around a plot, character, or social idea. A film made in an expressionistic style will often be built around a moral or philosophical idea or an emotional mood.

With a film made in an expressionistic style, be aware that almost anything is a potential symbol, and often the symbols being used are as important to the filmmaker as the story itself, perhaps even more important. You should be attentive to what sorts of characters are in the film, what happens to those characters, and where those events take place. Objects, events, settings, and characters all might have some symbolic meaning, and those symbolic meanings might assist you in developing an interpretation of the film as a whole. For example, a child might be used to symbolize innocence or an elderly person might be used to symbolize wisdom. The death of a symbolic (archetypal) character might represent the loss of whatever abstract quality he or she symbolizes.

Some symbols are natural symbols, in that they have intrinsic symbolic associations (for instance, a buzzard can be used to symbolize death because it's a carrion-eater.) Other symbols are created. Some are culturally created, in that their meanings derive from a long cultural history (for instance, the Latin cross has many strong symbolic meanings in Western culture because of its Christian associations). Some symbols are created by the filmmaker within the film, with their meanings built up through the way the filmmaker photographs the symbolic element, or through repetition, or through the kinds of contexts and juxtapositions in which the symbolic element appears. For instance, if every time the characters in a film talk about a particular topic there's war news on the television or on the radio or in the headline of a newspaper visible in the scene, then the filmmaker might be trying to create the sense that this topic represents conflict of some kind, even if the topic is not obviously controversial or the characters don't signal the conflict with their outward behavior.

With a film made in a realistic style the story itself -- and its events and characters -- will tend to be the focus, and whatever symbols might be in the film will tend to be less obvious. That doesn't mean that there won’t be any symbols in the movie at all -- almost any film will have at least some symbolic elements. However, in a realistic film, the symbols often are more specific to the social and cultural setting of the film, while the symbols in an expressionistic film are often intended to carry a more universal meaning.
 

List of Directors and Films:
 

Luis Buñuel -- Spanish (1930's to 1970's)

- The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie           - The Golden Age

- That Obscure Object of Desire                       - Simon of the Desert

- The Exterminating Angel                               - Viridiana
 

Ingmar Bergman -- Swedish (1940's to 1980's)

- Fanny and Alexander                  - Wild Strawberries

- The Seventh Seal                       - The Magician

- Persona                                    - The Secrets of Women
 

Satyajit Ray -- Indian (1950's to present)

- Pather Panchali                          - The Big City

- Aparajito                                   - Two Daughters

- The World of Apu                       - Distant Thunder

- The Branches of the Tree            - Devi
 

Akira Kurosawa -- Japanese (1950's to 1980's)                   

- The Hidden Fortress                    - Kagemusha

- Seven Samurai                           - Rashomon

- Ran                                           - Yojimbo
 

Sergei Eisenstein -- Russian (1920's to 1930's)

- Alexander Nevsky

- (Battleship) Potemkin

- October
 

Charles Chaplin -- silent film star (1920's to 1930's)

- Modern Times                 - City Lights

- The Gold Rush                - The Kid/The Idle Class
 

Krzysztof Kieslowski -- Polish (1950's to 1990's)

- Blue                 - White                 - Red
 

Wim Wenders -- German (1970's to present)

- Wings of Desire               - Alice in the City

- Paris, Texas                   - Kings of the Road
 

John Sayles -- U. S. (1970's to present)

- Return of the Secaucus 7

- Matewan

- Lone Star
 

Zhang Yi-mou -- Chinese (1980's to present)

- Red Sorghum

- Ju Dou

- Raise the Red Lantern
 

Jane Campion -- New Zealand (1990's to present)

- An Angel at My Table

- The Piano

- Portrait of a Lady
 

Humanities 1301 -- Essays

Humanities 1301 -- Calendar

Humanities 1301 -- Introduction

Collin County Community College