UPDATED: Taken Movies for Final Presentation

Adam - "Dirty Harry"
Ben - "The Departed"
Stefanie - "Godfather, Pt. 2"
Talia - "Gladiator"?
Kyle- "Jaws"
Angela - "Amelie"
June - "Cleopatra"/"Ben Hur" (If you looked at the role of the Italian version of Hollywood, Cinecitta', you could conceivably do both if you wanted to...)
Seth - "Schindler's List"
Audra - "Life is Beautiful"
Amanda - "MASH"
Sarah H. - "Shawshank Redemption"
Sarah K. - "Gone with the Wind"
Megan - "Sound of Music"

In terms of initial research, check out the imdb and write down...

• year made
• director and principal actors
• MPAA rating
• studio
• filming locations
• any historically-relevant trivia or goofs

Then, make a list of major historical events that occurred in that year. Do you see any way in which the content or form of the film might have been impacted somehow by these events?

I'll collect these after Easter break, but it would be an excellent idea to begin as soon as possible, just in case you need to order anything from Interlibrary Loan. (See below!)

You can use Wikipedia and other sites online as a starting point for information regarding the film and the year, and particularly to look for further bibliography. Afterwards, I'd like to you shift to printed sources (either books, articles, or published articles available full-text online) for the remainder of your analysis, so you should use the library's online catalogs to track down additional sources. (I'd say at least five...)

We'll work next on focusing on what kind of historical analysis you'll choose to do of your film!

UPDATED: Remember, you can analyze your film using one of the three general approaches we've covered in class...

1) Film within context of the history of cinema
2) Film as primary source
3) Film as secondary source

Need to refresh your memory on how to handle (at least written) primary or secondary sources? (Check out these links!)

Hagiography...

Saint Christopher

Reading Assignment for April 4

CBC.ca - Arts - Film - Filming the Unfilmable

Adaptation

Adaptation
Trailer
Adaptation: Fantasy vs. Reality

Reading Assignment: For 4/7

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Consider: How is a "media cartel" like a "studio system," and how does it differ?

EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY: All of Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times"

Watch all of Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times" and post an analytical comment here about the mise-en-scene!

PistolWimp - Charlie Chaplin: Modern Times

Tonight's Links

• About mise-en-scene.
• About camera work.
• Playtime - businessman

Movie Description:

"CITIZEN KANE is Orson Welles's greatest achievement--and a landmark of cinema history. The story charts the rise and fall of a newspaper publisher whose wealth and power ultimately isolates him in his castle-like refuge. The film's protagonist, Charles Foster Kane, was based on a composite of Howard Hughes and William Randolph Hearst--so much so that Hearst tried to have the film suppressed. Every aspect of the production marked an advance in film language: the deep focus and deeply shadowed cinematography (from Gregg Toland); the discontinuous narrative, relying heavily on flashbacks and newsreel footage (propelled by a script largely written by Herman L. Mankiewicz); the innovative use of sound and score (sound by Bailey Fesler and James G. Stewart, music composed and conducted by Bernard Herrmann); and the ensemble acting forged in the fires of Welles's Mercury Theatre (featuring the film debuts of, among others, Joseph Cotten, Everett Sloane, and Agnes Moorehead). Every moment of the film, every shot, has been choreographed to perfection. The film is essential viewing, quite possibly the greatest film ever made and, along with THE BIRTH OF A NATION, certainly the most influential."

FYI - Citizen Kane: The Screenplay

More FYI...

"Orson Welles and his work continue to draw the attention of filmmakers,critics, and devotees:

1. Searching for Orson
2. Let us not see it all
3. The Mercury Theatre on the Air
4. The Magnificent Ambersons
5. Interview with Orson Welles by Peter Bogdanovich
6. Making Magic with Orson Welles: A Conversation with Mike Caveney
7. Internet Archive: Orson Welles

When he passed away on October 10th, 1985, young people who knew Orson Welles (if they knew him it all) may have remembered him for his promotional efforts on behalf of a certain wine or for his all-too brief appearance as director Lew Lord in “The Muppet Movie”. The back story of Welles’ life included a rich mix of film, television, documentaries, stage production, and one of the most enigmatic personalities that ever wandered from New York to Hollywood to Europe and back. While Welles never really left the sights of those with a keen interest in cinema, a number of new projects have recently been completed that cast a critical and introspective gaze upon his life and artistic endeavors. This past week, the American Film Institute premiered a new documentary about Welles titled “Searching for Orson” and Simon Callow recently released the latest installation of his three volume work on Welles. Perhaps these reconsiderations of Welles’ work will undo the very concise remark he once offered on his own struggle with fame, acceptance, and recognition: “I started at the top and worked my way down.”

The first link will take users to an article from the Hollywood Reporter discussing the recent biographies and the documentary about Orson Welles.The second link will take users to an article from The Guardian discussing the abundance of movie festivals and how they may be diminishing the romance of the hard to find movie. The third link leads to the website of “The finest radio drama of the 1930’s, The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a show featuring the acclaimed New York drama company founded by Orson Welles and John Houseman.” The show is famous for its notorious War of the Worlds broadcast, but the other shows in the series are relatively unknown. The site contains many of the surviving shows, and will eventually have all of them. The fourth link leads to a site dedicated to Welles’ “MagnificentAmbersons” which provides insights in the making, filming and editing of the movie and its effects on Welles’ later career. The fifth link leads to an interesting interview of Welles by Peter Bogdanovich. The sixth link leads to another interview with Jim Steinmeyer, a close friend of Welles. The last link takes users to the Internet Archive which contains many of Welles’radio broadcasts. (from Internet Scout Report)

Above, "quotation" of Citizen Kane in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

At right, the real "Susan Alexander."

FYI... EarlyCinema.com.