THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY (2008), Julian Schnabel

Dear All,

Please don't forget to read the (extremely short) excerpts from Walter Murch's In the Blink of an Eye, available on reserve at Elizabeth Dafoe circulation desk, for Tuesday's class. Thanks. 

FAT GIRL (2001), Catherine Breillat

Dear All,

I forgot to mention this afternoon: please don't forget to read, for Tuesday's class, Chapter Eight in Barsam, "Thinking About Movies, Theory, and Meaning," which will help with your upcoming essay. Okay, post away.  

ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL (1974), Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Hi all,

Fassbinder's film is a partial remake of Douglas Sirk's 1955 melodrama All That Heaven Allows, a film in fact remade again by Todd Haynes in 2002 as Far From Heaven, starring Julianne Moore. I'll talk about all three films in class, but if you're interested in pursuing this interesting web of connections, Haynes' film is readily available at most video stores. If you have the will and the time over the weekend, you might want to watch it. See you Tuesday,

j.  

THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (1928), CARL DREYER

Hi everyone,

Please remember: for next class please read both Barsam chapter 5 ("Acting") and the three very brief essays by Balasz ("The Close-Up," "The Face of Man") and Barthes ("The Face of Garbo") available on reserve. The incentive is that you won't have to do any reading for the following week.  

THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG (1964), Jacques Demy

Please post below. Thanks. 

TROUBLE IN PARADISE (1932), Ernst Lubitsch

Please post below. Thanks!

STRIKE (1925), Sergei Eisenstein

Feel free to write about a shot, or (as Eisenstein would surely have preferred) a cut, that moved you. Good luck studying for the reading test on Tuesday.  

THE SCARLET EMPRESS (1934), Josef von Sternberg

Post away!

THE RED SHOES (1948), MICHAEL POWELL AND EMERIC PRESSBURGER

Please post your comment below. Thanks!

SUNRISE (1927), F.W. Murnau

Thanks everyone for your comments last week. This week, I'd like you to try to be more rigorous in directing attention to the formal features of the Shot That Moved You. Remember the way we spent a good deal of time in class visually breaking down the individual shots that make up the scene in The Gold Rush where the tramp "meets" (and fails to be met by) Georgia? Try to do the same here with your chosen shot. Ask yourself how the shot is lit; at what angle the shot is taken, and at what distance from the actors; whether or not the camera moves, and if so, in what way; how objects are arranged within the frame, and what kind of composition these objects make; what's in and out of focus; how long the shot lasts; and so on. (That list, by the way, is far from exhaustive.) Once you've taken stock of the concrete details of the shot, but only once you've done so, then go on to speculate about the meanings that such details suggest, and what effect they have on you as a spectator. 

In short, be as specific as possible when recounting what you've seen! Good luck.        

THE GOLD RUSH (1925), Charlie Chaplin

Please post your comment below, and don't forget to sign with your real name so I can give you credit. There is no length requirement, but try to write at least five or six sentences—the equivalent of a short paragraph. Also, make sure to read what your classmates have to say, and, if you'd like, respond to their responses. Multiple contributions to the thread are more than welcome. One final reminder: as per the title of the blog, we are dealing with cinema at the level of the shot—not the sequence or the theme or the plot—and thus you should orient your remarks accordingly. If you aren't certain that you're remembering details accurately, don't worry. Just go with your gut memory: oftentimes invented details are more interesting than real ones.  Good luck, and have fun.