EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY for what's left of Winter Break

Up to 20 points available for a 1-2 page paper on the historical background of Casablanca, due Monday, January 5.

Questions to be answered include: Where is Casablanca? Who controlled it at the time the film was made? What role did Germany play there? Who governed France? What was Vichy France? What territory did it contain? How was it different from Occupied France? What territory was included in Occupied France? When was it occupied and by whom? Who was Marshall Petain? Who was Charles DeGaulle? Where was he? What was the Resistance? What were its different arms? What was the Spanish Civil War? What was the situation at the time in Ethiopia? What is the "Marseillaise"? What is "The Watch on the Rhine"? What was the Angriff? What is Vichy water?

Tuesday, December 16

This week: Facist and Anti-Fascist Propaganda

Today: excerpts from Triumph of the Will, the official propaganda film of the 1934 Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg and from Charlie Chaplin's Hitler parody in The Great Dictator.

Tomorrow: Casablanca.

Monday, December 15

We watched two film excerpts concerning the early days of the film industry focusing on the war between Edison's Trust and the independent producers. The second ( from An Empire of Their Own) stressed the common experiences of many of these independents -- later the leading Hollywood "moguls" -- as Eastern European Jewish immigrants. Following the excerpts Mr. Potratz talked about the history of anti-Semitism directed at Hollywood and the background of Fascism in Europe in the 1930s, the threat of which went largely unnoticed by Hollywood until after the U.S. entered the war in December, 1941.

Friday, December 12

Students turned in their homework, we watched the final scene of City Lights yet once more, and then we discussed that scene and people's varying reactions to and interpretations of it.

Thursday, December 11

Students turned in their HW>

We finished watching City Lights, then rewatched the final scene with students taking notes.

HW due Friday:
Type one page (1) describing in detail what happens in the final scene, and (2) telling what you think will happen next.

Wednesday, December 10

We watched the first 40 minutes of City Lights.

HW due Thursday:
Compile (e.g., copy and paste) at least one page (single-spaced) of information about the life and works of Charlie Chaplin from at least three sources. Cite all sources in MLA format (pp. 17-19 of your planners).

Tuesday, December 9

Pre-Code excerpts

We watched

(1) the ending of Golddiggers of 1933, including "The Ballad of the Forgotten Man," followed by a brief discussion,

and

(2) scenes from Tarzan and His Mate (1934).

Here come the forces of decency!

Monday, December 8

We watched the beginning of the Depression-era document of escapism and social upheaval Golddiggers of 1933.

Friday, December 5

Students retrieved their notes from Thursday, and we watched the final few minutes of Complicated Women, then discussed it. At the end of class students turned in their completed notes.

Thursday, December 4

We watched most of Complicated Women, a documentary film about the treatment of women in "pre-code" films made between 1929 and 1934.

Students took notes on the major ideas presented in the film, which they turned in at the end of the period.

Wednesday, December 3

Students took a quiz over Citizen Kane which required them to identify images from the film according to where they are in the film and their thematic significance. Afterwards we looked at and discussed one or two of the images.

Next Mr. Potratz passed out copies of the Hays Code of 1930. Students read it, then we discussed what it prohibited and one or two of its contradictions.

Tuesday, December 2

We returned to Citizen Kane one last time to examine its use of the subjective camera.

We compared the two treatments of Susan's operatic career in this connection: first the nightmarish sequence as seen from Susan's tortured perspective (which actually occurs second in the film) and then the earlier presentation with its shifting perspectives, reflecting the viewpoints of the singing coach, Bernstein, Leland, and especially Kane.

Tomorrow's class will begin with a second (and final) quiz over Citizen Kane.

Monday, December 1

Students listed what they thought were the leading visual motifs in Citizen Kane -- such as windows, statues, smoke, shadows, and the entire complex of motifs surrounding "Rosebud": the sled, the snowglobe , snow itself.

Following that we reviewed several early scenes in the film with an eye out for those motifs.

Tuesday, November 25

Students took a brief (seven-question quiz) over the handout on Citizen Kane distributed Friday, and we graded it.

Then Mr. Potratz spoke briefly about the Hays Code and the pre-code early sound films, after which we watched as examples two early Betty Boop cartoons and discussed racial images and attitudes in the second of the two, "I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You!"

Friday, November 21

Mr. Potratz handed out printouts of the first four pages of the filmsite.org discussion of Citizen Kane and students offered examples of various items on Tim Dirks's list of the most significant characteristics of the film, from flashback narration to imaginative transitions to deep-focus compositions. At he end of the class we re-viewed the two different depictions of Susan's operatic debut, which we will discuss on Tuesday, after the Quiz over the handout.

Thursday, November 20

Students wrote (1) notes (2) first draft (3) second draft of an answer to the question of 'What is the theme of Citizen Kane'?, then wrote about one element or technique used to express the theme, then wrote a bit about a second, subsidiary theme.

We then discussed what students had written and re-viewed the party scene from the film.

Wednesday, November 19

We finished watching Citizen Kane.

Tuesday, November 18

We discussed the first half-hour of Citizen Kane, which we watched yesterday, and re-viewed the opening sequence, partly as an example of graphic matching.

Then we watched another half-hour of the film, ending with the image of Boss Gettys looking down on Kane at the election-eve rally.

Monday, November 17

Citizen Kane

Mr. Potratz introduced the film and we watched the first 35 minutes.

Friday, November 14

Students turned in their single-scene analysis essays. Papers turned in Monday will be docked 10% of the grade.

Students took notes (which they turned in at the end of class) on the first twenty-five minutes of Visions of Light, the documentary about cinematography produced by the American Society of Cinematographers.

Thursday, November 13

The single-scene analysis essay is still due tomorrow, Friday, Nov. 14 (assuming we will be in school). See you then!

Monday, November 10

The Politics of the Horror Film

We discussed the relationship of films like Nosferatu and Freaks to the real world. Are the films, for instance, Fascist or anti-Fascist? (We re-viewed a short excerpt from Universal Horror linking The Invisible Man and Adolf Hitler, and we looked at Prof. Kracauer's arument that Nosferatu is a Jewish caricature and that the Expressionist films in general prepared the German people for Nazism.) Are the real-world overtones supplied by the audience rather than the filmmakers? Are the films in question simply entertainment free of propaganda value?

Friday, November 7

We continued to model the single scene analyses students are writing by verbally sketching out a paper discussing the scene from Freaks in which Hans spits out the poison which Cleo administers to him.

Thursday, November 6

Mr. Potratz passed out an article with information about the actual people featured in Freaks.

We settled on the scene in which Cleopatra gives Hans his medicine as the scene we would analyze in modelling the students' analysis of a single scene in the outside viewing essay due next Friday (November 14). We watched the scene twice, the second time while students took notes, then discussed techniques of lighting, composition and camera angles & movement which students found significant.

Word of the Day: chiaroscuro

Wednesday, November 5

We finished watching Freaks and, with the upcoming Single Scene Essay in mind, we discussed the film's themes, then set about choosing a representative scene to analyze. We re-viewed the first nominee, the wedding feast scene, with more nominations to come tomorrow.

Tuesday, November 4

Election Day

We watched the first 45 minutes of the 1932 cult classic Freaks, directed by Tod Browning.

A few additional students selected films for the Single Scene Analysis essay.

Monday, November 3

Mr. Potratz announced that since the class was unable to resolve the dispute over whether to watch Dracula or Frankenstein, we would watch neither, and instead finish the documentary we began Thursday about the Universal Studio's 1930's monster films, then watch Tod Browning's Freaks.

We then watched the second half of Universal Horror.


Friday, October 31

Mr. Potratz handed out an assignment sheet for an essay due November 14.
It is to be an analysis of a single scene in a film approved by the teacher but chosen by the student. Students then selected films to borrow or decided on films they would procure themselves.

Thursday, October 30

We watched the first half of Universal Horror, a documentary about tUniversal Studio's silent and early sound horror films and their derivation from German films of the 20's.

Wednesday, October 29

We re-watched the final ten minutes of Nosferatu while students took notes of significant details.
Afterwards we went over some of these details and then discussed the final scene, focusing especially on its ambiguous eroticism.

Some students expressed an interest in watching the 1931 Dracula with Bela Lugosi rather than the planned Frankenstein, and we voted and re-voted between the two, finally deciding that students who wanted to see Dracula should watch it on the big screen tonight at the North Bend Theater. Anyone who wishes may get extra credit by writing three solid paragraphs on how the film relatesd to Expressionismus. (Those unable to attend but wanting an extra-credit opportunity should speak with Mr. Potratz outside of class time.

Tuesday, October 28

We resumed watching Murnau's Nosferatu (begun yesterday in Mr. Potratz's absence). Today students took notes while we watched on what in the film most exemplifies Expressionismus ('Expressionism' in German).

Friday, October 24

Students took a 40-point quiz on Expressionism and graded it.

Mr. Potratz will be out of class Monday. Students will watch the first half of F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu.

Thursday, October 23

We briefly reviewed the beginning of Metropolis -- its superficial similarity to Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera in its preoccupation with machines and the masses, and its deeper difference from Vertov in its fundamental outlook. We then watched several more sequences from Metropolis before moving on to the first section of Murnau's The Last Laugh.

Quiz Friday over Expressionism.

Wednesday, October 22

Mr. Potratz distributed copies of two articles on Expressionism and announced that there would be a quiz on the topic Friday morning.

Students were then offered a choice among four (well, three) German silent films: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Metropolis, The Last Laugh, and Nosferatu. The winner was Nosferatu, with the other three to be mined for clips. We began by watching the beginning of Caligari and the first few minutes of Metropolis.

Tuesday, October 21

We finished watching with Yuri Tsivian's commentary the section of Man with a Movie Camera which we started Monday, then examined still images of Russian Constructivist art and architecture, along with documents of Cubism, Futurism, Bauhaus design, Impressionism, and Expressionism.

Monday, October 20

We finished watching the last few minutes of Man with a Movie Camera, then re-viewed the same part with the voiceover commentary by Russian film scholar Yuri Tsivian. In that light, we briefly discussed what we had seen. Afterwards we rewatched another section of the film -- contrasting different types of work -- also with the Tsivian commentary.

Friday, October 17

We continued watching Man with a Movie Camera, ending about sixty minutes in, fairly near the end.

Thursday, October 16

We watched the first few sections of Dziga Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera and then discussed its form and effect.

Wednesday, October 15

Healthy Youth Survey. Seniors spent the period in the auditorium.

The three students remaining watched the beginning of O Brother, Where Art Thou? up to the point when the Sirens turn Pete into a horny toad.

Tuesday, October 14

We re-watched part of "A Dead Man Calls for Justice" (Act 4 of Battleship Potemkin) as a contrasting example to the "Meeting With the Squadron" from yesterday's class. The cutting of "Dead Man" is as languid and peaceful as the "Meeting" is fast and furious.

Afterwards, Mr. Potratz distributed a further handout reviewing montage in the Odessa Steps sequence, and we re-watched that without music and discussed it.

Finally, Mr. Potratz compared Eisenstein's technique with cubist painting and projected Marcel Duchamp's famous "Nude Descending a Staircase."

Monday, October 13

Students watched three sections of The Cutting Edge, a documentary about film editing. The sections partly concerned editing techniques in the films of D.W. Griffith and of the early Soviet filmmakers, including Eisenstein.

We next read a handout on "Soviet Montage" excerpted from A Short History of the Movies by Gerald Mast, and began to illustrate it with parts of Battleship Potemkin.

Thursday, October 9

We watched the last part of Battleship Potemkin, then made a list on the board of some of the film's most memorable images. Mr. Potratz talked very briefly about Eisenstein's theory and practice of montage, the creation of meaning through the artful juxtaposition of images.

HW due Monday:
Compare and contrast The Birth of a Nation and Battleship Potemkin in an essay including at least five body-paragraph "chunks," and an introductory and/or a concluding paragraph. You may discuss both form and content. 'Form' may include any of the film techniques we have looked at, such as camera agles and movement, lighting, film editing, etc. Typed, double-spaced, 12 pt. Times Roman.

Wednesday, October 8

Mr. Potratz was out sick. Students watched the first four "acts" of Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin.

Tuesday, October 7

Students turned in the checklist of techniques from Birth of a Nation, and we discussed both form and content in the film, especially focusing on Griffith's sophisticated and powerful use of crosscutting in the final reel of the film.

Mr. Potratz announced that the next film will be Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, explaining that Griffith had a strong influence on the early Soviet filmmakers.

Monday, October 6

Students took a 10-question quiz over the excerpt on Reconstruction from Howard Zinn's Peoples's History of the United States, after which we watched the final 50 minutes of Birth of a Nation.

Friday, October 3

In the context of the controversy over the cancelled "blackout" at tonight's football game, we looked briefly at the history of blackface in American culture (we watched Al Jolson singinging "Mammy" in The Jazz Singer), and read an online article about a confrontation over racial caricatures.


Thursday, October 2

Senior class meeting. No Film Studies class today.

Wednesday, October 1

We watched Birth of a Nation from Silas Lynch's departure for Piedmont to the death of Flora.

Students received a handout of an excerpt about Reconstruction from Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States with a very different view of that period from that of D.W. Griffith.

HW due Friday: Quiz over the handout.

Tuesday, September 30

We talked briefly about the idea advanced by Birth's advocates that it presents pure "historical fact" and the connection of that notion to the perceived status of photographs (even staged ones!) as objective documents. We watched more of Birth of a Nation, pausing at the beginning of Part 2 to examine Griffith's intertitle discourse (quoting Pres. Wilson) on the nature of Reconstruction.

Monday, September 29

Mr. Potratz distributed a two-page checklist of techniques in Birth of a Nation which students are to fill in while watching the film. We spent a few minutes asking and answering questions about the social context of the film at the time it was released (in response to Friday's handout).
Then we watched more of the movie up to the point when Mrs. Cameron pleads with The Great Heart (Pres. Lincoln) to save the Little Colonel from execution.

Friday, September 26

We reviewed briefly the characters we met on Thursday -- the Stonemans and the Camerons -- and concentrated especially on Lydia, Congressman Stoneman's mulatto mistress, pausing to discuss the why mulattos are the most villainous characters in Griffith's film. The evil of race mixing as portrayed in Birth is connected with the decline of mulattoes as a category in the U.S. and the legislation of the "one drop rule."

HW due Monday:
Read carefully the short handout distributed in class today (with further information about the contemporary reception of Birth of a Nation) and prepare to ask and answer questions about it in class Monday.

Thursday, September 25

Students asked and answered questions about The Birth of a Nation and about D.W. Griffith, based on Wedneday's handout. Griffith's (and the film's) racism were an especial focus.

We then watched the opening of the film, up to the Stoneman boys' departure from Piedmont to return North.

Wednesday, September 24

We watched The Girl and her Trust, a 1912 two-reeler from Biograph, directed by D.W. Griffith, remarking on the greater sophistication and, especially, character development when compared to the equally melodramatic Great Train Robbery.

We then turned to the next full-length film, Griffith's hugely influential and poisonously racist Birth of A Nation.

HW due Thursday: Read the handout with information on Birth and come to class prepared to be quizzed on it.

Tuesday, September 23

Students handed in their lists of ten people who worked on Shadow of a Doubt with their job titles and descriptions of what those jobs entail. We then made a composite list on the board of the ten we thought most significant, grouped by area of reponsibility.

Afterwards we watched the early one-reel blockbuster The Great Train Robbery (1903) and analyzed it briefly in terms of the number of cuts, camera techniques, special effects and the like.

Monday, September 22

We continued to examine visual motifs and patterns in Shadow of a Doubt.
Specifically, we compared the first appearances of the two Charlies (on their respective beds), then looked at a handout showing other visual parallels between the opening scenes in Philadelphia and in Santa Rosa. We then examined the use of stairs, and the associated use of high and low camera angles in the film.

HW due Tuesday:
List ten major individuals -- other than cast members -- who created Shadow of a Doubt, and indicate what their job titles are and what those jobs include.

Friday, September 19

We looked at certain motifs (repeated details associated with emotive or thematic meanings) in Shadow of a Doubt, such as smoke and the use of high camera angles linked to a character's superior power or control.

Thursday, September 18

We watched a 30-minute documentary on the making of Shadow of a Doubt and students took notes on what they considered the most significant points. Afterwards, we briefly discussed several aspects of the film's outlook and its techniques, including the motif of smoke and the use of camera movement and angles.

Wednesday, September 17

Students spent one-half hour taking an open-book test on the packet on "Classical Hollwood Cinema: Style," after which we went over some of the answers.

Tuesday, September 16

Preparatory to tomorrow's test, we looked at the first scene of Shadow again and examined such techniques from the Hollywood Style packet as camera movement and angles, mise en scene, lighting, and continuity editing (in particular matches on action and eyeline matches).

Reminder: test tomorrow over the packet.

Monday, September 15

We finished watching Shadow of a Doubt and then briefly discussed its meaning in thematic terms and also in terms of character development, focusing on the two Charlies and on young Charlie as the central character of the film.

Mr. Potratz announced that there will be a test Wednesday over the "Hollywood Style" packet.

Friday, September 12

Students identified the Hitchcock cameo in Shadow, Julia identified the waltz as the "Merry Widow Waltz," and we watched another 27 minutes of the film. ending at 1:10 (of 1:48).

Students were reminded to finish the Hollywood Style packet if they haven't done so, and Mr. Potratz announced there would be a test over it early in the week.

Thursday, September 11

We briefly discussed the part of the film we watched Wednesday, focusing on the relationship between the two Charlies, the use of light and shadow, and the expressive use of the musical score. We replayed the scene where Uncle Charlie's train arrives at the station to illustrate our comments.

Then we watched the film up to the end of track nine (43:26).

Wednesday, September 10

Mr. Potratz announced that the reading on classical Hollwood style (the second packet) would be due not Thursday (aka tomorrow) but Friday, and that we would begin watching Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt today.

We did so, starting with the opening scene (following the credits). We stopped after that scene and read the analysis of it in the packet, then began the film again from the beginning and watched the first 26 minutes.

Tuesday, September 9

We watched the early film about, and including, Winsor McCay's animation, and talked about "persistence of vision" and about all motion pictures as animation in one sense. Then we watched, and talked about techniques in, "Onesieme, the Clockmaker" and "Rescued by Rover."

HW due Thursday: Read the second packet in your black folder, "Classical Hollywood Cinema: Style."

Monday, September 8

Students took a quiz over the handouts on the beginnings of cinema.

The quiz proved difficult, and Mr. Potratz agreed not to count it, except to give all those with scores above a certain number (TBD) a small amount of extra credit.

We discussed briefly the history covered by the quiz, then proceeded to watch images by Eadweard Muybridge, Edison's famous May-Rice Kiss, and several other early "actualities."

Friday, September 5

Mr. Potratz gave students folders with two packets. One packet ("Classical Hollywood Cinema: Style") will be assigned next week, though students are encouraged to begin reading it now. The other, a small collection of informational pieces on early cinema, is the HW due Monday: students are to read it carefully and prepare for a quiz over it in class Monday.

We then watched "The Countryman and the Cinematograph,"and used it as the basis to examine different ways of reacting to film. We also watched Cecil Hepworth’s "How it feels to be run over." (Won’t Mother be pleased?)

Thursday, September 4

Students took a quiz over the syllabus, and graded the quiz. In the process we reviewed many of the rules and procedures which the syllabus describes.

Many students returned the letter sent home yesterday, signed by guardians. Those need to be back by Friday.

No homework assigned for Friday. There will be an assignment given Friday for the weekend, due Monday.

Wednesday, September 3

First day of classes.

Mr. Potratz distributed the syllabus and a letter addressed to parents or guardians.
Students were asked to share both of these with their folks and to return the letter, signed by a guardian, by Friday. This is important because the signature conveys permission to watch all films in the class.

Students were also asked to read the syllabus carefully and prepare for a short quiz over it at the beginning of class Thursday.

The rest of the class period was devoted to a lecture on the beginnings of motion pictures, with a brief clips illustrating the contrasting nature of film as documentation and film as illusionism.

Graduation Day!
Thursday, June 12

We finished the final project presentations and watched the first episode of Flash Gordon, 1936 sci-fi movie serial.

Wednesday, June 11

Second day of final project presentations. Highlight: Chelsea Mosher's PowerPoint presentation.

Tuesday, June 10

First day of the Alternate Worlds presentations. Five final projects presented. Sweet!

Monday, June 9

Students were randomly assigned a place in the order of presentations of final projects to begin Tuesday, then were given the balance of the shortened period to work on said presentations.

Friday, June 6

Mr. Potratz wrote on the board questions to consider in writing the 1 - 1 1/2 page analysis which each student will write to accompany their final project.

Then he read aloud from several students' written comments on The Fifth Element.

Thursday, June 5

Students wrote briefly about what they liked about The Fifth Element,. Then they wrote about whether they thought the film made fun of or promoted traditional gender roles, and we discussed that question.

Wednesday, June 4

We finished watching The Fifth Element.

Tuesday, June 3

We continued watching The Fifth Element.

Monday, June 2

1/2 the class: Allegory in "Leaf by Niggle" and Tolkien's concept of art as "sub-creation."

1/2 the class: The first 28 minutes of The Fifth Element.

Friday, May 30

Students took a quizlet over "Leaf by Niggle," we reread the last two pages together, and we began to discuss it.

Thursday, May 29

We continued to read Tolkien's "Leaf by Niggle."

HW due Friday: Finish the story and come to class prepared for a brief quiz.

Wednesday, May 28

Students worked on their Alternate Worlds final projects, and completed a form giving information about the form and content they intend those projects to have.

In the final few minutes of class we began reading the story "Leaf by Niggle" by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Tuesday, May 27

We finished Willow before it finished us. Hallelujah!

Friday, May 23

Students signed up for the final project, indicating whether they plan to work alone or whom they plan to work with.

More of Willow. Yow!

Thursday, May 22

We watched Willow up to the point when the title character receives the baby from the Beauty-full Fairy Princess.

Tuesday, May 20

We established:

(1) Guidelines for the final project (handout)

and

(2) Two films to watch -- Willow (ugh) and The Fifth Element. Democracy in action.

Monday, May 19

Quiz over Lost Horizon.

Discussion of tolerance, moderation, pacifism, cosmopolitanism, ecumenism in Lost Horizon --and beyond.

Friday, May 16

We concluded our investigation of the Arthurian literature by watching the ending of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Quiz Monday over Lost Horizon.

Thursday, May 15

We read Chapter VII of Lost Horizon, then compared its presentation of Father Perrault's vision to its presentation in the 1936 film.

Wednesday, May 14

We finished reading Chapter 7 of Lost Horizon and then watched the scene from the 1936 film in which Conway meets with Father Perrault for the first time.

HW due Friday: finish reading the novel.

Tuesday, May 13

Review of Chapters 5 & 6.
We began reading Chapter 7.

Monday, May 12

Quiz over Chapters 1-4 of Lost Horizon (30 pts).

We began reading Chapter 5.

HW due Tuesday: Read Chapters 5 and 6.

Friday, May 9

We finished reading the Prologue of Lost Horizon.

HW due Monday:
Read Chapters 1-4.
Quiz

Thursday, May 8

We began Lost Horizon. Mr. Potratz read aloud from the Prologue and asked questions of the class.

Wednesday, May 7

Further discussion of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Tuesday, May 6

Anti-Communism vs. Anti-McCarthyism in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

We watched more of The Fifties, then talked about ant-Communism in America in the '50's.

Fire drill replaced the in-class essay.

Monday, May 5

Brief discussion of Communism, anti-Communism, and anti-anti-Communism in the 1950's.

We then watched part of the first installment of David Halberstam's documentary series The Fifties.

Friday, May 2

Wrap-up discussion of Slaughterhouse Five.

Students turned their copies in.

Thursday, May 1

We finished watching Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Students took and graded a short quiz on the Vonnegut handout.

Wednesday, April 30
Mr. Potratz was absent. Students watched the first 50 minutes of the 1950's Sci-Fi classic movie, Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Quiz over the Vonnegut handout postponed to Thursday.


Tuesday, April 29
"It had to happen": Rumfoord vs. Billy Pilgrim. Variesties of fatalism.
Pessimism vs. Fatalism.

Handout with 2003 interview with Vonnegut, and excerpt from Breakfast of Champions. Quiz over it Wednesday.

Monday, April 28
We listened to Kurt Vonnegut and Mr. Potratz reading from Slaughterhouse Five. Then we looked at a reproduction of Picasso's "Guernica" to introduce a discussion of the bombings of civilians in 20th century warfare. We pooled what we knew about "the Blitz," the notorious German bombing of London and other English cities, and we read and deciphered a handing from a book called Bombing Vindicated (1945) by a high official of the British Air Ministry.

Friday, April 25
We continued our investigation of the Arthurian Literature by watching another half-hour of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Thursday, April 24
Students took and we graded a quiz over Slaughterhouse Five.

Wednesday, April 23

The Long View in Slaughterhouse Five.

Quiz over the entire book postponed to Thursday.

Tuesday, April 22
Mr. Potratz (with some help from Kurt Vonnegut) read aloud from Chapter Five of Slaughterhouse Five.

Wednesday: Quiz over the entire book.

Monday, April 21
Did Billy Pilgrim really go to a planet called Tralfamadore?
Students wrote for several minutes on this question, after which we shared what people had to say on the subject.
Afterwards, Mr. Potratz played some more of the recording of Vonnegut reading from Slaughterhouse Five.

Thursday, April 17

Students took a pop quiz over the day's reading assignment in Slaughterhouse Five and we graded it.

Then we used the quiz as our way into a discussion of chapters 3 & 4, focusing on questions of free will and determinism and of people's ability or inability to influence history. We reread parts of the assignment and began Chapter 5.

HW due Monday: read at least through Chapter 6 (page 153). Possible quiz.

Tuesday, April 15

We read more in Slaughterhouse Five.

HW due Thursday: Read at least through Chapter 4.

Monday, April 14

We started reading Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Mr. Potratz read aloud from Chapter 1, interspersed with recorded passages read by Vonnegut himself.

Friday, April 4

Students turned in their Alice in Wonderland papers.
Mr. Potratz announced that once again those submitting papers today would receive extra credit and those turning it in on Monday after the break (4/14) would receive full credit.

Students turned in their copies of Alice in Wonderland and signed out copies of Slaughterhouse Five. No assignment was given, but students were encouraged to read or at least begin the book over break.

We read the rest of the "Humpty Dumpty" chapter of Alice, including H.D.'s explication of "Jabberwocky," and we puzzled over problems of meaning in language.

Thursday, April 3

Jabberwocky!
Students worked in small groups to come up with definitions of words in the first stanza. We then pooled our inspirations and discussed The Essence of Poetry.


Alice in Wonderland papers due Friday (tomorrow).

Wednesday, April 2

We re-viewed the Mad Tea Party scene from the BBC film, and compared both it and the Disney version of that scene to the book.

Mr. Potratz then passed out copies of the Humpty Dumpty chapter from Through the Looking Glass, which shares with the Mad Tea Party a preoccupation with meaning and language, and he began reading it aloud.

Tuesday, April 1

Students took notes for use in writing their papers (due Friday) while we watched the Walt Disney version of Alice in Wonderland up throught the Mad Tea Party.

Monday, March 31

Handout: Mr. Potratz distributed an assignment sheet for an essay due Friday (April 4) comparing Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll with either the 1966 BBC film the class watched part of on Friday or the animated 1951 Disney version.

We watched a few more minutes of the BBC film, then discussed our reactions to it and how it does relate to the book.

Friday, March 28
Mr. Potratz was absent. The class watched half an hour of the 1966 BBC film of Alice in Wonderland.

Thursday, March 27

We read and talked about the "Pig and Pepper" chapter of Alice in Wonderland. Students wrote down what they thought the original poem which "Speak roughly to your little boy" parodies, and we discussed Alice as social satire, and what constitutes satire generally.

At the end of class we watched five minutes of the 1966 BBC-TV film of Alice directed by Jonathan Miller.

Mr. Potratz announced that students will be required soon to write a paper comparing Carroll's Alice with either the BBC film or the Disney animated version.

Wednesday, March 26

We discussed yesterday's not-entirely-successful writing exercise, and Mr. Potratz read aloud another one of the student dream-papers.

We read the Caterpillar chapter from Alice and the original poem which Carroll's "Father William" parodies; we took a detour to Froggy the Gremlin," and we started on "Pig and Pepper."

Thursday: We will start with "Speak roughly to your little boy." How do you suppose the original of that goes?

Tuesday, March 25

Fuselli's Nightmare (projection).
Handout from the NIH on sleep and dreaming.
Creative writing exercise using dreams.

Monday, March 24

Illustrated lecture on Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and how Alice in Wonderland came to be written. The Liddell sisters and the day on the river. Carroll's original manuscript and the published book.

Dream literature and dreams.

"White Rabbitt" performed by Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane.

Assignment for Tuesday: Come to class prepared to write about your dreams.

Friday, March 21
Quiz over Alice in Wonderland, Chapters 1-5.

Thursday, March 20

Mr. Potratz finished reading from Tennyson's "Idylls of the King," after which we watched thirty minutes of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

The first five chapters of Alice in Wonderland were due today. The entire book must be read by Monday. Quizzes will not be announced in advance.

Wednesday, March 19
We watched the last 45 minutes of Excalibur, after which read part of the ending of Tennyson's Idylls of the King (the death of Arthur).

HW due Thursday and Monday:
Read Chapters 1-5 of Alice in Wonderland by Thursday; finish the book by Monday. Quizzes will not be announced in advance.

Tuesday, March 18
Mr. Potratz distributed copies of Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll.
HW due Thursday: Read at least the first five chapters of Alice.

We discussed further Mark Twain's 19th-century American view on medieval society, especially his view of the church and how it used religion to perpetuate a class system of oppression and gross inequality. Mr. Potratz talked briefly about Arthurian literature in Victorian England (Tennyson's Idylls of the King) and its use to wrap the monarchy and the state in a heroic, mythic haze).

We then watched more of Excalibur.

Monday, March 17
Students took a quiz over the two handouts by Mark Twain, and we graded the quiz.
We then took off on a tangent starting from Twain's reference to "dudes and dudesses" and including the development of that word, the way language develops in general, and important differences between spoken and written language.

Friday, March 14
Mr. Potratz was absent. Students watched part of the 1983 film Excalibur, based on Mallory's Morte D'Arthur.

Wednesday, March 12

Medievalism v. Modernism

Mark Twain and Malory

We discussed the handout from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and Mr. Potratz passed out and additional handout from Twain, a chapter from Life on the Mississippi in which he lambastes medievalism and specifically Sir Walter Scott for its pernicious influence on the American South.

Mr. P, announced that he would be out of class on Friday, and that there would be a short quiz over the two Twain handouts on Monday.

Thursday, March 6

We projected students' King Arthur stories onto the screen and responded to them.
Near the end of class we began reading from Sir Thomas Malory's version, but were soon interrupted by the bell announcing Everybody Reads.

Mr. Potratz announced a brief quiz for Friday over the packet of excerpts from Malory.

Wednesday, March 5

Wide-ranging discussion on Arthurian legend, the "mid-evil" period, and the ideological impetus behind modern (1960's and since) Fantasy Literature. We read one student's very entertaining King Arthur story.

Handout:
We also read Peter Beagle's prefatory note to Tolkien's The Hobbit.


Tuesday, March 2
Students turned in their King Arthur stories. We read parts of two and responded to them.

Handout:
A small packet of selected chapters from Malory's Morte D'Arthur. One chapter was given in the original language as well as in a modernized version. We discussed where Malory's language falls in the development of the English language.

HW due Wednesday:
Read the packet.

Friday, February 29

Homework due Monday:
Write "The Story of King Arthur."
At least 300 words.
Typed, etc.
No research; use your memory. Make stuff up if you hafta.
Be entertaining.

We watched the beginning of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

Thursday, February 28

Discussion of versions of War of the Worlds -- the book, the broadcast, the movies. Modern "personalist" ideology and H.G. Wells.

Wednesday, February 27

From a documentary film about Orson Welles we watched ten minutes concerning the 1936 "War of the Worlds" broadcast, after which we finished listening to that broadcast.


Tuesday, February 26

Students took a brief quiz over the final chapters of The Time Machine.
After that we listened to the beginning of the famous 1936 broadcast of the Mercury Theater's adaptation of War of the Worlds.

Monday, February 25

Discussion of The Time Machine ands its ideology. Was H.G. Wells a Marxist?

QuizTuesday over the entire book, after which we will listen to the famous 1936 Mercury Theater of the Air broadcast of Orson Welles's adaptation of War of the Worlds.

Monday, February 25

Discussion of The Time Machine and the ideology behind it. Was Wells a Marxist?

Quiz Tuesday over the entire book.

Friday, February 15

We watched a bit more of Metropolis (the ending) and discussed the film, comparing it with The Time Machine. Mr. Potratz supplied some political/historical background.



Thursday, February 14

Mr. Potratz was absent. The class watched the beginning of Fritz Lang's silent sci-fi classic film, Metropolis (1926).

Wednesday, February 13

Students took a quiz over Chapters 1-8 of The Time Machine, and we graded it.

We discussed the historical and ideological background of the book.

Tuesday, February 12



We began reading The Time Machine, and we had an evacuation drill.



Quiz Wednesday to begin the period.

Monday, February 11

We discussed "the God concept" in 2001, examining the "Creation of Adam" imagery in the film and reading and discussing a handout of comments on the film's meaning by Kubrick himself.

Friday, February 8

Everybody Reads (postponed from Thursday).

Distribution of The Time Machine.

HW due Monday:
Read Chapters 1-4 (pp. 3-34) of The Time Machine.
Quiz over the reading on Monday.

Thursday, February 7

Huh?

Students worked in small groups to try to untangle the meaning of 2001, especially the final section. We then heard reports from the small groups in the full class, and discussed them.

After that, we used the Everybody Reads period to watch "To Jupiter and Beyond" again and postponed Everybody Reads until Friday.

Thursday, February 7

Huh?

Students worked in small groups to try to untangle the meaning of 2001, especially the final section. We then heard reports from the small groups in the full class, and discussed them.
After that, we used the Everybody Reads period to watch "To Jupiter and Beyond" again and postponed Everybody Reads until Friday.

Wednesday, February 6

We discussed possible parallels with Homer's Odyssey in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and then watched the conclusion of the film.

The school's dramatization of The Odyssey opens tonight and continues through Saturday. Extra credit available for attending.

Tuesday, February 5

We watched more of 2001: A Space Odyssey, up to the final section of the film.

Mr. Potratz announced that students could earn a full 20 points extra credit simply by attending a performance of The Odyssey this week in the auditorium and bringing him their ticket stubs.

Monday, February 4

Snow-shortened period.
We watched another 23 minutes of 2001.

Friday, February 1

We watched twenty-five minutes more of 2001, A Space Odyssey.

Thursday, January 31

We went to the computer lab and brushed up on Homer's Odyssey, preparing to examine possible parallels to 2001, A Space Odyssey. Students filled out a worksheet based on their internet investigations.

See "Odyssey worksheet.pdf" in Documents.

Wednesday, January 30

Mr. Potratz presented quotations from Stanley Kubrick dealing with the nonverbal nature of 2001: A Space Odyssey and with comparisons between the film and Homer's Odyssey.

Students then wrote lists of the most significant details from the first twenty minutes of the film, which we watched yesterday, and we began combining those details into a joint class list.

Tuesday, January 29

Mr. Potratz announced that the first project of the class would be to read/review parts of the Odyssey (in conjunction with the school play) and to connect it with a viewing of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

We watched the first twenty minutes of that film.

Monday, January 28 – Beginning of Fantasy & Science Fiction

Off to a flying start! School closed on account of space aliens. Or maybe snow.

Friday, January 25 – Conclusion of Film Studies

We finished watching The Set Up (1949), then briefly looked at images of paintings by George Bellows and Edward Hopper which share the same noir aesthetic with the movie.

Then we said our adieus.

Thursday, January 24

We watched the first 49 minutes of The Set Up (1949), directed by Robert Wise, and starring Robert Ryan as Stoker Thompson, aging pugilist.

Wednesday, January 23

Final exam.

Tuesday, January 22

Pair and share activity making Venn diagrams comparing Breathless with Bonnie and Clyde.

Then we watched and analyzed the editing of the final "ballet of blood" in Bonnie and Clyde, with an eye to tomorrow's final, which will require similar analysis of four clips from four different films.

Friday, January 18

We finished watching Bonnie and Clyde, and Mr. Potratz reviewed the recent film elements assignment, which he gave the class the option of redoing to hand in Tuesday, Jan. 22.

The final exam was postponed from Tuesday to Wednesday.

Thursday, January 17

Mr. Potratz announced that very few students did the most recent HW assignment (the imdb.com film elements assignment which was due Tuesday) correctly, and that he would clarify the assignment Friday and allow students to try again.

We watched all but fifteen minutes of Bonnie and Clyde.

Wednesday, January 16

Shortened day; substitute.
More of Bonnie and Clyde.

Tuesday, January 15

Students turned in their HW (imdb.com film elements assignment), and we watched twenty-five minutes of Bonnie and Clyde.

Monday, January 14

We discussed the ending of Breathless (why does Patricia turn Michel in, especially) and Godard's project of making an existentialist treatment of a genre film.

Then we watched the opening of Bonnie and Clyde.

HW due Tuesday: film elements assignment issued on Friday.

Friday, January 11

We finished watching Breathless, and discussed the ending briefly, listening to a bit of the DVD's commentary track.

HW due Tuesday: Mr. Potratz distributed a handout with details. See Documents page.

Thursday, January 10

We briefly discussed students' reactions to the beginning of Breathless, then watched more of the film.


Wednesday, January 9

Mr. Potratz introduced the nature of the final exam, to be given Tuesday, January 22. Students will be shown several clips from films (some of which we have seen, some of which we haven't), and students will be required to analyze each with reference to specific techniques or film elements, such as camera movement and angles, lighting, mise en scene, editing, etc.

We watched several minutes of The Cutting Edge, the documentary on film editing, including sections on Breathless and Bonnie and Clyde. Afterwards, we watched the first twenty or so minutes of Breathless, a French New Wave film directed by Jean-Luc Godard.


Tuesday, January 8

In a weather-shortened period of one half hour we briefly traced the early history of the Hollywood crime movie, watching clips of Jimmy Cagney from The Public Enemy, of Edward G. Robinson from Little Caesar, and of Humphrey Bogart from The Big Sleep.

Monday, January 7

Students wrote for 25 minutes, comparing "The Killers" with The Killers, i.e. Ernest Hemingway's short story with the 1946 film which improvises upon it.

After that, we discussed the question.

Friday, January 4

Students turned in their online movie reviews,.

We went to the commons and ate donuts, then returned to the room and watched the last ten minutes of The Killers.

Monday: In-class write, comparing The Killers with the Hemingway story, and with Citizen Kane.

Thursday, January 3

We watched all but about ten minutes of The Killers (1946).

HW due Friday: online movie reviews, assigned before the break

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Mr. Potratz read aloud the Ernest Hemingway short story "The Killers," and then we watched the first twenty-five minutes of the 1946 film of the same name.

During class on Monday students will be asked to compare the story with the film, in writing.