Friday, December 17

Students were reminded that their second outside viewing essay, the Single Element Analysis, is due on January 5, two days after we return from winter break.

We watched the last half hour of Citizen Kane, which unravelled for us the mystery of ROSEBUD!

Students recorded 6-10 images from the film which impressed themselves most vividly on their minds.

Thursday, December 16

We watched ninety more minutes of Citizen Kane.

HW due Wednesday, January 5:
Second Outside Viewing Essay (Single Element analysis).

Wednesday, December 15

From the documentary The Battle Over Citizen Kane we watched ten minutes about Orson Welles's famous War of the Worlds radio broadcast, then the first forty minutes of Citizen Kane.

HW due January 5:
Single Element analysis essays.

Tuesday, December 14

Students checked out films for the second Outside Viewing essay.

We watched the end of The Jazz Singer, which included Jolson's over the top schmalz singing the Kol Nidre as his father dies, and then belting out Mammy! as his mother cries.

Mr. P introduced Citizen Kane.

Monday, December 13

Students received the assignment sheet for the second Outside Viewing Paper. Whereas the first paper was an analysis of several elements of filmcraft in a single scene, this assignment calls for a study of a single element (be it cinematography, lighting, film editing, sound editing, or mise en scene) throughout the chosen film. Due Wednesday, January 5. Films will be distributed Tuesday (tomorrow).

We watched several more minutes of Hollywoodism, which portrayed the Hollywood version of the American dream in the studio era (30's - 50's) as the recasting of the Jewish dream of assimilation and success as the dream of all outsiders, and focused on the Jewish embrace of Black music and culture. Afterwards we watched brief snippets from The Jazz Singer, unusual in being an explicitly Jewish treatment of these themes.

Friday, December 10

We reviewed what students learned yesterday in the documentary about Chaplin's film The Great Dictator about anti-semitism and Hollywood, after which we watched the beginning of another documentary: Hollywoodism: Jews, Hollywood, and the American Dream.

Thursday, December 9

We concluded our discussion of the final scene of City Lights -- with Mr. P reporting on the class consensus as displayed by yesterday's in-class composition -- and then watched the first half hour of a documentary about Chaplin's great parody of Adolf Hitler, The Great Dictator.

Wednesday, December 8

We watched, then rewatched, the famous final scene of City Lights. Students then spent ten minutes writing a detailed description of what happens in the scene, followed by a brief prediction of what is likely to happen next. Students volunteered to read their papers, and some turned out to have even taken the assignment seriously! Different views surfaced of whether the ending of the film is a "happily ever after" ending or not.

Mr. P then distributed a handout with a compilation of critical comments on the scene over the years.

HW due Thursday:
Read the handout.

Tuesday, December 7

We finished watching City Lights.

Friday, December 3

Students received their first outside viewing essays back with comments and grades; anyone who wishes to improve his orher grade can use the No Excuses Conventions sheet and the sheet of Proofreading and Editing Marks and correct errors and turn corrections and essays back in. to Mr. P on Tuesday.

We watched the first twenty-five minutes of Charlie Chaplin's City Lights.

Thursday, December 2

Students took a test over the Hays Code and pre-Code films, with both short answer and essay questions. Afterwards we watched a few minutes of pre-Code eye candy (the beginning of Golddiggers of 1933).

Wednesday, December 1

Students took notes while we watched Complicated Women, a documentary about depictions of women in pre-Code movies.

HW due Thursday:
Quiz over the Hays Code and pre-Code films. The two handouts (see Documents page) and the two films (Baby Face and Complicated Women).

Tuesday, November 30

We finished Baby Face (1933), then briefly discussed the film's attitude toward women and sexual relations as well as why the film could not have been made merely one year later.

Mr. P announced that he had successfully rerecorded Complicated Women, that we will watch it Wednesday and that the quiz over the Hays Cosde and pre-Code films would be given on Thursday.

HW due Thursday:
Quiz to cover the two handouts and the two films (Baby Face and Complicated Women).

Monday, November 29

We watched the beginning of the pre-Code classic Baby Face, starring Barbara Stanwyck as a who uses her sexual charms to realize her "potentialities."

HW Tuesday:
There will be a quiz over the two handouts (see Documents page) dealing with the Hays Code.

Wednesday, November 24

Please study the handout distributed Monday containing the Hays Code of 1930 and a second handout on the Documents page (MPAA - hays code2.pdf) in preparation for a quiz. (The handout from Monday's class is also on the Documents page: Hays CodeitselfFH.pdf.)

Monday, November 22

We finished watching Freaks, then in the short time remaining (because of the snow-shortened period) very briefy discussed the film's dual nature as exploiter and defender of the society's pariahs.

Mr. P passed out a handout of the Hays Code of 1930 and advised the class that in case school is cancelled Wednesday they are to download two other handouts from room301.org. A quiz over the three handouts is scheduled for Monday.

HW due Wednesday:
Read the handout on the Hays Code.

Thursday, November 18

Students were asked to keep two questions especially in mind as they watched the beginning of Freaks (1932):

* What connections does the film have with German Expressionism?
and
* Does the film stand up for "freaks" or does it exploit them?

At the end of class students received a three-page handout with information about the individual people who appear in the film.

HW due Monday (no 6th period Friday):
Read the handout distributed today.

Wednesday, November 17

Students took a 45-point quiz over Expressionism and we graded it together.

Afterwards, we briefly discussed M as a serious monster film showing the inability of either the rationality of the police or the rationality of the underworld to deal with the monstrous irrational forces possessing Franz Beckert.

Mr. P briefly introduced our next film, the cult favorite Freaks, directed by Tod Browning, who also directed Dracula.

Tuesday, November 16

We finished watching M, then discussed it briefly, beginning with an exchange of views about the indeterminate ending of the film and the questions it leaves hanging? Should Beckert be killed? Is that the only sensible verdict or the justice meted by criminals? What will it accomplish? We then began to compare M with other films we watched parts of (Caligari, Nosferatu, Metropolis) and we raided the question of the film's relation to Expressionism.

HW due Wednesday:
Prepare for amedium-sized quiz over Expressionism, including the films viewed, the tree handouts, and the images posted on the class website (www.room301.org).

Monday, November 15

Mr. P announced that the quiz over Expressionism will be on Wednesday, rather than Tuesday as previously announced.

We watched more of M till the end of the period. Students were asked to pay especial attention to the back-and-forth juxtaposition of scene of the police and scenes of the criminal underworld.

HW due Wednesday:
Quiz over Expressionism.

Friday, November 12

We watched the first half-hour of Fritz Lang's masterpiece, M, starring Peter Lorre as the child murderer Hans Beckert.

HW due Tuesday:
Quiz over German Expressionism. Study the handouts and review the images on the class website, room301.org.

Tuesday, November 9

To enlarge our experience of German Expressionist cinema, we watched an additional scene from Nosferatu, then devoted the remainder of the period to key excerpts from Fritz Lang's futuristic epic Metropolis (1925).

Wednesday: Fritz Lang's M.


Monday, November 8

We reviewed the assigned handout on German Expressionism by David Hudson, then watched selected scene's from the original Dracula movie, F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu.

Friday, November 5

Students received another handout (8 pp.) on German Expressionism, this one by David Hudson.

Students were shown the new web page added to the class website (room301.org) containing the Expressionist images viewed in class yesterday and today.

We completed our viewing of those images with the compassionate, grief-suffused woodcuts and charcoal drawings of Kaethe Kollwitz and the acidic, venomous social satire of George Grosz and Otto Dix.

HW due Monday:
Read the David Hudson handout and highlight or underline what you consider to be key passages.

Thursday, November 4


We went over both of yesterday's handouts.  Mr. P shared his highlighting of key passages in the excerpts on Caligari from Kracauer's From Caligari to Hitler, and he pledged that the quiz on German Expressionism would cover only these passages.  Similarly, he said that the boldface passages in the other handout -- the entry on Expressionism from the Encyclopedia Britannica -- would be the source of any questions on the quiz pertaining to that document.


Next, we numbered on the Expressionism handout eleven Expressionist artists from Vincent Van Gogh to Otto Dix, and we looked at reproductions of works -- primarily oil paintings and woodblock prints -- from the first eight. 

Wednesday, November 3

We watched 25 minutes more of Caligari, then came up with adjectives ranging from distorted through trippy to nightmarish to describe what we had seen.  Next, students received two handouts, one on Caligari specifically (from Kracauer's From Caligari to Hitler) and one on Expressionism from the Encyclopedia Brittanica. We read briefly from each.

HW due Thursday:
Read both handouts.

Tuesday, November 2

Students took an 18-question (36 pt.) quiz over Soviet montage.

Mr. P introduced the new unit on German Expressionism after which we watched the first few minutes of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. 

Monday, November 1

First, we watched the last few minutes on The Man with the Movie Camera again, this time with Yuri Tsivian's commentary, which among other things holds the scene with the children watching the Chinese magician to be both an example of the film as actuality -- life caught unawares -- and of the film as itself a magic show.

Next we watched twenty minutes og Abel Gance's 1927 Napoleeon.  As a romantic fiction film and as an exposition of the Great Man school of history, Napoleon embodies what Vertov and the Kinoks opposed, but as, a masterpiece of innovative montage it is in places The Man with a Movie Camera's equal.

Tuesday:
Montage quiz over Potemkin, The Man with a Movie Camera, Napoleon, and associated handouts.

Friday, October 29

Mr. P announced a quiz on Tuesday over early Soviet film, including Battleship Potemkin, The Man with a Movie Camera, and all associated handouts.

We examined the nature of montage in Man with a Movie Camera with reference to a specific sequence (34:19 ff.) juxtaposing shots over different sorts of work.  Is this montage of association or montage of contrast?  We then watched the sequence again with Yuri Tsivian's commentary. His analysis involved both association and contrast.

HW due Tuesday:
Reread handouts in preparation for quiz.

Thursday, October 28

Students received a two-sided handout on Dziga Vertov.

Students took notes (both of what they understood to be important points and of what they didn't understand) while we rewatched the first few minutes of The Man with a Movie Camera, this time with a commentary by film scholar and critic Yuri Tsivian.  Afterwards we discussed the points Tsivian was making about the ordering of shots in the first reel to depict the city waking up and how this motif was connected with the film's project of waking people up to "things as they are," a central goal of the Kinoks collective.  We also noted Tsivian's analysis of the film as a manifesto of the Kinok's group and an attack on mainstream fiction film, both Hollywood film and film as created by other Russians, Eisenstein included. 

HW due Friday:
Read the handout on Vertov and come to class prepared to answer questions about it.

Wednesday, October 27

We finished watching The Man with a Movie Camera, after which students split up into small groups and prepared and presented statements about what this unique film seems to be about.  Students emphasized the upbeat chronicle of post-revolutionary Russians at work and at play, the positive presentation of modern technology, and the cinematic virtuosity of the film itself.

Tuesday, October 26

Students turned in their single-scene analyses.  Mr. P announced that he would accept papers Wednesday with a 10% penalty and Thursday with a 20% penalty.

We watched the first 43 minutes of Dziga Vertov's Constructivist masterpiece The Man with a Movie Camera.

Monday, October 25

We completed our formal analysis of the Odessa Steps sequence, then examined Russian Constructivist art in its European context by looking at images onscreen.  Students took notes and turned them in at the end of class.

HW due Tuesday:
Single-scene outside viewing analysis (see Documents page).

Friday, October 22

Picking up with the small group activity begun yesterday, we watchd the segment of the Odessa Steps scene from Battleship Potemkin once again, and students regrouped in their small groups to prepare their presentations to the class as a whole.  We then heard analyses of camera angles and movement, subjective use of the camera, pictorial composition, visual motifs, and juxtaposition and pacing of shots (montage).

HW due Tuesday:
Single-scene analysis essay.

Thursday, October 21

We reviewed the requirements for the outside viewing essay due Tuesday, after which we began to analyze a section of the Odessa Stairs scene from Battleship Potemkin  as a model for the formal analysis required in the essay.  Students were assigned to small groups and each group was assigned a single element of filmcraft (pictorial composition, film editing, motifs and symbols, etc.) to focus on.

Wednesday, October 20

Students took a five-question quizlet over yesterday's handouts; we pitched the quizzes (due to students' self-proclaimed poor performance), but reviewed the questions and through them the handouts. 

Next we viewed part of an instructional film from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences featuring a drag-racing scene (with a locomotive thrown in for extra excitement) and begn to compare the scene with the Odessa Steps scene in Battleship Potemkin.

HW due next Tuesday:
Single-scene analysis essay.

Tuesday, October 19

Students received two handouts, and we read from one, which discussed Eisenstein's adaptation of the Marxist dialectical method of thesis, antithesis and synthesis to montage, in which two images are juxtaposed in a way that their collision produces a "tertium quid," a third thing, which exists as meaning in the minds of the audience.  We proceeded to examine examples of such "intellectual montage" from Battleship Potemkin.

HW due Wednesday:
Read the two handouts.  Quizlet thereover.

Monday, October 18

Students took a five-question quiz over Soviet montage (covering the handout from Friday), and we reviewed the answers, illustrating them with reference to Battleship Potemkin.

Friday, October 15

Students received a handout with two documents: excerpts from Eisenstein discussing D.W. Griffith and an excerpt from Gerald Mast on Soviet montage.

Students continued signing out or signing up for films for the first outside viewing essay.

We watched the last two acts of Battleship Potemkin, the famous "Odessa Staircase" and the "Rendezvous with the Squadron."

HW due Monday:
Read both parts of the handout and prepare to be quizzed over them.

Thursday, October 14
Students received back their graded online reviews of their favorite films along with plastic pages containing copies of Mr. P's "Editing and Proofreading Marks" and the "No Excuses Conventions" sheet, which they are to keep at hand throughout the semester.

We watched the first three acts of Battleship Potemkin with an eye out especially for Eisenstein's editing techniques, including the juxtaposition of images and the pacing of cuts.

Wednesday, October 13

Students received the assignment sheet (see Documents page) for the first outside viewing essay, due October 26, involving a close analysis of a single scene in a classic film.  We reviewed expectations for the paper and students chose and checked out films for the assignment.

Tuesday, October 12

Students took a thirty-question quiz over The Birth of a Nation and Reconstruction.

Mr. P briefly traced the great influence which the counter-revolutionary Griffith had on the young post-revolutionary Soviet filmmakers such as Sergei Eisenstein in the 1920s.  (The next two films we will watch are Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin and Dziga Vertov's Man With a Movie Camera.)  Of all the techniques pioneered or extended by Griffith, it was film editing, and especially parallel editing or cross-cutting which the Soviets seized on most eagerly, devoping it further into a theory and practice of montage, in which the juxtaposition of images is central filmic principle.

We resumed our viewing of The Cutting Edge documentary with the section entitled "The Russians Are Coming!"

Monday, October 11

We watched more of our second film interpretation of Reconstruction, the PBS documentary of that name, then discussed briefly how it compares not only to Birth of a Nation  but also to the mainstream interpretation of Reconstruction throughout the twentieth century.

HW due Tuesday:
There will be a quiz covering:
* Birth of a Nation
* the historical handout on Reconstruction from Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States.
* the parts we watched from the documentary film Reconstruction

Friday, October 8

Students received a historical handout on the Reconstruction period as an alternative interpretation to that of Birth of a Nation.  They should read it over the weekend; it will be included in the material covered on a quiz to be given Tuesday.

We watched short sections from Reconstruction, a PBS documentary, to provide historical information and -- once again -- a different perspective from Griffith's on Reconstruction in the South.

Coming up Tuesday:
Quiz over Birth and Reconstruction.

Thursday, October 7

We continued to address questions raised in students' minds by Birth of a Nation.  Discussion of the strange spectacle of whites in blackface playing blacks led to an examination of the film's use of the spectre of miscegenation as the ultimate bete noire (so to speak).  We traced the history of anti-miscegenation laws and the "one-drop rule" in the post-slavery U.S.

Wednesday, October 6

Mr. P shared information about the impact of Birth of a Nation on its contemporary audience and about its central role in the revival of the KKK in the 1920's.

Students worked in groups of four to identify questions they have about the film's message, and we began to answer some of those questions, starting with the use of white actors to play the lead black roles. To put that matter in context, we looked at several images of blackface performers from the 19th and early 20th century.

Tuesday, October 5

We finished watching Birth of a Nation, and students finished their checklist of techniques used in the film. 

Monday, October 4

Students continued documenting film techniques while we began the second and central part of Birth of a Nation.  We observed the birth of Ku Klux Klan and watched to the point where Gus closes in on little sister, who is trapped at the top of a cliff.

Friday, October 1

Students continued to fill in their checklists of techniques in Birth of a Nation while we watched the conclusion of Part I of the film (up through Lincoln's assassination), and we discussed the film's interpretation of the causes of the Civil War.

Thursday, September 30

Students reviewed a checklist of important techniques in Birth of a Nation.  We reviewed the list, identified certain terms in parts of the film we watched yesterday, and students documented techniques as we watched more of the film.  We stopped at the point when Ben Cameron shows up in the same hospital ward where Elsie Stoneman is working as a nurse.

Wednesday, September 29

Students took a ten-question quiz over Tuesday's handouts on Birth of a Nation, and we went over the answers, after which we watched the beginning of the film, with assorted commentary.

Tuesday, September 28

Students received two handouts concerning D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation.

We reviewed the early history and principles of cinematography and film editing by watching the beginnings of two documentary films, Visions of Light (cinematography) and The Cutting Edge (film editing).

HW due Wednesday:
Read today's two handouts and prepare for a quiz over them in class Wednesday.

Monday, September 27

We finished our analysis of motifs in Shadow of a Doubt with a final look at young Charlie's descent of the staircase with Uncle Charlie's ring on her hand.

Mr. P introduced D.W. Griffith (whom we met earlier as director of The Girl and Her Trust), and stressed his unique influence upon practically every director who followed him.  We watched the famous scenes in the storm and on the ice floes from Way Down East, and analyzed briefly the three-component cross-cutting which gives the ice floe scene its power.

Friday, September 24

We continued to examine motifs in Shadow of a Doubt, focusing especially on the ways in which stairs and associated high and low angle shots are used to express the power struggle between the two Charlies, and on the use of shadows.

Thursday, September 23

Starting from the library scene in Shadow of a Doubt, we examined the use of extreme high and low camera angles in the film, most often associated with the motif of stairs and the tense jockeying for position between the two Charlies.  We especially stressed the ironic high-angle shot in which Uncle Charlie pauses as he springs up the stairs, and turns around to look at the terrifying spectre of innocent young Charlie suffused by sunlight in her girlish Sunday dress.

Wednesday, September 22

We watched "Beyond Doubt," a short documentary about the making of Shadow of a Doubt. Students took notes on the important points in this admittedly rather uneven film and put them in the tray on the way out of class.

Tuesday, September 21

We picked up where we left off Monday and assembled a short list of central motifs in Shadow of a Doubt: doublings, windows, smoke, shadows, and stairs. Then we began to look at specific examples of each.

Monday, September 20

Students turned in their movie reviews and Nick Rodewald demonstrated the procedure for uploading reviews to imdb.com. Students have until Tuesday to upload their reviews.

Students took notes as Mr. P continued with his lecture on the concept of artistic motifs, illustrating musical motifs from Beethoven (motifs without associated meaning) and Wagner and Prokoviev (Leitmotiven carrying associated meanings). We then passed from musical motifs (in Shadow of a Doubt preeminently the Merry Widow Waltz) to visual motifs in Hitchcock's film.

HW due Tuesday:
Copy and paste your review into imdb.com if you have not already done so.

Friday, September 17

We identified the main musical themes in Shadow of a Doubt, then learned something about the composer, Dmitri Tiomkin. From there we proceeded to discuss motifs, both musical and visual.

HW due Monday:
400-word online review of your favorite film (see Documents page).

Thursday, September 16

Mr P announced that due to the dislocation in the school caused by Cody Botten's tragic death, the due date for the assigned online review will be postponed from Friday to Monday.

We discussed different ways of looking at films, including critical analysis and naive immersion, and established that we will be doing both throughout the semester.

We watched the last twenty minutes of Shadow of a Doubt, then briefly discussed the final scene in the film's context of the United States' recent entry into the new world war. How dark is the film? How tacked-on is the ending?

HW due Monday (postponed from Friday):
Online (IMDb) review, both posted and submitted in hard copy. See Documents page.

Wednesday, September 15

We continued watching Shadow of a Doubt up through the romantic scene in the garage between young Charlie and the detective. Students continued to attend to patterns of repeated detail.

HW due Friday:
Online 400-word review of your favorite movie, See Tuesday's entry and Documents page.

Tuesday, September 14



Students received an assignment sheet detailing requirements for online reviews of their favorite films (see Documents page).



We resumed watching Shadow of a Doubt after reviewing a few pertinent details from the part we had already seen. Students were counseled to be alert not only to matters plot and character development but also to patterns of detail both visual and auditory.

HW due Friday:
400-word online film review (see Documents page).

Monday, September 13

We reviewed the answers to last Thursday's quiz, then illustrated several film techniques from the quiz (especially different kinds of visual matches) with examples from Shadow of a Doubt and Citizen Kane.

Friday, September 10

We discussed he beginning of the packet which students were quizzed on yesterday ("Classical Hollywood Cinema: Style"), looking at two major points: the character-driven nature of classic-era cinema and its adherence to the principle of "economy" in use of details.

Next we watched the introductory scene from Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt, which the autors of the packet describe in detail, and made the barest start in discussing it.

Thursday, September 9

Students took the quiz over "Classical Hollywood Cinema: Style", after which we brainstormed icons from the classic Hollywood era, apropos of the newly-announced Homecoming theme: "Hollywood Then and Now."

Wednesday, September 8

We looked over the "Classical Hollywood Cinema" packet briefly, paying closest attention to the section on film editing.

We watched D.W. Griffith's The Girl and her Trust and discussed how the film's editing (among other things) are used in service of a compelling narrative.

HW due Thursday:
Quiz in class over the packet.

Tuesday, September 7

In light of the poor results of the first quiz (average score 60, passing rate 50%), given evidence of how few students had read the packet over the long weekend, and not wanting to see the class start the semester in a deep hole, Mr. P -- from the infinite mercy of his benevolent heart -- postponed the quiz over "Classical Hollwood Cinema: Style" from Wednesday to Thursday.

We watched three famous early films, Melies' Journey to the Moon, Porter's The Great Train Robbery, and the Hepworth Studio's immortal Rescued by Rover. We noted the increasing sophistication of film editing in service of telling a suspenseful story.

HW due Thursday:
Read the packet distributed Friday and be ready for a quiz over it.

Friday, September 3

Students received the closest thing to a textbook we will have in the course: a packet entitled "Classical Hollywood Cinema: Style," which explains fundamental techniques of filmcraft in the classic era of American film.

We watched three amusing short films: a 1906 special effects masterpiece "The Dream of a Rarebit Fiend," based on a comic strip by Winsor McCay; a film of Winsor McCay himself demonstrating the making of an early animated film; and "Onesime the Clockmaker," a French film from 1912 showing life in fast forward.

HW due Wednesday:
Read (if you're wise, well before Tuesday night) today's packet and come to class prepared to take a quiz over it.

Thursday, September 2

Students took an "open packet" quiz over Tuesday's handout on early cinema, after which we graded it together.

Nest we watched "Reve and Realite," a short comic clip whose title ("Dream and Reality") sums up the two major vectors of early film: photographic journalistic realism and pure fantasy. As a further example of the latter we ended the period by watching part of "The Dream of Aladdin," a pre-Disney (1907) rendition of the classic Arabian tale.

Wednesday, September 1

We reviewed the syllabus briefly together, and Mr. P responded to student questions.

Afterward, Mr. P lectured very briefly about the fundamentals of film technology, and how "persistence of vision" and frame-by-frame construction allows for all the wonders of film editing.

Next we watched the sizzling "May Irwin-John C. Rice Kiss," Sandow the Strong Man some of Eadweard Muybridge's series photographs (on the cusp of cinema) and one or two other early films, including the beautifully colorized "Golden Beetle."

HW due Thursday:
Read the packet on early cinema you received yesterday in preparation for a quiz thereover.

Tuesday, August 31

Day 1

Students received the course syllabus. We discussed some key points in it, and students were asked to read through it tonight and come to class Wednesday with questions about it.

Mr. P introduced the course briefly, stressing that we will not be watching recent films, but rather classics from the earliest cinema on up, most of them black and white, many of them silent.

Mr. P set the stage by reading to the class about a signal event in cinema history: the screening of selected shorts by the Lumiere brothers at the Grand Cafe, Paris, on December 28, 1895. We watched two of those "actualities" and then a couple of slightly later films which exploit film's capacity for creating illusions. The two poles inherent in the medium -- photographic realism and illusionistic fantasy -- went hand in hand from cinema's earliest days.

Students received a small packet of readings on early cinema.

HW due Thursday:
Read the packet handed out today and prepare for a quiz over it in class Thursday.

Thursday, June 10

We finished Bonnie and Clyde and briefly discussed the film and the real Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrows, focusing on the film's depiction of the self-mythologization of the pair and the painful contrast between the heroic myth and the brutal reality.

Wednesday, June 9

Students took the final exam.

Tuesday, June 8

We watched more of Bonnie and Clyde, which we will finish on Thursday.

Final exam on Wednesday. See yesterday's log entry.

Monday, June 7

Mr. P announced that he would sign all Senior check-out forms on Wednesday while students are taking the final exam. That exam will take the form of three or four short clips from films, some of which students have seen, which students will analyze in terms of certain specified elements of filmcraft (cinematography, mise en scene, film editing, etc.). To prepare for the exam students should review the original "Classical Hollywood Cinema" packet one final time.

We watched more of Bonnie and Clyde.

Friday, June 4

The class and Mr. P debated whether Night and the City conformed to the "Characteristics of Film Noir" listed in the worksheet.

At the end of class we watched the very beginning of our last film, Bonnie and Clyde.

Wednesday, June 2

We briefly disucussed what students had written so far on their "Noir Characteristics" worksheet about how well Night and the City conforms to those benchmarks of film noir.

Then we watched 45 more minutes of the film.

Tuesday, June 1

Students received a sheet outlining Characteristics of Film Noir, to which they were asked to add their comments on the relevance of those characteristics to our next film, Jules Dassin's Night and the City (1951).

Afterwards we watched the first 27 minutes of that film.

Friday, May 28

Students took notes while watching the first half-hour of the "Film Noir" segment of the American Cinema documentary series.

Wednesday, May 26

We competed in small groups to see who could come closest to guessing the six quotes from Casablanca (the highest number of any film) listed in the AFI's 2005 choice of 100 most famous movie lines.

We discussed briefly how over the years the political quotes have faded somewhat in popularity while the romantic quotes have not, and Mr. P stressed the equality of the two realms (or even the predominance of the political) in the film's emphasis.

We then worked in small groups again to come up with alternative endings for the movie.

Tuesday, May 25

We finished watching Casablanca.

Mr. P announced that students may earn 10 points extra credit by attending A Midsummer's Night Dream and turning in their tickets and up to an additional 10 points by writing a one-page review.

Monday, May 24

Students turned in their Outside Viewing essays.

We briefly reviewed what we learned about the plot and characters of Casablanca in the first part of the film that we watched on Friday -- especially about Rick's political history -- then watched another 35 minutes (to 1:00:00).

Friday, May 21

We watched the first 25 minutes of Casablanca.

HW due Monday:
Outside viewing essay #2 -- single-element analysis.

Wednesday, May 19

Mr. P announced that the Citizen Kane quiz would be postponed to Thursday in his absence.

The class was devoted to introducing (1) the historical background to Casablanca and (2) Humphrey Bogart (with clips from The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep.

HW due Thursday:
Prepare for quiz over Citizen Kane, including Bernard Herrmann handouts.

HW due Monday:
Single=scene analysis. 800 word minimum.

Tuesday, May 18

We finished our analysis of Citizen Kane, looking at the two opera sequences, among other scenes, and comparing their style and function in the film.

Wednesday:
Quiz over Ciitizen Kane, including the Bernard Herrmann handouts.

Monday, May 17

We reviewed the handout distributed Friday -- Q & A with Bernard Herrmann, composer of Citizen Kane's film score -- and looked at certain parts of the film which he specifically discusses there, including the scene where Kane meets Susan, with its subtle use of the Rosebud theme. We also discussed the "mystical," subliminal nature of film music in general.

Another aspect of the soundtrack which we noted was the echo-chamber effect in the library scene and in Xanadu interior sequences and what they add.

Finally, we began to look at the film's characteristic and diverse use of low camera angles.

HW due Monday:
Single-element analysis. 800 words.

Friday, May 14

Students were reminded of the essay due a week from Monday (May 24), and informed of a quiz on Citizen Kane next Wednesday (May 19).

We returned to our analysis of the musical score of Citizen Kane, looking at -- no, that would be listening to -- examples of the Destiny and Rosebud themes and how they are used in a few places in the film. Students amplified the notes they have been taking on the analysis of different elements of filmcraft in the movie.

We also read a brief handout about the unprecedented use of music in the film, and referred briefly to a second, longer handout (4pp.) featuring comments by Bernard Herrmann, the composer of the score. Students were asked to read that handout over the weekend; it will be included in Wednesday's quiz.

Thursday, May 13

Students wrote one or two sentences saying what they thought was the central theme of Citizen Kane. Most students felt it concerned the illusive naature of pursuing happiness by accumulating material wealth -- i.e., things.

On this basis, we examined the importance of things in conveying the film's meanings, or stated differently, the critical importance of mise en scene in the work. We looked closely at the opening sequence of the movie, starting with NO TRESPASSING and ending with "Rosebud."

Next we examined the same scene in a different way: in terms of the sound track. Students now defined what they considered the central musical themes of the film, and we ended with a rousing chorus of the Rosebud theme. Oh no, that's right -- we agreed to begin Friday's class with that.

HW:
Single element analysis due a week from Monday (May 24).

Wednesday, May 12

Students checked out films for the second Outside Viewing essay, which is now due Monday, May 24.

Partly as a model for what students should do in those essays, we began to analyze Citizen Kane with regard to the elements of filmcraft listed on the assignment sheet for the essay. (Students need to examine one element in their films, while our analysis of Citizen Kane will examine all five: cinematography, lighting, mise en scene, film editing and sound.)

We looked especially at the motif of blank whiteness (movie screen, blank page, snow) and at the use of mise en scene in the Colorado scene.

Tuesday, May 11

We finished Citizen Kane.

Mr. P again failed to bring additional movies for Outside Viewing, so he announced a postponement of the due date for Outside Viewing essays to Monday, May 24.

Monday, May 10

We watched more of Citizen Kane, up to the point where Kane marries Susan (Track 19).

Thursday, May 6

We watched a five-minute documentary introduction to City Lights and a seven-minute outtake from it and discussed Chaplin's art.

Afterwards, students received, and we went over, the assignment sheet for the second outside viewing essay, an analysis of a single element of filmcraft in the each student's assigned/chosen film. Some students checked out films for the purpose.

At the end of class students picked up their first outside viewing essays with grades and comments.

Tomorrow: Mr. McCormick will begin showing the class Citizen Kane.

HW due May 20:
The single-element analysis.

Wednesday, May 5

Seniors went to the auditorium for a presentation by Sam Green, Washington State's Poet laureate.

The select few of us who remained behind watched a documentary about City Lights, some outtakes from the film, and a 1915 short, The Prizefighter, with an earlier version of the City Lights boxing routine.

Tuesday, May 4

We watched the final scene of City Lights, then watched it a second time while students took notes preparatory to writing responses to the following two questions:
(1) What happens in the scene? Describe in detail.
(2) What do you think will happen next?

After students finished writing several read their answers to both questions, and discovered strong differences in how people took the final moments of the film, and whether they expected the tramp and the girl to marry and live happily ever etcetera.

Mr. P then handed out copies of Tim Dirks's reading of the scene from filmsite.org and we read parts of it.

To be continued . . .

Monday, May 3

We watched more of City Lights, up to the beginning of the famous final scene.

Tuesday, April 13

We watched Act I of the first Dracula film, F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu.

Students received a second handout on German Expressionism; the handout is part of what will be covered by Friday's quiz.

Monday, April 12

We took up where we left off in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, skipping certain parts, but watching much of the film. At the end of class we discussed very briefly the style of the film.

Friday, April 2

Students received a three-page handout on German Expressionism. They were asked to read it over the break, and to read, reread, or review all handouts on Soviet film. Mr. P announced a quiz over Soviet Montage and German Expressionism on Friday, April 16.

We then watched the beginning of The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari.

Thursday, Aptril 1

We re-viewed the ending of Man With a Movie Camera, this time with Yuri Tsivian's voiceover commentary, which concludes with his insistence on the impossibility of adequately deciphering the complex textures of the film without multiple viewings.

We then developed our own commentary about the most important motifs of the film (eyes and the camera eye, class and class, man and machine, people as subjects and people as audience, the whirling circles of the camera and other means of production, etc.), and we re-viewed and analyzed one sequence of whirling circles.

At the end of class we turned our attention to German Expressionist film, beginning by reading Eisenstein's description of that film movement in "Dickens, Griffith, and the Film Today."

Wednesday, March 31
Before finishing Man With a Movie Camera we discussed briefly what students saw on Tuesday. What is the film about? (Possible answers: making and watching a movie, vision, the post-revolutionary Russian seeing themselves as a people, the workers seeing themselves as a revolutionary class, the filmmakers seeing themselves as revolutionary workers, etc.)
We also rewatched the beginning and one other section of the film with voiceover narration by film scholar Yuri Tsivian.


Tuesday, March 30
Mr. P was out; students watched the first 49 minutes of Dziga Vertov's Man With a Movie Camera.

Monday, March 29

Students turned in single-scene analysis essays and returned films.

To put the artistic style of Battleship Potemkin and Man With a Movie Camera (which students will view starting tomorrow) into their broader cultural context we looked at slides of Cubist (Duchamp and Picasso) and Futurist works, and, for the Russian context, examples of Constructivism (including Rodchenko and Tatlin). We concluded with some of the anti-Fascist photomontages of the German Communist John Heartfield.

Friday, March 26

Mr. P distributed two new handouts, "The Great Experiment," about cultural trends in post-revolutionary Russia, and a similar handout also containing information about about Dziga Vertov.

We completed our analysis of the Odessa Steps sequence in Battleship Potemkin and introduced Vertov and his differences with Eisenstein.

Thursday, March 25

Mr. P announced that he will accept the outside viewing essay, due tomorrow, for full credit on Monday and will give 5 points extra credit (on a 75-point assignment) to essays submitted on time (Friday).

We watched a short segment of an instructional film from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences featuring a clip from Fast and Furious, and compared that with the Odessa Steps sequence in Battleship Potemkin. Then, using a handout concerning montage in that sequence, we began to analyze it in some detail.

HW due Friday:
Single-scene essay analysis. Papers submitted Friday will receive 5 pts. extra credit. Papers submitted Monday will receive full credit.

Wednesday, March 24

Students received a notesheet of vocabulary relating to early Soviet cinema and began filling in the sheet while we continued our discussion of montage in Battleship Potemkin, illustrating the discussion with clips from the film.

Tomorrow: The Odessa Steps.

HW due Friday:
Single-scene analysis essay.

Tuesday, March 23

Using the "Soviet Montage" excerpt by Gerald Mast, we reviewed the concept of film montage as used by Eisenstein and other early Soviet filmmakers, differentiating varieties of narrative, intellectual, and emotional montage.

Monday, March 22

We read together from Eisenstein's essay "Dickens, Griffith, and the Film Today," and saw how Eisenstein and the other Soviet filmmakers of the twenties both learned from and, in their view, surpassed the films of D.W. Griffith in the use of "montage," or film editing.

We then watched the first 25 minutes of The Cutting Edge, a documentary about film editing; this included sections about Griffith and the Russians. Students took notes on the film and turned them in at the end of class.

Friday, March 19

We went over the reading assignment -- excerpts from Eisenstein's "Dickens, Griffith, and the Film of Today" -- and discussed both Eisenstein's ideological contempt for and technical admiration of Griffith's films. Griffith's use of cross-cutting and other film editing devices, derived from the novels of Charles Dickens, were "a revelation" to the early Soviet filmmakers. Those filmmakers took those techniques to a new level, developing a theory and practice of "montage." Students received a further handout on "Soviet Montage" which summarizes those developments, to be read by Monday.

HW due Monday:
Read today's handout (see above) and review Friday's (see below).

HW due next Friday:
Single-scene analysis (outside viewing).

Thursday, March 18

Students wrote paragraphs in response to the follwing two questions:

1. Compare Birth of a Nation and Battleship Potemkin as propaganda.
2. Compare the two films in terms of their film editing techniques.

HW due a week from Friday:
Single-scene analysis essays.

Tuesday, March 16

Rather than discuss Birth of a Nation, we decided to take advantage of the extended period -- and the modest length of our next film -- and watch a movie start to finish for a change, the movie in question being Sergei Eisenstein's early Soviet masterpiece Battleship Potemkin.

HW:
Get going with your outside viewing films; single-scene analysis due a week from Friday.

Monday, March 15

Students borrowed films for their outside viewing papers (due March 26), after which we watched the conclusion of Birth of a Nation. During the final reel students rose to their feet cheering and waving their checklists as the heroic clansmen rode to the rescue to the triumphant strains of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, and in the closing seconds of the film all joined their lusty voices in our national anthem: "And say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free and the home of the Aryans?"

Or maybe not.

Students turned in their checklists.

Friday, March 15

Students received an assignment sheet for the first Outside Viewing Essay -- due March 26 -- and we went over it together. Films will be distributed on Monday.

We watched a bit more of Birth of a Nation. learning among other things about how the KKK came to wrap themselves in bedsheets.

HW due Friday, March 26
First Outside Viewing Essay.

Thursday, March 11

We began Part Two of Birth of a Nation, "Reconstruction," and saw first hand the carpetbaggers' nefarious plot to make black people the equal of whites -- nay, to destroy civilization and put the white South under the black South's heel.

Wednesday, March 10

Seniors were excused for a class meeting.

Those of us who were left learned about Ub Iwerks and watched the first Mickey Mouse cartoons and Betty Boop and Cab Calloway in "Minnie the Moocher."

Tuesday, March 9

Students checked techniques off their checklists while watched more of Birth, at normal and fast speed, up to the assassination of Lincoln.

Monday, March 8

Students took a 15-question quiz over the handouts about the Reconstruction period and Birth of a Nation, and we went over the answers together.

In the little time remaining we watched a few more minutes of the film.

Friday, March 5

Students received a checklist of important pioneering techniques in Birth of a Nation, which they began to fill in as we watched a bit more of the film.

HW due Monday:
Read the four previous handouts (on Reconstruction and Birth) and prepare for a quiz over them.

Thursday, March 4

Mr. P announced that there will be a quiz over Wednesday's four handouts on Monday.

We watched several more sections of the Reconstruction documentary, then began watching Birth of a Nation (we only just began).

HW due Monday:
Read the four handouts and prepare for a quiz over them.

Wednesday, March 3

Students received four handouts, one on the history of Reconstruction after the American Civil War and one on Birth of a Nation.

We will entertain two opposing views of Reconstruction. Today we began with the commie abolitionist line in the form of excerpts from a PBS documentary on the period. This will be followed by D.W. Griffith's authentic account in his famous film.

HW due Thursday:
Start reading the handouts; be sure to finish the first (Howard Zinn's account of Reconstruction) by Thursday.

Tuesday, March 2

We finished our examination of visual motifs in Shadow of a Doubt, looking again at several key scenes involving stairs and the inseparably related use of low- and high-camera angles.

Monday, March 1

We returned to our analysis of motifs in Shadow of a Doubt, revisiting several scenes.

Friday, February 26

We continued our discussion of the Beyond Doubt documentary, hearing from several students about what they found significant in it, and re-viewing several parts of Shadow in response.

Thursday, February 25

Students took notes on Beyond Doubt, a documentary about the making of Shadow of a Doubt, and we began to discuss what they found of interest or significance in the film.

Students turned in those notes at the end of class.

Wednesday, February 24

We returned to the concept of motifs, in music and in film, listening to the beginning of Prokoviev's Peter and the Wolf for illustration of the former, then made a list of certain visual motifs in Shadow of a Doubt, includings shadows themselves, smoke (those two intersecting crucially in the scene of Uncle Charle's arrival), and stairs -- the three S's.

Tuesday, February 23

Students turned in their Academy Award-related assignments, and we looked at who some students had singled out as leading film composers through the years (e.g., Alfred Newman and John Williams), then learned a little about Dmitri Tiomkin, pal of Sergei Prokoviev, and composer of the score for Shadow of a Doubt and 127 other films.

We returned then to the music in Shadow's library scene and from there to a discussion of musical motifs more broadly, and to the use of motifs more generally in art, architecture, literature and film.

Monday, February 22

We began to examine Shadow of a Doubt, starting with "The Merry Widow Waltz," its significance within the film, and the transformations Dmitri Tiomkin puts it through to accompany the film.

Students identified short scenes or images which stuck with them from the film, and we looked at one of those, the library scene, with an eye (ear) for both the music and the use of the camera and of lighting.

HW due Tuesday:
Academy Awards assignment. See Friday, February 12, and the Documents and Links pages.

Friday, February 12

Students took an open-packet quiz over "Classic American Cinema: Style."

HW due Tuesday, February 23:
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences assignment (see Documents page and Links page).
Apropos of the upcoming Academy Awards event, students are to research and briefly describe some of the different "arts and sciences" which the awards recognize. What are the jobdescriptions for each category? Who are some of the most famous practicioners of each art and what movies did they work on?


Thursday, February 11
Mr. P was absent.
Students finished watching Shadow of a Doubt.

Wednesday, February 10

We watched more of Shadow of a Doubt, up through the library scene.

HW due Friday:
Read "Classical Hollwood Cinema" packet in preparation for a quiz.

Tuesday, February 9

Mr. P passed out copies of the "Classical Hollwood Cinema: Style" packet again, this time containing even- as well as odd-numbered pages. Friday was announced as the date to try again with the quiz over it.

We proceeded to watch the first scene of Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt, to discuss it briefly, and then to read the initial section of the packet, which analyzes the mise en scene of that scene. Afterwards, we watched a bit more of the film (to be continued Wednesday).

HW due Friday:
Read "Classical Hollwood Cinema: Style." There will be a quiz over it in class that day.

Monday, February 8

We discovered that Mr. P had photocopied the "Classical Hollywood Cinema" packets incorrectly, and the quiz over it had to be postponed. Proper packets will be available tomorrow.

Instead of the quiz, we discussed different ways of looking at film: suspending disbelief and entering uncritically into the world of the film or responding critically and analysing how the film works. Are the two ways compatible? (Mr. P thinks they are.)

After that discussion we watched the frst few minutes of "Visions of Light," a documentary film about cinematography. (We stopped just before Gregg Toland is discussed.)

Friday, February 5

We rewatched the beginning of "The Girl and Her Trust," then heard a few students summaries of it from Thursday. Perspectives differed, especially between boys and girls in the class.

Next we watched the rest of the film and briefly discussed its virtues, both technical and artistic.

HW due Monday:
Read "Classical Hollwood Cinema: Style" (handout). We will have a quiz over it to start Monday's class.

Thursday, February 4

We watched The Great Train Robbery (1903), and Rescued by Rover (1905), paying attention to the increasing sophistication of editing for continuity and cross-cutting, or parallel editing. Next we watched the beginning of D.W. Griffith's The Girl and Her Trust (1912) and students wrote short accounts of action and characterization in the scene.

HW due Monday:
Quiz over "Classical Hollywood Cinema: Style."

Wednesday, February 3

Students received the closest thing to a textbook that the class offers: a packet entitled "Classical Hollywood Cinema: Style. They should start reading it immediately and carefully. It will be the subject of a quiz on Monday.

We continued watching short, early films, this time focusing not on "actualities," but on films which used the opportunities for fantasy afforded by the medium. The technical similarity between animation and cinema per se, with its frame-by-frame construction was explored briefly. Films included "The Golden Beetle," "Dream of a Rarebit Fiend," "Winsor McCay and his Animated Pictures,: and "Onesieme the Clockmaker."

Tuesday, February 2

Groundhog Day

Students took an open-packet quiz over early cinema, and we graded it together.

Afterwards, we watched "The May Irwin - John C. Rice Kiss," "Serpentine Dances," "Sandow," and other immortal classics of the silent screen.

Monday, February 1

Students received the course syllabus, and were asked to read it carefully tonight.

Students also received a five-page packet covering the beginnings of cinema and assigned to read it carefully as well, in preparation for a brief quiz over it on Tuesday.

Mr. P read students a brief account of the first public showing of a projected film, in December, 1895 at the Grand Cafe in Paris, after which we wached a few very brief and very early films. These included "actualities," or purely documentary clips, such as "The Arrival of a Train" and "The Snowball Fight" and their opposite, pieces of trick photography such as "Explosion of a Motor Car."

HW due Tuesday:
Read the packet on the early history of film. Quiz over it to begin Tuesday's class.

Friday, January 29

Final day of the class.

We finished watching Full Metal Jacket.

Mr. P returned the second Outside Viewing essays.

Wednesday, January 17

We received nominations and chose Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket as the final film of the semester and began watching it.

Tuesday, January 26

Students took the final examination.

Monday, January 25

Students were reminded about tomorrow's final examination and urged to review the discussion of elements of filmcraft in the "Classical Hollywood Style" packet.

We watched several minutes of The Cutting Edge, the documentary about film editing; the section we watched discussed the breaking of the established editing formulae in such 60's films as Bonnie and Clyde.

Friday, January 22

Mr. Potratz explained the procedure for the final examination on Tuesday: students will be shown short clips from three or four films and asked to analyze the use of specific elements of filmcraft in each. They should review those elements as presented in the "Classical Hollywood Style" packet.

We finished watching Bonnie and Clyde.

Thursday, January 21

We continued watching Bonnie and Clyde, through the shootout which results in Buck's death and Bonnie's wounding.

Wednesday, January 20

New Plan: Scrap White Heat and watch Bonnie and Clyde, a groundbreaking Sixties movie about the Thirties.

We stopped at the point where Bonnie is reading the gang her "Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde."

Tuesday, January 19

Students took a brief quiz over film noir, using their handouts and their websearch worksheets (which they turned in after the quiz). We graded the quiz together.

After briefly glancing at Tom Neal's life after Detour, which paralleled that movie in many respects, we turned our attention to MGM gangster movies, in preparation for watching Jimmy Cagney in the immortal White Heat (1949).

Friday, January 15

Mr. P distributed two new handouts on film noir, asked students to hang on to their websearch worksheets, and announced a quiz on Tuesday over film noir, including all three handouts, the worksheet, and Detour.

We began to go over the "Characteristics of Film Noir" handout and to discuss how Detour does and does not conform to the noir criteria in that document.

HW due Tuesday:
Read and review all the handouts and polish the Film Noir Websearch worksheet in preparation for a quiz over fim noir. (The worksheet is also due.)

Thursday, January 14

We finished watching Detour, then very briefly discussed student reactions, especially to Vera.

HW due Friday:
Completed film noir websearch worksheet.

Wednesday, January 13

Students received two handouts: a description of the "Characteristics of Film Noir" and a websearch worksheet on noir. Students were asked to read the first handout and to keep it in mind as they watched Detour, preparing to discuss whether or not the film conforms to the characteristics listed (or vice versa). The worksheet is to be completed outside of class and turned in Friday.

We then watched the first thirty-five minutes of Detour, the B-Movie noir cult classic.

HW due Friday:
Complete the Film Noir worksheet.

Tuesday, January 12

We continued our examination of Max Steiner's musical score for Casablance, then Mr. P very briefly introduced film noir.

Monday, January 11

We discussed Casablanca, the secret of its appeal, its proaganda for political/military engagement, the resolution of its political versus romantic conflict.

We also began to look at (listen to) Max Steiner's masterful musical score.

Friday, January 8

Students competed in small groups to identify the most famous lines in Casablanca (according to the American Film Institute in 2005).

Thursday, January 7

We finished watching Casablanca.

Students were challenged to win a prize by being the first to identify the actor in the film (the most highly paid cast member) who appeared in another film we saw part of and what film that was. (It's not Peter Lorre, whom we did see earlier in M.)

Wednesday, January 6

We continued watching Casablanca, up to the point where Ferrari tells Laszlo and Ilsa that Rick has the letters of transport.

Tuesday, January 5

Students turned in the HW on Citizen Kane.

We finished watching the clip from The Great Dictator, after which Mr. P provided historical background necessary to understanding Casablana and led the class in a rousing chorus of The Marseillaise.

Following that we watched the first thirteen minutes of Casablanca.

Monday, January 4

Mr. P reminded students of the writing assignment due tomorrow (see December 18).
As introduction to our next film, the anti-fascist Casablanca, we watched several minutes of Leni Riefenstahl's famous Nazi propaganda film, Triumph of the Will, a celebration of the 1934 Party Day rallies in Nuremberg, then followed that with the satirical "newsreel" Schichelgruber does the Lambeth Walk, which uses (and abuses) footage from Riefenstahl's film. Finally, we watched part of Charlie Chaplin's parody of Hitler from The Great Dictator.

HW due Tuesday:
400-word response to online commentaries on Citizen Kane. See Friday, December 18, for details.