Friday, April 29

Students received an assignment sheet for a paper due Monday requiring them to describe in detail the final scene of City Lights and to record what they assume will happen after it.

We watched the remainder of the film, then watched the final scene ("Autumn") one more time as students took notes.

HW due Monday:
Typed paper describing final scene in detail.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkNhL2Lu3pk starting at 7:35

Thursday, April 28

Students watched the first 55 minutes of Charlie Chaplin's immortal City Lights.



Wednesday, April 27

Students finished watching Bride of Frankenstein. (Mr. P was absent.)

Tuesday, April 26

Students turned in their online reviews. Mr. Potratz announced that he would be absent Wednesday, that late papers received Thursday would be accepted with a 10% penalty, but that Thursday would be the last day the paper will be accepted.

We watched highlights of the original Frankenstein, then the first half hour of the first and greatest sequel, Bride of Frankenstein.

Students will finish watching Bride of Frankenstein tomorrow in the teacher's absence.

Monday, April 25

We discussed M somewhat further, comparing it with Caligari, Nosferatu, and Metropolis. As Metropolis combines a rational, futuristic style (itself presented as having two contrasting faces) with medieval Gothicism, so M combines a highly precise realism with elements of Expressionistic distortion. And M, like Caligari, tells of the pursuit of a madman, or like Nosferatu of a monster, an Ungeheuer.

After this discussion students took notes as we watched snippets from interviews with three people connected with the making of M: Harold Nebenzahl, son of the film's producer; Paul Falkenberg, the film editor; and Fritz Lang himself.

Friday, April 22

We finished watching M, then very briefly discussed the unresolved ending and why Lang chose to end the film in this way.

Students received an assignment sheet (see Documents page) for an online review of their favorite movie, due Tuesday.

HW due Tuesday:
Online review. See Documents page for assignment sheet.

Thursday, April 21

We continued watching M. Students once again took notes comparing the film to other points of reference.

Wednesday, April 20

We began watching Fritz Lang's amazing film M.

Students made notes recording what the film, and specific parts of the film reminded them of stylistically, whether it be other films, paintings and woodcuts, or . . . ?

Tuesday, April 19

We watched two more scenes from Metropolis, after which students took the unit test over German Expressionism.

Monday, April 18

We finished viewing slides of German Expressionist artworks, including works by Kokoschka, Beckmann, Schiele, Kollwitz, Grosz, and Dix.

We then watched the first fifteen minutes and several further scenes from Fritz Lang's Expressionist sci-fi class Metropolis.

HW due Tuesday:
Review for quiz over Expressionism, including the two handouts, the slides (see Expressionists folder on the Film Studies page), Nosferatu and parts of Caligari and Metropolis.

Friday, April 15

Mr. P announced that the quiz over German Expressionism would be Tuesday.

We began to review together the assigned handout on Expressionism from the Encyclopaedia Britannica, focusing on key passages and looking at projected photos of works by pre-Expressionist painters Van Gogh, Munch, and Ensor, and at paintings and woodcuts by Nolde, Kirchner, and Kollwitz.

HW due Monday:
Review the Expressionist images on the class website.

Tuesday:
Quiz over Expressionism.

Thursday, April 14

We finished watching F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu, which we began yesterday. At the end we looked briefly at an article by Patrick Colm Hogan which outlines what Hogan sees as patterns in the film which link with German stereotypes of Eastern European Jews as invasive aliens corrupting German culture (though he does not believe the films creators to be proponents of Nazism).

HW due Friday:
Read the article on Expressionism from the Encyclopaedia Brittanica (Wednesday's handout) if you have not already done so.

Tuesday, April 12 We reviewed yesterday's handout ("Where the Horror Came From," by David Hudson) in terms of the historical background of WWI, post-war devastation, and revolutionary failure, and we looked at Sergei Eisenstein's assessment of the dismal, nightmarish quality of German Expressionist film as reflecting that circumstance in contrast to the forward-looking and optimistic Soviet films spawned by the Russian revolution. We also discussed students' despriptions of the style of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari from yesterday's exercise. The strong contrasts of light and dark (with the emphasis on the dark), the exaggerated acting style, makeup and costuming, the distorted, painted sets -- in general the anti-realistic, abstract and emotive nature of the film -- received attention. At least one student had compared the film to the films of Tim Burton -- whom David Hudson cites as strongly reflecting an Expressionist influence.

Monday, April 11 Students received a handout on the social and historical background of German Expressionist film, "Where the Horror Came From" by David Hudson. We watched the beginning of "The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari," after which students wrote down at least six bullet points describing the visual style of what they had just seen. HW due Tuesday: Read the handout

Friday, April 1

Students turned in their outside viewing essays along with their films. Essays emailed to Mr. P today (by midnight) will be given full credit, but hard copies (showing the meter readings for the analyzed scene) and films must be turned in Monday, April 11.

We then turned to an examination of forties-era cinematic animation (i.e., we kicked back and watched Popeye cartoons).