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| Course M, 2:30-5:20 W, 2:30-4:20 Thomson 125 |
| Instructor K. Gillis-Bridges Padelford A305 543-4892 MW, 1:00-2:20 |
| Page last updated 11/18/02 |
Assignment Suggestions: Second Optional Due Date
Essays submitted for the second optional assignment due date will compare and contrast any two of the following films: Cléo from 5 to 7, Blue Steel, Clueless, Ritual in Transfigured Time, Meshes of the Afternoon, Study in Choreography for Camera, Sink or Swim, or Film About a Woman Who . . .. In your essay, you will present an argument about the significance of the films’ connections, and you will develop this argument by analyzing the narrative, contextual and/or formal elements (setting, costume, lighting, shots, editing, sound, etc.) of both films.
The following list of themes should yield fruitful comparisons. You may propose other themes or a paper comparing one of the listed films with an earlier film, but you will need to speak to me before proceeding.
- gender roles (construction of masculinity and/or femininity; gender as performance)
- relationships between women
- relationship between parent(s) and child
- woman as subject and object
- the female gaze
- critiques of particular institutions (marriage, family, Hollywood cinema)
- function of time
- self-realization
- use of space (public, private, domestic, geographic, natural, urban, etc.)
- sex and sexuality
- relationship
between sound (music, voice-over narration, dialogue, effects) and image
- use of genre conventions (genre mixing, subversion or revision of genre conventions)
- function
of the films’ form
- function of allusions to mythic, historical or legendary figures
- the function of the ending
The following guidelines represent additions to the list of general guidelines for comparison/contrast essays.
1. Because we have viewed films made within and outside Hollywood traditions, consider comparing Varda or one of the experimental filmmakers with Heckerling or Bigelow. Such a comparison would give you insight into how filmmakers working with different aesthetic goals deal with similar topics.
2. If you wish to write about a film we've viewed only in clip form, remember that you may screen the whole of Blue Steel, Clueless, or Film About a Woman Who . . . at the Odegaard Media Library, where the majority of our course films are on reserve.