C LIT 313 Spring Quarter, 2011
Contemporary Film
QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #1 (Balkan cinema)
1. Are the Balkans part of Europe?
2. How has the definition of the Balkans changed since the end of the Cold War?
3. How do politics influence the dynamics at the Sarajevo Film Festival?
QUESTIONS FOR VIEWING RESPONSE #1 (Underground)
1. How does Underground reflect the situation in the Balkans
in the 1990s?
2. Why, in your opinion, does the director use humor to represent the tragic
events?
QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #2 (Movie Wars)
1. Why do some people think "cinema is dead"?
2. Why does Rosenbaum disagree?
QUESTIONS FOR VIEWING RESPONSE #2 (In the Heat of the Sun)
1. Based on the film, what is the meaning of heroism in post-Maoist
society?
2. What is the symbolic meaning of Mi Lan's key?
QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #3 (Braester)
1.
2.
QUESTIONS FOR VIEWING RESPONSE #3 (Good Bye,
Lenin!)
1. What is the role of media in presenting the communist state's view?
2. What attributes of communist media allow Alex to reappropriate it for perpetuating
the atmosphere of East Germany?
QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #5 (Ostalgie)
1. What is "reflective nostalgia"? How is it manifest in
Goodbye, Lenin!?
2. What is "countermemory" and how is it manifest in the film?
QUESTIONS FOR VIEWING RESPONSE #4 (Nightwatch)
1. What seems to be indigenous Russian concerns in Nightwatch?
2. How is Nightwatch a response to Hollywood blockbusters?
QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #6 (Blockbuster)
1. How did Independence Day change the practices of blockbuster
distribution and viewing?
2. . How did Godzilla change the practices of blockbuster distribution
and viewing?
QUESTIONS FOR VIEWING RESPONSE #4 (Welcome to Dongmakgol)
1. What is the attitude toward the Cold War exhibited in Welcome
to Dongmakgol?
2. Does the film look like films you know from outside Korea? In what ways?
QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #7 (New Korean cinema)
1. What were the results of political relaxation on South Korean cinema
in the 1990s?
2. How did the industry revive itself from the financial crisis?
QUESTIONS FOR VIEWING RESPONSE #5 (Sweet Mud)
1. What ideals does the Kibbutz promote?
2. By what means does the collective in the Kibbutz become oppressive?
QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #8 (postzionism)
1. How does postzionism challenge the accepted view of the Jewish Holocaust?
2. How does postzionism challenge the accepted view of the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict?
QUESTIONS FOR VIEWING RESPONSE #6 (The World)
1. What, in your opinion, is the connection of the conditions depicted
in The World and globalization?
2. Would you call the film realistic? Why?
QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #10 (post-New Wave)
1. What is the connection between Andrew's periodization and major political
events of the 20th century?
2. How is "jetlag" experienced by the film industry and by viewers
worldwide?
QUESTIONS FOR VIEWING RESPONSE #8 (Bollywood/Hollywood)
1. How doe sthe film reflect on Bollywood's cinematic conventions?
2. Why, in your opinion, does the film take this self-reflexive position?
QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #11 (Hindi and transnational film)
1. (Miller) How does the decline of the state in favor of transnational corporations
-- that is, globalization -- affect film industries?
2. (Xu) Explain Xu's statement that "Remaking is therefore Hollywood's
way of outsourcing."
QUESTIONS FOR VIEWING RESPONSE #9 (Breaking the Waves)
1. In what ways is Breaking the Waves "realistic"?
2. What cinematic devices make the film's plot emotionally hard to
take?
QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #12 (film festivals
- Turan and Rosenbaum)
1. What differences exist between Cannes and Sundance? Why?
2. What skepticism of festivals does Rosenbaum express?
QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #4 (film festivals
yearbook)
1. Which elements have an interest in fim festivals? What interests?
2. In what senses in the international film festial circuit a "circuit"?
QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #13 (Hjort on Dogma
95)
1. In what ways is Dogma 95 a way to cope with Denmark's particular geopolitical
position?
2. What makes Dogma 95 appropriate for adoption around the world?
QUESTIONS FOR VIEWING RESPONSE #10 (Ten)
1. In what ways is Ten "realistic"?
2. What "slice of life" does the film represent? How is it different
from what you may have thought about Iran?
QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #14 (Iranian film)
1. What is the role of government in Iranian filmmaking?
2. What is the role of international film festivals in Iranian filmmaking?
QUESTIONS FOR VIEWING RESPONSE #11 (Divine Intervention)
1. What kinds of violence appear in the film? Can you try to characterize
them and find common causes?
2.What is the rule of borders - physical and metaphorical - in the film?
QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #14 ("Between
Exile and Homeland")
1. What is the role of public and private spaces in Suleiman's films?
2. What is Suleiman's "postmodern" idiom?