Adaptation for 9/29/14

Peter Sellers in Being There

This is going to be a slightly weird class meeting. We're going to spend most of it watching the 1979 film Being There, which won't leave time for much else (including a formal break). However, I am hoping to get to at least a few passages from A Room With a View, so bring those books. We'll look at more passages the following week.

Comedy for 9/24/14

Reminder: There is no class on 9/24/14. 
(See you on 10/1/14!)

Adaptation for 9/22/14

John Wayne's dramatic entrance in Stagecoach

Talking Points for Stagecoach & "Stage to Lordsburg":
1) Where does the short story provide information indirectly? (Come to class with two passages marked.)
2) Which characters are different from story to film? Why might those changes have been made?
3) How does the movie "reward" and "punish" its various characters, and why?
4) If this is the first western you've ever seen, what do you think of it?

Comedy for 9/17/14

His Girl Friday

Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot

Talking Points for His Girl Friday:
1) Do you like the movie's fast-paced dialogue, or do you find it confusing?
2) What are the targets of the film's subversiveness?
3) From which character's perspective do you mainly view the film?
4) Which movie feels older, His Girl Friday or The Miracle of Morgan's Creek?

This week's film: Some Like It Hot.

Adaptation for 9/15/14

Reminders:
1) Your paper on Bringing Up Baby is due this week, if you choose to do that one.
2) Come to class with passages marked in "Stage to Lordsburg" that present information indirectly.

Talking Points for Bringing Up Baby:
1) Which image from the film sums up the entire film?
2) Did you like the film or did you find it really annoying?
3) Where in the film do you see evidence of the "screwball" spirit?
4) What don't you understand about the film?

Comedy: Prompt #3

American Film Comedy

Prof. Jay Boyar

jay.boyar@ucf.edu

FIL 4830H

Paper #3

His Girl Friday

“In His Girl Friday, the life of the 'newspaperman' is presented as being naturally subversive.”

Defend the above statement with examples from the film and explain what the film’s journalists attempt to subvert. Please keep in mind that this paper is about how the journalist characters are subversive, not the film as a whole.

Along the way, you may also want to address these questions:

Why do the journalists do what they do?

Are they really as subversive as they seem?

Are they actually more subversive?

At all times, keep in mind our specific definition of “subversive.”

Comedy for 9/10/14

Talking Points for The Miracle of Morgan's Creek?
1) Did you like it? Why or why not?
2) Speculate about what might have struck audiences as shocking about this film in 1944.
3) Speculate about how the film got past the Hays Office censors.
4) Why is the word "Miracle" in the title?
 

Adaptation for 9/8/14

Bringing Up Baby

Reminders:
1) If you've chosen to write Paper 1, it's due this week.
2) Don't forget to highlight those passages in "Bringing Up Baby" about the couple's relationship, and bring that text to class.
3) You should already be reading A Room With a View, especially if you're not a fast reader.
4) We'll watch the film version of Bringing Up Baby this week.

Talking Points for Rear Window:
1) What does Hitchcock substitute for the short story's surprise of the broken leg? 
2) What happens to Sam in the movie?
3) What is this movie really about?

Comedy for 9/3/14

If you're writing the first paper (on A Night at the Opera), remember that it's due on 9/3. Also remember that you must submit at least one paper by 9/17.

Be sure to read the NT Times review of The Miracle of Morgan's Creek by class time.

Talking points for A Night at the Opera:
  1) Who's your favorite Marx Brother?
  2) Why do the characters they play care about the young lovers?
  3) To which economic classes do the various characters in this film belong?