Comedy for 10/29/14

Reminder: Final Paper conference begin this week. Please wait on the bench near the corridor to my office. Please arrive 5-10 minutes early if at all possible. Bring you Final Paper prompt, filled out as far as you can at this point. Also bring along any questions or issues regarding this course. Scheduled for 10/29 are Maggie (5 pm), Jen (5:10), Katie (5:20), Andrew (5:30), Andrea (5:40), Robert (9 pm), Abin (9:10).

Talking Points for Beetlejuice:
1) Have you seen this film before? Did it seem different in any way this time?
2) Would you call this film subversive? What are its targets?
3) What does this movie have to
say about death?

Adaptation for 10/27/14

Reminder: Bring in the Ghost World graphic novel with two places marked where important information is presented in a mainly visual way.

 

Talking Points for Ghost World:
1) Did you find anything shocking or inappropriate about the graphic novel or film?
2) How would you describe Enid? Becky? Their relationship?
3) What's the meaning of the bus in the graphic novel? In the film?

Comedy for 10/22/14

Talking Points for Sleeper:

1) Which gags did you not understand?
2) What are the targets of the movie's subversion -- both Establishment targets and anti-Establishment targets?
3) Do any scenes remind you of other films we've looked at in class?
4) Have you seen any other films directed by Woody Allen? Which ones?

Comedy for 10/15/14

Talking Points for M*A*S*H

1) Do you like it?

2) What annoys you about it?

3) What are the targets of its subversiveness?

4) What do you think of the shower scene?

Adaptation for 10/13/14

Marilyn Monroe as Miss Casswell and George Sanders as Addison DeWitt in All About Eve 

This week, we'll be watching All About Eve which, at 138 minutes, is the longest film we'll be exploring this semester. This means that there won't be time for much else this week and that we won't have a formal 10-minute break. No papers are due this week, although I do hope to return your papers on Being There.

Comedy for 10/8/14

Talking Points for Dr. Strangelove:
1) Who is the "I" in the movie's subtitle, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb?
2) What do the characters' names mean?
3) What do you make of the disclaimer that precedes the movie?
4) What do you make of the fueling scene that beings the movie?

Adaptation for 10/6/14

We aren't going to watch a film this week. Instead, the entire class meeting will be devoted to discussing the literary and film versions of both A Room With a View and Being There. So you should bring both texts to class with the appropriate passages marked. Again, they are:
  1) A Room with a View: Three passages that highlight characters.
  2) Being There: Two passages that say something about television.

Also, here are some Talking Points for Being There:
  1) What is the final scene of this movie about? (When Chance walks on water.)
  2) What are the novella and movie about?
  3) What are they saying about television?
  4) What are they saying about politics?
  5) What does the title mean?