IB FILM II SUMMER ASSIGNMENT:

Transcription

1 IB FILM II SUMMER ASSIGNMENT: In order to ensure your success on the IB assessments and in Film II next year, you will begin working on your Independent Study over the summer. Not only are these steps necessary to your completion of the course, but these assignments will represent a significant portion of the 1 st quarter grade. 1. Choose your topic: Among the topics students may choose to investigate are: genre, theme, direction, use of sound, colour, editing, lighting. The topic should be discussed primarily in cinematic terms. 2. Identify 4 films that would work with your topic: a. Identify the film, director, country, and year of the films. One of the films MUST be representative of a culture other than your own. 3. Write your Rationale a. Rationale must offer a brief, reasoned explanation of the concerns explored by the topic in no more than 100 words 4. Begin your research a. Watch 3 of the films that you identified. b. Complete the film study questions for each film. Topic/Rationale Examples: Topic: Magical Realism in Films: A comparative study of how directors use different methods to illustrate the magical aspects in otherwise ordinary events. Rationale My documentary examines how different cinematic techniques are used to portray magical realism within films. The directors of Amelie, Big Fish, The Fall and The Taste of Tea employ such techniques in order to reveal not only the magical aspects of the ordinary, but also to deliver a simple, yet meaningful message often concerning matters of family and love. The highly stylized filming characteristics of each director help create a strong characterization, thus drawing the audience into the magically ordinary (or rather the ord~nqrily magical) world that is created. ~ Word Count: 89 Topic: The Representation of Addiction in Drug Films Rationale The drug film genre itself is hard to define as directors have loose genre conventions to follow, so the approach to representing drugs can vary away different directors. To find the different representations offered about addictions, I would be looking at four different films: Oslo, August 31st (2011), Requiem for a Dream (2000), City of God (2002) and Trainspotting (1996). I have looked at these films through genre conventions, and textual analysis. Through this, I have concluded that representations of addiction differ because of mainstream or realist conventions being adopted by the

2 director, where mainstream films offer an exaggerated representation, but realist is pragmatic. Word Count: 100 More Topic Examples: Rites of passage: A study of cinematic representation of adolescence (and/or childhood) The outsider: A study of how representations of the outsider are constructed, with particular reference to the films of Akira Kurosawa and their Western remakes Propaganda and film: A study of film as political and/or social propaganda Images of horror: A study of the development of horror films through cinematic techniques (or their reflections of cultural fears)

3 FILM STUDY QUESTIONS Student Name: Date: 1. Name of Film 2. Director s Name 3. Culture Represented 4. Release Date of Film 5. IMDB Rating 6. Does the beginning of the film get your attention and interest? 7. Are you able to "suspend disbelief" -- able to forget that you are watching a film rather than witnessing real-life experiences? 8. Do the characters seem real? 9. Describe how one character is established in an early scene. 10. When the actors talk, do they seem involved in real conversations or are they just reading lines? 11. Do the characters' actions make sense in the context of the film? 12. Is the plot linear? If not, how is it structured? 13. Does the story move along, keeping your attention all the way? 14. Is the story confusing? 15. Does the story build to an exciting climax? 16. Describe the climatic moment. 17. Are any scenes unnecessary -- in particular, violent scenes just inserted for their own sake? 18. Do the sets, lighting, and camera shots add to or detract from the film? 19. Describe the mis en scene of an impactful scene. 20. Do the sound effects and music add to or detract from the film? 21. Does the film end in a logical place -- or stop too soon or go on too long? 22. Is it a good film -- and why or why not?

4 SAMPLE TOPIC/RATIONALE: How is Tim Burton s A Nightmare Before Christmas a neo-expressionistic film? Modern Tragedy Depicted Through Film

5 IB Film List 1. After Hours/Scorsese 2. The African Queen/Huston 3. L Age d Or/Bunuel* 4. Aguirre, the Wrath of God/Herzog 5. All About Eve/Mankiewicz 6. All About My Mother/Almodovar* 7. All Quiet on the Western Front/Milestone 8. Amarcord/Fellini * 9. Amator/Camera Buff/Kieslowski 10. American Beauty/Mendes * 11. American Graffiti/Lucas 12. A Nous La Liberte/Clair 13. Annie Hall/Allen 14. The Apartment/Wilder 15. Apocalypse Now/Coppola * 16. The Apu Trilogy/Ray 17. Arsenic and Old Lace/Capra 18. Ashes and Diamonds/Wajda 19. The Asphalt Jungle/Huston 20. L Atlalante/Vigo 21. Au Revoir Les Enfants/Malle 22. L Avventura/Antonioni 23. The Awful Truth/McCarey 24. A Woman Under the Influence/Cassavetes* 25. Bananas/Allen 26. Battleship Potemkin/Eisenstein 27. Being There/Ashby 28. The Best Years of Our Lives/Wyler 29. Beauty and the Beast/Cocteau 30. Bicycle Thieves/De Sica 31. Big Fish/Burton * 32. The Big Sleep/Hawkes 33. The Big Heat/Lang 34. Billy Liar/Schlesinger 35. The Birds/Hitchcock 36. Birth of a Nation/Griffiths 37. Black Orpheus/Camus 38. Blackmail/Hitchcock 39. Blade Runner/Scott 40. Blazing Saddles/Brooks 41. The Blue Angel/Von Sternberg 42. Blue Velvet/Lynch* 43. Bob Le Flambeur/Melville 44. Bonnie and Clyde/Penn* 45. Bowling for Columbine/Moore * 46. Boys in the Hood/Singleton 47. Breathless/Godard 48. Bride of Frankenstein/Whale 49. The Bride Wore Black/Truffaut 50. Brief Encounter/Lean 51. Bringing Up Baby/Hawkes 52. Brokeback Mountain/Lee* 53. Burn!/Pontecorvo* 54. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid/Hill 55. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari/Wiene 56. Cat People/ Tourneur 57. Curse of the Cat People/Wise 58. Casablanca/Curtiz 59. Charade/Donen 60. Children of Paradise/Carne 61. Chinatown/Polanski * 62. Cinema Paradiso/Tornatore 63. Citizen Kane/Welles 64. City Lights/Chaplin 65. City of God/Meirelles^* 66. The Class/Laurent 67. The Conformist/Bertolucci* 68. The Conversation/Coppola 69. The Counterfeiters/ Ruzowitxky* 70. Crimes and Misdemeanors/Allen 71. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon/Lee 72. The Crowd/Vidor 73. Cutter s Way/Passer 74. Day for Night/Truffaut 75. Days of Heaven/Malick 76. The Decalogue/Kieslowski 77. The Deer Hunter/Cimino * 78. Diabolique/Clouzot 79. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly/Schnabel 80. Doctor Strangelove/Kubrick 81. La Dolce Vita/Fellini 82. Do the Right Thing/Lee 83. Double Indemnity/Wilder 84. Dracula/Browning 85. Duck Soup/McCarey 86. The Earrings of Madame de /Ophuls 87. East of Eden/Kazan 88. Easy Rider/Hopper* 89. Ed Wood/Burton /2/Fellini 91. Elephant/Van Sant 92. Entr acte (Clair)

6 93. E.T. The Extra Terrestrial 94. The Exorcist/Friedkin* 95. Fantasia/Armstrong, Algar et al 96. Farewell My Concubine/Chen 97. Fargo/Coen Brothers* 98. Fight Club/Fincher* 99. A Fish Called Wanda/Charles Crichton 100. A Fistful of Dollars/Leone 101. Forbidden Games/Clement 102. The Four Hundred Blows/Truffaut 103. Frankenstein/Whale 104. Fury/Lang 105. The Garden of Finzi-Continis/De Sica* 106. The General/Keaton 107. Giant/Stevens 108. Glengarry Glen Ross/Foley 109. The Godfather/Coppola * 110. The Godfather II/Coppola * 111. Gojira/Honda 112. The Gold Rush/Chaplin 113. Gomorrah/Garrone* 114. Gone with the Wind/Fleming 115. Goodfellas/Scorsese* 116. The Graduate/Nichols 117. Grand Hotel/Goulding 118. La Grande Illusion/Renoir 119. Grapes of Wrath/Ford 120. Gun Crazy/Lewis 121. La Haine /Kassovitz* 122. Hiroshima Mon Amour/Resnais 123. Hud/Ritt 124. A Hard Days Night/Lester 125. His Girl Friday/Hawkes 126. High and Low/Kurosawa 127. High Noon/Zinnemann 128. Jaws/Spielberg 129. La Jetee/Marker 130. Ju Dou/Yimou 131. Jules and Jim/Truffaut 132. King Kong/Cooper and Schoedsack 133. I Know Where I m Going/Powell and Pressburger 134. Ikiru/Kurosawa 135. If /Anderson 136. In Bruges/McDonagh 137. In a Lonely Place/Ray 138. The Informer/Ford 139. Inglorious Basterds/Tarentino* 140. Intolerance/Griffith 141. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)/Siegel 142. It Happened One Night/Capra 143. The Killing/Kubrick 144. Kind Hearts and Coronets/Hamer 145. The King of Comedy/Scorsese 146. Knife in the Water/Polanski 147. The Lady Eve/Sturges 148. The Ladykillers/Mackendrick 149. The Lady from Shanghai/Welles 150. The Lady Vanishes/Hitchcock 151. The Last Picture Show/Bogdanavich 152. Last Year at Marienbad/Resnais 153. The Last Wave/Weir 154. The Lavender Hill Mob/Crichton 155. Lawrence of Arabia/Lean 156. The Last Laugh/Murnau 157. Laura/Preminger 158. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp/Powell and Pressburger 159. Little Caesar/LeRoy 160. The Lives of Others/Henckel von Donnersmarck* 161. The Lodger/Hitchcock 162. The Long Good Friday/Mackenzie 163. This Sporting Life/Anderson 164. M/Lang 165. Maltese Falcon/Huston 166. The Manchurian Candidate/Frankenheimer 167. Man of Aran/Flaherty 168. Man on Wire/Marsh 169. Man with a Camera/Vertov 170. Manhattan/Allen 171. Marnie/Hitchcock 172. The Marriage of Maria Braun/Fassbinder 173. M*A*S*H*/Altman 174. Matchpoint/Allen* 175. A Matter of Life and Death/Stairway to Heaven/Powell and Pressburger 176. Mean Streets/Scorsese 177. Melvin and Howard/Demme 178. Memento/Nolan* 179. Meshes of the Afternoon/Deren 180. Metropolis/Lang 181. Midnight Cowboy/Schlesinger* 182. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington/Capra 183. Monty Python and the Holy Grail/Gilliam & Jones 184. Modern Times/Chaplin 185. My Dinner with Andre/Malle 186. Nanook of the North/Flaherty 187. Nashville/Altman* 188. Night and Fog/Resnais 189. Nights of Cabiria/Fellini 190. The Night of the Hunter/Laughton 191. No Country for Old Men/Coen Brothers 192. North by Northwest/Hitchcock 193. Nosferatu/Murnau 194. Notorious/Hitchcock 195. Olympia/Reifenstahl 196. One Flew Over the Cuckoo s Nest/Forman

7 197. On the Waterfront/Kazan 198. Open City/Rosselini 199. Out of the Past/Tourneur 200. Paisan/Rosselini 201. Pan s Labyrinth/del Toro* 202. Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)/Dreyer 203. Paths of Glory/Kubrick 204. Persona/Bergman* 205. Philadelphia/Spielberg* 206. The Pianist/Polanski 207. Pickpocket/Bresson 208. The Pink Panther/Edwards 209. Play it Again, Sam/Allen 210. Plein Soleil (Purple Noon)/Clement 211. Potemkin/Eisenstein 212. The Producers/Brooks 213. Psycho/Hitchcock* 214. Pulp Fiction/Tarentino* 215. The Public Enemy/Wellman 216. Purple Rose of Cairo/Allen 217. Raise the Red Lantern/Yi-mou 218. Rashomon/Kurosawa 219. Ratcatcher/Ramsey* 220. Raging Bull/Scorsese * 221. Rebel without a Cause/Ray 222. Rebecca/Hitchcock 223. The Red Shoes/Powell 224. Rear Window/Hitchcock 225. Room at the Top/Clayton 226. Rope/Hitchcock 227. Rosemary s Baby/Polanski 228. Rules of the Game/Renoir 229. Sabotage/Hitchcock 230. Sanjuro/Kurosawa 231. Sans Soleil/Marker* 232. Saving Private Ryan/Spielberg 233. Scarface/Hawks 234. Schindler s List/Spielberg* 235. The Seventh Seal/Bergman 236. The Searchers/Ford 237. The Secret in Their Eyes/Campanella* 238. The Seven Samurai/Kurosawa 239. Shadow of a Doubt/Hitchcock 240. Shane/Stevens 241. Sherlock Jr./Keaton 242. The Shining/Kubrick* 243. Shoot the Piano Player/Truffaut 244. The Shop Around the Corner/Lubitsch 245. The Shop on Main Street/Kadar and Klos 246. The Silence of the Lambs/Demme 247. Singing in the Rain/Donen 248. The Sixth Sense/Shyamalan 249. Sleeper/Allen 250. Smiles of a Summer Night/Bergman 251. Some Like it Hot/Wilder 252. The Sorrow and the Pity/Ophuls 253. Spellbound/Hitchcock 254. Stagecoach/Ford 255. Stalag 17/Wilder 256. Stardust Memories/Allen 257. Star Wars/Lucas 258. La Strada/Fellini* 259. Strangers on a Train/Hitchcock 260. A Streetcar Named Desire/Kazan 261. Sundays and Cybele/Bourguignon 262. Sunset Boulevard/Wilder 263. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans/Murnau 264. Sullivan s Travels/Sturges 265. Sweet Smell of Success/Mackendrick 266. Take the Money and Run/Allen 267. Talk to Her/Almodovar* 268. A Taste of Honey/Richardson 269. Taxi Driver/Scorsese* 270. Ten Days That Shook The World/Eisenstein 271. The Testament of Dr. Mabuse/Lang 272. A Thousand Clowns/Coe 273. The Thin Man/Van Dyke 274. The Thin Red Line/Malick* 275. The Third Man/Reed 276. The Thirty-Nine Steps/Hitchcock 277. Three Colors Trilogy/Kieslowski 278. This Happy Breed/Lean 279. Throne of Blood/Kurosawa 280. Through a Glass Darkly/Bergman 281. To Kill a Mockingbird/Mulligan 282. Tokyo Story/Ozu 283. Touch of Evil/Welles : A Space Odyssey/Kubrick 285. Trouble in Paradise/Lubitsch 286. Tsotsi/Hood 287. Ugetsu Monogatori/Mizoguchi 288. Un Chien Andalou/Bunuel 289. Umberto D/De Sica 290. The Unforgiven/Eastwood 291. Vertigo/Hitchcock 292. The Wages of Fear/Clouzot 293. Waltz with Bashir/Forman* 294. West Side Story/Robbins and Wise 295. Whistle Down the Wind/Forbes 296. The Wild Child/Truffaut 297. Wild Strawberries/Bergman 298. Wings of Desire/Wenders 299. The Wizard of Oz/Fleming 300. The Wrong Man/Hitchcock 301. Young Frankenstein/Brooks 302. Zelig/Allen 303. Zero de Conduite/Vigo

8 FILM STUDY QUESTIONS CITE ALL SOURCES BACKGROUND Who is the writer of the film? Has the screenplay been adapted from another work? Who is the director? Who/what is the director influenced by? When was the film made? Where was the film made? What was the critical and audience reception of the film at the time it was released? What do scholars say about the film now? STRUCTURE / FORM What does the title mean in relation to the film as a whole? How are the opening credits presented? Do they relate to meaning? Why does the film start in the way that it does? Are there any motifs (scenes, images) of dialogue which are repeated? What purpose do they serve? What genre is the film? What plot and/or cinematic elements define the genre? What three or four sequences are most important in the film? Why? Is sound used in any vivid ways either to enhance the film? (i.e. Enhance drama, heighten tension, disorient the viewer, etc.) How does the film use color or light/dark to suggest tone and mood in different scenes?

9 Are there any striking uses of perspective (seeing through a character's eyes, camera angle, etc.) How does this relate to the meaning of the scene? How and when are scenes cut? Are there any patterns in the way the cuts function? What specific scene constitutes the film's climax? How does this scene resolve the central issue of the film? Does the film leave any disunities (loose ends) at the end? If so, what does it suggest? Why does the film conclude on this particular image?