N.B.: Late-Term Schedule Changes (11/19/03
ff.)
English 3220-02 (#10883): Movies of Spain
Fall 2003: Tuesdays 6:30-9:15p
Wilson Building 103
Dr. Robert W. Hill
Office: Humanities 117
Office Hours: Tuesdays 1:15-1:45p; 5:45-6:15p; Wednesdays 12-12:15p; online,
and by appointment
Telephone
and voice mail: 770-423-6346
E-mails: rhill@kennesaw.edu
AND rhill41@mindspring.com
RWH’s Web Site: http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~rhill
KSU WebCT http://courses.kennesaw.edu
Nicenet.org http://www.nicenet.org [CLASS KEY: 378235E52]
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Nota bene: KSU Statement on Academic
Honesty (8-17-99)
and
KSU Student Code of Conduct
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KSU CATALOG DESCRIPTION:
ENGL 3220.Studies in Film.3-0-3. Prerequisite:ENGL
2110. Analysis of fi lm from such perspectives as
genre, literary and film aesthetics, and literary adaptation. May include
screening of selected films.
TEXTS:
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: MLA, 2003. ISBN 0-87352-986-3.
Stone, Rob. Spanish Cinema: Inside Film. New York: Pearson, 2001. ISBN 0582437156.
Occasional additional readings, listenings (tapes, CDs, etc.) and viewings (movies, TV, etc.).
COURSE GRADING:
Response writing: Almost entirely online, ongoing, at least twice
weekly, at a level that indicates your meaningful engagement with readings
and ideas suggested (a) by your readings, (b) by my occasional study questions,
(c) by class discussions, and (d) by classmates’ online response writings.
("Online" means in contexts available to me and all your classmates:
[1] http://courses.kennesaw.edu and
[2] http://www.nicenet.org/.
You should alternate between WebCT and Nicenet in order to gain confidence with
both, in case one or the other fail us. Do not duplicate your writings in one
place from another.) Responses are graded twice—as of noon on October
9 and December 4—not to be graded as formal essays (spelling, grammar,
etc.). Your week’s responses must be serious, conscientious, not
written all in one day: A or F—nothing in between. Averaged
together, response writings are worth 20% of your grade. (Also see notes on “Response Writing,” below.)
Midterm test, written in a timed manner
outside of class: 30%
Documented essay, a revision in close consultation with your study group of your
midterm, with documentation: 30%
Final examination, written in class at the scheduled exam time: 20%
SCHEDULE OF IN-CLASS
MEETINGS (Tuesdays only):
1. Tuesday, August 19: Introduction to course; Butterfly
(1999). Dir. José Luis Cuerda.
2. Tuesday, August 26: L’Auberge Espagnole
(or Barcelona if L’Auberge Espagnole is not available on DVD,
etc.)
“‘L'Auberge Espagnole’
presents an appealing and persuasive picture of European integration, in which
national differences, which once sparked military and political conflict, are
preserved because they make life sexier and more interesting. The ending,
though, feels like a bit of a cop-out, as Mr. Klapisch decides that Xavier's
pleasant year abroad must yield a lesson.” 30 July 2003 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE3DA163EF935A25756C0A9659C8B63.
Monday, September 1: LABOR DAY, NO KSU
CLASSES.
3. Tuesday, September 2: Intacto (2001); Un
chien Andalou (1928)
“Elegant
and lucid, and inflected with its own weird species of drollery, Intacto is a
cerebral occult thriller from first-time Spanish director Juan Carlos
Fresnadillo, unfolding like a dangerously tricky puzzle, teasing and
provoking.” 30 July 2003 http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Critic_Review/Guardian_Film_of_the_week/0,4267,933854,00.html.
“. . . a collaboration between Buñuel and [Salvador] Dali, remains
the most outrageous introduction to a master filmmaker. ‘Can there be any
spectacle more terrible than the sight of a cloud obscuring the moon at its
full? The prologue can hardly have one indifferent. It tells us that in this
film we must see with a different eye," said director Jean Vigo of Un
Chien Andalou in his 1930 review of the film for Vers un Cinéma Social.’” 30 July 2003 http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/features/luisbunuel.html.
4. Tuesday, September 9: Celos (1999)
“A month before he's to marry
Carmen, Antonio finds a photograph of a man with his arm on her shoulder. The
photograph triggers jealousy: he questions Carmen, Carman's friend Cinta, and
his friend Luis who introduced him to Carmen. Cinta tells Antonio the man's
first name. Carmen tells him that the man meant nothing to her, and that the
photograph was taken before she met Antonio. She loves Antonio and sets out to
wipe the photograph from his mind through exuberant sex, but her ploy backfires
and Antonio remains fixated. Slowly he finds out about the man, and about
Carmen's past. Will jealousy consume this couple or can they find a way to kill
the green-eyed monster?” 30 July 2003 http://us.imdb.com/Plot?0212854.
5. Tuesday, September 16: El Espinazo del
Diablo (2001)
“With the ambitious and
ominous ‘The Devil's Backbone,’ [Guillermo del Toro] rises to a new level of accomplishment, adding history and
politics to his distinctive blend. One would think the Spanish Civil War
produced enough horrors without adding a ghost craving vengeance. That hasn't
stopped Del Toro, whose evocation of the supernatural adds tragic resonance to
a fable set against that painful conflict.” 30 July 2003 http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-movie000099086dec14.story.
6. Tuesday, September 23: All about My Mother
(1999)
“Not to take anything away
from his movie--it's a lovely work--but Almodóvar arrived as a world-class
director 15 years ago, when his silly, campy, and impassioned melodramas were
like joyous dances on Gen. Franco's tomb. His new work is his most sober, maybe
because his alter ego--an 18-year-old devoted son, aspiring writer, and
worshipper of flamboyant actresses--gets run over by a car while chasing an
actress (who'd just played Blanche DuBois) for her autograph.” 30 July 2003 http://slate.msn.com/id/56558.
7. Tuesday, September 30: Amantes (1991)
“In addition to a first-rate
narrative, "Lovers" has two central characters of some complexity.
Luisa is the more dominant, showy personality, but Trini is no less important,
a young woman whose mild manners hide a puritanical resolve of a ferocity to
make Luisa's grand passions look petty.” 30 July 2003 http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/review.html?title1=&title2=LOVERS%20%28MOVIE%29&reviewer=Vincent%20Canby&v_id=78936.
8. Tuesday, October 7: Tristana (1970)
“One of Buñuel's best films
which had been inexplicably overshadowed by Belle de Jour, but which in
fact is far superior both in terms of aesthetics and in terms of insight. Set
in Toledo during the 1930s it scrutinizes on several levels the relationship
between Don Lope (Fernando Rey), an old conservative gentleman and Tristana
(Catherine Deneuve) who becomes his ward and eventually his mistress. However
she starts seeing Horacio (Franco Nero) a young painter but as she becomes
seriously ill and her leg is aputated it is vengeance that she seems to be
seeking.” 30 July 2003 http://www.eufs.org.uk/films/tristana.html.
Thursday, October 9: First grade for
response writing through noon today
Monday, October 13: Last day to withdraw
without academic penalty.
9. Tuesday, October 14: El Cid (1961)
“At three hours, the epic ‘El
Cid’ was long in 1961. And it only seems longer 32 years later in its
refurbished version. Of course the saga of Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar was many years
longer when it unfolded in 11th-century Spain. It was a time of feudal
intrigues and invasions by dastardly Moors from North Africa. As a priest
surveys a town wrecked by marauding Moors, he quiveringly implores: ‘Father,
please send us someone who will take us to the light,’ and before the sentence
is finished, Charlton Heston strides into the frame, ready to carry a cross
(and this film) on his back.” 30 July 2003 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/elcidnrharrington_a0ab7d.htm.
10.
Tuesday, October 21: CLASS CANCELLED
11.
Tuesday, October 28: Viridiana (1961)
“More
than 40 years after its original release, Viridiana remains one of the
most shocking films ever made. In 1960, Franco invited the long-exiled Buñuel
to return to his native Spain to produce a film completely to his liking. Ask
and you shall receive: Viridiana was Buñuel's supreme ‘f*** you’ to the
Spanish dictator and his political bedfellows, including the Catholic Church.
Upon its release, the Vatican and Franco's government immediately condemned the
film. Not surprisingly, Viridiana went on to win the Palm d'Or at the
Cannes Film Festival.” 30 July 2003 http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/features/luisbunuel.html.
12. Tuesday, November 4: The Discreet Charm of
the Bourgeoisie (1972)
“Dinner is the central social
ritual of the middle classes, a way of displaying wealth and good manners. It
also offers the convenience of something to do (eat) and something to talk
about (the food), and that is a great relief, since so many of the bourgeoisie
have nothing much to talk about, and there are a great many things they hope
will not be mentioned. The joke in "The Discreet Charm of the
Bourgeoisie" is the way Bunuel interrupts the meals with the secrets that
lurk beneath the surface of his decaying European aristocracy: witlessness,
adultery, drug dealing, cheating, military coups, perversion and the paralysis
of boredom.” 30 July 2003 http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert_reviews/2000/06/062501.html.
Because of time restraints, this movie à has been deleted
from schedule. For those who are interested, it is readily available at
Blockbuster, et al. à Lucía y el sexo (2001): “As soon as it was
over, I wanted to watch it again immediately – and not just for the volcanic
lovemaking. I liked it, but I kind of needed a refresher course five seconds
into the closing credits. / Involutely constructed as a kind of cyclical novel
within a film, and, in fact, incorporating two separate scripts – one of which
began life as a book by writer-director Julio (‘Lovers of the Arctic Circle’)
Medem – ‘S&L’ doesn't always bother to make explicit what's happening now,
what's happening in flashback and what's happening within the pages of the
novel being written by one of the main characters, a novel whose plot happens
to be based on the events of the film. Got that?” 30 July 2003 http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=style/movies/reviews&contentId=A63288-2002Jul25¬Found=true.
13. Tuesday, November 11: Talk to Her
(2002)
“Accepting an Academy Award for
best original screenplay March 23, Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar
courageously spoke out against the US war against Iraq and dedicated his Oscar
to its opponents. If only Talk to Her had been crafted with the same
degree of thought and principle! It would have been a far more profound work,
and the pervasive emotionalism of the film so bragged about by the filmmaker
and touted by film critics would have been far more purposeful.” 30 July 2003 http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/mar2003/talk-m27.shtml.
14. Tuesday, November 18: Full-class (6:30-9:15
p.m.) work in study groups in class, with peripatetic professor.
15. Tuesday, November
25: No class meeting: Professor Hill available for pre-arranged appointments on
Monday and Tuesday, November 24-25, almost anytime up to 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Wednesday, November 26-30: FALL BREAK,
NO KSU CLASSES
16. Tuesday, December 2: Abre los
ojos (1997)
What is waking?
What is dream? What is reality? What is fantasy? What is sanity? What is
madness?
Such questions pervade "Open Your Eyes," a
psychological thriller directed by Alejandro Amenabar. "Open Your
Eyes," which darts among such relative novelties as virtual reality and
cryogenics, is at bottom a retelling of the story of Job for a vain,
materialistic, selfish age.
Handsomely filmed in Madrid with an attractive cast,
this Spanish feature is unlikely to satisfy those who insist on linear
storytelling and pat endings. But in its deliberately vexing way, "Open
Your Eyes" is a film with enough intellectual meat on its stylish bones to
give more adventurous moviegoers something to chew on afterward.
Thursday, December 4: Second grade for response writing
through noon today; Documented Essay (MLA format, hardcopy and e-copy) due
before 6:30 p.m.
17. Tuesday, December 9: Final Examination, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
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Here are
several ways we’ll establish and maintain an active learning community during
this semester:
(a)
Inform
me immediately about your access to and skill with computer technology;
(b)
Follow
our evolving syllabus at my KSU web site (http://ksumail.kennesaw.edu/~rhill);
(c) Send a “Here I am” message to BOTH my
e-mail addresses above, including your most accessible telephone number(s);
(d) Using the Class Key that
I will announce the first night [CLASS
KEY: 378646E23], join our class at http://www.nicenet.org;
(e)
Using your WebCT number and PIN number, join our Web CT
class at http://courses.kennesaw.edu/webct/public/home.pl?action=print_home;
(f)
Spend
at least fifteen minutes twice a week online, writing thoughtful responses to our
readings/viewings, class discussions, classmates’ writings, etc., being sure
all the while to maintain civil, respectful, considerate rhetoric in dealing with
our co-workers in this important enterprise. (I will read everything but will
intrude rarely.)
(g)
Meeting
only once a week, we simply must be together in class unless a genuine
emergency prevents (usually medical).
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
(a) To read—that is, to view—and analyze
movies of Spain, including representations of Spanish culture in movies made
elsewhere;
(b) To examine how movies affect us
aesthetically, how they stir and direct our emotions and intellect at once, how
movie-makers employ tradition and innovation in their art, and how movie-makers
have responded to the cultural framework within which their works have been
created;
(c) To analyze how movie/literary critics
think about and explain theories and practices in movie-making;
(d) To sharpen and strengthen skills in
critical thinking, reading, writing, and speaking through class discussion and
writing assignments in various modes;
(e) To develop and encourage independent
thinking and group participation;
(f) To experience pleasure in the literary
acts of studying movies and written texts and exchanging ideas and information
with other members of a literary/cinematic community
EVALUATION PROCEDURES: Your final grade will be determined
according to the following formula:
(a) Average of two grades on response
writings—20% (A or F, graded at midterm and at end of course)
(b) Midterm essay exam—30%
(c) Documented essay, 2000-2500 words (using MLA, APA, or other standard
documentation form) composed in close consultation with study group—30%
(d) Final essay exam—20%.
ATTENDANCE POLICY:
Because this is an upper-division class,
I consider attendance a matter of student responsibility. However, my
experience has been that students who miss more than one week’s worth of
classes (that would be only ONE class, this term) generally find themselves
unable to participate or to perform at acceptable levels. The assumption in all
upper-division English classes, for me, is that students want to be here and
thus will be here.
Usually, we will begin viewing movies no
later than 6:45p, following preliminary comments and/or handouts, with
discussion to follow until 9:15p. In my opinion, persistent tardiness and/or
leaving class early is the equivalent of an absence.
If you are
absent, I expect you to communicate with me as soon as possible—in person, by
telephone, or in writing—about any work that you miss. Students should not miss
class on a regular basis with no explanation and expect, at the
end of the course, to receive special consideration of any kind.
CLASSROOM DECORUM:
Turn off all electronic communication devices—cell phones, beepers, etc.—before
entering the classroom. These devices are inappropriate in the classroom
setting. All students are expected to focus their attention on the class
activity throughout the scheduled meeting time: it’s only 165 minutes a week.
RESPONSE
WRITING:
Response writings
will not be graded for grammar, spelling, mechanics, etc., but for their
regular, conscientious contribution to our ongoing class discussion. Unless otherwise instructed, you should post
these responses to Nicenet or WebCT for classmates’ edification and delight. Spend at least fifteen minutes twice a
week online, writing thoughtful responses to our
readings/viewings, class discussions, classmates’ writings, etc., being sure
all the while to maintain civil, respectful, considerate rhetoric in dealing
with our co-workers in this important enterprise. (I will read everything but
will intrude rarely.) Do NOT duplicate responses, but you must
have roughly equal numbers of responses at each site.
[I must
say that it grieves me to have to lay out such prescriptive, quantitative
details. Writing these responses should become second nature, proceeding from
your active engagement in this conversation of scholars. When and if you think
of this assignment as a task to be completed only with numerical exactitude,
you have already limited the way you can be drawn into genuine exchanges with
your classmates and—to speak somewhat abstractly—with ideas. Engagement is
really the key—honest engagement, which will inevitably produce more than the
minimum of “assignments met.” As students of yourselves as well as of
subject matter, you ought to feel some obligation to think about how and why
you think the way you do. Playing on the relatively safe testing-ground of
academia, you’ll gain much more strength and subtlety by entering the game
without the impediment of legalistic numbers-counting.—RWH, 10/17/03]
Formal writing
assignments, however—especially the documented essay—must demonstrate a serious
effort to deal with writing problems that have been pointed out in earlier
written work. In addition to my comments on your papers and in class lectures,
I will be glad to work with you during office hours to facilitate your
improvement as a writer. You can also work with the Writing Center (located on
the second floor of the Humanities Building: 770-423-6380) on those elements of
the writing process that give you trouble.
EXPECTATIONS:
I expect students to take their work
seriously, to come to class prepared and willing to participate, and to treat
peers and their ideas with respect.
Response writings
serve several functions in this class. They can be the basis for class
discussion when they are written at the beginning of class; they can guide your
preparation for the following class when they are written during or at the end
of the period. Those responses written at the end can also indicate to me
material that needs further explanation or development at the next meeting. I
expect you always to use those writing assignments to develop your ideas and to
improve and strengthen your writing abilities. I see these papers serving you
as an ongoing dialogue with yourself about issues raised in the course
objectives and evolving ideas that will emerge in our class discussions.
All writing and
discussion in this course will be formulated with the course objectives (stated
above) in mind; that is, I expect you to consider the literature we study in
the context of the issues of 21st-century life and aesthetics. In addition,
you need to be aware that such movies often reflect realities of the
contemporary world in rather graphic ways. If such depictions are troubling to
you, you need to raise those concerns with me at the beginning of the semester.
In some cases, this course might not be the right course for students with such
reservations.
I expect students
to read well, think well, write well, and speak well as members of this English
3220 community. And enjoy the ride.—RWH, 8/18/03
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Return to R.W. Hill's KSU Home Page
http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~rhill
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[This page was created 30 July 2003; last revised, 19
Nov. 2003.--RWH]