Blood Simple Assignment

Due: Monday, January 23

Blood Simple is from the genre of neo-noir. You have now watched 2 films from the noir category (one American, one French) and one from the category of neo-noir (American). Think about Blood Simple and one of the other films we have watched and discuss one of the following:

•  the role of the female and her relationship with the “bad guy” (who can also be a female) and how this relationship is represented cinematically by the filmmakers
• the “bad guy” and his/her violence and how he/she and the violence is represented cinematically by the filmmakers

For a high grade, you must:

• provide examples from the film to back up your argument
• speak cinematically and use your cinematic vocabulary
• show what you know about the genre of film noir
• include quotes from any film essays you’ve read on the subjects (women, noir, etc.)

Great site for Cinephiles

Movie Title Stills Collection

Rififi

This assignment is MORE practice for the Presentation assessment next year. Choose a 5 minute scene in Rififi to analyze. 

After you have your 5 minute scene chosen, analyze it completely. Remember that you need to mention why you chose the scene and this scene's relation to the film as a whole. In addition, pay close attention to: mise en scene, lighting, camera angles, shot types, etc. Here is a list of items to pay attention to when you are writing your 750 words (at least) and when you are doing your oral presentation:

• How well do I understand how meaning is constructed through the use of film language in this extract?
• How well do I understand the extract’s relationship to the film as a whole?
• How well do I understand the influences of the film’s genre?
• How well can I place the film and this extract in a broader socio-cultural context?
• How insightful is my analysis of the director’s intention?
• How coherent, incisive, insightful, and detailed is my evaluative interpretation of this contract?

Here is a list of "vocab" you can use:
narrative
direction
cinematography
mise-en-scene
lighting (which is often, but not always, considered part of mise-en-scene)
camera movement
editing
sound (diagetic and non-diagetic)

Be sure your paper is AT LEAST 750 words. Let your ideas flow. Don't keep counting words and they will come. I promise you. As you start talking about what you see and hear in the film, you won't want to stop!

Please see me/email me with questions if needed.

Blog Response--Mildred Pierce

I hope you have read the Mulvey article fully. I want you to choose one of the following quotes and respond to the quote using a 5-minute scene in Mildred Pierce. Your response should be at least 3 paragraphs and should include specific examples and another quote from the article to back up your statements. Be thorough. This is due Friday, 1/6.

Statement #1:
"In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its projects its phantasy on to the female figure which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness...This alien presence [of woman] then has to be integrated into cohesion with the narrative. As Budd Boetticher has put it: 'What counts is what the heroine provokes, or rather what she represents. She is the one, or rather the love or fear she inspires in the hero, or else the concern he feels for her, who makes him act the way he does. In herself the woman has not the slightest importance.'"

Statement #2:
"An active/passive heterosexual division of labour has similarly controlled narrative structure. According to the principles of the ruling ideology and the psychical structures that back it up, the male figure cannot bear the burden of sexual objectification. Man is reluctant to gaze at his exhibitionist like. Hence the split between spectacle and narrative supports the man's role as the active one of forwarding the story, making things happen. The man controls the film phantasy and also emerges as the representative of power in a further sense: as the bearer of the look of the spectator, transferring it behind the screen to neutralise the extra-diegetic tendencies represented by woman as spectacle. This is made possible through the processes set in motion by structuring the film around a main controlling figure with whom the spectator can identify."