wherein Liz blathers about her film class
Nov. 30th, 2003 03:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingI am never going to take a film course again. I don't think I can take it. See, films have a certain immediacy for me that books and poems lack -- their effects may not linger as long or affect my overall perspective as much, but they tend to sock me pretty hard in the gut over the short term. I can't take the emotional manipulation of good films. Schlock action movies, sure, but what film course will focus on those without sucking the life out of them?
This decision brought to you by my recent re-viewing of "Life Is Beautiful" and "The Great Dictator."
Speaking of which, I have to write a 15-page paper on "The Great Dictator" by Thursday. Yipe! I have decided to analyze it with reference to "Modern Times," Chaplin's other great "the world is going down the tubes, you bastards -- wake up and do something about it!" movie of the Depression/WWII era. See, "Modern Times" already has the themes of the persecuted underclass and the omnipresent and somewhat prejudiced police forces, plus the implication, via the department store scenes, that the rich are too rich (at the expense of the poor).
"The Great Dictator" carries those themes to a new height, with a truly oppressed underclass (note that all the Jewish characters we see are working-class) and a really nasty police force and heartless overclass. Note how the elegance of the department store (which is still a human sort of elegance, as exemplified by the soft robe and comfortable bed) has changed into the austere and empty extravagance of Hynkel's palace. Beds we need. Barber shops with goldfish swimming behind glass walls, we do not.
Also, in "The Great Dictator" Chaplin emphasizes the split between the Aryan overclass and the persecuted Jewish underclass by splitting the traits of his classic Little Tramp character. Hynkel gets the elegance and the showmanship; the barber gets the diffidence and kindly everyman qualities. Both, however, still have awful circumstantial luck. At the end of the movie, Hynkel is in a concentation camp and the barber has just delivered a speech that is likely to expose him as an impostor -- this can be interpreted as a symbol of how the growing separation of people by false lines (economic classes, racial/religious groupings) leads to the ultimate downfall of both groups. Also, it only allows people to express certain facets of their humanity, instead of becoming full people. The barber finally reaches his full potential during his speech, in which he becomes very eloquent instead of bumbling. This is a sort of echo of "Modern Times" where nobody realizes what the Little Tramp can do until (when singing at the nightclub) he's finally put into a situation where he can shine, where people don't automatically expect him to be a working-class failure.
Hmmm. Now that I think about it, one could say something about communication and creativity in both films, but that I will work out another day. Along with the pastoral imagery and the condemnation of the increasing mechanized organization of society. My brain hurts.
On the writing front, I have not gotten around to editing Secrets chapter 6 yet. Too much other stuff to think about! (Plus it doesn't seem to format properly on my parents' computer -- silly incompatible programs from different years!)
This decision brought to you by my recent re-viewing of "Life Is Beautiful" and "The Great Dictator."
Speaking of which, I have to write a 15-page paper on "The Great Dictator" by Thursday. Yipe! I have decided to analyze it with reference to "Modern Times," Chaplin's other great "the world is going down the tubes, you bastards -- wake up and do something about it!" movie of the Depression/WWII era. See, "Modern Times" already has the themes of the persecuted underclass and the omnipresent and somewhat prejudiced police forces, plus the implication, via the department store scenes, that the rich are too rich (at the expense of the poor).
"The Great Dictator" carries those themes to a new height, with a truly oppressed underclass (note that all the Jewish characters we see are working-class) and a really nasty police force and heartless overclass. Note how the elegance of the department store (which is still a human sort of elegance, as exemplified by the soft robe and comfortable bed) has changed into the austere and empty extravagance of Hynkel's palace. Beds we need. Barber shops with goldfish swimming behind glass walls, we do not.
Also, in "The Great Dictator" Chaplin emphasizes the split between the Aryan overclass and the persecuted Jewish underclass by splitting the traits of his classic Little Tramp character. Hynkel gets the elegance and the showmanship; the barber gets the diffidence and kindly everyman qualities. Both, however, still have awful circumstantial luck. At the end of the movie, Hynkel is in a concentation camp and the barber has just delivered a speech that is likely to expose him as an impostor -- this can be interpreted as a symbol of how the growing separation of people by false lines (economic classes, racial/religious groupings) leads to the ultimate downfall of both groups. Also, it only allows people to express certain facets of their humanity, instead of becoming full people. The barber finally reaches his full potential during his speech, in which he becomes very eloquent instead of bumbling. This is a sort of echo of "Modern Times" where nobody realizes what the Little Tramp can do until (when singing at the nightclub) he's finally put into a situation where he can shine, where people don't automatically expect him to be a working-class failure.
Hmmm. Now that I think about it, one could say something about communication and creativity in both films, but that I will work out another day. Along with the pastoral imagery and the condemnation of the increasing mechanized organization of society. My brain hurts.
On the writing front, I have not gotten around to editing Secrets chapter 6 yet. Too much other stuff to think about! (Plus it doesn't seem to format properly on my parents' computer -- silly incompatible programs from different years!)
