You are expected to use ONLY course materials (the films, Fabes book, assigned readings, the recommended textbook, lecture slides and notes) to help you answer the questions. These are the only sources that you are permitted to use for your answers. Do not use any other sources, print or online.
You must properly cite your uses of the texts, including but not limited to quotations. Please use either Chicago or MLA style. All exams will be checked for plagiarism. Plagiarism is grounds for failing the exam and disciplinary action. Please work alone and do not confer with your classmates. If you wish to cite the lectures you can mark them in a footnote or parenthetical citation by the video number and time code (eg., Module 4.3, 15:38). If you are doing MLA style citations, you do not need to include the lectures in your works cited list.
*TIP: When using texts in your answer, you are looking to support your claim. This does not necessarily mean finding a moment in which the author says something directly about the film you are discussing. Instead, this might mean looking to her on a certain topic (like on editing, or a type of shot, or a definition of modernism, etc. etc.). Just because the author doesn’t write about the specific film you are discussing, this does not mean that she doesn’t have anything to say that will support your claim.
Please spend as much time on the questions as you wish. Answers average around 900-1250 words for each question (2 questions in total). You may write more if you wish. Upload your exams (12pt font, double spaced,) IN A SINGLE PDF FILE to the Carmen assignment.
ANSWER 2 OF THE 3 QUESTIONS IN YOUR ESSAY:
QUESTION 1 (100 Points)
We watched two examples of Russian cinema this semester: Serge Eisensteins Battleship Potemkin (1925) and Alexander Sokurovs Russian Ark (2002). Despite the filmmakers shared geographic origin, Eisensteins film differs significantly from Sokurovs. First and foremost, Battleship Potemkin was shot on film, whereas Sokurovs Russian Ark was shot with digital video.
Please write an essay comparing Battleship Potemkin with Russian Ark.
In your answer, explain how the filmmaker explores the specific formal, material, and aesthetic qualities of the medium in which he worked (film for Eisenstein, digital video for Sokurov) and how these choices affect the viewers experience.
In your essay please explain the differences between film and digital video.
What is possible or necessary in one medium that isnt in the other?
How does the medium that each director uses help him to make his point?
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QUESTION 2 (100 Points)
Despite their great differences, we discussed both Woody Allens Annie Hall (USA, 1977) and Nelson Pereira dos Santoss How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman (Brazil, 1971) as postmodern films.
Please write an essay in which you consider how each film is postmodern.
Produce a definition of postmodernism and how it operates in film, and support this definition with specific examples from each film.
What is the effect of the postmodern moves in each film?
How does each film and its particular postmodern gestures speak to the cultural and political context in which it was created?
Please draw upon the course texts and detailed analysis of specific scenes in supporting your answer.
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QUESTION 3 (100 points)
One could argue that Rashmon and Rear Window are films about point of view. Please write an essay arguing this point, explaining how one of these films uses the concept of point of view to create the narrative structure.
What is point of view and how does it function in the film?
Describe how the director constructs point of view through stylistic choices in cinematography and editing.
How does point of view shape the narrative and the viewers access to information and truth in the story?
Why can one say that this film is about point of view?
Please use examples of specific scenes, sequences, and shots from the film to support your answer. [*You may want to look back to earlier weeks in which we dealt with point of view shots, such as Module 3)
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