Learning on ScreenFilm Studies for FE
Now, all of these films have artistic merit and are of historical significance and may need to be referenced at some point but short clips can act as illustration initially. What do they have in common? In general, from the student’s perspective, they are ‘old, black and white and boring.’ At one stage I banned the use of the word ‘boring’ in class telling students that they must explain their reaction (to Potempkin for example) by saying something along the lines of ‘the lack of a central character makes audience engagement difficult’ but on reflection Potemkin is a pretty boring film. Come on admit it, how many of you have gone home on a Friday evening and settled down with a glass of wine and good old classic of Soviet montage? It may be disappointing for us to not be able to share our knowledge of a great filmmaker (I wrote an MA thesis on Elia Kazan) but believe me; your enthusiasms will not automatically transfer to your class. You might be an expert on David Lean but trust me, four hours of Lawrence of Arabia (1962) is not going to cut it.
Is Birth of a Nation (1915) a really boring film?
It is always worth bearing in mind the fact that film viewing is subjective and dangerous to generalise too much – nevertheless, here are some more films that I have found useful, with some thoughts on why.
If the topic is representation then the temptation is to choose race and the African American experience in particular (a topic with a body of research and a clear linear history). However, don’t feel the need to begin with Birth of a Nation (1915), a really boring film. Again, a clip will suffice, as will clips from Gone with the Wind (1939) and The Defiant Ones (1959). For a rather more modern perspective, Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (1989) holds up very well. To expand discussion on representation it really helps if the students are viewing something that is representing some aspect of themselves. Shane Meadows has been an excellent case study and you can easily segue into aspects of authorship. There are obvious recurring themes in his work, a concentration on youth and the films are set in a familiar milieu. Twenty Four Seven (1997), A Room for Romeo Brass (1999), This is England (2006) and Somers Town (2008) have all worked well for me.
There are a wide range of films available that cover youth subcultures and through this you can begin to nudge students in the direction of a range of films. Kidulthood (2006), Scum (1976), Quadrophenia (1979) have led to American independents such as Ghost World (2001), Larry Clark’s Kids (1995) – (careful controversial content) and even, whisper it, foreign films. Lukas Moodyson’s Show Me Love (1998) went down very well with my student’s and enabled me to introduce (gasp) a black and white film: Mathieu Kassovitz’s La Haine (1995). The students liked it a lot. The foreign floodgates suddenly opened. City of God (2002), Tsotsi (2005), Run Lola Run (1998) all passed without incident and no snoozing or drooling.
