English 4950: Cool Old Movies

Spring 2019

Grady

Second Longer Essay Assignment—DUE TUESDAY APRIL 9

An 1800- to 2000-word essay (typed, double spaced, 12-point font) on one of the topics below is due, via email submission, on Tuesday, April 11; extensions must be requested by 5PM Sunday, April 9. Essays should be typed and double-spaced in a 12-point font, and of course they should have a strong, identifiable thesis that is carefully supported with evidence drawn from relevant films. Don't make mistakes with the evidence--that is, don't reconstruct from memory what you think happened in a particular scene; review the films as necessary.

1. Design your own topic related to the films that we've seen and the topics we've discussed. Please provide me with a detailed paragraph describing your topic by Wednesday, April 3 .

2. Did women characters in the films of 1939 particularly need to be disciplined? Consider the lessons learned by such characters as Ninotchka, Judith Traherne, Scarlett O'Hara. Is there a pattern to the education they receive in their stories? Do they end up in similar places at the end? Write an essay about the romantic and domestic plots or subplots of at least three films we've seen this term, and what those plots assume about the proper role for women.

o Is the need to discipline women a phenomenon associated with a crisis in masculinity in the 1930s—the kind of depression-generated paternal failure narrative described by Levine and Rauchway?

3. Does the crisis in masculinity in the 1930s—the kind of depression-generated paternal failure narrative described by Levine and Rauchway—manifest itself in any consistent way in the way men are represented in the films we’ve seen?

4. Discuss the ways in which female characters in some Hollywood films can function as surrogates for the film audience, learning to love or appreciate or defend or forgive the (mostly) male leads with whom they interact.

5. Are there any interesting connections to be drawn between the structure and influence of the Production Code and the melodramatic mode that Linda Williams claims governs Hollywood films? In other words, does the Code encourage melodramatic moviemaking—or, alternatively, does a melodramatic modality find a useful vehicle in the Code?

6. Some Film Noir topics.

7. Other possibilities: an extended mise-en-scene analysis, connecting frames to themes (i.e., moving a step beyond the first essay); taking up one of the critical assertions found in Maltby, the readings, or the class powerpoints; genre analysis arising from the additional work you’ve done on melodrama, series films, or film noir.