3. THE WAY WE ARE
SYDNEY POLLACK
• Changes in the moral fabric of our society are responsible for the kinds of movies
we see today, not vice versa.
• Society’s values have changed and it is reflected in the movies.
• People are nostalgic for the “old values” => Encourage the return of these values.
• Screenwriter & Directors: moral content =><= Economics of the industry:
entertainment and profits.
=> A filmmaker’s prime goal should be to entertain an audience & Movies simply
reflect the surrounding society.
7. ENTERTAIN PEOPLE AND BE REASONABLY
INTELLIGENT ABOUT IT
CREATE GOOD MOVIES AND MAKE IT REACH THE
MORE PEOPLE THE BETTER
8. THE POLITICS OF MOVIEMAKING
SAUL AUSTERLITZ
• Art is at its most successful when politics is at its most reactionary.
• The rebirth of documentaries, which are unashamed to take a political slant.
• Network news programs have proved so derelict in their duty and presented a
highly distorted vision of contemporary reality.
=> Filmgoers are choosing to go to the movies to be faced with a clearer version
of reality than what they get from the local news.
=> Entertainment is used as a platform for advocacy.
• Two primary tacks: straight-on tackles or allegory and metaphor.
9. Political events
Vietnam War
September 11th 2001
Sept 11 vs Arab - Americans
Presidency elections
The Bush administration
Holocaust/Bombing/Shootings
World War II
10. POLITICS HAVE MOVED SIGNIFICANTLY CLOSER TO HOME
FILMS HAVE LONG SERVED AS A BAROMETER OF
AMERICAN LIFE, REFLECTING THE COMPLEX, TANGLED
WEB OF FEARS AND DESIRES ANGLING FOR SUPERIORITY.
11. RAISING THE DEAD: UNEARTHING THE
NONLITERARY ORIGINS OF ZOMBIE CINEMA
KYLE BISHOP
• The rise of zombie is seen as an archetypal figure in contemporary culture.
• Zombie is “the only creature to pass directly from folklore to the screen, without
first having an established literary tradition => The zombie remains a primarily
nonliterary phenomenon.
• The zombie film retains its ability to make audience think while they shriek.
12. RAISING THE DEAD: UNEARTHING THE
NONLITERARY ORIGINS OF ZOMBIE CINEMA
KYLE BISHOP
• A zombie does not think or act on reasonable motives – it is purely a creature of
blind instinct.
• Zombies are not uncanny because of their humanistic qualities; they are uncanny
because they are, in essence, a grotesque metaphor for humanity itself.
• The physical form of the zombie is its most striking and frightening aspect: It
was once – quite recently - a living person.
• Because anyone can potentially become a zombie, these films deal unabashedly
with human taboos, murder, and cannibalism.
13. THE HORROR OF THE ZOMBIE MOVIE COMES FROM
REGCONIZING THE HUMAN IN THE MONSTER
THE TERROR OF THE ZOMBIE MOVIE COMES FROM KNOWING
THERE IS NOTHING TO DO ABOUT IT BUT DESTROY WHAT IS
LEFT
THE FUN COMES FROM WATCHING THE GENRE CONTINUE TO
DEVELOP.
15. A FINE ROMANCE
DAVID DENBY
• Slacker – Striver romance.
• Screwball comedy.
• Male infantilism vs Female ambition.
• Grow up vs Loosen up.
• Opposites attract with mysterious force.
• Many people can relate themselves to the movies.
16. Slacker – Striver romance
• Establish the self-dramatizing underachiever as hero.
• A slovenly hipster and the female straight arrow.
• Usually meet by accidents.
• She breaks up with him => he talks with his pals and receives bits of
misogynist advice => the end of youth for him, crisis for her => both
undertake drastic alteration => he has to shape up and she has to loosen up.
17. Screwball comedy
• The fight was waged between equals.
• The man and woman may not enjoy parity of social standing or money, but
they are equals spirit, will and body.
• The characters have to dive below their social roles for their true selves to
come out.
• First confused and then enlightened, discover whom they should love/marry.
• Less about possessions than about a certain style of freedom in love.
18. .
THE KEY TO MAKING A GREAT ROMANTIC
COMEDY IS TO CREATE HEROINES EQUAL IN
WIT TO MEN.
19. FREAKS, GEEKS, AND MENSCHES: JUDD
APATOW’S COMEDIES OF THE MATURE
ALEX WAINER
• A mensch: A man who does good deeds, and/or is an upright or rigorously decent
human being.
• A male protagonist who undergoes a change from a shlub to a mensch.
• The Apatow comedies ultimately deliver a message that support traditional
family values.
• Praise conformist capitulation to bourgeois middle-class expectations and their
moral implications.
• Searching for their escape out of a boy’s life and into manhood => challenge his
characters to act their age.
20. FREAKS, GEEKS, AND MENSCHES: JUDD
APATOW’S COMEDIES OF THE MATURE
ALEX WAINER
R-rated morality tales
• Vulgarity and profanity.
• Characters talk the way people in this subculture speak – except probably wittier.
• The F-word and other such language flow freely because that is the social world
of these nerds and geeks.
• However, they all confront their problems and the need to put away childish
things and belatedly face responsibilities set these films apart from other R-rated
comedies.
21. FREAKS, GEEKS, AND MENSCHES: JUDD
APATOW’S COMEDIES OF THE MATURE
ALEX WAINER
Boys to men [The 40-year-old virgin]
• Lack of romance and sexual activity.
• Young males who are mostly still little boys on the inside.
• True love waits
22. FREAKS, GEEKS, AND MENSCHES: JUDD
APATOW’S COMEDIES OF THE MATURE
ALEX WAINER
A second take [KNOCKED UP]
• Does not know how to be an adult at first.
• Look for advice => abandon previous lifestyle => make an effort to take
responsibilities and grow up => demeanor has changed from that of a man-child to
someone who acts like a husband.
• The wildly different couple has been transformed by the process into good
parents for their baby daughter.
• Holding out for love and not breaking up for the sake of the baby.
23. CRITICS WERE STRUCK AT FINDING SUCH TRADITIONAL
VALUES IN AN R-RATED SEX COMEDY
APATOW CLEARLY BELIEVES IN
MARRIAGE, FAMILY, BOURGEOIS DUTIFULNESS.
24. PULP FICTION
ALAN A. STONE
The controversy surrounding Tarantino’s moviemaking aesthetic.
Pulp Fiction put an emphasis not just on depicting the gore of violent acts, but also
on suggesting the pervasiveness of violence in modern society.
Violence is included as an essential element of the visual experience. Tarantino’s
depiction of violence is described as “stylized” and the film is both a celebration
and a satire of popular culture.
Tarantino blurs the line between appeasing a societal depiction of violence and
mocking it at the same time.
There is much more to value beneath the visual surface of blood and gore.
25. PULP FICTION
ALAN A. STONE
• Violence in American film is pornography that appeals to the lowest common
denominator.
• Like American fast food, it is destroying the taste for better things.
• Psychologists believe that film and TV violence teach American’s young people
to be violent, or at the very least, inure them to real-life violence.
• Many people are refusing to see this film.
•However, the film is politically correct for there is no nudity and no violence
directed against women.
26. TARANTINO DIVES INTO A NIGHTMARE AND
COMES UP WITH SOMETHING FUNNY, TAKING HIS
AUDIENCE UP AND DOWN WITH HIM.
28. IMDb 8.5
Directed by Sam Mendes
Produced by Bruce Cohen
Dan Jinks
Written by Alan Ball
Starring Kevin Spacey
Annette Bening
Awards 72nd Academy Awards
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actor (for Kevin Spacey)
Best Original Screenplay
Best Cinematography.
30. THEMES
THE MEANING OF LIFE
THE HOLLOW EXISTENCE OF THE
AMERICAN SUBURBS
IMPRISONMENT AND REDEMPTION
CONFORMITY AND BEAUTY
SEXUALITY AND REPRESSION
TEMPORALITY AND MUSIC
32. “Everything is just for show, a
commercial for how normal we are
when we are anything but.”
- Lester Burnham -
33. DISCUSSION
1. Sydney Pollack suggests that “Changes in the moral fabric of our
society are responsible for the kinds of movies we see today, not
vice versa.” Do you agree or disagree with his statement? Why?
2. Give examples of 2 popular movies, one of which represents some
form of art and the other is a product of sheer commerce. Identify at
least 2 significances of each movie. Which one do you prefer? Why?
