What Would You Teach in Your Film Class?

So imagine you had one... what would you teach and why?

In addition to posting your responses, here's my tentative syllabus that you are free to comment on!

- my students last year said it would be better if I organized the class in genres, rather than chronologically
- not all these films are approved, nor do I expect some of them to ever be approved, but it's something to work with (or toward)
- question marks mean I haven't seen the film yet

September = Intro to Film = Cinema Paradiso
= Senior Reflective Autobiography = Whale Rider?
= Archetypes = Sleeping Beauty, Princess & Warrior, Star Wars, Princess Bride

October = The Beginning of Film = Metropolis, The General, Casablanca, Citizen Kane

November = “Exposure: Revealing the Darkness of Film Noir” = The Big Sleep (with novel), Shadow of a Doubt, Touch of Evil, Chinatown, L.A. Confidential

December = “The Outrageous and Absurd in Satire” = Slaughterhouse-Five (with novel)

January = “Biting Social Commentary” = One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (with novel)

February = “The Western: Frontier Excitement or American Stereotype?” = The Searchers, Magnificent Seven, The Wild Bunch, Dances with Wolves, Open Range, The Last Samurai

March = “Magical Realism or Just Plain Romance? (subtitled: foreign film study)” = Like Water for Chocolate (with novel), Amelie, Run Lola Run

April = “Sci-Fi or Sci-Freak?” = Close Encounters of the Third Kind, A.I (with short story)

May/June = “Outcasts, Losers, and Other Social Misfits” = Edward Scissorhands, Donnie Darko (with short story?), Shawshank Redemption (with novella), Napoleon Dynamite?

June = “America: Final Analysis” = Fight Club, American Beauty, (need positive representation)

Almost forgot! I want to do a comic book unit too! Will have to see where I can fit it, but this is what I came up with last night after watching American Splendor (horrible by the way).

Graphic Adaptations: Current Culture or Comic Trash? = excerpt from Sin City (with excerpt from novel), Matrix, Ghost World (with novel possibly), Road to Perdition (with novel possibly), excerpts from X-Men and Superman, Unbreakable

I think "Dawn of the Dead" should have been your pick for "Biting Social Commentary", personally. Romero was incredibly upfront in regards to the capitalism of the 70's which still holds true today. I also think "Touch of Evil" should be bumped up to the first installment, because Orson Welles set the standard for visual narrative storytelling with that film.

..and the obvious, "Rebel Without a Cause" should be in the "Outcasts, Losers, and other Social Misfits" category. "Donnie Darko" is probably better reserved for "Modern Science in Cinema" or something.

Kudos on the Foreign Romance..👆

I wouldn't allow my students to use special effects from computers. This will force them to have to make good movies, not just good visuals.

Alright, this is probably going to surprise a lot of people, maybe even scare them away, because some may have never known I was so deeply involved in movies, aside from watchin' them all the time..so..SURPRISE!

If I were to hold a film class, I'd probably do a semester on the most important and influential waves of film. We'll say a week per film to watch and digest, with the course being 10 months.

Month One: "The Silent Era - German Expressionism":
Metropolis, Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, and Pandora's Box

Month Two: "The Birth of Slapstick - Yuck, Yuck, Yuck!"
Duck Soup, City Lights, Three Stooges Excerpts, A Night at the Opera

Month Three: "Film Noir - The Smoking Gun"
Touch of Evil, Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, Angels With Dirty Faces

Month Four: "The Birth of Sci Fi - Messages from Beyond"
War o/t Worlds, Forbidden Planet, Day the Earth Stood Still, This Island Earth

Month Five: "The Melting Pot - Music, Murder, Politics, Poetry"
To Kill a Mockingbird, A Hard Day's Night, The Manchurian Candidate, Psycho

Month Six: "Hollywood Goes to Extremes - Ultraviolent Cinema"
JAWS, The Godfather, Dirty Harry, Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Month Seven: "Birthing a Blockbuster - Big Explosions, Big Profits"
The Terminator, Aliens, Batman, The Empire Strikes Back

Month Nine: "Spoofs and Satires and Gags, Oh My!"
The Naked Gun 2 1/2, Mafia, Don't be a Menace, This Is Spinal Tap

Month Ten: "When CGI Ruled the World"
LOTR:TTT, Star Wars: AOTC, Minority Report, A.I.

10 months? Semesters usually last 4-5 months. Thats like 2 semesters.

There ya go.. semesters. I haven't been in grade school er whatever for almost...10 years so..

Well I was thinking more along the lines of college (or at least H.S.) but whatever.

Awesome. Thanks for the replies so far!

- computer graphics = I'm not sure I agree even though my class is not a film-making class. Even Tarantino came around with Sin City...

- moving Touch of Evil = good point... even though you had it in your noir section? 😄

- Rebel without a Cause = I saw this for the first time last year, and it didn't resonate with me at all. Do you think it's still timeless for 17/18 year olds in the 21st century?

I really like your sci-fi grouping, I may use Day Earth Stood Still and Forbidden Planet now.

Originally posted by amsedal

- Rebel without a Cause = I saw this for the first time last year, and it didn't resonate with me at all. Do you think it's still timeless for 17/18 year olds in the 21st century?

If not that, "East of Eden". That stories stronger, and more personal. "Rebel" I still think does the same, and I recommended it still, just because while the scenery and situations change, the same message is still there. Kids having to adapt to new surroundings, peer pressure, expectations of family, etc.

Originally posted by Cinemaddiction
"Rebel" I still think does the same, and I recommended it still, just because while the scenery and situations change, the same message is still there. Kids having to adapt to new surroundings, peer pressure, expectations of family, etc.

Exactly, one of the reasons why this classic film continues to live on through different generations.

Originally posted by cine
Month One: "The Silent Era - German Expressionism":
Metropolis, Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, and Pandora's Box

Month Two: war is hell"- "Saving private ryan", "Platoon", "schindlers list" "The deer hunter"

Month Three: BOB-the entire band of brothers series"

Month Four: "The Birth of Sci Fi - Messages from Beyond"
War o/t Worlds, Forbidden Planet, Day the Earth Stood Still, Star wars: a new hope

Month Five: "The Melting Pot - Music, Murder, Politics, Poetry"
To Kill a Mockingbird, A Hard Day's Night, The Manchurian Candidate, Psycho

Month Six: "Hollywood Goes to Extremes - Ultraviolent Cinema"
reservoir dogs , The Godfather, Sawshank redemption ,goodfella's, pulp fiction

Month Seven: "Birthing a Blockbuster - Big Explosions, Big Profits"
The Terminator, Aliens, Batman, The Empire Strikes Back

Month Nine: "Spoofs and Satires and Gags, Oh My!"
The Naked Gun 2 1/2, Airplane, loaded weapon 1

Month Ten: "When CGI Ruled the World"
LOTR:TTT, Star Wars: AOTC, terminator 2 judgement day.

i made a few changes...

keep in mind, I would show these films in college. I'm not gonna show a 4th grader "good fellas" or " pulp fiction "

😄 kewl xan i join your class

Originally posted by Mandorallen
[Quote=cine]Month One: "The Silent Era - German Expressionism":
Metropolis, Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, and Pandora's Box

Month Two: [b]war is hell"- "Saving private ryan", "Platoon", "schindlers list" "The deer hunter"

Month Three: BOB-the entire band of brothers series"

Month Four: "The Birth of Sci Fi - Messages from Beyond"
War o/t Worlds, Forbidden Planet, Day the Earth Stood Still, Star wars: a new hope

Month Five: "The Melting Pot - Music, Murder, Politics, Poetry"
To Kill a Mockingbird, A Hard Day's Night, The Manchurian Candidate, Psycho

Month Six: "Hollywood Goes to Extremes - Ultraviolent Cinema"
reservoir dogs , The Godfather, Sawshank redemption ,goodfella's, pulp fiction

Month Seven: "Birthing a Blockbuster - Big Explosions, Big Profits"
The Terminator, Aliens, Batman, The Empire Strikes Back

Month Nine: "Spoofs and Satires and Gags, Oh My!"
The Naked Gun 2 1/2, Airplane, loaded weapon 1

Month Ten: "When CGI Ruled the World"
LOTR:TTT, Star Wars: AOTC, terminator 2 judgement day.

i made a few changes...

keep in mind, I would show these films in college. I'm not gonna show a 4th grader "good fellas" or " pulp fiction " [/B][/QUOTE]

Mmmm..you took mine and made changes that don't work. These are eras, and go by decades. My Sci Fi films are all from the 50's, Star Wars isn't. The "Extremes" were 70's, only The Godfather works there. Lastly, the CGI era, T2 wasn't dominated by CGI like AOTC and TTT were.

My film class would primarily deal with horror films and the impact many of them have had on film in general.

A lot have been mentioned that I would definitely show in a film class.

Someone mentioned Terminator 2, I would show that also. Also a good example of character study, comparing Sarah from the first and then in the second. She is excellent in the second film.

Some other films I would show, that I watched also when I did film studies and also added), would be Rear Window(basically studying Alfred Hitchcock especially in the auteur section), Memento, Un Chien Andalou(with section on Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel films), Eraserhead, Reservoir Dogs, À bout de souffle(French New Wave study and Jean Luc Godard), New Hollywood directors, Bonnie and Clyde/Badlands, Blow Up, oh god loads!

If I was given the chance to do a film class, it would never happen because I would want to add so much in 🙁

Cinemaddiction ~ Can I sign up for your class??

I would add:

Musical or film about music: Singin' in the Rain, Fantasia, Amadeus, Some Kind of Monster, Yellow Submarine.

Documentary: The Fog of War, Roger and Me, Hoop Dreams, Shoah.

Political or race: JFK, The Battle of Algiers, Do the Right Thing, X.

Sci-fi: 2001, Videodrome, Star Wars, Blade Runner, Alien, Metropolis.

The Classics: Ikiru, M, The Third Man, The 400 Blows, 8 1/2, Seven Samurai, Citizen Kane.

Animation: Pinocchio, Akira, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Toy Story.

Horror: The Shining, Nosferatu, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, first two "Dead" movies.

Mmmm..you took mine and made changes that don't work.

lol, I'm just making changes that I would show to my class.

I would defenetly pick Fritz Lang's M for a social discussion. The film touches so many aspects of society and how a community transforms itself when a hideous murder spree takes place. Excellent film to discuss and show to a class room.