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OT: Plans 1-8 apparently failed
This semester, I am team teaching a course at Philander
Smith College for Honor Students on "Cinema Literacy" which
is geared at showing students not only the entertainment
value of film, but also giving them a hint of its literary,
sociological, and technical value as well. Most of the films
are straight from the AFI top 100 list, presented in
chronological order. We kicked things off with "Nosferatu".
Last night we screened "Citizen Kane." "Metropolis" was my
first presentation a few weeks back.
Anyway, the midterm is in a month, and it will occupy only
one hour of the alloted three-hour class time. I was
thinking of inviting students to stick around for an
extra-curricular viewing of Ed Wood's "Plan 9 From Outer
Space".
My thinking being (1) that to be "literate" in film, one
must be acquainted with the worst in the genre as well as
the best. (2) It fits perfectly into the chronological
sequencing of the course (between "Rashomon" and "North by
Northwest" which come before and after the midterm,
respectively). And, (3) there are no other B grade monster
or atomic age films on the syllabus, and they are sigificant
sociologically, as well as to have a full understanding of
how movies like "Star Wars" click.
So, I guess my question is: if you were a student enrolled
in this class, would you stick around to watch a movie that
wasn't going to be on the final, when you might possibly
have another mid-term at 8 a.m. in the morning?
=====
Bradley S. Caviness, Bigwig
Bigwig Enterprises
http://www.bigwigenterprises.com
"Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur."
(Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound.)
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