Tears in Rain

The test is out of 90. The midterm is 30%, so I just divide by three. I want to do a gangster movie.

Snatch means to steal or rob.

Gypsie, pikey, Irish traveler. They are poor people that live in caravans and move around a lot. The stereotype is that they steal and are good fighters. Gypsies originally come from India about 1000 years ago.

The director and writer, Guy Ritchie, was married to Madonna then. Let’s look for Madonna hints.

Throw the fight. Lose on purpose for gambling.

Antisemite: someone who hates Jewish people

Pikey: gypsy, Irish traveler

He is hungover from the wake.

A wake is a drinking party after a funeral. Remember his mother burned to death.

An extra: someone who doesn’t talk or have a role in a movie

I think this is paying homage to Trainspotting as well

I am no longer constipated. It is the opposite of diarrhea.

Different genres: documentary. It just won the Oscar for best documentary.

Don’t even jinx me with that.

Coming out is coming out of the closet: admitting or telling people you are gay and not trying to hide it

Armenian refugee

Soliloquy: when the actor talks to the audience in theater

HOMEWORK:

Roy Batty, the lead android in Blade Runner, says this: 

“I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die."

Write a few sentences to explain what Roy means. Also explain why he is in this situation. 

Bladerunner: Time to Die

 

1.      Bladerunner was made in 1982 but set in 2019 Los Angeles.

2.      The scenario is Japan won WWII not the US. That is why we see the Japanese images spread across LA.

3.      I asked you look for Japanese images in the film.

4.      The movie is a science fiction dystopia. There are film noir ideas, but we can think about that later.

5.      What does the unicorn represent in mythology? Purity, innocence and power. I was taught the unicorn represents uniqueness, one of a kind ability, rare talent.  

6.      Why is the unicorn a Japanese image in Bladerunner? How does the director twist it and why?

7.      Notice the old pictures probably of old family members on the piano. Decker is a cold man with not much emotion. Why does he have them? Androids steal their memories from pictures. Remember they only live four years.

8.      Misogyny: hatred (violence) for women. That is the third scene that is violent toward women.

9.     

10.   “The flame that burns Twice as bright burns half as long.”

People that die young are often the greatest. Old people just burn out.

11. Ray Bradbury is a great science fiction writer. Paying homage to.

In Good Will Hunting, the shrink says “It’s not your fault.” When an adult hits a child, the adult is always wrong. Adults should not hit children for so many reasons. Yet, children think they deserve to be hit because they were bad, naughty, lazy, got bad grades, etc.

Psychologist can’t prescribe medicine.

Psychiatrist can prescribe medicine.

Now we can use a narrator to do a voice over in the movie to explain what is going on. Before we had movies and went to the theater, if we needed a narrator, the actor would stop acting and start talking to the audience to explain what was going on. This is called a soliloquy. In the studio version, there is a narrator. Actually the director did not want a narrator as he believes the film, if it is good, would explain itself. In the director’s cut, the narrator is removed. But Ridley Scott used a soliloquy.  

He has his own memories. He has experiences that humans could not imagine. That makes him kind of human. I think the dove (metaphor) is his soul. There are some cultures that believe birds take your soul up.

Two Biblical ideas here. The nail in the hand. Jesus also died unfairly. But some movement came after Jesus died called Christianity. It is raining the whole movie. The flood that came to end the world when Noah took the animals on the ark.

How can the director make the unicorn, a very Western idea, Japanese? Origami.

Movies are divided by scenes.

Play (performances) by acts. Shakespeare usually used five acts in a play.

Books are separated by chapters. Some people say the Coen Brothers wanted to show early Pulp Fiction with cowboys and the west of America. They used stories by Jack London.

Genres

1.      Horror

2.      Comedy

3.      Coming of age / drama

4.      western and musical

5.      Gangster

Western: Europe and America

western:  cowboy

1.      Misanthrope: someone (usually smart) who hates most people

2.      Shakespearean plot. The story is Shakespearean, it means you can understand the conclusion in ten different ways.

Dead Man’s hand: two black aces and two black eights

Buster has a good hand, but he does not want to play it because it is unlucky. He is superstitious. That is the hand that Wild Bill Hickock had when someone shot him in the back of the head.

This is before there were trains in America. So people had to use a chuckwagon. It is really dangerous because the Indians. They have to go together for protection. It’s called a wagon train. They finished the train east to west in the 1870s.

2024 Midterm Exam

Remember these words: 

dystopia, genre, paragraph, sentence, twist of fate, foreshadow, vanilla ice cream, pay homage to, on purpose, angst, anxiety, on purpose, chronological, metaphor, match cut, janitor, pulp fiction, stammer, first generation, actor, opening credits, briefcase, hint, Samurai sword, basement, lottery ticket, plot, image, chopper, diner

NOTES: 

pcowsill@gmail.com

We want to do a different genre of movie each time. This is science fiction. Sci-fi.

You are sitting on a winning lottery ticket and you’re too much of a pussy to cash it in.

Figurative language:

1.      Metaphor: when something is something else

Will’s brain is a winning lottery ticket (because he is so smart that he can make a lot of money).

2.      Simile: like or as, compare

Will’s brain is like a winning lottery ticket.

Shakespeare Sonnet 18

Shall I compare you a summer’s day

Thou are more lovely and temperate.

3.      Personification: Give inanimate objects (is something not alive) human or living qualities

The wind was like an angry cat, howling in my ear.

The earthquake was a nightmare. 

 

The Boston accent is flat. Usually Americans curl the r and l.

Footage: film or part of a movie

Dystopian: story about the future where the future is terrible, maybe global warming or authoritarian / dictator government

Rogue: thief, robber, criminal, not controlled person

Android: robot

Director’s cut: this is how the director wanted the movie to be; the director did not want a narrator. Many directors think the movie should tell the story be the visual and acting

Studio version: this is how the movie company or studio changes the movie; the studio added a narrator because they thought the viewers would not understand the plot or

Story

 

Voice over

  

1982 but imagining 2019

History. America beat Japan in World War II. So you will see a lot of American influence in Japanese culture now. America was in Japan after WWII to organize it, from 1945 to 1952

This movie however is if Japan won World War II and America lost. Japan is running America. It is the government in the USA. Let’s count the Japanese images.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Is Not a Country

 

Pulp: the flesh of the orange or grapefruit; usually we throw it away when we make juice

Fiction: story that is not true

We started to have TV in the early 1950s. Most people watch TV to relax after school or work. They don’t want to think because they are tired.

We had a kind of writing that worked the same as TV before TV. This is called Pulp Fiction. The director of pulp fiction is Quenton Tarantino. He wrote and directed it. 1994. The genre is dark comedy.

It is set in Los Angeles. The main actor is John Travolta. He made a comeback. Notice that the plot (or the story) is not in order. It is not chronological or sequential. It is not 1, 2, 3, 4…  It is NOT first, second, third, 4^th, etc.

The movie starts in a diner (hamburger restaurant). Tarantino used to go to the diner to write. It closed down during Covid.

To be a good actor, you need to change accents.

Tarantino is famous for his opening credits. They tell the name of the actors and director. They usually have music. They set the tone at the start of the movie.

 

The combination lock on the briefcase is 666 or the sign of the devil or Satan. The briefcase is glowing. We don’t see what is inside. What is inside. Now he quotes The Bible.

When you lose a fight on purpose for gambling, that is called “throwing the fight.”

There is some foreshadowing in a minute. Foreshadow is give hints about what will happen later in the story. Why the bandage on the back of his neck. Some people think we can take the human soul out of the body through the back of the neck. He is the boss gangster.

 

Paying homage to: when a scene in the movie you are watching copies a scene from an older, famous movie. The director is showing his or her respect. I think this copies A Clockwork Orange. The close up, crazy expression

 

 

 

I See Them all the Time

 

 

The Tropic of Cancer: 23.5 degrees north, located on Highway 9 in eastern Taiwan

The Sixth Sense

Is the psychiatrist helping the little boy or is the

psychiatrist being helped by the little boy?

He is dealing with guilt. I think in a way this is a

Christian movie.

The shrink goes down into the basement.

The basement represents Hell. He wants to wallow

in his guilt (because his patient a year ago committed

suicide).

 

Foreshadow: give hints about what will happen later

in the story (plot)

Twist (of fate): surprise (usually at the end)

 

Horror  / tragedy   Genre

 

He goes to the basement because he believes he deserves

to go to Hell. Somebody, disagrees. Who put the table

with the books on it to block the basement door?

God is telling him he doesn’t need to go down there.

 

1. What is the twist of fate at the end of the film?

2. The movie is set in fall / autumn. Is this a coincidence

 or does it add meaning to the story?

3. How are the little boy and man who commits suicide

similar?

4. How are the little boy and the man who commits

suicide dissimilar?

5. What is the genre of The Sixth Sense? Explain.

 

This homework is out of 20 marks for a score.

Bleak mood.

 

 

 

 

 

Don't Call Me Freak: The Sixth Sense

 

 

Grades

10% Attendance: for every hour of class you miss, I

take away 1%. Miss nine hours, you fail.

40% Classwork and homework

30% Final Exam

20% Midterm Exam

 

Every movie we view should be a different genre.

Science fiction, horror, comedy, animation,

Western, romance, action, thriller

 

This movie is from nineties. It takes place in

Philadelphia, which is a historical city. In fact,

it is America’s first capital city.

The director is a first generation person. That means

his parents came from a different country.

So, he will have an unusual perspective. His family

emigrated from India. His father wanted to move to

a historical city.

 

I think the season, that it is fall, is important…

(contemplate the pic below). Does autumn represent

things dying, leaves falling off trees and bleak

weather?

We have five senses:

The sixth sense is your intuition.

The director wrote the story (script) and he has a

cameo. When a famous person is in a movie for

a couple of minutes.

Twist of fate: surprise at the end of story

There are a lot of hints for the twist of fate.

You will feel cold when ghosts are near.

 

Foreshadow: you get some hints about what will

happen later in the story

In Western literature, a red dress often foreshadows

a tragedy (death) because it is the color blood

 

 

The patient who committed suicide came from

a single parent family. His mother raised him.

He says: “People call me a freak.”

Why does Cole know Latin?

Protagonist: most important character in a story

 

He says he isn’t a good doctor anymore. He feels

guilty about the suicide.

 

They are both so similar. Who is he talking about?

I guess he is comparing the boy to the suicide victim.

 

Why is the doorknob red?

Why does he have trouble opening the door. 

 

Cameo: when a famous person is in the movie

for a short time

Final Exam: We'll Always Have Paris

These are the words, phrases, and names you need to know for the final exam:

Represent, Colony, Zinger, Casablanca, Sleigh, reindeer, Hillbilly, Caravan, Gypsy, Snatch, Throw the fight, Stereotype, US Marshal, moonshine, Cameo, Pay homage to, Genre, Science Fiction, Gangster,  Kentucky, Janitor, Wrapping paper, Symbolize, We'll always have Paris, develop, paragraph, sentence

******************************************************************

I was not going to do a movie this week. But I will

make the test shorter next week so we don’t have to waste two hours on it.   

How many people have seen “Good Will Hunting?”

The first director was Indian American, first generation and the son of immigrants.

The third was female director.

The fourth is a gay director.

Good Will Hunting is a pun. We often use puns to write titles. Shakespeare loved to write puns.

Good Will: be nice to other people you don’t know

We should show good will to our fellow man at Christmas. The protagonist is name Will. I think his surname is hunting. Hunting is also a person looking for some kind of truth. Metaphor. He comes from a troubled past. He is an abused orphan.

My dad told me a story. It was a grade ten drop out. He was a cowboy. And he was a janitor. He cleaned the labs at the University of Toronto. While he was there, he worked nights and saw the experiments on radar. He figured out a lot of radar’s equations even though he was uneducated. Later, he IQ tested at 197.

It takes place in Boston. Listen for the accent. Robin Williams won the Oscar for best supporting actor.

The driving scene from Pulp Fiction, which copies the driving scene from A Clockwork Orange. The director was copying Stanley Kubrick, who is famous director, to show respect. This is called paying homage.

The fight scene and the eye is paying homage to A Clockwork Orange.

The socio-economic idea behind the movie. Rich class v. poor class.

Why does Will feel angst? Nervous feeling young

people have because they feel they cannot solve their

problems.

1.  Lack of opportunity based on social position (money). He should be a student in the university, not a janitor. Not fair.

2.  He feels trapped in his neighborhood.

3.  He was a physically abused child.

 

P.O. This is an acronym for parole officers.

They are both from the same poor, blue collar neighborhood in Boston.

Match cut: copying to get from scene A to scene B

The sea is a mess of color. The sink is a mess of dishes.

Hint about something we will see or know later in the film or book. We know that he’s married, but where is his wife, and why is he drinking heavily?

Pay homage to, bird’s eye view, misanthrope, misogynist, tracking shot, chronological is sequential, myth, represent: symbolize, genre, filial piety

 

Paragraph: five or more sentences; when you write, you should explain

Homework:

1.  Write three reasons you think (not me) Will feels angst or pushes people away.

2.  Write a couple sentences on Robin Williams’ biography.

3.  What is your favorite Robin Williams’ movie.

4.  Why does Will have an emotional response when the shrink mentions Oliver Twist. This is an 1840s novel by Charles Dickens.

I said the genre of Good Will Hunting is drama. More specifically, it is a coming-of-age drama.

Line from Shakespeare’s Henry V: “Once more into the breach.” The door to the castle. Henry is saying “do not give up fighting and run away. Re-attack the French.

 

Paying homage to: copying a scene from another movie to show respect to the filmmakers

Gus van Sant is paying homage to Danny Boyd’s Trainspotting. The job applicants do not want the job they are applying for. Here, Will’s friend is pretending to be him. In Trainspotting, Spud is on the dole (free living from the government), but must show that he is trying to find a job.