Snatch

 The next genre is gangster.

American gangster meets British 

Gangster. There are two important ideas also.

The position of gypsies and Jewish culture in Western culture and art. The Jewish people at the start of the film are orthodox or traditional Jewish. 

Snatch means to steal. 

Guy Ritchie, the writer and director, was married to Madonna. So there are lots of hints about Madonna in the movie. 

Gypsie, Pikey, Romani, Irish Traveler: these are some ways to call this group of people 

The gypsies came to Europe about1000 years ago from India. At that time, immigration was not really an idea. So, they just moved around in caravans living for free secretly. 

They are treated very badly because Europeans think they are outsiders and thieves. There is a prejudice against them. Stereotype. 

They are famous for being good fighters, especially boxers. 

OK. I did not post the notes online.

But I still haven’t assigned a new homework. I think we should do two more homework assignments, so there is no hurry. I gave you a free week for attendance last week. This week, I won’t. Sometimes I just forget.

Two things to think about. 

1. What is the twist of fate at the end of The Last of the Mohicans? We think the son is the last of the Mohicans. Actually, the father becomes the last of the Mohicans. 

2. In the novel, Hawkeye is twenty years older than the female protagonist Cora. Why did the director Michael Mann make them the same age for the movie?

3. I said Michael Mann started out as a director for music videos on MTV. How is the end of the movie like a music video more than a movie? Hint: How much talking or dialogue is there? 

I forgot to send the homework assignment last week. So, you don’t need to do it. Do NOT write about Roy’s soliloquy. I will give everyone 20/20.

This week’s genre is historic set film and literature. It is also a romance I suppose. 

The Last of the Mohicans is one of the first great American novels. A Mohican is an Indian or First Nations’ tribe in America. 

The movie is about war and colonies. 

First, Taiwan was never a colony of Holland. Holland’s richest company had a fort in Tainan. 1683 to 1885: Taiwan was a colony of China. 1885 to 1895: Taiwan was a province of China. 1895 to 1945: Taiwan was a colony of Janan.

The last of the Mohicans is set during the Seven Years’ War between France and Britain: 1756 to 1763. So they were fighting in Europe. But they were also fighting in America and Canada. Some of the Indian tribes were allies to Britain. Some Indian tribes were allies to France.

The director is very stylish in film. The reason is he started as a music director for MTV. You will see in this movie that sometimes it feels like a music video. Lots of powerful  background music. 

Daniel Day Lewis, the main actor, is the only actor ever to win three Oscar Awards or Academy Awards for Best Actor. 

This is before 1776 and American independence. They don’t think they are American people. They think they are British. That is why the soldier is talking about King George. He is still the leader of America. 

Lacrosse is a very old Indian sport, over 1000 years old. 

The midterm is 30% percent of your final grade; therefore, the exam was     /90 (not /100). 

I can divide 90 by three. 90/3      

The test is out of 90.    /90     

If I added the score wrong, please tell me. 

There was a prejudice in Russia and the Middle East against Armenians. 

Bookends. 

1. Why was the watch important to Butch, the boxer, in Pulp Fiction?

Of course it is a family heirloom from his grandpa. Also his dad died. The watch is chronological in a nonchronological story. It is stable, 1, 2, 3 . . . in chaos 3,6,1, …

2. Why does the psychiatrist almost always wear blue?

Calm, relaxing. But he died wearing a blue shirt. Ghosts don’t change clothes. 

I

Homework: 

Genre: now we will do a documentary. Let us set up the homework. Explain Roy the replica’s soliloquy. The speech comes from an actor, not narrator. Use a few sentences to explain. Remember I thought the bird was his soul. 

The Last Repair Shop takes in L.A. It won the Oscar last year for best documentary. 

The first guy talks about “coming out.” The expression actually is “coming out of the closet.” That is when gay people decide not to hide and tell everyone they are gay. It is not a secret anymore. 

America is a country of immigrants. You will see this in this doc. 

The piano fixer is from Armenia. It is not really a country. It’s an area or culture in the Middle East. In WWII, Germany killed 6,000,000 Jews. In World War I, Turkey killed about 1,000,000 Armenians. We call this holocaust. 

Midterm Exam Film and Culture

Here are the words, phrases and names that will be on Midterm Exam: Tuesday, October 29: 

Bird's eye view, pay homage to, weird, dystopic, opening credits, Ringo Starr, cameo, government, tracking shot, totalitarian, misogynist, vote, genre, science fiction, animation, horror, dark comedy, chopper, chronological, twist of fate, depressing, hillbilly, pulp fiction, strange, mindless, expect, uneducated, represent, psychiatrist, basement, hitman, is, follow

You also need to answer some questions about the three movies we watched. 

Ringo

We have the midterm exam next week. I will email you with the words to study for the test. Also the watch in Pulp Fiction is first a family heirloom from his dad and grandpa. The movie is not in chronological order because the director is talking about the chaos of life. The watch represents order in the chaos or craziness. It goes forward. It is chronological or linear.

I think the bird is his soul going to heaven.

 

 

 

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The replicants (robots) do not have memories when they are made (except the woman who has Tyrell’s niece’s memories). That is why the photographs (that they have stolen / found) are important. They use photographs of family members instead of memories.

But the replicants after a few years get their own memories. That is what makes them become human. That is why they are programmed to die after four years.

Theme: photographs

Last time I talked about a totalitarian government where the people can’t vote, have few human rights, and the police control everything.

Ray Bradbury wrote a book about this called Fahrenheit 451, where the government was burning all the books.

What does the unicorn represent? Some people say innocence. Other people: a person who is so special and unlike others. Extinct. Lost. The unicorn did not get on Noah’s Ark in the Bible.

Misogyny: hatred and violence toward women from men

Redemption: The Sixth Sense

 

Here are today's notes. The homework questions are there:

Genre: we are still doing The Sixth Sense

I did not post the notes last week. I will post last week’s and this week’s notes after class. I will also give a homework assignment. I gave everyone 100 percent for attendance last week because I was too busy. I will NOT do that this week.

I think the psychiatrist feels guilty about not saving the Freak. That is why this little boy is so important to him. It can be redemption for him. I think this is also a religious story and God is giving him redemption. I think God is blocking that basement door too; He is telling the psychiatrist he does not have to feel guilty now. Redemption.

Twist of fate: surprise ending to a story (plot is the story in a drama)

Script

Homework: 

1. Write a paragraph explaining the twist of fate in The Sixth Sense. Remember a paragraph is five or more sentences. We cannot develop an idea in a couple of sentences.

2. Write a sentence to explain why the psychiatrist almost always wears a blue shirt.

Trailer: is a two minute advertisement for a movie

Genre: science fiction, UFO

It was made in 1982 and set in 2019. This movie is also dystopia.

A story about the future when the world is worse than now. Like a movie about global warming and asteroids.

Background: WWII in Asia. Japan (and Taiwan) fought America. Japan lost the war while America won. 1941-1945. Taiwan was a colony of Japan. 200,000 Taiwanese people fought in WWII. 30,000 died.

In Blade Runner, Japan won WWII

The studio made the director put in a narrator (voice over) to explain the movie. This is the director’s cut. The narrator is gone.

If you have a totalitarian government, you will need a lot of police officers to control the people. This is when the people cannot vote or have human rights. “If you are not a cop, then you’re little people.” No power. Origami.

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Below, please find last week's notes:

Genre: horror or I suppose mystery

Basement represents hell.

Why does the psychiatrist always seem to wear a blue shirt?

Religious themes: hell, guilt, church

Remember the patient that shot himself was also called “freak.”

Camera shot going down represents heaven. “The bird’s eye view” camera shot.

They are both so similar. Who is he comparing Cole, the little boy, to? Was the man that committed suicide his father?

You have to add some twists to make the story interesting. Twist of fate is a surprise ending to a story.

Cameo: the director makes a cameo as the doctor and later as the guy buying a ring

Who is helping whom? Does the little boy help the psychiatrist deal with his guilt, especially if the dead man is his father?

 

He is also bullied by the other kids a lot. 

 

 

 

 

Ezekiel 25:17

Rhubarb Pie

Ezekiel 25:17

Homework Assignment:

1. The plot line of Pulp Fiction is jumbled up. Write one sentence to describe each scene and put the sentences into chronological or sequential order.

2. What is the significance of Butch the boxer’s wristwatch? Write a couple of sentences to explain.

Cameo: when a famous person or the director goes into the film for a short time.

3. Why does Jules call the robber Ringo? Please give two possible reasons.

We are back at the start of the movie. Remember he called the waitress “garcon.” This is a bookends’ technique.

The subtitles. Are you simply reading them or are you trying to listen. They do not seem so great for this movie. They miss a lot of the translation.

The basement scene: Marcellus called Zed a hillbilly. That is not translated in the subtitles. A hillbilly is white trash: poor, uneducated white people.

They look like dorks. You give that f(*&ing nimrod 1500…

We will be cool like Fonzie.

I said we would do a different genre of movie each time.

1.    Pulp Fiction is comedy and film noir.

2.    The Sixth Sense is horror (maybe mystery).

The five senses:

1. See

2. Taste

3. Touch

4. Hear

5. Smell

6. Intuition (funny feeling).

This director, Shyamalan, is a first generation American. That means his parents are immigrants or come from a different country. Growing up, you will notice your parents are little different from your friends’ parents. That should cause you to think more about who you are (existential and identity).

For example, Taiwan’s four great directors are all first generation Taiwanese.

The Sixth Sense is set in Philadelphia. This is one of America’s two oldest cities (with Boston). Shyamalan’s father chose to live there when he immigrated because he loved history.

The movie takes place in fall / autumn. All the leaves have fallen off the trees and the sky is overcast / cloudy. How does this affect your mood? Does the director do this on purpose?

I think themes or ideas from the Bible, especially God and Satan (the devil) control the plot. She was in the basement = hell. We will feel cold when there are ghosts around or near.

He is a child psychiatrist. She says “you sound like Dr. Seuss when you’re drunk.”

We should hang [this award] in the bathroom. He is being ironic. It is bullsh&^. This is BS.

“Some people call me freak.”

Pay attention to the blue shirt in this movie.

Are you a good doctor? I used to be. Before but now. He feels guilty because he could not help the “freak” who committed suicide. Guilt is part Christian psychology.

The basement doorknob is red.

Pulp Fiction: Pay Homage

 

Pulp Fiction II:

Last time, I talked about “paying homage to.” I showed the driving from A Clockwork Orange. I said “paying homage to” is when a director deliberately copies a scene from a famous movie to show respect to another director.

I think he uses the upcoming dance scene to pay homage to the directors of John Travolta’s 1970s dance movies Grease and Saturday Night Fever. Travolta became famous for dance movies

Remember he bought the heroin called madman? She thinks it is cocaine.

I heard that Tarantino when he wrote Pulp Fiction based the Eric Stoltz character on Kurt Cobain, and Cobain was going to play him in the movie.

But Cobain committed suicide.

Remember I said the movie was not in chronological / sequential order. First, then, next, after, finally. 1,2,3,4,5.

I want you to put the scenes into order. This is the first scene. It is called a “flashback.” Flashback is a memory in the movie. Something from a long time ago. You can tell it is the early seventies. Vietnam War (ended 1975).

I think the watch is important to Butch, the boxer, for two reasons.

1.    It is a family heirloom.

2.    Notice the movie is not in order. Why does the director do this? I think he trying to say life is a mess. Not everything is in order. Life is sometimes chaotic.

A watch keeps time, which is in order. So it represents the opposite of chaotic to the boxer / fighter.

3.    He never met his father. His father died in the war. The watch is his connection to his father.

The watch is on the kangaroo.

Tracking shot is when the camera follows the actor.

This is an old song about an old, children’s TV show called “Captain Kangaroo.”

 

 

 

 

 

Pulp Fiction: Film Noir and Dark Comedy

 

 

 

 

We do not have homework this week. We will have homework after we have finished watching a movie.

Film Noir

Genre: kind of movie or book, for example, science fiction, comedy,

Documentary, romance, action, arthouse, cartoon/animation, horror, etc.

For each movie we watch, we will try a different genre.

We will start with comedy.

Here’s for your grades:

Attendance=come to class (10%). For every hour you miss of class,

I deduct (minus --) 1% from your final grade. If you miss a whole day,

that is minus 2%.
Midterm Exam (30%)
Homework (20%)
Final Exam (40%)

The first movie we will watch is Pulp Fiction. Genre=dark comedy (evil)

Film Noir:

1.  Existentialism: the meaning of life

2.  Background is empty: not a lot in the film

3.  Flashback: memory in the film

4.  Crime: murder; killing; robbery

Please look for these themes when we watch the movie

The movie’s plot (story) is NOT in sequential (chronological) order.

 

First, then, after, next, finally: one, two, three, four, five

Seven scenes: It starts scene six. Put the film back into chronological order with seven sentences. One sentence to describe each scene.

The movie is directed and written by Tarantino. He wrote it in the diner that is shown in the first scene. The diner closed during COVID.

The director also has a cameo in this movie. When a famous person goes in a movie for a short time, maybe a few minutes.

 

What is in the briefcase? Hint number one: 666 is the symbol of the Devil or Satan

Do you read the Bible?  Religious ideas.

Marcellus is paying Butch the fighter to lose the next fight. He does this because he wants to gamble on the fight. This is called “throwing a fight.“  The briefcase with the 666 belongs to Marcellus.

Why is there a bandage on the back of his neck? There is one idea from a long time ago. The soul could be taken out of the body from the back of the neck. Superstitious.

“That is pride f&^%ing with you. F&^& pride.” Don’t worry about or ignore pride.

“Paying homage to” is when a director copies a scene from a famous movie on purpose. Everyone knows he/she is doing this. The director pays homage to because he/she wants to show respect.

Tarantino is paying homage to Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange.

Don’t be a square. A person who is NOT cool or stylish.

I am going to go to the bathroom and powder my nose. Pun. When an expression has two meanings.

1.  Powder my nose is a polite way to say “use the toilet.”

2.  The nickname for cocaine is powder. And cocaine is snorted up the nose.  

 

I Was Broken and Homework Reminder

I will be in the She-Wo Building 舍我 tomorrow (Thursday, June 13) from 1 to 3 in Room 304. I will be in the She-Wo Building 舍我 (Friday, June 14) from 8-12 in Room 201. That is the last chance you have to hand in homework: Bladerunner, The Sixth Sense and Pulp Fiction. 

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This is what you need to study for the final exam. You also need to have watched Snatch, The Last Repair Shop, The Last of the Mohicans and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou: 

Holocaust, snatch (steal), bury the hatchet, picaresque, caravan, revenge, soliloquy, paragraph, sentences, colony, Moby Dick, jinx me (say something to give me bad luck), documentary, unicorn, refugee, misanthrope, political, mythical, film clip, novel, adventure, camper, camp, gypsy, pikey, jaguar shark, musical instrument, stomach, aquatic, fix, obvious, audience, narrator, genre.

If you know the above and went to every class, you should be able to get a good grade. 

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The documentary The Last Repair Shop is also on Disney +

Holocaust. For example, Nazi Germany killed 6,000,000 Jews in WWII. This man is Armenian. There is a lot of prejudice against Armenian people in Turkey. Before WWI, 1,000,000 Armenian people were killed in holocaust.

Documentary.

The next genre is historical fiction. The history is true. The protagonist is not true.

The Last of the Mohicans, directed by Michael Mann. Michael Mann started out directing music videos on MTV. Then he did TV.

Colonies. Taiwan was a colony of Japan from 1895 to 1945. Canada is a colony of Britain.

The movie is based on an early book from American literature. It was written in 1826. In the novel, the protagonist Hawkeye is much older than the female protagonist and there is no romance.

History lesson. France and England got in a fight over land in the US in 1756. They went to war for seven years in Europe and North America. England won and Canada became their colonies. But in 1776, America revolted against England and won. And France helped. But finally, France was broke from helping America.

The director loves tracking shots with the camera. When the camera follows the actor who is moving.

Scalping. They cut off the top of the head to prove they killed English. The French will pay for the scalps of their enemies as will the English.

The first white people to come to America were usually poor in Europe. That is why they wanted to go to America. To get some free land. But the cost of the ship tickets was expensive and they did not have money. So farmers in America would pay for their tickets, but they had to work for the farmers for a certain amount of time to pay the money back. They usually worked for free. This is called indentured service. After they paid the money back, they would go to Indian land because that was the free land.

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The Last of the Mohicans is considered one of first great American novels.

Mohican is an Indian tribe. Aboriginal.

We are taught now not to say Indian tribe. We are supposed to say first nation. This is a historical fiction, so we need to discuss history to understand the context (background). Christopher Columbus “discovered” America in 1492. He is not even the first white person to come here. The Vikings came 400 years earlier.

One important theme here is revenge.

The French General Montcalm. He died in 1763 at the Battle of Quebec. In that battle, the English General Wolfe also died.

Idiom “Bury the hatchet” means to forgive each other and not fight anymore. Hatchet is an Indian weapon. Tomahawk.

Epic or picaresque: movie where the protagonist is forced to travel, move

Protagonist: hero of the story, movie, etc.

If you want to negotiate, first you have “run the gauntlet.”

The irony or twist of fate is who the last Mohican is. We assume throughout the movie it is the son. But the last Mohican is actually the dad.

Bowdlerize: when you change a famous story (and usually make it worse) for Hollywood.

In the book, Hawkeye is old and strange. He talks to his gun like it is his wife.

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Last week, we did The Last of the Mohicans (1826). Some say it is the first great American novel. This week, we will do Life Aquatic, which is a parody of Moby Dick. People say it is the greatest 19^th Century novel of America, maybe anywhere. Moby Dick is about revenge. A whale named Moby Dick destroys a boat and kills most of the people on the boat. 1851. The captain lived. It took him two years to return to Boston. He got a new boat. The boats were for hunting whales. But he got the boat with a secret plan. To find Moby Dick and kill it.

What does that whale really symbolize to people? What does the whale represent? Why is chasing the whale or anything so important, to the point it makes you crazy?

Parody: is a funny remake of a serious book or movie.  

Herman Melville.

Misanthrope: it when people hate other people because they think they are stupid

He just became a knight in Portugal

He is singing David Bowie in Portuguese

Wes Anderson is paying homage to Casablanca.

Shakespeare’s last play is called the Tempest. It about a King who is in prison on an island. So he studies all the time. He wants to find a way to get revenge on the people who put him on the island. Finally, he becomes so smart that he knows magic and can control the wind. When his enemies are in a boat, he makes them come to the island using his magic wand. He found out he did not want to be controlled by his emotions or need revenge. People also think that Prospero is Shakespeare.