The Great Director Series
The Great Director Series features eight films from some of cinema’s most influential filmmakers. The aim of this series is to introduce participants to the idea of ‘filmmaking’ as a kind of profession, a profession that calls for a unique set of skills and standards of excellence. Over the course of the series, we will discuss the different ways in which each director showed his or her mastery of the skills required for filmmaking while at the same time making especially creative use of those skills in order to tell the kind of story the director wishes to tell. This means that we will discuss the thematic elements of the film as well as the ways in which they are given expression through the primary tools at the filmmaker’s disposal (e.g., camera shots and angles, pace, music, direction of actors, editing etc.). In doing so, participants should come to appreciate better the extent to which a filmmaker’s excellence as a storyteller requires an extraordinary breadth of technical prowess and ingenuity in the more mundane aspects of filmmaking.
Apocalypto
Movie: Apocalypto (dir. Mel Gibson)
Date: 7:30 pm, Thursday, September 11, 2014 (discussion to follow viewing of the film)
Spike Lee counts Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto as “essential” to any student of film and Quentin Tarantino described Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto as a “masterpiece…one of the most brilliant visual storytelling movies since the talkies, as far as telling a story in pictures.” Gibson’s direction in Apocalytpo so impressed filmmakers because it manages to tell a gripping story even though half the movie lacks any kind of dialogue whatsoever. It is a story told through images, a “moving painting.” At the same time, the film opens with an ominous quote from Will Durant “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within,” which suggests that the film focuses on the causes that underlie the downfall of great civilizations. But the title of the film, which Gibson translates as ‘a new beginning or an unveiling, a revelation,’ points the viewer to a slightly different reading: the film explores the obstacles to and causes of ‘a new beginning, a revelation’ for individuals and civilizations alike.
Date: 7:30 pm, Thursday, September 11, 2014 (discussion to follow viewing of the film)
Spike Lee counts Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto as “essential” to any student of film and Quentin Tarantino described Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto as a “masterpiece…one of the most brilliant visual storytelling movies since the talkies, as far as telling a story in pictures.” Gibson’s direction in Apocalytpo so impressed filmmakers because it manages to tell a gripping story even though half the movie lacks any kind of dialogue whatsoever. It is a story told through images, a “moving painting.” At the same time, the film opens with an ominous quote from Will Durant “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within,” which suggests that the film focuses on the causes that underlie the downfall of great civilizations. But the title of the film, which Gibson translates as ‘a new beginning or an unveiling, a revelation,’ points the viewer to a slightly different reading: the film explores the obstacles to and causes of ‘a new beginning, a revelation’ for individuals and civilizations alike.
The Game
Movie: The Game (dir. David Fincher)
Date: 7:30 pm, Thursday, October 9, 2014 (discussion to follow viewing of the film)
David Fincher’s The Game is a cinematic precursor to many films that focus on the use of simulated ‘realities’ to deceive the film’s protagonist, e.g., The Truman Show, The Matrix. Unlike those films, however, The Game does not suppose that a return to the ‘real world’ is a cure for the character’s naiveté. Indeed, the protagonist Nicholas Van Orton (Michael Douglas) is ‘blind’ to the ‘real world’ well before he is thrust into what every character ominously refers to as “the game.” The only clue given to Van Orton as to the content of this game is how it affects its participant, which one character describes by reference to John 9:25 (‘One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.’). With that in mind, the viewer can understand the film as an exploration of the causes and kind of blindness symptomatic of our age, as well as the means by which one can regain their sight.
Date: 7:30 pm, Thursday, October 9, 2014 (discussion to follow viewing of the film)
David Fincher’s The Game is a cinematic precursor to many films that focus on the use of simulated ‘realities’ to deceive the film’s protagonist, e.g., The Truman Show, The Matrix. Unlike those films, however, The Game does not suppose that a return to the ‘real world’ is a cure for the character’s naiveté. Indeed, the protagonist Nicholas Van Orton (Michael Douglas) is ‘blind’ to the ‘real world’ well before he is thrust into what every character ominously refers to as “the game.” The only clue given to Van Orton as to the content of this game is how it affects its participant, which one character describes by reference to John 9:25 (‘One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.’). With that in mind, the viewer can understand the film as an exploration of the causes and kind of blindness symptomatic of our age, as well as the means by which one can regain their sight.
Memento
Movie: Memento (Dir. Christopher Nolan)
Date: 7:30 pm, Thursday, November 6, 2014 (discussion to follow viewing of the film)
Christopher Nolan's Memento represents a contemporary attempt at 'film noir.' Thus Memento features an 'amateur sleuth' (Leonard, played by Guy Pearce) seeking to discover his wife's killer and take revenge made all the more difficult by the presence of a 'femme fatale' (Natalie, played by Carrie-Anne Moss) and a 'corrupt cop' (Teddy, played by Joe Pantoliano), each stock characters of the genre. The film is innovative in that Leonard suffers from short-term memory loss and so never has a clue what is going on in any one scene. The film accentuates Leonard's "condition" by progressing in reverse chronological order, opening with what would be the "last" scene of a conventional film and closing with the "first." One consequence of the film's structure is that the audience comes to identify with Leonard, who is equally "lost" to understand what function each scene has in relation to the whole story. Indeed, it is only at the end of the film that it becomes possible for the audience to take a critical distance from Leonard's perspective and make a judgment about his interpretation of the "facts" that led him to take his revenge. Memento poses the audience a complicated question: in a world without memory, but with plenty of "facts," can there be any room for judgment?
Date: 7:30 pm, Thursday, November 6, 2014 (discussion to follow viewing of the film)
Christopher Nolan's Memento represents a contemporary attempt at 'film noir.' Thus Memento features an 'amateur sleuth' (Leonard, played by Guy Pearce) seeking to discover his wife's killer and take revenge made all the more difficult by the presence of a 'femme fatale' (Natalie, played by Carrie-Anne Moss) and a 'corrupt cop' (Teddy, played by Joe Pantoliano), each stock characters of the genre. The film is innovative in that Leonard suffers from short-term memory loss and so never has a clue what is going on in any one scene. The film accentuates Leonard's "condition" by progressing in reverse chronological order, opening with what would be the "last" scene of a conventional film and closing with the "first." One consequence of the film's structure is that the audience comes to identify with Leonard, who is equally "lost" to understand what function each scene has in relation to the whole story. Indeed, it is only at the end of the film that it becomes possible for the audience to take a critical distance from Leonard's perspective and make a judgment about his interpretation of the "facts" that led him to take his revenge. Memento poses the audience a complicated question: in a world without memory, but with plenty of "facts," can there be any room for judgment?
No Country for Old Men
Movie: No Country for Old Men (Dir. Ethan and Joel Coen)
Date: 7:30 pm, Thursday, December 11, 2014 (discussion to follow viewing of the film)
Although Fargo (1996) marked the emergence of the Coen brothers as a directorial tour-de-force, it is with their adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel No Country for Old Men that they became a household name. In brief, the story follows the stream of carnage that ensues after a failed drug deal. Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) stumbles upon the money leftover from the deal and Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) is the hit man hired to reclaim that money. The film opens with a long shot of a barren, desolate landscape, accompanied by a voiceover by the film’s protagonist, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell’s (Tommy Lee Jones). That monologue ends with Bell’s admission that he does not fear death, but refuses to “meet something I don’t understand,” since to do so one would need “to put his soul at hazard” and say “okay, I’ll be part of this world.” These musings follow upon his recalling a man he sent to the electric chair who claimed that he had “been planning to kill somebody for about as long as he could remember.” The world that Sheriff Bell doesn’t understand is the world revealed to him throughout the course of the film. By the end of the film, Bell’s experiences have him wondering whether, in fact, the possibility of there being a “light at the end of the tunnel [i.e., this world]” is anything more than just a dream. Ultimately, the film asks us to reflect on different understandings of personal fate or destiny in this world: is it an expression of providence or arbitrariness?
Date: 7:30 pm, Thursday, December 11, 2014 (discussion to follow viewing of the film)
Although Fargo (1996) marked the emergence of the Coen brothers as a directorial tour-de-force, it is with their adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel No Country for Old Men that they became a household name. In brief, the story follows the stream of carnage that ensues after a failed drug deal. Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) stumbles upon the money leftover from the deal and Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) is the hit man hired to reclaim that money. The film opens with a long shot of a barren, desolate landscape, accompanied by a voiceover by the film’s protagonist, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell’s (Tommy Lee Jones). That monologue ends with Bell’s admission that he does not fear death, but refuses to “meet something I don’t understand,” since to do so one would need “to put his soul at hazard” and say “okay, I’ll be part of this world.” These musings follow upon his recalling a man he sent to the electric chair who claimed that he had “been planning to kill somebody for about as long as he could remember.” The world that Sheriff Bell doesn’t understand is the world revealed to him throughout the course of the film. By the end of the film, Bell’s experiences have him wondering whether, in fact, the possibility of there being a “light at the end of the tunnel [i.e., this world]” is anything more than just a dream. Ultimately, the film asks us to reflect on different understandings of personal fate or destiny in this world: is it an expression of providence or arbitrariness?
There Will Be Blood
Movie: There Will Be Blood (Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
Date: 7:30 pm, Thursday, January 29, 2015 (discussion to follow viewing of the film)
There Will Be Blood has been called Paul Thomas Anderson’s “masterpiece,” thanks in large part to Daniel Day-Lewis’s Oscar-winning performance as the film’s protagonist, Daniel Plainview. The film traces Plainview’s quest to secure the rights to a large oil deposit in Little Boston, California. Along the way, however, the audience is introduced to nine-year old H.W. Plainview (Dillon Freasier), Plainview’s adopted son, and Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), a small-time preacher in Little Boston. Fundamentally, the film is a character piece. It is a story about the life of Daniel Plainview, with all its heroism and cruelty. And while many critics interpret the film as a full-throated critique of American capitalism and the oil industry, this temptation should be avoided. The “problem” posed by Anderson’s portrayal of the life of Daniel Plainview is not his cutthroat, relentless, and borderline fanatical, pursuit of economic success, but the fact that—in spite of some serious moral flaws—Plainview is still an inspiring character, even heroic. The complexities of Plainview allow the audience to forgive much of what he does in the course of the film. In the end, it is left to the audience to evaluate the life of Daniel Plainview in light of his relationships with H.W. and Eli. A further question is suggested, however, by the title of the film. Given that this film is about Daniel Plainview, why must it follow that ‘there will be blood?’
Date: 7:30 pm, Thursday, January 29, 2015 (discussion to follow viewing of the film)
There Will Be Blood has been called Paul Thomas Anderson’s “masterpiece,” thanks in large part to Daniel Day-Lewis’s Oscar-winning performance as the film’s protagonist, Daniel Plainview. The film traces Plainview’s quest to secure the rights to a large oil deposit in Little Boston, California. Along the way, however, the audience is introduced to nine-year old H.W. Plainview (Dillon Freasier), Plainview’s adopted son, and Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), a small-time preacher in Little Boston. Fundamentally, the film is a character piece. It is a story about the life of Daniel Plainview, with all its heroism and cruelty. And while many critics interpret the film as a full-throated critique of American capitalism and the oil industry, this temptation should be avoided. The “problem” posed by Anderson’s portrayal of the life of Daniel Plainview is not his cutthroat, relentless, and borderline fanatical, pursuit of economic success, but the fact that—in spite of some serious moral flaws—Plainview is still an inspiring character, even heroic. The complexities of Plainview allow the audience to forgive much of what he does in the course of the film. In the end, it is left to the audience to evaluate the life of Daniel Plainview in light of his relationships with H.W. and Eli. A further question is suggested, however, by the title of the film. Given that this film is about Daniel Plainview, why must it follow that ‘there will be blood?’
Vertigo
Movie: Vertigo (1958) (Dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
Date: 7:30 pm, Thursday, February 26, 2015 (discussion to follow viewing of the film)
As one acclaimed filmmaker notes, Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958) is about "obsession, which means that it's about circling back to the same moment, again and again." Indeed, the protagonist of this tale—John "Scottie" Ferguson (played by Jimmy Stewart)—never claims to suffer from vertigo, but of acrophobia (extreme fear of heights). In other words, the film is not about the condition of vertigo, but rather makes use of Scottie's experience of the spinning sensation associated with vertigo in order to give visual expression to the "heart of obsession" as described above. The story revolves around Scottie's agreement to "spy" on the wife of Gavin Elster (played by Tom Helmore) at Gavin's request. The wife—Madeleine Elster (played by Kim Novak)—has developed, so it seems, an obsession with her great-grandmother Carlotta Valdes, who had committed suicide, and her husband is concerned for her safety. Madeleine goes to great lengths to recreate in herself the figure of Carlotta, at least as she is portrayed in an old portrait of her hanging in a local museum. As Scottie tracks Madeleine around the streets of San Francisco, he too begins to develop an obsession. For Scottie, however, it is not Carlotta as she hangs in the museum, but as she lives and breathes in Madeleine. From there, the film takes a few characteristically Hitchcock twists and turns, but not without displacing a central question for the audience of this "romantic thriller": how easily can love be confused with obsession, and what is necessary to rid oneself of the latter?
Date: 7:30 pm, Thursday, February 26, 2015 (discussion to follow viewing of the film)
As one acclaimed filmmaker notes, Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958) is about "obsession, which means that it's about circling back to the same moment, again and again." Indeed, the protagonist of this tale—John "Scottie" Ferguson (played by Jimmy Stewart)—never claims to suffer from vertigo, but of acrophobia (extreme fear of heights). In other words, the film is not about the condition of vertigo, but rather makes use of Scottie's experience of the spinning sensation associated with vertigo in order to give visual expression to the "heart of obsession" as described above. The story revolves around Scottie's agreement to "spy" on the wife of Gavin Elster (played by Tom Helmore) at Gavin's request. The wife—Madeleine Elster (played by Kim Novak)—has developed, so it seems, an obsession with her great-grandmother Carlotta Valdes, who had committed suicide, and her husband is concerned for her safety. Madeleine goes to great lengths to recreate in herself the figure of Carlotta, at least as she is portrayed in an old portrait of her hanging in a local museum. As Scottie tracks Madeleine around the streets of San Francisco, he too begins to develop an obsession. For Scottie, however, it is not Carlotta as she hangs in the museum, but as she lives and breathes in Madeleine. From there, the film takes a few characteristically Hitchcock twists and turns, but not without displacing a central question for the audience of this "romantic thriller": how easily can love be confused with obsession, and what is necessary to rid oneself of the latter?
Nights of Cabiria
Movie: Nights of Cabiria (Dir. Federico Fellini)
Date: 7:30 pm, Thursday, March 26, 2015 (discussion to follow viewing of the film)
Cabiria is a wide-eyed waif, a streetwalker living in a poor section of Rome where she owns her little house, has a bank account, and dreams of a miracle. We follow her nights (and days): a boyfriend steals 40,000 lire from her and nearly drowns her, a movie star on the Via Veneto takes her home with him, at a local shrine she seeks the Madonna's intercession, then she meets an accountant who's seen her, hypnotized on a vaudeville stage, acting out her heart's longings. He courts her. Is it fate that led to their meeting? Is this finally a man who appreciates her for who she is?
Date: 7:30 pm, Thursday, March 26, 2015 (discussion to follow viewing of the film)
Cabiria is a wide-eyed waif, a streetwalker living in a poor section of Rome where she owns her little house, has a bank account, and dreams of a miracle. We follow her nights (and days): a boyfriend steals 40,000 lire from her and nearly drowns her, a movie star on the Via Veneto takes her home with him, at a local shrine she seeks the Madonna's intercession, then she meets an accountant who's seen her, hypnotized on a vaudeville stage, acting out her heart's longings. He courts her. Is it fate that led to their meeting? Is this finally a man who appreciates her for who she is?
The Tree of Life
Movie: The Tree of Life (Dir. Terrence Malick)
Date: 7:30 pm, Thursday, April 30, 2015 (discussion to follow viewing of the film)
Midway through Terrence Malick's film The Tree of Life one of the young boys, R.L., asks his mother before bed to "tell us a story from before we can remember." This phrase provides the kew to understand Malick's film. The film tells us a story from before we can remember, making use of deeply Augustinian notions of anamnesis and mimesis, remembrance and imitation in order to tell a story about how God brings a wayward sinner to the life of grace.
Date: 7:30 pm, Thursday, April 30, 2015 (discussion to follow viewing of the film)
Midway through Terrence Malick's film The Tree of Life one of the young boys, R.L., asks his mother before bed to "tell us a story from before we can remember." This phrase provides the kew to understand Malick's film. The film tells us a story from before we can remember, making use of deeply Augustinian notions of anamnesis and mimesis, remembrance and imitation in order to tell a story about how God brings a wayward sinner to the life of grace.