FORL 3160Minutes for August 2, 2004 Donnisa Black
Professor Reimer spoke about the written reports that we turned in and suggested that those outstanding should be turned in to him promptly. As he returned our reports to us he spoke about some of the problems that he encountered while grading them. These are some of the problems/suggestions that he mentioned: · Passive voice – avoid whenever possible. · Don’t use quotation marks unless we want the word to portray a sense of irony. · Parentheses – use only if we want the word(s) to serve as an aside or side note. · Avoid colloquial expressions, slang and language that is too casual. · Topic sentences – use this to guide the reader through the paragraph. · Poor paragraph development – the sentences should relate to the topic sentence.
Professor Reimer spoke about our upcoming oral reports. He advised us that if we don’t like the grades that we received on our written reports, then we can raise our grades with the oral presentations. His suggestions and guidelines for the presentations include: · Report to the class on the two movies that we compared. · Present a thesis statement or main idea about the presentation. · Introduce the movies, give background information. · Present the differences between the films and the significance of these differences. · We can use notecards, just don’t directly read our report to the class. · Try to be formal and professional (no hem and hawing...) · Be prepared as preparation always shows. The lack of preparation also shows. *Classmates will write a critique (summary and response) of each oral report. *Professor will read these critiques to evaluate if the presenter has been clear.
Professor Reimer introduced our film for the day, Carmen, as one of his favorite films. A summary of the film follows:
The opening scene of Carmen begins in a dance studio. There is a male dancer (Antonio) who is choreographing and directing a rehearsal of female dancers. As the dancers rehearse, he tells his friend Paco that he is looking for a dancer to play the lead role of Carmen in the production, but that none of these dancers look right. He mentally describes his exotic vision of Carmen and that he has not been able to find anyone with that look since the real one. He says that he is looking for someone with that fiery look in their eyes with striking blue-black hair. Later during the rehearsal, Paco and a female singer practice a traditional flamenco song with other musicians while Antonio listens to an audio recording of an operatic song. Antonio and Paco visit another dance studio in order to see a flamenco dance rehearsal (with castanets) in order to search for someone to play the role Carmen. He finds a dancer that he wants to audition. He likes her and considers signing her to a contract after an audition and a meeting with her agent. After she has been signed to the role, her practice sessions are not very passionate and Antonio meets with his lead dance instructor/assistant, Christina, and asks her to work with Carmen. Christina balks at his choice of dancer for the lead role of Carmen, insisting that she is inferior in skill and not good enough to play such an important part. Antonio acknowledges that Christina is the superior dancer but that she doesn’t have the look that he needs for this role, that she is not a true Carmen. This tells the audience that skill is not the priority, but that image is more important to him. He himself dances and rehearses with the actress Carmen and pushes her to take charge of her role as the real Carmen would. During dress rehearsal, Christina and Carmen confront each other in the tobacco factory scene. Their true identities as dancers seem to intensify and emerge as the older and best dancer faces off with the younger and less skilled dancer. Antonio starts to feel an attraction for Carmen as he watches her rehearse. When he rehearses with her and steps into the role of José, she starts to dance in a sexual manner that directed toward him. As they dance together, their attraction for each other becomes almost like a mating call, foreshadowing the forthcoming relationship. One evening she goes to his home, has a drink and asks him to dance for her. Soon they tumble into bed, which she promptly leaves at 2:00 in the morning. His surprise that she isn’t spending the night with him is evident in his expression. The roles have become reversed at this point as she takes the aggressive role in leaving him without an explanation, which leaves him wondering if their night together means as much to her as it does to him. The next day he daydreams of her, imagining her in full dress costume with mantilla, which cements the fact that she had become a true Carmen to him in his mind. She then goes to visit her husband, Girón, who is prison on a drug charge. This is the first time that a husband has been mentioned, which starts to plant the seed that she is neither a good influence nor a sincere relationship partner for Antonio. The typical roles are reversed now regarding sexual attraction. She is somewhat indifferent to Antonio while he, on the other hand, is completely smitten with her. One day she brings her husband, who has now been released from prison, to the dance studio with her. She introduces him to Antonio, as though he is the director and not her lover. In his hurt, Antonio shows his irritation with her but she tells him, off to the side, that she loves only him and not her husband. She tells him that she told her husband about their love affair and that he doesn’t care, that he only cares about money and is going away soon anyway. This pacifies Antonio because they soon sleep together again and declare their love for each other. Next comes a scene where Antonio and Girón, Carmen’s husband, and a group of men play cards together. Girón talks about his prospering drug deals and steady customers. After the game, Girón takes off his toupee, which presents the idea that this may not really be Girón but instead an actor playing Girón. A similar idea is seen in the following dance duel scene between Antonio and Girón. They battle for the love of Carmen with dance and canes as their weapons. Antonio wins the battle and Girón falls to the ground in defeat, stabbed by the dance cane sword. Carmen unites with Antonio as victors and she throws her wedding ring at the body of her husband on the ground. One presumes that this also is an actor playing the role of her husband as he gets up after his defeat in the dance duel. The idea seems to be presented that disputes can be settled through art, skill and talent as Paco encourages Antonio to keep dancing in a following scene. Paco tells Antonio that he is the best dancer and that his level of skill should be preserved and not given up to retirement. At this point it is not clear what is fiction and what is play production in this film. Finally, Antonio catches Carmen cheating on him in the wardrobe room with another performer or musician. He is hurt and repulsed by her infidelity, though she was obviously unfaithful to her husband by being with Antonio. She asserts her independence, however, by maintaining that she has freedom of choice regarding her own love life. She also convinces him that she still loves him and, yet again, he forgives her and they reunite. During a final dress rehearsal scene, a matador and José (played by Antonio) battle for Carmen’s affection, using dance as words that express their feelings. During this scene Antonio’s real life is acted out on stage as he fights for her while she expresses interest in the other man, this time represented by the matador. As the rehearsal of the scene ends, Antonio pulls Carmen over to the side and expresses his displeasure with her. When she dismisses his feelings yet again, and as the final straw, he stabs her, ending his volatile relationship with her. The irony of this final scene, however, is that the dancers on the set accept what has happened as part of the scene and continue on about their business, unaware that life has imitated art.
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