Class Minutes

Class Started with professor Reimer reminding us we have our final from 3.30-6.30 pm on Monday December 15^th. Everything we have covered since the mid-term will be on the final. We are reminded to take advantage of all the handouts we received and that there will be questions from the presentations on the test.

Presentation 1- by Johanna Brenert

The Comparison of Doris Doerrie’s novella “Men” with her film Men.

Film released in 1985

The plot: The story Men is about a man named Julius, his wife Paula, and her lover Stefan. Paula has an affair on Julius and he leaves Paula. Julius leaves his job and moves in with Stefan using a fake name, Daniel. Neither Stefan nor Julius knows that the other is connected with the same woman. Julius ends up influencing Stefan quite a bit. Both the movie and novella have different endings to the story. The film ends with Stefan and Julius overcoming their differences, while the novella ends with Stefan and Julius parting ways.

Emotional effects of both the film and novella are very different
Both movies had different target audiences, which changed plot a little
Scenes were added to the film to give it more action
Novella had greater depth, while the film was more shallow

Presentation 2- Jim

The representation of the battle of Stalingrad in both Enemy at the Gates & Stalingrad

Enemy at the Gates was directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud in 2001
Stalingrad was directed by Joeseph Vilmaier in 1993

Quick Briefing: September 1^st 1939 Nazis invaded Poland. June 22^nd 1941 Hitler invaded Russia. The Russians destroyed everything as they retreated leaving nothing for the Germans. The Nazis reached Moscow, then Hitler sent his troops to two cities, one of them being Stalingrad. The Russians found the Germans weakness at Stalingrad and surrounded the Nazis in four days. Hitler did not allow a retreat though. Due to bad conditions the Germans surrendered at Stalingrad without Hitler’s consent. 210, 000 Germans dies, while only 5,000 survived the battle of Stalingrad.

Stalingrad

Does not portray either side as “evil”.
Shows countries as enemies
Went into the minds of the soldiers “Why aren’t we retreating?”
Fight to the last man- No one can escape war
Everyone is a casualty of war

Enemy at the Gates

Not as deep, made for entertainment purposes
Sniper in Russia killing Germans
Battle of 2 nations, turned into the battle of 2 men

Presentation 3- Stephanie Nelson

Comparison of Wings of Desire and City of Angels

Wim Wenders directed Wings of Desire in 1987

The plot: Set in Berlin at a time just before the fall of the Berlin Wall Damiel, the main angel goes about the city observing people, hearing their thoughts and recording them. He encounters a circus performer, Marion. He becomes entranced by her humanness, frailty, and mortality. Damiel toys with the idea of falling. He encounters Peter Falk, a fallen angel, who leads him to the decision to fall and become human. After falling, Damiel enjoys several simple pleasures and then goes to meet Marion. They fall in love and end up together.

Brad Silberling directed City of Angels in 1998

The plot: Set in modern Los Angeles, Seth is an angel of death who leads people off to heaven as they die. He meets Maggie, a doctor in the E.R. On one such occasion he becomes intrigued with her and falls in love. Going against angelic rule, he appears to her. Nathaniel Messenger, one of Maggie’s patients, reveals to Seth the possibility of falling to Earth. He falls and shares one night with Maggie. She is then killed and Seth has no regrets.

Wings of Desire had a Poetic frame
Wings of Desire used black and white to show what an angel sees and color to show the perspective of humans
Both movies had differences target audiences, Wings of Desire was for a, art house audience, while City of Angels was more for Hollywood film audiences

Presentation 4- Natasha

Representation of the Holocaust in David, Europa Europa, and Nowhere in Africa.

Peter Lilienthal directed David in 1971

Agnieszka Holland directed Europa Europa in 1990

Caroline Link directed Nowhere in Africa in 2002

All three movies were about teens that grew up during the Holocaust.
Fictional Creativity- Everyone thinks everyone who went through the Holocaust had the same experience, which is false.
David shows a lot of Jewish Traditions
David was a story about loss and pain
In Europa Europa the main character was proud of his Jewish Heritage.
In Nowhere to Africa the main characters did not look very religious, they looked like normal Germans.
All three movies were very different

Professor Reimer told the class we would do the final presentation on Monday before the exam is given out, because the test will not take up the whole period

Class ended