GERM 3160

 

11/26/03

 

Michael Main  

 

MEETING MINUTES

 

Class began with an announcement of a Nicolas Party sponsored by the German Club.

The party will be hosted by Robert and Carole Reimer at their house Dec 7th from 6-9 pm, at 7410 Fred Herron Ct. in the Ravenwood/Grovepark area about 12-15 minutes from campus. For further information contact Dr. Reimer.

 

The attendance sheet was then passed around with students encouraged to mark if they were planning to attend the Holiday party.

 

The Class then went over the discussion questions for Winter Sleepers.

 

Question 1: Continue the thought "If only I had not left my keys in the car, then..." Write about 10 more such subjunctive sentences describing the plot of the movie.

 

-         The student responses varied, Patterns to look for included cause and effect, or the butterfly effect where something simple, such as leaving the keys in the car, becomes something complicated, such as the tragic death of Marco. Small little things that when put together become something so big it doesn’t seem like it could have come from it.

 

Question 2: Write a blurb that might be appropriate for the back of the VHS/DVD box.

 

-         Discussion about things to keep in mind when we write blurbs: As we approach movies we see different things and we need to advise people on those different things. Winter Sleepers is based around fate, a thriller, and a mystery that keeps you watching.

 

Question 3: What role does coincidence play in the film?

 

-         Coincidence plays a huge role in the film. In the movie the characters are all faced with choices, and you see the consequences of those choices. As the movie opens for example, three of them are asked,  “Why are you leaving so soon?”  Their early departure from wherever each was brought the characters together for the movie.

 

Question 4: Discuss Tom Tykwer's use of color symbolism.

 

-         Each of the characters represents a color (red, blue, yellow) and together they form a sort of triangle. Rebecca the most evident always seemed to be wearing something red, the color of love. Everything about her is very sexual; her room is full of warm colors and lights. Marco is always blue, blue is a neutral color and symbolizes the fact he doesn’t know what he wants from life. Nina is yellow, from the ski suits she always wears. Rene, Laura and Theo seem natural, dressed as they dark earth colors, which fits their hard working, no nonsense lifestyles.

 

Question 5: How appropriate is the title? Why?

 

-         Winter Sleepers has a recurring theme of sleep and death. In the winter things lie buried under the snow. Laura and Rene end up moving on, everyone else tends to hibernate. They are in their late 20’s and sleepwalking, they do not know what they want. They have no real direction, everything is like a dream that you have no control over but things just seem to be happening.

 

Overall when asked why people liked the film it is credited for its style and production values. A major thought behind the movie was brought up by Marco when he said, “Maybe we only get 3 good years, and she already had her 3 good years”.

 

We then talked about Run, Lola, Run also by Tom Tykwer. He is known for long movies, involving blind chance, and recurring color themes. In Run Lola Run, a short film by comparison to his others, the same story is played out with 3 different endings. One where she dies, one where her boyfriend dies, and one happy ending.

 

We then watched a clip from Blind Chance, in a fashion similar to Run Lola Run the movie had 3 similar scenes with different outcomes of a guy trying to catch a train. In one he catches the train and ends up a communist, in another he misses it and ends up a resistance fighter,  and in another he meets he ex-girlfriend and becomes politically neutral and ends up in a fatal plane crash.  The three endings suggest that you have to be either one side or another, remaining neutral is not an option.

 

In our Discussion about Herzog, most of his films are about people pushed to the limit who either commit suicide, die or commit murder. We discussed Stroszeck about an alcoholic man who befriends his crazy neighbor and a prostitute in a determined dream to leave Germany and seek a better life in Wisconsin which ends badly.

 

Then we watched a short clip from Aguire, the wrath of God, also by Herzog. The film is about a party of explorers trying to reach El Dorado in the Amazon. The film features an epic style entrance similar to Brother of Sleep. Eventually the large party is reduced to the insane Aguire on a raft with monkeys floating in the middle of the Amazon.

 

With that class ended and the reminder was given that presentations start on Monday with reports being due at the time of your report.