Class Minutes – European Cinema

March 2, 2005

Dr. Reimer began the class by setting the agenda for the day: going over the sample essays we received in the previous class and watching some clips from a few films. Dr. Reimer asked us for our opinions of the sample essays, counting hands to see how we graded the papers.

The opinion of the class was that the third essay, on the role of dancing in advancing a narrative, was by far the best of three. The class differed on whether the first paper or the second was the worst. Dr. Reimer informed us that he gave the second essay, on Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis,” the worst grade.

The class gave their opinions on the problems with the first essay, a comparison between the French comedy “La Cage Aux Folles” and Mike Nichols’ American remake “The Birdcage.” Criticisms of the essay from the class included that the author should have proofread his essay and that it did not meet the collegiate standard for written assignments. Dr. Reimer interjected that the paper picked far too broad a topic to examine in such a short essay. He pointed out that there were definite problems with the thesis of the essay, choosing no depth of discussion in the topic sentence.

 Another criticism was that the paper, which discussed the differences in morality, gender and family in the two films, provided no clear definition of the topics discussed. The class then wrote out a possible revised topic sentence for the essay, aiming to be clearer and more definite. Overall, we learned from the first essay that a lack of a defined thesis statement was a detriment to the overall work. Dr. Reimer also stressed the importance of proofreading.

The class segued into the second paper, an essay of “Metropolis.” Not much time was spent discussing this paper. Criticisms from the class included the lack of sentence structure, paragraph development and transition. This was the most harshly criticized of the three sample essays. The paper lacked an overall frame of context.

The third essay, an interpretation of the role of dance in the Patrick Swayze picture “Dirty Dancing,” was judged by far the best of the sample essays. Not much discussion was spent on this essay either.

One piece of advice Dr. Reimer gave the class was to always italicize or underline film titles in our papers, never put quotation marks around the picture’s title. He also told us to cite references in our paper if needed, imploring the importance of consistency of citations within the essays.

We then re-watched a scene from Luc Besson’s French language action film “La Femme Nikita” and compared it to a similar clip from its American remake “Point of No Return.” Before viewing the short clips, Dr. Reimer pointed out that Besson’s film takes more of a political stance than the remake. After the clips, Dr. Reimer said that although the American film deserved to be criticized for being an overbearing Hollywood product, there is no use in playing these films against one another. Instead, one should examine the films and develop a thesis about why these films are so different. Dr. Reimer pointed out for example, that the titles give us a clue that these two films while telling a similar story have a different focus.