April 26, 2004

Professor Reimer informed us that anything in Giannetti since the midterm is fair game for the final. Anyone who's a slow reader should particularly take time out to read Chapter 11, which focuses on film theory, how we approach film, why se wee things the way we do, and such.

After that, presentations continued.

Melita was first to go, and her presentation was on La Chevre (The Goat) and its American remake, Pure Luck. Pure luck was a 1981 film directed by Francis Veber, and stars Gerard Depardieu and Pierre Richard. It is a light comedy about a wealthy businessman whose accident-prone daughter disappears on a vacation in Mexico. He sends an expert detective, played by Depardieu, to find her. When he fails to find her, he's sent back again with the bumbling accounting character played by Lechard. Pure Luck was a 1990 film directed by Nadia Tass. It was much like the original and had the same basic plot. Danny Glover plays the detective, while Martin Short plays the buffoon of an accountant. The clips we watched compared a scene in both films in which the accountant is called into a meeting to demonstrate his bad luck, asking him to sit around a table with many chairs, only one of which has a broken leg, and in both films, he ultimately sits on the chair with the broken leg and falls.

Allison went next, presenting on Three Men and a Cradle, and its American remake "Three Men and a Baby." It is a French comedy by director Coline Serreau from 1985. The plot of the film focuses upon three bachelors living in a luxurious apartment in Paris, living a rather carefree lifestyle. Going off on a trip, a package is left behind by one of the three, which ends up being an infant girl, whom the other two decide to take care of. They learn how difficult caring for a child can be. And there's also a heroin smuggling subplot in both films, which ultimately detracts from the films. The key points made about 'Cradle are that the viewer is left wondering what is going to happen at the end, it is more pessimistic in the way it regards life, and the drug exchange scene was hard to comprehend. The American remake, Three Men and a Baby, was directed in 1987 by Leonard Nimoy. The key points made about it were that it had a different ending, and they were jealous of one another's materialism. Both have Hollywood themes, similar plots, and were both successful. A point was made of the films' themes of that individuals can have trouble getting beyond themselves as adults, needing love and nurturing too.

Candice was up next. she too presented on Three Men in a Cradle and Three Men and a Baby, making several more main points - The infants grow up at drastic and unrealistic rates for the short periods of time the films cover, the drug scene in the French film is more confusing, the endings are different, the French version was rather lacking in the character development department, and the funniest parts were when the men were trying to care for the child.

Jada went next and presented on La Jetee, directedy by Chris Marker in 1962, and the American remake, Twelve Monkeys, which starred Bruce Willis. The main points she made were in that the protagonist escaped their memories, and that the concepts presented were legitimate. Hitchcock's Vertigo was also a source of inspiration for both films.

Last and far from least was Benjamin, who thusly proceeded to do the most brilliant presentation ever, on Hideo Nakata's Ringu and Gore Verbinski's Ring. Much had been said about these films in previous presentations, but he ingeniously killed time discussing the original Japanese novel basis for the films and all of the other adaptations in Japan, then got into several of the story elements removed from the Ring, including Sadako's Nensha broadcast ability, and Ryuji's nihilistic understanding with Sadako. He also got into the social criticism present in Ringu, particularly of both media and the power of rumor, particularly in densely popular Japan, Tokyo above all else. He then went on to show two clips from the films demonstrating the Kabuki theater movement basis for Sadako's emergence from the well and television in Ryuji's apartment at the end of Ringu, and the notably less dramatic or frightening emergence of Samara in Noah's studio in The Ring.

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