Assignment F2

• See one pre-1955 film made in a language other than English, and be sure to see a subtitled film, not a dubbed film. If you speak a language other than English yourself, don't see a film made in that language — the idea here is for you to see and write about something which will in fact be for you a foreign film.. If you’d like to stick with silent film for another week, look for NOSFERATU, THE LAST LAUGH, METROPOLIS or THE BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN. If you like action films, you might want to try Akira Kurosawa’s THE SEVEN SAMURAI. If you favor gritty realism, check out Vittoria da Sica's THE BICYCLE THIEF. If you enjoy comedies, look for Jacques Tati’s MONSIEUR HULOT’S HOLIDAY or MON ONCLE (although I caution you that, while some people love Tati's early work, others find it slow and, frankly, boring). You’re not limited to these choices — these are just suggestions. (If you don't speak French, you may if you'd like to use Francois Truffaut's DAY FOR NIGHT for this assignment. It's a film about filmmaking and filmmakers, and its educational value outweighs the fact that it was made in 1973.)

• At the top of your assignment, put your name and the number 1 (for page 1). Under that, put the sentence, "I watched all of __________________," substituting the name of the film for the blank line. Don't put this statement unless you have in fact watched all of the film. Viewing the complete film and putting the "I watched" statement will earn you 5 points.

• You may now earn up to an additional 15 points (for a possible total of 20) by writing about the film you saw. Don't summarize any plots — you should assume that I've already seen the film(s). Instead of telling me what it is (or they are) about, tell me what you thought about the film you saw. For example, did you like it? Why, or why not? Whether or not you liked the film, did you think that what you saw was good? Again, why or why not?

• Part 2: For the purposes of this assignment, you should consider that the film you saw was representative of early foreign film in general — even though it probably really wasn't. With that consideration in mind, see if you can draw some conclusions about the differences between American film and foreign film. Remember, this is not a research paper. I'm interested in what you have to say, not in what you can learn by doing research. Be sure to give this part of the assignment as much attention as you give the general film critique.

• Now go back to the "My Criteria for Quality in Film" page which you created for F1. Based on your viewing of this week's film, add two new general conclusions. These statements should be numbered (3) and (4). (Be sure to print the entire page, including all of your previous criteria statements — which you may edit, if you'd care to.) Don't forget to save this page to your hard drive for later use.

• Your film assignments are to be typed or wordprocessed. Handwritten assignments will not be accepted. Use a 12-point font. Double space, and leave 1" margins at the left, right, top and bottom of every page. Do not justify your right margins. Put your name and a page number at the top of every page (including the "My Criteria" page).

• Putting these assignments off until the last possible moment probably won’t work very well. Each of them requires you to view an additional film outside of class time, so you should be sure to leave yourself enough time to view the film, think about it, write a first draft, and then edit and revise. That’s more work than some of you are going to want to do — but it’s the way to get a good grade in this course!

• Be sure to spell the names of directors, actors, screenwriters and other people correctly. Always CAPITALIZE the titles of films.

• There is no set length requirement for these assignments. However, know that I rarely give full credit to someone who turns in less than three double-spaced typewritten pages plus the "My Criteria" page, and I will expect each week’s assignment to be at least somewhat longer than the previous week’s assignment.

• As I grade your papers, I will be looking for the following elements: evidence that you are paying attention in class, references and comparisons to other films you have seen (in or out of class) and especially to films you have previously written about, use of the film vocabulary introduced in class, clear presentation of your opinions, reasonable explanations and justifications to support those opinions, and college-level writing skills (spelling, punctuation and grammar).

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