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I need help forming a movie related class assignment for my students

post #1 of 7
5/26/08 at 3:01pm
Thread Starter 
So, I'm teaching English in China and I got it in my head that as an assignment it would be cool to have my students do a movie review of sorts. I would allow them to choose an English language movie on their own, one they think will be interesting beyond mere entertainment, and then in a one on one setting give me their description of what made the film interesting, or not, what ideas the film examined and whether or not it was successful in doing so... It's a spoken English class, so I want them to speak not write. Their English proficiency is pretty high but I worry most of them are not capable of watching film critically and all I'm going to get is a series of plot summaries.

We have watched films in class and discussed them in a critical manner so the thought is not completely alien. Any advice on how to ensure such an assignment is effective, or how to improve it? I'd appreciate any help.
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post #2 of 7
5/27/08 at 2:26am
"So as you can see, because Charles Bronson escaped from the Nazi death camp and Steve McQueen did not, also taking into account that Bronson was the only Dirty Dozen member to survive, we can clearly see that Bronson > McQueen. That's it for this class, next class I want your in depth papers on the differences and similarities between Harry Callahan and The Man With No Name. Class dismissed."

Oh, sorry, slipped into my own dream world there.
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post #3 of 7
5/27/08 at 12:38pm
I couldn't necessarily think of specific films unless perhaps they were backed with critque by critics and use them as an example to refer to what they are talking about.
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post #4 of 7
5/27/08 at 12:51pm
Tell em to watch a Chinese film, then watch the American remake and compare/contrast the two versions.
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post #5 of 7
5/27/08 at 2:15pm
Have them watch something by Jodorowsky. The only way you can approach his films is with a critic's mindset. Then again, I'd shill for his movies whenever possible.
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post #6 of 7
5/27/08 at 7:35pm
I would throw in some Kevin Smith films which are dialogue heavy and have a pedestrian direction, so there's little to visually distract them.

Show them Clerks and see if they get the plot, the gags and the in-jokes. Then show them Chasing Amy which is similarly dialogue heavy and see if they can compare and contrast between the two. After all its the same director, the plot's are certainly different but the script writing is the same, though Amy has more of an emotional core. So in the students opinion what differentiates these movies and how do they rate them critically?
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post #7 of 7
5/27/08 at 9:15pm
How many of the films we'd recommend are actually available to watch in China(and not just manufactured there)? Aren't they crazy about censoring/banning a lot of American films?

So I wouldn't recommend Kevin Smith movies, just based on the vulgarity. Plus, they have TON of pop-culture shit that would probably fly over their heads(unless I am underestimating your students).
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