Apocalypse Now

Here is the pertinent information for Melancholia . Melancholia was made for $9.4 million and returned $15 million.  It won several awards: The U.S. National Film Society named it best picture for 2011 and was third in the Film Comment poll for best film of the year.  Here is the trailer for the film . 1.  Your reaction to the movie?  Like?  Dislike?  Why? 2.  What do you think is the connection between the wedding scene and the impending destruction. Why open this movie with that ? 3.  Justine and John: natural antagonists.  They both are smart; they both have access to the same information.  One is sure that Melancholia will miss the Earth; one knows that it will hit.  Why is this—why does Justine know and John doesn't?  4.  Finally, after all these movies, we get something definitive—the earth will end.  No mystery.  Right now we're seeing how these characters respond to this.  John commits suicide.  Claire wants to have a glass of wine and sing a song on the pat

Here is the pertinent information for Take Shelter .  Well, that was crazy.  In a good way.  Clark and I were both happy how involved you all got into this movie, and happy to see you pulling for Curtis.  The last fifteen minutes of this are incredibly intense and gripping.  The ending is thoroughly ambiguous, something we should be used to be now.  Great movie. We think. Here is the New York Times review of the film —please read it.  Here is the New Yorker review —please read it too.  1.  What did you think of the film?  Like?  Dislike?  Why?  What about it particularly struck you, stayed with you—a scene, a moment, an image?  And why? 2.  The apocalypse that Curtis sees coming—it's there and not necessarily in the clouds and storms and birds.  What other apocalypse can we see coming—or present—in the film?  Or apocalypses plural?  And how do they fit our understanding or definition of the apocalpyspe? 3.  Curtis—hero?  Madman?  Prophet?  One of those—a couple of thos

Here is the information for Dr. Strangelove .  The video messed up at the worst time obviously.  This is the complete bomb run scene , the most famous scene in the entire movie—and it evokes the laughter of doom.  Please watch it. Here is the rest of the film.  We'll watch it tomorrow, but go ahead and watch it now here and here .  Make sure you watch these before you answer the questions.  Dr. Strangelove is loosely based on a 1958 novel Red Alert by Peter George (who helped with the film script along with Kubrick and Terry Southern).  That novel is so similar to a later book Fail-Safe that the authors of the later, Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, were sued by George.  The film version of Fail-Safe was released the same year as Kubrick's satire.  It was a hyper-serious addressing of the same themes and topics of Kubrick's film; we'll look at a clip or two from it tomorrow.  Not surprisingly, Kubrick got no assistance from the Department of Defense when he m

As we said in class, The War Game was commissioned by the BBC; when they saw it, they decided it was too horrifying to show to a television audience—although new information makes clear that the British government played a role in its censorship.  It was not shown in England until 1985.  However, it did the Oscar for Best Documentary in 1966—which makes no sense for it was not a documentary at all, but a fictional film with locals playing roles in the film.   1.  Reaction to the film?  What stuck with you since this morning's viewing—and why? 2. We've been talking about the how's and why's of these films; so what happened to the world to cause the ecological disaster of The Road ?  What created the undead in Dawn of the Dead ?  What specifically created the waste land of Mad Max ?  And how did that C-whatever get released into the atmosphere?  Well, The War Game addresses these questions and answers them.  So do the answers change the way you view what happens in

 Snowpiercer is an adaptation of a 1982 French graphic novel Le Transperceneige .  At $40 million, it is the most expensive film made in Korea; it earned $87 million in theaters, and received much critical acclaim, appearing on many top ten lists for 2014.  The cable network TNT is developing it as series.  1.  Isabel, you raised a terrific question a the end of class today.  We're deep in the apocalypse at this point.   We've been given several landscapes to endure -- the road, the mall, the train.  As Isabel asked, "Where do you want to spend the apocalypse?" 2. Another provocative idea: Moey said that Snowpiercer proposes that it is better to leave conditions as they are rather than change them.  What do you think about that idea? 3.  Does the movie offer a way out of the situation?  If so, what is it?  If not, is this necessarily a negative statement?

We didn't just make this up: Dawn of the Dead is a critically regarded film.  Here is a quick assessment by Dave Kehr .  It'll take you a minute to read it.  Here's a longer review by Roger Ebert ; read it too... And from Slant Magazine. So... 1. Go back to last night's blog and read Sofia's post (it's the ninth one).  What do you say in response to what she wrote?  Agree?  Disagree?  Why?  2.  Clark said after class, "The fate of the characters in Dawn of the Dead is much worse than the fate of the characters in The Road ."  Now why would he say that?  What makes living in a shopping mall worse than living on the road?  And would you agree with him? 3.  Who is the hero of Dawn of the Dead ?  And how so?  200 words: seriously.  Tomorrow we will talk for 50-60 minutes.  Then in a change from the syllabus, we will begin Snowpiercer . Here is the trailer.  See you all tomorrow.