Registration is no doubt competitive for students trying to snag the best courses, but did you know that it’s competitive for professors as well? Attracting the best and brightest students is a must for passionate professors trying to get the word out on their offbeat courses. Below, Penn Cinema professors themselves try to win you over. Nicola "Ford Mustang" Gentili would be proud.
DOCUMENTARY CINEMA, CINE 392/ENGL 392, TR 12–1:30 p.m. Suave film professor Timothy Corrigan attempts to disprove the stereotype that documentaries are uncool.
Street: Could you pitch the class to a prospective student? Timothy Corrigan: In an age of New Yorkers at The Jersey Shore, a democracy of digital cameras and the wonders of Fox News, we better learn the difference between fact and fiction.
Street: Some people say that documentaries are boring. How would you respond? T.C.: On the contrary documentaries are the most interesting films being made today. Look back at the last five years: Grizzly Man, The Gleaners and I, Man on Wire, Born into Brothels, Taxi to the Dark Side. Any one of these films is infinitely more interesting than another Harry Potter. Street: What subjects of today do you think are ripe documentary material? T.C.: The Tea Party 3–D, Inside the Mind of Chase Utley and The Fascinating World of Penn Cinema Studies.
ALFRED HITCHCOCK, CINE 292, M 5–8 p.m. Valerie Ross, author of the Practice of Writing, wants to teach you about Hitchcock’s dark side.
Street: Fill in the blank. Students who would most likely enjoy this class are… Valerie Ross: Adventurous, smart, thoughtful, maybe a little peculiar, with a good sense of humor and a passion for film.
Street: What will students be surprised is covered in this course? V.R.: That Hitchcock was darkly funny. That his films are meticulously theorized and crafted, down to the size of heads and the rhythms of words. That he was an intellectual and an artist, with works based on Nietzsche and Hume, and shots modeled on the paintings of the old masters. That his films operate on many different levels, one of which was money–making and another, high art. And that they’ve never truly understood a single film of his they’ve watched.
Street: Hitchcock was known as being a little bit crazy. What is the most bizarre story you have heard about him? V.R.: He had an immensely sadistic sense of humor and a penchant for pranks so the stories abound. For example, his daughter Patricia had a fear of heights and of the dark. Rehearsing for the carnival scene in Strangers on a Train, in which she had an important role, Hitchcock halted the ferris wheel when she was at the top of the ride, cut out the lights and left her there for an hour. Probably everyone has heard the story of how he traumatized Tippi Hedren, rehearsing for The Birds, by throwing live bird after bird at her. And he made poor young Joan Fontaine believe that all of her distinguished co–actors in Rebecca thought she was incompetent and homely, and this led to her being as miserably shy and self–conscious as he needed her to be to play the part.
THE ADULTERY NOVEL AND FILM ADAPTATION, CINE 125, T 5:30–8:30 Sarah Kerman wants you to get excited, but not too excited, for this scandalous course.
Street: Pitch? Sarah Kerman: This class will immerse you in some of the greatest, and most fascinatingly tortured, narratives ever written and filmed. And you’ll learn why adultery is not only fun to gossip about, but an integral part of life as we know it.
Street: What sort of fictional characters can students plan on seeing in this class? S.K.: Sexual libertines who just love describing their own seduction ploys. Bored housewives who put their clueless husbands to shame — or do away with them altogether. Ordinary people who aren’t sure what they’re looking for, but who need something new… and people who are so fixated on their lovers they can’t see their own downfall.
Street: Do you have a strategy for dealing with perverts that get WAY too excited over the source material? S.K.: Everyone SHOULD get excited — we’re talking about passionate, transgressive encounters here! But I’d encourage the over–invested to learn from our heroes and heroines: too much fascination with illicit affairs can get messy fast. And not in a good way.
MODERN SCIENCE FICTION FILM, CINE 202/ARTH 292/ENGL 292, TR 3–4:30 Christopher Donovan argues that this class isn’t just for nerdy guys who watch Star Trek.
Street: Pitch? Christopher Donovan: Science Fiction is an incredibly fertile genre, allowing filmmakers to fully indulge their imaginations, not only in the creation of future cityscapes, alien planets and new life forms, but also in explorations of culture, technology and politics… and even, on a more fundamental level, our bodies and our minds. Of course, in the post–Star Wars era focused on in this class, they also had to cater to the appetite of movie studios, and audiences, for easily digestible special effects franchises. The necessary compromises and sometimes heated battles are a subtext here. Street: Students who would enjoy this class are… C.D.: Either science fiction fans interested in looking at seminal films in new ways, or students who have always assumed sci–fi had nothing to offer but juvenile variations of robots, aliens and lasers.
Street: Any strategies for recruiting females? C.D.: This isn’t a class on 50s sci–fi, so there are no cowering, shrieking women here; most of the female protagonists represented on-screen in this course are tough, smart and powerful. In fact, the films we are starting with — Alien and Aliens — broke new ground for female action heroes with Ellen Ripley, who would gradually become iconic. It’s a well–cherished bit of movie lore that the script for Alien did not ascribe gender to characters, but rather just used last names. That said, the writers naturally assumed Ripley would be male.
ART AND BUSINESS OF FILM, CINE 285/MGMT 253, R 1:30–4:30 Cinema Studies power couple Emory and Kathy DeMarco Van Cleve want you to be a part of their experiment in working together.
Street: Pitch? Kathy DeMarco Van Cleve: The Art & Business of Film class is to examine the nuts and bolts of taking a creative idea and making it into a finished (film) product, with special guests, occasional free food and lots of disagreement about the end goal: making art or money.
Street: Students who would enjoy this class are… K.V.C.: Writers, dreamers, popcorn lovers. Also: if you don’t have a sense of humor, this is probably not the class for you. Emory just told me to add that it may also be interesting to Wharton students who want to know why it takes so much money to make a movie and want to learn some of the ways people do make money in this business. (I say write a good story and the money will follow, but he’s stopped listening to me, which is usually what happens).
Street: Putting Whartonites and film students in the same room has the potential to be… interesting. How will you deal with potential gang wars? K.V.C.: I’m a Wharton/Creative Writing graduate myself (C/W’88), so I may have a bit of a jump on the gang wars. Anyway, successful drama is always about conflict, so the more (nonviolent) wars, the better. Emory Van Cleve: Gang wars don’t matter much to me. Show up for class, think about what makes a good movie and how to mitigate financial risks for your investors, and don’t text during class. We can deal with all the rest.
Street: How did you come to the decision to teach the class together? K.V.C: Decision–making process: “Hey, honey, want to teach a class together?” “Uh, I can’t hear you because the kids are fighting and Phineas and Ferb is on too loud.” “Was that a yes?” “Can’t hear you.” “Sure, Nicola, we’ll do it.” This is an experiment, assuredly, but one we’re looking forward to. We have different approaches to what it means to make films, so it may be fun/tragic, in that James Carville/Mary Matalin kind of way.
CONTEMPORARY TRANSNATIONAL CINEMA, CINE 202/ARTH 292/ENGL 292, TR 1:30–3:00pm Queen Bee of Cinema Studies Meta Mazaj wants you to know that there is life beyond Nollywood. Street: Pitch? Meta Mazaj: There IS a world beyond Hollywood… and it’s not just Bollywood, neither is it just Nollywood, but it’s all that and everything in–between.
Street: Students who would enjoy this class are… M.M.: Alert and eager — to watch, talk about and soak in wonderful films.
Street: In a battle between Hollywood and World cinema, what players would make up each team? M.M.: In world cinema, we play games but don’t fight battles. There are only games without frontiers, and duels without fears. Those willing to watch the games are the heroes, and those whose eyes are shut are the villains.
