| activity nine angst and coming of age -- the 1950’s (A) Read Gabler, Life the Movie, chapter 2. Select a quote from the reading and explain its significance and implications in one paragraph. Bring Gabler, Life the Movie to class with the quote you selected marked. (B) Rebel Without a Cause embodies the angst of adolescence as a new kind of social class within the rising suburbia of North America. Moreover, the film plays out in two levels: the ostensive reference of the surface story and the deeper implications of the film’s intertextuality with Plato’s allegory of the cave. (1) Read the selection from Plato’s Republic (on class page, or click here), view animated version of Plato’s cave narrated by Orson Welles (see below), and view Rebel Without a Cause. (2) There are several important scenes in which “shadows are cast upon the walls”: the class trip to the planetarium, the chickie run, the visit to the large old house [old house and the pool were the set designed for Sunset Boulevard], and the return to the planetarium. These “cave scenes” serve as models for the dysfunctional families of the three lead characters. Select the household of any one of the three principle characters for the following questions (one paragraph each). If the families of the principle characters are shadows on the wall of a cave, relative to the “reality” of the larger social world outside of these households, then what are the shadowy dysfunctions and distortions cast on the walls of the household? How does the household relate to the larger social world the character finds outside the household? What is the significance of the story beginning on Easter? (To receive full credit your paragraph(s) on the scene needs to interact with at least one aspect of the ‘to read film’ unit, namely, camera, staging, light, sound, editing, story, ending, connotation, genre, or intertextuality.) (C) Read Belton, American Cinema/American Culture, 4th ed., chap 14 (1950’s) [3d ed., chap 14]. View any one movie of the student’s choice from list B. Select a scene from the movie and write a paragraph on its cultural significance. (To receive full credit your paragraph(s) on the scene needs to interact with at least one aspect of the ‘to read film’ unit, namely, camera, staging, light, sound, editing, story, ending, connotation, genre, or intertextuality.) Complete reading report 9 on class page which will include places to put the paragraph(s) on the items mentioned above. Copyright © ScriptureWorkshop.com |