Teaching Sound Film
A Reader

Teaching Sound Film: A Readeris a film analysis-and-criticism textbook that contains 35 essays on 35 geographically diverse, historically significant sound films. The countries represented here are France, Italy, England, Belgium, Russia, India, China, Cuba, Germany, Japan, Russia, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Brazil, Taiwan, Austria, Afghanistan, South Korea, Finland, Burkina Faso, Mexico, Iran, Israel, Colombia, and the United States. The directors represented include Jean Renoir, Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, Federico Fellini, Woody Allen, Aki Kaurismäki, Ken Loach, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Abbas Kiarostami, Michael Haneke, and Hong Sang-soo. Written with university students (and possibly also advanced high school students) in mind, the essays in Teaching Sound Film: A Reader cover some of the central films treated-and central issues raised-in today’s cinema courses and provide students with practical models to help them improve their own writing and analytical skills. These essays are clear and readable-that is, sophisticated and meaty yet not overly technical or jargon-heavy. This makes them perfect introductions to their respective films as well as important contributions to the field of film studies in general. Moreover, this book’s scholarly apparatus features credits, images, bibliographies for all films discussed, filmographies for all the directors, a list of topics for writing and discussion, a glossary of film terms, and an appendix containing three essays, respectively, on film acting, avant-garde cinema, and theater vs. film

List of Figures -- Introduction -- The Front Page, Dramatic Farce, and American (Film) Comedy -- Period Piece, Peace Picture: Renoir’s La Grande illusion Reconsidered -- The Real Fascination of Citizen Kane: Welles’s Masterpiece Reconsidered -- Italian Neorealism, Vittorio De Sica, and Bicycle Thieves -- Death Wish, Child’s Whim, Auteurist Will: Boyer and Clément’s Forbidden Games Replayed -- Circumstantial Evidence: Akira Kurosawa and The Seven Samurai -- The Artistic Achievement of Federico Fellini: The Nights of Cabiria as Exemplum -- Farce, Dreams, and Desire: Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot Re-Viewed -- Married to the Job: Ermanno Olmi’s Il posto -- Neorealist Art vs. Operatic Acting in Pasolini’s Mamma Roma -- Trainspotting: Jiří Menzel’s Closely Watched Trains -- Thought, Feeling, and the Cinema of Francis Ford Coppola: The Rain People as Exemplum -- The Fall of Béatrice, the Salvation of Pomme: Simultaneity and Stillness in Goretta’s The Lacemaker -- Wooden Allen, or Made in Manhattan -- Memories Are Made of This: Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Veronika Voss -- Case Reopened: Mrinal Sen’s The Case Is Closed -- Epiphanies: Nanni Moretti’s The Mass Is Ended -- Comedies Are Proverbial: Eric Rohmer’s Boyfriends and Girlfriends -- Finnish Character: Aki Kaurismäki’s Ariel -- Law of the Jungle: Idrissa Ouédraogo’s Tilaï -- María Novaro’s Danzón in Light of the Cinema of Pedro Almodóvar -- Work, Family, and Politics: Ken Loach’s Riff-Raff -- The Uses of History: Chen Kaige’s Farewell, My Concubine -- The Prison-House of Sexuality: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea’s Strawberry and Chocolate -- Lower Depths, Higher Planes: The Dardennes’ La Promesse -- Wind and Dust: Abbas Kiarostami’s The Wind Will Carry Us -- Of Human Bondage and Male Indulgence: Amos Gitai’s Kadosh -- Latino Art through European Eyes, or against the American Evil Eye: Barbet Schroeder’s Our Lady of the Assassins -- All about My, Your, Their Mother: Andrucha Waddington’s Me, You, Them -- The Space of Time, the Sound of Silence: Tsai Ming-Liang’s What Time Is It There? -- Shoot the Piano Player: The Piano Teacher and the Cinema of Michael Haneke -- An Afghan Is a Woman: Siddiq Barmak’s Osama -- Engendering Genre: Hong Sang-Soo’s Woman Is the Future of Man -- Suffer the Children: Andrei Kravchuk’s The Italian -- The Big Wait: Corneliu Porumboiu’s Police, Adjective -- Glossary of Basic Film Terms -- Film Credits and Directors’ Feature Filmographies -- General Bibliography -- Topics for Writing and Discussion -- Appendix A: Theater versus Film, Redux: An Historical Overview -- Appendix B: Playing to the Camera or the House: Stage vs. Screen Acting -- Appendix C: Art-House Cinema, Avant-Garde Film, and Dramatic Modernism -- About the Author -- Index