Madonna on Campus (Click to ENLARGE)

Mirai Nagasu (Click to ENLARGE)

WINTER IN TAINAN (Click to ENLARGE)

The Hitch-Hiker (Click to ENLARGE)

HALLOWEEN 2 p.m. Saturday (31 October 2009)

A special screening of John Carpenter's Halloween is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday 31 October 2009. If there is available space, with priority to Film students, other students in my classes may also wish to attend.

The Hitch-Hiker (Click to ENLARGE)

HALLOWEEN Home Listening Due 2 November 2009

BEST HALLOWEEN EVER
Due 2 November 2009

1. What are people trying to do on a budget this year?
2. What can we do on a small budget?
3. In one word, how should Halloween photos look?
4. What are always a big hit around Halloween?
5. What kind of art should one google for?
6. What Halloween goods are marked down now?
7. What kind of ice is mixed with Gatorade (an energy drink)?
8. In what shapes are the soaps for the powder room?
9. Into what can one transform a plain bottle of wine?
10. About how much are they each?
11. How does one secure a candle?
12. What does one put on a twig?
13. What do some Halloween candles do as they burn?
14. Who is Harvey?
15. How much does he cost?
16. How much was he originally?

PLEASANT DREAMS. . . .

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HALLOWEEN (Click to ENLARGE)

The Hitch-hiker (Pleasant dreams. . . .)

THE HITCH-HIKER
Special Halloween Assignment

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To view this episode of The Twilight Zone, go here.

    1. What is the driver's name?
    2. How old is she?
    3. What is her occupation?
    4. Where is she driving from?
    5. Where is her destination?
    6. How fast was she driving?
    7. On what highway?
    8. What does the mechanic say someone have called for instead of a mechanic?
    9. What does the mechanic want to fix her up with?
    10. According to the host, Rod Serling, what is the woman's route?
    11. What is her destination?
    12. How much is she charged for the tire?
    13. How much is she charged for the call?
    14. How much tax?
    15. How many bills does she give the man?
    16. How many miles later did she see the hitch-hiker?
    17. Whom does the woman compare to a scare-crow?
    18. What does the counter clerk in the diner say a guy would have to be a fool doing on the turnpike?
    19. What kind of landscape in the region does the clerk describe?
    20. What does the woman tell the clerk she hates?
    21. In which direction does the hitch-hiker ask to go?
    22. What does the woman think the hitch-hiker wanted the woman to do at the railway crossing?
    23. How many days and nights has she been driving?
    24. What does she call her travel instead of a trip?
    25. In what state is she on the 4th day?
    26. Why did she take a side road?
    27. How far is her car from the gas station?
    28. What time does the attendant say it must be?
    29. What time does the woman say it is?
    30. What does she say she thinks the hitch-hiker is trying to do?
    31. Where did the woman leave her keys?
    32. Where is the sailor's ship?
    33. According to the sailor what does the lady look like?
    34. Which vehicle is likely to pick up hitch-hikers?
    35. What does the sailor say the woman had better let him do?
    36. What does she say she was trying to do to the hitch-hiker?
    37. What does the sailor say the woman needs?
    38. Where is the woman when she stops outside the diner?
    39. What does she hope that someone familiar will bring back to her?
    40. Who picks up the phone at her mother's house?
    41. Why is the woman's mother in the hospital.
    42. What caused the breakdown?
    43. How many days ago was the woman killed?
    44. In what state was she killed?
    45. What caused the accident?
    46. What does she say has left her now?
    47. What kind of shell does she call herself?
    48. How many miles of empty mesa stretch ahead of her?
    49. Which way does the hitch-hiker say he believes the woman is going?
    50. According to the host, Rod Serling, where did the woman's detour run through?

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The Hitch-hiker (Click to ENLARGE) Pleasant dreams. . . .

Not Required: THE NIGHTMARE SONG

LORD CHANCELLOR'S NIGHTMARE SONG
from Iolanthe , by Gilbert and Sullivan

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The nineteenth-century Gilbert and Sullivan operettas were once enormously popular and performed regularly all over the world. The music was by the British composer, Arthur Sullivan and the lyrics and book (libretto) were by Sullivan's compatriot, W. S. Gilbert, probably the "Father" of the Broadway lyricists who followed  him, though Gilbert's lyrics show an even higher level of literacy.
    The "Nightmare Song" almost puts Surrealism to shame with its anthology of delerious images that arise during the Lord Chancellor's nightmare. Yet it's all done in good fun.
    The song falls into the class of what are called "patter songs," where the rapid recitation of the lyrics is the primary interest, the melody simply a setting for the text. All of the Gilbert and Sullivans operas have at least one great patter song, but this patter song is probably the most bizarre. (The most famous patter song is the Major-General song from H.M.S. Pinafore.)
    Apart from patter songs, the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas are full of glorious tunes and well worth checking out, both for their high level of musical writing (including orchestration) as well as for the literary quality of the lyrics. Among these 14 operettas, written jointly, the most famous are The Mikado (a satire on British bureaucracy but set in Japan), Patience (a satire on England's aesthetic movement), The Pirates of Penzance, and H.M.S. Pinafore (a satire on British class relations).

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Love unrequited, robs me of my rest,
Love, hopeless love, my ardent soul encumbers,
Love, nightmare like, lies heavy of my chest,
And weaves itself into my midnight slumbers.
When you're lying awake with a dismal headache and
Repose is taboo'd by anxiety,
I conceive you may use any language you choose to
Indulge in, without impropriety;
For your brain is on fire, the bed-clothes conspire of
Usual slumber to plunder you:
First your counter-pane goes, and uncovers your toes,
And your sheet slips demurely from under you;
Then the blanketing tickles, you feel like mixed
Pickles, so terribly sharp is the pricking,
And you're hot and you're cross, and you tumble and
Toss 'til there's nothing 'twixt you and the
Ticking.
Then the bed-clothes all creep to the ground in a heap
And you pick 'em all up in a tangle;
Next your pillow resigns and politely declines to
Remain at it's usual angle!
Well, you get some repose in the form of a dose, with
Hot eye-balls and head ever aching,
But your slumbering teems with such horrible dreams
That you'd very much better be waking;
For you dream you are crossing the channel, and
Tossing about in a steamer from harwich,
Which is something between a large bathing machine and
A very small second class carriage,
And you're giving a treat (penny ice and cold meat) to
A party of friends and relations,
They're a ravenous horde, and they all come on board
At sloane square and south kensington stations.
And bound on that journey you find your attorney
(who started that morning from devon);
He's a bit undersiz'd and you don't feel surpris'd
When he tells you he's only eleven.
Well you're driving like mad with this singular lad
(by the bye the ship's now a four wheeler),
And you're playing round games, and he calls you bad
Names when you tell him that "ties pay the dealer";
But this you can't stand so you throw up your hand,
And you find you're as cold as an icicle;
In your shirt and your socks (the black silk with gold
Clocks) crossing sal'sbury plain on a bicycle:
And he and the crew are on bicycles too, which they've
Somehow or other invested in,
And he's telling the tars all the particulars of a
Company he's interested in;
It's a scheme of devices, to get at low prices, all
Good from cough mixtures to cables
(Which tickled the sailors), by treating retailers
As though they were all vegetables;
You get a good spadesman to plant a small tradesman
(First take off his boots with a boot tree),
And his legs will take root, and his fingers will
Shoot, and they'll blossom and bud like a fruit tree;
>From the green grocer tree you get grapes and green
Pea, cauliflower, pine apple and cranberries,
While the pastry cook plant cherry brandy will grant,
Apple puffs, and three corners, and banburys;
The shares are a penny and ever so many
Are taken by Rothschild and Baring,
And just as a few are allotted to you,
You awake with a shudder despairing
You're a regular wreck, with a crick in the neck, and
No wonder you snore, for your head's on the floor
And you've needles and pins from your soles to your
Shins, and your flesh is acreep, for your left leg's asleep,
And you've cramp in your toes, and a fly on your nose,
And some fluff in your lung, and a feverish tongue,
And a thirst that's intense,
And a general sense that you haven't been sleeping in clover;
But the darkness has pass'd, and it's daylight at
Last, and the night has been long, ditto, ditto my song,
And thank goodness they're both of them over!

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Interesting article on Jewish laws

<>An interesting item on Jewish laws (the complete article is here):
JERUSALEM – Jewish law (halacha) forbids the use of electrical items on the Sabbath. But for decades rabbis have allowed special elevators that automatically stop at every floor without the riders pushing any buttons, permitting Orthodox Jews to ride them and live in high-rise buildings.

    The ruling last month by one of Israel's leading rabbis, forbidding the elevators, has started a heated debate.

    In 2004, religious women were prohibited from wearing Indian-made wigs because the hair may have been used in idol-worshipping ceremonies, forbidden under Jewish law. 

    A debate a decade ago by another leading rabbi decided that nose-picking was allowed on the Sabbath. It was under discussion because nose hairs may be plucked out in the process, and cutting hair on the Sabbath is outlawed.

    Religious families can use timers for their lights and special hot plates to warm food as long as those hot plates were not switched on or off during the Sabbath.

EYE OF THE BEHOLDER. These pictures are based on a famous TWILIGHT ZONE episode called EYE OF THE BEHOLDER, which we studied last year in our ESL cla

Scheduled Halloween film for weekend viewing.

JOHN CARPENTER'S HALLOWEEN
For weekend viewing.

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THIS FILM WAS one of the first slasher films, a genre that is usually traced to Alfred Hitchcock's classic horror film, Psycho (1960). The influence of Psycho can be seen in the use of the camera in Halloween, especially in the point of view (subjective) shots at the beginning of the film and, later, when Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) walks to Annie's house, both sequences apparently influenced by the opening dolly shot in Psycho and the intercut tracking shots of Norman Bates' home, as Lila (Vera Miles) walks towards it near the end of the film. The influence of an earlier Hitchcock film, Rear Window (1954), is also apparent in the seeing eye motif.
    But Halloween displays its own bold originality, especially in the use of scale (mostly isolated long shots, sometimes long shots following close-ups), a constantly moving camera usually (even when not entirely subjective) from the point of view of the killer, an audacious use of brightly lit shots of a suburban setting, and an hypnotically repetitive, but tuneful, score (composed by the director) that (like the characters in the film) belies the horror the camera sees.
     Effective use is made of the holiday theme, since the pumpkin appears regularly in the film, from the beginning credits, to the lovemaking of the teenage couple in bed, and in the sequence when Laurie walks towards Annie's house. In all cases, the pumpkin at once safely symbolizes horror while also reflecting (in its carved eyes) the true horror behind Michael's empty eyes.
    Slasher films, unlike the traditional horror film, reflects the increasing pessmism of an American society that no longer believes that all social ills can be cured by democratic values, social welfare, or universal education. Evil can no longer be socially defined, controlled, contained, medicated, or defeated, but is a pervasive fact of American life, threatening its most sanitized streets, as in the brightly lit suburban setting of Halloween.

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I ain't afraid of no ghosts! (Halloween song)

GHOSTBUSTERS

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If there's something strange
in your neighborhood
Who ya gonna call?
GHOSTBUSTERS

If there's something weird
and it don't look good
Who ya gonna call?
GHOSTBUSTERS

I ain't afraid of no ghosts
I ain't afraid of no ghosts

If you're seeing things
running through your head
Who can ya call?
GHOSTBUSTERS

An invisible man
sleeping in your bed
Who ya gonna call?
GHOSTBUSTERS

I ain't afraid of no ghosts
I ain't afraid of no ghosts

Who ya gonna call?
GHOSTBUSTERS

If ya all alone
pick up the phone
and call
GHOSTBUSTERS

I ain't afraid of no ghosts
I hear it likes the girls
I ain't afraid of no ghost
Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah

Who ya gonna call?
GHOSTBUSTERS

If you've had a dose of a
freaky ghost baby
Ya better call
GHOSTBUSTERS

Lemme tell ya something
Bustin' makes me feel good!

I ain't afraid of no ghosts
I ain't afraid of no ghosts

Don't get caught alone no no

GHOSTBUSTERS

When it comes through your door
Unless you just want some more
I think you better call
GHOSTBUSTERS

Who ya gonna call?
GHOSTBUSTERS

Who ya gonna call?
GHOSTBUSTERS

I think you better call
GHOSTBUSTERS

Who ya gonna call?
GHOSTBUSTERS

I can't hear you
Who ya gonna call?
GHOSTBUSTERS

Louder
GHOSTBUSTERS

Who ya gonna call?
GHOSTBUSTERS

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HALLOWEEN assignment due 28 October 2009 (PLEASANT DREAMS. . . . )

THE HOWLING MAN

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View The Howling Man, from the famed Twilight Zone series, then answer the following questions.
    1. After what war did the event happen?
    2. In one word, how does the hero, David Ellington, describe his story?
    3. Where was he during his walking trip?
    4. What kind of weather was it when he got lost?
    5. What does the housekeeper say they don't allow in the hermitage?
    6. What does Ellington say that the housekeeper doesn't understand?
    7. What does he say will follow once he dries out?
    8. What does the housekeeper say causes the loud howling sound?
    9. What kind of trip does Ellington say he's on?
    10. What two things does Ellington say he wants?
    11. When does Jerome say Ellington has to leave?
    12. What does host narrator, Rod Serling, say Ellington has found instead of a sanctuary?
    13. What is Ellington's nationality?
    14. Who does the howling man say he was walking with before he was imprisoned in the hermitage?
    15. What did they do together?
    16. Whom does the howling man call a lecherous old fool?
    17. With what did Jerome hit the howling man?
    18. Why does the howling man say Jerome did this?
    19. Who does the howling man say are misfits and outcasts?
    20. Does he think they're evil or mad?
    21. Who, according to the howling man, is the greatest maniac of them all?
    22. What does Jerome admit to Ellington he has no authority to do?
    23. What does Jerome say Ellington has suffered?
    24. What will the police be very interested to know?
    25. How many years has Jerome heard the howling?
    26. Who does Jerome say the howling man is?
    27. According to Jerome, how does Ellington fancy himself as being?
    28. How many years did Jerome cope with the world before joining the hermitage?
    29. What field is his degree in?
    30. What old building was the original hermitage?
    31. What are the monastery people expected to tend?
    32. What is the dogma of the hermitage?
    33. What does Jerome believe to be man's greatest weapon?
    34. Who is the Father of all Lies?
    35. What did the people of Scwarzwald refuse to yield to?
    36. Whom did the Devil underestimate?
    37. With what staff is the howling man kept locked up?
    38. What is the one barrier the Devil cannot pass?
    39. In one adjective, what kind of shape does the Devil have power to assume?
    40. What does the howling man say would be his death warrant?
    41. Who does the howling man say is mad and shrewd?
    42. What does one hermit say to Ellington to explain why he is locking the door?
    43. What does he say Ellington must remember?
    44. What does the howling man want Ellington to do with the wooden bolt?
    45. What does the howling man say will happen if Ellington fails now?
    46. What does Jerome say Elllington will remember all his life?
    47. What is man's weakness and Satan's strength?
    48. How soon does Ellington tell his maid he'll be back?
    49. What does he tell the maid to remember?
    50. You can catch the Devil but what can't you do?

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Thailand (Click to ENLARGE)

Scheduled film for Friday 6 November 2009

A Magic Show of Signs:
Deconstructing The Left Hand of God

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The Left Hand of God (Edward Dmytryk, 1955) is a model example of the difference between story and plot, but also of the way the Hollywood cinema works through the star system and an economy of narration. Here, from Wikipedia, is the main story:

Jim Carmody (Humphrey Bogart) is an American pilot in World War II. After crashing his plane in China, he was rescued by a local warlord, General Yang (Lee J. Cobb), and became his trusted adviser. However, after one of the general's soldiers kills a priest, Father O'Shea, Jim decides to desert.
    Carmody masquerades as the dead priest and manages to escape to a remote mountain village. There he meets missionaries Beryl (Agnes Moorehead) and David Sigman (E.G. Marshall). Still posing as the priest, he falls in love with attractive mission nurse Anne Scott (Gene Tierney). Scott feels ashamed because she is also attracted to him. Carmody writes to the bishop, confessing that he is an impostor.
    Then General Yang arrives, insisting that Carmody rejoin his army or else he will burn down the village. Carmody proposes a game of dice, wagering years of service against his freedom and the safety of the villagers.

But since the story is plotted through a flashback halfway through the film, and due to the star system and generic conventions, the plot accrues a richness the story lacks. In fact, the story itself is quite dull.
    But Humphrey Bogart, who plays Jim Carmody, was one of the most iconic stars in Hollywood history. Perhaps only John Wayne equaled his star status.
    Bogart began playing petty gangsters (The Roaring Twenties [1939], etc.) until his big break when he was cast in leading roles in The Maltese Falcon (1941) and especially his romantic lead in Casablanca (1942), recently voted the favorite movie of all time. Even President Barack Obama mentioned it among his favorite movies in a recent interview.
    After Casablanca, Bogart's star persona as the cynical, tough romantic lead with a good heart became part of his other film texts. Stars may be gossip to the average fan, but they are recycled "texts" to film directors and film viewers. That is, the star has narrative meanings, based on previous roles, publicity, promotion.
    Since actor and star are blended in the Hollywood cinema, unlike with stage characterizations, a character in a film is not easily separated from the star who plays it. That's why when viewers retell a film they use the star's name, not the character's. We don't do this when we discuss a play. We don't say, "Olivier speaks to a skull," but "Hamlet speaks to a skull."
    In theatre, the actor disappears in the character, but in films the character disappears in the star. We don't say "John Smith and Jane Smith" when discussing Mr. and Mrs. Smith, but "Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt."
    The character is the star. The star is the sum of her films, publicity, critical reviews, and promotion (film advertising, interviews, public appearances, fanzines, etc.). What viewers ("fans") know about a star feeds into what they know about the character, apart from new narrative cues (the character's job, marital status, etc.).
    This allows for narrative economy. We don't have to learn about Michael Armstrong in Torn Curtain (Alfred Hitchcock, 1966): we already know him (he's Paul Newman). Certainly Torn Curtain adds something new (for example, Newman is a physicist and kills a man); but, within the star system, it will not alter the star image, but enrich it.
    The star system was especially strong during the so-called classical cinema, roughly from 1930 to 1960, when studio control of star, promotion, and publicity was rigid. The films the star was cast in were decided by the studio. For example a leading romantic star, Cary Grant, wanted to star in The Phantom of the Opera. The studio nixed the idea. The star, under contract, had no say in the matter.
    Understandably. A poor choice of roles would ruin the star's image and weaken his market value for the studio.
    At a deeper level, because of the economy of Hollywood narration, whereby characters are developed through star images, it would weaken the narrative economy of the star's future films. Audiences would no longer "know" who Cary Grant was. Each film would have to tediously narrate a character, as in a novel, before the viewer knew him.
     With a star image, the viewer already knew John Wayne, Joan Crawford, or Humphrey Bogart, the way they feel they know Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (for example, they adopted multiracial children). At the simplest level, this meant the star could never behave outside the moral code.
    For example, Hitchcock wanted Cary Grant to be a spousal killer in Suspicion (1941) but the studio vetoed the idea. So Hitchcock changed the ending of the film.
    That's why subtext is central in Hollywood films. Because the text is usually a battlefield between commercial and artistic aims, forcing the text underground, as subtext.  One might almost call the story a pretext. One of the main compromises is over the star.
    Whether this is conscious on the part of directors or studio is another issue. Is the use of a saxophone in musical arrangements conscious? Composers just know a saxophone (as in the bus variations in Torn Curtain or in film noir) sounds sleazy, evoking the jazz underworld, kinky sex, Berlin cabaret music, etc.
    So some directors claim casting is ninety percent of direction. Put the right star in the right part and the film narrates itself. Torn Curtain, for example, doesn't work as well as it should because the stars don't bring star images that enrich or enhance its meanings.
    Stars, however, can be cast against type. The performance looks good because it's unexpected.
    Shirley Jones, usually cast in innocent roles (Oklahoma! [1955], Carousel [1956], and April Love [1957],  was cast against type in Elmer Gantry [1960], where she played a prostitute and won an Oscar. In one scene she rolled up her skirt to put money under her garter. Julie Andrews, famous for playing innocent roles in Mary Poppins (1964) and The Sound of Music (1965) was cast against type, though not successfully, in Torn Curtain.
    The chief interest of The Left Hand of God is the image of the tough guy, Humphrey Bogart, as a priest, Father Peter O'Shea. Of course in terms of story he's not a priest. But in terms of plot (the narrated story), he is. This is the main reason the movie involves the viewer.
    Apart from star image, the character of a priest jars with the presence of a gun, a familiar image in the film. Guns and priests don't go together.
    So the gun motif presents a narrative puzzle to be solved: why does the priest carry a gun? This drives the narrative forward, posing a question that must be answered.
    "Dissonance" in cognitive psychology means the conflict of two opposed values: a person wants to be healthy but smokes. This is apparent in the scene when Bogart karate chops the Chinese gang member. (Notice, I use the name of the star, not the character, for reasons given above.)
    The narrative is complicated by the film's love interest, when the nurse, Anne (Gene Tierney) falls in love with the priest. (Tierney herself, associated with romantic roles, is cast against type as a bland missionary.) We know this is unlikely to happen in real life. But it's even less likely to happen in a Hollywood movie! That's because censorship codes in the classical Hollywood cinema were strict: evil was punished, good rewarded, clergy respected, and homosexuals did not exist, even if the character in the source material (such as a Tennessee Williams play) was a homosexual.
    So the narration of The Left Hand of God teases the viewer, creating puzzles on two levels: How can tough-guy Bogart be a priest? How can a typical love angle involve a priest?
    As a story (in chronological order) Bogart's role as a priest, like Anne's romantic interest in him, is uninteresting. But the star system, and the conversion of story as plot, enhance our experience of the film, taking it beyond the dull summary presented above.
    Yet star and genre go together, the way we expect to see John Wayne in Westerns or Cary Grant in romantic comedies and Fred Astaire in musicals. Bogart was usually cast in gangster or romances. But The Left Hand of God falls into a different genre, an historical drama (China during the civil wars of the late 1940s). The viewer wonders how Bogart can fit into such a genre, with its different setting (the Chinese landscape) and still "be" Bogart: that is, behave as viewers expect (and want) him to behave.
    However, apart from fulfilling type or going against type, the star system can develop the star's image by adding to it. For example, John Wayne was cast as heroic cowboys in the early part of his career but later played tormented cowboys in films such as Red River, The Searchers, Rio Bravo, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and El Dorado.
    In the same way, though a priest cast against type in the early part of the film, Bogart never loses his tough-guy stance, even when we think he's a priest. For example, when an angered Dr. David Sigman (E. G. Marshall) warns him not to depend too much on his collar (the clergy's symbol) for protection, Bogart responds (untypically for a priest, but typically for Bogart), "Would you like me to take it off?" This is the Bogart audiences know and likely cheered.
    In the film, Bogart plays his star role, but with new tensions, or variations. He's "Bogart" with a twist. John Wayne is still Wayne in his later films, but a little different. Julie Andrews was still the good girl in Torn Curtain (her point of view when she thinks Newman is defecting is an important part of the film's narrative strategy, as intercutting on her shows), but she was also in bed, naked, with her lover in the opening scene and followed him "behind the Iron Curtain."
    But there's another factor in the Hollywood cinema that enriches The Left Hand of God. This is also part of cinema's narrative economy, related to the economy of the star system and genre. It's film's dual status as image and sign. That is, every image in a film is both itself and a sign.
    "A movie is difficult to explain because it's easy to understand," as one scholar put it. But because it's easy to understand, meanings are easy to encode. An image in a movie exists on one level as "real" (a train is just a train) but also as a sign of something else (for instance, a phallic symbol in North by Northwest). The cinema is a magic show of signs that disappear as signs, the way literature cannot do.
    For example, the rain at the end of Hemingway's novel, A Farewell to Arms can be felt as a symbol. But the word "rain" is already a symbol, a verbal substitute for the real thing. But in film, the real thing and the idea seem the same. Rain looks like real rain even as it's a sign pointing to something else: perhaps cleansing, weeping, or an atomic rain.
    In The Left Hand of God a priest crosses a bridge and falls into the water with his mule. The scene is easy to understand, or see. So its meanings are hard to explain.
    Yet in the image of Bogart swimming across a river after the bridge has collapsed, the film establishes its theme of ambiguity. The real bridge does not fulfill its purpose. In the same way real priests do not fulfill their purpose: they get killed. Note the strong image of the dead priest (Father O'Shea) with his rosary dangling from his corpse.
    The fake priest fulfills the purpose of a priest better than the real priests. Even Father Cornelius (one of the priests who replaces Carmody) says, riding a mule, "I'm a little too old for transportation like this."
    Hence the title's reference to the left hand of God. God's purposes are sometimes realized in dubious ways, not always the "right" way (God's right hand).
    For example, Carmody, though not a priest, brings religious peace to the community, a point made clear when John, the Chinese assistant, asks him to lift the heavy weight off the sinful parish.
    Carmody does things other priests don't. He goes to the yellow house of prostitution, the way Jesus ate with tax collectors. When Carmody blesses a Chinese man, he asks a blessing in return. In church he doesn't kneel but stands; he doesn't pray but speaks his mind to God, though he says he has no God!
    It's John, the orthodox believer, who sleeps while Carmody "prays." The parallel with the story of Jesus' disciples is apparent: "When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy" (Matthew 26:43).
    In the pulpit, though Carmody preaches a sermon based on an (orthodox) English-language text, midway he speaks in Chinese, as the Spirit moves him. Reaction shots show the pleased parishioners, including John.
    Though Carmody preaches peace, he uses violence to protect the community, the way Jesus used a whip to chase out the money lenders (John 2:15). He uses worldly means to effect spiritual ends.
    We know the world does not reflect the hopeful message of the Gospels. A mother dies in childbirth while Carmody tells the story of the birth of Jesus, even after the woman's baby has died.
    So dressed in a priest's cassock, Carmody rolls dice to save the community. He works by worldly means to insure spiritual values (the mission). He wins the salvation of the community through luck, not God. At the same time we are to believe that God worked through the fake priest.
    The scene of the rolling of the dice is a good example of the dual play of cinematic signs. The scene itself is dull and weakened by a Caucasian actor, Lee J. Cobb, playing the Chinese warlord, General Mieh Yang. Yet the scene is enriched by the mise-en-scene: both actors mirror each other as they kneel to roll dice. That is, they are the same, but one (Yang) rolls for a slave (Carmody) and the other (Carmody) rolls to keep the people free. Only when Carmody gets down on the same level as Yang can he win. In the same way, only as Man could Jesus beat the Devil.
    Even the real Catholic priest, Father Cornelius, can't understand that Carmody would risk five years of his life to save the mission. Yet presumably Father Cornelius believes that Jesus died for his sins and wants him to sacrifice for others too!
    There is point in having Bogart attired in his priestly cassock, commented upon by Yang: "You shouldn't roll dice in those clothes." But though a disguise, the viewer still sees a priest. What we see on the screen is real, though a fiction in the narrative! Carmody's cassock, in other words, cannot but signify spiritual values.
    But what is spiritual? As Anne says to Carmody, "You couldn't have done what you did today and not be Father O'Shea"! John, to explain Carmody's miracle, says, "The Holy Spirit is everywhere."
    This is not news. In the book of Genesis (the Joseph story) God's purpose is realized through worldly means (Joseph's enterprise), though credit is given to God!
    The film shows that God's will can only be effected, in our ambiguous world, by worldly means: shooting dice, and by a man who questions God's existence. Yet the film expects us to believe that God's hand (if only his left hand) is at work in Carmody's win. It does this by making Bogart's roll as low as possible (3's) so it would seem improbable he could win, until the Yang rolls 2's.
    There are other meanings at work in the film. We know that Bogart swims across the river in the first scene of the film after he and his mule plunge from the collapsed bridge. Thereafter he lives as a priest.
    Thus the water suggests a baptism: a symbolic crossing from the slavery of sin (St. Paul's phrase) to the freedom that serves God. The image of the mule, which Carmody rides at two key moments in the film (as he tries to cross the bridge and when he rides to the protestant cleric to confess his fraud) links him with Jesus as a symbol of peace (a horse represents war). Only at the end of the film, after he has brought peace to the mission, does Carmody ride a horse, previously linked with his service to Yang.
    After Father O'Shea's death, Carmody, a lapsed (not practicing) Catholic, is disgusted a man of God was killed by a gangster who served only his lower appetites. In becoming the dead priest, Carmody insures the priest's resurrection (rebirth), completing his journey (the priest was about to cross the bridge before he was killed).
    A higher (theological) symbolism is here. Just as Christ, in Christian belief, was God who became man to redeem men before returning to his Godhead, so Carmody, a disguised priest, becomes man (offers himself as a soldier to Yang) in order to redeem the mission. Having done this, he departs an honored priest, though he's not one.
    Ironically, at the moment when he's most exposed as a fraud, the faithful bow down to him, as he surrenders himself to Yang's men. Like Jesus, to fulfill a higher purpose, Carmody is passively obedient.
    Yet we know Carmody's religious status is a fiction, agreed upon by the real priests. Even after Father Cornelius arrives, Carmody blesses a woman's child.
    Does the film deconstruct faith? As Anne says of Carmody, "They put their faith in him, just like I did. And he didn't fail them." Carmody himself says about rolling dice against Yang: "I had an odd feeling I wasn't going to lose."
    By a roll of the dice, a community is saved. Here Carmody, in an explicit reference to the Gospels, reverses the throwing of dice for Jesus' robe.
    The man who saves the community, though not a priest, acts with a degree of sacrifice we expect of priests. Like Jesus, he offers himself as a slave in order to free people to worship God. This is the role Jesus plays in Christian belief.
    So Anne rejects Carmody as a romantic object even after she learns he's a fake! Because in fact he functions as a priest in her eyes and the eyes of the community. Like a good actor, in order to play the part he had to be the part.
    Hence Carmody's quotation from 1 Peter (2:11-19) in his sermon is no accident. It applies to Carmody himself, whose assumed name, after all, is Peter:

I urge you to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God. Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king or to governors. Live as free men but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honour the king.

In playing the part of a holy person, Carmody has become one, whether he believes in God or not.

Jack's Lament

JACK'S LAMENT

There are few who'd deny, at what I do I am the best
For my talents are renowned far and wide
When it comes to surprises in the moonlit night
I excel without ever even trying
With the slightest little effort of my ghostlike charms
I have seen grown men give out a shriek
With the wave of my hand, and a well-placed moan
I have swept the very bravest off their feet

Yet year after year, it's the same routine
And I grow so weary of the sound of screams
And I, Jack, the Pumpkin King
Have grown so tired of the same old thing

Oh, somewhere deep inside of these bones
An emptiness began to grow
There's something out there, far from my home
A longing that I've never known

I'm a master of fright, and a demon of light
And I'll scare you right out of your pants
To a guy in Kentucky, I'm Mister Unlucky
And I'm known throughout England and France

And since I am dead, I can take off my head
To recite Shakespearean quotations
No animal nor man can scream like I can
With the fury of my recitations

But who here would ever understand
That the Pumpkin King with the skeleton grin
Would tire of his crown, if they only understood
He'd give it all up if he only could

Oh, there's an empty place in my bones
That calls out for something unknown
The fame and praise come year after year
Does nothing for these empty tears

THIS IS HALLOWEEN!

THIS IS HALLOWEEN

'Twas a long time ago,
Longer now than it seems
In a place that perhaps you've seen in your dreams
For the story that you're about to behold
Took place in the holidays' world home
Now you probably wondered where holidays come from
If you haven't I'd say it's time you begun!

[SHADOW]
Boys and girls of every age
Wouldn't you like to see something strange?

[SIAMESE SHADOW]
Come with us and you will see
This, our town of Halloween

[PUMPKIN PATCH CHORUS]
This is Halloween, this is Halloween
Pumpkins scream in the dead of night

[GHOSTS]
This is Halloween, everybody make a scene
Trick or treat till the neighbors gonna die of fright
It's our town, everybody scream
In this town of Halloween

[CREATURE UNDER THE BED]
I am the one hiding under your bed
Teeth ground sharp and eyes glowing red

[MAN UNDER THE STAIRS]
I am the one hiding under yours stairs
Fingers like snakes and spiders in my hair

[CORPSE CHORUS]
This is Halloween, this is Halloween

[VAMPIRES]
Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!
In this town we call home
Everyone hail to the pumpkin song

[MAYOR]
In this town, don't we love it now?
Everybody's waiting for the next surprise

[CORPSE CHORUS]
Round that corner, man hiding in the trash can
Something's waiting now to pounce, and how you'll...

[HARLEQUIN DEMON, WEREWOLF & MELTING MAN]
Scream! This is Halloween
Red 'n' black, slimy green

[WEREWOLF]
Aren't you scared?

[WITCHES]
Well, that's just fine
Say it once, say it twice
Take a chance and roll the dice
Ride with the moon in the dead of night

[HANGING TREE]
Everybody scream, everybody scream

[HANGED MEN]
In our town of Halloween!

[CLOWN]
I am the clown with the tear-away face
Here in a flash and gone without a trace

[SECOND GHOUL]
I am the "who" when you call, "Who's there?"
I am the wind blowing through your hair

[OOGIE BOOGIE SHADOW]
I am the shadow on the moon at night
Filling your dreams to the brim with fright

[CORPSE CHORUS]
This is Halloween, this is Halloween
Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!
Halloween! Halloween!

[CHILD CORPSE TRIO]
Tender lumplings everywhere
Life's no fun without a good scare

[PARENT CORPSES]
That's our job, but we're not mean
In our town of Halloween

[CORPSE CHORUS]
In this town

[MAYOR]
Don't we love it now?
Everyone's waiting for the next surprise!

[CORPSE CHORUS]
Skeleton Jack might catch you in the back
And scream like a banshee
Make you jump out of your skin
This is Halloween, everybody scream
Won't ya please make way for a very special guy

Our man jack is King of the Pumpkin patch
Everyone hail to the Pumpkin King

[EVERYONE]
This is Halloween, this is Halloween
Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!

[CORPSE CHILD TRIO]
In this town we call home
Everyone hail to the pumpkin song

[EVERYONE]
La la-la la, Halloween! Halloween! [Repeat]

Home Listening Due Monday 26 October 2009

Home Listening
Due Monday 26 October 2009

View the video then answer the following questions:
1. When did the Newlywed Game first premiere on TV?
2. What will the game show feature for the first time this year?
3. What are the couple's first names?
4. What does Brad say the couple is not really good at?
5. How many years has the couple been together?
6. How long have they been married?
7. What month and day did the couple marry?
8. What does the hostess say the couple will blow away?
9. Which member of the couple does The Howard Stern Show?
10. Did the Newlywed Game invite the couple on the show?
11. Who never uses slang at all?
12. Who doesn't exercise enough?
13. What time and day will the results of the show be known?
14. Which member of the couple is said to glib and have a beautiful voice?
15. Who stutters and mispronounces words?

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Mark Twain

Students,
Here are 3 videos about Mark Twain.
    The first shows Hal Holbrook in his one-man show (Mark Twain Tonight, 1967) dressed up as Twain and imitating Twain's Southern speech drawl as well as possible. That talk that Pei-Yu quoted in class, would have sounded even funnier with the tactical pauses that Twain almost certainly used to build up to his punch lines.
    Twain wrote some famous lines, some of which are in Holbook's presentation.
    "Man is the only animal who has the true religion--several of them."
    "First God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards."
    "We can never stand prosperity--another man's I mean."
    "If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you. This is the principle difference between a dog and a man." And it goes on.
    "A person who doesn't read has no advantage over the person who cannot read."
    "Man is the only animal who blushes--or needs to."
    I quoted these from memory. A google search will turn up many more.
    The great Austrian psychoanalyst heard Twain speak in America and said he never laughed louder in his life. Yet despite his humor, Twain died an embittered old man, ranting about "the damn human race."

    The second video is an authentic Edison video, though silent, of the real Mark Twain at his home (Stormfield, 1909).

    The third video is a video documentary of Twain. They're all short and dserve a viewing.

JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS

JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS

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This song uses "things" in an idiomatic construction, shown in the title. This is common in spoken language compared to written language.
    This song is by Cole Porter, one of the great American songwriters (lyrics and music). The song takes a cynical approach to casual love affairs ("crazy flings") that end just as casually as they began ("why not face the fact, my dear").
    Infatuation (foolish romances) is called "just one of those things"! For Composition students there's a difference between using "things" deliberately like this, or carelessly. Porter knows what he's doing when he uses the word.
    The classic American pop song was built in 3 parts: verse-chorus (main strain)-bridge (second strain)-chorus (main strain), so a-ABA. It's a pity verses are often dropped in many performances today because some of the best lyrics and music are in the verses! Study the verse below (beginning, "As Dorothy Parker. . . ."). Notice the use of proper nouns (person names) and dialogue. In fact the dialogue is quite witty. Parker was a famous writer and wit. Columbus "discovered" America for Queen Isabella of Spain.
    Note the effective use of diction, using the modern idiomatic "swell" and "bounced" (dismissed, rejected) in a context of old Spain! Porter's word choice was deliberate.
    Porter uses the same blend of diction [word choice] in the word "Amen," which is mainly used in religious contexts from the Bible meaning "certainly." Thus Jesus says, "Amen, Amen I say to you" and churchgoers repeat "Amen" to agree with what has been spoken. But here Porter uses "Amen" in a very nonreligious context, with a casual disdain for the meaning of human relationships: "Goodbye dear and Amen, here's hoping we meet now and then"!
    Note too the different metaphors for love: a "bell" that "now and then" rings; fabulous flight, trip to the moon. Incidentally, the great phrase, "gossamer wings" was given to Porter by a businessman when Porter struggled to find the perfect word ("bon mot" or "mot juste" as the French say). Writing takes care & Porter was not above taking advice even from someone who wasn't a professional songwriter if he thought the advice was good.
    Finally note the scheme of antitheses (opposites) in the line, "was too hot not to cool down" with the embedded rhyme hot/not perfectly suited to the accent of the melody at that point: "was too HOT NOT to cool down."
    The singer is the great jazz vocalist, Ella Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald released "songbooks" of the great American song composers (Berlin, Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart, Jerome Kern, Ellington, and Porter). They are highly recommended. Lyrics follow the video icon.

VERSE
As Dorothy Parker once said
To her boyfriend, "Fare thee well"
As Columbus announced
When he knew he was bounced,
"It was swell, Isabel, swell"

As Abelard said to Eloise,
"Don't forget to drop a line to me, please"
As Juliet cried, in her Romeo's ear,
"Romeo, why not face the fact, my dear"

CHORUS
It was just one of those things
Just one of those crazy flings
One of those bells that now and then rings
Just one of those things

It was just one of those nights
Just one of those fabulous flights
A trip to the moon on gossamer wings
Just one of those things

If we d thought a bit, of the end of it
When we started painting the town
We d have been aware that our love affair
Was too hot, not to cool down

So good-bye, dear, and amen
Here s hoping we meet now and then
It was great fun
But it was just one of those things

If we d thought a bit, of the end of it
When we started painting the town
We d have been aware that our love affair
Was too hot, not to cool down

So good-bye, dear, and Amen
Here s hoping we meet now and then
It was great fun
But it was just one of those things

Just one of those things

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LITTLE HANS

LITTLE HANS

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This song is from the musical, Freudiana, based on the theories and case histories of Sigmund Freud. Freud invented psychoanalysis, a psychological theory based on the idea that many individuals are troubled by unconscious thoughts and desires their conscious mind cannot accept.  Through a process of "analysis" by "free association" of thoughts and dreams, the "analyst" uncovers the unconscious desires that manifest as symptoms (neurosis, sexual perversions, etc.), effecting a cure. As this cure became more elusive, the influence of psychoanalysis waned. But Freud's ideas remained fashionable, as this musical shows.
    "Little Hans" was one of Freud's famous case histories. Hans was phobic towards horses. Through an association of ideas, Freud traced the boy's phobia back to sexual desires: his fear of his father (symbolized by  horses) and desire for his mother. 
    The musical by the Alan Parsons Project (credited to Eric Woolfson) is literate, melodic, and witty, as this song shows (note the final line of the song). It ran for nearly a year in Vienna, translated into German (1990).
    "Professor" in the song refers to Freud himself. All the details are based on Freud's case history. Oddly, Freud did not personally analyze the boy (except for a single visit) but relied on the father's communications. Complete lyrics are below.

Little Hans, little Hans, what do you see?
The world is full of big surprises
Little Hans, little Hans, what can they be?
They come in many shapes and sizes

Little boys always love to play
But something is not quite right
Little Hans won't come out today
He's scared of a horse that might bite

Little Hans, little Hans, how can it be?
Your thoughts are filled with such confusion
Little Hans, little Hans what will you see?
You're barking up the wrong conclusion

Professor man asks him oh so nicely
Why will you not come out?
Little Hans tells him most politely
What he is thinking about

A ride in a tram, a lily white lamb, raspberry jam
Little Hans, little Hans, where will you go?
The world is full of compromises
Little Hans, little Hans, how will you know?
They come in many strange disguises

Professor man shakes his head and wonders
How will he work it out?
Little Hans tells him quite precisely
What he's been dreaming about

I jump in the bath and make myself laugh, I ride a giraffe

Little Hans, little Hans, I found a clue
I think I've made the right connection
Little Hans, little Hans, all I can do
Is give a common sense injection

Little boys grow up just like Daddy
Professor man has no doubt
Little Hans goes to sleep and wonders
What was he talking about?

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Credit sequence

TORN CURTAIN

Here is the scored credit sequence from Torn Curtain, by John Addison. It features a menacing electric guitar motif, which is then developed, leading to the main theme, later associated with the escape on the special bus.
    The music in this credit sequence serves the movie well. Even if one had no idea what the film was about (perhaps thinking it was a situation comedy about a housekeeper's torn house curtains), the movie would inform us immediately, just through the opening bars of the score, with their obvious menace. This passage, by the way, was also used for Gromek's murder, but Hitchcock rejected the cue and preferred the scene without an underscore.

Your Home Town Presentations

Students,
After we finish our Pet Peeve presentations and the TV show assignment, we'll start on the "My Home Town" presentations. This will involve greater care in selection of material to talk about and to organize within a limited time (presentation) span.
    Unlike the Pet Peeve presentations, it will also involve focus. In other words, you make a main point about your home town and organize all your details around that main point.
    For example, you can focus on your home town as being exciting, beautiful, neighborly, festive, or cultural and organize your details around that main theme or focus. Of course your focus can be negative as well.
    In addition, you'll have to choose which home town to talk about, assuming you had several as a child. Mainly the presentation should be about your childhood home, not your present living arrangements! You might also wish to bring in a few photos to illustrate your points on our computer screen.
    The main goal is an effective presentation with focus, coherence, and fluency. We don't want students rambling on for minutes not knowing what their goal is in their presentation.
    Here's an example from a Simon and Garfunkel hit record (lyrics below), sung by Simon himself after the breakup of the duo. Of course you'll have to be more specific, but this is a good example in terms of focus:

In my little town
I grew up believing
God keeps his eye on us all
And he used to lean upon me
As I pledged allegiance to the wall
Lord I recall
My little town

Coming home after school
Flying my bike past the gates
Of the factories
My mom doing the laundry
Hanging our shirts
In the dirty breeze

And after it rains
Theres a rainbow
And all of the colors are black
Its not that the colors arent there
Its just imagination they lack
Everything's the same
Back in my little town
Nothing but the dead and dying
Back in my little town
Nothing but the dead and dying
Back in my little town

In my little town
I never meant nothin
I was just my fathers son
Saving my money
Dreaming of glory
Twitching like a finger
On the trigger of a gun
Leaving nothing but the dead and dying
Back in my little town
Repeat and fade:
Nothing but the dead and dying
Back in my little town

This is a video of S&G singing the song during a reunion concert in 2009:

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SCHEDULED FILM FOR 30 October 2009

HOUR OF THE WOLF

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SINCE OCTOBER 31 IS HALLOWEEN, I thought it would be appropriate to schedule a horror film, of sorts, for Friday's film on 30 October. Actually Hour of the Wolf falls into the genre of what is called an art film, by one of the most famous auteurs, Swedish director, Ingmar Bergman.
    The film was made at the height of the art film craze in the 1960s, and particularly the Ingmar Bergman fad, at a time when Americans dismissed their own Hollywood cinema as too mainstream and commercial. Fashions have changed and many Hollywood films have been shown to have profound subtexts, while Bergman has nearly disappeared from many film textbooks!
    Of course, Bergman's place in the history of cinema is secure. But whether he will ever regain the preeminence he once held in film studies is another matter.
    Hour of the Wolf is a difficult film, nearly bordering on incoherence. It does bring up the question of how much coherence the artist is responsible for.
    We know, for example, that one standard of higher art is delayed closure; so that the tune, "Twinle, Twinkle, Little Star" is a lesser piece of music than a Chopin piano etude (study) because the closure is simpler in the nursery tune but more delayed in the Chopin; and, of course, a Beethoven quartet delays closure even more than a Chopin etude. Thus the "work" needed to achieve the satisfaction of closure (on the part of both artist and audience) defines, by degrees, the level of art.
    But what if the artist doesn't offer closure, in other words a satisfactory resolution of all elements, in the work? This is the issue that Bergman's film poses to the critic or scholar, not to mention the common viewer. To some degree this is an issue shared by all postmodern art.
    There is, as I point out in my study pictures, a hint of closure in the film, since it begins on day and ends on night. However there is no coherent argument that explains how that closure was achieved, except that the artist wanted the film to end in that way.
    Put differently, there is no answer to the artiist's (Johan's) dilemma. And surely all art is an argument of some kind (conventionally dramatized as heroes and villains, or (with more gravity) as protagonists and antagonists.
     In some ways, Alma represents the life force. She is pregnant with child when her narrative begins and we know that the hour of the wolf is the hour when most people die and children are born. But by the end of the film the child (the woman's creative product) is forgotten and she is left in the night of her vanished husband's dark reality, creating coherence in this way. The viewer creates coherence in the same way, by accepting, even sharing, the artist's vision.

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