“American Underbelly”
(Understanding America through the Movies)
A Film Series/Seminar
Directed by David Mikics (English) [email protected]
During six Wednesdays (each at 7 PM in the College Hall Dining Room), we will first watch a major work of American film art and then talk together about what its implications are for our civic life and national identity. This term we focus on American nightmares, highlighting film noir, horror and allied genres. America is a land of promise and high aspiration, but it is also haunted by darkness. The darkness takes various forms—being isolated, trapped and helpless, alienated from one another, driven to madness and desperate violence. By looking into the gritty and grim underside of the American dream, we can better understand where we find ourselves today.
Prior to each Wednesday suggested readings will be announced to help guide our discussions.
Refreshments will be served each Wednesday evening, including pizza and soft drinks.
Please RSVP using the form at the bottom of the page.
10/9 Orson Welles, The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
Orson Welles’ film noir, starring Welles himself along with the glamorous Rita Hayworth, depicts life among the wealthy and dangerous, featuring plenty of backstabbing, scheming and gangsterish posturing. The characters are caught in a trap, giving the lie, as film noir so often does, to the American dream of freedom and happiness.
We will read a selection from the philosopher Robert Pippin’s book on film noir, which contains a chapter on The Lady from Shanghai.
10/30 Alfred Hitchcock, Psycho (1960) – (START TIME MOVED TO 8 p.m.)
Psycho electrified American culture. For the first time in Hollywood history the audience was told not to enter after the film had begun, and they were instructed not to reveal the secrets of the plot. Psycho, which gave birth to the slasher horror genre, reflects profoundly on how isolation and trauma spawn a darkness in the American psyche.
Readings from David Thomson’s book The Moment of Psycho will help us reflect on what Hitchcock’s shocking movie revealed about America.
11/6 Stanley Kubrick, The Shining (1980)
Kubrick’s The Shining is a perfect follow-up to Psycho, taking the horror movie in a new direction. The Shining depicts the secrets that reside in the classic American Oedipal family, the madness of male rage, and the fairy-tale resilience of a woman and child when faced with an insane father and a haunted hotel. Featuring a stunning musical score and a pioneering use of the Steadicam, The Shining is a cult classic that critics and viewers have pored over, seeking to know all its details.
Richard T. Jameson’s piece on The Shining gives us a perceptive view of the film’s mysteries.
11/13 Alfred Hitchcock, Vertigo (1958)
Hitchcock’s Vertigo is frequently named the greatest film ever made. Vertigo is a dizzying and entrancing account of lost love, which contains a shocking surprise in its plot. Superb in its color scheme and its use of the camera to spur the viewer’s identification, Hitchcock’s movie is about cinema itself in its power to sway our minds and possess us.
We will read a selection from Charles Barr’s book about Vertigo, which explores some of the entrancing technical features of the film.
11/20 Martin Scorsese, Taxi Driver (1976)
Written by Paul Schrader, Taxi Driver is arguably Scorsese’s masterpiece. A gritty, gruesome portrait of Times Square in the ‘70s, Taxi Driver takes us into an underworld of violence, nameless anxiety and sexual desperation. Robert DeNiro is the iconic Travis Bickle, an antihero barely surviving in a dark crime-ridden cosmos, and determined to flex his power.
We will read a section from Paul Schrader’s well-known essay on film noir.
12/4 Joel and Ethan Coen, Barton Fink (1991)
The Coens portray a hapless screenwriter confronting the lethal urges of a killer in a seedy Los Angeles hotel. Barton Fink reflects on film noir, show business and the mysterious roots of creativity. Puzzling, parabolic, hilarious and bloody, Barton Fink is one of the Coens’ most memorable and celebrated films.
We will read an excerpt from the Coens’ 1991 interview with Michel Ciment and Hubert Nioget.
Dr. David Mikics