WEEK 11 > Final Ppaer

Les Diaboliques is a 1955 French, black and white thriller, and its title is roughly translated as The Devils or The Fiends, as directed by filmmaker Henri-Georges Clouzot. The film holds a 98% approval rating based on 23 reviews on the Rotten Tomatoes website, and Time Magazine placed it on its top 24 horror films of all time list. In addition, Les Diaboliques holds a spot on Bravo Television’s top 100 films list. By comparison, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho developed and cemented many staples of the contemporary horror and slasher film genre, which are still in use by filmmakers today. Psycho was preserved by the Library of Congress at the National Film Registry. And like Les Diaboliques, Psycho also holds a place on the Bravo Television Network’s list of the top 100 scariest movie moments; while Entertainment Weekly and Premiere magazines both listed Psycho on their lists of the top 100 movies of all time. Psycho also holds a number of spots on a variety of The American Film Institute’s best of lists, including the coveted spot as the number one thriller of all time on its 100 Years, 100 Thrillers list; as well as the eighteenth position on the 100 Years, 100 Movies list. Finally, actor Anthony Perkins’s character, Norman Bates, holds the number two position on The American Film Institute’s 100 Years, 100 Villians list (beat out by Anthony Hopkin’s character of Hannibal Lecter from 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs). This essay will examine the ties between these two classic films, including an overview of what formal elements they have in common; as well as an examination of what areas Clouzot’s Les Diaboliques may have influenced Hitchcock’s Psycho.

WEEK 05 > New Technologies

Films to be screened & discussed…

• Gilda (Charles Vidor) 1946

Readings…

• Flashback (Chapters 6 & 7)

• Short Guide (Chapter 6)

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Week 05 - Screening Report Journal

1. Briefly describe what your expectations for the film were? What did you already know about the film and from what source? What did you know about the country and historical period / style of its origin? Did you know anything about the director? What was the most important feature of the film you were looking for?

   To be honest, I had no idea what to expect with Charles Vidor’s 1946 film Gilda, nor did I know anything about the film prior to taking this course. This was another film that I had not seen before, although I knew it was a film noir, so I expected it would focus on the character of Gilda (Rita Hayworth) portraying some sultry femme fatal, somehow ensnaring those around her in her web of deceit.

   Gilda was released in 1946, following the end of World War 2 in 1945.

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VIFF ASSIGNMENT

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VIFF ASSIGNMENT 〰️

ARTIFACT 01 > Actress Aggeliki Papoulia - trapped in the hallway of her life, looking for something more.

1. Please provide a general description of the film (director, title, date, and synopsis) in YOUR OWN WORDS.

   Alps is Greek screenwriter and director Giorgos (Yorgos) Lathimos’s 2011 follow-up to his own 2009 feature film directorial debut, Dogtooth. Both films have been widely acclaimed and rightfully so, as both explore the lives of dark, compelling characters who are deeply immersed in psychologically horrifying situations.

   Specifically, Alps is about a group of four people - a nurse (Aggeliki Papoulia), an ambulance medic, a young gymnast, and a coach - who, when someone dies, hire themselves out to the family or friends acting as a substitute for the deceased so that the family or friends can work through their loss. To this end, the medic suggests that the group is like the European Alps mountain range, which no other mountain range could ever replace.

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Image Header: Darabont, Frank. “A Movie Within a Movie: Andy Dufresne (Tim Robins in 1994’s The Shawshank Redemption) stares at Rita Hayworth as Gilda (1946).” Film Geekdom, 31 Mar 2012.

WEEK 01 > Jumping into the Conversation About Film

Films for discussion and exploration…

• Lumière (1896)

• Edison (1898)

• Méliès (1902)

• Porter (1903)

• Griffith (1915-19)

• Other Short Films

Readings

• Flashback - Chapters 1 & 2

• Short Guide - Chapter 2