October 1st

Academic Logistics and Extra Credit Opportunities

  • Assignment Grade Offset (Extra Credit Option 1):

    • An extra credit assignment is offered to offset initial grades from the first course assignment.

    • Submission Deadline: Monday at midnight (prior to class on Tuesday).

  • Syrian Film Screening (Extra Credit Option 2):

    • Film Title: Chekhov.

    • Event Details: Scheduled for Saturday at 1:00 PM1:00\text{ PM} at the Independent Picture House in Charlotte.

    • Event Duration: The short film runtime is approximately 35 minutes35\text{ minutes}; total program duration is approximately 90 minutes90\text{ minutes}.

    • Special Guests: Introduced by a Davidson Professor of Arabic Studies specializing in contemporary Arabic cinema. The director will participate live via Zoom from Berlin.

    • Film Overview: Focuses on an individual who survived Syrian political prisons. It is not a documentary, incorporating distinct elements of fantasy and comedy. It has received multiple awards across the international film festival circuit and is unavailable on commercial streaming platforms.

    • Incentive: Attending adds 1 point1\text{ point} to the total semester final grade average.

  • Visual Arts Center Screening (Extra Credit Option 3):

    • Film Title: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

    • Event Details: Screened on Monday at 5:00 PM5:00\text{ PM} at the Visual Arts Center.

    • Film Details: Stars Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once) with martial arts fight choreography designed by the fight choreographer from The Matrix.

    • Course Schedule: In-class formal discussion takes place on Thursday.

Essay Assignment 2 Guidelines

  • Key Parameters:

    • Due Date: October 13.

    • Word Count: Minimum of 1000 words1000\text{ words}; maximum of 1300 words1300\text{ words}.

    • Core Objective: Select one director from the first four studied in class (Akira Kurosawa, Yasujirō Ozu, Satyajit Ray, or Ousmane Sembène) and analyze a secondary film by that director selected from the approved Criterion Channel list.

    • Structural Requirements:

      • Omit generic opening introductory paragraphs regarding a director's general biography or history.

      • Omit generic summary paragraphs at the conclusion.

      • Formal bibliographies are unnecessary if accessed via Criterion Channel; exact timecodes serve as citations.

      • Directly state the rationale for selecting the two specific films and begin comparing their structural and stylistic elements immediately.

      • Minimize repetitions of previously discussed lecture content (e.g., Rashomon, Late Spring, Black Girl); emphasize personal analysis.

  • Analytical Objectives:

    • Identify how the filmmaker fundamentally places their artistic signature across both analyzed works.

    • Examine specific visual, thematic, and technical markers that identify both films as coming from the same director.

    • Compare performance styles, narrative structures, and thematic elements.

    • Analyze differing stylistic choices and technical moves employed by the director across different narrative contexts.

  • Approved Film Choices by Director:

    • Akira Kurosawa:

      • Ikiru: A quiet drama examining an aging bureaucrat confronting the futility of his life, structured in an inventive narrative fashion.

      • Throne of Blood: A dramatic adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth set in feudal samurai Japan, concluding with a barrage of arrows.

      • High and Low: A crime thriller and film noir revolving around a kidnapping case.

    • Yasujirō Ozu:

      • Good Morning: A color film centered on two young brothers who execute a vow of silence to demand their parents purchase a television set.

      • Tokyo Story: A drama exploring generational dynamics between aging parents and adult children.

      • Early Summer: Produced immediately following Late Spring, presenting family relations on an expansive scale.

    • Satyajit Ray:

      • Aparajito: The second entry in the Apu Trilogy, following Apu's adolescence, urban relocation, and college education.

      • Devi: A story examining complex sociopolitical themes when a father-in-law deems his daughter-in-law to be the reincarnation of a goddess.

      • Charulata: A historical period drama depicting a woman's artistic coming-of-age.

    • Ousmane Sembène:

      • Approved secondary works differ markedly from Black Girl; shot in color, incorporating comedy, satire, or distant historical settings.

Gillo Pontecorvo and the Origins of The Battle of Algiers

  • Biographical Background of Gillo Pontecorvo:

    • Political History: A leftist journalist who served as a leader in the Italian underground anti-Nazi resistance from 19431943 until the end of World War II.

    • Transition to Filmmaking: Left journalism after viewing Roberto Rossellini's 19461946 Italian Neorealist film Paisan (Paisà).

    • Italian Neorealist Principles: Inspired by low-budget productions, street location shooting, non-professional actor casting, and direct depictions of reality.

    • Early Career: Purchased a 16 mm16\text{ mm} camera, directed documentaries, and completed his first narrative feature, The Wide Blue Road (19571957), concerning an island fisherman.

  • KAPÒ (19601960) and Cinematic Ethics:

    • Narrative Overview: A drama set in a Nazi concentration camp detailing an escape attempt by a young Jewish woman. Recognized as one of the earliest films to attempt a realistic representation of the Holocaust.

    • Recognition: Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

    • The Jacques Rivette Critique:

      • French critic Jacques Rivette famously criticized a specific tracking shot tracking the heroine's corpse after she takes her life against an electrified fence.

      • Rivette asserted it was ethically obscene to aestheticize historical horror or showcase camera technique while depicting genocide.

      • Theoretical Impact: Established ongoing debates regarding the moral responsibility of visual technique—asserting that how a scene is shot carries equal ethical weight to what is shot.

      • Parallels: Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List faced similar critiques for overly sentimentalizing Holocaust history.

Production History of The Battle of Algiers

  • Algerian Post-Independence Media Strategy:

    • Following liberation from France, the newly formed Algerian government actively sought international directors to document their struggle on film.

    • International Context: During the war, French media systematically branded Algerian freedom fighters as "terrorists." Algeria utilized film as a medium to share their independence struggle globally from an indigenous perspective.

    • Impact of Colonial Law: French colonial law explicitly prohibited native Algerians from directing films. Consequently, no indigenous directors or film infrastructure existed at independence, requiring an estimated 10 to 12 years10\text{ to }12\text{ years} to build technical skills locally.

  • Director Selection and Screenplay Development:

    • Rejection of French Directors: Algeria explicitly declined offers from French filmmakers.

    • Selection of Italian Directors: Selected due to Italy's development of film politico—a highly political film genre evolving out of Neorealism focused on social conflicts.

    • Script Negotiations:

      • Pontecorvo rejected an early Algerian draft as pure propaganda; Algerians rejected Pontecorvo's initial concept centered on a French paratrooper as overly European.

      • Final Consensus: Adapted from the 19621962 memoir Memoirs of the Battle of Algiers (Souvenirs de la Bataille d'Alger) by Saadi Yacef, an FLN military commander held captive by the French.

      • Screenplay Construction: Pontecorvo co-wrote the screenplay with an Italian screenwriter, integrating his personal World War II partisan resistance background and using composite figures (e.g., Colonel Mathieu representing multiple real counterinsurgency officers).

Visual Style and Editing Techniques

  • Docudrama Realism:

    • Zero Documentary Footage: Despite widespread belief, the film contains 00 frames of real historical newsreel or archival footage.

    • Film Stock Processing: Pontecorvo artificially re-exposed raw film stock to replicate the high-contrast grain and texture of 1950s1950\text{s} newsreels.

    • Lighting Manipulations: Covered open-air shooting locations to minimize natural sunlight reflection, creating realistic, muted tones.

    • Cinematography: Utilizes rapid editing, shaky handheld camerawork, and eye-level positioning during urban combat and bomb deployments.

  • Suspense Building in the Casbah Sequence:

    • Focuses on female FLN operatives altering their hair, makeup, and clothes to blend into European quarters past security checkpoints.

    • Employs close-ups, camera shake, and precise eyeline alignment to convey psychological tension.

    • Juxtaposes quiet preparation with jarring explosions.

Ennio Morricone and Musical Score Analysis

  • Ennio Morricone Overview:

    • Composed music for over 400 films400\text{ films}, collaborating across genres with directors such as Terrence Malick, Brian De Palma, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Gillo Pontecorvo.

    • Defined the sound of Spaghetti Westerns (notably The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, combining electric guitar and ocarina).

  • The Dual-Theme Structure of The Battle of Algiers (19661966):

    • Co-composed by Gillo Pontecorvo and Ennio Morricone to represent the opposing political forces:

    • 1. French Occupation Theme (Colonel Mathieu):

      • Instrumentation: Military percussion, driven by a prominent snare drum motif accompanied by high-register dissonant woodwinds.

      • Function: Establishes a relentless rhythmic drive, underscoring French military mobilization into the Casbah.

    • 2. FLN / Ali's Theme (Ali La Pointe):

      • Composition: Melodic motif composed by Pontecorvo for Ali La Pointe; arranged and varied by Morricone.

      • Instrumentation: A slow melody played by a solo panpipe.

      • Harmonic/Rhythmic Structure: Features a triplet figure in a 2-2-1 pattern2\text{-}2\text{-}1\text{ pattern}. Played in major thirds over an underlying B minorB\text{ minor} to A majorA\text{ major} harmonic progression.

      • Narrative Framing: Acts as a structural motif for flashback sequences. Introduced during the initial French raid on Ali's hideout, then established during his initial arrest as a petty criminal.

      • Variations:

        • Militarized Variant: Used in scenes where citizens are pressured to inform on FLN leadership. Strips the solo panpipe and converts triplets into straight eighth notes, merging French military cadence with Algerian melodic material to represent the impact of occupation.

        • Epilogue Variant: Played on solo piano as a fragmented, incomplete motif following Ali's death, signifying that the anti-colonial movement continues beyond individual leaders.

  • Secondary Cues and Non-Original Music:

    • Organ Torture Cue: Uses a pipe organ score during torture montages, giving the scene a liturgical quality that frames victimized Algerians as martyrs.

    • Johann Sebastian Bach's St. Matthew Passion: Excerpts are deployed symmetrically across civilian tragedies on both sides—underscoring both French victims of FLN urban bombings and Algerian victims of French Casbah bombings.

Theoretical Discussion Prompts and Categorization

  • Representation of Conflict:

    • The film confronts state violence and guerilla warfare directly: Colonel Mathieu explicitly uses the term "torture," while FLN leadership explicitly acknowledges their actions as "terrorism."

    • Discussion Prompt: Formulate the single most challenging political or ethical question raised by the film's depiction of violence.

  • Postcolonial Film Categorization:

    • Debates whether The Battle of Algiers should be classified as an Algerian/African film or an Italian/European film.

    • Considerations: Directed, written, scored, and edited by Italians, but produced with Algerian state backing, Algerian locations, and based on an Algerian military commander's memoir.

    • Preparation Requirement: Select one specific scene with exact timecodes for in-class structural analysis.