The assignment is to write a five to six (5-6) page paper which explores commonalities of form and content in at least two films by the same auteur/director. Your paper will explore two or more films by the same director, and involve some research into the critical reception of the individual films as well as of the director in general. (The paper must be double–‐ spaced with no more than one inch margins on all sides, no larger than 12 pt font.)
Although your paper will certainly discuss the uniqueness of each film, your aim will be to discern and discuss the commonalities in both form and content. You might think of your paper as answering this question: What makes us recognize the films of a certain director as coming from the same aesthetic and moral sensibility?
A list of movies you cannot write about will be posted in this folder.
You may not select Alfred Hitchcock as the main topic for this assignment.
You must demonstrate how well you understand the material and topics discussed in class. I expect you to show that you can use the course vocabulary to support your observations.
If you are writing about an individual scene, stating “the director uses many lighting techniques to create a mood” does not tell me what kind of lighting or what kind of mood.
If the film uses repeated images of clocks, for instance, don’t just say that the director used 25 shots of a clock throughout the movie—explain how and why the shots are significant to the overall movie, both cinematically and thematically.
I am not looking for three and a half pages telling me what happens in the movie, and then one page of analysis. Do not spend more than two paragraphs providing a synopsis of the film!
Be sure to cite your sources using MLA guidelines. If you aren’t sure how, please visit a writing specialist at the CAEI.
The following films cannot be used for your final paper:
Ace in the Hole
Amélie
American Beauty
American Psycho
Atonement
Black Swan
Buried
Casablanca
Citizen Kane
Crash
Double Indemnity
Fight Club
Flight
Ghost
Ghost World
Gone with the Wind
Goodfellas
He Loves Me, He Loves
Me Not
Hugo
Jaws
Juno
L.A. Confidential
Notorious
On the Waterfront
Pulp Fiction
Psycho
Rear Window
Reservoir Dogs
Rosemary’s Baby
Saving Private Ryan
Secretary
Shadow of a Doubt
Sideways
Taxi Driver
The Age of Innocence
The Apartment
The Artist
The Aviator
The Birds
The Breakfast Club
The Conversation
The Departed
The Godfather
The Graduate
The Machinist
The Shawshank
Redemption
The Shining
The Silence of the Lambs
The Sixth Sense
The Town
The Usual Suspects
The Wizard of Oz
Training Day
Trainspotting
Vertigo
