Film in the Language Arts Class. Developments in Classroom
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 130 330. CS 203 047 AUTHOR Aquino, John TITLE Film in the Language Arts Class. Developmentsin Classroom Instruction. INSTITUTION National Education Association, Washington,D.C. PUB DATE 77 NOTE 53p. AVAILABLE FROM NEA Order Department, The Academic Building,Saw Mill Road, West Haven, Connecticut 06516 (Stock No. 1811-7-00, $2.50 paper, $5.00 cloth) EDRS PRICE MF-$0.83 Plus Postage. HC Not Available fromEDRS. DESCRIPTORS Film Criticism; *Films; Film Study; *LanguageArts; *Literature Appreciation; Secondary Education; Teaching Methods ABSTRACT In this booklet, the author discusses theways in which film may be used to extend and enrichthe study of literature and explores the rhetoric of film--how ituses visual symbols, similes, and other metaphors to give depthto its content, and how it can broaden characterization and emphasize the symbolic and aesthetic highlights of setting in sequences that last.onlyseconds. Topics of chapters are film and literature, films to extendor compare with works of literature, films as illustrations ofliterary techniques, and films instead of novels. A list of references,an annotated filmography, and a bibliographyare included. (JM) *********************************************************************** Documents acquired by ERIC include many informal unpublished * materials not available from othersources. ERIC makes every effort * * to obtain the best copy available. Nevertheless, itemsof marginal * * reproducibility are often encountered and this affectsthe quality * * of the microfiche and hardcopy reproductions ERIC makesavailable * * 7ia the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS).EDRS is not * responsible for the quality of the original document.Reproductions * * supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made fromthe original. * *********************************************************************** IN THE LANGUAGE ARTS CLASS PE RMISbION TO REPRODUCE THIS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL BY MICRO. FICHE ONLY HAS BEEN GRANTED Bv jolui Arpin) .4'e-,S1 -- TO ERIC AND ORGANIZAT'ONS OPERAT Ni, UNDER AGREEMENTS WITH THE NA TIONAL NsT TUTE Or-EDUCATION FURTHER REPRODUCTION OUTSIDE U S DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. THE ERIC sySTEm REQUIRES PERmIS EDUCATION WELFARE SoON OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNER NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO- DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGIN- ATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRE- SENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY ,\\0\4 Jo c) re\ 49 reN . 04°\. Q- c) co re 1=3 O'q'V 0e Film IN THE LANGUAGE ARTS CLASS Feature films, produced commercially for popular entertainment, have begun tO prove their value in the .classroom, particularly in the sec- ondary language-arts curriculum. When com- pared with the novels, short stories, and plays from which their plots and, characters are some- times derived, they can throw valuable light on the works of literature that have inspired their producers. But even though there may be a rela- tionship between a film and a work of literature, the film cannot be approached as a secondary or dependent art form. It is, in fact, an art form that may be as easy or difficult of access as any work of literature. Inthis reportintheDevelopments in Chissroom Instmctionseries, John Aquino dis- cusses the ways in which film may be used to extend and enrich the study of literature. In addi- tion, he discusses the rhetoric of filmhow it uses. visual symbols, similes, and other metaphors to give depth to its content, how it can broaden characterization and emphasize the symbolic and esthetic highlights of setting in sequences that last only seconds. Using LordJim andThe Taming of the Shrewas study models, and drawing many examples from other films, he shows how dis- cussion may be used in the language arts class to relate reading and viewing. He also points out that film does allow the slow learner and the mentally handicapped student access to Works of literature they would not ordinar4 be abk to read, at the same time that it can motivate the able learner to more effective critical reading of works of litera- ture. The report also includes an annotated list of films suitable for classroom use, as well as a bib- liography. Mr. Aquino, managing editor ofThe Music Educators' Journal,has taught in the English department at The Catholic University of America. He has also published several articles on the theater and on George Bernard Shaw, and is the author ofScience Fictionas Literature, also in this series. 3 Film IN THE LANGUAGEARTS CLASS by John Aquino ilea National Education Association Washington. D.C. Copyright @ 1977 National Education Association of the United States Stock No. 1811-7-00 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Aquino, John. Film in the language arts class. (Developments in classroom instruction) Bibliography: p. 1. Language arts. 2. Moving- icturesip education. 3.-Moving-pictures and literature. I. fle. IL Se- ries. LB1576. A7 420'.7 76-43033 ISBN 0-8106-1811-7 CONTENTS 1. Film and Literature 7 2.Films to Extend or Compare with Works of Literature 11 3. Films as Illustrations of Literary Techniques 31 4. Films Instead of Novels? 41 References 44 Annotated Filmography 46 Bibliography 56 . Film and Literature The difference between film and literatureis basic. Literature relies on the printed word, filmon the visual image, usually in con- junction with the spoken word. This basic difference between the two media engenders other differences that ultimately affect the way they approach structure as well as the way their audiences respond to them. Of the two, film, in its commercial form, isa medium of ever- increasing popularity. Feature film and its sister television,are cur- rently the stuff of which an imaginary world of adventureand fan- tasy are made. Their effect is analogous to that of the novel in the 7 7 FILM IN THE LANGUAGE ARTS CLASS nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when people crowded the docks in New York to find outin the latest installment of Dickenswhether or not Little Nell was dead, and when Sherlock Holmes was thought to be an actul person. In the 1960's, James Bond films based on a best-selling series of adventure books became cult items and inspired a rash of imitations. They fueled the world- wide interest in espionage and spy-gadgetry. In the early 1970's, the film version of The Godfather engendered imitations and similar interest in the underworld and its violence. In spite of their differences, there are many similaties between feature films and literature. Both are primarily concerned with tell- ing stories. Literature served as an early influence on film so that terms such as plot, irony, theme, climax, suspense, and characteriza- tion are identifiable in both media. Dickens has been cited as an influence on American film pioneer D. W. Griffith' and Zola on Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein.2 Novels, short .stories, and plays are frequently adapted for film. The reverse is also true, that films influence literature. John Dos Passos employed filmscript techniques in U.S.A. and John Collier adapted Milton's Paradise Lost into a -screenplay of the mind." In Jacob's Room Virginia Woolf employed montage, a film device utilizing brief pictures or images juxtaposed. There has been a recent trend to promote the study of screenplays (filmscripts) as literature. Douglas Garrett Winston writes that the claim that screenplays are literature is based on (a) the recent tendency to publish them, and (b) the proof of post- World War II cinema that filmscan not only entertain people but can enlighten them as well, with the -same subtleties and complexi- ties that are to be found in any other art or literary form."" To some critics, studying films as literature seems to require a new definition of literature. Robert Richardson cites the need for a climate in which everything written, including, of course, film- scripts, might be legitimately considered a part of literature.' Herbert Read writes that those who deny the connection between film and literature regard literature as -something polite and academic .. if you ask me to give you the most distinctive quality of good writing, I would give it to you in one word: VISUAL."' Another argument for studying films as literature ibased on the fact that in the short history of the cinema, dramatic works have been written for film by such renowned figures in literature as H. G. Wells (The Man Who Could Work Miracles, 1935; Things to Come, 1936), F. Scott Fitzgerald (Three ComradeS, 1938), Aldous Huxley 8 8 Film and Literature (Pride and Prejudice, 1940; Jane Eyre, 1943),Ernest Hemingway (The Spanish Earth, 1937), William Faulkner (Roadsto Glory, 1936; To Have and flave Not, 1944; The Big Sleep, 1946),Jean Cocteau (La Belle et La Bete, 1947; Orphee, 1949; LaTestament d OrphOe, 1960), Samuel Beckett (Film, 1965), Harold Fn!.er(The Servant, 1963; The Pumpkin Eater, 1964; The Qui ller Memorandum,1967; The Go-Between, 1970), and George Bernard Shaw(Pygmalion, 1938; Major Barbara, 1940;_ Caesar and Cleopatra, 1945). But,however powerful the urge to studyas works of literature the screenplays of favorite filmsor those written by literary figures, the basic difference betwe.m film and literatureremains: film is composed ofvisual images presented in conjunctionwith the spoken word; literature relieson the printed word alone. It is never merely a matter of a screenplay beingwritten for sequences of film frames. In addition, a screenplay suffers from thesame deficiency as does a play script--it is complete only inperformance. But a play is still a work of words; either itcan be read aloud by a group such as students in a classroom or it can.be assignedas silent reading to be followed by discussiouA screenplay, however,is only a blueprint for the finished blend of words andimages that appears on the screen. A film properly (1s not exist outside of its projection ontoa screen with a sound track accompanying the visual images.