week 7

Question 1

how to analyze cinema

Answer 1

1. text - story of the film
2. subtext - what the film is really about
3. broader social contexts in which the film was made in - how it was made

Question 2

Siegfried Kracauer

Answer 2

From Caligari to Hitler, 1947 = reveals development in accessible layers of the German mind

Question 3

projection

Answer 3

Nancy McWilliams - process of misinterpreting what is “inside” as coming from “outside”

Question 4

Japan - fears

Answer 4

Barefoot Gen, 1983, Japan - the bombing of Hiroshima

Question 5

Kaiju

Answer 5

giant monsters, cinema genre
1st kaiju - Godzilla, screen memory for Japan,1954
Godzilla,1998, US/Japan
Kaijus vs. robots = Pacific Rim, 2013, US
Legacy of godzilla -> created to speak about the trauma, and the agressors end up using the trauma

Question 6

G.K.Chesterton

Answer 6

Fairytales don’t given children their first bogey. They give an idea on how to win the bogey

Question 7

Fear of nuclear war during the cold war

Answer 7

Dr. Strangelove, 1964, US/UK - ridiculing the tension between East and West, the possibility of nuclear bombing, threatens to press the “red button”

Question 8

MAD

Answer 8

mutually assured destruction -> both threaten each other
Wargames, 1983, US - about an AI that is supposed to fight against Cold War, plays games with the person

Question 9

DEFCON

Answer 9

defense readiness condition

Question 10

fears of the present

Answer 10

survey: climate change
ISIS
cybersecurity

1. nuclear war
2. terrorism
3. pandemic

Question 11

terrorism

Answer 11

systematic use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and to bring a political change

Path to Paradise: The untold story of the world trade center bombing, 1997, US
The Siege, 1998, US -> “next time we’ll bring both of them down”

Question 12

Adam Curtis

Answer 12

UK documentary maker
The Power of nightmares: the rise of the politics of fear, UK, 2004

draws comparison between the neoconservatives in US and the radical Islamist movement

Climate of fear to feel like we’re protected; creating a big, bad wolf as an illusion

Question 13

origins of superheroes/supernatural legends

Answer 13

Jewish communities that emigrated to England

Question 14

golem

Answer 14

Jewish folklore, creatures created from inanimate objects, usually clay and mud
The Golem 1920, Germany (ancestor of all superhero films)

Question 15

Superman

Answer 15

first superhero created, 1934
Superman, 1978, US/UK/Canada/Switzerland
Man of Steel, 2013, US/UK - the destruction of Krypton switches from being a responsibility of external sources to people themselves

Question 16

need for superheros

Answer 16

1. endof real life heroes
2. need for a father figure
3. fall of great stories
4. the rise of global fear

Question 17

Martin Scorsese on superhero movies

Answer 17

“Marvel movies are not cinema, MCU = theme park, entertainment”