These are notes that were taken during the lectures of Cinema and Society - they aren't just copying the lecture down, these notes are on what was said and any other important information. It also includes a study guide for the exam. Does not include Week 8 because I couldn't find my notes for it. ...
Table of Contents
Week One: Memory 2
Recommended Screening: Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind 6
Week Two: Control 8
Reading: Reeves (1993) 11
Recommended Screening: Triumph of the Will 12
Week Three: Violence 14
Reading: Kubrick, S. (1971) 17
Recommended Screening: Animal Kingdom 19
Week Four: Taboos 21
Reading: Freud, S. (1950) Totem and Taboo 24
Recommended Screening: Y tu mama también 25
Week Five: Art 26
Reading: Sontag (1996) 28
Recommended Screening: Wings of Desire 28
Week Six: Dreams 29
Reading: Wagnleitner (1992) 31
Recommended Screening: Singin’ In the Rain 31
Week Seven: Fears 32
Exam - How and What to Do 36
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, Week One: Memory
me・mo・ry - the power or process of remembering what has been learned.
They are processes that are used to acquire, store, retain, and retrieve information.
We must distinguish between data, information, and knowledge.
Three Major Memory Processes
Encoding
Storage
Retrieval
Stories help us make sense of the world.
How do societies have memory?
“…societies require continuity and connection with the past to preserve social unity
and cohesion…” - Emile Durkheim (1858 - 1917)
Collective Memory - the memory of a group of people, passed from one generation to
the next. (Maurice Halbwachs)
Lieux de mémoire - a symbolic element of the memorial heritage of any community,
e.g. a monument; the way you can ‘feel’ the story
Cultural Amnesia: the collective and often deliberate ‘forgetting’; through hiding or re-
translating of historical events or other important ‘things’ by a community that may
overwhelm them, or do not reinforce their societal message/story.
ASHE’S CORNER If you’ve read/watched A Series of Unfortunate Events [available on Netflix] SPOILER
you can see the power of memory. Ishmael - or Ish, takes away the memory of the islanders to ‘keep
them safe’ and ‘keep them happy’. But then people do not remember who they are - they lose parts of
their identity.
Movies can combat cultural amnesia, often of things that are deceptively hidden, by
reminding us of events, or bringing to light ideas that were forgotten by us. For when
they control our memories, they control us.
ASHE’S CORNER We all know World War II, right? And things the symbols that are associated with
certain things within the ‘evil’. The Nazi swastika - not to be confused with the Hindu (or Buddhist in
some cases) swastika, a religious symbol, is something if you saw people wearing you would be
outraged. But what about the Japanese rising sun flag? Many South East Asian friends of mine who
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,know even part of the history the come from know how it strikes cord with mass genocide - maybe not
an ‘efficient’ torturous ethnic cleansing through camps, but through, well mass murder. But the
Japanese youth has forgotten it conveniently because the government does not want to promote that
‘memory’. Many Chinese and Korean individuals would be happy to educate you on that historical
symbol.
One example of how movies restore our memory is from this week’s literature; ‘Waltz
with Bashir’, Ari Folman, Israel, 2008 [Read section on Reading for detailed notes]
1982: Invasion of Lebanon, otherwise called Peace in Galilea
Multiple PLO raids, and Israel’s preemptive strike
Screen Memory: a recollection of early childhood that may be falsely recalled or
magnified in importance and that masks another memory of deep emotional
significance (Freud)
Thus when the screen is removed and the true, repressed memory, is brought back, we
are met with cognitive dissonance because this has been isolated for so long.
ASHE’S CORNER The creation of a screen memory can be done as self defense. Many rape or assault
victims ‘forget’ the details or the memory of their assault because it is ‘too much’ for their brain to
handle. Furthermore, seeing a violent act at a young age can create similar screen memories - think
Dexter.
Within cinema, many movies trigger nostalgic feelings, many times triggering the
movement from the memories behind the ‘screen’ towards a feeling of cognitive
dissonance of a past you tried so hard to repress. Poetic, I know.
Audiences - and societies - can be influenced by the present to remember - or revisit -
the past.
A glorified past.
Nostalgia: pleasure and sadness caused by remembering something from the past and
wishing that you could experience it again.
One such example is the nostalgia created for a ‘Golden Age’ - such as the USA’s
obsession with making it ‘great again’.
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, ASHE’S CORNER But a nostalgic memory is not true to the actual events that occurred. Have you ever
re-watched your favorite childhood show or movie and been disappointed? It was so much better in your
head, no? I used to think Pokémon Sun and Moon was a beautifully written series until I re-watched it as
an adult or whatever I am now and, well it’s great for its time but… it’s not something I could actually
enjoy now.
Golden Age: the most flourishing period in the history of a nation, literature, etc. It is a
time that truly never existed, except in memories.
Fantasy: an entertainment piece telling stories about things that happen in an
imaginary world.
The name itself conjures up the imagery of medieval times where dragons thrived and
good and evil were easily distinguishable - but a time that never actually occurred. e.g.
Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter. These stories carry the comfort of the simpler past. In
Tremendous Trifles by G.K. Chesterton (1909), he mentioned how fairy tales don’t
communicate the idea of ‘bogey’, or an imaginary evil, but more the possible defeat of
this ‘bogey’. The children know the ‘dragon’, or the evil, since they began imagining
things. The fairy tales provide hope - or an icon - that can kill the dragon.
But fantasy is easily distinguished as a ‘fake’ past. What about biopics - apparently
‘accurate’ tellings of a person’s life meant to entertain a commercial movie audience.
e.g. Amadeus (Miloš Forman, USA/France, 1984) tells a story about Amadeus’s rivalry
with another composer - one that he in reality may not even had met, or was not in any
form of close relationship with.
The Imitation Game (Morten Tyldum, UK/USA, 2014) Benedict Cumberbatch (known by
my boyfriend’s mom as Cucumberbitch) looks similar to the actual person the biopic is
based on - but according to a study showcased visually in the Guardian, only 41.4% of
it is historically accurate.
Bohemian Rhapsody (Bryan Singer, UK/USA, 2018) Rami Malek won an Academy
Award for his representation of Freddie Mercury - I mean it is uncanny how similar they
looked. But think so much of his life was edited, so much more dramatized. The leaving
of the band members? No, they all had solo careers beforehand for fun.
But can we - can movies - show the past accurately?
ASHE’S CORNER: Yeah, ok we all know that winners write history. From editing religious lore, deliberate
erasure of ‘the other side’, to misunderstood orations, and interpretations - the historian’s perspective
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