JCC CINEMA SEMINAR

Last week, in my remarks on Run Lola Run, I introduced the idea of the three act screenplay structure. The first act, the exposition, sets up the characters and the situation. Plot Point I propels the film into the second act, in which the character or characters take action based on the what was

The three films in this series all utilize the concept of the race against time. In Run Lola Run (1999) directed by Tom Tykwer, Lola has 20 minutes to find the money to save her boyfriend. In Little Miss Sunshine (2006) directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the deadline is longer. The f

Our new series, “They Came to America,” comprises three films dealing with the subject of immigration to the United States. Films on this topic have been around since the early days of the film industry, unsurprising considering that immigration reached its peak at 1.3 million in 1907 when the film

Lost in America (dir: Albert Brooks, 1985) is a quintessential road movie. A man who is fired from his job, but his already dissatisfied with his life, convinces his wife to quit her job and head out on the open road to 'touch the Indians." She too is dissatisfied: with her job, with her marriag

Big Eyes (2014) directed by Tim Burton The final film in our series is Big Eyes, which portrays the story of the painter Margaret Keane, who passed away a few months ago at the age of 94. This film is the most conventional of the three films. The film has no talking heads to comment on the actio

Bernie (2011) directed by Richard Linklater Screened on September 14, 2022 Our discussion of this film mostly focused on the use of the interviews which comment on the action. The fact that the supposedly documentary interviews are a mixture of real people and actors portraying real people itsel

The deadline in this film is as elemental as it gets: Lola has 20 minutes to come up with the money to save her boyfriend. Will she get to him on time? You might think that 20 minutes isn't long enough to fill a feature length film, but director Tom Tykwer has more than a few tricks up his sleeve

The first film in this series, focusing on the theme of "The Journey" is Sin Nombre (2009) directed by Cary Joji Fukunada. The film follows Sayra, a young woman, who reconnects with her father who has been deported from the US. Along with Sayra's brother and uncle, they embark on a hazardous jou

Alice Lowe, who stars as Tina and who co-wrote this film with her co-star, Steve Oram, describes this film as "a very British dog comedy. I think anyone who has been on holiday would enjoy it because it's about a road trip and it's also a love story. So I think it's a date movie, really..."

"The joy of a road movie is its very simple narrative nature, which is that you know you're going to go through different places and you're going to meet new people. At the same time, you have to not make it feel too obvious and too crudely episodic. "-- Sam Mendes The theme of this series is “the

Stories We Tell (2012) directed by Sarah Polley In this film, Sarah Polley "interrogates" (her word) her father, her siblings, and others who knew her mother in an attempt to uncover the truth among the contradictory stories they tell about themselves, especially the relationship between Polley'

The theme for the series is "Based on a True Story." All three films -- Bernie, Stories We Tell, and Big Eyes -- purport in some way to be telling the truth, each using different cinematic techniques to do so. One question this series intends to ask is what obligation filmmakers have to stick to