IB Film: Directors Project and Presentation

This six weeks, we are going to explore the idea of intentionality in film. You will choose three (3) directors to study for the six weeks. You may select your absolute favorite director for one paper. At least one of these directors must be from a “culture other than your own,” a phrase that has some wiggle-room in it, to say the least. Ideally, your selection of directors will include at least one person of whom you have never heard, much less studied. Go ahead and pick someone at random if you'd like, or pick a culture and go from there. Branch out.

Step 1: Pick directors

Step 2: Watch two movies by that director

Step 4: Profit!

After you have selected your directors and films, the assignments will be due one per week each Friday on Turnitin.com. The written assignment will be a 250 – 300-word overview identifying the style of a selected director. Your paper should include:

• A VERY short bio (birth/death/country of origin/etc)
• A summary of the director’s style
• Examples from two (2) of the director’s films which demonstrate the director’s intended style
• An analytical commentary on the examples provided
• Some recognition of the effects of era, technology, studio, genre, culture, and/or audience on the director’s style (note: in an ideal world, this commentary would be embedded all along throughout the report)

Due Dates: 

Submit your paper online to Turnitin.com by 11:59pm on the due date.

• Feb 2 - Director One
• Feb 9 - Director Two
• Feb 16 - Director Three

List of Pre-Approved Directors:

Adoor Gopalakrishnan

Agnes Varda *

Akira Kurosawa

Alejandro González Iñárritu

Alfonso Cuaron

Amy Heckerling *

Ann Hui *

Arthur Penn

Bernardo Bertolucci

Billy Wilder

Bimal Roy

Brian De Palma

Cecil B. DeMille

Claire Denis *

Clint Eastwood

David Lean

Elia Kazan

Ernst Lubitsch

Federico Fellini

Francis Ford Coppola

Franco Zeffireli

Francois Truffaut

Frank Capra

George Lucas

Guillermo del Toro

Guru Dutt

Hou Hsiao-hsien

Howard Hawks

Hrishikesh Mukherjee

Ida Lupino *

Jackie Chan

Jacques Tati

Jean Cocteau

Jean Renoir

Jean-Luc Goddard

Jean-Poerre Melville

Joel and Ethan Coen

John Cassavetes

John Huston

John Woo

Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Julie Taymor *

Kathryn Bigelow *

Kenji Mizoguchi

Kevin Smith

Louis Malle

Luc Besson

Luis Bunuel

Martin Scorsese

Masaki Kobayashi

Mel Brooks

Miguel Arteta

Mike Nichols

Mikio Naruse

Mrinal Sen

Nora Ephron *

Oliver Stone

Orson Welles

Otto Preminger

Pedro Almodovar

Penny Marshall *

Peter Jackson

Preston Sturges

Quentin Tarantino

Raj Kapoor

Ridley Scott

Ritwik Ghatak

Robert Altman

Roberto Benigni

Roberto Rodriguez

Roberto Rosselini

Roman Polanski

Salvador Dali

Sam Peckinpah

Sam Raimi

Satyajit Ra

Seijun Suzuki

Sergio Leone

Sophia Coppola *

Spike Lee

Stanley Kubrick

Stephen Spielberg

Tim Burton

Vincente Minnelli

Vittorio De Sica

William Castle

Woody Allen

Yasujiro Ozu

Zhang Yimou

...just to name a few. If you have another director you would like to research, let me know.

Note: an asterisk denotes a female director.

IB Lit: Transgression and Redemption Final 2017

1. How does the city serve simultaneously as a symbol of society and of Raskolnikov's state of mind?
2. How do the living spaces reflect and enhance our understanding of the characters and the plot?
3. How does the novel function as an allegory for Russian Orthodox Christian's journey?
4. How should the reader reconcile Svidrigailov's charitable gestures at the end of the novel with his violent confrontation of Dunya during the same time frame; does his eventual suicide affect the response?

Prep all four; draw on exam day. You will use your prepped notes and your novel to answer the question you draw.

IB Lit: Infernal Exam Topics

Four Questions:

• Discuss how the Pilgrim's journey in general and his gradual change in reaction to the sinners as he ventures deeper into Hell can be read allegorically.
• Discuss why Dante the Pilgrim gets this peculiar chance at redemption.
• Discuss the allegorical relationship between “The Inferno” and Classical literature.
• Discuss the significance of Cocytus, the frozen lake at the bottom of Hell.

IB Lit: Presentation Topics for Crime and Punishment

All presenters need to be ready to roll beginning November 6.

• Biography
• Dostoevsky pre-exile
• Dostoevsky's exile
• Dostoevsky post-exile
• History
• 19th Century Petersburg: A history
• White Nights
• 19th Century Popular European Philosophy
• Nietzsche and Nihilism
• Russian Nihilism
• Philosophy and Religion
• The Philosophical Teachings of N. G. Chernyshevsky
• The Story of Lazarus
• The Russian Orthodox Church: Practices
• Communions and Confessions